Lan Meng wasn't stupid, actually.
As a textbook rich second-generation kid, she would never be as useless and uneducated as those characters in trashy webnovels.
But in front of Wu Wei and Qin Yunhai, Lan Meng felt like an idiot.
Their thinking was so wildly imaginative. She knew every word they said, but she had never imagined those words could be put together like that.
And after thinking it over, Lan Meng had to admit that what they said made a lot of sense.
Perhaps in the eyes of the old-fashioned, these ideas were outrageous and didn't follow the usual conventions. But not everyone in the world had to cling to the old ways.
Some people preferred making their own rules rather than living quietly by the old ones.
Lan Meng forced herself to keep up with the two of them. She might not have enough talent, but she did have the desire to grow stronger.
Especially after gaining all those memories she shouldn't have had.
"Wu Wei, going by what you're saying, does that mean I might be one of your future test subjects?" Lan Meng proposed.
Wu Wei fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. "Almost certainly not. I'm not the type to go backward. I'd rather look ahead. If you ask me, you're more like a trial run—someone sent to test things out and dig a pit."
"I get the 'dig a pit' part. For example, Lan Meng said that in the future, you'd nearly wipe out the ghost and fairy lineages, but in reality, they might be insanely powerful. If you really believed her, they could easily defeat you, or even kill you." Qin Yunhai picked up where Wu Wei had left off, making Lan Meng break out in a cold sweat.
She had to admit that if this theory was correct, the logic behind it held up perfectly.
She'd thought she was just an ordinary case of reincarnation, something so common in webnovels that it was hardly difficult to accept.
Who knew these two men could come up with such a twist?
"What do you mean by 'trial run'?" Qin Yunhai asked Wu Wei.
Lan Meng didn't understand either.
Qin Yunhai opened his laptop and pulled up a PowerPoint presentation to explain it to them.
It began with a black dot.
"This dot represents me at the very beginning. As I grew older and gained more experiences, the dot gradually changed."
As Wu Wei spoke, the presentation began automatically. A straight line appeared in front of the dot, representing a person's progress through life.
"At a certain age, the path can change."
"For example, if I accidentally fell into a river when I was six, that path would end."
"For example, if I stayed away from the river when I was six, that path would continue."
"Or, if I started learning to swim when I was six and had parents who knew how to swim, then if I got into danger, they could save me in time."
On the screen, the straight line began branching into countless paths.
Each branch represented a different possibility.
Qin Yunhai and Lan Meng both understood.
"So if you have the means, you can send someone to run a trial first and verify which paths are right or wrong. That lets the one pulling the strings behind the scenes make the right decisions and become a better version of themselves."
As Lan Meng spoke, a deep fear rose within her.
She had never imagined that anyone could have such an ability, or even think in such a way.
It was insane.
But deep down, Lan Meng also felt that it was... magnificent.
If someone could pull off something like that, it would truly be awe-inspiring.
Compared to Lan Meng, Qin Yunhai kept up with Wu Wei more easily and could even draw further conclusions.
"So all those seemingly inexplicable cases of transmigration and reincarnation could be explained this way."
Qin Yunhai looked at Wu Wei. Wu Wei smiled and nodded.
Qin Yunhai's eyes lit up completely.
"Let's suppose there's an almighty being behind all those supernatural events, like transmigration and reincarnation. It gives those who've transmigrated or been reincarnated the chance to experience a different course of events in another world and reach the pinnacle of their lives. But they don't know they may just be test subjects. In the end, all their experience points are collected and fed into the consciousness of that almighty being behind the scenes."
"If this theory is true, just how powerful would that almighty being become in the end?"
Qin Yunhai was stunned by his own theory.
Compared with the Awakened he knew, such an almighty being would be like a firefly compared to the sun and moon. They wouldn't even be on the same level.
"Let's suppose there really is an almighty being like that. For now, we'll call him the Lord of Time and Space. The most terrifying thing is that he can continue to grow stronger without limit. There's no end in sight."
Wu Wei's excitement kept building.
He had never thought much of the Awakened.
But if this theory was right, an almighty being like that gave him a goal to pursue.
That's the kind of man I should aspire to be!
Just then, Lan Meng timidly raised her hand.
"I've read some webnovels. There's a genre called infinite flow, and one ultimate boss is known as the Main God. The Main God creates a space of its own, recruits reincarnators from countless worlds, then assigns them missions through that space to conquer those worlds. Wu Wei, isn't that similar to what you just described? It uses those reincarnators to make itself stronger while taking control of the resources of more worlds?"
Wu Wei and Qin Yunhai's eyes lit up at the same time.
"Exactly," Wu Wei said excitedly. "If this isn't just a fictional story, but something that really happened in another world, then the Main God must be an incredibly powerful being. Like the Lord of Time and Space, it dominates countless worlds and stands supreme."
That's the kind of goal we should be striving toward.
"Anything is possible. If we can think of these things, then there's no reason beings far more powerful than us couldn't. And if they have the means to make these ideas real, then they should already exist. They may even have set their sights on our world." Qin Yunhai spoke gravely.
Wu Wei nodded, but he wasn't afraid. Instead, a trace of ambition stirred within him.
"Yunhai, do you think there's a shortcut we could take to catch up with these two supreme beings, if they really exist?"
"We definitely can't follow the same paths they did. With such paragons going before us, it would be hard to surpass them. So we need a method independent of those two approaches. At the same time, like them, we'd have to control the fates of those 'puppets' and receive their information at any time. Overall, we need a new medium, something like the Main God's space—or something even more advanced."
As Qin Yunhai analyzed the idea in detail, a product had already taken shape in Wu Wei's mind:
A system!
He thought of the talent he had awakened.
If one day his system spread throughout countless worlds, would that give him the power to stand alongside the Lord of Time and Space and the Main God?
Or even surpass them?
Before you continue