Chapter 911: Chapter 911: Inferences from Fragnts of Words
(Bankrupted, bankrupted!! Renovating a house led to bankruptcy! Alright, from tomorrow on, it’s instant noodles…)
Actually, I think we might have caught an oddball among the Fallen Apostles…
“Actually, I think anyone who lives within a hundred ters of your family is bound to beco an oddball sooner or later.”
Trailing her finger along her chin, Bingdisi mused after hearing my lant. This female hooligan had no hesitation in cracking jokes. Having been with us for so long, the once free spirit who road the lands with nothing but a brick had also learned to banter!
What’s more, I found myself with no grounds to argue, since she imdiately added, “Look, even Kenser and I have been acting a bit off lately.”
Were there ever any normal people among you Tiaozi Five from the start?!
“How do we handle this one?”
Suppressing the urge to punch this rogue goddess—truth is, I couldn’t take her down—I turned my head and whispered to Sandora.
The prisoner, who looked different from a typical Fallen Apostle, still stared at us with a blank expression. But by now, no one believed that his expression was genuinely serious. However, what mattered most now was trying to extract so useful intel from his mouth, yet given his subsequent unflinching deanor, it seed that might be quite difficult.
Torture? That’s nonsense; even the Fallen Apostles, in essence, are branches of the Xyrin Apostle, a bug-like Race. Any amount of torture on these guys is just scratching an itch. I don’t believe any pain could induce an Imperial Soldier to speak, even after Sandora turned this prisoner into a sieve. He didn’t show a hint of submission. Such spirit is admirable under normal circumstances, but when it shows up in an enemy, it just makes one’s teeth itch.
Another way would be to forcefully crack the data from the mory core. The Xyrin Apostles are a special form of life; they are fundantally constructed lifeforms, with every part of their body treatable as a module. This gives them unparalleled survivability while also bestowing them with chanical traits. One of these is that their mory and thought cores can be individually removed and manipulated. They’ve even developed tech for re-encoding their soul and storing it in the mory core, allowing most Xyrin Apostles to revive in many ways. However, using this thod to extract secrets from a Fallen Apostle prisoner’s mind would also be challenging since all Apostles’ mory cores have firewalls and self-destruct devices—frankly, anything related to Xyrin Civilization can self-destruct. Better to smash it than let enemies have it; this is their racial trait. I trust the Fallen Apostles are similarly adept in this. We can’t discreetly extract this prisoner’s mory core while safely completing a scan, because theoretically, a mory core can only be read when activated. But would an activated mory core permit unauthorized data access?
This is an unsolvable problem. Even with a fifty percent success rate, we wouldn’t risk it, let alone when its success rate is likely below five percent.
“Honestly, boss, I’ve never worked this hard prying info from heretical mouths before, the Ten Tortures of the Qing Dynasty likely wouldn’t work.”
Lilina weakly comnted, looking at the tattered commander uniform that had been turned into the Olympic Main Stadium by stabbings, “I doubt there’s anyone in the world who could make prisoners like this talk.”
“Indeed, such a situation is unprecedented,” Sandora shrugged. “Throughout the history of the Old Empire, I’ve interrogated countless war prisoners, but never a Xyrin Apostle. How to extract sothing from the mouth of an Imperial Soldier? It’s a topic never tried by anyone. Who ever thought such a day would co.”
“Honestly, is there any point in holding onto this secret?” Big Sister sighed, looking at the war prisoner who had been ignoring us all along. “You’ve lost this battle. Even if you don’t speak, we’ll eventually figure out what those wreckages are for. Speaking up or not only makes a little ti difference for us.”
“Then continue researching then.”
The other side glanced at Big Sister and said, emotionless.
“Do you still rember what happened before you turned into this?” Sandora sighed, “I’m really curious; despite retaining your original consciousness and mory, why did you beco like this? Has the Race’s glory vanished?”
“To accomplish the great undertaking, it’s a necessary sacrifice, including you all,” without any avoidance on this topic, or rather he seed eager to discuss it with us. “The Empire will ultimately change the configuration of the entire Void. We will dominate everything, including the Void and Abyss. Unfortunately, few are qualified, and you all have to be eliminated.”
“Great undertaking, great undertaking, everyone knows you’re pestering it. What did I ever do to you that makes you group up and pester like this,” Lin Xue’s tongue was sharp and rciless with her jabs, “Why don’t you tell , do you even know what your ‘grandpa’ looks like?”
