Chapter 422 The Scythe Clan's Reaction
Only one month had passed since the three returned to the main camp with their important discovery.
Standing on the core observation platform of the wizard legion, Jemin sighed helplessly as he watched the black waves begin to gather and rise again on the distant horizon.
This time, the Scythe-Skull Clan's reaction speed far exceeded previous records.
The sixth cycle had only been going on for a little over a month when the enemy could no longer contain themselves and amassed an unimaginably large military force, preparing for a full-scale decisive battle.
They no longer seem satisfied with passive trial-and-error learning, but have become very eager.
Frost appeared at the edge of the platform, his gaze equally solemn as he stared into the distance.
"Advisor Jieming, how are the research projects progressing? Have there been any substantial breakthroughs in verifying the 'paradox' and probing for those possible 'higher-level wills'?"
Jemin withdrew his gaze, turned to the commander, and gave a wry smile: "Most of the research has just established theoretical models and experimental plans using the data obtained in the previous round, and is now entering the stage of in-depth simulation and verification design. Many key conjectures, such as the mechanism of the 'paradox' and whether individuals above level eight have 'anti-correction properties,' require more precise experiments and longer observation periods to confirm. Our manpower and time... are still too tight."
In other words, although knowledge was passed down through the recording crystals, the process by which wizards digested, understood, and innovated upon that knowledge could not be accelerated.
Frost frowned.
He understood the importance of rigorous research, but the battlefield waits for no one.
“I understand. I will do my best to drag this battle into a war of attrition and buy you time. But the enemy’s determination this time is different from the past, and the time I can buy... I’m afraid it won’t be long.”
“That’s enough, Commander.” Jemin nodded, then made a request, “In addition, during the battle, I want all combat units to capture and transmit real-time images of the appearance of every individual Scythesaurus they encounter, especially the details of their chest armor and any unique markings on their bodies.”
"To further verify your hypothesis? To confirm whether those individuals who were 'partially collected' have truly been 'perfectly restored,' and whether those who were 'completely erased' have completely disappeared?" Frost immediately understood.
“Yes. Although the previous validation at the outpost supported our inference, the sample size and environment were limited. I need massive amounts of data from large-scale, high-intensity frontal battles for cross-validation and statistical analysis. This will help us assess the scope, accuracy, and potential blind spots of the ‘editing’ capabilities of that possible ‘behind-the-scenes will’,” Jamin explained.
“Yes, I will issue this as a tactical order.” Frost agreed, then turned around and began to issue detailed defensive and delaying instructions through the magic network.
Before long, four terrifying pressures that changed the color of the heavens and earth rolled down from the horizon, like four moving mountains of law.
The level eight leader of the Scythe Skull Clan once again personally led the attack, much earlier than any previous general offensive.
Jemin looked up at the four enormous, dark gold figures, his mind calm, even a slight, mocking smile playing on his lips.
He thought of the corpse of the level eight leader from the previous round inside his inner cave.
He recalled the scene when he returned to the camp and took out the body, only to have it instantly erased by the paradox.
This proves that even level eight beings—at least the level eight beings of the Scythe-Skull Clan—cannot escape this complete deletion based on the continuity of spacetime.
The fact that there is now one less level 8 leader can be considered a confirmation of his opinion.
"Putting them directly into the cave would be the cleanest and most efficient solution..." The thought flashed through his mind, but Jemin immediately suppressed it.
For wizards, killing is never the ultimate goal; understanding and mastering the mysteries behind it is.
These level eight leaders are themselves the most precious living samples for studying reincarnation and that "behind-the-scenes will".
The reason why the level 8 boss's corpse was released immediately after returning to the camp was because Jemin wanted to see if the boss would recover in the next round.
The ultimate showdown in the sky is about to begin again.
Frost fought four opponents alone, his silver-gray figure weaving through the raging currents of laws, pulling the battlefield high into the sky.
Ground and low-altitude warfare proceeded strictly according to the script of "delay and attrition".
The wizards did not commit all their main forces, but relied primarily on the updated and iterated bio-beast horde to withstand the impact.
These silver-gray killing machines, like living tides, repeatedly collided, devoured, and split with the black swarm of insects, holding the battle line firmly, yet not in a hurry to advance.
Meanwhile, Jemin and several wizards specially selected for high-speed information processing set up a temporary "image processing center" in a corner of the observation platform.
A massive amount of real-time footage from every corner of the front lines poured into the rune array before them like a waterfall of light.
Each frame of the image is quickly analyzed and its features are extracted.
The color distribution of the nail polish, the unique texture of the nail shell, the old scars on the limbs...
Countless details were encoded and compared at high speed with the feature database of the previous round of "partial collection" samples stored in the cave within Jemin's body.
