Chapter 95: Crisis Management System
"Joshua, what are you doing?"
In the blood-colored world, the busy No. 3 looked up, somewhat puzzled, at the warrior who should have been controlling the engineering machinery alongside her. "Did something happen?"
"Nothing much, just feeling quite pleasantly surprised."
Moving in his human-sized avatar form, Joshua narrowed his eyes, silver light flowing within his pupils. He suddenly laughed. "I really didn't expect this—this saves me a lot of trouble. I thought I'd have to go through a lot of trouble to infiltrate, but it turns out others have already helped me solve the hardest part."
"This world doesn't revolve around you alone. Don't think you have to do everything yourself, running yourself ragged every day while many people think you're idle."
Although she didn't know what Joshua was talking about, No. 3 habitually complained. She turned around, raised her hand, and gestured. "Alright, since you have something to do, go ahead. I'll try working alone for now and figure out the best design."
Former Bloodmoon Abyss, now New Shirei World.
Where Xiao Guang's mother entity resided, the world was gradually beginning to recover, a revived world breaking free from the abyss.
A massive floating island drifted atop the Aether cycle, a bright blood-red sun illuminating the world. Like a ten-thousand-year-old banyan tree, the 'Blood World Tree' covered all islands with its roots and aerial branches, solidifying the continent into one whole. It absorbed the lingering decay in the atmosphere and converted it into pure life energy. Countless fluffy little creatures could be seen living peacefully on this world.
Nature's Force, like Battle Qi, was a derivative of pure life force. But unlike Battle Qi, which was created for destruction, Nature's Force, as a direct evolution of life energy, possessed powerful abilities of 'material conversion' and 'energy circulation.' It could transform world-scale ecological environments. A life tree supported by the World Will could create an entire ecosystem and eventually evolve into a massive World Tree, reshaping the entire world.
Within the blood-colored world, a black dragon could be seen flying freely through the sky, sometimes roaring, sometimes perching on the World Tree's branches and swishing its tail, looking very excited. Black's fear of heights had been completely overcome, but the price was that the former Sea Dragon, having discovered the beauty of the sky, now refused to go into the water at all. She flew around all day, disrupting Moldavia's flight order. For now, she had to be thrown into the Bloodmoon Abyss to fly to her heart's content.
Xiao Guang's avatar flew alongside Black, swaying gently, looking quite joyful. Honestly, if Black didn't have a pair of dragon wings, and you threw these two into a Xianxia world, saying Xiao Guang was Black's Dragon Ball, most people would probably believe it.
On the ground, between the roots and aerial branches of the Blood World Tree, large engineering machinery could be seen moving about. Under No. 3's control, they were leveling the land, digging foundations, transforming the originally rugged, weed-covered primitive terrain into orderly, flat open spaces.
This construction wasn't limited to just one area but covered every part of the New Shirei World's floating island.
Clearly, this was the purpose of Joshua and No. 3's visit. They seemed to be experimenting with some kind of planning and construction, testing back and forth. Cooperating with their experiments, the massive Blood World Tree frequently moved its roots, separating out different zones.
But now, with this pleasant surprise, Joshua wasn't in a hurry to continue working. He narrowed his eyes, carefully maintaining the connection between the distant fragment of his derivative avatar and a small piece of 'Restorative Pillar,' then sent a rather playful message to the other end: "Captain Klele, I'm glad to see you're still alive. I'll notify your crew and parents of this good news later. But setting aside the matter of you assisting enemy technicians in stealing your own technology, I happen to have a task for you."
Of course, that was just Joshua scaring him a bit. Not to mention that Joshua knew the technology Klele and Elma had exchanged wasn't particularly sensitive, but even if it were, he wasn't afraid of what they might do with it. Turning technology into practical, weaponized, and deployed systems took years, not months. Even if they succeeded, they couldn't threaten Mycroft immediately—they'd have to deal with their old enemy, the Annihilation Order first. But did they really have time? The Evil Gods would arrive in a few decades at most. Decades, for a Star River-level war, were probably just a small prelude.
Helping alien life exchange data wasn't a prohibited matter anyway. A simple report would suffice. Joshua was just in a good mood because he'd found an easier way to solve his task, so he made a joke.
But he didn't know how terrifying a joke from Grand Marshal Radcliffe was to ordinary people.
Wuwuwu... On the other end of spacetime, Klele's legs went weak. He nearly fell into a duck-sitting position, tears almost streaming down his face. Although he'd been quite impassioned earlier, seeming unafraid of even Emperor Amos, that was mainly because Elma's goal wasn't to kill the Emperor but to lead some of her people to independence. The Multiverse Star River was vast enough; finding an uninhabited area to develop was always possible. It wasn't that difficult, just a bit grand in rhetoric.
After all, who couldn't brag? It was just talk. Did they really think they'd confront Emperor Amos?
No way, no way.
But the current situation... To use an analogy, it was like a student secretly playing with their phone during class, completely absorbed. Suddenly, someone taps their shoulder. The student impatiently turns around—oh no—it's the homeroom teacher or even the principal, with a fake smile.
Too terrifying.
And the Amos person Elma didn't feel much better... To use another analogy, it was like a man and a woman at home, working together on something very private. When things are halfway through, and they're very excited and happy, suddenly the ceiling breaks open, and one of their parents descends from the heavens amid an explosion, shouting 'Justice rains from above!'
Too frightening.
