This is one of Taville’s large-scale project experimental grounds located near the Capital World, known as a "Mounted Universe."

There are about seventeen or eighteen such Mounted Universes, all meticulously designed and adjusted artificial worlds, whose scale and material richness are not much different from naturally born universes. However, after accelerated evolution and macro-control, these universes do not produce any life, thus eliminating concerns about various experimental accidents. Taville connects these universes with specially crafted World Gates, and they are directly linked to a "Supreme Limit Laboratory" at the terminal and research center to ensure their independence. These large experimental grounds are closely connected to the Capital World but will absolutely not affect each other, with security levels second only to those of the Deep Dive Port, and are dedicated fields for Taville’s many dangerous or large-scale projects. Currently, they have been designated as "repair workshops" for the Startup Terminal.

The previous fierce battles essentially swept across the entire Abyss Zone, affecting many worlds which were not initially battlefields due to the repeated tug-of-war between the New Army and Old Army. The territories under Abyss Xyrin can be said to be riddled with wounds, with large experimental grounds, Deep Dive Port, and super industrial hubs becoming key "targets" that were specially "attended" to. Most of these facilities have been damaged and are incapable of assuming the responsibility of repairing the Startup Terminal. The Startup Terminal, originally torn into fragments by the big explosion, was indeed first stationed in the Abyss Zone (since the original manufacturing team and technical data were there), but once the battle damage report came out, Abyss Xyrin decisively transported these remnants to the Empire’s side.

Her reason being "anyway, not distressed using dad’s stuff" — why is this consciousness suddenly awakened in this fellow now?

The primary "Workshop" is located in a sparse material zone, a celestial body scarce and far from various outer space energy fields (within such a huge experimental ground, equivalently a "vacant space"). In the vast dark outer space, there are no artificial celestial bodies; within a range equivalent to several Solar Systems, only large artificial planets and gigantic scientific research facilities are operating in their respective orbits. They move freely, not adhering to any celestial movement law, and these things which appear like stars, moon, and sun are merely "engineering machinery" here. The role of artificial planets here is mainly to act as gravity anchoring points and platforms for giant equipment installations, and at the center of the entire "Workshop" stands a brilliant blue sun: the Ghost Energy Death Star.

Now, it seems we are welcoming a rare period of peace. Within foreseeable time and space ranges, there should be no outbreak of large-scale battles requiring Legion Level or higher troops to mobilize. The Celestial System Fleet, this immensely powerful gargantuan entity, currently has no tasks, and added to that, half of the Celestial System Fleet is undergoing rest due to many Planet Battleships being damaged in the Abyss Zone’s decisive battle. The Ghost Energy Death Star, this flagship, now begins a long-term standby. Now it’s just the right time for us to find ways to restore the Startup Terminal which requires massive energy. Hence, Taville applied to have the Ghost Energy Death Star independently transferred over. Now this energy-rich artificial constant star is the energy source for all facilities in the entire Universe and an irreplaceable "Igniter" during various tests conducted on the Startup Terminal — apart from the Ghost Energy Death Star, we truly don’t know where else to find such a large-scale energy source. The Startup Terminal is nearly a monster, requiring thousands of Mother Ship Level ghost energy furnaces to be exhausted for even a casual stimulus test!

Sandora and I, along with others, came to this large experimental ground early in the morning to witness the repair progress of the expert team. The group is located at the orbital station on the far orbit of the Ghost Energy Death Star, facing away from this dazzling blue fireball, towards an expansive construction site. We stand in the observation hall at the top of the orbital station, opening the outer alloy protective wall, with the naked eye directly able to see the Startup Terminal in space. To be honest...it doesn’t seem much different from how it appeared a few days ago.

Large clusters of white light float dispersed in space, appearing as if white clouds mistakenly wandered here (Sandora thinks they look like cotton candy). Each cluster of white light has a different shape, with blurred exteriors and undefined textures, vacillating between substantiveness and indistinctness. Amidst the white light clusters, a multitude of work forces can be seen busily shuttling; Empire’s engineering ships and strange equipment from the Divine Race can be seen. These work teams have been laboring here for a fortnight now; although unable to truly "piece together" the Startup Terminal, they have made some progress, connecting the fragmented Startup Terminal with special methods: faint white threads can be vaguely seen between those white lights, resembling spider silk, linking these torn remnants. These threads are used for transmitting energy and data, non-material and non-virtual, anyway with my level of knowledge, I can’t explain what these things are — in general, they are said to temporarily simulate the functionality of the Startup Terminal when complete.

Although Lin Xue’s prediction advises the experts not to get too entangled with the intricate details of the Startup Terminal, these routine repairs must still be undertaken.

One of Taville’s mass projections (I don’t know which number) stood beside me, reporting the situation: "After this period of intense construction, we have curtailed the ’dissipation’ phenomenon of the Startup Terminal. Although it cannot be fully restored physically, the virtualization process has been stabilized. The work team is now establishing a virtual connection to the final fragment. Once the connection is set up, testing can start. In theory, that is."

