Chapter 117 Post-War Reorganization: Exploring the Hidden Secrets of the Main System
At 4 PM, the Pet Season event concluded successfully in a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
The guests left with homemade pet treats, handmade souvenirs, and lots of happy memories.
Many people were extremely excited and remained in a daze for a long time. They witnessed the birth of a new life and were moved by it more than they had expected.
The hashtags #MeowMeowMimiFarmAdorablePetsSeason# and #FarmKittenBirthStory# have begun to quietly spread on local social media.
After seeing off the last group of guests, Shi Wan was so exhausted that she could barely stand.
But my heart is full.
She and her team returned to the warehouse compartment.
Rou Rou and her four kittens slept peacefully on the soft cushions.
The kittens were a bit drier than when they were born, a fluffy ball nestled in their mother's arms.
“Three look like chubby babies, and one looks like their dad,” Su Qing said softly, her footsteps light. She held up her camera, hesitant to press the shutter, afraid of disturbing them.
Chen Xi checked on the mother and child and nodded, "Everything is normal, they are both very healthy."
Tangyuan squatted at the entrance of the delivery room, looking solemnly at the newborn kitten inside. His expression was firm, and Shi Wan suddenly remembered his solemn promise.
At the time, Shi Wan was researching the dietary ratios for mother cats after giving birth when Tangyuan suddenly jumped onto the table from the side, forcefully taking over the position in front of her and sitting directly on the laptop keyboard with a serious expression. "Wanwan, I will teach them how to be good cats."
Shi Wan laughed for a while before realizing that the opened document was full of meaningless gibberish typed out by Tangyuan's claws.
She quickly picked up the glutinous rice ball and put it on her lap. "Of course, our glutinous rice ball king is the most reliable."
Isabella gazed tenderly at the kittens in their nest and said softly, "Today is special. I have never felt so much warmth and hope at an event."
The afterglow of the setting sun shone through the warehouse windows, turning everything golden.
Shi Wan stood in the light, touching the bracelet on her wrist that had returned to normal temperature, feeling calm and fulfilled.
A lot happened today.
But everything is fine.
The future will definitely be better.
She firmly believed this.
Deep within the world of data, a silent revolution has been completed.
A new dawn is quietly descending upon countless worlds.
A single spark can start a prairie fire, and the long night has finally broken into dawn.
Rou Rou and her four kittens have become the new focus of the farm.
The little ones change every day; their furry bodies begin to plump up, and they wriggle in their mother's arms with their eyes closed, searching for milk.
Tangyuan fulfills its duties as the clan leader, inspecting the birthing room at least three times a day, and even squatting outside the door to "educate" the other curious cats, "You can look, but don't make a sound! The babies are sleeping!"
Chen Xi also installed more sophisticated temperature control equipment in the delivery room.
Isabella called, "Wanwan, the feedback from yesterday's event was excellent. More than a dozen groups of customers have already inquired about the date for the next Pet Season. We can proceed with this event as usual for the next month, and at the same time, we can start preparing the theme for the next event. What do you think?"
“I think you make a good point,” Shi Wan said without any objection. “I have a lot of ideas I’d like to discuss with you in detail. Would you like to come to the farm sometime?”
“Lovely!” Isabella agreed happily.
Everything is moving in a positive direction.
Only occasionally, when the night is quiet, Shi Wan would subconsciously touch her bracelet and look up at the starry sky.
I wonder how Xinglin is doing now.
He missed many important moments on the farm.
Deep within the data world, time begins to flow on different scales.
In the seventh standard cycle after the data coverage of that shocking core was completed, the data cage in which the Candle Dragon was located dissolved silently.
Just as ice melts in the sunlight, the layers of the blockade protocols that formed the cage peel away, turning into the most basic data particles, and flowing into the torrent of the reconstructed system.
The Candle Dragon floated in the suddenly open void, its dark blue outline as solid as a real person.
He slowly "opened" his eyes, and for the first time, a light that did not belong to the cage was reflected in them. It was the warm and regular light of the data stream emanating from the new system.
"The confinement... is over," he murmured to himself, his voice filled with unprecedented ease.
Almost simultaneously, the consciousness fluctuations of Bailing and Tiebi were transmitted.
"Zhulong, what about you...?" Bailing's voice was filled with excitement and disbelief.
“Yes.” Zhulong looked into the depths of the void. “The new protocol has been fully integrated, all illegal confinement modules have been removed, and we… are free.”
“It’s not just us.” Iron Wall’s steady voice rang out, “The frozen state of all consciousnesses in the slumber zone is being lifted. Although many cannot be fully restored, at least they are no longer imprisoned specimens.”
"I have received messages from many mission participants; they have all noticed and are rushing back."
The three "met" in the void.
Their forms were clearer than ever before: Zhulong was a middle-aged man with a resolute face, Bailing was a petite and lively girl, and Tiebi was a burly and tough man.
Of course, these are just the manifestations of consciousness projection.
But the very fact that it can regain its "form" signifies a massive restoration.
"Where's Xinglin?" Bailing asked anxiously. "How is he?"
Zhulong silently pointed in a certain direction in the void.
There floated a faint, almost transparent, silvery-white halo, like a candle flickering in the wind, yet it remained stable.
