Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1340: Rift, Xyrin, and the Fox
When I’m wandering around Shadow City, I often encounter Xyrin—this slightly confused, seemingly idle super consciousness appears unconsciously in a few specific places, which are basically the spots Sandora or I usually frequent. This is probably related to her life form: as the collective consciousness of the Xyrin race, she tends to be more focused on the activities of the clan leaders, and the coordinates where Sandora and I usually linger are probably the most familiar places for Xyrin.
This explains why Xyrin is always at Silvia’s dessert shop: this place is practically Sandora’s second paradise—by the way, Sandora’s first paradise is the kitchen at home.
Speaking of Xyrin, she leads quite a leisurely life in Shadow City. This girl is always wandering around in a carefree manner. Besides cooperating with Taville on various experiments at the research center, she spends almost twenty hours a day in leisure. I really envy her laid-back lifestyle. However, according to Bubbles, Xyrin’s daily workload is actually exceptionally enormous: almost every Xyrin Apostle connected to the spiritual network continuously uploads and downloads data through her, but Xyrin herself seems unaware of her work. All exchanges on that level are handled by the underlying protocols of the spiritual network, so Xyrin, the highest-level consciousness of the network, doesn’t even feel them. For many years, while Xyrin wandered outside, the spiritual network of the Xyrin Apostles continued to operate normally for this reason: most tasks were managed by the ’subconscious aspect’ of this spiritual network. As the conscious part, Xyrin spent her days as leisurely as an old cadre retired for seven or eight years—it’s unbearable; whenever I see her overwhelmed face, I can’t help but think of the pile of reports on my desk, I need to quickly distract myself.
"Hey, long time no see," I shook my head, placing the little doll on the table, then immediately reacted, moving the little guy to a chair (the little doll is very conscious of her image outside, feeling it’s very embarrassing to be placed like a toy on a table or similar places. At home, though, she doesn’t have this concern), and waved to Xyrin, "Changed your appearance again?"
The tall girl with long black straight hair had her gaze fixed entirely on Silvia; upon hearing my voice, her head shot up, noticing my arrival, and she clumsily stood up, awkwardly saluting in a somewhat formal manner, "Oh, hi, Your Majesty. I saw a figure I liked in the shared data chain, and after transforming into this appearance, I couldn’t change back. Report complete!"
Me: "...Uh, very much your style. By the way, how long has Silvia been asleep?"
My gaze fell on Silvia, who was still sprawled on the table, sleeping soundly, unaware of my presence and seemingly ignoring Xyrin. As the shop manager, her demeanor is truly unpresentable: she probably filters out about eighty or ninety percent of external stimulation before it reaches her?
"I don’t know; she was already asleep when I came here," Xyrin answered seriously, "I’m waiting for her to wake up, so I can eat something... oh, and I can also bring back some snacks for Taville, who asked me to bring some back."
I was quite surprised, "Huh? Taville eats too?"
Then I realized how strange the question was, only reacting after ten seconds: Taville’s tireless ’day and night, thousands of threads for scientific research’ image had deeply rooted in us, and she had almost become a special species in my mind, capable of leading several basketball courts of mass projection and working three shifts by herself. Knowing suddenly that she can eat and drink like a normal person struck me as much as an ordinary person watching their parents pour oil into their ankle during work...
Xyrin was also taken aback by this peculiar question. However, she is the type to easily put things she doesn’t understand aside, and soon her attention was diverted by a word from me, "By the way, how do you feel about the recent merging of some rather special ’nodes’ into your network?"
The ’special nodes’ I mentioned were none other than the large group of Fallen Apostles led by Harlan.
Numbering in the tens of thousands, the Fallen Apostles officially integrated into the New Empire’s spiritual network the day before yesterday afternoon. Of course, since some Fallen Apostles have yet to be fully purified, they are mounted separately in an isolated network segment, with its upper nodes as Xiao Xue and myself. Through the informational disturbances generated by two Void Creatures, the lower-level Fallen Apostles mounted on the network can receive purification. This is our fastest method for reverse-transforming the Fallen Apostles. Regardless of the isolated segment or the Imperial Main Network, as long as it involves the spiritual connections based on Envoy nodes, it inevitably intersects with Xyrin, determined by the network structure, rendering detours impossible. ’Xyrin’ is not, in a strict sense, a standalone ’identified entity’ but a collective will generated by tens of billions of Xyrin Apostles serving as nodes. Given her extremely high level in the network, for her, Fallen and regular Envoys make no difference: they are merely nodes, each representing only ’connected’ or ’not connected.’ Previously, when our network lacked this ’Xyrin’ entity, the Fallen Apostles’ integration into the network did not visibly impact it. Now, we have an unavoidable ’super network manager,’ and with so many captured soldiers under Harlan, I am slightly worried about whether Xyrin might suffer some unwanted... contamination.
