Chapter 936: Chapter 936: Restart
Even to this day, I remember many events from my childhood, most of which are related to Big Sister. The time we relied on each other has been polished by time, washing away much bitterness, and has now become precious gemstones shimmering with a warm glow. Each gem holds a trivial matter, not earth-shattering or deeply moving. Sometimes, it was just a small episode involving daily necessities, yet to us siblings, these were as priceless as the most precious treasures.
I still recall those summer nights when I was just an eight or nine-year-old little rascal. Big Sister loved singing, especially soothing lullabies. Every time I was about to fall asleep at night, she would sneak into my room, wake me up to listen to her sing, practicing for fifteen minutes each time, and then she’d go back to her room to sleep while I, full of energy, would hop around my room, unable to sleep for a long time...
Every night back then, I was tormented to the point of misery, always feeling that Big Sister might have been possessed. It wasn’t until now that I, this slow-witted brother, vaguely recalled that back then, Big Sister was under a lot of pressure and was actually having nightmares every night. She was just trying to bolster her courage.
Years later, Big Sister recalls those days with a smile:
"Actually, I really wanted to sleep in the same room with Ah Jun back then. Such a big house, it was really scary sleeping alone. But I was afraid of being looked down upon by my younger brother, so I had to tough it out. After all, it was me who first said, ’Once boys start school, they must be manly and sleep alone.’"
I’m not sure whether it was Big Sister’s guidance that made a difference or messing around with demons for half the night returned me to a carefree state. But after a night’s sleep, I genuinely felt refreshed, with the previous restlessness completely gone, and the heavy pressure the Fallen Apostle brought seemed to vanish into thin air—of course, they are still the most vigilant enemies I need to guard against. I am not naive enough to think that the peace before me can last forever, but these things can no longer put too much pressure on me to lose my footing. Big Sister was right, being responsible isn’t just about bearing all the pressure alone. A more crucial part of responsibility is being accountable to those around you, for their concern for you. To bear this responsibility, you must often do the opposite of taking everything on alone; instead, it is about not burdening yourself with too much.
Last night, I don’t even know when I fell asleep, resting on Big Sister’s legs, dozing in the temple square at Olympus Summit all night. Perhaps the lullaby from Big Sister had a bit of an effect, but a larger part of it might really be an inherently carefree spirit inside me. After all, a normal person would find it difficult to sleep deeply, comfortably, all night on a hard stone ground like iron.
When I woke up the next day, I found something quite troubling: I had a stiff neck...
Isn’t it curious? My body has been strengthened to the point where I can swim freely in outer space, yet I still suffer from stiff necks and cramps. Perhaps this fully explains the balance in the body strengthening technology; when your entire physical qualities rise simultaneously, some minor internal issues are unavoidable. This could explain why the last time Bingdisi stretched, his wings suddenly cramped—no matter how divine your physical body becomes, your muscles can still overpower your tendons...
"Sis, you said Zeus didn’t dare to come near, but why hasn’t anyone come to call us home? Have we been abandoned by the world?"
I looked up at the sky at a 45-degree angle, my left eye catching Big Sister smirking beside me. Honestly, I feel like I’ve done a lot of idiotic things in my life, and this was certainly one of the more unique ones—leaving the comfortable bed at home to sleep a night atop Mount Olympus in the chilly night wind. You tell me, could an ordinary fool pull this off?
"Perhaps everybody’s used to it," Big Sister pinched my neck, "You’ve done plenty of silly things on whims."
It seems like Qianqian and I ultimately ended up together due to a deep cultural origin...
"Huh—doing some little silly stuff with Ah Jun really brings back memories, reminds me of your childhood. Back then, there was no air conditioning at home. Sometimes in the summer, when it was stuffy at night, you didn’t want to sleep in your room and insisted on laying a mat in the yard to sleep. Every time was like today, waking up uncomfortable, yet doing the same thing the next night."
