I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

The things in the Holy See are indeed very strange. They don't seem to have been made by people or gods of this world.

It seems more like something from another dimension. And the beings in this world are almost completely unable to perceive or describe the full scope of things from that dimension.

For example, a cube.

The creatures on the paper can only ever see a small, strange projection of the cube on the paper—no matter how imaginative they are, they can never guess what the cube really looks like.

Perhaps some intelligent two-dimensional beings could calculate it using mathematical tools, but it would require a great deal of time and a chance encounter—if the projection of the cube onto the paper is just a small triangle, then they would never be able to calculate it in their entire lives.

Because there are other objects that can project triangles, not just cubes.

Therefore, the old scribe said that although the Holy See had just completed this topology yesterday, it still needed to be tested.

Without trying it out within the 'cube' of the Holy Monument, they have no idea whether the topology is correct!
However, the creatures living in the cubic world can tell at a glance how big a cube is. They can tell whether it's made of wood or iron just by touching it, and they can tell roughly how heavy it is by lifting it.

He didn't need to calculate or test—it was a cube, he could tell at a glance!

Roland is such a person as he possesses the perception and cognition of a cubical being.

His spirit comes from the ocean of the underworld, and its depth is extremely profound.

Even if Olivia, the archangel closest to God, were to roll dice with him, he would be utterly crushed.

His 'vision' is at the level of the 'Three Evil Saints,' and he believes he takes after his father, not his mother. But who believes that!
This is simply inexplicable.

To put it bluntly, only those mad gods from the deep sea of ​​the underworld can understand this stuff—coincidentally, Roland can also understand these things.

Moreover, anyone who knows the 'Secret of the Holy Throne Sky' knows that the 'demon' in the ocean of the lower world has already escaped.

Coincidentally, that demon was Roland—of course, he considered himself human, a fungal human.

What's even more coincidental is that the old scribe standing next to Roland is most likely the person Roland absolutely cannot meet.

If Brianna were standing here now, she would be so angry she'd vomit blood. Out of caution, she specifically asked Roland to bring over a puppet, just in case something went wrong.

As a result, Roland not only disobeyed, but also showed off some crazy tricks in front of the 'old scribe'.

—In any case, now there is a 'three-dimensional person' standing here, unlike all the other two-dimensional people around him.

He just did something that proved he is indeed a 'three-dimensional person'.

So, what he really is is already quite obvious.

Roland knew he had just made a fool of himself, and he was flustered, but he calmly gave an explanation.

"Ahem, you are unaware of this. Back when the Thousand-Eyed King was in Maldore, he used the identity of 'Andra' to decipher the secrets of the Crimson Shrine."

The excavation and restoration of the Crimson Shrine has been going on for decades, and the wizards of the Eastern Territory have been quietly supporting it for just as long.

Therefore, the sacred stele at Akasei Shrine has been deciphered—the sacred stele there is exactly the same as the one here.

Roland was actually lying, because the topological differences in the stelae within the Holy See are quite significant.

However, he believed that the Holy See could not possibly have all the information about the Crimson Temple, especially those high-dimensional topological maps, which were created by the Thousand-Eyed King himself and were top secret information.

These documents are stored in hierarchical layers. Only someone at the level of Roland would have the authority to access all of them. Even old Johnson might not have had access to everything.

So Roland used the matter of the Crimson Temple as a pretext to spout nonsense.

The old scribe remained silent. Florence, however, believed Roland's nonsense.

Florence thought to himself: 'The Godfather seems to have a complete structural diagram of the Crimson Temple, but I don't understand these things very well. So, Roland and the wizard team have deduced these things before?'

That's fast enough, considering there must be some differences between the two types of holy tablets, and Roland only saw the holy tablet from the Holy See's side today.

Florence knew very well that Roland had only arrived in the Holy City this afternoon, and that Brianna had even said she had shown him around for a while. How much time did he have to do this?

It seems that he just spent a little time and quickly set it up to make the teleportation easier.

