Chapter 437 Taking Stock of Gains and Returning Home
A century has passed in the blink of an eye.
The wizard expeditionary bases that once surrounded the temple in the Cycle Plane have now shrunk by more than half.
Even the camps that were originally on the ground have been raised to the sky in order to better study the entire cycle of reincarnation.
Those temporary teleportation arrays designed specifically for combat wizards were closed down decades ago, leaving only a few large, stable teleportation portals for logistics researchers, emitting a faint blue light.
Inside the base, the once crowded research areas are now much emptier.
As Jemin walked through the transparent corridor connecting the laboratory, he had a view of the sky 30,000 meters above the ground, where he could see the land of the Reincarnation Plane below, which had been transformed by the Time Paradox Generator.
“Researcher Jieming, this is the last batch of data you requested to be archived.”
A suspended silver construct floated to his side, projecting a screen of light.
A dense stream of data scrolls across the light screen, most of which involves the underlying rune interaction model of the time paradox.
Jemin glanced at it and shook his head slightly: "Archive it, seventh sequence encryption."
“Executed.” The construct emitted a steady electronic voice. “In addition, Professor Atlas asked if you would like to attend tomorrow’s ‘Time Anchor Stability’ seminar.”
"Please decline for me; I'm about to leave."
As he said those words, a complex emotion welled up in Jemin's heart.
Decades ago, when the combat wizards completed their sample collection mission against the Scythe-Skull Clan and began to withdraw within a few years, Jemin and the other logistics wizards chose to stay.
In the first few decades, Jemin reaped great rewards.
The senior wizards in the Logistics Research Department, whose average age was over eight thousand, impressed Jemin with their mastery of the laws of time.
He absorbed knowledge like a sponge, comparing the records of time-related cultivation techniques in the "Great Dao Book Pavilion" with the time knowledge of the wizarding world. His progress surprised even the old wizards who were in charge of guiding him.
But things have started to change in the last thirty years.
As research into the time paradox generator deepened, the issues discussed by the Logistics Research Department became increasingly abstract.
The theoretical models involved have expanded from four-dimensional spacetime to higher-dimensional topology, mathematical descriptions of causal logic, and quantum decoherence effects of timelines...
At a seminar three years ago, Jemin found himself unable to keep up with the wizard's deductive reasoning.
A year ago, he even needed to consult reference materials to understand the definitions of some technical terms.
Just last week, when he tried to read the core paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Time Paradox Applications, he was overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness as if the sky were falling—not because he couldn't understand the words, but because he couldn't comprehend the layered theoretical framework behind them.
"The knowledge barrier..."
Jemin muttered to himself, somewhat disappointed, as he walked toward his private study.
The interior space of the research institute has been expanded several times and is now the size of a plaza.
Twelve large data storage cores are arranged against the wall, each gleaming with light representing a different category of knowledge.
At the center is a holographic projection platform, on which a three-dimensional model of the cycle plane is suspended. Countless light points flow within the model, marking the various phenomena generated when the time paradox generator is running.
Instead of immediately starting to organize the items, Jemin first went to a row of culture tanks on the east side of the research room.
A dozen or so sleeping individuals of the Scythe-Skull Clan floated in the trough.
This is a sample he specially preserved during that final cycle a century ago.
Even when these higher insects are dormant, their chitinous carapaces still gleam with a metallic sheen, and their sharp, sickle-shaped forelimbs exude a dangerous aura even when still.
"Based on the distribution of contributions, we can also obtain a complete level 7 Scythe-Skull Clan body..." Jemin stroked his chin and pondered, "As a specially modified biological weapon, if these materials are used well, they may be able to increase the average combat power of the cannon fodder legion by another half level."
He waved his hand and put the cultivation tank into his inner grotto, and began to systematically organize the accumulation of a century.
The first is the statistics on military merits.
The numbers are clearly displayed on the screen projected from the personal terminal:
[Basic Military Merit Balance: 15,271,027,458 points]
[Advanced Military Merit Balance: 1,003,200 points]
Most of the low-level military merits come from the technical revenue sharing of the "self-stabilizing field adjustment protocol".
This technology has accumulated over a hundred years of low-level military merits.
