Strictly speaking, what Zandar wanted to achieve wasn't all that different from the world line Elio once pursued—the one where Finality simply didn't exist.
In Bai Ming's eyes, the futures both of them desired were equally absurd.
Back then, Elio had glimpsed a future where Finality vanished entirely.
It was, without a doubt, a subversive new world line. But logically, no matter the future, the universe's continuation cannot be infinite.
Finality is a destiny bound to arrive.
If you really thought about it, the world line Elio perceived wasn't strictly one where Finality disappeared. Rather, it was a world line where Destiny itself ceased to be.
Because Destiny no longer existed, Elio was simply unable to perceive the end.
And what Zandar wanted was exactly that: a world where Destiny itself had no place.
Bai Ming watched Zandar, who had already logged into the Simulated Universe, as her thoughts began to wander. Come to think of it, it had been a long time since she'd last been in touch with Elio.
She wondered what the scripts he saw looked like now, and what world line he was currently toiling away in.
Since their exchange a few years back, Elio hadn't reached out to her again. The Stellaron Hunters weren't exactly active lately either; who knows what he was plotting.
As for that possibility of completely overturning the ending of Finality they'd discussed... Over the past few years, whenever Bai Ming wasn't tinkering with the Nihility Equation, she'd let her mind drift—mostly just to give her brain some exercise after it'd been fried by Nihility.
But to be honest, she had almost no leads.
Unless she completely upended Destiny—that fundamental rule of the universe—and allowed the light of hope to exist independently of that logic, there was probably no chance.
But was that even possible?
At first, Bai Ming didn't think so. That doubt lingered until she followed that train of thought all the way to Zandar. Only then did she realize, with a sudden chill, something truly terrifying.
Back when she made her move on Amphoreus, she'd been coasting on her "prophetic" knowledge.
She hadn't overthought things, nor had she ever sat down for a deep chat with Zandar. Now, however, she finally understood the core logic behind Zandar's opposition to Nous.
In Bai Ming's previous life, there was a classic joke: God originally only made 2D textures for the world outside Earth to save on processing power since humans could only see so far. But then Galileo went and invented the telescope, forcing God to stay up all night pulling an overtime shift to render 3D models.
In the rush, mistakes were made—which is how the Great Red Spot on Jupiter and the rings of Saturn came to be.
There's an abstract way to interpret that joke: if Galileo hadn't looked at the stars, the Great Red Spot and Saturn's rings wouldn't have existed.
But because he completed the observation, they became things that had "always existed since ancient times."
If you think of "God" as an abstract set of natural laws, then Galileo becomes the actual "creator" of those things.
God's actions were merely a feedback mechanism triggered by the observation.
The punchline, then, is this: there have never been any natural laws.
Instead, when an observer summarizes a rule from their findings and applies it to interpret the past, those "summarized" laws become rules that have existed "since the beginning."
In other words:
The present defines the past and locks in the future.
Zandar proposed the Imaginary Tree Theory.
Suddenly, a universe that was once immeasurable, unknowable, and untraceable could be sketched out by scholars using his hypotheses.
But if you apply the logic above... what rules governed the world before that? There's no way to know.
It was only because Zandar created Nous, and because Nous verified the calculations, that the world truly became "this way" since time immemorial.
It sounds ridiculous at first because it's impossible to disprove. But if you look at an actual event within the Genius Society, the logic becomes bone-chilling.
Take the repeated "proofs" of Phlogiston.
Member #2 proved Phlogiston existed. Then Member #3 proved it didn't. Later, #7 proved it existed again, only to be killed by #4, Polka Kakamond.
Geniuses might not be right every second of their lives, but the research that made them famous couldn't possibly be wrong—it was personally anchored by Nous.
But if they were all right, how could Phlogiston both exist and not exist? Can a substance just flick on and off like a light switch? Even Schrodinger's cat has to settle on a result once you look at it.
This saga of Phlogiston was as absurd as opening the box and finding the cat alive today, dead tomorrow, and back to life the day after.
It seems abstract, but through the lens of that "observation" logic, it finally makes sense.
The Geniuses weren't "proving" anything.
They were literally rewriting the laws of the world.
#2 rewrote it once to make Phlogiston exist.
