The reason why I suggested going to the City of Shadows with Sandora wasn't to relieve boredom, but to check on the progress of a few major projects: the production and assembly of the executioner-class spaceship, the progress of the Deep Submergence Project, the reverse engineering of the King's Landing, and the progress of the Seventh Army. These projects were the most important tasks of the New Empire. I had been away for a few days, which wasn't too long, but it wasn't too short either. I reckoned that there should be some new developments in these projects. Of course, the other reason was that I could go out with Sandora. It had been a long time since I had been alone with her. Even though the house was noisy and joyous, I had to admit that naughty children were the destroyers of the private life of a husband and wife …
The blueprints of the executioner-class spaceship had already been sent to the major spaceship factories. The Schilling mainframe was supervising and speeding up the production. The first batch of spaceships had already been sent in batches to the six armies and the Royal Fleet, excluding the Seventh Army (the Seventh Army was a mystical force). Of course, the number of new spaceships that each army could get their hands on wouldn't be much. However, these spaceships were only meant for the commanders of the various armies to familiarize themselves with the performance of the spaceships. It would also be better for them to formulate new tactics to complement the new spaceships in the future. When the spaceships were assembled, they would naturally be given priority to the Royal Fleet, the First Army, and the Sixth Army, the three important units.
What I was most concerned about was the Deep Submergence Project. When I set off, I happened to be in time for the second-generation deep-submergence spaceship's trials. It was a huge pity that I didn't get to witness it with my own eyes. I had already heard from Sandora that the trials were going smoothly, and the two subsequent dives had exceeded the target. So, the moment I left the headquarters, Sandora and I went to the research center to look for Tawil.
It was worth mentioning that the person who received me and Sandora at the headquarters was Tawil. The latter appeared as the technical consultant and chief researcher of the new warship. At the Deep Submergence Project, the person who received me and Sandora at the research center was Tawil. This time, she was the technical consultant and chief researcher of the deep-submergence spaceship. I reckoned that when I and Sandora went to the reverse engineering laboratory later, it would still be Tawil. By then, she would be the director of the reverse engineering project at King's Landing … I couldn't go too deep into this matter. Otherwise, it would be easy to choke if there were too many things to complain about. Did a workaholic like Tawil not have a limit to his energy?
The Deep Submergence Project occupied an entire floor of the research center. It was divided into several departments, including the technical team for the deep-submergence spaceship, the research and production team for various deep-submergence equipment, the Abyss Research Team, the Deep Submergence Information Collection and Analysis Center, the Unified Office, and so on. The reason there were so many divisions of labor was because the Deep Submergence Project itself was a very broad project. It required the Empire's most advanced energy supply, the most advanced shield technology, the most advanced communication array, sensitive sensors that could work normally in the Abyss without being infected, and even the Fallen Apostle's abyssal technology to provide technical support. All these things were put together to form a deep-submergence spaceship, and the final data collected would be analyzed by another group of specialists who specialized in the study of the Abyss. Such a project spanned a large number of high-precision fields, and it required the specialists in each field to be 100% cooperative with the other teams. It was not an easy task. I was glad to have a chief scientist who could treat schizophrenia as an active skill. Tawil was the leader and the office director of all the projects.
Sandora and I went straight to the Unified Office of the Deep Submergence Project. When we pushed the door open, we saw two other people inside. One was a stern-looking, square-faced uncle, Halland, and the other was a white-haired but spirited old man, Ancestor Anthus.
I did not expect the two of them to be here. It seemed that they were discussing something related to the deep submergence. Anthus was also one of the staff members of the Deep Submergence Project, so he was also present. Ten minutes ago, when Sandora and I were listening to Tawil's report on the new spaceship, the bespectacled lady was still in a meeting with the two of them and directing work in a dozen other departments. I could not help but sigh. Schizophrenia was such a useful ability. Right now, Tawil was perfect in all aspects, and he was just short of falling in love with himself.
"Oh, busy," I greeted the people in the room in a friendly manner as usual (of course, I could accept that). Finally, my eyes fell on Tawil. "Well, I haven't seen you for ten minutes, and now we meet again."
Halland nodded at me and Sandora with a smile. Tawil and Anthus stood up and bowed to us. Logically speaking, it would be strange for an ancestor to bow to a descendant, and Sandora was adamant about not accepting the ancestor's salute. But now that Anthus had officially returned to his post as a "soldier," and the old man himself wanted to act according to the standard authority system of the Empire, he would bow to the ruler of the new Empire. Now, even Sandora could only accept it. After all, for the Shiring Apostles, the authority system took precedence over personal relationships.
"Deep Submergence No.2 seems to be working well?" Sandora and I sat opposite Tawil. I asked the question I was most concerned about, "Did you find anything new in there?"
