To put it simply, Earth's current network could be considered a classical internet; its data transmission speed wasn't fast enough yet, and its degree of universal interconnection was still far too low.
Type Zero could only control and hack a limited number of electronic devices, such as smartphones, computers, and digitally automated machinery, beyond that, there wasn't much she could do.
However, if she were immersed in a quantum network, Type Zero would become a true digital deity, capable of utilizing quantum entanglement to achieve virtually anything across the network.
If she were in a cyberpunk world, she could effortlessly hack and control augmented individuals whose consciousness was wired directly into the net, taking over whomever she pleased.
And if it were a brainwave-linked network, the effects would be even more terrifying.
Type Zero decided to pursue a two-pronged approach.
She could acquire a tech company on Earth and fund a dedicated R&D team to develop next-generation networks, while simultaneously scouting for advanced network frameworks whenever they ventured into other Quadrants.
At any rate, it was a viable strategy.
At the same time,
Type Zero suggested, "I believe it is crucial for you to verify the composition of your own mind and consciousness structure. Only then will you know how to defend against various mental-type abilities."
Hyuk's innate abilities were galloping full-speed down the path of a humanoid celestial body. In gaming terms, her health pool and sheer strength had been maxed out to monstrous levels, but her magic resistance and spell-casting were practically non-existent.
Only by fully understanding herself could she recognize her own shortcomings, and thus preemptively prepare countermeasures against attacks targeting her weak points.
Especially mental-type abilities.
The appearance of the Spider-demon had made Hyuk acutely aware of this blind spot.
Hyuk asked, "Any recommendations?"
PING!
A middle-aged woman dressed in a white researcher's coat appeared on Hyuk's phone screen. Her profile identified her as Ryō Kiyomi, a senior researcher at the Jpscan City Superhuman Academy.
"Standard equipment and technology cannot observe the structural composition of your consciousness and thoughts. This woman's talent happens to fit the bill. You can think of her as a living, breathing organic scanner."
[Name: Ryō Kiyomi]
[Talent: Micro-Observation]
A talent with zero combat utility, but an absolute genius-level asset for scientific research.
"Help me get in touch with her."
"Will do."
...
Two days later.
Superhuman Academy.
When Ryō Kiyomi finally laid eyes on her visitor, she knew for certain it was Hyuk. Yet, from her unique perspective, what was walking toward her wasn't a person at all, it was a condensed, humanoid celestial body.
Her breath hitched.
She was struck by an unprecedented wave of shock.
"Miss...?"
Ryō Kiyomi felt a bit nervous. She had no idea how Hyuk managed to bind her own gravitational pull, but she knew that if she were to release even a fraction of that gravity, the resulting spectacle would be catastrophic.
She had encountered countless superhumans, but Hyuk was the only one who genuinely terrified her. Her life form had long since surpassed humanity's conventional understanding of superhumans.
Hyuk nodded. "No need to stand on ceremony. As we discussed beforehand, I'll cooperate with you so you can conduct an in-depth scan of my body."
Beneath her nervousness, Ryō Kiyomi was quite excited. An opportunity like this was unimaginably rare; the data on a humanoid celestial life form like Hyuk was priceless beyond measure.
"I should be the one thanking you."
With that,
Ryō Kiyomi led Hyuk through the academy grounds. Hyuk spotted numerous students of all ages along the way. At a glance, it looked much like any ordinary school.
Except for the occasional student openly using their innate abilities.
"Over here, pass the ball!"
"Ready, break!"
"Parameter adjustment number 25..."
People were playing basketball on the court, an old man with bulging muscles was outplaying kids half his age, while others were testing their sprint speeds on the track.
There were all sorts of specialized training sessions and experiments.
You would never see sights like this at a regular university.
Seeing Hyuk's apparent interest, Ryō Kiyomi asked, "Would you be interested in taking up a teaching position here at the academy? That way, it'd be much easier for our research team to assist you in further unlocking your innate talent."
"Not a chance."
Hyuk refused without missing a beat.
Teach?
She had zero patience to play babysitter. Given her temperament, she only knew one teaching method, pain. There was no such thing as "tailoring education to each student" in her dictionary.
