radicalducati Page 240
Page 240
The central crystal pillar seemed to activate, suddenly lighting up! A soft light screen projected from the top of the pillar, hovering in mid-air. On the light screen, countless complex and incomprehensible symbols and rapidly changing star charts flowed like a waterfall, so fast it was dazzling. Finally, all the images froze, coalescing into a simple pattern composed of pure light—a shape almost identical to the fragment of the Key of Creation in Lin Ye's hand!
At the same time, a gentle, clear, but emotionless, neutral voice echoed throughout every corner of the hall. It used an ancient and obscure language, but everyone present, including Android 18, inexplicably and clearly understood its meaning:
"Identification: Holder of the Genesis Permission Fragment. Identity verification successful. Welcome to the Seventh 'Sanctuary'."
“Shelter?” Trunks repeated the hopeful word, his tense nerves relaxing slightly.
"According to the preset agreement, partial access to the database has been granted to the holder." The voice continued calmly, "This facility was built during the 'Final War' to provide temporary rest and basic supplies for the 'Spark'. Vital signs detected in the holder and their companions: severely damaged, energy depleted, individuals with mechanical injuries, and individuals in a deep coma. Initiating basic life support and emergency recovery procedures."
As soon as he finished speaking, a door next to him, engraved with patterns resembling intertwined vines or neurons (which could be roughly understood as medical symbols), slid open silently to the side, revealing the scene inside... a room that wasn't very large, with a soft, vibrant green light emanating from the center, and a refreshing and invigorating atmosphere filling the air.
"Holy crap! Such a good thing? Automatic healing?" Vegeta exclaimed in surprise, but the wariness in his eyes did not lessen, but instead intensified. "Who is speaking? Is it a human or a ghost? 'Final War'? What the hell is that?" He looked around the hall, trying to find the source of the voice, but to no avail.
Lin Ye didn't answer Vegeta's barrage of questions. He walked straight to the central control crystal, trying to concentrate his mind and re-establish a connection with the fragment. A stronger resonance immediately occurred between the fragment and the crystal pillar. A much larger, but more orderly, flow of information began to slowly flow into his mind, which he gradually understood and absorbed.
A few minutes later, Lin Ye slowly opened his eyes, let out a long sigh, and looked on with a mixture of understanding and shock.
"This...is a transit point." He processed the information, his tone slow and clear. "It was built by the 'Creator Race'...or rather, the civilization that created this fragment. It was to deal with some...unimaginable, far-reaching catastrophe. The 'End War' mentioned in the information...the details are incomplete, but it seems to be a...horrific war that swept across all known universes." His voice carried a hint of heaviness; the war, glimpsed only in fragmented information, was enough to instill a suffocating despair.
He raised his hand, pointing to several other tightly closed doors: "Behind that door is a warehouse, storing some basic necessities and... things that might be useful to us. The one next to it connects to the knowledge base; perhaps we can find the answers we need there." Finally, he pointed to another door engraved with intricate spirals and star patterns, "Most importantly, behind that door... is a short-range teleportation array. According to the information, it can connect to... other shelters in the network, or... specific coordinates marked as absolutely secure."
Hope, like a tenacious seed, quietly sprouted deep beneath this inconspicuous, desolate planet, after the despairing ruins of the Ark's destruction. This transit station, called "Sanctuary," not only provided them with a precious respite but also seemed like a key, about to unlock a door to ancient and grander secrets. The road ahead remained shrouded in mist, but at least they had found a haven to rely on temporarily and glimpsed the dawn of the next leg of their journey.
Chapter 510 The Observer
The buzzing of the shuttle-shaped device's hatch closing still echoed in their ears, and the underground shelter's hall had fallen into a deathly silence. A soft, milky light illuminated every tired yet vigilant face.
“Sanctuary…the Creator Clan…the Final War…” Trunks murmured, repeating the information he had just received, his young eyes filled with shock and confusion. “Mr. Lin Ye, is this information…reliable?”
Lin Ye leaned against the cold crystal pillar and slowly slid down to the ground. The prolonged tension and energy depletion had left him almost exhausted. He opened his palm, and the fragment of the Key of Creation lay quietly in his hand, emitting a reassuring glow.
"The feeling from the fragments... I can't be wrong." His voice was hoarse, but it carried an undeniable certainty. "The technology here, the fragments, and the device that brought us here all share the same origin. It's a technology that is... far older and more powerful than any civilization we know."
