"I have an immature idea …"
"I have an immature idea again …"
"I have an immature idea …"
"I have an immature idea all the time …"
Unexpectedly, even after I uploaded myself into the network, I still couldn't escape the curse of Shallow Shallow's "immature idea". Half of the invalid data that was erased from the database was related to Shallow Shallow. Whimsical plans, unrealistic designs, short-term goals that were impossible to achieve … Due to Shallow Shallow's status as a high-ranking node, and the fact that she was connected to the Empire Data Network 24/7, whenever she had such an idea and intended to put it into action (for Shallow Shallow, this was almost 100% true), the Empire Data Network would temporarily store it as a top-level instruction. However, the information would basically become invalid within 24 hours. Some of it was because Shallow Shallow suddenly lost interest in it, while some of it was because my sister or I admonished her to the death.
In the end, every time the database self-maintained, it would produce a large number of such fragments. They became Schilling's favorite playthings, and Shallow Shallow and Schilling formed a subtle supply and demand system …
I studied the orange-red cubes that fell from the sky, but I didn't have the time to read them one by one. These cubes began to dissipate after touching the ground for a few minutes. Just like what Schilling said, the colorful falling petals in the network world were only a temporary beauty.
"The two databases above should be in charge of temporarily storing the instructions of high-ranking nodes." I looked up. If I didn't explain it this way, it would be hard to understand why Shallow Shallow's mental corruption (I have to use this word to describe her thoughts!) was so concentrated in this area. Unless she had reached the point where her thoughts had gone berserk and spread across the entire network.
"Yes," Schilling confirmed my guess. "They are specially used to handle temporary information generated by high-ranking nodes and above."
I did some calculations and realized that Shallow Shallow alone had generated the equivalent of me, Sandora, Lin Xue, and half of the entire headquarters' data volume. What a terrifying brain!
The only thing to be thankful for now was that Shallow Shallow's thoughts would not have any effect other than running one round in the database. There would be no real action, no real project, no problem of wasting manpower and money, because the speed at which they were killed was as fast as the speed at which they were created. Otherwise, if it was just a single Shallow Shallow, the current GDP of the New Empire might not even be enough for her to toss and turn …
I shook my head and tossed these irrelevant thoughts aside. I looked up at the road in front of us. Right now, we still couldn't see where the rift valley that Schilling spoke of was. There were only endless plains, plains, and more plains. Occasionally, there would be a dazzling and strange landscape. There was probably no end to this bizarre network space. After all, there was a large number of new apostles coming off the production line every minute and second. This network was expanding at an astonishing speed. If it wasn't for the stable and reliable protocol system that had been adjusted by countless predecessors to support it, I'm afraid that this expansion speed would be enough to cause an ordinary network to collapse. Tawil used complicated algorithms to convert the abstract things on the network into information that we could understand. He also gave Icetis and I the same 'senses' as Schilling. However, the nature of these senses was probably still different. I felt that I probably couldn't completely understand the world through Schilling's eyes.
A light breeze brushed past my ears. There was light in my vision. I could feel the temperature and gravity. These things that were natural in the real world meant that there was a corresponding information environment here. Perhaps a light breeze was the collective thought of thousands of apostles. Perhaps the surrounding temperature represented the current average speed of the spiritual network. These information could be sensed but could not be interpreted. At least, it was impossible for us who came from the real world. I was suddenly confused. Could I solve the problem of the rift valley by myself?
We couldn't even fully understand what it was.
"What are you thinking about? Are we going or not? " Icetis's loud voice woke me up from my thoughts. I saw the female pervert raising her finger and pointing into the distance. "Follow the arrow. Schilling said that there is a data hub in front of us. We will be halfway through after we pass the first hub. The rift valley is very calm now. We have to hurry to the place where it hasn't moved yet."
I threw the thoughts in my head aside and nodded. I took the lead and charged forward. Icetis was stunned for a moment before she quickly followed. Because the two of us were moving at a speed that exceeded the speed of sound, Icetis could only use the mental connection to talk to me, "F * ck you! You suddenly moved so fast that it was scary! Don't you know that my 36E starts slow? "
I was speechless. I decided to keep quiet. This female pervert would have something to say at any time. If I didn't throw my face on the ground and step on it, I would never be able to beat this invulnerable person in a verbal battle.
After that, we focused on hurrying forward. There wasn't anything extra to attract our attention along the way. We soon arrived at the data hub that Schilling had mentioned. It was another abstract object that was hard for people to understand. It looked like a huge ribbon that was glowing in alternating blue and gold colors. One end was connected to the ground while the other end floated high in the air. It was more than ten meters wide and more than a thousand meters tall. There was a slight breeze in this strange space, but the direction of the 'ribbon' wasn't in the same direction as the wind. It was like a background item that appeared as a decoration in a game. It swayed gently in a loop in its own unique range.
