HUM!!!
The vast void howled and shrieked as the endless cosmos convulsed incessantly.
Having endured an unfathomable span of 10^64 years, Seraphine finally returned to real-time.
Though that stretch of time was nearly endless, she had Murray Manson and Mattu · Erice by her side, so boredom and loneliness never once crossed her mind.
However, the sheer despair churned out by Mattu · Erice was simply too concentrated.
Accumulating across epochs, it almost overloaded and blew apart the very cage holding him.
So, during this period, Seraphine thoughtfully reinforced his prison multiple times, even going out of her way to dial up his time perception by another 10^22 times.
She pushed it to an insane level where a single second in the real world felt like 10^20 years of torment inside.
Truth be told, Mattu · Erice was a freakish prodigy.
His pain tolerance and sheer output when generating high-grade despair were off the charts.
Seraphine gradually came to treat him as a prized asset: a high-yield engine of pure agony.
Never one to waste good resources, Seraphine took Mattu · Erice along with the massive reservoir of despair brewed over hundreds of quintillions of years.
And packaged it all up to deliver straight to the Karmic Hindrance of All Beings stationed far beyond this space-time, giving it a massive boost toward higher realms.
Upon receiving this new engine, the Karmic Hindrance of All Beings treated it like the ultimate jackpot, integrating him straight into its body.
The moment it absorbed that colossal wave of suffering, its very form mutated as its power skyrocketed uncontrollably.
After bursting the observable universe of its parallel space-time, it swiftly condensed into a colossal cocoon spanning a hundred billion light-years in diameter, plunging into an esoteric, eerie metamorphosis.
During this violent transformation, Seraphine (True Body) remotely invoked her Authority of Change, multiplying that agony engine from one to four, four to a hundred, a hundred to hundreds of millions...
She duplicated and split a single engine into a tresvigintillion of them, assembling an Erice Agony Array a hundred million light-years wide, driving the Karmic Hindrance of All Beings' evolution to unprecedented heights.
It couldn't be helped: Seraphine (True Body) had become far too overpowered, making her wrath and hatred avatar look embarrassingly weak by comparison.
The True Body simply had to step in and give her avatar a massive boost.
Likewise, fueled by that staggering expanse of 10^64 years, the scale of Seraphine's interference field skyrocketed from 10^10, 512, 000, 000, 000, 000, 105, 120, 000, 105, 130, 512, 104, 910 Great Boundaries all the way to 10^10, 512, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 010, 512, 000, 000, 000, 000, 105, 120, 000, 105, 130, 512, 104, 910 Great Boundaries.
Her raw attribute values also spiked violently from 10^10, 522, 950, 000, 000, 000, 106, 215, 000, 116, 084, 454, 149, 821 Great Boundaries to 10^10, 513, 095, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 010, 522, 950, 000, 000, 000, 106, 215, 000, 116, 084, 454, 149, 821 Great Boundaries.
And under the weight of that mind-boggling 10^64 time-stack, [Self-Surge], having undergone its fifth metamorphosis, saw its daily multiplier explode from 10^2880000-fold per day to a staggering 10^28800000-fold per day.
As for the [Infinite Attributes] system's daily 10^300-fold boost, contrasted against the terrifying scaling of Self-Surge, it was utterly eclipsed, reduced to non-recyclable garbage.
Not even worth mentioning.
However, the growth curve of [Self-Surge] had now hit a relative bottleneck, making further breakthroughs difficult.
The reason it was relative rather than absolute was because while Self-Surge's evolutions are technically limitless, Seraphine estimated that achieving a sixth metamorphosis would require undergoing another 10^128 years.
10^128 years, that duration was just too absurdly long.
So vast that even if Seraphine did nothing else but burn through 10^64 years of her own timeline every Planck second, it would still take roughly 10^20 consecutive years of continuous erasure just to barely cross the threshold.
The sheer timeframe was one hurdle, but another issue was that after thoroughly combing through the memories of Heavenly Hegemon, Seraphine had reached a sudden realization.
Even if Self-Surge underwent another three, four, five, or six evolutions, supplemented by using the Authority of Change to fast-forward time, she would still need an unfathomably long duration to ever touch the threshold of the String God tier.
