Chapter 1029

No one thought that "mutation", or in Bingtis's words: "promotion", would have expanded to this extent without our knowledge. I thought it only affected the people and animals around us. , but I didn’t expect that the one with the largest impact would be an asteroid belt in the Shadow City - this is really puzzling, because according to my idea, the "priority" of mutations there should be lower. Since mutations occur under the influence of information disturbance from void creatures, naturally, things that are closer to me usually mutate earlier and become stronger. Qian Qian and her sister should have the same power (although I don’t know what divinity requires). can be produced, but their current power really makes many Star Realm Protoss feel dumbfounded, especially the sister's curse, which is also effective on Bingtis: although there is a discount, they are still getting stronger), And Anweina is his personal maid, which counts as the same. Although the crow in the yard has little to do with him, he still lives with him and is Anweina's pet. These connections are considered close. But what about an asteroid field in shadow space?

Am I still related to a bunch of rocks...

After some thinking, Bingtis, an expert in the God Realm, conjectured as follows: The information disturbance of void creatures is a probabilistic event. Within the effective range, there is actually a chance that anything will mutate (it can only be said that it is the closest thing to me). Things with a higher probability of mutation, but things that are farthest together may also mutate earlier, but the probability is very low. But it is not impossible), and the degree of mutation has nothing to do with distance: the power of the void never cares about the distance , this explanation makes sense. She guessed that perhaps my information disturbing power had spread to the entire empire through the spiritual network of the apostles, thus within the vast empire's sphere of influence. Anything loyal to the emperor has a chance of mutating, whether it's a crow in the yard or a stone in a place where birds don't poop. All may “receive the favor of the Lord” at any time.

This kind of conjecture is interesting. It shows that we are completely unable to judge when the Xiling Apostle can complete the promotion... Dare I belong to the East One Hammer and West One Stick?

I don’t know what Father God did when he was promoted to the gods... Hmm. I remembered that when Father God was promoted to the gods, he had even created the divine world. He basically took on an apprentice-level task as a journeyman, and I was kicked off the shelf before I even graduated from preschool. I'm studying how to create gods... Damn it, I haven't even finished creating humans yet!

Ahem, maybe it's because Qianqian has been pulling me with me all day long in the past two days to try to create Chen Xiaoqian in advance, which made my thinking a little biased.

Those strange ores have been tested by Tavel several times, and it can be determined that they are the completion of mutation rather than intermediate products: their various properties are very stable. Moreover, the processing difficulty is moderate, and its extremely strong affinity for psionic energy (in fact, all types of energy, but for Xiling Apostles, only minerals with high psionic affinity are valuable) may be due to my daily contact with them. There are more psionic energies, and they also have the same tendency to mutate. This is a very good property, which allows them to have the same mineral value as the astrology stones in the divine world: the former's affinity for various energies such as psionic energies reaches Ninety percent, and the latter's resistance to various energy attacks is as high as ninety percent. Although the attribute gap is quite large, as long as they are properly utilized, they are equally important strategic resources. For the time being, these ores are named "Source Energy Mines". The name was given by Sandora, and I am quite satisfied with it.

You must have guessed it. In fact, Qian Qian also mixed things up when she came up with the name - she strongly suggested naming these minerals between metals and crystals "Emperor's Blood Mine", which means "the ore condensed by the emperor's blood". , it’s rare that this girl can come up with such a meaningful name. I was almost moved by this name, but Lin Xue’s leisurely reminder suddenly woke me up:

This name means that you are dead everywhere.

You see, Lin Xue's ability to be vicious and venomous has not declined at all, but now she is better at attacking weak points...

"Source Energy Mine" is the first local mineral born in the shadow space in history. Of course, the most concerning thing is its continued production. If there is only one asteroid belt that can produce Source Energy Mine, then this kind of The core of future equipment will have little use value. Fortunately, after investigation, we found that the source energy mines are not a one-time product: they are still growing slowly deep in the shadow space, and the mutation will continue until I take the initiative to ban it, and the source energy mines in the shadow space now There seems to be a lot of reserves - if all are mined, it will almost be enough to replace all the ships of the First Legion with a set of energy bolts that will increase performance by 50%.

