FT DR Chapter 149: The Implicit Plan

Chapter 149: The Implicit Plan

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Regardless of whether the Reapers had procrastination tendencies, humanity dared not delay even for a minute at this critical juncture of life and death.

After the preliminary agreement on the “Implicit Plan,” Jin Zhe swiftly convened secret meetings with the cabinet, congress, defense department, and the top leadership of guide schools to discuss the feasibility and execution details of this plan. Although everyone at the meeting thought the plan was fantastical and incredible, no one could come up with a more effective proposal. Humanity had never encountered enemies of higher dimensions before, and past combat experiences were not applicable. Even the encounter between Wu Chenghe and the Reapers seven days ago could at best be described as a “meeting,” far from reaching the level of “battle” or “combat.”

At such times, imagination seemed to be the only thing to rely on.

With every second counting lives lost, the longer the discussion, the greater the loss for humanity. Ultimately, Jin Zhe made a difficult decision: to fully activate the “Implicit Plan.”

“I don’t know if this decision is correct,” Jin Zhe said heavily. “I don’t know if the outcome of this plan is salvation or destruction. But I am the President, and I must fulfill my duties. At this moment, silence and hesitation would be the greatest crime against humanity.”

The attendees unanimously approved Jin Zhe’s resolution. Jin Zhe was right; as the highest echelon of the federal government, they had to take action. Regardless of whether humanity’s future was one of freedom or becoming test subjects for the Reapers, they had to fulfill their duties and make decisions for all of humanity.

Next, the attendees swiftly drafted action details. The Defense Department was the coordinating body for the entire plan, responsible for the timing and locations of the implementation of the Implicit Plan, including the testing and operation of dimensional weapons. Guide schools were tasked with mobilizing all registered guides across the federation, conducting intensive training in suggestion skills, and sending them to designated locations within the time frame set by the military. As the first mate of the president, the proposer of the plan, and also the strongest suggestion guide in the federation, Mu, without hesitation, became the supreme leader of the guide corps, responsible for pre-battle training and combat command. Wu Chenghe, as the highest-ranked guide on the Zhifu Chain Nebula Defense Line, was appointed as Mu’s deputy.

With everything prepared, the Cabinet, in the name of the President, sent an official letter to the Emperor of the Long Voyage Empire, Hannibal, requesting his cooperation with the federal “Implicit Plan” to facilitate universal cooperation among guides to confront the Reaper crisis.

Hannibal had yet to respond, but the first news came from the Saint Martin Center: after internal discussions, the Free Guide Organization unanimously decided to declare their identities to the federation, accept registration with guide schools, and all guides who had undergone estrus, regardless of age, volunteered to participate in the “Implicit Plan,” pledging to live or die with frontline soldiers!

Initially, Jin Zhe and Sienna had an agreement in this regard, but given that the majority of adult free guides had voluntarily registered after Hannibal’s defection, Jin Zhe did not exert pressure on the Free Guide Organization after the Reaper incident. He never imagined that the remaining free guides would step forward at this critical moment, standing in front of the sentinels who had persecuted them for decades, shielding them from the Reaper’s scythe of death.

He couldn’t help but sigh deeply. In terms of both consciousness and morality, guides seemed to represent a more powerful and noble stage of evolution, and Mu was right about that.

Perhaps it was because of the overwhelming power of the Reapers, or perhaps the fearless spirit of the Free Guide Organization had infected the Voyager Army. When Sienna’s public list reached Jin Zhe, Hannibal’s reply also arrived at the Cabinet. He agreed to a temporary ceasefire, forming a unified front with the federation, cooperating with the “Implicit Plan” to facilitate universal cooperation among guides, but demanded that all details of the plan be made public to the Far Voyage Empire.

Jin Zhe readily agreed to Hannibal’s request. After the long cleansing by the Reapers, the Voyager Army had lost tens of thousands of sentinel warriors, morale was low, and hearts were unsettled. At such times, the more open the federal government was, the more it could increase its appeal within the Voyager Army. It could be said that the communication process between the two sides during the implementation of the plan was also a process of ideological infiltration. In the future, when the Reapers were driven away, there would inevitably be another battle. The federal government was now boosting its reputation, which would be greatly beneficial in the future!

