"Since it's not omnipotent and can't help me, there's no need to follow and worship it."

The Bone Man's proxy spoke with a cold tone, "I know what you want."

"This 404 City is a large gemstone device built to excavate Earth's core, and my mission is to continuously drive it towards the center of the Earth, until it enters the deepest core."

"Heavenly People gave me this mission through the gemstone. That's it."

As soon as it finished speaking.

Within the High Castle Bone Man's body, gemstones projected an image into the air.

The image was of a writhing black phantom, maintaining an oval shape with continuously curling edges, like a perpetual swallowing and deep abyss-like mouth.

In a turbid incandescent ocean, it absorbed large amounts of white matter into itself, while erupting some black and brown fluid, as if a life form was ingesting and excreting.

Zhou Yi immediately thought of the Time Master.

The four-dimensional organ he captured was very similar to this, both having similar curling and nested structures.

It's very likely that this thing is some organ of the Time Master.

"I don't know what it is, but Heavenly People are certain it exists underground. So 404 City must continue to advance underground, I suspect this thing should be in the deeper core area."

Verne had regained composure by now.

After changing direction and stance, it revealed the secret of the former employer with no burden: "According to my inference, this thing is likely in the liquid outer core of the Earth. The thickness there is about 2250 kilometers, with temperatures close to 5000 degrees Celsius, near the high temperature of the Sun's surface, slowly convecting with liquid iron-nickel. It absorbs these high-temperature liquid metals."

"As for the black and brown substances it expels, I don't know."

"My mission is to use 404 City to find this thing."

Zhou Yi asked, "Why don't the Heavenly People do it themselves, and instead have you, a proxy, push forward underground?"

"Initially, I didn't understand either. Heavenly People never explain their actions; they only require obedience and execution, no questions or appeals needed."

Verne touched the bone chain on its neck: "After many years, I gradually fully mastered the operation of 404 City, only to realize that the Heavenly Gem itself has limitations."

"At least for Earth's mantle and core, in the initial shallow regions, the entire 404 City operated automatically, without needing control and being uncontrollable. It would descend underground on its own."

"But upon entering the mantle below a depth of 900 kilometers, it stops automatic operation and requires me to manually control it."

"What you observe from the outside is the main body of 404 City, but actually, it's not just this conical structure. What I control is the upper part below. But behind it, there are many gem channels connecting to the shallow regions, enabling quick entry and exit from here."

"Those channels are like a gemstone backbone, from the surface all the way to the underground 404 City. I don't think it's for the convenience of our operators going in and out underground. It's for the Heavenly People to extract the found target directly from underground and acquire it."

Zhou Yi also noticed this.

According to the network imaging sent back by the Evil Brain Fleet, 404 City is like a giant drill, continuously drilling into the mantle. Above it are several long tendril-like gemstone backbones, like railways going deep underground.

Within those gemstone backbones, there are fixed interval layers formed by stable buildings of gemstones.

The entire underground excavation project has a very rigorous progressive process to ensure that even if there is an issue underground, the shallow regions remain stable and functional nodes.

Verne continued, "The reason 404 City cannot automatically drill downward is that the initial 7 pilots of this city are dead."

"The initial pilots?"

Zhou Yi felt his speculation being confirmed, "The pilots you mentioned, are they humanoid life forms with glass structures?"

"You indeed know about this."

The Bone Man's proxy seemed not surprised, nodding, "That's them. Later on, I mimicked them, filling their positions with Crystal Bone People, which I gradually developed myself."

"Initially, I was the only one controlling 404 City. In hindsight, I realize I was transformed precisely to replace these individuals, becoming the pilot of 404 City."

Zhou Yi asked again, "Tell me about your process of becoming a proxy."

Verne fell into reminiscence.

"I first lived on a floating island where many Bone Men gathered. The island was in a very calm sea; apart from needing to regularly maintain the island to prevent it from sinking, life was carefree. At that time, I had never left the island and was unaware of external wars or the existence of Heavenly People..."

