Chapter 411 Research and Conjecture
"Report."
"Please come in."
Standing outside the command post, Jemin pushed open the door and entered after hearing the sounds inside.
Frost was standing in front of the tactical sand table, where the projection had been updated—large areas of the red dots representing the Scythe Skull Clan had disappeared, leaving only a few isolated areas still resisting.
“Here it is.” Frost didn’t look up, casually tossing over a few crystals. “These are the detailed data from the battle just now: energy consumption statistics, tactical response time, analysis of the enemy commander’s behavior patterns… I hope you can save these for the next round. I wonder if you can do that.”
Jemin caught the crystal and scanned it with his divine sense.
It contained extremely professional data, including some details he hadn't noticed before—such as the abnormal fluctuations in the encryption method of the Scythe Skull Clan's pheromone network in the later stages of the battle.
“No problem.” He put the crystal into his pocket, which was actually a special area in his inner sanctum. “I will build an independent archive and store it according to time, type and importance.”
“Very good.” Frost finally raised his head, his eyes brimming with barely suppressed excitement. “Then the next question: what is your storage limit for this recording crystal?”
Jemin paused.
He subconsciously glanced at the inner world within his body. After such a long period of expansion, this space was now equivalent to the size of a continent.
Although it's still a small space within the plane, it's good for storing things...
“If it’s just recording crystals…” he carefully chose his words, “we shouldn’t have to worry about storage capacity in the short term.”
Frost raised an eyebrow.
"It seems your thing has a high storage capacity, but what you're going to store later is all the records from the entire battlefield." He confirmed again, "Are you sure?"
“I’m sure.” Jemin said calmly. “Don’t worry, there won’t be any problems with storage space.”
Frost pondered for a moment upon hearing this, and then suddenly thought of something.
He walked up to Jemin and stared into his eyes: "So, what if I let you store more than just battlefield records?"
What do you mean?
“Technology,” Frost said. “All the research technologies targeting the Scythe-Skull Clan. Energy weapon decryption, shell material analysis, pheromone network reverse engineering… even our research data on ‘time loop’ itself.”
Jemin's breathing quickened slightly.
“These data…” Jemin tried his best to keep his tone calm as he slowly said, “They are priceless.”
“Of course,” Frost nodded. “So you won’t work for nothing. In addition to the normal military merit rewards after the war, I can also give you access: you can freely study, research, and even use all the technical data you’ve stored in your own experiments. Just don’t leak it to others.”
Jemin's heart skipped a beat.
This was a condition he couldn't refuse.
Wizards are professionals who specialize in the pursuit of knowledge, and now, Frost has essentially given him a complete and continuously updated database of technology!
“I accept.” Jemin said without hesitation.
Under such conditions, there is absolutely no need for further consideration.
Frost laughed when he saw this.
“A very good thirst for knowledge, which is a fundamental quality of a wizard,” he said. “But you should know that accepting this mission means you can no longer go to the front lines. However, I remember you are also a logistics wizard, so going to the front lines shouldn’t be that important to you.”
He turned around and quickly entered commands on the Magic Network terminal.
A few seconds later, the command was sent through the Legion's internal network to the terminals of every logistics wizard.
Command priority: highest
Content: Immediately launch the "Cracking the Cycle" special research project. All relevant wizards, in small teams, will conduct research on the various technologies of the Scythe-Skull Clan and the phenomenon of time loops. Research results will be submitted to the tactical command headquarters for review and archiving.
Special note: This command is a continuous instruction, which will remain in effect until the end of this round of interdimensional war.
After sending the command, Frost looked at Jemin: "What do you think?"
"Willing to serve."
“Very good.” Frost looked out the window. Dawn was approaching, and the sky was already turning a pale white.
“A new day is about to begin,” he said softly. “And this time, we will no longer be passively waiting for the cycle to begin.”
"We must take the initiative to create history."
...
...
One month.
For a dimensional war involving two advanced civilizations, this timeframe was almost as short as a rehearsal.
But within those short thirty standard wizarding days, the battle situation underwent a dramatic change.
Hundreds of streaks of light streaked across the sky, marking the flight paths of the wizard squad.