That's right: the sheer power-scaling of a String God was just that ridiculous.
From the racial memories of the String race, the absolute prerequisite to stepping into the String God hierarchy was mastering Greater Divinity; otherwise, their very existence couldn't bear the load of such overwhelming power.
As for how immense this power, or rather, the interference field scale of the String God tier actually was?
That exact metric was 10^10^3003.
This figure was so unfathomably colossal that even when compared against a mammoth number like 10^37218383881977644441306597687849648128, the latter was rendered practically nonexistent.
Because the seemingly astronomical 10^37218383881977644441306597687849648128, when converted to this tiered exponential notation, barely clocked in at less than 10^10^38.
So how does one even begin to conceptualize a number like 10^10^3003?
It's actually quite simple.
If 10^3003 is a 1 followed by 3,003 zeros,
then 10^10^3003 is a 1 followed by 10^3003 zeros.
Theoretically speaking, a String God who is completely flawless across every parameter, scope, output, and precision, could effortlessly erase all 10^10^3003 Static 3D Great Boundaries into total oblivion in a fraction of a Planck second as minuscule as 1 / 10^10^37.
Even those several 10^108 Non-Static Global-Inflation 3D Great Boundaries that had been eternally expanding across several 10^108 years would, under the casual glance of a flawless String God, instantly dissolve like wisps of fragile smoke and re-manifest in the next breath; in fact, this continuous cycle of destruction and rebirth would repeat several 10^56 times in a single instant under that sheer force.
For Seraphine to brute-force her way up to such a terrifying scale purely through [Self-Surge] was not impossible.
However, the timeframe she would have to endure would be horrifyingly, unfathomably vast.
Yet an entity this absurdly dominant, far eclipsing the so-called supreme creator gods found in the mythologies of countless lower-dimensional civilizations, was still not true upper-echelon within the String Civilization, barely qualifying as middle-tier.
Because to the true juggernauts of the String race, to the String Ancestors towering at a vastly higher plane, String Gods were still nothing more than motes of dust so frail they were virtually nonexistent.
And as for that far superior String Ancestor tier, Seraphine finally glimpsed deep within Heavenly Hegemon's memories the sheer nightmare of a number defining their true power scale.
That value was 10^10^37, 218, 383, 881, 977, 644, 441, 306, 597, 687, 849, 648, 128.
Just like 10^10^3003, 10^10^37,218,383,881,977,644,441,306,597,687,849,648,128 equates to a 1 followed by 10^37, 218, 383, 881, 977, 644, 441, 306, 597, 687, 849, 648, 128 zeros.
Theoretically speaking, if a String Ancestor who was completely flawless across scope, output, and precision went all out to execute Seraphine.
She would, in all likelihood, be erased instantly, devoid of any ability to resist.
That's right: even with Seraphine wielding a true infinity-tier offensive skill like Shūkyoku, she would still fall.
Because for a String Ancestor at such an absurd scale, their precision is equally horrifying.
So-called precision encompasses both action speed and reaction latency.
And the vast majority of mystical abilities, so long as they aren't true infinity-tier, whether active or passive, look agonizingly sluggish before speed that shatters all reason, slow to the point of being practically frozen in place.
For instance, suppose a lower-precision entity possesses an instant causal-lock, 100x retaliatory strike passive triggered upon taking damage.
The word instant in that ability's description, if stripped of ambiguity and held under rigorous scrutiny, inevitably translates to a concrete duration of time; it can never be a true, infinitesimal zero on the temporal axis.
Consequently, when a low-precision entity duels a high-precision entity, they stand frozen like a lifeless wooden statue; the high-precision combatant could leisurely inspect them for ages before striking, unloading tens of 10^56 attacks in an infinitesimal fraction of time.
Yet the low-precision entity wouldn't register a thing, wiped out without ever realizing they were attacked.
Just like Seraphine's Shūkyoku.
No matter how divine or game-breaking it was, activating it still inherently cost time.
Even if that time was compressed down to a fraction of a Planck second as minuscule as 1 / 10^56.
To a String Ancestor, or even a String God, that brief window was still an ocean of time for them to act with total impunity.