"Hmph, so powerful that you destroyed yourself?" Vegeta sneered. He walked to a tightly closed door, tapped the smooth door with his knuckles, producing a dull sound. "'Final War'... that doesn't sound like a good thing. Treat this place as a safe house, lest we attract something even more troublesome."
Although he was sarcastic, he had no intention of forcibly breaking down the door. The stability and tranquility emanating from this space were something he had rarely experienced even after wandering the universe for many years.
Number 18 carefully placed the still unconscious Night Owl in the corner of the hall, leaning him against the wall. Her mechanical eyes swept over Night Owl's pale face, then looked at Lin Ye: "His vital signs are stable, but his consciousness is subdued, requiring professional medical intervention. You just said that's the medical room over there?" She pointed to the door engraved with a pattern of vines and neurons.
"That's what the message said," Lin Ye nodded. "Starting it requires permissions, or rather... it requires the fragment's approval."
He took a deep breath and focused his mind again. This time, it was effortless; his thoughts connected with the fragments, pointing towards the door of the medical room.
"Om..."
The ancient symbols on the door glowed faintly, then silently slid to the side. A richer, more vibrant green light, carrying the fresh scent of life, poured out from within, invigorating everyone. A platform could be seen in the center of the room, enveloped by a soft pillar of green light.
"Carry him inside." Vegeta said succinctly, taking the lead and, together with Trunks, lifting Night Owl and placing him into the green pillar of light. The pillar of light seemed to have a life of its own, gently enveloping Night Owl's body, with subtle energy fluctuations beginning to flow within it.
"Life energy repair procedure initiated." The gentle, neutral voice rang out again in the hall. "Target individual: severe concussion, neural link overload, life energy depletion. Estimated repair time: 72 standard cosmic times."
“Three days…” Trunks breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally, some good news.”
Just then, another door marked with a warehouse symbol quietly slid open, revealing neatly arranged shelves inside. On them were some sealed containers, their contents unknown.
"Basic survival supplies have been authorized for collection," the voice added. "Please take as needed."
Vegeta walked over without ceremony and picked up a fist-sized sealed jar. The jar automatically recognized his life signs in his hand, and with a soft "hiss," the top opened, revealing several crystal-clear, gem-like gelatinous substances inside.
"What is this? A candy bean?" Vegeta frowned, picked one up and sniffed it, but it had no smell.
"High-concentration energy supply unit." Lin Ye's voice came. He was still sitting on the ground, but he had obviously obtained the information through the fragments. "It can be directly absorbed by the body to replenish physical energy and... a certain amount of qi."
Vegeta raised an eyebrow and tossed one into his mouth. The gelatinous substance melted instantly in his mouth, and a gentle yet pure energy flowed through his body, relieving not only his hunger but also slightly reducing the pain from his wounds. A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and tossed the remaining few to Trunks and Android 18.
"It doesn't taste very good, but it's somewhat useful."
Trunks and Number 18 each took one, their faces showing relief. This direct way of replenishing energy was far more efficient than their own slow recovery.
"What do we do now?" Trunks looked at Lin Ye, then at Vegeta. "Wait here for Night Owl to wake up? And then what?"
Lin Ye struggled to stand up, but Vegeta glanced at him and said irritably, "Just sit still, you piece of trash! Nobody expects you to come up with any good plans right now."
Lin Ye gave a wry smile and did not insist. He rubbed the fragment in his palm, his gaze falling on the door connecting the knowledge base and the teleportation array.
“We need information,” he said in a deep voice. “Who is Mirror Lin Ye? What exactly is the void force behind him? What is this ‘Creator Clan’ and ‘End War’ all about? And… what exactly are those ‘seeds’ and plate-like objects that we brought out of the Ark? Without figuring these things out, we’ll be like headless flies.”
“Agreed.” Number 18 said succinctly, “My intuition tells me that what we’re involved in is much bigger than we think. The Ark is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Vegeta crossed his arms, leaned against the crystal pillar, and closed his eyes. "Then let's go check out that knowledge base. But kid," he opened his eyes, his sharp gaze fixed on Lin Ye, "don't let those ancient pieces of information cloud your judgment. Power, in the end, has to be earned through your own hard work, one punch at a time. You won't amount to anything by relying on these external things and old books."
Lin Ye nodded: "I understand. But understanding the enemy and understanding the world is itself a part of strength."
He closed his eyes again, connecting his thoughts with the fragments, attempting to access the knowledge base. A vast stream of information began to slowly flow into his consciousness, like a trickle. Most of the information was blurry, encrypted, or corrupted, but he could catch fragmented words: "observer," "dimensional erosion," "civilization tombstone," "the spark project"...
