Chapter 897 - 896: Tremble, Brain

Chapter 897: Chapter 896: Tremble, Brain

"Data extraction...complete."

Marin’s voice came from beside me, carrying a hint of confusion. It seemed she hadn’t figured out what was happening—the data transmission from the bottom layer of the connectors’ minds had stalled but mysteriously resumed. She had never seen such a scenario.

Anyway, the progress bar ran to the end eventually.

Now everyone’s gaze turned to the golden "Puppet Throne" (extra small size), focusing on the little puppet sitting on the throne.

Erin still had her eyes closed tightly.

"... Why, still not awake?" Luna muttered softly.

"Could it be her mind is stuck?" the fox girl also muttered, "After all, she usually gets stuck quite often."

Luna: "That’s daydreaming, not stuck. What I’m doing now is being stuck, properly stuck."

"Wouldn’t it be better if you spared some bandwidth and let your two cameras take a break?"

"That won’t do, I’m in Valhalla, opened a live streaming channel..."

Yu Sheng listened to the mutterings with a head full of black lines, then casually pulled two strands of fox fur from the fox girl’s tail, intending to tickle the little puppet’s nostrils.

As he approached the Golden Throne, Erin, who had been sleeping soundly a moment ago, suddenly opened her eyes. The little puppet instantly leaped up, arms wide open with an intimidating sound: "Wahaha—"

Yu Sheng nearly jumped on the spot, immediately tossed the fox fur in his hand: "What’s wrong with you, you scared me!"

"Haha, you got scared!" The little puppet stood arrogantly on the throne, then jumped over a meter onto Yu Sheng’s arm, crawling up with hands and feet onto his shoulder, "Let me tell you, I woke up two minutes ago, just wanted to hear if anyone was talking bad about me..."

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, feeling like he had a lot to ask but ended up taking a deep breath, putting most of the doubts aside.

"Data has been fully extracted," he said, pressing the little puppet’s head with his hand, "Next is the decoding and transformation by the old tree over there."

Erin nodded: "Yep, I know, I gave it myself."

"During extraction, the progress suddenly stalled for several minutes," Yu Sheng remarked again, "Did you encounter any issues on your end?"

Erin was silent for two or three seconds, seemingly answering unrelatedly, "...I had a dream."

"Had a dream?"

"Yeah, a long dream," the little puppet swayed, "it’s from a long, long time ago."

"...Was it a good dream?"

Erin thought for a moment, hugging Yu Sheng’s head tightly: "Not bad."

"That’s good then."

The golden puppet throne still hummed lowly, weak halos flowed between the roots and vines connected to the throne.

Marin held a data terminal, swiftly operating beside the throne. A set of holographic projections emerged near the connection device’s base, swiftly scrolling with dizzying data charts and geometric patterns.

Yu Sheng didn’t understand these things, so he could only ask: "How is it? Going smoothly?"

"The data packet is already being decoded," Marin replied quickly, being one of the first to discover an anomaly in Erin’s mind’s bottom layer data structure. She was quite familiar with the vast and mysterious data "compressed packet" before her, "It’s really effective... Clearly, the environmental parameters haven’t changed, they just came into contact with the ’Tree Angel’, and this data structure started autonomously interpreting itself..."

"This should be its initial design," Yu Sheng nodded lightly, "Our previous ways of piling computing power or trying to find loopholes weren’t right. The decryption key for this calibration data was one and only, ’another living companion.’

Erin looked from Yu Sheng to the holographic projection beside the connection device, curiously asking, "How long does this take then? Is the one at the bottom a progress bar? Why do I feel like it’s not moving?"

"This isn’t a game compressed package downloaded from the internet," Lucrecia shook her head, "It’s calibration data capable of providing tuning for the Void Engine, and it won’t be resolved in less than a month. Be patient, the calibrator itself needs time to grow to stabilize."

Erin blinked, understanding partially, but still nodded vigorously: "Oh, oh!"

Then she started mumbling again: "Ah, too bad the old tree’s brain is so slow. If it could handle things faster, it would be great..."

Luna shook her head listening: "Can’t you have less pressure, it’s just a plant."

Then Yu Sheng’s group heard the slow voice of the Tree Angel: "... Wait a while, I’ll raise the frequency."

Yu Sheng: "...?"

At the same time, under the clear sky, the Angel Giant Tree on Lake Heart Island gave a pleasant spiritual energy resonance sound. The crystalline illusions extending around the tree crown seemed to unfurl at some rhythm, affecting the stars reflected in the lake water, making the stars flash in sync.

This incredible sight made many pause at the lakeshore, even many Dark Moon People working stopped instinctively, curiously watching the tree crown and lake water.

Just then, the low murmur of the Angel Giant Tree suddenly echoed in the hearts of every Dark Moon People.

A portion of the Dark Moon People seemed to be summoned, strolling to the foot of the giant tree, gathering between the huge roots rising from the ground, sitting directly on the ground.

Roots and vines grew from their bodies, rooted on Lake Heart Island, connected to the roots of the Angel Giant Tree.

Then these "summoned" Dark Moon People closed their eyes one by one, falling into a seemingly dormant state...

Yu Sheng and his party reached the other side of Lake Heart Island’s camp, and the first thing they saw was those Dark Moon People gathered by the tree roots.

"Hmm? The parsing progress of the calibration data is accelerating?!" Lucrecia looked incredulously at the crystal ball in her hand—she had been monitoring the entire calibration system in real time, "Can it really be like this..."

