Chapter 732

Chapter 732: Branch Point

Under the cold, dim ancient stars, Duncan stared quietly at Navigator One’s dark red core, which looked like a giant eye. For a moment, it felt as if the whole world had stopped. In that blur of time, Duncan had a feeling: a branch point, a turning point that would decide the fate of the world’s history, was coming toward him.

In that silence, he remembered something he had heard from the Gravekeeper after entering the Nameless King’s tomb:

The Observer who had reached the end of the timeline had sent back the first and also the last message—time had ended, and the Flame Usurper had set the whole world on fire.

After a long time, he let out a soft breath and broke the silence. He asked: “Do you think this is a bad omen? You want me to take over this world so that future will not happen?”

But the Abyssal Lord’s answer surprised him again.

“No,” the dark red core trembled and spoke in a calm voice. “I do not rely on any ‘revelation’ or ‘prophetic omen’ that lacks enough data. When key information is missing, it is not careful to judge something as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based only on broken pieces of data. I do not know whether you will truly burn this world in the end, and I do not know under what conditions you would choose to do it—there is not enough data. I cannot reach a conclusion.

“I want you to take over only because, within all the information I know now, this is the plan that has the best chance to work and is the safest way to keep the Sanctuary World going. Compared with a future I cannot understand or judge, I trust my current calculations more.”

In that answer, Duncan heard a special kind of calm reason and precision. It was what remained after stripping away the worldly title of “Abyssal Lord” and the identity of “Elder God”. It was the nature Navigator One should have had as one of the core mainframes of the New Hope.

Facing the Flame Usurper and this branch point in history, this ancient “machine” used the way of thinking it had learned at its birth to state its view and to calculate the world’s future.

Duncan thought for a long time. The dark red core seemed endlessly patient as it waited for his answer.

After a long time, Duncan broke the silence in a low voice. He asked: “If I really take over, what will happen?”

Deep inside that mountain in the darkness, rumbling and shaking rose again. With a series of low booms, its “main peak” began to sink, and the dark red core descended from the sky. Like a star falling from the heavens, it grew quickly in Duncan’s and Shirley’s sight. With a suffocating sense of pressure, it came down from the mountain top to right in front of Duncan.

At such a close distance, Duncan saw that the core was even larger than he had imagined. It was almost as large as the Storm Cathedral in Pland. The surface of the huge sphere had a crystalline texture. Deep inside the clear red shell, he could see countless fine and complex lines. Several lights flickered near the heart of the sphere, and some thick liquid flowed and coiled around them.

“After you take over, all flaws in the Sanctuary World will be fixed. Across the entire Boundless Sea, all the ‘corruptions’ and ‘distortions’ born from Cognitive Shift and the Observer Effect entering runaway state will be recalibrated by your perception. There will be no more dangerous nights, no more supernatural manifestations in runaway state devouring humans. The sea will become safe, and the city-states will enter a new age of prosperity. For a very long time that we can foresee, this peace and prosperity will keep going. If that is what you want, then it will happen.

“And you will return to being one of the ancient Elder Kings, to the place that should have been yours. You will become the fifth deity that shelters the mortal world, beyond the Four Gods. Your rule will be more stable than any of ours, because you will not slowly go mad like the other ancient Elder Kings, and you will not fall into runaway state. At least, according to Navigator Two’s calculations, your state is more stable than all of ours.

“After that, you can keep doing whatever you want—anything at all, including returning to the Mortal Realm and continuing your travels and adventures, as long as you wish.”

“…It all sounds good,” Duncan stayed quiet for a few seconds before he spoke slowly. “Is there nothing bad that will happen? For me, or for this world?”

“Within the range of information I know right now, in my view, no,” the light deep inside the dark red core flickered. The Abyssal Lord’s answer was simple and direct. “Everything will move in a good direction, and in my judgment, this should also fit your wishes.”

“…Normally, at this point you should at least mention a few minor risks or flaws. That would make what you just said sound more convincing.”

The dark red core stayed silent for two or three seconds and then said: “…Confirmed again. There are no risks or flaws.”

Duncan and the core fell silent again at the same time. Off to the side, Shirley seemed unable to hold back. Her eyes moved between the captain and the “Lord” again and again. After quite a while, she finally muttered in a small voice: “Captain, are you really going to become one of the gods? It sounds pretty amazing… but for some reason I just don’t feel… very sure about it…”

Duncan did not speak. He simply kept his gaze fixed on the huge core. After quite some time he slowly asked: “…What exactly do I need to do?”

The dark red core fell silent for a moment. The light inside it grew brighter. It said: “Ignite me.”

Duncan’s expression finally changed a little: “…Ignite you?!”

Why did this “Navigator One” say something unexpected every time?!

