Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 786 - Chapter 786 Chapter 783 Handover

Chapter 786: Chapter 783: Handover Chapter 786: Chapter 783: Handover The echoing roar deep within his consciousness gradually faded, and the scene before his eyes stabilized once more. The muffled voices, as if behind a curtain, became clear again. Gomona’s gentle voice was like a breeze gliding across the surface of the water: “…Usurping Flame, what does the world look like through your eyes?”

“My world…” Duncan softly repeated these words, subconsciously pondering and recalling, his gaze passing beyond the phantom-like girl standing quietly before him, beyond the colossal remains of the Sea Beast Queen, across the pond–in a daze, fish leapt out of the water, entering his mind and lingering in his consciousness.

He blinked, his focus returning to the body of the “Quiet Sea Girl,” and after a moment of silence, he spoke, “The world through my eyes… often differs from that of ordinary people in this world. Some things alter in my perception, and then, they seem to change in the eyes of others as well. Pioneer One thinks this is the power of the Observer, but I faintly feel… the situation is not that simple.”

“So, the judgment of Pioneer Two was correct,” the girl’s phantom seemed to smile, “you, or rather, the civilization behind you… they have already touched that ‘answer’.”

“…So, if we start from ‘information,’ the most fundamental level of everything, do we have a chance to preserve everything in the Shelter while ‘completing’ the apocalypse?”

“If ‘information’ truly is the essence of all things, and we have mastered a way to Reshape the world from this level, then theoretically we can do anything,” Gomona spoke softly, “the real ‘everything,’ all possibilities, all impossibilities, those born in the universe, those not born, those obliterated, and those surviving from obliteration… as long as ‘information’ can express them, they can be realized in any way… even if it means having all things ‘born’ from ‘destruction’…”

The girl’s phantom suddenly stopped, seemingly suddenly lost in thought. After a while, she gently shook her head. “That is a realm I cannot comprehend.”

“…Honestly, that seems like a part I can’t comprehend either,” Duncan contemplated before admitting candidly, “at least the current me can’t comprehend it.”

Gomona seemed to frown, her phantom’s expression blurred, yet her emotions as rich as a human’s: “I remember you said there was a ‘complete order’ where you come from. What exactly is it?”

The temple quieted down as Duncan seriously considered his answer, organizing his words while sorting out the intelligence he had and his current understanding of himself and his “state.” After a while, he broke the silence: “It is a 0.002-second slice of the universe–a civilization at the pinnacle of order, when realizing the great obliteration was inevitable, ‘cut’ their world from the entire timeline, taking a sample unaffected by the great obliteration and encapsulating it…

“This sample is me–it’s the ‘essence’ inside my current body.

“As I understand it, this 0.002-second slice of the universe should be the prerequisite for creating a new world… like a seed, a ‘startup parameter,’ a…”

He hesitated, but Gomona’s voice immediately responded, “A blueprint that is completely uncorrupted, and at the same time possesses ‘self-consistency’ and ‘completeness’!”

Duncan’s eyes lit up slightly. “That’s right, exactly.”

“Yes, that’s it… exactly that!” Gomona’s phantom suddenly trembled, as if destabilized by excitement. It was the first time her tone had carried such emotion since the conversation began, “That’s exactly what Pioneer Two has been searching for… a pure and complete blueprint! Neither we nor our civilization behind could achieve this step, so we were unable to construct a complete ‘model’ of an entire world. That’s why we could only build the Endless Sea with a limited lifespan, but with a complete blueprint…”

The sand in the hourglass suddenly began to flow quickly, the gentle rustling sound causing Gomona to instantly calm down. She immediately controlled herself, restraining her overly active emotions to conserve her precious “vitality.”

“If we had a complete blueprint, we might really have a chance to Reshape a real world,” she said calmly, “We have had several failed ‘Creations,’ and the fundamental reason is that we do not know what the complete cosmic order should be like–if we regard ‘information’ as the cornerstone of everything, then the order of the universe is the ‘formula’ that allows all information to operate coherently. Summarizing this formula is beyond our capability, but you have this formula in your hands…”

“But I only have the formula,” Duncan had to interrupt, “Do you remember what I said before? I need material, a lot of material–I can’t grow a towering tree with just a seed, nor build a house with just a blueprint; I also need soil and bricks.”

“There is,” Gomona’s voice directly entered his mind, calm and firm.

