Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1775: Dead End (1) [Bonus]

Sylas had only spent half a day learning, but he spent the next three days trying to reconstruct the software he needed... failing every time.

Well, it wasn't that he was failing. More accurately, he realized an approach was bad and had to retreat and take a different approach.

However, he kept seeing problems from so far ahead that it practically looked as though he wasn't making any progress at all.

On the fourth day, he took a step back. His mind was practically running on fumes, but he was unwilling to give up. The time constraint he had set was rapidly shrinking.

He had already used up over a week on defeating a Cryst Emperor, and he still had one more Quest to clear. Though...

[Quest Pass (Legendary) (Ticket)]

[Instantly pass any progression-type F-Grade Quest up to the Legendary Grade]

[Use: 1/1]

Sylas had received this from the Champion Dungeon. He hadn't wanted to use it because it was an extremely valuable reward that could be used on someone other than himself. And even if he was forced to use it on himself, there were any number of things he could use it on.

He had two Classes and three Professions. He had always felt that Reaper Sealwright needed it much more if that day ever came. So as long as it was somewhat possible to do things on his own, there was no need to use it.

There were many people who relied on him that could make far better use of it as well. If there was someone who had an impossible task ahead of them, he was more confident in himself to clear his own than to hope someone he cared about didn't die.

But if he was too slow, then that was exactly what would happen. It wouldn't make sense to continue hoarding the reward at that point. He would have to make use of it... It was just a huge waste if he used it on a Quest he felt would be mind-numbingly easy for him to complete.

'... What approach have I not thought of...?'

There were only so many ways you could try to enhance a person's mind. Ultimately, it fell into two main categories.

The first was increasing efficiency. The second was increasing capacity.

Andromeda tried to do both, but its execution was poor.

It used time to slow things down and try to give the brain more time to process. It used space to compress and concentrate information into bite-sized pieces that could be better comprehended.

Both of these methods required exceptional affinity for both. Without time affinity, any dilations would distort information beyond the point of understanding, almost like trying to read something through a funny mirror. Without space affinity, the bite-sized pieces information was concentrated into would look like the gibberish-like shorthand of a doctor.

The processing was mostly done by the machine itself, and then it would be passed along to the one using it in a streamlined way which, once again, could only be deciphered by someone with the appropriate affinities.

But this was also the bottleneck of Andromeda. The machine itself was processing and understanding everything first, and then forcing its driver to do the same.

The two seemed to be working in tandem but weren't actually at all. And because the machine was restraining itself so that those of all tiers could use it, the result contained additional artificial bottlenecks that weren't just of poor design, but also poor choices.

First, Sylas had wanted to see if he could do something without relying on Time and Space. This was for two reasons. First, he wanted to grasp the fundamental underlying theory of enhancing the mind through technology first, and second, because he wanted to solidify this concept before his itch to incorporate Rune Mastery became too overwhelming.

Spacetime was the foundation of his Rune Mastery Path. That, and the Void now. If he started with Spacetime, it would inevitably mesh and overlap, and his personal grasp of this new path would be handicapped.

Sylas wasn't opposed to trying to find a way to fuse them. In fact, he wanted to. But his Rune Mastery Path was so powerful right now that it would inevitably swallow up the Omnimous Path.

So, he had tried to use a path of pure technology to increase his mental capacity.

The first thing he tried was something that formed a feedback loop with his neurons.

He had taken his fair share of biology classes, and one neuroscience class. He knew that there were neurons sheathed in fat cells, and ones that weren't. Those that were sheathed were far faster and much more efficient.

So, theoretically, there was a lot more potential in the brain. Sheathing all of his neurons in fat cells wouldn't be an act of technology, but what if he programmed an Al that could guess at what synapses he wanted to complete ahead of time and skip over neurons right to the end?

That one had failed for obvious reasons. A synapse wasn't just a start and end result-the entire chain mattered.

So Sylas pivoted. Instead of getting the Al to jump right to the end, he thought to trigger them all at once. Once the Al was sure of what it wanted to accomplish, it would flash them all into being in an instant.

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He realized before he even finished that the chain of neurons mattered-yes-but so too did their activation sequencing and the speed and rhythm with which they fired.

Sylas ended up going down a rabbit hole, trying to find a method to use Al to replace his firing synapses to the best degree possible, in the end wasting a full three days.

Every idea he shot down led to a better one, but ultimately, not a single one of them was good enough.

Now he had pissed away three days and had nothing at all to show for it.

He stood in silence, sweat beading down his brow as he caught his breath.

To the side, though, a floating cube was staring at him intensely.

'D

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