Everyone gathered around Olga Marie, forming a neat semicircle as they listened to her explain the true nature of Singularities.
Adam stood slightly off to the side, listening intently while his mind worked on two things at once. He had already lived through Singularity F once before. The details had simply grown a little hazy with time, but Olga Marie's words were enough to bring several key points rushing back.
He quietly opened his system panel and glanced at the numbers.
Emotion Value — 20,000
Not bad. A solid haul.
That was more than enough for a hundred-roll summon in the Emotion Value pool. He wondered what kind of Servants might appear in it.
More importantly, how many Consumption Points could these be exchanged for?
Adam switched tabs to the Servant selection screen.
0/16
Ereshkigal had already been temporarily withdrawn. He had given her an important task that required her to return to their original Chaldea first.
He checked the exchange rate.
2000 : 1
Two thousand Emotion Values for one Consumption Point. In other words, every ten-roll summon was worth one point.
It was within acceptable limits.
Still, it felt a little short. At this rate he could only convert them into ten Consumption Points total.
Adam's gaze drifted back across the Servant roster. If his memory served him right, Lev would reveal himself right after they defeated the blackened Saber.
The real question was how to squeeze the maximum number of Emotion Values out of that encounter.
Should he just crush Lev with overwhelming force and make him kneel and beg for mercy?
No… that somehow didn't feel like enough.
Suddenly an idea struck him, and his fingers flew rapidly across the system panel.
At that exact moment, Ritsuka Fujimaru raised her hand.
"Director, I have a question."
Olga Marie turned to her. "What is it?"
Ritsuka smiled. "I didn't really understand anything you just said."
Olga Marie frowned at first, but then remembered that Ritsuka was just an ordinary person who had been suddenly recruited as a Master. Her expression softened.
Well… for a complete beginner, it was only natural not to grasp everything on the first try. As long as it wasn't hopeless, she could accept it.
"Which part didn't you understand?" she asked, keeping her tone steady.
Ritsuka kept smiling, though it was the same mischievous grin Adam wore whenever he was up to no good.
"All of it."
Olga Marie stared at her for a second, then her eyes widened.
"What do you mean you didn't understand any of it?!"
Ritsuka scratched her head helplessly. "I can't help it. I really don't get it. All that talk about correcting distorted history and mutated nodes… none of it clicks."
Olga Marie clenched her fists, barely holding back her irritation.
Calm down. She's new at this. Maybe my explanation really was unclear?
That was when Adam stepped in. The gacha and point exchanges could wait.
"Director, hearing you explain it actually reminded me of something."
It would be better to give Ritsuka a proper, simple explanation right from the start.
Olga Marie looked slightly moved that at least someone had been following along.
Adam picked up a stick from the ground and turned to Ritsuka.
"In simple terms… to truly understand Singularities, there's one fundamental thing you need to grasp first."
"Parallel worlds exist."
"Mash and I are living proof of that."
By now everyone's full attention had shifted to Adam. They listened with rapt focus and nodded in agreement.
"If we imagine each parallel world as a straight line…"
Adam drew five parallel lines on the ground.
"…their development isn't random or chaotic."
The five lines slowly converged toward a single point.
"At certain critical junctures in human history, every world inevitably converges and produces the exact same historical outcome."
That point then split apart again into five separate parallel lines.
"Afterward, they continue developing independently until…"
The lines converged once more into another point.
"…they reach the next inevitable historical node. And the cycle repeats."
"Ooh~"
Ritsuka nodded at a thirty-degree angle, beginning to understand.
"Events like the Renaissance, the Age of Discovery, and the Industrial Revolution are all major historical nodes. These turning points are far too vital to humanity's development. If any of them were destroyed…"
"Simply by removing those key nodes, human civilization would collapse like a skyscraper that's lost its load-bearing walls."
Ritsuka suddenly nodded at a full ninety-degree angle, as if everything had finally clicked.
"Ooooh~~~"
She raised her hand again.
"Teacher Adam, I have one more question."
Adam narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't tell me you still didn't understand."
"Of course not! I'm not that stupid," Ritsuka said with a dead-fish expression. "What I wanted to ask is this—"
"You said every Singularity represents a major turning point in human history. So what extremely important event happened during this 2004 Singularity? What was so crucial to humanity here?"
Adam opened his mouth to answer, then froze as something occurred to him.
Wait a second…!
What major event of world-shaking importance had actually taken place in Fuyuki in 2004?
This was just a relatively small city known for occasional "gas leaks."
Olga Marie thought for a long moment before something seemed to come to her.
"I checked the records through Laplace."
Laplace—the Phenomenon Recording Demon. Its function was to observe the past, even events long lost to history.
"In 2004, an event known as the Holy Grail War occurred here. The final victor was the Saber faction. The war was conducted in complete secrecy. It caused no major disturbance, and the city remained intact."
"As for why the city has become… like this now…"
Olga Marie gazed at the burning ruins, utterly devoid of life.
"It's most likely the result of the Singularity itself."
Adam's confusion only deepened.
A Holy Grail War could certainly threaten human history, but if the Saber faction had won…
That outcome shouldn't have caused any lasting damage to the timeline.
So how had this Singularity even formed?
What critical historical node had been destroyed?
And why would Chaldea need to intervene—
Hold on…!
Adam looked at the Chaldea group as the crucial realization finally hit him.
No way…!
If the Saber faction truly won the 2004 Holy Grail War in this world…
Then tell me—
How the hell was Chaldea even founded here?!
***
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