...Well, it doesn’t seem like much. We have at least six main legions that need to be replaced, and the entire reserve of the source energy mine is only enough to replace one part for each spacecraft of one of the legions. It looks like it will take enough time for the mineral to continue growing.

Tavel is already looking for the laws of ore mutation. She hopes to find the original form before the source energy ore mutates, and then "seed" a large amount of it into the shadow space. This kind of mineral deposit is simply too important for us who lack enough technology. Maybe it It is the only means to reverse the equipment gap between the New Empire and the Fallen Apostles.

On the day Sandora learned about the source energy mine incident, she issued an order to all sites in the macro world and the vassal world, asking local personnel to start checking the things mounted on the Xiling civilian communication network in this world. Things cannot be left behind. Including the staff of various offices of the Space-Time Administration, daily utensils, and even the flowers and plants in their yards. In short, wherever the Xiling Network arrives, it will be inspected as a sampling observation point. If Bingtis's conjecture is correct, then Even the world farthest away from me may be affected by the Internet - why do I feel like an Internet virus?

This is a long-term work. According to my current ability to influence, the probability that things in remote areas are affected may have a string of zeros after the decimal point. And the work won’t stop until I’m fully “adult.” How many years has it been? Bingtis's experience didn't work this time. She could only say that she would go back to God Father in two days to ask how long it took for his first batch of creations to be completed. Now I desperately hope that this will not be a 500-million-year plan—Father God always has a 500-million-year plan. If you put it on me, you will probably die!

Speaking of which, I don’t know how the power system of the Star Realm God Realm was established at the beginning, but it seems that Xiling Side’s preparations before the promotion of the entire clan are already quite characteristic of them: swiftness and fierceness. The scale is huge, and all the people are involved in the battle at every turn. Those slow-moving gods who had no sense of time were definitely not as big as us... Maybe if I have the opportunity in the future, I will have to go to the God Realm to ask Father God for advice on the life experience of building a house and having children... The Creation God Realm is essentially not Is that all it takes?

While this project, which may take many, many years to complete, is being launched, another immediate task is also being prepared. The empire's leadership - the first family, and more than half of the senior officers in the command - - all gathered in a desolate edge universe, preparing for the new empire's first deep-diving test.

The prototype deep-diving vessel "Far Voyager" has completed its long twenty-four-hour recharge and is now quietly stationary in front of our eyes. The nearest large celestial body in the vicinity is an old red giant star. On the surface of this star, there is a pitch-black hole that is imprisoned by a force field. That was the entrance selected for the first deep dive, the most stable abyss gate controlled and used for observation and research within the empire.

The appearance of the deep submersible ship is really unattractive compared to other mature starships in the empire. It is a silver-grey, bare rectangular parallelepiped. The bow and stern quarters are significantly shrunk, which makes it far away. Looking like a stunted mango, the submersible vessel is only a few hundred meters long. Even including the external antenna that will be discarded soon after setting sail, it cannot reach the kilometer-level gate. For a spacecraft that needs to perform space missions, the size of several hundred meters is quite inconspicuous, but the smaller the size of the deep-diving ship, the fewer technical problems it has to deal with (the most critical one is the shield system, which is huge The shield surface area means more exposure to contamination (and shorter lifespan), and Tavel must choose the most practical solution. This prototype ship does not require a manned function, which saves a lot of space and allows Tavel to install as much backup information storage as possible while ensuring that the spacecraft is small enough. There are not many ancillary equipment visible in the main part of the deep submersible ship. It does not have a large communication array for the fleet (it only has a set of internal communication devices for temporary communication), there is no weapon system, and there is not even a jump drive. Parabolic protuberance. These are neither needed nor created.