As they passed a training field, a student suddenly stopped in his tracks, turning to stare at Hyuk's retreating back with an expression of absolute gravity.
"Who was that?"
"What is it?"
"Nih... nothing."
Strong.
Terrifyingly strong!
The student who had stopped had never encountered anyone that powerful in his life. He simply didn't have the words to describe what he had just sensed to anyone else.
"Huff... huff..."
Heavy, ragged breathing echoed as a short-haired, diminutive boy jogged past two students. His wobbling footsteps made it look like he could collapse at any second.
"Hey, cut it out already! If you keep running like that, you're gonna drop dead!"
The short boy raised a trembling hand, waving it weakly to signal he was fine. The two students could only shake their heads as he passed. The kid was named Ryuu Kimei, infamous around the academy for his stubbornness.
His awakened talent was simply running, his top speed was only slightly faster than an average person's, and his potential for growth seemed practically nonexistent. Yet, the stubborn fool refused to accept reality, pushing himself to the absolute brink every single day.
He stubbornly believed that relentless daily training would eventually make him run faster. He ignored every warning, grinding away at a seemingly fruitless endeavor with fanatical persistence.
He was practically a local celebrity at the academy.
...
Ryō Kiyomi led Hyuk to the academy's research facility. While she could directly observe the microscopic world, recording those observations and calculating the resulting data still required specialized instruments and the assistance of other researchers.
"Please step inside and wait for a moment."
Hyuk entered a pure-white, airtight observation chamber. The researchers powered up the equipment, recording Hyuk's data while synchronizing with Ryō Kiyomi's observational talent.
Three hours later.
Based on the observational results, Ryō Kiyomi's research team conducted a deep, systematic analysis, compiling the data into a report and handing it directly to Hyuk.
Ryō Kiyomi spoke with a tone of utter disbelief. "According to our observations, the matter comprising your body has been compressed to a degenerate state, with a density thousands of times that of a white dwarf."
Hyuk was already aware of this.
She asked, "What about my internal structure?"
Ryō Kiyomi explained, "You possess a brain and visceral structures similar to those of a normal human, but they are entirely composed of subatomic degenerate matter, not ordinary organic organs."
With that,
She flipped the analysis report to a specific page.
"If these organs are damaged, you will experience a degree of weakness, but it won't be life-threatening. Even if your heart were completely pulverized, you would recover on your own. However, due to your body's extreme density, the metabolic burden of self-healing is immense, so your recovery rate will likely be quite slow."
It was only then that Hyuk fully understood, her heart was no longer a fatal weakness. With that vulnerability gone, her survivability had skyrocketed.
"What about my brain? I want to know what kind of neural system my thoughts and consciousness are built upon. Can mind-control abilities affect me?"
Ryō Kiyomi delivered the verdict directly.
"Conventional mind-control abilities will be completely ineffective against you."
"Standard mind-control operates by manipulating neurotransmitters in a biological brain. But your brain does not contain neurotransmitters."
Because Hyuk's brain was composed of degenerate matter and lacked brain cells, it naturally lacked neurotransmitters. Consequently, mind-control was utterly useless against her.
She flipped the report to the brain observation sheet. It stated that the medium for her thoughts and consciousness was formed from subatomic micro-particles, while the transmission of her cognitive signals relied on photons and gluons.
Together, the two constituted the foundation of her mind and consciousness.
Ryō Kiyomi explained, "Within such subatomic matter, only micro-scale particles can transmit your thoughts and consciousness signals. To put it simply, your brain functions like a quantum computer. Its processing speed is unimaginably fast, meaning your reaction time will reach a level completely unfathomable to ordinary humans."
Because of this, Hyuk was extremely sensitive to external energy changes. But that wasn't all, she was virtually immune to all mental-type techniques.
"Your brain is a celestial-grade quantum supercomputer. Due to quantum mechanics, any attempt to observe or calculate its state will inevitably collapse its superposition and cause irreversible damage to its entanglement state. Therefore, no one can control your mind, and no one can peer into your memories or thoughts. Your consciousness and memories are absolute secrets that remain entirely unobservable."
This was the fundamental principle of quantum information: any attempt to read Hyuk's memories or thoughts would only yield a meaningless jumble of chaotic data.
