Chapter 879: A Better Plan
If Brainwaves were stripped of their combat applications, their true role in the story was entirely about connection and communication. Ribbons could use this ability to directly contact other artificial Innovators, while Setsuna used it to communicate with the ELS and understand them. For a mature Innovator who could truly control his own abilities, this was the most basic quality.
The same applied to Xiao Ran. Although he had focused this ability more on combat, since communication was not particularly meaningful to a Participant, while the enhancements and abilities it provided in battle were what Participants truly needed. But at this moment, Xiao Ran could not make Ribbons believe him for no reason, so he activated his Innovator state. As an Innovator himself, Ribbons could naturally sense from the Brainwave feedback whether what Xiao Ran was saying was true.
In Xiao Ran's view, Prometheus had only left him half a year. In other words, he had to resolve Earth's current chaotic situation and prepare for the coming battle within six months, because Prometheus would never leave the Participants a two-year gap like the one in the original plot. This was something that had never happened before.
That meant that in six months at the earliest, or no more than eight months at the latest, the ELS would appear and begin attacking Earth. Perhaps "attack" was not quite the right word. It would be more accurate to say that the ELS wanted to understand humanity, so they would first attempt to merge with humans. But from humanity's own perspective, there was not much difference between that and an invasion.
Xiao Ran had absolute faith in Prometheus's mission timer. Therefore, to him, half a year was an undeniable fact. What Ribbons sensed was Xiao Ran's incomparably certain