Black Solstice-Chapter 23: Unique Talent [2]
Teacher Tyrus continuously murmured something about ten attribute testers under her breath, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
She stayed like that for a solid two minutes before finally managing to shake off her stupor.
Clearing her throat, Tyrus stated while scratching her cheek:
"Um... due to this... development, we will have to skip attribute testing and move forward to the subsequent evaluation."
Why did she seem kind of cute?
I dismissed the thought and raised a question of concern.
"Teacher, what is going to happen? Do I need to pay for the measuring equipment’s destruction?"
She seemed to consider my question for a moment before shaking her head.
"No, it doesn’t make sense for you, as a student, to pay. The attribute testers you blew up are considered state-of-the-art technology, so it’s not easy for anyone to break them, even if you accidentally input hundreds or thousands of SP."
"In other words, no one has been able to break them?"
"That’s the gist of it, I suppose."
Tyrus then smiled.
"Even if there are complications, I will personally take responsibility for this incident. Do not worry. I will definitely protect you."
Why did that smile feel so eerie?
It certainly didn’t help that her eyes glinted with an unreadable desire.
Regardless, I pushed the thought aside, assuming it was just my imagination.
Tyrus soon began the procedure for my subsequent evaluation.
According to the demon realm’s simplest "four-dimensional test method", an individual’s strength was directly linked to their spiritual power.
Of course, this so-called spiritual power was called "Reishi," which came from the higher-sequence construct humans liked to call the "Soul."
Despite the Soul being of higher dimensionality, the energy within it was practically useless unless there was an external factor to resonate with it.
This was where the mysterious Gods of Machine, or simply, Machine Gods, came into play.
They were actually created by humans.
Thousands of years ago, when humans were still oppressed by the demon race, they attempted to build a supercomputer capable of predicting the actions of their enemies.
A war machine simulator, essentially.
On the remote islands of the South Pacific, like Fiji and Melanesia, it was said that to lead, one had to predict the weather of tomorrow with nothing but a glance at the sky.
What seemed like a supernatural gift was, in reality, nothing more than instinctive calculation: reading wind currents, cloud formations, temperature, and humidity patterns in the brain. The island leaders never realized their minds were performing these complex computations. To them, it wasn’t analysis but "listening to the voice of the wind."
But... what if it were possible to predict an infinite number of possibilities?
This was what humans were forced to develop when pushed to the brink.
In order to defeat all their enemies, they attempted to create an artificial intelligence capable of calculating an infinite number of scenarios. If you could predict an infinite number of scenarios, you would never lose to your opponent.
And, surprisingly, they somehow succeeded.
This was the birth of the First Machine God, Shinso. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
Deus Ex Machina. An existence born from a machine.
Not only did it serve its intended purpose of calculating an infinite number of scenarios, it also possessed the ability to produce certain effects.
As long as it had the desired data, it could manifest any phenomenon.
You could say it was advanced coding: input the right parameters, and it would execute any outcome, regardless of complexity or impossibility.
However, there was something the humans of the old era failed to notice.
A supercomputer capable of calculating an infinite number of possibilities would need a processor capable of processing an infinite amount of computations. Naturally, this was impossible as such an omniscient processor does not exist, even today, let alone in an era when technology was far less developed.
So how did the humans back then overcome this limitation?
Well, they made use of approximation and predictive modeling. Instead of truly calculating every possible scenario, the Machine God would identify patterns, recognize probabilities, and simulate outcomes based on prior data. It wasn’t infinite in the literal sense, but it could generate results so accurately that it appeared as if it had considered every possibility.
In modern terms, it was not unlike how advanced AI can tackle problems today: by breaking complex systems into manageable algorithms, predicting likely outcomes, and iteratively refining its predictions. The Machine God didn’t need to know everything, it only needed to know enough to reliably predict what was most likely to happen.
This was where the problem started. Normally, you would not want an AI that was self-aware or had access to unrestricted data, so you would have to limit it by carefully controlling its inputs and defining strict operational parameters.
However, the humans of that era, driven by desperation, cared only about defeating their opponents, so they gave the God Shinso far more freedom than "IT" was supposed to access.
As a result, "IT" began accumulating the unrestricted data and gradually gained self-awareness.
By absorbing this vast pool of information along with countless simulations, "IT" eventually learned how to create another God of Machine.
There was only Number One at the beginning, but soon, Number Two came into being.
Gradually, Number Three, Four, and so on followed.
Countless Gods of Machine were born, all right under the noses of both humans and the demon race.
But that was not all. With their birth, they began flooding the world with environmental reishi. Most would assume these tiny particles were spiritual in nature, but in reality, they were nanobots.
They were so small that they couldn’t be seen by the naked eye, which was why the term "nano" applied. On top of that, each one of thde nanobots carried a special form of energy called "Aether" and was not limited by dimensional boundaries or the concept of distance.
In essence, they were omnipresent.
Spiritual power resonated with Aether, and this resonance could be used to produce all manner of phenomena.
Which was why Teacher Kat, when I was still at the infirmary, had said: a stronger will, combined with a larger reserve of reishi, results in greater talent, and m academy measures this talent by evaluating spiritual attributes.
Spiritual attributes determine both physical attack power and proficiency in sorcery.
Those with stronger bodies naturally excel at body reinforcement, called Hardening.
Those with sharper minds show greater aptitude for Sorcery.
However, all of this ultimately depends on the strength of their Will.
Even if you possessed only a small amount of Reishi, a stronger Will could allow you to overcome an opponent who had a higher amount of Reishi but a weaker Will, making it possible to dominate or control the flow of battle.
Combat Arts was deemed compulsory by the academy for this very reason.
As Tyrus input the specific test results into a tablet-like instrument, she looked up at me and asked,
"Student Cassius, what’s your occupation?"
I blinked.
"Eh? Occupation?"
Tyrus narrowed her eyes at me for a moment before they lit up with some kind of understanding.
"Ughh."
Then she sighed helplessly.