Florence couldn't help but recall something her teacher, Mr. Johnson, had said to her years ago after she spent an afternoon in Roland creating the "Question Machine" based on the "Seven-Pointed Magic Divination Array":

"In some fields, the results that ordinary researchers achieve after a lifetime of research are often only enough for true pioneers to stand on their shoulders and save a little time."

Florence has always believed that Roland, the King of a Thousand Eyes, the Godfather of Andorra, the White Queen, and others were such guides.

Johnson and countless others are their supporters. These millions of supporters dedicate their entire lives to saving time that shouldn't be spent on researching problems that ordinary researchers can't solve.

But today, Florence realized he was wrong.

The King of a Thousand Eyes, the Godfather of Andorra, the White Queen, Johnson, Williams, Catherine (Alysandra), and others are all just supporters.

There can only be one true leader.

Perhaps it was precisely because the King of a Thousand Eyes realized this problem that he bent down and let Roland step on his shoulders.

And what about The Godfather?
While pondering this, Florence noticed that the old scribe had somehow reached out and was remotely manipulating the 'bronze mirror' floating on the dome.

As the old scribe adjusted the plan, the five base fragments of varying sizes appeared in the projection as an inverted pyramid.

Florence wore a strange expression. She thought, 'The Godfather only showed Roland the plan view, not the projection of the Holy See into the higher dimensions, and it seems two parts are missing. Is he trying to test Roland?'

The old scribe said to Roland, "This is the 'map' you've been talking about. It's just a projection of the three-dimensional structure of the Holy See, so a single mirror can project the entire 'map'."

If we want to unfold them in another dimension, we'll need even more mirrors.

The Church’s commandments do not allow us to copy ‘their’ items, so the Holy See has not created new mirrors.

However, you are a wizard. You are not yet baptized and do not need to follow church rules.

Therefore, if you know the 'copying spell' or some other divine magic, you can temporarily create several mirrors.

The Copying Charm is a spell that even the lower-level apprentices at Black Abyss Academy know. If mastered, it can perfectly replicate an item.

If the magic is powerful enough, the copied items can even exist for thousands of years.

However, this spell generally only works on ordinary items, and has almost no effect on rare or unusual items. Therefore, although it has a slight connection to mystical magic, it is essentially a trick.

Roland asked with a strange expression, "You mean, this mirror is just an ordinary bronze mirror? Not a rare or sacred object?" The old scribe replied, "Indeed, although its craftsmanship is extremely complex, it is merely an antique from the Bronze Age. It was a primitive tool used by 'them' in the Bronze Age to observe the world, much like an abacus."

Roland's pupils suddenly shrank.

There are indeed abacuses in this world, and they are different from the abacuses Roland knew, but they are similar in function.

At the same time, this world differs from 'Europe' in that it also had a Bronze Age.

Recently, wizards unearthed some bronze abacuses in Mald, proving that the ancient Mald people had a highly developed civilization four to eight thousand years ago.

But they are nowhere near as good as 'them'.

During the Bronze Age, humans used abacuses to perform addition and subtraction.

But 'they' are observing different dimensions of the world.

In the same era, only bronze artifacts could be produced. One group had just learned addition and subtraction, while another group had already grasped general and special relativity, quantum mechanics and string theory, and discovered that the universe might be asymmetrical.

Then, using an extremely simple and primitive yet effective method, they used an ordinary bronze mirror to display higher-dimensional objects in the three-dimensional world!

This is equivalent to a group of paper figures understanding twelve-dimensional space and describing those twelve-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional plane!
Drawing a high-dimensional object on paper is not difficult. A beginner who has just started learning sketching can draw a three-dimensional plaster cast on paper.

However, as two-dimensional beings, humans cannot perceive a 'cube'—it requires a solid scientific foundation and enough luck for a two-dimensional being to accidentally discover the true full picture of a cube.

Therefore, humans cannot create such an 'abacus'. Even if they could, they wouldn't know how to use it.