It’s not quite right to say it, but before the thorough purification of Harlan’s soldiers, they indeed remain the most dangerous pollution sources in the Empire. Mounting them online requires hundreds of security protocols—indicating their potential threats as pollution sources, especially considering Xyrin still shares direct connections with these Fallen Apostles—even though their connections do not involve direct data exchanges, the network has security protocols in place for such scenarios, theoretically rendering the chance of contamination zero, but that doesn’t negate my right to worry, does it?
Xyrin’s expression was momentarily a bit dazed. I felt as if static electricity had appeared around us, like being shrouded in some kind of force field, knowing that the other party was thoroughly checking her core program. After a moment, Xyrin smiled and shook her head, "Everything feels normal."
Only then did I completely relax, then watched Silvia with Xyrin, wondering when this slow and easygoing silver-haired mole would wake up—speaking of which, Xyrin is indeed quite straightforward, just sitting here for an unknown amount of time without thinking about going elsewhere to wander?
"Actually, it hasn’t been very long," Xyrin said with a gentle smile, "It’s quite relaxing here, you can forget about the Rift..."
Xyrin mentioned the "Rift" again, which is an information breakage zone located in the Apostle’s Spiritual Network, an unexplored network vacuum area. This thing is an unsolved mystery, and it wasn’t until Xyrin appeared that we knew of the existence of the "Rift." Taville has been operating a project team dedicated to detecting the "Rift," but so far, there has been no progress. Now hearing Xyrin bring this matter up, I suddenly became interested, "Has there been any change in the Rift?"
I was just asking casually, not expecting to hear any new information, but Xyrin actually nodded, "It seems to have shrunk slightly. A few days ago, I carefully observed the area near the Rift and found that the nodes it affected decreased by about one percent... But sometimes the Rift fluctuates like this, although the fluctuation range was never more than 0.5 percent before, this time the commotion seems a bit larger."
As a creature living in the world of real matter, I needed some deduction to understand Xyrin’s meaning: she meant that the breakage zone in the Imperial Data Network is decreasing? Are there fewer network nodes that have lost termination marks?
"That’s a good thing, right," I said uncertainly, scratching the back of my head, finding it a bit laborious to think about such a complex issue, "What does Taville say?"
"She’s trying to create an interface," Xyrin said, as a holographic projection appeared before her, showing some kind of complex and massive device that seemed to occupy the entire room, with several hibernation chamber-like things in the center of the device, "You and I perceive things differently, and when I explain the Rift to you, you’ll never fully understand what kind of place it is, so Taville is trying to create a device like this to completely transfer the spirit of outside people into the network, that way you can observe the Rift from the same perspective as me."
I suddenly remembered that Taville had mentioned something like this in a technology report she submitted earlier. She said she was creating a device that could share perception with Xyrin and even recode a human’s soul to input into the Apostle’s Spiritual Network. Of course, what I could remember were just these; the report itself was quite detailed, but my understanding was pretty much limited to the title and the concluding remarks...
While Xyrin and I were chatting idly, Silvia, who was sprawled on the table, finally woke up leisurely. The silver-haired girl got up, stretched long, and drowsily looked at the two guests in front of her, "Oh, Chen, and Xyrin, you’re here?"
"I want to eat something," Xyrin gestured in the air, creating a large pile of pastry holograms, "Just these, two portions, Taville also wants one."
Silvia looked at the pile of pastries that needed to be prepared on-site, nodded, and then looked at me with a questioning gaze. I casually handed her the little doll beside me that was bored and nodding off, "I brought the child with me, whatever she wants, make that for her."
Silvia casually tucked the little doll under her arm and went to the back of the store to work. It’s quite amazing, this silver-haired mole usually reacts so slowly, almost like late-stage Parkinson’s, but when it comes to making pastries, she’s never behind—of course, it’s only limited to making pastries; if you ask her to serve the pastries afterwards, that could pretty much be a starving wait. According to Silvia herself, she used to run a jewelry store and often made small handcrafted items herself, and back then, she never delayed things—this simply defies explanation.
I thought about this issue for a long time and finally concluded: perhaps Silvia’s symptoms of sluggishness only apply to her interactions with others or when focusing on external things. When she’s busy in her own little world, she seems like a normal person.
Listening to the sounds coming from the back of the store, Xyrin smiled contentedly, "Alright, Taville will soon be able to have breakfast."
I was stunned, my neck stiffly turning ninety degrees, looking at the setting sun outside with its afterglow sprinkling the whole street...
Xyrin actually brought breakfast for Taville! She’s been watching Sylvia nap the whole day!
Hopefully, Taville isn’t as stubborn as Xyrin or Sylvia; dealing with those two living treasures would eventually lead to starving... if an Angel Envoy could starve, that is.
Looking at this small shop, I suddenly remembered something Xiao Xue mentioned inadvertently two days ago when she met with Harlan:
Harlan loves the small waterless cakes Sylvia makes.
