What is the mindset of "absolute rationality"?
Is it being calm, clear-headed, and unmoved by emotion?
No.
"Absolute rationality" is to be "completely logical, completely procedural."
Once a decision is made and a corresponding plan is formulated, one moves forward along the chosen path with single-minded devotion. No matter the circumstances, one acts only according to preset instructions and "thinks" according to established programs, devoid of any resulting emotional response or consideration of self-interest.
Every action, turning point, and sacrifice exists solely so the event may lead to the planned result. No external influence can interfere with the direction of progress...
This is "absolute rationality."
There is no doubt, no guilt, no pain, and no despair. There is also no conviction, no relief, no joy, and no hope.
Because there are no emotions, no sentimentality.
If a person were like a fixed program, possessing such "absolute rationality," and if all their actions were born of "leading to the right path" and "finding a way out"...
...Then that person would look exactly like Lei Ting did now.
Of course, even a program can make mistakes for certain reasons. And given the current situation, even a tiny error could lead to eternal damnation.
—Therefore, just as a weapon is better served by increasing its firepower and coverage rather than blindly obsessing over precision...
Whether as a "human" or as a "program," Lei Ting knew he could not simply try to avoid making mistakes.
The evolution and existence of life are built upon a series of minor errors; the same is true for civilization and communication.
"Awakening," "Development," "Expansion," "Evolution," "Stability."
This is the path every civilization and group must take, and it is also the path for life and supernatural power.
However, supernatural power—something that, strictly speaking, was as irrational as ancient shamanic arts—was a rule that originated from outside the universe.
In a world that should have been purely "physical," it was the greatest "error" of all!
...
Golden light erupted.
For the first time in his life, Lei Ting released his power without any restraint, instantly submerging nearly half of the Silver Core in an ocean of golden light.
His cape burned, his armor melted, and the phantom of a colossal mecha emerged... Light shone through his skin, his long black hair billowed, and his entire being seemed to transform into a golden torch. His open hands then clapped together—
—Yes, an irrational power dominated by an individual's will was, in itself, a massive error for this shattered universe.
But regardless, the process of "Awakening-Sublimation-Boiling," that beautiful ascension curve and its corresponding orderly rules, had appeared nonetheless.
As for when it was further subdivided, how it became a system that mirrored the "greater environment," or who had categorized it—and by what power this system performed its automatic maintenance and refinement, or what role sentient life and their wisdom played in it... Lei Ting did not care.
Even the universe, for various reasons, could have different physical laws in different sectors.
...As a part of all this, it was naturally impossible for him to be completely free of error...
...In that case, before making that one mistake, he would simply resolve the one who created the problem!
In the distance, the blue light grew more intense. A sharp, terrifying energy weapon attack was on its way.
In the far reaches of space, the "Commander" also watched this scene.
His consciousness was projected onto every "Relay Ring," so he saw that light flickering across the starry sky. Each time, it vanished from one Relay Ring—disappearing from one part of his "vision"—only to emerge from the other side of another Relay Ring, reappearing in another part of his perception.
That was one of the crystallized achievements of a vast civilization's wisdom spanning tens of millions of years; it was one of its supreme weaponized results of "space-time" technology.
From the initial punches and kicks, to throwing stones and swinging clubs, then to the slashes of blades and axes, and the flight of arrows...
Sharpening bone and stone, refining copper and iron.
Life is born in chaos, spreads through strife, and is refined through slaughter.
All technology has the provocation, handling, and settling of conflict as its core focus. This is "civilization."
And now, a creation of a civilization from before recorded history launched an attack against its eternal enemy.
One traveled along a gravitational orbit, enduring through the ages.
The other leaped and flickered forward, seeking only to disrupt.
And between the two, the void trembled.
Outside a nine-thousand-meter-tall humanoid sun, a vast, sea-like golden radiance crossed space, gradually forming a massive solar sphere of supernatural energy.
Briefly, the "City" that still resided within the Human Federation manifested in the Spirit's Depths. Located within it, Evenheiler rushed out of a door and looked up at the sky from the street.
The golden zenith had vanished. Everything within sight no longer looked as it had before. The streetlights remained lit, but the air was quietly dissipating.
Soon, even that bit of light vanished, leaving only the starships that were added daily and disappeared randomly, still glowing with ritualistic warning lights amidst the lingering golden wisps.
Then, the starships erupted with golden light.
Under Evenheiler's wide-eyed gaze, they spontaneously split into modular components and vanished into the golden glow.
In the distant sea of light, Lei Ting's hands, which had been joined with the mecha's, pulled apart.
It was a slow, steady "draw of a bow" filled with immense power, yet the mecha's hands held nothing.
Pitch-black modular components emerged, combining with each other in an orderly fashion. The combination did not form from point to surface to volume; instead, parts simply snapped into their respective places, instantly constructing a massive arrow tens of thousands of kilometers long.
Golden energy flowed through its grooves. Then, its tip ignited with a sharp, blinding gold-blue radiance, and the thrusters at its tail—as massive as celestial satellites—lit up with blue exhaust flames veiled in a layer of gold.
In the "Joint Starport" behind them, Kang Li, who had been forcibly confined to a lounge and forbidden from leaving, pressed himself against the window. He stared blankly at the scene within the ocean of "sunlight" that penetrated all metallic matter.
A full blue moon was reflected in his eyes—the blue light of the thrusters.
Finally, his lips moved, and he murmured:
"...Is that my dad?"
...