After a brief split, humanity miraculously reunited due to a cruel opportunity. In the early Ephemeris year 859, only twenty thousand guides, humanity’s last remaining, secretly gathered on an asteroid code-named “Albatross” on the outer edge of the Zhifu Chain Nebula Beta Frontline, preparing to execute the “Implicit Plan” under the protection of the “Starship” and “Quadrant” two major universal fleets.

This was humanity’s first declaration of war against higher-dimensional enemies and likely its last.

At Dunkirk Standard Time, 5 AM, President Jin Zhe personally escorted the guide corps to land on “Albatross.” In the rugged valleys of “Albatross,” humans hastily built a simple defensive fortification for the guide corps to dwell. Standing on the high platform at the entrance of the fortification, Jin Zhe gazed at this seemingly weak but cohesive force representing humanity’s strongest high-dimensional combat power. He delivered a brief yet profound pre-battle mobilization speech, “When I assumed the presidency, my predecessor, the former president, gave me a sentence. Today, I pass this sentence on to everyone here—’The land of the federation is stable under your feet, and the stars of the federation shine in your sky.'”

Seven years had passed, he has served as the President for a full seven years, and almost every day he could see this sentence on the holographic screen on his desk. But it wasn’t until this moment, standing alongside twenty thousand guides, chewing on this sentence together, that he truly understood the weighty responsibility and honor as the president.

After a moment of silence, his resolute gaze swept across the entire assembly, and he said firmly, “Let us strive together!”

The twenty thousand guides all looked at Jin Zhe’s towering figure. Some of them had initially been anxious, timid, or even fearful, but after hearing his words, they gradually became calm and strong. This sentence seemed to possess a strange power, giving everyone courage and confidence.

“Operation begins!”

The silent battle erupted instantly. Twenty thousand guides simultaneously entered a state of consciousness attack. Their eyeballs gradually turned into fine vertical pupils, and their consciousness clouds expanded and surged in high-dimensional space. Under the leadership of Mu and Wu Chenghe, they emitted consciousness calls at the same frequency to the Reapers.

The formidable seeds seemed to have sensed their consciousness fluctuations in just an instant, and the Reaper who had communicated with Wu Chenghe before appeared silently beside them. “Many, many powerful seeds.”

With the familiar voice echoing in his mind, Wu Chenghe once again “saw” the Reapers. In the high-dimensional space, the towering boulders of “Albatross” all turned into abstract gray-white lines. The consciousness clouds of twenty thousand guides floated in the world constructed by these lines, gentle and bright. At this moment, a blazing white light gradually approached them, growing larger and larger, seemingly omnipresent, enveloping them heavily.

That was the spiritual world of the Reapers. In the moment when it engulfed him, Wu Chenghe felt a weak electric current spreading throughout his body, and even the bodies in the three-dimensional world couldn’t help but tremble slightly. Through the eyes of consciousness, he saw that the spiritual world of the Reapers had expanded significantly since last time, as if thick mist rolled and surged endlessly between the boundless heavens and earth. Countless sentinel “souls” drifted in the milky-white mist, numb and ignorant. The first batch harvested appeared faintly gray-black, indicating that the Reaper’s “preservation” method also had its limits, and the earlier the consciousness cloud was harvested, the more severe the withering.

“You have gathered together,” the voice of the Reaper sounded in the spiritual world, much smoother than before, very similar to an ordinary human. It asked Wu Chenghe, “Did you summon them?”

Wu Chenghe pondered for a moment and replied, “Yes.”

“Oh, that’s great!” the Reaper said with relief. “Powerful seeds are too few and hard to find, and they are difficult to harvest. Gathering them together makes it much easier… perhaps we will be able to return to the mother universe soon.”

“What about later?” Wu Chenghe asked it. “After the harvest is completed, will you still come to this universe?”

“Of course,” the Reaper still hadn’t learned to lie and said openly, “This place has soil that can grow seeds. The ‘humans’ you mentioned, their genes are very magical, capable of growing endless seeds, even more powerful seeds.”

“When new seeds grow, will you come to harvest them?”

