Chapter 1272: The Fourth Thesis (5)
“So, that pedant is the great scholar hailed as Vulcan’s greatest intellect in history?”
Central Council Annex, Grand Auditorium.
The guest seating, reserved for the most crucial VIPs, was located on the top floor, the 6th.
Most of the Level 8 Transcendent beings who had entered the hall, following Adamant Thunder, were seated there.
Click-clack!
The gunslinger, Arthur Mason, racked his shotgun, glaring at Vylun who stood on the dais.
A strong scent of alcohol wafted from his bushy, bearded mouth.
“Someone even greater than Kaiser? I really can’t believe it. Aren’t these youngsters nowadays too quick to dismiss the past?”
“Shut up, you alcoholic. Why are you muttering to yourself needlessly?”
Yupi, who had been listening intently to the back-and-forth questions, snapped.
“The presentation is about to start. If you want to chat, go outside and watch like the other lumbering figures.”
Among the Transcendent beings participating in the Victory Ceremony, those with naturally large physiques couldn’t enter the auditorium.
Unless they were a Transcendent capable of Mimesis like Slain, even a large space like the grand auditorium was unsuitable for giants or spirits.
“I’m already annoyed that I couldn’t even bring my Hoya, so maybe you should go outside and play with them.”
“You’re the one spouting nonsense, tamer.”
But Arthur, even after hearing Yupi’s words, reeked of alcohol and gave a fierce grin.
“What do you know about Kaiser? An idiot who only knows how to run wild trusting his pets… you know absolutely nothing about fighting.”
“Are you done talking?”
“There were plenty of guys stronger than Kaiser. But someone smarter than him? You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone, even if you searched the whole world.”
Arthur Mason was the bounty hunter who had killed the most superhumans on Kaiser’s side during the civil war.
Among them were several geniuses and monsters whom Kaiser himself had recruited and cultivated.
He was a skilled individual, powerful enough to have survived to this day, despite chasing bounties even after reaching such a level.
A monster known as a specialist in one-on-one combat, ranking among the top three superhumans active during the civil war.
Even after the war ended, his name lingered, to the extent that there were still people who remembered him.
But conversely, for that very reason, Arthur also knew well what kind of person Kaiser was.
“He was a madman, capable of simultaneously conducting war and designing projects to achieve results. I clearly saw how messed up that bastard was as I destroyed the research labs he had built all over the city.”
Arthur, sticking his middle finger into the shotgun’s barrel and showing it to Yupi, said,
“We fought with all our might in the civil war, yet we were defeated by a psychopath who was secretly pursuing his own agenda. It’s been decades, and you still haven’t realized how preposterous that was.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Mason. The only reason you could run wild in the civil war was because my main force set the stage for you.”
Yupi snorted in derision.
“You’re useless outside of one-on-one combat because of your ability’s limitations. You’d be beaten like a dog if you fought my Hoya, so why are you spouting nonsense?”
“Ha! That low-intelligence beast? I’ll turn it into a tiger skin right now. Bring it here!!!”
[I apologize to both of you, but could you please be quiet for a moment?]
Olinic, whose head was a metallic sphere, sighed.
Resting his hand on the chin-like part of the sphere, he looked down at the dais and spoke.
[The presentation is about to begin. This is a crucial part, so I’d like to concentrate.]
“Considering the methods Evan Vylun has shown so far, this demonstration will likely be a process of summarizing and showcasing the core theory of the thesis.”
Kiriya, with an icy gaze, looked down at the dais and spoke.
“For an expert researching high-dimensional magic theory, he’s not one to prefer complicated twists. The demonstration process will probably be very concise.”
“He wasn’t a researcher who repeated necessary demonstrations multiple times.”
Slain, who was seated next to him, tilted his head with the emotionless face characteristic of a Phantom Beast species.
“You’ll probably only see the professor himself participate in the demonstration once.”
“Ha, Kaiser wasn’t the type to go around boasting about his research achievements all over the place to begin with-”
[Mason. You try to compare Kaiser and Vylun’s capabilities, but if you were to define them, they are researchers positioned at completely opposite ends of the spectrum.]
Olinic said.
[Kaiser wasn’t one to explicitly explain what he wanted in words. He wouldn’t even attempt to discuss related matters with those who couldn’t grasp his theories.]
“…”
[He was a Seeker with a tendency to reach his desired results, no matter the cost. In that process, he completely disregarded efficiency or opportunity costs.]
“Heh, that’s an interesting point.”
Yupi, who had been huffing and puffing with Arthur Mason, turned her gaze.
“So, the critical difference between the two lies in their approaches?”
[As Professor Vylun himself admitted, he is a meticulous researcher who cares about the efficiency and process of his procedures, even considering the commercialization and development speed of his technology before presenting his thesis.]
