Chapter 480: Original Blueprint
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation.com
The powerful lights of the submersible cut through the dark ocean, revealing shadowy figures hidden within the abyss. As these entities floated into view, Duncan noticed their human-like shapes. They were countless in number, suspended and gently swaying in the vast aquatic realm.
Looking closer, Duncan saw something odd. These beings had no facial features or distinguishable limbs. They wore no clothes. Instead, they were vague, human-like silhouettes with coarse textures and a rich, absorbing black hue.
They resembled figures hastily molded from obsidian clay, basic representations without intricate details.
Sharing his discovery with Agatha, Duncan commented, “They seem to be mere silhouettes, don’t they?” Agatha’s astonished reply was, “From where I sit, they exude a sort of spiritual luminance, almost as if they are sentient entities inhabiting an underwater city…”
Silenced by this revelation, Duncan furrowed his brow and skillfully steered the submersible closer to one of the ‘human forms’ hovering nearby.
The submersible’s subtle movements disturbed the serenity of the water, causing one of the figures with its smooth, spherical ‘head’ to drift closer to the observation window. Its stunted, coarse limbs appeared unfinished, floating in the water.
A mechanical arm extended slowly, its clawed end gently tapping the figure’s midsection.
There was no reaction. No sign of life.
Duncan lifted his eyes and observed the other forms in the distance as they briefly glided within the submersible’s illumination before fading back into the darkness.
He wondered, how many of these entities were there? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Maybe even millions?
A distant memory resurfaced in Duncan’s mind. He recalled a detail from the Abyss Project briefing with Tyrian. The third submersible had returned in panic after its last dive. Once extracted, its explorer had repeated a haunting statement: “We all died down there!”
With a furrowed brow, Duncan stared out, pondering the vast number of shadowy forms floating outside. Could this have been the haunting scene that drove the previous explorer to the brink of insanity?
Breaking the quiet, Agatha spoke earnestly, “This scenario… It reminds me of the ‘imitations’ that once invaded our city-state.”
“I had a similar thought,” Duncan replied, “but these are different. Even with their strange qualities, the imitations still had human features – faces, limbs, and regular clothing. On the other hand, these figures are more basic, only capturing the essence of a human form. It’s as if they’re preliminary sketches, even more primitive than the imitations.”
“What if they’re in an early stage?” Agatha proposed, “Could it be that the imitations developed from these initial, crude versions?”
Duncan spoke cautiously, his voice tinged with hesitation. “Determining the origins of these forms is challenging. It’s possible that they’ve been floating aimlessly in the ocean depths for a long time, maybe even before the Abyss Project began. The entities that attacked our city-state came through the ‘mirror’ feature, but these oceanic forms exist physically in this realm. There might be a link between the two, but it’s probably not as simple as saying one evolved from the other.”
Agatha pondered his words. She remembered something a cultist had said during a previous confrontation: “There were never any counterfeits to begin with; in other words, we’re all fakes…”
As if a light bulb went off in his head at the same moment, Duncan’s eyes scanned the floating, clay-like forms before darting to the dark, mysterious waters beneath them. His hand reached for the lever controlling the submersible’s descent.
Inside the submersible, the sound of creaking, grinding machinery reverberated as if ancient equipment were gasping for breath. The vessel’s hull groaned under the immense water pressure. As Duncan maneuvered the controls, the submersible began its further descent into the abyss.
Amidst the eerie noises, Agatha looked at Duncan with concern. “Captain, is this vessel sturdy enough for this?”
Duncan’s eyes were fixed on the control panel, interpreting the faint signals sent by the indicator lights. His grip on the lever remained firm. “It’ll hold up,” he said quietly. “We’re getting close.”
“Close to what?” Agatha questioned, a mixture of surprise and anticipation in her words. “Do you know what’s down there?”
Duncan didn’t answer. He focused on piloting the submersible with meticulous precision. The hull, already under strain, made more unsettling noises. Even the seam where the viewport connected to the rest of the hull emitted distressing creaks and cracks. The vehicle seemed perpetually on the edge of collapsing under the immense pressure.
Nevertheless, they continued their descent, plunging deeper into the pitch-black depths.
But it wasn’t just the ship’s structure that sounded alarms. Outside the vessel, persistent impact noises echoed: “Bang, Bang, Bang…”
These clay-like humanoid forms were periodically colliding with the submersible, their impacts making sounds akin to stones thudding against a human skull. The dull resonance was spine-chilling, and Agatha tightened her grip on the handrail.
She felt the submersible tilt forward, making it difficult to stand without holding onto something.
Then, something came into her view outside the porthole.
What appeared to be an endless, shifting expanse materialized at the edge of the searchlight’s beam, filling the lower edge of the window.
It looked like… land.
“Is that the seafloor?” Agatha blurted out, incredulous. “Are we actually looking at the ocean floor?”
Duncan stared intently through the porthole, focusing on the startling terrain that had appeared in the abyss. The jagged edges of what seemed to be a shoreline stretched out in front of them, and beyond that lay the blurry outlines of unidentifiable structures. After a prolonged moment of contemplation, he gently shook his head. “No, this isn’t the seafloor. We’re nowhere near the ‘seafloor.’ What we’re seeing is a piece of land that is actually floating within the ocean.”
“A floating piece of land?” Agatha queried, her brow furrowing in disbelief.
“Another version of Frost,” Duncan answered softly. “Even though we can only see a small section of the shoreline, I recognize the distinctive landscape. This is Frost, but in its original, untamed state, devoid of ports, buildings, or any other man-made structures.”
At his words, a visible shiver coursed through Agatha’s body.
