Isaac stared at the magical device at the center of the table like it was a delicate piece of artwork, or maybe a terrified small animal that might die of fright if he so much as gave it a stern look.

It was also a mess of wires, rune plates delicately balanced on said wires, fragile glass connectors, and things Isaac barely had a name for, let alone understood.

But it worked, sort of.

There was a summoning circle on the floor next to the blocker, flickering and throwing ephemeral sparks. It had been like that for almost an hour.

“How much longer do you think it’ll keep wor- …” Raul’s question was cut off by the blocker outright shattering as a Death Knight erupted from the summoning circle.

In most places in the world, the appearance of this monster would have been the opening second of a bloodbath.

In this room, it barely lived long enough to be recorded on the camera filming the experiment before it was torn to shreds by spells and blades.

“Unfortunately, we can’t seem to be able to make the effect permanent,” Han noted.

“The question is if it’s a fundamental issue with the process, where summoning, once initiated, cannot be reversed, only paused, or if we’re going to keep pursuing perfection,” Kim stated.

“Have we seen any indication that summoning pressure will let up?” Isaac asked rhetorically. They all knew it hadn’t. Just constant, inexorable pressure until whatever barriers they’d slammed in place inevitably shattered.

“An hour’s worth of delay is plenty of time to mount a response,” Yo-jin said from the door, where he’d just entered, “At what point can you detect the fact that it’s actively blocking something?”

“Basically immediately,” Kim said.

“Then it would be for the best to focus on material efficiency,” Yoo-jin said, “It’s good enough to prevent attacks on major population centers, it needs to be cheap enough to produce to be manufactured en masse.”

And now that the conversation had turned to real-world issues, Isaac felt he could start raining on everyone’s parade too.

“Can you make this technology trackable, or develop a technique that can track it from a distance?” Isaac asked, “This is incredible, don’t get me wrong, but this could be very counterproductive. Someone could activate a whole lot of summoning circles when one of those plates is active and be on the other side of the planet until by the time any monsters appear.”

“That should be possible,” Kim said after tapping her chin thoughtfully a few times.

“It’s almost more important than figuring out how to improve the blockers themselves,” Isaac said, “Otherwise, any improvements to them will also increase their danger.”

That killed the mood even more effectively than the previous statement.

But for all the potential negatives that could stem from this, the entire concept of blocking summoned monsters was incredible.

Once the plates got cheap enough, the only places monsters could be summoned would be in the wilderness or designated summoning areas. Well, instantly summoned. The monsters could be called into population centers but by the time they emerged, countermeasures would already have been prepared.

Hell, more advanced plates might be able to relocate summoned monsters, pushing them out of their radius to not just delay but prevent attacks on population centers.

And they were absolutely perfect for interrupting hostile attempts at summoning [Boss] monsters even when the preparations were almost complete.

The advantages this timeline had over the other one were countless, but somehow, this one felt a hell of a lot more impactful than all of the rest.

After a longer and more in-depth conversation, Isaac made his way back home via plane. Sure, under almost all circumstances, he hated the idea of getting stuck in a metal tube with absolutely nothing productive to do, but honestly, he needed the enforced break. Time to think without the constant background discussions about the science of messing with summoning.

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Professor Kim was an impressive scientist, Isaac had always known that, but this and her previous work had gone above and beyond any expectations he’d had for any researcher, let alone one he wasn’t constantly feeding info.

The [Round Table] still had two slots open, ones they’d been saving for people with a bit more political influence. Habicht was great, Arthur was also influential, both Isaac and Bailey had a lot more influence than mere scientists really should, but overall, their organization lacked some political oomph.

But finding political animals that were also trustworthy to the degree they required? That was kinda hard.

Perhaps, just maybe, it was time to axe that plan, and instead of constantly pursuing a politician when there were others who would bring quite a lot to the table. And wielded political influence without actually belonging to that nest of vipers.

