LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

As expected, it's a problem with the Euclid space itself.

Don pondered silently.

[Host?]

"System buddy, what do you think would happen if the Yesterday Once More charm could borrow power from the future?"

[?]

The War Bishop looked at Don, who was deep in thought, motionless as if playing dead, secretly communicating with some unknown entity. His mouth twitched, but he ultimately said nothing.

The system could communicate with Don's inner thoughts, but he couldn't!

Speaking only half-sentences with no follow-up was truly annoying—it made one want to hang him up like cured meat to expand the workforce.

Where was the promised miracle? Where was the miracle?

The system completely ignored the Theater Core's 'poking,' still cheerfully chatting with its host—no, engaging in academic discussion.

'The Scholar of Yore's core abilities are Historical Void and the Fog of History. Only events that have already occurred can be considered history. The unforeseen future can only be glimpsed through partial revelations in divination and prophecy.'

Although mysticism states that past, present, and future are all interwoven within the Spirit World, information about the future exists only as 'revelations.' The future can be changed, while history consists of events that truly occurred and cannot be altered.

The two cannot be equated. The Yesterday Once More charm simply cannot borrow power from the future.

The future is uncertain. Even the most powerful deities cannot completely foresee everything that will happen in the future.

Using the Yesterday Once More charm to borrow spirituality from one's future self no longer falls within the scope of what an Scholar of Yore can borrow.

Don had just used that charm to borrow some spirituality from his past self. The first use of the charm and the second use clearly revealed different things through the Historical Pore.

"The spacetime within Euclid space is different from the spacetime we currently inhabit. Time in that world should be regular and controllable."

Euclid's four-dimensional space adds a fourth variable beyond length, width, and height—"depth," which is time.

The timeline in four-dimensional space is like a draggable progress bar, where past, present, and future can all be observed and controlled.

Don suddenly took out paper and a charcoal pencil from the drawer, writing down in Chinese everything he had currently summarized.

The War Bishop secret doll glanced at what was on the desk but couldn't understand the text.

Theater Core: ...

Although both the Yesterday Once More charm and the Theater With Curtains That Never Draw were very useful, Don temporarily didn't plan to let this Sealed Artifact know too much about these core secrets. After all, they were in an adversarial relationship, and knowing too much meant one either became truly one of his own or had to be silenced.

However, for Don, if the Theater could become truly one of his own, it would naturally have to lie properly in his stomach as a potion ingredient to truly count.

"First point: Euclid's space is not limited to spirit bodies. Meeting the conditions and possessing powerful spirituality and divinity, I can enter it."

"Of course, this requires a fundamental difference in status. Ordinary demigods, even deities, might not perceive the existence of that space."

Completely overlapping with the Spirit World and the physical world yet far transcending them, the Sequence 1: Worm of Time clearly hadn't noticed his observation. This meant that even when facing a Sequence 1, as long as he hid in that space, he should be able to avoid detection.

"Second point: Regarding the perspective of 'observation'—the stronger the observed entity's spirituality, status, and divinity, the more difficult this observation becomes."

When facing the Sequence 1 Worm of Time, merely knowing the opponent's name and sequence consumed most of his spirituality.

But peering across ranks at those Kings of Angels without dying and instead obtaining partial information was itself equivalent to a miracle.

"While I won't be detected by the other party, this kind of observation, to some extent, if encountering situations like 'every word spoken will be known' or 'when you know of him, he also knows of you,' I must be careful when returning to the physical world."

That space should also be able to block such extraordinary abilities, but returning to the physical world might not be so certain.

In fact, if this situation could be resolved, Don felt this would significantly counter some extraordinary abilities of the Visionary pathway.

A Writer's Coincidence would definitely have alternative manifestations within Euclid's space. If encountering '0-08' or Adam, he wouldn't be inexplicably manipulated.

And most importantly, the third rule he had explored.

"Third point: Through Euclid's four-dimensional space, I can indeed exert a certain degree of influence on the physical world."

At this moment, a secret doll opened the closed door and walked in.

Both the War Bishop and Don looked over to see the secret doll holding a flower from the school's garden.

However, this flower was completely pitch-black, as if some force had drained it of all color.

After the secret doll placed the flower down and left the room, Don picked up the now blackened flower and had the system cast an identification on it.

[Flower irradiated by Black Sun Light (%*^%￥)]

[Host, it's been affected by high-level power.]

As expected.

Don set down the flower and picked up the charcoal pencil to continue writing.

"By mixing in spiritual power, under the influence of status and divinity, certain forces within Euclid space can descend upon the physical world through 'dimensional reduction.'"

"This 'dimensional reduction' itself also carries high-level power. Perhaps it leveraged a bit of Euclid space's own power? Hmm, further exploration is needed."

"Moreover, if used well..."

It's practically an assassination weapon.

Higher dimensions can influence lower dimensions, while lower dimensions can hardly affect higher dimensions.

Isn't this dimensional strike?

"The only drawback is that it's not sustainable enough..."

The spirituality consumption was too great. Even with the borrowed spirituality, he could only swing the Sun Scepter a few times to influence the physical world through Euclid space.

Don stuffed this piece of paper into the system space, clapped his hands, and stood up.

He still had much work to do. That Worm of Time was actually Pallez, the future "Star's" grandfather cheat.

He needed to carefully ponder the intricacies involved.

Sigh, the time spent thinking was increasing. He felt like his brain was going to grow back.

No, please! He clearly just wanted to be a maggot crawling in dark corners... Speaking of maggots, could grandfather give him a few Worms of Time?

Seeing the person about to leave so cheerfully, the Theater Core: ??

So what exactly did they do??

Without saying a word, it provided worms and exerted effort, and they're performing mute here?

You two! Look at me!

The Theater Core was bewildered, indignant, and ready to give up.

It was its own problem—it hadn't adjusted its mindset properly.

Calm.jpg

Peacefully waiting for death.jpg

Fine, do whatever you want. As long as you're happy, pretend I don't exist.

"Oh, right."

Don suddenly turned his head and asked, "If you devour other Beyonders from the Seer pathway, can you replenish your Spirit Worms?"

The War Bishop, who was preparing to respond with "Yeah, yeah, sure," looked bewildered: "...Huh?"

(End of Chapter)