These words weighed heavily on his heart.
Just then, that gentle voice suddenly rang out again, its tone seemingly undergoing a very subtle change, no longer entirely programmed:
“Holder detected accessing deep history archives. Hidden protocol triggered: Observer Log, Fragment #7, play.”
The light screen in the center of the hall lit up again, but this time it didn't display a pattern; instead, it showed a blurry, shaky image. In the image, a figure dressed in a robe similar in style to that of the shelter, but whose face was shrouded in shadow, spoke in an utterly exhausted voice:
"...Shelter No. 7 is functioning normally, and the 'Spark' is active and stable...but the 'erosion' is still intensifying...We have lost contact with the 'Central Temple,' and the 'Observers' are also disappearing one by one...I am the last recorder...We may have made a huge mistake; we thought we were protecting, but in reality, we may have been...imprisoning..."
The video abruptly ends here, turning into a snowflake.
The hall was silent.
"Observer? Error? Imprisonment?" Trunks processed this information, feeling a chill run down his spine. "What is he talking about? The Creator Clan... what exactly did they do?"
Lin Ye slowly opened his eyes, his face pale: "The information is incomplete... but one thing is certain: this shelter, and even the entire 'Fire Seed Project,' may not be as simple as it seems on the surface. The 'safety' we have obtained may come at an unknown cost."
Vegeta snorted, breaking the tense atmosphere: "Who cares about the cost! Once we get the power and find out the truth, we'll fight when we need to fight, and run when we need to run! What's the point of thinking so much!" He walked to the warehouse door and took out a few more energy replenishment units. "Now, eat, rest, and recover our strength! Once that hindrance wakes up, we'll go check out the next place. Staying in this turtle shell won't solve anything!"
His words were harsh, yet carried a powerful realism that pulled everyone back from their fear of the ancient mystery.
That's right. No matter what lies ahead, regaining strength and surviving should be the top priority.
Lin Ye gripped the fragment tightly, feeling the warm power flowing within it, and then looked at Night Owl, whose face was gradually turning rosy in the medical light pillar.
Temporary safety is exactly what they need most. But the storm is far from over.
Chapter 511 Lost Technology
Twenty units after standard cosmic time.
The door to the medical room slid open silently, and Night Owl staggered out, leaning against the doorframe. His face was still somewhat pale, but his eyes had regained their clarity, though they carried a hint of lingering disorientation from surviving a close call.
"Where...where are we?" He shook his still dizzy head, looking at the futuristic yet ancient hall in front of him, and the four people staring at him. "The Ark...exploded? Where's Mirror Lin Ye?"
“You almost ended up in that pile of ruins forever.” Vegeta crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, his tone still impolite. “As for that imposter, Lin Ye used your broken stone to banish him to the void turbulence. He’s probably not even a trace left now.”
Night Owl paused for a moment, then turned his gaze to Lin Ye, who was sitting on the ground and whose breathing had become much more stable, and the shard in his palm. His eyes were complicated: "Exiled... Thank you."
Lin Ye shook his head: "It was the result of our cooperation. Without you destroying the energy center, without Vegeta and Trunks providing cover, and without Android 18 covering the rear, I couldn't have done it."
Trunks handed over an energy replenishment unit: "Mr. Night Owl, replenish your energy first. It's safe here."
Night Owl took it without asking any questions and swallowed it as instructed. The pure energy flowed into his body, invigorating him. He looked around, and as a top-notch technology-focused agent, he immediately sensed the unusual nature of this place.
“This technology…I’ve never seen anything like it before. Stable, restrained, with an astonishingly high energy efficiency…and it carries a sense of…the weight of time.” He walked to the central crystal pillar and examined it carefully. “This is not the kind of aggressive and unstable void technology that Lin Ye uses.”
“This is the legacy of the ‘Creators,’ a refuge,” Lin Ye explained succinctly, sharing the information he had previously gathered with Night Owl.
Night Owl frowned as he listened: "The Creator Race? The Final War? The Observers?" These words challenged his understanding. He was silent for a moment before slowly saying, "It seems that our understanding of this universe is still superficial."
His gaze fell upon the door to the knowledge base, filled with a strong thirst for knowledge: "Is there any information about technology inside? Perhaps... we can find a way to fight against the forces of the void."
“The information is very complex, and much of it is encrypted or corrupted,” Lin Ye said. “What I can access right now are just some basic theories and… fragments of blueprints for a certain weapon.”
"A weapon?" Vegeta's interest was piqued. "A weapon that can take down those void monsters?"
