Free Web NovelChapter 512: Chapter 442: Deciding the Plan
In the control room, the air seemed stagnant, with only the low humming of equipment and the rustling of data refreshing on the screen as background noise.
Outside the porthole, a green plane tightly wrapped in layers of crimson arrays floated silently in the chaos of the Chaotic Void, like an emerald entwined in a blood-stained web.
Viola quickly walked to the central control console, her fingers sliding rapidly over the screen to call up several real-time monitoring windows.
She turned around to face Clark and Jeming, the last trace of forced composure on her face had vanished, replaced by evident gravity and anxiety.
"These are the plane fluctuation data from the past seventy-two standard days." Her voice was more hurried than usual, "Spiritual intensity, energy activity, plane barrier oscillation frequency... almost all indicators are continuously rising, and the rate of increase is accelerating."
She pointed to one of the graphs, where the line was almost vertically upward: "Look here, the spiritual accumulation index. According to the model Starfall shared earlier, this index should rise and fall within a relatively gentle range until it reaches a critical point and triggers a qualitative change. But now... it has already exceeded the safety threshold by forty percent and is still accelerating."
She then brought up another three-dimensional model showing the energy distribution of the plane barrier: "The stability of the plane barrier is synchronously decreasing. There are seventeen new energy flow disruption points, and signs of law conflicts are appearing in localized areas. More troubling is..."
She paused, pointing to the core of the model: "The chaos of internal will fluctuations is sharply increasing, and the frequency of aggressive tendency waveforms is rising more and more."
Viola looked up, her gaze sweeping over Clark and Jeming, finally resting on the scene outside the porthole where crimson and green intertwined, her voice carrying an irrepressible urgency:
"Considering all parameters, the current possibility of the plane consciousness completely losing control... is sharply increasing, and the speed far exceeds any of our previous simulations."
She took a deep breath, turned to Clark, and spoke with determination: "Professor, I believe we can’t wait any longer. We must immediately fully activate the outer layer Binding Array to suppress and lock the entire plane first! While it hasn’t fully ’awakened,’ minimize the risk of it going out of control!"
Jeming listened on the side, his brows furrowing tightly.
He could understand Viola’s urgency, data doesn’t lie, and that kind of exponentially rising risk curve would send chills down anyone’s spine.
But he had a key question in his mind.
"Senior," Jeming began, trying to keep his voice steady, "Have we still not been able to reach the Starfall Wizard?"
Upon hearing this, a deeper gloom flashed across Viola’s face.
She shook her head, her tone carrying a sense of defeat: "No. Shortly after she sent out those invitations, the entire plane barrier of the ’Fallen Star Land’ entered an extraordinarily closed state. It’s not a normal seclusion shield; it’s almost at an ’information blackout’ level of isolation."
"We speculate that the Living Plane already had preliminary instincts then and started self-adjusting the entire plane’s energy. So routine messaging, positioning, even High Tier causal insights... all have been blocked. I can’t contact inside at all nor detect any definite life or soul signals from Starfall."
She bit her lip, a rare show of almost helplessness in her demeanor:
"This is also my biggest worry. The internal situation of the plane is unclear, Starfall’s state is unknown. Even if... even if this plane really goes out of control, without confirming Starfall’s fate or attempting a rescue, can we directly initiate a destruction protocol?"
Personally destroying a plane where a friend might still be?
This decision clearly weighed heavily on Viola.
At that moment, a broad hand gently patted Viola’s shoulder.
Professor Clark, without anyone noticing, had walked over to her side, still with that slightly fatigued, calm expression on his face but with eyes as serene as an ancient well.
"Viola, you’re too anxious." His voice was not loud, yet it carried a peculiar penetrative power that instantly dispelled the tense atmosphere in the control room. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
"As a wizard, especially when facing complex situations beyond convention, the primary task is to maintain enough calmness. Emotions will only interfere with judgment and reduce the available options."
Viola’s body shuddered slightly, trying to protest, but faced with her mentor’s calm gaze, she forcibly suppressed her surging emotions, taking several deep breaths.
Clark withdrew his hand, his gaze shifting to the plane outside the porthole as he spoke slowly: "The communication has been cut off, and the internal situation is unclear. This is indeed tricky. Directly activating the binding or destruction could cause unpredictable harm to Starfall and might even become the tipping factor that causes the plane to spiral out of control prematurely."
He paused, then proposed a plan that made Viola and Jeming’s hearts skip a beat: "Since the external observation is restricted, let’s go in and take a look."
"I’ll go directly into the plane’s interior to search for Starfall."
"No way!" Viola nearly blurted out, her urgency instantly replaced by shock and objection, "That’s too dangerous! Old man! The situation inside is completely chaotic right now, with law disorder and a plane consciousness that’s going wild! If you go in and get mistaken for an intruder or get trapped inside..."
Jeming also immediately spoke up: "Professor, please reconsider. The internal environment of a Living Plane is completely different from a regular plane, with strong law rejection and a strong instinct to eradicating ’foreign objects.’ Going in now, the risk factor is incalculable."
Despite the vehement objections from the two students, Clark’s expression remained unchanged, as if they were merely discussing what to have for dinner.
"After receiving Viola’s request for help and analyzing the preliminary data, I have already begun making the necessary preparations." He explained in a calm tone.
"Combining past research data on Living Planes, I have adjusted the sequence of thirteen protective witchcraft tailored for high activity, high chaos potential, and the presence of nascent consciousness. I’ve prepared seven contingency evacuation plans and conducted over forty thousand simulated responses to various possible conflicts."
He looked at Viola and Jeming, his figure in the gray robe seemingly not tall, yet exuding an unfathomable stability: "With my knowledge and ability to respond, it’s not so easy to trap or kill me. At the very least, I have the confidence to retreat unscathed."
His words carried no grandiloquence, only a calm statement based on facts.
It was precisely this almost indifferent confidence that brought a strong persuasive power.
Viola opened her mouth, looking at her mentor’s calm and even face, her intense objection caught in her throat.
(Extra update today, one more Chapter to come.)
