After the body scan ended, Xyrin was transferred to a larger observation room next door. Because her life form and network access thod were so unique, conventional scanning equipnt could only ascertain the origin of her physical entity but couldn’t comprehend the impact of her actions. Therefore, we needed more efficient equipnt.
This large observation room had been used many tis recently, mainly for testing Big Sister and Little Crow’s powers after entering their divine form. It possessed the most comprehensive information flow detection and snapshot functions, capable of accurately reflecting all information changes in the observation area without any delay beyond Planck ti. Only such sensitivity could ensure that every communication between Xyrin and the entire spiritual network was recorded without error.
The observation area was a square enclosed space, isolated from the external environnt by an incredibly sturdy energy shield and a layer of transparent enhanced charging crystal. The space inside was large enough even for sothing as imnse as Little Crow to transform into its divine form. Outside this square "giant coffin," a series of terminal platforms for the experint personnel could be found. We could look directly inside through the transparent barrier and use the terminals at hand to understand the environntal changes inside. I glanced around and suddenly mused, "Doesn’t this look like those places in movies where evil scientists conduct inhumane experints? With the victims inside..."
As soon as I said that, a group of Empire scientists around imdiately choked, Taville adjusted his decorative gold-rimd glasses, the corner of his mouth twitching as he emitted a slight sigh. Big Sister ca over and flicked my head: "Always thinking nonsense!"
I recalled that Big Sister seed to have stayed in that observation area too and felt a bit embarrassed...
"Alright, the system is ready, and the recording device is working well," Taville spoke to jolt out of my wandering thoughts. She pressed her hand on the crystal panel of the main console and swiftly operated it a few tis, "Xyrin, you can move freely, hmm, do whatever you like. We need to collect the communication signals between you and the spiritual network, as well as your own life reactions."
"Do whatever I like?" Xyrin ran to the edge of the observation area, curiously peering at us over the transparent barrier. The sound amplifier magnified her voice throughout the hall, startling her. "Wow! My voice suddenly beca so loud!"
"Uh... do whatever you like," Sandora said, rubbing her forehead as if she was fed up with it. "Today, we’re only gathering routine data. Relax and go about your activities in the most natural way possible..."
"Oh, then I want to eat sothing." Xyrin seed unfazed by the environnt, which would make an ordinary person tense; she was just concerned about her dinner that hadn’t been fulfilled. "You ntioned you would bring food. I want the chocolate cake from that store, the triangular one."
Sandora was montarily stunned, then wiped the corner of her mouth vigorously: "She’s definitely my nesis—soone go get Silvia and ask her to bring all the pastries from the store. Today, the institute will pay for everything."
"I can’t eat that much." Xyrin hurriedly waved her hand.
Sandora wiped her mouth again: "The rest is mine!"
And so, the first phase of the test began in this awkward state: the Empire’s top scientists gathered in a circle, watching our spiritual network avatar eating and dropping crumbs everywhere. Of course, considering Sandora’s activity was also notable, nobody complained about it. Taville continued her work with a subtle expression: recording data, analyzing the information fluctuations in the observation area, interacting with her assistants, and casting helpless glances at .
However, information collection went smoothly, and by the ti Xyrin finished eating, we had confird that there was indeed an unlimited and undisrupted communication channel between her and the spiritual network. We also confird that she didn’t need to eat at all...
Because her body structure didn’t require food digestion. What she consud was directly dispersed into basic particles and dissipated into the air, and her desire to eat might rely be out of habit or imitation...
Next, we tested Xyrin’s control over the spiritual network. Sandora still rembered her initial concern: whether Xyrin had the ability to damage the network. Bubbles declared Xyrin harmless based purely on deductions made using underlying protocols, and further validation of her actual situation was needed. This test process took a long ti, not because of issues with the test steps, but because we spent nearly half an hour explaining to Xyrin how she ca to be. This was incredibly despairing: as an avatar of the spiritual network, Xyrin herself knew nothing about it, not even what spiritual connection ant.
"Observers are confused," Sandora sighed as she watched Xyrin struggling to understand the information Taville gave her, "Because she is the spiritual network herself, she cannot perceive its existence. Humans had no idea what their planet’s view from space was before leaving outer space, and without a second perspective, humans cannot see their entire body’s appearance either."
Helping Xyrin understand what the spiritual network is and her own life form was quite challenging. Even though she could directly access this information from the Empire’s database, she expressed that she couldn’t intuitively comprehend it and could only acknowledge its complexity without understanding. After being puzzled for half a day, Taville finally thought of a solution: she decided to fully open her own information chain, allowing Xyrin to share everything she perceived.
