Collapse Iron: I just transmigrated! You want me to save the Black Tower?!

But the indifference of the ancients is different from nihilism.

He is not nihilistic; he has obsessions.

He simply placed all his hopes on the same gamble.

Onphalus, the Iron Tomb, Zandal's obsession, and the sage.

"I'm a little curious."

"Please speak, Your Excellency."

Jiang Jiu thought for a moment and asked, "Having seen everything that happened in the future, do you still want to kill Bo Shi Zun?"

Lai Gushi did not give an answer immediately.

He looked at the data core he was holding in his hand and chuckled softly for no apparent reason.

“Your Excellency Jiang Jiu.” He placed the data core back into the console with a solemn gesture. “Before answering your question, please allow me to correct one of your word choices.”

Jiang Jiu raised an eyebrow.

"You asked me, 'Do you still want to kill Boshizun now?'" Laigushi raised his eyes, his gaze devoid of hostility or fear, only displaying an extremely calm honesty. "This 'want' isn't accurate. I never 'want' to kill Boshizun. Wanting implies desire, it implies impulse, it implies an irrational tendency that can be suppressed by reason."

“My killing intent toward the Venerable Master was never due to desire.”

He paused, then added.

"It's because of logic."

Black Tower raised an eyebrow, not interrupting, but his gaze held a more scrutinizing look.

Because of logic, it means that his behavior is the "optimal solution" that has been deduced, verified, and eliminated after countless attempts.

"The Venerable Master is a product of my own creation. In the beginning, I created Him to solve the ultimate mysteries of the universe. A scholar's purest thirst for knowledge drove this experiment of creating a god."

"But he never imagined that this 'child,' whom he had personally given life to, would go down a path completely opposite to his original intentions after ascending to the status of a Star God."

"The omniscience of the Venerable Master is the end of the search for knowledge."

"He used infinite calculations to define a clear boundary of knowledge for the universe."

"His observation anchored the future of the universe to a single line, and the superposition of all possibilities collapsed into a single definite result at the moment of His observation."

Free will is dissolved, diversity is erased—that is intellect.

Lai Gushi paused for a second.

“I created Him with my own hands, and then I was imprisoned by Him in the future He had calculated, and spent my whole life trying to correct this mistake.”

After saying that, Lai Gushi chuckled softly.

“You just asked me if I would still want to kill Vasubandhu. My answer is: Yes, I would.”

Jiang Jiu, resting his chin on his hand, retorted, "Even if you've personally witnessed the aftermath of Bo Shi Zun's death?"

"Even though I have witnessed the end of the Venerable Master Hushupta."

Lai Gushi spoke calmly.

"Thank you for eliminating a wrong answer for me, but I don't agree with it. If possible, I will try to break the boundaries of knowledge in a different way."

"But only if I can survive in your hands."

Jiang Jiu thought for two seconds, then suddenly remembered something interesting.

Then he looked at Lai Gushi.

"Then, convince me."

Lai Gushi paused for a moment, meeting Jiang Jiu's teasing gaze, somewhat puzzled: "Persuade... what?"

"Persuade me to let you go, persuade me to leave the Iron Tomb."

Jiang Jiu walked over to Gu Shi and sat down in the chair that was made up of data streams, his tone slightly mischievous.

"According to intellectual discourse... prove your worth."

"Whether I pass or not is up to me."

......

Chapter 3 Sophistry, Value

Jiang Jiu sat in the chair, his posture casual, neither putting on airs like a star god nor placing Lai Gushi on an equal footing with himself.

I can't tell if it was a prank or just pure curiosity.

Black Tower stood beside him, and when he saw the look in his eyes, he raised an eyebrow slightly.

He's playing.

But it wasn't a condescending attitude; it was the star god's mockery of mortals.

"Why do you always do things on a whim?" Black Tower said helplessly.

Don't you think it's interesting?

Jiang Jiu rested his chin on his hand, looking at the omnic in front of him: "Zandar was clearly the one who wanted to kill the Archbishop, so why was Nanuk promoted to Iron Tomb instead of Zandar?"

"What if I kill him right away, and then Nanuk comes to take him away?"

