Chapter 167 Aftermath
Dante sighed and left the Research Wing of the Inferno. That test had not gone well at all, and there were unfavorable results. As for the outcome of Lucian and Harold's people coming to look for them, he was not worried.
There was an anti-surveillance law in not only the Eternal Universe, but in the Eternal Academy. A citizen could not willingly or intentionally surveil another in their private space, but could report to the authorities if something was up.
The authorities had millions of ways to surveil such a person. The purpose of this law was to prevent citizens from having their privacy breached due to the advanced technological nature of current society, as well as the presence of superpowers.
At least, on paper. There was another reason for this but there was no need to delve into it for such a law.
Long story short, even if the students in his area came forth and said that these two entered his residence, they wouldn't have a problem because it was in the open. However, if they stated that they never saw the two leave Dante's residence, that was a problem.
The only way they could know was if they surveilled 24/7. For Dante could say he escorted them out at a random time and the others would not be able to prove it. So if they did bring evidence that they didn't leave, they would be taking themselves down with Dante basically.
The problem was that this wasn't even enough to get Dante a slap on the back. The crime wasn't serious enough for the Prime Human Council to take such actions and the factions against or monitoring Dante would not waste their aggression on this.
They were not aware of the closeness between Dante and Beatrice, nor Dante's act of having researched the entire social structure of the universe intricately. To them, they were in the dark and Dante was in the light, minus those factions whose teachers acted.
Besides they didn't think Dante did anything harmful to the two because it was too unnecessary and random. Even when he could act with impunity on Planet Etonia with the backing of the Prime Human Council, all he did was eat, sleep and then buy some stuff, lewd androids included!
That was exactly what a country bumpkin who did not understand how society worked would do! Dante also knew this but it couldn't be helped, he had no vested interest in the social or political climate of this universe.
So what they assumed was that Dante used that superpower of his that involved space to either hide the two away or send them somewhere else, which was quite accurate. Of course, this realization came way later when a few days passed and the two lads hadn't been seen.
As for Dante, the fellow himself only glanced at the two incapacitated bodies for a short while before leaving and heading into the True Martial World. Before he did, he left a message for Beatrice explaining the results of his experiment and his worries.
This time, when Dante entered the True Martial World, he didn't come with his true body. As such, he had to experience the stiffness and pain from lying on the bed for almost a month straight, unmoving at all.
Luckily, this was the True Martial World, so all Dante needed to do was chant the mantra for the Inferno Ascension Technique, which caused only a little bit of heat to emerge from his body, like he had run in the hot sun and someone touched his skin, or like he had a high fever.
After all, while the talent was the same, the stats were not. Dante was now experiencing the difficulties that normal denizens of this universe faced. However, this did not bother him as he was not planning to suffer at all.
The moment he ran his internal art for a short while, he managed to barely initiate himself. He did not automatically condense a bead of hellfire and enter the first level, but was in the area before that where he first had to condense enough hellfire to form the bead.
However, this was enough. Dante used the small hellfire he had to run through his body's muscles and meridians, easing the pain and giving them life once more. He could finally get out of bed and stand shakily, seeming like a person who had overworked themselves and was thoroughly sore all over.
Dante pulled out an Enhanced Energy Elixir form his inventory and downed it right away. The voluminous energy within was enough to match a pure level 6 blood energy soup, but Dante did not feel any stress or pain.
The nanites within the concoction would automatically break the energy down for his body to absorb painlessly, so all he had to do was practice. He began the Body Tempering Realm movements of the Raging Blood Halberd art that he was familiar with, going through them with ease.
Immediately, Dante felt the difference between having high stats already at this stage and not. He felt endless power and strength fill him as the energy he needed to ignite his blood in order to temper it was perfectly provided at a rate that his body could handle.
The sheer efficiency was mind-boggling, and Dante could intimately feel it. In just one session, he was sure he had climbed from uninitiated to Body Tempering Realm, Minor Completion peak.
This was only barely 30 minutes of practice too, so Dante was filled with awe. One should know, this was a virtual body with average talents suppressed to 1 point in each field.
To put it nicely, Dante was the most average fellow among every denizen of the True Martial World, and so too were other students when they entered here. Of course, Internal Art talent could not be suppressed and varied from person to person.
If Dante could climb this fast, then how much more a normal person? Dante finally seemed to understand just how crazy the effects of the creations of his research AI were.
It was one thing to see it on paper and use it when he already had high stats and another to use it in the mind and body of an average person. It was sort of the difference between seeing 1 million dollars on paper and 1 million dollars in person.
They had an immensely different impact as well as a wholly different understanding that came with them.
Dante breathed out and relaxed his body. He then checked his previously dropped quantum marker nearby and prepared to test his theory. His virtual body moved to the side and watched as space warped and Dante's real body appeared beside him.
Luckily, his background in the True Martial World was lower than the Magus World, so there was no one strong enough to detect the intrusion of the main body.
Dante's main body and virtual body glanced at each other, and Dante felt amazed. This was the first time in his life he was seeing himself so... intricately. His virtual body looked different from his true body, bearing the former makeup he had before he gained all these powers and acquired the Eyes of Illusion as well.
Dante was here in his main body but his AI chip could still connect to the quantum world outside. As such, Dante's main body closed his eyes and 'logged' into his account and immediately his dull virtual avatar came to life and looked at him.
Dante was once again shocked to see his true body from his avatar's eyes. No mirror in the world could replicate the feeling of seeing yourself in the flesh. His main body opened his eyes and the two looked at each other.
"It's doable." They both said at the same time, before frowning.
"It's basically like an? echo. Unless I find a technique to split my mind, it is impossible to multitask. Both bodies would just mimic the same actions." They both said again, sighing.
Another test failed.
Dante left the quantum world with his true body with his Quantum Marker and then descended on his virtual body using his Quantum Transposition. In other words, it was the good old way of 'descending' that he had done up to now.
Feeling the power of his main body, he had a lot more confidence now. He exited his room and came to the courtyard, only to see a bored Jia Susu who was sweeping the place listlessly.
When she heard the door open and Dante come out, her face was filled with shock, then ecstasy. She ran over like a little rabbit and then hopped with joy.
"Senior Brother! You're back!"
Dante smiled and patted her head. "That's right. Tell me what happened since the last time I was here."
A hint of fear appeared on Jia Susu's face as she remembered the events of a month ago. Dante had exploded with so much power that she was sent flying and if not for her robes being buoyant and acting like a parachute, who knew what would have happened?