Chapter 426 The Eighth-Level Wizard's Plan

Seeing that the other party's attitude wasn't bad, Jemin felt a little more at ease.

He took a deep breath and asked the most crucial question:

"Lord Artorias, may I ask what brings you here in person... by projecting your image to see me? Also, what exactly do you mean by 'increasing variables'?"

Artorias the Starforger turned his gaze back to the chart in front of Jemin, his kind smile seeming to have deepened slightly.

“It’s not really an order.” He spoke casually, as if discussing the weather. “As for ‘variables’… actually, your two questions are one issue.”

He didn't wait for Jemin to fully process the statement, but instead shifted the topic to a more fundamental issue, his tone like a tutor guiding a student to deduce a conclusion:

"After so many years of research, based on your current understanding, what is the true nature of this continuous time reversal in this dimension?"

Jemin composed himself and scanned the data streams on the charts.

The results of fifteen rounds of research were quickly integrated in my mind, eliminating trivial details and pointing to the most likely conclusion.

“It doesn’t seem like a natural phenomenon,” Jemin said, his voice clear in the quiet laboratory. “The triggering conditions are too quantified, the scope of effect is strictly limited, and the way it handles ‘memory contradictions’… is more like a pre-set error correction program.”

"After considering various factors, we believe that this plane, or its core structure, is a strategic war machine. Time reversal is the core function that ensures its internal combat units, the Scythe Skull Clan, can restart, experiment, and wear down powerful enemies an infinite number of times."

He was stating the consensus of the research team, but even as he spoke, he could feel the excitement behind the conclusion.

A world where an entire civilization is forged into weapon parts, and the knowledge and technology behind it... just thinking about it is exciting!

Artorias nodded slightly, his expression conveying a sense of "Not bad, you've seen this step":

"More accurately, it is a time paradox generator. Ordinary time manipulation is the dance of the water element, the ripples of the laws. But it, while reversing time, must systematically 'resolve' the causal contradictions that arise, involving all those involved—conflicts in the state of matter, loss and reappearance of information, and breaks in the logic of memory. It forcibly 'rationalizes' these contradictions, which is its most prominent feature as a 'machine'."

Jemin immediately grasped the key point.

Yes, the wizards' detection data repeatedly showed that this plane's mechanism for handling "paradoxes" was very different from the regular laws of spacetime, as if it had a special fault tolerance and overriding protocol built in.

If we consider it as a machine that specializes in creating and digesting time paradoxes, all anomalies can be explained.

A complete war system emerged in his mind: the Scythe Skull Clan was the blade and consumables, time reversal was the core, and the paradox handling ability was the ultimate defense and a potential killing move against advanced enemies.

The creator's ruthlessness and ambition in deeply binding an entire dimension to such a terrifying spacetime weapon is chilling.

As he pondered, Artorias's voice rang out again, peaceful yet containing a power that pierced through the fog:

"It's natural that you were confused about not being able to find the core elements related to creating time reversal. After all, the core of a war system must be the best hidden. I've seen through this after experiencing several rounds myself. When dealing with a sophisticatedly designed machine whose core may simply be 'non-intelligent, inherent rules,' it's often futile to look for an elusive 'manipulator' from the outside."

The Starforger's finger lightly touched the void, as if pressing on the invisible pulse of the entire plane.

“I chose a different path: instead of looking for weaknesses, I tried to overload them.”

Overload.

This word, like a bolt of lightning, cleaved through the fog in Jemin's mind.

Artorias didn't pause, continuing along this line of thought: "No matter how incredible the technology of this machine is, there are always some commonalities in the basic principles of achieving 'time reversal.' Jemin, with your current level of knowledge, you should already know where the most fundamental difficulty in achieving time reversal lies, right?"

Jemin drew upon his knowledge base.

“It’s computing power,” he said slowly, his thoughts gradually becoming clearer.

In Jemin's previous world, there was no definite concept of 'time'. The so-called time reversal was essentially the precise replication of the state of all the fundamental particles in the universe to their past positions according to a certain 'record'.

This requires an unimaginable amount of information and computing power.

In the wizarding world, although it is possible to directly manipulate 'time', the amount of data to be processed and the number of calculations to be performed to reverse all matter, energy, information, and even the state of the soul within a certain range to a precise past point without contradiction is astronomical.

It is no exaggeration to say that the latter requires no less computation than the former.

This is why many wizards, even those who have mastered the rules of time, only try to use time acceleration or deceleration to assist in combat.

Even with the computing power of a high-level wizard, achieving partial time reversal is extremely difficult.

"Any manipulation at any time, or even any manipulation of elements, requires sufficient computing power to process the information."

“That’s right,” Artorias affirmed.

"The reverse flow range of this machine is limited to within the plane. So, theoretically, if we continuously inject new information and new variables into this closed system that exceed its preset processing capacity, it is possible that its inherent 'troubleshooting' and 'overwrite' logic will become overwhelmed, resulting in errors, delays, and even... crashes and overloads."

