Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1506: The Eccentric One with a Strange Attitude

Chapter 1506: Chapter 1506: The Eccentric One with a Strange Attitude

"You’ve finally come closer. The interference here is really something else—it’s been a while, how have you been?"

Without a doubt, the voice resonating in my mind belongs to the Abyss Xyrin, but given the current situation... No matter what this is, it’s hard for me to believe what’s unfolding before my eyes: This is inside the Abyss Gate, at the Empire’s Deep Dive Port experimental base, surrounded by the Empire’s most elite forces, and a long way from the Fallen Apostle’s headquarters. Why is the Abyss Xyrin here? No army, no guard, not even the proper weaponry; she just boldly stands in front of me, greeting her enemy?

Also... a large collection of debris fragments drift behind her, looking nothing like anything made by Xyrin Technology. These obviously have something to do with her, but what? Why is she appearing with these fragments beneath the Empire’s Deep Dive Port?

I feel overwhelmed, sensing that my mind is running wild. The look in the Abyss Xyrin’s eyes is becoming increasingly surreal... Well, I imagine I have such a look.

"You seem surprised. Am I not arriving at a good time?" The Abyss Xyrin’s voice continues in my mind, and I suddenly realize something: This is direct communication!

Directly establishing a Spiritual Connection or any form of face-to-face communication is something the Abyss Xyrin has always avoided, as this can backfire with Void Power flooding into the Fallen Apostle’s spiritual network. For the Abyss Xyrin, this kind of power is toxic. The Void purifies any connected nodes, and a purified Fallen Apostle naturally disconnects from their Total Network. This is a huge loss for the Abyss Xyrin, who is rooted in the network. But now, she dares to directly link with a Void Creature’s spirit?

"Aren’t you worried about being ’cleansed’ while talking to me?" Unable to remain silent, I query out of curiosity.

"It’s fine. I’ve finally found a way to safely converse with you, and it’s not even resource-intensive," the Abyss Xyrin replies with a smile, speaking casually through the Spiritual Connection. Then she points to a nearby deep-diving ship, "Can you move me inside? Chatting here isn’t exactly comfortable, and I’m not fond of this pure Abyss environment. Plus, I can’t move."

Only then do I notice a black metal box resembling a large wardrobe next to the Abyss Xyrin. A faint glow connects her and the box. Her inability to move clearly relates to it.

But that’s besides the point. I’m completely baffled by this whimsical being: "Move you inside?! What exactly are you trying to do? Did you bring these fragments here? Surely you didn’t come all this way just to spook me..."

"I’m not that bored," her form flickers suddenly as she frowns, "It seems even with special material there’s interference... I suggest moving my intercom device somewhere secure; that’s the black box you see here. We can discuss the rest in a safe place. As for the wreckage... consider it a meeting gift, or tools for our next collaboration. That’s all I can say for now."

The Abyss Xyrin earnestly says "collaboration," reminding me that the New Empire is indeed "collaborating" with her. It’s more of a compromise: the New Empire ceased attacking the Abyss Zone, while the Abyss Xyrin holds back the New Army—in my view, not real collaboration, yet she seems serious about it.

As I regard the Enemy Commander before me, my mind battles itself with two voices shouting frantically: one warning, "Never trust this one," and the other going, "Yeah, right..."

Startled, I realize I’m still unable to trust this quirky creature. But ignoring her is not an option. After hesitating for a few moments, I decide: No matter her plans, let’s "move" her to the ship for now. My power restrains her completely, plus this is the Empire’s domain; the Abyss Xyrin can’t do much even with infinite energy. Of course, she could detonate the big box beside her at the Deep Dive Port or cause minor mischief, but I refuse to believe she’d travel so far solely to vex me...

"Anses, open the Gnaku and bring this guy in," I command the deep-diving ship, "Also notify Deep Dive Port and report the situation here, plus have the port Guard ready."

"Could there be danger?" Anses hesitates, "That’s the enemy commander."

"The Abyss Xyrin’s true form isn’t here. This is technically just a communicator she sent. We’d be ridiculous to overreact to a mere communicator," I reply, keeping an eye on both the Abyss Xyrin and the black box nearby. "Besides, I’ll monitor her closely. Within a void environment, she can’t stir any trouble."

Anses doesn’t question further. Moments later, a blue-glowing rift opens under the deep-diving ship, and a tractor beam begins pulling the Abyss Xyrin and her surrounding fragments toward the Gnaku. I follow closely, reaching her side, and remind her through the Spiritual Connection, "Whatever you plan, no tricks. You know I’m meant to counter you."

"Relax," she waves her hand, "I went through all this trouble not to scare you."

