Chapter 1014: Chapter 1014: A Text ssage That Destroyed a Nation
Although it’s referred to as a letter, there is actually more to it. The database contains a whole array of rather chaotic data, with the rough index showing it includes scientific projects, voyage logs, video materials, and ssages among many other pieces of information. All this data is sealed within an encrypted archive, signed by Harlan Cruea Levallet.
We looked at each other with bewildernt. Sotis, when faced with such dramatic matters, even though we are accustod to them, it’s impossible to think of what expression to adopt in response. The na that shares the sa classical noble aura as Sandora Kervy Yurasis has frequently appeared in the Command Center’s docunts recently, mostly related to military analysis of the Fallen Apostle’s force; Harlan Cruea Levallet refers to the Fallen Emperor who has fiercely fought against the Imperial Army multiple tis recently, causing us significant casualties, Lord Harlan.
The Green Star was astonishingly rescued by him tens of thousands of years ago, and it was his general, Zhadom, who sent the Green Star on a fugitive journey at the last critical mont. History takes a sudden twist, reconnecting the two in a different direction: Zhadom, the forr Imperial General who personally guarded the Green Star, allowing the Tree Elves to escape alive, now cos to destroy this planet.
I wonder what feelings those two have now. Even though their frenzied minds are under control, do they still feel any sorrow?
“Is there a problem with the data?”
The Great Clan Leader, seeing our strange expressions while looking at each other, couldn’t help but grow worried. Her greatest concern was whether these precious materials had been damaged: the Tree Elves spent tens of thousands of years escorting this legacy from the Old Empire’s territory to the New Empire’s domain. If the data indeed has issues, it would be a huge blow to them.
“No, the data isn’t faulty. We were thinking about sothing else.”
Sandora replied calmly, softly shaking her head at : for now, don’t tell them. The Tree Elves are not yet prepared to bear such a blow, a point I gathered from Sandora’s expression.
“The scientific projects only have a catalog, without substantial content like results. It’s not technological data,” Sandora started reading the data according to the directory order, holding off on examining Harlan’s letter till last so as to study it without distraction, “it may be intending to show us the final scene before the Old Empire’s X program thoroughly collapsed. The voyage logs are for the Green Star, with part of it being an original route list, indicating that this planet has strayed far from its trajectory. The videos… we’ll discuss these later. Lastly, there are the ssages.”
Sandora connected Harlan’s ssage to the holographic projection. The poorly functioning holographic device shook a couple of tis before the image stabilized. A tall, robust, middle-aged man draped in an imposing Imperial military uniform with lush brown hair appeared in the image. He gazed forward, leaning on an Empire Commander’s Sword engulfed in floating ghost energy flas. This outfit is familiar to several of us—it is the complete attire worn by the Imperial Leader in official occasions.
“No matter who you are, obtaining and being able to read this information, I greet you and hope you can permanently preserve this data until it can be of use,” the middle-aged man spoke calmly, “I am Harlan Cruea Levallet, Leader of the Xyrin Empire, hoping that those who acquire this data rember this illustrious and glorious na.
You successfully obtained the information intact, indicating that these exiled managed to eventually escape the destruction zone, and their identification devices confird you possess the qualification to interact with ghost energy, or are related to the Empire’s inheritance. Personally, I hope it’s the latter.
Being able to interact with the exiled and being recognized by the Exile Starship system suggests your civilization is already at a sufficient level, yet you might still be incapable of understanding what I am going to say next; this is irrelevant, as this is simply a ssage.
The Xyrin Empire faces an extinction crisis, a crisis triggered by ourselves. Its root and direct cause lies in the erroneous direction of Void research and the uncontrollable eruption of the Abyss. I wish to advise simply: regardless of whether you have co into contact with these concepts or not, always rember one thing—restraint, under any circumstances, never assu you truly grasp everything, the Void is far more uncontrollable than you can imagine.
If you have encountered the Abyss—I do not know how you refer to this, perhaps as a plague, disaster, or other thing, but the following phenona can basically confirm them: the Main Material Plane it presents takes the form of an unfathomable two-dinsional plane, this layer adheres to everything, including a star’s surface, after which these things spread rapidly. Initial Abyss infection leads to emotional agitation for the contacts, abnormal equipnt operation, frequent accidents, latter-stage Abyss infections disrupt physical constants, resulting in exponentially scaled disasters, until the space itself collapses, marking a rapid and irreversible process. If you’ve encountered these and narrowly escaped, I can now inform you of its na: Abyss.
Please docunt the following, and preserve until you’ve contacted a civilization capable of understanding this content—before comncing those maddening research plans, we received an abnormal signal from the Abyss Bottom, yes, we ventured into the Abyss Gate; it was a regular scientific fleet mission studying Abyss phenona. The scientists deployed a new type of unmanned deep-diving ship, which advanced to a position never reached within the Abyss Gate. Upon the deep-diving ship’s destruction by Abyss, the recorded devices succeeded in returning to the Main Material Plane, exhibiting regular, aningfully significant signals.