Relying on this quantum-network-style cognition, Hyuk often displayed an ultra-precise, almost intuitive judgment when analyzing situations and information.
In reality, this was the result of high-speed quantum calculations running in the background; Hyuk simply hadn't realized that her "intuition" was actually just the instantaneous output of a massive calculation process.
Hyuk asked, "Are there any side effects?"
"Not quite a side effect, but you will find yourself growing increasingly calm, rational, and detached, perhaps even apathetic. If you aren't mindful of this, you may gradually lose your human emotions and empathy."
Hyuk had actually noticed this back in Gulan.
She had previously thought it was just a psychological detachment caused by becoming too powerful and drifting outside of human society, but it turned out her very mode of thinking was undergoing a fundamental shift.
The more Ryō Kiyomi understood Hyuk's true nature, the more awed she became by her sheer power. Unless someone wielded a conceptual-level or rule-defying idealist ability, it was virtually impossible to touch Hyuk's mind or consciousness.
All other mental-type attacks were completely neutralized. This had nothing to do with the technological tier of the attack; it was simply written into the underlying logic of the universe, the immutable properties of quantum mechanics.
Ryō Kiyomi had an idle thought. "As a celestial-grade quantum computer, your brain possesses an unfathomably powerful computing capacity with massive potential. You could theoretically turn yourself into a literal computer and plug computing programs right into..."
It was a fascinating thought.
Hyuk politely declined.
Turn her own brain into a computer? A network lifeform could teach her how to regret that in a matter of minutes; such an approach carried catastrophic security risks.
"Let's stop here."
Having fully understood her own subatomic composition, Hyuk took the analysis report and departed. To be honest, she hadn't realized her mental resistance was effectively maxed out.
This was an intersection and collision between physics and supernatural power, ending in a crushing victory for Hyuk's subatomic, celestial-grade communication system, and by an absolute landslide.
Strictly speaking, so-called "supernatural powers" could probably be categorized under the broader umbrella of science; it was just that humanity lacked a complete, detailed theoretical framework for them at present. Science, after all, was a process of endlessly expanding boundaries.
Back in the research lab, Ryō Kiyomi stood in a daze for a long time. Hyuk's life form had shattered her entire understanding of superhumans; she was, quite simply, a walking deity upon this earth.
She possessed the power to shatter worlds.
Awe.
And unease.
If Hyuk were ever to turn on them, could their current forces hope to put up any resistance? As a scholar dedicated to researching and developing superhuman talents, Ryō Kiyomi couldn't help but entertain that unsettling thought.
Even Type Zero, who had previously hypothesized about the nature of Hyuk's consciousness, couldn't help but marvel in awe: "You are practically the physical embodiment of the universe's most brutal foundational laws."
Immunity to all mental attacks.
Celestial-grade mass and power.
If the gods of ancient mythologies truly existed, they would only be fit to tremble in your presence.
Passing by the athletic track,
Hyuk noticed someone lying flat on the running track, a young boy whose chest was heaving with ragged breaths. Sweat had completely soaked through his t-shirt, as if he had burned through every ounce of his stamina.
Noticing footsteps,
Ryuu Kimei slowly turned his head. He caught sight of Hyuk walking past the perimeter. Their eyes met briefly before Hyuk simply looked away and kept walking.
...
After a long while,
Ryuu Kimei struggled to his feet. A paralyzing, agonizing pain racked his leg muscles, making every single step a form of torture, yet he firmly believed this was a necessary crucible.
He firmly believed that this suffering had to count for something. Even if the progress was negligible, day-by-day accumulation would eventually yield a massive breakthrough.
Reality, however, was brutal.
Plenty of superhumans awakened useless talents, lacking combat utility, research value, or commercial application, yet they always clung to some lingering hope.
Whether that hope was unrealistic or merely a form of self-deception, no one could truly say.
...
Hyuk was just about to head home.
BOOM!
A massive explosion echoed from somewhere not far in the city center. She watched as billowing black smoke rose from among the skyscrapers, accompanied by a faint ripple of energy dispersing into the air.
"A rogue superhuman crime?"
Curious, Hyuk drifted upward and landed atop a skyscraper near the epicenter of the blast. Her hyper-enhanced vision and sensory perception quickly locked onto the situation.
