Benjamin returned to the laboratory. The soundproofing arrays around him activated automatically, completely shutting out the clamor of the battlefield beyond.
He took the blue crystals from his Internal Grotto-Heaven and lined them up across the experiment table.
There were one hundred and three in total.
They varied in size and shape, but within every one of them, countless tiny specks of light drifted slowly, like living creatures.
"Entropy Brain..."
Benjamin muttered to himself.
This was the official name the Expeditionary Force had just announced.
The core crystals left behind after those Information Beings died had been formally designated "Entropy Brains."
The name meant "the brains of entropy-reducing lifeforms." It was rather fitting.
He raised his right hand, and a pale golden glow slowly lit up in his eyes.
All-Purpose Eye.
Then golden light shone from between his brows as well.
Fate System.
The All-Purpose Eye's information-gathering abilities, combined with the Fate System's boosted computing power, allowed him to see through the essence of most matter and energy.
Beneath the glow, the internal structure of the Entropy Brains gradually became clear.
The first thing that caught his eye was a particularly startling fact.
These blue crystals, which appeared to contain immense amounts of energy, actually possessed almost no energy at all.
Benjamin frowned. After carefully confirming it three times, he finally accepted the result.
There truly was no form of stored energy within these crystals.
There were no free-element fluctuations, no lingering laws, not even the faintest trace of basic heat.
Yet their information structures were astonishingly complex.
Benjamin "saw" countless intricate patterns, like the most sophisticated integrated circuits, layered upon layered within the crystals and tangled together. Those specks of light were the carriers of information, flowing along fixed pathways and endlessly cycling through reorganization.
Without question, this was