bookbashuk Page 218
Page 218
[Time Stasis Field Deployment Complete! It can block the Judge's perception and lock-on, and hold for another 7 minutes and 30 seconds!] The system notification had barely finished when Trunks shouted, "It's done!"
But the next second...
Boom!
Suddenly, a huge hole blasted open in the side wall of the hall! Purple energy surged in like a flood, crashing against the white area with a piercing "sizzle" sound. The Judge's golden figure, enveloped in an aura of destruction, forced its way in!
"A bunch of ants! How dare they touch the core of the 'Nursery of Time'? They're courting death!" The Judge's gaze instantly locked onto the foundation stone in Lin Ye's hand, his voice filled with arrogance and fury.
"Your opponents are us!" Vegeta roared as he charged forward, his fist crackling with deep blue flames, aiming straight for the Judge's face! Android 18, like a shadow, circled to the side, her high-frequency blade slicing towards the joints of the Judge's armor.
"Foolish!" A flash of purple light emanated from the Judge, attempting to freeze them with a time field as before. But this time was different. When Vegeta's fist collided with the purple light, it didn't freeze as before; instead, it pushed forward half an inch, the aura on his fist tearing a small gash. Android 18's blade was even more ruthless, slicing past the purple light with a "sizzle," sending sparks flying and causing the force field to shrink back slightly!
"How is this possible?!" The judge was stunned, his movements slowing by a beat.
That was it!
Bang! Vegeta's fist slammed solidly into the Judge's visor. Although most of the force was absorbed by the armor, it still sent the Judge's head snapping back. Android 18's blade also grazed his shoulder armor, sparks crackling as they fell.
"Effective!" Vegeta's eyes lit up, and his punches became even more frequent. Android 18 also sped up, sometimes stabbing at joints, sometimes using energy cannons to attack gaps in the armor, keeping the Judge busy and flustered.
The Judge was both shocked and enraged, swinging his energy blade to block. The purple and white energies collided, causing the entire hall to shake. He was still as strong as ever, but within the white domain, his time manipulation abilities were significantly reduced, and he could no longer control the entire area as before, finding himself entangled by Vegeta and Android 18.
"Lin Ye! Now!" Trunks shouted.
Lin Ye was already prepared and immediately gave the order: "System! Reverse engineer his energy frequency! Use the foundation stone as computing power to lock onto his time coordinates!"
[Received! Analyzing the Judge's time core frequency... Found! Locking on coordinates...]
The judge seemed to sense something and tried to rush over to interrupt Lin Ye, but Vegeta fired a Garikage, forcing him back: "Dare to touch Lin Ye? I'll break your arm first!"
[Coordinates successfully locked! We can interfere with him for a little while!]
"Interference? Not enough!" A cold glint flashed in Lin Ye's eyes. "Return the time pressure he imposed on us to us! Use 'time feedback'!"
[Execute! Inject foundational energy... Frequency reverse... Launch!]
An invisible beam of energy shot out from the foundation stone, striking the Judge instantly. The Judge froze, his movements becoming strangely unsteady. He tried to raise his hand to swing the energy blade, but his arm moved as slowly as if it were made of lead. When the blade was halfway up, it suddenly swung behind him with a "whoosh," nearly hitting him. He tried to retreat to dodge Vegeta's punch, but his foot took a large step forward, taking a solid blow. He staggered and crashed into the wall, his helmet askew.
"Ugh! What...what have you done?!" The judge was both shocked and furious. He felt his control over time had completely gone awry; it was sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and he felt utterly uncomfortable.
Vegeta and Android 18 weren't about to let this opportunity slip by. Vegeta clasped his hands together, blue and white energy gathering into a ball in his palms: "Perfect opportunity! Ultimate Flash!"
Number 18 also unleashed its energy cannon at maximum power, firing a barrage of light projectiles at the Judge: "Photon Bombardment!"
The two energies collided with the Judge, instantly exploding into a blinding flash that engulfed him entirely. After a deafening roar, the Judge was blasted away, crashing into a distant wall and creating a large crater, sending dust and debris flying everywhere.
