The revival of the ancestors had a success rate, and according to the latest available data, the success rate wasn't high.
It was undoubtedly bad news. No wonder even the strong-willed and calm Shiring Apostles, such as Sandora and Tawil, were so worried.
"I can't confirm the exact success rate at the moment because there's not enough data," Tarver said in a low voice with a regretful look on his face. "But it shouldn't be more than one in ten. I've tested the corpses that haven't been resurrected yet and roughly summarized some patterns."
"What determines the success rate of revival?" I asked curiously.
"Race," Sandora said. She had arrived before me and understood the situation. "Ah Jun, you've heard from the ancestors that the Schilling people were made up of many different races, and each race was very different from each other. There were even differences in the nature of life. These differences in species led to different difficulties in reviving their remains. Tawil found that some of the ancestors had weak bodies but strong souls, while some had strong bodies but weak souls. Ancestor Anthus's race was the only one that had a balance between these two aspects. That was why they were able to maintain the basic physical conditions for revival after such a long time. As for the others … their souls had completely dissipated, or they could no longer be activated by external life force. The chances of revival were next to none. "
"Isn't there a stagnant state? Aren't the remains of our ancestors well preserved? "
"You know, stagnant state doesn't mean that time has stopped. It's just that matter has stopped evolving on a microscopic level." Sandora sighed. "That's why the preservation of the ancestors' remains isn't flawless. The soul is the easiest thing to dissipate, followed by the mutation of matter itself. Lastly, there are still some unexplainable phenomena that cause these bodies to be unresponsive to the power of the Goddess of Life."
Looking at Shadora and Tarver's expressions, I knew that there was no solution to this problem. There was no way to turn the situation around.
I frowned and thought of a troublesome problem. "How should I explain it to Anthus? I'm afraid he's still looking forward to it. "
"I've already informed the ancestor. He's on his way," Tawil answered matter-of-factly. "He has sufficient reason to know what happened here in the first place. It's the truth, and he has no choice but to accept it. In theory, yes. "
I was tongue-tied and didn't know what to say. Tawil was indeed a typical Shiring Apostles. She was straightforward and said whatever was on her mind. Logic came first and emotions came second. Her personality of never doing useless work was really … To put it nicely, she was straightforward, but to put it bluntly, she was stubborn.
At that moment, I heard a soft hiss from the lab's automatic gate. It then slid open to both sides. Anthus, in his military uniform, strode in. The lab staff and Tawil's projections bowed to the old ancestor.
Anthus walked straight to me and Sandora. Then, he saw the lab table behind us. Lying quietly in the crystal container was his former subordinate and comrade. I noticed a flash of nostalgia on his face when he saw the figure, but he quickly regained his composure. Tawil took a step forward. As the person in charge of the entire project, she was a little embarrassed. "Ancestor, I'm sorry …"
Anthus didn't wait for Tawil to finish. He waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to say anything. Then, he quietly walked to the lab table and gazed at his former subordinate lying in the crystal container. He didn't say a word for a whole minute.
Just as I was about to break the silence, the old man finally moved. He let out a long sigh and bowed to the crystal container. This white-haired old captain looked very calm as he did all of this. It was as if he had done this many times in the past. He silently bid farewell to his crew. Then, he lifted his head and looked at Sandora and me. "You don't need to say anything. I know you've done your best."
I took a step forward. I felt like I had a lot to say, but I didn't know where to start. In the end, I could only say, "My condolences. The dead can't come back to life …"
As soon as I said that, I wanted to slap myself. The old ancestor in front of me had just been brought back to life two days ago …
I stood awkwardly on the spot. I didn't know what to do. Anthus didn't seem to mind at all. Instead, he smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about it. As a bunch of old ghosts who have been dead for billions of years, they shouldn't expect to return to the human world. This is fate that was decided many years ago. Taron, rest in peace. At least, I can still do my duty as a captain and send him off. "
Taron. It seemed that this was the name of the ancestor lying in the crystal container.
Anthus turned to look at the crystal container. His expression was calm as he said, "I can't remember how many crew members I've sent off like this. I can't even remember how many people died without even having the chance to be sent off. Compared to them, Taron and I are lucky. At least he has a burial, and at least I have the chance to send off my old subordinates … So, let's just leave it like this. You don't have to feel sorry for me."
Anthus' words made me feel even more uncomfortable. His apathy towards death reminded me of the dark days when the Schilling family had been exiled. There was nothing relaxing about that period of history. Sandora and I could only nod in silence to show that we understood. Anthus suddenly thought of something and added, "I only have one request. I hope that these old friends who failed to come back to life can be buried according to the customs of our home planet. I hope that they can be placed in stone coffins and buried in the deep sea."
