Jupiter gave her a couple of strange looks. She liked listening to him tell stories that much? The old man loved nothing more than telling people stories, so she had better listen carefully!
The old man settled into the posture of someone about to spin a long yarn, loosened his jaw, and began.
"Let me briefly explain our purpose first. We tried many ways to stop the Toba Catastrophe, but every one of them failed. We need to tell Desmond that we left one final solution in a Grand Temple. Humans of the future, you can use the Eye to resolve this crisis. I will now give you the coordinates of the Grand Temple..."
He rattled off a set of coordinates so complicated that Bella made no mention of the fact that they were already inside the Grand Temple. She more or less knew what the Toba Catastrophe Jupiter described was about. It involved quite a few secrets, so she listened with great interest.
Listening to other people tell stories and reveal secrets was the second way she had discovered to level up, after harvesting praise.
What the Isu called the Toba Catastrophe was the enormous burst of energy that Earth scientists called a solar flare. The catastrophe would happen twice in all: once seventy-five thousand years ago, when the flare completely destroyed the ancient civilization built by the Isu, and once more in Bella's own era—in 2012!
The Isu believed the 2012 solar flare would be even larger. Many civilizations had left prophecies about the end of the world in 2012, and the Isu believed that flare would completely wipe out life on Earth. All life.
Calling the Isu needless alarmists would be a little unfair. Their intentions really were good.
The prevailing modern attitude was basically, "After I'm dead, who cares if the flood comes?" Bella had visited the future. The reason the twenty-second century had turned into such a mess was inseparable from everything humanity was doing today. People did not even want to worry about what would happen a hundred years from now, much less seventy-five thousand.
From that perspective, the Isu's moral standards were practically saintly.
They had racked their brains and poured their hearts into coming up with all sorts of solutions.
Old Jupiter asked Bella, "If you find this truth difficult to believe, we can give you time to think. We can discuss the rest next time."
"Don't! Please keep going! I'm very strong inside! My will is as hard as steel! Please, you absolutely have to tell me the truth!" Feeling her Divine Power slowly rising, Bella was almost laughing out loud.
What a great old buddy! If the circumstances had been different, she would have wanted to send him a giant livestream tip.
She wore an utterly sincere expression, and her face was exceptionally serious. Jupiter was moved by her conviction as well. "Very well. I will explain how the Isu responded to the Toba Catastrophe. I'll just say a few simple words. Let me tell you about the six countermeasures the Isu devised..."
Bella excitedly slapped her thigh. What was this? This was the God of Secrecy running into the God of Gossip! They had barely started talking and there were already six major points! They were outside time anyway, so she was not worried about wasting any. They could chat as long as they liked!
Jupiter spoke as he recalled the past. "Our first method was to build four great towers and collect the energy of the flare. After running the calculations, however, we discovered it would not work. The flare would strike Earth before the towers could be completed. On that basis, we designed eleven improved versions. The first minor plan went like this... the second minor plan went like this... In the end, all of them failed."
"We then began considering a second method: building a gigantic Apple of Eden to resist the flare. We likewise designed nine improved versions... and they also failed."
"For the third method, we tried launching an Apple of Eden into Earth orbit, controlling all intelligent life, gathering the mental power of every living being, and turning imagination into reality. The plan was too crude, so we could only activate fallback plans. We came up with fifteen alternatives... and every last one failed."
Old buddy Jupiter's voice was full of pain. Juno and Minerva stared at him strangely. This was what he called saying a few simple words? A rough summary would have been enough. Why was he going on and on without end?
Bella performed the role of enthusiastic audience member perfectly, occasionally throwing in lines like, "Not a single one worked?" "No way!" "That's too cruel!" and "Really?"
"The fourth method was to strengthen our bodies so we could endure extreme environments... twenty-five alternatives. We originally thought the chance of success would be very high, but... failure."
"For the fifth method, we tried placing our minds inside sturdy containers and relying on those containers to survive the catastrophe. But we could not remove the minds from the containers afterward. We conducted fifty-five experiments in succession. A full fifty-five members of our people never woke again... failure."
"For the sixth method, we tried to control time. We made thirty-two attempts and ultimately created nothing more than this distorted point in time. Another failure."
Jupiter heaved a heavy sigh, looking dejected. Just as he reached the end, he suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right. Let me add one more thing... This is the very reason we called you here. I mentioned it before, didn't I? Never mind, I'll explain it to you in detail again. Here is how the Eye works..."
There were seven methods in total. The first six had all failed in their era. They had left only the final method behind for the humans of the future.
Bella listened silently to Jupiter's explanation. He held nothing back, walking her through all seven major methods and more than one hundred and fifty smaller plans one by one...
This was different from gaining praise. Praise was a kind of indirect support that existed at the level of one's own mind, while listening to secrets produced a deeper kind of sublimation. Tell her your story, let her harvest the secret, and she became stronger!
This was Bella's main route of advancement from demigod all the way to Skyfather-level!
With Juno and Minerva growing unbearably awkward, Jupiter finally finished recounting the entire chain of cause and effect from the Isu side. Both Isu women looked close to breaking down. Listening to him was exhausting!
The moment Jupiter—basically an EXP bundle delivered across seventy-five thousand years—finished speaking, Bella felt her Secrecy Portfolio begin feeding all kinds of insights back to her as her Divine Power increased. These were insights exclusive to the level of gods.
Back when she advanced from the third circle to the fourth, merely borrowing a few insights from Calypso had been enough to push her straight through. These exclusive insights benefited her even more. With the elevated perspective of a demigod, all she needed was a little more time before she could master brand-new seventh-circle spells.
Bella actually knew many secrets herself, but she did not dare make use of most of them. Secrets involving the Beyonders might let her leap straight past Skyfather-level, but what would be the point? A second later, some terrifying big shot would erase her from the root of existence.
She could not compare with hot-blooded gods like Thor, who broke through in the middle of battle. Bella's method—advancing one step at a time by listening to other people's stories—was a little cowardly, but it was also the safest and most reliable route...