CHAPTER 1955 PAIN AND PLEASURE
It was never his intention.
When he took to calling his domain system the Yggdrasil System, this had never been his intention.
Yet, it magically clicked.
The more data he received from the Elder Tree, the more he could see patterns that stretched throughout the tree of life itself. These patterns bound the Tree of Life together within a single tree. They were the tree. Without these patterns, the Tree of Life would crumble.
The depths of his eyes stirred.
The endless void that resided within them stirred, surging forth.
Where there were patterns, there could be pattern recognition.
A predictive model across all life in the world.
Yet, this predictive model would not predict their movements like his other predictive models.
No, this predictive model would predict which environment was the most optimal for a given beast or monster. And from the most optimal environment, the most antithetical environment could also be derived.
On top of that, this predictive model could be applied to all life, even beyond the Elder Tree's knowledge. "This is it…" A whisper escaped him as his pupils dilated. "This is the power I sought. The power to adaptively evolve to all life anywhere in the world."
The ecstasy of his epiphany and the agony of this knowledge converged in his mind, becoming one.
"AAAAARGRHHHHAHAHAAGARAHAHAHAGAGHRAGAHRARAHA!!!" A guttural scream of agony merged with ecstatic laughter, forming an unholy union.
"MORE!" He bellowed at the Elder Tree. "GIVE ME MORE!!!"
A maniacally wide grin appeared on his face as the Elder Tree obliged with his request, giving him even more information. Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
"AAAAARFGRHRGHRGRHRHRGHRBRGRHR!!!" At that moment, nobody could be certain of Rui's sanity. Of course, he had never been the most…normal. However, even Kane had to admit that he was reaching new levels of madness. Pain became pleasure.
The more pain he experienced, the deeper his epiphany rang.
He didn't have the mental capacity to simultaneously create a predictive model while processing the enormous flood of information. Yet, a newfound drive rose within him that allowed him to weather the painful influx of information.
A predictive model across all life. The Tree of Life.
How could he die before he completed it?
How could he become a vegetable before he completed it?
How could he lose his mind before he completed it?
He couldn't.
The desire to construct the Tree of Life predictive model for the Yggdrasil System burned in the depths of his heart, reaching unprecedented levels of drive.
Even at that moment, an unfathomable agony burned deep within the depths of his mind.
Yet, he smiled.
A powerful torrent of information deeper than anything he had experienced before eroded away at who he was.
Yet, he smiled. Even in the face of fates far worse than death, he smiled.
The more pain he felt, the closer he got to elevating the Yggdrasil System to a place worth its name, worthy of the Tree of Life.
He had yet to endeavor down this venture, for he was too busy actually processing the excruciatingly painful torrent of information that flooded his mind. However, a vision of the future thundered his head.
The future of the Yggdrasil System.
A future that he was driven to reach from the depths of his soul.
An endless ocean of beasts and monsters stretched out as far as the eye could see.
They faced him, surging forth.
Yet the Tree of Life bloomed, supplying Rui with the answer. It showed him the truth.
The truth about how to adaptively evolve the world antithetically to each and every single one of the beasts and monsters that sought to defeat him.
In just a moment, he felled all the beasts and monsters with powerful domains that encompassed each and every single one of them, killing them on the spot.
This was the future that he was working towards.
It was superior to what he had previously planned.
Simply relying on the Elder Tree's knowledge as a database was not optimal.
The Elder Tree was indeed familiar with most species in the Beast Domain. However, that did not mean he was familiar with all of them. It was impossible to be familiar with all life.
That was why Rui sought to create a predictive model out of the database that the Elder Tree had bequeathed to him. By extracting the patterns of life, he could construct a predictive model for all life, the Tree of Life, which bound all life with patterns.
Just the very thought of it excited him. All he needed to do was let the VOID algorithm swallow up all the information that the Elder Tree gave him, process it, and it would output the Tree of Life predictive model from the pattern recognition system.
From the depths of the void would bloom the Tree of Life.
It was poetic.
And it was precisely this poetry that he was chasing.
His desire to manifest that poetry inflamed his Martial Drive to unprecedented levels.
At that moment, he was more driven than he had ever been in his entire life.
"AAAARGHHRGRJAHAHAHAGAAHARAHAGRHAHAGRRGAGRG!!!" A horrifying fusion of ecstasy and agony echoed through the Garden of Salvation.
The first session lasted six hours, although it felt like an eternity to Rui. The Elder Tree, thanks to the medical knowledge he inherited from the Divine Doctor, was able to detect the signs of physiological stress and strain reaching dangerous levels and promptly put an end to the first session.
"Zzzz…." Never before had a man fallen asleep as quickly as Rui did the moment the Elder Tree put an end to the first session of knowledge inheritance, instantly falling into a deep sleep as his brain indulged in some desperately needed rest. The Elder Tree simply stared at Rui in wonder. Not even in its wildest dreams had it expected that a mere Martial Senior would have been able to survive an information influx so powerful that any other Martial Senior would have long been turned into a vegetable!
What an unfathomable affinity for thought. The Elder Tree realized. Should he ever break through to the Master Realm…
For all its centuries of experience with life, it was unable to fathom the endless potential within Rui.
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