Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1500: Meeting Again

This ancient data terminal seems to be working poorly. When it connects to the spaceship’s data archives, the holographic image above it flickers violently for a while before finally stabilizing. Sandora speculated that this might be related to the spaceship’s long-term energy deficiency or the impact during the crash, and part of the terminal’s crystalized circuitry might already be degraded. However, these minor malfunctions don’t affect its usability; after some adjustments, we entered the root directory of the data archives.

"Voyage logs... Just a few coordinate records and spaceship self-check reports, which seem useless, as well as technical parameters of the ship, also not very useful," Sandora filters through the materials that appear valuable, "Oh, found it, this should be the archive left from back then."

The holographic projection flickered, and then a familiar figure appeared in front of us: Big Sister in full military uniform.

"Sis, you look really awkward in military attire." I muttered, slightly tilting my head, and the person in question agreed readily: "Now having to wear this outfit every day would surely bore me to death."

The beginning of the video file features a few seconds of pause before a somewhat distorted voice comes through: "... Equipment in good condition, starting to record. Now we have left the Mother Star and are entering a Void zone no one has ever set foot in. If previous observations are correct, we will contact that dormant, powerful creature here. To prevent unforeseen events from leaving nobody aware of the situation here, I will begin to keep a diary in this video format starting now, and leave backups in each spaceship within the fleet. According to the Void scanning completed fifteen minutes ago, there are very few worlds in this area. Within a range of a hundred and twenty engine jumps, there are only three malformed Universes, where ’Genesis’ activities have become a rare phenomenon. The accompanying Technicians can’t explain this situation; we can only attribute it to the influence of Void Creature activities: they somehow suppress or dominate the information evolution around them during their growth process, causing ’Genesis’ activities in this region to abort before they fully mature. It’s uncertain whether this hypothesis is correct. If it is, the power and uniqueness of the Void Creatures will far exceed previous imaginations. I think this action might just succeed... Anyway, depending on the Void Creature to resist the impact—the stronger, the better."

The first video segment ended quickly. After it finished, I couldn’t help but touch Sister’s arm: "Sis, you plotted against me in a past life."

Sister casually trapped my head under her arm, punishing me while doting on me with a fierce pinch to my scalp: "I’ve told you many times, that was in a past life—and aren’t you being unwilling?"

Bingdisi suddenly became serious: "We’re getting down to business here, if you want to flaunt your deep sibling bond, wait until we get home, okay?"

By this time, Sandora had already found the second video segment, and Sister (in a past life) in full military attire with a stern expression started to speak earnestly in the video: "The fleet has arrived at the destination; everything went smoothly on this trip. According to previous measurements, the Void Creature is dormant right here, but now the fleet faces a very awkward problem: We can’t see him."

To say completely invisible isn’t entirely accurate; strictly speaking, we can still observe signs of the Void Creature’s existence: There is a vast amount of radiation from unknown sources, airily drifting, resembling World Barriers or Order Fields as stable spaces, and also a set of very regular pulse signals. But none of these can be said to be biological signs. These phenomena might be the result of Void Creature activities, but our understanding of these peculiar life forms seems to be too limited. Nobody anticipated he’d be unmeasurable while in a dormant state before departure. An unmeasurable life form... how should we establish communication with him... Oh, it seems I’ve gone a little overboard with self-talk, so today’s record ends here."

"Were you unmeasurable in Void Form?" Bingdisi suddenly glanced over here, "But when we fought, I saw it clearly enough, though you were a bit dark, you had a fair presence."

"That’s not the same thing, okay," I replied with some amusement and exasperation, "If my guess is correct, a dormant Void Creature is essentially in ’Return State,’ or ’Divine Travel State,’ barring our awareness of our existence, we’re entirely indistinguishable from the Void, 100% integrated and not observable, which is normal. What Sister saw in her past life as ’activity signs’ must have been nothing more than remnants of Worlds, as I emerged from inside those remnants."

Bingdisi nodded: "Oh, like your eggshell, right?"

Me: "..." I shouldn’t have started with this female hooligan!

"You’re mentioning ’integrating with the Void’—I kind of understand, is it like tossing Slime into the water?"

Me: "..." This female hooligan still isn’t finished!

By this time, Sandora had already filtered a few worthless videos, she waved to us: "Stop fooling around, Ah Jun should be coming out."

Once more: "..." Speaking of which, why does it feel like the topics in this aspect keep getting stranger?

Big Sister’s (past life) image appeared again on the holographic projection, and this time she seemed to have a joyful expression on her face: "Everything went smoothly, finally succeeded in establishing dialogue with the Void Creature, although he was the one who initiated contact: It seems he noticed the fleet’s arrival. This is a curious newborn life; he inquired about a lot concerning the spaceship and the Xyrin Apostle, seemingly very amazed to see free consciousness other than his own for the first time. The initial contact went well; the Void Creature was friendly, and as we expected—he showed an instinctive aversion to the Abyss and an instinctive liking for the Order World. Right now, we are figuring out how to explain our plans to him and let this Void Creature understand what he should do. That last point seems a bit difficult; the newborn Void Creature didn’t even know what powers he possessed... Precisely speaking, he didn’t know what ’power’ meant; he was an unfettered and free will, nothing on the Void Ladder could bind him, thus he survived so freely, asleep for who knows how long. Hopefully, before the time Vanna managed to gain runs out, this Void Creature can figure out how to unfold a barrier... ah..."

