"These two questions are one and the same, sir," Anton responded unhurriedly:
"You're still using the outdated empirical thinking, believing that the situation now is the same as it was 23 years ago – a Secret Realm outbreak, followed by Vanguard cleanup, simply a renewal of the cycle.
"But is that possible? Would the enemy go to such lengths to create what we see today, just to reboot the system?
"There's no such good fortune. The system has been rewritten, the hardware upgraded. This time's Secret Realm is definitely not just any Secret Realm, there will be new tricks. Countless times I've tried to imagine what might come, resulting in endless possibilities, among which, my favorite is a wild idea created with Bai Zhou's extreme way of thinking.
"Imagine, if there were more Secret Realms, larger ones, enough to outnumber our territories, even larger than our lands.
"What would that mean?"
After a stretch of stiff silence.
Irina was the first to speak: "It's... reversed?"
