Chapter 1,271 Fog

(Please give me a monthly pass! I don’t know if it’s useful, but I’m sure it’s true if I just ask for it!)

There is only deep darkness here.

Everything is born in darkness.

However, "darkness" is not enough to describe everything in front of you. In this place, the word "in front of you" does not even exist.

If a place mixes all the information together to form a sea of ​​chaos that cannot be perceived or described in any way, then this sea of ​​chaos has two extremes at the same time.

It is extremely rich and contains everything. Information that you can describe and cannot describe are all ups and downs in this ocean. If you have enough knowledge and power, you can assemble everything from this sea of ​​chaos, even the world. , even gods.

It is also extremely nihilistic - because everything here is in a state that cannot be accepted by conventional logic and senses. Any information rooted in the real world cannot describe the nature of the Sea of ​​Chaos. If something is completely incomprehensible to you, , then for you, this thing does not exist. In this ocean of chaos, all mortal creatures are blind and deaf - if they cannot grasp the truth.

This is the void, the first place I "saw" when I woke up from the hazy state of mind.

People who have not had an in-depth understanding of the void usually assume that this place is a dark vacuum area. Because nothing can be felt, it is normal to have such an illusion. Yet this description couldn't be further from the truth.

The word "darkness" itself is a word created by humans to describe a specific phenomenon in the world. For the real absolute nothingness, something that can be described like "darkness" should not exist. Similarly, "vacuum" is just an illusion produced by mortals due to the limits of their senses.

In fact, the void has no color. It is not filled with light, but it is not dark at all. It does not have any matter, but there is absolutely no vacuum. It's just that it has gone beyond the sensory logic of ordinary creatures. In the illusion, people call this place a dark and cold vacuum realm. However, if you can have another kind of vision - I mean a way of perception similar to vision, which can distinguish order from chaos, then the void will show a magnificent side.

Just like what I see now. It is undulating gently. Like an endless ocean, the surface of this ocean rises and falls very gently, indicating that we are passing through a place with very low concentration in the universe: there may be only a handful of information offsets within millions of units. There are several universes to count, so this place can be so peaceful. Comparing the vague map of the empire's territory in my memory, I roughly judged that the fleet should have crossed one-third of the Macroworld area by now: this is the only "quiet" place in the Macroworld network. For some unknown reason, the probability of the universe being born in this area of ​​the void is very low.

I remembered that I was in the lounge of the Imperial Admiral, and when I fell asleep, the fleet had only left the shadow space for less than a few minutes. This means that I suddenly entered this state of wandering in the void after sleeping for a while.

This is not the first time that I have entered this state, so I don't feel panic now. I just feel a little inexplicable - I don't know why I suddenly "sleepwalked". This kind of wandering in the void, which Sheila jokingly calls "walking", is a unique ability of void creatures. By liberating your own essence and regaining the skills of perception you had in your cradle, you can become one with the origin of all things. At the same time, this is also the only way to see the "ocean surface" as an observer. I just mentioned that if you have another kind of vision, you can see the majestic side of the void - there are only three "people" who have this kind of vision, and I even estimate that I can only count half of it.

Because I have only initially mastered the method of actively entering the void roaming state, I have tried several times when I had nothing to do before. Use the void roaming method to "encounter" Xingchen and Sheila, but the success rate has always remained at About 60 to 70%. Sometimes when I'm in a bad state, I can put myself to sleep but still can't enter the void, so I say that I can only be considered half a "person" who has mastered the human perspective. But no matter how you put it, overall this is a very good experience. Although it cannot be described in words that humans can understand, it feels... quite relaxing. Of course, I have also accidentally entered the "Return to the Void" state, just like now. Because I followed the fleet to make a long-distance jump in the void, and because I happened to be wandering in the sky, I might enter the wandering state, but this time... …I don’t know if I’m overthinking it, but I always feel like something’s not right.

I have never used my ability in the void while sleeping, so I lack the prerequisites to enter the wandering state. Moreover, I am usually quite dead when I sleep. To put it simply, when I fall asleep, I am like a vegetative state, wandering around the world. The chance of Hu Meng being upside down is very low, and this does not meet the normal conditions for me to "return to the void" unexpectedly. I feel like I suddenly fell in like this, or something pulled me... ··

And vaguely, I remembered what sounds I had heard before in my dazed state.

It was the voice of a person speaking. I couldn't tell the gender, and there was no joy or sadness. He mentioned a door - and then nothing more happened.

Damn, I have obsessive-compulsive disorder!

