Death... and me

Rean nodded as he understood what Roan meant.

'Calina said that the princes and princesses that can be considered real candidates to the throne need to be both talented in cultivation and intelligence. That's so that the next emperor or empress will have the ability to run an empire. What you are doing is related to that, right?'

Roan nodded.

'Yes. However, that's not the only reason why I'm doing that. Anyway, it's not certain yet, so I'm just preparing the terrain.'

Rean didn't mind it. Following that, he thought about a problem.

'Wait, to command, one needs to gain the rights to do so. Even if this war comes around, how will you make Calina one of the commanding characters?'

Roan shook his head as he replied.

'I don't need to. I just need to be a commander myself. I will then have her watch and teach her while I'm doing the orders.'

'Oh... Then that's fine.'

War is not something that you start in a single day. Besides, they weren't sure if the Laan experts will accept it or not. Because of that, the twins returned to the sect with Zuan and Droman. They didn't know how long it would take, so Rean and Roan went out to do their own things.

Rean left with Droman, Zuan, and Kentucky to check the Communication System work. Router Formation Version 1.2 worked pretty much fine after a few weeks of testing, and they only needed to make a few adjustments. Droman also helped a few lower-level Formation Masters learn how to build the Router Formation. Thanks to that, the Router Formation began to spread between the cities that had the older version or none to start with.

As for the cabling work, several months had already gone by. With the sect mobilizing its Blacksmiths, Earth Element experts, and Lightning experts, more than half of their territory was already connected like a web. Still, they were just waiting for the addition of the Router Formations themselves. As much as Droman taught others how to build it, this formation wasn't something that could be made in just a few hours.

After all, every city had so many buildings that they wanted to connect. Bigger cities obviously needed more complex Router Formations than smaller ones.

Surprisingly though, Rean and Droman were not inside any city at the moment. Instead, they had stopped in a hub that connected the main cables of several cities at once.

"So that's our problem at the moment. We prevented the cities themselves from intervening with each other. We just need to work on a Router Formation that can now manage all cities together."

Droman nodded as he looked at several cables coming from several directions. Although there weren't as many cables as big cities, each one of them carried way more information than any city alone would generate.

"I wonder if the Router Formation can hold so much information at once."

Rean didn't seem to mind as he replied.

"It's fine. For now, all we need to do is build Router Formations in parallel. After that, we connect them together to work in unison. But first, let's not connect too many at once. Three, for now, is a good start."

Droman nodded as he said.

"Indeed. Three will give us an idea if there will be a struggle or not. The problem is that a single city couldn't force the Router Formation to the point where it couldn't deal with the information. That being said, we couldn't test its limit yet."

Rean agreed with Droman.

"Exactly. Who knows? Perhaps we are underestimating our own creation, and just a single one can deal with everything. Anyway, let's start."

"Oh, right! I also got a new idea for the Router Formations that we can add to Version 1.3 later."

"Version 1.3?"

Rean nodded.

"It would be about the sending and receiving of signals. We can simply add a rule where the formation will not pass information that a specific city doesn't need. As you know, the Router Formation only takes all the information in and organizes them in a queue to send them forward without hitting each other."

"In Version 1.3, each hub like this one would screen the information codes. For example, messages sent to Harevi City always start with code F13. Thus, no communication formation receptor that is not from Harevi City will display the message that the signal code F13 is bringing. However, at the moment, the Router Formation doesn't screen it. It queues this information up to be sent to all possible routes."

Droman immediately understood as his eyes lit up.

"I see... Once we make a screening process in the Router Formation hubs, they will only send code F13 information through the cables connected to Harevi City. That will decrease the burden on the cables and Router Formations by many times since they won't need to take care of signals that have nothing to do with them."

Rean really liked how Droman always got excited with every new idea.

"Hahaha! Exactly! Still, Master, it isn't that simple. We also need contingency plans. Otherwise, the web-like communication system will lose most of its effectiveness."

