Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 750

Chapter 750: Chapter 249: Extraordinary Three States, Mastery of Ordinary and Reversal

The Demon Eye Sponge is the same, possessing special abilities far beyond ordinary sponges,

While those common infection sources should be at the “normal state” stage, just their basic abilities have been amplified.

“The second stage, we call it: Anti-state!”

“If the normal state is life’s first awakening to itself, then the anti-state is the first active rebellion against the world’s rules after awakening. When an organism’s cells deconstruct their own physiological laws, they begin to actively challenge the established order of the outside world.”

“The most direct characteristic of the anti-state is ‘rule inversion’, covering multiple levels including physics, energy, and even cognition. At this stage, an organism’s abilities are no longer limited to strengthening itself or perceiving the environment, but can actively distort, or even rewrite a small range of physical rules.”

“Some infection sources can make flames burn in a vacuum, let electric currents pass through the atmosphere unscathed, some can create three-dimensional paths on flat surfaces, or turn their shadows into independent spaces for hiding. And this Undetermined Fox, its ability is approaching the transition from normal state to anti-state, with a core of reducing its presence by distorting the rules on the cognitive level.”

If there was a small bench by the door, Cheng Ye would even be willing to sit there and listen to her talk for a whole day.

It was nothing else, rather her voice carried a special gentle quality, as if with magic, that could make one unconsciously quiet down.

Normal state, anti-state.

These two stages seem opposing, yet allow the infection source’s abilities to achieve an almost qualitative leap.

Cheng Ye quickly integrated the information in his mind, and suddenly a flash of enlightenment came to him, prompting him to ask instinctively:

“So the ability of the Undetermined Fox comes from its awareness of the existence of rules, and its capacity to actively interfere with them?”

“That’s the key.”

Yu Erlan’s eyes flashed with obvious appreciation, and her tone carried more recognition, “Cognition is the cornerstone of all powerful forces, true breakthroughs must be built upon a cross-level cognition upgrade. Just like human technological development, it is because the foundational rule cognition was mastered first that all kinds of world-changing technological products could be derived from it.”

“The evolution of infection sources is the same, the keys left by the giants opened the door to rule cognition for them, allowing them an intuitive glimpse into the operation of rules. Even if they cannot systemically analyze and transform rules like humans, they can, with their limited wisdom, make preliminary use of rules.”

“But the danger of the anti-state lies precisely there, this confrontation with rules traps organisms in a dilemma of bidirectional consumption, one must expend energy to distort rules while also enduring the backlash costs brought by those rules. For instance, when you use the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse’s ability, the cost borne is not a symbiotic punishment but the inevitable price of forcefully twisting the rules.”

Boom!

It was as if a bolt of lightning exploded in his mind, suddenly enlightening all the critical points that had previously perplexed Cheng Ye.

So, it was not the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse’s symbiotic punishment, but the result of forcefully borrowing power to distort rules when his own rule cognition was incomplete?

This was like a primitive person accidentally picking up a sniper rifle with astounding power.

He might manage to shoot a prey by luck but could also accidentally point the gun at himself due to lack of operation knowledge.

The existence of the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse was more like a guide teaching him how to aim and pull the trigger, yet unable to offset the recoil inevitably produced after shooting.

Understanding this, Cheng Ye speculated along the lines: “So the third stage should be the mastery stage of rule control? Not only recognizing the essence of rules but also precisely mastering them, thereby avoiding or reducing the costs of rule backlash.”

However, Yu Erlan did not immediately respond to his guess, instead continuing to add:

“Even if one needs to bear the costs of backlash, the anti-state remains an indispensable key stage in the evolution path of infection sources. It proves to us that the rules of the world are not unbreakable and that life’s potential has yet to reach its limit. Like a warrior challenging gods in an ancient fable, the anti-state represents the courage to break the shackles, and more importantly, the starting point of infinite possibilities.”

After saying this, she formally gave her answer, her tone full of undeniable certainty:

“The third stage, we call it: Control State!”

“The normal state is the awakening of rule cognition, the anti-state is an active challenge to rules, and the control state, is about creating new rules. This is not about using inversion within the existing rule framework, but personally carving out wholly new principles on the established rule map of the universe.”

“At the control state level, we could even achieve reverse entropy, recovering and storing diffused thermal energy, breaking the conventional law of entropy increase. Based on this, we could repair damaged objects, reverse cellular aging, and in extreme conditions even intervene in the entropy change on the space-time level, achieving local time freeze, or even a backward glimpse into past fragments.”

Control, surpasses just understanding rules, but akin to taking a shortcut to…create new rules?

Cheng Ye was completely shocked by this subversive bold conclusion.

Could it be that those so-called ‘runes’ are essentially the unique added rules left by biological individuals after their interference with the world using their abilities?

If one can truly create rules, doesn’t that amount to gaining nearly immortal abilities, thereafter acting freely and with impunity?

No, no way!

This thought had barely emerged when he immediately denied it.

Under the anti-state, even changing existing rules bears equivalent costs, creating new rules is such a more exaggerated behavior, how could it be easily realized?

“What does creating rules require?” After much deliberation, he couldn’t help but ask.

Yu Erlan didn’t keep him in suspense, looked at him calmly, and gently uttered two words:

“Resources!”

…