Lin suddenly walked toward Ren, unnoticed by the others. Although the group had initially agreed to work together, everyone was now so engrossed in their own experiments that only a few were actively interacting.

As curious as people were, they seemed to take immense joy in learning and discovering things independently, no longer burdened by dread.

“Do you mind turning everything off for a moment?” Lin asked simply as he approached Ren. The boy seemed surprised at first, but a small smile crossed his face, as if he had been entertaining the same thought.

“Right,” Ren replied, complying with Lin’s request and deactivating all the Echo functions running on his screen. He then added,

“Does it shrink?”

His question was casual and without elaboration, which might have confused most people. But Lin only shook his head, glancing at the string that still connected their Soulexes.

“No...” he said, holding his chin thoughtfully.

Lin’s working theory was that the thickness of the Soulex strings created by Echo depended on the amount of Soulex an individual was actively using. For instance, Sera, who was scanning just one individual, had a much thinner string attached to her Soulex than Ren, who had been scanning three targets simultaneously. Yet, even after Ren had stopped all three scans, the string connecting him to Lin remained the same size.

Ren, also appearing puzzled, suggested, “Maybe it takes time to shrink?”

Lin shook his head. “That would still be bad,” he replied bluntly.

Ren paused, then nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, seems like it. If the target starts off with a huge Soulex spike, casting Echo Target on them might invest a proportional amount of Soulex to monitor them,” Ren said, matching Lin’s train of thought.

“Right. They could artificially spike their Soulex to bait you into targeting them, then drop it to a lower emission while you continue burning a lot of Soulex to monitor them,” Lin added, his expression darkening.

In contrast, Ren still seemed to find the experimentation enjoyable, like most others in the group.

“I’m guessing Echo Target prepares for possibilities presented by the target. Kind of like a flexible drainage pipe,” Ren muttered suddenly.

Lin glanced up at him, slightly confused by the random analogy. Ren, however, didn’t seem to find it strange and continued explaining.

“If a lot of water flows through it, the pipe expands to match the flow, and then, after the water slows down, it gradually shrinks back to its original size,” Ren explained.

Lin shrugged. “I’m familiar with expandable pipes,” he said flatly.

Ren chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

“Ah, sorry. I was just trying to hypothesize that maybe it works like that, but on a permanently expanding basis. Think about it—if someone was using Echo Target on 20 individuals and you targeted them, you’d get almost 20 notifications in the next 10 to 20 seconds. Now, if they dropped down to targeting just one person, and your Echo Target string adjusted to become thinner, you’d lose a lot of information if they suddenly switched back to 20 targets right after. That delay in adjustment could make you miss critical data,” Ren elaborated.

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Lin nodded thoughtfully but still seemed somewhat skeptical.

The experiments they were conducting were still confined to only one element of the God System. If Echo could detect other elements, they might eventually face scenarios where over 50 status notifications appeared in rapid succession, each relaying the ever-changing state of a target's Soulex in battle.

Constantly adjusting from thin strings to thicker ones would be counterproductive, given the lag in how quickly information updates on the status window. The most efficient solution Echo seemed to employ was to use the maximum amount of information a target had previously generated as the baseline for future interactions. This way, the string created would always be able to handle an equivalent data load for the foreseeable future. Consequently, if a Soulex string became thicker, it stayed that way permanently.

That’s a much better analysis, Lin thought, shaking his head at Ren’s earlier explanation. Although Ren understood the concept, his explanation had been overly convoluted.

“I guess it’s good enough. As for the eyes…” Lin said, mentally shifting away from the topic. He squinted slightly, considering something. Ren seemed to catch on quickly and nodded.

“Ah, right. I’ll use it now.”

Ren activated Echo Sight, meeting Lin’s gaze, which reflected the same element in use. Is that it? Lin frowned, squinting harder as he observed the white Soulex swirling around Ren, trying to discern something meaningful.

“Switch it off,” he muttered. Ren complied, prompting Lin to let out a quiet sigh. Ren, who had tried to analyze the same phenomenon, offered a wry smile and muttered,

“I don’t see anything either.”

To his surprise, Lin shook his head.

“There’s a change, but it’s not noticeable from a distance,” he replied, his tone carrying a hint of displeasure despite Ren’s curious expression. Noticing Ren’s interest, Lin elaborated.

“For one, the Soulex above your eyes, just at your forehead, tilts slightly to the left while moving upward,” he explained.

Ren’s expression shifted to mild surprise as he reactivated Echo Sight, focusing on Lin’s forehead. Lin deactivated his own Echo Sight, and as if coming to a realization, Ren’s face lit up with surprise.

“Ah, wow, you’re right. Your Soulex moves vertically upward the moment it seeps out, except for the aura around your forehead—it tilts slightly when you activate Echo Sight,” Ren said, practically repeating Lin’s observation in one breath. Lin only shrugged in response.

Noticing Lin’s lack of enthusiasm, Ren added,

“Mmm. It might be impossible to see that when someone is more than two meters away from you,” he concluded, reaching the same understanding Lin had moments earlier.

This meant that, unless you had exceptionally sharp eyes, you wouldn’t notice any visible changes in a person’s Soulex when they used Echo Sight. The two continued exchanging information, eventually realizing that neither of them had uncovered anything the other hadn’t already figured out. While Lin was fully absorbed in the process, he didn’t consider it remarkable that Ren could keep up with his pace; he treated him as he would anyone else.

“Okay, everyone, I think we’re all done with Echo, right? Should we move to the next one, or is there anyone who didn’t understand something?” Sera suddenly addressed the group. Her words prompted everyone to glance around, but no one raised their hand. The calm atmosphere seemed to foster a natural ability among many to grasp new concepts quickly. While some were slower to catch on, small groups had formed to help each other learn a few tricks.

“Ah, I guess not,” Sera muttered, sounding a little disappointed. It was as if she had been looking forward to teaching anyone who needed help.

“Then I’m sure everyone can move on to the next one. We’ll just continue as we’ve been doing,” she said. The group nodded collectively, with most members deactivating Echo and starting to test the next element.

Lin, however, kept Echo Sight active. He skimmed through his status screen, preparing to cast the next element. While most were focused on experimenting with the status window and trying different variations of Echo, Lin and a few others delved deeper, attempting to uncover the principles behind Soulex itself—reverse-engineering the data their screens were interpreting from the world around them.

“Form, huh,” Ren muttered beside him, reading through his status window and nodding thoughtfully. As they had done with the previous element, they immediately began dissecting its mechanics, just like everyone else around them.

Creating matter... Lin thought to himself. This was the element he’d been most curious about, and even as he read through its description, a flood of questions surfaced in his mind.