Weapons of Mass Destruction
Chapter 610: Many questions

“Have we been sent back in time?” Maya asks as we take a moment to regroup in the room that is now closed, locked, and reinforced with a few barriers for good measure.

“The timer hasn’t been reset, and it continues to tick down; whatever happened, it only seems to have reset the floor and our stats,” as he likes to do, Min-Jae is touching his lips while thinking. And all the while, he’s staring into the empty space in front of him.

I can almost hear his brain trying to process it all.

Meanwhile, I sit in my manabloc chair, which I turn into a rocking chair, and start to rock back and forth while holding Biscuit on my lap.

Maya looks around at us, “So outside of the tutorial, this original planet, Academy, whatever was turning back in time?”

“We don’t know if it’ll happen again; maybe this was the only reset, and the floor will continue normally now,” Min-Jae answers.

“Was it the Ruler Candidate that made it happen? The Absolute? A passing Ruler?” Aaron asks.

“I don’t think it’s actually possible to travel back in time, Aaron,” Tess says calmly, “I don’t think even the Rulers are capable of that. What do you think, Nat?”

“Yup, I agree.”

Dennis chuckles for a moment, confusion nearly audible in that laugh, “So maybe fake Ruler Candidate floor and fake time travel? But even our stats have gone back to what they were when we entered the floor, so how is that possible?”

I scratch Biscuit behind the ears and turn to the bolder of the twins. “Why wouldn’t it be possible? Back during the tournament, we were reset to our original state whenever we died. Granted, that original, healthy state only dated back to just before the event, but it still proves it can be done. And yes, our skill levels remained unchanged during the tournament, but that only shows it should be possible to do the modifications to allow for something similar.”

“Okay,” Dennis turns to me, “So let us say this happens again and our time ‘resets’ or whatever. Our stats revert back to their state at the start of the floor, but our knowledge will remain, and it will be easier to regain those skill levels. However, if we leveled up by killing monsters, we would need to kill them again.”

“Possibly.”

“Don’t you think that’s bullshit then?”

“Why?”

“I leveled up my skills during the time here, and now I need to do it again?”

I snort, “Don’t be dumb. We’ll figure out how it happened. Plus, you will regain them faster, but Dennis, my friend, my buddy, my man, aren’t you hoping it’ll happen again? Every one of you got one million shards after the last floor. So why not experiment? If the reset repeats, you can, with every reset, buy a different set of passives and experiment with them. Maybe you can combine different active skills if you still have an active skill combination token, as some of the others. Maybe you can buy a skill upgrade token, upgrade a skill, train the upgraded part, and then when it resets, you’ll learn how to do it even without the upgrade if you’re truly capable.”

I feel my excitement grow as the thought of how much this could be abused if there are more resets. Who cares about having to level up skills again and similar things.

Looking at Dennis, I continue, “You could spend all the shards and then get them back again during the reset and spend them again to maximize your gains. Or, given that you now know what’s going to happen over the next few days, do not tell me you cannot come up with a way to use it to your advantage, even if it’s just for a bit of fun?”

That shuts the blonde boy up for a moment, and I can see him starting to turn things over in his head. And I see everyone else following suit the same.

But then Tess ruins it, “I would advise against being too rash, just in case it doesn’t happen again. Even if it repeats a few times, we cannot be sure it’s not going to just stop out of nowhere. So I would very, very strongly recommend always choosing an option that can be fixed later or that you won’t regret in the future.”

“We know the Champion’s going to die on the ninth day. Should we save him?” Min-Jae asks out of nowhere.

“That’s not that dumb, right? If we help him, it could earn us some really nice rewards.” Maya jumps in, seeming excited at the thought.

Tess ruins the mood again. “Do we really want to mess with someone who can kill a being incomparably stronger than us, especially when they did so without destroying half the continent in the process?”

Once again, everyone falls into a deep state of contemplation.

Then Sophie comes to a conclusion of her own. “Question: forget for now that we do not know what causes the reset, but if we reset, did the Ruler Candidate reset as well, or is it just us, with our status as attendees reset? Another question: is this a setting of the tutorial, and the reset depends on the floor quest of the 8th floor and was added because of the tutorial, or is it part of the original Academy, where someone seemingly reset time?”