Well, let’s not mention what the unfinished voice said. Looking back now, it was another communication without beginning and end. This makes people think of the voice that has been heard several times before. I suspect This is again the paranoid people building bridges and building roads on the other side of the abyss who are tirelessly trying to talk to themselves. So maybe this time I entered a state of wandering in the void for no apparent reason and it was related to their sudden connection. According to the rigorous arguments of Tavel and a group of scientists from the empire - in fact, I think it is basically a wild guess, because they have no way to examine the souls of void creatures - they believe that when I occasionally established contact with the other side of the abyss, I was in A state in which the soul is extremely active and almost unfettered by the real world. In this extremely active situation, and just following the fleet through the void, he might enter this wandering state.

You see, even if Sandora is not around, my analytical skills are still very useful.

I drifted aimlessly in this chaotic and undulating ocean, and drifted easily and comfortably. I looked at the slowly turbulent sea of ​​​​void around me with a mentality of taking it easy as I came. Perhaps because I entered the "Return to the Void" "In this state, the inertia of void creatures has become more obvious than ever. I knew I was on the road to a long-distance expedition, and I also knew that I was about to fight an old rival for brains, but at the moment... there was no sense of urgency at all.

Because there is no need for a sense of urgency. In the state of wandering in the void, the time scale is not synchronized with the outside world.

"You look relaxed."

A voice suddenly came again, this time extremely clear, but still indistinguishable from male to female.

I finally woke up from my inert state of laziness and looked around blankly - then I remembered that I had no eyes now, so I concentrated and began to perceive everything in this sea of ​​​​emptiness.

Everything was quiet, nothing existed. The owner of that voice was not here. He might have come from a distant place...maybe even beyond the borders of the empire. This was what his intuition told him.

It wasn't Xing Chen's voice, nor was it Sheila's. A fourth person appeared in the void?

"Are you looking for me? What a pity, I'm far away from you, and there's more than just distance between us." The voice didn't disappear like the usual lackluster communications. This time, he actually answered it. Get down!

When I heard this, I was suddenly startled. What does this mean? This shows that communication has basically been established stably! This means that the two of us can communicate normally! This shows that the conversation between the two parties has progressed from sending notes to WeChat level!

Of course, there is no point in worrying about what it means now. I have to prevent the other party from suddenly hanging up again. So I quickly sorted out my thoughts, and I replied somewhat unbelievably: "Are you from...the other side of the chaotic sea?"

"... It seems there is a misunderstanding, but... I won't answer any of your questions for the time being." The voice paused. Because I couldn't hear the other person's emotions, I had no way of guessing what the owner of the voice was thinking. The expression is replying, which is undoubtedly a disadvantageous situation in this kind of tentative conversation between the two parties. Of course, there is an advantage. Even if the other side can see my tq, they will definitely not be able to see my expression: for the first time, I feel that it is good to be faceless in the void form...

"... Are you very cautious?" I didn't quite understand what the misunderstanding was about, but the other party seemed to be cautious and unwilling to reveal anything more, so I changed the topic, "Okay, let's talk about something else." Yeah, it’s hard to talk to me. Do you have anything to do with me?"

"I just want to confirm something and see if you are as reliable as the calculation result." The voice said more and more nonsense, and now he has not mentioned anything about building a bridge: in the past, the one on the other side of the abyss As long as a civilization transmits information, it must always say "building bridges", and this one in front of me seems... different from before?

"It's very dangerous to talk to you." The voice didn't mean to explain too much at all. He was almost talking to himself. "Just a few minutes of contact may cause me to lose a lot... You don't have to worry about it. Now I I have collected the information I want. I need to go back and think about it. There are too many things to weigh. Goodbye. I hope the next meeting will be more pleasant.

Just like when it came, the voice suddenly disappeared, saying a lot of nonsense, leaving me clueless.

I hope the next meeting can be more pleasant?

In other words, is it unpleasant for us to meet this time?

I thought about it for a long time and felt that the other person was a little crazy.

It seems that the other party will not appear again, and maintaining the state of "returning to the void" for too long will also lead to lack of energy after returning to the material world, so I ended this unexpected "wandering".

When my consciousness slowly emerged from the deep darkness to the surface, I opened my eyes and saw the familiar scene of the cabin in front of me. After detecting that the owner of the rest cabin had woken up, the main lights in the room were immediately slightly raised to reduce the discomfort caused by the darkness, while not waking up another resident in the room: Dingdang was still sleeping. .

Looking at the time, the spaceship should still be in the process of jumping at this time.

There were very subtle smacking sounds and vague sleep talking from the small table next to me. It seemed that Dingdang was dreaming about eating something again. The little girl mentioned my name softly. In her soft murmur, my name and the second Eleven kinds of candy and ice cream are arranged together and broadcast on a loop. I was relieved that this meant that I was indeed one of the most important things in Ding Dong's life: the equivalent of a lollipop. Along with the little thing's gentle babble, my thoughts became clearer. As I recalled the conversation I had just had with that weird voice in my fugue state, I felt that the situation was different from before.

