Chapter 1749: A New Storm Is Brewing
At the lounge in the Basilica of the World Tree, Y’zaks was laughing heartily as he looked at Hao Ren who was lying on the sofa like a salted fish. “You lot sure took your sweet time. I thought that trip would have taken at most a few days. You ended up leaving for more than a month.”
“The L’Haronnean case is just so complicated. My biggest headache now is how do I even write my report.” Hao Ren looked defeated. “Thankfully, everything was resolved rather well, and we even managed to dig up some treasure and also give Rheia a long term target.”
“I saw the thing that you brought back.” Y’zaks nodded. “I heard that it is going to the assembly factory of the Creation’s Engine.”
Hao Ren nodded. “Right, and with that, the Creation’s Engine is completed, and the biggest trump card we need is completed. But say, I never thought you guys would stay here. I assumed you guys were lounging back home.”
Y’zaks smiled as he looked at the Nangong siblings who were chatting with Lily and Rollie who was jumping up and down excitedly while playing with Y’lisabet and shrugged. “There’s nothing to do staying at home anyway, so we’ll come here once in a while. Plus we had been involved in the various cases of the Plane of Dreams and we do have quite an understanding of the matter here. With Salaman and his guardians just returning, they would seek us out to inquire about some info.”
As he spoke, a slightly helpless expression appeared on his face, “And of course, the other reason is to walk the cat… She’ll go crazy if she stays indoors more than three days, so rather than let her wreak havoc in town, might as well bring her over here to play.”
In a daze, Hao Ren looked at the catgirl who had already clambered up to the top of the vines, and was aghast, “That rascal is still not used to living in human civilization? I remembered that she had actually learned how to shop and buy her own clothes…”
“That’s her suppressing her natural instincts,” Vivian’s vice came from Hao Ren’s back, “She being a good girl was just because she had fish jerky to eat after finishing her task, other than that when she’s up to her nonsense she never holds back. She was a stray cat after all.”
As they spoke, the catgirl who was climbing all over the massive vines suddenly scampered over as she ran circles around Hao Ren. “Are you talking about me, nya?”
Hao Ren patted her on the head, “Yeah, yeah. You’re everywhere alright, your ears are as sharp as Lily’s…Huh?!”
A sudden feeling that could not be described assaulted him out of nowhere, and Hao Ren could not help but stop.
It was not only him, everyone in the Basilica had felt that sudden shock, and everyone, including the busy and whimsical sprites, all stopped where they stood and looked around confused.
The sudden palpitation was beyond words, and no one knew where did it come from. That feeling suddenly plunged himself into a dark and chaotic world, the world was covered in fog, and you could not tell anything from your surroundings, but yet you could clearly feel that deep within the mist, an overwhelmingly terrifying monster had awakened, and it had noticed every soul within the mist…
The next second later, that feeling faded away, and a light appeared in the center of the hall. As it faded away, Rheia appeared before everyone.
Y’zaks’ eyebrows were furrowed as he looked at the goddess of creation, “Could that possibly be…”
“The ‘Pulse” of the Mad Lord,” Rheia quickly explained. “One of the alarms I had set in the Umbral Realm had sent out an alarm to the entire universe.”
Hao Ren quickly stopped playing with the cat, and his slothful demeanor totally disappeared as he swiftly grabbed the MDT. “To the Comms Center!”
The Comms Center is located within the Basilica of the World Tree, but its structure and style were totally different compared with the other places in the basilica. The place was filled with blue crystals and argent alloy frames as all sorts of Xiling-styled facilities, and rather than calling it a part of the Basilica, it was more like it was the extension of CARS, and in fact, it was such.
The Comms Center was a projection of a part of CARS, and its functions were cobbled together by CARS and Hao Ren’s various other facilities in the Plane of Dreams and consolidated into a single data link. They had also established a connection with the Basilica of the World Tree and all sorts of data networks left by the goddess of creation. All of the temporary connection ports Hao Ren had earlier set up in the Basilica had all been moved into the center, and its existence had increased the stability and efficiency of all functions.
In the hall, Hao Ren saw Asurman and Lemendusa’s projections, and the moment that ‘universal alarm signal’ went off, the two had come online.
As Hao Ren stepped into the hall, a few other holographic projections were activated one by one as Muru, Loken, Salaman and a few others appeared.
