"Don't you want to know what happened, big brother?" Mana raised an eyebrow.
"The details don't matter as much, but yes." Rui nodded. "Whenever you want to."
Mana paused for a moment, before sighing. "We ran into a Martial Apprentice. He broke my jaw and Max's ribs."
That was about as strong as any justification for a loss one could have. Of course, that didn't make things better, a loss was still a loss.
"By the time we could even gather ourselves, it was already over." Max gritted his teeth. "That girl, Crea Jenken? She broke through to the Apprentice Realm and wiped the floor with that other Martial Apprentice. Damn, I wish I was li-"
"Wait." Rui paused abruptly, trying to conceal his shock with a mind mask. "You're telling me a girl broke through?"
"Yeah." Max nodded.
"Her name was Crea Jenken? You're sure?" He asked in an unassuming tone.
"Pretty sure that's what they called her when they passed her." Max scratched his head.
The two would have noticed something odd in his demeanor had they been in a normal state of mind, but they were too consumed by themselves to do so.
"Mmm..." Rui nonchalantly nodded.
Inside, though...
('What the fuck...?') Rui was truly shocked. ('No, what the actual fuck??')
He had no idea how Crea broke through to the Apprentice Realm so soon and in the middle of the entrance exam. He was sure that she was still very far away from becoming a Martial Apprentice, yet she threw his consideration out of the window and began traversing her Martial Path.
('But how?? Nothing has changed since three months ago in her life except...')
His eyes widened a bit. ('...Me.')
He considered the implications that could potentially be inferred.
('The discovery of the Martial Path is fundamentally about self-awareness...') Rui noted as he came to a realization. ('In the past three months, I have been systematically increasing her awareness and cognizance of her patterns, her strengths and weaknesses, and other things dramatically... Could it be that...?')
Could it be that the VOID algorithm could be applied to aid with the self-exploration process needed to gain the degree of self-awareness to discover one's Martial Path?
('Have I discovered a way to increase the rate at which people break through?')
A shiver crept down his spine.
"Are you ok, big brother?" Mana asked, noticing it.
"Haha, it's just a little cold today."
"But you're sweating."
"It's humid, after all."
('If the Martial Union finds out...')
He didn't even want to consider what would happen if they found out about his strong suspicions. He would be the golden goose that could accelerate the journey to breaking through to the Apprentice Realm.
Such a capability was game-changing, it was revolutionary. It could change the standstill political struggle between the Martial Union and the Royal Family. It could allow Martial Art to truly overrun the world and become the most powerful force on the continent.
Of course, these were highly fanciful extrapolations, and the situation was infinitely more complex and nuanced than that. However, there were many more considerations that flew into his head that were perhaps more relevant to him.
The various Martial Sects and factions would very well wage a civil war to get their hands on the method of facilitating breakthroughs at a higher rate. If any stakeholder got their hands on him, they would force him to spit out the method to increase the rate of breakthroughs of Martial Artists and get him to pass it on. Naturally, this would be difficult because not anyone can learn the VOID algorithm and apply it as well as he does.
He would forever be embroiled in all kinds of entities interested in harnessing such a capability.
Such a future was highly undesirable. The logical decision to be made from such a conclusion would be to never divulge it and never let anyone figure out the truth.
('Wait.') He sighed inwardly, pausing his overexcited self. ('I don't know for sure that my suspicions are true. I have only one test subject, meaning only one data point to observe, that is far from enough objective evidence to be confident that there is a correlation between my training and the probability of breakthrough.') owns all content.
His inner scientist quickly restored his rationality that had been momentarily dispelled by paranoia and shock. He needed more data to make sure he wasn't dreaming up something out of thin air. It would be really embarrassing if all of this was just wrong, and Crea broke through because of her own latent talent and some good luck.
But he had a very strong feeling that he was onto something here. He just needed more empirical data.
He glanced at the crestfallen Max and Mana with a glint of interest. Unlike Crea, he knew these two very well, he had known them their entire lives practically, which meant that the effects of long-term VOID algorithm training were something that he could verify more thoroughly in the cases of these two. There would be less uncertainty whether he made a meaningful concrete impact on their breakthrough than there currently was with Crea.
('I'll have to spend more time with them.') Rui noted.
Thankfully, Crea had broken through and gone to the Martial Academy, meaning he didn't need to train her anymore since the objective had been fulfilled.
He originally wanted to relax his schedule a bit, but it was clear that he needed to get to the bottom of this, thus it seemed that his busy life in the past three months wouldn't get any easier in the meantime.
('Should I consult Julian about this?') Rui wondered.
It was extremely tempting, Julian had studied breakthrough to the Apprentice Realm extensively and, given his sharp insight, would certainly be able to help Rui out in some way or the other. But, given the sensitivity of the topic, he decided to abstain from revealing it to him for the time being. He could revisit the decision if he had any trouble regarding the matter.