Unless the enemy String God or String Ancestor was brain-dead enough to purposely refuse dodging, skip all intel-gathering, and just face-tank the hit point-blank purely to flex how invincible they were.
Yet obviously, across the entirety of endless space-time, no lifeform capable of ascending to the String God or String Ancestor tier could ever be that idiotic; on the contrary, every single one of them would be overwhelmingly cunning, ruthless, and calculating.
As for whether it was feasible to pull off an upset against a String God or String Ancestor with mere String Sovereign tier power...
Seraphine considered it for a split second and deemed it practically impossible.
It couldn't be helped; reality was just that brutal.
Facing an opponent who was faster by a factor of several 10^108, juggling various gimmicky abilities, was practically pointless; it was pure suicide.
One could only admit that the String race truly lived up to their name as a 6D Civilization.
Their 13-tier power system was outright ridiculous.
Especially the final four tiers; each leap was so absurdly massive that individuals on adjacent tiers barely seemed to belong to the same species.
"Seriously, why scale them so damn high?"
Faced with such an astronomical disparity, even Seraphine felt a rare trace of helplessness.
Without discovering a vastly superior method to grow stronger, blindly relying on Self-Surge was basically a dead end.
What was even stranger was that according to Heavenly Hegemon's memories, across those four apex tiers, String Emperor, String Sovereign, String God, and String Ancestor, 99.9999% of them had intrinsic scaling rates far inferior to Seraphine's.
Aside from a few born-as-gods String Ancestors, the rest only reached those heights by relying on their racial trait, Jormungandr's Loop, taking zero shortcuts and painstakingly stacking their stats through endless epochs.
As for evolving from Materialized Spirituality to Divinity, and further to Greater Divinity, those String race powerhouses similarly relied on Spirituality refinement arts like the "Method of Tempering Awareness", relentlessly devouring obscene quantities of Spirit Crystals over trillions of years to brute-force their breakthroughs. (See chap 169)
"Maybe that's exactly why Spirit Crystals are the undisputed cornerstone of the String Civilization's economy. High demand, endless consumption, and a guaranteed market make them irreplaceable. But when you really think about it,"
Seraphine chuckled with a wry smile, "those String race top-tiers actually live a miserable grind. Just imagine how many countless eons it takes to climb from a bottom-tier Zero String all the way to a String Ancestor."
Still chuckling, she activated the Eye of Transcendence and unleashed her 6D interference field, completely engulfing this boundless Non-Static Global-Inflation 3D universe.
HUM!!!
In an instant, exactly 10^10, 512, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 010, 512, 000, 000, 000, 000, 105, 120, 000, 105, 130, 512, 104, 910 domains, each spanning 10^130 light-years in diameter and harboring 10^370 scaled Coordinated Foams, were vividly mapped into Seraphine's perception.
Across this sea of Coordinated Foams, she discovered that nearly every single one hosted Earth Civilizations to varying degrees.
The sparser ones held thousands or tens of thousands, while the denser ones contained upwards of hundreds of quadrillions.
What's more, across these countless Earth Civilizations, from planetary geology and geographical layout to their galactic coordinates, ethnic demographics, languages, historical timelines, and even pop culture, virtually everything was an exact carbon copy.
"As expected, this is,"
Seraphine murmured softly, "the Earth Imprint."
This so-called [Earth Imprint], also known as the [Earth-like Civilization Phenomenon], was a concept coined by the 6D String race that she had stumbled upon in Heavenly Hegemon's memories.
Ever since the String race arose, developed their civilization, and ventured across endless lower-dimensional space-times, they had observed that across every 3D space-time, whether static or under Non-Static Global-Inflation, there would invariably emerge hordes of intelligent civilizations practically identical in biology, history, language, and culture.
When referring to their homeworld, the vast majority of these civilizations used the exact same name: Earth.
Why?
Why did so many Earth Civilizations exist in the first place?
Was all of this natural cosmic evolution, or deliberate design?
If orchestrated, was it linked to the enigmatic 7-Dimensional space-time?
Could all of this be the handiwork of 7D entities?
