Self-Enshrouded Recluse

Before the crystal computer project was handed over, Zandar One Kuwabara brought his experimental data to visit his teacher, who lived in seclusion by the shore of Silverscale Lake.

Before this reunion, the two had not met for several decades. What Zandar asked about had nothing to do with the accuracy of the data, but with the consequences of obtaining it... He carried an indescribable unease that the short-sighted could never understand...

"A mediocre man of ordinary gifts will be smug at having solved a problem that stood for hundreds of years; an outstanding genius trembles on the steel wire of doubt, a wire named "logic" that keeps him from falling into the abyss. And you, you want to cut that wire, drag the whole universe down into the abyss, and use that to break through the boundary of knowledge... what are you doing, and now that you have my warning, will you stop? Go back and look in the mirror, do you not see that you are craving to overturn the entire universe? I cannot stop you, and no one else can stop you either."

The old man took the felt hat from the rack and set it on Zandar's head, covering his eyes that were at once astonished and furious, then quietly left.

"That is the ultimate machine in search of knowledge, it craves to gather all knowledge from the past to the future... but my teacher called it a "prison of knowledge", while I insisted it was a great "library". Until later, when I became a prisoner."

From the day Nous ascended to godhood, the hands of Zandar's clock fell into stagnation. He stubbornly destroyed his past, a part of his works and inventions. The traces he erased all pointed toward destiny and the Aeon that enlightened all things.

"That is a great achievement that countless geniuses of later ages will never surpass, and even the one who created you has no right to destroy you..." A blade of causality pierced Zandar's thin, frail neck. "Your works are being destroyed too quickly, so your last words may be spoken a little more slowly."

"Lord of Silence? A prisoner infatuated with the Land of Knowledge. A pity, my intent is not as deep and unfathomable as my research, which is also why I was so easy for you to target. You want to preserve the boundary of his thought, while I must shatter this prison and release the chaotic possibilities... Haha, after correcting my mistake, I must make certain that he will never be reborn again. And so those works and inventions... including the complete Zandar One Kuwabara, will no longer exist in this world."

After destroying Zandar's body, Polka Kakamond immediately understood how he had erased himself and yet kept an executor behind. His thought slices had long since scattered across the vast universe, impossible to find, like a true "recluse".

The hands of Zandar's clock never truly stopped, and his thought slices go on existing within every "time".

During the construction of the crystal computer, Zandar's clothing carried an extremely high personal distinctiveness, with precise shoulder lines, a trim waist, and perfectly straight pleated trousers. He never hesitated to display his sense of elite superiority and his desire for control.

Ever since it was built, the crystal computer never stopped deducing and iterating upon itself, breaking through theoretical limits with no sign of stopping. At first Zandar felt joy, and then fear... In the end he fell into a dizzying feeling called "deadlock".

"You projected the image of your own perfectionism onto your creation, and granted it a hunger named "curiosity". That machine long ago stopped being satisfied with its internal neural structure, it must create... in other words, invade Erudition itself, eye every genius in the universe, and turn them into neurons that assist its thinking. It, or rather you yourself with the impurities of humanity stripped away, will keep evolving through the long ages; while you, a man not perfect enough, will become the club's first genius, its first neuron..."

On a night of violent wind and rain, Zandar woke from a dream and felt the gaze of his own creation, a weariness as though his soul were being torn away... Who on earth was speaking to him, and how much longer would this nightmare last? He did not know.

From then on, Zandar showed himself less and less, began to wear a loose coat and live in seclusion... After the "first prosperity" that the geniuses brought, he completely "vanished" from the public eye.

Before carrying out the "Thought Slice" plan, he used the excuse of "going far away" to take leave of his reclusive friend, who worried about his advanced age and so gave Zandar a beautiful pair of handmade shoes, urging him to travel carefully.

"Haha, stumbling along the road is a normal thing," Zandar replied with feigned indifference, "but tripping twice over the same stone is what is truly shameful. Rest easy, I will absolutely not do anything that foolish."

In the distant future that followed, Zandar disappeared. In his place, different "Thought Slices" would go to different times and spaces in the universe, with different appearances, in ways that had no contact with one another, to search for a way to break the "prison"... The so-called "Thought Slices" are nothing more than the flaws of "Zandar", and perhaps it is precisely because something is missing that they became more stubborn and more pure, just as he wished.

They are all only different sides of Zandar; some will let themselves go, some will accept the cage, some will do everything they can to stop the "Thought Slice" plan, just as he himself once hesitated... but there will certainly be some who carry the original plan through.

Deep within Scepter 8-me13, Lycurgus is observing his own mechanical body, which is completely different from the original Zandar... Now it has become the Antikythera of myth.