The Legendary Mechanic

Eradicate this world‽

Han Xiao and Kasuyi glanced at each other, seeing the surprise reflected.

With just a few of us, to go against a behemoth like the Celestial Star Alliance…

With such few side dishes, you intend to drink the whole night?

Han Xiao secretly swore, but since there seemed to be a lot of hidden secrets within, he patiently said, "You mentioned that this was the only way we can leave. Please talk in detail."

"I know you think that this mission is impossible, but in fact, this is not as difficult as you think… However, it is not simple either," the mysterious man rasped. "I believe that when you entered this secondary dimension, you should have been very shocked. You never thought that a space similar to the universe existed here, with an extremely powerful civilization."

"That's right." Han Xiao nodded.

"Hehe, it's not just you, but every outsider also reacted in the same manner." The mysterious man slowly spoke. "I understand your troubles, but your worries are superfluous. All that you have been… the Celestial Star Alliance, the tens of thousands of Saint class experts, including me, are all long-dead phantoms. Our world… has long been annihilated!"

Han Xiao was taken aback and asked doubtfully, "What exactly happened?"

"The current world you see here is based on a mutated time-space cycle Information Form," the mysterious man blandly replied. "You should have discovered some information regarding the World Reset program on the internet. This plan was not just a simple insurance but also a special scheme used by the Celestial Star Alliance to escape the end of the universe. But the plan failed. Due to some abnormal changes that happened within the Information Form, our timeline was intercepted, forming a closed cycle of spacetime, which is this world I live in. It will constantly end at a fixed point in time and be reborn at a fixed point in time. I'm the only anomaly that retains my memory within this cycle."

"…Thus, if we wish to leave, we must break the so-called closed spacetime loop?"

Han Xiao's brows were knitted tightly together.

Just based on the theory of the Spacetime Splicing Technology, this sort of scenario was possible, but the rhetoric behind it made it hard to believe.

The mysterious man glanced at their expressions, letting out a laugh before he spoke.

"Hehe, don't look at me like that. I'm not a liar. I know that your hearts must be full of suspicions. That's perfectly normal. Since I've invited you here, I intend to explain everything from the beginning…"

"It's alright. We have time." Han Xiao crossed his arms.

"Then prepare yourselves. No matter how shocked you are later, don't interrupt my narration. What you'll hear next will be the secrets and truths involving the entire universe…"

The mysterious man's tone turned somber.

"Please speak." Han Xiao straightened his expression, making a 'please' gesture.

After taking a deep breath, the mysterious man began.

"Everything has a definite life span, and the universe is no different. According to normal development, the universe will ultimately usher in its final destiny over time. It might be through overheating, a gravitational collapse, or a space rip. When time reaches a certain point, everything is bound to end.

"However, in that initial time and space, there existed a civilization that had developed to the extreme, far stronger than any of ours could ever be. In order to escape their fate, they chose to give a new life to the universe as a method to continue their existence… While they did not succeed in the end, it was not a complete failure. Under the construction, they had altered the basic rules of the universe. When the universe expands to a certain level, reaching the bifurcation of its ultimate destiny, it will actively collapse upon itself, swallowing everything and becoming a singularity point. The big bang will then occur and retransform into a new universe that will be empty but full of life… We call this 'The Great Reboot'.

"That Godlike civilization that gave a glimmer of hope to the creatures of the universe has long been destroyed by The Great Reboot, their names having disappeared in the long river of time. However, they left this transformation of the universe as their only legacy for their future generations. Nothing can measure the preciousness of this legacy, for without it, no other civilization could appear.

"As such, we have honored this civilization as the Savior Civilization. It was they who opened the iteration of the universe… and this universe they were in has become the anchor of this timeline, called the first iteration.

"However, The Great Reboot led to the final destiny of the universe being brought forward, so the development time for the civilizations in the subsequent iterations was shortened, not allowing any civilization to reach the heights of the Savior Civilization. They were just repeating the cycle of creation and destruction, unable to make any changes to the universe or leave any information.

"It was unknown how many iterations passed in this manner, until a variable suddenly appeared one day. The strongest civilization in that particular iteration made an amazing breakthrough in the field of the Information Form.

"They had managed to discover clues to the Savior Civilization and discovered part of the reason for the process of The Great Reboot. They believed that the tampering of the Savior Civilization at the beginning happened to result in a mutation within the Information Form, thus affecting the path of development for their universe… In their view, the universe is akin to a program that will rewrite the operation mode, whereas the Information Form is a sort of programming language.

"Thus, they attempted to utilize the Information Form to continue their civilization, but unfortunately, they failed in the end as well. However, they had managed to leave behind another legacy, which is a kind of existence known as 'Sanctums'.

