Chapter 942: Chapter 942: You Eat It
(The last day of this month… hmm, half a day, don’t you guys plan to spend your remaining votes? Come on, everyone, throw in a few more votes~! For honor!)
The voyage log of the deep-diving ship is very long. What we’re seeing are just footnotes that happened to display. These footnotes may not even be part of the log, but rather something a duty scientist added like a “diary” while recording data. Imperial scientists generally have such a habit. They meticulously record every trivial occurrence in their daily research along with the regular experiment reports. This helps them notice tiny details they might have missed when analyzing data later, and the brief pieces of information we see here, lying between diary and research observation records, evidently exist for this reason.
Sandora’s expression was very serious. Some shocking facts seemed to be gradually emerging from the fog, yet no one dared to believe. I gently touched her shoulder and asked softly, “What do you think this is?”
“It seems…” Sandora took a deep breath, finally dispelling her doubts, “it seems to be an action record left during the voyage of the deep-diving ship, indicating what they did over forty days during a certain mission. This probably shows the purpose of an operation… They were trying to find something in the Abyss Domain…”
“And attempting to make contact with those things inside,” I identified a crucial footnote and pointed to the text on it, saying, “Look here, they wanted to reach a place called the ‘Call Beacon,’ but couldn’t because the starship had reached its limit. Their original plan was likely to send some message at this ‘Call Beacon,’ hoping something inside the Abyss would respond, but since the spaceship didn’t reach the optimal transmission point, the message was ultimately lost. The question is: what were they planning? Who were they trying to contact in the Abyss?”
“What a terrible direction for speculation,” Sandora gave a bitter smile, “the only possibility is that they were trying to establish contact with the Abyss. If this were done by those Fallen Apostles now, it would make sense, but this starship was built during the Old Empire era. How could there have been Xyrin Apostles crazy enough to establish contact with the Abyss then? Even sailing a ship deep into the Abyss Gate for that…”
“No matter how unbelievable, at least it’s a guess,” I squeezed Sandora’s arm, “by the end of the Old Empire, everyone from top to bottom was pretty much crazy. Their research into anything was perfectly normal. Perhaps this was just an exceptionally radical study. After all, you’ve fought the Abyss for countless epochs, yet your understanding of the enemy is still very abstract. In such circumstances, if an entire race falls into a state of impatience, it’s entirely possible they’d take the risk to directly contact the Abyss. It’s the simplest way to understand the enemy.”
“Ocam, I swear, even during the Empire’s craziest times, he was the most uncontrollable among all the mad scientists,” Sandora grimaced as she attempted to smile but failed, “look at how insane this plan is. We’ve interacted with conscious pure Abyss Creatures, and those things, though they have thoughts, would never communicate with ordinary life forms. This starship idea is utterly deranged. Utterly.”
I nodded to Sandora’s complaint, but instinctively, doubt arose in my mind.
As for the so-called Abyss Primordial Creatures, I did indeed meet one once— long ago—with someone I had a brief encounter, “Brother Mo Shui,” that amorphous, flickering, and extremely difficult-to-kill Abyss Creature brought me significant trouble, leaving a lasting impression. It’s said that Abyssal Aggregations capable of independent thought, able to consciously devise infection plans, are extremely rare and often only a couple might be born through an Abyss Gate, and these “lives” frequently merge with powerful Main Material World creatures to form a powerful Infected (like Bingdisi back then). Apart from yet-to-complete “Feeding” infection sources appearing in the Main Material Plane, entirely “purified” Abyssal Aggregations probably only exist within the Abyss Gate. So is Ocam’s design of this Abyss Deep Diving Ship genuinely for communicating with such Abyssal Aggregations?
For some reason, putting the term “communication” atop something like Abyssal Aggregations gives me a feeling of great discord. Intuition tells me, the situation isn’t that simple, and Ocam’s plan back then should have had a higher goal. However, lacking too many crucial pieces of information, even though my intuition makes such a judgment, the so-called truth is still a vast mystery for me. Until there’s any concrete speculation, I should refrain from disturbing Sandora’s judgment with random thoughts.
“Forget it, let’s not think about that for now. Focus on dismantling this database first.”
Sandora is someone who knows how to prioritize. The wreck of the deep-diving ship is still gradually disintegrating, leaving us limited time. The most important thing is to salvage the database, as for those strange voyage logs and footnotes… The database should have backup files. We can extract them later for thorough research.
“Are you going to cut down this entire tower?”
