Chapter 356: Conjecture

Afterward, their investigation on the front lines seemed to brush against an invisible boundary.

Though they had confirmed the “alien threat” was inextricably linked to the entity behind the curtain, and that the enemy races had been deliberately designed, the deeper purpose and the core logic of the “system” remained shrouded in mist.

Having ascertained that no breakthrough progress was impossible in the short term, Jie Ming and Rex decided to temporarily withdraw from this smoke-filled war zone.

With the investigation paused and nothing immediate to do, Jie Ming accepted Rex’s invitation to visit the planet Rex considered his “birthplace” in this world—a prosperous planet renowned for precision manufacturing and musical arts.

When the shuttle docked at the starport, two figures were already waiting at the exit.

Seeing them, a rare smile appeared on Rex’s face.

“I never thought you’d actually come back!” one of them laughed. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”

“Let me,” Rex said to Jie Ming. “These two are my childhood friends from here…

“Of course, they’re also wizards.”

The last sentence did not come from Rex’s mouth. It rang directly in Jie Ming’s earpiece.

To facilitate private communication, Rex had given Jie Ming an earpiece earlier. Using his Weaver, he could convert thoughts into sound and transmit them straight to Jie Ming without speaking aloud—perfect for situations where open conversation was inconvenient, like now.

Jie Ming instinctively sized the two up.

One wore flamboyant, avant-garde leather attire in riotous colors, his hair dyed a blinding bright blue. A wild, unrestrained grin lit his face, and he radiated the overwhelming presence of a stage superstar.

Rex paused dramatically before introducing him, tone subtly strange: “This is Calvin, lead singer of ‘Raging Sonic,’ a rock superstar famous across the entire star sector.”

Through the earpiece came Rex’s real commentary: “‘Silencer’ Calvin, once a necromancy prodigy in the academy. He could go an entire day without speaking a word, only communicating with his skeleton soldiers. As you can see… he’s changed a bit.”

Calvin shook his head with a laugh and nodded at Jie Ming, then corrected Rex: “Wrong! I’m not just famous in this sector anymore. Next stop, the neighboring sectors!”

The other man appeared far more reserved. He wore a well-fitted engineer’s jacket, but his eyes were sharp as a hawk’s, and his knuckles were thick and calloused from years of precision work.

“Barton’s a top-tier mecha modification master. Any custom mecha tuned by his hand gains at least a fifteen percent performance boost. If you ever want a custom job, I can put in a word for you.”

Barton glanced at Jie Ming. “You flatter me. I still have much to learn.”

“‘Flesh Artisan’ Barton,” Rex’s voice whispered in the true name through the earpiece. “He specialized in forbidden bio-beast modification. Even our mentors were afraid to enter his laboratory.”

After finishing the real introductions privately, Rex smiled flawlessly and presented Jie Ming to the pair: “This is Jie Ming, an… exceptionally outstanding scholar.”

At those words, both Calvin and Barton looked at Jie Ming with visible disbelief.

Having grown up with Rex in the same orphanage, they knew better than anyone how arrogantly proud their friend was.

Even without further titles, the mere fact that Rex praised someone as “exceptionally outstanding” was enough to make them take Jie Ming seriously.

“Pleasure to meet you.”

“First time meeting. I look forward to your guidance.”

“No, no, Mr. Rex overpraises me…”

They exchanged brief, polite greetings.

Calvin enthusiastically slung an arm around Rex’s shoulders. “You disappeared to other planets for years without a word! This time you’re back, we’re definitely celebrating properly!”

Barton nodded at Jie Ming, eyes lingering on him for a moment before turning to Rex. “How long are you staying?”

“I don’t plan to leave again anytime soon,” Rex said with a smile.

“That’s great! Let’s go! Tonight’s on me!”

To give Rex a proper welcome-home party and to greet Jie Ming, Calvin grandly invited everyone to the hottest interstellar-themed bar in the city.

Inside, lights strobed and bass thundered.

The moment Calvin leapt onto the stage and seized the microphone, the entire venue exploded.

No trace remained of the once-silent necromancer who spoke only to bones. Under the spotlight he screamed, leapt, and commanded the emotions of thousands—a born superstar.

He shone as though the stage had been waiting for him all along.

Rex and Jie Ming sat in a private booth, watching the figure completely lost in the performance.

