The startup terminal collapsed when the power reached forty percent.

According to Abyss Xyrin’s calculations, the startup terminal needs to operate at a power of at least fifty percent to possibly force a bridge build, and even this forced start may not succeed. Right now, the forty percent power... can be said to be of no use.

It can’t even fully awaken the system.

"It seems that without core support, simply relying on external units to provide computing power is useless," Abyss Xyrin sighed, "Even if the computing power is sufficient, it can’t ensure system stability. Once the pressure reaches a certain level, it self-destructs. This is worthless."

I thought about it and optimistically guessed as an amateur, "It doesn’t seem that different... forty to fifty percent is just a slight difference, maybe next time we can try harder and meet the standard? We could switch to a sturdier energy device..."

"It seems I indeed only inherited your strength," Abyss Xyrin looked at me quietly, "Your optimism doesn’t quite resemble my real dad—the errors in such rigorous projects cannot be brushed off with ’try harder’, can they?"

My eye twitched instantly, "Then speak nicely! I am your father!"

Abyss Xyrin nodded, "Yeah, I know, why emphasize it again?"

I scratched my head, "Nothing, just always wanted to say that, and now I can do it openly... why does it feel odd?"

Abyss Xyrin looked puzzled, while the others around us covered their faces in disbelief, but my sentiment was genuine! Those years battling with the Abyss Zone, this was a strong thought I had, every post-fight I would reaffirm a belief that one day I need to drag out the mastermind behind the Fallen Apostle, then slap them down with the stance of a victor: hold steady and obediently call me dad—until a few months ago this was still a grand wish of mine, used only for personal entertainment after disappointment. Then... somehow, predictably, it became real, and before I even got to slap, she recognized me as dad, now confidently to Abyss Xyrin I declare "I am your father", and watching her nod with a puzzled look... I want to ponder what I was doing these past years of life, is there really no problem with this timeline?

However, these chaotic thoughts in my head were destined not to resonate with the other people there. Abyss Xyrin simply looked at me with a peculiar expression for a while, then sighed, "Without core components, the startup terminal’s repair has a limit. We have repaired almost everything that can be repaired, and replaced the unrepairable parts with external devices. It can be said there’s no more construction room left, this forty percent progress... is currently the expert team’s limit, trying to advance it further is as hard as challenging the Void’s rules."

"And strictly speaking, the currently truly usable power range of the startup terminal is much less than forty percent," Taville added beside, "After all, we need to make it practical, not just surviving a peak level. According to the recent situation, the system was stable when the load did not exceed thirty percent, after which issues began from the energy modules to the data chain. In other words, the later stage was just data collection, useless for bridging, theoretically speaking."

"Let’s leave it at that. Taville, organize the data well. Until the core issues can be solved, the repair work on peripheral components must continue," Sandora waved her hand and turned to Abyss Xyrin, "Think of something as it’s your creation."

"Naturally," Abyss Xyrin nodded, hesitating slightly, "Uh... should I call you stepmother? A few days ago, Xiao Xue asked me to brush up on this. Though I find it meaningless, it seems creatures in your real world value this stuff a lot."

Sandora’s composed expression cracked, turning to glare at Xiao Xue pretending to be dead on the table. She then looked at Abyss Xyrin, articulating each word, "Stay! Away! From that! Naughty! Kid! It’s not good learning from her."

Though not understanding what was going on, Abyss Xyrin nodded oh. Seeing Sandora’s expression, I suddenly felt pessimistic about Xiao Xue’s allowance next month. Hmm, maybe it won’t even last till next month as I noticed Lin Xue’s expression...

"By the way, Taville," I remembered what Lin Xue said the other day, "Have you turned the warehouse upside down?"

Forcing the startup without a core is a makeshift solution. The only hope to truly solve the problem is to rebuild its core. However, according to Abyss Xyrin, even with the combined efforts of the Divine Race and Xyrin Apostle, a new core can’t be rapidly produced. Yet, Lin Xue, when faced with this dilemma, offered this insight: don’t get stuck on a dead-end, the solution lies right before us.

But the Prophet’s hints are mostly obscure, so Taville can only rely on her understanding to find clues. When asked, she seemed a bit embarrassed, "Your Majesty, this subordinate is incompetent... hasn’t found anything yet."

"It’s okay, keep looking, the catastrophe won’t hit us tomorrow," I exhaled, turning to look at Lin Xue and Xiao Xue’s direction, but before I could speak, they both simultaneously lay on the table pretending to be dead, seems like it’s an unspeakable matter, "Um... in short, put some energy into other projects in the lab, let nature take its course, something will turn up."

I am quite confident, Lin Xue has never failed in this regard.

Taville nodded, took her leave, and Big Sister saw there was nothing more and waved for everyone to head home, "Everyone, let’s leave for the day..."