If the [Earth Imprint] was tied to 7D existences, could it conceal the ultimate secrets of ascending to the 7th Dimension?
Driven by this overwhelming curiosity since primordial epochs, the String Civilization constantly descended upon endless lower-dimensional space-times, turning countless Earth Civilizations inside out in exhaustive research, desperate to unearth any hidden truth.
Through uninterrupted eons of study, national histories, ethnic languages, classic literatures, idioms, folklore, and fables, even the evolving pop culture and entertainment trends of every Earth era were systematically recognized, decoded, adopted, and ultimately integrated into the String Civilization's own society.
Concurrently, every conceivable and inconceivable method of bizarre, exotic, and brutal experimentation was deployed by the String race, acting as higher-dimensional Observers, upon countless Earth Civilizations and individual humans.
Much like the experiments and diverse transmigrators Seraphine had crossed paths with along her journey, such as the Second Solar System within the Light-Year Dragon, the athletic student equipped with an AI smart chip in Ansel's world, or the Verdant Ancient Matter Sea Marsh Lord, Heavenly Hegemon's vast memory banks contained countless identical case files.
Furthermore, because the String race firmly believed the [Earth Imprint] held profound secrets, they subconsciously attributed immense value to it.
Driven by these perceived values and subliminally shaped by Earth cultures over uncounted epochs, the avatars and mannerisms adopted by the 6D String race when walking reality gradually converged with those of Earth humans.
Their languages, fashion trends, behavioral mannerisms, musical genres, entertainment arts, ideologies, political frameworks, social structures, and even the names of countless String race individuals synchronized completely onto the exact same frequency as Earth Civilization.
It was as if they, too, had become Earth humans.
As if the entirety of the String race had morphed into a higher-dimensional iteration of Earth Civilization itself.
"So in a sense, it's actually those countless Earth Civilizations, ravaged and trampled for eons by higher-dimensional entities,"
Seraphine's Eye of Transcendence shone with unfathomable depth, "...that have culturally reverse-invaded higher-dimensional space and reverse-assimilated higher-dimensional lifeforms.
Could this be considered a form of cultural imperialism in its own right? And does some force exist orchestrating all of this behind the curtain?"
The standard definition of an invasion typically denotes a malicious act driven by conquest or plunder: an uninvited, unauthorized, and unwelcome breach violating the collective will and stripping away free agency.
Cultural imperialism, on the other hand, describes a civilization weaponizing its core beliefs and value systems to subvert and supplant those of another.
Both share an identical root: the brutal encroachment and coercive domination of the strong over the weak.
Evidently, compared to the countless Earth Civilizations scattered across lower-dimensional space-times, the 6D String race was the bona fide dominant power, unassailable deities beyond any hope of resistance.
Thus, from a macro lens, the String race's apparent Earth Civilization-ization looked more like a superficial, collective role-play driven purely by calculated self-interest (the pursuit of the 7th Dimension).
Their core identity remained that very same transcendent, callous pantheon of higher-dimensional gods that looked down upon and ruthlessly trampled infinite lower-dimensional space-times.
"However, shifting perspective, if the [Earth Imprint] phenomenon was truly orchestrated by a higher-tier entity, wouldn't the String race's behavioral shifts and reactions be entirely within their calculations? Or was this part of the design all along?"
In deep contemplation, Seraphine fully opened her Eye of Transcendence, zooming out to an even grander cosmic scale to gaze distantly toward the boundless 7-Dimensional space-time looming above the infinite 6D space-time.
Unsurprisingly, peering into the distance, all Seraphine could perceive was a hazy, mirage-like blur.
Indeed, even with her current power standing among the apex tiers of 6D space-time, she still couldn't register a single thing within the 7th Dimension.
Seraphine only vaguely understood that the so-called Singularity Swarms, constructed with 6D space as their core, were truly infinite in number.
And the 7D space-time towering above these infinite Swarms was likewise an absolute, boundless infinity.
Yet the severance between the 7th and 6th Dimensions was just that absolute.
Leaving Seraphine entirely unable to fathom or even deduce what state, form, or reality the 7D space-time domain actually existed in.
