Xyrin Empire
Chapter 582: This Bastard World

Chapter 582: Chapter 582: This Bastard World

"Andovain? Fina? Ovega? Populus? Sado Aela Vanidi? Massaviel? Lan Roland? Mi Aoerjia? Turunso..." The air echoed with a mechanical female voice, as if using this repeated recitation to strengthen some aspect of her memory. The girl with pale straw-yellow hair and gray-blue pupils, seated like a sculpture on the throne, had completely forgotten our presence, repeating this super-long name several times (in the time it took, Visca even finished a lollipop) before firmly stating, "Indeed, that is how it is pronounced, my name from a past time. However, if it is uncomfortable for you, you may call me Fina, as I recall being addressed that way for a long time."

...Guess we’ll stick to calling you Fina, as probably only Anwina among people I know could read that name in one breath without gasping...

Well, I knew it, being screwed over almost every day must be my destiny. With such outlandish settings, you just get used to it, at least she isn’t called Cleopatra VII, right?

"That name caused you a significant emotional fluctuation, powerful stranger," the calm voice reverberated through the air, "I am curious."

But your voice doesn’t sound curious at all! You don’t even blink!

Talking to her felt too weird; we all knew we were conversing with the girl on the throne before us, but the voice seemed to come from all directions. The main occupant of the throne appeared to lack mobility, even the ability to make facial expressions; she was a sculpture, one crafted to focus visitors’ attention and to provide a point of reference. If you didn’t know beforehand, you might even think you were talking to the room instead of the girl on the throne.

"Alright, alright, Queen Fina with the super-long name, let’s not delve into sensitive issues about padding out text. For now, suppress the urge to dig too deeply into your lineage," I shifted to a more comfortable position on my stool. Yes, next time I must steal Miss Lin’s ridiculously luxurious velvet chair. "Well, it looks like there’s no need to explain how we came here; in this universe, that should be considered a natural phenomenon—we come from another world, lost and ended up here, details omitted. Now we’re strangers in a strange land, so if you could take on the role of guide NPC, please tell us about the situation here, about the raging wars, Shepherd, the messy technology and culture, and, if you have the time, your own plans."

"I have endless time," the girl on the throne seemingly blinked suddenly, which might just have been an illusion. "At first, I thought you were the Shepherd, which led me to take a series of wrong actions up to now... So first, let me explain about the Shepherd."

I thought such a significant figure would at least be accustomed to being cryptic, but this machine-like young Queen proved unexpectedly forthright. She seemed like a ready-to-use information dispenser; with a push of a button, information began to scroll out.

"Shepherd, powerful beings, known in some parts of this universe as the Imperial Army, possess unimaginable strength and technology so advanced it can no longer be classified as science. About their past actions, social structures, or whether they can communicate, no one knows. Shepherd might be the only native inhabitants of this universe; at least, so far, there are no records of Shepherd entering here from outside the universe."

"The Shepherd possesses mysterious territories in this universe, likely hidden within constant stars, black holes, or even space folds. No power claims to know where the Shepherd’s territories are. Civilizations destroyed by the Shepherd often include those who rashly explored these mystical regions and violated taboos. Those civilizations either perished under the vast Imperial Fleet, collapsed due to the implosion of their star systems, or mysteriously evaporated overnight. Currently, there is no evidence showing any civilization that angered the Shepherd could survive. Therefore, the territories of the Shepherd are universally recognized taboo topics among civilizations in this universe; any power has the duty to warn newcomers not to explore what you should not, or else, before the Shepherd take action, you will be annihilated by a coalition of civilizations from this universe—it’s merely for self-preservation."

Despite the chilling nature of the topic, Queen Fina spoke with an eerily calm detachment. Does she not have emotions?

"I am reminded of that story about the monkey in the cage," Big Sister spoke through a spiritual connection. "Several monkeys are caged, and whenever any one of them tries to reach for the banana at the top of the cage, the keeper punishes each monkey with a water gun. Eventually, all the monkeys learn one thing: whenever a new member arrives, the monkeys take it upon themselves to monitor each other, and before the keeper acts, they beat up the new ’one’ if it tries anything."

I nodded in strong agreement: "And this ’tradition’ gets passed down among the monkeys from generation to generation, even if eventually none of them knows why they can’t touch that banana. I’ve heard that story too."

Qianqian, cheerfully dragging Big Sister’s arm, swung it vigorously with Visca, "Tell another one, tell another one~~"

Her brain’s nerves didn’t seem to have any intersection with the real world.

"As for the situation concerning shepherds, that’s enough for now," the "Queen," seemingly devoid of human emotions and thought processes, continued to speak mechanically, "In this universe, the lost civilizations, you, we, and everything in the universe apart from the shepherds, no matter the life form, no matter how powerful or weak, are all lambs."

