In the fully sealed Space 22, the Integrated Analysis Laboratory is like a lone island drifting in the twisted outer space. All communication pathways directly connected to this lab have been severed, including the most powerful Void Communication Array and even the experimental Abyss Communication system. We have reason to believe that this space’s shielding effect on the Black Shuttle is even greater than throwing it into some God-forsaken world in the deep Void. However, even so, I can’t be one hundred percent sure that the Black Shuttle has been completely sealed off. This thing is too odd and too mysterious, to the extent that even the best scientists of the Empire are baffled. Therefore, any precaution against it seems very necessary.

The scientist, whose name is either Victor or Towick, responsible for the analysis and research on the Black Shuttle, ordered the opening of the obstruction light net around the Black Shuttle after confirming the space had stabilized. Sandora and I came to the Black Shuttle, listening to the experts reporting their progress.

"... We still can’t determine what kind of energy the Black Shuttle uses. According to the guesses of the expert team, this problem is probably unsolvable. The energy it uses likely only appears and can be stably used in the special environment of the Abyss Bottom. In our Order World, the rate of energy consumption is accelerating, and there’s no sign of replenishment. Perhaps in the Order World, the Black Shuttle can’t recharge itself at all. This is an irreparable ’territorial isolation.’ Every rule of the world whence the Black Shuttle came is completely different from the Order World," the Senior Technician opened a holographic projection, showing a set of rather rough scan images, "We conducted as deep a scan as possible without triggering violent reactions from the Black Shuttle. This position, near the center but slightly offset, should be its Energy Core. All functions of the Black Shuttle draw energy from this core. This is an energy storage device rather than an energy generation device, and its internal readings decrease every moment. No active activation of this core has been observed. It seems like the creators of the Black Shuttle were aware that their probe couldn’t be charged in the Order World, which is why they designed a ’battery’ with a huge capacity for it in advance."

"Oh, that’s sort of good news," Sandora said, her tone lifted, "It indicates ’they’ can’t use the resources of the Order World. If ’they’ emerge from the Abyss, they probably won’t last long: our home-field advantage is extremely obvious."

Thinking the worst of every situation is Sandora’s style. She regards that puzzling fourth civilization as a potential enemy, hence the starting point is how much the win/loss comparison would attain should there be a war. Of course, I think this consideration is quite necessary. The resources consumed by building this bridge over tens of thousands of years would likely be enough for countless Low-level civilizations to go bankrupt several trillions of times. Thus, I have every reason to believe the purpose of constructing this bridge isn’t for organizing tourism or developing new sightseeing projects—either they’re coming for cooperative bilateral development with the Empire, aiming to create a new unified Void situation, or they’re coming to stabilize and then destroy us, with the ultimate... ultimately likely still aiming to create a new unified Void situation.

No matter how you look at it, there’s no third possibility. For a project of this scale, without some world-shaking ideological guidance to spur yourself on, who would dare to undertake it, right?

"We’ve now identified that the Black Shuttle is a probe and approximately found the component it uses to gather information and the storage item it seems to contain," the Senior Technician paused, brought up several new images, and on these images, the red halo areas at both ends of the Black Shuttle and several small blocks along its axis were highlighted, "Initially, we thought those two red halos were some kind of propulsion device, meant for the probe to move in an emergency escape, but this guess was overthrown: the Black Shuttle is merely the core component of the probe system, although it can be regarded as a complete probe by itself, it’s still only a part. This part has no independent engine. The two halos are some kind of radar, collecting intelligence by intercepting discontinuous information in the Intermediate Layer. Preliminary assessment of scanning precision and sensing frequency range is..."

Hmm, finally at a point where I completely don’t understand a thing, so I decisively leave the scene to Sandora, while I focus on the quietly rotating black probe. Just like when I first found it, the Black Shuttle remains silent, as reserved as its appearance, reluctant to reveal any information. The danger assessment on this thing concluded the day before yesterday, so I boldly placed my hand on its shell, feeling a mild coolness and a faint vibration, possibly due to some mechanism operating inside?

How do I make this hard, metallic object respond to me?

I thought of Jin Yong, thought of Hollywood, thought of Qidian and Shengda, thought of Alibaba and the forty flower thieves, and even thought of Magellan and Einstein, but none of the above big names told me how to establish an emotional connection with a Mallet. The only person who could offer some reference is a delivery workaholic named Chuck from the Federation, but the problem is Chuck was facing a volleyball, while I’m dealing with a rugby—and Chuck’s volleyball certainly wasn’t three and a half meters long. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

So I am convinced I will find no hint from known history.

