Above The Sky
Chapter 288 - 288 274 The Highest Authority of Redwood Base 33

288: Chapter 274: The Highest Authority of Redwood Base (3/3) 288: Chapter 274: The Highest Authority of Redwood Base (3/3) “…So this is what happened in the Central Control Room back then,”

Ian pieced together the information from the past illusions he had witnessed and the intelligence about the Brain-Eating Parasite he had already speculated on.

At this moment, he had summarized the truth hidden in the Redwood Ruins Cluster for nearly a thousand years and come to know the real identity of the mastermind behind it.

Without a doubt, the Redwood Natives are the descendants of research staff from Redwood Base, a pre-calamity civilization thriving 1,600 years ago.

During the Calamity of Heavenly Fall, due to their thorough disaster preparations, Redwood Base did not suffer total extinction like the pre-calamity civilization cities on the surface but was preserved extremely well instead.

However, for some reason and also to ensure safety, they decided to avoid the aftermath of the surface disaster, taking refuge within the base to construct an ecosystem, passing on their knowledge, and maintaining the entire base.

But without enough people, knowledge degrades.

Even if the perfectly intact manuals of knowledge are all stored on electronic devices, or printed into books, or engraved on stone tablets, if a single teacher misunderstands, or if any descendant fails to comprehend the knowledge they need to inherit, then knowledge would degrade.

All researchers at Redwood Base were geniuses and elites, but they couldn’t guarantee that every generation of their descendants would be elites—if there was one Ordinary person, their knowledge would be lost.

There is just too much knowledge that cannot be self-taught from textbooks…

and even with teachers’ hands-on guidance, it might not be possible to impart it.

So, to preserve knowledge, or at least to prevent it from distorting,

the Redwood People decided to use ‘Brain Attachment’ and ‘Genetic Memory’ as a dual guarantee.

The Brain Slug was a species of brain slug native to extraterrestrial origins, with incredibly stable genetics.

It could reside on the brainstem of vertebrates, enhancing the host’s memory and computational abilities and perfectly passing down the knowledge it stored generation after generation—due to an internal Spirit Energy Network among these brain slugs, all their knowledge memory, and even their genetic information were preserved within Spirit Energy.

As long as the species survived, knowledge would exist forever.

But…

a certain generation’s leader of the Redwood People, their ‘The Great Elder,’ harbored evil thoughts.

He yearned for, immortality.

Thus, that man forcefully injected his memory, his thought algorithms, and even his soul into the Spirit Energy Network of the Brain Slugs.

Furthermore, he must have modified the genetics of the Brain Slugs, causing them to revert to their primordial state, turning them into vicious brain parasites from ancient times, and created a Worm Nest.

He used the most primitive, savage, and bloody method to keep invading the bodies of his own kin, turning them into selfless Echoes.

However, apart from him, there were five other elders with high Wisdom.

They joined forces to upload their consciousness and together, managed to shatter the soul of The Great Elder, who sought to control the Spirit Energy Network of the Brain Slugs.

From then on, the Worm Nest lost its master and descended into chaos—this was also why the parasite he had seen earlier did not attack him but kept trying to return to the Central Control Room.

Because the Spirit Energy Network inside the parasite was in total disarray, partly primitive instincts, partly The Great Elder, and the remnants of the other five sacrificial elders.

Only…

“A thousand years later, the Natives still evacuated Redwood Base; they lost almost all of their knowledge inheritance, and even slower than the Humans of other shelters, they truly became Natives.”

“The Natives who drank blood and ate flesh, who practiced cannibalism.”

Ian murmured to himself as he lifted his head, his gaze seeming to penetrate the entire Central Control Room and fall upon the Redwood Base Cluster: “And the Brain-Eating Swarm never went extinct but even started to flourish again in recent years—the River of Parasites is clear proof.”

“Although The Great Elder’s consciousness was shattered, the souls of those five elders have also vanished, and now the parasites are probably a ferocious and terrifying artificial biological weapon, still carrying fragments of their intelligence.”

“However, something must have happened during the transformation of the Brain-Eating Parasite—traditions of the Natives’ sacrifices, cannibalism, all have a long historical inheritance, definitely not habits developed after they left Redwood Base.

Also, the mystery of the uncontrolled clones of Mutants, and before the Natives left Redwood Base, surely another crisis occurred, or some knowledge was lost.”

However, these crises were no longer very important.

For they were but the continuous struggles of the Redwood People who had lost their glory.

Under Andor’s confused yet awestruck gaze, Ian stepped forward.

With a single leap, he arrived beside the second level’s main control seat.

Then he sat down on the chair.

Click, click, click.

The automatically extended data cables connected accurately to the young man’s neck, the invisible data flowing and bringing a glimmer to Ian’s eyes.

[Initiating identity check… Northern Neu-Kaldo Region’s White Folks, no data record found, connecting to the network for search… Unable to connect to the network… Engaging base crisis self-determination protocol]

[Identified as non-threatening youthful individual/compliant with base whitelist standards]

[Redwood Base and its affiliated ecological park areas are under long-term uncontrolled automated maintenance, 67% of sectors detected damaged/missing/altered/destroyed]

[Ecological Enclosures One through Thirteen completely destroyed, damage detected in Power Source Areas Five through Twelve, abnormalities in the cooling reservoir, main passageways extensively collapsed and damaged, transport channels experiencing dangerous changes… Based on these assessments, Redwood Base is in a ‘critical danger’ status]

[Calling central administrator authority user… Call failed]

[Calling secondary administrator authority user… Call failed]

[Calling registered user… Call failed]

The calling went on for a long time, while Ian waited patiently.

Until that moment.

[Confirmed absence of emergency responder, initiating transfer of repair authority]

A gigantic logo in the shape of a Redwood, emerged before Ian’s eyes, flickering with the gentle subtitle: [Welcome, Temporary Administrator, you have been registered as the ninety-seventh Emergency Maintenance Engineer]

[Please…]

Click, click, click…

Just as the Central Control Room’s automatic AI was transferring the authority.

Suddenly, the Silver Chip within Ian’s body experienced a disturbance.

And the well-prepared Ian immediately concentrated on sensing the disturbance of the chip.

Unfortunately, the chip had only reacted to the neural connection initiated by the control room with Ian, transmitting a momentary burst of data before it fell silent again.

But in that brief moment, the AI of Redwood Base’s main control room immediately changed its tune.

[Welcome, Heterogenous Research Institute’s Director, codename ‘Pioneer’]

[You have been granted the highest authority of Redwood Base]