Thus, Ronan came to understand one possibility:
"Dream Divine Abomination" was a resource Luo Zhongheng had knowingly exploited, and also the "Core Button" in his hand—the heaviest and most effective card he possessed.
Whether reality truly matched Ronan's conjecture or not, the fact that he could think this far proved that one corner of his heart had already turned gray.
Before he could lament the possible loss of his now-meaningless "innocence," Ronan suddenly realized that this heavy card Father had once laid out but never played, this "Core Button" he had ultimately failed to press, had been delivered into Ronan's hands through the combined workings of "design," "coincidence"... or perhaps "Predestined Fate."
Without question, it was a way to deal with Li Wei while also countering the Martial Emperor.
The idea was simple. It was nothing more than "nuclear deterrence."
But how could one so easily create a method that made Li Wei, the Martial Emperor, and the "Visitors From Outer Space" wary, while still leaving oneself room to maneuver? Luo Zhongheng's development of the "Cloak" app and use of "Dream Divine Abomination" to intimidate those "Visitors From Outer Space," who understood its terrifying power all too well—who knew how difficult that process had been.
In Ronan's eyes, this "software" hidden within the External Neuron had, amid the unique and complex reality of Earth, surpassed the value of its carrier—the External Neuron itself. It was also more universally applicable than Liang Lu's "Abyss Illumination Mechanism," which no one knew when it would explode, or who it would ultimately blow up.
The cold reality was that Luo Zhongheng had failed.
Yet before his failure, he had successfully placed this "card" in his own son's hands, silently waiting... and gambling that Ronan would "turn it over."
Now Ronan had turned it over.