Chapter 212: Edge of Tomorrow! The Principle Behind the Reset! Faster-Than-Light Particles!

Chapter 212: Edge of Tomorrow! The Principle Behind the Reset! Faster-Than-Light Particles!

Edge of Tomorrow – Earth

March 3, 2020

In early spring, Western Europe is often blanketed in damp mist and drizzle.

And this light, persistent rain turned the battlefield—already gripped by fierce fighting—into a treacherous, muddy mire.

Boom—!!

The staccato of gunfire and deafening artillery blasts transformed this urban outskirts battlefield into a brutal hellscape.

Chunks of dirt and metal shrapnel flew through the air under the unrelenting shockwaves from the bombardment.

"Well done, soldiers! You're this close to winning this war!"

"Now press forward and wipe out those alien bastards completely!"

"..."

As the commanding officer's voice rang through their comms, the soldiers on the battlefield erupted in battle cries of exhilaration and fury.

Above them, high in the sky, a squadron of stealth AI reconnaissance drones—completely invisible to radar and cloaked in full transparency—silently passed overhead.

Through the lens of these AI drones, the warzone below revealed a chaotic landscape littered with shattered metal debris and churned-up earth.

Numerous soldiers in mechanical exoskeletons were slowly advancing toward the city ahead, following orders relayed through their team comms.

The buildings around them had been shredded to ruins, with many structures collapsed entirely. The ground beneath them was soaked in a grotesque mixture of mud and human remains—severed limbs and internal organs strewn across the field.

Clearly, the recent battle had been no easy victory for the human forces.

It was a bloody and hard-fought win, with heavy casualties.

"Screeeee—!"

The alien lifeforms, realizing defeat was inevitable, let out shrill, piercing cries—as if signaling their remaining comrades to regroup and retreat from the field.

Then, using their numerous tendrils to grip the earth in quick succession, they rolled away like a wave receding.

These lifeforms, resembling black venomous sludge, had glowing orange cores embedded in the gaps of their ever-shifting bodies—serving as their energy-driving organs.

Due to their amorphous structure, their ability to grow tendrils or bone-like shields on demand depending on battlefield conditions, humanity had given them a unified name: Mimics!

Bang—!

Just then, a human soldier in pursuit fired and struck one of the Mimics.

Its body burst apart like shattered jelly, splattering on the spot.

Before it could regroup, the soldier fired again, this time shattering the creature's core.

The Mimic convulsed briefly in a desperate struggle, then collapsed lifeless to the ground.

"Nice shot!"

Cheers rang out from the soldier's squadmates.

With the Mimic forces clearly in retreat, morale among the human troops surged to an all-time high.

The battle was over, and victory was secured. The AI drones climbed to higher altitudes, broadcasting footage and sensor data back to HQ.

According to AI analysis, the black alien creatures weren't categorized as living beings at all, but rather as living weapons—similar to those biomechanical horrors nicknamed "flowering beasts."

In short, Mimics were seen more as controlled weapons than independent lifeforms.

As for who or what was controlling them—naturally, it had to be a higher-order entity.

When the AI drones ascended to about a kilometer above ground, a concealed miniature stargate came into view within a dense forest near the battlefield.

Around the gate, several massive base structures and engineering teams had already been deployed.

Inside one of the temporary operation huts, several Astartes warriors stood before a collection of holographic displays and military terminals.

The footage and data transmitted by the AI drones now filled these screens and had already been sent via uplink to the central HQ on the other side of the stargate—the Myriad Realms Base.

In fact, twelve hours earlier, a fully armed elite Astartes vanguard team had already passed through the gate into the Edge of Tomorrow world.

As with previous expeditions, the corporate engineering division had first constructed a forward base to ensure stable communication, making it easier for headquarters to issue commands.

Meanwhile, the Astartes advance team pushed deeper.

After thorough reconnaissance and analysis from both field surveys and AI drone scans, the Astartes had concluded: this world on the other side of the gate was yet another parallel Earth.

Based on the combat gear worn by local human soldiers, it was clear that this Earth's level of technological development wasn't far behind that of Earth-002.

