The Abyss Xyrin took great effort to explain to us the form and construction method of the startup terminal, using many abstract and incomprehensible technical terms. However, I was finally able to roughly understand what was going on:

The startup terminal is a system different from any existing technology. It is neither technology, magic power, nor any divine technique of the Divine Race or other arcane knowledge. The technology needed to build the startup terminal doesn’t belong to any categorizable "technology tree." It seems to be closer to the essence of the Void and was most likely invented by the previous cycle’s Void Creatures from the other side. It is definitely not a creation of any mortal or the Divine Race. But now, its inventor has had their memory wiped by the cataclysm, leaving no one to know the true principles behind the startup terminal.

We only have some processing plans to follow.

Therefore, the Abyss Xyrin had no choice but to choose the Heart of the World as the material to manufacture the startup terminal, because she didn’t know what other "materials" could be used, and she wasn’t even clear about the role the Heart of the World played in this process—its essence is a collection of abstract data, yet the startup terminal ultimately presents itself in a tangible form. This process remains a mystery, and the Abyss Xyrin observed the entire process but couldn’t understand it at all.

Perhaps Void Creatures could comprehend this process from their unique perspective (after all, it might have been thought of by an intelligent fellow from the other side initially), but clearly, there is no time for me and the two veteran experts to research it slowly.

"So, is the ’blueprint’ for manufacturing the startup terminal from the other side?" I looked at the Abyss Xyrin. "You didn’t make this clear before."

"The basic part is from the other side," the Abyss Xyrin nodded frankly. "But you know, the communication back then was not as convenient as it is now...it wasn’t even communication. I found the basic manufacturing method for the startup terminal from a drifting database from the other side, and this method is incomplete, containing only the most core part, which is also the most incomprehensible. We spent several years verifying whether it was harmful. Beyond this core part, I pieced together the other components of the startup terminal over the years."

"You’re quite skilled," I smacked my lips. "So you collected the Heart of the World as a raw material because you didn’t know if other things would work? Wait, so is this how the Star Ring Federation from the other side also manufactures startup terminals?"

"They can use more...human methods," the Abyss Xyrin sighed. "They began very early, at least millions or even tens of millions of years ahead of us, so they could slowly customize some blank worlds that meet the conditions. Then, they extract the Heart of the World under harmless circumstances, and they also have time to artificially create a Peaceful Zone and install those artificially made blank worlds at nodes as ’offerings’ without any sacrifices. But I don’t have that much time. After awakening, I noticed some omens indicating that a cataclysm was brewing. Although I didn’t know when it would happen, I knew I couldn’t wait. Coupled with the change in thinking after the Abyss Infection, I adopted a more ’efficient’ method."

"Directly using the existing universe as an offering..." I felt it was best to end the discussion here. "Let’s not discuss this anymore. So, now the core of the startup terminal is broken, right? We don’t have time for you to make a new one—and obviously, that ’efficient method’ of yours can’t be used again. What do you plan to do?"

"Even if I went to collect the Heart of the World again, it wouldn’t work," the Abyss Xyrin spread her hands in resignation. "It requires precisely customized Hearts of the World. Merely selecting these raw materials across the entire Void would take an eternity, and there’s no guarantee of finding them. I said my approach was efficient is only by comparison with the other side. To an ordinary view, it also takes a long time. So now, what we can do is...quickly find a replacement method. The Heart of the World, in the end, is merely a state of information entanglement, and artificially creating a fake entanglement body isn’t difficult, we’re just not sure how it operates when synthesizing the startup terminal’s core... So I plan to use an artificially synthesized fake information entanglement body to replace the Heart of the World."

Harlan looked quite worried: "Can something so simple work? It sounds like a whimsical plan."

"It failed before," the Abyss Xyrin candidly admitted to previous failures. "I initially considered finding a substitute after all if an artificially synthesized substitute could work, it would be much more efficient, but the tests failed several times... Maybe this path is very difficult, and that’s why the other side only achieved success after many years of trying by building large numbers of worlds and slowly cultivating the raw materials. But this path may not be a dead end. Even the Void Creatures’ creations must abide by logic, right? After all, it’s just an information entanglement body. Where exactly are the differences between the Heart of the World and an artificial entanglement body? I think that as long as we figure out the differences, we can solve everything."

Perhaps it was just my imagination, but I seemed to hear a sense of desperation in the Abyss Xyrin’s tone.

It looked like she realized the collapse of the startup terminal’s core was an irreparable loss. Even if the Divine Race and the New Empire didn’t stop her, she would have no way to create a new core by so-called "efficient means" before the cataclysm arrived. Thus, all she could do was hope for a "shortcut" that seemed hopeless, and which had already failed before.

If I could notice her air of desperation, naturally, the others on-site could as well. Xingchen looked at the Abyss Xyrin with a meaningful glance: "The idea isn’t bad, but the success rate seems concerning... However, if the Divine Race and the New Empire were to help you experiment, there’s a chance of success. After all, you never entirely proved this path was impassable back then, maybe you were just lacking support."

