Having identified the mastermind, the next step was to analyze the method—how did they do it?
This was a cycle involving all of Sumeru—how did they manage to make everyone have the same dream? Didn't Sumeru people not dream?
As the readers pondered, they noticed the glowing green light on the ears of the conversing group in the illustration—the Akasha!
That's it! It had to be the Akasha! Because almost everyone in Sumeru had one!
The readers' guess matched the Traveler's guess. This time, the story had everyone fully immersed, seriously reasoning and analyzing.
The desert folk scratched their heads, never expecting that one day they'd be spared disaster because of discrimination.
Now the beneficiary behind the scenes was known, and the method was known—so what about the purpose? That was still unclear.
[Nahida: "The Akasha operates using the Gnosis—it is the manifestation of the God of Wisdom's power. It integrates the wisdom of the entire populace and bestows knowledge upon the people."]
Nahida's words reminded everyone: integrating wisdom and then granting it to others—that was the theory. The problem was that the Akasha was now under the Grand Sage's control and had become his personal tool.
In other words, the integrated wisdom was barely accessible to other Sumeru people—it was all being used by the Grand Sage. What was he using it for?
[Dehya: "Could it be that integrating the wisdom of the entire populace means… the Akasha can also requisition our brains in reverse?"]
The readers were shocked—what kind of incredible leap in logic was this? Dehya always claimed she wasn't well-read, yet her mind worked this fast!
Dehya's words broadened everyone's thinking. Could this cycle be the method of integration? Then why was the Grand Sage doing this?
Paimon in the story asked the same question—what was the benefit of doing this?
[Dehya: "Think about it—if you integrate the wisdom of all Sumeru citizens, wouldn't that be equivalent to treating Sumeru City as one giant brain…"]
["…Many problems that even the smartest individuals can't solve might yield new results when using this giant brain."]
The readers were even more surprised. Wait—Dehya, are you really this smart?
With a brain like yours, relying on muscles to earn money is honestly a bit of a waste. Giving this brain to Ei or Lumine would be a massive upgrade.
[Nahida also praised: "An impressive deduction, especially the metaphor of comparing Sumeru City to a giant brain. Hmm, I quite like it."]
This was Nahida's classic encouraging education style—she loved praising others.
In reality, Dehya felt a little shy. Being praised by the Dendro Archon felt really nice.
The readers also felt a bit shy for no particular reason—mainly because in the illustration for this dialogue, Nahida's little head looking left and right was just too adorable.
While Lumine and Dehya were analyzing, Nahida stood in the middle, looking toward whoever was speaking. Being so short, she always tilted her tiny head up—it was unbelievably cute.
But aside from Nahida's cuteness, the readers still didn't understand the Grand Sage's purpose in doing this. What was the point of creating a super brain?
It was normal not to know—who would have thought that Scaramouche didn't even get a single scene in this event? How could they guess it was to make him ascend to godhood?
More importantly, the readers' sense of the lower limit wasn't low enough yet. They couldn't imagine the Grand Sage doing something like using Sumeru's computing power to please Fontaine.
In the readers' imagination, even if he damaged Sumeru citizens' brains to 'mine,' it should at least be used for Sumeru—or at worst, for himself.
No one expected the Grand Sage's lower limit to be this low. Treason was one thing—he straight-up sold out the nation.
A farm owner might at least go online to send a hundred pulls, but he forced Sumeru people through over a hundred cycles.
All that could be said was that once the readers found out, they'd truly be furious enough at the Grand Sage's series of actions to risk cerebral congestion.
They'd really need to keep blood pressure medication on hand now—Baizhu inexplicably made a profit from this.
Was this a choice a normal human would make? Why was such an idiot so smug about it?
Indeed, only those with a bottle half-empty and rattling around were the most arrogant. The more one learned, the more humble and reverent one became.
Back to the story: the Traveler and Dehya (mainly Dehya) had analyzed a result.
According to this result, the culprit was the Akasha Terminal—so if they just removed the Akasha Terminals, they could wake from the cycle, right?
Thinking it, they did it. The Traveler, Paimon, and Dehya removed their Akasha Terminals.
[Paimon asked: "How do you feel?"]
Honestly, this was a pointless question—if they truly woke from the dream, how could they still be standing here?
But it wasn't Paimon's fault. The key issue was that at this point, everyone still thought it was 'time looping,' not realizing it was a dream.
The readers hadn't spotted this blind spot either—Dehya's brain seemed to have reached its limit.
Then, with a "beep—" sound, everyone fell into slumber once more.
Just before losing consciousness, Paimon exclaimed in shock: We already removed the Akasha Terminals—why can we still hear the sound?
Could this not be the key?
The scene shifted—the Traveler and Paimon woke up in bed once again.
The readers were puzzled. Although they guessed it wouldn't be resolved so easily, where exactly was the problem?
In truth, everyone's guesses matched those of the characters in the book—they all thought it was the Akasha's fault, yet this possibility seemed to have been negated?
Or perhaps what was cycling wasn't time?
Because everyone lacked the crucial clue from the start, all their analyses were wrong. For now, they could only experience another 'reincarnation.'
[???: "The phase duration has exceeded expectations. If this continues, there may be casualties…"]
["But we… can no longer accept abandoning all prior efforts."]
This was dialogue from Akademiya scholars. They knew casualties would occur, yet they still insisted on proceeding.
All that could be said was that this was knowingly committing evil. Most scholars in the Akademiya supported the Grand Sage because this experiment wouldn't harm their class.
This was also why, after the revolution in reality, the Akademiya was nearly emptied out, suffering severe staffing shortages.
The entire Akademiya was almost entirely corrupt! There were too few who opposed the Grand Sage—those people had been imprisoned or exiled by him, which at least made identification easier later.
To save trouble, the story in the book skipped the earlier parts. This time, the story content began after the Traveler and Paimon regained their memories.
The now-awake Traveler was still confused—why didn't removing the Akasha last night wake them up?
[Nahida prompted: "For a little white mouse on the experiment table, understanding why it is being treated this way is indeed an extremely difficult matter."]
Her meaning was that the Traveler was still on the experiment table.
Removing the Akasha in the dream was like jumping in place on the table—feeling like you'd escaped, but actually still right there.
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice Lines · Lucian: About Nahida's Metaphor
"Something like boldly going to the bathroom would suit Cyno, after all—Cyno probably speaks while on the toilet."
(because of his shitty jokes?)