chsdbacks Chapter 557 Intelligence and Retreat
Chapter 557 Intelligence and Retreat
Jemin floated in a pure white sea of light, his consciousness immersed in the fragments of information collected by the Causal Tracing Technique.
Although they have only actually encountered each other once, Jemin has gathered a lot of intelligence by combining these fragmented pieces of information.
"It seems my earlier guess was correct..."
The basic elemental shocks are indeed effective, and the reason they are effective is precisely because these informational beings are too powerful.
Although those information beings can analyze complex information structures, their very existence depends on the four elements.
The outer energy is constructed from elements, and although the core information is abstract, it still needs to rely on elements to "exist".
Their technology is indeed close to the essence of the world, giving them a significant advantage over most civilizations.
To put it bluntly, these informational beings are more like privileged dogs when facing other civilizations, able to directly modify "game" data in the background. But for this reason, their actual combat strength is quite worrying—when so-called power is just data that can be manipulated at will in their eyes, there is naturally no need to develop power.
However, when the opponent's attack is more fundamental, preventing them from altering the backend data, this advantage becomes a fatal weakness. "It's like a hacker encountering a physical power outage."
The image involuntarily came to mind for Jemin.
No matter how skilled you are, if you unplug the network cable, you'll be completely helpless.
As it turns out, the four-element theory upon which the wizarding civilization relied for survival remained closer to the essence, even in comparison to this bizarre civilization. He suddenly thought of the ninth-level wizards at the pinnacle of the wizarding civilization—they controlled the laws, freely modified the world, and possessed limitless power.
That level of existence has probably touched upon a deeper level than the four elements.
"From this perspective, even when facing level nine beings from other civilizations, level nine wizards are probably excessively powerful... I should ask my mentor about level nine wizards next time..."
"However, I recall that according to the records of wizarding history, the wizarding civilization had already mastered the four elements before leaving the original plane. Looking at it this way, the wizarding civilization seems... even more outrageous?"
Jemin couldn't help but gasp: "Seriously, could a civilization that hasn't even left its own plane of existence really have the ability to naturally develop this level of theoretical technology?"
Jemin shook his head, suppressing the thought for the time being.
Continue analyzing the remaining information.
Soon, the Fate System analyzed a fact that caused his pupils to shrink.
Those information beings are impossible to kill.
They can't be killed by conventional means.
The fragments of information captured by the Causal Tracing Technique show that at the very moment the native creature was swept away by the elemental torrent, its core information underwent a bizarre "collapse".
That collapse was not destruction, but a "transfer".
Based on data analysis, it should be a quantum entangled state—the moment one side collapses, the other side is simultaneously rebuilt.
All the information was instantly transmitted back to headquarters through some uninterruptible channel.
Jemin frowned.
He recalled the intelligence he had previously read about the expeditionary force.
Those high-ranking wizards tried various methods: freezing space, slowing time, imprisoning souls, locking causality, all to no avail.
Each time, those information beings either actively dissipate or "die" the moment they are trapped, leaving nothing behind.
At the time, we thought they had committed suicide.
In retrospect, it wasn't suicide at all.
It's just "going home".
"This kind of thing..."
Jemin fell into deep thought.
From a human perspective, if you destroy a body and then reconstruct an individual in another place using exactly the same information, is it still the same person?
The memories are the same, the thoughts are the same, all the information is the same... but the continuity in between is broken.
From a human ethical perspective, that should be considered a copy, not the original.
"But information organisms might not think that way."
Jemin recalled the reactions of the indigenous people.
They fight, retreat, are killed, and reappear, without any fear or hesitation throughout the entire process.
For them, this might be as natural as breathing for humans, simply a way of moving.
"This is troublesome."
Jemin frowned.
They can't kill them, they can't catch them, and all conventional methods are ineffective.
How can this war be fought then?
He took a deep breath to calm himself down:
"We shouldn't limit our thinking to this aspect. Think about it carefully. Since conventional methods can't cause any real damage, we should consider the existence of information beings themselves... Since they are composed of information, we should start from the information aspect!"
Jemin closed his eyes, actively adjusted his information structure, and began searching for his next target: "Let's try finding another target!"
A moment later, he "sensed" the location of another indigenous person.
This time he didn't use Elemental Torrent.
Once he found the target, Jemin immediately activated the Causal Tracing Technique without saying a word.
A pale golden light emanated from between his brows, enveloping the native creature.
The core of the causal tracking technique is to capture the causal traces of the target—those past, residual, and entangled information.
Jemin wanted to try and see if he could use this spell to reverse-engineer the opponent's core information, or even trace the causal chain to find its headquarters. But he failed.
The aborigine's outer layer of energy fluctuated violently. The light of causal reflection fell on it as if it were falling on a slippery film, unable to penetrate at all.
