Abyssal Wanderer

Chapter 22 NO.0016: Meeting for the First Time

Waking up from the sudden dizziness, what appeared in Jiang Zhou's sight was still a strange ceiling.

Well, and on both sides.

In front of "Theseus" was a broken ceiling covered with lightning-like cracks, some of which had collapsed, revealing the dreamy purple starry sky outside.

In front of Liao Qi's eyes, there were circles of dirty yellow stains on the ceiling due to water seepage on the floor, and the air was filled with the faint smell of disinfectant.

What happened?

Jiang Zhou, who felt a splitting headache, raised his hand and pressed it on his forehead.

He carefully recalled what had happened before.

In his memory, the countdown in the sky of Lingbo Prison is over, and he is about to start his first dive into the abyss and dark net to salvage with 136, Qian Xiaying and the others. Their avatars were compressed into data packets, packed together and sent to the deep dive interface, passing through the Styx firewall.

Without the external perception provided by the substitute, they should all become deaf, blind and dumb in the network. However, for some reason, Jiang Zhou can still maintain a certain degree of vague perception of the outside world.

He felt a wall whose grandeur was hard to describe in words—if the end of the universe was a wall, then it should feel like this.

Then, he was lifted by something, and with a whistling sound, he passed through a flaw in the wall and came to the other shore.

The other side is a boundless and infinite abyss, and everything has no end. Just by taking a look at Jiang Zhou, he felt as if his consciousness was about to melt into it.

And at that moment when self-awareness was weak, a huge and indescribable shadow slowly rose from the incomparably deep abyss.

Tens of thousands of unparalleled tentacles stretched out from that shadow, connecting to the wall in the sky. That wall, which seemed impossible to be shaken until the heat death of the universe, suddenly appeared countless spider web-like lines...

Then, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt the shadow "notice" him.

Almost all the tentacles stopped their movements, and only one of the thickest tentacles slowly rolled towards him at a speed ten thousand times softer than when it hit the wall before...

And his consciousness was interrupted before that tentacle touched him.

What exactly is that?

Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

Is that the malicious program that they said in 136 before, wandering in the dark net of the abyss?

Is it possible that they want to snatch the technological blueprint or modification authority in the hands of this kind of thing?

besides……

"Where is this again?"

Jiang Zhou covered his still throbbing head and muttered to himself.

"The health room of Chiron House, haven't you been here before?"

A familiar voice answered Liao Qi's question.

He raised his head, and it was Booker who had just opened the door to speak.

"Why would I..."

Before Jiang Zhou finished asking, a child with a thick head and a thick head got out from behind Booker and flew towards him.

"Brother Liao! You're awake!"

The conditioned reflex brought by the unarmed combat tactical memory made Jiang Zhou sit up from the bed like a spring, and hugged the child like lightning.

Then he almost plucked out the other person's eyeballs in a smooth manner... Fortunately, he realized who the other person was, and finally just patted the other person's face lightly with his outstretched hand.

"Little shrimp goby, you should pay attention to the occasion! I...I'm still on the hospital bed, and you just pounced on me like this."

Jiang Zhou said helplessly.

Xia Hu, nicknamed Shrimp Goby, is one of dozens of orphans of Icarus' comrades-in-arms who were adopted in Chiron's House.

Among children of the same age, he is a troublesome personality like a kid king, but for some reason he is particularly clingy. Every time he came to be a volunteer, he always brought a large group of people to pester him, asking him to tell more stories about the gang fighting at the bottom of the resettlement area.

"But didn't Brother Liao still catch me? For you, this little illness is easy."

After being slapped lightly a few times, the child didn't feel unhappy at all, but giggled and said to Liao Qi.

Immediately, he jumped off the hospital bed, posed a pose covering his chest, bent over and raised his head, and said in a heavy tone:

"Oh, it's just a serious injury..."

"The lines in the animation "Falcon Man"?"

Looking at the actions made by the other party, Jiang Zhou asked thoughtfully.

"That's right! Brother Liao, you've seen it too!"

The boy replied excitedly.

"Xia Hu, you haven't finished your general education class today! Why did you sneak here!"