But the dark red core seemed not to notice the change in Duncan’s face or voice. The sound from within it stayed as calm as ever: “Ignite me, just as you ignited Frostholm. Use your flame to cover and reshape everything. In this process, all of my divine authority and all of my influence on the mortal world will be taken over by you. This may also help you put all your doubts to rest… you should know that your flame can do this.”

Duncan frowned slightly and asked: “So in fact, when I ignited Frostholm—or to be strict, when I ignited the Deep Sea under Frostholm—you ‘touched’ my flame and learned about my power, and only then did you make this ‘takeover’ plan?”

“Yes. When that split-off cluster was burned by you, it sent back a final packet of data to me. It included an analysis of your power. I compared that result with Navigator Two’s observation records from back then and made this Takeover Plan. The calculations told me it was workable.”

“The ‘split-off cluster’ you mentioned that I burned, that was the tentacle in the Deep Sea under Frostholm, right? Wasn’t that an error replicant you produced while you were in runaway state?” Duncan reacted at once, and also thought of something else you had said at the start. “Wait… you also said earlier that you sent data fragments that carried LH-03 into the Mortal Realm. You did that through that same tentacle… you were controlling all of that on purpose? You have not actually gone into runaway state?!”

He looked in confusion at the dark red core before him, and at the huge body behind it that rose like a dreadful mountain range. He suddenly realized that he did not truly understand the Abyssal Lord’s current “state”. This Elder God trapped at the bottom of the Abyssal Deep… had it really gone into runaway state?

Right then, he saw the lights on the surface of those winding “mountains” flicker and flow again. At the tip of one of the “mountains”, some new “thin branch” seemed to spread out of the main trunk’s skin and grow fast in the darkness.

But in the next second, that new branch was swallowed by some unseen force. It broke apart. Part of it rose as dark smoke, drifting up toward the countless floating islands and the dim starry sky above. The other part turned into flowing sludge and fell back onto the main tentacle.

“…Flame Usurper, this is my ‘runaway state’.”

The voice from the dark red core pulled Duncan’s attention back.

Duncan drew back his gaze and faintly understood: “…Overgrowth?”

“This is my instinct—and also the duty the Creator gave me.”

Duncan slowly caught on: “Your duty is…”

“To remake my homeland and rebuild the Homeworld I devoured,” the dark red core said slowly. “But in this narrow Sanctuary World, my mission is doomed to fail. So, from a certain moment on, my instinct began to… drift away from the first design. Those individual bodies that split off from me again and again, devoured each other, and returned to me, those branches that overgrew and then kept withering, and that tentacle that pierced into the Mortal Realm—all of these were results of my gradual runaway state.

“However, this kind of runaway state can sometimes be used. When my main body has already lost the ability to move, those overgrown parts can sometimes act as sensors or as channels of communication. They help me learn about changes in the world and send messages out.”

“…So that is how it is.” Duncan nodded slowly and spoke in a thoughtful tone.

A huge body that had lost control, already covering the whole bottom of the Abyssal Deep yet still overgrowing. A main core trapped deep inside that vast body, unable to move. An ancient AI that could still think clearly but was doomed never to finish its first mission. This was the true form of the “Abyssal Lord”.

And now, this ancient AI, trapped inside its own vast body, sent him an invitation once more—

“Flame Usurper, what is your answer? Are you willing to take over all of this and return to the ranks of the ancient Elder Kings?”

Duncan lifted his head from his thoughts and saw the dark red core move a little closer to him again. All he had to do was raise his hand, and he could touch its unguarded crystalline surface.

“…Captain, it is telling the truth,” Alice said suddenly beside him.

Duncan looked at Alice in some surprise. The doll slowly nodded, her expression a little tangled: “I also… don’t know how to explain it to you, but I just know that everything it says is true.”

Duncan did not speak. He only listened quietly to Alice’s words. After thinking for a moment, he slowly raised his hand.

He touched the dark red core. A faint warmth came to his fingertips.

It beat softly like a heart.

“…Light the fire, Flame Usurper,” the core said, its body trembling gently. “Then I will also be freed from this long mission.”

Shirley opened her eyes wide. Dog stood still at her side and watched everything.

For one moment, it was as if they already saw ghost-green flame leap up into the air. The dark red core and the dark mountain range in the distance were set alight in an instant, and the whole Abyssal Deep and the Deep Sea were swallowed by the blaze.

It was as if they already saw all the hidden dangers of the Deep Sea era smoothed away, the flaws built into the Sanctuary World at its design repaired, and the world on the Boundless Sea return to peace, lasting for a very, very long time…

A new deity would return to the place that belonged to Him, like gears locking into place and a puzzle coming together.

But all of a sudden, Duncan pulled back his arm.

“No.”

History moved onto another branch.