At this point, some of the group seem pained by thinking. There are just too many options, with no information, only speculation. The main point of speculation being the reset. I like how quickly everyone jumps to the idea that it’ll continue to repeat. Maybe they’re just hoping it’ll happen again. Something like that just seems too good not to hope for. But at the same time, it could be dangerous.

Another question that I’ve found picking at my brain is the thing Sophie mentioned. If we are really resetting, and it might happen again, is the Candidate resetting as well? If so, is it just the Candidate and no one else? If so, what do we need to protect them from, if it is only the Candidate? If that’s the case, is this a setting of the floor? If not, is it something an Absolute or Ruler managed to do outside the tutorial? How would something like this even be possible?

I filter out the others and think. Let us say it is not unlike how the tutorial can store and restore our bodies when we die during the tournament, except that here, the condition for triggering the reset is something other than death. If that were the case, I would say it’d have to be the work of a Ruler, after all, I don’t think an Absolute would be capable of imitating or using the structure of something implemented by the system.

Especially when it involves something on the scale of an entire planet and… I stop my thoughts.

Is it the entire planet? I don't know how useful that information would be, but if it is the entire planet, I would have to suspect it's a mechanism implemented by the tutorial. If it were a smaller area, then that would make it possible that a Ruler did it in the first place using the original Academy, and that the system just copied their work to use it for this floor.

Someone else arrives at a similar conclusion, “How about this time we act as carefully as before and just intensify our attempts at locating the Candidate. I would also like some of us to examine the boundaries of the floor.” Tess says.

“I’ll do it,” I say. “I can quit my job. Worst case, they fire me before I do. And I’m taking Biscuit with me.”

“What about your nukes?” Maya asks.

“I don’t know. Just let them steal them again or something.”

“Sometimes the words that come from your mouth make me want to punch you, Nat.”

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“Sounds reasonable, why don’t you try it.”

“Nah, you’d just kick my ass. I ain’t doing that shit.”

“Understandable.”

“Yes,” she nods.

I stay a bit longer to listen to the others and their plans, and then head out to leave after sharing some of my ideas.

Taking a few things with me, I combine my skills the same way I did before, in case the “reset” does not happen again, regaining [Ur Line]. Then I head towards what I expect to be the professors’ headquarters, where, after explaining what I want, I meet with the Vice Director of the Academy.

Entering the huge round office at the top of the tower with floor to ceiling windows covering half the room and offering an incredible view, I stop and wait.

The Vice Director turns out to be someone I know, a selari woman dressed in a pointy hat, robe, with a cute owl on her shoulder.

Instead of greeting me, or saying anything else for that matter, she asks, “Can I pet your bond?”

Hoo, hoo!

The tiny owl shouts next to her and pecks the woman on her shoulder with its tiny, cute beak.

“No,” I reply.

“I see. Assistant Professor Gwyn, may I ask why you find yourself wanting to leave the Academy mere hours after stepping onto its grounds?”

“Professor Elian is a dick, I do not think I’ll be able to work with him.”

“Understandable. Are you aware of the penalty for breaking the contract you’ve signed with the Academy?”

“Not really.”

“If I recall correctly, the fine measures out to one year’s salary, coming out to a total of three ivory drachen and eighty three obsidian drachen in total.”

“That sounds like a lot.”

“It does, does it not? Have you changed your mind?”

“When do I have to pay it?”

“What an unusual question. As with all legal documents, you are required to pay your fine within thirty days of breach, after which it will increase by one hundred percent for every week until another month passes, and the authorities will be notified.”

“Sounds good. I’m still quitting.”

“Understood. Before you leave, though, I have to tell you that I am willing to pay fifty percent of your fine out of my pocket if you would be amenable to letting me hold and pet your bond for five minutes.”

“No.”

“Very well, it was nice meeting you, Mister Nathaniel Gwyn.”

"Goodbye."

For the next seven days, I take my time traveling around the region. I go on foot, fly when possible, and occasionally make use of the trains or airships that serve as public transportation here.

Of course, I don’t really have any of the local currency, so I always barter some item, or a technique I’ve inscribed, or some stuff I buy from the system shop.