While mindlessly pondering this, I also conducted various experiments. Although the scientists previously tried stimulating it with broad-spectrum communication frequencies and various forms of physical contact, none elicited a reaction. However, I thought perhaps I might be the breakthrough point: after all, the Black Shuttle essentially is a delivery addressed to me. If it detects the recipient’s name again, might it surprisingly become cooperative? Besides, the ball that enclosed it before was indeed quite amenable.

I tried many methods, such as mentally scanning the target with my spiritual power, pressing my hand on the surface of the target and silently remembering the technique of striking the Killing Intent Wave Fist, making faces at the Black Shuttle, discussing with it the reasoning that raising a Naughty Kid equates to raising a group of Naughty Kids, tapping Morse code on the target’s shell, and finally biting my finger to test if dripping blood would make this thing recognize its master—a conclusion: it was quite painful.

"Ah Jun... what are you doing?" A sudden voice broke my self-amusement. I turned my head to see Sandora staring at this side, wide-eyed, with a similar expression of dumbfounded scientists behind her.

Me: "..." If I said I was doing scientific research, do you think these scientists might collectively jump into a reactor?

"I wanted to see if this thing reacts," I pressed one hand on the end of the Black Shuttle and raised the finger I just bit into, "Even tried dripping blood to recognize it as its master, no reaction whatsoever."

Sandora turned her head: "Let’s continue discussing the disassembly process."

"Uh, disassembly process?" Finally hearing something I might be able to chime into, I quickly jumped off the platform, "Victor, have you figured out how to dismantle this thing?"

The Senior Technician paused for a moment: "Your Majesty... my name is Tokvi."

I felt quite apologetic because after all that back and forth previously, I still couldn’t seem to get his name right, so I gave an awkward laugh: "Oh, haha, I’m not very sensitive to names. So, Towick, have you figured out how to disable the Black Shuttle’s self-destruct device?"

The corner of the Senior Technician’s mouth seemed a bit stiff: "Your Majesty, my name is... oh well, the related research has only made initial progress since the self-destruct device of the Black Shuttle is also driven by unknown energy. Hence, our regular interference and energy suppression methods aren’t very effective. Only with the Energy Raider, which works by leveraging your power, can we achieve some results. We are currently adjusting the output mode of the Energy Raider to allow it to function better. Additionally, we have found the component inside the Black Shuttle suspected to be the ’sensor data processing group.’ If this component’s function is confirmed, it would be excellent news. We wouldn’t even need to use the Energy Raider; just a single rapid and precise Ghost Energy strike to overload those process groups would completely nullify the self-destruct device. Both of these approaches are expected to yield results quickly."

Sandora and I expressed satisfaction with this news: it was probably the only pleasant thing we heard since arriving here. Then Sandora brought up another crucial question:

"Have we discovered the secret of how this probe survives for long periods in the Abyss environment?"

The Senior Technician thought for a moment, then nodded slightly, "In some ways, you could say that.

Based on what we know, the Black Shuttle is just the core part of a large probe. When it arrived in our Order World, it was protected by a spherical shell, so the Black Shuttle itself was not designed to make direct contact with the Abyss. Thus, we estimate that we cannot extract their deep diving ship’s outer Shield technology from this thing. However, we have discovered a similar core protection design structure, used to ensure the core’s safety during long periods of deep-sea exploration. This was just scanned by automated equipment this morning, so it hasn’t been reported yet..."

"That’s exactly what’s needed now!" Sandora’s voice suddenly rose, her eyes lighting up, "Core protection? You’re sure the Black Shuttle has core protection technology?"

"Theoretically, it must have it," said the black-skinned uncle who was nurtured by Taville personally, "The Abyss is special in nature. No matter how powerful the peripheral defenses it faces, it can directly or indirectly affect the core. Therefore, a more powerful and efficient adjustment system is required near the core of the deep diving device to offset such effects, to prevent the unfortunate situation of self-destruction from occurring while the physical structure of the deep diving device remains intact. We found two ellipsoid structures at the poles of the Black Shuttle, the pointed cones extending outwards from the Halo. These don’t seem to belong to any system part of the Black Shuttle and have a separate power supply line. These two ellipsoids were the first to activate upon contact with our simulated Abyss stimulation, and quickly formed another Black Shuttle on the Black Shuttle."

"Another Black Shuttle?" I frowned and, after some pondering, nodded, "Vitok, you better explain clearly, I can’t understand this..."