Severance,
That's right: based on what Seraphine knew, the relationship between 7D and 6D was an absolute, irreconcilable severance.
In the most literal sense, it was a total breakdown with zero contact, bridges, or interfaces across any domain, category, or conceptual field.
According to Heavenly Hegemon's memory archives, not a single individual across every stratum of the 6D String race Civilization knew anything about 7D space-time.
Even the Eternal String, revered by the entire String race as supreme and boundless, was completely in the dark regarding 7D space-time, lacking even the faintest scrap of intel.
At least, whenever they made public statements, they were demonstrably clueless.
What made it even more fascinating was that among the countless subordinates under Heavenly Hegemon, not a single one had ever shared Seraphine's experience: standing within a lower-dimensional space-time and gazing upward at the infinite 7D reality.
Put bluntly, the String race's so-called All-Spectrum Eye couldn't detect the existence of 7D space-time at all, let alone 8D, 9D, or 10D space-times.
To say nothing of the infinite dimensions faintly discernible beyond the 10th Dimension.
They couldn't even confirm whether 7D, 8D, 9D, and 10D space-times truly existed above the 6th Dimension, remaining entirely blind to the boundless dimensions beyond 10D.
Yet Seraphine had seen through all of this crystal-clear ever since her Eye of Transcendence first evolved long ago.
Even if what she perceived was merely vague, hazy silhouettes.
To the 6D String race, that alone was an unfathomable, godlike feat.
"So, why did I evolve the Eye of Transcendence in the first place?"
Seraphine fell into deep thought: Could it be that the [Infinite Attributes] system isn't my only trump card? Is there another hidden ace in the hole buried within me that even I don't know about?
In a single instant, she meticulously audited every fiber of her flesh, soul, Divinity, and every single memory spanning from the moment she opened her eyes at birth in her past life straight to this split second.
Upon this exhaustive audit, Seraphine finally discovered that within her memories, there truly was an anomaly.
This inexplicable anomaly was that during the blank interval between dying in that car crash in her previous life and awakening in this world, something had definitely taken place.
Although Seraphine lacked any concrete, detailed memories regarding that blank interval,
deep down in her core, she intuitively sensed that within that void she had encountered or touched something profound.
Unfortunately, she had no means to trace or deduce what occurred in that blank space.
Setting aside that memory anomaly, what occupied her thoughts even more was Chaos Calculation.
This ability had evolved organically from the Eye of True Revelation during the early stages of the Ether revival.
In nature, though technically an offshoot branch of the Eye of True Revelation, its sheer potency stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the original, if not surpassing it.
Its function: utilizing a global computing methodology analogous to quantum calculation, it completely bypassed classical algorithms to instantly extrapolate or pinpoint the solution to any problem, even when operating on minimal data or absolute zero prior intel.
At first glance, while impressive, when scaled against the infinite space-times of the entire String Swarm and compared with countless miraculous abilities, it appeared deceptively ordinary.
Yet it was this exact ordinary ability that no other Seraphine across countless parallel space-times could ever awaken or master.
And it was this ordinary ability that granted Seraphine absolute Uniqueness long before she ever set foot into 6D, tearing her free from the category of lower-dimensional weeds.
In fact, there had been multiple instances where she distinctly detected signs of spontaneous fusion brewing between Chaos Calculation and the Eye of True Revelation. (See chap 89)
On one occasion, those escalating signs of fusion even granted Seraphine an inexplicable premonition: namely, that once Chaos Calculation and the Eye of True Revelation achieved true fusion, it would almost certainly birth a terrifying power far transcending imagination. (See chap 95)
An ability that would elevate her already godlike combat power to an entirely new plane of existence.
Yet, signs remained mere signs, and premonitions remained just premonitions; aside from growing increasingly intense, nothing concrete had materialized.
"I wonder what catalyst is needed to trigger the true fusion between the Eye of True Revelation and Chaos Calculation."
Sighing softly, Seraphine raised her arm and opened her palm.
HUM!!!
Laws vibrated; space-time blurred.
Above her palm, an illusory cluster devoid of physical volume or measurable mass suddenly manifested out of thin air.
This wisp of illusory matter, smaller than even a 0D Naked Singularity, was none other than Seraphine's [Infinite Attributes] system.
