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Within a special space

Zhuge Qing shared his test results from the Inner Scene with Orochimaru.

Since the other worlds had no energy called Qi, Orochimaru was the only one he could talk to for now.

"So, that's the situation."

Zhuge Qing rubbed his chin, a hint of amusement in his eyes.

"I'm about seventy percent certain that the Inner Scene read my existing memories somehow when I asked about the ending of Naruto.

"That's why its answer matched what was in my head exactly, even down to the manga panels."

"But what I really found interesting was the next question."

He paused and looked at Orochimaru.

"I tried asking, 'How will the world's general situation evolve over the next twenty years?'"

"This question's importance goes without saying, doesn't it?

"It involves international relations, technological development, even war and peace.

"By rights, getting an answer should have been harder than getting the nuclear briefcase's launch codes."

"But what happened?"

Zhuge Qing spread his hands.

"The light orb that appeared was about the same size and brightness as the one for 'How many ants will die?' I opened it with no trouble at all."

"The information inside described in detail how the world would develop over the next twenty years..."

He narrowed his eyes and enunciated each word.

"And, more importantly, it matched the course of history I knew before I crossed over down to the last detail!"

"Down to the last detail?"

Orochimaru's pupils contracted, and his expression turned strange.

"Exactly. That's the problem. In the world I came from, there was no supernatural power like Outsiders, let alone a giant corporation like Behemoth that researched superpowers.

"By rights, with all these variables, this world's future should have already diverged enormously from the 'history' I remember.

"But the answer the Inner Scene gave completely ignored those variables and followed the 'script' I remembered."

Zhuge Qing nodded. He'd also asked detailed follow-up questions, about global events like pandemics, for instance.

"Interesting..."

"So you mean that when the Inner Scene answered your question about the world's general situation over the next twenty years, it was being lazy, just as it was when you asked about the ending of Naruto?"

"It didn't actually simulate this world's future. Instead... it directly read and returned the 'answer' already in your head?"

A gleam flashed in Orochimaru's eyes.

"More or less. It's like a computer processing a task. If there's already a result in the cache, it doesn't need to run a complicated calculation again. It can just retrieve the cached result."

Zhuge Qing snapped his fingers.

"If this theory is right, then the Inner Scene's operating principles are a bit like a big-data prediction model.

"It uses a massive amount of existing data to calculate possible futures.

"Just as we can predict a ball's position and state at any future moment by calculating from its initial state, the forces acting on it, and the environmental parameters.

"The Inner Scene may have access to an incredibly vast database—perhaps everything humans have known, remembered, or subconsciously perceived since the dawn of humanity—and use that as the basis for its calculations. That's why it seems almost omniscient."

Orochimaru mused that Wang Ye had once asked about the Jiashen Rebellion in the Inner Scene in the manga, which suggested the database contained everything from the past onward.

"But..."

Orochimaru turned to Zhuge Qing.

"Your existence is an 'anomaly' to it.

"That's because your mind contains a lot of information that shouldn't exist in this world.

"For example, the 'ending of Naruto,' and the future of another 'timeline' without Outsiders.

"When you asked those questions, the Inner Scene realized that you already 'knew' the answers, and that they were extremely easy for you to obtain because they were your own memories. So it took a shortcut and directly 'copied' your memories back to you.

"That also explains why you could easily obtain information that should have been extremely difficult to get, like the world's general situation over the next twenty years. It was something you already 'knew,' so retrieving your memories was much easier for the Inner Scene than simulating the future of the entire world from scratch."

"Mm, that's what I thought, too.

"So I can be fairly certain for now that this Inner Scene probably isn't some objective, impartial 'Heavenly Dao'—at least, not entirely."

Zhuge Qing agreed. As the saying went, those involved often couldn't see the whole picture, while outsiders could.

Everything that passed through a place inevitably left traces, and from those traces, one could deduce everything.

That was why it was difficult for the other people in the One-Person world to realize this...

But for an outsider like him, some of the "traces" he carried came from another world. To the Inner Scene of this world, they simply didn't exist.

So it couldn't use this world's "traces" to deduce those things. The ending of Naruto, for instance, might not even have been decided by Kishimoto at this point in time.

So when it answered those questions, reading his memories had been the most efficient choice.

But that had exposed the fact that the Inner Scene's operating principles didn't involve pure omniscient deduction...

"Did this happen because of the special nature of the Primordial Qi in your world?"

Orochimaru pondered for a moment, then asked.

"Probably. Over there, Qi is the foundation of life. Everyone has it, whether they're an ordinary person or an Outsider.

"The only difference is that Outsiders know how to use their own Qi."

Zhuge Qing nodded as he answered.

"Wait... this thing you're talking about, this collective consciousness of everyone connected by the same special energy..."

"Doesn't it sound a lot like that thing on Nathan Island... that, what's it called, the God Tree?"

Just then, Reed Hayrick, who had been quietly listening, suddenly cut in, looking a little strange.

The God Tree?

Zhuge Qing and Orochimaru were both taken aback.

Reed Hayrick's words were like a flash of lightning cutting through the fog.

"Are you saying that the Inner Scene itself is something like the God Tree?

"A collective entity that serves as the ultimate destination and gathering place for human souls, consciousness, or Qi?

"After people die, their Qi—or the information in their souls—returns to this vast collective.

"And living people, because they also have Qi in their bodies, can connect to this collective somehow—through Qimen, for instance—and enter the Inner Scene?"

A spark of excitement flickered in Zhuge Qing's eyes as he spoke.

Wait...

After humans died, their souls—or energy—returned somewhere... forming a vast collective... and the living could connect to it...

Th-this sounded awfully familiar!

Zhuge Qing froze, his expression turning extremely strange as he instinctively looked at Orochimaru.

"Uh..."

Orochimaru realized it, too. His world seemed to have something similar.

In the Naruto world, when people died, their Chakra also dispersed and returned somewhere.

Based on what he'd deduced so far, that place was very likely closely connected to the God Tree!

First, Chakra itself came from the God Tree, or rather, its fruit.

Second, in the Naruto manga, there was only one known technique that could truly bring the dead back to life.

That was the Rinnegan's Samsara Heavenly Life Technique.

And the Rinnegan's creation was also connected to the God Tree!

Though Chakra and Primordial Qi followed different rules in the details, they displayed astonishing similarities in their energy levels and certain fundamental properties!

If the Inner Scene in Zhuge Qing's world really was a collective of souls formed from Primordial Qi...

Then did the Chakra cycle in the Naruto world follow similar principles?

If that was true...

Orochimaru's eyes suddenly burned with excitement, and his breathing grew heavier.

Then the depth the Impure World Reincarnation could reach, and the value it represented...

Might far exceed anything he'd imagined before!