"We are lambs shepherded by the shepherds, we are livestock corralled by the shepherds, in this boundless, inescapable cage and pasture, where flocks tremble and tread on thin ice, they command life and death, they indulge in their pleasures, it is a banquet, yet possibly just a game they are accustomed to playing since the ancient times, and it will never end..." The Queen on the throne, having lost the heart of a human, spoke these cryptic, ancient prophecy-like words in a declarative tone, "These verses have been passed down from a very ancient age, the civilization that framed these verses is unknown, perhaps they were just one of the countless generations of lambs in this universe, that era, is too far from now... But this world has never changed over the long years, we got lost here and then tried to make our civilization survive a bit longer, that’s all you need to know."

"So... there is no complete technological system here, no systematic civilization, everything is makeshift, everything seems never to have been designed for long-term use..."

Big Sister’s eyes flickered with a silvery glow, but she didn’t know who to release this curse upon, "They are all just passersby trapped here, this universe itself has never actually nurtured any civilization—apart from those Imperial Soldiers, is that so?"

"Theoretically, yes."

... Taville, you’re in the wrong movie.

Queen Fina’s words had a massive impact on us. None of us anticipated the situation to be like this. Based on the current information we had, her words should be credible, but it only deepened our confusion. A cage-like world? Wanton slaughter of innocent passersby? Could the Xyrin Apostles do such things?

It was impossible to imagine what the Xyrin People in this world were actually doing, let alone when this world was established and had been running until now. The more Fina said, the denser the fog surrounding the truth became, but knowing that these mysteries couldn’t be solved right now, I still suppressed the tumultuous thoughts in my heart to see if this robotic-like Queen had any more secrets to disclose.

"Imperial... The purpose of the shepherds, is it to eradicate all life here? Your fleet was attacked by shepherds too..."

Even Qianqian, whose mind often detached from the real world, stopped her antics. She tightly grabbed my arm and inquired of the Queen before her.

"No, the behavior of the shepherds is unpredictable. They rarely interact with normal life forms. We generally believe that shepherds do not possess the logical thinking that can be typically understood," the crisp voice in the air straightforwardly denied Qianqian’s guessing, cough, and the content was a bit embarrassing, "Encountering shepherds is a terrifying thing, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to death. Sometimes they merely wander around the lambs, as if actually shepherding, but sometimes they also attack any civilization that is peaceful and might have just arrived in this universe without any warning. No one knows the rules by which shepherds act, their criteria for judgment do not exist, their actions are random, incomprehensible, illogical, all their behaviors are based on sudden decisions. This is the fundamental nature of shepherd actions, the only pattern discovered after the destruction of countless civilizations."

The air went silent for a couple of seconds, then Qianqian suddenly gently tugged on my arm: "Ah Jun, the words just now, it seems like someone mentioned them before~~"

... Yes, that’s how I often describe you, haven’t you remembered even once?

The explanation from the other side resolved another confusion I had, which was why, being imprisoned in such a cage and being enemies with the Imperial Army, the various countries of this universe could still survive up to this point without being completely annihilated. Was it, again, because of those unpredictable actions of the Imperial Army?

Big Sister had been sitting upright on a high-back chair which she had taken out from her personal space since we started talking — this was the time to notice one’s preferences, I was fond of stools, whereas Big Sister preferred elegant and steady high-back chairs, Qianqian had the same taste as me, and Pandora Visca, the little ones, were each sitting on a horizontally placed artillery shell casing — just imagine how bored I was, analyzing this — anyway, Big Sister remained seated in the chair, looking thoughtful, obviously the young girl on the throne had puzzled her. At this moment, she casually threw out a question, "So, in this universe, the nations or forces are all composed of Lost Fleets from different worlds or their descendants, hence presenting such a great fusion of scenes, is that correct?"

"Correct."

"Then," Big Sister’s gaze firmly fixed ahead, "since you are constantly under the shadow of the Shepherd, and civilizations from different worlds can unite into one nation, why do you not unite completely?" She continued, "We have seen the current situation of the universe, where nations and powers are endlessly waging wars, battles are everywhere. If there truly are fierce beasts in the wilderness that pick their prey, then, as the weaker parties, you should be united even more. If you are from mutually unknown worlds, there shouldn’t be inherent hostility. When faced with life and death, at the bare minimum, a united resistance or even just a ceasefire should not be an issue. Even if you cannot completely unite, you shouldn’t be like now, where already weak races are still divided into countless factions..."

"A good hypothesis," said a calm voice interrupting Big Sister, "that’s what I am curious about too, why haven’t you received any messages from the Shepherd? If you had, like the other Lost Navigators, maybe you would understand."

"It’s not that we don’t want to unite, but that it’s not allowed."