“I think you might have a grammatical or semantic mistake,” the prisoner seriously responded after thinking for a while, “But it doesn’t matter; you don’t need to know what the great undertaking’s goal is, and I don’t need to know either. I’m just a soldier, obeying orders, fulfilling the mission, accomplishing the great undertaking, and letting the Empire stand atop the entire Void. As long as this goal is achieved, any sacrifice is insignificant.”
“Pssh, can’t you talk about sothing else? Ocam discussed the great undertaking with back then, but he’s already gone,” I twitched my mouth, the “great undertaking” ntioned by the other was not unfamiliar to us. Be it Ocam back by the Santu River those years or Silvia, who returned to the Imperial Camp, they all ntioned this grand sche. But even high-ranking officers among Fallen Apostles didn’t know its details. That should be sothing orchestrated by the Fallen Apostles’ ultimate boss. Other Fallen Apostles, even those of Emperor Level, are rely part of this grand sche. It’s surprising how these Fallen Apostles can fight so tenaciously without fully understanding what the “great undertaking” is. It’s unclear what thods the mastermind used in this process.
“You won’t understand the importance of what we’re doing; there’s no talking then.” Despite being a prisoner, his attitude was better than ours. Ignoring context, one might think he’s a national hero. I realized that today we wouldn’t glean anything from him, so I turned to Sandora and said: “Let’s just keep him locked up for now, deal with the refugee situation first, then move him to the Shadow City and figure out a way to deal with him later.”
“Oh well, but can I at least beat him up?” expressed Lilina, disappointed that she didn’t get to witness an intense interrogation today. When we realized that even after Sandora had turned the war prisoner into Swiss cheese, he didn’t even bat an eye, we gave up the thought. Lilina continued, “Fine, but can I beat him up a little? His Abyssal Aura is making the Holy Power on this Pope’s body too uneasy.”
Prisoner A suddenly shouted, “Hey! Has the Xyrin Apostles beco this kind of creatures already?”
“Tsk, Lilina, cut it out,” Bingdisi whispered in my ear, closing in. “You know, as long as we’re not discussing military secrets with him, this guy’s actually kind of lovable…”
And I couldn’t help but think that this is probably a longstanding tradition of the Xyrin Apostles; this prisoner A seed to give off an increasingly familiar vibe…
While waiting to set sail back in the officer’s lounge, I was still pondering the snippets of conversation with that Fallen Apostle. Although they refrained from discussing any crucial information, it was still possible to infer so things from certain words.
“Girl, you rember, right? That guy said they would control everything, ‘including the Void and the Abyss,’ and that they’d lead the Empire to truly stand at the pinnacle or sothing. I find this statent very intriguing.”
When saying this, I looked at Lin Xue. In the absence of information, only she could provide relatively accurate conclusions. Although Lin Xue was not the smartest among us, nor the most strategic, there was no doubt that she had the most authority on any issue.
“Control the Void and Abyss, huh,” Lin Xue had been frequently using her abilities lately, always predicting events that could change the situation. Hence, there was a hint of fatigue on her face, but she still tried hard to find an answer to my question, “That Fallen Apostle provided with data points, and now so vague things are starting to erge… It seems the Fallen Apostle’s plan is far grander than world destruction. I vaguely feel their ultimate goal is still related to what the Empire was doing before its destruction, maybe even greater.”
“Before the Empire’s destruction?” Sandora, who was originally leaning on my shoulder pretending to sleep, opened her eyes, “Are you saying they aim to rule the Void, to truly beco the Third Divine Race?”
“In terms of power, the Old Empire was already the Third Divine Race. The Fallen Apostle had no reason to call the restoration of such power ‘a grand undertaking’ or act eerily mysterious. They’re probably attempting to… expand territories into the Abyss? And then simultaneously control the Void and Abyss? Essentially making the Empire truly unbeatable, possibly even surpassing all Gods.”
In the end, Lin Xue herself used an incredulous tone, clearly finding this conclusion too outlandish, yet she still slowly nodded, “I see, they’re trying to explore the nature of the Abyss, and attempting to create… um, can’t see it anymore. Can’t see what they’re doing. It seems like a hidden gate, or a passage. Anyway, they’re trying to reach a specific place… When did this plan begin… Ah!”
I gently swept my hand over Lin Xue’s eyes: “That’s enough, it makes worry.”
Missy visibly shivered, then quickly hugged my arm and took a bite: “Tch, so now you rember I’m not your labor force, huh?”
