Chapter 1,343 The Abyss Independent Group Is on the Right Track

"I may have spoken to 'that lord' of yours." I came back from the memory and said to Harlan.

The old emperor in front of me suddenly widened his eyes when he heard this, and stared at me with an expression on his face that seemed to be frozen. Only when I couldn't help but punch him did Haran finally react: "You said you and 'That Sir 'Have been in contact?!"

"It's not just contact. I told you, your sleepwalking state a few days ago might also be caused by this." I sighed, suddenly feeling that this guy in front of me was probably the most unlucky guy I knew. " In fact, before you invaded the border of the empire - probably when you and your legions suddenly went insane, I once communicated with a guy of unknown origin. I only heard her voice. At first I thought she was from another country. A place. It wasn't until you provided some information just now that I realized that she was probably your boss behind the scenes. That voice came across the void and talked to me for only a few minutes... It might have been longer... I was When entering the void, I couldn't sense the flow of time. The voice said a lot of inexplicable things, roughly that she was very interested in me. I still remember the last thing she mentioned: In order to talk to void creatures, she would do it every day. Loss is being taken every moment. If the loss she is talking about is you - that explains it all."

Harlan didn't have much information. He didn't know that the boss behind the fallen apostles was actually a swarm consciousness, so he felt a little baffled by my inference. He raised his own question: "How can you be sure that the voice is 'that adult'? ? Is it just close in time? Or is it just because my legion had signs of direct spiritual connection with void creatures not long ago? "

"Do you know that 'that adult' you are talking about does not actually exist in the real world?" I asked a big question.

Harlan was stunned as I expected: "What do you mean? You said 'over there' is now controlled by a spirit creature?"

"It's even more incredible than spiritual creatures. Many races that have mastered information network technology have created similar life forms, but the apostles created the most powerful one." I said, with a sudden movement in my heart, and I snapped my fingers. "Xiling, come here."

Xiling is everywhere - as long as there is an empire information network coverage, it is the back garden of the super consciousness, and she can hear all the calls to herself within the coverage of this network. You can also upload and download yourself to anywhere covered by the network. In fact, it is a bit inaccurate to say that Xi Ling is "everywhere". Strictly speaking, her body is the entire area covered by the network. There is no concept of "presence" and "absence" at all: Xi Ling's body reaches thousands. The world is as big as ten thousand, and we creatures in the real world all live in her "shadow". Rather than saying that she teleports to somewhere, it is better to say that she chooses a coordinate in her "body", and we, the creatures in the real world, live in her "shadow". It is just a temporary interactive interface created in front of the creatures trapped in the real world.

It is precisely because of this special characteristic of Xi Ling that when I finished speaking. The surrounding air crackled as if it was electrified, and a large number of crystal clear light particles gathered from all directions. In less than two seconds, a girl with long straight golden hair, fair complexion and ruby ​​eyes appeared. Then she appeared in front of us, a girl with a noble appearance. With a kind of fierce beauty, she was wearing a pure black long dress and long black silk gloves on her left hand. Before she opened her mouth and smiled stupidly, she looked like a princess who came from the dark night. Same thing, the only thing that ruined the atmosphere was the silly metal sign hanging on her chest, like a first grader or an Alzheimer's patient, with her name and contact information for the Imperial Military Department written on it...

Xi Ling has to change her appearance every time she appears. Her slowness towards the real world means that she cannot remember her appearance at all. Basically, she forgets what she looks like after sleeping. From this point of view, the little sign Qianqian prepared for her is really useful - without this thing, I might not be able to recognize the girl in front of me who looks like an exotic princess. The same girl is Xiling.

"Her name is Xi Ling," I pointed at Xi Ling and introduced to Haran. "Theoretically, she is the same kind of being as the boss behind the fallen apostles, but she is slightly weaker and under control. Xi Ling, this It’s Harlan. You should have information on him.”

The blond girl happily gave Harlan a military salute. The tone was not as serious as her military salute: "Hello, I know you. You are node hf-35s1-s57-cxee15, His Majesty Harlan Croix Levallette, welcome home, I am Xiling. "After saying hello, the girl's attention quickly shifted. She happily ran to the counter to greet the silver-haired mole: "Sylvia! I want some snacks! I want the black ones, which are round and have... Tavel likes the chocolate one!”

Someone must have realized the biggest difference between Xi Ling and ordinary apostles: she may salute the emperor, but that is because others taught her to do so, plus a certain instruction. However, from her own perspective, all apostles There is no difference at all. To her, Harlan is first a node number composed of a string of numbers and letters, secondly the name of a real creature, and finally a Xiling Emperor. The reason for this is very simple: the "network node" of Xiling's apostles is the only one that will not change as their authority or power increases. The only meaning of this node to Xiling is to provide an "AND or NOT gate" , she couldn't tell the difference between the countless nodes that made up herself. An LCD TV worth tens of thousands of dollars and a desk lamp worth tens of dollars, their plugs are essentially just a few pieces of copper and a ball of plastic. It’s easy to understand with this explanation...