"Is it done?" Trunks stared nervously at the other side of the pit.
As the smoke and dust slowly dissipated, the Judge's figure was revealed. His golden armor was charred black and riddled with holes, and a crack in his visor revealed the mechanical structure inside. He knelt on the ground, his purple energy flickering, looking utterly disheveled.
But when he looked up, his eyes held not only anger but also fear: "You...you actually dare to use the foundation stones to fight me? You've rebelled! You've rebelled! You defective products dare to oppose me?!"
Lin Ye took two steps forward and looked at him: "Stop playing dead! Who is Camilla? What kind of ridiculous relationship do I have with you Observers?"
The judge struggled to his feet, his armor creaking and groaning as if it were about to fall apart. "Camilla… a traitor!" he sneered. "As for you, you're just a failed experiment that should have been destroyed! Trash that managed to escape!"
He suddenly raised his hand, a complex spacetime rune appearing in his palm, seemingly intending to take them both down with him. But Lin Ye was faster. Lin Ye gripped the foundation stone, white light surging from his fingertips: "System! Use the frequency you just analyzed, at maximum power, to interfere with his time perception! Throw him into the temporal turbulence!"
[Execute! Maximize the output of foundational energy!]
A stronger, invisible wave surged towards the Judge. The Judge screamed, and the space-time around him blurred, as if pixelated. The runes in his palm snapped away, and his entire being flickered incessantly, like a poorly encoded image.
"No...! My coordinates... are gone!" the Judge cried out in terror, his body uncontrollably sucked into a suddenly appearing, multicolored vortex.
"I...will return! The Foundation...will ultimately be the Observer!" His voice faded into the distance, finally disappearing along with the vortex.
The circular hall fell silent again, leaving only the large crater in the wall as proof that the fight had been real. The white, static field slowly dissipated, and Lin Ye breathed a sigh of relief, feeling his whole body go limp; the foundation stone in his hand had dimmed considerably. Vegeta and Android 18 also stopped their attacks, slightly out of breath.
"We...won?" Trunks was still a little incredulous.
"We just chased him away." Lin Ye frowned deeply, looking at the spot where the vortex had disappeared. "He's much harder to deal with than we thought. And what he just said..."
Is Camilla a traitor? Am I a failed experiment?
He lowered his head and touched the foundation stone; its warmth lingered, as if comforting him. But the fragments of memory, and the foundation stone's approval, clearly pointed to a different answer.
The wrecked robot slowly moved closer, its single red eye flashing: "The threat... is gone for now. Camilla's child... you've proven your power."
“Don’t call me Camilla’s child,” Lin Ye looked up at it, “Tell me more about Camilla, and what exactly the ‘Returners’ are.”
The robot was silent for a moment, then its synthesized voice crackled with static and carried a hint of sorrow: "The database was terribly corrupted... I don't know much. Camilla was one of the earliest administrators of the 'Time Nursery,' and the leader of the 'Returners' project... She believed time should flow freely, not be locked... so she argued with the control faction... and in the end, she ran away with some core data and cornerstone fragments."
It paused, then the red light fell on Lin Ye: "You... should be the 'seed' she sent away. Your variable engine was built using the data from the 'prototype of the time core' she took."
Lin Ye clutched the foundation stone, his mind a jumbled mess. So he wasn't one of the lucky ones randomly chosen by the system, but rather a pawn in a time war that had raged for countless years? And a "spark" upon which hope was placed?
"What exactly does the Observer want?" Number 18 suddenly spoke, still staring at the hole in the wall, as if afraid the Judge would return.
The robot's red light dimmed: "The control faction's instructions... are to control all timelines, eliminate all 'variables' and 'uncertainties'... create a 'perfect,' unchanging universe according to their vision. Those who disobey will either be changed or killed."
Creating a perfect universe? Lin Ye suddenly thought of Frieza and Cell in the West Capital being reset, and those "variables" that were eliminated. This wasn't perfect; it was clearly treating everyone as puppets!
