Chapter 710: Chapter 710 We Recaptured the City—Although There’s Still So Trouble
The majestic golden pyramid stood silently on an exceptionally vast square, so broad that it could even be described as a small plain. Having withstood hundreds of thousands of years of weathering and turned into a historical relic, the Xyrin Nest inevitably bore the scars of history. Ancient vines entwined the pyramid’s exterior, and thick moss-like plants spread across the base of the Nest. The pyramid’s super-alloy shell, with its tallic sheen, still glead beneath these coverings, yet many areas were mottled with signs of battle damage—scars left by the fires of war from hundreds of thousands of years ago. After the Xyrin Host inside had fallen silent, the Nest’s self-repair had also ceased. Over hundreds of thousands of years, they operated rely as city dispatch machines with imnse computational power, no longer capable of producing a Builder to repair the increasingly decaying city of splendor.
After inquiring with the city guard beside , I learned so secrets about this “temple” and the ancient customs of this Ancient Civilization, which had been passed down among the people for hundreds of thousands of years.
Before leaving their holand, the Daylight Temple and Midnight City were the factories where the Atlantians selected new citizens and elevated talented warriors with the talent to “Divine Servants”. Every Atlantian baby was to receive “Divine Grace” near the energy exhaust port on the outside of one of the Twin Temples according to their gender upon birth. This involved letting a small part of their bodies be exposed to the radiation from the Mother Nest’s exterior Ghost Energy—they firmly believed that this low-dose radiation would temper the newborns’ bodies and leave a mark on both their souls and flesh (due to the special nature of the Mother Nest’s Ghost Energy, this mark was actually a non-fatal radiation burn). This mark was thought to bring them closer to godly thoughts throughout their journey in life. And at the end of their lives, Atlantians who had received “Divine Grace” could ascend to Heaven with the “mark” in their souls and coexist with the gods. In other words, the skin scars from the radiation were akin to life’s GPS for the Atlantians, and an invitation to the heavenly road after death.
Conversely, sinners who committed the four great sins of “blasphemy, treason, defection, and fratricide” would be stripped of this mark in a ritual (which involved amputating the part of the body with the mark, and it’s said that those marked on the forehead by the beam of light were rather pleased). This proclaid that they had forever lost their chance to enter Heaven. In the case of particularly heinous acts, even their descendants would lose the right to receive radiation. Thus, in Atlantian slang, “not having been struck by the beam” was a very nasty insult, roughly equivalent to “doesn’t have a little JJ downstairs” in Chinese…
As for the “Ascension” ceremony (actually a term coined by the Atlantians themselves, directly translated from the Xyrin language, thus bearing several interpretations, the closest being a promotion in status), it was the greatest honor an Atlantian warrior could achieve in their lifeti. They were sent into the inner part of the Mother Nest, near the room with the most intense radiation (known as the ultimate place), where they lay for a day and night without eating or drinking and had to recite a prayer from ancient tis every three hours to cleanse their body and spirit.
Twenty-four hours later, ordinary warriors would be elevated to Divine Servants, wielding the mighty Divine Power. On Earth, they would call it “Special Abilities”—abilities that could destroy heavens and earth.
These legends from the Ancient Era, still inherited to this day, carry an unspeakable weight in the hearts of Atlantians, and to , they seem sowhat bizarre: they treat the Xyrin Technology products, which I am already familiar with as objects of religious worship, and answer the daily activities of Xyrin Apostles with interpretations full of symbolic aning, well…
Perhaps the gods of the Star Domain feel this strange sense about the worship of mortals: slightly laughable, yet sowhat endearing—except for that oddball Dingdang.
“It looks like a battle has just taken place here.”
Raven 001 surveyed the surroundings warily.