That's right: after enduring an unfathomable span of 10^64 years and brutally running tens of 10^56 experiments on Murray Manson, Seraphine had finally perfected the technique to extract and implant systems with a guaranteed 100% harmless, zero-loss success rate.
And she had finally applied this technique to herself, completely ripping out the system, an entity riddled with hidden perils, whose diminishing returns had rendered it practically useless dead weight.
Thus, taking less than two months in real-world time, yet burning through 10^20 subjective years of erased time, Seraphine finally uninstalled the attribute system entirely, returning to a pure, unconstrained state of existence.
"System,"
Seraphine quietly gazed at the ethereal anomaly resting in her palm, suspended between existence and non-existence, and invoked the Authority of Change with a single thought:
"Strip its shell."
HUM!!!
An invisible, unfathomably mystical force coalesced out of nothingness, instantly peeling away the phantom system's illusory outer casing the moment it enveloped it.
Immediately, a chaotic slurry of indescribable matter, wholly beyond the scope of information, matter, or energy, burst violently from within the system's core.
As it ruptured, inexplicably severing a vast expanse of surrounding 3D space-time, tens of millions of Singularity-like bodies spawned from the voids around these bizarre phenomena, teetering on the verge of explosive expansion.
"Halt. Vanish."
Following her cool, detached command, these Singularity-like entities, each capable of sparking tens of millions of Genesis-tier Big Bangs, along with the void pockets that spawned them and the vast majority of that eldritch debris, were erased into absolute nothingness without leaving a trace.
Leaving behind only a spectral, bizarre Entity that paradoxically possessed both positive-dimensional and negative-dimensional structures.
"We meet again,"
Staring at this eerie construct, Seraphine murmured in a calm voice, "the Negative Boundary's Demonic Seed."
This so-called [Negative Boundary's Demonic Seed] was the true, underlying core of the [Infinite Attributes] system.
Across that vast lost temporal branch, Seraphine had cracked Murray Manson's system open uncounted times, facing this exact Demonic Seed on infinite occasions.
Consequently, she had also pieced together the overall process and mechanics of how the Negative Boundary Demonic Seed modified a living being's so-called [Attributes].
This Demonic Seed possessed dual structures: a Positive Dimension and a Negative Dimension.
Just like the annihilation reaction when matter collides with antimatter, releasing cataclysmic bursts of energy,
whenever the Positive and Negative Dimensional structures within the Demonic Seed intersected and counteracted one another, they generated a colossal-output, genuinely inexhaustible [Potential Infinity] energy source.
The emergence of Singularity-like entities seemed intrinsically linked to this bizarre anomaly.
Furthermore, the classification of the Demonic Seed as a Potential Infinity energy source rather than an Actual Infinite energy source stemmed from Seraphine's own definitions and standards.
In her view, a true Actual Infinite energy source required genuine, boundless output power alongside genuine, infinite transmission capacity.
In other words, what Seraphine recognized as an Actual Infinite energy source had to be capable of receiving and discharging an absolute infinity of energy into the external world within a single infinitesimal point in time.
Held against this rigorous metric, the Negative Boundary's Demonic Seed fell woefully short.
Moreover, through the Demonic Seed's existence, Seraphine deduced a profound truth of reality, namely, that the so-called Negative Dimension's nothingness existing outside the dimensional space-times of every universe was merely a pseudo-Negative Dimension.
These pseudo-Negative Dimensional domains were almost certainly artificial intermediary zones birthed when the true Negative Dimension intersected and canceled out the Positive Dimension.
Because within Seraphine's conceptual framework, dimensional divisions and classifications only hold meaning because there exists a bounded scope, or rather, space-time itself.
The Negative Dimension should conceptually exist on a plane far more infinitesimal than a single geometric [Point].
Yet a [Point] already marks the ultimate, indivisible limit of all tangible matter and concrete space.
Therefore, the true Negative Dimension had to be the absolute inverse of all reality: an absolute nothingness incapable of supporting any tangible existence whatsoever.
Positive-dimensional lifeforms couldn't possibly enter it, let alone survive within its depths.