No one would have thought that the 'mutation', or using Icetis's words, 'promotion', would have spread to such an extent without our knowledge. I thought that it would only affect the humans and animals around me, but I didn't expect that it would affect an asteroid belt in the City of Shadows the most. This was really puzzling, because based on what I thought, the 'priority' for the mutation to occur there should be lower. Since the mutation was caused by the information disturbance of the Void Creatures, then naturally, the closer the thing to me, the earlier the mutation and the stronger it would be. The powers of Shallow Shallow and my sister should be considered the same. (Although I don't know how Divinity is produced, but their current powers have left many Star Region Protoss dumbfounded. Especially my sister's curse, it was actually effective on Icetis. Even though it was at a discount, they were still constantly getting stronger.) Also, Anveena was my personal maid, so she could be considered the same. Although the crow in the courtyard didn't have much of a relationship with me, no matter what, it was still living with me. Furthermore, it was Anveena's pet, so the connection between them was considered close. But what was up with the asteroid belt in the Shadow Realm?
Could it be that I was related to a pile of rocks …
After some contemplation, Icetis, the expert in the Realm of Gods, came up with this conjecture: The information disturbance of the Void Creatures was a probabilistic event. Within the effective range, there was actually a chance for any object to mutate (It could only be said that the object closest to me had a higher chance of mutating, but the object that was the furthest away had a chance of mutating. It was just that the probability was very low, but it wasn't zero). The degree of mutation had nothing to do with distance. The power of the Void had never cared about distance, so this explanation made sense. She guessed that perhaps my information disturbance power had already spread through the spiritual network of the Apostles to the entire Empire. Thus, within the vast sphere of influence of the Empire, anything that was loyal to the Emperor had a chance of mutating. Regardless of whether it was the crow in the courtyard or the rock in the middle of nowhere, it could be "blessed by the Lord" at any time.
This conjecture was quite interesting. This meant that we were completely unable to determine when the Shiring Apostles would complete their promotion … So I was a clueless person?
I don't know how Godfather did it back when he was promoted to the Gods … Hmm, I remember now. When Godfather was promoted to the Gods, he had already created the Realm of Gods. He basically accepted an apprentice-level mission as a skilled worker. As for me, I was forced to research on how to create a God before I even graduated from preschool … Damn it, I haven't even created a human yet!
Cough cough, it might be because Shallow Shallow had been pestering me to create Chen Xiaoqian in advance for the past two days, causing my thoughts to be a little off track.
Tawil had already experimented with those strange ores several times. He could confirm that they were items that had completed their mutation and not products in the process. Their various properties were all very stable, and the difficulty of processing them was moderate. Their high affinity with psionic energy (In fact, all types of energy, but for the Shiring Apostles, only ores with high affinity with psionic energy were valuable) was probably due to the fact that I had been in contact with a lot of psionic energy on a daily basis, so these ores had the same tendency to mutate. This was a very good property, and it gave them the same value as the stargold ore in the Realm of Gods. The stargold ore had an affinity with psionic energy and other types of energy up to ninety percent, while the stargold ore had an resistance to all types of energy attacks up to ninety percent. Although there was a huge difference in their properties, as long as they were used properly, they would become an important strategic resource. For the time being, these ores were named "Origin Energy Ores". This name was given by Sandora, and I was quite satisfied with it.
I believe that everyone had already guessed that Shallow Shallow had a hand in the naming process as well. She strongly suggested that these ores, which were between metal and crystal, be named "Imperial Blood Ores". In other words, it meant "Ores condensed from the blood of the Emperor". It was rare for that lass to come up with such a profound name. I was almost moved by the name, but Lin Xue's leisurely reminder jolted me back to my senses.
This name means that your corpse will be strewn everywhere.