Olinic’s metallic sphere glowed with a strange radiance.
[If he were the type to prioritize results above all else, like Kaiser, or to conclude his research purely for self-satisfaction, he wouldn’t have publicly appeared at such a venue to present.]
“…”
[On the contrary, he is closer to someone who ensures as many people as possible understand the theory during the presentation. Many researchers have been inspired by him, and many try to emulate his methods.]
“…Singular Mind. I never knew you liked Professor Vylun that much. Are you, like, a sasaeng fan?”
[As a scholar who once researched metalworking technology, I merely have a personal empathy for him,] Olinic mumbled slowly to Mistral’s blunt question.
Even then, his gaze didn’t waver from Vylun, who was moving about on the dais.
[That’s why I’m even more excited about this fourth thesis. What kind of theory has he completed to abandon even the very principles he had pursued until now…]
“Well, I don’t know about all that… No matter how brilliant a researcher he is, his innate rank is still that of a low-level human, isn’t it?”
Mistral tilted her head.
“He can create theories or technologies close to the essence of this world, even without transcending his rank?”
“At the very least, it’s an undeniable fact that he has done such things until now,” Marcus Tranquiller, the leader of Mirror Diver, quietly murmured.
“It’s starting.”
The Central Council’s first official event since the end of the Adamant Thunder Annihilation Campaign.
An agenda that began and proceeded concurrently with the Victory Ceremony, solely to establish the prestige of Adamant Thunder.
There were those who considered it a relatively important matter, and superhumans who thought of it as a mere side event during the Victory Ceremony.
Naturally, the impressions of experts and officials from various fields differed as much as those of the Transcendent beings gathered here.
However, no one believed that the thesis presentation was more important than the Victory Ceremony welcoming Adamant Thunder.
It didn’t take long for all their impressions to converge into one as the demonstration began.
Gazes poured down onto the dais where the presentation began.
One could feel everyone watching this moment, fraught with tension.
Expectation, worry, excitement and curiosity, or fear.
Various emotions washed over the auditorium, but Lennok didn’t get excited.
He merely cleared away the broken microphone fragments from the commotion, placed them on the dais, and collected his Will-thought.
Considering what he had to do next, even Lennok had to concentrate his mind a little.
Crackle…!!
In the silence, a faintly sputtering noise of microphone static echoed.
People recognized Aris, who had walked out from behind the dais, pushing a workbench, and began to whisper.
“Aris Richellen? Is that the one from Sinclair? The one who developed the Elixir…”
“I heard rumors she was reinstated… is she serving as an assistant for this presentation?”
Aris Richellen was a wizard already well-known as a chair professor at Rebatenon.
After successfully developing the Elixir at the Sinclair Magic Tower, not many in academia were unfamiliar with her name.
Immediately, people’s gazes converged on Aris, but she paid them no mind, focusing intently on adjusting the workbench.
Test tubes containing reagents and catalysts were arranged in a line on the workbench.
She precisely adjusted the ratios and distances between the test tubes, then stepped back behind the curtain.
As even the observers fell silent and the atmosphere grew still for a moment,
Lennok turned towards the workbench and spoke.
“The research topic for the fourth thesis I will present will not be a very complex one.”
Even without holding a microphone, his voice echoed clearly throughout the entire auditorium due to the pre-activated amplification device.
“If, in previous theses, I worked on changing or merging existing concepts or laws, this time it’s the opposite. Therefore, there isn’t much to explain.”
Click!!
Whoosh!!!
The moment the wires were connected and the power turned on, the test tubes mounted on the workbench began to vibrate faintly.
A camera installed next to the workbench zoomed in and filmed, transmitting the footage directly to the grand auditorium’s screen.
Lennok watched, then brought both hands closer to the workbench and spoke.
“The basic preparations required are reagents for stimulating and highlighting Charged Particles, making them visible. More precisely, it’s about preparing the process to be easily observed with the naked eye.”
“…”
“Though the catalysts used are somewhat rare, I have specified the reagents used in the preparation process in the thesis, so it shouldn’t be difficult to reproduce later.”
The researchers, listening to the explanation, quietly whispered.
“Charged Particles, huh… If electricity is used as a material, was it indeed research related to the first thesis?”
“There must be a reason he scouted Professor Raphael for the lab. He’s a renowned expert in magic theory, isn’t he?”
“Look at that excited expression. Does that look like someone who already knows the contents of the thesis?”
“…”
As another researcher, seeing Raphael’s eyes sparkling like a child’s, fell silent, Lennok placed his hands on the workbench.
The moment Lennok, with his hands placed almost stacked beneath the workbench lined with test tubes, slowly activated the power.