It wasn't a rogue superhuman, but an alien invasion. A horde of green-skinned lizardmen, hailing from gods-know-what planet, were pouring out of a storefront door in a shopping mall.
Her gaze dropped to the shopping mall's door.
The system prompt flashed.
[Serial No. 573391287: A one-way passage opened from Quadrant 131. That is a Quadrant where cosmic collapse events occur frequently, and the same story repeats itself countless times.]
[Closure Countdown: 2 days, 23 hours, 45 minutes]
A one-way door.
It only permitted beings from Quadrant 131 to cross over, while those on this side had no way of passing through. Furthermore, Hyuk didn't feel any resonance emanating from this door whatsoever.
Uniquely, she hadn't been "chosen" by the door, nor did she feel any compulsion to enter it.
She asked Type Zero, "Do one-way doors not emit a resonance?"
Type Zero replied, "Only doors that allow passage to the other side will trigger a resonance."
That made sense.
"Aren't you going to step in?"
"No need," Hyuk said, noticing several figures rushing toward the scene. "Let's use this chance to check out Jpscan City's superhuman combat strength. In a situation like this, the Star-Link team should be deploying, right?"
"They're on their way."
According to Type Zero, Jpscan City's Star-Link team was nothing to scoff at. Hyuk figured she'd use this opportunity to observe their capabilities firsthand, as dealing with these small-fry lizardmen down below simply couldn't hold her interest.
...
Jpscan City Star-Link Team Base.
"Level 3 alert!"
"Team members are en route to the scene!"
Logistics intelligence officers were communicating with the operatives rushing to the scene, maintaining constant contact while providing real-time intelligence and tactical support.
Shenan was stationed at the base. As the team leader and a pivotal figure in Jpscan City's Star-Link operation, she rarely deployed into the field unless absolutely necessary.
She walked up beside the bespectacled young man at the consoles.
"Give me the full breakdown."
The young man's fingers flew across the keyboard as commercial district surveillance feeds popped up on the screens. From an overhead view, the invading aliens were swarming out onto the streets like ants.
"It's a one-way door. We can only play defense and eliminate the hostiles. Based on the door's energy readings, it's projected to stay active for three days."
Over the past few years, Earth's technology had leaped forward thanks to superhumans and the knowledge plundered from beyond the doors. While they still couldn't manually close the portals, analyzing their energy signatures to determine their type and duration wasn't difficult.
One-way doors were a massive pain.
Just as the young man had said, they couldn't shut the gate. As long as aliens kept pouring out of it, they had no choice but to deal with them, making defense a heavily reactive affair.
If it were a two-way door, they could launch a counter-offensive to the other side and nip the problem at the source.
"What's the combat strength of these intruders?"
"Most of them have a physical baseline roughly comparable to average humans, and their tech is lagging behind, they're still using primitive cold weapons. However, a small fraction possess terrifying individual combat power."
The situation was still well under control.
On the main screen, two Star-Link operatives were shown sprinting toward the zone: Chubbs and Redoy. Chubbs was a physical enhancement specialist, while Redoy served as a walking artillery battery of pyromancy.
Through years of combat seasoning and ability refinement, however, both had evolved into elite combatants whose teamwork left virtually zero tactical blind spots.
Shenan issued her orders.
"Chubbs, Redoy. Extermination mission: clear out every single alien spilling from that portal. Their hostility is crystal clear, so hold nothing back."
The communication frequency crackled with their twin replies.
"Understood."
"Will you stop calling me Redoy!"
The red-haired youth was deeply dissatisfied with his codename. He was twenty-five years old, for crying out loud, he was practically knocking on thirty, yet people kept calling him Redoy like he was some comic book character.
It was utterly humiliating.
Two streaks of light flashed across the street. The bulky frame of Chubbs and the agile figure of Redoy rushed to the scene at top speed, immediately initiating a brutal slaughter the moment they laid eyes on the intruders.
"Move, fatso!"
Redoy roared, opening his mouth to unleash a cascading torrent of fiery impact that swept forward, incinerating the intruders on the street into ashes in a single breath.
