Chapter 288: The Battle of Infinite Resets [3]
An unsolvable, evenly matched duel continuing indefinitely?
Fighting until the end of time, until the universe reaches its lifespan?
Of course, that's impossible!
Buddha's Six Paths Guanyin form couldn't be maintained for too long, so when he felt time was running out, he had no choice but to backtrack.
As for Qin Shi Huang, did he possess infinite power?
Wouldn't his mechanical body's computations bring about a load? Was there no limit?
Buddha wasn't sure about this, as he couldn't gamble on the possibility that the other might succumb first. Thus, Buddha needed to leap his consciousness into the past before this state ended.
In this way, such infinite repeated leaps, in a sense, also meant an unsolvable, evenly matched stalemate, right?
No, it couldn't last forever.
Because next, it would become a contest of who had greater memory storage and who wouldn't fall into chaos.
With infinite repetitions, the memories loaded into the brain would accumulate more and more, potentially leading to mental issues.
Because it involves constantly repeating a period of time to test various possibilities, when the number of repetitions reaches a certain point, you might forget that the next attempt you're about to make has actually been done before.
If such a mistake occurs during one of Buddha's repeated attempts, it might accidentally allow the other party to realize it was Buddha's error, which would be troublesome.
One misstep could lead to a cascade of errors, completely disrupting the rhythm.
It's also possible that infinite attempts create a sense of déjà vu, making it difficult to distinguish whether you've already performed a particular action.
Such mistakes can be fatal.
Therefore, the challenge becomes who can avoid confusion first under the infinite stacking of memories, maintaining absolute rationality without making the slightest error.
What about the others?
What about the humans and gods who are also forced to regress due to Buddha's ability going out of control?
Most of them would suffer mental collapse, becoming like living corpses with vacant eyes, standing dazed in place.
And what about the other type of living corpse state mentioned earlier—the disappearance of the soul? How does that happen?
Being used as a shield?
That's because before Buddha's future vision ability went out of control, after an unknown number of jumps, he made Qin Shi Huang realize he possessed the ability of consciousness jumping. Qin Shi Huang thus attempted to forcibly interrupt his jumps, trapping him in the current time.
The result was that Buddha still forcibly jumped back, but due to Qin Shi Huang's bizarre ability, his own future vision went out of control, causing everyone to remember the regression events.
Especially Qin Shi Huang—after learning about the past, he became even more difficult to deal with.
In subsequent regressions, Qin Shi Huang continued trying to interrupt him, so Buddha used the Primordial God's followers as shields.
Imagine a network data cable originally transmitting only Buddha's data—this made it easy for Qin Shi Huang to identify the data as Buddha's and attack it.
But after the ability went out of control, this data cable began transmitting countless people's data. Qin Shi Huang could only search for him among endless data streams to interrupt his backward jumps.
Therefore, Buddha frequently pulled the Primordial God's followers to use as shields.
Why not simply cut the data cable?
It wasn't because Qin Shi Huang feared that cutting the cable would kill everyone, but because the data cable truly couldn't be severed.
If it could be cut, it would mean Qin Shi Huang's ability could directly sever the Akashic Records, implying he'd already become equivalent to the universe itself.
He would be the entire universe, and the universe would be him.
So if Qin Shi Huang desired anything, the universe would respond to his thoughts, and Buddha would be instantly defeated.
If this infinite regression continues until finally terminated, wouldn't it create countless vegetative states?
Actually, no.
Because with Buddha's death, the memory regression caused by his future vision would also vanish completely. All humans and gods would only remember the current worldline's memories.
But before the outcome is decided, they would face a situation where each new round of spectators stood there in a daze, as if each one were a puppet placed there.
"Mmm!"
A sound—whether of pain or something else—escaped Serafall's lips.
Her reaction resembled someone jolting awake from a nightmare.
If possible, she would rather die in this nightmare than wake up now.
How many times had it been? Her memories were jumbled, she couldn't determine how many times she had reset.
Suddenly, a body pressed against her side, startling her—it was Irina's limp form.
This time, she had no reaction left. Her face no longer held despair or fear, only a numb expression.
Her eyes had lost all light, now completely vacant and hollow.
The girl named Irina had broken.
Ah, and Le Fay too—that child had broken as well.
Looking around, the entire arena had grown eerily quiet, a silence that was frightening.
The human side had almost entirely fallen silent, and over ninety percent of the divine spectators had turned into puppets.
As for the battlefield still being broadcast, though it appeared engulfed in flames, that was merely the aftermath of earlier attacks.
As for both armies, they too had mostly fallen into silence, leaving only some automated weapons to continue their assaults.
"So, how much longer can I hold on?"
Serafall murmured with a bitter smile. "Serafall, look—look at Buddha's mask!"
Rossweisse, who was one of the few still unbroken beside her, suddenly seemed to see a glimmer of hope. Her nearly vacant eyes lit up with excitement.
Why was Rossweisse drawing her attention to Buddha's mask?
Serafall looked closely—what mask was it?
Ah, she saw it. Buddha's jackal mask had developed a crack.
In her memories, it had always remained mostly intact.
So, when did this appear?
Had it been there last time?
And in this latest reset, right as Heimdall had just declared war, before either side had even engaged in combat, such a situation had arisen. This proved that this endless battle was finally beginning to show cracks!
Had a glimmer of dawn finally appeared in this infinite cycle?