The black exterior, the unremarkable shell, the bizarre collection of irregular spheres, the overall look that defies categorization... This thing looks strange, but it’s anything but unfamiliar to me because I personally brought it back not long ago.

In the Refuge world, it’s stored in the Heavenly God’s Forge—the mysterious device that the Abyss Xyrin protected with their last bit of strength tens of thousands of years ago, although no one knows its true purpose now.

Is this thing supposed to be the "substitute" for solving the startup terminal dilemma?! Can it replace the startup core?!

"Do you know what it’s for now?" I stared dumbfounded for a while before turning my head incredulously to look at Taville. "This thing can replace the startup core? It looks pretty ugly though..."

"Don’t judge anything by appearance. How can you still have such a bad habit?" The voice of the Abyss Xyrin suddenly came from beside me, "As my father, you should be more impartial and wise... Although I was quite shocked at first as well. I never expected that something I saved back then would be so important—it’s a startup terminal made from the other side, well, just the core part."

Sandora and I had expressions like this: 0_0!

"A... startup terminal made from the other side?!" It took me a few seconds to finally exclaim, "Are you sure?! This thing is actually... I can’t believe it, something that looks so unremarkable is actually a startup terminal made from the other side?!"

"Absolutely certain, my subordinates found decisive evidence inside this device," Taville nodded forcefully beside me. "Although having it right in front of us feels unbelievable, and its appearance doesn’t quite fit... But it is indeed the startup core."

I quickly waved my hand to let Taville pause for a moment; my thoughts were so chaotic they needed some sorting, really needed sorting! Looking at that huge (it’s so ugly it can be described as a "hunk") strangely-shaped thing floating in outer space, it’s unimaginable that I stumbled upon a startup core from the other side! How has it existed until today? No... How could it possibly exist?! When did the other side launch such a brutal thing this way? The Star Ring Federation on the other side doesn’t have such advanced technology now, they rely on luck even to send a probe over here! Plus, it doesn’t really look like equipment made from the other side, the style seems off...

But no matter what, there it is, undeniably right in front of everyone, no matter how unbelievable it is. We now have a startup core on hand, preserved over seventy thousand years ago by the Abyss Xyrin, from the other side, and it looks intact! Just when we faced the greatest difficulty, when everything seemed to hit a dead end, this thing appeared!

"Is it a coincidence or luck?" I couldn’t even figure out what expression to wear, just spread my hands and looked around at everyone. "Someone pinch me to see if I’m dreaming... Bingdisi, put down that evil brick! Lin Xue, what are you planning to do with that wolf fang club?! Hey, I’m just saying, not telling you to really hit me... Xiao Xue, you naughty kid, you want to join in too?!"

"Why are they like this?" The Abyss Xyrin stared dumbfounded at the chaos unfolding before her eyes, with her rational and rigid mindset unable to accept such development. "This is a very serious situation! I can’t believe my father is such an unreliable person?"

"Oh, this is the style of our family," Sandora, although not participating in such nonsense, could at least take it in stride. She patted the Abyss Xyrin on the shoulder, "It helps ease the atmosphere, and if you’re to be a family member, you’d better get used to it sooner or later."

"I will lead everyone to settle down on the other side—after successfully building the bridge," the Abyss Xyrin stiffened with a resolve more determined than ever before. "I need to distance myself from this somewhat odd family... I feel my logical components might get hurt."

At this point, I finally determined I wasn’t dreaming, though I still looked at the ancient equipment, vast as a small planet, with disbelief. The dramatic development is truly unexpected: "A startup core, from the other side no less! Happiness comes too suddenly, it feels like a dream... Bingdisi, stand there, don’t move, I’m just sighing with emotion! Someone... Taville, come here and explain, how did you confirm this thing is the startup core? Wasn’t it said the scan couldn’t reveal its function at all?"

"Indeed, conventional scanning under the premise of not damaging its structure didn’t yield results, and the expert team couldn’t figure out its function," Taville explained the whole process seriously. "But upon conventional scanning being ineffective, we received authorization from Lady Lin Xue and decided to dismantle its shell for a look. This move was a bit risky, as nobody knew if disassembling might cause any other reactions from this ancient device, but research reached the final step, so it had to be done—and then we discovered this."

As Taville spoke, she took a black "metal" board from the autonomous machine beside her (I couldn’t determine its material) and handed it to me: "This is a part of the shell, though it seems ordinary on the surface, the entire shell is assembled from numerous pieces of this size. It seems its builder wasn’t concerned about its mechanical strength, or perhaps the shell itself wasn’t very important."