The "dissipation" phenomenon is a special situation occurring after the Startup Terminal was destroyed. The Startup Terminal should be the most peculiar thing I’ve witnessed; visible and tangible, yet essentially non-material, it exists as a unique presence controlled at the verge of materiality woven by numerous entangled information. This fragile state between reality and virtuality led to rapid disintegration after being shattered, evaporating continuously like steam. The initial challenge faced by the expert team was to restrain this process before ’evaporation’ reached a dangerous critical point. We are fortunate they succeeded.

The startup terminal "evaporated" nearly one-third, but fortunately, it’s not beyond recovery.

And what Taville refers to as "virtual connection" are, of course, those faint lines between the enormous wreckage.

"What stage is the repair progress at?" Qianqian joined the fun today, but looking at the busy scene in front of her, she was even more confused than I was, and could only stare with bewildered eyes at Taville, "Please don’t mention data; it gives me a headache."

"..." Taville was silent for a long time, seemingly finding it life-threatening to not speak in data as a seasoned scientist, but finally, Abyss Xyrin stepped in to help her out, "Don’t think about the core parts for now; this time, the main thing is to test how the outer layers behave when forcibly activated without the core. Although it ’evaporated’ nearly a third, its main function still exists due to redundant structures, and with overtime rush repairs, it theoretically can operate. Of course, how long it will operate is uncertain."

"Why do I always feel it’s not safe..." Hearing Abyss Xyrin describe the experiment result as "uncertain," my heart immediately skipped a beat, "What if it explodes?"

"It’s inherently unsafe, and it’s almost certain it will explode," Abyss Xyrin shrugged indifferently, and quickly explained seeing my murderous gaze, "It’s just a test to see how long it takes from charging to overload. Those virtual connections are more fragile than other structures of the startup terminal, and when the energy exceeds the threshold, they can rapidly overload and self-destruct, much like a safety device that prevents the whole startup terminal from exploding again, at most detonating the virtual connections. We can’t fully restore the startup terminal now, so we need to find its maximum power capacity without completely blowing it up... I hope we can reach fifty percent of the original design specifications; this way, the success rate of bridge building is still high."

Right after Abyss Xyrin finished speaking, I heard a flustered voice coming through the communicator: "Yaho~~ Did you hear, General’s brother? This is the War Song; the ship has already erected the defense field! When are you guys starting? It’s really boring waiting here..."

Another voice immediately barged into the channel: "Bored so you crash the ship, right? Are you out of your mind?! Speaking of which, why does this ship dignifiedly as a war pendant have to end up guarding the field, accompanied by a bunch of clueless spaceships... Ah, remembering the past glorious days, golden spear and iron horse, millennia of conquest, spirit swallowing the earth like a tiger; see the present old generals in twilight, exhausted and weak, leaning against the railing and shouting hoarsely, body and mind fatigued as a mouse, can’t you arrange something more interesting for this ship, General’s brother?"

Me: "..." These two lunatics can really find a sense of existence anytime and anywhere.

Indeed, both the War Song and the Heavenly God Forge are present at this testing ground, and they are quite essential "staff" here. These two are currently the strongest and most qualified true Planet Fortresses of the New Empire, with power levels far beyond any mass-produced "zero" level Planet Fortress (although the "zero" level Planet Fortress has evolved through several generations and is considered drastically different now). The War Song used to be Sandora’s flagship, equipped with a myriad of powerful mathematical rate settings, useful not only on the battlefield but also on such large-scale experiments that could easily lead to world collapse. And the Heavenly God Forge was the last Planet Fortress created by Abyss Xyrin during the Old Empire’s end; though it hasn’t truly seen battle, it is equipped with highly advanced devices. It can be said that Abyss Xyrin put all of her best resources onto this starship back then (it was the last hope, after all), and what’s gratifying is that it’s even better at generating massive defensive and stable environments than the War Song (related to its purpose, since it’s a Refuge Ark), thus it is extremely useful in the testing ground.

We let these two starships set up a large-scale stable environment and defense field around the testing ground to prevent fatal cosmic disturbances from the startup terminal’s enormous information activity when activated, possibly even causing a universe punch-through; apart from the Leaving World Garden, only they have such a vast scope and high-intensity regulating power, but the Leaving World Garden needs to focus on monitoring the entire Imperial District, so I had to endure these two fragments, placing them in the testing ground... However, honestly speaking, at this moment, I regret a bit, are they really not going to cause trouble?

Seems like they’ve already caused trouble! The monitor sent back images of those two maniacs crashing around! Do you two think you’re some kind of interstellar bumper cars? Two Planet Fortresses each with an average diameter larger than Earth’s, bumping around in space, who are you trying to scare?

"I think bringing those two rascals here to help was a mistake," I couldn’t help but nudge Big Sister next to me, "Those two haven’t seen each other in ages, and they’re in an excited state for twenty-two hours of the day, and the remaining two hours they’re extremely excited — unbearable! Even the Great Governor, who’s usually so well-behaved, has protested several times."

Big Sister showed a slightly troubled smile: "Those two... at least coming over here has them helping a bit, better than having nothing to do all day and researching Erren Zhuan in Shadow Space, right?"

