Master of Kaidan
Chapter 404: True and False (Part 2)

Chapter 404: Chapter 404: True and False (Part 2)

Upon hearing Feng Xue’s puzzlement, Old Li took a sip of tea and said relaxedly,

"Can’t you eat the True Object in the real world either?"

"But isn’t the principle different? I remember that you can’t eat it in the real world because the True Object is recognized by people, thus its ’Identity’ is solidified..."

Feng Xue recalled the information obtained from the label, while Old Li wore an expression of "seeing a smart person act dumb" and said,

"Think about what you’d turn into after traversing through the door, and you’ll understand."

"Ah..." Upon hearing this, Feng Xue slapped her forehead and suddenly exclaimed,

"So it’s like that! In the real world, Mystery and Kaidan can only transform into something resembling protein, not actual protein, and when True Object enters Infinite City, it becomes something resembling data rather than actual data?"

"To be precise, it’s a re-encoding issue. When True Object and real people enter Infinite City, their material gets rewritten as data. This process itself is akin to breaking them out of their solid state."

Old Li slowly explained a few sentences, then revealed a gleeful teacher-like expression and smiled,

"Now do you understand why True Object turns into Pseudo Artifact?"

"Um..."

Feng Xue furrowed her brows, summarizing the problems Old Li had discussed earlier. Although she still didn’t quite understand some aspects, she tried,

"Because there’s no corresponding decoder?"

"Oh, yes, that’s it." Old Li obviously hadn’t expected such a simple and understandable term, but he quickly caught on and nodded approvingly. He remembered this analogy in his little notebook and continued,

"Generally speaking, items from fantasy worlds are Pseudo Artifacts, while items from the baseline worlds are True Objects. But, because the Landfill of Infinite City mostly contains randomly grabbed rubbish information, the majority lacks decoders, hence most are Pseudo Artifacts. Nevertheless, it’s precisely by digesting the data in these Pseudo Artifacts that Infinite City continues to grow.

"As for worlds connected by the Babylon Tower, most have established sufficient connections with Infinite City, equivalent to having corresponding decoders. Consequently, True Objects brought back from these worlds largely maintain their True Object status.

"However, in the real world, some items still don’t have corresponding decoders. Therefore, when these items are translated, a lot of dirty data is generated, causing them to fall from True Object to Pseudo Artifact. And once they fall, even if brought back to their original world, they can’t revert to True Objects because those dirty data pieces are lost after the translation fails."

"I see!" Listening to Old Li’s explanation, Feng Xue suddenly remembered the Disaster Gate incident she saw back in the day at the Destruction Landfill.

At that time, she thought the omens were cut off by the rubbish chute due to principles like space annihilation, but now it seems it was probably due to the lack of a "decoder" from the opposing world, causing the parts of the omens that passed through the gate to turn directly into dirty data and disperse.

But as one mystery unraveled, another more substantial one floated to the surface—

"Why can Phantom Objects ignore this issue?"

According to what Old Li had said earlier, even in worlds not closely related to Infinite City, Phantom Objects could still be universally used. Even random data-grabbing scenarios, like dumpsites, could capture Phantom Objects. So why were Phantom Objects so special?

"This matter is beyond my knowledge," Old Li didn’t put on his usual know-it-all demeanor this time but simply spread his hands and said,

"I can tell you this with certainty because there is a definite opinion regarding True Objects and Pseudo Artifacts. You can even find related information in the library or the tavern. But concerning Phantom Objects, there are only a few conjectures, and their absence from the library and tavern of Infinite City indicates that these conjectures aren’t accurate.

"However, the generally accepted idea is that the underlying structure of Phantom Objects is fundamentally different from that of True Objects and Pseudo Artifacts. Although similar to Phantom Objects, it is still more essential. To use the computer analogy you mentioned earlier, the rules between different worlds are like different computer languages, infeasible to recognize without installation.

"The underlying structure of Phantom Objects is something more basic, similar to programs made directly from 0s and 1s; therefore, no matter what kind of computer they enter, as long as it operates on binary, it can run them."

"Oh~~" Feng Xue exhaled with an indistinct sigh, based on conflicting emotions, as he suddenly realized that his Golden Finger might be more special than he had thought.

Although Infinite City’s manufacturing tags can create Phantom Objects, the subtle difference between using Power to forge coins and using the Golden Finger to create items made him realize that the principles behind them might slightly differ.

"Could it be that I transported here with some world adjustment mode or Manager-level authority?" Feng Xue thought such thoughts but immediately dismissed them. It’s unheard of for a world adjustment mode to work on chance.

Discarding the unrealistic delusions from his mind, Feng Xue took a deep breath, pulling his thoughts back to the original question—

"What is at the top of the Babylon Tower?"

"How have we circled back here? Haven’t I told you that I’m not sure?" Old Li sighed, but in the end, under Feng Xue’s "stop fooling me" gaze, he threw up his hands in a helpless gesture and said,

"It’s said, just rumored, mind you! That Infinite City, this ’born Kaidan,’ waits for a master... Hey, hey, don’t look so cliché-disappointed!"

"What else can I do? You tell such a clichéd story in such a mysterious tone, why can’t I make this face?" Feng Xue rolled his eyes, leaving Old Li no choice but to drop the rhetoric and speak straightforwardly:

"You know, innate Kaidans just follow their settings. If the setting is Shy, it’s a Shy Ghost. If it’s heartless, it really has no heart. But the thing is, Infinite City isn’t a person, nor even a living being.

"Actually, up to now, no one understands how this thing turned into a Kaidan. But you must understand, being a Kaidan, it must be a living entity, so, Infinite City possesses a consciousness belonging to the city. It desires occupants, management, and normal functioning.

"But it can’t do that alone. According to old-timers’ guesses, the reason Infinite City pulls in beings from Otherworlds, establishes Manager systems, and sets up challenges, is to select a real Infinite City Manager."

"So this clichéd idea is just a conjecture, not the real intention of Infinite City?" Feng Xue immediately caught the gist, to which Old Li nodded and said,

"So, I say it’s rumored, because no one really knows what Infinite City thinks. But according to some old-timers on the sixtieth layer, from the fiftieth layer upward, worlds connected by the Babylon Tower start to show traces of Kaidans. The further up, the more affected. According to a tall guy named Surt, between the one hundred and first layer and one hundred and twentieth layer, there’s a communal door only accessible to the Layer Master. No one knows what’s inside, but everyone on the sixtieth layer says it might be the key to obtaining Infinite City’s authority..."