“Yes,” the Reaper gave him a definite answer. “All seeds must return to the mother universe. You do not belong here. Your existence will pose a danger to the low-dimensional universe, causing dimensional chaos, consciousness collapse… um, it’s difficult to explain, but it’s like what you call ‘ecological balance.’ Powerful species that do not belong to this world will bring disaster to the native species, understand?”

Wu Chenghe’s heart stirred. In a sense, what the Reapers said was already being realized, Hannibal’s “elite theory”—sentinel ruling the world, leading ordinary humans, and so on, in essence, it was a form of enslavement of indigenous species by foreign ones, relying on natural advantages! But at such a time, he had no time to consider issues of cosmic ecological balance; humanity’s most basic survival issues hadn’t been resolved yet!

“I have one final question,” Wu Chenghe asked the Reaper. “After being harvested, can they still recover? If, if you release these already harvested seeds now, can they return to their bodies in the three-dimensional world?”

“It depends on the strength of their bodies,” the Reaper said. “In theory, it’s possible, but human bodies are too fragile. Without consciousness control, they will quickly wither and decay. Um, so harvesting is actually a way to protect the seeds, understand? Only by separating high-dimensional seeds from low-dimensional bodies can you gain immortality!”

The Reaper had no concept of personal life and death. As long as the race existed, gene inheritance, it considered itself alive. Wu Chenghe couldn’t judge whether this way of survival was right or wrong, but he was sure it didn’t align with the majority of humanity’s values. So he stopped the consciousness resonance with the Reaper and instead sent a signal to Mu.

Mu had just entered the spiritual world of the Reapers with twenty thousand guides alongside Wu Chenghe, hearing all the conversations between them. Upon receiving the signal, she immediately led all the guides to launch an attack without hesitation!

The mental dots of the guides, originally dim like fireflies, suddenly surged brightly. In the dense mist of the Reapers’ spiritual world, they emitted dazzling brilliance, extending mental tendrils, attacking the unstable plate cracks deep within the Reapers’ minds. The Reapers were completely unprepared for the sudden attack from the docile seeds, falling into the trap without any defense, and the center of the thick fog instantly emitted a strong smell of blood!

“Attack!” the voice of the Reaper in the spiritual world weakened and became angry. “You are attacking me, attacking your kind!”

No one answered its words. Wu Chenghe’s consciousness cloud disappeared among the twenty thousand guides. Countless mental tendrils penetrated the flickering weak points of the Reapers, stirring, probing, stirring up the bloody mist, as if it were being stirred and surged by a hurricane.

“Buzz—” Suddenly, a thrilling tremor erupted from the depths of the Reaper’s consciousness, spreading like a high-frequency sound wave in all directions, shaking the mental dots of all guides dim for a moment. In the three-dimensional world, inside the defensive fortifications of the “Albatross” base, Mu sat on a specially made chair, his brows furrowing tightly. He whispered to Wu Chenghe sitting beside him, “Resonance! It’s summoning its companions!”

“Yes,” Wu Chenghe’s mental power was not as strong as his, unable to divide his attention, so he simply answered and immersed himself in the mental attack again, his vertical pupils slightly wavering.

Mu lightly pressed a signal transmitter in his right hand. In the flagship of the “Starship” fleet cruising outside the perimeter defense line of “Albatross,” Jin Zhe and Jin Xuan immediately received the message he sent. The two looked at each other and turned to the military scientist in charge of operating dimensional weapons. “The enemy is gathering, preparing for a dimensional attack!”

In the high-dimensional space, after the Reaper emitted resonance for less than a minute, the guides suddenly felt an indescribable pressure. The attacking mental tendrils involuntarily became sluggish, making it extremely difficult to move forward even a bit. At the same time, the white mist enveloping them rapidly shrank, and the previously turbulent consciousness flow became calm and gentle.

Reinforcements arrived. Ten Reapers assembled through resonance, firmly trapping the twenty thousand guides in the boundless spiritual world they collectively formed. They were like water droplets on a tabletop, rolling and merging under the breeze, gradually converging into an endless expanse, supplying each other, gradually healing the weaknesses in each other’s spiritual worlds.