Then, Heavenly Gem descended onto the island, and Tietie, as a test subject of the Heavenly People, was sealed inside.

The subsequent experience was similar to Wu Yi's.

However, Verne had different results.

"At the moment the island was struck, I thought I was doomed because the gemstone body fell directly on me. When I regained consciousness, I found I was in the Gem Space."

Verne recounted, "I found that besides me, there were also other Bone Men here, all sealed in the gemstone like collected exhibits."

"I was chosen because I can expand my skeletal body. When idle, I dismantled my hands and feet; not the whole arm and leg bones, but starting from the finger bones."

"In short... after a long period of exploration, I found a stable way to split and backup my body. Just like this Working Bone Castle, which is my true self."

It pointed to the gigantic bone structure beside it.

"In the proxy selection process, I was lucky to survive to the end. My understanding of long-term bone dismantling was quite effective; it's how I endured the pressure of the Heavenly Gem to become the last survivor."

"Since then, I also gained an ability modified by the Heavenly People based on my talent; I call this ability [Alien Body]. I can separate parts of my body, attach them to other bones, and create independent Bone Men with their own thoughts. All the Bone Men in 404 City are actually me."

Zhou Yi was taken aback, "They're all you?"

"Yes. Those Crystal Bone People, they are my modified Bone Man envoys. There are a total of 49 in this city — even the Working Bone Castle counts as one. They think they are themselves, but they're not."

Verne said calmly, "I've split my body, embedded a segment of crafted memory and name into each, making them think they're themselves."

"However, to prevent them from discovering this, and as my backup, I bestowed unique personalities and ways of behavior to each Crystal Bone Person. This also results in some being very loyal while others have a tendency to rebel. But it doesn't matter because, in this world, there's no other place to accommodate them."

"I just didn't expect the sudden emergence of the Wasteland Development Company, reaching this scale within a few years... directly causing Lin Hao to defect."

The Bone Man sighed, "Unexpected and rare events are always unforeseeable."

"Why?"

Zhou Yi was puzzled, "Why go through such trouble? Isn't it better to simply make them your clones?"

"From an efficiency standpoint, turning Alien Body into clones is indeed the best choice... it's just..."

Verne hesitated for a moment, "Over many years, I've realized I still long for the life back on that floating island."

"I always thought I would forget that time quickly, those days of ignorance like frogs in a well, yet year after year, my memories have become ever clearer..."

"That was my most peaceful and relaxed period. So I used [Alien Body] to create avatars, giving them different names, trying to recreate the past communal life."

"Unfortunately, the past cannot return; it's gone. Everything changed completely from the moment the Heavenly Gem descended."

"Later, I retained the Alien Body strategy because this method is my safety rope, even if something happens to me, I can restart through them. Each one of them is a part of me; if I alter the arrangement of their internal bones and activate the information within, they become my new body."

Zhou Yixin thought to himself, this ability is quite a life-saving feature.

He asked, "Are the corpses of those pilots still here?"

"Yes, I've preserved them well."

Verne left the White Bone Castle, walking along Gem Street.

Zhou Yi observed.

The entire 404 City was entirely covered in gemstones, with a layer of crystal canopy. Inside the layers of gemstones, the roads crisscrossed like a complex maze.

Along the way were gem houses serving as individual cells—some were empty, some contained blurred human figures inside, some were long-term solidified and frozen, while some could still move inside.

Finally, Verne arrived at the Gem Sky.

Several green dots were suspended in the sky.

As the Bone Man's proxy dismantled the wall of the canopy piece by piece, he extracted 7 Green Gems.

These gems were each as tall as a person, with shapes varying. Inside, the deceased were just like the Green Gem Zhou Yi had obtained, their bodies highly fragmented, with severe fiber fragmentation.

This was a significant discovery.

Zhou Yi asked, "Did the Heavenly People not retrieve them?"

"No."

Verne said, "When I was sent here, they were already dead inside the gemstones."

Zhou Yi decided to immediately send these glass men to the Moon for testing.

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