Chapter 1283 — Salvaging the Haul
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 5
The door leading to the "Main Control Room" opened, yet far from Amber having any clue what had just happened, even Gao Yang, that "satellite sprite," could not make sense of it—he refused to believe the half-elf's "whack-it-until-it-works repair method" had truly fixed this ancient access system. After turning it over in his mind, he could only attribute it to coincidence for the time being—even though he did not believe for a moment that it was a coincidence.
"It's ancient, after all, isn't it? Over a million years old—there's bound to be something wrong inside by now... Wait, did you hear that? Something's making a sound in there?"
Amber muttered away to herself, but Gao Yang had already stepped past her, walking toward the other side of the door.
The instant he crossed the threshold, countless flickering red lights flooded his vision, and his heart leapt into his throat—then he took in the scene inside the "Main Control Room."
It was an extraordinarily vast fan-shaped hall. Consoles that looked like control equipment and ancient devices whose purpose could not be discerned at all were arranged throughout the hall's sectors. Beneath the red light that filled the entire chamber, countless holographic projections floated above device after device, and at that moment nearly every interface was flashing with harsh red light and ceaselessly leaping scrambled symbols and diagrams. Streaks and blotches of black-red marred the hall's original silver-white floor and walls, and between the blotches could be seen depressions and pits left behind by some intense corrosion. The dreadful sight was as though a colossal thing whose whole body streamed with lethal venom had once prowled through this hall, its poisonous limbs leaving countless marks behind!
A continuous wail of alarms filled the hall, their urgent shrieking fraying the nerves—this was the sound Amber had heard just seconds ago.
"I don't think this is good..." Amber followed close behind into the main control room, and the moment she saw the scene inside her eyes went wide. "I'm guessing this place definitely didn't look like this when it was running normally..."
"It's the pollution of the Inverse Tide... the pollution of the Inverse Tide, as I thought..." Gao Yang murmured. The sight behind that door had stunned him, yet somewhere in his heart it was as though he had half expected it. The glaring red warning lights and the unbroken system alarms still filled the surroundings; he strode into the main control room and headed toward the console covered in traces of pollution. At the far edge of his vision, at the very front of the fan-shaped hall, a massive hemispherical device sat at the center of an open area. The enormous holographic image projected above it likewise danced with countless scrambled lines and warning messages that had accumulated for who knew how many years, and at the center of the constantly trembling, distorting image, a line of characters flickering in and out caught Gao Yang's eye:
SYSTEM FATALLY DAMAGED. UNKNOWN INTRUSION OUT OF CONTROL...
Footsteps came from behind as the others filed into the main control room one after another. The warning lights and alarms on every side left everyone tense and bewildered; even Victoria, who had maintained that calm, aloof expression all along, unconsciously tightened her grip on her combat staff and edged a step closer to Mo Jin. Meitzen, meanwhile, stepped out from the group and came quickly to Gao Yang's side, her voice low and grave: "We're one step late again... or perhaps many years late. This place has already been polluted."