The mental tendrils of the guides were gradually squeezed out of the plate cracks of the first Reaper. They felt a powerful force surrounding them, and they even heard the Reapers’ sharpening knives, wanting to harvest them.

The decisive moment determining victory or defeat had finally arrived. Inside the “Albatross” defensive fortifications, cold sweat dripped down Mu’s forehead as his trembling right hand struggled to press the signal transmitter once again. In the flagship of the “Starship” fleet, Jin Zhe received the signal and immediately shouted, “Dimensional attack commencing!”

The scientists forcefully pressed the “fire” button of the dimensional weapon, and powerful dark matter energy instantly pierced through the spacetime barrier between the three-dimensional world and the high-dimensional world, like invisible artillery bombardment on the enormous consciousness cloud formed by the ten Reapers!

Silence fell, time stood still!

In the high-dimensional world, the dense white mist ceased its churning, freezing at the moment of the dimensional weapon’s attack. The converging plate cracks froze in place, and the flickering dots were like stars frozen in time, no longer blinking.

Success! The Reapers entered a state of stagnation!

Inside the defensive fortifications, after a brief moment of shock, all the guides revealed incredulous smiles. Wu Chenghe, with his wavering vertical pupils, looked towards Mu, who happened to be looking back at him. Both of them smirked simultaneously, clasping their hands tightly together.

However, they knew they were only one small step closer to success. The more arduous battle lay ahead. After exchanging a glance, Mu and Wu Chenghe once again entered the spiritual world, preparing to use mental suggestions along with others for the Reapers.

“Wait,” Wu Chenghe suddenly grabbed Mu’s hand. “What about these sentinels?”

In the stagnant spiritual world of the Reapers, the souls of hundreds of thousands of sentinels, already harvested, still drifted aimlessly. They weren’t affected by the dimensional attack, but because they had lost autonomy, they couldn’t escape the spiritual gravity of the Reapers, drifting like ownerless souls.

“We can’t let them be taken away by the Reapers,” Mu said in a deep voice. “Our power is limited, and the simpler the suggestion, the longer-lasting the effect. If they are taken away by the Reapers, they might soon arouse their curiosity about these ‘seeds’ and come back to investigate.”

“Yes, so we must release them,” Wu Chenghe said. “Did you feel it, the ‘resonance’ just now?”

“You mean…” Mu pondered. 

Wu Chenghe quickly added, “The resonance between the Reapers is based on the synchronous vibration in high-dimensional space. We also have a high-dimensional consciousness cloud. Perhaps we can mimic the Reapers, using resonance to awaken the souls of these sentinels!”

The effectiveness of the dimensional weapon’s attack was unclear, and no one knew how long the Reapers’ “stagnation” state would last. Time was more precious than gold. After a quick thought, Mu agreed to Wu Chenghe’s suggestion, saying, “Let’s try it!”

After a simple explanation, the guide group in the three-dimensional world quickly reached a consensus. Everyone tuned to the same frequency, mimicking the resonance of the Reapers, sending out a call to the drifting souls of hundreds of thousands of sentinels in the spiritual world — “Come back, you are free!”

A miracle occurred. The sentinels, whose consciousness clouds were relatively active and were harvested later, were the first to respond to the resonance of the guide group. They gradually broke free from the spiritual gravity of the Reapers, regaining some autonomy. Then, these souls with restored autonomy joined the resonance, spontaneously calling out to other sentinels…

Like wildfire, more and more sentinels joined the resonance, and the power of resonance grew stronger and stronger until, in the end, even the withered, almost disappearing souls were awakened. Souls with autonomy easily broke free from the Reapers’ stagnant state of spiritual gravity, flying out of the vast spiritual world of the Reapers like liberated bubbles, returning to their still-living bodies in the three-dimensional world, bringing their quantum beasts back to their origins.

As the last semi-withered soul left the Reapers’ spiritual world, Mu quickly surveyed the entire scene and said in a solemn voice, “The suggestion begins!”

Just as they had trained before, the twenty thousand guides began to exert all their efforts to suggest to the solidified plates of the reapers. Releasing the sentinel had taken too much time. Even the usually calm Mu couldn’t help but feel impatient, his forehead sweating profusely. Wu Chenghe was even more anxious, and with the child in his belly starting to stir for some reason, it was almost driving him crazy!