Harlan is still undergoing extensive repairs; Sandora and I have opened several holes in him, and it will probably take another two or three days to fix. I suspect Harlan knows Bellavilla, but I’m curious about his expression when he sees Sylvia now. Once he’s "discharged," perhaps I should bring him to this little shop to let him see what the waterless cakes and Sylvia are — I maliciously began to speculate on what it would look like when two "Former Fallen Emperors" meet, with Sylvia now being nothing short of a broken version of Bellavilla back then...
Little Doll and I left only after eating a bellyful of cakes and cookies, agreeing with Xyrin on a visit to her house next time — well, after Taville’s conversion device is finished, to see what the world looks like in Xyrin’s view within the Spiritual Network. Before leaving, I packed all the leftover snacks Sylvia was selling as a gift for Sandora: after all, Sylvia practically rarely sells anything all day; I almost cleared out everything from her window and behind the counter.
Xyrin packed several boxes of snacks to take away, happily saying before leaving that Taville could finally have breakfast — I refrained from quipping whether eating such things for breakfast would cause weight gain. Anyway, Taville isn’t human; what I just want to quip about is Xyrin’s peculiar worldview: she lacks effective perception of our "outsiders’" living environment and doesn’t understand the daily routine of people in the real world. She stubbornly insists it’s morning because "Taville hasn’t had breakfast yet," and as I look at the almost fully dark sky outside, I say to myself that Xyrin is not wrong: at least tomorrow morning’s meal for Taville is settled...
"By the way, what’s the point of you, a Doll, eating?" I carried Little Light back home, informed my sister that I had already eaten dinner outside, and then started researching the digestion issue of the Doll — because she ate almost as many snacks as I did. I pinched the little girl’s chin to examine her neat little white teeth until she bit my thumb and chewed it fiercely twice before stopping.
"Dummy, this is Alchemy Technology, you don’t understand." The Doll-sized girl said, with an air of superiority, lifting her chin, then jumped down to grab buns from the dining table: her appetite has grown; is the Doll going to grow taller?
After dinner, Sandora, as usual, snacked on some dessert, so I took out the snacks packed from Sylvia’s place to share them with the whole family — Sandora got ninety percent of it. While dividing the snacks, I noticed someone seemed to be missing from the house: the fox, which in all senses and purposes had an overwhelming sense of presence, seemed to be gone.
"Where’s the fox?" I held a net of animal cookies and looked around. These little cookies were prepared for her. I now felt like someone waving a meaty bone, calling for a Husky at home, deeply regretting why I took in this silly creature...
"No idea, ran out before dinner." Qianqian said without lifting her head, busy soaking cookies in milk, waiting until the cookies became almost soft before using a spoon to scoop and eat them: a weird habit of hers, which hasn’t changed since she was six until today.
Of course, her habit is nothing compared to Sandora’s: Sandora likes to spread mustard on the cookies and dip them in sweet bean sauce to eat them, with a cup of pickled vegetable soup from ’82 always at hand. If her eating method is spread worldwide, I reckon it would immediately show the spirit of global unity, though it tests one’s psychological endurance.
Just as I was about to call that silly fox home for dinner through the Spiritual Connection, a Space Gate suddenly opened in the living room, and a tangled ball of golden fur tumbled out of it.
Actually, it ran out, but you have to understand: the fox’s tail takes up more space than her body, so when she runs around, it feels like a rolling golden furball entirely.
The fox came running out of the Space Gate directly towards the direction with the aroma of food, completely under the control of her animal instincts. I casually grabbed one of her tails, only to make the Fox Fairy Lord aware of the group of people around. I noticed her body was covered in mud, her tails were messily tangled, and even a tuft of fur was missing from her ears: unprecedentedly bedraggled.
"You ran off to fight with the dog again!"
My voice suddenly went up by eight octaves, almost driven mad by this Fox Fairy Lord, who seems to regress as she ages.
The fox’s ears drooped — acknowledgment by default.
I pinched her ears, amused and angry: "You, a thousand-year-old demon fox, fighting with a dog is embarrassing even if you win!"
The fox turned her face away: "...Lost..."
Me: "..."
The entire family: "..."
This creature went to fight with a dog, and actually NM lost!
Looking shocked, I questioned and finally understood what happened: the fox went to Avalon to meet old friends, only to encounter a fierce dog wandering the Temple District. Of course, the main issue wasn’t how fierce the dog was, but...
That dog’s name was Cerberus, kept by Dingdang to guard the Temple Garden District.
The fox had fought the Hell Three-headed Dog for almost two hours, currently at zero wins, two losses, and three ties; she came home intending to fill her stomach before going back for another challenge...
Trying hard for a long time, I finally suppressed the urge to put a collar on the Fox Fairy Lord’s neck and realized: if I don’t find this fox something to do soon, her next move would be to Atlantis to challenge the Zeus brothers... (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian (qidian.com), your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