These signals were not transmitted into Abyss from any Main Material Plane pathway, we ultimately confird, they originated from the Abyss Bottom. Irrespective of what exists there, it attempts to establish contact with the Main Material Plane.
The signals are perplexing and unsettling. The Abyss has never demonstrated such a nature, even those Abyss Creatures with thinking abilities never exhibit similar logical or rational behaviors, it challenges our long-standing fundantal worldview, leading the Empire to launch nurous advanced research initiatives. We ascertain one thing: discovering what truly exists at the Abyss Bottom requires exploration; we’ve fabricated primitive deep-diving ships and various probes, hoping to communicate again with voices from the Abyss Bottom, but progress was slow. Eventually, we decided to rely on Void power…”
This follows a familiar history to us, by that period the Empire had already launched the X program, beginning large-scale research into Void knowledge, and information unintentionally garnered from the Abyss Bottom significantly stimulated the X program. The event Harlan ntioned, while not the X program’s cause, served as its catalyst towards losing control. “Abyss,” held unprecedented significance to the Empire; one could assert that eighty percent of the Xyrin Empire’s existence focused on warfare against Abyss. Therefore, upon glimpsing the chance to unravel the ultimate enemy’s secrets, they imdiately grew exhilarated. Originally paused due to excessive risk, all projects within the X program were resud, mobilized by the hatred and battle spirit of Xyrin Apostle, their awakened actions were astounding. During this sa period, Chief Scientist Ocam, utilizing forbidden X program technology, fabricated the first, and last, deep-diving starship. This starship, modeled after a primitive deep-diving ship, took centuries to research and construct, representing the Old Empire’s largest-scale deep-diving equipnt, it temporarily neared a scientist-calculated ‘Critical Point,’ a point believed to allow direct communication with the Abyss Bottom. Although the deep-diving starship ultimately couldn’t surpass the Critical Point, it managed to send a communication from its deepest location: at the pinnacle of the Old Empire’s technology peak. This communication in normal circumstances would’ve broadcast to thousands or even tens of thousands of worlds, however, within the Abyss depths, no one knows how far these signals might reach.
For an extended period afterwards, Old Empire scientists vigilantly awaited at every Abyss Gate, hoping for feedback from the Abyss Bottom and to contact that mystic signal source. During this ti, Old Empire achieved countless seemingly glorious technological accomplishnts, only to shelve them upon realizing their impracticality. They fabricated the Red Moon Cube and constructed a ghost energy starship to preserve the cube, attempted to control Void’s evolution, envisioning using it akin to ghost energy. In an inexplicable encounter, they even sustained damage and lost the deep-diving ship—Visca bears responsibility for this, but it’s irretrievable now since disaster struck soon afterwards.
Harlan ensured this ‘letter’ not only contained his audiovisual ssage, but also a series of video clips and diverse graphical tables, seemingly trying his utmost to compress everything about the Empire within these brief ten minutes. When the final video ended, his image reappeared before us: “Ti is running out, I hope the civilization receiving this data can preserve it properly, and disseminate it as far as possible, preferably towards the Divine Race’s realm—if you’ve acquired the capability to converse with them. Currently, all of our networks and external interfaces are profoundly polluted by Abyss, the Empire’s territory already forms a highly poisonous destruction zone, any external communication under these circumstances might spur Abyss’s spread, even risking the Gods. The sole hope lies with these uninfected frontier planets, they must set forth now. This data has thousands of backups, I hope at least a thousandth of them can escape disaster.
Harlan Cruea Levallet, ends.”
The ssage concluded, leaving behind only chaotic blue and white lines on the holographic projection.
Sandora remained silent for a mont, then turned to ask Taville’s mass projection, “Taville, have all these data been downloaded?”
“Save complete. There’s actually not much data,” Taville replied quietly. “This is just a ssage.”
“Compared to a heap of technological data, I think this ssage is more valuable. How are the Tree Elves doing?”
“So have awakened, but their mories are stuck thousands to tens of thousands of years ago—depending on when they fell asleep. Now these newly awakened elves are quite uneasy. The commotion is quite evident; they really don’t seem like the vassal races of the Old Empire. We are gathering the awakened Tree Elves and plan to send them to the Mother Star first. Lord Gaia has activated two ecological dos, which should help them recover faster. After that, it will probably take ti for them to understand the current situation.”
“Sis, go help them,” I nudged Big Sister. “Those Imperial Soldiers aren’t really cut out for this.”
Big Sister agreed, and before leaving, she patted my head indulgently, making one feel helpless. Qianqian lay down beside , rested her head on my arm, looked around with her large eyes, then at , and only after a while did she speak: “Ah Jun, I’m not feeling well.”
