Chapter 6219: Machine Soul Arcadia (86)

Shiller returned to the South Pole, carrying a letter written by Professor Henry, mainly to reassure Dexter. Shiller delivered the letter.

Dexter didn’t look at the letter first; he first stared at Shiller in shock, then glanced at the letter, followed by another look at Shiller, as if wondering whether Shiller flew back or swam back.

Actually, the content of the letter was no longer very important. Since the cat could return at any time, they weren’t really cut off from the outside world, and there was no issue of being trapped at the South Pole. So, what was there to worry about?

Meanwhile, the others made progress as well. Frank had already boarded the high peak using the latest airplane, conducting very precise measurements there and confirming this as the newly discovered highest peak in Antarctica.

The spores of the Ancient Ones had already sprouted buds, and the speed was quite astonishing, proving significant improvement. Moreover, the form they sprouted was somewhat different from before; perhaps they might truly develop into a jellyfish colony. If that’s the case, not only could they return home, but they could continue to roam the cosmos. The Ancient Ones were so delighted they almost petted the cat bald.

Shiller found the Bat Cat and spoke about his discovery. After a brief contemplation, Bat Cat said, “I think we’ll indeed have to go back once, but it’s best not to bring too many people along. Can you take the dog with you?”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Shiller replied, “Tibbers is familiar with the environment there, and it’s very formidable. We’ve come a long way since then.”

The other cats had no objections either; to them, there was nothing Shiller couldn’t resolve, and surely there would be no issues this time either. Thus, Shiller took Tibbers, using the Silver Key to open the passage.

This key was indeed magical; its function was akin to a dimension door, and by thinking of the destination, it could open a path. Shiller passed through the door and found himself on the roof terrace of a cube.

Tibbers immediately barked loudly, anxiously scraping the ground with its paws. Shiller quickly calmed it down, but judging by its behavior, perhaps it truly had been here before.

Yogg himself was a god mastering time and space, and after being impacted by his power, getting lost in space was perfectly normal. But unexpectedly, this Big Dog was directly taken out of the Material Universe, arriving deep within the Stars, and it just happened to land in Iron Man’s testing ground.

Shiller walked to the edge and peered down; it was still a fiery red underneath, with no changes. But as he climbed down using the feeding pipe with his tentacle, he found that the mycelium’s activity had diminished significantly and seemed nearly lifeless, as if starved.

Indeed, with the place being so small, once all living creatures devoured, naturally no nutrients were left. Despite this, Shiller remained cautious, avoiding contact with the mycelium, so even while walking, his tentacles brushed against the wall.

The dog was indifferent, seemingly unafraid of such fungi. In fact, when it passed by, those still-active mycelium strands seemed eager to evade. But it’s reasonable, for Tibbers could devour descendants of Yog in a single bite; it must possess some unique power that serves as a bane to these demons and ghosts.

The path, once highly challenging for the cats, took only a few minutes to traverse this time. Shiller approached the accident site, but wisely avoided directly advancing, worried that a glimpse of the bubble might teleport him again. He stayed outside for a while, capturing several photos using the equipment’s shooting function.

The photos revealed a light sphere there, obscuring specific details, but presumably it’s that bubble from before. Shiller hesitated; if he simply walked over to observe, the chances of being transported away were high. But if he didn’t, there seemed no alternative.

Shiller pondered it; being transported wasn’t a problem since he had the Silver Key and could teleport back. With this in mind, he stepped forward. Indeed, a faintly glowing golden sphere lay there, yet this time, the object did not trigger a spatial teleportation, though Shiller remained cautious and did not approach.

From the moment they neared the room, Tibbers became increasingly agitated, now refusing to follow Shiller inside, staying outside and continuously barking, seemingly trying to urge Shiller back. Nevertheless, having come this far, Shiller had no intention of retreating.

His decision wasn’t impulsive; clearly, everything here wasn’t coincidental—the cube, fungi, or the light sphere—was deliberately placed here by someone. Whether Iron Man or Yogg, they likely weren’t intending harm upon Shiller, for confronting Shiller wouldn’t require such a winding plot.

Especially Yogg, if he truly bore malice towards the cats, considering this was his home, he could simply descend without needing a summoning ritual. After all, the object connected to him had already appeared here, and his true form faced no hindrance coming over. But not only did he never show up throughout the ordeal, he hadn’t prevented the cats from using the Silver Key, proving his tacit approval of everything.

Shiller slowly stepped closer to the light sphere, extending his paw to tap it lightly, yet nothing occurred; he was neither teleported away, nor did a massive explosion ensue—the anticipated dangers did not appear, with no reaction whatsoever.