After issuing the research missions, Frost continued to issue exploration missions to the entire wizarding legion.
After obtaining intelligence from Jemin, Frost's tactics were simple and effective: abandon cumbersome army group operations and maximize the use of intelligence superiority.
The shamans split into smaller, elite groups of three to five people, like precise scalpels, piercing every corner of the Sickle-Skull tribe's territory.
The primary task of these wizard squads is to record all information during the search and then submit it upon their return.
As a result, the Sickle Skull Clan's carefully constructed defenses became a leaky sieve in the face of the shaman.
"Seventh Squad reports: Energy Node Three has been destroyed. Enemy defenders attempted to initiate a self-destruct sequence, but were blocked by pre-implanted rune locks. One complete data core has been captured."
"The 14th Squad has completed the cleanup of 'Acid Canyon'. A new variant of the Scythe-Skull Tribe has been discovered; samples have been collected and sealed."
"Logistics Team Three requests support. They encountered a counterattack from the 'Digger' swarm while excavating underground fortifications... Wait, the problem has been resolved. These insects are pitifully weak after being deprived of the information from the time loop."
Good news kept pouring in through the command center's communication channels.
Frost sat in front of the tactical projection, with hundreds of real-time battlefield images floating in front of him.
His fingers tapped in the air, categorizing, analyzing, and redistributing new intelligence reports.
"The progress is forty percent faster than expected," he muttered to himself, but there was little joy in his eyes. "It's going too smoothly. It seems the other side will be overturning the table much sooner than before."
Even without the memories of the time loop, Frost was still very clear that if his side's battle went too smoothly, the possibility of the opponent using time reversal to overturn the table would increase significantly.
"However... these insects don't seem to intend to activate time reversal immediately. Is it because the conditions for using this ability haven't been met, or do they want to gather more information, or... is it something else?"
Based on the intelligence gathered from various wizard squads, it seems that the Scythe-Skull Clan is... shrinking back.
They abandoned many outlying strongholds and concentrated their forces in several key areas.
In those abandoned areas, there were even complete production facilities, research data, and even larval breeding farms that could not be moved in time.
It was a clear indication that they were prepared to put up a stubborn resistance.
What are they thinking?
Frost stared at the areas on the map that had been heavily defended but were now being quickly captured, his brow furrowed.
If they want more information, then the Scythe-Skull Clan should fight back bravely.
No matter how heavy the casualties are, time will eventually return to the original state, so there's no reason to fight so timidly.
Meanwhile, the research center in the core area of the camp.
Jemin, wearing a white lab coat, was standing in front of a three-meter-high transparent culture chamber.
Inside the incubation chamber, the corpse of a Scythe-Skull Clan member floats.
The body was a rare variant of a "worker bee".
It is smaller in size, has a thinner carapace, its forelimbs are specialized into delicate manipulative organs, and its compound eye structure is more suitable for close-up observation.
“This is what we found at the ‘Fungus Creep Farm’,” said Alison, a Level 4 witch, pointing to the corpses. “They were responsible for tending to a type of fungus that secretes a high-energy nutrient solution, which is the main food of the Scythe-Skull larvae.”
Jemin nodded and scanned the corpse with his divine sense.
In his perception, the energy circuits inside the corpse were exceptionally clear.
It's not a remnant after death, but rather a state of... "developmental arrest".
"Have you dissected it?" he asked.
“Of course.” Allison walked to the control panel next to her and brought up a set of holographic images. “Look here… its nervous system has seven redundant backups, its digestive system can adapt to seventeen different energy sources, and its reproductive system… is completely degenerate. This is not a complete organism, but more like some kind of ‘multi-functional tool’.”
Upon hearing this conclusion, Jemin couldn't help but frown.
This structure is common in some insect swarms with a collective consciousness, but the Scythe-Skull Clan only resembles insects in habits and appearance; in essence, they are advanced life forms with independent thinking.
These guys even have their own culture and high-tech technology!
Such a structure appearing in a higher life form just doesn't make sense.
Allison continued, "We've captured many variant samples before, but this one is the most differentiated, even exceeding our previous expectations for this species."
