Early the next morning, Yu Sheng received a ssage from Baili Qing—her "interrogation" over there had results.
Though he didn’t know how the bureau director did it, it was clear she had so unique techniques in restoring people’s mories.
After cooking for Hu Li, Yu Sheng casually tucked an Erin under his arm, opened the door, and headed to the Special Service Bureau. He then followed Baili Qing around until they reached a place specially used for detaining dangerous prisoners—the "Black Spot Soldier" was no longer in the dical area and had been transferred to a solitary cell.
Inside the cell, separated by a force field shield, the "Algredian Elf" in an orange prison uniform was sitting on a chair without any visible injuries, but his ntal state seed quite poor. Upon seeing Baili Qing entering the cell, he visibly shuddered—this sense of fear seed far more genuine than when he lay in the hospital bed yesterday. He then showed a cooperative attitude.
"Repeat those things you told before," Baili Qing sat across from the prisoner, her expression as calm as ever. "Start with the ’research project’ in that laboratory, like the origin of that ’stone.’
The Black Spot Soldier sighed lightly; the struggle in his eyes lasted only a second. Then he glanced at Yu Sheng and Erin sitting nearby before slowly opening his mouth: "...That thing is called the ’Zolda Black Stone.’ People in the lab usually just call it the ’Black Stone.’ It’s nad this because it first appeared in the Great Triangle Star Zone on a ruined planet called ’Zolda.’
"The local scavengers said the stone fell out of ’a black crack,’ but the exact ti of appearance is unknown... For a long period, that ’Black Stone’ was a ’sacred object’ to the local superstitious scavenger tribes. The barbarian leaders regarded the Black Stone as a symbol of divine revelation and chosen destiny. They consud large quantities of hallucinogenic herbs and prayed to the Black Stone all day, supposedly to gain the power of prophecy.
"There were also local legends that the Black Stone could lead people to the ’Star Realm’ without hunger and disease. So even claid to have witnessed it opening a rift under everyone’s eyes, and on the other side of the rift was the ’Star Realm Paradise’ filled with endless food, from which brave warriors crossed the rift and returned with heaps of goods...
"Anyway, these were all chaotic legends with varying degrees of truth, and these stories eventually caught the attention of so local barbarian warlords. Subsequently, the upheaval among warlords caught the attention of the company’s local business staff—eventually, the ’Zolda Black Stone’ was sent to our laboratory."
As the Black Spot Soldier spoke to this point, he suddenly paused with so hesitation, as if the series of "background information" had stuck his mind a bit. After a few seconds, the confusion and absent-mindedness in his eyes slowly faded, and he continued as if nothing had happened: "I’m just a guard, not familiar with the technical aspects, but it’s said that scholars discovered incredible power within the ’Black Stone,’ along with ’information echoes’ contained inside it.
"I don’t know the specific contents, as I’ve only heard bits and pieces from the researchers’ chats. They seem to believe... The Zolda Black Stone is just a fragnt that fell off a large device."
"A large device?" Yu Sheng felt a sudden impulse in his heart, his spiritual intuition buzzing. "What large device?"
The Black Spot Soldier frowned, hesitantly speaking, "Sothing used for world traversal, so kind of... bridge? That’s how the tech experts described it."
Yu Sheng took a light breath, simultaneously feeling Erin on his shoulder poking his head.
"Sounds like a ’World Bridge’!" the little puppet leaned in, whispering in his ear.
"Chances are," Yu Sheng imdiately nodded, controlling his facial expression while speaking softly.
So the Black Spot Laboratory was researching a fragnt of the "World Bridge"!
At this mont, many things suddenly made sense to him, and so doubts were instantly answered—so, the fissure that appeared in the Dark Alley at the ti was actually opened by that Black Stone? The Black Stone contained a part of the "World Bridge’s" power, hence able to puncture through the structure of space-ti? And the Black Dot Group targeting the On Goddess’s knowledge and activating an infiltrator to find the secrets of the Broken Tower (World Bridge)... was also because they unlocked part of the Black Stone’s secrets?
So... what exactly does the Black Dot Group want to do?
Do they want to rebuild a "World Bridge"? To master this kind of technology? To find the On Goddess?
Yu Sheng’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter. He knew the World Bridge had the power to penetrate worlds. After all, its original function was to "introduce" the Dark Angel into the observable universe, but this world-penetrating power was essentially amplifying the Dark Angel’s "penetrating" trait. Given the collapse of the World Bridge, this technology was evidently unstable...