Finally, the thod worked. From a third-party perspective, Xyrin could clearly perceive the existence of the spiritual network for the first ti. She realized she was actually a collective consciousness distributed across every node of the network. She looked around at her "ho" transford into a vast virtual ocean in her new perspective, her own self dissolving into every node within that ocean, feeling exhilarated.
"Oh, so this is the network you were talking about! So I am this network?!" Xyrin happily exclaid to the surrounding scientists, "Ah, thank you all, you know so much!"
"Let’s conduct a formal test to see what kind of impact you can have on this network." Taville said seriously, bringing Xyrin out of her overly excited state.
Once the test began, Sandora and I couldn’t help but beco tense as well.
Determining whether Xyrin poses a potential threat to the existing Empire spiritual network rests on the outco of this test. If Bubbles’ calculation was incorrect, and Xyrin can disrupt the spiritual network without authorization protocols (although she might do so unintentionally), we would have to find ways to restrict her—at least restrict her before she matures. I know this isn’t fair to her, as she hadn’t done anything, but it’s a necessary asure. The spiritual network is almost one of the foundations for Xyrin Apostles, akin to the Empire’s Ghost Energy Technology. Now, the embodint of this network is in an extrely immature state, which indeed matches Sandora’s comnt: the key to doomsday rests in a child’s hands. It’s no wonder everyone is so concerned about this issue.
Of course, even in the worst-case scenario, Xyrin would still receive the best care. She is, after all, our treasure, just not yet mature, much like Little Crow who still can’t control their power. She just needs to have her activities limited.
"Authority Test..."
"Network Offline Test..."
"Attempt to disable virtual network as the test subject..."
"Remote offline device test..."
Taville, ticulous in thought, designed a series of testing projects with the earnest attitude of a researcher, hoping to fully determine what level of influence Xyrin can now exert on the network. As the tests draw to a close, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"It turns out, due to her birth chanism, her actions must completely adhere to the normal underlying protocol, and apart from her unrestricted privileges, which cannot be canceled, her permissions over the Empire’s facilities are like any normal Xyrin Apostle, needing the Emperor’s review and granting. Thus, she can’t manipulate any node in a way that endangers the network architecture, akin to how most humans can’t lick their own elbows," Taville looked at the terminal device in front of her, then raised her head and smiled at Sandora and , but soon her expression changed, "Um... Your Majesty, please be dignified, you really can’t lick it..."
I: "...Cough cough, business is important, business is important. So we don’t need to collar Xyrin."
"In fact, even if we wanted to collar her, it’s not possible," Taville sighed slightly in a very unobtrusive manner, "We cannot bind the entire Empire’s Spiritual Network. Now we can celebrate, the Empire’s Spiritual Network will receive an unprecedented boost; as long as Xyrin is online, our network will be sturdier than before. The rest... is finding ways to train her."
Everyone’s gaze returned to the observation zone, where Xyrin was squatting idly on the ground, seemingly finally fed up with the series of inspections, yet her introverted nature kept her from expressing protest for now. She conjured a giant wing identical to Alaya’s once more, but still couldn’t conjure the other half, ultimately abandoning the attempt to fly with wing-flaps, instead growing a nacingly powerful chanical tail from behind: the characteristic of the Armored Scorpion. She played joyfully until I tapped the transparent barrier: "Xyrin, where do you live now?"
"Live? Xyrin tilted her head in confusion, "Anywhere is fine, do I need a fixed place?"
It occurred to , ever since Xyrin mysteriously erged from the crystal into the real world, she hasn’t had a fixed dwelling, drifting aimlessly these days, sparking my curiosity about her daily life: "Where do you hang around when away from Demon Town and Atlantis Sky Island? Where do you sleep at night? Do you just wander all the ti?"
"Demon Town and Atlantis? Oh, I know the places you an," Xyrin lightly ran over and leaned on the transparent shield, "They’re interesting places, but what does ’sleep’ an?"
"The Spiritual Network never goes offline, so theoretically, she doesn’t rest, nodes on the network maintain and refresh in turns, hence she never feels tired," Taville explained from the side, "Theoretically."
"I want to go out," at this point, Xyrin suddenly patted the observational area’s barrier, "I want to go out!"
I glanced at Taville, who nodded in agreent, indicating no more tests, allowing Xyrin free movent, so I ordered the observation zone’s barrier to be turned off. As soon as the obstacle disappeared, Xyrin gleefully jumped out, agile like a bunny. I found myself curious: "Shouldn’t you be able to disregard the barrier and just leap out?"
