Chapter 498: Workaround I

CH498 Workaround I

***

[A/N: This Chapter is based on Alex’s conclusions—his point of view. He may be right or wrong, so take it with a grain of salt.]

A few days earlier...

Alex sat on the living room sofa, fresh off his conversation with Udara and the conclusion he’d reached that his plans needed a redirection if he was going to recover his Rune-Tech path.

But just before he began working on the Simulator program, a sudden thought struck him.

He wondered how new Classes for awakened professionals even came to be in the first place... and why these Classes continued to function even when people moved between planes.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Classes whose methods contradicted a plane’s fundamental nature would become partially blocked—those specific techniques, restricted.

Still, the question remained.

’How do new professional Classes come to be?’

’And why do most of them work across planes?’

Alex had already experienced the answer first-hand.

It wasn’t that his Class itself was being rejected.

It was the methods of his Runemaster Class—those rooted in Pangea’s runes—that Verdantis could not understand and refused to acknowledge.

’So it wasn’t the Class that contradicted the plane... It was the methods and rules the Class relied on.’

With that in mind, Alex settled on what he believed was the most logical conclusion;

’There had to be a universal law. No, not a law, but rather... A universal order.

’Something that exist above individual planes and as an entity or system that guides the functioning of and maintains the between universal laws.’

Certain things—like the existence of professional Classes across the myriad planes—had to be recorded within that greater order, and not within any single plane’s system.

After all, a person could travel between planes, yes. But they still remained within the same universe.

Therefore, the influence of planes on Classes would be limited to compatibility.

A plane’s peculiar nature could either favour a Class... or suppress it.

’If Zora found herself on an Ice-aligned plane, her Ice Mage Class would likely flourish beyond reason.’

Meanwhile, Alex’s current situation was the opposite.

A perfect example of a path being blocked—not because it was invalid, but because it no longer belonged.

Alex’s Runemaster Class still existed... but its methods were blocked by Verdantis.

And because those methods were blocked, the Class Path itself couldn’t grow, which meant Alex couldn’t advance.

Putting aside the matter of planar order for the moment, Alex refocused on the greater concept—the universal order.

’With the number of Classes available—at least on Pangea—it seems the universal order is quite welcoming to new Classes rising up.’

’And if my experiences are any yardstick... then not only is the universal order welcoming to new Classes, it also actively supports their development.’

If that wasn’t the case—if there wasn’t some guiding hand nudging Rune-Tech forward—Alex doubted he would’ve accomplished what he had, the way he had.

Things would have been vastly different.

And far more difficult.

That said, even as he concluded that the universal order acted as a guiding hand for Class developers, Alex didn’t believe such support was blanket or unconditional.

’Resources are finite, while Order must be maintained. It wouldn’t make sense for the universal order to support every direction a developer wants to take their Class.’

’It’s more likely that development has to align with the universal order’s rules... or its expectations.’

For some reason, Alex found himself comparing the universal order to a major multinational company from his previous life.

As long as a developer’s work was useful to the company—and aligned with its long-term ambitions—such a company would be willing to sink billions into making the project a reality.

But for workers who simply tolled and maintained established projects?

They’d never see that level of support.

And from the outside, it would look almost unfair.

’A major advantage of my Runemaster Class and the Rune-Tech platform is that I mostly make use of—or rather, re-engineer—existing protocols of the natural order to serve my purpose.’

’I’m not exactly creating something new...’

’I’m taking what the natural order—whether planar or universal—has already accepted as part of itself, and retooling it for myself and my needs.’

Upon further investigation of the Simulation Function’s runic code, Alex quickly discovered something.

There was a portion of the code he hadn’t written.

No... it wasn’t just that he hadn’t written it, but more like he couldn’t have written it.

And it wasn’t something OmniRune had added either, not even through gradual updates as the simulator was used and refined over time.

That unknown portion carried a unique energy signature.

A signature Alex believed belonged to Pangea itself.

So, using the limited information he had, Alex came up with a bright—borderline ludicrous—idea.

He stripped away every functional addition he and OmniRune had made to the Simulation Function.

He stripped away the memory expansions, as well as optimisations layers... anything that was added to the Simulation program as a result of use.

Leaving behind only the base code—along with the portion that had been altered by Pangea.

It also helped that the duplicate Simulator Formation lacked Pangea’s unique energy signature.

Which meant it was... clean— A blank key, waiting to be imprinted.

And when Alex activated it, the result was exactly what he had hoped for.

The formation produced a phenomenon that synchronised with the Verdantis plane itself.

Then, it absorbed a splinter of Verdantis’ unique energy signature.

In that instant, it gained access.

Access to virtually—digitally—mirror Verdantis’ planar laws. Thereby allowing the duplicate Simulation Function to simulate conditions on Verdantis with near-perfect accuracy.

The success of that step introduced an exciting prospect.

It meant Alex could potentially mirror and simulate the laws of any plane...

So long as he visited the plane first, and the simulator received the ’mirroring access’ from the plane itself.

An access that, most likely, was tied to possessing some form of Providence associated with that plane.

’I probably succeeded because of the Providence I’ve earned –or stolen— since arriving here in Verdantis.’

From the divine energy heist at Barnsil Fortress, to the Berserk Beast Nest raid, to the likely acknowledgement of Manrak—the Copper-skinned Orcs’ ancestral spirit...

Alex and his expedition party had made enough of an impact on Verdantis to earn the plane’s recognition.

But even then, this success was only but the first step.

***