---o---
Fu Zhu smiled, a brilliant, radiant smile.
There are no absolutes in this world, especially not for a Steve.
Lygus claimed that Nous had calculated and locked down everything in the universe, that no matter what happened, it was all within its calculations. Well, Fu Zhu was about to challenge that notion.
An AI can never truly guess what a human is thinking, even an AI that has become a god.
Fu Zhu suddenly shot out a hand, grabbing Lygus's arm in his moment of shock. He then slashed open a spatial rift with the Yamato, tossed him straight through, and followed close behind.
After passing through the portal, Lygus stumbled before steadying himself, only to immediately feel a terrifying pressure that made it difficult to even move.
A second later, Fu Zhu's figure appeared beside him.
Lygus looked at Fu Zhu in confusion and asked, "Where did you bring me?"
"Here. Look up for yourself."
Lygus raised his head. A look of very human shock appeared on his mechanical face. In his line of sight, a colossal celestial calculating machine stood silently amidst the sea of stars, its giant scarlet indicator light staring down at him like a baleful eye.
It was none other than the ultimate goal of his long and painstaking work on Amphoreus—Nous!
"This is a Path's Interstice?!"
The moment he saw Nous, Lygus realized that Fu Zhu had brought him to a most extraordinary place.
Fu Zhu stood to the side with his arms crossed, casually putting away his Yamato.
Coincidentally, he had visited the Path's Interstice several times before and had memorized its coordinates. With the Yamato, he could come here whenever he pleased.
Lygus was starting to freak out. He had never, ever imagined Fu Zhu would pull a stunt like this! He had brought him directly before Nous!
"Fu Zhu, what in the world are you trying to do?!"
He couldn't figure it out. He truly couldn't figure it out.
For the first time, Lygus felt like his brain wasn't powerful enough. He was completely unable to comprehend Fu Zhu's reasoning.
Fu Zhu turned his head and shot him a toothy, sinister grin.
"Didn't you say everything in the universe is locked down by Nous's calculations? That it can even calculate my destiny? Well then, here's the question…"
Fu Zhu turned his gaze away from Lygus, looked up at Nous suspended high in the sea of stars, and shouted.
"Oi, Nous! Guess what my next sentence is going to be!"
The moment the spatial rift had opened in the Path's Interstice, Nous had already focused its attention on this spot. The instant Lygus appeared, it had a momentary system crash.
If not for its curiosity about who had opened a spatial rift outside its calculations, this avatar of Zandar would have been annihilated the second it appeared.
And the next moment, when Fu Zhu's figure followed, all of Nous's questions were answered.
Oh, it's this guy. Never mind then.
From the first time it had noticed Fu Zhu, it had been constantly trying to calculate everything about him, but the results… were simply too numerous.
In its calculations, Fu Zhu's future was infinite. Even when it ran the calculations with the same initial factors, the results were always completely different.
It was incalculable. Utterly and fundamentally incalculable.
Now, with Fu Zhu's sudden question, Nous subconsciously began its calculations again.
Is he going to ask me to personally resolve the matter of his 'creator'? Or is he going to resolve me alongside his 'creator'? Or perhaps…
In that single instant, Nous calculated tens of millions of possible things Fu Zhu might say, but it quickly halted the process.
It wasn't because it had given up, but because Fu Zhu said something it had completely failed to predict.
"Machine head, this dad of yours next to me looks different from the old one. How'd you deal with the previous model? Trade it in?"
Beep—
At the same time, both Lygus and Nous seemed to hear an auditory illusion—an alarm signaling the shutdown of their internal calculation units.
"Fu Zhu, what exactly are you trying to say?" Lygus asked the question that both he and Nous wanted to know.
Is this person in front of me really human? Why can't we understand his thought process? Is he an insect wearing human skin? But even an insect's actions can be calculated based on instinct. Fu Zhu's cannot.
"What am I trying to say? It's simple—"
Fu Zhu raised a hand. A cold glint flashed, and Lygus's head went flying, finally tumbling to the ground and rolling to a stop by Fu Zhu's foot, where he pinned it with his boot.
Fu Zhu looked down at Lygus's head and delivered the second half of his sentence.
"I'll do whatever I want. I don't need your condescending guidance."
Those words Lygus had said to him earlier, while seemingly reasonable, had carried an air of superiority, as if he were guiding Fu Zhu.
And besides, he was going to prove that not even Nous could calculate his destiny.
He had been so restrained in Amphoreus only to ensure the outcome would align with the future Elio had predicted, preventing any unexpected mishaps from befalling his companions.
But things were different now. He knew the whereabouts of Stelle, Dan Heng, and March 7th. Next up was server-griefer time!
Fu Zhu bent down and picked up Lygus's head. He had been planning to see if he was still alive—he was an Intellitron, after all, so losing a head wasn't necessarily a fatal wound.
But as soon as he touched the head, a long-unseen system prompt popped up.
[Lygus's Head]
[Currently convertible to: Zombie Head, Piglin Head, Skeleton Skull, Wither Skeleton Skull, Creeper Head, Player Head…]
[Effect: Changes appearance, cannot actively damage Golden Merchants, reduces damage from Chrysos Heirs]
"Oh? So it's a drop item. If I collect three of these, can I summon the main body?"
Fu Zhu muttered to himself and casually stuffed Lygus's head into his inventory. It might be useful later, and even if it wasn't, he could take it back to the Express and put it in an item frame. The head of the First Seat of the Genius Society was a collector's item of immense value!
After packing things up, Fu Zhu turned to look at Nous, who had been silent from the very beginning.
"Machine head, seeing your dad resurrected after all this time, got nothing to say? I'm afraid you don't know, so let me give you a heads-up. Based on the information your dad revealed to me, he seems to hold quite a grudge against you. Who knows what kind of big surprise he's preparing for you. Aren't you going to prepare for a round of fatherly love and sonly rage?"
Nous remained silent, but it projected an image. On the screen, Jing Yuan was in conversation with a shackled Jingliu.
"Put Abundance to death? Mere words are no proof."
"Very well. After all, the Xianzhou has always valued… seeing is believing."