Chapter 22: Missing Data
“Missing?”
On the afternoon of May 8th, 839 Falling Stars Era, at the Lord's Mansion of Moldavia in the Northern Lands.
Joshua, who was instructing the servants and maids of the Lord's Mansion in their training, had his leisurely enjoyment interrupted by Nostradamus, whose face was full of shame.
“Dismissed for now.”
Joshua first waved his hand, signaling the servants and maids inside the mansion to return to their work—when bored, he enjoyed explaining the cultivation methods of Battle Qi and Life Energy to the mansion's staff, while also organizing his knowledge of creation concerning human anatomy. Although these training methods were not systematic Battle Qi cultivation, they were enough to give these servants and maids a solid foundation.
That way, even if they didn't continue working as servants, they would have a good future path... But strangely enough, recently there had been too many people signing up to be servants and maids, to the point where Joshua had to issue a public notice to warn everyone.
After doing this, Joshua released his power, and instantly the entire backyard of the Lord's Mansion was covered by a black mist that isolated electromagnetic force and light, completely cutting off contact with the outside world. Only then did he ask Nostradamus with some confusion: “What's going on? How did they disappear again?”
“This matter is quite peculiar—you should also know that recently, the worlds at the edge of the World Star River have been acting strangely, right?”
Although there had been some arguments with Joshua before, those were only about personal philosophies. Nostradamus and Joshua had a good personal relationship, but at this moment, the old mage appeared quite ashamed: “The External Exploration Department sent Priest's squad to carry out an investigation mission. Since that place is too far from Mycroft World, to ensure safety, I specially contacted the Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground and made five return beacons for them to save their lives.”
“I know that, but it's just a bit far. The danger couldn't have been that serious.”
Joshua created a chair and also made one for Nostradamus. The two sat down to talk. The warrior's tone was quite puzzled: “The Black Mist Mother Entity has been sealed by us, and those wandering Void Behemoths have been caught and dissected by me... Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any existence in this World Star River capable of threatening five Gold-rank Transcendent Beings.”
Even if they occasionally encountered Ultimate-rank, or even near-Legendary-rank overlord creatures in some worlds, they couldn't interrupt the return beacons.
“Besides, why is it always these five kids... They never give me any peace.” Thinking of this, even Joshua felt baffled. He had many students, after all. The members of the First Squad, like Ivan and Amira, had already graduated and were about to go as advance teams to various alien worlds already identified as 'valuable' to clear out local Magical Beasts, preparing for the Empire's expansion. With this experience, plus having Prince Alva as a teammate, their future as high-level officials in the Empire was assured.
And Lisa and Syndicate's group were even more reassuring. Lisa, at such a young age, had already touched the threshold of Gold-rank. In terms of speed, she was probably only slightly slower than Joshua after his transmigration. Her future achievement of Legendary rank was not only possible but very likely.
Only Syndicate was truly embarrassing, still not having recovered to the level of an Ultimate-rank Greater Demon, barely touching the threshold of Ultimate Essence... But after all, he had changed bodies, so he could only train again. Joshua had relaxed his requirements a bit on this.
As for Priest's group, their style was completely different from the others... If one word could describe them, it would only be 'disaster-prone'.
It seemed that ever since they started exploring, they never encountered anything good in any world. Either they were nearly wiped out by a tentacle swipe from a passing Legendary-rank Black Mist, or they encountered local Magical Beasts with extremely strong strength. Wherever they went, there were natural disasters or beast tides. Their life's ups and downs were like a heart rate electrocardiogram.
(I'm actually not surprised.)
Nostradamus blinked beside him, stroking his beard, and thought to himself: (Rather, when it comes to causing trouble and inviting disaster, only this little guy Priest has truly learned your essence. He's practically a copy of your younger self.)
Of course, he couldn't say such jokes out loud. Joshua thought for a moment, then asked: “How did they disappear? They carry signaling devices, your return beacons, and the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground has tagged them—even if they were captured by some alien civilization, unless they encountered a Space-Time Legendary stronger than you, they should definitely be able to escape.”
“That's the problem.”
Hearing Joshua's words, Nostradamus shook his head heavily: “As soon as I sensed that the return beacon I made was activated, I immediately knew that the exploration team must have encountered something extremely troublesome that they absolutely couldn't handle on their own. So at the first moment, I immediately went to the return location set by the beacon, which is the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, to find them.”
“The result... nothing.”
The old mage sighed deeply as he spoke: “The Elite Squad never returned. The teleportation went wrong. They vanished, lost in the endless void of the World Star River.”
“I see.” Hearing this, Joshua couldn't help but frown. He also understood why Nostradamus had come to see him with such a guilty expression.
Priest was his student. His student used Nostradamus's return beacon and then disappeared. No matter how you looked at it, this was a very serious mistake... But Joshua knew that things were definitely not that simple.
Legendary-rank experts don't make mistakes. If there was a mistake, it would only be considered a mistake in the eyes of a Legendary stronger than them. Joshua absolutely trusted Nostradamus's skills. The two had fought side by side before; it would be strange if they didn't have that trust. So now, instead of complaining to the other party, it was better to think carefully about how to find the missing Priest and the others.
Joshua thought for a moment and asked: “Does the Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground have anything to say?”
If there was anyone in the entire Mycroft Civilization who could surpass Nostradamus in the art of Space-Time, it would probably only be the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, the highest technological achievement of the Era of Radiance, and its Dominant Will that could guarantee being better than the old mage. Moreover, Nostradamus originally used the power of the Sacrificial Ground to make the return beacons activate in an instant and return to the Sacrificial Ground's demiplane. Only it could probably determine why the Elite Squad had suddenly disappeared.