Amid the deafening music, Rex leaned close to Jie Ming and spoke in a low voice tinged with something almost bewildered:

“Sometimes… watching them, I feel like maybe this world isn’t so bad after all.”

Jie Ming raised an eyebrow.

Rex’s gaze stayed fixed on the stage. “You know, Calvin, Barton, and I were pretty close back in the academy. We’d occasionally talk about real things.”

“They actually… never liked the wizard’s life. Calvin thought dealing with corpses and souls was too cold and oppressive. Deep down he wanted to move living people with sound and passion. Barton hated bloody flesh and twisted limbs. His dream was to create ‘perfect machinery’ without restraint…”

Rex didn’t finish, but Jie Ming understood.

The gap between dream and reality had always been vast.

To reach third-rank wizard, they’d had no choice.

People like Rex who genuinely loved alchemy and machinery were rare. Most wizards, to keep advancing, could only double down on whatever talent they had.

Rex’s voice dropped even lower. “Look at them now. One’s a superstar adored by millions, the other a revered master mecha artisan free to pour his soul into his craft…”

“They might be living more authentically—more comfortably—than they ever did in the wizard world.”

Jie Ming caught the implication. “You’re thinking of giving up the investigation?”

“There’s no helping it. We’re running out of time.”

Rex shook his head expressionlessly. “Less than a year remains before the deadline Headquarters set. Honestly, I don’t think we can uncover the truth in that time.”

“So that’s why you said you’re not leaving again anytime soon…” Jie Ming nodded in understanding.

“You plan to wait for the Rank-8 wizards to act, then withdraw directly?”

Rex nodded silently.

Jie Ming had to admit it was the more rational choice.

Since they had already awakened, when the Rank-8s made their move they could gather every wizard they recognized and find a way to send a signal.

With Rank-8 might, even in a cosmos-spanning plane this vast, they could instantly rescue anyone transmitting.

That alone would earn them massive merit.

Moreover, as awakened individuals they had spent years frantically absorbing all kinds of knowledge here.

Even if they did nothing more, they would still come out far ahead.

“There isn’t much time left. Seeing them like this… I think I can enjoy myself a little too. A peaceful plane like this is rare… Maybe I can even fulfill my own dreams here.” Rex suddenly smiled.

Jie Ming listened quietly.

But the moment he heard Rex’s last sentence, an icy thought slithered into his mind like a venomous snake, sending a chill down his spine.

Something was wrong!

Logically, everyone’s memories had been overwritten; their upbringing and experiences completely rewritten.

A person’s desires and hobbies should be fundamentally reshaped by the environment and education they received while growing up!

There was no reason that, under false memories, their resulting “ideal lives” would so perfectly match the deepest desires buried beneath those erased true selves!

He immediately thought of Viola.

That vicious woman who delighted in others’ suffering hadn’t been restrained herself at all in this world.

On the contrary, under the guise of “corporate executive” and “gentle elder,” she thrived even more—able to legally and conveniently savor people’s embarrassment and pain.

Her current life was practically a stage tailor-made for her!

When he and Rex had probed earlier, they had confirmed the entity behind the curtain was surprisingly “benevolent.”

Thinking back to his own “parents” and “old friends,” Jie Ming couldn’t help but wonder: what if that benevolence far exceeded his imagination?

What if… the entire purpose was to let everyone realize their dreams?

Rex noticed Jie Ming’s face change dramatically and asked quietly, “What is it?”

Jie Ming took a deep breath and recounted everything about Viola, then laid out his new hypothesis.

The wistful sentiment on Rex’s face vanished instantly, replaced by extreme gravity.

He pushed up his glasses; the eyes behind the lenses were sharp as blades.

“You’re saying… not just the few we know…” Rex’s voice was hoarse. “But every wizard trapped here—perhaps every human—is, beneath their false identities, living the life their subconscious most desired… the one they always dreamed of?”

Jie Ming nodded heavily. “It sounds absurd, but Calvin, Barton, Viola… the samples all point the same way.”

“And remember what we saw on the front lines?”

“Which part?”

“The bizarrely small number of human soldiers.”

Rex blinked, then narrowed his eyes.

Some things you couldn’t fully grasp without seeing them firsthand—like how few soldiers there actually were on the front.

It was almost unnaturally few.

Though humanity held the advantage, most of the fighting was done by autonomous machines. That didn’t mean soldiers were useless—quite the opposite. In the chaos of a battlefield, each additional intelligent operator capable of directing more drones dramatically increased combat power.

