The Martial Unity

Though the predictive model allowed him to bypass reaction speed by replacing reactions and reflexes with predictions and foreknowledge, there were limits to this. It could not help him evade attacks that were far faster than him. At least, not as he and it were as they currently were.

For example, even if he tried dodging well ahead of time due to having foreknowledge, the Root would most certainly alter its trajectory to match its dodge. If it could see him moving much ahead of time out of the way, then obviously it would not simply hit empty air, no, it would instead shift to attack the dodging Rui.

This meant that he could not dodge too much ahead of time even if he knew it was coming well ahead of time. He needed to time the evasion maneuvers just right, it could not be too much of a headstart.

However, because Rui was so much slower, he could not dodge it if he didn't get a headstart either.

Thus if he started too early, he would get hit because the Root could alter its trajectory and hit him to where he had dodged to.

If he didn't start early, then he would get hit because his body was too slow to move out of the way when they both started moving at the same time.

That was why the predictive model was not enough. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.

Rui had used the VOID algorithm to overcome speed gaps before, however, he had never succeeded in doing so with such a large speed gap.

The difference between his Martial Art techniques/body and the Root's attacks was no different from the difference between a normal human and a speed bullet.

The VOID algorithm was currently unable to bridge such a gigantic gap all by itself. Even if the VOID algorithm allowed his mind to keep up thanks to predictions, the physical restrictions of his movements were not something that the VOID algorithm could fix.

('What if I only focused on a technique that amplified movement speed and discard reaction speed?') Rui's eyes lit up in interest.

Generally, this was not advised. A body that moved faster than the mind was dangerous in many ways. For one, if the body moved too fast for the mind, then the Martial Artist would be unable to react to their own movements. Thus, if they needed to stop a maneuver at a certain point, they might stop it a split second later, completely throwing off their momentum and balance!

In the worst-case scenario, they might end up killing themselves with their own techniques, and causing themselves harm was almost guaranteed.

They might start to throw a single punch and the very next moment find themselves crashing into the ground.

The body ought not to exceed the mind when it came to speed.

Furthermore, in combat, the body moving faster than the mind would mean that the mind would be unable to react to its opponent's movements in response to the body's. That became extremely dangerous and would create openings allowing the opponent to exploit them and kill them.

('However, what if someone's mind possessed an algorithm that allowed them to bypass mental speed with the help of foreknowledge?') Rui's eyes widened. ('What if someone's mind acted on the future instead of the present?')

In that case, the mind would be able to keep up with the body!

Since the mind did not need to react to the body if it already knew exactly when what was going to happen.

('In that case, I can potentially focus on a technique that relies on maximizing bodily speed without any care of my reaction speed being left behind,') Rui realized. ('Then I can compensate for my lack in reaction speed with extensive predictions.')

Rui closed his eyes as he envisioned the mechanics of such a technique. A technique where he predicted an attack ahead of time, and prepared the movement speed supplementing technique, preparing exactly what movements to make ahead of time, allowing him to execute movements faster than his mind at the right time.

His mind did not need to keep up with the body in speed to know what was going on since the predictions would already allow it to know what was going on, it merely needed to execute the movement supplementing technique at the right time.

Thus it was not different from pre-programming his body to respond in a certain way at certain times ahead of time.

Rui's eagerly evaluated and simulated such a technique inside his mind, conducting some preliminary analyses on whether the technique was viable, and if it was viable, whether was it worth investing in.

('It depends on what movement-supplementing technique I use to construct the technique,') Rui concluded. ('It also depends on how solid my prediction model is of my opponent')

He also realized that he couldn't use this technique unless he already had a super well-developed predictive model at hand. Which meant that he couldn't use it at the beginning of a random encounter fight. He would simply get himself killed because he wouldn't have any predictions at the beginning of the fight.

('What kind of technique should I incorporate for movement speed?') Rui narrowed his eyes.

He had several options. He could get a maneuvering technique that relied on accuracy, precision, and application of speed rather than increasing raw speed, though it allowed the user to effectively move faster, even if actually faster. The techniques of this field were certainly quite powerful, Rui knew that for a fact.

('However…') He shook his head, sighing. ('It's not suited for my new project.')

Suddenly, a random thought entered his head. ('Speaking of which, I have yet to name this project.')

He considered a few names briefly before settling on one that had a nice ring to it. "Project Forestep."

Should Rui succeed, he predicted that his ability to engage with much faster opponents would rise much more drastically!