But what surprised Joshua was that Nostradamus shook his head and said regretfully: “I asked.”
The old mage's expression was also quite puzzled: “The Dominant Will told me that the Elite Squad's teleportation encountered some accident from the start. A sudden gravitational oscillation disrupted Space-Time, but the squad still managed to teleport normally to a life world.”
“But then, regarding where the Elite Squad went after using the return beacon, it remained silent and didn't answer at all.”
“I see.”
Hearing this, Joshua began to understand somewhat. The External Exploration Department had sent people to investigate the distortion at the edge of the World Star River, fully prepared for teleportation failures due to various unknown reasons, so Nostradamus and the others weren't suspicious. But the Dominant Will's silence after the return beacon was used was very similar to the behavior of another Era of Radiance facility.
The Unified Grand Database maintained absolute silence toward 'those without permission'. If someone without sufficient authority touched upon secrets above a certain level, the Unified Grand Database would completely, thoroughly, and without leaving a single clue, seal all information. Even brute-force cracking would take an astronomical amount of time to glimpse even a fraction of the truth.
But if even Nostradamus, a Level 6 Legendary-rank expert, didn't have enough authority, then who could get the truth from the silent Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground?
Thinking of this, Joshua couldn't help but shake his head: “So that's it. You want me, the 'Successor of the Sage' with special authority, and Number 3, who has Level 7 Divine Authority, to ask the Dominant Will—just say it directly. No need to beat around the bush. Priest is my student; I was going to ask anyway.”
“No.”
To Joshua's surprise, Nostradamus firmly denied his guess. He said seriously: “I came here to tell you not to directly ask the 'Dominant Will of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground' for the truth—of course, I thought the same at first, thinking I just needed to ask you and Miss Number 3 to go inquire. In fact, one of Miss Number 3's Arcane projections happened to be at the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, and she volunteered to help us ask the Dominant Will.”
“...And the result?” Joshua frowned, sensing a bad smell. Since Number 3 had already asked, it meant there must be something wrong with that path. The warrior said in a deep voice: “What happened?”
“Very bad.”
The old mage stroked his beard and said solemnly: “The Dominant Will's data developed errors. Its soul self-check crashed. All the calculation matrices of the entire Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground almost fell into an infinite loop.”
“It made a mistake—and a serious one. The entire energy cycle of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground showed signs of complete collapse.”
After hearing Nostradamus's words, Joshua immediately stood up. He paced back and forth in the backyard with a heavy expression.
“What kind of big trouble have these little guys gotten themselves into...”
Most people in Mycroft World didn't understand the essence of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, but how could Joshua not? It was a colossal wonder built with all the effort of a civilization, an unreasonable ultimate Star Gate. And its self-control system, the 'Dominant Will' whose original body was the Silver Sky Radiance, could be said to be one of the most powerful Artificial Intelligences in this World Star River. If it went out of control, becoming another Black Mist Mother Entity was only a matter of time.
It could even be said that if it, capable of controlling Space-Time, went out of control, the destruction it would cause would definitely be more terrifying than the Black Mist Mother Entity—just imagine, if it went all out and threw people directly into a black hole, even a Deity would be hard to save. It could be called the 'Ultimate Malicious Banishment Spell (Magic)'.
But even such a powerful Artificial Intelligence had almost fallen into a data infinite loop, leading to self-collapse.
Joshua knew that the Dominant Will was actually incomplete. Its perfect form would definitely be much more powerful than it was now.
The final battle destroyed 80% of the buildings of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground's main body. Only the sturdiest main structures survived thanks to the protection of the gods and the Sage. Under the terrifying war where Deities fell and Evil Gods dissipated, data loss was also normal. The Dominant Will admitted this. It originally possessed star charts for most of the Multiverse, but now it only had a few scattered fragments, unable to even fully map the surroundings of Mycroft.
But the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground itself also had self-correction capabilities. Ordinary data loss couldn't possibly cause it to fall into an infinite loop. Priest and the others must have been involved in some core-level secret issue, triggering the 'hidden injury' of the Dominant Will in this regard.
“...Understood. I won't ask this question directly.”
Thinking of this, Joshua turned to Nostradamus and said: “But I still need to go to the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground once... This kid Priest is currently my most satisfactory warrior student. The sooner we can find him, the better. There's no need to delay.”
“Remember not to stimulate the Dominant Will.”
Nostradamus also stood up, slightly bowing his head, and said softly: “I'm very sorry. But the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground is currently the foundation of our civilization's rapid development. It cannot make mistakes, at least not collapse now. Otherwise, the already slim chance against the Evil Gods will completely disappear.”
“Don't worry about it.”
Joshua withdrew the Steel Force barrier that isolated the inside and outside of the Lord's Mansion. His body was gradually becoming ethereal. The warrior, who was transferring his will back to his main body, said in a low voice: “Life should experience some trials. As long as you don't die, the pain of today will be the wealth of tomorrow.”
With that, Joshua's entire figure disappeared, turning into a mass of pure Steel Force that seeped into the ground beneath the Lord's Mansion.
Nostradamus stared blankly at the place where Joshua had disappeared, a thousand words in his heart.
(I say, this is no longer a trial, but a tribulation—if pain could be exchanged for money, I estimate your disciples would have become billionaires long ago... And speaking of which.)
The old mage looked at the Steel Force fragments drifting like snowflakes in the backyard of the Lord's Mansion and couldn't help but nod in appreciation.
“This exit method is nice. I'll learn it next time.”