Chapter 492
After Aivina finished speaking, she looked at Shaer, who remained motionless, seemingly waiting for her explanation.
It was clear that Aivina was not particularly eager to write to her father, let alone go see him in person.
She had accumulated quite a bit of wealth while away, and was ready to return to Ansu City to realize her grand ambitions. She wanted to prove to her father that she could lead the family to stand firmly at the center of power and wealth, relying solely on her own strength and business acumen, without needing to depend on other forces.
Though her thoughts might seem a bit naive, that was how Aivina felt.
Reaching out to her father so soon after returning would make Aivina feel as if she was conceding... and that made her uncomfortable.
But this was Shaer’s request, and Aivina didn’t outright refuse; she just wanted to know the reason behind it.
“There’s something that requires the Duke of Charles’s assistance,” Shaer said, looking directly at Aivina, with no hint of concealment. “Without you, I can’t gain the Duke’s trust.”
“...Is it really that important?” Aivina asked softly.
“Yeah,” Shaer replied.
“Is it related to what happened with Adele?”
“It concerns all of us.”
“Is it life-threatening?”
“It’s urgent.”
Aivina fell silent for a moment. She had grown accustomed to hearing shocking revelations from Shaer, and now it seemed yet another challenge lay before him.
“Then what was up with your hair just now?” Aivina asked, voicing her last lingering question.
“If I told you I came from the future... would you believe me?”
Shaer looked at Aivina and said quietly, “A Shaer who drank the ‘Avenger’ and ‘Judicator’ potions in the future.”
Aivina gazed into Shaer’s eyes, paused for a moment, then nodded—despite the fact that his words would sound utterly absurd to anyone else.
“I... believe you.” Aivina walked over to the desk, pulled out a drawer, and took out some stationery, a pen, and ink. She turned back to Shaer and asked, “What do I need to write?”
Shaer moved closer to Aivina and dictated what she needed to write, word by word.
Aivina listened intently, writing quickly. Finally, she signed her name and sealed the letter with her wax stamp.
“Do you need me to go with you?” Aivina asked, clutching the envelope without handing it to Shaer.
The content of the letter Shaer had her write left Aivina puzzled.
The letter didn’t mention any crisis or anything about Adele... instead, it simply requested the Duke of Charles to change the royal luncheon scheduled for tomorrow at Vitalis Palace to Windsor Palace or Cecil Palace, and to allow Shaer to bring people to Vitalis Palace.
No one could possibly understand Shaer’s intentions behind this; it seemed like nothing more than mundane, inconsequential matters—at least for a fourth-tier extraordinary being like Duke Charles, it wouldn’t pose any challenge, only confusion.
Only Shaer understood the true purpose behind it.
After receiving three hints for a rewind, Shaer had gathered too much information. Besides the information itself, his urgency had turned the situation quite critical.
In reality, while Shaer sought out Charles, the Order of the God of Order and the Order of the Goddess of Salvation had already been sealed off.
This meant that in this simulation, Shaer could only choose one of three locations: the Order of the Goddess of Salvation, the Order of the God of Order, or the Duke of Charles’s estate.
Previously, in the “Endless Manual of Forgetting,” Shaer had already set out what needed to be done in this simulation.
“Find the Pope of the Order of the God of Order, Erigama; have Aivina seek the Duke of Charles’s help; and let Adele, Amy, and Tara gain Eleanor’s trust.”
Three lines of action.
Just like in the previous simulations.
Have Adele find Yulis and gain her trust as quickly as possible, then have Yulis take them to find Eleanor—this was to prepare for summoning the Dark Worm.
Have Aivina seek help from Duke Charles—this was to clear out Vitalis Palace so that Shaer could set up the otherworldly node in the dining hall of Vitalis Palace, where he would sit after the rewind at 12:15 on the 17th.
And Shaer himself would go find Pope Erigama of the Order of the God of Order—this was to obtain a stable placement for the otherworldly node.
These were all actions Shaer had successfully executed in previous simulations.
He needed to integrate all the experiences from past simulations and reality into one decisive, unavoidable strike against Shaer.
In reality, if Shaer died, he would rewind to July 17th at 12:15:05, back to when he first ended the simulation—that was the starting point.
In the simulation, killing Shaer would only rewind to before the simulation began, because the system had stated that the “uniqueness” of that serpent chain’s “authority” could not surpass the system’s simulation, meaning reality would remain unaffected.
Only the permanent wounds inflicted by “uniqueness” would not be influenced by time and simulation, directly affecting Shaer...
But if the Shaer in the simulation died after July 17th at 12:15:05, and this rewind time fell within the coverage of Shaer’s simulation time...
Shaer’s rewind would restart the simulation... but not back to the very beginning, rather to 12:15:05...
This way, Shaer could completely erase Shaer within the simulation.
Yet, deep down, Shaer felt uncertain.
This was merely a hypothesis based on the information revealed by the system; he had never truly put it into practice, and there were inherent paradoxes involved.
For instance—if his future self truly killed Shaer, then why hadn’t Shaer in the past simply turned to ash during the simulations or in reality?
If Shaer really died from “uniqueness” in the future, then the past Shaer would have also died directly; the damage from the “uniqueness” serpent chain was not limited by time and space, meaning Shaer could have been “erased” by the serpent chain even as a child or just after birth.
Would everything Shaer had done over the years, the wars he had waged, even the daughter he had fathered, cease to exist?
Shaer had not disintegrated before him; in fact, in the last simulation, Shaer had even seen a barely alive Shaer... did that prove that his future self hadn’t killed Shaer?
Not necessarily.
Because he had killed Shaer three times, yet the second time Shaer died, there were no signs of the wounds from the future, the third death that was already a certainty.
Shaer could only draw such conclusions.
Only events that had already occurred and been observed by him, the “fated” events, were real.
And all the Shaers in the simulations were like “Schrödinger’s cat,” existing in a superposition of life and death until the fact of “fated death” emerged.
The true death of Shaer in reality would not alter the past, while when Shaer observed the past during the simulation, the past Shaer would be instantly killed by the “uniqueness” serpent chain.
This could explain the paradox of time and space... and indirectly prove that Shaer’s earlier conjecture was correct.
But how to verify it?
It depended on whether the Shaer in this simulation, like the one in reality, received the “hint” of a third death...
Aivina took Shaer’s letter and set off with Nia.
Meanwhile, Shaer stayed in the room, quickly finishing a plan that Tara could fully understand, then handed the letter to her.
At this point, Amy and Adele were still at the hotel. Tara noted down all the seemingly prophetic points Shaer had described and then went to find Amy and Adele to begin executing the plan Shaer had given her.
As for Shaer, he didn’t rush to leave the hotel; instead, he walked directly to the front desk and asked the attendant about Lucy’s whereabouts.
If his theory was correct, and the Shaer from past simulations truly bore wounds like “Schrödinger’s cat” when observed, receiving the hint of a third death, then what happened in reality would certainly happen again in the simulation.
Thus, Shaer needed to find Lucy as quickly as possible, urging her to take all her subordinates and board the nearest train, or even a freight train, to leave Ansu.
The farther they went, the better.
This could buy time against Shaer, throwing him off the trail.
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