The image is magnified to reveal a more microscopic structure.
“But thanks to this sample, we finally made a breakthrough in their genetic material research.” Alison pointed to a simulated diagram of a gene chain. “We compared it with genetic material samples from twelve other different variants and found that their differences are mainly concentrated in the expression regulation region—just like the same set of building blocks, which can be assembled in different ways to build completely different things.”
Jemin stared at the flashing gene nodes, a thought suddenly occurring to him.
"So the various variants of the Sickle-Skull Clan are not actually independent 'species,' but rather phenotypes of the same species at different developmental stages or under different environmental influences?"
“More accurately, it’s ‘abnormal development’,” Allison corrected. “Like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly, only the Scythe-Skull Clan’s ‘abnormality’ is more extreme and more controllable.”
“Interesting…” Jemin couldn’t help but stroke his chin. “This race… is man-made? So the Scythe-Skull Clan is actually a man-made creation that has run out of control?”
“That’s right, naturally evolved species don’t exhibit such controlled changes. And…”
Alison switched the camera to show a series of footage documenting the development of larvae.
“We intercepted monitoring data from several breeding farms. We discovered that the larvae of the sickle-skull tribe undergo at least three major morphological changes during their development. Each change requires specific environmental stimuli—temperature, energy concentration, pheromone signals, and even…time pressure.”
"Time pressure?" Jemin keenly grasped the word.
Allison's expression turned serious.
“This is a new discovery, and it hasn’t been included in the official report yet.” She lowered her voice. “We analyzed data from thirty-seven different breeding farms and found that the development of all larvae responds to a specific fluctuation. When the fluctuation occurs, the metamorphosis process of the larvae accelerates more than three hundred times, and then returns to normal speed after the fluctuation ends.”
Jemin felt a chill run down his spine.
"That fluctuation..."
“We’ll call it ‘Ripples of Reincarnation’ for now,” Allison said. “It was discovered by a logistics wizard who has mastered the laws of time. According to him, he was actually simulating the fluctuations in the laws of time that would occur after the time reversal ended.”
A brief silence fell over the laboratory.
Several wizards who were conducting experiments nearby also stopped what they were doing and came over.
“So, in other words,” a level-five male wizard wearing tactical glasses pushed up his glasses, his tone filled with incredulous excitement, “the development of the Scythe-Skull Clan is tied to the time cycle of the plane? In each cycle, a portion of them will develop into the required form based on the information left over from the previous cycle?”
In Jemin's mind, the fragments began to piece together: "In other words, the degree of time reversal in this plane is far longer than we imagined, but what we can observe and experience is only the point in time after entering this plane."
“Very efficient,” another wizard said. “Think about it, a civilization can keep trying and making mistakes in countless cycles, using the fewest resources to cultivate the most war-adapted variant. In terms of time, this civilization can even prepare for the enemy before they arrive.”
"If they could break through the limitations of the planes..."
"Then they will become real natural disasters."
Amid the murmurs, Jemin silently took out the recording crystal and entered all the conversation and research data from earlier.
But his mind had already drifted in another direction.
If the development and reincarnation of the Scythe-Skull Clan are linked...
Could the "device" or "mechanism" that controls reincarnation be the same as the "mechanism" that controls development?
Going a step further...
If we can understand the metamorphosis of the Scythe-Skull Clan and the mechanism by which they transmit information during each reincarnation, could we indirectly find a way for them to reverse time?
The idea made his heart race.
He looked at Allison: "How far have you progressed in your research on the information transmission mechanism of the Scythe-Skull Clan? Can you... simulate it artificially?"
Allison paused for a moment, then a glint flashed in her eyes.
"You mean..."
The laboratory fell silent again.
Wizards are intelligent people, and with Jemin's reminder, they immediately understood what he was trying to do.
The wizards exchanged glances and quickly confirmed the feasibility of the plan.
“Theoretically feasible,” Allison licked her lips. “But we need more samples, especially developmental data from higher-order individuals. And simulating information signals requires enormous computing resources…”
“I’ll apply,” Jemin said. “Commander Frost will approve it—provided we can demonstrate the value of this research direction.”
(End of this chapter)
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