bookbashuk Page 219
Page 219
"An encrypted spacetime path coordinate has been detected... pointing to... a region not recorded outside the observer's mainstream star map..." The robot's synthesized voice carried uncertainty. "The path is severely damaged, and the endpoint coordinates are blurred... but the energy signature shows that it matches the direction Dr. Camilla last disappeared in." Its voice echoed in the silent space, making everyone's heart clench.
"Can you analyze the specific coordinates?" Lin Ye's heart jumped, and his hands unconsciously clenched, as if only by doing so could he grasp the hope that was about to be in his hands.
"It needs time...and more energy support...the facility's energy is about to run out..." The control panel screen began to flicker, and the energy fluctuations emanating from the bottom of the deep well grew increasingly weak. The screen's flickering was like a countdown to death, instilling anxiety and unease.
"Use this!" Lin Ye didn't hesitate to bring the foundation stone in his hand close to the control panel interface. The foundation stone emitted a soft white light, and energy slowly flowed in. The white light, like a gentle stream, nourished the nearly depleted control panel, and the screen stabilized again. The star map became a little clearer, and the symbol for the endpoint coordinates seemed to be slowly being completed.
[Unknown spacetime coordinates detected! Recording... Coordinate resolution 65%... 77%...] As the resolution increased, everyone's heartbeats quickened, as if they could hear the gears of fate slowly turning.
Just as the coordinates were about to be completely resolved!
A sudden, violent tremor erupted from the entire energy well! Even more violently than when the Judge attacked! The walkway emitted a grotesque, distorting sound, as if it were about to collapse completely at any moment! The tremor was like a terrifying earthquake, shaking everyone's hopes to the brink of collapse.
"What's going on?!" Vegeta steadied himself and looked warily into the well. His eyes were filled with vigilance and anger, ready to face any unknown danger.
Suddenly, countless scarlet eyes lit up in the dense darkness at the bottom of the well! A violent, chaotic, and malicious consciousness swept up from the bottom of the well like a storm! Those countless eyes flickered in the darkness, like the gaze of a demon, sending chills down one's spine.
"Warning! High energy reaction detected! Source: Sealed space at the bottom of the well!" the robot issued an urgent alarm. "Unknown biological reaction! Extremely high intensity! Suspected to have awakened due to the energy fluctuations and the aura of the foundation stone just now!" Its voice was full of tension and urgency, as if announcing to everyone that a catastrophic disaster was about to happen.
“It’s a time distortion! And there’s more than one!” Trunks stared at the off-the-charts readings on the variable engine, his face turning pale. “Many! Extremely powerful!” His voice trembled slightly, clearly startled by the sudden crisis.
Crack! Boom! The platform beneath their feet began to crack! A massive shadow, accompanied by a chilling roar, surged rapidly from the bottomless darkness! The shadow, like a gigantic monster, lunged at the group with an aura of annihilation.
"Coordinate analysis complete 89%! Record complete!" the robot shouted amidst the violent shaking. Its voice sounded particularly abrupt in the chaos, yet it brought a glimmer of hope to everyone.
"Go! Get out of here immediately!" Lin Ye grabbed the foundation stone and shouted. His eyes were filled with determination and resolve; at this moment, the instinct for survival overwhelmed everything! The four of them and the machine desperately rushed upwards along the violently shaking walkway! Behind them, countless twisted, terrifying creatures made of pure resentment and energy surged forward like a tide! Their footsteps, panting, and the monsters' roars intertwined, creating a tense and desperate song of escape.
Chapter 474: The Anomaly Frenzy and the Desperate Passage
"Run! Run uphill!" Lin Ye roared, the foundation stone in his hand bursting forth with a strong white light, temporarily repelling the first few distorted time aberrations that charged forward. These monsters were composed of chaotic time energy and resentment, their forms unpredictable, their roars deafening, and even the metal walkways decayed and crumbled in their wake.
Vegeta roared and fired an uncharged Galric Cannon downwards, temporarily clearing a small area, but more Aberrants surged forward like a tide. "Damn it, this is never going to end!" he cursed as he protected Trunks and Android 18 as they retreated upwards.