The way and content of the other party's words are different from the previous information from the civilization on the other side.

He didn't mention building bridges again, but started to take an interest in me personally?

I'm afraid this problem is not clear for the time being, and now I have a more important problem to solve: I'm having trouble sleeping!

Now how much I envy the heartless three-inch boy next to me who can sleep in a biscuit box! !

In this way, in the sleeplessness of the supreme commander in the second half of the night, the formations of the Sixth Fleet and the Imperial Admiral, as well as the huge number of servant army support fleets we carried, arrived at the farthest border. The place where the main force is now stationed is not One of the three universes with alarms is a desolate world next to it. Because we are worried that if a conflict breaks out with the fallen apostles in advance, it will be too late to move the battlefield, which will cause a large number of casualties to the natives of the macro world and even trigger the end of the world.

After all, this level of war is no longer something that the weak races in the macro world can face.

When I came to the command hall, my sister and Xiaoxue were already waiting here. Dingdang sat on top of my head and looked around. He saw that his four live treasure men were playing cards with Bingtis, so he flew away happily. In the past - I don't know how a little guy who stands only a head taller than a playing card plans to play cards, but it looks like the little kid also wants to get involved.

"The fleet of the fallen apostles is outside the barrier. We have set up an order field trap. As long as they face this world, they will be pulled closer to the material plane." Sivis saluted us from the command seat, and his clear voice said sounded in the command hall, and the giant holographic projection in the middle of the hall showed the size and current general arrangement of the enemy fleet. "But it seems that the enemy is aware that our army is fully prepared. They have no signs of attacking yet, and are still in the process of attacking." Gather more numbers. It seems that while our army is increasing its troops, the fallen apostles have also mobilized their local troops."

"Their support route will bypass the entire empire territory. This is a long front," I shook my head. "Their follow-up troops should not be more, there will be one wave at most. Xiaoxue, be prepared."

"The enemy will not attack for the time being," Xiaoxue stood on the officers' platform, the white halo in her eyes slowly flowing, and her voice was steady and powerful. "The estimated time is about six hours. Their last wave of reinforcements has already arrived. On the way...well, as dad said, it's the last wave."

This naughty child who is always laughing and joking now has an extremely serious expression. She is wearing a straight uniform of a senior imperial officer, and there is an inexplicable cold aura surrounding her body. This kind of aura is not unfamiliar to me. I am in the imperial army. Every officer in the army can feel it. It is the aura that people who have experienced a real battlefield will unconsciously exude when they concentrate all their energy on preparing for a battle. Today's Xiaoxue looks the same as usual. They are completely different.

This was not the first time I saw this big naughty boy transformed into a form that looked like a veteran on the battlefield. I was not surprised, and just focused my attention on the image returned by the void probe. The enemy fleet gathered quietly in the Void Order Field, with no intention of hiding its whereabouts.

Now the fallen apostle and the emperor are already within the range of each other's cannons. They are facing each other head-on. Both sides have no cleverness - at least that's what it seems on the surface.

We are all old rivals. The conflict between us started from testing each other, hiding and beating around the bush, and finally gradually developed into what it is now, directly deploying troops on the enemy's territory, and the tension between the fleets is tense. Regardless of whether it is friend or foe, each spaceship will only send out one message: Come, fight until it hurts!

However, I still can't figure out why the other party appears in this kind of place, this kind of fringe world that is far away from their territory and completely meaningless in terms of strategic value. An expedition spanning such a long distance across the entire empire's borders, just to attack a civilian world with almost zero local defense power?

The fallen apostles' brains are burned out...well, their brains are already burned out.

"If you launch a surprise attack before the enemy's support troops arrive, you may achieve greater results." Sivis spread the Storm Commander's power to the entire legion and made suggestions at the same time. "My subordinates recommend directly launching Order Disruption." weapon to pull the enemy into the effective range of the order field trap."

All squadrons of the Sixth Army have been reunited. The Royal Fleet is at the core of the combined array. Now we are fully prepared for the attack. According to Xiaoxue's judgment, the enemy's support force is only one wave. It seems that the other two legions on standby in Shadow City don't even need to appear.

"Raid..." I judged the current situation. Indeed, the imperial army has been assembled, and the expected number of enemies has been completely exposed to our army due to the prophet's ability to cheat - if there is no prophet, be cautious The officers will definitely not choose to act in advance at this time, because this may be exploited by the enemy's follow-up troops that can enter the battlefield at any time, but we have a prophet, so there is nothing to worry about.

But I think maybe I should wait a little bit... for a better time.

I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but this battle has always given me an inexplicable feeling. It started suddenly, and then the incident escalated inexplicably. Almost in the blink of an eye, armies were confronting each other on the border of the empire, and everything was advancing at an abnormal pace. ...What the hell is wrong with this?