I turned to Harlan: "Do you feel anything?"

"I...I'm not sure..." Harlan looked at Xiling's back blankly, "I can't feel her identification information. She should be a Xiling apostle, but her identification code is not open to anyone? Does she have higher authority than the emperor?"

"It requires some technical means to query Xi Ling's identification code. Direct reading is not possible. You don't have such a high processing capacity. Her body is discretely distributed in the entire mental network," I said to Xi Ling who was waiting for the snacks to be ready. He waved and called her over, "You know how to send documents directly to ordinary apostles through the Internet, right? Try sending something to Harlan, anything."

Xiling thought for a while and sent the price list from Sylvia's store. As expected, Harlan's expression changed.

"Is this the encoding and forwarding rule that you usually receive from 'that adult'?" I asked.

Harlan nodded slowly: "For a moment, I even thought it was really... This method of encoding and transmitting information is incredible. It completely bypasses the existing communication protocol. There is no way to query the source of the information, nor can it be found. The forwarding track is as if the information comes from the Xiling Apostle’s network itself, rather than a specific sender.”

"Xiling is a cluster consciousness. She is indeed the spiritual network itself, and so is the 'that adult' you call."

At the moment, I explained everything about Xiling to Haran, and learned about this special life form. He naturally knew why his old boss needed to sacrifice a large number of mental nodes to contact the void creatures. Finally, our topic returned to "that adult": "So according to my judgment, the boss behind the Fallen Apostle used you as consumables or buffers in order to talk to me. She was essentially just a person living on the Internet. If a ghost individual does not create an interactive interface like Xiling, she can only communicate with the outside world in a completely unprotected form: You can imagine what it would be like to turn off all the firewalls in the spiritual network. Information about void creatures Disturbance is a fatal toxin to the will of the abyss side. I believe that in those short few minutes of communication. The 'Abyss Side Xiling' on the opposite side consumed almost all the nodes she used to buffer - that is, you, at that time She ended the communication quite hastily."

Harlan was stunned for a while, then suddenly shook his head with a wry smile: "It is actually such a situation that we are always controlled by our own mental network? Well, this makes sense, if we regard her as the racial consciousness of the Xiling Apostle , but he has the qualifications."

The old emperor was somewhat self-deprecating, so I will not continue on this topic. Now it is basically certain that the person who suddenly contacted him was the ruler behind the fallen apostle. Now I am faced with an unprecedented unsolved mystery:

Why did she do this?

I thought about it and felt that the other party was definitely not looking for me to consult about psychological problems...

"I can't give you the answer to this," Haran heard my doubts and spread his hands helplessly, "I can only say that 'Sir' must have her own plan. Everything she does has a goal, but from now on No one knows what she wants to do specifically. She only gives orders, and we can occasionally deduce some plans from these orders. But more. Only 'that adult' himself knows."

"In any case, sacrificing a military giant and his entire army just to connect with void creatures for a few minutes seems to be too much." I shook my head in confusion. "This is what I have done in my life." The highest appearance fee ever..."

Harlan gritted his teeth and looked at me: "Your appearance fee is mine!"

Me: "...Okay let's not talk about this. In short, you were sold by your boss, but I think Xiling on the abyss side should not be a fool. Even if he sells his teammates, he should sell it for a good price. Do you think she and a What do void creatures gain by saying those few minutes?”

Harlan stretched out his hand and drew circles on the table, as if using this small movement to help himself think: "Thinking about the worst, maybe she can briefly invade the empire's network by connecting directly with you, steal intelligence, or try to understand the weaknesses of void creatures. , to think about the worse, maybe through this direct connection, she has left something in the empire network or your spiritual world, such as a spy program or something."

I blinked: "Why are there only bad and worse, but nothing else?"

"Of course," Harlan laughed, "and worst of all—"

Me: "...I think you tend to be a bit pessimistic."

Harlan waved his hand nonchalantly: "It's a good thing to be pessimistic. Only by imagining things to the worst can you make the best preparations. The worst-case scenario is: 'My Lord's' plan is already close to success, and her plan does not need to stay." There are too many people, so some subordinates who are not very obedient to discipline become things that can be thrown out and sacrificed. You can imagine that on the battlefield, the army that is about to win and return home will throw away those redundant arms and improvised supplementary soldiers that are inconvenient to carry. A war puppet, this is common sense in military affairs."

I broke out in a cold sweat on the spot. Harlan was right. Apart from the bad and worse, there is the worst thing: what if the Abyss side Xiling feels that the situation is determined and does not regard the empire as a threat at all. , then it’s really not a big deal for her to sacrifice millions of nodes!