As soon as he finished speaking, all of Artorias's plans in Jemin's mind instantly became clear!

The million-strong vanguard army serves as both the "base" and the "anchor," maintaining basic combat capabilities while also constituting the "basic information flow" for the system's daily processing.

Wizards are beings that inherently contain a wealth of information. A million-strong wizard army is powerful enough to ensure that the Scythe Skull Clan will not use information asymmetry to wipe them out in repeated cycles.

When changes occur in the wizarding world later on, the larger the number of the basic legions, the more information changes will occur with each change.

Each time the support personnel, who were subsequently divided into thirty support teams, entered the system, it was an unplanned "major variable injection" for the system!

Artorias's eyes gleamed with calculation: "According to my calculations, this system can withstand about twenty-five 'significant tactical changes'."

More importantly, the arrival of a small team will inevitably trigger changes in the Scythe Skull Clan's response, leading to adjustments in wizard tactics.

Therefore, the injection of reinforcements triggers at least two "information shifts".

Thirty teams mean at least sixty "change shocks" that far exceed the tolerance limit!

Even Frost's two seventh-level lieutenants, as high-ranking individuals, were powerful sources of change in themselves, and could be the final straw that broke the camel's back.

“A plan to overload precision machinery with ‘accidents’ and ‘variables’,” Jemin murmured, a clear light gleaming in his eyes.

But then a new question arose in his mind: "Sir, since the purpose is to increase the variables, why don't you personally go into battle? The amount of 'information' you bring and the 'variables' that you may trigger should far exceed the sum of all the support troops."

Artorias's ever-present, almost amiable smile vanished.

He did not shy away from the question; instead, he displayed a rare candor.

“Two reasons.” He held up a finger. “First, the amount of ‘information’ I brought is too enormous. If my true form enters, it might not trigger ‘gradual overload,’ but rather an instantaneous, paradoxical countermeasure of the highest intensity. It’s like throwing a star at a pocket watch—the pocket watch will certainly be destroyed, but we won’t get any wreckage to study. Our goal is to obtain a spacetime machine that is ‘relatively intact’ as much as possible, rather than a bunch of violent law turbulence.”

He paused, raised his second finger, and his tone became calmer, even carrying a hint of unmistakable gravity: "Secondly, I am wary of the time paradox that this plane may cause."

The "fear" of an eighth-level wizard.

This word sent a chill down Jemin's spine.

Artorias's gaze swept over his near-perfect "quality projection".

"Why do I only use projection? Besides precisely controlling variables, it's also because... in my current state, the moment my true body steps into this world, there is a very high probability that it will directly trigger a paradox attack that could seriously injure me."

He looked at Jemin, his eyes devoid of any joking tone: "In fact, I've already been injured once. After initially noticing the anomaly in the time reversal and judging the situation to be beyond the norm, I forcibly intervened, pulling the entire legion out of a cycle as a whole. That intervention triggered the deepest countermeasure in this plane."

Jemin held his breath: "The injuries... are very serious?"

“It was very serious.” Artorias nodded, his tone as calm as if stating an objective fact. “It took me a full three seconds to completely heal the injury.”

Three seconds.

Jemin was taken aback at first, then a chilling sensation gripped him.

He knew all too well what those "three seconds" meant to an eighth-level wizard.

Don't be fooled by the fact that it heals in just three seconds; it might sound like the injury is nothing to brag about.

However, as the level increases, the wizard's self-modification deepens, and the wizard's immortality becomes stronger and stronger.

For beings at the level of an eighth-level wizard, ordinary physical destruction and energy annihilation often don't even qualify as "damage".

Even if most of the body's matter is blasted away, it is only a temporary change in its form, which can be restored with a slight thought.

Only attacks that touch the very foundation of the soul or the level of one's own existence are defined as "wounds" that need to be "healed".

Healing time directly reflects the depth and lethality of the injury.

The wounds that require an eighth-level wizard to concentrate for "three seconds" to heal... theoretically, their destructive power is enough to threaten Artorias's life!

“The most alarming aspect of time-related abilities…” Artorias seemed unconcerned about revealing this, calmly explaining, “is its ability to manipulate ‘time sequence,’ stacking multiple, massive amounts of damage into a single, explosive burst. If this machine is pushed to its limit and is willing to self-destruct, it is theoretically entirely possible to trigger the paradoxical attack against me thousands of times in the same ‘moment.’ That kind of stacking…”

He didn't finish his sentence, but Jemin had already envisioned the horrifying scene.

Even an eighth-level wizard could be cut down by the accumulated blade of time.

Although for an eighth-level wizard, death doesn't mean they can't be resurrected, they'll probably lose all face for the rest of their lives.

For someone with an infinite lifespan, sometimes the death of society can be more painful than actual death.

(End of this chapter)