According to my understanding, "Xyrin" is essentially the Empire’s Spiritual Network itself, the girl before us is rely a virtual body, a coordinate-projected avatar chosen by this super consciousness within the network’s coverage. This virtual figure possesses infinitely high privileges; in fact, she cannot be blocked by anything: as long as it’s within the Empire’s Spiritual Network’s coverage, Xyrin can upload herself anyti, then re-project elsewhere. This is her reliance for being enigmatic around Atlantis and Demon Town, even sneaking under the Empire Sentinels’ noses. Yet now she appears obstructed by a re protection shield...
"Because Sister Chen Qian said not to leave that shell just now," Xyrin showed an utterly reasonable expression, "And that narrow shell before too, she wouldn’t let leave either..."
"The virtual wall effect of programming," Taville expertly explained before I could inquire, "Your Majesty, think about the virtual partition carved out in a storage device, it seems Xyrin writes superior commands directly into her logic, which is the sole factor constraining her actions; in terms of obeying commands, she’s like any other Xyrin Apostle."
I nodded with satisfaction: in this aspect, Xyrin is superior to Little Baobao...
Since Xyrin doesn’t have a fixed abode, and she herself seemingly doesn’t care where she resides, we’ve temporarily arranged for her to stay at the research institute here; residing with Taville has the advantage of unraveling more of Xyrin’s secrets promptly with the enthusiasm of a scientist. Having personally arranged her abode, everyone is relieved that Xyrin won’t roam haphazardly, sparking panic with a random appearance everywhere: she has already sufficiently proven her obedience.
Of course, she also has adequate freedom of movent, considering we cannot teach her to follow Empire military regulations anyti soon, so we granted her special permission to move freely without causing chaos, as long as she knows to return ho while others are resting at night. Moreover, an important point, she must never stray too far: because Taville soon experintally demonstrated, Xyrin can freely teleport with her abilities wherever the Spiritual Network extends, covering the whole Empire — as long as she’s within the Empire, she can roam arbitrarily, and we must consider the possibility of her wandering to the border and getting discovered by Fallen Apostles... As such, she absolutely cannot continue aimlessly wandering.
Her teleportation ability, of course, is unrelated to space transmission and similar phenona; it’s primarily a process of uploading and downloading, albeit a fascinating one, but the fact remains as such.
Having arranged matters here, Sandora and I returned ho.
Actually, Xyrin’s ergence has brought us a minor dilemma: what level of Apostle should she be classified as?
Judging from Xyrin’s creation process, she equates to the Empire’s Spiritual Network itself, both on par, yet the Empire’s Spiritual Network has never been a clearly defined unit with levels and privileges, nor has anyone tried to regard this network as a Xyrin Apostle, so we cannot grade "Xyrin" using conventional thods. Considered without the network, Xyrin amounts to a cluster consciousness of the Xyrin Apostle race, hence she seemingly deserves a suprely high rank — since even the Imperial Emperor is rely one of the composition nodes of "Xyrin," then she should be the highest-ranked Apostle known to date.
However, in reality, apart from possessing unlimited passage due to her aptitude, within the network’s coverage, other privileges resemble an ordinary Apostle, as yet ungraded. She holds no combat ability, unaware of utilizing the Empire’s weapons arsenal, follows commands from Leader-level Apostles and higher, even hampered by nurous foundational network protocols; these traits altogether indicate Xyrin isn’t an Apostle with superior privileges.
This contrasts starkly with her potential "other half."
On the side of Fallen Apostles, there possibly exists a parallel cluster consciousness akin to Xyrin, where it not only manifests the Spiritual Network but elevates to a racial will degree, commanding absolute dominance over all Fallen Apostles, easily exerting life and death control over any Apostle including Fallen Emperor: whereas ours rely finds joy when full, delight in conversation... Though I hate to say it, the Xyrin on the New Empire side compared to the "Lord" among Fallen Apostles utterly looks like a waste...
Although I don’t genuinely wish she possessed "that Lord’s" "skills."
We continued discussing extensively after returning regarding Xyrin’s privilege positioning and Apostle level, Sister and Lin Xue represented the common-sense faction, considering at least giving her an equivalency to Leader-level Apostle, General rank, and Sandora along with , representing the logic faction, aid to understand why she manifests as such a "waste" on the Empire side from Xyrin’s birth chanism and subsequently seek thods to redefine her privileges. Both factions fervently debated for a long ti, my sole sentint was: For the first ti, our family seriously discussed national affairs within thirty minutes post-al...
Yet ultimately, the topic yielded no conclusion, Xyrin remains Xyrin, she stands as the most peculiar Xyrin Apostle known, one unaware of what the Empire entails, utterly oblivious, everything important to us perhaps ant nothing to her: even less important than a cake in Silvia’s shop. So let everything proceed naturally, let her grow gradually, I believe she rely appears seemingly useless...
Hmm, theoretically speaking. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndation tickets and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)
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