Chapter 32: Six Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty-Two Years
"It worked! I knew it would!"
Immediately, Priest, who had already stepped into the ripples, turned back excitedly, looking at his group of teammates and Su Er. "I succeeded!"
"Captain's awesome!" "Captain's amazing!" "As expected of the captain!" "Captain is so strong!" "Priest, you're really something!"
A continuous stream of flattery came through, and at the same time, it could be seen that at the foot of the Aklafa Space-Time Hub's mountain, an arched door suddenly opened.
Priest suppressed his excitement, turned around, and looked at the automatically opening door. His mind churned with various thoughts—anticipation, surprise, and also a hint of doubt and caution.
Behind that door lay the interior of the Aklafa Space-Time Hub, the goal of his current mission.
To truly understand the original form of this world, to understand why it had become what it was now, entering it was a necessity. Even though the Aklafa Hub had been covered by rock for the past few hundred or thousand years, its detection magic would surely have recorded many precious pieces of information.
Thinking this, Priest said, "I'll go in first to check the situation. If I don't come out for a long time... don't wait for me. Find a new place to set up camp and don't live together with those elves."
Although Priest had successfully infiltrated the Aklafa Hub, he couldn't be sure if he would be seen through. Being killed by some inexplicable magic or defensive measure in this ancient ruin was not impossible.
But as the only channel through which everyone might learn the truth of this world, the Aklafa was a must-visit. The Restorative Pillar was neither too large nor too small—it allowed one person to move freely but couldn't let several people move smoothly together. Coupled with the need for caution, Priest decided to explore alone to avoid total annihilation.
As for the elves... to be honest, Priest didn't distrust them. Their transaction was complete; the Elite Squad had taught them the craft of metal-forged armor, and the elves had indeed provided the necessary information. The cooperation was very pleasant. But knowing that these elves had their minds linked and had been collectively eroded by Chaos, Priest always remained vigilant and couldn't truly trust them.
As for Su Er... even Su Er was the same.
After giving his instructions, Priest turned and walked toward the arched door that had opened at the side of the mountain's foot.
He walked quickly, and the others had no unnecessary words; they had long established a tacit understanding. Only Su Er bit her lip, her expression complex as she watched Priest's back and the once-familiar but now so unfamiliar Holy Mountain.
Su Er was not foolish; on the contrary, she was very smart. Smart people never needed much explanation. Just through her observations along the way, she could judge that the exploration team was not the 'human survivors' she had previously thought, but came from some unknown place closely related to the creators of the Holy Mountain.
"So this is... change." The girl closed her eyes and murmured softly in her heart.
Meanwhile, Priest had already arrived at the door.
Although the Restorative Pillar was heavy, for a Gold-rank who could lift dozens of tons with one hand and throw mammoth elephants around, a few tons of weight was nothing. Priest moved forward and could see the arched door before him. Beyond the door was the interior of the Hub, dimly lit, seemingly tidy, as if unchanged for millennia.
Priest did not think or hesitate. He stepped directly inside.
Then, he heard another gentle mental voice.
"Respected Legendary, the Aklafa Hub is in a state of combat readiness. [Warning-Data Error] level Chaos erosion detected. The Hub has ceased 98 general modules. May I ask your purpose?"
Then, accompanied by a slight temporal fluctuation, a cylindrical canned drink labeled 'Saint Guinevere' fell into the Restorative Pillar. On the can's exterior was a depiction of a winged woman with golden hair and a sweet face. Below a golden sun background, there was a line of small text.
'Saint Guinevere Brand High-Energy Drink. The power of the sun gathered in the palm, giving you the experience of a solar corona impact!'
'Instantly restore all energy. Trust Saint Guinevere Brand drinks, your best choice on the battlefield.'
Combat readiness. Chaos erosion. Cessation of 98 general modules.
Just this short sentence contained three pieces of usable information. Priest didn't carefully examine this drink, which had likely expired who knows how many years ago. He didn't reply immediately but began to think.
Whether it was the hideous nine-moon giant beast in the sky, or the Life Mother Tree and the Chaos erosion on the elves, all proved that long ago, this place had experienced a monumental battle with Chaos monsters. The Aklafa Hub might have had a data error at that time, becoming the somewhat neurotic state it was now.
Perhaps the Aklafa Hub's current state was still wartime alert, which was why it refused ordinary civilians' approach.
Recalling some knowledge about the Era of Radiance obtained from the Unified Grand Database, Priest said cautiously, "I request entry to the Central Control Room... is that okay?"
Having somewhat rashly stated his request, Priest shuddered, even beginning to fear his own boldness.
The Central Control Room! This was the core part of most special buildings from the Era of Radiance! Only core personnel could enter through various complex registration procedures, the core area with the highest authority over the entire building!
