Screwllum was someone who drew a clear line between public matters and private ones.
He was willing to give away his personal resources.
Even if it was only a single Scepter, Lin Yi knew Screwllum had likely postponed quite a few research projects because of it.
At the same time, Screwllum refused to treat the resources of the Mechanical Empire as personal favors.
And he disliked discussing crude transactional details with friends.
Lin Yi naturally understood.
The later negotiations would be handled by Dongfang Qiqing and the Mechanical Empire.
Lin Yi and Screwllum only needed to decide the broad direction.
The details could be left to their subordinates.
Lin Yi asked,
"The other party might come back."
"And Screwllum, aren't you curious about their identity?"
"Want to stay and uncover the mystery together?"
Screwllum replied,
"Logic: I have postponed thirty-seven research projects."
"Result: I have gained seven days of free time."
"Explanation: I am also very curious about that unknown genius."
Lin Yi nodded.
"Then we'll wait patiently."
"I've asked the Xianzhou to calculate the final data from before the opponent disconnected using the Ten Directions Radiant Realm."
"And I've asked Fu Xuan, Diviner of the Luofu, to perform a prophetic calculation."
"While we wait, we could discuss some academic topics."
"For example—I think our understanding of the soul might be wrong."
"The source code of the soul may need revision."
A voice suddenly rang out.
"Correct."
"Your soul source code indeed has problems."
Screwllum paused.
"?"
Lin Yi narrowed his eyes.
"Who is it this time?"
"Are you the genius who launched the cyber attack earlier?"
The voice answered calmly,
"Exactly."
"Didn't you and Stephen Lloyd discuss searching for me?"
"As you wished, I came."
"I should introduce myself properly."
"My name is Silkall."
"Genius Society #29 — Silkall."
Silver-white light streamed out from a vortex.
Flowing information condensed into the body of a silver-haired girl.
"Perhaps you don't know much about me."
"But I've learned quite a bit about you."
Silkall lightly flicked her long hair and walked up to Lin Yi.
She smiled faintly.
"So?"
"How does my Phase Spirit Fire feel to use?"
She raised a hand.
The Phase Spirit Fire, which Lin Yi had only half-separated from the broken Phase Walker, suddenly broke free from its restraints.
The flame obediently circled in Silkall's palm.
The gesture made her ownership perfectly clear.
Lin Yi said nothing.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Trying to intimidate him?
He tapped a finger.
"The Phase Spirit Fire was created by you."
"But I've been refining it for quite a while."
"If ownership is unclear…"
"Then it's better to cut it in half."
The flame in Silkall's hand immediately shook violently.
It flickered wildly.
Rather than splitting into two—
it looked ready to explode entirely.
Like overturning the table so no one got anything.
Silkall released it.
The flame floated back toward Lin Yi.
She shrugged.
"It was just a joke."
"No need to be so serious."
"I only took control earlier to remove my own will from the flame."
"Now it completely belongs to you."
"Consider it my meeting gift."
"If you don't believe me, check it yourself."
The next moment—
Silkall's information body flashed.
She appeared in front of Screwllum.
Her silver hair fluttered lightly.
At the tip of each strand, strange lights shimmered for an instant before fading.
"Screwllum."
"You were the one who fought me earlier, weren't you?"
Screwllum gave a polite gentleman's bow.
"Ms. Silkall, a pleasure."
"But please explain your intentions."
"And the reason for invading Shenxiao Space City's network."
Silkall rolled her eyes.
"That cyber attack was only meant as a greeting."
"Who would've thought some genius would take it so seriously?"
"What an exaggerated response."
She glared at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi immediately shot back,
"Of course I responded seriously."
"I merely returned an equivalent greeting."
"But apparently the one who started it couldn't handle the response."
Silkall snorted.
"And someone else fought seriously too."
"You only lost after becoming the enemy of the entire universe."
She crossed her arms.
"Relying on outside help doesn't look very genius-like."
Lin Yi crossed his arms as well.
"Getting along well with others is also a skill."
"If you're so capable, why didn't you call anyone?"
"I can call people once."
"I can call them twice."
"I can keep calling forever."
"Oh?"
"You wouldn't happen to be a lonely hermit, would you?"
Silkall scoffed.
"A genius doesn't need useless socializing."
"All energy should be devoted to pursuing truth."
Lin Yi slowly clapped.
Then he turned to Screwllum.
"Screwllum, did you hear that?"
"She says our friendship is useless socializing."
"She just called you a useless person."
Silkall froze.
"???"
She took a deep breath.
Calm down.
Stay calm.
Her solidified information body perfectly simulated biological functions.
Even the most precise instruments would detect her as a normal human.
But on a higher-dimensional level, her body contained immense layers of informational entropy.
This special superposition state was only a minor side effect of the Quantum Star Chain she had spent thousands of Amber Eras developing.
Her movements.
Her transformations.
All of it came from that.
By stirring quantum ripples and collapsing possibilities, she could manifest countless forms.
But right now—
her biological simulation made one thing extremely clear.
She was angry.
Great.
Round one:
Lin Yi wins.
Screwllum did not even look at them.
He calmly examined the Phase Spirit Fire.
He had seen scenes like this many times before.
Lin Yi and Herta behaved like this constantly.
They weren't exactly arguing—
but they also weren't exactly not arguing.
Silkall finally suppressed her anger.
Then she launched round two.
"No amount of clever words can hide the fact that you lost."
Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.
"If defeating someone outside their specialty makes you feel that accomplished…"
"Then I'm happy to let you enjoy it."
Silkall smirked.
"Using a carefree attitude to hide your emotions?"
"Should I show everyone how furious you were when you had to unplug the network?"
She actually started doing it.
Extracting memories from the ground, the walls, the surrounding environment.
Everything in the universe inadvertently leaves traces of information.
Ordinary people could not observe them.
But she could.
And Silkall even turned the memory into a GIF animation.
Lin Yi panicked internally.
"Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm!"
His phone buzzed.
Fortunately—
phones were no longer so inconvenient.
Through Laplace's Demon, Lin Yi checked the situation.
It might be childish—
but right now, he absolutely could not lose in terms of momentum.
Luckily, there was good news.
When Silkall had panicked earlier, she had failed to seal the Meta-Domain quickly enough.
Too much information had leaked outside.
And now that she had appeared in person—
tracking her had become much easier.
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