Look, Lin Xue's ability to be black-bellied and venomous hasn't decreased at all. It's just that she is now better at striking at the weak points …
"Origin Energy Ores" were the first local mineral to be born in the Shadow Realm. Naturally, the most concerning aspect was the issue of its continuous production. If there was only one asteroid belt that could produce origin energy ores, then this future equipment core would not have much value. Fortunately, after some investigation, we discovered that the origin energy ores were not a one-off product. They were still growing slowly in the depths of the Shadow Realm. The mutation would continue until I took the initiative to stop it. Furthermore, the reserves of the origin energy ores in the Shadow Realm seemed to be quite large. If all of them were to be extracted, it would be enough to equip all the spaceships of the First Army with a set of energy bolts that would have their performance increased by 50%.
… Hmm, that doesn't seem to be a lot. We have at least six main armies that need to be upgraded, and the reserves of the origin energy ores are only enough to equip one of the spaceships of one of the armies. It seems that we still need more time for the ore to continue growing.
Tawil was already looking for the pattern of the ore's mutation. She hoped to find the original form of the origin energy ores before they mutated. Then, she would 'sow' them into the Shadow Realm in large quantities. This kind of mineral was too important for us, who lacked sufficient technology. Perhaps it was the only way to reverse the gap in equipment between the New Empire and the Fallen Apostles.
On the day that Sandora found out about the origin energy ores, she issued an order to all the stations in the Macro World and the vassal worlds. She ordered the local personnel to start inspecting the things that were connected to the Schilling Civilian Communication Network in this world. Anything related to it could not be left out. This included the staff of the various offices of the Space Administration, their daily utensils, and even the flowers and plants in their yards. In short, as long as the Schilling Network reached a place, it would be used as a sampling point for inspection. If Icetis's conjecture was correct, then even the farthest world from me could be affected by the network. Why do I feel like I'm a network virus?
This was a long and drawn-out task. Based on my current ability to influence things in remote areas, the probability of influencing things in remote areas would have a string of zeros after the decimal point, and this task would not stop until I was completely "mature". How many years would it take? Icetis's experience was useless this time. She could only say that she would go back and ask Father how long it took him to complete the first batch of his creations. Now that I thought about it, I desperately hoped that this was not a 500-million-year plan. Father's 500-million-year plan would probably cost me my life!
Speaking of which, I did not know how the power system of the Galacticus Divine Realm was first established. But it seemed that the preparation work of the Schilling Faction before the promotion of the entire race was quite characteristic of them. It was fast, large-scale, and the Protoss who had no sense of time back then definitely did not cause as much of a commotion as we were now. Maybe if there was a chance in the future, I should go to the Divine Realm and ask Father for advice on how to build a house and have children … Wasn't the Creation God's Realm basically like that?
At the same time that this project, which would probably take many, many years to complete, started, another task was already in place. The leadership of the Empire — the First Family, as well as more than half of the high-ranking military officers of the command — had gathered at a desolate edge of the universe, preparing to conduct the new Empire's first deep-diving experiment.
The prototype deep-diving ship, 'Voyager', had completed its long twenty-four hours of charging and was now quietly standing in front of us. The nearest large celestial body in the vicinity was an old red giant. On the surface of this star, there was a pitch-black hole sealed by a force field. That was the entrance chosen for the first deep-diving experiment, the most stable Gate of the Abyss within the borders of the Empire that was controlled and used for observation and research.
The appearance of the deep-diving ship was really ugly compared to the other well-developed starships of the Empire. It was a silver-gray, bare cuboid, with a quarter of the bow and stern that were obviously shrunk, which made it look like a stunted mango from a distance. The size of the deep-diving ship was only a few hundred meters long. Including the external antenna that would soon be abandoned after the ship set sail, it could not reach the thousand-meter barrier. For a spaceship that needed to carry out a space mission, the size of a few hundred meters was quite inconspicuous. However, the smaller the size of the deep-diving ship, the fewer technical problems it had to deal with. The most critical problem was the shield system. The large surface area of the shield meant that it would be exposed to more pollution, and its lifespan would be shorter. So, Tawil had to choose the most practical solution. This prototype ship did not need to carry people, which saved a lot of space. It allowed Tawil to ensure that the ship was small enough while installing as many backup information storage as possible. The main body of the deep-diving ship did not have many accessories. It did not have a large communication array for the fleet (there was only a set of communication devices inside for temporary communication), no weapon system, and not even a parabolic protrusion of the warp drive. These were all unnecessary or impossible to build.
