Chapter 664 - 421: Ancient Darkness (Part 2)

Chapter 664: Chapter 421: Ancient Darkness (Part 2)

A massive stream of data flowed through her eyes. Countless cables extended from behind her, inserting themselves into the various control hubs of the core server room and gradually seizing all authority over the Satellite City.

Jiang Che looked up to see countless screens floating in neat rows in mid-air. Each one displayed a different scene: some people were fighting, others were traveling, and still others were exploring. There were two hundred and ninety-nine screens in total.

This was the number of all Players except for Tang Ling.

These were surveillance feeds.

Jiang Che saw herself on one of them. The screen next to hers showed Zhou Chen feasting in a restaurant, surrounded by several Players cosplaying as in-game characters. They were all chatting happily.

"You’re here." Tang Ling’s eyes twitched. "Did you bring it?"

Jiang Che stepped forward and retrieved the important item her teacher had given her from her Soul. It was a bizarre, prismatic piece of metal covered in intricate patterns, levitating just above her palm.

—[Mechanical Spark (Sparkling Luxury Premium Plus Edition): A masterpiece born from the painstaking efforts of several Alchemical Great Sages. It can bestow immense Power upon mechanical constructs and is a cornerstone of their self-iterative evolution.]

Tang Ling held out her hand, and the Mechanical Spark lifted from Jiang Che’s grasp, floating slowly into her own palm.

The next moment, Tang Ling seized the Mechanical Spark and plunged it into her chest.

The Mechanical Spark didn’t pierce her body. Instead, it dissolved like nanoparticles, melting and merging into her frame.

[Adaptive Evolution Array Version 3.0 initiated. System update and recovery in progress...]

[Current Progress: 1%...]

[Estimated Time to Full Recovery: 240 hours]

The Adaptive Evolution Array was now updated to Version 3.0, just one step away from complete perfection. Tang Ling planned to take that final step inside Zone 009.

As the Mechanical Spark merged with her, the data stream in Tang Ling’s eyes grew brighter. On the control hub’s many screens, countless windows popped up and vanished in rapid succession, as if she were performing some kind of high-intensity computation.

After a moment, Tang Ling spoke in a cold, mechanical tone. "I’ve analyzed wave patterns retrieved via satellite and determined the final boss’s location. It has returned to Gaia Royal City, and its Power has grown stronger."

"Can you kill it once you’ve recovered to your peak?" Jiang Che asked bluntly.

"Yes." Tang Ling’s reply was certain. She was a mechanical being without a Soul. This allowed her to bypass the game’s Rules to some extent, freeing her from its restrictions and enabling her to restore her status to the Demigod Level.

At that point, all she would need to do is raise her Level and allocate her Attributes. With the Adaptive Evolution Array and the flawless precision of her mechanical mind’s calculations, fighting a boss would be as simple as eating a meal or drinking water.

If she failed on the first try, she could use her Player privileges to load a save and try again. If she failed twice, she could try hundreds, even thousands of times. As a robot, once she memorized an enemy’s attack patterns, she could react as if she were reading its command inputs.

In just ten days, Gaia could be liberated.

But time, it seemed, was not on their side. Reality is never as smooth or pleasant as one might hope.

Tang Ling’s voice deepened. "However, the situation is grim. The Abyssal Power within Gaia is stirring. In the last three seconds, I ran four hundred and three future simulations. If this continues, the entirety of Gaia will be wracked by devastating disasters in less than a week—volcanoes, hurricanes, droughts, blizzards, torrential downpours... In less than a month, Gaia will be destroyed by these cataclysms, and only a handful of people will survive.

"The root cause of this, according to the highest-probability answer from my data analysis, is that the final boss is gradually mastering its own Abilities. The stronger it becomes, the more potent the Abyssal Power it radiates, and the greater the impact on Gaia.