“This basically clarifies the tiline,” Sandora turned off the projection equipnt, leaned back in her chair, and looked up at the sky, “This is a new discovery, sothing we absolutely didn’t foresee… Before the Deep-diving ship appeared, soone received an active communication request from inside, which then triggered the chaotic era of the Empire’s X Plan. The Abyss… what on earth is it?”
I rubbed my temple, linking events chronologically and finally forming a clear line: During the peak of the Empire, the Xyrin Apostle initiated the X Plan to research the Void. Initially, although this plan was bold, it was still controllable. The scientists maintained the necessary rationality. Otherwise, later on, a new probe conducting routine exploration on the Abyss Gate returned, bringing back ssages from the Abyss Bottom. Following that, this discovery accelerated the progression of the X Plan, and all projects began veering towards extremity. Black technology was allowed, the Red Moon Cube was constructed, and then Ocam built the Deep-diving ship to establish contact with the signal source at the Abyss Bottom. Similar experints during this period were certainly nurous. Subsequently, Ocam’s scientific army encountered an attack from Visca’s rebel forces, the Deep-diving ship was destroyed, and it seed that after that, the Empire could no longer produce a second Deep-diving ship. Then, the great catastrophe befell.”
The Empire lay dormant for many thousands of years until on one day in the 1990s, a snot-nosed child heard a voice at the alleyway corner, and the wheels of fate continued to spin—and without hesitation, fell into a ditch.
More than a decade later, the New Empire was established.
“I suddenly thought of sothing—more than a decade ago, I once encountered an Abyss, um, an Abyss-like phenonon,” I slowly tapped my temple, recalling the childhood mories in the Travel Wall within the Life Temple, “At that ti, I heard a voice. We always thought it was a ssage sent by Ocam’s Deep-diving ship that had been echoing in the Abyss for many millennia, suddenly erging from so fissure on Earth’s Abyss. Now I feel there’s a point of suspicion.”
Sandora nodded, having realized so facts: “Based on your recollection and the log we’ve obtained from the Deep-diving ship, actually, those two phrases are not quite the sa. What you heard is another version.”
“So that wasn’t the voice of the Deep-diving ship, but sothing from the Abyss Bottom responding after receiving the Deep-diving ship’s communication: it was answering us.”
“Sadly, it was several millennia too late,” Lin Xue said with a tone that was sowhat emotional.
“Now it’s their turn to wait for a response,” Sandora suddenly showed a strange smile, “Just what is at the Abyss Bottom—we initially thought it rely received the broadcast from the Deep-diving ship, amplified, and then fed it back. But now the situation is almost the opposite; they sent the information first, and the Empire was the responder.”
“Uh, did anyone think of another thing?” Qianqian, who had been daydreaming for a few minutes, suddenly snapped back to reality. Her incredibly fascinating little head seed to have conceived sothing remarkable, “The X Plan appeared normally even before the Old Empire first received the information from the Abyss. It was only after the probe brought back that ssage that everything got out of control. I think, perhaps at that ti, the X Plan was already affected by the Abyss… Utilizing that ssage, the Abyss hid within it, and from then on, it lurked, gradually influencing the X Plan and those scientists. In the last experint, the Void directly degraded into a super Abyss. Perhaps a seed hidden within that ssage finally sprouted and erged.”
When Qianqian said this, I wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but her tone seed so eerie.
She actually made a point that’s credible, which is that the Abyss might indeed conceal itself within a ssage, be preserved in the probe’s database, and then contaminate the scientists from the Empire when they accessed this database, as it can contaminate all known things. Under the Void, no one can be completely immune to the Abyss.
“This is impossible,” Sandora shook her head, “Do you have any idea how many security barriers there would be in the Empire’s heartland? If it were truly hidden within that ssage, it should have been eradicated the mont the probe’s data core was salvaged. Moreover, it would need to remain hidden within the ntal network of so many scientists for a long ti, which would be even more impossible.”
“But it was sent from the deepest part of the Abyss,” Qianqian reminded, “No one has ever been near it. Who’s to say what kind of cunning the Abyss over there might possess, disguising itself as a Peace Ambassador or sothing?”
We suddenly all felt a shiver run down our spines. This Qianqian girl, usually her mind races non-stop down tangential paths on broad avenues, but the rare tis she contemplates real issues, she astonishingly hits the nail on the head. If her guess is right, then was the Empire back then destroyed by a single ssage?
“Uh, Your Majesty, I fear I have so urgent matters to report now,” Taville’s mass projection interjected suddenly. Her main body was dealing with the database far away, and this mass projection stayed here to report the situation to us, “We have just found a piece of information from the database. It’s the information they received from the Abyss Bottom back then, and… it’s the original version.”
Instantly, the surrounding atmosphere beca even more unsettling.
“Hey,” Qianqian weakly raised her hand, “Now it’s in our hands.” (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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