Chapter 170 Eternal Prison "Welcome back, Warden."...
After Xue Chao passed through the long tunnel, everything happened too fast. In the blink of an eye, he was tied to the Nebula Ship, which then swam forward.
The boat is small; more than five people would be too crowded, but one person adrift would be lonely. The boat is incomplete, with many broken pieces and debris floating outwards.
This is also a wrecked ship. Instance 9502 buries many wrecked ships. From Giant's Port to the labyrinth leading to the stars, it was the beginning of his life, but did it already point to his end?
He summarized the posts on difficult and complicated diseases, and he and his companions hid clues in them in the past, waiting for him and like-minded people to come here again in the cycle of reincarnation.
As was his habit, he would add copy number 9502 to the post in this life. After the system announced the failure of the emergency mission, he did so. But he knew that this was his last chance, and he would not have another life.
The wrecked ship was empty. It was astonishing that it could still form a solid structure despite being so broken. Xue Chao stopped at the most disintegrated part of the ship's cabin.
The damage is all around the edges and outer contours of the ship, likely from wear and tear and external impacts sustained during its voyage. However, this particular spot, in the middle of the ship, which is not near the edge, appears to have been pierced through by a single blow.
No matter how the nebula changes, it cannot fill this gap. If he is not careful, Xue Chao will fall out.
This is where the most valuable thing on the entire ship should be kept, and the purpose of destroying the ship is to take or destroy this thing.
Xue Chao squatted down by the crack to observe. When he reached the same level as the crack, gravity suddenly reversed, and he fell headfirst out of the crack. He immediately tightened the rope props that had been tied in advance and stood on the bottom of the boat from the outside.
A third eye appeared on his forehead, and a beam of blue light swept across it. The pupil successfully recognized the third eye, and the Nebula Ship opened up, gathering upwards like a flower to envelop Xue Chao and reform into a complete ship.
A set of electronic devices formed from a nebula appeared before Xue Chao's eyes, resembling his recording equipment.
He put on his headphones, and a loading semicircle appeared on the screen, inside which was a silhouette of a male bust. Li Changying's voice suddenly rang out, gritting his teeth: "So you're not dead after all. I thought you had gone ahead of me."
Xue Chao lowered his eyes: "So what's going on with you? In order to avoid being trapped in prison as a boss reserve, you've also turned yourself into an AI?"
Li Changying felt that Xue Chao's attitude today was a bit strange. He was still used to their confrontational style, and this silence made him feel uncomfortable.
But he still retorted sarcastically, as was his habit: "What else? Turn into a monster?"
He wasn't afraid of becoming a monster. He had fought, but this was still the end result. He accepted it. But he wasn't alone. He felt that he was affecting another person's life. He knew she felt the same way. Even if it was overestimating his abilities, he wanted to fight again.
The final victory is the carrot dangling in front of the players, their only hope, making them grit their teeth and carry on, burdened by the blood debts of their kind. But this is a lie. The real hope lies among their companions; they are not enemies, but comfort and support.
If things really get to the point of no return... he would rather his soul be scattered than become a monster that hurts her, and he knows she feels the same way.
Xue Chao couldn't understand it better. He and Jiang Ming were even more extreme; they could kill each other for a shared belief.
They cannot let each other bear so much burden, give so much, only to have it all fall apart at the last moment.
The ship sails through the stars, each planet with its unique landscape: jungles, seas of fire, deserts... but there is only one life: a prisoner.
Now there's one more person: the host who's here to inspect.
The host has already found the culprit, the unfinished boss has been briefly awakened, and his chaotic mind will also be awakened. The one-sided pursuit has brought some commotion to the silent planet.
But as soon as the ship passed, the noise disappeared at the fastest speed, as if startled by the presence of a predator and hiding away for fear of attracting the ship's attention.
It's not that Xue Chao is narcissistic, but with that whale-like behemoth as a precedent—are these bosses afraid of him?
Really? Him?
Li Changying did a good job of his undercover work, but his report was also full of barbs. Xue Chao automatically filtered out the parts and only listened to the parts that Li Changying needed.
As Xue Chao predicted, the stars are an unfinished copy space. The consciousness in the gaps first pulled over the elements of the dark world to form these broken planets.