To say this right off the bat was like meeting a stranger and immediately asking them to give you all their property... It probably wouldn't end well!
"Your wish is my command."
But contrary to Priest's anxious and panicked imagination, the mental voice replied without any hesitation, extremely smoothly and naturally: "Activating automatic navigation system. Full auto-service program initiated. Target: Central Control Room."
And the next moment, accompanied by a 'ding, ding, ding' sound, a series of bright lights turned on. The originally dim hall and corridor suddenly became brightly lit. Before Priest could carefully examine the structure and design of the central hall, with a tremor from the ground, the young warrior immediately felt his body start moving on its own!
No, it wasn't him moving—it was the entire floor moving!
Priest looked down in shock at the ground. He saw that on the originally black floor with gold patterns, arrow-shaped light patterns suddenly emerged. Following this runic light pattern, a semi-transparent repulsion shield appeared under his feet, supporting the weight of the Restorative Pillar and himself. Then, without any effort, Priest began to move forward at an extremely fast and stable speed!
Full auto-service program... so even walking wasn't needed?!
Priest felt his speed was like lightning, faster than when he had ridden a flying car, let alone his own full speed. It was incomparably faster. In just a few seconds, he felt he had turned seven or eight corners and ascended at least nine floors. For a moment, he couldn't even tell where he was.
Of course, this feeling was only for a Gold-rank. For a Legendary-rank existence, this speed was probably as slow as an ordinary stroll, just a convenience.
Regardless, in short, after a minute and a half, Priest, who had struggled to stabilize himself within the Restorative Pillar, felt the automatic navigation system beneath him stop. Before him was no longer a row of ordinary doors, but a circular isolation hatch that looked extremely high-end, made entirely of cyan crystal.
This was probably the door to the Central Control Room.
Priest shook his head to clear his mind as much as possible. He noticed that this hatch was similar to the airlock of a floating warship, sealed very tightly, and appeared to be three layers thick. The material of the cyan crystal door was exceptionally sturdy; even a Legendary expert would find it difficult to break easily.
Priest could sense that the power stored in this crystal was likely the divine power of some deity. In the Era of Radiance, any rash attack would probably summon the avatar of a god.
But now...
Just as Priest was still worrying about how to open these three layers of isolation hatch, accompanied by a clearly audible mechanical sound, under the young warrior's wide-eyed gaze, the three layers of divine power crystal doors actually opened layer by layer, directly for him!
"...Ah, even this works?!"
Rubbing his eyes, doubting if he was seeing things, Priest, still not free from tension and anxiety, swallowed incredulously. After a long while, he said in a slightly trembling voice, "This... this is the treatment?"
The difference was just too great!
He couldn't help but recall being thrown tens of thousands of meters away earlier. Comparing the two, Priest felt a surge of indignation. If he had known the teacher's reputation was so effective, he would have opened the Restorative Pillar long ago! Why go the long way, wasting time on such a big detour!
But no matter how shocked he was, Priest decisively entered the Central Control Room without hesitating too long.
Since the teacher's VIP treatment was so effective... then don't hesitate, use it more! Be bold to gain something; hesitation and indecision were not the style of Lord Radcliffe's followers!
And the moment Priest entered the Central Control Room, accompanied by the crackling sound of mana operation, the originally dim central hall was immediately filled with soft white light.
This was a semi-circular bowl-shaped hall. The entire arched dome was covered with various flowing light screens. Just a glance, Priest could see many mountain-side landscapes. Of course, some of these light screens were completely black, presumably damaged over time.
In the hall, aside from cylindrical information storage pillars similar to those in the Unified Grand Database, there weren't many other special facilities. The only thing that could be considered special was probably a metal seat in the center of the entire control room hall.
To be precise, it wasn't a metal seat. Before Priest carefully observed it, it was just an oval mass of flowing metal. But as soon as Priest entered the hall, this flowing metal seemed to judge his size and then transformed into a seat suitable for his build.
At the same time, the mental voice could be heard.
"Respected Legendary, after verification, the Aklafa Hub currently has no Level 6 authority commander, no Level 5 authority commander, and no special authority commander."
Behind the voice, deep within the massive automatic program, a series of runic data began to verify and check tens of thousands of times per second.
[Detected target as a pure Steel Force holder, meets reserved condition 1]
[Detected target as a Destined Legendary, meets reserved condition 2]
[Detected target as a Sage Inheritor, meets reserved condition 3]
[Meets 2 reserved conditions. Initiating authority transfer procedure]
Data verification complete, and in reality, the voice continued.
"The current Space-Time Hub is controlled by the full auto-service program. You are the only qualified authority holder. According to the 'Wartime Special Command Regulations' and 'Core Rules,' the full auto-service program will transfer command authority to you."