"This way! Follow me!" The broken robot's single red eye locked onto an inconspicuous crack in the well wall above. "There's an abandoned maintenance tunnel there! It's not recorded on the observer's map!" It floated towards it first, its mechanical arm shooting out a weak cutting beam in an attempt to widen the crack's entrance.
Number 18 reacted the fastest, immediately flying over to help. With a few high-frequency blade strikes, she widened the crack into a barely passable opening. "Come in quickly!" she shouted, as the energy cannon relentlessly poured fire downwards, slowing the aberration's speed.
Trunks followed closely behind, activating his Variable Engine at full power to create a thin temporal barrier. While it couldn't completely block the aberrations, it slightly mitigated their impact. "Lin Ye! Uncle Vegeta! Quick!"
Lin Ye and Vegeta fought and retreated. Lin Ye continuously activated the power of the Foundation Stone, and pure time ripples spread out, causing the movements of the approaching Aberrant to become sluggish or even temporarily disappear. However, the light of the Foundation Stone also dimmed at a visible speed, indicating that this consumption was extremely high.
Vegeta relied solely on his immense fighting power, his fists and feet wreathed in deep blue flames, to blast the aberrations that pounced on him one by one. However, there were simply too many monsters, and his aura began to become unstable.
"Go!" Lin Ye seized the opportunity and suddenly unleashed the last burst of foundational energy. The blinding white light instantly enveloped the platform below, temporarily freezing all the aberrations for a moment.
In that instant! Vegeta grabbed Lin Ye's arm and with a sudden burst of strength, the two of them shot into the narrow passage entrance like cannonballs. Android 18 immediately used her mechanical arm to pull over a huge rusted metal plate, barely managing to block the opening.
Boom!Boom!Boom!
The sound of the aberrant creature crashing violently immediately came from behind the metal plate, the entire passageway vibrated, and debris fell in a flurry.
"This lousy board won't last long!" Vegeta gasped for breath, leaning against the cold wall.
"It's safe for now..." Trunks breathed a sigh of relief as the alarm from the variable engine gradually subsided.
Lin Ye frowned as he looked at the dimly lit foundation stone in his hand. He had expended too much energy analyzing the coordinates and fending off the aberrations.
"Coordinates... recorded..." The robot floated over, its single red eye flashing faintly. "The path points to... a hidden coordinate on the edge of the 'Sea of Nothingness'... that... might be one of Dr. Camilla's last strongholds..."
"The Sea of Nothingness?" Lin Ye asked疑惑地, "What kind of place is that?"
“It’s a vast, chaotic space outside the main timeline…where time and space are extremely unstable…full of danger…but also because of that…it’s the weakest point for the observers…” the robot explained. “That passage…is a secret path used by the early ‘Sowers’…it might still be usable…”
"Who cares about the sea? As long as I can shake off those bastards behind me!" Vegeta said impatiently. "Where does this passage lead? Can we even get out of here?"
The robot turned deeper into the tunnel: "This maintenance tunnel... connects to an old time-space jump pipe... theoretically... it could lead to an exit outside the facility... but it's so old... I don't know if it can still be activated..."
"It's better than staying here and waiting to die." Number 18 calmly inspected the passageway structure. "Let's go, get out of here as soon as possible."
The group moved quickly along the narrow, dark passage. The air was thick with the smell of engine oil and dust, and they occasionally stepped on broken parts. A robot led the way; its database seemed to still contain the structural diagrams for that part.
After walking for about ten minutes, a slightly more spacious node room appeared ahead, with a dusty control panel in the center and several indicator lights that had long been turned off embedded in the wall.
"This is it... the control node for the jump pipe..." The robot connected to the control console. "Backup power needs to be activated..."
Trunks immediately stepped forward to help, connecting his own variable engine: "I'll provide the power!"
With the two of them channeling their energy, the control panel screen struggled to light up, displaying an extremely rudimentary diagram of the piping, with one line flashing a faint signal.
"The line... is partially intact... short jump can be initiated... target exit... abandoned outpost 73 kilometers west of the facility..." the robot reported.
"Then jump quickly!" Vegeta urged. The sound of the impact behind them seemed to be getting closer and closer, clearly indicating that the Aberrant outside was about to break through the metal plate.
