204: Chapter 24 The Spear of Paradox

On the seventy-third day after Slaanesh's afterimage vanished into the depths of Extragalactic Systems, on the ninety-seventh floor beneath the Tomb of Time Research Station, an ultimate experiment concerning the survival of the Human Federation was silently underway.

In the center of the testing field, a fist-sized object floated—if the word "object" could still be used to describe it. It possessed no physical properties, no mass, no energy radiation, and did not even occupy space. Yet it existed, in a way that transcended human cognition, stubbornly persisting there.

It was a Fragment of Existence forcibly intercepted by a Causality Weapon during those nine seconds when the cold observer clashed with the Law Mirror.

"adjudicator, seven hundred and twenty-third analysis attempt." The Chief Technologist's voice was as raspy as sandpaper rubbing against rock; for the past two months, he had hardly left this underground laboratory.

"Initializing..." The adjudicator's voice carried a rare trace of something akin to caution. "Warning: This analysis will consume sixty percent of the energy from thirty-seven star god fragments energy pools. Failure probability: 71%. Proceed?"

"Proceed."

Han Zhe's voice came through the communication channel, as calm as if he were discussing tomorrow's breakfast. His holographic image appeared in a corner of the testing field at some point, his eyes fixed on the fragment that could not be directly observed by any instrument and could only be perceived indirectly through its warping effect on the surrounding space.

Analysis beginning.

The lights in the testing field—if those special light sources driven by zero-point energy that produced no thermal radiation could still be called lights—all went out in the same instant. It wasn't a malfunction; energy was being forcibly siphoned away to support that extraordinary analysis process.

In the darkness, that Fragment of Existence began to glow.

It wasn't conventional light. It was something deeper, the laws expressing themselves. That radiance had no color, for it existed before color; it had no wavelength, for it defined the very concept of wavelength itself. Anyone who witnessed this light would be unable to describe what they saw afterward, but they all knew they had seen something from before the universe was born.

The analysis lasted for eleven seconds.

For the adjudicator, that was equivalent to hundreds of years of human calculation.

When the lights came back on, the adjudicator's voice echoed through the hall: "Analysis complete. Nature of the cold observer, preliminary conclusion."

"the cold observer is not an existence, nor is it a manifestation of laws. It is an execution module of the universe's bottom-level logic, an automatic error-correction program set at the dawn of creation. Its function: to monitor all abnormal developments that might threaten the steady state of the universe and to initiate a system reset when necessary."

"The Great Collapse of humanity during the golden age was the result of its last reset. The excessive development of space-time technology by humans at that time triggered its anomaly threshold. It did not attack humanity; it simply executed its preset program, restoring the physical constants of that sector of space-time to their initial settings. Human civilization, as an existence outside those settings, was reset to a primitive state."

"It has no hostility, no consciousness, and not even a sense of presence. It only executes. However, it has one fatal weakness: it cannot handle being observed itself."

"As an execution module, its design premise is invisibility. It observes everything and corrects everything, but it is never observed itself. When our Law Mirror Protocol forced it to face another version of itself, its logic core produced an abnormal state not present in its presets: self-awareness. Those nine seconds of confusion were precisely it attempting to process this state that shouldn't exist."

"Based on this, we can develop an ultimate weapon against it: the Observer Paradox Protocol."

The adjudicator's holographic projection unfolded a mathematical model so complex it was dizzying. That model was composed of a Necron Phase Matrix, Eldar Fate-weaving, and golden age Causality Coding, with its core being a constantly self-referencing logic loop.

"Simply put, we will create a law-based closed loop. Within this loop, the cold observer will become the object being observed. According to its bottom-level logic, being observed implies the existence of an anomaly, requiring the initiation of self-correction. But the object it corrects can only be an anomaly, not itself."

"When it discovers that it itself is that anomaly, its logic core will fall into an infinite loop. It must correct the anomaly, but the anomaly is itself. Correcting itself means denying its own existence, while denying its existence violates the essence of its execution program."

"This loop will cause its logic core to collapse—at least, in theory."

"The collapse duration depends on its core strength; at its shortest, it may only last a few microseconds. But within those few microseconds, its execution capability will drop to zero. We can take this opportunity to do two things:"

"First, permanently seal the observation channel connecting it to the Milky Way, ensuring it cannot see us for at least the next ten thousand years."

"Second, if the opportunity allows, plant a backdoor instruction in its logic core to define the Human Federation as a normal existence that conforms to initial settings, permanently excluding us from the anomaly threshold."

The entire hall fell into a deathly silence.

The Chief Technologist was the first to speak. "Is this letting the universe's programmer be trapped to death by its own code? An extremely precise metaphor."

Han Zhe's gaze remained calm, but deep within his eyes, something seemed to be burning.

"How many resources are required?"

"Everything."

The adjudicator's answer came without any hesitation. "All star god fragments, all Causality Weapons, all Eldar Fate-weaving units, all zero-point energy reserves, and the Law Furnace Cores of all twelve source of order-class battleships."

This was not an attack. It was a sacrifice. Melting down all of the Human Federation's cutting-edge technology to forge a Spear of Paradox that could pierce the universe's bottom-level logic.

"Success probability: 42%."

"Consequences of failure: the cold observer will judge us as a maximum-level anomaly and immediately initiate a galaxy-wide system reset. At that time, from the Milky Way to Extragalactic Systems, all existence will be restored to factory settings, returning to basic particles."

Han Zhe was silent for a full three seconds.

Those three seconds felt like three eons to everyone in the Command Center.

Then he spoke: "Initiate Project Spear of Paradox."

"Goal one: Seal the cold observer's observation channel to ensure the Human Federation's safety for the next ten thousand years."

"Goal two: Plant the backdoor instruction if conditions allow."

"Goal three: After completing the first two goals, use all remaining power that hasn't been sacrificed to strike Nurgle."

"When Nurgle fought the cold observer, he once repelled it. This indicates that within Nurgle's essence, there is some characteristic that can pollute the laws. If we can launch a fatal blow against Nurgle during the window when the cold observer is temporarily paralyzed, we will eliminate two major threats at once."

Alpha-1 took a deep breath. "This is a gamble with everything on the line."

Han Zhe turned to face everyone.

"The Human Federation didn't get to where it is today by playing it safe. We got here by saying 'possible' in the face of every 'impossible'."