"Not skilled enough."
Jemin frowned and withdrew the spell.
The native seemed to sense something and began to observe Jemin warily.
But Jemin didn't give it a chance to attack, directly unleashing an elemental torrent to annihilate it, then adjusted his position, created distance, and searched for his next target. A second attempt.
It failed again.
"The method used is incorrect; the approach should be changed..."
the third time.
It was another failure.
"This...it seems like I went astray at the beginning..."
Jemin could sense that it wasn't that the magic was ineffective, but rather that his understanding of this creature was flawed, which was why the magic kept failing.
"One more time..."
Just as Jemin was about to continue, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
Danger!
The surrounding white light distorted violently, and more than a dozen figures appeared simultaneously.
Thirteen information beings surrounded them from all directions.
Their outer energy surged wildly, clearly indicating they came prepared.
Jemin's frequent probing finally caught their attention; they were trying to surround and kill him!
Almost the instant they appeared, the indigenous people attacked simultaneously.
Countless information tentacles surged in from all directions, more than ten times more ferocious than the previous attack.
The Void Armor instantly appeared.
An invisible shield of light expanded, blocking the first wave of impact.
Then the second wave.
The third wave.
The Guixu Armor began to tremble.
Although those information tendrils were swallowed by the Void Realm, the speed of the swallowing could not keep up with the speed of the impact.
The light on the surface of the Ruins Armor flickered rapidly, and cracks began to appear...
When the opponent launched their fourth wave of attacks, the Void Armor shattered.
Pale golden fragments scattered and disappeared into the sea of light.
But Jemin had already prepared for a counterattack.
A brilliant golden light shone from between his eyebrows.
The Destiny System is operating at full capacity!
A massive amount of computing power poured out like a flood bursting its banks, instantly suppressing the thirteen native information tentacles.
The originally chaotic and disorderly flow of information was forcibly taken over and suppressed by the Destiny System, causing the thirteen natives to simultaneously freeze.
Their outer energy fluctuated violently, clearly indicating a desperate resistance.
However, the computational power of the destiny system is too strong.
The incense and deity's subsystem, which specializes in processing information and gathers the faith of billions of believers, unleashed its full power at this moment. It managed to suppress all thirteen natives in place and prevent them from moving by relying solely on its computing power.
Jemin wasted no time.
He suddenly clasped his hands together.
The four elements around them instantly erupted.
The four basic elements—fire, wind, water, and earth—rushed in from all directions as if possessed.
With a slight thought, the massive amount of elements automatically split into thirteen torrents, each targeting one of the thirteen natives.
The outer energy of those indigenous people fluctuated desperately, trying to analyze these elemental torrents, but they had no way of knowing where to begin.
This is just a jumbled mess of raw elements, with no structure to parse and no logic to tamper with.
We have no choice but to tough it out.
But when it comes to the ability to manipulate the elements, how could they possibly compare to a wizard who specializes in this art?
The first native creature experienced a violent fluctuation in its information, frantically mobilizing the surrounding elemental power to form a shield in front of itself.
However, when it was submerged by the elemental torrent, the outer energy instantly dissipated, exposing the information core.
Then came the second one, the third one...
In a short period of time, the core information of all thirteen indigenous peoples was exposed to the erosion of the elemental torrent.
The information core of the 13th Regiment collapsed almost simultaneously, turning into countless tiny specks of light.
Jemin didn't stop.
He waved his hands repeatedly, and the light of the Causal Reflection Technique enveloped all the dissipating fragments of information.
This time, the fragments were forcibly frozen before they could be fully transmitted back.
Jemin pushed the fate system to its limit, retrieving all the fragments of information he could.
Moments later, the fragments completely disappeared.
Jemin withdrew his hands and gasped for breath.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and the golden light between his brows dimmed considerably.
The previous battles didn't actually take much effort, but gathering information later on exhausted him.
He paused for a few seconds, then looked up and scanned his surroundings.
The pure white sea of light was completely silent.
But Jemin could sense that undercurrents were brewing.
His movement just now was too loud.
The natives must have noticed him already. If he stays any longer, the next wave won't just be thirteen.
Jemin made a decisive decision: "It's too dangerous now, let's get out of here!"
He closed his eyes, adjusted his information structure to minimize his presence, and tried to contain any overflowing information. Then, he began to slowly "move" towards the crack.
A sea of light flowed around him.
After an unknown amount of time, a thin crack appeared ahead—it was the dimensional barrier.
Jemin took a step forward.
The pure white fades, revealing the familiar wasteland of the ship's berth.
In the distance, a massive crack stretched across the sky.
Nearby, countless wizards were still busy with their own tasks.
Jemin landed and let out a long breath.