Droman's interest was piqued once again as he looked at Rean.

"What do you mean?"

Rean then explained.

"For example. Suppose we change the Router Formation to screen the F13 code from Harevi City. Now the Router Formation Hub will only send this signal through the cables destined to Harevi City. However, what if someone cuts the cable used to deliver that message to Harevi? Wouldn't it make it impossible to connect to Harevi?"

Droman had to admit that Rean was right.

"That's true. But if that's the case, wouldn't it be better to not add these screening abilities to the Router Formation?"

Rean shook his head.

"I understand what Master means. If there is no screen, the Router Formation will send the signals through all cables in the proper order to not jumble other signals. Since we have a web-like communication system, Harevi City would receive the F13 signals through different routes, right?"

Droman nodded and waited for Rean to continue.

"That's where Version 1.4 will come into play."

Droman was taken aback.

"Version 1.4? Weren't we talking about Version 1.3 just now?"

Rean smiled as he explained.

"Version 1.3 is the one that will make the screenings. Version 1.4 will do the same screening but will have the contingency plan I told you about before. In Version 1.4, what will be changed is not the Router Formation but the communication formations. I like to call it, Answer Protocol."

Droman became even more confused as he asked.

"Answer Protocol?"

Rean smiled before continuing.

"The Answer Protocol is very straightforward and, at the same time, very complicated. Simply put, the sending Communication Formation will require an answer from the Communication Formation that will receive the signal. Think about it like this: the Communication Formation in Harevi City received the signal with the code F13. It will then send an automatic answer back to the sending one 'Hey, I got your signal.'"

"Once the communication formation that sent the message at first gets this answer, it will then ignore it as it continues to work on the other tasks. However, if it doesn't receive this answer, it will change the route and try again."

Droman felt puzzled.

"Wait! Isn't it exactly the same thing that the communication formations already do? No, wait, I see... so that's what you mean by the changes."

Rean smiled.

"Seems like Master understood what the difference from the previous Communication Formation is. That's correct. The trick here is how the Communication Formation will act once it doesn't receive an answer. It will then try to send that message once again, but this time, it will send a code to the Router Formations telling them: First Route has failed, try another route."

"For example. F13 is the code for signals going to Harevi City. We could put another Code in front of it that only the Router Formations will understand, not the Communication ones. Let's say... 404F13###. The first Router Formation will immediately understand that the first route it tried to use didn't work, so it will try another. The Communication Formation will then wait for an answer once again. If it fails another time, it will ask the Router Formation to try another route. This process of trying different routes will keep happening until it gets an answer."

Droman nodded with a satisfied expression as he uttered.

"It will indeed reduce the burden in the Router Formation by several times since most of the cables will not be used to pass that specific signal. However, there's another problem. What if all routes into Harevi City have been cut? Wouldn't the sending Communication System keep trying to send signals endlessly? That might turn into a burden in the end as well."

Rean shook his head.

"That's the easiest part to fix. We just need to set up a limit saying that the communication formation can only try 10 to 100 times. If the destination doesn't answer, the sending formation will give up and then warn the sender through its display that it was impossible to reach Harevi City."

Droman loved the idea straight away.

"That's great! That way, we can even know when there is a problem in our network and send someone to check what is happening. We would be killing two birds with a single stone."

Rean nodded.

"Exactly! However, we first need to work on Version 1.3, and I believe Elder Droman knows how complicated it will be."

Droman didn't mind it at all.

"Who cares? Let's do it."

Rean stopped him, though. He then said.

"Not yet. First, let's make sure Version 1.2 works fine and then present it to the Imperial Family. Version 1.3, and especially 1.4, will take way too long to develop. We need the empire to already start working on spreading Version 1.2 to later receive the upgrades easier. After all..."

Rean then smiled.

"We need them to buy our Lightning Beads. Hahaha!"

Droman was taken aback and began to laugh out loud too.

"Hahaha! Right! We need them to do that, indeed."