The last million or so are the direct gains from the past hundred years in the cycle of reincarnation.
“I didn’t deliberately scavenge for materials in the last cycle, so this number is normal.” Jemin did some mental calculations. “However, if we add the estimated value of that level seven Scythe-Skull Clan body, the total harvest should be around 30 million low-level military merits… For an ordinary level four wizard, that’s already an astronomical figure.”
Even more valuable are high-ranking military achievements.
A century ago, he spent over 800,000 of the more than 1 million high-ranking military merits he had earned.
These advanced military achievements were mainly acquired after purchasing a large amount of cutting-edge knowledge about law research and plane construction.
This time, because of his performance in the time loop, he caught the attention of the Starforger Artorias, and the level eight archmage awarded him an extra 200,000 high-level military merits, so the total has now returned to over a million.
“One million high-level military merits…” A thoughtful glint flashed in Jemin’s eyes. “When I get back, I can try to see if I can buy what I want.”
He temporarily suppressed these thoughts and turned his attention to the real main event: the acquisition of knowledge.
With a thought, twelve data storage cores in the research room lit up simultaneously, and a massive flow of information converged and archived on the holographic platform.
The first knowledge base: [Research Archives on Time Paradox Generators].
This is the culmination of a century of research by the Logistics Research Department, embodying the hard work of the most elite logistics wizards in the entire expeditionary force.
Although Jemin can no longer understand the latest research findings, he has been unable to participate in research for the past few decades and has been unable to acquire relevant knowledge.
However, he completely recorded and initially digested all the basic theories, experimental data, failure cases, and successful models from the first seventy years.
To be honest, if he hadn't been certain that staying here any longer was far less cost-effective than returning to the Sulfur Plane of Purgatory to continue his research, Jemin would have been reluctant to leave.
The second knowledge base: [Biological research on the Sickle-skull tribe].
It's not just the surface-level data that combat-oriented wizards need, but also the social structure of this insect civilization, the evolutionary path of its extraordinary system, and the logic behind its technological development...
Jemin even deduced several potential bottlenecks in the "civilization leap" of the Scythe-Skull race from this, and this knowledge has important reference value for improving the experiment on the social attributes of the Black Giants.
The third, the fourth, the fifth...
The anomalous behavior of alchemical reactions in time-disrupted environments, the causal stability correction of rune arrays, the stress distribution model of dimensional structures under time-reversal pressure...
Each knowledge base represents a deep expansion of a specific professional field.
He closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into the sea of his mind.
In that strange space constructed by the Wizard's Ring of Truth, the materialized light bands of two laws were slowly flowing.
One of them represents a pale gold "spiritual energy law," and its mastery level has now increased from 12% a hundred years ago to 12.5%.
This 0.5% improvement may seem small, but considering the general rule that the study of laws becomes more difficult as you go further, it is already a considerable step forward.
More importantly, this 0.5% improvement was achieved through "approaching similar problems" during the research of the laws of time, without requiring additional dedicated research time.
Jemin calculated, "At the current pace, if we focus on the research of spiritual energy laws and combine it with the data feedback from the incense and deity paths in the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, we can reach 100% in a thousand years at most..."
To be honest, this rate of progress is quite astonishing.
While it may not be as good as dedicated research, it's not bad either.
If word got out, this speed would be enough to make most wizards envious.
But what concerned Jemin even more was another law, that band of light called the "Law of Time," which resembled flowing mercury.
A hundred years ago, his grasp of the laws of time was almost zero; he only gained relevant knowledge after using a wisp of the water elemental plane's origin a long time ago.
However, the Water Elemental Plane's origin carries more than just knowledge related to time, so Jemin's understanding of time is not even up to the minimum level required to form a band of light on the Ring of Truth.
Now, not only has a band of light been formed, but the solidification of this band of light has reached 0.9%.
"0.9%... I'm just a little short of reaching the fourth-level wizard standard for specializing in time-related knowledge," Jemin thought to himself.
"Furthermore, a 0.9% mastery of the time law, if converted into military merit..."
Due to their convenience and uniqueness, the market price of time-related dimensional origins has always been about 30% higher than that of ordinary dimensional origins.