Players who reach the maximum score do not immediately become bosses. At this stage, they still retain a trace of human consciousness, their minds and egos being torn apart by primal tyranny.
To prevent them from shattering after a mental breakdown, they will fall into a deep sleep and be thrown into these planets to pollute them as a source of contamination, until the planets are large enough to become replica spaces, and their own intelligence is also completely destroyed.
The egret is placed on one of the planets after accumulating enough points. It remains there until it is sufficiently polluted, transforming the planet into a campus and giving it a number. Meanwhile, Helena, the first boss who was sleeping in the cocoon, awakens in the game.
That was the first time the instance space was opened.
As the stories unfold season after season within the space, the bosses will die. If the popularity (pollution value) doesn't meet the standard, a new boss needs to be spawned. Drawing inspiration from the stories, the space's native characters are perfect for this.
For example, Subhuti in Mechanical Lotus is a player who failed to leave the instance and was assimilated into an NPC, which is why he is acquainted with Jiang Ming.
He was in an incomplete state, killed by Jiang Ming before breaking out of the cocoon. The dungeon was missing a boss, and Holder happened to have full points in the game. He merged with Subhuti in the broken cocoon and directly matured into a complete boss.
Players who participate in the dungeon story, and past players who are assimilated into NPCs, may become bosses. What about other NPCs?
Going back to the very beginning, where did the NPC who first opened the dungeon come from?
Xue Chao intuitively felt that he knew the answer, and no one knew it better than him. It was hidden in the memories of reincarnation, but they were too messy to sort out.
He looked at the silent universe. Jiang Ming told him that this was where the dream was, a spiritual world existing beneath the real world, which allowed the consciousness in the cracks to slip through and silently connect with the main and dark worlds.
The beings of the Dark World slumber in their own world, their consciousness probing into their dreams to peer into the eternal slumber of another world, completely unaware that what they are observing as spectators is their own future.
An urgent desire grew wildly within him. He gazed intently at the broken planet adrift in the darkness. Wake up.
In this eternal, silent prison.
Awake, you who are asleep!
"Don't think that just because I entered the ship's system, it only gave me a place to stay. I have no authority and can't operate anything. This wrecked ship has been wandering in space until I heard a high-frequency cry, like it was fleeing from pursuers. The ship then sailed to your planet to bring you in." Li Changying said with dissatisfaction, "This ship is yours. You know more about the Eternal Prison than I do, and you still made me go undercover?"
Hearing the sound, Xue Chao turned around and met the screen. His blue eyes suddenly darkened, like a storm rising in the sea. The vastness was replaced by a brutality, and even the all-encompassing heaven and earth could ruthlessly bring about the end of the world.
This glance silenced Li Changying, but activated the device. The blue light swept across Xue Chao's eyes again, and the system ignored the chattering outsiders and started automatically.
Li Changying's voice disappeared, and another mechanical voice rang out.
In a flash, Xue Chao cleared the fog of memory. He had only had a short time to examine his memories, and there were too many memories to process. It was impossible for him to grasp all the details.
With memories from one lifetime after another piled up, he could only extract the most essential information. Now, he was trying his best to separate and sort them out, and he discovered that sometimes, in the memories of a certain lifetime, there would be players from a previous lifetime among the NPCs in the instance.
Between these two generations, there must have been a generational change.
Especially since the entire generation perished in his previous life, his reincarnation happened to be among the first batch of players in the new generation, which is the most obvious reason.
The first NPCs in the instance space were the last players from the previous generation who perished.
These planets are so monotonous, yet they eventually form rich and varied story-filled spaces, thanks to the collective destruction of the previous generation among the stars.
That's what they're going through right now.
These thoughts had barely stirred up a storm when, after connecting with the ship's artificial intelligence, they were all suppressed by memories from another life.
He heard the AI say in Yotner's youthful voice, "Welcome back, Warden."
The nebula's outline changes slightly; the bottom remains boat-shaped, while an arch is added above, giving it the overall shape of an eye.
At the same time, each side gathers a dense cluster of eyes, closely pressed together without any gaps.
He remembered. Xue Chao opened his eyes, his gaze filled with endless indifference. He was the warden of the Eternal Prison, a trusted confidant of the game company, patrolling among the stars, monitoring the prisoners' every move.
