The corridors and rooms that had been dormant for seven centuries were once again activated.
As they got closer to the core control area of the base, the corridors inside the 'ridge' became wider. More and more runes and energy veins began to appear on the walls on both sides, and elvish-style decorative columns lined up on both sides of the wide space ahead. At the end of the wide corridor, all the internal passages of the 'ridge' converged together and formed a six-pointed radiating hall. A cylindrical 'room' was in the center of the hall, surrounded by countless pipes, metal beams, and runic pillars.
This was the control center of the Sentry Tower, where the demonic spirit's mind was placed. In Gwen's view, it was the central computer room where the artificial intelligence was located.
The entrance to the engine room was tightly shut. Two beams of light shone down from the sky, illuminating a small empty space in front of the entrance. Amber raised his head and looked up along the outer wall of the cylindrical room. He saw a layer of hazy light floating at the top of the room, and a large cloth draped down between the light and shadow. These cloth drapes depicted the emblems of the Silver Empire and various human countries. Some of them had already severely decayed due to the erosion of time, leaving only tattered cloth strips hanging silently in the air, like … shrouds for corpses.
Amber blinked. For a moment, she thought she saw something from the curtain — some gray shadows, wriggling and rolling, like mud growing and rolling in the dark corners. There were also vague figures emerging from the growing shadows, spying on the uninvited guests who had suddenly intruded.
However, in the next second, these things disappeared like an illusion.
"What's wrong?" Gwen's voice woke Amber from her daze. "What are you looking at?"
"No … I must be mistaken." Amber blinked and rubbed her eyes. "What's up there? It looks like a layer of clouds floating above. "
"That's the magic cloud top. Above the cloud top is the external space. The ceiling of the base is actually open, and the magic focuser draws powerful energy from the veins and magic focus to create a powerful magic cloud top in the open area of the base. On one hand, it provides power to the 'monument', and on the other hand, it maintains the entire base's defense system, "Banner explained." Once the cloud top goes out, the Sentry Tower is done for. So it has never been shut down for seven centuries. "
Amber nodded as if he understood, and Banner came to the entrance of the cylindrical room and injected magic power into the elven relief on the entrance again.
Fortunately, the door did not jam this time. He did not have to take out his bent-end wrench again.
The door of the room where the mind of the demonic spirit was placed opened. The Steel Rangers guarded the entrance of the room under Solderlin's leadership. Gwen stepped forward and led Amber into the room.
A magnificent blue light filled the cylindrical room. As soon as Amber entered the room, she could not help but exclaim softly. She saw that the entire floor of the room was made of the purest and most flawless obsidian. On the surface of the obsidian, as dark as the night, were extremely intricate and complex runes. Those runes were emitting a faint blue light and were intertwined with the blue crystals inlaid on the walls of the room. In the middle of the room, a black cube about one meter in length and width was quietly floating in the anti-gravity field.
The surface of the black cube had straight blue lines, and the overall material seemed to be some kind of metal. Faintly discernible runes floated on each of the surfaces separated by the blue lines, looking mysterious and abstruse.
As if it had sensed someone approaching, a pleasant sound came from the cube, and then it started to rotate. Blue lines divided it into numerous large and small cubes, and these metal structures reorganized in a dazzling way like a Rubik's cube. A slightly dull synthetic voice sounded in the room. "Detected approaching … identifying … Constructor authority, authorized visitor, commander … error, commander's authority does not comply with logic, re-authenticating, commander … error, commander's authority does not comply with logic, re-authenticating, commander … error, commander's authority does not comply with logic, re-authenticating …"
The voice from the cube became more and more confused. Gwen finally couldn't help but cough softly, "Ahem, I was resurrected."
"… Voice authentication, pass. Organic mageweath characteristics, pass. Human, resurrected individual, incomprehensible, unbelievable … Error ignored, database corrected, command authority reloaded. Gwen Cecil, human, leader, nice to see you again. The sentinel salutes you. You have lived for so long. "
The cube's voice became smoother, and it continued to reassemble itself quickly like a Rubik's cube. "The system has been running for 706 years, 22 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes, and 12 seconds. This is the first visitor interaction during the running period. What happened?"
Banner waved his hand in front of the cube, and after releasing a special control spell, he said, "Sentinel, continue to run. Let's check the system."
"Understood. Continue to run."
There was a low buzzing sound in the cube, and then the cubes that were constantly changing positions quickly returned to their original positions. The whole cube became complete and tidy again, and it continued to float calmly in the anti-gravity field. Banner came to a silver-white alloy pillar not far from the cube, activated the ancient magic circle, and began to check the operation of this "demonic mind".
Amber's eyes widened, and then she exclaimed, "Wow — is this the 'tower genie' of the sentinel tower?!"
"Tower genie is the name of the artificial mind of the mage tower built by humans. The elves call it 'demonic mind'. The two names are different, and the technology is not universal," Sonia explained, and then looked at Amber curiously. "Little girl, didn't your father tell you about the elven kingdom?"
She judged from the shape of Amber's ears that the mixed-race girl's father should be an elf.