The slow voice of the Tree Angel echoed in everyone’s mind: "The omen always says my thought process is slow... add a few more brains... processing speed will be a bit faster."

Erin looked at the scene in front of her, not sure whether to describe it as divine or bizarre, her eyes wide open: "Goodness, you really did it... Hey, wait, doesn’t this affect them?"

"It doesn’t, I explained the situation to them, only those free will come... And they rotate every six hours on shift... I even let them take root on me, replenishing nutrients..."

Yu Sheng and the others exchanged glances, suddenly realizing that this seemingly sluggish Tree Angel had a surprisingly nimble thought process.

Yu Sheng even felt that his title as "Boundary Place King of Ideas" was being challenged by a plant—fortunately, the old tree is rooted in the Old World, not the Boundary Land.

The Little Puppet suddenly leaned over to Yu Sheng’s ear, whispering: "Hey, Yu Sheng, do you think the old tree is essentially growing brains for itself?"

"That’s goddamn growing brains," Yu Sheng instinctively replied, but then his brow furrowed, "Wait, you might actually be right..."

"If the speed continues like this... perhaps the calibration data might be parsed within a few days," Lucrecia reviewed the readings on the crystal ball again, her eyebrows raised, "This is truly... unbelievable."

A breeze blew over the treetop, the branches of the Angel Giant Tree rustling, and the slow voice of the Tree Angel sounded again in everyone’s minds: "...I should grow a few more brains, I think I can speed up..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

Then the Tree Angel overclocked itself again.

However, no matter how much overclocking is done, the parsing speed inevitably has a limit, and the state of the calibrator itself doesn’t allow further overload. Upon reaching a certain critical point, the Tree Angel stopped further connecting external brains to itself.

Yu Sheng watched as hundreds of Dark Moon People sat under the big tree, connecting themselves to the Angel Giant Tree, feeling that this scene was truly spectacular.

Although the complete parsing of calibration data seems to still require a few more days, according to Lucrecia, now "the progress has really taken off."

"From here on, we can only patiently wait," Yu Sheng withdrew his gaze, gently exhaling, "Let’s hope everything goes smoothly, with no unexpected hiccups... Erin, don’t say anything, don’t even think about it."

The Little Puppet shut her mouth indignantly, clinging tightly to the back of Yu Sheng’s hair.

Yu Sheng, unflinching (actually at a loss), turned to Marin beside him and said: "You’ll have to stay here for the next couple of days and watch that equipment; I just heard from Lucrecia that before the data is officially imported into the calibrator, the ’Throne’ cannot go offline."

Marin immediately nodded: "Please don’t worry, I’ll handle everything."

"I’ll also be watching over here," Lucrecia added, "Rest assured, Uncle Yu."

Yu Sheng nodded, then reached into the air beside him, opening the door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road.

He then took Hu Li, Luna, and Erin through the door back home.

Yet in the next second, the illusory door behind him had not yet dissipated when Yu Sheng realized something was amiss.

—In fact, the problem was too obvious; anyone with normal eyesight could spot it at a glance.

The house looked as if a thief had broken in, an absolute mess!

Things from the coffee table scattered everywhere, two single-seat sofas were askew, the trash can in the living room had been kicked over by someone, piles of open snacks lay on the floor, and the television in the dining room was turned on, playing the sound from a variety show.

Erin jumped right off Yu Sheng’s shoulder: "Yu Sheng, we’ve been robbed!!"

The Little Puppet hadn’t finished speaking before Hu Li was already in combat mode, the demon fox girl’s eyes shimmering with golden-red fire, surrounded by the nine-tailed Fox Fire.

However, a moment later, she suddenly sniffed the air, her nose twitching, and hesitantly tilted her head.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yu Sheng noticed something moving behind the long sofa not far away.

It was colorful.

He frowned, raised a hand to indicate Luna, whose blade was already drawn, to stay calm, and carefully approached.

The following second, he saw two strangers crouching behind the sofa.

What a head full of colors it was.

With the first glance, Yu Sheng saw two incredibly striking patches of color; it wouldn’t be exaggerating to say he had never seen so many colors on a head in his life—more so on two heads!

The explosive and unrestrained hairstyles had at least seventeen or eighteen different colors, the longer-haired one had numerous ornaments hanging at the hair tips, be it jade or stones, and both wore bizarre, colorful costumes, wrapped in a bunch of asymmetrical fabric strips forming what seemed to be skirts or robes, covered with various bits and pieces.

To put it plainly, they were as non-traditional as possible and full of spirit; Yu Sheng felt these two going on the street dressed like this, even on a 28-bar grip bike, the wheels would probably spontaneously sprout eighteen-color LED lights, pedal half a circle, the Mechanical Soul would emerge from the bicycle tire, producing some sort of ersatz sound...

Not only was Yu Sheng dumbfounded, even the Little Puppet on his shoulder was stunned, Erin was speechless for a long time before exclaiming: "What the hell are these two?!"

The two hiding behind the sofa shook themselves, looking up in unison—it was two girls, about seventeen or eighteen years old, if one had to say, their faces were rather pretty, just a pity that their eyes looked blank, appearing not so clever.

And at this moment, both of them had large spicy slices in their mouths, half their faces were slapped, startled by Erin, the two simultaneously burped—looking even less smart.

Erin: "Who the hell are you?!?"

Then one long-haired girl spoke: "Cuckoo?"

Yu Sheng: "...?!"