"Yeah, back then you were actually afraid I’d wander off," I realized that Big Sister might really be addicted to reminiscing and could only join her in these memories, "You’d move a wire bed next to me, watching because your body was weaker and couldn’t sleep on the ground. Later, I didn’t wander off, but you ended up going sleepwalking once, heading to school on foot at two or three in the morning, then coming back at four to shake me awake saying there’s a solar eclipse today and school’s out..."
Big Sister fell silent for a few seconds, then knocked a flick on my head: "And then when it was time to wake up early to go to school, you stubbornly refused to get up, insisting on waiting for the solar eclipse!"
The brother and sister tussled and messed around for a full half an hour just like childhood fights, before Big Sister finally headed home alone. She still had to go back to deal with that bunch of little princes in the house. Letting those kids hang out too long with bizarre beings like Bingdisi and Qianqian without Big Sister keeping them in check makes me really worried they might get into trouble. As for myself, I had no choice but to go once more to a research base in Taville. That coffin lover left me a delayed message saying there were some project updates to report, and by the tone of the message, it seemed to be something worth celebrating.
Leaving the Atlantis Floating Island, the world was already brightly lit. The island was ascending, and from its edge, I could see the entire Avalon Continent unfolded like a giant ink painting before my eyes. Not far behind was the Eastern Avalon Great Void, a massive black chasm. The Floating Island passed through that passage across the continent’s bottom, returning to the upper world from the reverse side. It’s a real pity I was asleep during the crossing of this void, otherwise, I’d have witnessed this magnificent and oppressive scene firsthand—knowing that the few minutes Atlantis Island passes through the "Gate of Apollo" is known as one of Avalon’s top three spectacular tourist attractions.
The other two grand sights include the daily green light eruption from the Central Life Temple and the occasional gigantic thunderstorm sweeping over the Fairy Forest or near the Heroic Spirit Hall. It’s said that the latter only occurs when Cu Chulainn stays idle in Avalon, making it highly dependent on luck...
After such a long-time development, the Shadow Space is now a unique world broader than the Solar System. Outside the core Mother Star and the Shadow City levitating above it, within an astronomical unit is the conventional military defense line, dotted with numerous barracks and Starport, plus light War Factories. Beyond that stretch, the gravitational anomaly points for Planet Battleship docking and maintenance extend further outside. Beyond this ring of gravitational anomaly points, there’s still-being-built scattered military facilities and some unique bases, such as the high-risk Abyss Energy Test Center and the giant World Gate launch pad for deploying Planet Battleships to the peripheral worlds (its massive energy fluctuations cause astonishing structural destruction to surrounding celestial bodies, so it can only be located on the outskirts far from any celestial body). The Revenge Fleet base is also in this layer—their remarkably formidable combat capability makes them the first line of defense for Shadow Space.
The research center Taville called me to visit this time floats independently next to the Revenge Fleet base. This whole area consists mainly of newly-built military facilities. If I had read the report carefully when that coffin lover asked me to sign off on the new research center launch, I would definitely have known what this bizarre place was.
"Space transmission completed, entering the gravitational anomaly point area ahead. Please watch for signal identification."
As the Teleportation Gate opened, a prompt sounded, and the dome of the transit station slowly unfolded before my eyes, revealing a vast, pitch-black cosmos.
The transit station beneath us is a model often used by the Empire when establishing space control zones of significant spans. It consists of a metal platform with an elliptical shape and a radius of several hundred meters, coupled with a set of space gate devices. These allow for rapid transition of small groups within the control zone. Unlike the usual paired operation required by transmission devices, its unique feature is the ability to perform ’virtual jumps’ with neither a starting nor ending point. In other words, as long as you’re within the spiritual network, you can send a request from anywhere in the control zone to be ’accepted’ by the transit station. Conversely, you can jump from the transit station to any other coordinate in the control zone without needing the target to have any reception or positioning device. This type of transmission technology requires only an independent ’projection’ point, unlike paired space gates, and is quite prevalent across the Empire. It’s said that recently, the New Eden Federation and the Pan-Galactic Civilization Community have produced barely usable replicas under the guidance of the Imperial scientists. This marked the first batch of large-scale and systematic technology export to vassal races by the Empire. The space gates of the transit station are used to transmit personnel, while the metal platform is protected by warship-grade alloy armor plates resembling an eggshell, making the transit station look like half an egg cut vertically. The front armor plate can open to form a massive observation window, and now I stand in front of this observation window, staring dazedly at the giant silver-white figure far away.