Twice, I find myself having to refuse to sell Biscuit.

Biscuit, when he wakes up each day, refuses to fly around or move at all; instead, he makes me carry him and keeps asking for food.

This floor, at least as far as I can tell, suffers from a severe lack of high quality deer jerky, so I offer him some other meat I manage to buy or steal to sate his hunger. It is a cheap price to pay to keep him from devouring this world.

(Food?)

“No, that huge lizard pulling on the carriage is not food.”

(Food!)

“Now that just doesn’t make any sense. What do you mean by: why is it food shaped then? Where did you learn that? Have you been spending too much time with the twins, have they managed to ruin you?”

(Friend!)

“Yes, I know you’ve been with Tess. Good job, by the way. She told me about the promises she made to you, and I’ll make sure to fulfill them all as soon as possible.”

(Asshole.)

“Yes, I know you would have done it anyway, but are you going to refuse?”

The corgi seems to be seriously thinking about something, but the answer comes just as expected.

(Food!)

“I thought so. I like that approach. By the way, don’t think I don’t see you watching that huge lizard a bit too intently. I am serious, please do not eat it.”

To avoid answering, he starts blinking and yawns, and pretends to slowly fall into yet another food coma. As with many of the things I’ve encountered on this floor, even this is just a fake food coma.

And we continue to travel for another seven days.

During that time, we pass the eleventh day, when the reset happened before, and it does not occur again.

In that time, I move slowly to make sure to enjoy my travels. I visit several different places, spend a few days training, or simply walking through smaller villages. I spend several days on an airship and take some time to travel by a low-class train powered by something I still do not understand.

The area surrounding the Academy is pleasant, and the weather is so consistently good that I begin to wonder if some of the webs I’ve seen around the region aren’t simply there to maintain it. It should be possible to set up weather controlling arrays like that, create a few logic cores to set the parameters, like creating rain when they detect a need for rain, or blocking sunlight when things need to cool off, or remove the clouds for a nice sunny day.

I believe someone smart enough, given enough time, would even be able to create storms, violent winds, and all sorts of destructive weather if they really wanted to.

In the end, I also find out that the edges of the region form a near perfect circle around the border, which includes the Academy and its surroundings.

None of the natives seem to realize it, and none of the natives, as far as I can see, enter or leave the region surrounding the Academy.

That region is a few dozen miles wide. And the Academy sits right in the center, with a small city placed nearby and six villages spaced throughout the province.

But that’s all.

There’s already a barrier in place when I reach the border. It existed long before the selari Champion died again and the two incoming Champions supposedly created the barrier around the region.

A few times, I ask the natives about the places beyond this region, they talk about it and seem to have a lot of knowledge about the surrounding areas. But no matter who they are, they have no idea about the field I’ve perceived around the place.

I even offer five low arcane items I bought from the system shop to a smaller group of natives in an attempt to get them to leave. They agree, but when it comes to leaving, they just stand a few steps before the barrier starts and then return with these blank expressions and not remembering anything. That likely confirms my suspicion, and that the region affected by the "resets" is just the Academy and surroundings, and not the entire world.

That also more or less confirms that it has to be the work of the Ruler who made use of some system mechanism to create it and not "just" the setting of the floor.

It also makes me 90% sure the reset will happen again, even if it’s a bit late this time.

With that comes a question, where did the selari Champion come from? If my theory is correct, he couldn't have come from outside, meaning he was in the region since the start of the "loop" and just didn’t come to the Academy until the 9th day.

I think of exploring the barrier myself, but this barrier or “cutout” of the world is beyond anything I understand. It’s clearly been set up by someone much more powerful than me.

Honestly, I think I’ll just die if I try to pass through. No, I am almost sure of it. It’s just that scary.

Over the next few days, I set up a camp near it, observing it and testing stuff. They turn out to be surprisingly nice and calm days, and I enjoy spending them with Biscuit very much.

While observing it one day, I blink, and find myself back in the room surrounded by the other members of group 4.

I glance outside, and the park I remembered earlier looks exactly the same. This time, I even see Professor Elian in the distance, speaking with another professor.

The second reset has finally happened.