A standard unit of dimensional origin is generally priced at 10 million low-level military merits in the Star Ring Federation market, while time-related origins are priced at 13 million.
A 0.9% mastery of the laws is equivalent to nine strands of time-related origin.
That is, 117 million low-level military merits.
"A war between two planes can yield over a hundred million in knowledge alone..." Jemin nodded in satisfaction.
Jemin's gains in this interdimensional war can be described as exceptionally astonishing.
Generally speaking, a level one combat wizard entering a plane war normally, without considering luck, might only gain a few thousand low-level military merits after a war.
A level 2 wizard has tens of thousands of points, a level 3 wizard has hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands of points, and an ordinary level 4 wizard has just over a million low-level military merits.
This is the result of converting all collected knowledge resources into military merits, while Jemin's side has already reached this number with just pure low-level military merits.
Not to mention the high-level military merits that are extremely rare for low- to mid-level wizards, as well as a vast amount of knowledge that has not yet been converted into actual value.
But upon closer examination, this actually aligns with the inherent logic of wizarding civilization.
Knowledge, especially advanced knowledge, is the most precious resource.
“That’s why those wizarding organizations attach so much importance to the logistics research system…” Jemin said thoughtfully. “In a plane war, the frontline fighting to the death may only earn a ‘turnover’, while the ‘mineral’ mined by the logistics research department is the real profit.”
After sorting through all his finds, Jieming began packing up his personal belongings in the research room.
Most of the experimental equipment is standard equipment provided by the base and needs to be returned.
The equipment he brought with him needed to be carefully disassembled and stored inside his body.
This process took most of the day.
As the last core component was securely sealed, Jemin stood in the center of the now empty research lab, looking around.
Of the past century, perhaps a third has been spent in this research lab.
Those all-nighters spent deriving models, those moments of excitement or confusion over experimental data, those moments of heated debate with colleagues in the logistics research department followed by moments of sudden enlightenment...
"It's time to go."
He said softly, then turned and walked towards the teleportation area.
Occasionally, you could run into a few other logistics wizards who were also preparing to leave in the corridor. They nodded to each other but didn't exchange many pleasantries.
Such is the nature of interactions between wizards: rational and restrained.
Especially after such a long-term research project ends, everyone is eager to go back and digest what they have learned, and advance their own research.
In the teleportation hall, Artorias the Starforger's lieutenant—a seventh-level wizard—was handling the final evacuation arrangements.
"Researcher Jieming, is it confirmed that you have left the Reincarnation Plane Research Project?" The adjutant's voice was calm and even.
"confirm."
"Your contribution assessment is complete. Bonus reward: A complete Level 7 Scythe-Skull Clan body has been transferred to your personal storage at Academy Noren 147. You can retrieve it using your identification code."
"clear."
"Also, Lord Artorias asked me to pass on a message." The adjutant looked up, his star-like eyes fixed on Jemin, "'Your research path is very interesting; continue on it.'"
Jemin paused for a moment, then bowed respectfully: "Thank you for your recognition, Starforger."
The teleportation array is activated.
A deep blue light enveloped his entire body, and space began to distort and fold.
In the last instant before being completely engulfed by the teleportation light, Jemin glanced back.
Through the observation window of the hall, the strange land of the Reincarnation Plane gleamed with a metallic luster under the sunlight.
Although the time paradox generator has stopped operating, the traces it left behind will continue to exist in this plane.
The next moment, the world spun around.
When his vision cleared again, he was already standing on the exclusive teleportation plaza of Norren Academy 147.
Familiar elemental scents wafted over, and towering wizard towers cast long shadows in the sunlight in the distance. Occasionally, wizards riding flying magical artifacts would fly across the sky.
Everything is exactly the same as when I left a hundred years ago.
Jemin's return was quite opportune; it coincided with the start of the new student enrollment season.
Looking at the freshmen clutching their new gear, walking down the street and marveling at the surrounding scenery, and the occasional little guy who looked back at him with amazement, Jemin felt a sense of things having changed.
"Before I knew it, I had become a qualified wizard..."
(That's all for today. I need to summarize the plot for the rest of the day.)
(End of this chapter)
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