The grand square around the Ancient Xyrin Nest was a place where destruction was absolutely forbidden, even after the disaster struck; those Mutant Monsters should not have been inclined to engage in infighting in this area. But now, aside from the Nest still intact, the square was a chaotic scene of devastation as if after an intense battle: huge, broken pillars lay shattered on the ground, broken into segnts; the granite arches that symbolized the Gate of Heaven, once used for religious ceremonies, had vanished, leaving only large debris in front of the Nest, and the ground was riddled with half-ter-wide deep cracks, the jagged edges clean and straight as if a gigantic iron rod with thousands of tons of force had torn these wounds directly into the earth.
And among the ruins, nurous bodies lay scattered—of Mutant Monsters, without exception. The states of their deaths matched the violently destroyed surroundings—strange and as miserable as could be. So were flattened, so were sliced into segnts, so were stretched into strands, and so were charred together. The corpses torn to pieces by the Armored Scorpion earlier seed more intact in comparison. The square was covered in suspicious dark red marks—the signs left by even unluckier creatures: not a single piece of flesh remained, their last mark in the Mortal World was a color.
“I can make out at least three types of cuisine, and the knife work seems familiar.” Looking at the monster corpses on the square, Monina frowned and sighed with a sense of resignation, while Chiruno instantly vomited.
As they looked upon the square, which seed to have just withstood an apocalyptic event, the Atlantis Warriors felt a heavy heart—others began to be alert and on guard, while Uncle Kenser kept his eyes half-closed, sensing sothing until he suddenly made a discovery and stepped forward, the crowd watching him with puzzlent as he carried two people from behind a pile of pillars not far ahead.
One was Lin, who was snoring lightly, and the other was Yelsen, who had fallen into a deep coma for various obvious reasons.
Uncle Kenser carried the two who had been sound asleep on the battlefield to everyone, dropping them on the ground, one on each side, and nodded slightly, “Neither is injured, very good, very good.”
Monina stepped forward to assess the situation of the two, making a judgnt, “Lin’s intelligence has not yet recovered, the poor kid played until she fell asleep outright, and my stupid older brother was knocked unconscious. Lin’s imnse strength can knock out anyone of the sa level from the Divine Race with a direct hit, even fully ard my brother couldn’t take many hits.”
“Looks like this place is the handiwork of these two goofballs.” I clicked my tongue, surveying the chaotic scene around.
As I was speaking, there was a slight clash of armor from the ground. Yelsen really lived up to his reputation as a Light Guardian known for defense, and at this mont, he slowly ca to. The mont he opened his eyes, he saw a bunch of people including his own sister gathered around him chatting as if they were offering last rites, making him feel seriously creeped out. His armor clanked noisily on the ground as he tumbled and got up, “You all ca?”
“Did you two do this?”
I asked, pointing to the plaza that resembled the aftermath of a tsunami and the various pieces of processed fresh at strewn about—the monsters were clearly the city guards who used to station around the Xyrin Nest, but now they had beco our enemies due to the Abyss Infection. Perhaps there were fallen Valkyries and Anubises here before, as energy fluctuations from Ghost Energy lingered in the air; however, those two special types of soldiers wouldn’t leave bodies behind after death.
Yelsen, feeling a bit dizzy, took a look around and imdiately perked up. He looked all pleased with himself as if he had accomplished so great feat, “That goes without saying! These monsters were absolutely no challenge when it ca to killing them. You guys know Lin’s strength, practically every punch of hers was clean and brutal. The girl and I were like wolves amidst a flock of sheep, cutting a swathe through the enemy; it was like dust to the wind with a wave of my hand. We only ran into so trouble with a few dozen flying female warriors and wolf-headed soldiers in the middle, but Lin is of the Dragon Clan, and naturally has high resistance to energy, their Light Sabers and lightning were basically eting their nesis. Lin breathed Dragon Breath a few tis and burned them down to a crisp. Ah, forget it, in the end, we dealt with them all without getting hurt, though I’ve still got a bit of a headache.”
I had long anticipated the combat power of these two mbers of the Divine Race. If the Xyrin Apostles were Secondary Gods, then what they’d just dealt with were mixed soldiers dispatched by a Secondary God—there would have been no difficulty if there were any. anwhile, Monina seed contemplative and suddenly asked, “Bro, why is it all about Lin’s exploits in battle? What were you doing? And how co you ended up unconscious with a headache at the end?”