"Startup requires warm-up time... at least three minutes..." the robot said.
"Three minutes? Those monstrous things could break in in a minute!" Vegeta said anxiously.
Lin Ye walked to the entrance of the node room, looked at the distorted shadows that were vaguely swaying in the darkness from where he came from, and said in a deep voice, "You guys prepare to jump, I'll hold them off."
"You're all alone?" Trunks exclaimed in surprise.
"The foundational energy is running low, but it can last a while longer." Lin Ye gripped the foundation tightly, his eyes resolute. "Go do what you need to do!"
Vegeta glanced at Lin Ye, snorted, but didn't object. He simply stood next to Lin Ye and said, "Stop showing off, kid. I'll go with you."
Number 18 didn't say anything, but silently pointed the energy cannon at the entrance of the passage, showing his attitude through his actions.
Trunks gritted his teeth and fully cooperated with the robot to accelerate the preheating jump program.
Thump! Thump! BOOM!
The metal plate blocking the door was finally smashed open, and countless twisted and grotesque aberrations surged into the passage like a flood bursting its banks, roaring as they rushed toward the node room.
"They're here!" Lin Ye shouted, and the foundation stone lit up again. This time, the light was no longer dazzling, but more condensed, transforming into a soft white barrier blocking the entrance. The aberrant creature crashed into the barrier, making a "sizzling" corrosive sound, and was temporarily blocked outside.
But there were too many aberrations. They kept attacking the barrier, and Lin Ye's face quickly turned pale. The light of the foundation stone was also flashing violently.
"Hurry up!" Vegeta roared, continuously firing ki blasts at the aberrations outside the barrier to relieve Lin Ye's pressure. Android 18's energy cannons also didn't stop for a moment, accurately targeting the monsters trying to infiltrate from the side.
"90%...95%...Jump program initiated!" the robot's voice announced.
In the center of the node room, a circular platform lit up with blue light, and the space began to distort.
"Go!" Lin Ye shouted, maintaining the barrier as he retreated.
Vegeta and Android 18 attacked while retreating. Trunks was the first to jump onto the platform.
Just as Lin Ye was about to jump onto the platform, an enormous, monstrous creature, seemingly composed of countless clock fragments, crashed through the already crumbling barrier, its claws aimed straight for Lin Ye's back!
"Watch out!" Number 18 exclaimed, but it was too late to rescue him.
At the critical moment, the damaged robot suddenly rushed forward and used its broken body to smash open the claw!
Snap! The robot's body was instantly torn apart by the sharp claws, sending parts and sparks flying everywhere.
"Go... Camilla's child... Continue the hope..." The robot's single eye flickered one last time before going completely dark, and the wreckage was engulfed by the swarming mutants.
Lin Ye's pupils contracted as Vegeta pulled him onto the platform.
The blue light instantly engulfed them. In the last moment before his consciousness was stretched by time and space, Lin Ye saw the mutants frantically tearing apart the robot's wreckage, and in the deeper darkness, there seemed to be a pair of cold eyes, different from the mutants, silently watching all of this.
The jump started, and the node room and the frenzied aberrations disappeared in the bright light.
Chapter 475: The Abandoned Outpost and the Unexpected Visitor
After a strong feeling of weightlessness and spacetime distortion, the four of them crashed heavily onto the hard, cold ground.
Lin Ye was the first to get up, cautiously looking around. This seemed to be the interior of a small outpost; the space was small, covered in dust and cobwebs, and most of the control consoles were broken. There was a huge observation window on the wall, through which was a distorted, ever-changing, and strangely colored void. This was clearly no longer in normal spacetime.
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!" Vegeta spat out the dust in his mouth and stood up in a disheveled state. "What kind of crappy teleportation is this? It's even more bumpy than Nappa's spaceship!"
Number 18 quickly checked herself and her surroundings: "Safe. No tracking signals or signs of life detected." Her mechanical eyes swept over a few empty cans and sleeping bags in the corner. "Someone has been here recently."
Trunks ran to the observation window, looking at the bizarre "Sea of Nothingness" outside, his face filled with shock and curiosity: "Is this outside the main timeline? The energy readings are so chaotic..."
