There was once such a discussion, or at least a big discussion among people who studied this question: Do the roads in the forest have the same end point? If different, which one is the correct end point? Is this a truly meaningful journey? Or wandering in the woods forever?
It is believed that the path in the forest leads to a treasure. The end of the sea. The end of the desert. The end of the rainbow. In short, there is a unique secret location, and the treasure is buried in a unique location. This is an axiom that people firmly believe in. The only treasure and the only location agree with each other.
Now from deep within the forest, the treasure hunters set out along different paths. Those should be two paths that never cross. They are not walking in opposite directions, and there is no trick of spatial structure. Two completely parallel roads extend far into the distance. It can be concluded that only one of them can find the treasure, or none of them can be found. This meets the expectation of uniqueness.
If you can't find the treasure on both paths, that's a very bad situation. Because that is the most reliable path currently available. People have followed these two paths for a long time and invested a lot of energy in testing and summarizing experience. If these two paths fail, everything will have to start all over again. It would definitely take a lot of time and cost to find a third, better path, or the treasure hunters would all be trapped in the forest before they could find a new path.
It's best not to find a third way.
However, people discovered that that may not be the most worrying thing. There are always solutions to risks that can be anticipated, but those that are not anticipated - those situations that are considered impossible to occur, are more likely to fail than the total failure that people can think of. That means treasures are found both ways.
Is that the same treasure? Yes. The treasure is unique. Don't roads ever cross? Yes, the entire construction process was closely monitored by treasure hunters. The same treasure is found on different roads, which means that the consistency of the entire system may be an illusion.
But without consistency - even the most intelligent and expert researchers can only ask in despair - what else can we discuss? Is there anything that can be "proven" besides "believing"?
Or maybe the “path” itself is an illusion.
A shaky road is now in Yaleriga's hands. Its common name is the "Aether Blocker", and it is composed of primordia sold on the black market and a portable expression device designed by the White Tower. It is somewhat similar in appearance to the wishing box made by Neverland, but it is not that bulky and its functions are completely different. It is only about the size of a palm, like a mini toolbox with a black plastic shell. It is equipped with thirteen prompt lights and two buttons (confirm and cancel). It can just fit Yaleriga into a waist bag without using up any space. Folding device.
She bought it on the black market near the "Purple Arrow" stargate with the help of Lembart. Given its price and distribution method, it is inevitably a bit shoddy, and as everyone knows, the "Ether Shield", although more suitable for White Tower mages, is not as reliable as the "Spirit Field Shield" in protecting mechanical equipment. One of the miniature electronic eyes installed on Yaleriga's back has been damaged. Now she couldn't keep checking what was happening behind her while running, although she might not be able to see anything - they seemed to have run into the out-of-control area of the wishing machine.
A liquid ribbon of light was flowing backwards from their position. This band of light is brilliant and thin, like the long and sparse dust tail of a comet. It is the embodiment of the etheric primordial base, and is probably taken from the moonland where the Camarilla currently resides. It always emerged from the soles of their feet, like a shallow river up to their ankles, but it kept them from falling into the expanding and contracting microscopic world at the bottom. Yaleriga knew that those things were around them. Outside the scope of the ether shield, space no longer maintained a stable normality. Far and near are meaningless, only inside and outside, unless they can "express" a path. Unfortunately, the machine in her hand does not have such a function, and it obviously cannot be traded freely in the black market of the Divine Light Realm. Compilers and converters are on the no-trade list, and have to be adjusted for specific wish machine types. No civilization or individual that owns a wishing machine wants to see others talking freely to the wishing machine. It is already very tolerant to allow those who stray into the environment to safely exit.
The device in her hands does just that. Through the White Tower's "Star Road", they are temporarily isolated from the wishing machine environment. A small bubble in the deep sea, a mini tunnel for water insects. It is to allow those who mistakenly enter the etheric wave or the high spirit zone to safely exit: if they take a step or two in an unknown area and find that the stars do not blink, or are completely upside down, then they will It's time to take out the machine before it's too late, press a button, and run away.
It's not a device designed to get deep into the environment and control the core. Of course Yareliga knew this, and although the idea of mastering a wishing machine was somewhat charming, it wasn't something she particularly wanted. Mostly what she wanted she could get by other means. If it doesn't work, it just means that some kind of concern makes her not really want it that much. Life requires a sense of expectation, and it is not fun to be the target of a higher-level wishing machine. No one would pay attention to what she and Lombart did in the grassy fields in the abandoned land of the Divine Light Realm.
But they cannot turn around and run away. The only existing way to express it has been blocked. Finding room 3050 is really the pinnacle of luck. Little Lunla is used to seeing strangers coming and going, and considers everyone to be her friend. She and Qiaoqiao Tianyi hit it off immediately, but unfortunately they didn't understand each other in the language - not completely. Some words are very similar, such as the pronunciation of names, but other places seem specious. The translator needed to be adjusted and installed, so there was no way to stick a probe openly into Lunla's head, so they had to identify House Zero with her. Three fingers. three. Two fingers. two. One finger. one. No fingers. zero. The concept of numbers is really universal. Based on consistency. Maybe for now.