Before the child could continue to say anything, the door of the health care room was pushed open again, and a middle-aged woman with a frown came in with a ruler. Seeing her, Xia Hu wanted to sneak out from behind Booker at the door, but was grabbed by the arm.

"You still want to run? You will be fined to do another set of data structure exercises today!"

After she finished speaking, she raised her head, looked at Booker and smiled and said:

"Mr. Booker came to see the children today, too."

The latter nodded and replied:

"Come and do something."

The woman's expression instantly became serious, she lowered her voice and said:

"Then, I will pay attention to arranging the children's work and rest time today."

"Please, Aunt Huo."

"Where is it, we are the ones. I really want to thank you for taking care of me...Hey, why are you here and lying here?"

The person in charge of the orphanage who was called Aunt Huo turned to look at Jiang Zhou, and his tone changed suddenly.

Before Jiang Zhou could answer, she looked down at Xia Hu who was being held by her and said:

"Very good, today I will add another set of data architecture exercises, as well as non-Euclidean structural modeling exercises. I haven't finished it yet, and I will only have algae porridge for dinner tonight."

The expression on Xia Hu's face froze instantly.

Ignoring the child's "Why?", Aunt Huo looked at Liao Qi on the hospital bed again:

"Don't talk about those things at the bottom of the resettlement area to teach children badly. I have said..."

"Aunt Huo, you misunderstood."

Booker quickly smoothed things over and said:

"Liao Qi is the same as me. He came here to do business. The reason why he was lying here was that he had suffered a head injury due to some things before and just fainted. I met a little shrimp goby on the road before. By the way I'm sorry I brought him here..."

"Oh..."

Aunt Huo nodded, then turned to Liao Qi, her expression softened:

"Then you should have a good rest first. I'll ask if Dr. Liu is around later."

Seeing Aunt Huo dragging Xia Hu who was rolling all the way and disappearing into the corner of the corridor, Jiang Zhou heaved a long sigh.

"What? Do you feel any emotion?"

Booker asked jokingly.

"I feel that dealing with Aunt Huo is more stressful than dealing with those street mercenaries."

Jiang Zhou pressed his forehead to answer, then he looked at Booker and asked:

"How did I faint?"

"I don't know, when I went to the prosthetic doctor to replace the brain filler and artificial leather, nothing happened, but when you arrived at the door of Chiron's house, you suddenly fell on your back stiffly, give me Terrified."

Are you all right now?

Booker asked.

Jiang Zhou shook his head, then rolled over from the bed.

"It may be that I have experienced too many things before, and I am a little tired mentally. When I came to the place where the subconscious felt safe, I just relaxed and passed out."

Jiang Zhou made up a random reason.

Immediately, he put on the coat on the side and walked to Booker with an eager look on his face.

"It's not too late, let's restart that universal printer first."

…………

So this is the Abyss Darknet of Depth 2?

Jiang Zhou looked around.

The deep purple sky was broken, as if some giant creature had swam before, split the spinning Xingxuan from the middle, and smashed it into countless fragments.

There are ruins everywhere around - not the kind of ruins that once prospered, but were eroded by war, natural disasters or time, but a whole city that rose from the ground, and the pause button was pressed in the middle of the construction. Only unfinished buildings with semi-finished products are left.

And in this semi-finished city, Jiang Zhou was alone.

I was separated from 136 and the others... No, it is unclear whether those people are still alive.

In the communication device carried, only hissing and messy signals can be heard, and occasionally some creepy roars can be heard.

Taking out the self-aware climbing equipment through the mandala, Jiang Zhou climbed up the tallest building nearby: a crumbling iron tower that seemed to have been eaten by countless giant beasts.

Standing on the commanding heights of the iron tower, he saw the city that seemed to have been paused.

This entire city seems to be extending infinitely into the distance, without end, without end.

What to do next? Where should I go?

Jiang Zhou thought.

For some reason, on the platform at the top of the tower, there is an exaggerated carved chair-it looks out of place with the surrounding environment, but it gives people a wonderful sense of modern art.

It's probably the same feeling when you're in an auto repair parts store and you see a donut display case.

Although the substitute didn't really feel tired, Jiang Zhou still sat on it.

In any case, with his stand-in board with a combat power of only 9, it is still too dangerous to scurry around in places where malicious programs are roaming everywhere.