As I got closer to the ribbon, I heard the sound of the wind. Although the ribbon wasn't dancing with the wind, it had to make the sound of a flag fluttering in the wind. The objects in this space … were really strange.
Schilling shifted the image from the ground to the surface of the ribbon. Finally, I didn't have to lower my head to talk to her. However, her face swayed from side to side as the ribbon swayed. Sometimes, it would twist into a funny expression. It was really comical.
"I'm going to check on the network nearby," Schilling said. "Getting close to the rift requires a high degree of network security. It wouldn't be fun if the network suddenly got disconnected or lost packets. Although, I'm not sure if it would affect you guys."
"It won't." As soon as Schilling's voice trailed off, another embedded image appeared on the ribbon. Tawil appeared on the image. "Don't worry, Your Majesty. Your and Madam Icetis's souls aren't completely attached to the network. Instead, you exist as an independent entity that only borrows the bandwidth. If there is a large-scale loss of packets, your souls will at most be expelled. They won't perish like the information attached to the network. In theory … Uh, in reality, that's the case. "
This time, she finally didn't dare to say that it was in theory. Otherwise, Sandora and the others would definitely kill her.
"That's good." Schilling nodded with relief. "I was just about to say that the network around the rift is not very stable. Maybe we should delay the operation a little. Now, we can continue our journey. Oh, wait a minute. Let me mark this hub. If there is an emergency ahead, we can use this hub to teleport back and escape. "
"Speaking of which, what are these hubs?" I looked at the magnificent ribbon in front of me. It looked beautiful, but its light appearance was very different from the square things I saw along the way. Most of the things in this space were square and angular, including the inverted earth in the sky and the orange cubes from before. These ribbons were really an exception here.
"Host," Schilling said casually. "The data hub is where the host interacts with the network. It's like a key control point. Each hub monitors a relatively large area of the network. This hub in front of us is XL-34. Next, we are going to Hub XL-28. However, the parent host's hub is not on the way, and its appearance is different. As the highest host, her entry point in the network is a large light beam that runs through all the layers of the network. Look, it's behind you, the one in the sky …"
It was the first time I heard of such a magical thing. I curiously turned my head to take a look. Sure enough, there was a light beam at the end of the horizon. I might have seen it before, but I didn't pay attention to it at that time. I never thought that the child's mother would be such a cool natural sight in the network!
It was so huge that it could be seen as a natural sight. You can imagine how spectacular the Bubble looked here.
"Bubble, Bubble." I was very excited and called the child's mother. Since the other party was one of the network servers, she didn't have to go through Schilling to transfer the call. "I see you! You look so spectacular here! From afar, you look thick and … "
"Child's father, don't be like this …"
I was speechless, so I shut up and continued on my way.
The next few data hubs were relatively close to each other. Perhaps to increase the network's security, the mass produced mainframes intentionally adjusted their work zones to protect the operation. Wherever there was a data hub, the network's stability and impact resistance would be enhanced. Moreover, the mainframe's large capacity cache could also effectively reduce the probability of losing packets. Although the last one was proven to be harmless to me and Icetis, it could still affect the success rate of the entire operation.
As we continued to move forward, I finally felt the surrounding atmosphere begin to change. The ever-present breeze gradually weakened to the point where it was almost indiscernible. The ground began to fade. The originally beautiful light purple and blue colors were increasingly mixed with a sickly grayish-white color. In the end, the land had completely faded to almost a desert. The undulating mountains and deep valleys in the sky also seemed to be avoiding something in front of us. As we moved forward, the sky became flatter and flatter. In the end, it simply turned into a large plain like the ground.
These phenomena all meant the same thing: there was an information desert in front of us. Under the automatic evasion of the network's security protocol, the flow of data to this area was cut off. Even the all-encompassing Empire Database refused to provide indexing services to this segment of the network.
Schilling became even more silent. She hadn't spoken for a long time. As the collective consciousness of the network, she should have already sensed the impending danger.
"That, that is the rift!"
After a while, Schilling finally broke the silence. We stopped and looked at the scene in front of us.
Colors had completely faded from our vision. Regardless of whether it was the plains beneath our feet or the other piece of land that was hanging upside down in the sky, they were all completely pale. Other than the image of Xi Ling, who was following beneath our feet, and the figures of Bryndis and I, there was no other color in the surroundings. The entire world seemed to have turned into an uncolored mold. Looking around, everything was monotonous and dry.
