Chapter 547: Ungullible Douglas

“This paper is based on relativity and the constant speed of light. For that, I stipulate that…”

After he skimmed through the paper, Douglas’s smile was replaced by graveness. He raised his head to look at Oliver, only to discover in surprise that the pile of papers before him, including the poem, the play and the papers,had been obliterated into dust and dispersed into the air.

Failing to take over the front page of the paper in Douglas’ hand, Oliver destroyed all the items on the desk in his anxiety when he tried to clean up the traces!

He was now full of regret. Due to the turmoil in his love life recently, he hadn’t been himself. After he took out the paper and studied it, he forgot to put it back before he started the creation of his long poem. Later, he simply forgot everything and did nothing when he directed Douglas into his library.

I should’ve enhanced myself with ‘Mechanical Mind’ when the tower guard informed me! His facial muscles cramping, Oliver couldn’t have regretted it more.

Douglas looked at Oliver, puzzled. “Why did you destroy it and stop me from reading it? Is there a problem that Lucien inferred equations based on two premises?”

The front page of the paper mainly included two postulates and their respective descriptions.

Oliver looked at the bookshelf and, with a self-mocking smile, spoke convincingly, “They were just the ideas that Lucien and I discussed, nothing more than speculations and fantasies. They are full of flaws and errors, so I would rather nobody else reads them. You know that I am a perfectionist. In both the creation of plays, poetry and paintings and the studies of arcana and magic, I would rather destroy the works if I’m not satisfied than present them to anybody.”

Such words would’ve been ridiculously funny if they were said by somebody else. However, when they were said by a grand arcanist who was brimming with the vibe of a great artist, together with his long beard and his sad face, they sounded particularly true.

Douglas seemed more or less convinced. He smiled. “Speculations and fantasies are not bad, either. They can give me inspirations. Let me guess what you discussed. Huh, the constant speed of light… The popular paper that explained the light speed experiment recently… Did Lucien infer your transformation formulas based on the two premises?”

Oliver held his head. Could you please not be so smart, Mr. President? “No, not exactly…”

Douglas did not seem to hear him at all. He took out a pile of paper from his storage bag and picked up the quill, starting his deduction based on the two premises on Lucien’s paper.

“No…” Oliver stepped forward, trying to stop it, but when he saw Douglas writing busily, he suddenly fell silent. Now that Mr. President had the idea, he could deduce it after he returned even though Oliver stopped him right now. Therefore, he might as well supervise him and see if he could offer any guidance in case of a tragedy.

If things are beyond control… Thinking about that, Oliver activated the highest clearances of the magic tower, so that he could jump out of ‘Theater of Destruction’ at the critical moment.

He could be heavily wounded at most if the demiplane was destroyed. He could always map and produce another one.

Oliver finally showed some responsibility at such a moment and did not inform Fernando and Lucien to come, in case they were affected, too.

Based on the two premises, and since he already had a goal, Douglas soon deduced a series of formulas, but the more he inferred, the slower he became.

Hum… The Theater of Destruction outside of the magic tower whimpered, and the exploding stars seemed to be collapsing under the attraction of a certain force. Although it was shabby and imperfect, it released the air of destruction that was even more horrifying than the doomsday just now.

Oliver was soaked in cold sweat. It was indeed as expected of an expert at the peak of legendary. He was able to cause the change of stars in a demiplane that was not under his control. Would anything really happen?

After enhancing himself with spells, Oliver ruled out all his feelings and stared at Douglas, his black eyes as frozen as ice.

The floating dust became sluggish, and time seemed to have stopped fleeting. The space in the library was vaguely constricted. Veins bulged on Douglas’ hand that was grabbing the quill. His skin turned lackluster, as if he had grown old by decades in just one moment.

Finishing the last stroke, Douglas read the paper silently and gloomily.

“Mr. President?” Oliver called him.

Douglas, as still as a statue, did not reply. When Oliver was about to call again, he raised his head with a bitter smile. “Although I had realized that my motion theories were problematic after Brook established the electromagnetic system, I still feel that my past thousand years of life have been denied watching them get overruled and disrupted ruthlessly.”

“No, they are just helpful supplements for your theoretical system.” As a famous artist/playboy, Oliver told lies without the slightest awkwardness. “Are you alright?”

He heaved a long sigh of relief. Mr. President’s head seemed still intact, and his cognitive world was not frozen.”

“There’s no need to console me. I know very well what I have inferred. Lucien… Lucien is more dangerous than Brook…” Douglas shook his head with a bitter smile. “What a burden it must’ve been for Fernando to be his teacher. I feel lucky that I didn’t compete for him at the beginning… Thankfully, the paper is still only a hypothetical deduction that is not proved by any experiments or phenomena yet.”