This was an extremely mentally taxing task. Jemin's mental energy was running at full speed, processing hundreds of comparison threads simultaneously. The other specially selected wizards, skilled in data analysis, also performed their respective duties, continuously filtering and making preliminary judgments.
Amidst the deluge of data, the conclusions gradually become clear:
“Image matching successful for area K-7712. The target is a level 4 ‘puncturer’ variant. The special bone spur arrangement characteristics of the right wing root are consistent with ‘partial collection - right wing sample’. The actual individual has complete wings and the bone spur arrangement is uninterrupted.”
"Cluster S-3098, a match was found... Level 6 'Commander' variant, the depth of the third groove on the left side of the crown matches the data of 'partial collection - partial crown carapace'. The actual individual has a complete crown and continuous grooves."
"No tissue loss or abnormal healing was found in any real-world individual corresponding to the 'partially collected' samples."
"No image records of real individuals corresponding to the 'entirely stored and disappeared' sample were found."
The results once again confirmed the previous findings.
The power of time reversal tends to "repair" or "cover up" organisms that have been partially "cut" back to their complete state.
For individuals that are removed from the timeline as a whole, their existence is simply "deleted," and the relevant logical chains are corrected.
Half a month passed amidst the flow of data and the consumption of flesh and blood.
Despite the wizards' best efforts to control the pace, the Scythe Skull Clan's attack was unprecedented in its madness and recklessness.
The rate at which the bio-engineered beasts were being consumed was beginning to exceed the rate at which they could be replenished, and the pressure on the defense line was increasing day by day.
When monitoring data showed that the total number of Scythe-Skull Clan members was once again approaching the critical threshold that would trigger reincarnation, Frost knew that the limit of delay had been reached.
"Execute the final cleanup procedure! All research units, immediately seal the data!" His order was decisive and clear.
On the platform, Jieming and the others were already ready.
The instrument was shut down, the crystal was sealed, the notes were archived... everything proceeded smoothly.
Jieming unleashed his mental power, like an invisible giant net, drawing all the crucial research materials on the platform into his inner sanctum.
Just as the last crystal disappeared into the cave, that irresistible pulling sensation originating from the very source of the world returned.
This time, Jemin "felt" it exceptionally clearly.
He could even "sense" a certain sense of anchoring between his consciousness and body as time flowed backward—that was the resistance brought about by the evolution of the body tempering method at work.
Darkness engulfed the field of vision.
But this time, the darkness was not nothingness.
Countless clear images, sounds, data, insights... the complete memories of the sixth reincarnation, like well-preserved files, were clearly imprinted deep within his soul in the last moment before his consciousness sank.
Having just passed through the spatial rift, Jemin remained completely still.
There was no dizziness, no disorientation, only a sense of calm as I stepped into a familiar scene.
He opened his eyes. Behind him were three thousand support wizards with slightly bewildered expressions, in front of him were his own guard troops standing ready, and in the distance was the horizon beginning to move.
The seventh cycle.
He remembers everything that happened during the sixth reincarnation perfectly.
Frost's tactical arrangements, the Scythe Clan's frenzied all-out attack, every detail of the image comparison, and his methodical "data rescue" before time reversed.
"Captain?" came a teammate's question from behind.
Jemin turned around, his gaze sweeping over his comrades who would soon fight alongside him again, his voice steady and firm:
"It's alright. Get ready, we have more work to do."
He looked up at Frost, who was flying towards him from the direction of the command post.
...
...
After completing the routine start of each cycle, Jemin's first focus was not on the battle situation, but on the "constant" data that needed to be continuously monitored.
He mobilized the logistics wizards and, combined with the detailed data from the previous rounds stored in his inner celestial realm, conducted a high-precision review of the current plane's basic elemental abundance, energy tidal baseline, and spatial curvature parameters.
The results came back quickly: everything was normal.
There was no systemic decay of 0.3%, no slight loosening at the level of the laws.
The fundamental "constants" of the plane remain rock-solid, perfectly matching the data baseline of the fourth round.
“As expected…” Standing in front of the runic light screen in the laboratory, looking at the comparison results, Jemin understood, “The energy decay observed in the previous round was not the ‘wear and tear’ of time reversal itself, but the ‘cost’ caused by our experiment.”
With data to support it, the result is obvious:
When the time reversal occurs, in order to "repair" the Scythe-Skull individuals that he "partially harvested" and restore them to their full size, the plane needs to consume additional energy and "information" to extract data from an earlier timeline or some kind of "backup" to fill in the parts that Jemin cut out.
This "repair" operation is the source of the 0.3% attenuation.
Those individuals that were stored as a whole in the cave are completely "deleted" because of their existence, so the repair logic does not apply and they may not suffer such losses.
(End of this chapter)
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