Free Web NovelChapter 484: Chapter 418: Paradox
Vivian’s figure completely merged into the void, infiltrating the city first for deep reconnaissance.
A moment later, her voice came through the encrypted Spiritual Link: "Safe. No organized enemies detected, only a few First Level worker bees found aimlessly wandering in the lower pipes, possibly abandoned or naturally hatched later. Safe to enter."
Jeming and Roland landed on the top of a tall tower at the city’s edge.
From here, they could overlook a large portion of the city.
Jeming wasted no time, immediately taking out a Record Crystal that contained detailed logs from the previous round of wizards collecting samples here.
Spiritual Power swept over, and the scenes of the past appeared: The battle erupted in a distant high-rise, the wizard forces attacked from the eastern main passage, the Reaper Race defenders organized their last resistance in the western square, and after being defeated, the remnants tried to escape through the underground network, only to be eliminated by pre-set Rune traps...
"That area, huh..."
After observing the recorded information, Roland also cast Scouting Witchcraft toward that area.
A moment later, he nodded: "Indeed, although it’s well camouflaged, the Energy fluctuations there are smoother compared to other areas."
Soon, Vivian’s on-site reconnaissance results also came back: "The opponent’s camp is indeed in that area..."
Jeming nodded, looked at Roland: "As long as there are no changes, that’s good. Next, I’ll trouble you to ensure none escape."
"Small matter."
Roland raised his palm toward the sky, and in the blink of an eye, a gigantic Energy Shield expanded outward.
The Energy Shield, upheld like an inverted, translucent giant bowl, silently and effortlessly enveloped the entire Reaper Race outpost camp.
The faint sounds of carapace friction and pheromone exchanges from the camp were instantly isolated.
"Act." Vivian’s voice sounded cold and concise through the Spiritual Link.
Roland, as the main assault force, waved his Magic Staff, and dozens of meteors burning with brilliant white flames suddenly condensed above the largest spiral building serving as a command center, crashing down with long trailing flames!
Explosions and flames immediately consumed the building and its surrounding area, intertwining with panicked screeches and the crisp sound of the Energy Shield shattering.
However, Roland had precise control over his power; this strike only destroyed the opponent’s defense system while causing significant chaos, but as much as possible, avoided any casualties.
Seizing the opportunity of the enemy’s defense system collapse, Vivian infiltrated directly, transforming into the reaper in the shadows.
Her silhouette flickered between the camp’s edge watchtowers, supply stacks, and small Incubation Pools, each appearance accompanied by a slight spatial fissure.
Any Reaper Race caught by the fissure would instantly stiffen, followed by a smooth cut appearing on their carapace, silently splitting them in half.
Her targets were high-level Reaper Races.
Jeming’s targets were also high-level Reaper Races.
His Spiritual Power had long locked onto the few spots with prominent Energy reactions in the camp, locking, raising his hand, instantly casting Space Distortion.
Buzz!!!
Invisible Power of Space burst around several Fourth and Fifth Level Reaper Race squad leaders, twisting that area like an invisible giant hand.
Carapaces, limbs, viscera... everything was torn into fragments in the misalignment and tear of space, leaving the targeted Reaper Races no time to scream.
As for the sole Sixth Level Reaper Race commander, it had only just risen in anger from the burning command post wreckage, attempting to organize a counterattack when Roland pointed at it from a distance.
A Rune of "Gravitational Anchor" condensed to the extreme was instantly branded on it, pulling it back to the ground like a meteor, creating a deep pit.
Before it could struggle to its feet, Roland’s second spell "Molecular Stiffening" descended, solidifying its massive body and a small area around it completely, making it unable to move.
The battle unfolded as a one-sided crush from the very start.
Over ten thousand Reaper Races were powerless against three well-prepared, overwhelmingly powerful, and tactically clear wizards. freeweɓnøvel.com
Aside from the intentionally spared low-level Reaper Races, all high-tier Reaper Races in the camp were slaughtered in a short time.
The real time-consuming and laborious part was the work that followed.
"Seal!" Roland exclaimed softly, forming Seals with both hands.
The Energy Shield originally used to isolate the outside world contracted inward and transformed into thousands of independent Energy cages of varying sizes.
Trapping the remaining panicked low-level Reaper Races in the camp, suspending them in mid-air, to prevent self-harm or mutual attacks while facilitating observation.
"Begin identification." Jeming flicked his hand, canceling the witchcraft, and walked to the nearest Energy cage.
Inside were a dozen shivering Reaper Race worker bees.
To ordinary people, these insects might all look identical.
But to Jeming, who had studied their physiological structure, mutation genealogy, and even the subtle differences in carapace growth patterns, they each had their own characteristics.
According to the sample information stored in the Record Crystal, he began comparing them one by one.
First one, no.
Second one, the edge curvature of the carapace is incorrect.
Third one...
When he checked the seventh cage, Jeming’s gaze locked onto a Second Level combat-type Reaper Race.
There was a subtle natural dark-colored pattern on the second joint of its left forelimb, resembling an incomplete triangle.
The record showed that in the previous cycle, he had collected a Reaper Race sample with a similar marking on its left forelimb, but only half of its skull and part of its body were collected, with the remaining body discarded.
