Agent047
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840 - Stagnation
🕑 Added 2025-02-04 23:16:47 +0000 UTCTwo weeks later.
Aron, now fully reinvigorated after his semi-forced break, finally logged back into the universal simulation.
{Welcome back, sir,} Nova greeted him the moment his body materialized inside his lab.
“Can’t say I didn’t miss this,” Aron replied as he moved to sit down—despite there being no chair beneath him. Before he could reach the ground, a chair materialized under him, seamlessly supporting his weight.
“Any good news on cracking the Trinarian encryption?” he asked as he settled in.
{We’ve made some advancements, but honestly, I’d say we’re still only a few steps away from the starting line,} Nova admitted. Without a clear progress indicator, it was impossible to gauge exactly how close they were to breaking through—the process was more guesswork than science at this point.
“There’s no other choice, then,” Aron muttered as he called up the system interface and began searching for decryption algorithms.
After filtering out options that were either useless for his needs or too expensive to justify, Aron was left with just two choices:
[Adaptive Decryption Algorithm, Tier 1
Spite is one of the best fuels for innovation.
This technology was developed by an angry Govanian man who suspected his wife of cheating and feared losing his fortune in a divorce. According to his civilization’s laws, a woman filing for divorce was entitled to ninety percent of the marital wealth, while the man would be condemned to lifelong celibacy. His only way out was to either convince his wife to stay—a lost cause, as she had already made up her mind—or find undeniable proof of her infidelity, which would strip her of all claims.
To do this, he needed to access her devices undetected and recover any deleted evidence that she had hidden behind more than fifteen layers of encryption. And thus, the Adaptive Decryption Algorithm was born…
It utilizes quantum adaptive simulations to break high-level encryption by predicting key states through entangled data relationships. While extremely effective against traditional cryptography, it is significantly less useful against mana-based encryptions.
Price: 100,000,000,000 SP]
If he had heard this story elsewhere, Aron might have chuckled, but the price tag was enough to kill any amusement before it could reach his face.
[Mana Decryption Adaptive Algorithm, Tier 1
Developed by the same man after experiencing an overwhelming sense of joy when his divorce was finalized—having successfully kept his fortune and the right to remarry.
These two technologies later propelled him to become one of the most influential figures in his civilization, allowing him to establish an information conglomerate specializing in gathering evidence to help other men avoid forced celibacy and financial ruin…
This algorithm specifically targets mana-based encryption, preventing the negative effects of its protective mechanisms from triggering—whether it be data deletion, self-destruction, hidden signaling, or more.
Price: 250,000,000,000 SP]
At first glance, it seemed like just a slightly modified version of the first algorithm with a steep price hike. But Aron knew better. He couldn't afford to take chances—buying only one would leave too much room for disaster. He needed both to ensure there were no mishaps.
Even if the Trinarians had relied solely on conventional encryption, Aron knew he couldn’t assume the same for the entire Conclave. Each civilization had developed its own technology tree, favoring different approaches. The likelihood of encountering mana-based encryption was high, and if he wanted full decryption capability, he needed both algorithms.
“No point in overthinking it,” Aron muttered, pressing the purchase button. “Still better than spending more than ten times this much SP on spatial tech, which at this rate will take years.”
In an instant, his SP balance plummeted—nearly seventy percent wiped out in a flash, leaving him with a measly 150 billion SP.
He exhaled, eyes fixed on the numbers. “The empire’s SP generation has plateaued,” he noted. Over the past few years, he had noticed a steady decline in how fast he was accumulating System Points. It wasn’t due to a lack of new product releases—it felt like an intentional cap was being reached.
“If there’s a limit to how much SP I can earn per person, then I must be approaching it.” He tapped his fingers against the armrest of his chair. “Looks like this is the System’s way of preventing stagnation… forcing me into expansion in search of more SP.”
A small smirk crept onto his face.
“Luckily, our goals are aligned.”
{The same goes for the technology— the price increase seems irrational too,} Nova replied, her voice echoing in his thoughts. She had been accessing his brain data, seeing exactly what he saw, after receiving his permission, of course, or else the system would have blocked her.
{The system is most likely aligning its pricing with the maximum amount of SP you can earn at that specific point in time, or something similar. Otherwise, there’s no explanation for how you bought something as balance-breaking as the knowledge to create an atomic printer and a Universal simulation for a billion SP each, while having to buy a decryption algorithm—whose usefulness is comparatively low—at more than a hundred times their price. But there isn’t enough data yet to pinpoint exactly what criteria the system uses for pricing.}
Upon hearing her analysis, Aron recalled all the tech he had bought from AI, which ultimately led to the creation of Nova, and reflected on how the pricing had never been consistent. It had never made sense, something that had crossed his mind before but never in depth. As he thought about it, he realized that the system allowed him to get things when he needed them, at a price he could afford at the time. At the same time, it made sure not to let him become complacent—forcing him to expand and seek more individuals to increase the SP he could earn. Everything pointed to the system’s awakening, and like Nova, he too was curious to see what would happen as a result.
“Using our imagination with the current information is just fertilizer for unfounded speculations,” Aron muttered, more to himself than anyone else. He knew Nova was immune to such missteps. “Let’s steer clear of that and focus on gathering more data.”
“Let’s wrap up the assimilation,” he added, finally giving the system his approval to assimilate the knowledge. He closed his eyes, steeling himself for the flood of information about to be forced into his mind.
Comments
GripenSupremacy
TYFTC
Jade
Hehehe
Sol_Invictus
TYFTC!! Soo close again, ahaha
Jade
FIRST!! TYFTC!!