It's better to be on the commanding heights first, observe the surrounding situation, and then make plans.

Maybe I can contact 136 and them.

Sitting on a chair overlooking the whole city, Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

…………

So this is the "universal printer" called "miracle"?

Booker led the way, and took Jiang Zhou to the underground secret room of Chiron's House.

He finally got a glimpse of what the universal printer really looked like.

As he has described in various sources on the World Wide Web in the past, a pure, pitch-black, perfect cube floating in mid-air, slowly rotating.

The length, width and height are 1.054 meters.

"We have done experiments in the past and irradiated it with a strong light of 100,000 lumens. As a result, the surface of this thing is like a black hole, without any reflection... Even under that kind of strong light, it did not cause a slight temperature change, It's still cold to the touch."

It was a young man named Winston who operated the universal printer. He wears a pair of glasses like the compound eyes of a fly, has messy hair, and is even more unkempt than Jiang Zhou a hundred years ago.

In Liao Qi's memory, this person used to be a researcher in the scientific research department of a super enterprise. He was fired for helping his boss, and almost lost his life. It happened that the former team leader Kerrett happened to pass by and rescued him. He then stayed in Icarus and became a technician for the organization.

Winston said while turning on the light in the underground secret room.

The room was as bright as daylight in the light, but the cube was still pitch black—like a piece of modeling that hadn't been loaded.

Winston walked to the console beside him, and while debugging something, he continued:

"Brother Liao, I don't know if you have read Clark's novel. This universal printer is just as described in the book. When it is not activated, no matter how sophisticated equipment is used to measure it, it will always be a perfect 1:1: 1 ratio, at least down to the atomic scale.

"Of course, this doesn't mean that it has a so-called atomic structure... It's been almost a hundred years, and no one has figured out what this thing is made of. A restrained field? A static photon? High-dimensional projection? God knows what it is..."

In the corner of the room, several drill-like things turned, and they aimed their sharp points at the perfect cube.

"But we only know that compared with the super artificial intelligence that can mass-produce this thing, our intelligence is as ridiculous as a paramecium. And that god-like 'Janus' was killed by us paramecium a hundred years ago. Chonglue used a trick to get rid of it."

Looking up from the console, Winston looked at Jiang Zhou and smiled ironically.

"True fucking bullshit, right?"

"Uh... what are these things for?"

Jiang Zhou, who didn't want to get too entangled in this issue, pointed to the "drills" around him and asked.

"Energy supply devices, these four are the igniters removed from the fusion reactor."

Winston lowered his head and kept tapping something on the touch screen.

"From what?"

Jiang Zhou suddenly felt outrageous.

"The energy required by the universal printer needs to be provided by us, or at least the start-up energy needs to be provided by us. If we meet this power consumption by connecting to the grid, then the government of the resettlement area will find out through the data of the Fusion Bureau that the minus two The monthly energy consumed by an orphanage with less than 300 people is enough to send each of them to travel to the moon."

Winston explained patiently:

"So we generate our own electricity."

"You mean there's a small fusion furnace here?"

Regarding Jiang Zhou's question, the other party shook his head.

"It's a small fission furnace. We use the energy of the fission furnace to power the igniter of the fusion furnace to activate the universal printer."

Jiang Zhou turned his head and looked at Booker who had been silent all the time.

"In other words, the entire orphanage is built on top of a fission reactor?

"Am I crazy, or are you crazy?"

Regarding this, Booker said slowly:

"Actually, the reactor was built later...but that's not the point. The point is that it was a helpless move. In fact, it hasn't been discovered until now, which has shown that this method is very effective and safe."

Now that it is basically confirmed that there are traitors in the organization, is it still safe?

Jiang Zhou thought to himself.

But if the traitor was really Booker, this place should have been raided by the company's disciplinary forces long ago.

Or is he just using the power of the company to get rid of other high-level members of the organization, not trying to destroy the entire organization?

"Brother Liao, I know that you have a good relationship with those children, and you will worry about this. But this is really helpless. In fact, the team leader of Corey has been asking on the black market before, is there any finished product of the ultimate energy storage device or the technological blueprint to buy? .I want to use that thing to replace the fission reactor for power supply, and transfer the printer to other strongholds.

