Chapter 1284: Chapter 1283: A Single Move Affects the Whole Situation

In the sea demon watch station monitoring The Deep Blue Webway, the soldiers on duty here ran out of their respective rooms, curiously gathered around the freshly salvaged black cube. One sea demon, with clean, short silver-white hair, poked the recently extinguished, still warm black cube with their trident, then turned and poked Caroline, who had a face full of pride, with the tip of their tail, "You’re really amazing; three of the four cubes were brought up by you..."

Caroline proudly lifted her chin and tail: "Of course, I have an incredibly high drop rate!"

"I still don’t know what these things are for," another sea demon circled around all the cubes, then came back and mumbled while pinching their chin, "Last time, the witches sent by the Queen scanned these cubes with a bunch of equipment and left. I wonder if they found out anything in these two days..."

"Research conclusions can’t come that quickly," Vila shook her head, "But I heard that the Queen attaches great importance to this matter. She contacted our land allies the same day—however, even our allies don’t know what these things are."

"At any rate, someone is clearly up to something," Caroline nodded seriously, holding her trident. "These perfectly square objects couldn’t have grown in The Deep Blue Webway by themselves; someone definitely tossed them in there..."

All the surrounding sea demons immediately chimed in agreement.

Only Vila slightly frowned, seemingly puzzled by something: "But why don’t the witches just take these cubes back for research? Why run all that way from Antawen to the Boundless Sea to collect data, and even emphasize when leaving to let us keep these cubes at the watch station and not take them into the material world..."

"Who knows," Caroline shook her head, looking indifferent, "Since they say it’s a technical issue, then it must be a technical issue. We, who only know how to fight, can just watch the fun on the side. If someone dares to act up from this place, we’ll just chop them down..."

Vila looked at her comrade helplessly, sighed, and shook her head: "Sometimes I really envy your simple and straightforward view of life..."

...

In the technology sector of the Antawen Vessel, the Tidal Laboratory was brightly lit.

The deep water technicians from the "Knowledge Inward Ring" were bustling in the laboratory. Various research devices and experiment platforms, distinct from land styles and characteristic of the deep-sea, were set in this spacious fan-shaped shell-like room. The Great Witch Hazel swam with her long fish tail from the research terminal to the analyzer in the center of the lab—a large device embedded directly on the room’s floor. The metal base, layered like a shell, had several luminous spheres embedded in it, resembling giant pearls among shells. Above this "pearl array" floated a "Sphere of Pure Water" several meters in diameter, clear and transparent, with a projection clearly visible within the pure water body.

The image depicted a cube with an extremely complex structure, its internal structure layer upon layer unraveling. The 3D stacked magic symbols, crisscrossing magic conduction structures, and the artificial crystals at key nodes were all clearly marked and processed into different colored semi-transparent lines. Many light points navigated the disassembly diagram, demonstrating the possible energy flow and logic pathways within the cube deduced by the lab’s analysis system.

This is the strange kind of cube that the sea demons sentinels "salvaged" from the Deep Blue Vein Flow—though the sentinels inevitably caused damage to each cube during the salvage process, subsequent scanning analysis indicated these cubes shared the same internal structure, with different damage sites. Through complementing each other with several samples, the deep water technicians had successfully restored the complete structure of this cube under normal conditions.

Hazel observed the image in front of her seriously, then thoughtfully reached out, manipulating the virtual space around the Sphere of Pure Water, causing the projected image within to rotate and zoom. The disassembled internal structure of the cube immediately dispersed, presenting themselves more clearly and intuitively to this "Deep Sea Witch."

"You’ve been staring at these structural diagrams for the past two days, Hazel," another deep sea witch with a gold-red fish tail swam over, her voice soft and husky, appearing warm and calm, "I can tell you’re quite invested in it."

"Have you seen anything like it, Cretina?" Hazel turned, her expression grave and earnest, "These 3D stacked magic symbol structures and the complex conduction mechanisms interspersed between them... Even though our understanding of ’magic power’ is still quite basic, the craftsmanship displayed by this... exceeds our understanding of land civilizations."