At this thought, his expression turned a bit subtle—not to ntion, the original World Bridge had already collapsed, and yet those Black Dot scientists dared to use a fragnt and a bunch of possibly incompatible knowledge to patch together a knockoff version?!
Yu Sheng suddenly understood all that Baili Qing had told him about the Black Dot Group’s situation earlier and why such a "technology company" could mix it up at the sa table as two groups of cultists... They’re really not afraid of blowing sothing up big ti!
"You’re not planning to restore that ’large device,’ are you?" Even Erin picked up on this point, looking directly at the Black Spot Soldier on the other side of the shield.
"I don’t know—I said I’m just a guard," the Black Spot Soldier shook his head but then changed his tune, "but if it’s feasible... why not?"
Yu Sheng was stunned on the spot: "Damn... you guys haven’t even figured out what that thing actually does or how it works, and you’ve just launched the project like this? How long have you been at it?"
"According to Terran Standard Ti, about seven years," the Black Spot Soldier replied honestly, not forgetting to add a few words at the end, "Actually, I also feel that this project is sowhat unsafe... Most people in the laboratory know its risks—although many people outside say we’re extre, we do understand the concept of ’risk managent’."
Yu Sheng stared with wide eyes: "Uh, so..."
"So we buried a nuclear bomb under the laboratory," the Black Spot Soldier said with a face full of self-evidence, "We’ve made sufficient safety preparations."
Yu Sheng: "!?"
Erin: "Holy crap!"
The prisoner on the other side of the Barrier sighed: "I don’t understand why you backward savages are always so shocked by our safety asures..."
This exclamation was evidently heartfelt, stemming from a worldview and prejudice ingrained in the bone, making it exceptionally fluent when he said it in front of Baili Qing—Yu Sheng couldn’t help but scrutinize the Black Spot Soldier’s face closely, but all he saw was calmness and self-righteousness. In those eyes, filled with pale golden starlight, there was no fanaticism, no blindness, only a serene... rationality.
And the Black Spot Soldier continued his endless chatter: "From a probabilistic perspective and considering the uniqueness of the project itself, once an experint involving a ti-space rift gets out of control, there’s no chance of escape; fleeing might even further exacerbate the damage caused by the loss of control—because any form of faster-than-light engine would further tear the rift opened by the ’Black Stone’, so interrupting the entire laboratory’s operation within the millisecond the nuclear bomb detonates is the most effective way to control the risk—it’s a simple mathematical problem.
"And we’re not going to detonate the nuclear bomb at the slightest sign of trouble; we also have other safety asures..."
Yu Sheng blinked: "For example?"
"For example, eliminate any operator contaminated by the Black Stone at the first opportunity..."
Yu Sheng quickly waved his hand: "Alright, I get it, you don’t need to say anymore."
The Black Spot Soldier on the other side sighed again.
Even though he didn’t say anything, he almost wrote "It’s really difficult communicating with you backward savages" on his face.
Even after Baili Qing personally perford a "mory Recovery", this Algredian still maintained an unbreakable arrogance deep down.
"So, when did you guys set your sights on the Boundary Land?" Baili Qing asked from the side, "When did you convert that infiltrator nad ’Sun Chen’?"
"I don’t know," the Black Spot Soldier shook his head frankly, "That’s beyond the scope of my duties. I only know that in the early stages of the project, technical experts extracted information about a Broken Tower from the ’Black Stone’, but the information was very vague, and the process of reading it cost several Spiritual Ability Users—how they later managed to pinpoint ’Boundary Land’ as the target from that little bits of vague information is not sothing I could inquire into.
"And as for the so-called infiltrator nad ’Sun Chen’, I’ve never heard of it either; that’s the concern of other departnts."
"One more question," Baili Qing asked again, "How much do you know about the next step in the ’experintal plan’?"
"I don’t know," the Black Spot Soldier shook his head once more, but under Baili Qing’s gaze, he soon showed a thoughtful expression, and after a mont hesitantly spoke, "...Well, I only know that the experint to open the rift is conducted daily, but not every ti is successful. In fact, ’Black Stone’ would often not respond to any of our input commands in most past instances, only occasionally would it open so unstable channels under the stimulus of specific energy sources; it’s only recently that there’s been so change."
Yu Sheng frowned: "Change?"
"It’s just in the past few months, the activity of ’Black Stone’ suddenly started to increase and also began to actively respond to the energy and activation instructions we input, the channels opened have also beco more stable, even functional to so extent, as if... it suddenly ca alive."
After saying this, the Black Spot Soldier sighed lightly and spread his hands: "That’s all I know."
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