I looked up at the gigantic structure towering above and broke into a cold sweat. No matter how you look at it, the workload is enormous. Can Sandora really handle it all on her own? Or should I step in and make things worse?
“Of course not, my initial assessment was wrong, this tower is not the database,” Sandora chuckled, and to my shocked expression, she suddenly punched the crystal tower, which immediately emitted a crisp cracking sound—along with piercing alarms, “it’s just an outer shell and support for placing the database.”
Though Sandora’s strength can’t match Lin’s brute force, the crystal tower before us clearly isn’t as robust as high-purity Star Gold Stone. Under Sandora’s punch, the crystal tower was already filled with cracks, then collapsed in an instant.
With a crash, the collapsing crystal tower shattered like a pillar of light, dissolving into a splendid rain of fragments. I hadn’t expected this colossal thing to fragment so finely after an external impact, like drifting snowflakes, and in the blink of an eye… It buried me.
“Warn me next time before something big happens.”
I leaped out from the scattered shards supporting my shield, sulkily telling Sandora. The crystal tower that shattered left a layer of fragments almost two meters thick on the surrounding ground, even after a significant portion had evaporated into nothingness upon release. Had Dingdang been buried, she probably would’ve gotten lost inside.
As the “culprit,” Sandora was far more collected. Having discovered that the crystal tower would shatter with a punch, she had flown into the air, and now she stuck out her tongue at me, “Didn’t expect it to become so fragile. This type of crystal is somewhat different from regular models.”
“What is that thing?”
I floated up to Sandora’s side, gently knocking on her head, then frowned and turned my gaze to where the crystal tower had stood. Once the tower collapsed, it left behind an object: a semi-transparent geometric shape, roughly three feet square… Hmm, a geometric shape, I can only describe it as such because it had no fixed form, and its surface fluctuated as if caught between liquid and solid metal melt, continuously changing shape. The geometric shape had a silvery-white hue, but due to its translucency and ever-shifting outline, the silvery sheen sometimes seemed to be merely an illusion. I stared at it for a moment, and my eyes began to feel sore—it’s that odd. If it were just visual interference, I wouldn’t have this sensation. This constantly morphing geometric shape is extraordinarily peculiar.
“What is that thing?”
Sandora smiled slightly, “The crystal tower was merely a housing unit, this bizarre thing is the database. However, it truly is strange, as I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my life,” she carefully approached the silver-white, semi-transparent object hovering in mid-air. But when she reached out to touch it, it behaved just like an illusion, as her hand passed straight through.
“Huh?”
We both were stunned. Even Sandora, usually composed, was puzzled. She tried touching it several more times, to no avail: “Could it be a projection? Or is it in an anti-phase?” she asked, frowning and stepping back, “It’s as though the thing isn’t interacting with the material world at all…”
I was dumbstruck, never imagining we’d encounter such trouble.
Then Sandora attempted various things, including grabbing it with her hand, using energy chains, using gravity traction, using a space rift, and so on, but the database remained unswayed, floating nonchalantly midair and disconnected from the material world around it. Even Sandora found herself stumped.
“””
“It doesn’t seem to exist in the current time and space, but it’s not anti-phasing or mass projection either,” Sandora appeared a bit anxious as time was running out; tiny energy sparks had already appeared on the control hall’s walls, and the outside ghost energy was about to invade, “Damn it, analyzing this thing takes time, and we’re out of it!”
“Don’t worry, since the deep-diving ship can fix this shadow-like thing in one place, there must be a way to control it,” I took a deep breath, “Alright, let me contact the enthusiastic audience outside.”
Sandora was momentarily stunned, and I connected with Taville’s spiritual connection, quickly explaining the strange occurrences here and promptly uploading the information I observed: not a single detail could be omitted, perhaps Taville would know what this database was about.
“This kind of thing… isn’t a conventional Empire device,” Taville sounded somewhat hesitant but soon followed up with words that lifted both mine and Sandora’s spirits, “Please wait a moment; I think I’ve seen related information about this database and will check it now!”
Taville then fell silent for a moment before returning with an excited tone, “Found it… This is special technology from the very end of the Old Empire period. As the specific performance was not verified until the Empire’s collapse, it was never uploaded to the central database. In short, it’s a data storage device based on a fantastical mathematical model; it doesn’t exist in the current world concept, thus cannot be affected by anything on the material plane. Well, the specific data is very complex. I now have two plans to retrieve this database. The first is to use a ghost energy crystal with a special frequency to generate a force field to confine the database. Although it is separated from the main material plane, the design mentions a ‘lock frequency’ for operations…”
“The crystal has already been smashed by me,” Sandora said awkwardly through the spiritual connection, and then she turned to me and muttered under her breath, “The database’s information didn’t say the crystal tower was such an important item, only said it was a storage device… Who designed this, not even giving a full set of instructions.”