A mass projection from Taville appeared next to me, accompanied by a slight signal interference sound. She looked a bit fatigued, presumably having completed yet another sleepless monumental task. However, this fatigue did not affect her spirited energy at all. Her face was filled with excitement as she hurriedly saluted me and then started tapping away at her information terminal: "Your Majesty, you’ve arrived just in time. She just completed the first startup test, compatibility reached sixty percent—which, compared to normal spaceships, is exceedingly low, but for them, it’s an unbelievable miracle. This means the ancient warship in front of you theoretically has the ability to return to the battlefield again."
"Well done, I mean, far beyond my expectations."
My attention wasn’t fully on the report from the glasses girl beside me; instead, I was entranced by the enormous object hanging against the dark outer space backdrop. It was a planet, covered with a silver-gray alloy crust and a semi-transparent energy shield on the surface. Undoubtedly, this is a manmade artifact. Dark blue energy circuits pulse slowly through the crust’s fissures, with ghost energy beams like capillaries flowing across its mile-long surface. It seems to have just undergone a large-scale overhaul; several hexagonal alloy armor plates near the equator are in an open state, revealing complex dark mechanical structures and mysterious crystal jungles of unknown function beneath them. Red lights joyfully dance within these labyrinthine mechanical innards, informing everyone able to witness this scene that this giant metal planet is alive.
I’m very familiar with this enormous artificial planet, it is the ancient planet battleship that the Imperial Army had tugged back from the Mobra World with great effort, Sandora’s queen flagship from back then, the War Song.
Although the War Song now appears to be operating normally, just a few days ago, it was still a lifeless test specimen, with ninety-five percent of its modules in a halted state, its onboard AI completely chaotic, and all facilities mutually locking each other due to logic errors, making it almost a completely unstartable steel model. Despite Taville’s efforts to repair seventy to eighty percent of its hardware structure, it couldn’t be started due to errors in the planet’s control database. It was akin to a computer in perfect hardware condition but lacking a central processor. Even its energy core held tremendous energy yet was uncontrollable. Consequently, we had no choice but to extract the entire core to prevent potential overload and self-destruction. I still clearly remember how disappointed and greatly affected Taville was at the time when that decision was made.
"How did you manage it?"
Looking at the spectacular planet fortress in outer space, I asked in great astonishment.
"An attempt that was somewhat risky," Taville opened a series of control terminals in mid-air, operated swiftly as she proudly explained, "You know, the War Song couldn’t be started because its onboard AI was damaged during the forced shutdown process. Although the main control core rebooted successfully, the AI’s logic library lacked many components, causing its inability to match numerous advanced equipment on the War Song, as though missing drivers. Due to the extensive lost material from the Old Empire, we currently can’t repair such distinctively coded core AI, which has been the real culprit of War Song’s slow recovery process. And now..."
"You found the compressed package of the planet fortress’s operating system from back then?" I raised my eyebrows, pondering if this was an unexpected victory from Sicaro.
"Certainly not," Taville resolutely shook her head, "we merely found a substitute, which also originated from Imperial Technology of the Old Empire and employed the sixth-class multi-load control encoding rule—ah, you needn’t be curious about this term, it’s merely a form of writing for onboard AI, precisely the special encoding that we can’t restore. Additionally, for some inexplicable reason, the substitute was designed with a heap of miscellaneous enhancement modules by its designer, ultimately resulting in an AI with far beyond necessary processing capabilities, just barely capable of managing the War Song’s daily operations tasks, theoretically."
