Chapter 808: Two Choices for Inevitable Success
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 808: Two Choices for Inevitable Success
"So... is this an inspection by the Dean? I didn't expect Dean Serena to be interested in the experiments for Self-Generated Mana as well..."
I was genuinely shocked. This was a matter that even Dean Mei hadn't seen fit to attend in person. Of course, even if she hadn't come herself, I had still felt the Dean's support. Not only had she personally approved this laboratory, but her concern had been quite transparent whenever the subject of Self-Generated Mana was brought up.
She had even nearly assigned a Transcendent Witch to act as my assistant.
However, for the usually low-profile Serena Politzer to suddenly show up here was a different matter entirely.
The last time I saw her, she had been talked away by that Rebel Witch over in the Experimental Zone...
"To be precise, I am interested in you. From the initial prototype of your Domain to the Great Knowledge Seed, and now to this Self-Generated Mana—time and again, you have made me realize your value." Serena expressed her high regard for me bluntly, without any pretense or beating around the bush.
"This... regarding the Self-Generated Mana, it’s the result of everyone’s hard work. Their importance is also—"
"There is no need for excessive modesty. It is precisely because I place great importance on this project to promote Self-Generated Mana that I have come here." Serena cut off my humble deflection and steered the conversation back to the main point.
"My presence shouldn't affect your performance, I hope? I'm only here as a spectator."
"No, not at all. It won't affect us," I said quickly.
However, it was obvious that while I was fine, the others were not quite as unfazed.
After all, this was the first time they were conducting an experiment under the watchful eye of the Academy Dean. Even if they were only handling side tasks like data observation, information integration, and data maintenance, it was still nerve-wracking.
If the Dean herself was coming to observe, this experiment was basically a matter of supreme honor, wasn't it?
"My presence is unavoidable; I hope it doesn't cause you too much anxiety." Serena could naturally see the effect she had on the students. Though she seemed helpless to change it, as she said, it was unavoidable.
She raised her hand, and a spell was cast silently.
I detected the ripple of magic immediately and soon felt a wave of soothing power rise in my heart.
With my experience, I quickly identified it as a rare Mind Magic spell. While I wasn't sure of the specific name, its effect was clearly to calm the mind.
However, with my Heart Sense, I could easily resist such non-targeted spell effects. Or rather, I simply didn't need that level of soothing.
"By the way, my arrival was due to a series of coincidences, and I happened to encounter something on the way. It is meant for you; I am merely the messenger." As Serena Politzer spoke, she produced an exquisite small box and handed it over.
"Eh? For me?" I looked at Dean Serena with confusion. As she handed it to me, I caught a trace of Luck Alchemy on the box.
The moment I took it, that trace dissipated into invisible Luck.
"It seems you know what it is? Rest assured, I did not succumb to curiosity and open it."
"Yes, I have a guess." I nodded and opened the box. Inside was that very Transcendent item, the Misfortune Coin—"Mockery of Fate's Incompetence."
That was the name I had given it.
It had to be that Luck Alchemist, Teryx. She was the only Luck Alchemist I knew.
Having studied the theoretical foundations of Luck Alchemy, I could see through certain things now. The thread of Luck that had just dissipated—the one that had been interfering with fate—carried the intent: 'Deliver this into my hands in an absolutely safe manner.'
Sending it via the hands of Dean Serena Politzer... that was "safe" indeed!
I wondered if Teryx knew that she had inadvertently used an Academy Dean as a delivery girl through her Luck Alchemy!
"It looks like a lucky coin, yet it carries the aura of a Transcendent item? What an interesting little toy," Serena remarked with a hint of interest.
"Yes, it was originally a crude prototype for a lucky coin, but it became a Transcendent item due to a small accident." Seeing the Dean's interest, I explained its origin.
"I see." Serena nodded and didn't pry further. "Since my errand is done, I am now merely a spectator. You may begin your task."
"Understood." I nodded, then turned and clapped my hands to get everyone's attention. "Don't just stand there, everyone! Now that Yi Rui is back, it's time to get to work~"
At my call, Yi Rui finally walked over from Mentor Belica's side. Though she was also stunned by the Dean's presence, as the "second-in-command" of this team, she had to live up to the trust the other sisters placed in her.