The Abyss Xyrin’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes seemed to brighten: "Hopefully so."

"But I think you should have a backup plan," Sandora suddenly said. "A qualified decision-maker shouldn’t place all hope on one path—what if the ’shortcut’ really doesn’t exist?"

"Then we forcibly activate this broken version of the startup terminal," the Abyss Xyrin looked towards the holographic projection in the room’s center, her gaze sharp. "The core has collapsed, but I can forcibly activate it with a massive amount of external math rate devices, then unite the forces of all races to suppress the Abyss Gate. The core’s main role is to ensure the stability of the giant Abyss Gate before the Long Bridge connects. This process won’t last long; we may not manage it alone, but if all three Void Creatures act, plus all our high-tech equipment? Perhaps we can hold until the door opens. And even if we fail... Even if we fail, it can create a temporary connection between the Void’s two sides, vastly alleviating the imbalance and delaying the cataclysm for a long time, at least allowing us the opportunity to continue testing other paths. However, this delay will only work once; this broken startup terminal can’t withstand further strain, and it might completely collapse after a few more attempts."

This counts as an impractical backup plan, but dire circumstances required acceptance of this compromise by all present.

"That’s the situation with the startup terminal for now. It looks grim, but there’s still a sliver of hope," said Sister Hila, noticing the somber atmosphere, she clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. "Let’s talk about something else—Abyss Xyrin, you mentioned other bad news? What’s wrong with the Peace Core? It seems that place has been blasted apart too?"

I: "..." Sister, are you really trying to lighten the mood? We might as well continue studying the startup terminal!

"The Peace Core is no longer peaceful," the Abyss Xyrin showed far more instances of helplessness today than before. "Actually, you all should’ve guessed, such a violent explosion, which universe could withstand it? The entire world was nearly torn apart, the World Barrier was almost scrapped being attacked by Void Power inside and out, and numerous celestial bodies disintegrated into information elements. The bottom layer data of the entire world were in utter chaos...it’s like facing a malignant Abyss corruption, right on the brink of doomsday."

As she said this, she adjusted the holographic projection at the room’s center, immediately revealing the current state of the Peace Core, a sight that was shocking—once a strange world, the Peace Core had twisted celestial bodies and wondrous lights filling outer space, it was at least complete in its twisted starry sky. Now, however...

The starry sky has dimmed, countless celestial bodies were deleted by the Void Backflow during the explosion that day. The remaining starlight is scattered with chaotic structural patterns throughout the sky, as if it were a TV screen with severe interference.

Immense shadows float unsettlingly across the starry sky backdrop, not just simple dark zones. On closer inspection, one can see incredibly complex patterns within the shadow bands, with extremely dim colors, as if a galaxy was rolled into a long strip and forcibly stuffed in.

In the next frame, we also saw a massive empty zone in outer space. The surroundings still had faint starlight and celestial bodies, but that abnormal empty area seemed like a beast chomped off a section of the universe, leaving nothing.

"The celestial body collapse, mass leakage, the original material balance has been disrupted, the entire world is still experiencing massive turmoil, it may take many, many years to establish a new balance, or it may never establish. Those faint bands are celestial bodies squeezed into other dimensions, they’ve been lost to us forever, what we see is just their final silhouette left in this world before being pushed into other dimensions," Abyss Xyrin sighed, "That vast empty zone you saw last is even more deadly, it’s a black celestial body—you all know how rare black celestial bodies are, but now the Peace Core has a massively large, equivalent to several galaxies combined, black celestial body. Given that a black celestial body is the result of order fragmentation, it can be said that the order there has almost been shattered, and now we can only constrain it using the Sovereignty Hub to prevent world fragmentation."

Taville, the most qualified expert present, directly told everyone the consequence of the situation: "Which means the Peace Core can no longer bear the ’gate opening task’."

Abyss Xyrin nodded: "We can look at bridge-building as a common engineering project; it requires two very strong ’bridge piers’, and Peace Core is the bridge pier on our side. I’ve spent a long time carefully adjusting this world, but the big bang broke the balance of Peace Core... The expert team is still trying to save that universe, but it’s almost ’dying’."

Though not understanding those very professional things, I instinctively thought solving a single universe must be easier than dealing with the startup terminal, since the latter was made with countless Hearts of the World as raw materials and seemed to use some pretty high-end technology, while the Peace Core was the result of Abyss Xyrin’s adjustment, which should not be too technically difficult, at least Abyss Xyrin was entirely clear about the whole process.