Shiller, puzzled, stood there, scratching the floor with his paw, suddenly recalling it was Tony Stark who set this up.

Actually, technically speaking, Iron Man from the Prime Universe and Iron Man from the Central Universe are not quite the same, because Shiller also knows that many settings of the Central Universe are similar to those of the Movie Universe. For instance, Tony from that universe has brown eyes, while Tony from the Prime Universe has blue eyes.

However, since the movies borrowed from the comics during adaptation, the underlying character of Iron Man doesn’t change. Tony Stark is a peacock personality; no matter what he does, he doesn’t miss the chance to show off. And he’s not just like this in terms of courtship; he behaves this way in everything he does.

So, it’s not hard to deduce that Iron Man might have set up a puzzle here. All of his previous designs were possibly to facilitate Shiller’s arrival here, but in the most crucial part, he designed a puzzle element specifically to test Shiller’s intelligence. If it were Tony from the Central Universe, he would do the same and might design a harder puzzle due to his better understanding of Shiller. He sees this as a favor to a friend.

Shiller sighed, feeling increasingly convinced that Iron Man doesn’t need rescuing. But if that’s the case, then he must be saved back after all, making him realize being the behind-the-scenes manipulator isn’t as easy as it seems.

Truth be told, Shiller doesn’t like puzzle-solving at all. To be precise, Greed doesn’t like it—if Arrogant were here, it would be different. But since Arrogant isn’t here, he would do as well. Shiller started examining the surroundings to see how to solve this.

Firstly, mechanical devices can be ruled out; this thing doesn’t look like a mechanical creation, nor is it connected to anything. Most importantly, the cube structure is very simple. It was already discovered beforehand that there are no mechanical creations, so it shouldn’t be about finding switches or levers.

Secondly, magical means probably won’t work either. Firstly, Iron Man likely doesn’t understand summoning formation rituals and the like, and he probably wouldn’t want to mess with such things. As for Yog, it’s way too abstract to have an Outer God form an array—am I summoning myself?

Since neither science nor magic works, there must be a special solution. The first thing Shiller thought of was mycelium. Since it was already deduced that these things might be egg fluid, something has to hatch from it. The black slime hatched Shuggos; the red one must be useful as well.

As the thing isn’t very active now, Shiller went over to study it. But he’s not a biologist and doesn’t understand fungi. The research report Henry gave him was quite superficial; given the era, their research methods were very limited, and the time was quite short, so no in-depth study was conducted, resulting in no reference value.

Shiller brought over a strand of mycelium, but it was evidently useless; even throwing it onto the light sphere didn’t elicit any response. Shiller tried jumping on top of it but produced no effect either.

After all his research, Shiller finally turned his focus on the dog.

Even if the dog got lost in space due to Yog’s power, it wouldn’t necessarily end up here. Coming here precisely and swallowing a bellyful of mycelium looks unmistakably like a deliberately set clue.

But no matter how Shiller called, the dog just wouldn’t come over. It’s likely that Iron Man or Yog set up some dog-fearing power here. It seems the key to solving this puzzle is how to fool the dog into coming over.

If Shiller were human, there would be many ways, but as a cat, he’s limited in actions. Although he has tentacles now, which might seem capable of directly grabbing the dog, the problem is the dog has special resistance to Outer God power; a bite and it’s directly munch munch by the Big Dog.

It wouldn’t work to negotiate with the dog either. On one hand, they don’t speak the same language; on the other, Shiller can’t really guarantee there’s no danger, nor can he provide evidence to persuade the dog, which isn’t easily convinced anyway.

The cat stands on the light sphere gazing at the dog, and the dog stands below gazing at the cat. A cat and a dog, big eyes staring into small eyes, both trying to get the other to follow their own ideas, but neither can, perhaps this is the eternal relationship between cats and dogs.

Shiller thought about possibly bringing Henry over; Tibbers listens to Henry well. But Shiller is quite certain Tibbers would definitely stop him from studying the light sphere because it looks very dangerous. And he can’t explain the cause and effect to Henry either. Besides being complex, there’s also the reason of being unable to ensure safety.

Shiller finally decided to try communicating with Tibbers. He didn’t know what tone in dog language might call them over; he could only try calling Tibbers over with his own language.

“Tibbers, Tibbers! Come here… come here!”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Shiller confirmed that cat and dog languages indeed don’t communicate because after letting out two howls, Tibbers eagerly turned around and walked away. Shiller, squatting on the light sphere, was stunned: Don’t go!

But just as Tibbers stepped out of the room, the light sphere suddenly brightened, and Shiller immediately felt a sense of weightlessness. Good gracious, turns out it wasn’t a puzzle, but was limited to single entry.