"What do you think will happen if I hit it with a brick?"
Looking at the colorful sphere floating leisurely in the cloud of dusty mist, completely ignoring everyone present, Bingdisi pulled out her golden Bible from her Personal Space, swung it around by its chain, and said.
"Stop fooling around, be serious." I sternly stopped Sister Bing from engaging in this reckless behavior akin to welding detonators and sawing lightbulbs, then focused my gaze on the sphere. We had just arrived and hadn’t officially interacted with the sphere yet, but we already saw the busy figures of the work ship and Divine Servant soldiers, who were diligently removing Autonomous Machines and so quirky items from the site because they had been proven useless—except for verifying the hardness of the target’s shell and the weakness of our scanning equipnt.
It has been confird that physical contact would trigger so kind of stress reaction in this giant sphere with a diater of one kiloter, but wouldn’t cause explosions or other dangers: it seems the sphere has no counterattack abilities. So after removing everything, Bingdisi and I confidently approached the sphere. Bingdisi even knocked on the sphere with her hand.
In a Void, there’s naturally no sound, but we could see colorful halos emanating from where Bingdisi’s finger touched the sphere’s surface, gradually fading within half a ter. I observed closely and found the sphere’s material indeed resembles crystal or uneven glass, and those colorful floating fragnts were actually moving beneath this layer of ’glass’ surface. It felt kind of like a hollow glass ball filled with incompatible oil paints.
"Well, it’s quite hard, knocks like a diamond," Bingdisi said while casually pulling out a small knife, cutting forcefully at the sphere’s surface, and soon slicing off a thin layer of crystal sample. I didn’t stop her haphazard actions because the assistant technicians of the previous work group had already tested this sphere with a half-ton tal block smashing into it at a hundred tis the speed of sound, and other strange ’physical damaging contact tests’, which caused damage far more serious than Bingdisi’s carving here.
"Look, semi-transparent!" Bingdisi held up the slice, observing it against the faintly glowing cloud core in the distance, "It seems to carry a bit of color, but soon after slicing, the color fades away, as if losing its activity... Could the shell of this thing be alive?"
My attention wasn’t on the slice, but on the cut just made on the sphere shell nearby, which had completely healed within a few seconds as previously reported by the workgroup.
This mysterious sphere can quickly repair itself.
"Previously the staff used Ghost Energy to damage one-tenth of the sphere’s shell, which was quite a large chunk, but it healed in three to four seconds too," I ntioned, drawing Bingdisi’s attention, "The cut you just made also took the sa ti to heal."
"No matter the size of damage, it always heals in fixed ti?" Bingdisi showed a keen expression, then suddenly stepped back, forming a strong Holy Light on her fist, and landed a Direct Punch on the shell: Seeing this scene made involuntarily shiver; when sparring with her in Wang Ba Fist, this gal didn’t spare using this trick!
The High Order Goddess’s punch, containing powerful Holy Light Energy and astounding kinetic energy, resulted in a burst comparable to a warship’s kinetic warhead. The colorful sphere shell exploded, sending an overwhelming wave of fragnts and dust flying. Before my sight was completely blocked by the dust, I saw the web-like crack patterns spreading before , my mind flickering with a thought: "Why did I bring this fool with ?!"
"Ah-ha, indeed, we failed to penetrate the enemy’s armor—this thing grows stronger as you go deeper!" Bingdisi casually created a whirlwind to disperse the dust and fragnts in front of us. What appeared was a shallow and wide impact crater extending over a hundred ters but only a few ters deep. Bingdisi’s powerful punch didn’t penetrate the strange shell at all, it looked more like she had peeled the skin off an apple.
"The workgroup already tried this before," I grabbed Bingdisi to stop her from any further foolish actions, "Only the outer layers of the shell are easier to damage; it grows tougher inward. According to Taville’s calculations, to completely pierce this sphere, we’ll probably need the Galaxy Main Gun, and if the inner layers feature even higher-tier defenses, we might even need a Conqueror to settle things. Don’t waste your energy."
During our conversation, the huge gash over a hundred ters in length rapidly healed and was soon entirely restored to its original state, just as previously observed, using technology even the Empire hasn’t encountered.
"If it’s man-made, could the creator’s technological prowess surpass the Empire?" I attempted to gauge its technological level through my analytical skills, "Our scanning equipnt can’t even breach its three-ter depth, Taville’s top technicians are stumped. Now it appears that apart from the seemingly fragile surface material, its core has substantial defenses... Damn, suddenly, why do I feel this overpowering pressure?"
