“Say, why on earth did you suddenly decide on a trip?” Sitting in one of the private compartments, Misaki Shokuhou turned her head, frowning as she questioned Lin Luo beside her. “We’re facing a fight for our lives in six months, shouldn’t we have time for something like this?”

“I agree with that sentiment. Increasing our own strength is the most crucial thing right now.” Across from them sat Mikoto, Rin, and Mugino, and it was Mugino who spoke up. “This whole tourism thing seems like a complete waste of time to me.”

Lin Luo smiled, not answering immediately, but instead asking, “Mikoto, Rin, what are your thoughts on this?”

“Me? Uh…” Mikoto pointed to herself, thinking for a moment before saying, “I think a balance between work and rest is good. Besides, seeing more of the world sounds incredibly interesting.”

“Hmph.” The loli Rin only snorted dismissively, clearly still sulking over a previous incident.

Seeing the varied expressions on their faces, Lin Luo didn't mind and explained, “There are at least six months until the Holy Grail War at the end of the year. While intense training can certainly advance your abilities significantly, maintaining that pace puts an immense strain on your spirits—a fact you all should know better than anyone. That’s why I proposed traveling around the world for a bit; relaxing your minds wouldn't be a bad thing. We have plenty of time, six months, to formulate our plans.”

“While that may be true…” Shokuhou still seemed somewhat unconvinced, but before she could finish, Lin Luo cut in, “Of course, if it were just about relaxing, staying in Fuyuki City would be no different. I have another objective in mind.”

“Another objective?” Hearing this, all eyes snapped toward him.

... Relaxing and balancing work and rest was one goal, but beyond that, Lin Luo harbored a far more important reason: deciphering the world’s rules.

Over the past half-month, he had been constantly contemplating, and Lin Luo finally understood what he was missing in his analysis of the world's inherent structure... To decipher the world's rules, one must permeate the world—something he had known for a long time. Furthermore, this permeation generally broke down into three distinct stages: first, Cognition; second, Communion; and finally, Integration.

The most vital of these was Cognition. If one could not form a clear, precise understanding of this world, there was simply no point in considering the subsequent stages of Communion and Integration.

This 'Cognition' wasn't as simple as the literal meaning implied; it required an understanding of the world’s very essence, grasping its true nature. Although Lin Luo was not unfamiliar with the Nasuverse—in fact, he was intimately acquainted with it—that particular level of ‘Cognition’ was entirely unreliable, akin to hearsay. Only by seeing the world’s core essence could one truly grasp its reality and thereby extract the world's underlying rules.

What Lin Luo lacked was precisely such a pair of ‘mind's eyes’ capable of seeing the world clearly.

Without them, it became exponentially difficult for Lin Luo to parse the world’s rules!

A Level 3 Walker like Seig needed only about a month to decipher the rules when moving from his high-level world to the lower-level Toaru Majutsu no Index world. Yet, for Lin Luo to move from the Index world to the higher-tier Nasuverse required a minimum of a year—that was the source of the disparity.

The reason for this vast gap lay in Lin Luo’s missing ‘Mind’s Eye.’

Originally, a Level 1 Walker could, at best, reach the peak of human capability. A Level 2 Walker represented a qualitative leap beyond that human peak, and only by reaching Level 3 could one begin to grasp rules. It could be said that Level 2 served as a necessary transitional phase, preparing the Walker for the comprehension of Rule Power and the analysis of World Rules. However...

Due to various circumstances and fortuitous encounters, Lin Luo managed to comprehend Rule Power while still at Level 2, before his peak qualitative change had occurred—effectively making him equivalent to a Level 3 Walker. Having skipped the qualitative leap, there was naturally no way to backtrack; thus, he had completely lost what the Level 2 state naturally provided, and the most significant of these losses was the ‘Mind’s Eye.’

Simply put: Lin Luo’s power had advanced too quickly.

3rd Floor

In less than two months, he had rocketed from an ordinary person to a formidable powerhouse at the Rule boundary. While rapid advancement was inevitable due to the God War, his rate of leveling was faster than a rocket launch; it could only be described as monstrous.

There is an old saying: haste makes waste. Speed has its benefits, but speed also carries its drawbacks.

It was like a young novice entering the martial world, practicing for barely two years, only to suddenly gain centuries’ worth of internal power. While he would undoubtedly prevail against ordinary-level experts, facing a peer whose realm was comparable would likely end in tragedy.

His foundation was severely lacking; he lacked the experience commensurate with a higher realm. Lin Luo’s situation was slightly different, but the core problem was similar.

If Seig were to arrive in the Nasuverse, having progressed incrementally step-by-step, possessing all the requisite elements, he would only need to quietly immerse himself in one location, slowly permeating the world, using his Mind’s Eye to observe its reality and touch its essence—and soon enough, he would decipher the world’s rules.