"Your Majesty, my name is Tokvi..." the Senior Technician said blankly, then shook his head, "We are not yet sure what the working principle of that device is, but we have observed every step of their operation: the two strange devices work in pairs, one of which is responsible for creating an information mirroring. From data characteristics, this information mirror is 100% similar to the Black Shuttle, while the other device anti-phases the Black Shuttle at the same time the information mirror is generated. Thus, at the same coordinates, the information mirror replaces the position and ’existence’ of the Black Shuttle, becoming a real entity, and shortly after, the mirror becomes contaminated by the Abyss since it is entirely based on data description and has weaker stability than a physical entity. It changes nature very quickly, within a few seconds. At this point, the Black Shuttle disengages anti-phasing and begins to create a new mirror, and the whole process continues in cycle, with the mirror always replacing the body to endure most of the pollution."

"During this process, the Black Shuttle should still be affected to some extent." Sandora detected some clues.

"Yes, but it will only contact the Abyss during the instant a new mirror is created because this system does not allow the creation of two or more mirrors simultaneously: multiple ’Compensation’ would destroy the entire ’Compensation’ system. Additionally, because the pair of devices takes time to create a mirror, there is no seamless connection between two mirrors, and during the short replacement time of new and old ’Compensators’, the Black Shuttle body is exposed to pollution; however, overall, during the entire deep-sea exploration process, the time the system core contacts the pollution source has already reduced by more than ninety percent. The working life of the whole probe, and even the deep diving ship, has been greatly extended."

"Great, this process sounds feasible, and we indeed had not thought of this," said Sandora, "Can it be duplicated?"

"Using Ghost Energy Devices to replicate the devices in the Black Shuttle exactly may not be feasible. Although theoretically, Ghost Energy and the energy used by the Black Shuttle have the same ’Level’, the way they work is completely different," the Senior Technician shook his head regretfully, "It can only be said that its core protection method gave us an idea, letting us know that a certain method is feasible. However, how to specifically implement this process requires us to organize a research team and use Imperial Technology to create facilities with the same function. The information mirroring technology is not complicated, but the difficulty is that this system must be accurate and respond swiftly, it must be independent from other systems of the deep diving ship and cannot use a public data chain, so all commands must be handled by its own micro-host and sensor chain, and it must complete a lot of calculations at the instant the pollution starts, and then produce the mirror. We are preparing to apply for several Xyrin Hosts to assist in development; they should be able to find a suitable efficient algorithm."

"Okay, your application is approved," Sandora waved her hand, "I don’t need to know how many technical challenges there are. That’s your task. The priority of this project is now S, and all support you’ve applied for will be put in place immediately to solve all technical issues, that’s the command."

The Senior Technician immediately straightened up, his fist pounding on his chest, "Yes! Your will!"

With things on the Black Shuttle’s end concluded, Sandora and I prepared to leave together. Before leaving, I turned back once more to look at the shuttle quietly suspended on the gravity-free platform, slowly rotating. I didn’t know if it was my wishful thinking, but it seemed to sense my presence, yet was unwilling to react at all... Okay, that was of course an illusion, because aside from this headless fantasy of mine, the Black Shuttle remained a silent Black Shuttle.

One day, I will make you speak.

"Ah, finally, I’m feeling a bit more relieved now."

After exiting the research center, Sandora’s taut expression finally relaxed, and she revealed that clean smile I’m familiar with, one she only shows in front of those close to her, "I was right, that the breakthrough for deep diving technology was ultimately found from this mysterious probe. Taville would probably be very happy."

"I rather think she would be hurt," I thought about it and judged based on the spectacled girl’s character, "She’s a stubborn research fanatic, a problem she couldn’t solve while stuck in a dead end for so long was suddenly resolved by someone else’s existing technology, she should be quite impacted."

"Oh? She has such a character?" Sandora glanced at me, "You seem to know the research maniac quite well—It’s said that Taville’s social circle is incredibly narrow due to her workaholic nature, but I didn’t think anyone knew her this well."

I chuckled foolishly, thinking that Sandora might have forgotten Taville’s college girl appearance during her last vacation. Everyone has a side unbeknownst to others, especially those mysterious and unapproachable figures. Once you see their other side, it can even reshape your worldview: until third grade, I always thought teachers were all-knowing, until our class teacher got sick eating sprouted potatoes and took a week off. That’s when I learned they have those moments too...

With a slightly cheerful mood, Sandora and I ate some street snacks and street food stalls outside. After filling our stomachs, we went home, and as soon as I entered the living room, I noticed that something potentially amusing had happened again.

Little Crow was sitting diligently on the sofa with her head lowered, and on the coffee table in front of her sat a mini Little Crow nibbling on a green vegetable sprout. However, the mini Little Crow was wearing something on its head that wasn’t an eggshell, but something that looked like an eggshell with a very subtle material.

Big Sister pointed to the small creature on the coffee table as I walked in, "Our Silly Bird achieved something again—this was hatched using a ping pong ball." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to visit qidian.com for recommendations and monthly votes, your support is my greatest motivation.)