Sister’s words in the video were abruptly interrupted, interrupted by a black sphere suddenly jumping past the screen edge. The sphere seemed slightly larger than a fist, not very regular, looking like a slightly deformed blob of soft mud, this odd "object" jumped into the screen and then refused to leave, circling in midair. Sister (past life) started to nervously try to shove this sphere away, explaining rapidly: "By the way, Void Creature made a ’body’ for negotiating with material life forms, it’s this sphere you’re seeing... his curiosity seems a tad too exuberant! He seems quite interested in us beings with bodies but doesn’t seem adept at controlling his own entity. This sphere still doesn’t have facial features... please, do not cause trouble, I’m recording something very important... don’t touch that button! Don’t touch that panel! Can someone help me shoo him away?"

The black sphere continued to dash rapidly on the screen. I even felt that he made a funny face at the camera while Sister (past life), typically giving an impression of calm seriousness, was helplessly mussed up by the suddenly intruding sphere, hence the latter half of this video, initially meant to be very serious, directly turned into a comedic episode, ending in a hustle and bustle.

Everyone watched the holographic image dumbfounded. Then, I felt several gazes fall on me—as for why I haven’t dug a hole and hidden, the only reason is that this ship is an antique, and I couldn’t bear to dig...

"If I haven’t guessed incorrectly," Bingdisi was indeed the first to speak, as expected, her eyes amused like little knives scraping back and forth over my body, "That sphere just now probably was you in your past life."

"So Ah Jun’s Void Form in his past life was a sphere?" Even Lian Shandora couldn’t help but joke a couple of lines, "Ah Jun, you’ve been resentful that your Void Form doesn’t have a face usually, right? Look, now you don’t have to resent anymore—you didn’t even have arms and legs in your past life; at least you’ve progressed in this life."

"Could we change the topic...?"

I spoke mid-sentence when Big Sister herself interjected: "Ah Jun in his past life was just a naughty kid."

I almost wanted to cry without tears: "Sis, don’t say it like that, wasn’t I young back then!"

Following that video are several records, mainly pertaining to the exchange between Xyrin Apostle and my past life. Matters on this side don’t deviate much from the intelligence we’ve already grasped, whereas at the end of these records, that major event happened which altered countless people’s destinies:

Void Creature activated ultimate Level one, with white gear toppling the tower in one round, instantly taken down.

After the video files, Sandora found a record concerning this event, yet it was no longer a video but just a simple text record, the recorder unknown, containing only a brief passage:

"...The plan failed; Void Creature couldn’t resist such a scale of impact, maybe the impact was lessened, but it’s uncertain whether the Mother Star could survive... uncertain how long I can maintain conscious, but perhaps there’s a slim hope for Rebirth; should strive towards this target. The Servant Army Fleet has been disbanded, I have switched this ship’s authority recognition mode to the second mode... Perhaps ’she’ has calculated this point when handing this spaceship to me, the recognition database of this ship can switch to the second mode with only a command, then hopefully ’she’ has also calculated the events after the plan’s failure. Anyway, our attempt failed, hoping all other plans are still moving along the expected trajectory..."

The record ended there, there should be more, but it’s unclear whether the database malfunctioned or what, in any case, it was wiped...

The first notable thing we discovered is this: only words exist here, not images.

"If I’m not mistaken, these words should have been left by your sister," Bingdisi said, nodding as she looked at the Xyrin Language filled with numerous garbled symbols. "The fact that only words remain indicates that she had already lost her physical form at that time. These records were left after your attempt to save the world failed. The people on this ship should have all perished in that incident."

Big Sister couldn’t help but hug her arms; this topic made her feel uncomfortable all over: "Why do I feel like today’s events have been so eerie from beginning to end?"

"Eerie is the right word," Bingdisi waved her hand. "Who can still be happy seeing their own last words from the past?"

I: "..." I think the biggest mistake today was bringing this female hooligan along!

Looking at this final record before us, we all shared a moment of curiosity: Back then, my sister and I, along with everyone on the spaceship, had already "died" under the Abyss Impact, leaving only our souls (and, of course, the even weaker soul fragments of Vanna and Reiji, who are now Qianqian and Lin Xue). Clearly, these words were recorded under such circumstances, so in what state did we leave these "farewell words"?