While I pondered this analysis, a voice ca through the Spiritual Connection from Sandora: "Ah Jun, perhaps not."
"Huh? Did you find sothing else?"
"Not , it’s Yelsen who discovered sothing," Sandora explained, "We now think this thing might have ties to the Abyss... Specifically, it’s related to the Abyss Gate."
As Sandora’s words ended, Bingdisi and I simultaneously were taken aback. The latter looked pitifully at her right hand—since she had punched the mysterious sphere with it: "Damn, does it an I have to cut off my hand now? No way... Chen, let’s spar again, I might be infected..."
Once again, I deeply questioned why I agreed to bring this fool along!
"Sandora, explain a bit more, Bingdisi is about to cut off her hand." I cald down quickly from the initial shock because I knew Sandora would have more to say. After all, I didn’t sense any Abyss aura from the large sphere before , which mostly helped regain my composure.
"Oh, just wait till she’s done, then I’ll continue."
Bingdisi: "...Are you still hoping for supplies from your house?"
Can you stop ntioning supplies already? Sandora had emphasized that ’claid supplies’ line till now!
"Okay, this is the situation: Just now, 123 rechecked his world managent system, this ti also retrieving the previously unchecked backend logs, and found a log marked ’false alarm’," Sandora paused her banter with Bingdisi and got back to the point, "The log indicated that shortly before the Fifth Fleet returned, the world managent system detected an Abyss Gate opening, but the alert only lasted a mont. The system scanned the alert zone afterward but never found anything Abyss-related. Finally, the system classified the incident as a false alarm and automatically logged it in the backend. Due to the extrely short duration of the entire process, there were no traces left in the system’s frontend, hence Yelsen didn’t notice it during the first log check."
"Then, was the alert zone located... here?"
"Bingo! Unfortunately, no prize," this ti Lin Xue’s voice chid in, "Clearly, the massive sphere before you likely ties to the Abyss, so routine asurents will indeed be ineffective, yet the sphere itself shows no Abyss reaction, which is evident. Alright, that’s the situation from our end; you can proceed now."
Bingdisi and I stared at each other; after a while, the latter contemplatively looked at her right hand: "So I don’t need to cut my hand off for now. But I absolutely won’t touch this thing anymore! Oh right, Chen, you said this thing ca looking for you? Why don’t you chat with it? Call out to it and see if it responds."
"Chatting, I can’t believe you thought of that," I was both amused and helpless as I shrugged, placing a hand on the sphere shell beside , "How can I chat with a sphere? The only talking sphere I know in my lifeti was Bieberu, maybe bring him over to see if this thing is his long-lost uncle?"
"Hibernation ended, signal source detected, verifying user identity..."
"Bingdisi, what did you just say?" I curiously watched Sister Bing circling in place; she was taken aback: "Uh?"
"Sothing about hibernation ending," I scratched the back of my head, "Wasn’t it you speaking just now?"
Bingdisi shrugged nonchalantly: "Probably the sphere talking."
Though Bingdisi likely just said this offhandedly, it struck : This might actually be true! With this sudden thought, I imdiately looked at the faintly curved sphere shell beside , which appeared unchanged from before. Beneath its surface, within a few centiters, the colorful hues weaved slowly. I tried placing my hand in the sa spot, yet this ti, no strange voices echoed in my mind.
"Hey, could it really be that this ball just said sothing?" Bingdisi looked at my actions oddly, and I waved my hand at her, "Don’t talk, I’m concentrating here."
Though I said I was concentrating, I had no idea what to do. The voice in my head ca suddenly, and I couldn’t control it. I didn’t know which of my previous actions suddenly triggered the reaction from this sphere, so I couldn’t repeat the action. I could only place my hand where it was before and clench my head with a bulging vein, as if trying to squeeze sothing out of my brain.
"Judging by your expression, it looks like you’re in labor," Bingdisi, whose only function was to make sarcastic comnts, stood to the side, especially since she decided to never touch this unknown sphere that might be related to the Abyss again. "What were you thinking about when you heard the voice just now? Maybe that’s the key."
Okay, so this female hooligan could say sothing aningful besides sarcastic comnts: she thought maybe sothing I was thinking about earlier could resonate with this sphere. It sounded mysterious but not impossible, after all, the ambiguous connection between the sphere and was already a mysterious affair, wasn’t it?
"What was I thinking just now?" I searched through my recent mories, "Bieberu?"
No response.
"Bieberu’s second uncle?"
Of course, still no response.
"Bieberu is a talking ball?"