But Lin Luo was different. Because he lacked those ‘mind's eyes’ capable of seeing the world clearly, he was forced to use his own physical body to interact with the world's essence, and his own eyes to witness its reality. The difficulty hadn't just doubled; it was also far more cumbersome.

This meant he would need to travel to numerous locations across the globe. Staying confined to one spot wouldn’t allow him to interact with and observe the world’s essence and truth. Without a clear and distinct cognition of this world, analyzing its rules was obviously impossible.

In gaining something, one inherently loses something else. Lin Luo was fortunate to acquire unprecedented power in such a short span, but unlucky because he forfeited the opportunity to build a solid foundation.

This situation might make early-stage confrontations easy, but the path to advancement would become extraordinarily difficult later on—it was like playing an online game where missing prerequisite attribute quests meant you couldn't learn advanced skills later due to insufficient points. With no option to return and redo them, only one choice remained—delete the account and start over.

Of course, reality isn't a game, and Lin Luo couldn't simply delete his account, because that would mean he would have to experience utter death once more.

“So, because of your personal issue, we’re forced to tag along while you run around the globe?!” After hearing Lin Luo’s explanation, the loli Rin frowned deeply, speaking with evident annoyance.

“Uh… it doesn’t necessarily mean running around the entire globe; just interacting with the world’s essence should suffice,” Lin Luo said, scratching his head with a slight hint of embarrassment.

“That’s only ‘sufficient’?!” Rin exclaimed with an exaggerated expression, shouting, “What if you don’t touch the world’s essence in a whole year? Are we supposed to trail after you for a year then?”

“That’s impossible, of course. Whether I make contact with the world’s essence or not, we must return before the Holy Grail War begins. If I truly can’t unlock the world's rules by then, we'll have to pin our hopes on Ber taking care of Shichiri,” Lin Luo admitted, sounding slightly worried. Even though Ber could ‘resurrect,’ whether he could return before the War started was uncertain.

“Hmph, who knows if you’re just spouting nonsense again,” Rin muttered grudgingly, though her tone was markedly softer. She recalled an embarrassing situation at home earlier, causing her face to flush slightly.

“Rin, what did you say?” Lin Luo blinked, having barely caught her words.

“N-nothing… I didn’t say anything,” she quickly averted her face, just as Shokuhou chimed in, “Actually, I think this might be okay.”

Rin’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. “Hey! Didn’t you just reject it moments ago?”

Shokuhou chuckled. “That was before. But now Lin Luo has a valid reason. Besides, staying put in Fuyuki City with no entertainment has gotten dreadfully boring.”

“That’s true, I haven’t played games in ages…” Mikoto agreed wholeheartedly, nodding as she suggested, “Hey, when we get off, let’s find an arcade to play games and check out some manga while we’re at it.”

“Hmph, are you a child? Playing video games and reading comics!” Mugino snorted, her face filled with disdain.

Mikoto immediately bristled. “What’s wrong with playing video games? Don't you have any hobbies?!”

“I certainly don't have interests that infantile.”

“Infantile? You’re provoking me again, aren't you!”

“I’m just stating the facts…”

And so, the two began bickering again.

“Alright, alright, now is not the time to discuss your hobbies. Both of you, stop arguing…” Rin felt utterly exasperated. Sitting in the middle, she suffered the most when they argued.

Across the aisle, Shokuhou began planning for the future. She turned to Lin Luo. “Since we’ve decided to travel around, where should we choose as our first stop? I’ve always been quite drawn to China… the food there. That should be your homeland, right?”

“Mmm, that’s fine either way. Since there’s no specific destination, we can decide once we reach a station,” Lin Luo didn't seem to care much; after all, this was the Nasuverse, and every location was essentially the same.

Rin, overhearing their conversation, felt a surge of anger and shouted fiercely, “Hey! Don’t just decide where to go casually! I haven’t agreed yet!”

Night fell, the stars sinking into the deep ocean.

When most passengers were asleep, above a stretch of ocean in the western hemisphere, roughly five hundred meters up... space suddenly warped faintly. A shimmer of starlike light flashed, and a rectangular crate materialized in the air where moments before there had been nothing but open sea.

On the silent water, no one noticed this sudden occurrence. After hovering briefly in the air, the crate plummeted downward with extreme velocity, finally hitting the surface with a heavy splash.

As the resulting waves settled back into the sea, the surface returned to its placid state, and the crate had vanished without a trace…

Writer's block. The subsequent plotlines require careful consideration. I’ll only post this one chapter for today; once I sort out my thoughts, I’ll make up for the missed update. A