"I’ve analyzed the active Abyssal Power in Gaia and have confirmed that its essence belongs to the Abyssal King: Ancient Darkness. It is an ancient Abyssal Sovereign, the embodiment of Darkness and nothingness, which has only appeared once in all of history. The rest of the time, it slumbers in the lowest depths of the Abyss."

Jiang Che didn’t need to be told. She knew exactly which event that was—the Night of the Sun’s Fall!

If Noah was the "Sun" that symbolized light, then Ancient Darkness was the "black hole" that symbolized Darkness. They were absolute opposites, which is why It awoke during that event to kill Noah.

Because if Noah had been allowed to mature, It would have been the one to die in the future.

Furthermore, It took the opportunity to strike at the real Sun, attempting to corrupt the star humanity depends upon for survival. Fortunately, the Star Association intercepted the attack; otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

This also explained why Gaia’s Sun was the first thing to be corrupted. Ancient Darkness and the Sun are innately opposed. Even a small, unconscious remnant of Its Power would instinctively try to corrupt the Sun, just as Divine Power instinctively purifies Dark Power.

The Star Association had long sought to analyze the true nature of the Abyssal Power within Gaia, but had always failed due to various interferences. Today, however, that question was finally answered.

"But..." Jiang Che frowned. "Why would remnants of Ancient Darkness’s Power be in one of Gaia’s Restricted Areas?"

’The Restricted Areas were all formed during the Old Era,’ she thought. ’Could Ancient Darkness have awakened back then and interfered with the Human World?’

’But Ancient Darkness is an Abyssal King on par with the Gods. If It had interfered with the Human World during the Old Era, humanity would have had no chance of survival. A single thought from one of the Gods can destroy an entire tectonic plate.’

"The answer is unknown. We can only wait for the future to unearth it."

"Alright, that’s enough talk for now. I need to control the laboratory equipment to synthesize an Energy Source. I cannot be distracted." Tang Ling then fell silent.

Jiang Che glanced at the monitor showing Zhou Chen, her gaze lingering for a few seconds before she turned and walked away.

·

On a desolate plain, a group of Players traveled together. Without vehicles or mounts, they had to rely on the most primitive method of traversing the map—sprinting.

"We’re almost there! We’re almost there! I can see it!" one of them suddenly shouted, pointing ahead excitedly.

A massive, circular fortress appeared on the horizon, encircled by a Steel Wall bristling with a terrifying array of military Weapons. They could faintly make out the silhouettes of figures patrolling the ramparts.

The Steel Wall was the Satellite City’s Great Wall Defense System, the first line of defense against enemy assault. The circular fortress, meanwhile, generated the artificial dome of light that enveloped the entire city, providing illumination and controlling its climate, including temperature and humidity.

"Oh my god, we finally made it to the Satellite City! Let’s hurry up and resupply. The mobs around here are way too tough. Hopefully we can find a pro to carry us for a bit," someone said, so excited they were on the verge of tears.

"I’ve been beaten so senseless I feel like an idiot. This game is definitely getting a one-star review!"

"I think it’s alright, actually. We just had terrible luck."

They had spawned in a mountain range overrun with monsters. The entire area was crawling with powerful creatures, and they never even got the chance for a one-on-one fight; they were constantly swarmed. As Level 1 newbies, they couldn’t even fight back. Every single one of them had died over a hundred times before they finally managed to make a difficult escape.

This tragic experience—being surrounded, chased, and cornered by monsters in what could only be described as a complete Nightmare—had left every one of them deeply traumatized.

After meeting on the road, they discovered they were all kindred spirits who had suffered the same fate. They tearfully embraced, then decided to travel together. Their plan was to head to the Satellite City first, get some gear, and then start grinding monsters to level up.

But among the crowd, a bespectacled young man stared at the circular fortress. The corners of his mouth crept upward, and the light glinting off his glasses concealed an evil smile.

’I can’t wait to see the chaos when my plan succeeds. It’s going to be so much fun...’ the mole from Fallen Paradise thought, thrilled with anticipation.

·