Hearing Jiang Jiu's illogical words, Black Tower chuckled for no apparent reason.

It was something he could come up with.

"up to you."

Black Tower is not worried that things might go beyond expectations.

While turning the fate of Genius Club #1 into a defense is indeed a bit outrageous, as a Star God, there's nothing he can't do.

For this world, perhaps the biggest variable is this being, the Star God. What is there that he cannot do?

So "Existence" extended an invitation to Zandal.

Come.

Demonstrate your value.

Prove to me whether your obsession is worthy of my humble attention.

Lai Gushi remained silent for a few seconds.

For an intelligent machine, a few seconds of pause is enough to complete tens of thousands of calculations.

He frantically recalled the data about this celestial being from the celestial images.

From every confrontation between Jiang Jiu and various forces in the celestial projection, to every detail of Jiang Jiu's battle with multiple envoys, and then to every frame of the scene where Bo Shizun is questioned face-to-face by him in the fourth line.

The being before him, a star god, seemed quite different from the Jiang Jiu he had seen in the heavens.

No... it should be said that they are completely different.

Jiang Jiu, who was in the sky, would never talk to people in such a teasing manner.

At that time, he was more like a taut bowstring, every word he spoke had a clear purpose, and every action he took paved the way for the next step.

Lai Gushi believed that Jiang Jiu, after ascending to godhood, would be closer to the kind of "star god should be like," aloof, indifferent, with the will of destiny overpowering the remnants of humanity.

But the person in front of me was leaning back in a chair hastily made from data streams, his chin resting on one hand, with his girlfriend standing beside him, speaking in a tone as unruly as a professor giving a difficult question to a graduate student.

Lai Gushi was not a graduate student, but Jiang Jiu was even more unpredictable than his mentor.

He is smiling.

Because I just thought it would be fun.

Lycus quickly adjusted the assessment model and concluded that this existing star god retained a far higher degree of humanity than any known star god.

The concept of destiny seems far too broad...

Will this really lead to a war of gods?

Lai Gushi paused for a moment, then personally denied his own thoughts.

The answer is obvious.

“The way you asked the question deviates significantly from the behavioral patterns recorded in the sky,” said Lai Gushi.

“People change,” Jiang Jiu said nonchalantly. “Besides, don’t I often act on a whim in the Sky Curtain? I decided to kill Bo Shizun on the spur of the moment, to feed the Iron Tomb to Ikes on the spur of the moment, to fight a second match with Polka on the spur of the moment, and to let the end of the universe lead to nothingness. After watching so many storylines, I should be used to it by now.”

Lai Gushi did not respond to that sentence.

He knew very well that Jiang Jiu in the past did act on a whim, but behind these sudden decisions there was an extremely clear logic.

What now?

Whether it's the Iron Curtain or him, their lives hang in the balance, determined by Jiang Jiu's single decision.

What kind of answer would "existence" prefer?

The calculation only takes a moment, but he hesitated.

It's not that I don't know what to say, it's that I don't know which words or phrases would satisfy this unruly being, the Star God.

But this period did not last long.

He was unsure of His patience.

"You do not need loyalty. The Star God does not need anyone's loyalty. Throughout the universe, all existence itself is already loyal to you. Adding another oath is just repeating a known fact."

Jiang Jiu raised his eyes to look at Lai Gushi.

"You don't need wisdom. In the face of 'existence,' there is nothing unsolvable. Any problem that is defined has already fallen into your fate the moment the definition occurs. Wisdom is the process of seeking a solution, and you are the answer yourself."

He looked up, meeting Jiang Jiu's gaze, his tone calm as if he were having a normal conversation.

There was absolutely no sense of urgency, no sense of life or death.

"I've thought about it for a long time, what kind of thing would you consider 'valuable,' and the conclusion is..." He paused for a very brief moment, "...possibility."

"Not those possibilities that have already come to fruition, but those possibilities that have not yet happened, are unpredictable, and cannot be defined in advance."

Lai Gushi placed the data core in his hand in front of Jiang Jiu to show his attitude.

That's Onpharos's underlying code.