Mike raised an eyebrow at what Wang Peibo said. "You say I can handle it; you've also said that, at worst, we can just restart."
Wang Peibo rolled his eyes and casually replied, "Of course, but you don't know how painful it is to experience the feeling of 'breaking down' every time."
He paused, continuing in a tone that was as indifferent as ever, "Anyway, the answers to these two questions aren't as bad as you might think."
"First, the real apocalypse—or the real mechanism."
"As for that," Wang Peibo said, his voice becoming a little more serious, "it's actually still in a state of waiting to be unraveled. We don't know everything yet."
He leaned forward slightly, looking at Mike intently. "But we do know that the mechanism can, to a certain extent, control the world's resources and create danger."
Mike nodded slowly, following along.
"In the eyes of intelligent beings, danger is often linked to new evolution and change. That's how most galactic civilizations see it—this mechanism is a trial, though no one knows what it's trying to test."
Wang Peibo continued, his voice growing a little more thoughtful. "Of course, it's also possible that it's breeding something through danger. Maybe it's trying to cultivate powerful individuals to fulfill some need of its own. That theory is a bit of a stretch, but it explains the mechanism's source of power and fits with the law of conservation of energy."
Mike listened intently, trying to understand the full scope of the information.
"The true apocalypse is actually just a process where the intensity of the trial continuously increases. The problem is, the level of that intensity becomes unbearable."
"Second, when does the development stage end?"
Wang Peibo took a breath, rubbing his eyes. "You need to understand, the development stage isn't something the mechanism directly defines. It's a concept I came up with—a time period we analyzed during our discussions."
Mike's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to grasp it. "So, the development stage refers to a time when the difficulty of the apocalypse is manageable?"
"Exactly," Wang Peibo replied. "We considered the types of apocalyptic events you could easily suppress and handle as being in the development phase. These are the apocalypses where you can quickly grow stronger without facing much danger, where the growth rate exceeds the intensity of danger."
"Once this balance shifts and the danger surpasses your ability to grow stronger, that's when the development stage ends. That's when the danger becomes too much, and you don't have enough time or resources to deal with it before the next wave hits. And it becomes a vicious cycle until you're eventually wiped out."
Mike was silent for a moment, his face thoughtful. "So, according to what you're saying, these two questions fall under the scope of the future threat theory you mentioned before. But they don't seem serious enough to be the end of it."
Wang Peibo raised an eyebrow with a knowing smirk. "Oh, really?"
"Yeah," Mike said, gesturing with his hands. "It doesn't sound as serious as you made it seem earlier. It still feels like it's in the realm of the 'future threat' you warned about."
Wang Peibo paused for a second, then leaned back casually with a grin. "What if I told you the development phase ended the moment I showed up?"
Mike froze for a second. "Ended?"
"Yeah," Wang Peibo said nonchalantly. "It's already over."
"But wait," Mike protested. "You said the difficulty would increase drastically by the 10th apocalypse. That means there should be at least six more apocalypses left, right? So, I've got at least half a year to prepare!"
"No, no, no," Wang Peibo waved his hand. "That's just the underlying logic we figured out in the early cycles. It doesn't mean the mechanism is set in stone."
Wang Peibo leaned forward, fixing Mike with a direct look. "The mechanism itself doesn't have an unchangeable logic or set rules. You can think of it as a living, intelligent being, a non-corporeal intelligence."
Mike blinked. "You're saying the mechanism… can adjust itself?"
"Exactly," Wang Peibo confirmed. "That's something you haven't really considered, have you? I've told you before, if the mechanism were that simple, we would have succeeded by now. We wouldn't have needed to restart so many times."
Mike felt a strange sense of unease as he processed this. Wang Peibo was suggesting something that changed everything he had assumed about the mechanism.
Wang Peibo stretched out lazily, then continued, "But don't worry, this theory hasn't been fully proven yet. We still think the mechanism is like a program in many ways, with some rigid features."
He yawned and tilted his head. "But Mike, the important thing is: you're in danger, and you don't have much time left."
Mike's face hardened. He turned to Wang Peibo. "You're saying the mechanism has adjusted itself because it knows about our ability to restart, and now it's preparing to send even stronger dangers our way to eliminate us before we can prepare?"
Wang Peibo sat up slightly, looking at Mike with a gleam in his eyes. "You got it half right."
Mike frowned. "Half?"
Wang Peibo smiled smugly, and his voice was more than a little playful. "It's not you the mechanism's focusing on; it's me."
Mike's expression shifted. "What do you mean?"
Wang Peibo leaned back again, a nonchalant smirk tugging at his lips. "I told you. From the moment I appeared, the development stage was over. The mechanism knows I exist. It can't eliminate me, but it knows I'm like a virus within its system."
Mike felt a chill run down his spine. "So, it's trying to get rid of you?"
"Exactly," Wang Peibo said, stretching out again. "A program would try to purge a virus. The mechanism is no different. And if I didn't exist, you'd have ten full apocalypses to prepare."
"But instead," Wang Peibo's tone shifted, "the mechanism now knows I'm here, and it will adjust its approach to try and neutralize me."
Mike shook his head in disbelief. "So, what, it's adapted because of you?"
Wang Peibo smirked. "Well, yeah. But don't ask me why I didn't wait longer to appear or any of that nonsense. We ran the simulations, and ending the development phase early might not be a bad thing after all. It's a two-way street, both for us and for the mechanism."
The weight of what Wang Peibo was saying hung in the air. Mike's brow furrowed deeper as he processed it all.
"Then what happens now?" Mike asked, finally piecing together the puzzle. "I thought if you had infinite resets, we could keep failing until we eventually won. But now it seems the mechanism has adapted to you. The chances of winning just dropped."
Wang Peibo grinned, clearly amused. "Don't worry. If the future was one hundred percent loss, I wouldn't even bother with a restart."
He flipped over onto his side, adjusting his position as though he were about to fall asleep. "The mechanism knows I exist because I allowed it to know. I used an obvious piece to hide the real plan."
Mike's eyes widened. "You mean… I'm the real plan?"
Wang Peibo interrupted him with a lazy wave of his hand. "No, not you. Your talent. That's the mechanism's flaw."
Mike blinked, still processing. "You're saying I'm the bug?"
Wang Peibo grinned. "Exactly. You're the bug, and I'm the virus. Together, we're going to fight the program and find a way out."
Mike stared at him in disbelief. "This is insane. I feel like I'm trapped in some kind of computer system, not living in the real world."
"Yep," Wang Peibo said, with an exaggerated yawn, "That's exactly how it feels."