As soon as I heard "Erren Zhuan," I went silent, feeling a chill all over: those two insane starships really almost played themselves into madness recently. I have no idea how they got in touch with Earth’s culture and learned the term Erren Zhuan, and then they went and interpreted it literally... It was practically chaos for three days, the public in an uproar; can you imagine two Planet Fortresses spinning around each other crazily, flinging the whole Asteroid Belt everywhere? That was definitely a true "Erren Zhuan" in every sense! The Great Governor and an entire escort fleet got gravity messed up by those two lunatic mainframes countless times, and all came complaining, completely dizzy...

It’s so tangled, those two maniacs’ loyalty is so heartwarming it moves the heavens, every time it makes me want to treat them well, but when they start acting crazy, it moves the heavens even more, making me wish I could strap a bunch of bombs to myself and blow up with them—these two are truly the natural enemies of the New Empire’s harmonious order. Ever since they came along, I haven’t progressed much otherwise, but my tolerance has grown by leaps and bounds...

"General’s brother? General’s brother, why aren’t you speaking?" Er Fengzi’s voice echoed through the communicator channel, completely unaware of the pre-silence before dangerous projects begin, "When does the experiment start, can we take a nap if it doesn’t start soon?"

"Sit tight and wait!" I couldn’t help but flare up when I thought of the "Erren Zhuan" research with the Heavenly God’s Forge, "We’re charging over here, can’t you be quiet? And stop crashing with the Heavenly God’s Forge, will you, you’re spaceships, not bouncing balls..."

"This shipwoman asked for it, she said my ship’s equator isn’t as slim as hers — isn’t that insane, you’re both spheres, what slim or not slim, don’t you think so, General’s brother?"

"Who are you calling a shipwoman?!" "What’s the problem with how this ship speaks? Not convinced, come fight!" "Who’s scared of who, have some guts to stay still, this ship won’t die from a spinning ball hit!" "Shipwoman is pretty arrogant, come, let’s fight~~"

Finally, even Visca, who was lying on the ground studying Gomoku with Little Baobao, couldn’t take it anymore, a one-meter and two General stood up and shouted: "Quiet down, the lot of you! Keep acting up and I’ll dismantle you and convert you into a waste incinerator!"

The world finally quieted down then, like Visca’s words always worked — but what’s this about dismantling them into a waste incinerator? Did the old Destruction Army have such rules back then?

Let’s not mention the commotion caused by some old generals of the Destruction Army nearby the test site, the startup terminal "ignition test" is finally nearing completion. The work teams in outer space are setting up the final group of virtual connections, those scattered floating white light clusters are now fixed at various points in space by anchor frames, connected to each other by faintly shimmering white light bands following quite intricate patterns, making it look as if clouds are floating in the Universe and white bridges run across them. The last batch of work teams is withdrawing from the white light clusters, while the clock on our side’s holographic projection suddenly pauses, then starts counting down: we’re now five minutes before ignition.

Although this test is just to check the residual power of the startup terminal, not really a decisive trial run, I still feel slightly tense: the terminal’s endurance directly affects our success rate of ultimately repairing it, and hopefully, it can withstand the "fifty percent power" critical test.

Only by enduring fifty percent power operation does the startup terminal have any use; otherwise, even if we forcefully install it on the Abyss Gate, it would only be a gigantic bomb.

Bubbles’ voice resonated through the test field’s broadcast across all facilities: "All units take note, connection tasks completed, all personnel evacuate the A-level danger zone, now commencing virtual connection testing, first group data loading begins..."

These virtual connections aren’t likely to encounter problems, they’re not highly advanced tech, and have the best experts from the Divine Race and Empire personally supervising them, so errors should be minimal. The current data loading test is primarily to check if their data throughput capacity meets the startup terminal’s operational standards. While Bubbles carries out these preliminary tests, the Ghost Energy Death Star is also preparing for the forthcoming "ignition", its huge bluish energy body surface flickering and overall slightly contracting — this is meant to switch its mode from combat to pure energy output. The shell-shaped distributed energy extractors surrounding the Ghost Energy Death Star (akin to a Dyson Sphere concept by humans) start operating, emitting bright blue light glow as the Death Star’s energy output increases, spontaneous blue bridges appear between the extractors, gathering immense ghost energy and exciting an energy flow through the superspace device, concentrating it onto the startup terminal. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

The entire world seems to fill with blue light.

Then the blue light gradually dimmed, the nearly infinite blue flames of the Ghost Energy Death Star also calmed, the entire planet dimming like a light bulb short on power due to great startup consumption demands, though only one ignition is enough to show the dim phenomenon, it still underwent sufficient energy for this trial.

"It’s incredible how you managed to create such an energy body monster," Abyss Xyrin glanced at the Ghost Energy Death Star in outer space, with a tone filled with admiration, "The first time I saw it, even I was startled; such a terrifying thing... I’ve always devised methods to destroy this starship, but now it has become immensely important to me, the startup terminal relies entirely on it for activation."

I chuckled without a word as the countdown hit its end.

"Energy sufficient, prepare for ignition!" (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast a recommendation vote or monthly ticket; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)