“We have confirmed that the Dark Abyss had released the first level alert, and the signal came from the ancient defense system the goddess had set up.” Asurman’s was the first to speak. It had taken the responsibility of monitoring the Dark Abyss and the scheduled contact with the Nightwatchers, and it was natural for it to be the first to report. “That aside, we have also made emergency contact with the Nightwatchers, and have confirmed that the defensive layer was the system was located had gone silent after the alert was released, and is now totally lost.”
Rheia frowned, “We can confirm that that defensive layer is totally done for… How about the Nightwatchers stationed there?”
“As they have pulled back in time, the Nightwatchers have all moved to the central defensive line, and they are pulling out into the outer levels in batches, no losses so far.”
“That’s good…” Rheia let out a soft sigh of relief, “I have set up another alarm system… no response as of now?”
“Not at the moment.”
“How severe is a Level One alert?” Hao Ren looked at Rheia.
“It’s only second to the highest Level Zero alert,” Rheia said. “Level One means that all containment measures are about to be or have been breached, and the prison is about to fail. As for Level Zero… Level Zero is no longer a warning, it is a notification to the entire universe, that all seals have been broken, and containment has totally failed while the Mad Lord is fully active. Rather than an alert, it is more like last words.”
Hao Ren heard a few gasps behind him, and he too was no exception, “So Level One is technically the highest alert… how long do we have before it becomes Level Zero?”
Rheia did not immediately reply, as she turned towards the large volume of data Asurman had sent over, as countless of holographic projections circled her with leaping perimeters and graphs depicting the situation of the collapsed dimension at the heart of the universe. A few seconds of calculation later, she turned back, “We have at most two months, and this is after including the delaying effect of the remaining prison structure after it fails, and the delaying action the Nightwatchers can take, but we cannot risk losing them in there, so if things worsen, we might not even have two months.”
“Then let’s prepare based on the worst-case scenario.” Hao Ren replied, as he turned to Lemendusa. “How long does it take to complete the Creation’s Engine?”
“The connection port for the Heart of God has been completed, and the internal container structure will be completed within three days, and the assembly will be done in ten.” Lemendusa responded, “We can also complete the Heart of God’s operation rewrite and data vault reset, but we won’t have much of an opportunity to test it out… it will be sent out as an experimental unit into the field.”
“That’s fine, and the goddess of annihilation only has an experimental unit herself,” Hao Ren said before he turned to Muru. “How are the ecosystems on the planets faring?”
Muru was at first the gardener for Tannagost, but as the Tannagosian ecosystem shifted into gear, his job scope too had expanded as he started managing and monitoring the information from the various ecosystems found.
As the old First Born network had been destroyed, the monitoring of these ecosystems was due via the new Zorm network.
And the Zorm Network was a network using CARS and the droid antenna as a conduit operating through Zorm’s mental projection. This technique was first successfully deployed on the Executor’s planet, and now, Hao Ren had expanded its scale to include every filed ecosystem, which included Holletta and Io.
“All ecosystems normal. No signs of the taint of madness.”
Hao Ren nodded, “Focus the monitoring on planets with intelligent lifeforms, especially their dreams. If you detect any loss of order on a large scale or the manifestation of nightmares, activate the mental filter.”
The way where the taint of the Mad Lord spread was particularly dangerous to any intelligent lifeforms, especially when these beings were capable of dreaming, and that increased the danger many folds so Hao Ren had to set up a mental filtration device near every ecosystem as insurance.
While it may sound high tech, this filter was actually a “divine power focal lens” and its use was to draw a suitable amount of power from the divine resonance network Rheia had created and after focusing it, to project it on an ecosystem to interfere or overwhelm the taint of madness.
For a short period of time, this “mental filter” would indeed work, but after a long period, mortals would not be able to withstand the power and will instead cause a catastrophic effect to the ecosystem, and the lightest of which is the entire population of intelligent beings being reduced to blathering simpletons.
So the mental filtration device is only permitted to be activated if the taint of madness had infected the planet on a large scale, and even that, its operation time is limited.
“The enhanced monitoring or the mental filtration device is just an auxiliary measure,” Hao Ren turned towards Rheia after setting up a series of countermeasures. “The future of this universe will still be decided in the Dark Abyss.”
“Yes… this battle must be fought sooner or later.” Rheia sighed. “After so many years, an end is sorely needed.”
Hao Ren nodded as he looked at the holographic projections around him, and on it were the Asurmen’s observatory recordings of the Dark Abyss.
“It’s time to check out the ‘borderlands’ now.”
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