Jeming immediately retrieved the preserved "half skull" from the corresponding area within his Inner Grotto Heaven.
He shrank the energy cage to just envelop the live Reaper Race, pulling it closer, while simultaneously displaying the cross-section of the half skull.
The Reaper Race shrieked in disbelief and fear when it saw the skull in Jeming’s hand.
Understandably so, seeing someone holding your own head would certainly elicit a similar scream from anyone.
However, Jeming paid no mind to its fear and instead carefully compared.
Carapace color, texture density, subtle trajectories of the energy circuits, and even the activity markers at the cellular level... all matched perfectly!
More crucially, the special carapace known as the "Glory Carapace" on the chest of this live Reaper Race was evenly colored, without any discolored patterns from recent healing.
This indicated that it had never lost that half skull and part of its body... at least in "this cycle" of life, it was complete.
"Partial collection... body fully restored. No new healing marks on the Glory Carapace." Jeming recorded in a low voice, and returned the half skull to the Grotto Heaven.
They continued to investigate.
As each Reaper Race was identified, the results gradually became clear:
Samples that Jeming "partially collected" (only stored part of limbs or organs) were all completely resurrected in this cycle of reincarnation.
There were no scars, and the Glory Carapace did not have any records of having "lost and then regained" parts.
The power of time reversal seemed to have perfectly repaired this "partial loss," resetting the individual’s existence state to an "uncollected" intact starting point.
However, for those Reaper Races completely stored in Jeming’s Inner Grotto Heaven, the situation was entirely different.
Jeming and the two Sixth Level Wizards carefully checked all the trapped Reaper Race individuals, also searching the camp for any possible hidden corners, and even used small-scale necromancy detection and memory tracing witchcraft.
Finally, they confirmed that the fifty Reaper Races completely stored in the Grotto Heaven had all disappeared.
In the timeline of this camp, it was as if they had never existed.
To further verify, the three randomly selected several hundred live Reaper Races, using soul memory reading witchcraft, specifically searching for memory fragments about those "missing individuals."
The result was intriguing.
In these Reaper Races’ memory images, the life, work, and combat training in the camp matched the records, except for the absence of those fifty "companions" and any interactions with them.
In their memories, the camp originally had only so many individuals, and the fifty individuals had never existed.
Time reversal not only erased the material existence of those individuals, but also seemed to sync the causal logic and collective memory related to them, making the "absence" itself reasonable and unnoticed.
"Individuals completely removed from the timeline have their existence thoroughly erased, along with the causal traces related to them being ’rationally’ corrected..." Roland mused, touching his chin, "This is more thorough than a simple ’deletion,’ it’s like they ’never existed.’
Jeming was silent, and a bolder verification idea arose.
He took out two completely preserved Reaper Race corpses from his Inner Grotto Heaven—two of the "missing fifty."
The two well-preserved corpses appeared in his hands, with the carapaces still bearing the scars from the previous cycle’s battle.
However, the moment they completely left the Grotto Heaven and came into contact with the current reincarnation plane’s space-time...
There was no sound, no energy fluctuation, no light and shadow effects.
It was as if the most skillful eraser had wiped them out in an instant, or as if they were fragile soap bubbles under sunlight.
The two corpses vanished into thin air.
Not decomposed, not teleported, just disappeared in the most direct way.
Jeming’s pupils suddenly contracted, and then his eyes burst with an incredibly bright light.
"Just as I thought!" he almost growled, "These samples’ existence was directly erased by the time paradox!"
"When time reversal occurs, everything in the current plane is forcibly reset to a certain ’save point.’ For the partially collected individuals, the resetting force attempts to repair their ’missing parts.’ Since the missing parts (in my Grotto Heaven) and the main body (in the resetting plane) are already separated in space-time, the resetting force seemingly ’assumes’ the main body was originally intact, or somehow ’completes’ the missing parts, restoring the individual."
Jeming’s mind was extremely active, quickly integrating the various pieces of information obtained through experimentation.
"But for the completely stored individuals, the resetting force finds that this individual ’doesn’t exist’ at any time node in the current plane (because it’s isolated). It cannot ’repair’ them (because there’s no main body), nor can it ’ignore’ them (because the individual should exist at the save point). Two contradictory states—’should exist at the save point’ and ’not existing due to isolation’—cannot be reconciled, resulting in the most fundamental space-time paradox."
"And the plane’s law resolves this paradox in the crudest way: by erasing the ’existence of the individual’ from the history and future of the current timeline. So, they ’never existed,’ and related memories are corrected."
"And when I just took out the corpses, it was as though I was ’pasting’ the individuals with ’already erased existence facts’ back into the current space-time. This immediately triggered a secondary paradox conflict: something ’which never existed’ ’appeared.’ Thus, the plane’s law took effect once again, erasing them instantly to maintain space-time continuity."
"No!"
Jeming suddenly realized something, overturning his previous thoughts, "It didn’t trigger a second paradox conflict, but rather remained in the first paradox conflict. Unlike the things I brought from other planes into this one, these items in this plane might have been pre-marked, which is why they were erased the moment they were brought out."
"Otherwise, like those measuring instruments, they should only be erased when this cycle’s time reversal occurs!"
