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[Genshin Impact] Chapter 446: Sumeru City
🕑 Added 2025-04-07 15:45:21 +0000 UTC“Cleansing the Withering Zones, huh?”
Nolan thought for a moment, then agreed without hesitation:
“Starting tomorrow, Lumine, you stay here and focus on treating Collei’s Eleazar. I’ll head out and take care of the Withering Zones.”
Normally, monsters wouldn’t actively approach Withering Zones—but there was a high chance that such areas already had monsters inhabiting them.
Clearing them out would probably net him quite a few experience points as well.
“Mhm, no problem. Just be careful.”
Given Nolan’s strength, Lumine wasn’t too worried.
“Alright, then allow us to offer you all our warmest hospitality,”
Tighnari said with a smile.
---
The next morning.
Nolan, Lumine, and Paimon exited the Wonderland. Lumine and Paimon remained at Gandharva Ville to continue treating Collei’s Eleazar.
Meanwhile, Nolan asked Tighnari for a map of the Avidya Forest. It was marked with all the locations of Withering Zones that the Forest Rangers had discovered.
Nolan studied it carefully.
He found that, across the entire Avidya Forest, there were eight known Withering Zones that hadn’t yet been handled. And with Tighnari being the only one among the Rangers capable of dealing with them...
No wonder he was overwhelmed.
Not to mention, new Withering Zones were still forming—there were likely more out there that hadn’t even been discovered yet.
“Tighnari, yesterday Miss Nasrin told me that Sumeru is governed by the Akademiya,”
Nolan said, standing just outside Tighnari’s residence in Gandharva Ville.
Looking at all the red circles on the map marking the Withering Zones, he couldn’t help but ask:
“If that’s the case, why doesn’t the Akademiya send anyone to help deal with the Withering? Do they just not care?”
“It’s not like I didn’t try,”
Tighnari sighed and shook his head.
“I’ve written to the Grand Sage asking for assistance, but all I got in return was a reply telling us Forest Rangers to handle it ourselves.
“It’s like... I don’t even understand the Grand Sage anymore. He doesn’t even take major issues like this seriously.”
Tighnari had long since realized that the Akademiya wasn’t what it used to be.
Its atmosphere had become far more impatient and restless.
Many scholars now cared only about results—academic plagiarism, mentor suppression, and other toxic behaviors had become all too common.
It was no longer a place he could make sense of.
That’s why he had moved to Gandharva Ville to become a Forest Ranger—things were a lot more peaceful out here.
Plus, since his focus was botanical research, working in the forest suited him just fine.
“I see...”
Nolan thought to himself: Of course the Grand Sage isn’t paying attention to this... he’s too busy cooperating with the Fatui Harbingers to create a false god.
Maybe in his mind, once the “God Project” succeeds, Withering Zones and all other issues will just solve themselves...
But has he even thought about it? The god he’s creating won’t even be Sumeru’s real Archon. Even if the plan works, isn’t he just handing everything over to the Fatui?
“Alright, let’s not dwell on this. We should get moving,”
Tighnari said.
“No problem,”
Nolan nodded in agreement.
After that, the two of them each took a map and set off to cleanse the Withering Zones.
They went separately—this way, it was more efficient.
Nolan walked alone through the Avidya Forest.
He didn’t need to personally take action to cleanse the Withering; summoning a few "Lumine's Sword Gods" and having them handle it was enough.
As for himself, he planned to head to Sumeru City ahead of time and sneak into the Akademiya to see how far “The Doctor” and the others had progressed in their God-Creation Experiment.
If the opportunity presented itself, he could begin executing his own plan.
But before that, he intended to rescue the Lesser Lord Kusanali.
Only by saving the Dendro Archon and overthrowing the current Grand Sage could the future of Sumeru be free from all kinds of annoying problems.
Since he was already here, there was no reason to let Lumine go through the same step-by-step rescue process from the original story.
If he had the chance, he could directly get her out himself.
Thinking of this, Nolan immediately went invisible and sank into the “Shallow Layer” of space. Then, using the spatial traversal ability granted by “Lumine’s Authority,” he rushed in the direction of Sumeru City.
Naturally, his travel speed via space-jumping was extremely fast—covering several kilometers in a single step.
In less than ten minutes, he arrived at the gates of Sumeru City.
At the entrance, two Akademiya students were distributing devices called “Akasha Terminals” to foreign visitors.
These devices were similar to smartphones, able to connect to a network known as the “Akasha System.”
Users could query any information they wanted and receive instant answers.
It could even directly copy and paste knowledge into the user’s mind—completely eliminating the need to study.
There was no denying that the Akasha Terminal was an incredibly powerful tool—
Unfortunately, in the original story, the Grand Sage didn’t put it to proper use.
Instead, he used it to harvest the thinking capacity of those who wore it.
According to Nolan’s understanding, the Grand Sage and his people essentially turned the minds of the wearers into “organic servers,”
siphoning off massive amounts of computational power for their own use.
And what else would need that much processing power if not the “God-Creation Plan”?
After all, the “God of All Wisdom” in the game was a giant mechanical entity over a hundred meters tall.
It could be easily controlled through a cable interface connected to Scaramouche.
The system programs within such a construct had to be extremely complex.
Even if “The Doctor” was absurdly powerful—on par with the gods—it still wouldn’t be possible to perfect the drive systems, body structure, and fusion tech with Scaramouche in a short time without enough computational support.
It might take years just to run the tests.
But with the thinking power of Sumeru’s residents to help with calculations and simulations, it was a different story.
The Akasha could now assist in modeling and simulating everything they needed.
As a result, the success rate of the God-Creation Project would dramatically increase, and the time required would be greatly reduced.
The price?
Just a portion of the citizens' thinking ability—occupied even while they slept—causing them to lose the ability to dream and experience some mental fatigue.
For the Grand Sage, that was a perfectly acceptable trade-off.
Nolan felt the Grand Sage and his crew were far too arrogant.
Silently stealing people’s thoughts like that—how incredibly rude.
Speaking of which, even someone from the modern world like Nolan found the Akasha System incredibly sci-fi.
Using it just to harvest computational power felt like such a waste.
He didn’t even need to invent anything new.
Just transplanting Earth’s internet model into it could create immense social value—especially in areas like scientific research and academic communication.
Thinking of this, Nolan grew a little greedy. He wanted to use the Akasha System for himself.
With its help, Teyvat’s elemental science could enter a full-blown golden age!
As long as he rescued Nahida and helped solve Sumeru’s crisis, he could pitch this idea to her afterward.
She likely wouldn’t refuse—especially since he wasn’t planning to abuse it like the Grand Sage and his ilk.
Once again, Nolan found a new reason to justify rescuing the Dendro Archon.
With excitement in his heart, he stepped into the city of Sumeru.
---
(End of Chapter)
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