So they set out on the road to House Zero. So far, everything was going smoothly until they reached the middle of the road and other pedestrians happened to join them. At that time, Yaleriga's reverse electronic eye was not damaged yet. She saw the branch-like shadow spreading behind her - and immediately ran forward. She had already suffered from the evil eye from a murderous cat, and the murderous lizard was obviously worse. She still doesn't know what kind of magic eye it is, whether it can't be looked at or can't be seen. All in all, it’s time to run wild.
Fortunately, they were very close to the end of the road at that time, and the other party might not even notice these fellow travelers. They ran out in one breath, and might have encountered two residents or guards arranged by the wishing machine along the way, so they had no time to take a closer look. Qiaoqiao Tianyi shouted a few warnings, and then they all hid deep in the only building. If you want to avoid being seen by the monster, you really have no other choice.
"That must be a natural disaster!" Qiaoqiao Tianyi said as he ran. On "The Road to the Stars," her voice becomes ethereal and distant, coming from every direction at once. Yaleriga thought about what she meant by natural disaster. It might be some kind of slang term from the League of Dreams. There must have been a lot of trouble in the long history of the Horse Country.
The three indicator lights of the jammer light up red. Yaleriga noticed. She risked a glance behind her and saw a thousand-layered ring of fire rising and spreading in the void. Every angle of the sixteenth-order cylinder was covered with inscriptions, showing both the inner and outer structures. Across both sides of the figure, clusters of white towers floating in the void are faintly visible on the tail of the stardust. This is something that people generally react to by chance on the "Road to the Stars". It is said to be a symbolic image of the Secret Alliance and the Tower of Silver Glory, but it may simply be a formal expression of the primordial foundation of the "Road to the Stars". She glanced to make sure the lizard head was not behind her.
That wasn't really foolproof. After all, she was on the inside, and there was no such thing as remoteness in the outside environment. Lizard Head may appear in front of them at any time, assuming he also has a kind of shielding method. Was he heading towards House Zero from the beginning? If he was coming in to find someone, he should have some way of doing it.
She slowed down. The white light of the jammer is flashing. The other two slowed down with her.
"What's wrong?" Qiaoqiao Tianyi asked. She looked back at the lamp in Yaleriga's hand and made an annoyed voice: "Critical?"
"We got too few primordia," Yaleriga said.
Bodi remained silent, only his eyes showed that he was still observing the situation.
"We can't go deeper." Qiaoqiao Tianyi stepped on the light path under his feet, "The 'Road to the Stars' may disappear at any time."
They never thought there would be a wishing machine here before coming down. Yaleriga thought to herself that at most they only planned to defend the high spiritual field area, maybe the border area of the moon realm. For places where the ether is strong but stable, a masker without compilation will work just fine. But it was different now. The wishing machine environment was too demanding for the one in her hand, like turning a clock into a radiator.
But they can't quit either. That dangerous creature might still be stuck outside. Stop where you are? The risks are the same.
"What should I do?" Qiaoqiao Tianyi asked.
At this time, a light at the bottom of the jammer lit up. It was silver, so it could easily be confused with a critical warning signal, but it was the button furthest from the commonly used indicator light, so Yareliga discovered it immediately. She recalled with some surprise what the light meant: a communication signal received. She told Qiaoqiao Tianyi about this and then pressed the confirmation button.
Paper began to spit out from the output slot behind the shield. A kind of white letter paper often used by White Tower mages for public use. It is said to have a mandatory effect on the signers of documents. Yaleriga pulled out the long roll of paper and saw a portrait painted on the top.
"It's that kid!" Qiaoqiao Tianyi shouted. But she quickly looked again suspiciously.
"Oh, wait a minute," she said, "I've never seen that kid put on a face like that. Is he smiling?"
The portrait on the roll was indeed smiling at them, as if it was hiding an ulterior secret. Guess how I did it? he seemed to be asking. How did I successfully communicate in the wish machine environment?
Yaleriga begins to realize who this avatar actually is. She continued to read, but there was no explanatory text behind it, but a series of alliance-general ether compiler instructions. She studied it uncertainly for a while, and Qiaoqiao Tianyi also poked her head over to take a look. They all felt a little embarrassed to interpret this string of instructions. After all, wishing machine engineering is a highly specialized and complex subject. Qiaoqiao Tianyi bent the tips of his wings and nodded at the first two rows of numbers under the portrait.
"What do you think this is?" she asked.
Yaleriga thought carefully for a while. She really couldn't think of any other possibility.
"Relative coordinates," she said. "There's something very close to us."