Yelsen stiffened, looked up to the sky, and started to whistle.
Monina thought for a mont and was suddenly struck with realization, “You didn’t just let Lin drag you around the whole ti, did you?”
“Nonsense! Don’t you know how strong that girl is?”
I shuddered, taking a look at the countless half-ter wide gashes in the ground around us—this flooring was forged from man-made rock as hard as warship armor. Then, with sympathy, I glanced at Yelsen’s forehead—boy, he did have high defense, not even a bump!
Without a doubt, Lin’s weapon of choice during the battle had been… Well, Dingdang, you sure have a solid team.
“When Lin’s intelligence is impaired, she is particularly lethal,” Monina said dismissively of her brother’s pitiful experience, “Of course, only to our own people.”
At this ti, Lin, the chief culprit, finally woke up leisurely. The Dragon God Girl yawned lengthily, just like a little girl with her fists rubbing her sleepy eyes, and then she looked around at us all in a daze. After a period of low blood pressure upon waking up, she frantically scrambled to her feet, timidly and anxiously looking down and asked in a low voice, “Everyone… did I do sothing wrong again just now?”
“No, you took out a few thousand enemies,” Monina comfortingly patted the restored Dragon God Girl’s shoulder, “It’s just that the weapon was worn down a bit.”
Upon hearing this, Yelsen trembled like a sifter.
After confirming that there were no enemies around, the ordinary soldiers ford a defensive formation on the spot around the Mother Nest, thoroughly protecting this control hub, while I, along with four lively mbers of the Divine Race, stepped into this ancient building that had been in existence for several hundred thousand years.
Just like the other ancient structures we had passed before, the exterior of the Mother Nest was covered with historical traces, but the interior was as pristine as new. The crystal walls all around were still transparent and unblemished, devoid of any impurity. The power of the Abyss had not penetrated this building, which was not constructed of ordinary materials. Apart from the absence of light spots representing the Host’s thinking in the crystal walls around us—due to the lack of a Host in residence—this place was indistinguishable from any other Xyrin Nest.
The five of us quickly made our way to the central machine room of the Mother Nest. Compared to Bubbles’ central machine room, this one was dimly lit. Although it was also a sparkling world ford from crystal, it appeared entirely devoid of life. The crystal prism in the center of the room was hollow, not even a shred of energy flowed within. Without the Host, the Mother Nest was like a giant without a soul, rely an empty shell.
Monina and Lin started curiously fiddling with the base of the Host’s slot, while I contacted the mass-produced Host on standby behind us and took out a data terminal.
The holographic projection showed the stiff face of the mass-produced Host, alongside a vast sea of complex data and charts, “Connection attempt comncing… Attempt failed, physical disconnection of the remote Host. Remote Mother Nest signal is good, please check the Host slot.”
“Alright, enough playing,” I waved Monina and Lin away and, following the system prompt, I paired the data terminal with the Host slot.
In the data terminal, a compatibility program had been prepared, allowing this ancient Xyrin Nest to accept external control without a Host. This was a cross-world download from Bubbles, and as the most powerful in the Host series, Bubbles was deeply knowledgeable about the operation and modification of all Xyrin Hosts and their components. This naturally included such Mother Nests that had been widely used in lower-tier Hosts hundreds of thousands of years ago. Based on technical consultation from Bubbles a few hours earlier, due to manufacturing dates, there was a compatibility issue between this ancient relic Xyrin Nest’s serial number and the operating system version number of our Xyrin Host. This caused a persistent error 678—remote disconnection—during the remote connection attempts. There were only two solutions to this problem: either downgrade our own Xyrin Host or refresh the identification number of this Mother Nest. My choice was naturally the latter, though all of this sounded ludicrously divine.
“System upgrade complete, verifying operator identification. No local user found, please select your thod of intervention.”
“The system Bubbles gave is really user-friendly, like Windows,” I muttered and reached out to select remote desktop.
