820 Research


    Aron sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, appearing to be in a state of silent meditation. He wasn’t alone, as several clones of various individuals surrounded him, each adopting the same posture and engaging in the same activity as he was.


    To an ordinary observer, it might seem as though they were all meditating. However, someone with exceptional sensitivity to mana would have perceived the truth: mana waves radiated from each figure, varying in frequency and intensity. Aron himself emitted the most intense waves, as if releasing vast amounts of mana—equivalent to buckets—every second.


    Each individual appeared to be connected to others emitting simr mana wave frequencies, creating a harmonious link. They showed no interaction with waves of different frequencies, regardless of how much more intense those waves might have been inparison to their own.


    This continued uninterrupted for about a minute. However, as soon as the minute passed, all of the meditating figures were teleported, reappearing far apart from one another, with at least a hundred meters of distance separating each individual. Despite this sudden separation, the mana wave connections remained intact, seemingly unaffected by the increased distance.


    After another minute, the distance separating the individuals was increased again, this time to a kilometer—a tenfold increase. Yet, the situation remained unchanged. The incremental distance increases continued, each time expanding further, until the farthest distance between individuals reached approximately 100 astronomical units. At that point, the expansion ceased, as it appeared this was the maximum range for maintaining the mana wave frequency connections. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    This remarkable result was made possible by a few individuals who acted as rys, facilitating the transmission of the signals and ensuring thework of connections remained intact across such vast distances.


    Aron was positioned at the center of all the individuals, radiating a brilliant glow in the mana spectrum. He was releasing the highest amount of mana among them, and unlike the others, his mana frequencies shifted periodically. Each change in frequency indicated a connection with a different group of individuals who operated within that specific frequency range.


    The speed of connection varied based on the average intensity of mana being released by those within the frequency. The moment Aron connected to a particr group, their mana intensity immediately brightened, almost as if amplified by his presence. However, as soon as Aron moved on to the next frequency, the group''s intensity returned to its original level. This cycle repeated continuously as Aron shifted through frequencies, maintaining his central role in thework.


    Aron didn’t stop there. He continued experimenting with various methods, attempting to achieve as many different results as possible. Some of his efforts ended in failure, while others produced oues that didn’t align with his expectations.


    “We need to simplify it,” Aron said, opening his eyes. Instantly, all the clones meditating alongside him vanished, and the simtion’s scope was reduced back to city size to conserve unnecessary resource usage.


    {Do we really need to address that right now?} Nova asked as she materialized beside him. She had been managing the simtion’s expansion and meticulously documenting the changes urring in all the clones participating in the research.


    “No, that was more of a mental note for when we hit the level of viability,” Aron replied, reviewing his memories of the experiment to analyze what he had learned and cross-reference it with the knowledge he had assimted.


    “With the increase in distance,tency decreases; however, the extent of the dy depends on the ambient mana between the two connections. The greater the ambient mana, the farther the distance before significanttency bes an issue. If one individual within thework emits more mana than the others, their contribution to thework increases proportionally. This dynamic allows even those with weaker intensities to maintain a usable connection. We could potentially leverage this to lower the entry threshold...” Aron muttered as he pieced his thoughts together, his voice steady and focused.


    Throughout his rambling, Nova remained silent, diligently noting down every word. Her role was to ensure his thoughts were recorded, even if the likelihood of him needing to revisit them was slim.


    Once Aron finished, he turned to her and asked, “Can I see the results from the others?”


    Without missing a beat, Nova materialized a hologram in front of him. It disyed all the relevant information from the earlier research, tailored in a way to allow Aron to review it as efficiently as possible.


    “Start a simtion and try to find a way to have as many frequencies as possible detected by a central point, using all of them as means to ess a rudimentary version of the universal simtion,” Aron ordered Nova. He had gone through only a small portion of the data, but it quickly became apparent that the weaker the individual, the fewer frequencies they could use to ess the system. This highlighted the need for a node that could ept all these different frequencies within a certain range, interpreting them as valid attempts to ess the universal simtion and responding ordingly, to reduce the burden on the users.


    {Already on it,} Nova responded promptly as she created a new instance of herself specifically dedicated to addressing this task.


    Acknowledging her response, Aron turned his attention back to the data, resuming from where he had left off.


    He continued issuing different orders at various intervals whenever he encountered something he needed to address within the data in front of him. Nova would either assign an instance of herself to handle the task or delegate it to Lab City for further development. This allowed Aron to function as the head researcher, as most of the time he provided the direction and outlined the expected oues for specific tasks, all while keeping the overarching goal of the entire project in mind.


    Throughout this period, Nova could sense that Aron was genuinely enjoying himself, especiallypared to everything he had done in the past few years. After spending time with his wife, family, and friends, this research had be one of the more fulfilling experiences for him. Aron particrly relished the challenges of this work, as it introduced an element of unpredictability. Most things in his life had be predictable due to the vast amount of information at his disposal, leaving little room for surprise. When something did surprise him, it was often something dangerous to him or the empire, and that kind of surprise wasn''t enjoyable. However, during this period of research, Aron was able to experience the thrill of the unknown without having to expend his mental bandwidth on concerns of danger.


    Although Aron could use SP to provide him with answers during his research, he had be quite stingy about spending them. There were two main reasons for this. First, he wanted to preserve as many SPs as possible for when they were truly needed. Second, he enjoyed the process of research without the immediate need for answers. Thanks to the universal simtion, he had ample time to conduct his research the traditional way, while also ensuring that this behavior didn’t turn into a harmful one.