The fact that soldiers were equipped with powered exoskeletons showed that this world's military technology was quite advanced.

At present, the advance team had confirmed their precise location—an uninhabited region on the outskirts of Verdun.

"New orders from HQ—recall the scouts and return to the forward base. Leave only a handful of drones behind for ongoing recon."

As the message came through, the Astartes warriors swiftly turned back toward the base camp.

Thanks to the mega-corporation's formidable construction capabilities, the engineering team had already erected a sprawling base framework in under half a day.

Basic lighting and power systems were active. Tents and air-conditioned halls provided comfort, workspace, and recreational space for frontline personnel.

It was clear—this location was being developed into another major frontline base, a headquarters for corporate military operations.

At that moment, someone who should've been safely tucked away in HQ—the corporate head himself, Li Ang—was now clad in combat armor, wandering the base's command center.

With him were his most trusted companions: the original Mann squad, V, Johnny, Morgan, and others.

"Everyone."

Li Ang turned, addressing them with a solemn expression. "As you've seen, the enemies we're facing this time are lifeforms resembling black asphalt."

"From the footage we've seen, it looks like they've been defeated, like we don't have much left to do here."

"But in reality, this is nothing more than a façade created by the Mimics."

"The real challenge is still ahead!"

"I don't want any of you letting your guard down. This multiverse operation will be more difficult than anything we've faced before."

His serious tone and grave expression took the group by surprise.

It was the first time they'd ever seen their boss treat a multiverse expedition with such caution and intensity.

From the AI drone footage, the Mimics didn't seem all that threatening—they fell to gunfire, retreated when losing, and didn't appear to pose much danger to human forces.

Even if the Mimics faked a retreat, it didn't seem like they'd be all that hard to finish off.

Yet, in Li Ang's eyes, the situation was drastically different.

Was he suggesting that these humans would eventually be wiped out by the Mimics?

"Boss, are you saying… those Mimic aliens deliberately used a false retreat tactic to lull the human soldiers into complacency—so they could wipe them out in one fell swoop?"

Morgan Blackhand asked after a moment of thought.

Ever since hearing Li Ang reference the tactic 'besiege but leave one path open' back during their Pacific Rim mission, Morgan—now a commander within the corporate forces—had been cramming military strategy and Chinese classics.

He'd become particularly familiar with the Thirty-Six Stratagems.

So upon hearing Li Ang's warning, his mind immediately jumped to the stratagem of feigned weakness.

Li Ang simply gave him a nod in response, offering no further explanation.

There wasn't time to elaborate. After quickly outlining the next steps with V and the others, he dismissed his inner circle.

He stayed behind, alone in the command room.

Despite his usually encyclopedic knowledge of other universes, Li Ang was feeling slightly unfamiliar with this one—Edge of Tomorrow was a uniquely structured and conceptually complex multiverse world.

And with unfamiliarity came uncertainty.

Which meant every decision had to be made with extreme caution.

He needed time to recall everything about this world.

Standing alone before a massive holographic display, hands clasped behind his back, he focused on the data streaming in from AI drones—lost in thought.

This world had been classified as Universe 003 by the mega-corp, but the team deployed here was relatively small—just a few thousand troops.

That was because the enemy here was fairly simple in structure.

Their true target wasn't the Mimic horde—it was the being controlling them: Omega.

Bringing a massive force would only risk alerting this world's human governments.

Unlike the apocalyptic governments of the Spectral Realm or Pacific Rim, the Earth in Edge of Tomorrow still had functioning global institutions despite the alien threat.

That meant subtlety was key.

"Omega, Mimics, time loops…"

Li Ang narrowed his eyes, replaying his knowledge of the original Edge of Tomorrow narrative.

According to the story, in 2015, a meteor carrying Mimic lifeforms crashed into Hamburg, Germany.

Soon after, the Mimics began their invasion.

Germany and France fell quickly, followed by the rest of Western Europe.

In response, humanity formed the United Defense Force—or UDF—under the United Nations.

Over five years of relentless war, the UDF suffered repeated defeats. Military and civilian casualties exceeded ten million.