Yet no matter how hard the front lines struggled, the rear never sent reinforcements.

With this plane’s human civilization’s reserves, they wouldn’t even need conscription—just voluntary reinforcements would drastically accelerate the war.

From both efficiency and cost-effectiveness, sending more troops was the obvious move. Yet the number of human combatants remained strangely low.

“I never understood that phenomenon,” Rex admitted, then sucked in a sharp breath. “But if your guess is right…”

Jie Ming took a sip of his drink to ease his dry throat. “Those people subconsciously love war. So the so-called front line is actually a ‘paradise’ the entity arranged just for them.”

“That would also explain why non-humanoid lifeforms are forcibly designated enemies…” Rex swallowed hard.

“Yes…” Jie Ming’s gaze grew distant.

Because he suddenly recalled something from university: the number of students had been noticeably fewer than the faculty and staff.

If his hypothesis was the foundation, that phenomenon made sense too.

After all, while wizards claimed to pursue knowledge, on an individual level very few truly wished to chase knowledge endlessly.

Far more, deep in their hearts, simply wanted to be “happy.”

And the number of wizards who enjoyed teaching—or enjoying the pleasure of being the one who teaches—far exceeded those who loved being students.

“This plane isn’t just suppressing our power and rewriting our memories…” Jie Ming murmured. “It’s reading our deepest desires and fulfilling them. That’s why it rewrote our memories—to place us, without us ever noticing, into the roles we would find most ‘satisfying.’”

Rex was silent for a long moment, then slowly nodded—and shook his head. “Logically, your conjecture explains everything we’ve observed. But the sample size is still too small. We can’t confirm if this is the universal core mechanism or mere coincidence.”

He gave a helpless sigh. “And then there are outliers like us who don’t fit the data…”

“Wait! What did you just say?!” Jie Ming suddenly jolted as though struck by lightning.

Rex looked baffled but repeated, “Outliers like us…”

“That’s it!”

The words made countless pieces suddenly fall into place for Jie Ming. Most importantly—he finally knew how to find the entity behind the curtain!

Jie Ming broke into an excited grin, completely ignoring the strange looks from nearby patrons.

Fortunately this was a nightclub; no one paid him much mind.

He quickly sat back down, but excitement still danced across his face. “I know how to find the mastermind…”

Though Rex didn’t yet understand what Jie Ming had realized, his expression turned grave. “Is it really worth the risk?”

Both knew full well that even if Jie Ming found a way to speak directly to the entity, the outcome would almost certainly be bad.

Three unlucky souls had already died trying.

So Rex didn’t even ask what the method was—he knew that no matter how “benevolent the other party seemed, confronting it meant death.

And even if he reached it, there was no guarantee of answers.

“Rationally speaking, quietly waiting for the deadline is the highest-return choice,” Jie Ming didn’t argue.

“But… if the opportunity presents itself, I still want to satisfy my curiosity.”

A flicker of confusion crossed Rex’s face, but he said nothing more. He simply raised his glass to Jie Ming.

“Then… good luck.”

“Thank you.”

Jie Ming smiled, didn’t linger, didn’t even say goodbye to the other two wizards, and left the bar immediately.

“…Rex?”

Barton, having just stepped offstage, noticed Jie Ming’s abrupt departure and looked at his friend in puzzlement.

He wasn’t concerned about Jie Ming leaving; he was worried about why Rex looked so… lost.

“I’m fine…” Rex forced a smile.

He stared in the direction Jie Ming had gone, long after the figure vanished.

“As a wizard, I’ve been completely outdone in the curiosity department…” Rex murmured to himself.

A proper wizard, of course, knew how crucial rational judgment was in their current situation.

But as a seeker of truth, he also knew how vital insatiable curiosity was to a wizard’s soul.

“Still… seeing him that excited… he must have some other card up his sleeve. Damn, does that mean I’m falling behind in every way?”

Barton watched his friend worriedly; Rex’s expression kept shifting.

Fortunately the mood didn’t last. Soon Rex opened his eyes, smiled, and raised his glass.

“Whatever. No point comparing myself to a lunatic… Cheers!”

On the other side, Jie Ming wasted no time.

He rushed to the fastest flight back to the planet he had been “born” on in this world, reaching “home” in less than three days.

Looking at the vast, empty spaceport and the blue planet far below, Jie Ming licked his lips, eyes burning with excitement as he headed home.