Intense currents burst forth from the workbench, and the surroundings began to darken.
CRACKLE!!!!
“W-what is this…!!”
“It’s not spellcraft… How?”
Even though a powerful light source spread out, the surroundings, far from brightening, grew endlessly dark.
The phenomenon was clearly visible even on the camera screen, to the point where the screen began to be dyed completely black.
While others couldn’t close their mouths at the unbelievable phenomenon that seemed to openly violate the laws of physics,
“I stimulate and shave away Charged Particles, and converting the decomposed matter into Mana Particles, allowing them to coexist.”
Amidst the surging lightning, Lennok spoke.
“Simultaneously, I control the diffusion speed of scattered Mana Arrangements, halting them so that no laws of physics can exist.”
“…That’s.”
That explanation was about a theory too well-known to those watching the presentation.
Three research theories that everyone who came to observe Lennok’s thesis presentation would know.
“By stripping away existing rules and order, and forcibly creating empty space, just like this, now…”
Lennok whispered.
“I can temporarily actualize an environment similar to the Outer Sea.”
WHOOOOSH!!!!
In the darkness dyed black above the workbench, faint lights began to glimmer like stars.
Enlarged through the camera screen, the sight flickered with a dark, unfathomable void, as if illuminating the far side of the universe.
Even the investors holding microphones, waiting for a chance to ask questions, and even Bridges, who was exchanging glances with the advisory committee members while observing the situation.
Even Ormeon, whose gaze hadn’t left Adamant Thunder, began to watch with a hardened expression at that moment.
In the quiet stillness, Lennok gently caressed the overflowing halo of light.
CRACKLE, CRACKLE…!!!
In the first thesis, he replaced the concepts of magic and electricity, altering the rules of power.
In the second thesis, he aimed to reproduce specific laws of physics by controlling Mana Arrangements.
In the third thesis, he created a Common Magic system by imposing order and rules on shapeless concepts.
Therefore, this time, he merely inverted all the research he had conducted under the name Evan Vylun.
Converting Charged Particles into Mana Particles, halting rather than reproducing physical laws, and stripping away rules and order to create a void.
From beyond that artificially created void, Lennok’s fourth challenge was clearly-
KIIIIIIING!!!!!
The darkness of the Outer Sea and Lennok’s light intertwined and blended in a single spacetime.
Completely opposing concepts coexisted while maintaining a superposition, entering a gray zone that could not be defined by any single concept.
It was a miracle that could never be established in the Macrocosm, existing only in the Microcosm, at the particle level.
Existing through observation, becoming law through will, converging into order at the end of an infinite alignment of chaos.
The next, which only arrived after everything had ended.
A beginning, not an end.
AAAAAAAAH-!!!!!
“K-uh, ah…!!”
“UWOOOOH…!!!”
There was no impact, no recoil, no earthquake, no roar.
Only a soundless resonance shook their souls, as if hinting at the miracle to come.
Neither the flickering and sinking camera screen nor the spacetime above the workbench reflecting him could properly capture it.
At the moment thousands of people in the auditorium, with pale expressions, trembled without being able to breathe, letting out an inexpressible sound,
The entire grand auditorium was dyed in pure white light, and everyone’s senses and time were swept away and vanished.
WHOOSH!!!!
“…”
Soundless silence. A stillness as if time had stopped.
Beyond the now-broken amplification device, the sounds from the dais could not reach them, and silence fell.
But everyone present in that space couldn’t take their eyes off the workbench for even a moment.
CRACKLE, CRACKLE…!!!
On the workbench, where test tubes were shattered and all reagents and catalysts within them completely consumed.
Amidst the blue lightning shimmering above Lennok’s stacked hands and the intense tearing sound,
Something was taking shape and being ‘created’.
“…This is impossible.”
CRACK, CRACKLE, CRACKLE-
Gaining will in the void, becoming law and order, transforming into matter that could not originally exist here.
The moment particles, situated at the boundary between the Macrocosm and Microcosm, accumulated, acquired biases, and began to be observed with a specific pattern.
People who realized that the ‘created’ matter on the workbench was in the form of a microphone trembled.
“Impossible… this is…”
“Create… matter, making… matter…”
“The research topic of the fourth thesis is the creation of matter by drawing the rules of the Microcosm into the Macrocosm within an Outer Sea environment.”
Unlike the broken equipment on the dais, the newly created result maintained its intact form.
Lennok picked it up, turned it on, and lightly tapped it with his hand.
Whoosh-
Holding the microphone, which functioned as naturally as if it had been prepared for today’s presentation from the start.
Lennok’s voice echoed with unparalleled clarity through the grand auditorium’s speakers.
[I call this Particle Sculpting.]