Chapter 906 - 905: Trial Run

Chapter 906: Chapter 905: Trial Run

Yu Sheng directly opened a door and led a group of people to that special room at the foot of the Angel Giant Tree where "Aileen’s Throne" was to be installed, and when he arrived, Marin was already waiting by the equipment.

—The throne-shaped data reading device was still connected to the Angel Giant Tree, currently acting as the monitoring terminal for the Calibrator’s entire system.

In the holographic projection before the Throne, complex geometric patterns and streams of rapidly flowing information were constantly refreshing, displaying the status of the whole system. The spring-loaded maid Maris stood beside the Throne, several data cables extending from the throne’s base and connecting to the back of her neck.

A faint buzzing came from inside the spring-loaded maid, occasionally accompanied by beeping system prompts. Maris’s expression looked a bit dazed, but her mouth didn’t stop:

"I must emphasize again, Miss Marin, this unit is only a mass-produced servo assistant. Taking part in this kind of super project that decides the world’s Destiny has already gone far beyond my service scope. This unit’s Mind is under tremendous stress right now and strongly requests an upgrade to the core computing unit..."

Marin stood beside her with a data terminal, tapping away, and answered without even raising her head: "Okay, okay, you’re just reading a system log and you’re getting all worked up. Don’t think I can’t see your current Mind load. This job I could do with a kids’ smartwatch, you know?"

Maris blinked, her expression quickly recovering its liveliness: "Then can I later post the mission record online, saying this unit once deeply participated in the World Ark’s startup and engine calibration project..."

Marin: "Say one more word and I’ll list you on the second-hand market."

Maris fell silent at once.

This was the scene Yu Sheng and Lucrecia saw when they arrived.

As soon as the Star Sea Witch appeared, Marin visibly "boinged" upright, hastily saluting: "Lady Lucrecia, data synchronization is ready, the whole system environment is stable, we can execute the next command at any time..."

Lucrecia nodded, her gaze falling on Yu Sheng.

"Didn’t expect it to be this fast," Yu Sheng said, looking at the dizzying cluster of holograms before the Throne, even though he couldn’t understand what those refreshing data and patterns meant. "Didn’t you say before that no matter how fast data parsing was, it’d still take a few days?"

"The late-stage decoding efficiency exceeded expectations," Marin immediately nodded and explained, "and the Tree Angels’... uh, ’overclocking’ method turned out to be very effective."

Yu Sheng instantly thought of those Dark Moon People who spent all day connected to the giant tree’s roots—the Tree Angels’ external brains.

He cleared his throat twice, reining in his drifting thoughts: "So, what do we do next?"

"First Erin still has to sit on this," Marin nodded and raised her hand, pointing at the Golden Throne. "Her Mind will help ensure the stability of the subsequent data injection process. After that, I’ll input the already-parsed calibration data into the runtime environment."

"My father is already prepared. The World Engine has entered tuning mode," Lucrecia continued beside them. "After it receives the Calibrator’s signal, the engine will perform a simulated ignition. A small test-order field will unfold along the Quiet Sea’s edge to complete the subsequent parameter checks—the entire process will last for several hours."

Yu Sheng nodded, but soon, still uneasy, he confirmed once more: "Any risks?"

"The ’trial run’ itself is to rule out risks, to prevent truly fatal problems when the World Ark formally sets sail," Lucrecia smiled. "Relax, the Calibrator will run at low power throughout, and the engine side is only a simulated ignition. Even if something really does go wrong, it’ll only be an emergency disassembly of the test environment, nothing else."

Here she paused, then lowered her head to glance at the Little Puppet already doing warm-up exercises.

"As for Erin, there’s even less to worry about. She’s only responsible for providing the ’Omen Anchor Point’ in the Mind data, and won’t participate in the subsequent calibration and ignition process. Her role is similar to the certificate of quality on a product—without a certificate the product can’t leave the factory, but if the product really is defective, that’s a problem with the quality inspection process, not with the certificate itself."

Erin tilted back her little head and listened intently, actually not understanding a thing—but she felt completely badass.

Then she scrambled up onto that glittering Puppet Throne with both hands and feet, tilted her head, and fell asleep in one second like an emperor dropping dead.

"Omen Anchor Point injection detected, calibration data authorized," Marin, who was monitoring the Throne’s status, immediately reported. "Calibrator has started up, runtime environment beginning to ’heat up’..."

A low humming came from inside the Puppet Throne, accompanied by streams of light appearing in the conduits behind the Throne, and illusory starlight spread through the surrounding space.

It was a projection from the Quiet Sea.

The Calibrator located in the Old World, the Void Engine located at the Cosmic Border—two information structures so vast they exceeded the Mind’s understanding of ordinary people—began to gradually resonate across distant dimensions of time and space.

Yu Sheng gently drew a breath, his Mind now merged with the Calibrator into one whole, and at this moment he felt more directly than anyone...the existence of that "engine" at the end of the world.

The low, strange humming echoed outward from the Angel Giant Tree, reverberating across Lake Heart Island, over New Moon City, and gradually across almost the entire Plande Sky Island.