"But you can't buy that kind of thing. This kind of depth 2 civilian equipment is very tasteless, so you can't sell it for a few dollars. And those abyss roamers are too good at business, and they won't risk their lives to dive. Salvage this thing out."

Winston on the side came up to comfort him.

Jiang Zhou's heart shuddered.

Other abyss roamers won't salvage this kind of technology blueprint, so what about yourself?

Right now, I am still wandering in depth 2.

Seeing the change in the expression on Liao Qi's face, Winston probably felt that he had figured it out, so he walked back and readjusted the equipment.

After a while, he raised his head and gestured "OK" to them.

Jiang Zhou inserted the silver memory into the slot on his neck.

Booker on the side walked over with two brain-computer interface data cables - the other end of the cable went into the universal printer.

Jiang Zhou froze for a moment.

Why are there two?

"In the memory is the last image left by the Kreit team leader, the kind that burns after reading it. I want to witness it with you, and it is also used to guarantee each other that the final content is true and effective."

Booker replied.

Jiang Zhou thought about it, and it seemed that there was indeed something similar, which was called "last words" in the organization. So he couldn't find any reason to refute, so he had to lie down on the recliner beside him and plug the data cable into the brain-computer interface on the back of his head.

A line of text immediately appeared in his sight:

【Please imagine your mandala to complete the identity verification】

Imagine Liao Qi's mandala...

Jiang Zhou reconstructed the unique pattern in his mind.

Liao Qi's mandala is a broken toy.

In the superhero cartoon "Falcon Man", the superheroes who battle wits with the greedy businessman Boss Crocodile and his vicious minions.

Born in a dirty street, but has a sincere heart.

It was a limited edition crystal figure of Falconman.

A pair of calloused hands picked it up, smashed it to the ground, and smashed it to pieces. This is the most impressive picture for Liao Qi, so he chose this as his mandala.

Now, imagine a broken toy...

【Verification completed】

With the appearance of this line of text, Jiang Zhou felt that Liao Qi's body was slowly sinking and falling.

Finally fell into the network.

…………

Something is happening.

Sitting on a high tower overlooking the ruined city, Jiang Zhou felt a star twinkle in the sky.

Yes, not seeing, but feeling.

It was as if the star was a part of his body, connected by flesh and blood.

He raised his head and stared carefully.

It's not just one flashing, but two.

One bright, one dim.

It is the dim star that connects with one's own feelings.

"How is this going……"

Jiang Zhou murmured, and instead of sitting up, he casually extended his hand to the stars in the sky.

Then, that dim star turned into a shooting star and fell towards him at high speed.

Not only the dim star, but another bright star turned into a meteor and fell towards him as if being dragged by the former.

"ah?"

Jiang Zhou and the dim meteor saw each other in sight at the same time.

…………

After regaining consciousness again, Booker found himself on a dilapidated iron tower.

Surrounded by a city with no end in sight, although there are countless broken walls and ruins, it does not make people feel the feeling of lamenting the passage of time.

Probably because those buildings seem to be unfinished buildings that were half built and stopped.

It’s as if the city’s builders just let it stop because they lost interest, and there’s something chillingly absurd about it.

In the sky, a pool of purple Xingxuan seemed to have been split by a giant sword.

Countless fragments overflowed and splashed out of the boundless space.

It looked as if the sky had been split open by a god, and there was blood flowing from thousands of stars.

And under the reflection of this trace in the sky, under the reflection of this purple star, there is a person.

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it "existence".

A human figure composed of countless broken color blocks sat on a simple and complicated huge seat.

Although the other party did not have the eyes that Booker recognized, he still felt that the other party was watching them quietly.

yes they are.

Liao Qi also came to this strange space with him.

At this moment, he was the same as himself, widening his eyes, looking up at the god-like existence under the Shattered Star Swirling in disbelief.

What's going on? Have you been hacked?

But he is obviously connected to the universal printer, what kind of existence is it that can hack a TM universal printer? !

Are you kidding about the abyss darknet?

Booker dared not even move.

The existence that can hack the universal printer and bring them here doesn't even need a look to kill them.

I can only wait...

After a few seconds, the existence finally spoke.

"Good evening……"

Today's two chapters are two in one, so it's a bit late.