Only during the Battle of Verdun in 2020 did humanity finally taste a major victory, reigniting hope and prompting a counteroffensive.

That was the very moment Li Ang had arrived at.

One soldier, a female sergeant named Rita Vrataski, managed to singlehandedly slay over a hundred Mimics while equipped with a mechanical exosuit.

Nicknamed the Angel of Verdun, or less flatteringly, the Full Metal Bitch, she was the heroine of Edge of Tomorrow.

"Based on the data just sent back from the AI drones… I must've arrived right on the day of the Verdun victory."

"Which means…"

Li Ang was deep in thought.

The decisive day was fast approaching—the day when the Defense Force planned to rally humanity's armies and wipe out the Mimics in one fell swoop, striking in London, Brussels, and Lausanne!

But Li Ang , who knew the truth, was well aware that this was nothing more than a ruse—an arrogant ploy by the Mimics. Their real aim was to annihilate humanity's forces instead.

Unlike human armies, the Mimics were a collective—controlled by a shared consciousness.

They could be divided into three types.

The first, and most common, were the black Mimics. These were nothing but cannon fodder, biological weapons designed solely for combat.

They replicated themselves by devouring soil—like earthworms, they could reproduce just by consuming dirt, enabling them to increase their numbers Infinity ly.

What's more, the soil they excreted after digestion turned into a substance harmful to other living creatures.

In other words, the Mimics didn't just pose a threat to humanity—they were also devastating Earth's native ecosystem!

Even more alarming was the core of each Mimic fissure, known as the orange-glow central device. It could launch spear-like projectiles made of yellow sand.

These disgusting creatures were practically on par with the Kaiju from Pacific Rim.

The second type of Mimic, the Alpha, was a rare specimen—only one in several million Mimics would be an Alpha.

Alphas were larger, stronger, and had blue-glowing cores. They acted as the Mimic hive's "central nervous system"—a higher-order variant.

The third type was the Omega, shaped like a sea anemone. It was the "brain" of the Mimic species and had virtually no combat capability.

If an Alpha died, it would trigger the Omega's "reset" mechanism, rewinding time to a previous point.

What's more, the Omega retained all its memories from before the reset, enabling it to craft increasingly sophisticated strategies and battle formations.

"These damned alien species… They're treating humanity's army from Edge of Tomorrow like levels in a video game!"

Though Li Ang scoffed, deep down, he feared this time-resetting species.

Because that alien called Omega wasn't something you could take down easily.

To kill the Omega and acquire its reset ability, you had to succeed in a single, decisive strike—there would be no second chance.

In the original story, William Cage, the protagonist blessed with plot armor, accidentally killed an Alpha and absorbed its blood.

That granted him access to the Mimics' reset mechanism.

But to the Omega, Cage was an intolerable "bug."

To eliminate him, and drain his blood to remove the glitch, the Omega implanted a fake vision into the Alphas' minds—bait to lure Cage into a trap.

However, in the end, Cage used a device to locate the Omega and pulled off an epic reversal.

Once the Omega was killed, all the Mimics invading Earth perished, and because Cage had absorbed the Omega's blood, he used the reset mechanism to jump back in time.

Even though Cage had died during the assault on the Omega, along with Rita and the members of J-Squad, they were all resurrected thanks to the reset.

A classic "happy ending."

But now the key question loomed—what kind of useful tech could Li Ang actually obtain from the world of Edge of Tomorrow?

And what exactly was the Omega, especially its [reset] mechanism—how did it really work?

Li Ang needed to figure that out before making his next move.

Because if he followed in the protagonist's footsteps and went for a one-for-one exchange with the Omega, just to gain the [reset] ability—

That meant he'd have to risk his life, literally, in a face-to-face fight with the Mimics.

And for someone like Li Ang , who had barely scraped by until now, that was not an easy decision.

Sure, the system's checkpoint function meant he could technically come back after dying—at the cost of some penalties.

But Li Ang wasn't about to throw his life away for no clear reason. Not until he fully understood the [reset] mechanism and how it worked. He couldn't afford to make a reckless move.

