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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Quickly prepare a vehicle and move to the Technical Institute!!”
“Your Ex-Excellency?! You mean right now?!”
“Don’t ask any more questions or voice any objections. This is an order from the President. Move!!”
As soon as Reinhard Himmler, the Chief of Military Police, brought Arwen, President Mikhail headed straight for the Imperial Military Technical Research Institute.
The tide of battle had already turned.
President Mikhail could be certain of that fact.
Luthers Edan’s art of war was astonishing even to someone like himself who had no knowledge of military matters.
Those who know nothing often fail to recognize greatness when they see it.
Would an elementary school student be able to understand quantum mechanics?
They would likely just think it was a bunch of incomprehensible symbols and words strung together.
But what if everything you thought you knew was shattered?
What if cutting an apple in half produced two whole apples, and cutting those in half produced four?
You would be astounded, thinking it must be magic.
In reality, it would either be actual magic or an incredible sleight of hand.
Luthers Edan was exactly like that.
When the Empire was preparing its final counterattack, the western defensive line had collapsed, and Titan guerrilla forces were reducing the western port cities to ashes as they advanced toward the capital Hoenbaren.
The President and the Supreme Command had scraped together elite forces from the north and east, even taking into account the critical gaps this would create in the front lines.
If the capital fell, everything would be over anyway and it seemed certain that the capital would fall.
What was the point in resisting something that was doomed to end?
Weapons were distributed to citizens, and the Imperial Army was given its final leave.
It was a measure allowing soldiers to spend just one day with their families.
In fact, this was something the President had planned for.
What was the point in holding everyone back when they were all going to die anyway?
It was better to let them go see their loved ones one last time.
No matter what they tried, there seemed to be no path to victory, so even the iron-blooded President had resigned himself to fate.
It was at that moment that Luthers Edan, the Lion of Defense, stepped forward.
The Graveyard Fortress under the Northern Command’s jurisdiction.
Even though evacuation orders had been issued for all fronts, they refused to leave that ominous cemetery.
Until then, it had been thought of as merely a last desperate struggle.
But they managed to repel the first, second, and third waves of attacks without a single casualty, and even launched a counteroffensive that cut off Titan reinforcements that had been focused on the western front.
The capital Hoenbaren was saved.
By none other than “Brigadier General” Luthers Edan.
It was an impossible feat.
No, it wasn’t even a strategy that could have come from a human mind in the first place.
In that moment, President Mikhail realized.
That man was of the same breed as himself.
Someone who would not hesitate to achieve his goals, and who could send even his most cherished subordinates to their deaths if necessary.
A shepherd who proudly led the way when foolish people pointed fingers, and a god of war with an undefeated myth.
It was from that time that he began to feel wary of Luthers Edan, while simultaneously harboring a strange sense of kinship – perhaps even admiration.
And now the President was once again facing Luthers Edan.
This time as an assassin and revolutionary throwing a dagger at him.
‘If the north was a bluff, they must have come through the east. The 7th Guard Regiment is responsible for guarding the east, but… given that there’s still no contact, they’ve either joined the rebellion or been crushed.’
Either way, it was certainly not pleasant news and it meant that the main rebel force had likely already approached the outskirts of the capital Hoenbaren.
“Mr. President…”
“Any word from the mechanized infantry battalions of the Capital Defense Command?”
“Only the 1st Battalion is responding. The 2nd Battalion is engaged with an unidentified armored unit, and there’s no response from the 3rd Battalion.”
An unidentified armored unit.
The President sighed with an anxious expression.
Perhaps that too was one of Luthers Edan’s hidden cards.
The President still did not know much about the members of the “Eagle’s Nest” that Supreme Commander Arthur Philias had gathered to oppose him.
He only knew that some war heroes harbored serious resentment against him.
It would have been the perfect excuse to purge them ruthlessly.
However, he knew all too well what price he would pay if he failed.
The fate of a hunter who failed to boil his hounds alive was obvious.
That was why he needed Charlotte.
The Oracle project had to succeed at all costs.
Seeing the future and preparing for that future by establishing grand strategies that would branch out in countless directions.
Yes.
Mikhail Bismarck wanted to become a god.
And now, when everything he had built up was on the verge of collapse.
There was only one thing Mikhail could rely on.
After confirming tens of thousands of possible futures, he had to thoroughly shatter Luthers Edan’s strategy.
“Mr-Mr. President!”
Isaac Oppenheim, the director of the Technical Institute, came running out of the building in a panic.
He looked at the silver-haired woman beside the President, who seemed about to collapse at any moment.
Arwen Orka.
The adjutant of the war hero Luthers Edan, and the Silver Guillotine who had brought him down with her own hands.
Why was she here…?
The director’s question was soon answered.
“Prepare to activate Oracle.”
She was a sacrifice.
A living sacrifice to activate Oracle, which devoured human minds.
“Your Excellency…! Even so, this is…!!”
“Do you want to die, Isaac Oppenheim? The only reason I’ve kept you around is because there’s no one else to fill the director’s position.”