#3 rewrote it again to make it vanish.
#7 stepped in to bring it back.
Finally, Polka Kakamond, unable to stand this interference with the domain of omniscience, ended the cycle with a murder. From then on, the law of Phlogiston was permanently anchored by her.
Assuming the members of the Genius Society aren't just delusional daydreamers... it means the underlying logic of this world can be changed.
It changes based on human will, and it acts retroactively. Rules established in the future can interfere with the entirety of history, making it so things were "always this way."
This changeable "underlying logic" even includes Zandar's Imaginary Tree Theory and everything derived from it—Aeons, Paths, Imaginary Energy, the whole lot.
When Bai Ming finally connected these dots in her head, her heart practically hammered against her ribs. She felt, more than ever, just how much of a mess this world really was.
By this logic, Zandar's "Allegory of the Cave" didn't just refer to Nous anchoring omniscience and making human curiosity a joke.
It was Zandar realizing that his own actions forced the world to follow the rules of "Paths," which drastically shackled human freedom.
In Zandar's theory, the universe is filled with Imaginary Energy, isolating galaxies and worlds into lonely islands that even light struggles to cross.
So, Zandar proposed a concept: if one could master Imaginary Energy, humanity could walk among the stars. Then, beings like Emanators appeared, fulfilling that concept and making it reality.
And just like that, the laws of the world were set in stone.
This was Zandar's greatest regret—the world might not have had to be like this.
Humans could have had a more efficient, more convenient way to harness energy without having to practice philosophical concepts to get it.
But! Because the Nous he created ascended to Aeonhood, any chance for humanity to modify or overturn the grand model of the universe became impossible.
So, Zandar wanted to just blow the whole thing up and start over. He failed, of course. Even if the rules of the Paths changed, the existence of the Aeons wouldn't be shaken.
They would still sit on high like gods.
Changing the "how" and "where" of power wouldn't knock them off their pedestals; it would just change their essence, turning them into a different kind of divine entity.
However, outside of this entire system of logic and rules... there was Bai Ming.
She was the only one standing apart. The power she held, aside from what the Aeons gave her, was all manipulated through Path Equations.
Even though these things still utilized the traits of the Paths, they reigned supreme over the Path rules themselves.
She didn't need to practice any philosophy; she could just forcibly drain the power.
If Zandar ever found out about this... he'd probably scream that this was exactly what he'd been looking for! This was the key to completely subverting the rules of the world. This was his lifelong craving.
When Bai Ming first handed the Elation Equation to Herta and the others, they never even brought it up. Because of that, Bai Ming hadn't realized just how insane those equations actually were.
She figured Herta, the others, and maybe even Zandar probably assumed she already knew and was planning to fulfill Zandar's dying wish in a gentler way.
But Bai Ming could swear to the heavens: even if the system gave her the talent of a genius, she wasn't going to waste her free time deconstructing Zandar's psychological hang-ups. She wasn't a real genius.
It wasn't until those recent years, when she got bored of researching Nihility and started daydreaming, that the lightbulb finally flickered on.
And now? Even if Bai Ming knew how to do it, she wasn't in a hurry. To put it bluntly, she didn't have the confidence that she could make the world any better.
She didn't exactly trust that Zandar could come up with a better hypothesis than the Imaginary Tree Theory, either.
In fact, she wasn't the only one who felt that way. Herta, Screwllum, and the others hadn't said it, but they clearly felt the same.
Why gamble on an unknown future? What if the new one was even worse?
If they didn't feel that way, they wouldn't have understood Zandar's intent years ago and still chosen to throw an elbow at their great predecessor.
And at the end of the day, Zandar's regret stemmed from his belief that there might be a better choice for the world.
But the real question was: would a world where the "rules" could be toyed with by the whims of mortals really be "better"?
Today Phlogiston exists, tomorrow it doesn't.
The next day the four fundamental forces are flickering in and out of existence. A world where the underlying rules are that fickle sounds completely unreliable.
If you made Bai Ming choose between the two, she'd take the stable world anchored by Nous any day.
That was why she didn't refuse the Simulated Universe being watched by Nous.
At the very least, until she could dream up a world model better than the Imaginary Tree Theory, she wouldn't condemn what Nous had done.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL