Chapter 920: Chase

The howling lasted for a full half hour, and then gradually subsided.

In the Empire Hub Control Center, the technicians are still tense. Everyone is busy checking the system status, repairing the failed nodes, restarting the equipment that was offline before, and the instructions are loud and clear. Reports continued to sound every minute and every second. Although there was no smoke in the huge hall, it felt like a battlefield.

The power spine of the entire facility has come back online, and the hub tower on the surface has also started operating again. Within minutes of the roar ending, more than 90% of the nodes and facilities were restored. After returning to the normal state, the magic technicians responsible for monitoring the system were surprised to find that this terrible chaos caused almost no damage to the hardware - it was like an illusory storm, blowing rapidly through the entire network, but what happened in the end? None of it has been taken away, and even the traces are quickly fading.

Only other nodes in the empire that are still in a state of interruption remind everyone that the previous changes are by no means an illusion.

Rebecca looked nervously towards the center of the hall. A silver-white metal pillar stood there, as if running through the entire facility. Kamel, shining with arcane brilliance, was floating on that pillar. Next to him, his figure had nearly doubled in size, standing there like a radiant giant. Countless streams of arcane light burst out from the gaps in his runic armor pieces, connecting to the metal pillars. A large number of runes and magic guiding nodes on it - this arcane master from a thousand years ago is using his own way to sense the remaining energy noise in the magic network. This has certain risks, but it is the most efficient now , the most reliable means of results.

After a while, Kamel finally ended the connection. His body slowly recovered and floated towards the commander's seat at the front of the hall.

"Master Kamel," Gawain asked before Rebecca could speak, "How is the situation? Have you found out the cause?"

"It is certain that there is A very powerful energy body once entered our network - the traces left by the neural network show that the scale of this energy body is beyond our imagination. If it runs out of control, it can almost burn down the entire magic network!" Kamel said! With a hint of fear in his tone, what he said made everyone present have the urge to take a breath, "However, this energy body cleverly carried out 'self-dividing' countless times when passing through the network - it divided It flowed through those nodes in pieces without causing any damage, like running water... it penetrated into the bottom layer of our network and disappeared there."

Gawain felt. He was simply listening to fantasy. Even with his "worldview of this world", it was difficult to understand what Kamel was describing. Even Rebecca, who was always big-hearted next to him, was dumbfounded: "Oh my god." ...What is that thing? Why do you think that thing seems to be...a living thing?"

"This is a bit beyond common sense, but it seems...that it is really alive. Even sane," KaMeier said in a deep voice, "I just tried to trace its traces, but all the traces were cleverly erased. This is not a phenomenon that can be caused by unconscious energy turbulence at all."

Gawain frowned Locking himself tightly, all kinds of speculations were surging in his mind. He felt that he seemed to have some ideas, and subconsciously asked: "...Is that energy body 'sharing' itself in order to avoid damaging the network?"

" Not sure, if it is really something with intelligence, then its distribution behavior may also be to avoid self-destruction - although that thing can indeed burn down the magic network, it will definitely be severely damaged in the process, and even It may be directly annihilated - that is the magical energy that spans the entire empire. Its power is far beyond the imagination of mortals. I think even gods will not take the initiative to attack such powerful energy..."

"The signal from Shilin City has been received!"

Rebecca, Gawain and Kamel almost said in unison: "Connect!"

The next second, the information from Shilin City was presented through the holographic projection at the front of the hall. When Gawain came out, he saw Grand Consul Baldwin Franklin standing there. Behind him was the tense and busy hub control hall. The Shilin City side had obviously also experienced a serious chaos, but everything seemed to be... Already calmed down.

"Your Majesty," Baldwin Franklin said hurriedly as soon as the communication was connected, "We have just experienced an abnormal accident here. The communication was completely cut off, the energy failed, and..."

p>

"It's the same here, but the situation here seems to have calmed down," Gawain interrupted, "How is the situation over there?"

"Ah...it has also calmed down here." Back to normal," Baldwin was startled for a moment, then quickly reacted, "We are restarting each node, and now we have reconnected to the main hub of Saint-Sunil and the Imperial Capital..."

In this While the Duke of the West was speaking, Gawain saw that the image of the entire territory map had once again appeared above the largest projection device at the end of the hall. Some light was gradually emerging from the magic network nodes above that had been completely dim. In the jumps and fluctuations, the nodes within the radiation range of Shilin City and Saint Sunil lit up one after another.

Soon, reports from technicians came from other listening seats: "Signal from Winterburg received!" "Communication with Changfeng Fortress has been restored!" "Tholinburg channel is open !"

"It seems...everything is recovering," Gawain breathed a sigh of relief, but the strong doubts and uneasiness deep in his heart did not dissipate at all, "but we still don't understand the reason..."< /p>

"ThenWhat on earth is this energy body that suddenly invaded the network..." Rebecca also muttered subconsciously, "It's a pity that I didn't catch it and let it escape..."

Rebecca just muttered Halfway through, a small magic network terminal on the command platform suddenly lit up, and a slightly older voice came from it: "No, Your Highness, that thing hasn't escaped yet - we have caught its tail. "

"Duart? "Rebecca immediately looked over the terminal. Duarte, dressed in black, had emerged from the holographic projection, "You said you caught it? "

"It's being captured," Duarte nodded. "That thing is not completely out of the network. It is moving rapidly along the 'unconscious zone' of the neural network. Naritir is tracking it in the border area - —We need the support of more computing nodes, which can enhance Naritiel's perception range and movement speed. "

"Notify the computing center," Gawain immediately raised his head and looked at Kamel, "All standby personnel who have no tasks yet enter the immersion chamber! "

...