I found that many girls have a habit of biting to vent dissatisfaction or assert presence, at least around there are plenty of such odd folks. But Lin Xue’s biting wasn’t even as painful as rcury Lamp’s biting. I didn’t even bother pulling my arm away. Anyway, being hugged by the Missy like this… Hmm, the tactile feeling is quite nice.
anwhile, Sandora was still pondering the Fallen Apostle matter. She couldn’t be like us, so carefree. When Lin Xue shared her foreboding, Sandora’s brow furrowed, and she poked my arm: “Ah Jun, could it be they aren’t controlled by the Abyss but are rather seeking a way to completely control the Abyss?”
“Does that make a difference?” Before I could answer, Bingdisi shrugged nonchalantly, “Although I can’t interfere with your judgnt as a God, as a friend, I still have to say: Whether the Fallen Apostle is currently controlled by the Abyss or controlling it, they’re continuously destroying worlds, and they’ve already posed a massive crisis to the Void structure. They want to obliterate you, and even the Divine Realm. In such a situation, no matter their stance, they are absolute enemies.”
Sandora certainly understood this logic, but after hearing Bingdisi say it out loud, she couldn’t help but sigh softly.
“Your Majesty, the fleet has set sail. We’ll be docking at the target world Mars in fifteen minutes.”
The report from Sivis ca through the regular communication link, interrupting our conversation. It was only then I realized the spaceship had entered Void Navigation mode, and several projection devices, originally showing the real external space scenes in the lounge, were now completely dark: They couldn’t operate in the Void.
“Don’t overthink it, I’ll visit Silvia when we return, hoping she can summon Bellavilla.”
I tousled Sandora’s hair and whispered.
Sandora thought for a mont: “Hopefully, you’ll communicate normally with Silvia.”
Everyone: “…”
The fifteen-minute Void navigation ended in a flash, and soon the spaceship entered the universe commonly known as the “Academy Apocalypse World,” with its supposed universe code ESN7511. I didn’t know the Ti-Space Administration’s basis for coding these worlds; they were genuinely hard to rember.
The grand and magnificent Imperial Admiral appeared first, along with a dozen Eternal-class Mother Ships serving as escort ships and other Escort Fleets, erging from the dark sky and hovering in synchronous orbit above Mars. Following suit were the twenty-two refugee transport ships, all ships in good condition, with only one transport ship suffering minor damage during previous combat. Due to its negligible damage, we didn’t bother transferring its refugees to other ships, just brought them over directly.
“All fleet equipnt successfully checked,” the ship’s main computer reported in an emotionless tone, while the fleet began to approach the location of the Mars Sanctuary, “The Sanctuary Command Center has been contacted, and they replied welcoming the Royal Family mbers to the Sanctuary.”
“Have you inford them about the refugees?”
I casually asked.
“The Sanctuary Command Center is already aware of this operation and conducted a quick citizen vote. Ninety-seven percent of the Sanctuary residents expressed welco for this immigration, with the remaining three percent having slight concerns.”
“Well, that’s normal. After all, humans are not the sa as Xyrin Apostles. It’s hard for the entire Race to unify opinions.”
Sandora casually grumbled: “I’ve always found this phenonon hard to understand. Opinion divergence is normal, but regarding such issues, all non-authority mbers should unconditionally comply with the Race’s demands. The logic mode of ordinary beings is truly baffling.”
“More than that… The scene before us is what truly surprises !”
I helplessly smiled at Sandora’s words, then looked up and exclaid, “Sayaka, Mars has changed so much! It was still a barren wasteland last year!”
The rapidly enlarging vision on the holographic screen displayed Mars’ appearance, but had I not known beforehand, I wouldn’t have believed this planet half-covered in green was the desolate and lifeless red planet from my mory. It now has a thick atmosphere, which, after special adjustnt, presents an extrely clean bright blue. Mars’ North Pole is covered with a large ice cap, serving as a reservoir of water resources for the next phase of ocean transformation planned by the artificial ecosystem. Much of the Northern Hemisphere is covered by lush green vegetation, with mountains, rivers, plains, hills, all dotted with life essence colors. These are evidently the super plants cultivated with Lilina’s help, robust in life force and able to have a highly controllable reproduction speed, rooting in the previously barren surface of Mars, now becoming the planet’s regular vegetation.
Mars’ Northern Hemisphere now looks almost like a second Earth! No, it might even be better than Earth, considering Earth’s plant coverage rate might not even match Mars’ Northern Hemisphere…
Of course, this only pertains to the Northern Hemisphere’s plant coverage. Mars’ Southern Hemisphere still retains its original appearance, covered by red soil, desolate everywhere, with only so nascent river systems dotting the landscape.
This planet, absolutely sufficient for colonization. (To be Continued. If you enjoy this work, welco to vote for recomndations, monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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