"The only worthwhile tech in Edge of Tomorrow is probably the Omega's reset."

After thinking it over, Li Ang realized that this world didn't offer much worth researching for his interdimensional conglomerate.

Edge of Tomorrow might seem like it had decent technology, but at its core, Earth was still primitive. The only semi-decent human invention was the exoskeleton armor.

At least Spectral Earth had condensed matter technology. Pacific Rim Earth had those massive Jaegers you could build for fun.

But in this world? The Omega's [reset] was the only true scientific breakthrough.

"If I can figure out how the Omega's time-rewind principle works, maybe I can use the science hub to develop a whole new tech tree!"

With that thought, Li Ang cast aside all distractions and focused his mind, trying to recall every detail he could about the Omega from the original story.

The system and Stargate only provided access to the multiverse—they didn't offer any hints or help.

So Li Ang could only rely on the source material and his own logic to find the most realistic path forward.

"Resetting the present… time rewind… Could the Omega be some kind of four-dimensional being?"

That was Li Ang 's first theory. If the Omega existed in four-dimensional space, it could manipulate the timeline—like how humans, looking at ants on the ground, could just poke them back to the starting line.

But Li Ang didn't fully buy that.

If the Mimics really were four-dimensional beings, then wiping out humans—mere three-dimensional creatures—should've been effortless.

They could just tweak the timeline and rewrite the fate of our entire species.

Why would they bother dragging out this war for years?

And from the perspective of the universe, time doesn't run backward.

The flow of the cosmos follows entropy—increase is its direction, and speed is its measure.

There might be localized "negative entropy flows" that let an individual return to a past state—but such negative entropy is incredibly rare.

Resetting one object might be possible.

But restoring the entire state of everything at the microscopic level? That would require an immense surge of negative entropy.

And at that point, the entire quantum system might collapse—potentially tearing the universe apart.

So sure, a few chosen ones might "go back," but even that's uncertain.

Which led Li Ang to doubt the Mimics were true four-dimensional entities. That theory just didn't hold up.

If that's the case, then the Omega's [reset] ability wasn't real time travel after all.

"What if the reset isn't true time reversal… but just a transfer of memory?"

Suddenly, Li Ang had a new thought—something more realistic and far less costly.

What if the Omega used some sort of mechanism to view the entire timeline from a four-dimensional perspective?

Then it could send information—memories—back to a previous point in time, allowing it to make better decisions.

In that case, the Omega wasn't a four-dimensional being. It was a three-dimensional creature using advanced tech to observe the future.

From a fixed start to an endpoint, it could see the whole timeline unfold.

Then, once the [reset] was triggered—most likely by the death of an Alpha—the Omega would transmit a signal back through time, embedding a warning and preserved memory in its past self.

So, the Omega's real ability wasn't time reversal—it was death foresight.

It was like the Mimics had a camera planted in four-dimensional space. It recorded everything in the three-dimensional world.

But to access the footage, they needed to die.

In other words, the Mimics weren't omnipotent gods—they had to rely on a specific mechanism to "see" the truth of the future.

This theory was the most plausible one Li Ang could come up with.

But there was still one fatal contradiction: in Edge of Tomorrow, the protagonist survived.

And he survived because of the [reset].

Technically, he and the Omega should've died together!

If we ignore the happy-ending-for-the-sake-of-plot explanation, the only rational conclusion is that a rare negative entropy state somehow occurred—allowing Cage and a few others to "return" despite the odds.

But because too many people were involved, the quantum-level instability resulted in only Cage keeping his memories—Rita and J-Squad didn't.

So Li Ang leaned toward this explanation: negative entropy is exceedingly rare and unlikely to occur again.

Cage and company survived because of protagonist plot armor.

Li Ang , on the other hand, wasn't the protagonist in this world. Who's to say he could pull off the same miracle?

"If that's the case, then what exactly is the key tech inside the Omega?!"

That was the real question.

Li Ang racked his brain, digging through scattered memories. As time ticked by, a phrase suddenly surfaced in his mind.

[Faster-than-light particles]!

"That's it—that's the one!"

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