"We absolutely cannot let them succeed!" Trunks clenched his fists, his eyes filled with determination.
“Of course.” Lin Ye glanced at Vegeta and Android 18. “Now that we have the Foundation Stone and some clues, the next step is to find more information about the ‘Returners,’ or other Foundation Stone fragments, and unite with those we can.”
He looked at the robot: "Is there anything else usable in this facility? Like logs, or other energy sources?"
The robot's single eye darted around, pointing to a passageway in the corner of the hall: "The core database is beyond repair... but the lower-level energy room still has some backup energy... enough to activate some remaining logs... and... open an old time-space path that the observer hasn't recorded."
"Take us there." Lin Ye didn't hesitate and led the way into the passage. Vegeta and Android 18 followed behind, and Trunks, after helping the still-panting robot, also followed.
The lights in the corridor flickered, water dripped steadily from the metal pipes overhead, and the distant, whistling sound of turbulent time flow could be heard. Lin Ye gripped the foundation stone; the light in his palm had dimmed, but the energy remained. He knew this was just the beginning; the battles to come would be even harder.
But after taking only a few steps, the foundation stone in Lin Ye's hand suddenly became hot, and the variable engine popped up a weak alarm: [Residual energy from the "Control Faction" has been detected... There may be a trap in the energy room.]
Vegeta noticed he had stopped and frowned, asking, "What's wrong? What happened again?"
Lin Ye stared into the depths of the passage, where the darkness seemed capable of swallowing a person whole: "There might be traps in the energy room. And... the Judge just said I was a 'failed experiment,' and I have a feeling there might be more than one person like me."
Trunks' heart skipped a beat: "You mean... there are other 'sparks'?"
Lin Ye didn't answer, but simply gripped the foundation stone and continued walking forward: "Perhaps we'll find the answer when we get to the energy room."
The door at the end of the passage drew closer. It was rusty and inscribed with the words "Energy Zone - Backup." There was a groove on the door, its shape exactly the same as the foundation stone in Lin Ye's hand. Moreover, around the groove were engraved a string of unfamiliar runes... and those runes looked almost identical to a mark on Lin Ye's variable engine.
Chapter 473 Energy Wells and Echoes of the Past
Guided by the wrecked robot, Lin Ye and his companions proceeded along a wide, downward-sloping passageway along the edge of the circular hall. The energy patterns on the passageway walls were denser and more complex than those in the hall itself, resembling ancient and mysterious runes, yet now they were dim and lifeless, like veins devoid of life, exuding a deathly aura. The air grew increasingly cold, filled with a musty smell of metal and machine oil. The odor, penetrating their nostrils, made them involuntarily frown, as if they could smell the vicissitudes and decay of time.
"The lower energy chamber is one of the heart parts of the 'Nursery of Time'," the robot explained in a synthesized voice as it slowly hovered forward, the background noise seemingly less than before. "It once used a miniature black hole and the entropy difference in the surrounding spacetime to generate almost infinite energy... When the conflict broke out, this was one of the first places to be attacked." Its voice echoed in the empty corridor, carrying a hint of loneliness and heaviness, as if recounting a painful past.
At the end of the passage, an enormous, incredibly heavy metal gate blocked the way. The gate was covered with massive claw marks and horribly dented from the scorching of energy weapons. The claw marks were deeply embedded in the metal, as if some terrifying beast, filled with boundless rage and power, had attempted to force its way in; the scorched dents emitted a burnt smell, as if silently protesting the fierce attacks they had suffered. At the center of the gate was a complex, multi-layered rotating mechanism, engraved with incomprehensible symbols. These twisted and serpentine symbols seemed to convey some ancient and mysterious message.
"Energy room gate. The normal opening method has failed." The robot moved in front of the mechanism. "It requires... a specific energy frequency sequence to activate the internal backup energy before the emergency opening procedure can be initiated." Its single eye flickered with a faint red light as it stared at the mechanism, as if recalling a familiar operating procedure from the past.