The deep sea witch referred to as Cretina looked up, meticulously observing the disassembled diagram of the cube projected in the Sphere of Pure Water, and said deeply, "We have stayed on this planet for nearly a million years, witnessing the rise and fall of land civilizations, most of their technologies documented in our archives, yet I’ve never seen anything similar... Although I don’t understand its principles, I can tell this is not something land civilizations have ever created or are capable of creating now—of course, I’m not referring to its craftsmanship..."

"Exactly, craftsmanship-wise, the cube itself isn’t sophisticated, certainly within the reach of this season’s civilization. Yet its underlying principles are complex and profound. It feels like... someone with advanced technical knowledge is guiding a primitive human on how to assemble a machine with stones and sticks, and even succeeded," Hazel spoke, gently shaking her head, "The machining craftsmanship is an apparent shortcoming for these cubes. Even if we used our current factories, we could reduce these cubes’ size by over tenfold."

"Yet we still don’t know what these cubes are for," Cretina lightly swayed her tail, stirring up a bubbling sound in the lab, "For now, the only thing certain is, deep within them is a structure capable of long-distance communication, and this structure operates independently of the cube’s energy cycle. Even if the cube itself has ceased its activities, its signal sending device is still working—this indicates that The Deep Blue Webway should harbor an even larger number of cubes, potentially communicating with each other to form a massive network with specific functions, or they have a higher command center..."

Hazel manipulated the projector, swiftly reassembling the disassembled cube diagram, then scaled and duplicated it to present a vast schematic of a network distributed across the entire planet’s The Deep Blue Webway: "It’s possible both scenarios are true, with these cubes forming a network in the webway, while someone or some force lurking in the material world manipulates them for some purpose. What do our allies call those suspicious folks? Oh... that’s right, The Scapegoat Society..."

"...I remember His Majesty Gawain Cecil mentioning this wasn’t an official name... but it doesn’t matter," Cretina remarked casually, "In any case, the communication mechanism inside these cubes is still functioning, and apparently, to disable it entirely, we would have to smash the whole cube into pieces... So for now, let’s leave these ’stone lumps’ in the Boundless Sea, where interference from the Water Elemental World can make the controllers behind these cubes lose their coordinates. At least temporarily, they shouldn’t figure out why."

Hazel nodded lightly, seemingly lost in thought before suddenly breaking the silence after a while: "Have our Cecil allies responded?"

"They’ve received the intelligence and the cube’s scan images we’ve sent over, but I suspect they’re just as baffled as we are about the principles behind these cubes and their precise function," Cretina shook her head, "Nevertheless, we’ve discovered a very crucial clue, which makes our allies quite pleased, and the Queen is pleased as well—it’s been a very long time since the sea demons collaborated on a task like this with ’friends.’"

"...Is that so," Hazel replied noncommittally, turning her head with a trace of contemplation and recollection on her face. After a long silence, she softly said, "Then let’s hope this time, these ’friends’ don’t disappear just like that... Silent farewells and abruptly ended friendships are always melancholy affairs."

...

In Cecil Castle, within a large laboratory at the Magic Technology Research Institute, the atmosphere was quite solemn.

The Magic Web Terminal buzzed as high-precision Projection Crystals created a clear holographic projection in the air. The laboratory’s heat exchange system blew warm and pleasant air, maintaining a comfortable environment in the room. However, Aunt Heidi still instinctively felt a chill gathering nearby as she looked at the strange cube that appeared in the holographic projection.

This was something sent by allies far in the deep sea, an object their sentinels dispatched to the elemental world had accidentally "salvaged" from the Deep Blue Webway.

A man-made object unknown to anyone, with a bizarrely complex structure and inexplicable function. The sea demons used their advanced technology to scan the internal structure of this thing clearly. Yet, apart from revealing the shadow of advanced technologies hidden behind this cube, no one could understand how this thing operated or what effects it might produce.