Harlan seems to be a hard-line thorn in the circle of fallen apostles, so he is regarded as an abandoned son by the Abyss Side Xiling. How should I put this, to use a line from the second grade: I have been cast into the kingdom of heaven. Only the most loyal servants should follow - Harlan clearly fell short of the mark.

There is at least room for coping with bad situations and even worse situations, but if it is the worst situation - it is too late to do anything, and the "great cause" of the fallen apostle may be just around the corner!

"The above are all speculations," Harlan reassured me. "Although I can't remember the details of the 'Great Cause', I always feel that it should not be realized so soon. In my memory, our actions regarding the 'Great Cause' have been at a deadlock for a long time. 'Sir' seemed to be trying to break through a certain technical difficulty. Until I left, there was no sign of a breakthrough in this technical difficulty, and I clearly remembered what other plans she had after the protoss began their expedition. It would take a thousand years. Although it was short-lived, it could There is still a lot to do.”

I grinned and waved my hands. This is the rhythm of never having too many bad things falling from the sky: "Okay, let's stop this topic. Let's put aside the situation of the fallen apostles. Now let's talk about your affairs. Son - what are your plans for the future?"

"Plan?" Harlan was stunned for a moment, then nodded with a smile, "You want me to do something, right? You are the biggest here, tell me."

"Then let me make it clear that the abyssal apostles in the empire have now become an organization. I need an experienced supreme commander - Viska can't do it. She can't even be bothered to command her own general army, and her personality is completely like a child. So I want You help me run the Abyss Independent Regiment. This legion is roughly equivalent in size to a regular main legion, and there are also some miscellaneous units that we captured from 'over there'. I can tell you clearly that their organization is chaotic. I can’t bear to look at it, it’s a complete mess.”

I directly made it clear to Harlan about the situation of the Abyss Independent Group. Anyway, as long as the other party takes over this stall, he will definitely find the problem as soon as possible, so it is better to let him panic by then. It's better to get vaccinated now. When communicating with Apostle Xiling, you don’t need to be too careful. They don't accept this.

I waited expectantly for Harlan's reaction.

"I thought about it," Harlan deliberately paused for a few seconds before saying slowly. "If I'm not wrong, I'll bring my old soldiers when I go back - they should all be taken away from me by you, right?"

Me: "...you summed it up well."

"It's such a big circle..." Harlan's expression was somewhat subtle, but he still nodded happily, "I agreed, and let an old general lead his former soldiers. Is there anything better than this? "

I took a deep breath and secretly glanced at Sylvia who was humming a tune and wiping the countertop behind the counter. I thought to myself, they are both emperors. Why is there such a big gap in their sense of responsibility?

Then we talked about the positioning of Harlan, the supreme commander, and the Abyss Independent Regiment. First, I explained to the other party the current governance structure of the empire: Due to various reasons, the new empire temporarily stopped implementing the old empire's territorial system. The entire empire had only one large territorial area, which was jointly governed by all the emperors and top generals of the empire. . Secondly, the military parliamentary system of the old empire was followed: the imperial head of state, the generals and the lower-level staff jointly formed the imperial military headquarters, which ordered the legions according to the authority tree. The generals and above Xiling apostles had their own external legions - such as Pandora and Visca's general guard, Sandora's and I's royal fleet, etc., this legion is the only one under the full command of the corresponding commander. Other than that, the regular imperial army is under the orders of the military department - the emperor still has the first authority group , but in the absence of an order from the emperor, the commanders of each legion could mobilize their own troops in emergencies.

Harlan will retain the authority of the emperor, but he will be responsible for fewer things: he will focus on the construction of the Abyss Independent Group and the construction of territories for those Abyssal Apostles. Now that the latter has grown in scale, I think it’s time to open up some universes within the empire that are suitable for their survival. After all, the abyssal troops have a somewhat special “nature”. If they stay with normal races for a long time, they will always be against them. The latter has an impact, and it is not something that can be controlled by humans.

In short, these things that are about to be built independently need to have a clear person in charge, and this person in charge must have high enough authority: Harlan is quite suitable.

"I thought I could relax a little and become a legion commander or something." After hearing my arrangement, Harlan seemed a little regretful, "So you are still responsible for building your own house?"

"Don't even think about retiring," I chuckled. "Theoretically, you have five emperors in the empire now - but look at it, Bella Villa is mentally ill for twenty hours a day. In my free time, I just train magical girls. My sister has already deleted the emperor's authority. She prefers to take care of the children at home. The only ones who are really in charge are Sandora and I. If you also remove the emperor's authority, the new empire will have five points from the Emperor's Council. Three-thirds of the members are on strike..."

"...Although that's true, why is your statement of 'three-fifths' so strange?"

"If there are only three of you in the clan, sooner or later you will be able to master the trick of using the number of people as your advantage."

"?" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users please go to m. to read.)

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