"A specific energy frequency?" Lin Ye looked at the foundation stone in his hand. "Is this okay?" He frowned slightly, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes. The foundation stone in his hand emitted a soft light, seemingly resonating subtly with the surrounding environment.
"Foundation energy... level too high, may trigger defense mechanisms..." the robot analyzed. "It is recommended to try simulating... the energy signature of 'Sower' Camilla. Your variable engine should have the basic template stored." Its voice remained mechanical, yet carried an undeniable professionalism.
"System, attempt to simulate Camilla's energy signature," Lin Ye decisively ordered, his gaze fixed firmly on the variable engine.
[Received. Retrieving historical contact data... Combining with foundational resonance feedback... Simulation in progress... Simulation complete. Initiating gate mechanism injection.] The variable engine emitted a soft hum, followed by a gentler, more delicate golden-white light, identical to that of the foundational stone, slowly injecting into the center of the rotating mechanism. The light, like nimble threads, wrapped around the symbols of the mechanism, as if awakening a long-dormant power.
Click... rattle... The symbols on the mechanism lit up one by one, emitting the dull thud of old gears turning. The massive gate shook violently, and dust accumulated over countless years fell in a flurry, raising a cloud of choking smoke. Then, with a piercing metallic scraping sound, the heavy gate slowly slid open to both sides, revealing a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through. A stronger, hot wind, mixed with the smell of decay and strange radiation, blew out from inside the gate. The nauseating wind hit everyone's faces, instantly putting them on alert.
The group cautiously passed through the gate, and the sight before them was breathtaking. It was an unimaginably vast cylindrical well, its walls lined from top to bottom with countless enormous and intricate energy conduits, converters, and control consoles. Most were now broken and damaged; the twisted pipes and shattered consoles resembled the severed limbs of a ravaged beast. The bottom of the well was unfathomable, a dense darkness that seemed to absorb all light. Occasionally, a chilling energy fluctuation emanated from its depths, suggesting that the bound miniature black hole might still be slowly rotating. That fluctuation, like an invisible hand, gently plucked at the group's heartstrings, instilling unease.
A narrow metal walkway spirals downwards around the well wall, broken or twisted in many places, looking extremely dangerous. The metal surface of the walkway is covered with rust, and it creaks and groans when you step on it, as if it might collapse under the weight at any moment.
"Watch your step," Number 18 warned, her mechanical eyes quickly scanning the structural integrity of the walkway. "The radiation level here is high, but it should be harmless in the short term." Her voice was calm and steady, reassuring everyone.
"The backup power control console... is on the third platform below." The robot pointed to a small platform protruding from the well wall not far below. Its mechanical arm trembled slightly, as if it too felt an invisible pressure in this perilous space.
They descended the plank road cautiously, their footsteps echoing in the empty, deep well, amplifying the deathly silence of the place. Each step was heavy, as if afraid that a single misstep would plunge them into the endless abyss of darkness. Soon, they reached the platform. On the platform was only a control console, half-embedded in the well wall. The screen was black, and the control panel was covered with a thick layer of dust; a light wipe would send up a cloud of gray mist.
The robot hovered in front of the control panel, extended its only mechanical arm, and laboriously connected to a physical interface. "Attempting... to activate backup power... to connect to the residual log database..." Its voice carried a hint of barely perceptible tension, and the mechanical arm trembled slightly at the interface.
A faint hissing sound rang out, the console screen flickered a few times, and then it actually lit up! Although it was filled with static and noise, some fragmented interfaces could still be vaguely seen. The light and shadow on the screen danced, as if trying to piece together past memories.
"It's a success!" Trunks exclaimed with delight, his eyes gleaming with excitement. In this oppressive environment, this joy of success seemed especially precious.
A large amount of incomplete data and unrecognizable symbols began to scroll rapidly across the screen. These symbols, like strings of mysterious codes, flashed across the screen at breakneck speed, dazzling the viewer.
"Log database corruption rate 89%... Searching for readable fragments..." the robot reported, its single red eye flashing rapidly, as if racing against time.