In the abyss, the deep submersible ship has no way to contact "friendly ships" and does not need to fight - it is certain that with this fragile prototype ship, no matter what it encounters in the abyss, it will be finished, so it has become a new The only unarmed ship ever built by the Empire. In addition, we did not install a jump drive on it. This is due to some technical problems: we know very little about the spatial structure inside the Gate of the Abyss. We only know that it does not follow the known spatial laws at all, and the mathematical system is also weird. In that environment, the spacecraft could not perform a hyperspace jump, so Tavel simply canceled the jump drive function of the deep-diving ship.

One of the important tasks of this operation of the deep submersible ship is to collect more data about the spatial patterns in the abyss, so as to prepare for our next experimental ship, such as studying how to drive the deep submersible ship to jump in the abyss.

To put it bluntly, it is a pathfinding stone.

This universe is the most suitable testing ground after careful selection. It is located at the border of the empire, in a buffer layer that can be abandoned at any time, and several worlds adjacent to it are decolonized areas. This universe may once have given birth to a simple civilization. The pioneering troops who discovered this world at that time found things suspected to be the remnants of intelligent races on some broken planet fragments, but they had died. When the pioneers discovered this place, the entire space It is covered with the debris of stars, and the few remaining crumbling red giants or other celestial bodies in their twilight years are seriously infected. On the surface of one of the red giants, there is a gate of the abyss quietly attached. Although this gate has not erupted yet, the aura of the abyss spreading everywhere has destroyed everything in this world. This is the second type of pollution typical of the abyss gate: there is no super large abyss gate. However, the entire space is filled with low-intensity abyss "fog" at the same time. This kind of pollution may not be a big deal to advanced civilizations, but for low-level civilizations that have no resistance, it can easily lead to catastrophe in an instant. Later, the Imperial Army used the Garden of Death to cut off most of the universe and throw it into the endless void. The remaining part of the space containing the Gate of the Abyss has been preserved as a testing ground for samples urgently needed by Imperial scientists. A Raven squad and several elite combat squadrons are stationed nearby. The Ravens use their own power to maintain the stability of the last red giant star in the universe - the Abyss Gate has completely parasitized the planet. We can only choose to "tether" this planet to the gate of the abyss.

The engine of the deep-diving vessel has not yet been started. It was towed by a medium-sized barge dozens of kilometers above the Gate of the Abyss. The barge is equipped with the last batch of support equipment needed before the deep submersible vessel can be launched. Many people present can see that this thing uses a lot of outdated technologies, such as data exchange systems that require physical connections, charging pipes, and that stupid barge: in order to improve the success rate of the first test. , Tavel has rejected more than 80% of new technologies that are clever but lack practical data.

Our location is quite close to the test site: only ten kilometers away. From this position, the deep-sea submersible and the gate to the abyss are clearly visible, and the hazy huge body of the red giant star is like an endless plain of fire - the observatory automatically adjusts the light coming in from the outside. Otherwise, many dogs’ eyes would be blinded at this time.

At 2:20 in the afternoon, a report from the deep submersible ship control team sounded on the observation platform: "The energy furnace is operating normally and is ready to release the external energy gate, ten, nine, eight... three, two, one. Offline. Everything is normal, the deep-diving vessel is using its own energy to maintain operation, and the equipment is restarting. Move to the next working group."

"The terminal data verification is completed, the deep submersible ship database is normal, and redundant storage units No. 1 to 175 are online. Data synchronization is good. The core database has entered a locked state, and external changes are now prohibited. The data connection with the target is about to be disconnected. , ten, nine, eight...three, two, one, offline. Everything is normal, the deep submersible vessel has begun to operate autonomously, and the equipment should have been restarted. The engineer team, after confirming that the deep submersible vessel equipment is working normally, withdraws and is about to start the escape procedure. "

"Here is the engineering team. All equipment is running normally. We are closing the gate. The engineering team has started the transmission device. We are about to break away from the deep submersible ship. Now release the barge lock...the release is successful and we are back."