The only certainty was that there was indeed something amiss in the Deep Blue Webway; someone had indeed tampered with that sprawling planetary "energy system" — and this conspiracy was in progress!

"I and my assistants have analyzed all the diagrams sent back by the sea demons," Jenni Perot, the highest authority in the Rune Research Center, stood beside Aunt Heidi. This "Great Runemaster" had her hair tied up, dressed in a white uniform, holding a clipboard filled with calculations and magic symbol array diagrams, her expression exceptionally serious. "We discovered that the optimization of these magic symbols has reached an extreme level, employing many advanced designs that even we hadn’t thought of. These symbols themselves are the ’magic symbols’ we recognize, but after complex arrangements, their function remains a mystery—I suspect these single cubes are not complete, they are only components of a large system, and currently are not truly activated."

Aunt Heidi nodded slightly; although she was no longer at the forefront of technology, as a Mage, she wasn’t an "administrative bureaucrat" ignorant of technical knowledge, and what Jenni described was not difficult for her to understand: "So, do you mean that these things might present a different form upon actual activation... their internal structure can ’evolve progressively’ under the influence of remote commands?"

Jenni gently nodded: "That’s a possibility."

"What’s your opinion?" Aunt Heidi turned her head and looked at Rebecca standing beside her.

Rebecca immediately clenched her fists and said without hesitation: "This must be the doing of the Oblivion Association!"

Aunt Heidi imperceptibly furrowed her brow: "We all think so—now the key is what to do next."

"I think we need more big explosions, blow everything remaining from the Oblivion Association to the heavens!"

"... Forget it, it’s my mistake to expect you to think about matters beyond the technical field," Aunt Heidi suddenly covered her forehead, "This kind of overall planning is not something you should be responsible for."

Rebecca blinked at Aunt Heidi; although her aunt’s reaction wasn’t entirely satisfactory, her expression remained serious: "Auntie, am I wrong? We don’t understand what these cubes are for nor the purpose of the Oblivion Association throwing these cubes into the Deep Blue Webway—they certainly aren’t trying to clog all the world’s sewers—then the only action we can take is clear!"

Aunt Heidi was slightly stunned; she hadn’t expected Rebecca’s seemingly blurted words to contain serious thought, and couldn’t help but glance at her niece: "So, do you have a plan?"

"... I don’t have any plan, just like Aunt you said, this kind of overall planning isn’t what I’m good at; there are ancestors and generals to work out the details," Rebecca understood clearly, "What I know also involves making as many more powerful explosives as possible, preparing everything we can. Since we don’t understand what the enemy intends, might as well not try to understand—and preparing a few thousand bombs for them in advance certainly can’t hurt..."

As she spoke, Rebecca nodded, as if emphasizing her correctness, and made a silent decision in her heart: later she must complete the final tests of the supercritical acceleration gun and Purgatory Incendiary, then find a way to mount them on Project 115...

"You..." Aunt Heidi looked at Rebecca, and after a brief surprise finally showed a smile, then quickly cleared her throat, regaining a serious expression, "What Rebecca said actually makes some sense. Now, His Majesty is exploring the Border of the Divine Kingdom and temporarily cannot be contacted, but we can’t take no action... I need to immediately contact Aldernon and the Elven Royal City."

...

This enormous ancient spaceship was approaching a place known as "Mother Harbor".

Back then, the Voyagers left not only cruising ships in this "deep-sea" but also a so-called "Mother Harbor"!?

Gawain instantly captured the information behind those fragmented characters, and Amber, hanging from his arm at this time, finally broke the silence with a tense expression: "Did the ship just tremble all of a sudden!? Is this thing finally about to blow up?!"

Gawain quietly turned his head, raised his hand to lift Amber off his arm and placed her aside.

"It’s not about to blow," he said in a low voice, "Apparently, it has reached the ’terminal’... this ship needs to dock."

"Docking?" Victoria’s eyes widened slightly.

Gawain gently nodded, took one last glance at the hall filled with warning lights, and stepped towards the hall’s exit: "We go back the way we came—it’s probably where the biggest secret is waiting for us."

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