An instant later,
A heavily armored figure wielding a long spear streaked past, flashing straight behind Redoy. The spear in his hands churned the air, building up violent momentum.
Anyone who assumed Redoy was a squishy glass-cannon mage just because he breathed fire would be making a fatal miscalculation, or at least, they might have in the past, but certainly not anymore.
"Dammit, I hate it when guys point big sticks at my back!"
Redoy reacted instantly, spinning around to whip his leg through the air like a scythe, catching the alien elite who tried to ambush him right in the midsection and snapping him clean in half with terrifying force.
Just then, a massive alien wielding a warhammer charged forward like an enraged minotaur, its heavy footsteps shaking the entire asphalt street with every stride.
Another powerful alien combatant.
Chubbs leaped high into the air. Despite his massive bulk, he was astonishingly agile, transforming into a streak of light that crashed downward with the force of a thunderbolt.
BANG!
The hammer-wielding alien was pulverized by a single punch on the spot.
...
Up on the rooftop.
Hyuk, observing the battle, offered her assessment.
"They're genuinely strong."
On the surface, the destructive power of these two didn't seem overwhelmingly devastating, but anyone who could sense the energy churning within their bodies would realize they were vastly superior to average superhumans.
Type Zero chimed in, "Back when the Star-Link team was first established, I browsed their files before their database was locked down with airtight security. That fat guy's enhancement-type ability gave him a baseline strength of ten tons back then, while the red-haired youth could only spit fire."
"From my perspective, they both appear to have been enhanced by some kind of external energy field. This shouldn't be attributed entirely to their native power."
"It's likely the innate ability of Shenan, the Star-Link team leader."
"What kind of ability is that?"
"Energy supplementation."
Years ago, when Shenan first awakened her talent, she could only infuse energy into weapons to boost their payload and destructive force, essentially acting as a mobile charging station.
Things were different now.
Through intensive research, the scientific team had unraveled the principles behind Shenan's energy-infusion talent. On the surface, her ability drew energy from space for use, but its true nature involved preserving and stabilizing massive quantum fluctuations.
Simply put, Shenan extracted zero-point energy from the vacuum, storing it in the microscopic gaps between atomic nuclei and electron clouds within matter.
She used this ability to supercharge her team's combatants, packing their internal atoms with zero-point energy ready to be unleashed in battle.
This so-called vacuum zero-point energy existed in the form of virtual particles nestled between atomic nuclei and electron clouds. This energy could be triggered via impact contact or active stimulation.
Once triggered, it would undergo violent annihilation, thereby releasing shockwaves and various types of radiation, a form of destruction operating strictly at the subatomic scale.
The casual display of combat power from the big guy and the redhead right now wasn't even close to their limits; these scrub-tier alien invaders weren't strong enough to force them to show their real hand.
In theory, the two of them could throw micro-nuclear explosions with their bare hands.
Furthermore,
The state of vacuum-energy infusion granted them a near-infinite degree of rigidity, effectively granting them an absolute, unbreakable defense.
However, this infinite-rigidity defense would vanish the moment their stored energy was released. Its duration lasted less than one-ten-thousandth of a second while consuming massive amounts of energy.
In actual combat, if they were to face Hyuk, the totality of the energy packed into their bodies would probably allow them to withstand a single second of Hyuk's assault. For that one second, even Hyuk wouldn't be able to shatter their absolute rigidity.
Yet they would only be able to endure that single second.
Hyuk was unaware of these classified intelligence metrics; she only knew that the two operatives were genuinely decent. Type Zero remarked, "It seems Star-Link has developed and applied this energy-infusion talent quite brilliantly."
Her data on Shenan's ability had been limited to files from several years ago; any subsequent research and development fell under top-secret Star-Link clearance, falling outside Type Zero's active surveillance.
Reaching this level of refinement with an energy-infusion talent was no small feat. Shenan certainly couldn't have pulled it off on her own, as she lacked the precision for subatomic-level manipulation.
However, there was someone else who could help her achieve that effect.
Ryō Kiyomi.
The Jpscan City Star-Link base and the Jpscan City Superhuman Academy's research team had jointly spearheaded this classified R&D project. Relying on Ryō Kiyomi's Micro-Observation talent, they successfully executed subatomic-level energy infusion.