There are many large-scale holographic projection devices on the observation platform, showing the current situation of the deep submersible ship-barge combination from various angles and distances. The traction field between the two suddenly flickered, and then the barge slowly rose, and the deep The submarine began to fall toward the gate of the abyss under the gravity of the red giant star. At the same time, a mixed blue-green light suddenly began to float on the surface of this unattractive rectangular starship. This was the unique shield system of the deep submersible ship. It imitates the basic structure of the world barrier, so it is extremely resistant to the abyss environment. Coupled with its own special ability to refresh every fifteen minutes, it can ensure that the spacecraft spends the first period of time in the abyss safely. When the deep-diving ship descended halfway, a halo like a halo floated on the flat "mango" cross-section, which quickly stopped the starship from falling rapidly and began to slowly approach the abyss. Door, that's when its engine started - a very strange model, but almost all the equipment of this spacecraft are tailor-made, so it doesn't seem to be too strange.

"This scene reminds me of that time... it was so bad."

Sandora said softly, and I followed her eyes. It turned out that she was looking at the picture from the perspective of the deep submersible: the gate of the abyss occupied 90% of the area on the screen, and the dark hole looked like Like a giant mouth that swallows up all things, there is a circle of blue obelisks emitting strong light around the door of the abyss. This is what is necessary to maintain the stability of the door and suppress its activity: the matrix psionic energy square. Obelisk. This scene really makes people feel a little scared, especially after you understand what the gate of the abyss that has almost spread into a black land means, it becomes even more frightening.

Sandora's feeling would be even worse: she had actually jumped in there by herself, and that was definitely not a good memory.

I gently brushed Shandora's hair, feeling that she was also trying to regain her calm: "Don't worry, it's all over."

At this time, Qianqian suddenly said from the side: "The contact has begun!"

Everyone's attention was drawn to another picture, which was a picture returned by a probe that closely followed the movement of the deep-diving ship. On the picture, the silver-gray hull of the deep-diving ship had touched the gate of the abyss. On the surface, the contact actually started earlier than this: the shield of the deep-diving ship collided with the abyss first, and then the hull. On the screen, the place where the two meet is no longer calm. The bow of the deep-sea submersible is floating with layers of colorful colors. This is a sign that the shield is rapidly strengthening in a small area. On the Gate of the Abyss, which is in contact with the deep-diving ship, there are dark ripples, which are very inconspicuous. We can only see these ripples after the observation equipment automatically adds some auxiliary lines. It is like a pool of originally calm water. Thick black ink, when something slowly penetrates, the surface finally loses its calm disguise.

The contact surface is like a dividing line, with sharp contrasts on both sides: the colorful colors from the physical world, and the dark monotony of the other world. However, everything is as planned, and so far, various sensors indicate that nearby information fluctuations are within safe limits.

The staff's report came from the console: "The stability of the Gate of the Abyss has declined and shifted 20% to the fourth vertical line. It is currently temporarily balanced at the new position. The output of the Nether Energy Obelisk is normal. We may Additional backup obelisks need to be activated to strengthen the defense line."

"Then go ahead and execute it," Sandora took a deep breath and calmed down completely. "I'm allowed to invest all the resources you need. I don't want anything to go wrong in this experiment. Tavel, we can still contact the deep-diving ship. ?"

Tavel's body is on standby next to us, but several of her mass projections are personally involved in tracking the end of the deep-diving ship, so she reported to herself and then to us: "Communications have been seriously interfered with. , the data packet cannot be transmitted, but the blur is still being transmitted. We use the equipment to simulate some scenes, maybe you are interested."

As he spoke, Tavel switched off the holographic projections on the observation platform that had mostly turned into clutter, and the picture shifted from the material world to the perspective of the deep-diving ship.

"As you can see, this is the abyss." (To be continued)