The sight of the droid swarm working in space was a sight to behold. Hundreds and thousands of silver-white disassemblers were like termites gnawing on the surface of the giant arks, tearing and cutting at the surface of the giant arks. The dazzling cutting beams lit up the outer shells of the giant arks, peeling off the heavy, ten-thousand-year-old armor. But this dismantling was not to destroy, but to study and take over the systems of the giant arks.
When Hao Ren went to repair the giant generators and search for the Divine Artifact, he gave Nolan a series of orders. He wanted Nolan to understand the navigation system of the arks as soon as possible and take over the control of each ark. At the very least, she needed to be able to control the arks and fly them to where he wanted them to go. To achieve this, Nolan first dismantled the armor plates around the Terra Firma's engines and power furnace (the engine's furnace, not the one in the sanctuary). After figuring out how the old equipment operated, she thought that instead of tampering with the ancient navigation system of the arks, it would be better to just cut off the 'nerves' of the arks and let the droids install a new set of controls on the engines and power furnaces. Her idea was supported by the logic host of the Petrachelys, so she was now putting it into practice.
The engineering droids used their nimble mechanical arms to carry a device called the 'Infiltration Core' to the giant arks. They then attached the Infiltration Core to key parts of the arks, such as the engines. The infiltration core was a silver-white ball that looked like a drop of mercury. It had a soft surface and a beautiful shape, and contained hundreds of millions of tiny units. Once these tiny "mercury droplets" were placed on a circuit board or switch group, they would immediately dissolve, and then seep into the mechanical device, corroding and replacing the original circuit. Through this method, the droids could easily control equipment from other civilizations whose technology level was far lower than theirs. Of course, this method of control was very limited. It was useless against high-tech equipment that did not use physical circuits or switches.
When they captured the golden warship 'Pattianne', this gadget did not come in handy.
The bridge of the Petrachelys displayed hundreds of small holographic images, showing the information sent back by each drone group. The progress bar of the infiltration core taking over the ark's control system was also displayed. Currently, the Terra Firma was almost completely under control. Nolan ordered the ark to switch on the lights, switch off the engine, and turn left and right. As she tested the sensitivity of the newly installed control system, she muttered, "This process is like controlling a zombie ship. Corroding all its nerves and replacing them with my circuitry … it's weird."
Everyone on the bridge expressed that it was difficult to have a common language with a ship — Nolan's analogy was too strange.
While the droid swarm in space was carrying out a grand and magnificent project, the sanctuary of the King's Throne was still immersed in peace.
The people did not know what was happening on the other side of the several-kilometer-thick ground beneath their feet. They only looked at the still Furnace of the Ancestors and prayed in fear. They chanted the names of their ancestors and gods, and whispered to each other about the superstition of the 'Judges of Ice and Flame'. The group of uninvited guests had entered the Furnace of the Ancestors for an hour, and there was still no movement. There was no doomsday frost falling from the sky, and no warm air to dispel the cold of this world. The people only saw faint flashes of light coming from the terrifying crack on the surface of the Furnace of the Ancestors. The flashes appeared not long ago, and had been flickering ever since. Occasionally, there would be a low rumble coming from the crack. The people did not know what the flashes and sounds meant.
In fact, the autonomous bots were happily repairing the giant generators behind the crack. The flashes from the welding torches on the ends of their arms leaked out, and the low rumble came from deeper within the Furnace of the Ancestors, where Hao Ren and the others were.
There were countless sturdy doors between the ancient generators and the reactor, as well as various safety barriers and concrete shells. These were mostly used to protect the fusion reactor deep within the facility, but due to the long years of disrepair, these doors could no longer be opened by conventional means. Hao Ren had to use some technical means to open a path — his technical means included, but were not limited to, 5 kilograms, 10 kilograms, 35 kilograms, and Lily's headbutt. To be honest, these technical means were quite mild compared to the firepower he used to open a path.
There was another series of explosions, and a metal door that was completely stuck was destroyed by a series of precise, small-scale explosions. Vivian blew away the dust in the air with a gust of wind, and walked forward with Hao Ren. Nangong Sanba mumbled behind them, "To be honest, I think using explosives to open a path in a ten-thousand-year-old fusion reactor is not safe … and it's not aesthetically pleasing either."
"Anyway, with the MDT looking after us, we've safely avoided all the danger along the way." Hao Ren said nonchalantly as he looked at the road ahead. They were already inside the energy core of the sanctuary, and it could be said that they had one foot in the fusion reactor. During the years when the ark was operating normally, not many people would walk around this place. All he could see was a variety of severely aged pipes and mottled walls. The narrow and cramped maintenance passageway was full of dust, and there were wide skylights on the ceiling at regular intervals. Through the transparent skylights, he could see the spectacular scenery outside: all kinds of huge mechanical structures and thick cables that were ten thousand years old occupied his entire vision. These things were like the internal organs and blood vessels of a steel behemoth that surrounded Hao Ren, reminding him that they were close to the heart of the ark.
Although everything here was crude in the eyes of the MDT, the ark was still a miracle. The designers had built this thing with a rugged and primitive beauty, and no matter what, it had sheltered hundreds of thousands of people for so long. The blood of the ark flowed in the cables, and the people of the ark relied on these things to survive until today.
But what went wrong that caused the people of the ark to degenerate from the space age to the middle ages?
The deeper they went into the reactor, the more serious Hao Ren's questions became. Until now, he had not found any clues that could answer this question. The skeleton that he found in the control room was the only "prehistoric" body that he had found, but that skeleton did not explain anything at all.
At this time, the MDT interrupted his thoughts. "Wait a minute, there was an abnormal energy reading in front of us."
Hao Ren instinctively replied, "Energy? This place is full of energy. "
"It's' abnormal energy '," the MDT knocked Hao Ren's head. "It's a divine artifact!"
Hao Ren immediately looked at Vivian, who looked at him at the same time and nodded slightly.
They immediately perked up and jogged through the narrow maintenance tunnel. Finally, they arrived at a very spacious place. It was a cylindrical hall, surrounded by a circular wall with huge tempered glass windows. Through those glass windows, they could see the circular coils of the fusion reactor outside. In the middle of the hall was a slightly slanted alloy platform with a radius of more than 10 meters.
A golden object was embedded in the center of the alloy platform, and it was emitting a faint glow.
The Gilded Disc.
The moment he saw the Gilded Disc, Hao Ren was momentarily lost. He once imagined that the divine artifact that the locals said protected the world was this disc. After all, it was the only divine artifact that he knew of that came directly from the goddess of creation. But when he saw it, he felt that everything was too logical, too logical to believe.
This fleet had successfully escaped the apocalypse of the First Born, escaped the pursuit of the brain monster, and relied on the Gilded Disc?
After seeing the disc, Vivian was a little dazed for a moment. She subconsciously walked forward. Hao Ren immediately noticed it and pulled her back. "Vivian!"
"Huh?" Vivian suddenly woke up. "What's wrong?"
"You seemed to be distracted just now." Hao Ren nervously looked at Vivian's eyes. After confirming that she had returned to normal, he breathed a sigh of relief. "You stay away, I'll check the disc. Lily, keep an eye on Vivian. "
Lily immediately squatted next to Vivian. "Go ahead. I'm good at seeing things!"
Hao Ren nodded and walked toward the Gilded Disc.
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