Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 67: Four-Year Planning (Seeking First Subscriptions!)

"Dear Mr. Hunzhen, congratulations on passing the preliminary round of the Peak Genius Battle - Noah Universe Kingdom and becoming a glorious member representing Noah Universe Kingdom in the final selection competition across the entire universe! Please wait for notification from Virtual Universe Company regarding the competition time and specific details. Thank you for your cooperation!"

After closing the notification email from Virtual Universe Company, Hunzhen stretched and let out a relieved sigh: "Ah~ It's finally over!"

After unleashing the Meteor Flame Divine Weapon to break through Turkic Wu's gravity space, the ensuing battle took a one-sided turn.

No matter how much Turk Wu struggled, he could only hold on for a little longer before being defeated in the face of the absolute difference in strength.

This also marks the end of the Hunzhen preliminary rounds.

After that, there is a loser's bracket round-robin, but it has nothing to do with Hunzhen. There is still about four and a half years before the next stage, the "Trial Space" points ranking.

In the past month, Hunzhen's greatest improvement has undoubtedly been in the Law of Time.

Even with the blessing of the Nine Universes Chaos Stele, his progress in the laws of space was still not as good as that in the laws of time.

Now, Hunzhen has completely digested the insights into time accumulated over the past three years and the insights into the laws of time gained from viewing the Cosmic Chaos Stele.

If we were to rank talents in the spatial laws of Hunzhenzhai as follows: Spatial Blockade > Teleportation ≈ Spatial Strangulation.

The order of talents in the laws of time is: time acceleration ≈ time deceleration > time stop.

While reading the original work, Hunzhen had a persistent question: could one stop time only by cultivating the law of time deceleration to its ultimate level? And wouldn't there be a corresponding ability for the ultimate acceleration of time?

However, after actually comprehending it, Hunzhen gained some understanding.

The so-called "time stop," in contrast to "space confinement," should actually be called "time imprisonment." It involves imprisoning time in a certain area to achieve the effect of stopping time.

This is naturally a different matter from time slowing down.

Now, his understanding of Hunzhen's acceleration and deceleration of time is enough for him to accelerate or decelerate himself and enemies of the same level by fifty times. However, his understanding of stopping time is less than one-tenth of the former two. He can also stop time briefly against enemies who do not understand the laws of time and whose understanding of the laws is weaker than his own.

But this is his limit at this stage.

A month after his battle with Berlan, he became increasingly clear that his outburst at that time was inseparable from the coincidence of three years of accumulation reaching a certain threshold.

The accumulated simulation experience has been digested; to expect to make leaps and bounds again like before is wishful thinking.

Although he spends a little time each day digesting the simulation experience, his efficiency in comprehending the laws of time is also at a genius level...

However, since the simulated human did not cultivate or comprehend the laws of time in the simulation, the insights that could be filtered out by him were greatly reduced.

After digesting the day's "stock" each day, Hunzhen's talent in the laws of time once again returned to mediocrity.

Having experienced such rapid progress before, he naturally couldn't accept this pace of advancement.

Based on past experience, and considering the duration of the influence of beliefs...

"At most, we can only give the Sims a one-year buffer period. If there is only one year left before the selection of the Chaos Monument, the current Sims may still be influenced by me to choose the Cosmic Chaos Monument."

The so-called "belief influence" and "thought memory" are, in essence, self-hypnosis of the simulated person and extending this influence as much as possible, thereby changing the choices made by the simulated person in the absence of a simulation system.

For example, "If I lose the simulation system, can I not take risks easily? No, if I don't take the risk, temporarily putting up with the situation will only postpone the crisis and make it more difficult to solve."

Alternatively, "Even if I can't inherit the simulation system, based on my understanding of time, choosing the Cosmic Chaos Monument would definitely give me superior combat power over the Nine Universes Chaos Monument in the short term, allowing me to seize more benefits..."

If something is something that would be done without needing to exert influence, then let it take its natural course.

The important thing is to deceive yourself and convince yourself for a specific purpose.

But like many people who change their minds frequently, over time they begin to doubt their previous strategies.

The same applies to simulated humans.

After all, the simulated human is a real world, and the less convincing the self-suggestion is, the more it conflicts with reality, and the faster it will collapse.

Conversely, the longer the effect of this self-suggestion lasts, the better. Some suggestions, while harming the interests of the simulated humans on one hand, can also increase their benefits on the other. For Hunzhen, however, it is a completely risk-free way to obtain benefits, which is the choice that Hunzhen tends to make when simulating.

Referring back to the first example above, the thought is, "What are you thinking? I can simply choose not to pursue this opportunity, then there will be no danger."

The second example is, "Once the Chaos Monument is chosen, it basically can't be changed. Would I have been out of my mind to completely abandon long-term interests for short-term gains?"

While considering having the simulated human choose the Cosmic Chaos Monument, Hunzhen quickly discovered another problem from past experience.

"The Sims have advanced knowledge, just like me!"

"I might succeed once or twice. But as my understanding of the laws improves and my research and cognition of the laws evolve, I will increasingly realize a fact—without a simulation system to filter my understanding, the research on the laws of time will only become slower and slower until there is no way forward."

This fact, as the number of simulations increases, will become more and more unshakable, like a mental imprint, and the predicted year will probably become invalid information by the time the Genius Battle ends.

Given this stamp, there are probably only a few ways to allow a simulated human to choose how to perceive time.

The latest novel is first published here!

"The accumulation of insights into time has become so profound that it far surpasses other laws; a slightly lower efficiency in understanding these insights will not have any impact."

"I have accumulated enough of the other laws, and I have enough time to comprehend them."

as well as……

"I have chosen the Cosmic Chaos Monument. The path of space as the primary focus and time as the secondary focus is possible, but deliberately ignoring the laws of time and only focusing on space would be a huge loss."

Thinking of this, Hunzhen sighed.

"Fine, anyway, once I enter Chaos City and choose the Cosmic Chaos Monument, the simulated human won't be able to avoid comprehending time, so I might as well use this time to improve my spatial comprehension first. Besides..."

A glint of light flashed in Hunzhen's eyes.

Four and a half years is enough time for the simulator to improve its understanding of the laws of time significantly, even if it doesn't study them.

It's important to know that the clarity of the laws in the Chaos City of the initial universe is more than ten times that of the original universe.

As time goes on, the Sims will spend more and more time in Chaos City.

In addition, in just one month, he improved more than just his understanding of the laws.

Once the simulated humans' understanding of time and space reached the threshold of the laws, they began hunting down the Chaos Beasts.

Hunting Chaos Beasts and absorbing Chaos True Spirits improved his clarity of understanding the laws, which was an enhancement of his soul, and he naturally inherited it completely.

Having made up his mind, Hunzhen no longer agonized over the decrease in the speed of comprehending the laws of time and the choice of the Chaos Monument. He also had no intention of leaving the simulated human's "thinking memory" empty.

"I need choices that will have an impact seven or eight years from now, choices that will greatly benefit me and the Sims as well..."

(End of this chapter)