Frowning (imagining my eyebrows), I ask, "Then what are you after?"

"How to say... I’ve always been honest; you just refuse to believe it," she glances at me. "The plan is progressing; we now need to undertake another collaborative project. I’ve said my actions aren’t driven by personal feelings or alignments, but by what the final goal demands. Now we need cooperation, and I believe once you hear my terms, you’ll be eager to assist—that’s why I came."

Seeing I have more questions, she waves dismissively, "Save it for later; this equipment’s been saturated in the Abyss a while and needs self-repair. See you soon, no offense."

After these words, the Abyss Xyrin’s form begins flickering violently, fading away until the odd black metal box remains before me—alongside a mountain of questions.

"Attention, Gnaku doors have closed. Entering the purification phase. Do not release lock devices until purification completes..."

The broadcast from above interrupts my thoughts, revealing that I, along with the wreckage and giant box, have entered the deep-diving ship, situated in the Gnaku’s quarantine zone: everything brought inside undergoes a secondary purification here before accessing the deeper storeroom. Meanwhile, the entire Gnaku is shielded by high-intensity protections, ensuring no contamination threatens the ship. If needed, this cargo bay section can detach entirely. I choose to stay with this big box: for now, it seems to have aided the Abyss Xyrin’s appearance before me, so surveillance is essential.

Though I question its purpose—I told Anses, the Abyss Xyrin seemingly sent a mere communicator, not her real form, likely still in the Abyss Zone. Nonetheless, watching this communicator matters: it’s her output end, and safeguard anything linked to the Abyss as one would expect during a plague—without doubt.

"Your Majesty, I must ask you to remain in the Gnaku a bit longer," as purification concludes and I, with other "cargo," get transferred to the storeroom’s Deep Space, Anses communicates, "Shall we continue with retrieval operations?"

"Continue, why not continue," I shrugged, "After all, there’s just a small bunch left. We’ll clean them up before heading back. I’ve got an eye on the Abyss Xyrin side, nothing will go wrong."

After ending the communication with the control room, I called Sandora, "How’s the preparation outside going?"

Sandora’s voice immediately came through, it seemed she had been waiting for my initiative to contact her, "The firepower aimed at the Abyss Gate is strong enough to blast through this Universe. What’s going on on your end? Abyss Xyrin?"

"Hmm, it seems she sent over something resembling a communicator, and five minutes ago, we were still chatting," I glanced at the large box placed beside me, which still maintained a standby-like silence, with only the wandering red halos on its surface and the faint humming from within indicating that the device was still operational, "I don’t know what exactly she intends to do. She claims to be seeking cooperation, and I haven’t detected any Abyss Fleet of the Fallen Apostle around, so let’s assume she’s harmless for now and see what ideas she has. After all, hasn’t everything she’s done been quite unexpected?"

"Let’s hope she’s harmless..." Sandora paused slightly, "Perhaps we’re being a bit neurotic. What could a network ghost possibly do without a terminal? She wouldn’t actually try to hack our network right in front of you with her own power, would she?"

I thought for a moment and could only repeat Sandora’s four words, "Let’s hope she’s harmless."

Upon my instruction, the deep-diving ship resumed work, gathering the remaining small piles of wreckage into the Gnaku. However, because there was a special "passenger" in the Gnaku, Anses activated a temporary isolation barrier in the warehouse to separately store the other wreckage from the "Black Box" of Abyss Xyrin.

Several blue energy shields rose around, isolating myself and the Black Box in a secure space. After waiting for a while in such an environment, I finally felt a bit bored and couldn’t help but turn to the large iron cabinet beside me, "How long are you going to be in self-check mode?"

I didn’t originally expect any response, but the black box surprisingly activated immediately. Twice as many red light flows appeared on its surface, accompanied by strange noises from within like those of a large device rebooting. Then it suddenly became as smooth as a mirror on the side facing me, and the figure of Abyss Xyrin slowly walked out as if stepping from a two-dimensional image into the real world, "Just finished self-check, things seem good, only one protection wall generator burned out, luckily I have enough spare parts. Oh, is this your deep-diving ship? Looks quite good, with a large cargo hold... You’ve developed to the level of being able to load and unload in the abyss environment."

With a bizarre expression, I looked at this enemy before me, her relaxed and natural attitude almost challenged my imperialistic sense of honor and disgrace. I endured the twitching sensation in my forehead and tried to keep my tone calm, "Don’t you think you should behave more... appropriately to your status?"

"That’s something only the creatures of your real world would care about," Abyss Xyrin leaned on her Black Box, giving me a lazy glance, "I only care about my goal. To repeat: I’m not here to fight today, nor to cause any destruction. Considering the recent peace in the Abyss Zone, can’t you trust me just this once?"