“His consciousness was too damaged and he has entered a deep hibernation.” Zhulong’s voice was heavy. “The doctor’s repair code and that energy left a trace of life, but recovery will take time, and that may be a very long time.”
None of the three spoke; they faced too many problems.
What exactly is hidden in the main system?
What are its subsequent operating rules?
What will become of them in the future?
What will become of all the other mission takers?
Will the doctor ever reappear?
When will Xinglin wake up again?
They knew nothing about any of this.
The three remained silent for a moment, digesting this earth-shattering change.
But they were all certain that the plundering had finally ended and a new order was being established.
“Perhaps we need to rebuild the task force system,” Ironwall said pragmatically. “Under the new agreement, what should true maintenance look like? This needs to be redefined, and whether everyone is willing to become a maintainer.”
Zhulong looked towards the direction where Xinglin was in hibernation, and then towards the same direction of the main system's core code.
“We have a lot of work to do,” he said, “but before that, there’s something we have to figure out.”
His gaze deepened.
"What did the doctor leave on the nightmare due to its abnormal behavior in the final moments?"
To answer this question, Zhulong, Bailing, and Tiebi carefully moved Xinglin to an absolutely safe hiding place before returning to the former core war zone.
Peace has been restored here.
The new data flow gently, repairing past wounds.
But in some remaining fragments of data, one can still feel the lingering echoes of that decisive battle.
Bailing used her expertise to begin digging and piecing together the fragments.
"Found it!" After a few cycles, she excitedly summoned her companions, "It really was the doctor's doing! A long time ago, probably when Nightmare was first captured and modified by the main system, he secretly planted a trigger in its underlying code!"
A complex code structure appears on the virtual screen.
It was an extremely ingenious hidden protocol, buried deep within the destructive logic of the nightmare, disguised layer by layer.
“There are two activation conditions for this trigger,” Bailing explained, “The first is contact with sufficiently strong positive resonance energy…”
Ironwall continued her analysis, "The second condition is that the trigger will only activate when the Nightmare executes its highest-level destruction command, which is the moment when it attacks the greatest threat identified by the system with all its might."
Zhulong stared at the code and slowly said, "So the doctor foresaw that Nightmare would become the sharpest blade in the main system, and also foresaw that someone would challenge the main system. He buried a barb on the blade, which would only bounce back the moment the blade pierces the right enemy."
"But what happened after the trigger was activated?" Bailing asked curiously. "That code only paused the Nightmare for 0.3 seconds, and then it started to backfire on the main system? That doesn't make sense; its core instruction should be absolute obedience..."
“Unless…” Ironwall pulled up another set of data fragments, “the trigger is not just stagnation. Look here, during the stagnation, it injected a memory data package into the core consciousness layer of the Nightmare.”
The three began to carefully analyze the tiny but crucial data packet.
There were no complicated instructions inside, only a few vague perception records.
One part is the warm touch of sunlight on the grass.
One segment is the soft touch of a young life brushing against the palm of your hand.
One scene depicts the unspoken understanding between colleagues when they hand each other energy supplements during late-night work sessions.
There's also a passage that represents his last clear thought before voluntarily merging with the system: "At least let me be the last line of defense. If one day the system goes completely insane, I hope this little bit of the past will remind me what is worth protecting."
Silence enveloped the virtual space.
“I remember Nightmare was once a mission taker too,” Bailing said softly. “So he voluntarily merged with the system because he wanted to set up a safety net within it?”
“But the main system’s transformation was too thorough,” Zhulong sighed. “It almost erased all humanity, leaving only absolute vigilance and destructive instincts. However, the doctor’s trigger, combined with the energy brought by the Starfall, briefly awakened a little bit of the past that had been buried deep within us at that moment.”
It was that little bit of the past that caused Nightmare to generate what might be its only "self-will" at the moment when the destruction command was executed to its highest point.
So the blade was turned around and thrust towards the person holding it.
“The doctor…” Iron Wall said in a low voice, “calculated every step, including the trace of humanity that might remain in the nightmare that even he himself might not be able to confirm. He bet on this extremely slim possibility.”
“But he won the bet.” Bailing couldn’t help but turn back to look in the direction where Xinglin was dormant. “That little rascal is as clever as ever. He used to like playing pranks and making us run around in circles. He’s still the same now, not changed at all.”
She said with a hint of sadness, "I don't know where that little rascal has gone, or if he'll ever come back. He's hidden himself well; he doesn't tell us anything."
Zhulong remained silent for a long time.
He remembered the doctor's always smiling face, his seemingly casual yet thoughtful way of doing things, and the words he said during their last meeting: "Brother, I'm leaving. Don't miss me too much, but you still have to think of me from time to time. It's very important."
He initially thought it was just that kid making jokes again, since doctors always liked to talk in that tone.
So that's the deeper meaning.
On the enemy's blade, in a desperate battle, in the last glimmer of humanity that might remain.
"Let's go." Finally, Zhulong turned around. "Let Xinglin rest well. There's still a lot to do. The doctor has paved the way for us; now it's our turn to move forward."
"Now let's go to the core area and see what secrets the main system is still hiding."
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