Moreover, she was fully prepared. Not only did she have a brand-new Shaping Ritual, but her independent research into the Structuring Ritual had also reached a breakthrough.
However, these breakthroughs were built upon countless failed attempts.
While she couldn't guarantee absolute success, she had given it her all. She still didn't fully understand the essence of the Structuring Ritual, but sometimes, understanding wasn't necessary—knowing how to use it was enough.
As everyone braced themselves to give it their best, my gaze remained fixed on the box.
Specifically, on the coin.
It seemed Teryx had finished her research and decided to return it to me. I discovered a message left by a spell on the coin, which I quickly read using the Great Knowledge Seed.
The message contained Teryx's summary of the Transcendent item's properties. For a witch like her to study it for so long suggested that its traits were far more complex than the simple number-guessing experiment I had conducted in that cafe.
And after reading the information, that proved to be true.
To be precise, the coin's trait wasn't simply "making the user choose the wrong option." That description was neither accurate nor complete. That was merely one of its outward manifestations.
Teryx had used another experiment to prove this. Instead of guessing numbers, she had the subject guess the success or failure of an action that hadn't happened yet.
A very strange phenomenon occurred: the holder would give a predicted answer before the event took place.
Would the event succeed or fail?
Based on the Misfortune Coin's traits, if the coin predicted "Success," then the unperformed action was destined to fail.
When the holder confirmed the failure and flipped the coin to "rewrite fate," they would suffer a penalty of misfortune. The severity of the penalty depended on the absolute probability of the event succeeding naturally.
The smaller the natural probability of the success you wanted to force, the greater the price you had to pay.
The reverse was also true. Whether one wished for success or failure, it was a choice. If one chose not to intervene or change the outcome, there would be no backlash.
Thus, Teryx defined the coin as: The holder pays a price in misfortune to exchange for the absolute probability of an event.
Furthermore, there was no theoretical upper limit to this cost—or rather, the limit was determined by the maximum interference possible by the Luck of the holder's world.
After all, the coin used World Luck as a medium for its probability interference. If the intervention exceeded the world's limits, the Transcendent item would fail.
Yes, it could fail!
But even in failure, the user would still have to bear the misfortune equivalent to the world's limit.
I was suddenly curious about what kind of experiment Teryx had conducted to measure the limits of these traits. It was terrifying just thinking about it.
To measure the world's limit as its ceiling...
In that case, the coin didn't seem that powerful. At the very least, a single world couldn't directly kill a Transcendent expert. A world cannot easily execute a Transcendent; at most, it could make everything go wrong for them.
However, this gave me another idea. If the Misfortune Coin worked like this... wouldn't it be perfect for probability-based experiments?
This was even more heaven-defying than the "Ninglan's Heart" which manipulated Luck!
Of course, if one miscalculated the price, it could lead to actual death.
So... what kind of price would I have to pay to ensure the success of Yi Rui's Self-Generated Mana Structuring Ritual?
I looked at Yi Rui, who was currently in motion.
This experiment was led by Yi Rui and the others. I wouldn't interfere in the early stages. The help I chose to provide would come during the later structuring phase.
Furthermore, Yi Rui and I would cooperate to structure the Self-Generated Mana together, sharing the risk.
"Sister Xiao Han, are you still looking at your coin?" A girl walked over and looked curiously at the coin I was fiddling with. It was Cen Tan, someone I knew well. She specialized in Biological Alchemy, but since her specialty didn't quite fit this project, she was only responsible for basic data organization.
"Yes, it's a lucky coin. Want to guess if Yi Rui will succeed?" I showed her the coin and asked with a smile.
"A lucky coin? Sure! Let me guess!" Cen Tan said, sounding very interested.
"Pick a side. Shall we see if it's success or failure?"
"Huh? We're playing for real? What if..."
"It's fine~ Just think of it as a game," I reassured her.