Neural network, "unconscious zone".

A vast and chaotic fog enveloped the entire world, and the skylight of unknown origin shone high in the sky. Floating, casting strange and twisted beams of light through the thick fog, illuminating the gray-white water at the bottom of the world. Countless strange-shaped clouds and vortices continue to condense and dissipate deep in the fog, making the whole world in a state of confusion all the time. The unstable state of change, and the hollow wind sound coming from the distance from time to time, make this place seem more and more strange and deserted.

This is the boundary area of ​​this huge and complex network, the deepest part of the neural network. The symbolic state presented by "chaos" is an impossible area generated after a large number of mental nodes that make up the network are intertwined, interfered, and iterated.

Here, any orderly calculation will eventually lead to it. As a result of disorder, useless data is destroyed here every minute and every second, and shapeless "ideas" and "memories" are turned into nothingness here - those thoughts and memories are the connectors of the network talking in their dreams. The formation of mutual influence is the result of countless brains roaming together. They are constantly forming and decomposing in this border zone, and what they present are those clouds and vortices.

The mind of a normally connected neural network is forever. No one will visit this area - more than a dozen layers of security protocols protect the user's brain to prevent rash network roamers from being swallowed up by the "unconscious zone", but today, this "border" that should be visited by no one An uninvited guest was welcomed.

A huge lavender phantom flashed through the depths of the fog, and the shadow was projected on the gray-white water at the bottom of the fog, reflecting countless strange runes and colorful light balls. , and around this rapidly flashing phantom, fine spider silk and illusory spider limbs are growing and extending like a lingering dream.

A huge snow-white spider is here. The sky above the mist moved quickly, and huge spider webs quickly formed and flew around her.It spread quickly, and her long jointed limbs stirred the thick fog below while running wildly. The power of the "border" was mobilized by the spider, constantly forming disturbing barriers and false roads, while the white spider's aimless head was always watching One direction——

Although the lavender phantom is very fast, it has already fallen into the spider's web. To the predator, any escape attempt by the prey in the spider's web is just a sign of failure. It's just a sideshow before the network is closed.

Naratir is a predator with little patience.

So after determining that the time was right, she immediately curbed all information flow in the border area.

The lavender phantom was instantly restrained by the invisible power in the mist. Countless runes and chaotic lines of light and shadow burst out from its surface, appearing like an out-of-control spell model. It appeared on the verge of collapse, but in the next second, this "out-of-control spell model" quickly stabilized itself and began to collapse inward - a large number of colorful light balls and runes first spread outwards, and then condensed inward, In just a few seconds, this chaotic and strange shadow had a definite "appearance".

It was a woman - at least some of the features looked female.

Her body is as huge as a bell tower, her face is beautiful but has a strange feeling that is not human. Her pupils are like broken stars, showing a dotted appearance, with no whites and eyes at all. Between her pupils, there was long black hair pouring down from the back of her head. The hair was flashing with a large amount of wandering light and fine lightning. However, from the head down, her entire upper body appeared illusory, as if it were clouds. In a condensed state, one can only vaguely see a black short robe draped over her body. Under the short robe is the outline of a woman's body, and her lower body is only a thin cloud. The cloud is constantly dispersing and converging. Inside, There are no limbs, only endless, vague runes and light balls emerging and moving there.

The "lady" as huge as a bell tower finally stopped. She raised her head and saw a huge white spider descending from the mist. Dense spider webs emerged around the spider, and the spider silk extended to the surrounding areas. In the space, a fine surrounding network has been formed.

She finally shouted angrily: "Why do you keep chasing me?!"

The white spider stopped on the gray-white water, and when it heard the oncoming After the shouting, she seemed to be stunned for a moment, and then a small figure with white hair hanging down slowly emerged from the fine hair on the spider's head. Naritir looked straight at the "huge lady" not far away, with a look on her face. Seriously: "You broke the magic web, you have to pay for it."

"I didn't break anything!" The lady as big as a bell tower seemed to become even more angry. She stared at the small spider on the spider in front of her. A tall girl - in her eyes, the girl and the spider were an obvious whole, "I have made precise calculations, starting from last year - nothing is broken! I can't make a mistake!"

NaritiI blinked, then seemed to confirm with someone far away, and then nodded: "It seems that there is indeed nothing damaged..."

"So you made a mistake-" —I don’t care about you, but I have to..."

"But I still can’t let you go," Naritir shook her head, "You delayed the project, this is called 'economic loss' ..."

"...Damn it!"

The bell-tower-like lady couldn't help cursing after a moment of astonishment, and then her whole figure suddenly became illusory, in white. In the spider's brief astonishment, she suddenly broke free from the shackles of those spider webs and the surrounding fog, became a ghostly phantom again, and disappeared in an instant!

However, this sudden escape, which seemed to have a high success rate, did not succeed. As soon as she moved a short distance, the white spider's arthropods blocked all her ways as if teleporting - she failed. .

After several unsuccessful breakthroughs, the bell-tower-like lady once again condensed into shape, and looked at Naratir with a shocked and angry expression: "This is impossible...what's your speed?" Will it be so fast?"

Naratir thought carefully, looked down at his spider body, and then looked up at the other party: "I have more legs."< /p>

Then she took a serious look at the "huge lady" for a few more times. Her eyes fell on the mist that was constantly gathering and dispersing on the other person's lower body. She shook her head with some regret: "You don't even have legs."

“???”