However, in the distance, darkness seemed to tear through the pale world. It was a circular hole that pierced through the sky and the earth. It was as if a huge spear had pierced through the world and left a ghastly scar. The darkness in the hole formed a sharp contrast with the pale surroundings. Schilling did not dare to take another step forward. In fact, when the surrounding colors faded, we had already entered the data evasion zone defined by the security protocol. Schilling had relied entirely on her special nature of being the network to come so close. If she went any further, she was afraid that she would not be able to stop herself. The rift in this pale area was constantly moving irregularly. It expanded and shrunk suddenly. For a consciousness rooted in the network, this was too dangerous.
We asked Schilling to stop here and retreat to a safer place as soon as possible. Of course, as a collective consciousness of the network, it did not matter to her whether she retreated or not. After all, she was only an interactive interface for Schilling. She would always be the entire network. Although we asked her to retreat, in essence, we did not want her to continue probing the data in the rift. As long as her focus was not on the rift, the rift would not be able to devour any of her information.
Of course, in this way, our communication with Tawil would be cut off. Any data that led to the rift would be lost, and Schilling would not be able to survive in this area. This was the only absolute black barrier that our mental connection could not reach.
Before Schilling left, Tawil analyzed the data that we had obtained as quickly as possible. I could imagine the tense atmosphere in the laboratory outside. However, Tawil's analysis was only superficial. He measured the state of the network, estimated the bandwidth near the rift, analyzed the safety factor and so on. As for what it was like in the rift, we would only know after Icetis and I returned.
"Your Majesty, you and Lady Icetis have a special soul that cannot be devoured by the rift. Hence, theoretically, you can safely approach and even enter the rift. However, just because the rift is safe doesn't mean that there are no other dangerous things on the other side. If you encounter any danger, please explode your Void power. This will cause the entire network to temporarily crash or even destroy some of the nodes, but it is still better than losing our leader." Tawil reminded us one last time. Then, Lin Xue's image appeared in front of us. "Blockhead, and Icetis, I have not seen anything terrible yet. However, there is an unprecedented disturbance in the rift. There is definitely something powerful hidden in it. It is not malicious at the moment, but it has the ability to threaten you. Do you understand what I mean?"
"If the situation is not good, hurry up and run." Icetis was still carefree. "Don't worry. Back then, when I smashed the principal's window, I have practiced my martial arts. Mm, I will bring your husband along."
"… I am even more worried now …"
After we ended the communication, Schilling retreated to a safe place. Icetis and I took a step forward, and the last bit of our mental connection was cut off. We had entered the black barrier.
"It is as quiet as the dead." Icetis quickly approached the huge hole in front of us as she muttered unhappily. "There is no wind, no sound, and the ground doesn't feel real. I feel like this place is lacking something."
"There is no other way. After all, the data has been cut off here. We are now jumping through a bunch of mutated nodes. Other than ourselves and these nodes, there is nothing here that is evolving, not even a single byte."
Information that was absolutely not evolving was like a pool of stagnant water. The logic that stillness was equivalent to death was the most perfect explanation here.
We finally arrived in front of the huge hole. We stood at the edge and observed what it was. It was perpendicular to the ground, with a radius of at least one kilometer. (Speaking of which, in this virtual space, is the unit of length reliable?) However, when I observed it carefully, I felt that it was just a black pancake printed on the ground. The darkness within this thing was too dense, to the point where the word 'pure black' couldn't even describe it. Even at such a close distance, it was impossible to tell if this' hole 'had an inner wall. You could try drawing a pure black pancake on a piece of paper and then use the same black color to draw the inner wall of the hole on the pancake. You would realize that it was impossible to do.
This was the situation in the rift valley.
"If it wasn't for the fact that I can't feel the aura of the Abyss, I would really think that this is a Gate of the Abyss." Icetis voiced my thoughts.
I looked up. There was also a black area in the sky. It was equally deep and bottomless.
Of course, we wouldn't be able to see anything from the side. However, when it came to investigating the truth of this rift valley, with our abilities as amateurs, Icetis and I definitely wouldn't know how to proceed. Fortunately, what we needed to do was simple. We didn't need any professional knowledge. We just had to jump into this thing …
We had to figure out what was going on inside (or on the other side) of the rift valley. Was there a powerful malignant tumor, was it just a network malfunction, or was it the network interface of the Fallen Apostle? As long as we could figure out all of these, we wouldn't need to know the exact reason. Icetis and I would have completed our mission. The remaining solution would be left to the scientists outside.
"Just now, Tawil said that it shouldn't be a problem for us to jump in." I patted Icetis's shoulder. "We aren't network data. The rift valley can't delete us. Furthermore, if we are lucky, there is a limit to the rift valley's capacity. It might even be 'stuffed to death' by the souls of the Void Creatures. Then, we would be done in one go."
"Mm." Icetis nodded her head lightly. Suddenly, she looked straight at me with a serious expression that I had never seen before. Then, she spoke in a rare gentle tone.
"You jump, I look …"
I was speechless.
I grabbed him by the arm and jumped down.
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