The Star Knight

"This is the gravitational meeting point of six black holes. If you take a step outside the safe zone, you will be attracted to a certain black hole in the sunken space." Corolin said in a deep voice, "Follow me, Opal. "

He took Opal into the spaceship, and the moment he passed through the metal door, Opal almost thought he had come to a strange planet.

It was raining patteringly everywhere, and the sky was covered with overcast clouds. After opening the door, there was a vast, self-contained world.

The gate was slowly closed, Opal looked back and found that this was the garden of an old castle.

Looking up, there is a cloudy sky above the head. Is this an ecological space made by simulation?

"This is an ancient ruin."

The anklet disintegrated again to form a metal umbrella. Cologne held the handle of the umbrella and poked lightly in the air. The umbrella opened, covering him and Opal under the protection of the umbrella.

They walked along the garden, the rain in the sky seemed to never stop, the gray gravel road was wet and smelled of soil, Opal turned his head from time to time and said, "Is it the restored ancient ruins?"

"No." Cologne said, "It's a relic of an ancient earth that was completely copied."

As they walked into the depths of the garden, the ground got higher and higher. A man and a young man wearing black royal robes climbed to the high place and stood on the steep cliff. Below the cliff was a raging bay.

A wet black wooden sign stood in the rain, with strange characters written on it.

"Helgoland." Kolorin translated to Opal.

Opal didn't know what this meant, the sight he saw was so unimaginable that he even forgot that he was in an ivory tower.

Cologne led him down the cliff to a lighthouse.

There was a watchman in front of the lighthouse, an old woman in a cloak, and said, "Colorin?"

Corolin bowed politely and said, "I have a few questions to ask the professors."

The old woman looked at Opal distrustfully, and Opal wanted to spread out her thoughts to read her thoughts, but Cologne stopped him first.

"Come in." The old woman turned sideways and let out the small door of the lighthouse. There was a line written on the door: Heisenberg once came here.

"I promise I won't stay in the ivory tower for too long this time," Corolin said.

The old woman grunted sullenly, knocked on the door with her crutches, and the lighthouse was switched on.

Opal was full of doubts, but he could not open his mouth. After entering the lighthouse, it was pitch black. Corolin put away his umbrella, and his pupils adapted to the darkness, watching Opal.

Opal: [This is the ivory tower? 】

Corolin: [To be precise, this is part of the ivory tower. 】

Opal: [Who are we looking for? 】

Corollin: [Come with me. 】

Corolin walked to the center of the lighthouse, and a beam of pure white light fell.

Cologne raised his head, his thick black eyebrows and handsome side face were bathed in the light, and he said in an electronically synthesized voice: "Department classification search."

Corollin: "Replicant technology and chip manufacturing."

Opal: "?"

Electronically synthesized voice: "Research Room 33."

Opal: "!!"

A circle of masonry against the wall of the lighthouse disintegrated automatically, revealing a spiral staircase. Coron led Opal down the stairs, and a female voice sounded beside them: "Colorin?"

Startled, Opal looked back to see the face of a young woman outlined in a drifting blue hologram, floating with them down the stairs like a lithe ghost.

Ke Luolin said: "This is my disciple Opal."

The holographic projection woman bowed and shot two beams of light from her eyes to scan Opal's pupils. Opal was furious and subconsciously wanted to hide behind Corollin. Corollin said: "This is the central computer system of the ivory tower. Her name is Eve."

The woman said: "The identity entry is complete."

Opal said: "You... hello."

"What's the matter?" Eve said with a flashing blue light, "How's Adam's memory body doing?"

"Adam's memory body...is dead." Cologne walked down the stairs and talked with Eve calmly, like an old friend who hadn't seen each other for a long time: "Or... he has passed into nirvana, I think it can be said that .”

Eve's figure flickered slightly, Opal seemed to sense some kind of emotional fluctuation in her, Eve said again: "It's been a long time since you and Rector came here, do you want Adam to come here?"

Corolin pondered for a while, and then said: "No... no, I'm a little afraid of Adam. It's strange. After all, it's not the real him. By the way, I brought my new apprentice this time."

"I don't think Adam will necessarily like this heir." Eve said with a smile.

"He has no right to choose." Corinne said, "It was Nolan who entrusted me with this mission. I searched for a long time before I found the real fire phoenix, and now there is still half of it left to complete."

"Human beings are always passing on missions." Eve said: "Metabolism."

She floated to a door on the spiral staircase, the small door opened, and there was endless jumping blue light inside, and Opal walked in with Coroline, her eyes were blinded until she got used to the light , let out a cry of surprise.

Cologne smiled, and Eve said, "It's exactly the same as when you first entered the ivory tower."

Cologne hummed, let go of Opal's hand, and walked to the center of the hall.

This is a world made up of crystal lattices. The spherical crystal outer wall wraps around a small foothold in the center, surrounded by dense, honeycomb-like hexagonal lattices. The light in the lattices rises and falls, and countless light screens fly around. Go, stagger each other.

"Another outsider is here." The voice sounded directly in the hall.

"Who is this time? Rector again?"

"You interrupted our research."

