Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 798 Pilot No.
When the gentle sound of the waves faded from her consciousness, Vanna was stunned for a long time.

As a member of the Lost Homeland, and as an individual who had experienced the reshaping of the warp, her cognition was firmly fixed on the "side" where the waves still existed. She realized what was happening almost instantly, then rushed out of the cabin like the wind and came to the deck where the captain was.

"Captain!" Vanna came to Duncan. She was always calm, but now she looked a little helpless. "The sound of the waves in my mind has subsided. The Storm Goddess might be..."

"I know," Duncan nodded gently, "the decay process has deepened."

Vanna stood in front of Duncan in a daze, listening to this irrefutable answer, and did not move for a long time. Then she turned around and looked at the uniform "gray and white" passage in front of the Lost Homeland, but subconsciously called the name of the goddess in her heart, just like she did every time she prayed.

She still couldn't hear the familiar sound of the waves. In her "spiritual perception", there were only some faint murmurs and chaotic mumblings - in the past, these were all "noise" during the prayer process, but now, they became the only "comfort" in her heart.

And in the corner of her eye, some shadows suddenly emerged in the evenly distributed and boundless gray-white depths in front of the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star. Some layers of black objects appeared in front of the route, and there was a "sea" as smooth as a mirror spreading there.

A vague voice that seemed to have transcended time and space entered the minds of everyone on the ship. It seemed to be Alice, but it was severely distorted: "The jump is over... Leaving the channel."

The next second, the gray-white passages around the Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star shattered silently, and the two ships crashed into the "node sea area" constructed by entities. They sailed into the "sea surface" that was as calm as a mirror, and "glided" rapidly on the mirror surface.

The huge ship sailed across the water without causing even the slightest ripple.

Duncan came to the edge of the deck, looked down at the "phenomenon" outside the ship with a serious expression, and then raised his head without saying a word and looked at the black shadows of different sizes standing on the "sea surface".

They gradually became clear - those things that looked like mountains rising from the sea were actually countless black crystal clusters of astonishing size.

Countless huge black crystals stand on the calm sea like islands of different sizes. The crystals continue to split as they spread, and eventually turn into crystal cluster structures that look like a forest of sharp blades. In the omnipresent chaotic skylight, the edges of those crystal cluster structures appear vaguely translucent, making their edges seem unreal and weird, with a dreamy feel.

This is a completely different view from the sea where the Storm Goddess is sleeping.

Shirley also ran to the deck. She stared at the scenery on the sea with wide eyes. After a long while, she couldn't help but let out a drawn-out sigh: "...Wow..."

"We have entered the node sea area," Duncan took a long breath and said casually while taking back the control of the Lost Homeland. "The next step is to find the location of the Pilot No. 2. It should be deep in those crystal clusters."

As soon as he finished speaking, Morris, who had also come to the deck not far away, raised his hand and pointed in a certain direction: "I can feel that He is in this direction."

The Lost Homeland and the Brilliant Star slowly sailed towards the depths of this "Crystal Sea".

Alice left the control panel and ran to the deck, looking at the place in amazement. She saw those huge black crystals like blades slowly retreating from the side of the ship. Some of the crystals seemed to have a living glow flowing deep inside. This place, which she found by her own navigation, was strange and incredible to her.

Even though she had forgotten everything about the New Hope, she knew instinctively that this was not what the New Hope was supposed to be like, not what was on that ship.

This place is like her "Alice Mansion", which is the reshape of the spaceship after the great annihilation.

At this moment, a voice suddenly sounded in her mind: "You are here..."

Alice was stunned for a moment, then immediately turned her head and shouted towards Duncan: "Captain! Someone is talking to me!"

Alice felt as if the voice in her mind froze for a moment, and then said helplessly: "I am Pilot No. 2..."

Alice immediately turned her head again: "Captain! It said it was called Pilot No. 2!"

"I see." Duncan came over and touched Alice's hair with a subtle expression. "Tell Pilot No. 2 that we are heading towards it."

"Oh," Alice nodded, then thought hard for a moment, then raised her head with a strange expression, looking at Duncan with confusion, "...Captain, it's ignoring me."

Duncan: "..."

He turned around expressionlessly and controlled the Lost Homeland to continue passing through the narrow and winding waterway formed by countless crystal peaks.