“Also, it does not agree with the time error on the artificial planets. According to the deduction, time should be slower, but time is in fact faster…”

Self-obsessed, Douglas asked himself, “What is space and time? Why do they change according to matter? Why are they the functions of speed…”

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Oliver was more or less surprised. It seemed that Douglas did not notice the paper that Lucien’s students published. That’s great! That’s great! He would be less shocked later if he spent his time in the world of whys for a while.

Weighing his tones, Oliver expressed his opinion, “In the past, we believe that time and space are absolute, independent, mathematic, but we may have to view it from a different perspective now. If we can figure out the mysteries of time and space, I believe that we won’t be too far away from the truth of the world.”

He was alluring Douglas, a curious sorcerer, with the bright prospects in the future, hoping that Mr. President would think that it was one step closer to the truth, not that his own system had been disrupted, when he discovered the relativistic, so that his head would not blow up.

Douglas was back to himself from the shock. In an unpredictable voice, he said, “I’ve accepted a few disruptive theories in a row in only a hundred years. If I hadn’t recalled the concepts of relative truth and absolute truth that Lucien mentioned, my cognitive world might’ve been frozen like Brook. While this paper hasn’t been proved it, I did realize some problems during high-speed battles.”

Oliver rubbed his forehead, thanking Lucien for finally doing a good deed. He said solemnly, “Lucien said that your motion system is not wrong.”

“Huh? Not wrong? Douglas looked at Oliver in confusion.

Oliver nodded carefully, “He said that your motion system is a relative truth, and an approximation of the theory in the low speed. Your path is not wrong; it’s just that you haven’t walked far enough yet.”

As a playwright, it was more than easy for him to make up quotes, but Lucien did use the term ‘low-speed approximation’. As for the rest, they were just ‘descriptors’!

Douglas nodded slowly and accepted the theory. Then he frowned. “Judging from your tone, has it been preliminarily proved by experiments?”

Oliver’s face was immediately frozen. His response could easily betray him when he dealt with a man like Mr. President.

“Not yet. It’s just that Lucien is very confident. You know, his previous success filled him with confidence.” Oliver kept lying and pushing the problem to Lucien, describing him as an egotist.

Douglas stood up. “Alright… My head is a bit messy. I need to go back now. Perhaps, this paper will be the starting point of my future research…”

Instead of waiting for Oliver to reply, he left the magic tower and sighed, “How could Lucien have done that? He wouldn’t have discussed the paper with you without experiments.”

Half overjoyed and half grieved, he felt that his heart was torn apart.

After returning the Land of Truth, Douglas asked the tower guard to bring him Lucien’s papers in the recent issues.

“Tensor analysis… Why isn’t there any?” Douglas knew that what he was doing was dangerous, but his shaking cognitive world made him unable to control himself. He seemed to be reaching the exit of the labyrinth that had trapped him for years. Whether it was a good ending or a bad one, it would be an answer after all. How could he stop?

Not finding anything after a long search, Douglas picked up the issue of Arcana where Oliver published his transformation formulas and perused it. He believed that Lucien must’ve made preparations before submitting such a revolutionary paper.

Based on his understanding about Lucien and Fernando, Douglas reached the end and suddenly saw two familiar names. “Annick… Sprint… Aren’t they Lucien’s students?”

Focusing his attention, Douglas began to read the paper carefully. Gradually, he furrowed his brow, and the rug in the magic tower displayed a formula he inferred earlier under the attraction of his spiritual power.

“If we start from the formula where mass increases with speed, there may be an explanation.” Douglas calculated nonstop as if something was chasing after him. Obtaining the data in the end, he knew how to change the electrical field now.

He entered the laboratory without running simulations in his cognitive world. Activating the newly-added cyclotron, he adjusted the electric field.

A moment later, the beautiful scenery outside of the magic tower was suddenly enshrouded in darkness. Both space and time seemed to be in chaos.

Douglas left the cyclotron and walked to the window, heaving a deep sigh: “What is time? What is space? What is life?”

The light was restored in the Land of Truth, which seemed undamaged, but Douglas’ eyes were still filled with bewilderment. His philosophical opinions in the past hundred years had embraced a drastic change.

“Thankfully, I still have the gravity theory… But what’s the source of gravity? Based on what is it generated? How did gravity appear at the very beginning?”

“Does absolute truth mean…”

……

Lucien did not have the time to submit his heuristic paper yet, when he suddenly received Fernando’s message: “Come over now. That stupid idiot Oliver screwed up again!”

Huh? Lucien was stunned and even vaguely heard his teacher roaring at Oliver.

What happened?