Dr. Han, while a very sweet person, was not in a position to exert much influence in South Korea as he was, at the end of the day, North Korean. Yes, he was a defector who’d thoroughly trashed the entire North Korean nuclear program and played a vital part in defeating the Demon Lord that had been sicced on Seoul during the early days of the [System], but unfortunately, his origins were still held against him.

But Professor Kim did not only boast scientific achievements equal to any other member of the [Round Table], she’d figured out the dual nature of the [System] all on her own.

Isaac left a quick note to talk about that on the table, then pulled back out and simply tried to melt into his business-class seat, push away all the worries, just put his feet up and make sure most of his [Aura] was outside the plane, the only things that could be sensed being air and clouds.

And for almost an hour, he managed to relax. But in time, he slipped into the round table and began to tear into the folders of other potential members.

What was needed?

Enough power to have an impact, be it personal or political.

The right temperament to work with the Round Table, including a willingness to work in the shadows.

Preferably someone with a completely new viewpoint, one that wasn’t “scientist”, “police chief” or “basically a mercenary”.

And, perhaps, it might be a good idea to spread out their members a bit in terms of geography. Right now, they were very much concentrated in Germany, England, and South Korea. There was Jason, who was from Canada, but he was very much a free spirit, with seemingly no real power in or connection to his homeland. And Fenrir, obviously, but he’d moved to the Antarctic basically the day the [System] had arrived and exerted power more on a global scale, rather than focussing on his homeland in a noticeable way.

There were quite a few possibilities. Either Davy Jones or Captain Nemo were options, obviously, but Isaac wasn’t quite sure if either of them would carry the day like, say, he or Elena could.

Hell, if he weren’t practically guaranteed to blow a gasket at learning of the existence of the [Round Table], Ardouin would have been perfect.

And then there were another twenty or so people that the members of the table had crossed paths with, gotten interested in, and looked into for potential membership. That might not have gone anywhere, but the files still existed.

Areti Tassa, the Greek S-Ranker who loved to box the ears of powerful idiots, usually metaphorically, sometimes literally. Powerful, willing to stand up for what was right, though possibly a bit too unsubtle for their needs.

Carmelo Basile, who’d become the [Heir of Marcus Agrippa], was incredibly capable and would have been a fantastic addition, though he’d mostly been limited to supporting the Italian military, so Isaac wasn’t sure how well he’d play in an international group that ignored the concerns of nations as individuals.

Isaac kept looking through the lists until he hit a name he fondly remembered from the other timeline. He might have been dismissed from consideration when they were looking for raw political power at the highest echelons, but once that got dismissed as being unrealistic … then Typo would be his first choice.

Of course, “Typo” was a nickname, his real name was Owen Price, but apparently, it was a nickname present in both timelines.

The Australian S-Ranker used a combination of his soulbound gun and sound magic to devastating effect. Sound was the best way to sense people when you didn’t have line of sight, but it was one he could entirely suppress, to say nothing of the offensive application of the element.

As for the nickname, it was simple. Whatever his current [Class] might have been, his 3rd Evolution had been called [Gunsinger], something that had ended up on quite a few official forms in the past. However, most people who’d seen those forms had thought it was just a typo, and assumed he was a [Guns-l-inger], with it looking as though he were categorically incapable of properly spelling his [Class’] name.

The misunderstanding had been cleared up, but the nickname stuck.

He was one of the world’s most dangerous snipers, an expert at sneaking around, and devastating when he shifted his gun into something easier to handle and unleashed the true depths of his sound magic.

He wasn’t the best person in the world with a gun, for example, Müller, being a pure sniper, was obviously stronger from the gun-wielder angle, but Price was deadlier overall.

Isaac set another memo on the table about how he might be a good candidate.

That done, Isaac withdrew from the table and tried to get comfortable in his seat. Tried being the operative word.

… In hindsight, trying to force himself to relax by locking himself in a metal tube had been a truly terrible idea.

So he kept working, this time, focusing on how to figure out a prank that Loki would enjoy.