Chapter 576: Chapter 86 Layout
Aske, of course, vehemently denied Nora and Peggy’s accusations.
“There’s no such thing, how can I admit to it?”
By the end, instead of seeking “the truth,” it seemed more like they were persistently pestering, deriving some sort of pleasure that “played off as a wife” from their relentless questioning.
Realizing this, Aske immediately glared with authority as a Squad Leader which made the two girls shamefully recoil and quickly found excuses to skedaddle.
I knew it; why did I feel so guilty earlier? Aske felt some regret and then saw Medea returning from outside Fire Island with Miel, who had returned to normal.
“Is the issue with the Spiritual Tree resolved?” Aske asked in surprise.
“Mhm, it’s resolved,” Medea answered for Miel, “Her Majesty Minerva has also returned.”
“Oh.” Aske looked at Miel, “How does it feel to be possessed?”
“Not so great.” Miel seemed somewhat shy, a faint blush coloring her delicate, pale neck, “When Minerva was controlling my body, I could hear everything she said, and I was aware of her touch…”
Aske immediately thought of the Banshee Queen and the ambiguous kiss she had blown before parting, causing his thoughts to drift into fantasy for a moment.
However, looking again at the young appearance of the Half-elf Girl, he quickly shivered and any desire that had risen was extinguished by a sense of guilt.
“How did you come to understand the Fate Law?” Aske asked.
Miel hesitated slightly; she had intended to lay everything out openly, but after discussing it with Medea, she decided not to tell Aske.
After all, the identity as the Anti-Christ was too sensitive, and even if Aske was willing to keep it a secret, what would happen if Nora read his mind?
Therefore, Miel simply omitted the part concerning the Anti-Christ and briefly said that Rasul had passed on the inheritance from the Assassin Organization to her, which led to the completion of the Fate Law’s Ritual Task.
“I see. It’s like I finally understand.” Aske had a moment of realization, thinking this must have been the very mission path that Storm had faced initially, not expecting it to be completed by Miel and Mia—meaning the Dagger that Mia had acquired was indeed the only way to learn the Ripple Sword Skill.
“Regarding the Fate Law, I’ve only figured out one Skill so far, ‘Mirror Mapping’.” Miel continued to elaborate, “I can pull someone from a neighboring timeline, past, future, or present, but their Level can’t be too different from mine.”
“Aside from people, it’s also possible to retrieve objects of significant size, and the Spirituality consumed depends on the object’s innate Spirituality.” She snapped her fingers again, and suddenly a tree appeared on the land before them.
“This tree is?” Medea asked, surprised.
“In a certain parallel world, there was a tree in this spot.” Miel explained, “I dragged it here.”
“Yeah, I remember this,” Aske clapped his hands, “There indeed was a tree here originally.”
“Then Sigrdrifa chopped it down. So that means, in some close parallel world, Sigrdrifa didn’t cut down this tree, right?”
“That’s right.” Miel admitted honestly, “This Skill…”
“So far, I can only think of pulling in people from our squad who are in parallel worlds to help. I can’t think of any other uses for now.”
“This skill isn’t meant for dealing out damage, Miel,” Aske instructed her. “You say you can pull someone from the future? Does that mean, in some sense, you can see into the future?”
“Right, you mean…” Miel had a sudden realization.
“Think about it,” Aske said. “Suppose someone’s swinging a sword at you.”
“Do you dodge to the left or to the right? At that moment, you activate a Law Skill, take a peek into the future, and find that dodging to the left has a higher chance of success, so you choose to dodge left.”
“There’s no need to pull anything. Just this ability to predict the future is invaluable,” he said and then suddenly stopped.
In the original gaming world, had there been any players who possessed a skill similar to the Fate Law? No, it seemed it had only been heard of in historic NPCs.
If players really managed to get this skill, how would the server’s program be designed to allow players to foresee the future?
It seemed there was no answer to that question. Online gaming wasn’t a simple equation of 1+1=2, where a fixed input always results in a fixed output. The higher the freedom in a game, the more actions players can take. You can never predict what players will do the next second, let alone foresee all the changes that their actions will cause.
That is to say…
Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Aske continued, “Another example, you have just one bullet in the gun, and you need to use it to shoot an enemy.”
“The bullet is ordinary, and a direct shot won’t kill him. You look into the future again and find that on one world line, the enemy is dead.”
“How did he die? You realize the bullet hit the beam above his head, and the overly heavy beam fell and crushed him to death… So you replicate the process and successfully complete this unlikely event, killing the target.”
“So,” Miel summed up, “I use this skill to find the desired outcome on a future world line.”
“And then trace backward from the effect to find the path that leads to this outcome.”
“Finally, replicate this path… right?”
“Exactly,” Aske nodded. “Mirror Mapping in itself is a means of replicating the path. But what’s truly valuable about this skill is the ability to trace backward from effect to cause—that’s something other Laws can’t achieve.”
“That’s amazing,” Miel whispered in admiration. “Aske, how do you always think of things I can’t? Although I’m the one with the Law, it seems you understand better how to use the Fate Law.”
“How else could I be your Squad Leader?” Aske said offhandedly, only to see Medea looking at him with a teasing smile.
“What’s wrong, do I have something on my face?” He touched his face.
“Aske, I’ve suddenly become curious about something,” Medea said with a smile. “You see, you’ve always been the strongest in our team, which perfectly matches your status as Squad Leader, so everyone listens to you willingly.”
“But what if, just hypothetically, someone in the team surpasses you one day? Like Miel, suddenly turning into Minerva, and her strength far exceeds yours… Wouldn’t you have concerns about that?”
“Why would I have concerns about that?” Aske asked, puzzled. “Do you really think I’d stop you from getting stronger just to keep my position as Squad Leader?”
“In fact, the faster you all improve, the happier and prouder I’ll be. Please don’t think of me as someone so narrow-minded.”
“Okay,” Medea said with a smile, thinking to herself that of course, it would be so.
It’s just that our purpose for getting stronger isn’t to take over something as dull as the position of Squad Leader…