Every eye on the ship is a surveillance camera, allowing him to see the situation on every planet at all times.
This universe should be deathly silent; any unnecessary noise is an anomaly, and he has the authority to punish it.
He was reborn as a host, but without experiencing a single instance of the game, he was sent by the company to the Eternal Prison as its warden.
He knew that the Stars were the prototype of the dungeon space and were of vital importance to the company, which was why the company valued them.
He only needs to patrol and supervise; there are no weekly performance targets. The prisoners are in a long sleep with little danger, which is why the company prefers him.
The only apparent drawback is that he wanders alone in the endless universe, with no other life to communicate with. There is little sound here, just as prisoners are in eternal slumber. The universe is also in eternal slumber, and he has no goal, let alone an end.
Time may pass in the blink of an eye or a long time, but it doesn't matter; time has no meaning here.
Until that day arrived, during the company's routine inspection, the deathly silent prison was filled with noise as his complete strangers climbed onto the prison to conduct the inspection.
This is very strange. Xue Chao has control over the situation in all the prison cells. The prisoners are all in a deep sleep, and even if there are any unusual occurrences, they are quickly suppressed by him.
Last time, some prisoners did briefly regain consciousness. When prisoners regain consciousness, they are very agitated, and their screams and roars can cause planets to tremble. But in the vast universe, it's like a bubble bursting in the ocean, insignificant.
But they couldn't escape the warden's surveillance and eavesdropping.
So when the prisoner awoke, he was in a state of mental turmoil, but fear triggered his more primal survival instincts—he chose to play dead.
But he was still beaten up by the ruthless warden and sent back to the bottom of the cell to sleep.
The Eternal Prison is stable enough, as stable as death itself, but routine checks have brought about a series of anomalies. The forced opening of the immature dungeon space and the introduction of players have led to constant riots, which is simply contradictory. They are about to awaken the Eternal Prison.
He encountered an old friend during his cruise, but he didn't remember him. He was the most loyal lackey of the Crack Consciousness, clearing all obstacles for the company. He just felt annoyed that they seemed to know him very well.
But they witnessed his indifference, and like saints, they followed him around, desperately trying to help him "recover his memory".
What is the company's purpose? The warden is still ruthlessly suppressing the rebels who are clashing with the company and rallying people to destroy the planet, but seeds of doubt are sprouting, and he finally listens to the absurdities of those overly familiar people.
He had no contact with the library, no memory of reincarnation, but he knew the truth. Blood splattered before his eyes, and death and tragedy unfolded a hellish scene.
He had never interacted with anyone in this life, had no companions or enemies, and even strangers were a useless concept to him; he was the only one in the Eternal Prison.
But the moment he learned the truth, before his mind could even grasp what it all meant, anger welled up in his heart, overwhelming his soul.
They are unrelated, but he is one of them. Their pain is his pain, their despair is his despair, they are one.
Xue Chao forced himself to come back to his senses. He looked at the equipment. The patrol ship AI was an assistant given to him by the company in his previous life. It was composed of the consciousness of two top players from a certain generation, and was also a pair of twins with mutual inspiration.
Their special ability allowed them to pause their growth, and they exploited this loophole to stop their own mutation. The company felt it would be a waste to kill them, so they used a specific copy as a trap to turn the two into AI.
AI is called "Yotna," which means "giant" in Norse mythology. The two consciousnesses are a whole, but most of the time one is awake and the other is asleep, so it is incomplete and its thinking is mechanical.
The ruthless warden never treated his assistants like human beings; Yotner was just an assistant that the company uniformly assigned to the presenters.
But later his ship was pierced, and the conscious half of the AI, controlling the nebula, died after taking the fatal blow for him. The other half of the AI was forcibly awakened and turned into fuel for the patrol ship, allowing him to land safely.
Li Changying completed half of the task, which was not enough to restart the Yotner Protocol, but now the ship is active and the other half of the gap has been filled... It's the consciousness of the gap!
As soon as Xue Chao moved, he was suddenly bound hand and foot by the nebula. The AI had the voice of a twin boy, but with an added discordant malice and arrogance: "Welcome back, my warden."
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