Sandora raised her head and looked into Anthus' eyes. Anthus said, "This is something that we often talked about when we were chatting. Back then, people could die every day. Hence, this was the topic that we often talked about. Taron often joked that he wished that when he died, he could use his hometown's funeral and sink into the sea of our home planet. But there was no sea on the Ark of Exile, and there were no conditions for a funeral. Hence, it became an old joke that we used to make fun of reality … Now, he should be satisfied. We have finally arrived at a place with a sea. Although it's not the sea of our home planet, but … "
Anthus extended his hand to touch the lid of the crystal coffin as though the person inside could still hear him. "Old friend, you are so lucky. Your last wish has been fulfilled, a wish that many failed to fulfill."
"We will arrange such a funeral as soon as possible," Sandora said. "We will definitely restore the customs of our home planet. Of course, we will need your help."
"Don't rush." Anthus shook his head. "I don't think the resurrection of the others will be smooth."
He said it tactfully, but the meaning behind his words was clear. Taron wasn't the only one who needed to be buried. Tawil had already told the ancestors about the resurrection project. Anthus knew as much as we did.
"Yes." Tawil nodded. "The overall success rate of resurrection is still uncertain, but in theory, it should be less than one in ten."
"One in ten …" Anthus muttered. It was hard to tell what he felt about this number. He sighed and said, "Then, let's wait for all the resurrection experiments to end. Let them go together so that they can take care of each other."
Sandora and Tawil nodded in agreement. Anthus bade farewell to everyone with a tired expression. "Then, I'll go back first. I'm getting old, and I get tired after a while."
"Then, Sandora and I will send you back to the resting area." I quickly took two steps forward and said. Although Sandora wasn't good at greeting people warmly, she immediately followed after me. Anthus waved his hand and turned to walk towards the door of the lab alone. "There's no need for that. Let me go back alone."
Anthus went back alone, rejecting Sandora and my kind offer to send him off. I could tell that he didn't want to stay in the lab any longer, and it wasn't because he was "a little tired" as he said. Everyone could see how useless that excuse was. I watched as the old man slowly left the lab. I noticed that his back wasn't as straight as it had been two days ago when he had just woken up. There was a loneliness and a heaviness in his body, like a ghost that wouldn't go away. The old captain had lost his vigor when he had just woken up. Two days ago, he had suddenly woken up from his deep sleep. At that time, he had thought that he was leading the last survivors of the exiled fleet, drifting on the road to survival. Even if the road ahead was bleak, he was still full of fighting spirit. But today, something that had supported him seemed to have collapsed to the point of collapse. It had only been two days, but it was enough for the old man to say, "I'm getting old."
He was slowly being defeated by something, and Sandora and I couldn't do anything about it.
"Maybe the next ancestor that is successfully resurrected can help him recover." Sandora sighed and turned to look at Tawil. "Resurrect the next person as soon as possible. The ancestor needs the companionship of his people. Can you do that?"
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Tawil answered firmly.
Sandora nodded in satisfaction. "Then, we will first …"
She suddenly froze halfway through her sentence, as though something had interrupted her train of thought. I noticed that not only Sandora, but Tawil and the other staff also seemed to be in a daze for a moment. Even though it was just a blink of an eye, I caught it.
"Sandora? What's wrong? "I asked with concern.
"There was a mental network warning just now, but it was immediately canceled." Tawil recovered from his daze and said quickly, "Your Majesty, didn't you feel it?"
I thought for a moment. "Maybe my reaction was slow. I still haven't realized it yet."
Sandora and Tawil looked at each other solemnly. It was obvious that it wasn't normal for such a short warning to appear in the mental network. As a half-baked Schilling Emperor, my perception of the mental network wasn't as comprehensive as theirs. I hadn't sensed the short warning in the network just now, so I couldn't understand why they were so nervous. However, I guessed that this matter must be extraordinary.
Because Sandora had immediately called Bubble and asked her to immediately organize a network inspection.
"A network warning is usually issued when a large number of apostles are infected by the Abyss. Its purpose is to cut off part of the network to protect the main network," Sandora explained to me quickly. "But the warning just now seemed to be a false alarm. There was no news of apostles being infected, and there was no corresponding report from the Abyss. The warning only lasted for a few milliseconds, and after that, no network segment was cut off from the main network … There must be a malfunction somewhere. The mental network wouldn't issue such a strange warning."