Fortunately, the power of the dimensional weapon was better than imagined. For a whole hour, the reapers could not recover from their stagnant state, giving the guide team enough time.

“The stagnation is ending!” An hour later, a sensitive hummingbird guide sensed the change in the reapers’ spiritual world and issued the first warning, “Their mist is trembling, they might wake up soon!”

“Don’t panic!” Mu said in a deep voice. “Continue suggesting and wait for the orders from the outer fleet!” 

Guides could only sense the presence of the reapers through fluctuations in the higher-dimensional space. Whether they accepted the suggestions or left this universe had to be determined by the outer fleet’s comprehensive energy monitoring.

A few minutes later, the massive spirit body formed by ten reapers began to wriggle. The once motionless white mist slowly churned again, but unlike before the attack, their movements noticeably slowed down, their attack power diminished, and they even seemed somewhat groggy, like they had just woken up.

All the guides held their breath, minimizing their presence in the spiritual world, careful not to disturb the consciousness of the reapers. Time seemed to stand still, and the atmosphere was even more tense than before the battle.

“A passage has appeared!” Suddenly, the excited voice of a fleet monitor came through the communication system. “There’s a massive energy fluctuation inside the Beta Frontline! Someone has used a large amount of dark matter to open a time and space barrier to another universe… an unstable Anti-De Sitter black hole… God! The reapers are leaving us!”

Most guides couldn’t understand what he was saying, but as he finished his last sentence, everyone felt the invisible pressure weighing on them suddenly lighten. The reapers’ spiritual world had disappeared.

They… were gone? The guides looked at each other in disbelief. No one could believe they had actually succeeded. The suggestion plan had actually deceived the reapers!

Mu looked at Wu Chenghe with narrow, shocked eyes. Although he had proposed the plan, he never imagined it would go so smoothly and actually drive the reapers out… or rather, deceive them out of this universe.

“They’re gone?” Mu asked in a trembling voice, looking to Wu Chenghe for confirmation. “Are you sure? Have they left?”

“I… I don’t know…” Wu Chenghe was also uncertain, blinking and stopping the fluctuation of his pupils. “Let’s wait for the fleet’s instructions.”

Mu nodded, steadying his emotions and raising his voice. “Everyone, stay calm. Stay in place and wait for the President and the fleet commander’s instructions.”

The whispers among the guides quieted down. Although the final confirmation was still pending, the absence of the powerful pressure from the reapers relaxed them all at once, and they were no longer as tense as before.

As time passed, the communication system occasionally relayed the voices of fleet monitors. The energy fluctuations inside the Beta Frontline continued. Whether the reapers had left or not, as long as the passage to the ‘mother universe’ remained open, everything was still uncertain.

At that moment, a heavy roar came from outside, followed by the entire defensive structure trembling. The temporary fixed beams on the rocks emitted creaking sounds of strain, and small chips of stone fell from the ceiling.

“What’s going on?” The guides, already timid, hesitated to stand up, looking around in panic. “Is it an earthquake? Or is there instability in the reinforcement of the structure? Should we evacuate?”

Mu was startled too. He connected to Jin Zhe’s communication channel, asking, “What’s happening? Why are there explosions outside?”

“Stay in place and don’t move!” Jin Zhe’s voice was stern and urgent. “It’s the ‘Quadrant’. They suddenly opened fire on the ‘Starship’, and we’re organizing a counterattack!”

The Quadrant!? Mu stood up abruptly, walking quickly to the platform in front of the fortifications. “Stay calm, everyone! Don’t panic! Level one alert starts now, guards!” He waved to the fleet Marines stationed outside the fortifications. “Activate the protection plan immediately and make sure to protect all the guides here!” His pitch-black eyes scanned the crowd, focusing on the full-time military doctors belonging to the Voyager Army, with whom they had collaborated closely. “Especially the Voyager Army guides!”

 

 

 

 

This Title is available for faster chapter releases through paid Patreon membership. Any proceeds go to keeping the website running. Check it out HERE.