In the abyss, the deep-diving ship could not contact "allied ships", and there was no need to fight. It was certain that with this fragile prototype ship, no matter what it encountered in the abyss, it would be doomed. So, it was the only spaceship in the history of the New Empire that did not carry any weapons. In addition, we did not install a warp drive. This was because of some technical problems. We knew very little about the internal structure of the Gate of the Abyss. We only knew that it did not follow the known laws of space, and the mathematical system was also strange. In that kind of environment, the spaceship could not perform a warp jump, so Tawil simply canceled the warp drive function of the deep-diving ship.
One of the important missions of the deep-diving ship this time was to collect more data about the laws of space in the abyss in preparation for the next experimental ship, such as researching how to make the deep-diving ship warp in the abyss.
To put it bluntly, it was a pathfinder.
This universe was the most suitable test site after careful selection. It was located at the border of the Empire, in a buffer zone that could be abandoned at any time, and the worlds adjacent to it were all decolonized. This universe may have once nurtured a simple civilization. At that time, the exploration team that discovered this world had once found something that was suspected to be the remains of an intelligent race on some broken planets. However, they had already perished. When the pioneers discovered this place, the entire space was filled with the wreckage of stars, and the few remaining red giants or other dying celestial bodies were severely infected. On the surface of one of the red giants, there was an Abyss Gate quietly attached to it. Although the gate had not exploded, the abyssal aura that permeated everywhere had destroyed everything in this world. This was the typical second type of pollution of the Gate of the Abyss: there was no super-large Gate of the Abyss, but the entire space was filled with low-intensity abyssal "fog". This kind of pollution may not be much for advanced civilizations, but for low-level civilizations that had no resistance, it could easily lead to instant destruction. Later, the Imperial Army used the Garden of Death to cut off most of this universe and threw it into the endless void, leaving only a part of the space that contained the Gate of the Abyss as a sample test site that the scientists of the Empire urgently needed. A Raven team and a few elite combat squadrons were stationed nearby. The Ravens used their own power to maintain the stability of the last red giant in this universe. The Gate of the Abyss had completely parasitized this planet, and we could only choose to "tie" this planet and the Gate of the Abyss together.
The engine of the submersible ship had not been started yet. It was towed by a medium-sized barge dozens of kilometers above the Gate of the Abyss. The barge was equipped with the last batch of support equipment that the submersible ship needed before it could be activated. Many people on the scene could see that this thing used a lot of old technology, such as the data exchange system that required physical connection, the charging pipeline, and the stupid barge. In order to increase the success rate of the first experiment, Tawil had rejected more than 80% of the new technology that was clever but lacked practical data.
We were very close to the experiment site: only 10 kilometers away. From this position, the submersible ship and the Gate of the Abyss could be clearly seen, and the hazy body of the red giant was like an endless plain of fire. The observatory automatically adjusted the light coming in from the outside. Otherwise, many people would have been blinded by the blinding light.