"I don't know who my biological parents are," Amber shook her head and said frankly. "I was adopted by two humans …"
"Ah, sorry." Sonia was a little embarrassed, and her eyes softened as she looked at Amber. "So it was humans who raised you. No wonder you know so little about the elves … Are your adoptive parents still alive?"
Amber's pointed ears trembled slightly. "My adoptive father is gone, but the other one is still alive … Yes, the two humans who adopted me are both men."
Sonia was startled, and her expression was a little sluggish. "So the humans have become so liberal in the past 700 years …"
Gwen, who was listening to the conversation, could not hold it in anymore. "Ahem, I think you may have misunderstood something. The ones who adopted Amber are …"
But Sonia did not seem to be listening to Gwen. The young-looking elf mother had fallen into deep anxiety. She muttered to herself, "This can't be … Solderlin is in such an environment … Is it because of this that he can't find a girl he likes?"
Gwen and Amber were speechless.
It seemed that the elven mother had a serious misunderstanding about Amber's adoptive parents. But before Gwen could explain further, Banner suddenly broke the silence. "High Messenger, Duke Cecil, there is no record of the malfunction here."
The elven magus looked up as he spoke, and only then did he notice the awkward atmosphere. "Ah, what are you talking about?"
Everyone's attention immediately returned to the matter at hand. Gwen quickly waved his hand. "No, nothing. You said there is no record of the malfunction here?"
"Yes, the log shows that the Sentry Tower has been functioning normally," Banner said as he stepped aside. Behind him, a large number of illusionary projections appeared around the silver-white alloy column. The floating Elvish text on the projections showed the operation records of the Sentry Tower in the past two to three years. "The alarm of the first overload was not found. Only the last overload was found."
Sonia could not help but frown. She looked at the metal cube in the middle of the room. "Sentinel, question."
The cube quickly responded. "Sentinel, standby."
"Did the tower overload two to four years ago?"
"Search … No results. The tower did not overload during that time period. "
"Everything was normal during that time period? No malfunction? "
"The tower was normal during that time period. No malfunction occurred."
The atmosphere became solemn and silent. They subconsciously exchanged a look.
There was something wrong with the AI's answer.
Sonia had brought a clear conclusion. The first one to overload was the Sentry Tower in the southeast of Ansu! It malfunctioned about three years before Gwen opened the coffin, and it was this malfunction that led to the destruction of the old Cecil territory by the Mutants.
But the Demonic Mind that had been running for seven centuries without stopping said … it did not know about this malfunction at all!
The Sentry Tower also did not send any malfunction report back to the Silver Empire's main control center!
Gwen frowned, looked at Banner, and asked in a low voice, "Is the Demonic Mind functioning normally?"
"Everything is normal. I have checked all its mental nodes. There is no sign of tampering or self-reorganization," Banner said with a serious face. "In this case, the Sentry Tower will never betray us."
"Then the problem lies elsewhere." Gwen took a deep breath. "If even the Sentry Tower loses complete control of the tower, then we are in big trouble."
This was one of the reasons why Gwen insisted on checking the Sentry Tower. There was really something wrong with these towers!
However, as the control core of the Sentry Tower, the Demonic Mind Tower did not have any record of malfunction. This was the most disturbing situation.
The malfunction occurred in the system's blind spot.
"What can block the Sentry Tower's perception and control, or tamper with its recorded results without leaving any traces?" Gwen looked at Banner, the only expert on the scene. "If the Tower is overloaded, where will the alarm signal come from?"
"In theory, no alarm signal can bypass the Sentry Tower's monitoring," Banner said immediately. "It has the highest priority."
Then Sonia, Gwen, and Banner began to discuss and analyze the operating mechanism of the Sentry Tower, trying to find the potential loopholes in the system. However, Amber, who was standing next to them, did not understand these technical things at all. The half-elf began to daydream.
She blinked her eyes and looked around the room that was filled with soft blue light and magical energy.
She seemed to be hallucinating again.
In a corner of the room, near the focus of a rune full of magical power, a black crack suddenly appeared in the air. A shadow spread out from the crack and grew and trembled in the air. Amber blinked, but the shadow did not disappear immediately. Instead, a hazy figure emerged from it.
It was a human figure without any facial features or body details. Its entire body seemed to be bound by some kind of loose cloth. It swayed a few times between the black cracks, and half of its body poked out. Then, it waved at Hu Po.
Amber was a little surprised. "Huh?"
The figure raised his hand and pointed straight up. He pointed with force and then gradually disappeared.
"What's wrong?" Gwen noticed Amber's absent-mindedness again. He found that she was staring at an empty corner and immediately asked, "What are you looking at?"
"I seem to see someone … a Shadowy Dweller?" Amber blinked. When she woke up, she found that the crack and the figure were no longer in front of her. "Strange, why is there a crack here … I can't feel it …"
Then she shook her head and looked up curiously. "Hey, auntie, is there something up there?"
"Auntie …" Sonia's expression froze for a moment, but she still looked up. "The roof. Beyond that is the Magic Cloud Top … "
At this moment, Banner suddenly reacted. "Wait, it's not just the magic cloud! It's the stone tablet! "
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