Of course, in reality, the task Joshua assigned wasn't very difficult. After all, the warrior wasn't a demon; he wouldn't force the impossible. He assured Klele that he could definitely return safely and told Elma that he fully supported her rebellion plan—why wouldn't he support an enemy's defector plan? He could even provide a batch of needed data for free. But the price was that they had to complete a 'reconnaissance mission' for him.
"Ms. Elma, you said there's a big problem inside the Royal Court, to the point where the borders are under full lockdown and the interior is oppressive. Do you know why?"
Joshua's tone was calm and friendly, but every word he spoke made the two on the other end tremble in unison. Klele might have been okay, since he was used to trembling during training, but Elma was experiencing the aura of a powerhouse on par with Emperor Amos for the first time. Her entire humanoid form was on the verge of dissolving, and even the shell room around her began to writhe uneasily.
"This... Honored Marshal (Klele reminded her), I don't know the exact reason, but the lockdown has lasted over eight months and has become increasingly strict recently. Without an exit permit, even interstellar travel is prohibited."
Trying to speak in as steady a tone as possible, Elma recalled with unease: "At first, it seemed to be just the eastern star sector, the front line bordering the Takur Order. But gradually, the lockdown spread to the entire Royal Court territory. By now, all trade has completely stopped, with only basic resource logistics remaining. The Great Emperor doesn't respond to our messages; only the core zone's Imperial Guard relays orders. I was somewhat afraid of this development, so I couldn't help but want to use the Exchange System to obtain spacetime sorcery knowledge and leave with a group of companions as soon as possible..."
Joshua listened to Elma's account and roughly understood the current situation of the Amos Royal Court. The entire Royal Court territory was now under something like comprehensive military management, with each star sector independently isolated. Only the Imperial Guard's official logistics handled resource distribution. The entire civilization had entered an era of lockdown and military control with rationed distribution.
But the information the warrior analyzed from this went beyond that. He immediately noticed that the lockdown had started from the 'eastern star sector bordering the Takur Order' and spread from there. This suggested that, whatever the cause, the source of the lockdown might not be the Amos Royal Court but the Takur Annihilation Order.
Neither Klele nor Elma knew that the entire Bloody Star River had fallen into silence. It wasn't just the Royal Court that was locked down; the Order's situation was probably bad too. This also explained why neither side had taken advantage of the other's difficulties to launch an attack—they had major internal problems of their own.
"Then your mission is to help me uncover the truth behind this abnormal situation."
Having roughly analyzed some intelligence, Joshua nodded slightly. An anomaly that could force two super civilizations into emergency lockdown was certainly nothing to take lightly. He naturally wouldn't let Klele and Elma work for nothing—he always believed in fair exchange. "Soon, I'll use the Restorative Pillar as raw material to install a system for you. Then, you'll be my direct envoys, monitoring the Bloody Star River's situation for me. When this is over, I'll fulfill your wishes."
Did Klele and Elma have the right to refuse?
—Actually, they did.
But why would they refuse? Although they'd gained an extra task, their actions would now be backed by a top-tier Transcendent powerhouse!
Thus, across infinite spacetime, the pact was sealed.
The Restorative Pillar originally in the bone box suddenly shone brightly. It floated up, hovering in midair, flickering with a bright but not blinding light. As it rotated, the silver-white pillar split evenly into two parts. One part turned into a blue gemstone and flew toward Elma's chest, while the other became a dark gold belt, wrapping around Klele's waist.
Click, click! The crisp sound of metal embedding rang out, but neither felt any pain. It felt as if the gem and belt had always been part of their bodies. And the moment the installation was complete, both Klele and Elma heard a voice that spoke directly to their hearts.
[—Crisis Management System emergency loading—Beginning Transcendent element synthesis, beginning artificial Authority creation—]
[—Authority inputting—Azure of the Sky, Gold of the Shadow, installation complete!] ①
[Flame cannot burn you, ashes rekindle—Elma/Klele, are you ready!] ②
Ready! Klele almost said those words out loud, but he barely held back the impulse. Because before the inner voice had spoken, he had also received a large amount of knowledge about the 'Crisis Management System.' He knew that the moment he said the word 'ready,' the power of Grand Marshal Radcliffe would descend, pouring into him through the artificial Steel Authority!
The 'Superhuman Unit Loading System' from the Siberia World's Superhuman Soul Puppets, after being modified and enhanced by Joshua, was no longer just a combat weapon using a single Transcendent power. It was an entirely new exoskeleton armor system!
Although Klele hadn't used it yet, he could already sense that the artificial Authority named 'Gold of the Shadow' possessed extensive abilities for concealment, transformation, blackbody shielding, and even short- and long-distance teleportation. It could even, under certain conditions, block any—note, any—Transcendent detection, truly hiding in the shadows. It was a genuine combat system integrating battle, stealth, and intelligence gathering!
At that moment, Klele looked up and met Elma's gaze. The Amos person also looked up in shock, meeting the Mycroft person's eyes. Both were stunned by the artificial Authorities and systems they now possessed. After a brief shock, they were filled with boundless confidence.
If it weren't really the wrong time, they would have activated the system right then and there to test just how powerful the Crisis Management System was.
On the other side of spacetime, Joshua temporarily closed his connection with Klele and Elma.
While shaping the system, he had already transferred a portion of his power directly into the gem and belt. As long as these two actually tried to investigate the cause of the anomaly, he would receive real-time updates without any delay.
After dealing with this pleasant surprise, Joshua turned his attention back to the New Shirei World before him and the already neatly leveled floating island world.
Now, it was time to continue the previous work—
The design and construction of various small Sanctuary Worlds outside the Ring World.