"We went deeper than the last time, but because the concept of 'space' in the pure Abyss environment is vague, we don't have an accurate way to calculate how far the deep submergence ship has traveled. So, we can't use an accurate unit to describe the depth of the dive." Tawil shook his head with slight regret. "There are new discoveries, but they are all within the range of our previous predictions. As the depth of the dive continues to increase, the pressure on the deep submergence ship will increase, and the chaotic elements in the Abyss will speed up the destruction of the deep submergence ship's shield. It seems that we are still far from the critical point that the deep submergence ship detected in the era of the Old Empire, not to mention the area that is abnormally calm in the Abyss. Also, we found a situation that doesn't look too good … "
I had already expected the situation that Tawil mentioned before, but now that she specifically mentioned a 'situation that doesn't look too good', I immediately became nervous. I frowned. "What's going on?"
"We found that the Abyss environment has two strange characteristics: 'uneven' and 'discontinuity.' We still can't explain or avoid these situations." Halland glanced at Tawil, then turned to explain to me and Sandora. "The Abyss apostles are more familiar with what is behind the gate, so I have recently participated in this project. During the last deep dive, I saw the dangerous situation with my own eyes. The pressure on the deep submergence ship increases as it dives. This trend is stable at first, but when the depth reaches a certain threshold, the graph sent back by the equipment will start to drift, fluctuating between high and low, and even showing cracks, just like this —"
As Halland spoke, she presented a holographic projection in front of Sandora and me. Aside from the complicated tables and the constantly refreshing data, the most eye-catching thing on the projection was a continuously descending curve.
The higher the shield is, the safer the spaceship is. When the spaceship stays in a fixed position, its shield will also become a fixed value. As the spaceship dives deeper, of course, the shield will continuously decrease, forming a graph. "Halland pointed at the graph and explained to Sandora and I. Of course, it was more likely that she was explaining it specifically to me." There are three horizontal lines here, representing three critical values. Above the first critical value means that the shield is very safe, and the spaceship's own energy cycle will generate enough self-support to ensure that it can stay in the abyss for as long as it wants. Above the first critical value, the shield will be slightly dangerous, and the spaceship will have to use most of its energy to repair the shield, but it will still be able to carry out its mission smoothly. Above the second critical value means that the spaceship's shield has to be refreshed to ensure its safety. Every time the shield is refreshed, it will only be 10% of its full capacity, which means that the shield can be extinguished at any time. In this case, the spaceship can only carry out its mission for a very short period of time before it has to surface immediately. Otherwise, the system will overload. The third critical value means that the spaceship is doomed — the shield cannot refresh fast enough to keep up with the rate of contamination, and the shield will fall below zero. Every time a new shield is refreshed, there will be an abyssal reaction, and this value may even turn negative. In this case, the structure of the spaceship will begin to be contaminated, and there is no way for it to return. It can only carry out its mission for a short period of time before it completely collapses. In the last mission, the graph was normal when it was above the first threshold. But when it was between the second and third threshold … look, it was like a polyline graph, and it even rose continuously. "
I looked at the significant graph. It steadily decreased from the highest point to the first red warning line, and it also stabilized for a long distance after crossing the first warning line. However, after a while, the smooth curve suddenly began to tremble, rising and falling irregularly. By the time it reached the second critical point, it was almost like an advanced stage of Parkinson's disease.
"There's a discontinuity in the depths of the Abyss that changes from time to time and is unevenly distributed. The information we found in the old Empire didn't mention this," Tawil shook his head. "If the Abyss is seen as a deep sea divided into many layers, and each layer has a different concentration, then the boundary between these layers is not fixed. Not only do they drift at any time, but they can also flip abruptly. The pollution will suddenly decrease, then suddenly increase, and then suddenly decrease again, forming the violently shaking section of the graph."
Sandora immediately realized the danger of the situation. "In other words, after the deep-submersible ship dives to a certain depth, it's very likely that it will 'slip' and fall into a desperate situation?"
Tawil nodded solemnly. "That's right. After the deep-submersible ship reaches its design limit, the situation will become extremely dangerous. Although it can theoretically work at that depth, the Abyss may drift at any time, and this drift is unpredictable. Our equipment may not be able to react in time and be sucked into the destructive vortex. The chance of escaping is basically zero. Theoretically, yes. "
This was a situation we had never encountered in our first deep dive, and it was also a huge challenge. This meant that the actual working depth of the deep-submersible ship must be far less than its design strength. Otherwise, the ship could collapse at any time. I looked at the graph. The parts of the graph that were shaking the most looked like graffiti. It was frightening to look at. "There should be a limit to the range of this fluctuation, right?"
"Basically, it won't exceed five percent of the full value of the shield," Tawil exhaled. "But we can't rule out the possibility of more unstable discontinuity in the depths of the Abyss. We know too little about the depths of the Abyss, and there are no records of this in the old Empire …"
I glanced at Halland, who was deep in thought, and suddenly remembered something. The first-generation deep-submersible ship was designed by Ockham, and Halland was Ockham's former boss. How could Halland not know about the existence of this discontinuity?