Duncan’s expression changed slightly, and for a moment, it seemed he realized something.

“…Would detonating us be enough?” Gomona’s tone suddenly became less firm, her voice cautious with a touch of hope and slight unease–as if she feared it wouldn’t be enough.

“…Are you serious?” Duncan’s expression shifted, his tone complex.

“…As the ‘inertia’ of the world, we carry a lot of ‘information’ from the old world,” Gomona spoke earnestly, “Pioneer Two says that this ‘information’ is indeed ‘information’–although it has not yet completed the research its creators intended, it has somewhat grasped that threshold. According to its judgment, the ‘information’ we carry is actually far beyond what we understand and control–its total amount exceeds the entire Endless Sea many times over. However, we lack the ability to control information, so this massive ‘fundamental information’ is being wasted away. A small part of it becomes the material to build the Shelter, but most of it decays slowly with us…

“But you are different, Usurper, your civilization has reached this height, you have the capability–I’m sure you can detonate us properly and efficiently. Even if we are just remnants of the old world, if all the ‘remnants’ of the ‘external barrier’ are melted together, perhaps it might be enough to complete an…”

She stopped, as the sand in the hourglass accelerated its flow once again.

After a silence of two or three seconds, she continued softly, “The task that Salmier couldn’t accomplish back then…”

Salmier, that was the name of the King of the Pale Giants–he had once tried to Reshape the stars, but the stars collapsed in the long night, becoming part of the Subspace.

Duncan didn’t speak, but from his expression, it was obvious that he was reluctant to accept the Sea Beast Queen’s “plan.”

Emotionally, he instinctively resisted the suggestion, and rationally, he also felt vaguely that the plan was not sound–“Detonating” the “remains” of the four gods and all the other ancient gods, would the explosion of information gained really be enough to fill a “Genesis Blueprint”?

Although it sounded a bit harsh, he instinctively felt that these “divine beings,” including Gomona… the “amount of information” they carried, compared to a complete universe… really seemed insufficient.

They were just minor “divine beings”–a ship’s main computer, a planetary historian, a Sea Beast Queen who could only protect a part of the ocean, or a primitive deity presiding over death and worship; their knowledge and memories about the old world were not yet enough to depict the stars.

But he couldn’t say it out loud; the Sea Beast Queen stood by the pond, expectantly looking at him, this “minor god”… truly believed that by detonating herself, she could add a few more stars to the new world.

So after a long silence, he simply nodded lightly.

“I’m not sure now, it seems like an insecure plan–perhaps we should think of other methods, at least… there should still be some time.”

“… We don’t have much time,” Gomona thought for a moment and said, “It would indeed be good if there’s a better way, but if everything is too late… we are always here waiting for your answer.”

The sands in the hourglass had flowed away some more, and now there wasn’t much left.

“It seems it’s almost time to say goodbye,” the illusion of the young girl said, as the pale limbs of the giant beast slowly sank towards the edge of the pond, “Bartok said the vitality in the hourglass is enough for me and you to conclude our necessary conversation–it seems we should stop here.”

Duncan looked down at the hourglass, where only a little sand remained; he knew he should conserve some “vitality”–at the final moment, he still needed to return here to give Gomona that last “answer.”

“Do you have anything else to tell me before we part?” Duncan asked.

Gomona did not speak, but the woman always standing aside, dressed in a white robe akin to a clergy member, stepped forward and handed him something.

Duncan’s gaze instantly sharpened–it was a brass key.

A brass key for winding up a clockwork doll!

“What is this?” Surprised, he couldn’t help but ask.

“A route, ‘the route’ to various nodes of the entire outer barrier,” Gomona said gently, “Pilot Number Two mentioned that it could only be handed to you when you arrived here, it would reveal itself in the form it ought to–then, you’ll naturally know how to use it.”

It would reveal itself in its proper form…

Duncan repeated this phrase in his mind, then took the brass key with an incredulous emotion.

It felt ice-cold, heavy, and its handle was different from the “infinity” symbol of another key–the structure of its handle was a circle with intricate patterns, crossed waist-deep by an arrow.

“Hope it proves useful,” Gomona said with a light smile.

Duncan took a deep breath and secured the key close to his body: “…Of course, it will be useful.”

Gomona’s illusion nodded lightly: “Then, that’s all.”