A few minutes later, Bubble arrived at the core hive. There were more than ten mass-produced mainframes working in the hive at all times. They formed a high-performance matrix that was responsible for monitoring the information network of the capital world. After Bubble entered her post, the matrix could also allow their mother computers to take over the data management authority as quickly as possible. Soon, the New Empire's most powerful mainframe array began a large-scale data screening. Bubble reported the progress of her screening through the communication link. "I've found the work log of the network warning just now. I'm tracing the source of the warning."
Sandora, Tawil, and I followed closely behind her and rushed to the hive. From here, we could see the working status of the mainframes at any time. Also, Tawil could assist the mainframes in some work that required creative reasoning.
The core hive was a huge building. It was several times the size of a regular hive. It was located slightly east of the center of the shadow fortress. Its general structure was similar to a regular Schilling hive, but in the center, it had an unusually wide main computer room. Bubble's mainframe slot was the largest crystal prism in the hall. Around this crystal prism, there was a circle of smaller crystal prism. Those were the locations of the mass-produced mainframes. Outside this main computer room, there were rooms for redundant mainframes and regular servers. All these facilities together formed the most powerful data processing center in the New Empire. When we arrived, the place was ablaze with lights. The crystal clusters everywhere in the hive were reverberating with a slight resonance. The pleasant sound, like alien music, quickly calmed me down. These sounds were produced when the mainframes were operating at high speed, resonating with the hive. This meant that the place had entered a busy state of work.
Bubble floated in the core prism with her eyes closed. Mysterious light flowed out of the prism and connected to the top of the other prism. There was now a mass-produced mainframe in each prism. They were like stars surrounding the moon, guarding their mother's body, undertaking the complicated screening work. Bubble, on the other hand, was focused on analyzing the suspicious data flow in the mental network over the past few minutes. This required a more flexible and agile mind, which the mass-produced machines were not good at.
Tawil came under the core prism. Her hands directly merged with the crystals. Then, even her body began to have a blue-white turbulence. Bubble in the crystal prism slowly opened her eyes. Her voice was as calm as a machine. "All high-level nodes have been screened. No warning has been found. Do you want to screen the low-level nodes?"
Sandora thought for a while and shook her head. "No need. According to the network protocol, the low-level nodes do not have the authority to issue a network-wide warning unless there are no living high-level nodes in the sector that the low-level node is in charge of. In the past few minutes, there have been no reports of attacks throughout the Empire. It is impossible for a high-level node to die."
Bubble nodded slightly. "Screen the gateway log and try to locate the source of the warning."
After a while, a mass-produced mainframe next to her opened its eyes. "Mother, the log shows that the source of the warning is the entire data network."
"This conclusion is illogical. Repeat the check."
"Repeat check completed. Mother, the source of the warning is the entire data network."
"What's going on?" I asked curiously. You guys know that I am not good at listening to mysteries …
"The warning did not have a specific person. It was sent from the entire network at the same time," Sandora explained to me. "In other words, it warned itself and then canceled the warning."
I thought for a while. Suddenly, I had an idea. I shouted in the public channel, "Schilling, come out!"
Tiny streams of light appeared in the surrounding air. These streams of light quickly combined and finally turned into a … a miniature elf about twelve centimeters tall, wearing a grass green dress and with long green hair. Around the little elf's neck hung a metal plate that was almost as big as her body. On the metal plate were the words "Xi Ling" written in a heart-wrenching font …
Shadora and I stared blankly at the Fairy girl who looked like a wild Doraemon but had a Xi Ling nameplate around her neck. She flapped her little wings and flew in the air. The metal nameplate was too heavy for her body. She greeted us, "Ah, it's Your Majesty. Hee hee. Good afternoon. Hee hee. How can I help you? Hee hee …"
I couldn't stand it anymore. I let the pocket-sized Schilling fall into my hand. "How did you become like this?"
"When I came over, I saw many strange creatures flying in the sky. After I turned into them, I couldn't change back," Schilling answered honestly.
"There was a network-wide alert just now. Was it you who issued it?"
At least I still remembered what I was here for and didn't get distracted by this fellow's confusion.
"A network-wide alert?" Schilling tilted her head and thought for a while. As a consciousness on the internet, she had to translate a lot of words related to the internet in the real world to understand. Then, she nodded. "Oh, I issued it. There was an emergency. But the alert was canceled because the emergency was resolved."
"Emergency?" Sandora and I looked at each other. We thought it was just a false alert. We didn't expect that something really happened. However, it seemed like the incident happened on the internet. People like us who lived in the real world didn't know what happened.
"There was an unexpected fluctuation in the rift valley." Schilling hugged her name plate and explained to everyone. "I went to check the situation. I accidentally got too close and almost fell. When I fell, an emergency alert was issued. But the crisis was resolved because I climbed back up."
That was the whole story of the emergency alert.
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