Duncan’s gaze then moved upward to the ocean surface above this ‘floating island.’ In that watery sky, countless humanoid figures floated, encircling the landmass like bees around their hive.
It was a haunting tableau, as if they were witnessing a moment from the dawn of time, perfectly preserved deep within the ocean—a frozen snapshot of a bygone era seemingly suspended in time.
“What is this place?” Agatha asked, breaking the silence.
“It’s the original blueprint,” Duncan replied quietly.
He recalled the events of the Third Long Night when the “King of Darkness” revealed the blueprint for creation and set in motion the genesis of their world. To avoid the fates of the Dream King and the Pale Giant King, he fragmented the blueprint, replacing a unified world with twelve hundred separate city-states.
Civilization had persevered past that dark epoch, giving rise to the Deep Sea Era. Everything in this era was based on the “twelve hundred city-states” blueprint the King of Darkness had gifted.
Certain aspects of this narrative, mentioned in a text called the “Book of Blasphemy,” had been corroborated.
But were there alternative interpretations or explanations?
Duncan fell into contemplative silence, his thoughts swirling like a tempest. Agatha, meanwhile, began to grasp the implications of what Duncan called the “original blueprint.” Struggling with the enormity of the revelation, she stammered, “Are you suggesting that Frost, its current inhabitants, and indeed, all the city-states and mortal beings in our world, might have originated from these… entities in the deep sea?”
“It’s a possibility,” Duncan answered. He shook his head softly. “The heretical writings of the Annihilation Cult provide details on the creation process attributed to the Nether Lord. Even though these theories are considered blasphemous, we can’t dismiss the potential truths these ancient texts may hold.”
Agatha tried to speak but found herself momentarily speechless.
Ever since they had ventured into these uncharted territories, her understanding of the world had been turned upside-down. Her mind was awash in questions, and even her steady resolve as a seasoned gatekeeper was shaken.
If the Annihilation Cult’s claims about the “Nether Lord creating the world” contained even an ounce of truth, then did that not mean that all beings in their mortal realm were, in essence, creations of this Nether Lord?
Even after surviving the existential crisis posed by the Mirror Frost incident and fortifying her convictions through extreme trials, Agatha still found it exceedingly challenging to assimilate this world-altering “possibility” into her understanding of reality.
Yet, despite the deep-seated contradictions and hesitations swirling in her mind, she didn’t entirely dismiss what she was seeing. She knew that when she made the decision to venture into the deep sea, she was stepping into a realm where the normal rules could be defied, and the impossible could become reality.
“Shall we go deeper?” she asked Duncan, forcing her voice to remain steady.
Duncan, however, didn’t reach for the submersible’s controls again. Instead, his eyes scanned the array of gauges and dials on the control panel as he focused intently on the sensory feedback from the vessel.
“We’ve reached the submarine’s operational limit,” he finally declared. “The hull can’t take any more pressure; it’s at its breaking point.”
“We were so close,” Agatha replied, her voice tinged with regret. “We were almost at that floating island.”
“It’s okay; it’s only the submarine that has its limitations,” Duncan reassured her, shaking his head gently. His eyes returned to the porthole, transfixed on the scene outside. “There’s something else here that is far more resilient.”
Agatha looked at him, confused.
Duncan, however, remained focused on the scene beyond the porthole. He continued to observe the floating humanoid entities that seemed to drift aimlessly in the pale light filtering through the water.
“You said earlier that in your perception, these ‘blank’ human forms emitted an aura, almost as if they were alive,” Duncan remarked.
Just then, one of the indistinct humanoid entities floating outside the submarine slowly turned its nebulous head toward the porthole as if responding to Duncan’s words. Its gaze, if it could be called that, seemed to lock onto Agatha.
Now that’s some revelation!
So every city state have such a Blueprint under it?
Wonder how it is with other islands like Dagger Island, is at the place where it was also a Blueprint hidden? But Dagger Island wasn’t a city state, more so a companion… maybe Dagger Island is included in Frosts’ Blueprint?
That was some revelation. I assume Dagger Island is supported by the same ‘bedrock’ as Frost is.
I don’t think the Blueprint people are the only source of people of the World. There are also the spaceship people, people like the elves that used magic portals (I need to find the chapter that covered their origin myths to confirm that), and even more people with other origins.
I would not be surprised if there are survivors ‘living’ (existing in some form: alive, undead, etc.) today from each of the previous creations.
“There were never any counterfeits to begin with; in other words, we’re all fakes…”
Another guess pointing to the conclusion that whole reality is a simulation. There are two possibilities though: a standalone simulation that explores the unknown alone, and a search of a possible future for some real life project in the making. I wonder which one that is.
I agree that there are hints that it is a simulation world, but I think the world is too messy to be one. In a simulation it would be easier to reboot the world with new parameters than try to patch the program/programs with spaghetti code for each new creation.
It seems more like training an AI for a specific task, then. Rebooting each time contradicts the purpose.
Has everyone already forgotten then the mirror entity presumed to be the Nether Lord’s Reflection said the words ‘error’ and ‘clones’. So rather than a computer simulation this might be an Artificial World in a reality that has been warped somehow my guess is through the collision of multiple realities, hence why the gods are a mix of AI and strange creatures. It’s likely even these strange creatures were artificially created as bodies for them. A coalition of survivors of a mixed reality collision the collision caused the laws of reality to warp and so a few of them tried to use their super technology, magic and got like powers to recreate the world but the laws of the mixed reality were incompatible with the first world blueprints they created causing their technologies to fail from the principal or them to exhaust their powers trying until one finally succeeded at creating a delicate balance, but dying in the process. This would make subspace like a Reality Black Hole, the epicenter of the collision and corruption its Hawking Radiation.