But she hadn’t finished her sentence when a rowdy voice burst from the communication channel: "Hey, the General’s leaving? General, won’t you stay awhile? General your brother, won’t you stay a bit longer? This flagship and the ship woman have mastered Erren Zhuan’s divine skill, you guys haven’t seen it yet..."

"Try saying ’ship woman’ one more time! Just because you were once the flagship doesn’t mean you can act this wild! General, may I have permission to beat this fool, because even though I don’t understand what she’s saying, she seems to be insulting!"

"Damn, you lunatic, what’s your problem? This term ’ship woman’ is something the flagship learned from the Total Network a couple of days ago. That Highest Host named Bubbles researches ’ship women’ every day, so the flagship just picked it up, can you stop being so uptight? If you’re unhappy, don’t play!"

I: "..." Feels like any serious atmosphere was disrupted by these two ship acts...

In the end, Viska stayed behind to "educate" her two subordinates, and our group went back home with concerns about the startup terminal’s status and our respective thoughts.

Time passed by day after day, and things seemed to reach an impasse.

The good news now is that our days have finally embraced long-awaited peace. The hope of resting from constant warfare seems finally realized; the complete pacification of the Abyss Zone combined with the widespread dormancy of Abyss phenomena in the Void means the Imperial Army need not worry about significant conflicts anytime soon. Although every realm encounters minor troubles, our family might take a long vacation.

However, the bad news is—the repair progress of the startup terminal has completely stalled.

As Abyss Xyrin mentioned, without a core component, even the best expert team can only carry out patchwork on the startup terminal’s peripheral facilities. They’ve exerted every effort to repair and rebuild the startup terminal’s "shell," recombining those wreckages into a planetary-sized entity, successfully running this ensemble to forty-two percent load and stabilizing it in the second ignition test for over ten minutes, but that is their limit.

Completely relying on a set of peripheral devices and a mainframe array as a substitute cannot bear the burden of bridging, both theoretically and practically impossible.

The Star Domain Divine Race is still sending more experts over, and a batch of personnel and materials from Huron has arrived in the Imperial District after a long journey. They attempt to analyze the startup terminal’s structure from their technological perspective to see if a new core can be rebuilt using the Divine Race’s methods. Abyss Xyrin is not secretive at all, promptly providing all the data, even including an ancient database she got from a drifting ship across the shore years ago (this database contains the initial blueprint of the startup terminal), but she admits skepticism about the Divine Race’s efforts: Abyss Xyrin has studied the startup terminal for many years and knows that this thing is beyond everyone’s understanding.

People who understand how this thing works either kicked the bucket during the last great disaster or, like Xingchen, their memories were wiped clean. The latter seems more likely because we now suspect that the startup terminal was invented by two Void Creatures from the other side in the last Epoch. However, those two inventors have already deleted their accounts and started over in this season and are now in perpetual "acting cute" mode, so they are probably not reliable.

Yet another report indicating slow engineering progress is placed in front of me, and even with my almost carefree nature, I couldn’t help but feel a bit restless. Bingdisi was lounging in my study, pretending to read the report. Before I could sigh, she sighed first, "Sigh... Why is it so difficult... If only those two Void Creatures on the other side could have persisted a bit longer in their past lives, it would have been great to at least leave a backup manufacturing plan and product manual... You Void Creatures really aren’t reliable."

"Please don’t insult my race — although we indeed are somewhat lazy," I glanced at Bingdisi. This female hooligan was also draped in an Imperial Uniform from somewhere, looking at her profile like a valiant Imperial General, if only she didn’t have a toothpick dangling from her mouth. "By the way, why are you here reading the report too?"

"Isn’t it obvious? I am a dignified Clan Leader, a High Order Xyrin Apostle, your right hand and left arm, in any slightly normal setting I would be at least a Deputy Commander and enjoy main character treatment. Reading a report is part of my duty, just helping you relieve your worries." Bingdisi was biting the toothpick loudly, not forgetting to show off her not-so-fitting (for obvious reasons, few female Xyrin Apostles have a figure comparable to hers) Imperial Uniform, "How about this outfit? I got it from Sivis. Except for the front button that couldn’t fasten, everything else is fine. Oh, speaking of which, it was indeed a lapse on my part not to get work clothes after you inexplicably poached me over. I’ve really been too considerate of you."

I silently glanced at Bingdisi, feeling that this female hooligan claiming to help me "relieve worries" actually came to cause trouble out of sheer boredom.

"If you really have nothing to do, go play with Little Light. Weren’t you eagerly wanting to teach her to cast Holy Light a few days ago?"