The tip of the arrow pointed straight into the distance.
Then, Lei Ting let go.
—
A shockwave exploded outward, only to be neutralized within the ocean of light. That power was enough to seize all sight and thought—one light was hurled by another, possessing a momentum destined to pierce and destroy everything.
Just like the "spear" he had hurled at his enemies during that first war.
Well, though it seemed he had made significant progress, a closer look revealed that the essence of this attack was still "brute force overcoming all." As for the effectiveness of the object thrown...
...That was, naturally, guaranteed.
"This thing..."
In a sector untold distances away, one of the "Relay Ring" visions projected in the Commander's mind violently exploded.
This was followed by one explosion after another—succession after succession! And they were getting closer!
"Everyone, relocate the base coordinates immediately!!" the black-armored monster roared, enduring the agony of a head that felt like it was about to burst. "He didn't intend to intercept the Garrison Cannon's attack! He found its path!!!"
As he spoke, he looked at the "arrows" that were now within reach in just a few breaths, and he suddenly began to laugh. "Good lad..."
The power accumulated by Lei Ting over nearly twenty years descended.
This moment was difficult to describe—an explosion occurred. That was the only way the words and scripts of sentient life could depict it. Following that was a continuously expanding golden spherical shockwave and the descent of the infinite void.
The howl of energy tore through the entire sector. Not far away, a black hole and its massive, sector-scale accretion disk stood quietly in deep space.
A long time later, the Commander's figure emerged from that black hole. Completely unaffected by its gravity, he flew straight out.
"This level of attack is useless against transcendents of our caliber, Sun Star."
The armor whispered softly, reaching out to soothe a panicked eyeball hanging from its waist.
Simultaneously, a new ruin of a "Fortress City" quietly manifested around him.
"Your power is indeed impressively great, but..." He chuckled lowly. "...Do you want to guess what I can do?"
...
In the distance, Lei Ting raised an eyebrow slightly. He could sense that the "Lord of Heterogeneous Demons" orchestrating everything from afar... had no "true body" within that armor.
Or rather, that black armor, made of a material like both metal and stone, was its "true body."
And the feeling it gave him... it was so compatible with the "Fortress City" ruins surrounding it that they almost merged into one!
That was no ordinary connection... If nothing else, this fellow was very likely the monster born from the body of the Galactic Empire's Emperor all those years ago!
As expected, how could the tenacious vitality of a Heterogeneous Demon be so easily erased?
The act of suicide had not truly prevented the birth of this demon... Moreover, it was simply too powerful, so powerful that its own strength was on par with Lei Ting's.
Furthermore...
"...A black hole."
He murmured softly, completely ignoring the extreme pain of his flesh crumbling bit by bit as it spread to his chest and shoulders. He only sighed quietly: "...Is that the price for 'favor'?"
—"Black Hole." This was a power belonging to a previous Double-S ranker of the Galaxy: Atlin Lina.
That powerhouse, whose original name was Boykaligi, had inherited the name of the Galactic Empire's sovereign's eldest daughter who had died young. She was the transcendent responsible for "cleanup" work before the "Emperor's Blade."
But... she had been contaminated. Amidst the mental torture of that desperate work and the natural reaction of contaminated "Spirit Thoughts" gathering toward her, she lost herself and died under the bombardment of the Galactic Empire.
As the flying blue light approached, Lei Ting narrowed his eyes slightly.
That light... couldn't be stopped. He thought.
It possessed the power to interfere with space-time itself, and that Great Heterogeneous Demon possessed the power to create and control terrifying celestial bodies like "black holes" and warp space... However, its potency wasn't that great; it wasn't a major problem.
In that case, if it couldn't be stopped, he wouldn't stop it.
Lei Ting's expression turned solemn.
The contamination of "Komist" finally spread toward the direction facing the galactic disk. The colossal mecha drew its weapon.
The ocean of golden light expanded until it covered the entire Silver Core and nearly half of the Abrizak Empire's territory. The locking of "space" followed suit.
Tens of millions of various military vessels had already deployed, surrounding their starships and war platforms in a three-dimensional formation to battle the black-red tide advancing toward the Silver Core.
The slaughter had already begun.
No words were needed.
Although countless of his own starships were still scattered throughout the galaxy, Lei Ting did not recklessly break his own spatial blockade. He knew that if he did, he would be hit in the face by a suddenly generated black hole the next second.
He simply drew his sword with single-minded focus—drawing the "New Sun," which had now been modified to an immense size, and transforming it into a portable giant cannon capable of annihilating stars. The muzzle began to charge, facing off against that terrifying demon from afar, ready to blast it in the face at any moment.
Consequently, he naturally did not notice that within the Spirit's Depths in the direction of the Human Federation, inside his city, the somewhat illusory and transparent figure of Evenheiler flew into the sky.
"I'm practically like a ghost..."
He wasn't quite used to this feeling of seemingly not existing for the moment. He grumbled a complaint and reached out to grab something floating slowly past, wanting to see if he could touch physical objects.
Unsurprisingly, his hand passed through them.
Surprisingly, it successfully landed on a strange piece of machinery shaped like a breastplate.
...How is there one that's an exception?
Evenheiler was utterly bewildered. His body emitted fine, white starlight as he pulled the thing over to look at it, finding a row of ambiguous white characters written on it: "ISTEP-XIV001."
And below that was a line of small text: "Single-person Space Shuttle Experimental Project - 14th Generation Prototype - No. 001."
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