"It's good to have visitors come over now and then, teacher, don't be so grumpy all the time."

"Professor Felstor, when are you going to give me the genetic sample?"

"Ah, Petunia, you'd better stop what you're doing and see what that kid is holding."

Dozens of blue soul lights floated out from the crystal lattice, and floated towards the center of the platform.

Opal stepped back in fear, looked around, and found that each lattice was a blue container, filled with liquid, that was—the Sea of ​​Time!

Soaked in the sea of ​​time is one human brain after another.

Opal was like falling into a nightmare, saying, "This... is, what is this?!"

Corolin: [Don't get excited, this is the research room of the ivory tower. 】

The projection rustled and jumped, and a blue ghost crossed the platform, flew to another container, and disappeared.

"Professors, would you like to hear the news from Star Knight?" Eve stretched out her hand and gracefully passed in front of her. The conversation in the hall became quiet for a while.

Corollin said: "I brought a piece of news about the clone army, which is a product left over from the Dark Ages. The No. 2 test site was activated by others after Rector ended the resonance technology."

The sound of electric current rustled, and Cologne said: "In order to maintain the stability in the goldfish bowl universe, I need to find out about this matter, and now I will input the information to everyone."

Eve said, "Prepare the mind adapter for you."

A light screen unfolded on the platform, and Cologne pressed his hands on the light screen, and the surroundings suddenly became dark, leaving only the light on the screen reflecting his face.

A pattern first appeared on the light screen, which was the panorama of the planet in the experimental field, and then the entire light pattern quickly left the screen, flew into the midair, was fixed, and sent information to the brains soaked in all crystal lattices through the transcriber .

Then came the huge pit, in which lay the corpses of countless Kolorin clones, metal skeletons, and brain chips.

Light maps flew out one after another, slowly rotating around the entire hall.

Opal understood, and he walked to Corolin's side, stretched out a hand and pressed on the light screen.

A photo of the living Raymond was pulled out from his thinking activities, and then the past with Raymond flew into the air and entered the group picture on the circular screen.

Corolin finished the whole process, took a step back, and the hall was silent.

He asked, "Is this the instruction from the ivory tower?"

After a long silence, a device outside all the crystal lattices lit up at the same time, followed by hundreds of millions of information light symbols flying around, carrying massive amounts of content to transmit information between different brain soaking containers, and finally All the lights dimmed at the same time.

One of the tens of thousands of crystal lattices lit up, and the young voice said: "This is not the ivory tower's instruction, but the ivory tower discovered the existence of this experimental field earlier than you, because there was a loophole in Heinrich's resonance technology, when By the time we discovered this vulnerability, the dark ages were over and there was no way to close it in time."

"This bug resulted in at least one Duplicant escaping the Resonant Destruction Wave."

Opal saw where the sound came from, in the crystal lattice with blue light, a gray brain floated and sank in the solution.

Another lattice lighted up, and the female voice said: "The No. 2 test site was discovered by Eve. I didn't expect to miss one."

Coroline said, "What does that mean?"

"Generally speaking." An old voice explained: "Recter didn't get rid of all the replicants in the dark age. Let's call this replicant an escapee. It is the selected safety lock in the replicant army. , its appearance and genes have been specially designed to distinguish it from other replicas and blend in with humans. If the replicator group is destroyed, this escapee will carry the technology about gene replication and the chip itself, and establish a A new empire of replicants."

"It found the ivory tower No. 2 experimental site and established a research room there."

Cologne frowned and said, "But it's impossible for the resonant destruction wave to miss any clone."

"Possibly." An immature little girl's voice said: "The first trial plan itself has fatal omissions."

Ke Luolin said: "How did this escapee hide?! Where can it hide?"

The immature little girl's voice said: "Hiding in the past, future, or higher-dimensional space."

Cologne fell silent for a moment, and the little girl said in a voice: "After everything is over, I will be safe and sound when I return to the world of the goldfish bowl. Do you understand, Corollin."

Coroline said, "So where might it be hiding?"

All the crystal lattices light up again in an instant, exchanging information rapidly.

The young man's voice said: "The most likely guess is that the escapees hid in Logan's Wheel of Time."

Opal instantly heard his father's name.

Coroline said, "What the hell is going on in there?"

"No comment." The little girl's voice said: "Lack of analysis conditions, Cologne, I think you know the identity of the escapee best yourself, you and Rector, who have you disclosed the final resonance plan to? You and Rector, who else knows the location of the No. 2 test site?"

Corolin looked indifferent and did not answer.

"Kairley." Corollin said: "At that time, I asked him to send mercenaries to help quell the attack of the replicant army on the ACU headquarters...Kairley was also a member of the replicants, I never thought , chip... Now it seems that his chip is hidden in the core of the brain."

After a brief silence, Cologne said: "No wonder Kyle Lei disappeared for a while before the trial battle. How did he enter the wheel of time?"

"Perhaps the people on the Wheel of Time can answer you. But if the assumption is true, then the Wheel of Time must have crashed in the fifth-dimensional space, or was massacred by escapees." The voice of the young man interjected.

"Yes." Several voices answered unevenly.