Taville spoke a heap of specialized terms, leaving me increasingly bewildered and curious. Fortunately, this curiosity was not suppressed for very long. Soon, Taville completed synchronization with the War Song, unveiling a colossal communication window before us, and a loud shouting accompanied this moment, resonating throughout the entire transit station:
"Bastard! Idiot! Moron! You old hag whose chest can crack walnuts! Get this ship out of this damned place immediately! Right now, at once! Do you know how serious this offense is? This ship will surely seek revenge! This ship will smash your lab, making your life a living hell! Can you hear me? Let this ship out of this absurd box right now, or you’ll face consequences; the General will soon lead thousands of troops to crush your bones! Ah, bastard! Back in the day, this ship was a beautiful vessel with 389 main cannons, how long are you going to insult the dignity of this ship with that round, foolish body of yours! Crap, crap, crap!"
"A supplementary processor that fits all criteria," Taville pushed his glasses with a helpless expression, "The only problem is, she doesn’t really cooperate with my research, theoretically speaking."
Me: "..."
This person is undoubtedly the most brilliant genius I’ve ever seen, bar none. You tell me, how could a regular person come up with this? He actually transplanted the AI from Visca’s flagship onto the War Song as a supplementary processor?!
I listened, face full of mixed emotions, as the imposing shipboard AI cursed non-stop for a good fifteen minutes. Admirably, I discovered her eloquence was pretty impressive; in a past life, she must have been a stand-up comedian who’d break her arm. After fifteen minutes, she could still spit out a swear word every five seconds with less than five percent repetition. I could only look at Taville up and down curiously and ask in a low voice, "Can I ask you something? Is it true that it says your XX can crack walnuts?"
Taville: "I believe that’s an artistic exaggeration, theoretically speaking."
"Alright, change the topic, how long is she planning to curse?" I chuckled stupidly, turning my head to glance at the War Song caught in an infinite storm of lightning, clearly enraged, "Moreover, you put such an uncontrollable being on the most powerful weapon in our territory, aren’t you afraid it’ll cause trouble?"
"From previous startup experiences, she’ll keep cursing for another ten minutes before running out of adjectives, and if no one responds to her, she’ll start again in thirty minutes. As for safety concerns, please rest assured, Your Majesty, I have made all necessary preparations. The planet battleship has been fixed at a gravitational anomaly point, surrounded by a Law Void barrier from the Leaving World Courtyard system, and the warship’s weapon system remains locked. The planet battleship is fixed here, completely unable to move or fight, posing no threat. Also, after some observation, I’ve found this AI is actually just a bit poorly-mannered; she’s harmless to the Imperial Army—perhaps due to General Visca’s subconscious influence, this AI has no intention to harm the Imperial Army; she’s just got quite the sharp tongue, theoretically speaking."
I instantly gained a new level of admiration for this particular shipboard AI.
I know the gravitational anomaly point Taville mentioned, it’s something set up in every outer space region where planet battleships dock. It’s basically a very powerful gravity generator, coupled with a sufficiently large gravity isolation device, used to firmly secure the entire planet at a specific coordinate in space. Since planet battleships are too large, we can’t build a conventionally larger port for them to dock. This device was born out of necessity, acting like the little tee under a golf ball to keep the enormous Planet Fortress stationary, and with some modification, these devices can serve as safety locks for planet battleships. All planet battleships use Class Coordinate Engines as their basic power, and when a Class Coordinate Engine is first started, it can be disrupted; this disruption method is to deploy a super strong gravity trap at a very close range, such as—the gravitational anomaly point.
As long as the anomaly point exists, the Class Coordinate Engine cannot be started (of course, if it’s already started, then any interruption method is useless), unable to take the first step, with the power of a planet battleship, it’s impossible to move, combined with the Leaving World Courtyard system and the system lock set by Taville that has pre-emptively shut down all Law weapons of the War Song, this shipboard AI can only throw a tantrum on the spot. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian () to give recommendations or monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)