However, when Abyss Xyrin heard my speculation, she could only shrug and shake her head: "It’s not that simple, modulating a Peace Core is not technically difficult, but it takes time. Does everyone still remember the bridge-building process? We need to open a massive Abyss Gate in Peace Core. This giant gate may be larger than the one that destroyed the Old Empire, so the ’gate-opening world’ must withstand immense pressure. To alleviate this pressure, besides creating a calm environment in a vast area of the void, a ’Peace Core’ must be constructed. I subtly transform a suitable universe using Inactive Abyss, allowing it to slowly adapt to the abyss environment, even becoming a state between the Order World and Inactive Abyss. Only then can it endure the bridge-building ’gate-opening phase’ until the abyss inertialization is complete. This transformation time is long, and it has high structural requirements for the world, not just any world can handle it—it must be stable from the start, with the right scale and information capacity, and after the Abyss Gate appears inside, it must endure a long and painful alignment to persist until Abyss inertialization is finished. There’s also this: even we cannot control the gate-opening phenomenon, the appearance of the Abyss Gate is random. Creating a Peace Core is more like gambling: the world parameters need to be just right, the Abyss Gate must conveniently appear, and its scale must be neither too big nor too small. I can’t easily create a Peace Core."

I couldn’t help smacking my lips at such a bunch of constraints: "Equivalent to hitting the lottery jackpot a hundred times in a row?"

Sandora immediately shot a fierce glance over.

Alright, I know we’re talking business now, but adding a light-hearted comment occasionally isn’t dropping the ball, right? I genuinely had this thought: when I first saw the Peace Core, I just felt that universe was so strange, but I never expected Abyss Xyrin to have invested so much effort!

If we really view bridge-building as an ordinary civil engineering project, then the startup terminal is the bridge pier on both sides, the vast void Peace Zone is the riverbank geology, and what about the role of this universe as the "Peace Core"? It should be similar to the foundation, or the cement pouring column connecting the bridge pier and riverbank, right? Speaking of which, I seem to not understand civil engineering either...

"There’s only one Peace Core?" Sandora bit her lower lip, the difficulty of the situation made even the Queen’s head hurt a lot, "It sounds indeed very difficult to construct such a universe, but after all these years you prepared just one Peace Core?"

"There are indeed two backup universes, also termed ’Peace Cores’, dragging them into the Peace Zone can replace Peace Core No. 1," Abyss Xyrin replied, but before everyone could rejoice, she poured cold water, "Let me remind you, since they’re backup universes, there are definitely flaws as you all know how uncontrollable the Peace Core modulation process is. It’s not a mass-producible item, more like primitive handcrafted goods, so each Peace Core varies in quality. The two backup universes are just barely usable—if the startup terminal is intact, I have some confidence, but now we probably have to forcefully bridge-build under the situation of startup terminal core collapse, pairing substandard bridge piers with tofu-dreg foundation. Even if you’re willing to die, I am too lazy to bury you..."

I: "...Where did you learn this quirky speaking style?"

"From your database, you suggested some reading permissions for me last time to learn about the customs here," Abyss Xyrin looked this way, "Said it would help blend in, but I found it useless, people still reject me, but this way of speaking is indeed interesting."

I instantly felt like making another light-hearted comment, but worried about getting a serious chomp from Sandora, I held back, not daring to speak up, though even without me opening my mouth, I still got a punch from Sandora: "Ah Jun, can’t you refrain from adding all those quirky ’personal hobbies’ after finishing the matter?"

I chuckled dryly: "Heh... let’s talk business, talk business."

Abyss Xyrin shrugged: "Business is all discussed, this much bad news, you want more?"

I couldn’t help showing an expectant look: "... so there’s no good news at all?"

"No, there really isn’t."

I: "..."

Sister Hila looked up at the ceiling, after a few seconds, let out a long sigh: "So, after all this effort till now, we’re relying on luck to see if we can withstand this cosmic disaster? Honestly, I don’t quite like this feeling."

"No one does, but circumstances are stronger than us," Xingchen’s face was still unperturbed, not showing any pressure until now, perhaps out of simple heartedness or because his expression pack wasn’t complete, anyway, it’s always that unhurried and gentle smile, "can’t say it’s all up to luck, I’ve listened, feeling there’s still quite some room for maneuver, and even in the worst-case scenario, we can delay the cosmic disaster for a while—didn’t Abyss Xyrin mention, forcefully activating the startup terminal has some effect, as long as there’s buffer space, anything is possible, we can negotiate with our compatriots across, see what ideas they have."

"True too," Hila scratched her hair, "their inheritance is way stronger than ours."

"Then let’s settle it like this, meeting adjourned today," I stood up, "...it’s so much information, I need to go back and sort it out properly."

Everyone nodded in agreement, all saying they needed to go sort things out, and soon everyone left one after another.

In the large room, it was just Sandora, Abyss Xyrin, and me left now, as we had some matters to discuss with her.

(Those interested in group buying physical books can check it out at Baidu, the first batch has special editions, and the physical book has been rewritten = . = Please refer to the previously announced rewrite plan for specific details) (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly votes, your support is my greatest motivation. Cellphone users please go to m.qidian.com to read.)