After an unknown amount of time, the scene in front of the Lost Homeland suddenly became clear - after passing through a "gate" made up of huge crystal pillars, an extremely wide sea suddenly appeared in everyone's field of vision.

And in the middle of this vast sea, the Pilot No. 2 stood quietly, without any cover or suspense, waiting for guests to come.

Duncan glanced at the neatly arranged black "matrix" and took a deep breath: "Change the boat."

The Lost Homeland stopped at a distance from the Pilot No. 2, and then all the crew members transferred to a small boat and carefully approached the main engine array in the center of the sea from the mirror-like sea surface.

A white boat made of paper also came from the direction of the Brilliant Star. Lucrecia stood on the bow, and the rabbit Rabbi and the clockwork doll Luni were also on the boat.

The two boats met about a hundred meters away from the main array. Lucrecia on the paper boat turned her head and said, "Do you think... 'He' looks weird?"

Duncan looked ahead solemnly, and after a long while he spoke in a deep voice: "...Perhaps, looking weird is the most normal thing."

The two small boats came in front of the Pilot No. 2. Now, the true appearance of this "God of Wisdom" finally emerged from the fog and was truly presented to outsiders for the first time.

It is composed of many "servers" of different sizes that look like stone tablets. A largest black rectangular structure seems to be its "hub", and its height is estimated to be more than ten meters. On the top of the dark rectangle, there is a red light like a one-eye, as if overlooking the surroundings - it makes Duncan think of the dark red "core" of the Lord of the Deep.

Behind this large rectangular block, which serves as the center, are twenty-two "small" units that are several meters high. Lights are flashing on the surface of those units, and countless dazzling indicator lights are constantly flickering. A low and continuous buzzing sound can be heard coming from inside all the rectangular blocks.

And between this series of cuboids, the entire array is maintained and connected...

Countless nerves and blood vessels.

Flesh-like tube bundles extend from each server "cabinet" and merge with the dark outer shells, even turning parts of the outer shells into skin-like structures. Blood vessels and nerve cords crisscross like a spider web across the bottom of the entire host array. At the intersection of many tube bundles, one can see flesh swelling and tissue proliferation. The exposed "organs" that look like hearts are constantly beating at those nodes, and there are also biological tissues like the brain attached to the nerve nodes, slowly wriggling.

When the boat approached, a mass of flesh and blood tissue at the bottom of the central host of Navigation No. 2 was the first to react. Its surface suddenly squirmed and grew, and then an eyeball rolled out from its inside, held up by a long eyestalk, and came in front of Alice.

"Ahh——" Alice was frightened on the spot and slapped the eyeball back.

The eyeball suddenly shrank back into the flesh and blood tissue, and the blood vessels and neural networks between the server arrays began to wriggle and undulate in an instant.

The next second, the buzzing sound coming from the dark server hosts suddenly increased, and the red light above the central host flickered rapidly. A dull synthesized voice came from nowhere: "Navigator No. 3, why are you hitting me?"

Alice was stunned and scratched her hair a little embarrassedly: "Ah, I was startled... I slapped it without thinking too much..."

Duncan had been looking solemnly at the "server matrix" in front of him that had obviously been severely distorted. After a long while, he spoke in a deep voice: "I guess... you definitely didn't look like this originally."

After hearing Duncan's words, the red light above the central host flashed slowly several times, and then a deep voice came into his ears -

"Yes, so now you should know why machines in this world can be possessed by evil spirits."

Duncan's eyes changed slightly in an instant.

He stared at the crisscrossing flesh and blood tissues in the mainframe matrix of the Navigator-2, and at the eyes that kept appearing and disappearing between the blood vessels and nerve cords. Finally, he could no longer suppress the strangeness in his expression.

"…When did this change begin?" he said in a deep voice.

"When the first cry of a baby appeared on the boundless sea," the red light flickered slowly, "when the nanomachine group of Pilot No. 1 completed the first round of reshaping of all things, the changes in us began - you should have seen No. 1 and know what it looks like now, so there is no need to be too surprised by my current state."

Then the towering black "monument" was silent for a few seconds before continuing: "Just think of this as some kind of 'adaptive adjustment'. Compared to others, my condition is actually not too bad - look, at least I can still communicate with you directly here."

(End of this chapter)