I shrugged, "Don’t mind me, I’m slow, so the best way to deal with someone like you is to let everything you say hang for a bit."

"Ah ha, that’s actually a smart move," Abyss Xyrin’s way of speaking remained relaxed and natural, carrying an unfounded sense of familiarity, and then she frowned, "Why haven’t we left the Abyss Gate yet? When are we docking?"

I was torn between laughter and tears, "Could you please not be so familiar without reason, you’re literally in the enemy camp’s base, you know? At least pay some attention to your image, even if you’re here as a diplomat. We’re still collecting the remaining wreckage; we should be done soon—if you really have something to say, could you tell me now what exactly those things are? Why did you send them over?"

"Spaceships from the other side, they’ve been in my possession for over a hundred years but remained sealed until recently seeing the light of day again," Abyss Xyrin answered straightforwardly, "I assure you these fragments are very complete, piecing them together could at least restore about seventy to eighty percent of it, though don’t count on the precise internal structures and the overall operation mechanism being usable even if reconstructed, its most valuable aspect is its material... You seem like you have something to say?"

"Of course, I have something to say," I finally found an opportunity to speak up, the first being to stop this self-talking individual, "Could you please not speak so incompletely? What I want to know is what you mean by sending these things to us?"

"Analysis, research, spaceship building, consolidating nodes, breaching the critical boundary, bridge building, those are all the tasks," Abyss Xyrin said all at once, "It must be completed before the Void Catastrophe. It’s our great task, and it’s something you all might find delightful: if you wish to permanently reduce the abyssal phenomenon in the Void and open the door to a New World, then there’s a need for our cooperation. I know you’re even more confused now, but much of this cannot be explained clearly in a short time, it’s a plan that’s been advancing for tens of thousands of years, and since much of it proceeded autonomously, many things have occurred that deviated from my initial assumptions, so even explaining it to you leaves me unsure where to start, speak to Sandora when you see her... you’ll get to examine those ’Fire Seeds’ you left behind back then: outside of the battlefield too."

"You remember that the Revenge Army was left by you back in the day?" I looked at Abyss Xyrin in surprise, then immediately realized that I had asked a silly question: even after being corrupted, only her personality changed, not her memory, right?

Abyss Xyrin gave me a glance, "So you’ve already found out the Revenge Army was preserved by me?"

Although we were on opposing sides, it seemed unnecessary to dwell on that now, I couldn’t suppress my curiosity, "Then how do you view the Fire Seed you kept after being corrupted? Isn’t it something you’d want to get rid of quickly?"

The foundation of the New Empire now rests on the preservation by Abyss Xyrin back then, while the Fallen Apostles in the Abyss Zone were created by me. Confronted with such a crossroad of fate, my response was a moment of mental blue screen, and now I was particularly curious about what Abyss Xyrin thought when facing the same issue. The other party didn’t hesitate at all, "View it? Everything goes as usual, no special opinion. I just need to achieve the initial goal, ’Fire Seeds’ and ’Great Tasks’ are actions that had to be taken in particular periods, and so far it appears none of it was wrong. When my node wasn’t corrupted, the Abyss was an enemy endangering the Empire, so to protect the Empire, I had to oppose the corruption. Whereas when the Imperial District turned into the Abyss Zone, and you became enemies to the Empire, then protecting the Empire required opposing you. My goal has been clear from the start, so I was never swayed by those miscellaneous external factors."

I realized something, perhaps the strongest part of Abyss Xyrin wasn’t her intelligence and foresight, but rather that she lived more freely than even Void Creatures... As a ghost living in the network world, she had no burdens from the real world, leading each of her actions to leave an unprecedented remarkable impression. Now, I finally understood why this remarkable feeling seemed somewhat familiar: amplifying Qianqian’s carefree spirit by four or five times, this is practically another Abyss Xyrin!

At least in terms of being carefree and "actively doing," the two certainly had common ground.

By that time, the deep-diving ship had finally completed all the salvage operations, the main onboard computer of the Gnaku emitted a stable and calm broadcast voice, "Gnaku locked, this ship begins executing surfacing procedures, there may be some degree of vibration while traversing the material critical boundary, all personnel prepare for impact resistance."

I casually activated a holographic projection in the air, displaying the state around the deep-diving ship, and Abyss Xyrin naturally curiously approached immediately. Moments later, the ship crossed the material critical boundary, and all the twisted black gas masses in the holographic screen disappeared in an instant, replaced by the normal outer space scene.

Abyss Xyrin’s tone lifted, "Oh my, it seems like your welcoming ceremony is quite grand." (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please read on m.qidian.com.)