Taville’s voice paused noticeably; evidently, even Queen Her Majesty was speechless at Sandora’s quick action, but she immediately offered a second plan: “Then we have to use void power to confine the database. It’s based on a fantastical mathematical model, and this model can be forcibly paused by the void, which won’t cause the database to collapse, just temporarily connect it to the main material plane: this was the technology used in the creation of the database, and can also be used to transport it.”
“Ah Jun, you’re up.” Sandora nudged my arm.
“Alright,” I scratched my head and shifted to my void form. After so much practice, I became faster at switching forms, although the appearance remained the same as ever, “Taville, then what? Take the database out? Or surround it with the void domain?”
Taville immediately sent me five bold words: “Eat it.”
Me: “…If you quickly add ‘Happy April Fools’, I’ll let this slide.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s exactly the method,” the serious and earnest Scientific Girl ignored my joke, continuing to analyze with a straight face, “The void domain is merely a force field around you, which doesn’t have the ability to carry things to move, and its purity is not sufficient; the database might lose stability if transported in an impure void environment. Similarly, you can’t take it out in your hand, so to place it in a 100% pure void environment that can be transported, you’ll have to eat it. Your internal environment now is completely like real void; theoretically, it is…”
I interrupted the other party with a sigh, “Did you know this thing is as big as a table?”
Taville paused for a few seconds: “You can do it in several portions; the database will always remain complete in higher dimensions, as long as it isn’t thrown into the void, we won’t lose it. That’s precisely why only you can bring the database out, as using conventional void power, the database will be lost. Theoretically, this is so. Additionally, you can try to store the entire database in your body because the void is absolutely infinite, and any concept in the void is in a state without value, including volume. Theoretically, you can encompass anything within your body, including the table-sized database.”
“Alright, I believe you, just stop discussing this bizarre topic.” I interrupted Taville with tears streaming down my face, cut off the communication, and glanced at Sandora. As expected, this girl was smirking.
I don’t even have the energy to retort anymore — seriously, Sandora, do you really think you’re in a position to laugh at me? Speaking of eating, you’re the master-level character here!
Sighing silently in my heart, I fixed my gaze on the “database” not far ahead, this peculiar thing, completely unaware of the fate it was about to face, kept changing shapes in mid-air, its state of existence clear to no one. But I knew, only I could transfer it from this piece of spaceship wreck destined to be cast into the void.
Deep breath… deep breath…
Sandora tapped my shoulder, “Ah Jun, why haven’t you started?”
I replied with a mournful expression (if it could be seen), “Damn, I don’t have a mouth!”
Sandora was stunned for several seconds before saying with a peculiar face, “…Taville didn’t mean for you to literally eat it with your mouth, right?”
If there were a hole in the ground, do you believe I’d crawl in and close off for a decade?
“I… I knew that! This was just to lighten the atmosphere! Besides, I have to figure out how to store it in my body, right?” I hurriedly waved my hand, pretending everything was under control, ignoring whatever strange expression Sandora wore or her mischievous smile, and turned to face the database earnestly.
At the same time, I gently released my spiritual power, beginning to establish an indescribable “bridge” between this silvery transparent geometric figure and myself.
Taville had only deduced this viable method based on database materials, but she didn’t know how to execute it, nor could she guide me on completing the “consuming” process, but it didn’t matter because certain things are almost instinctual for a void creature. The void, encompassing all, everything that can or cannot be described, is from the void at its core, whether it’s in any form, it’s part of the void.
Completely releasing my soul, allowing the instincts of a void creature to guide me through all this, and then suddenly regaining control of my body when Sandora’s prompt suddenly echoed in the spiritual connection.
This kind of work requires tacit cooperation, even if I didn’t say anything, I managed to exchange ideas with Sandora in our heart-to-heart connection.
Back in human form, when I opened my eyes again, there was nothing left in front of me, the so-called database, now became a thing of the concept layer, “stored” within myself.
Before leaving the spaceship wreckage, I asked Sandora one last question:
“Girl, do you think I’ll get a stomach ache…” (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian () to vote with recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)