But 'they' can. They too live within a two-dimensional world, yet they are born with the ability to observe the entirety of a higher-dimensional world!

Those complex and incomprehensible laws of the universe require a lifetime of study and generations of research for humanity to discover their true patterns by chance.

But for them, these incredibly complex theories are as simple as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division!
Humanity may only produce one genius like 'Talas' every few centuries.

But here, four- or five-year-old toddlers who have just started preschool are just as capable as Taras.

Without a doubt, humanity is mediocre in the universe.

They are the true chosen ones.

Both civilizations started from the Bronze Age and developed for thousands of years from the same starting line. Humanity may have just entered the steam industrial age, but 'they' may have already stepped out of the star system and colonized neighboring countries, just like the Trisolarans.

While both humans and animals walk on the same track, humans run on their own two feet—their endurance is remarkable. They can run for two hours without rest. As a result, they wiped out most of the life on the planet and rose to the top of the food chain.

There is no doubt that human feet can run very fast and have great endurance.

But 'they' were traveling in flying saucers!

Before humanity had even truly begun exploring the land and sea, they had already explored the entire solar system!
Like those creatures eliminated or domesticated by humans, in 'their' eyes, humans are also one of the countless creatures eliminated or domesticated for their own value on 'their' path of civilization.

They would never consider people as human beings.

Instead, they treat them like sheep or bees!

Roland reached out and summoned the bronze mirror back from the distance. He examined the mirror once more, and then a deep doubt arose in his heart.

Roland discovered that this thing was not actually suitable for manipulation by hand, and it was also inappropriate to use mental power or magic to change those geometric shapes.

This method is extremely inefficient and very complex. It's easy to make mistakes if you're not careful.

As a 'simple abacus', this thing is clearly poorly designed.

Unless, of course, the creators of the abacus used a method that is incomprehensible to humans.

So, how did 'they' use the abacus?
A ball of yarn rolled to Roland's feet, and Roland subconsciously followed the yarn to look at Diana.

Diana was secretly knitting a sweater when she saw the ball of yarn roll to the master's feet. She trembled and turned her head away under the master's gaze, avoiding his eyes, looking like a little dog who had done something wrong.

Immediately afterwards, Roland discovered that the ball of yarn under his feet had inexplicably disappeared—as if it had never rolled off Diana's lap in the first place.

Suddenly, Roland remembered the 'toilet door lock' in carriage number 1 of the train.

Diana believed the door wasn't locked, so the door, which was supposed to be locked, was never actually locked.
At that moment, a thunderclap flashed through Roland's mind.

He suddenly understood how 'they' were planning it.

They glanced at the cube beyond the paper, then at the abacus in their hands, and the abacus could display the result!
Therefore, in their daily lives, 'they' do not need to use their hands or feet, nor do they need to use magic or divine arts.

Because all 'they' need to do is observe.

They can influence the essence of things through observation!

They are born as part of the law; they are born as gods!
Roland asked, "Old sir, do they also have hands and feet?"

The old scribe said, "Of course we have hands and feet; we are children they created in their own image in secret."

Roland showed a very strange expression.

'how so.
They don't need hands or feet at all!
They don't even need to exist in a physical form, nor do they need to use any magical tools, because they are part of the law itself.

They should exist in a formless, intangible way, as mere concepts.

But they do have physical forms.
Just as humans don't need gills, they wouldn't have grown gills during evolution.

They didn't need physical bodies, hands, feet, or even spirit and magic. Yet, they inexplicably acquired these useless burdens and even began creating bronze artifacts.

Roland felt that this was very unreasonable.

He believes there can only be one possibility for this—they were originally formless and shapeless, but one day, they suddenly became physical beings and needed to eat and drink.

They even began to develop their own civilization and created bronze mirrors to analyze the Holy See. Several years later, they destroyed the Holy See with their own hands.
No one knows why they were researching their own spaceship, nor does anyone know why they wanted to destroy it.

But everything seemed to be planned.

Roland had a growing sense that the truth was drawing ever closer. (End of Chapter)