People stopped their busy work in surprise and looked up toward the Angel Giant Tree.

The crystalline phantoms around the canopy were unfolding across the sky, as if turning into a vast illusory mirror. The lake water around the giant tree was reflected up into the heavens, and in their interlaced glow, brilliant starlight diffused.

A silver-white "star-shaped structure," resembling a sea star, appeared in the illusory star sea of the sky. It hung upside down, and on the Tower at its center floated a small burning sun, facing the giant tree below from afar.

"Engine data synchronized..."

An unreal voice sounded by Yu Sheng’s ear—that was the Void Engine’s system broadcast.

He lifted his head and saw a tall figure wreathed in starlight standing not far away.

The Captain stood before a massive projection that looked like a control console, seemingly adjusting the Void Engine’s status there.

"Calibration data injected... Annihilation environment being calibrated... Generating new order-field information parameters..."

Listening to the information broadcast resounding in his mind, Yu Sheng stepped up beside the Captain’s figure.

"We’ve finally reached this step," the Captain nodded to him. "So far, everything looks smooth."

Yu Sheng glanced at the Captain, who was adjusting the Void Engine parameters, then lowered his head to look at the space in front of himself.

"...Should I also set up some kind of gizmo in front of me to look busy?" He scratched his hair. "This is making me feel super awkward..."

"Hey, no need, no need," the Captain waved his hand. "Most of my systems are actually automatic. Switching to manual is mainly just so I’ve got something to fiddle with and feel more grounded."

Yu Sheng: "...Ahem."

"Anyway, enough about that," the Captain laughed. "How’s your system looking? You should be able to directly confirm the Calibrator’s status."

Yu Sheng nodded, slightly settled his Mind and felt around with his perception.

"Calibrator running smooth. Erin’s sleeping like she just kicked the bucket."

The Captain immediately burst out laughing. "That’s good. She’s had great sleep quality since she was born."

The system was ready.

In Yu Sheng’s perception, the Calibrator and the Void Engine were now linked into a dynamic yet stable whole. Vast amounts of information were beginning to circulate using the "world" itself as a medium, rising and falling like breath, soaking into the stars.

"Test environment ready, engine simulation ’ignition’ prepping."

The system prompt came through. Yu Sheng saw the Captain give him a nod, then place his hand on a certain spot on the console.

"Ten, nine, eight... three, two, one... engine ’ignition’."

A portion of the Void Engine was activated. Even though it wasn’t an actual launch, Yu Sheng still felt a kind of indescribable... "vibration" in that instant.

It was a brief impact on the level of perception and Mind. Directly interfaced with the system, he seemed for a split second to possess the "world’s" own field of view. His perception was linked to a simulated order field at the edge of the Quiet Sea; countless fragments and embers drifting outside the world Barrier were circling around him, and the very next moment he felt the "conflict" between himself and those fragments and embers starting to dissolve.

While maintaining complete self-awareness and keeping his own information structure stable, he observed and "understood" the entire Sea of Annihilation.

In that instant, he became a "Dark Angel"...

But no, something was off. It felt like something was still missing.

A faint sense of dissonance suddenly rose in Yu Sheng’s chest. He couldn’t make sense of the process, but some instinctive alarm still jolted him awake from that brief, transcendent perspective.

The calibration data had a flaw... No, the calibration data was fine; it was some higher-level architecture that had gone wrong.

Something was missing.

Almost the moment that thought surfaced, Yu Sheng heard roaring and static coming from inside the Void Engine.

"...Observed... drift, system deviation... 0.013675..."

"System deviation... 0.076284..."

"System deviation... 0.270506..."

Yu Sheng snapped his head around and saw the Captain frowning.

"This isn’t supposed to be in the forecast, right?"

He asked on reflex.

What answered him was the increasingly urgent system alarm: "System deviation 0.32... 0.672... deviation 0.8... Warning, deviation approaching Critical, calibration system is about to go offline... deviation 0.96... deviation at Critical, preparing for forced offline..."

Before the connection between the Calibrator and the Void Engine completely burned out, the Captain slammed the emergency stop without hesitation.

"Something’s wrong. I’ll run checks on my side first. You get Lucy to come back for a bit..."

The Captain’s voice faded into the distance as Yu Sheng abruptly opened his eyes, just in time to see Erin spring up off the Golden Throne like a coiled spring, then dive headfirst toward the floor beside her.

"Holy shit, damn!" the Little Puppet yelped.

Yu Sheng dashed forward in a single stride and snatched the little thing up at the last possible second.

The interior of the Golden Throne was emitting an unsettling noise. Maris, who was hooked to the device, tore the cable off the back of her neck with one yank, then opened her mouth and blew out a puff of black smoke. Her body listed to one side and went tumbling down.

Marin lunged over instantly, catching her servo assistant. "My three months’ salary!!"

Smoke was curling from the corner of Maris’s mouth. "Processors went up in price... I’m even more expensive now..."

White Cut and Salt Roasted, who had been squatting quietly in the corner, were startled by the sudden change as well. They sprang up, trying to bolt for the door, but smashed their heads into the wall and howled on the spot.

The scene was complete chaos.