As it finished, the originally plain metal seat suddenly lit up with a layer of light blue light. Priest felt his heart surge with wave after wave of emotion. The continuous bombardment of information almost made him unsure whether he was dreaming or in reality.
"This... transferring command authority just like that?!"
Honestly, even in a dream, Priest thought it wouldn't be this smooth. Just by wearing the shell of a Legendary, without any detection conditions or verification passwords, the authority was transferred directly. Was the Era of Radiance really this lax? And this was wartime!
But despite his doubts, Priest still walked forward without hesitation and sat down decisively.
He had no other choice... he had to sit down. The information database of the Aklafa Hub was something he was determined to obtain; he couldn't give it up.
The moment Priest sat down, an invisible force immediately attached itself to the Restorative Pillar, imprinting an invisible mark. The mental voice sounded again: "Authority transfer successful."
But Priest didn't feel any sense of authority being transferred. He just felt the chair was a bit hard... After a long while, he reacted and widened his eyes: "Wait... the Restorative Pillar?!"
The auto-service program had transferred the authority to the Restorative Pillar?!
So the mental voice had been talking to the Restorative Pillar all along?!
Priest felt a whirlwind of confusion, a sense of shame from having flattered himself washing over him.
But regardless, in these few seconds, the dome of the entire semi-circular control room saw countless light screens turn off and restart, seemingly clearing the original proxy program for the authority transfer. A silver progress bar could be seen slowly scrolling.
[Full auto-service program proxy duration: 11 hours, 29.88 seconds] [Information organizing... Deleting redundant programs... Deleting meaningless data... Organizing error codes... Organizing graphic and text data]
Organization complete, Supreme Commander, beginning information transmission.
Just as the progress bar was slowly completing, and Priest hadn't even warmed the seat beneath him, still thinking about how to obtain data through the Restorative Pillar's authority...
Over six thousand years of information, like a meteor, crashed all at once into the 'minds' of him and the Restorative Pillar.
---
In the distance of the World Star River.
In the void, a man standing on a giant silver planet-like cocoon thoughtfully raised his head.
The silver cocoon, compared to its initial length of just a few hundred to a thousand meters, had grown dozens to hundreds of times larger. This was the result of devouring a small world along with its core. With the complex runes on the cocoon's surface rotating, this supermassive object, the size of a Void Behemoth from back then, was rippling with temporal waves like ocean tides in the void.
"What's wrong, Joshua?"
Nature Mentor sat on a vine of her newly made good friend, a Legendary beast from some life world she had named 'Fluffy.' In the void, she asked curiously through mental communication, "Why the sudden unease?"
"Nothing much... I sense the team far away is probably in a bit of trouble. They should have opened the Restorative Pillar."
Without saying much, the warrior, who had long been ready to depart, nodded. Then he turned his head to look behind him at Nostradamus, who was slowly unfolding runes and formations alongside the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, preparing to jointly cast a super teleportation spell spanning the World Star River. Joshua said quietly, "But this also proves they're still alive."
"Alive is good... but Joshua, are you really going to bring this egg, um, cocoon... along with you?"
"Naturally."
Facing Galannod's slightly puzzled question, Joshua naturally knew what she meant. The silver cocoon was his true body, representing his real combat power. But his avatar was also very strong, perhaps not even weaker than his true body. So why expend a thousand times the power to have the old mage and the Dominant Will put in great effort to teleport it?
To put it bluntly.
It was just a Gold-rank exploration team losing contact. Why go to such trouble? Whether in terms of cost or time, it was very uneconomical... Moreover, Joshua didn't seem like the type to go to such lengths for a student. At most, he would do everything a good teacher should do. This kind of babysitting style was not his way at all.
But Joshua didn't intend to explain his actions.
How could he explain?
From the beginning of this year, the warrior had felt an unusual wrongness.
The Void Behemoth juvenile that fled from the edge of the World Star River, the lost Steel Authority, the Shadow's mutation, the erroneous temporal distortion, the time point of his own time travel... and various other issues hard to describe in one word, such as the hidden information discovered by Unit 3, the missing Decay Evil God, and the nine Legends of the Era of Radiance.
So many anomalies, if sifted through one by one, would reveal a common point: they all occurred or originated at the edge of the World Star River or beyond it.
There are no coincidences in this world, only inevitability. So many things happening at once could only prove one thing: they were all connected.
Therefore, the warrior believed he should go all out.
Joshua didn't reply, and Nature Mentor naturally didn't continue. The void fell into silence.
Until a long time later.
"Alright!"
From afar, Nostradamus's mental communication came, and the old mage's rather tired voice could be heard: "The teleportation formation is set!"
"Prepare to depart!"