At 2: 20 in the afternoon, the submersible ship's control team reported on the observation platform. "The energy furnace is operating normally. Preparing to deactivate the external energy gate. Ten, nine, eight... three, two, one, offline. Everything is normal. The submersible ship is using its own energy to maintain operation. Equipment restart. Moving to the next team. "
"Terminal data verification completed. The database of the submersible ship is operating normally. Redundant storage units 1 to 175 are online. Data synchronization is good. The core database is locked. External changes are now prohibited. Data connection with the target is about to be disconnected. Ten, nine, eight... three, two, one, offline. Everything is normal. The submersible ship is operating autonomously. The equipment should have been restarted. Engineer team, after confirming that the equipment of the submersible ship is working normally, withdraw, and begin the exit procedure. "
"This is the engineering team. All equipment is operating normally. We are closing the gate. The engineering team has activated the teleportation device. We are about to leave the submersible ship. Now release the barge lock... Release successful. We are back. "
There were many large holographic projection devices on the observation platform, showing the current situation of the submersible ship and barge from various angles and distances. The gravitational field between the two suddenly flickered, and then the barge slowly rose while the submersible ship began to fall toward the Gate of the Abyss under the gravity of the red giant. At the same time, the surface of the unassuming cuboid starship suddenly began to float with a blue and green light. It was the unique shield system of the submersible ship. It mimicked the basic structure of the world barrier, so it was extremely resistant to the abyss environment. Coupled with its special ability to refresh every 15 minutes, the starship could safely survive the first period of time in the abyss. When the submersible battleship was halfway down, a halo appeared on the transverse line of the flat "mango", which quickly stopped the rapid descent of the battleship and began to slowly approach the Gate of the Abyss. It was the engine of the battleship. It was a very strange model, but almost all the equipment of this battleship was tailor-made, so there was nothing too strange about it.
"This scene reminds me of the past... Sh * t."
Sandora said softly. I followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at the image from the perspective of the submersible ship. The Gate of the Abyss occupied 90% of the image. The dark hole looked like a giant mouth that swallowed everything. Around the Gate of the Abyss was a circle of blue obelisks that emitted strong light. They were the things that were necessary to maintain the stability of the gate and suppress its activity: matrix obelisks. The scene was indeed a little creepy, especially when you understood what the Gate of the Abyss, which was almost spreading into a black land, meant. It was even more frightening.
Sandora felt even worse. She had really jumped into the Gate of the Abyss alone, and it was definitely not a good memory.
I gently stroked Sandora's hair, feeling that she was also trying to calm down. "Don't worry, it's all in the past."
At that moment, Shallow Shallow suddenly said, "It's starting to come into contact!"
Everyone's attention was drawn to another image. It was the image sent back by a probe that was moving close to the submersible ship. In the image, the silver-gray hull of the submersible ship had already touched the surface of the Gate of the Abyss. In fact, the contact had started much earlier: the shield of the submersible ship collided with the Abyss first, and then the hull. On the image, the place where the two collided was no longer calm. The bow of the submersible ship was floating with layers of colorful light, which was a sign that the shield was rapidly strengthening in a small area. The Gate of the Abyss, which was in contact with the submersible ship, had dark ripples on it. They were not obvious, and we could only see the ripples after the observation equipment automatically added some auxiliary lines. It was like a pool of thick black ink that was originally calm, but when something slowly poked into it, the calm facade on the surface finally faded away.
The surface of the Gate of the Abyss was like a dividing line. The two sides of the dividing line contrasted sharply: the bright colors of the material world, and the monotonous darkness of the other world. However, everything was going according to plan. So far, all the sensors had indicated that the nearby information fluctuations were within a safe range.
The staff reported from the control panel, "The stability of the Gate of the Abyss has decreased. It has deviated 20% from the fourth vertical line, and has temporarily regained balance at the new position. The psionic obelisks are working normally. We may need to activate more backup obelisks to strengthen the defense line. "
"Then go ahead." Sandora took a deep breath and completely calmed down. "Allow all the resources you need to invest. I don't want anything to go wrong in this experiment. Tawil, can you still contact the submersible ship? "
Tawil's main body was on standby next to us, but a few of her projections were personally involved in the tracking of the submersible ship. So, she reported to herself and then to us. "The communication has been severely disrupted. We can't send any data, but we are still transmitting blurry images. We will use the equipment to simulate some images. Maybe you will be interested. "
As she spoke, Tawil switched off the holographic images on the observation platform, which had mostly turned into clutter. The image switched from the material world to the perspective of the submersible ship.
"As you can see, this is the Abyss."
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