This ti, Bingdisi reacted: "Can you stop ntioning that ball that gets freaked out even watching a soccer ga?"
"Alright, I was just thinking about how to chat with this ball when..."
"Signal source detected again, verifying user identity, please do not interrupt the connection." A sudden voice appeared in my head again: gender-neutral, electronically synthesized, like the stereotypical robotic accent from an old sci-fi movie.
: "Did you hear that? This ball spoke again, it told not to let go."
Bingdisi couldn’t hear this voice, so she blinked in confusion then nodded understandingly: "Seems like the keyword is chat? Could this thing be so sort of walkie-talkie?"
"User identity verification complete, confird at the recipient’s location, delivery report returning...error, return failed, unable to contact initial station. Executing second protocol: direct removal of the protective layer. Recipients, please beware of flying debris..."
If I still didn’t understand what was happening at this point, my brain might as well be sent back for repairs. So I grabbed Bingdisi’s arm and ran, but I was still a step too slow. The crystal-like sphere shell near us was already covered in cracks that spread and grew rapidly at an astonishing speed. Blinding light burst from all the cracks in an instant, and the next second all I could see were countless crystal fragnts and Bingdisi’s surprised eyes.
My instinctive reaction was to fling the rogue goddess behind — no matter who it was, I guessed I’d do the sa. But in the next mont, a wide black wing spread in front of my eyes: Sister Bing opened her wings, covering both her and . Her defiant voice echoed in my head: "Ha, making this lady hide behind a man? That would be a hundred million years too early!"
As her words fell, the explosion of crystal fragnts around us had already finished its strongest initial impact, leaving only tiny fragnts flying rapidly into the distance. Bingdisi swiftly retracted her wings and began hopping around: "Whoa whoa whoa! My delicate and cute wings! They’re full of glass shards...I’m allergic to dust!"
It seed that the explosion wasn’t as severe as expected, judging from Bingdisi’s lively state.
Once the debris and dust swirling around us settled a bit, I noticed sothing black with red glowing spots in the distance, and I curiously moved closer: "So this is its true form?"
It was a spindle-shaped object about five or six ters long, with its material indeterminate but feeling not too hard, like sothing between plastic and tal. Its surface was pure black and very smooth, with circular cracks at both ends emitting a consistent red glow. I tried pushing the "spindle," and it imdiately floated forward: unlike the big sphere, this spindle was portable.
"Phew...seems it’s cleaned off," Bingdisi said as she shook her wings and floated over like a soaked chicken trying to dry itself. "You’re sothing, claiming a main cannon might not penetrate that sphere, and you just make it disappear with a pat...ah, what’s this? Is this what’s left after the sphere exploded?"
"Probably," I said, tapping the spindle-shaped object’s surface, feeling like the mystery I’d faced was rely reduced from a diater of a thousand ters to a long axis of five and a half ters. I knew no more than before, especially since I no longer heard any system verification or user authentication ssages from the ball after it exploded. "Let’s take this back..."
"Ah Jun, how are things on your side?" Sandora’s voice coincidentally sounded in my head now, "We detected an explosion just now."
"The ball’s gone, but I found a spindle. The good news is it can be taken back, the bad...is that the ball’s gone."
"A spindle?" Sandora was bewildered by my vague words, but she still said, "Anyway, as long as you’re okay, let’s not talk about the ball for now, just bring back what you’ve found."
"Don’t count on touching this thing." Bingdisi had already flashed several ters away before I could open my mouth, making roll my eyes: "How many tis have you fought the Abyss, is this necessary?"
"Nonsense, fighting the Abyss is a job requirent, but keeping a distaste for the Abyss is a personal preference. With you here, why should a weak girl touch this thing, right?"
I took a silent look at Bingdisi, whose physique aside from her chest and face, was hardly relatable to a typical female, feeling like I might never see the term "weak girl" the sa way again.
In the end, I reluctantly dragged the unknown spindle back to the scientific research ship, not daring to put it in my personal space. After all, no matter how you slice it, this thing was associated with the Abyss—who knew if a single touch might bring contamination?
Back on the scientific research ship, we took the unknown object directly to the sample analysis center where Sandora and a group of experts and scholars were waiting. Bingdisi brazenly strode forward, waving at Sandora as she pointed at : "Here’s your dry ration."
Then she pointed at the black unknown object floating behind : "And here’s the dry ration your family picked up along the way."
: "..."
Is this person really so obsessed with dry rations?! (To be continued. If you like this work, please co to Qidian to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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