After going through the Rites and thanking Swamp Dragon, Kyle returned to Forward Base 198. He hadn't immediately gone there after his breakthrough, but that was not an issue. The entire loyalty-test-thing only became relevant if someone delayed their return by over a century.
"I'm back," Kyle transmitted to Major Sovignor before taking the repaired cube of Gravity Metal out.
"You've succeeded," Major Sovignor commented. "I didn't expect anything else."
Then, he looked at the cube. "A little bit of it is missing. I can only give you 5,800 Merits instead of 5,850."
"That's fine," Kyle answered, and his Merits were updated. He had about 16,600 Merits now. "Are there any messages?"
"There is one," Major Sovignor said, and Kyle's Emblem updated.
Kyle looked at the message, and sure enough, it was the semi-secret method of communication that Manny had announced.
As Kyle read through it, he became surprised.
'Dude, I had no idea Manny knows so much about so many different things!'
The method was as ingenious as it was strange, and the best part was that it couldn't be reverse-engineered without more information.
The first part of the method just consisted of a mental exercise in the form of a story. By focusing on the story and putting oneself into it, one could learn a bit about the Laws of Karmic Luck. Telling someone about a Law was not a good thing, but this was just a tiny part of a far bigger Law. The only thing it taught was how to find and identify the Karmic Connections in a group of six friends.
The next part of the technique was a manipulation of one's self. It just taught the user how to gather a tiny part of their true self.
After gathering that tiny part, one could fill it with information by using a very simple but strange Formation Array. When the tiny part received this information, it was fundamentally changed into something else. Depending on what information it contained, its entire existence would change. This made every part unique. So, even if someone managed to crack one part, the next part would be different again.
Lastly, the tiny part of one's self could connect to a Karmic Connection and follow it. Like this, the tiny part would vanish from reality and reappear at the other end of the Karmic Connection.
It combined several different concepts, but a powerful person could still find a flaw, assuming all the information was contained in this method.
However, the most important parts of this new method of communication were centralized.
Manny was that center.
Even though a message might have a different recipient, it would still end up with Manny, who would then recode it and send it. In a metaphorical sense, one could say that Manny was the server, while the other five were clients. Without the server, the clients couldn't communicate with each other.
Manny also explained how difficult it would be for anyone to crack this way of communication. He could tell how long it took for each wisp of information to arrive, which meant that he could also sense if somebody somehow managed to intercept one.
He also talked about how difficult it was to crack the information and that it would take a long time. Additionally, the person had to know about Karmic Luck, all four Aspects of Power, Formation Arrays, and they also needed to be constantly ready for a wisp.
'I thought this method was supposed to be cracked by Humanity,' Kyle thought. 'In truth, this seems impossible to crack. You need to know so much stuff to decode it.'
'Manny really thinks highly of Humanity if he expects them to crack it.'
Kyle learned the method and used it. Within just a second, a transparent wisp that only he could see appeared in front of him. It latched onto the Karmic Connection leading to Manny and left.
"Hey, I'm just testing," Kyle transmitted with the wisp.
Some seconds later, a wisp arrived in front of him and entered his mind.
"It's working fine. We can talk with the wisps from now on," Manny replied. "It only takes a couple of seconds for them to arrive, and we can stay in contact at all times. Refrain from sharing any information with anyone else."
However, at the same time, Manny also reached out to Kyle via the relay. "The semi-secret method of communication is still secure, but I don't know for how long it will stay secure."
"You expect them to crack it?" Kyle asked via the relay.
"Yes, I added just a little too much information. There is a small part that gives them a base, but it's too small for now. They need to come up with some very specific Formation Arrays first, and then, they need to further refine them and increase their operational speed. The biggest problem is not decoding the message, but decoding it within two seconds of it being sent. They need to invest a lot of research and time into decoding it."
"Depending on how desperate they are to listen in on our conversations, it will take between 5,000 and 50,000 years. I will know when they have decoded it. However, just to be safe, we should still keep our actual conversations here."
"Okay," Kyle answered, "but I still have to send wisps and act like I'm talking to you via them, right?"
"Yes, but you don't have to put a lot of effort into it," Manny answered. "The backdoor I created for them allows them to read my forwarded messages only. Decoding all messages takes 50 times more resources, and Humanity won't invest that much. Since I'm the center and all the messages go through me, they don't need to read all the other messages. One side of the conversation is often more than enough to paint a clear picture of what's being discussed."
"As long as you regularly send some random message without a lot of information, it's fine. I will create an entire conversation for all of you. I will essentially be talking to myself while acting like I'm you. The frequency of your messages will just dictate when I'm going to say the next sentence to myself."
"That sounds like a lot of work," Kyle transmitted. "Are you sure you can handle it?"
"It's nothing new to me," Manny answered. "I'm used to this."
"How?" Kyle asked while sending a random wisp with bullshit information. "How are you used to these kinds of things? In fact, what's up with this relay and this wisp stuff? You say that these things come from your secret Organization, but Swamp Dragon is also part of that Organization, and I don't see him doing all of these crazy things."
"How do you know so many things about basically everything? I can ask you whatever question I want, and you always have an answer. What's up with that?"
"I can't tell you," Manny answered. "Yes, I know a lot, and I know things I shouldn't have the ability to know, but I can't tell you. If Ayuvar weren't in such a desperate situation, I wouldn't even have shared half of the things I've told you. The fact is that we can't get out of this mess if I don't share more and risk exposing several important secrets."
"However, I can assure you of some things. First, I have existed for fewer than 15,000 years. I swear that on my life. Second, I have never been stronger than I am currently, and I am an Advanced Sage right now. I swear that on my life as well."
"I've never been a Spirit Lord, an Ascendant, an Immortal, or anything stronger than that. My title and identity have been Psychosis Manifestation for the majority of my life."
"I can swear this on my life, but I can't tell you how I know so much. This secret is more important than all of Ayuvar, including our team and me."
"So, please, stop asking."
Kyle wanted to take a deep breath, but he was still in front of Major Sovignor.
"Fine, I won't ask anymore," he transmitted. "At least, tell me that you're on our side."
"As long as you're also on my side, yes," Manny answered.
"Am I on your side?" Kyle asked.
"...Probably."
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