"Then I'll pick the flower side. Sister Yi Rui matches the flower side. What kind of flower is this? I don't think I've seen it before."
"An iris, maybe. Or something else," I said casually, then gave the coin a careless toss.
"Quick, let me see! Is it the flower?" Cen Tan asked urgently as the coin landed in my palm.
"Hmm..." I opened my hand. Resting in my palm was the side with the flower. "It looks like Yi Rui's luck is quite good~"
"Hehe! I told you Sister Yi Rui's luck wouldn't be bad! She'll definitely succeed this time!"
"Mhm. Go on, get back to work."
I sent Cen Tan away and looked down at the coin.
Flower side. Success.
This meant Yi Rui was destined to fail. There was no other option!
This was the second trait Teryx had summarized: when I hoped for success, the result would inevitably be failure.
This was exactly like the experiment we did in the cafe. When Teryx wanted to guess correctly, she was wrong every time.
So, when I—and everyone else who hoped for Yi Rui's success—used it to predict the outcome, the surface result would be "Success."
But the actual event would inevitably fail.
As long as no single node of the entire process transcended the world's scope of interference, Luck would dictate that this experiment would fail.
The only one who could change this ending was me.
And I had two ways to do it.
The first was to completely master the technique of the Self-Generated Mana Structuring Ritual myself, ensuring a 100% success rate. By breaking the "probabilistic" nature of the event with absolute skill, the unpredictable choice would no longer exist, and the event would not be affected by the coin's probability interference.
It was like betting on whether I could pick up a pen from the ground. Since I already have the absolute ability to pick it up, interfering with the probability of success or failure becomes meaningless.
However, I couldn't counter probability with absolute success yet, so this method was off the table.
As for the second method...
I silently flipped the coin, placing the side with my silhouette flat against a lab table.
Blood-red Luck began to seep from the corners of the silhouette's mouth on the coin, as if it were once again wearing a mocking sneer at the expense of fate.
The second method was simple: change the established ending, bear the misfortune, fulfill the principle of equivalent exchange for using a Transcendent item, and pay the price to buy success!
As for whether such a "success" could still be considered Yi Rui's own achievement...
I could only say that hard work doesn't always guarantee success. Since Yi Rui couldn't achieve absolute success on her own, she had to be prepared for the possibility of total defeat. Success is a reward for the completion of effort, not a prize given just for trying halfway.
The reason I intervened so decisively was that Yi Rui was in a "sink or swim" situation. She couldn't afford to fail, and as her friend, I was happy to help her.
Of course, there was also a rational side to my thinking: if Yi Rui failed, I didn't know how many days she would spend in a slump before recovering. I didn't want to deal with that uncertainty.
As for the price of misfortune I would bear—at least I had the means to deal with it. It didn't matter if I was injured or even if I died.
In Teryx's tests, the holder's own abilities could also be used to resist the cost of using the Transcendent item.
It was just like the Ninglan's Heart held by Ninglan Qiuyue. It took the flesh and blood of countless ordinary people for a single person to harness Luck, but when Ninglan Qiuyue used it herself, her own power was so great that she could bear the cost of the required flesh and blood alone.
A single Flesh Healing spell could offset the price paid.
So, I wasn't doing this blindly.
No one saw what I had done.
Except for those two witches.
They didn't say anything about my actions. Experiments were like that—success by any means necessary. Although they didn't know exactly what I had done, they knew that using a Transcendent item meant a price had to be paid.
"Xiao Han, are you alright?" Mentor Belica stepped forward and asked pointedly.
"Hmm? I'm fine for now," I said with a smile. Before the success was finalized, the price had not yet been collected.
Of course, it was also possible that the price had already been paid but hadn't manifested yet.
Thinking of this, I subconsciously touched the collar around my neck.
It was a gift from the Dean, placed on me by Sister Bai's own hands... meant to suppress the world's misfortune curse after the Ley Line Shackles were severed.
I wondered if this alchemical item could offset this particular curse of misfortune for me?
"If anything happens, tell us immediately. Go ahead and do what you need to do with confidence. Remember, there's an Academy Dean watching over you."