A sinister murderous intent gleamed in the President’s eyes.
“Listen well. Your beloved subordinate, Charlotte Evergreen, has committed an unforgivable act of treason. She should have been dragged to a detention camp and died… but that project is now your lifeline.”
“……”
Isaac Oppenheim was completely overwhelmed by the aura that seemed to freeze even the air around them.
He no longer had any intention of hiding his tainted nature.
What was the point in wearing a mask when everything was falling apart?
“Besides, this woman herself said she would board Oracle.”
“What…? Brigadier General Arwen? B-But as you know, only someone with a very healthy body and mind can be an Oracle project participant…”
“I won’t say it twice. Put her in. Unless you want to go in yourself.”
The old research director’s hands trembled.
At this point, there was no other option anyway.
Helplessly, he turned his back and had no choice but to guide the President’s entourage to where the Oracle project lay dormant.
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The Oracle Project.
When he first heard about it, he thought it was nonsense.
In fact, he still did.
The ultimate goal of the Oracle Project was not just to see the future.
By linking with the Akasha quantum computers scattered across the country due to the war against the Titans, it would establish a vast quantum network.
Through “divine laws” that even renowned scientists could never understand or explain, it would fix the observed future.
It wasn’t just a matter of prophecy.
Fixing the future meant literally forcing that future to come to pass.
Of course, Charlotte, who had been the project leader, had added that with current technology, they couldn’t reach such a level, but…
In any case, it was theoretically possible.
A future where Titans didn’t appear.
A future where the Empire wasn’t manipulated by the President.
And… perhaps it would be possible to fix a future where her unfortunate lover didn’t suffer endlessly.
That was why Arwen had escaped from the detention camp.
At first, she had planned to incite a riot from within and join midway, but she changed her mind.
In the end, the fact that Luthers Edan would be hurt remained unchanged.
At the moment everything was over.
Her lover would undoubtedly pull the trigger on himself.
This time, she had to ‘save’ him.
Charlotte and Lea’s methods alone couldn’t save him from the eternal death he was trapped in.
The premise had been wrong from the start.
“Brigadier General Arwen Orka… are you really sure about this?”
Isaac, who had bought a few minutes under the pretext of adjusting the machine’s stability, asked.
The President only cared about extracting the best results, regardless of the participant’s life or death.
Arwen’s life meant nothing to him, but more accurate and abundant data extracted from a stable situation was crucial.
That was why he had given time for a brief medical test.
Even if they were pressed for time, it would all be for naught if the results were inaccurate.
“Director Isaac… that’s what you were called, right? I heard about you from Charlotte.”
Arwen, now dressed in experimental clothing, looked at Isaac with half-closed eyes.
“…Charlotte! Is, is she still alive?”
“Yes, she asked me to tell you thank you. She said you were a good person, even if you grumbled a lot…”
Isaac bit his lip hard.
“This isn’t right. This is madness. The acceleration rate far exceeds what a human mind can withstand! It’s like pushing someone off a cliff to their death!”
The Oracle Project had also been Isaac’s long-cherished ambition.
Having once served as a soldier himself, he felt guilty about the many young lives lost on the battlefield due to poor decisions.
If they could know the future.
If they could twist the predetermined fate of death.
Perhaps people would no longer have to grieve over unexpected deaths.
But now…
It had become nothing more than a machine voraciously devouring people to satisfy the mad President’s greed.
After the horrific deaths of two participants following Charlotte Evergreen, the Oracle Project had been completely shut down.
Isaac was now left with only the final sacrifice.
“You, you know how to use a gun, right? I’ll help you, if we shoot those two madmen right now…”
But Arwen simply shook her head silently.
If it was about killing, she could have done it long ago.
Though exhausted, the current Arwen was no different from a killing machine that had survived countless battlefields.
If she squeezed out her last bit of strength, she could certainly kill both the Chief of Military Police and the President.
But that wasn’t what she wanted.
“No, it’s alright. This is my duty. Instead, Director…”
Arwen added, forcing a gentle smile.
“Please form the network between Oracle and Akasha. Set the synchronization rate to 100%. Without the slightest error.”
“What? Are you insane?! If we do that, you’ll definitely die! We’ve never attempted 100% synchronization before!”
“Even Charlotte, the only case of success and survival, had a synchronization rate of just 30%! The person who went up to 50% died immediately upon activation, and even the successful 30% resulted in the participant’s mind collapsing!! At 100%, your existence might be overwritten by Oracle. You, you might cease to be you… you could become part of that vast, deep electronic server!”
The moment it activated at 100% synchronization rate, the participant’s body would burn away due to the tremendous heat generated.
Probably not even ashes would remain and the victim’s soul would be mixed into the furnace made of 0s and 1s, assimilated into that vast and unpredictable world.
It was essentially death.
Moreover, it was the annihilation of existence.
But Arwen’s eyes did not waver.
“It’s alright. This is something I must do. To dedicate my life for his victory.”
After all, death was quite familiar to her.
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