Bingdisi, being knowledgeable, had her ideas on this matter: "You probably temporarily formed a mixed spiritual entity, with you and your sister taking turns to lead. Considering that you were still a silly kid back then, the messages on the spaceship were left by your sister when she was conscious. Another possibility is that both of you, in a Chaos consciousness form, possessed the spaceship’s mainframe, and since you were a silly kid back then, these messages were directly inputted by your sister into the database. Either guess could be true. One way or another, this ship carried your souls, drifting through the Void, and finally crashed on Earth... That’s what happened to you before you died."

I finally ran out of patience with this female hooligan, who could speak with ten levels of crypticness, and opened the Shadow City Teleportation Gate, grabbed Bingdisi’s arm, and tossed her in...

"That’s settled, now the world is quiet," I exhaled, then looked at the message, trying to glean more from this brief passage. I actually noticed something intriguing, "Sandora, Sis, did you notice this mention of a ’her’? It even says that this ’her’ delivered the spaceship to the Fifteenth Day Zone..."

I couldn’t finish my sentence because a name flashed through my mind like lightning...

At this moment, Sandora, who was operating the data terminal, suddenly made an unexpected sound: "Wait! There’s a file here!"

"What is it?" I temporarily put aside the omnipresent name in my mind and curiously leaned over.

"I don’t know," Sandora said while examining the file and shaking her head, "It only has a number, no date or recorder, and there’s no keyword for querying. It was originally supposed to be stored at the bottom layer of the database, but after I read through all the journals left by your sister back then, it popped up on its own, as if executed automatically."

By this time, the mysterious file had started playing automatically. Sandora found that this antiquated data terminal was already out of control; it had entirely turned into an automatic projection device. The holographic image on it flickered a few times, and all the text, charts, and display attachments disappeared, replaced by a plain-looking, black-haired girl.

"To the one who found this file, whoever you are, hello," the black-haired girl began. "You can call me Xyrin. This is a database equipped with a limited intelligent Q&A program, which will provide you with limited intelligence based on your questions. I will first display some entries contained in the database. The information you can access will be included within these subordinate entries. You will have plenty of opportunities to ask questions, but this database will autonomously determine whether you qualify for the answers based on how you ask your questions."

The scene was silent, almost so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

The black-haired girl in front of us was unlike any Xyrin image we had seen, but that didn’t matter, because Xyrin’s appearance is inherently uncertain. The important thing was confirming this: the one in front of us was a Xyrin from the Old Empire era!

The speculation I hadn’t yet voiced in my mind was confirmed so directly in the next moment, leaving me a bit stunned, and as I calmed down, countless questions surged into my mind.

"Why is she involved here too..." I opened my mouth, and sure enough, this was what I most wanted to say.

Even Big Sister was a bit emotional: "It seems she had a hand in many of the Old Empire’s self-rescue plans. Sandora’s Revenge Army is one, and the Exile Ark we discovered some days ago is another. So how is the Fifteenth Day Zone involved with her... Weren’t the Fifteenth Day Zone’s concepts already isolated?"

Big Sister’s words reminded us that the concept of the Fifteenth Day Zone had been isolated. The Abyss Xyrin had been split into another network before Big Sister set off to contact the Void Creature, so what is the deal with this ship and the hologram before us?

Sandora frowned without speaking, fiddling with the data terminal. After discovering she couldn’t directly control it, she finally gave up: "It’s locked. The deepest part of the database is indeed encrypted, and the permission system doesn’t recognize it... This kind of basic architecture-defying thing can only be created by that Network Consciousness."

"Can you answer our questions?" I recalled the hologram announcing itself as an intelligent Q&A database, so I looked up at her. "Are you an advanced intelligence or a simple program?"

"Keyword detected, converting... Displaying database entries." The holographic image said in an unchanging tone, and then a massive list refreshed beneath the image. At that moment, I could confirm what exactly the other party was: this should have been a simple program left by that Network ghost from years ago, not a consciousness fragment or any advanced entity, and likely lacked thinking ability.

Sandora carefully observed the refreshing list beneath, thoughtful: "Was the purpose of this design to deduce if the questioner was an Empire survivor through the Q&A process?"

"Entry 1741, answer: Yes."

"Did your designer forgo using the permission database to activate this program because she believed the Empire’s permission system could no longer be trusted by the time you awoke?"

"Keyword Entry 9009, answer: Yes."

"Did you store the information about this spaceship’s delivery to the Fifteenth Day Zone and the entire self-rescue plan of the Fifteenth Day Zone? Was this record prepared for survivors from other zones or other self-rescue plans to let them know where the remnants of the Fifteenth Day Zone might be located?"

"Final Keyword Entry 9010, answer: Yes. You may now access the entire database; welcome to review it."

Sandora exhaled, a happy expression on her face: "Just as I thought, the Q&A program is merely a façade; its real function is to verify if the questioner is an Empire survivor during the questioning process. As long as enough keywords are provided, the database will open."

I also exhaled and thought that luckily, I wasn’t the one asking questions earlier; otherwise, I wouldn’t know how long I’d be dealing with this program shell today... (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)