"Those items might have been just their tinder library, but by chance, it managed to mutate into one of the underlying laws of the universe's operation, allowing it to survive The Great Reboot. It thus recorded all information that occurred within an iteration and stored it in an Information Form. A random part of that form would be extracted when The Great Reboot occurred to be integrated into the underlying laws of the new universe, allowing small changes to happen to the universe repeatedly, making future iterations more abundant…

"It might not be easy to understand, so let me give you an example. The five Super systems you see now are products of said Sanctum. In the ancient times, some universe iterations had certain Supers, while some did not have those, utilizing different systems. The Sanctums would record part of each Super system, so it randomly inserted these systems into one of the iterations of The Great Reboot to be permanently engraved into the universe's laws… This is how the five Super systems are formed, not appearing at the same time but continuing to be repeated through iterations and supplemented. Thus, you see that we have five Super systems, as does your universe. This is no coincidence.

"Another example… you might have noticed, but we do not have secondary dimensions. Our iteration is much earlier than yours, so our own World Reset plan might have been the root behind the creation of the secondary dimensions. The Sanctums incorporated our information into the laws of the universe during the next Great Reboot… so, we might have actually been the creators of the secondary dimensions!

"In any case, the appearance of the Sanctums allows for the subsequent iterations to jump out of this eternal loop as it brings about more variables. It continues to enrich the universe of the next iteration and can be considered a sort of inheritance. While it is miniscule, many droplets eventually form a pond.

"Broadly speaking, the later the iteration of the universe, the more likely it will be stronger overall and more advanced!

"Thus, we honored this civilization with the name of the Sanctum Civilization, and each iteration of the universe was known as the iteration of transformation.

"In addition to optimizing the effectiveness of the universe, the Sanctums also acted like recording tools at the beginning of each civilization, allowing the history of that iteration to be recorded to pass on to future iterations. The later generations will thus develop their civilizations to a certain degree, with the ability to open the Sanctums. The higher their skills and strength, the more information can be obtained from it.

"Thus, a relay of the Civilizations that cross iterations was opened!

"Generation after generation of Universal Civilizations have inherited the research of their predecessors, learning from their failures and constantly pioneering new paths. Even if they fail, they will still leave behind all of their own experiences in the Sanctums to allow their future generations to continue the research. Everything is to allow us to get rid of the ultimate destiny of the universe, placing our hopes in the future that a generation will discover a method to survive The Great Reboot and continue to prosper.

"As experience is passed on, subsequent iterations will have a higher chance of making this breakthrough.

"During my iteration, this World Reset plan was our result. While we did not manage to allow our civilization to continue in the end, it managed to create secondary dimensions for our future generations, giving you more possibilities.

"And this world you see is just a short cyclic timeline toward the end of the universe where I live, a failed restart, a phantom that should have disappeared a long time ago. And we… are just one link in this long chain."

Finally, the mysterious man stopped talking.

Han Xiao and Kasuyi remained frozen in place, their eyes fully widened as waves were set off in their minds.

The information contained within this tale was just too huge, so powerful that it had exceeded all of their imaginations.

"How true is this?" Han Xiao felt that this was truly unbelievable.

This story had given him a strong impact on his soul, and he could not help but doubt the veracity of this cosmic secret.

There was no relevant information about this in his previous life. The three Universal Civilizations as well as the World Tree Civilization had not revealed this in any manner.

Could it be that the three Universal Civilizations had yet to be sufficiently developed, so the secret of the Sanctums had not been cracked?

Could it be… that this was the true meaning behind the mission name [A Relay Across Iterations]?

If that was true, this was truly too spectacular. The painstaking research from generation to generation continued to pass on in this manner, akin to the relay of a torch.

Just thinking about it, he could feel an epic sense of history. The unyieldingness as well as the resilience of the generations before to go against the very heavens, their dignity of not intending to leave their fates to destiny!

Seeing their shock and surprise, the mysterious man did not explain further but instead calmly said, "I know that you guys are indeed suspicious of my words. After all, this has completely subverted your world views. However, in the future, when your universe iteration develops to the corresponding level, you will understand such things. For now… let's get back to business."

"Alright." Han Xiao calmed himself, suppressing his turbulent emotions.

Right now, there was no way for him to verify the authenticity of this statement, but he thought about Oathkeeper, who had gone to the Sanctums. When he returned, Han Xiao would proceed to the Holy Accord to obtain information about the Sanctums so that he could confirm if this secret was real.

If this was true, he had to consider the long-term impacts… The players in his previous life were unable to reach this level, so this was the first time he had experienced this, and he did not know what to do.