Suddenly, a relatively clear, timestamped record popped up:
[Log Fragment Extraction - Timestamp: Unknown (Standard Time Calendar Severely Incorrect)]
[…Dr. Camilla again questions the ethical boundaries of Project 'Ultimate Perfection'. She believes that excessive intervention in the autonomous evolution of the timeline is essentially another form of destruction…and has a heated argument with Principal Researcher Alpha…]
Alpha believes that only by eliminating all variables can eternal stability be achieved. Camilla calls it a 'cold tomb'...
[...Alert! Alert! A massive spacetime anomaly has occurred in the Seventh Incubation Zone! Suspected sabotage! Dr. Camilla and her followers have disappeared! Some core data and 'foundation' have been stolen!...]
[...Alpha has ordered a state of maximum alert! Camilla and her associates have been declared traitors! All means have been authorized to recover the lost items... and eliminate all destabilizing factors...]
[...Conflict escalates! Firefight breaks out inside the 'Time Nursery'! They've deployed time weapons! Well walls damaged! Energy leak!...]
[...Recording interrupted...Error...]
The final scene freezes on a chaotic laboratory setting, where a massive spacetime rift is swallowing everything. A golden figure (similar to the figure in Lin Ye's memory fragments) can be vaguely seen inserting a glowing crystal into a life-saving pod-like device... The golden figure appears lonely and resolute in the light of the rift, as if guarding something important.
The recording abruptly ended, and the screen once again filled with chaotic static. Silence reigned on the platform. Though only fragments of text, a brutal struggle from the distant past—a struggle over ideals and paths—had been clearly outlined. The smoke of that struggle seemed to still linger in the air, conveying its brutality and helplessness.
"Alpha... is the current Judge? Or the leader of the Observers?" Lin Ye asked in a deep voice, his eyes revealing contemplation and doubt, trying to find the answer from this limited information.
“Insufficient data… but the probability is high,” the robot replied. “Alpha… was Dr. Camilla’s most prized student… and the most radical representative of the ‘control faction.’” Its voice carried a hint of a sigh, as if lamenting the falling out between teacher and student.
The falling out between students and teachers... the divergence of ideologies... ultimately led to division and war. All of this, like the wheel of fate, relentlessly crushed the beauty and hope of the past.
“So, our current battle is actually a continuation of that ancient struggle,” Trunks murmured, his tone tinged with a mixture of realization and helplessness.
Vegeta crossed his arms and scoffed, "A pointless ideological battle. Power is everything! Whoever is stronger has the right to decide the course of the universe!" His eyes gleamed with confidence and arrogance; in his view, power was the key to solving all problems.
“But their ‘decision’ means eliminating all other possibilities,” Number 18 calmly retorted, “including us, and everyone we know.” Her voice was firm and powerful, pinpointing the crux of the problem.
Lin Ye stroked the cold surface of the control panel, as if he could still feel the lingering warmth of that turbulent era. His background, the origin of the Variable Engine, and his grudges with the Observers—everything was connected. He was not only Lin Ye, but also the "spark" left behind by Camilla, the hope for another path. A sense of mission surged within him, and he resolved to break this long-standing conflict.
"Are there any other records? Where might Camilla have gone? Or the whereabouts of the other 'Foundations'?" Lin Ye pressed, his gaze fixed on the robot, his eyes filled with anticipation.
"Deep search in progress... Related keywords: Camilla, escape route, cornerstone coordinates..." The robot's single red eye flashed rapidly, and the data stream on the control panel screen scrolled wildly again. The data stream was like a group of frantically dancing ghosts, darting across the screen.
A moment later, the static on the screen suddenly subsided, and an extremely blurry, incomplete star map slowly emerged. In the center of the star map was a faint point of light, surrounded by several illegible ancient characters, but one of the symbols bore a striking resemblance to a certain icon on Lin Ye's variable engine interface. That point of light, like a lone star in the darkness, emitted a faint yet alluring glow.