Free Web NovelChapter 393: Chapter 385: Goal: Prevent Being [Bored]
The polar cold persisted, its extreme chill invading his body, yet it only made Shi Ming’s thoughts even calmer.
’That’s not right. It’s not the difficulty...’
’I might have been looking at this all wrong.’
’Plan B’s five-star "Danger Level" isn’t the same as a five-star "Completion Difficulty."’
Shi Ming keenly perceived the inequality at play.
The two were completely different concepts.
For example, for a greedy monkey, pulling chestnuts from a fire is a dangerous act. But that doesn’t mean the act itself is difficult. On the contrary, as long as one can bear the cost, the action is fundamentally simple.
By that same logic, it also meant that,
as long as he could withstand or circumvent the danger, the actual difficulty of completing Plan B wasn’t high.
’Danger mostly comes from the unknown.’
’And from inadequate defense against enemy attacks. If I gather as much intelligence as possible, analyze its attack skills, find its weaknesses, and improve my own defenses, I might be able to mitigate the risk.’
’Even then, the five-star danger would still exist.’
’But I would have circumvented it.’
Amidst the extreme cold of the glacier, Shi Ming’s thinking grew increasingly rational.
To circumvent danger, one must know oneself and one’s enemy. A word-by-word analysis of the text from the Eye of Destiny could reveal a great deal of hidden information.
First, the most likely source of danger: the skill, [Carrion].
The Active Wormhole possessed many skills: Carrion Sanctuary, High-Dimensional Corrosion, Void Parade, and All-Encompassing Stomach. Its signature skill, [Carrion Sanctuary], had evolved from its S-rank predecessor. And according to Ah Jian’s memories and intel from the Eye of Destiny, the new single-character Nirvana-rank skill—[Carrion]—would clearly be a further evolution of Carrion Sanctuary, not some brand-new ability appearing out of thin air.
When the skill was still S-rank, it could only bore through space and matter.
After ascending to the Holy Hall Tier, the skill underwent a massive upgrade, becoming capable of boring through abstract concepts like civilization and thought.
Extrapolating from this...
The yet-to-be-born Nirvana-rank skill, [Carrion], was likely even more abstract. Combined with what the Eye of Destiny said—"a single-character skill is the purest manifestation of its essence," akin to a primordial ’principle’—then [Carrion] was probably a literal extension of its authority.
Thus, the attack methods of the Nirvana-rank Active Wormhole were more or less revealed.
Although the Eye of Destiny would instantly capture the specific effects of the [Carrion] skill the moment it was born—and might even predict them in advance—the more he understood, the better he could prepare countermeasures and seize the initiative.
He could create different contingency plans in advance,
and apply them flexibly.
By listing the steps, breaking down the problem, subdividing his goals, and simplifying the complex issue, Shi Ming would only need two steps to achieve his objective.
Step one: Defend.
Step two: Attack.
Whether [Carrion] was a spiritual or physical attack was still unknown. It hadn’t been fully born yet; at this stage, it hadn’t even begun to coalesce. Even the Eye of Destiny wasn’t necessarily omniscient.
Assuming it was a spiritual attack,
Shi Ming, with his high Spiritual Power, already had a natural advantage. He also controlled the Hundred-Floor Celestial Tower from the Civilization Secret Scripture. As long as he could connect all 100 floors of the Hundred-Floor Celestial Tower, the defenses of his Sea of Spirit would become a seamless whole. With the Heaven-Reaching Tower guarding his Sea of Spirit, he could ignore all Spiritual Power attacks from beings below the level of a god.
In just over two months, he had already rapidly cultivated up to the 81st floor and had yet to hit a bottleneck.
During this time while he lay in wait, if he pushed himself a little harder, it shouldn’t be a problem to resist a spiritual attack, even if he couldn’t reach the hundredth floor.
It definitely wouldn’t warrant a five-star danger level.
From this, he could work backward from the conclusion:
The [Carrion] skill was most likely not a spiritual attack, or at least not purely a spiritual attack.
Compared to his forte in Spiritual Power, Shi Ming was somewhat lacking in terms of physical defense.
His Black Tortoise Shield was only an S-rank skill. While it could perfectly defend against Holy Hall Skills, Shi Ming didn’t know if it could block a Nirvana-rank skill, or if it would be shattered by brute force. He didn’t hold out much hope.
And the indestructible state of his newly acquired Eternal Sanctuary was a top-tier defense. However, Shi Ming knew the indestructible state had loopholes, and "eternity" itself was an unattainable lie. The [Carrion] skill, just from its name, sounded like it excelled at finding loopholes. If he placed all his hopes on indestructibility and ignored the difference in tiers, it would be an act of foolish overconfidence.
Shi Ming had quite a few other defensive wonders as well.
For instance, the Twin Mirror, Ivan’s Matryoshka Dolls, and the Shield of Star Guardian.
’Could using these flexibly perhaps cover for each other’s weaknesses?’
...
...
...
A sand table seemed to appear in Shi Ming’s mind as he deduced both sides’ hands and ran endless simulations.
They say the best defense is a good offense, but it depends on the enemy. Against an invasive Active Wormhole that specialized in finding bugs and boring through defenses, it would be irrational to abandon defense and go all-in on offense.
Shi Ming didn’t lack Attack Power.
His base Attack Power was currently 849. With the bonus from Fen Yuan, it could easily break 1,000. And a value of 1,000, under the tenfold empowerment of the Arm of Judgment, could exceed 10,000.
Shi Ming refused to believe that 10,000 points of Attack Power couldn’t deal with a Nirvana-rank beast.
If that were the case, did everyone in the Star Sea have an Eye of the Divine?
Impossible.
Moreover, Shi Ming still had the "Soul-Burning Poem." His total offensive capability was definitely not inferior to a Nirvana-rank being. As long as he solved the defensive problem, killing the Active Wormhole wouldn’t be difficult.
And as long as he could solve the problem of defense,
the problem would become much simpler.
After breaking the problem down to its core, Shi Ming confirmed his strategy.
Just four words.
Prevent the [Carrion] skill.
If he avoided a direct confrontation with [Carrion] and circumvented the risk, he would have a chance to use his high offense to kill this newly-ascended Nirvana-rank creature and take its skill.
How to defend, however, would require gathering more intelligence.
If he could use the Eye of Destiny to learn the specific effects of [Carrion] before the Active Wormhole awakened it, Shi Ming’s pressure would be greatly reduced. If he was unlucky and couldn’t scout out information from the future, he would still need to prepare various contingency plans, flexibly using the cards in his hand to deal with different situations.
...
CRUNCH, CRUNCH.
Amidst the spreading black mist, the sound of chewing was clearly discernible.
The Candle Mirage’s last glittering hoof was enveloped by shadow. From within the shadow, a writhing appendage would occasionally emerge, slithering over the Crystal Stone body, devouring and gnawing at it.
Quintetra was ecstatic.
Soon! Very soon it would touch the barrier it had been unable to reach for countless ages. With its current power, it was strong enough to bore through it. A new tier, a new future, would present itself right before its eyes!
In its previous scans, it had sensed other extremely delicious foods on this planet.
In the sea, in the deep sea, at the Earth Core!
When that time came, it would eat its fill all at once!
