Chapter 738 — Overflow

Now, no one knew what had happened inside Sandbox One. No one knew what kind of thing had been brewing in that sealed, self-running world. And what was more... no one knew how much time had already elapsed within that world. A thousand years? Ten thousand? Or longer still...

The Luminarchs knew only one thing.

"Sandbox One is still overflowing," Selena Gelfen said softly. "This overflowing data is contaminating the normal... This district can no longer be repaired. It can only be fully reset."

"Yes, Luminarch."

The owl-masked Sleeper acknowledged the order and withdrew to carry out the reset of the block, while another figure emerged from thin air near Selena — a young man in a white robe, tall and lean, black-haired, wearing a pair of genteel pince-nez spectacles, who looked composed and carried a faint air of scholarship.

"Luminarch Serin," the black-haired man said, "the second overflow block has already been reset."

"I am about to carry out a reset here as well, Luminarch You," Selena nodded. "It cannot be repaired. There is no other way."

"...With all due respect, ma'am," said the young Luminarch — or at least, he appeared young — called Yuri, inclining his head slightly. Though their rank within the cult was equal, his seniority seemed shallower than Selena's, and so there was a note of deference in his words, "merely resetting these blocks can only temporarily alleviate the problem. We should still find a way to shut Sandbox One down."

"I know. His Holiness the Pope knows as well. But nearly all emergency shutdown measures have failed. Sandbox One is still running, and is even gradually merging with all the other sandbox worlds," Selena sighed faintly. "After the time-iteration multiplier was raised to its limit, Sandbox One sealed itself off within a few minutes. Perhaps in those brief few minutes, it bred within itself a 'something' strong enough to contend with us — and that something... does not wish for its own history to be ended."

Luminarch You hesitated, then said in a low voice: "...Luminarch Mag has proposed an emergency circuit-breaker plan. It has already been submitted to His Holiness the Pope."

"I know. But His Holiness will not approve it. That plan is essentially no different from the sandbox-severance plan; apart from adding to the toll of brain-dead victims, it serves no purpose," Selena Gelfen shook her head. "And besides... the situation has not yet reached its worst."

"You mean... the 'Retarder'?"

"Yes. The 'Retarder' has taken effect. Through reverse time iteration, Sandbox One's running speed has been reduced to the normal flow of time. We are already on the same level as that thing, and we still have time to keep testing safer, more reliable options," Selena's tone was gentle, yet it carried a kind of force that brooked neither doubt nor rebuttal. "Project Zero has run until now, and we have invested far too much in it... Unless we reach the very last step, neither His Holiness nor I will lightly abandon it."

A strange humming sound suddenly rose in the air, interrupting the conversation between the two Meta-Order Luminarchs.

Selena looked up and saw a grid spreading swiftly across every building and every patch of ground in the district; then the distorted structures were deleted in whole swaths, the warped ground was rapidly reorganized into a basic plane, and the water and clouds of the sky dissolved into disordered particles of light. A few seconds later, ordinary houses, streets, ground, and vegetation began to regenerate swiftly within that space.

The district's reset was complete.

In the blink of an eye the disordered city zone was orderly once more; everything seemed never to have changed, and the deadly overflow data and contamination had been swept perfectly clean.

Selena and Yuri, the two Mystery Order hierarchs, stood at the edge of the now-restored district, each silent for a moment.

"I fear a few more of our brethren are about to have some of their short-term memories erased," You Yaoheng, the Balance Hierarch, said with a sudden sigh. "A reset always comes at a price."

Selena frowned. "Let us hope this is the last time."

"Selena Yaozhen, the Balance Hierarch—about that security director I mentioned at the last meeting... what do you think of him?"

"Daniel, is it..." Selena Ge'erfen considered briefly, then nodded. "I have indeed been watching him all along... He is a mage and scholar of great talent, with original insights into many of the mind's techniques and into the very concept of operation... It is only a pity that before our formal deployment, his gift was left buried, and nearly wasted."

"The security system he built, along with technologies such as addressing and multiple databases, have all proven immensely useful," You Yaoheng, the Balance Hierarch, agreed with a deep nod before continuing. "Some of these technologies have even been applied to Project Zero. Several other Order hierarchs and I all believe this man may prove useful in the crisis we currently face."

"His current rank is bishop, though he only completed his promotion recently..." Selena Ge'erfen mused. "Still, for people of talent we need not cling too rigidly to these rules. You Yaoheng, the Balance Hierarch—do you personally consider that Daniel reliable enough?"

"I consider him reliable," Yuri said without hesitation. "I looked into his circumstances. He joined the order twenty years ago, so his seniority is ample; his external contacts in the real world are clean and dependable; he is a scholarly brother loyal to the order and devoted to his research. In fact, if he were not reliable he could never have become a director of security—you know the importance of that position, Selena Yaozhen, the Balance Hierarch. From my personal standpoint, I consider Bishop Daniel highly reliable: he is loyal to our cause, his abilities are outstanding, and he cares profoundly about the mind."

"Very good. Then it shall be you who makes contact," Selena said with a nod. "But do not be too hasty—observe him for one cycle. After all... this concerns Project Zero, and we must be prepared to promote that Daniel to 'Yaoying Hierarch.'"

"I understand."

(Recently some readers have encountered so-called paid groups, insider groups, and VIP groups claiming that a fee grants early access to drafts of certain chapters. I hereby state that I have no paid VIP group of any kind; any group charging for entry is a fake, and there is no insider group that offers early reading of chapter drafts—I don't even have that many drafts myself, all right...)