“Uncertain,” Lin Ye said honestly. “The information is incomplete. It looks like a prototype of an energy neutralization device, specifically designed to counter some kind of high-dimensional energy erosion. But the core components and energy system are missing.”
Night Owl immediately walked to Lin Ye's side: "Let me see! Perhaps I can reverse-engineer the logic from a technological perspective!"
Lin Ye nodded, reconnected to the fragment, and shared the information stream about the weapon blueprint with Night Owl. Night Owl closed his eyes, his brows furrowed, his fingers unconsciously tracing lines in the air, clearly engrossed in rapid thought and calculation.
Trunks and Number 18 watched quietly from the side. Trunks whispered, "Mr. Night Owl seems quite excited."
Number 18 calmly replied, "For a top scientist, facing technology that is ahead of its time is like a hungry person seeing bread. It's perfectly normal."
After a long while, Night Owl suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes gleaming with excitement: "Incredible! This energy conversion approach... completely transcends our existing physical framework! It's not simply about confrontation or destruction, but about 'organizing' and 'reordering,' reintroducing chaotic high-dimensional energy back into the underlying rules! If... if the core components can be completed, theoretically, it can indeed effectively 'purify' that void energy!"
But then he frowned: "But the energy source needed to power this device... it's labeled 'Order Core' on the blueprints... what exactly is that? Where do we find it?"
“The core of order…” Lin Ye murmured, subconsciously looking at the fragment of the Key of Creation in his palm.
Just then, the fragment seemed to sense his thoughts, heated up slightly again, and projected a thin beam of light towards the other side of the hall... where several metal boxes they had brought out of the Ark were placed.
All eyes turned to that direction.
"Could it be..." Trunks strode over and opened one of the boxes, inside which were those seed-like objects emitting faint life fluctuations.
Guided by the fragments, Lin Ye also walked over. He picked up a "seed," its surface warm to the touch. The light from the fragments enveloped the "seed," and in the next moment, the green luster on the surface of the "seed" seemed to come alive, with extremely fine golden light points slowly flowing inside.
"A high-concentration, highly stable aggregate of life order energy has been detected." The shelter's neutral voice sounded at the opportune moment. "Code name: 'Life Source Species'. It can be used as a primary energy source for the 'Order Field Generator'."
A life order energy aggregate! Primary energy source for the order field generator!
Night Owl's eyes lit up instantly: "These 'seeds'... are they replacements for the 'Core of Order'? Or rather... prototypes?"
"The information confirms it," Lin Ye said, sensing the confirmation from the fragment. "But the energy of a single 'Life Source Seed' is far from enough to power the complete energy neutralization device. Moreover, the key lies in how to safely and efficiently extract and convert its energy—the part missing from the blueprints."
Night Owl immediately fell into deep thought, his fingers unconsciously tracing patterns again: "Energy extraction...conversion matrix...it requires a medium that can both contain the energy of life order and transform it into a stable 'order field'...this medium..."
His gaze swept across the hall, finally settling on the crystal pillar in the center that emitted a milky white light.
"The energy core of this shelter... perhaps we can learn from its structure!" Night Owl suddenly looked at Lin Ye. "Lin Ye, can you obtain some structural information about the energy core of this shelter through the fragments? We don't need core technology, just the most basic energy flow and stable structure!"
Lin Ye nodded: "I'll give it a try."
He closed his eyes again, letting his consciousness sink into the fragments. This time, he carefully avoided the esoteric historical and authorization information, focusing instead on finding data related to the shelter's basic energy system.
The process was far from easy, like retrieving a needle from a sea of information. Sweat beaded on his forehead. Vegeta watched from the side, silent, but his eyes held less of their usual mockery and more of focused attention.
After a long while, Lin Ye slowly opened his eyes, his face showing some fatigue, but also a hint of success: "Found... a part of the basic structure diagram, mainly the energy guidance and stabilization module."
He stretched out his finger and tapped it in the air, using the energy from the fragments to outline the complex three-dimensional structure in his mind. It was composed of countless tiny lattices and energy channels, so precise it was breathtaking.
The owl pounced on the energy structure diagram with insatiable hunger, its eyes fixed on it, muttering to itself, "So that's how it is... using multi-dimensional spatial folding to smooth out energy ripples... enhancing stability through phase superposition... Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
He whirled around, looking at the plate-like objects: "Those recording boards! Those incomprehensible symbols and star charts on them, now compared to this energy structure... perhaps we can find some connections! They may very well be recording more advanced knowledge of energy applications!"