Opal suddenly asked, "Why did this escapee make... hundreds of Cologne?"

Several lattices light up at the same time, and a voice said: "The motive is to use the body of the strong to make a new container to achieve the condition of immortality."

Opal tried his best to understand the intricate information, and Cologne murmured: "Yes, he is very interested in my power of belief. As for immortality... I did discuss this issue with him, and he wanted to Establish a new immortal empire? No wonder, but how to achieve this condition?"

"Through their necklaces." The old voice said, "Now I will show you."

Cologne took a step forward and put the necklace on the console, tens of thousands of red lights cast from all directions, the scene was spectacular, as if there were countless straight lines connected to the necklace pendant in the center of the console.

The red light converged one after another, and the necklace glowed with an extremely magnificent luster for an instant. Its blue light even suppressed the luster of all the solution in the sea of ​​time. The boundless, vast sea of ​​light.

The blue light suddenly stopped, and Opal woke up from the shock. One of the old women's voices said: "This is a magic blue fluorite core mixed with molybdenum and processed through a series of complicated processes. Magic blue fluorite has The absorption and transfer effect of the consciousness wave is like a memory storage, the only difference is that the mother memory in the storage can reproduce the child memory infinitely, so as to create multiple identical human souls. Molybdenum can effectively cover it side effects."

Opal: "!!!"

Opal understood this sentence almost instantly.

He remembered the discussion with Raymond on Lonely Star long, long ago, and the projected information on the star map.

At this moment, his thinking was directly connected with Cologne - the reproduction of the phantom star people needs to be passed on next to the phantom blue fluorite, and every newborn can directly inherit all the knowledge of the father's body.That is to say, when the phantom star faces imminent death, he will return to the mother stone, extract his own knowledge content, breed new individuals, and wait for the phantom blue fluorite to instill the information stored in it. into the consciousness of the newborn.

The old woman's voice was flat and rigid: "To sum up, the fluorite core can store all the memories of a replicant, and transmit it to the next body after its death, so as to achieve the continuity of thought inheritance. The possibility of accidental death only needs to be transmitted by consciousness wave, even if the body dies, the remaining consciousness can be absorbed by the new body.”

"Any more questions?" said the young man's voice.

Corinne shook her head in a daze.

"I think you have been able to confirm the identity of the escapee." The little girl's voice said bluntly: "Before the resonance wave was sent out, he entered the Wheel of Time to hide, and after the trial battle ended, he returned to this place." In the universe."

Opal suddenly noticed something unreasonable.

[They are lying. ] Opal said directly in Corolin's mind with the power of faith.

Corolin's consciousness was very messy, but he still managed to wake up from the shock, and regained his composure in the shortest possible time.

Corollin: 【How did you find out? 】

Opal: [Intuition. 】

Corolin: [Yes, I don't believe that Kyle Ray has this ability, but they didn't lie, the only difference is that they concealed some details from me...There must be more questions about the No. 2 test site itself. 】"Adam became suspicious not long after, and through his and Eve's tracking, it was discovered that he used your genes to create a new replicant body. We sent the spaceship and saw that all the semi-finished products had been destroyed, and the escapees had gone down. Unknown, so we don't know what happened on the wheel of time." "But that's not important anymore, the wheel of time hasn't come back for too long, maybe it has sunk in the fifth-dimensional space, so the ivory tower has no future, you humans Neither."

Corollin said: "This is an omission of the Holy Church of the Stars. Everything happened because of our fault."

"That's not important, it's over." The little girl's voice said: "Go back, don't come back again, the gate of the ivory tower will be closed forever, whether it is for new scholars or star knights."

"Goodbye." Corolin said, "Director Petunia."

The door opened again, and Opal couldn't help turning his head to take a look when he left. Tens of thousands of brains were quietly immersed in the sea of ​​time, and the blue light rose and fell one after another, like a sea tide that was born and disappeared.

"Colorin." A deep man's voice sounded.

Corolin and Opal stopped at the same time.

"Adam, long time no see." Corolin bowed politely, and a red holographic silhouette lit up beside them, like a naked male ghost.

"The ivory tower is considering re-establishing relations with the Holy See. We must form an alliance with Pope Drummond to face the problems in the near future." Adam said: "Also, we found another thing on the No. 2 test site .”

Corolin pondered for a moment, and then said: "The Pope didn't make a clear statement. I think this matter is difficult. What is it?"

Corolin picked up a small part handed over by the little robot.

"It's a Quantum Time Regulator, an advanced small robotic part on the Wheel of Time." Adam said, "I remember you had one too. I guess someone took that down and wanted to install it in the lab's on the instrument."

Corollin said: "Yes... the little robot you gave me is missing this part, it will be fast and slow for a while, and it will be crazy every day... What does this indicate? Maybe I can fix it, but I think it proves nothing."

Corolin put away the part and gave Adam a strange look.

Adam said: "I think that the No. 2 experimental field may not be the original experimental field where Heinrich started the resonance."

Cologne murmured: "I think so too, maybe you should call it Experimental Site 2.5, or Experimental Site -2..."

Adam said, "Good luck, Coroline, and goodbye."