"I’m not good with naughty kids," Bingdisi, a former • seasoned naughty kid herself, shamelessly expressed estrangement from naughty kids and then abruptly changed the topic, "By the way, the second team searching for the Hometown World seemed to have already set off, right? What do you think they’ll discover this time?"

I thought about it, feeling that this topic was guessing in vain: "I’m not Lin Xue; how would I know? But hopefully, they’ll discover something. Even if they can’t find the Hometown World, finding clues would be beneficial. This startup terminal issue has made everyone in the Void Three Clans feel uneasy; we desperately need good news to boost morale."

After I finished speaking, I realized Bingdisi hadn’t responded for quite a while. Out of curiosity, I looked up and was surprised to see this female hooligan staring intently at me, not blinking.

"What’s up?" Her stare gave me the creeps, "Do I have something dirty on my face?"

Bingdisi said nothing, just got up and dragged me out.

"Hey, hey, what’s going on..." Her sudden move left me stunned, instantly exclaiming, "I haven’t finished the report... Where are you dragging me?"

"Come take a breath of fresh air with me, been cooped up here for three hours reading files, feeling suffocated." Bingdisi spoke as she walked, not caring for other’s opinions, truly embodying her female hooligan nature. By the time I reacted, she had dragged me to the living room. Sandora was passing by with a plate of snacks and curiously asked, "Where are you two going?"

"Running away with your stash!" Bingdisi answered fiercely.

Sandora didn’t worry upon hearing that, "Oh, come back early, we’re having tofu pudding for dinner, Anwina made it herself."

Bingdisi’s steps staggered, and she looked at Sandora, "Uh... Don’t you care? Aren’t you usually particular about your stash?"

"If you two were really eloping, it wouldn’t be this casual — do you think I don’t know you? Who’d take it seriously?"

"Tch." Bingdisi made a sound and dragged me out the door, while in the living room, Qianqian and Sandora’s conversation trailed from behind, "Oh, we’re having tofu pudding tonight, Sandora, do you prefer savory or sweet tofu pudding?" "Can tofu pudding be eaten without sulfuric acid?"

In the last moment of being dragged out by Bingdisi, a thought flickered in my mind: the age-old debate of sweet vs. savory never even sparks a discussion at home... Sandora likes her tofu pudding with sulfuric acid, Qianqian with coffee, that doll adds yogurt regardless of what’s being eaten. With these three strong individuals, the sweet vs. savory debate is no contest!

Finally, Bingdisi dragged me onto the street. This female hooligan used Illusion Technique to disguise as an ordinary person, concealing her ankle-length silver hair and blood-red eyes, looking just like a regular college girl out shopping. I even saw her greeting some street vendors, clearly showing this appearance was a frequent visitor in the area.

A dignified Goddess, the Lord of All Realms, yet her favorite outing spot was this street full of knock-offs by our house. The other freeloading Divine Race members mostly hung around here too. I must admit, this is the only comforting aspect of the Tiaozi Five: they’re easy to feed.

"You really are a nervous wreck," I scratched my head following Bingdisi, "Every day is something new with you, huh? But what’s there to shop around here, you’re always hanging around here. Might as well be like Shadow City... Whatever, just don’t come back too late, I still have work to do." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Bingdisi turned to look at me; outsiders can’t see her true appearance, but her blood-red eyes gave me the chills: "...what now?"

"Do you act like this when shopping with Sandora?" Sister Bing showed her teeth, "After all, accompanying a lady to shop, mentioning going back early right off the bat is hurtful, you know?"

Me: "..." Almost forgot Mr. Da Bing is also a girl.

And so we aimlessly wandered around; Bingdisi’s train of thought wasn’t as erratic as Qianqian’s but was still something unfathomable by mere mortals — I had no idea what she was thinking, only able to follow her zigzagging path. It seemed she had no set destination, just wanted to get out for some fresh air. She dragged me around for half a day without buying anything but managed to sample all the street snacks. Half an hour later, I couldn’t help but say: "Uh, save some stomach space, we still have dinner at home, careful Sandora doesn’t make you eat something weird under the pretense of opening your appetite..."

This reason finally made Sister Bing cautious; she tossed the snacks into her personal space and gestured for me to follow, and the two of us found a bench in a small park along the street to sit and rest.

For a long time, neither of us spoke: I didn’t know what Bingdisi was thinking, and I was preoccupied with the startup terminal issue.

But the silence was eventually broken, with Bingdisi suddenly slapping my shoulder, "Chen, something’s off about your mindset these past two days."

Me: "...Huh?"

"I said something’s off about your mindset, these past two days!" Bingdisi abruptly moved so close to my face that there were only a few centimeters between us, her bloody eyes blazing, "Aren’t you usually quite carefree? How come the startup terminal issue finally got under your skin?"

I suddenly realized, so that’s what it is. (To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote on Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)