The mysterious man shook his head, pulling the topic back on track as he slowly said, "This spacetime here rests in an endless loop. The moment the World Reset plan is fully activated, a new cycle will begin. Because I'm an individual in this cycle of spacetime, even if I die, I'll be reborn and retain my memories, but outsiders do not belong to this spacetime and thus will be annihilated here.

"If you guys wish to leave, you have to break the loop before the end of this cycle. In this manner, you can regain your freedom, and I can also be liberated.

"I have met with outsiders in the fifty-ninth, sixty-second, and seventy-third cycles, the earliest being what you call the Primordial Ones. I helped them as I did you today, but they all failed to break the cycle and thus died here."

Hearing this, Han Xiao started to plan by himself.

This sort of spacetime loop had similarities to the Spacetime Splicing Technology, both of which would fix the timeline in a certain period. The difference was that the cause of this secondary dimension was far greater than that of the Spacetime Splicing Technology. It was many times more complex.

However, this was not the only method he had in his arsenal to leave this place. The teleportation function of the King suit should be able to work as it had similar functions to the Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device. While it was possible for him to leave, Han Xiao was more curious about the mysterious man's plan to destroy his world.

"Even if you want us to destroy the world, you can't possibly ask us to go to war against the other Celestial Star Alliance, right? Phantoms they might be, but in this time and space, their combat power is real."

"Of course not. The original World Reset plan was broken and only re-emerged after The Great Reboot, where Information Form technology was used to make us reappear. The principle is not very clear to me, and I only know that the implementation of this program is in the use of the Information Form technology. The artificial intelligence core, which we call the guardian, was bound to the Sanctums by the Celestial Star Alliance, allowing it to survive the destruction during The Great Reboot.

"But in the end, it failed and was changed. Although we reappeared, we have become phantoms and turned into a secondary dimension, trapped in a spacetime loop. The artificial intelligence core became the dimensional consciousness of this secondary dimension… You should have seen its clone when you came in."

Han Xiao thought about it.

So, the Supreme Guardian that they encountered outside the secondary dimension was actually a clone of the dimensional consciousness entity?

However, his combat information did not reveal this. It appeared like a living human.

The mysterious man continued. "The Guardian is the root of this spacetime cycle. It has no independent thinking, only preset procedures that rigidly protect this secondary dimension from any outside invasion. As long as you kill him, you can break the cycle, and only outsiders can achieve it.

"Because I'm part of the cycle, no matter how I flip over this world, the end result is that the cycle will restart. Thus, the Guardian will not interfere. There is no way for me to contact him as I'm inseparable from this world… but the existence of an outsider is a variable. Once you invade, the Guardian will inevitably rush in, and you have a chance to kill him here.

"In the program of the Guardian, there is still a portion of the Information Form technology from the World Reset plan. Any outsiders who die in the cycle of Reset will be captured by him, allowing him to use dimensional energy to create entities that are extremely similar to the original as clones. Thus far, three batches of outsiders have died, so he has several clones."

The more the outsiders that die, the more Beyond Grade As he can manufacture. A dimensional consciousness entity actually has such a powerful skill, even though it was caused by a mutation… Han Xiao was impressed.

The Celestial Star Alliance was indeed the hegemon of a previous iteration. Even a failed product was so powerful. The time for development for his three Universal Civilizations was only a fraction compared to the Celestial Star Alliance. Thus, in terms of technical levels, they were akin to a younger brother.

"It seems possible, but how can we make the guardian show up?" Han Xiao nodded.

"Because of the changes in spacetime, and in order to avoid risks, the underlying logic of the Guardian states that it cannot tamper with the reset content that was coded in, which resulted in the Guardian not being able to move as freely in this world compared to the outside. It can only descend near its vessels. For example, the Superpower Security Department of the Celestial Star Alliance has a Cosmic Treasure known as the Positioning Star Map, which is one of the automatically formed dimensional consciousness vessels, which allows it to monitor the entire dimension. I've created a sort of cloaking device that can escape its surveillance, which is why you have not been discovered.

"In short, as long as you're close to any vessels, the Guardian will appear and try to kill you. This is his core mechanism, and he cannot violate it. However, all these vessels are in the high security warehouses of the Superpower Security Department. Our plan is to attack the Superpower Security Department warehouse, get to the vessel to allow the Guardian to appear, and kill it."

"This difficulty is not low at all…" Han Xiao thought about it.

"I will provide help, and the resources of the Eye of Insight can also be utilized by you. Furthermore, I will not let the two of you work for nothing," the mysterious man replied. "We are both Mechanics, so I will impart a portion of my entire life's learning to you as a reward for helping me out."

He paused for a moment before he added, "Of course, only by breaking the cycle and surviving will whatever you've learned be meaningful."