Lin Ye remained vigilant. He walked to the control panel at the outpost and tried to activate the still-functioning equipment, but most of them were unresponsive. His heart sank; the last words of the robot that had self-destructed to protect them still echoed in his ears.
"Stop fiddling with that scrap metal," Vegeta said impatiently. "Hurry up and decide where to go next? What are the coordinates of that 'Sea of Nothingness'?"
Lin Ye took out the dimly lit foundation stone and tried to reactivate it, but the foundation stone only heated up slightly and did not react further. "The consumption was too great, it needs time to recover. The coordinate information is stored in the variable engine, but the foundation stone's energy needs to reach a certain level to accurately locate and open the channel."
"So, we're stuck in this godforsaken place now?" Vegeta frowned.
“I’m afraid so,” Lin Ye sighed. “Moreover, I always feel like there’s something else watching us in the end.”
Number 18 nodded: "I also vaguely sensed it, a very subtle scanning fluctuation, different from the aberrations and the judges."
Just then, Trunks suddenly exclaimed, "There's something outside!"
Everyone immediately crowded around the observation window. Against the distorted backdrop of the void, a small, streamlined, silver-gray spaceship was silently approaching the outpost, skillfully avoiding the chaotic energy turbulence at an extremely tricky angle. Its design was ancient and peculiar, unlike the observers' standard spaceships.
"Friend or foe?" Vegeta instantly entered battle mode.
"I don't know, but its flying skills are superb, and it's very familiar with the environment here," Number 18 analyzed.
The spaceship slowly approached the outpost, but did not launch an attack; instead, it hovered a short distance away. The hatch opened, and a figure dressed in the same silver-gray full-body protective suit floated out, flying directly towards the outpost's entrance airlock.
The man seemed very familiar with the outpost, easily cracking the old access control system. The airlock opened with a "whoosh".
The four of them immediately became wary and kept a close watch on the doorway.
The figure entered, expertly closed the airlock, and then removed her helmet, revealing the face of a young woman. She appeared to be in her early twenties, with fair skin, delicate features, and short, neat silver hair. Her eyes were sharp and calm, carrying a composure beyond her years.
Her gaze swept quickly over Lin Ye and the other three, especially lingering for a moment on the foundation stone in Lin Ye's hand. A barely perceptible ripple flashed in her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.
"Who are you?" she asked, her voice cold and wary. "How did you find this place? And how did you trigger the alarm deep within the 'nursery,' attracting so many 'cleaners'?"
“The Cleaners?” Lin Ye caught the word. “You mean those time aberrations?”
"Aberrant beings? Is that what you call 'Wraiths of Time'?" The silver-haired woman raised an eyebrow. "That's quite apt. Answer my question: Who are you? And why do you possess fragments of the 'Primordial Foundation'?"
She recognized the Cornerstone! Lin Ye's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't answer immediately. Instead, he asked, "And who are you? Why are you here?"
The silver-haired woman didn't seem surprised by Lin Ye's wariness. She pointed to a badge on her protective suit, an abstract hourglass pattern surrounded by stars. "My name is Xi. I'm one of the 'Navigators' of this 'Sea of Nothingness,' and also a member of the 'Remnants.' This outpost is one of our forward positions."
"Remnants?" Trunks asked curiously.
“They are those who refused to accept the rule of the ‘Observers,’ fled from various timelines, and gathered in the ‘Sea of Nothingness’ seeking refuge,” Xi explained simply, her gaze turning to Lin Ye again. “Now, can you answer my question? Those who possess the ‘Primordial Foundation Stone,’ what is your relationship with the ‘Sower’ Camilla?”
Upon hearing Camilla's name, Lin Ye no longer hesitated. He briefly explained their origins, how they were hunted by the Judges, how they stumbled into the Time Garden, how they gained the Cornerstone's approval, and how the robots guided them.
Xi listened quietly, and when she heard that the robot had self-destructed to cover them, a trace of sadness flashed in her eyes. "The old 'gatekeeper'... it has finally waited for the person it was waiting for, and can rest in peace now." She sighed softly.
"Do you know that robot?" Lin Ye asked.