“Remote desktop established, please choose type of operation.”
“A temporary system needs to be this complicated?” I shrugged my shoulders and selected remote assistance.
“Remote assistance comncing, please select assistance level.”
I hesitated for a mont and then clicked on remote control.
“Remote control starting, please select control duration: a little while, a while, a good while.”
: “…”
“You have selected a good while. For your data security, system is refreshing the super verification code, please enter serial number and verification code.”
Everyone: “…”
“Serial number and verification code correct, establishing remote control… Sorry, due to a really stupid issue with the information link, which you might not be able to solve even if you try until you die, the connection has failed. The system regrets to inform you that you’ve lost remote access. We hope you will provide feedback on this unexpected situation. For complaints, please call 21549310023566540321 extension 1347890630, and press 1 for product renewal. Rescanning for users, no local users found, please select your thod of intervention…”
“Intervene my ass!”
I indignantly shouted, while spiritually connecting to Sandora: “Kid, I can’t establish a remote connection here! Was there a problem with the compatibility pack Bubbles sent over just now?”
On the other end, Sandora was also starting up another Xyrin Nest and was quite surprised: “Eh? Really? It’s going smoothly for !”
I was taken aback for a mont, about to contact Bubbles about the compatibility pack she provided, when a faint “beep” suddenly reached my ears. Imdiately after, the crystal walls of the Central Machine Room began to emit the glow of a normal startup.
“Regrettably, I was just pulling your leg earlier, the remote connection has successfully initiated.”
I’m telling you, if I hadn’t left my backup at ho, I would have smashed this damn thing to pieces by now!
At first, I was baffled by the situation in front of , but after a few seconds, it hit : Isn’t this just because Big Sister stopped before departure, preventing from heading to Fantasy Country! Does the kid’s mom really need to take such revenge?
Regardless, the Mother Nest, which had been shut down for hundreds of thousands of years, finally started successfully under control of the remote host. The crystal chamber around us was gradually filled with blue and white light, the Mother Nest beginning to simulate normal operations without a host. A faint buzzing sound ca from the empty host slots below, followed by nurous complicated, bright lines filling the crystal prism above. My data terminal in hand started to refresh the screen, showing crooked, crawling characters:
Virtual Drive 1.0 successfully launched.
Bubbles’ handwriting is still so graceful; I deeply regret that the kid still won’t download a proper font library for her own head.
The synthesized female voice for the system self-check echoed inside the host room: “Colonization Ship control system reconnected online, Mother Nest primary energy offline, auxiliary energy offline, external energy supplent detected, core system will operate in basic mode. Checking ard systems… system damage severe, usable external defensive armants at 5%, internal defensive armants at 75%. Part of the Ghost Energy Pipeline has collapsed, cutting off energy supply from D-3 to D-6 zones, call with no response, Olympus Energy Furnace offline, call with no response. Searching for city guard waypoints… Warning, dangerous numbers of city guards detected, abnormal state guards found… Command received, guard search masked. Valkyrie Regeneration Factory connected online, running well, Anubis Regeneration Factory connected online, insufficient power, operating at 75%, Valkyrie status abnormal, Anubis status abnormal… Forcing retrieval of Regeneration Soldiers and initiating forced purification commands.”
“All system self-checks complete, miscellaneous self-checks begin and are automatically hidden… Operator, you have a ssage from the Shadow Fortress, please check.”
I was surprised for a mont but before I could respond, the system began to read the ssage automatically:
“Kid’s dad~!! I have so unfortunate news, our girl has gone missing again…”
(About this chapter’s edits: Actually, there was a bug here that conflicted with later plot developnts, which is that after the “ascension” of the Atlantian civilization, no new infants were born. Therefore, this chapter’s descriptions of the two Mother Nests would need revisions—of course, if you gentlen didn’t catch this, that would be great… In any case, this is the result of tearing up the manuscript too many tis and being too careless, speaking of which, how conscientious is it that we’re talking about fixing bugs even a hundred chapters back!! Ahem, this bug has now been corrected.) (
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