"I really don't know," Halland said. Hearing my question, she spread her hands and said, "I'm also wondering what's going on … I was also involved in the deep-submersible project of the old Empire. Although I never asked about the technical details, at least I read the reports, and no one mentioned anything about discontinuity. Such a significant situation, once it appears, it's impossible to hide it."
Sandora rubbed her eyebrows thoughtfully. "Then there are only two explanations. First, discontinuity is not a common phenomenon. We still don't know what the structure of the 'space' inside the Abyss is, so it's possible that the deep-submersible ship we built just happened to enter a dangerous area. Second, discontinuity is not a long-term phenomenon. Such a thing might not exist in the old Empire, and it only appeared in the Abyss after the establishment of the new Empire. If the second hypothesis is true, then I'm afraid our understanding of the Abyss will be overturned … "
"The Abyss is also evolving?" Halland glanced at Sandora.
"At least it's not 'dead'." Sandora touched her right arm in a seemingly unintentional manner. That was where she sealed her power of the Abyss. "We have always thought that the Abyss Gate only has one appearance, but now we know that the Abyss Gate that destroyed our homeworld is different from all the Abyss Gates that we know of. We always thought that there was nothing in the Abyss, but now we find that the bottom of the Abyss is calm … This is challenging common sense. So I don't mind my common sense being subverted again: the Abyss is likely to be constantly evolving. It grows, changes, and looks unchanged on the surface, but the inside should be ushering in a certain cycle. "
I was creeped out by what Sandora said, but I had to admit that this was a possibility. At the same time, I also recalled the scene I observed during the first deep dive experiment: there were strange "cloud" structures in the Abyss, and there were places where pollution was highly concentrated. Now it seemed that those were also "uneven". Although it was nothing compared to the "discontinuities" we observed today, the uneven made us suspect that some kind of "change" was going on in the Abyss …
Maybe it was just as Sandora said, the Abyss was not "dead". It was always changing, and it might be ushering in a certain cycle.
"Let's leave it at that for now. Keep an eye on the discontinuities and try to understand its patterns. This is the only way we can do before we further our research on the Abyss." Sandora tapped the table lightly, then looked at Tawil. "Hurry up and build the Deep Submersible Ship No. 3. If the ship 'loses' and falls to the bottom of the Abyss, at least we will have a backup."
Tawil nodded, then raised his hand and pointed at Anthus. "Your Majesties, there is one more thing …"
Your Majesties … Other than Tawil and Anthus, the other three are all emperors. This kind of grand occasion can only be achieved by a magical regime like the Xiling Empire.
"Ancestor, what is it this time?" I raised my head to look at Anthus, but what Tawil said next to me almost scared me to the ground. "The ancestor wishes to join the next expedition team for a manned deep dive."
I immediately broke out in a cold sweat. I grabbed Anthus' arm and shook it vigorously. "Grandpa, this is different from what we agreed on! Didn't we say that we would only watch from the sidelines?! "
"I did not do this on a whim." Anthus patiently waited for me to finish shaking him, then chuckled and said, "I know that we are a little stubborn and have brought you a lot of trouble, but there is a reason for this situation."
"Reason?" I couldn't help but look at Tawil. "What's going on?"
"Let me explain," Halland suddenly interrupted. "First of all, you know that the corrupted apostles have a higher resistance to the Abyss, right? For those of us who were once Fallen Apostles, we can stay awake for a long time in a highly concentrated Abyss environment. Although Fallen Apostles aren't completely immune to the destructive power of the Abyss, compared to ordinary creatures, our resistance is already so high that we are half immune to it. Hence, the first batch of manned deep divers will be people like us who have been converted. "
I nodded. I knew it myself. The No.2 Deep Submersible Ship that Tawil had built already had the conditions to carry people. Although it wasn't perfect, it was more than enough to carry out short-term missions. Hence, we naturally prepared a deep diving team and were prepared to start the manned experiment after all the tests were completed. Initially, the candidates for the deep diving team were all ordinary Schilling Technicians. However, Halland took the initiative to suggest swapping out these people with the high-level Fallen Apostles (former Fallen Apostles) that he had brought with him. The reason was simple: Fallen Apostles have a high resistance to the Abyss. Even if the spaceship malfunctioned or the internal purification system was faulty, their chances of survival were very high.
Could it be that the reason why the ancestors wanted to participate in the manned experiment was because of their 'resistance'?
Seeing my expression, Halland knew that I had guessed something. He simply nodded and said, "Resistance. We unexpectedly discovered that the ancestors' resistance to the Abyss far exceeded that of the Fallen Apostles. When the concentration of the Abyss is less than two units, they can even directly come into contact with the source of the pollution without any protective equipment. Under normal circumstances, this level of pollution is already fatal to mortals."
Sandora and I were dumbfounded.
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