"Not allowed?" Big Sister and I exchanged glances and involuntarily repeated.

"The Shepherd controls life and death, the Shepherd indulges in whimsical play. What this refers to is not just their hunting us down when aroused, but also that they have orchestrated all this. They do not contact any ’low-level race’ closely, but they will send instructions to you through their actions, maybe through an unclear signal, or directly coming to push your warships. Their goal usually has only one... ordering you to wage war."

"This universe’s war layout is designed by them, we have to engage in ceaseless conflicts, and fight against unfamiliar civilizations with which we hold no animosity, and have never even met. Whenever the calm period ends, the Shepherd’s enforcement ships appear in every space civilization’s colonization star’s sky, lacking in battle, not brave enough, delaying, acting passively, any minor mistake is not permitted. They have planned many things, we must carefully guess their commands and then execute them without any discrepancies, many civilizations have already paid a price in this guessing game..."

"Clang—Bang!"

Suddenly, a loud unexpected noise echoed in the empty room, interrupting the Queen’s narrative, and I was stunned, looking at my two sisters.

Pandora and Visca had stood up from their respective artillery shell casings, holding huge anti-ship cannons in their hands.

The two little girls had their backs to us, and I couldn’t see their faces, but I could feel the astonishing anger and killing intent from the spiritual connection.

"What are you two doing?"

Pulling back the two who were turning to rush out, each about 1.2 meters tall, Big Sister and I asked in unison.

"Kill all the rebels!!" Visca lifted her head, her eyes flickering with an ominous murky red light, "Kill them all!"

"Those rebels, they do not deserve the name of Imperial Soldiers." This was Pandora, equally inflamed with passion; the girl had some serious strength.

"Enough, calm down!" I forcefully pressed down the two youngsters, "Of course, I will take care of them, but do either of you know where the enemy is? Should we just go out and fire into outer space?"

Then the two obviously unplanned crazies wilted.

"I, cannot understand their behavior," the air continued with that declarative tone, "but your words carry a lot of targeted information, leading me to an unpleasant conclusion..."

"That’s your illusion!" I hastened to divert the other’s attention, "Alright, we roughly understand the situation of this world... although there are still a ton of questions, the biggest question is: why would you, a Queen, personally come to meet us, a band of the Lost Fleet?"

"Because, I suddenly learned that there is a Shepherd among you."

That statement made me break out in cold sweat; not from fear, as the opponent had not scared me yet, it was purely from shock. Your Majesty, could you have been a crippled Zhuge Kongming in your last life?

"But after observing your fleet and your combat methods, I have ruled out that possibility. I trusted the Jetas Star Ring’s sensing devices too much; now it seems, that ancient device once damaged by the Shepherd can no longer be trusted. It led me to a wrong judgment."

The judgment of the Jetas Star Ring?

"Jetas, the Primordial Star that once faced off against the Shepherd in a powerful nation in ancient times, the Jetas Star Ring is a planetary protection device created by that nation’s technology imitating the Shepherd’s. The kingdom was eventually destroyed by the Shepherd, and the Primordial Star was ruined by energy radiation. In the final battle, a spaceship of the Shepherd was destroyed and self-destructed while falling over the Jetas Protection Shield. This explosion destroyed the Jetas Star Ring’s energy stabilizer. The spaceship’s energy core fell on the Jetas Andor Ring Mountain. The planetary shield turned into a star ring, unknown in principle to most, except for a few. Most citizens of the Free Kingdom believe it’s just an ancient energy station from ancient times, but the star ring still retains some secretive functions operating that can detect the Shepherd’s high-level combat units."

"The appearance of a Shepherd high-level unit above the Free Kingdom’s colonization star signals the start of a new round of power struggle wars. As a faction leader, I must personally be present, rally the troops, and demonstrate a readiness for commanded deployment. Otherwise, the kingdom will be destroyed. That’s why I have personally come. Major General Jie En is not that excellent a leader. He was promoted to Governor General of the colonization star only due to seniority and his colleagues’ deaths in battle, yet he falls short in strategic wisdom. To prevent the citizens, yet to recover from the last power struggle war, from panicking prematurely, I have concealed part of the truth from him."

... Mr. Jie En, rest assured, I won’t let you know these things, but say what you will, I guessed right last time, you really did become a major general because all your colleagues were dead!

"It really is information that requires some digestion," I suppressed the tumultuous thoughts in my mind, and with a forced calm expression, I stood up, "There’s still one question, of course, you might not want to answer it: Why would you tell us so much? Introducing the world’s background is one thing, but it’s not quite appropriate for you to reveal those secrets, is it?"

"Because," unexpectedly, after nearly ten seconds of silence, the other party slowly began, "you are the hope." (To be continued, please visit www.qidian.com for future Chapters and support the author by reading the licensed version!)