I took the shell fragment and saw the most striking features—a row of Xyrin characters with sharp edges: "This is the core of the startup terminal."

Everyone: "..."

"Uh... it’s just written clearly like that?" Sandora leaned over for a look, her tone becoming quite peculiar. "It was never noticed before?"

Taville is impressive; her face didn’t change at all: "Yes, these characters were etched using a special method, conventional scans didn’t detect them, and rules dictated only non-destructive testing at the start, so nobody thought there’d be text inside the shell. For such massive and complex ancient heritage, the research department has very strict protection regulations. It’s only when all conventional scans fail that we can apply for ’destructive research,’ which means dismantling. That’s the theoretical approach."

I suppose now I know why Taville didn’t discover the secret of this massive thing until now. There’s nothing much to say: research has regulations, you can’t just randomly dismantle high-value antiques, after all, if you break them, that’s a hard loss, hard to repair. Therefore, only when research reaches the last step, can you start dismantling the target. But who could have imagined the Abyss Xyrin left text in this thing back then... Speaking of which, isn’t this message method from the Abyss Xyrin itself kind of odd?

"Almost every inner layer of the shell has similar inscriptions, with some fragments mentioning concepts about the startup terminal and bridge building, but for some reason, no storage device-like items were found. If something like that existed, we might’ve discovered the truth sooner." Taville’s tone was also a bit strange; like me, she couldn’t understand why the Abyss Xyrin used such primitive and odd methods to leave messages for later generations.

"It’s because the startup terminal’s nature is very special," the one answering was the Abyss Xyrin herself. "Although I can’t remember the events of those days, I know the peculiar nature of the startup terminal, where any storage device placed at its core would be erased. Even the device itself would gradually disappear. Only information left on the ’material structure’ of the startup terminal can be preserved, which somewhat mimics the Zeroing effect, though the exact principle is unknown. In other words, besides engraving inside the startup terminal, putting anything not belonging to it will result in deletion—even if the startup terminal isn’t running. Anyway, the startup terminal I created is like this; the one manufactured from the other side should be similar since we use the same blueprint."

"Oh, there’s such a thing?" I was quite surprised but didn’t delve too deeply. A startup terminal without one or two peculiar characteristics would be odd. "Alright, let’s not scrutinize the details further. The key point is we can ascertain this is the startup core. Didn’t expect to find it so effortlessly—Abyss Xyrin, as the one who left these messages, what thoughts do you have now?"

Abyss Xyrin looked at the black fragment and the messages she had long forgotten, nodding earnestly: "I suddenly feel I was really amazing back then!"

Me: "..." This guy said that with an expression earnest to an unbelievable degree, she didn’t mean it humorously at all! 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Bingdisi curiously looked at the fragment and suddenly said, "Why carve it inside? If it were carved outside, we would have discovered it long ago, and it would have saved everyone the worry for so many days. Even someone as carefree as Chen nearly got depressed."

"There was no need to say the latter part," I rolled my eyes at Bingdisi and followed up curiously, "What does it mean to carve it inside? Are you afraid of having it seen at first glance by future generations?"

The Abyss Xyrin tossed their head irresponsibly: "How should I know? All my memories from back then are erased—perhaps I carved on both inside and outside, but the odd attributes of this thing wore them away? Or maybe it was that neurotic ship-based host that erased it. Her mind isn’t normal; who knows when she saw something with writing on it in the storage and thought it was dirty, so she wiped it clean..."

I immediately broke out in a cold sweat, "Suddenly, it seems highly plausible!"

With this digression, onlookers stopped worrying about why the Abyss Xyrin carved those words on the inner layer of the startup terminal’s shell back then, and in my excitement and eagerness, I thought of the initial question: "Why is there a startup terminal from the other side? It doesn’t seem like their technology reached this level—like us, the Star Ring Federation was barely able to launch a few probes to the other side by risking everything. Seventy thousand years ago, they should have been weaker; how could they launch such a massive startup terminal over here?"

"Because this thing was not launched seventy thousand years ago, nor is it a product of the Star Ring Federation—" Taville took a deep breath, seemingly giving us time to prepare psychologically. Then she spoke the second part of the sentence, "It came from a much older era, before the escape from the Mother Star... It’s the very thing that led to the destruction of the Hometown World! It arrived at this shore along with the Abyss Gate back then!"

At these words, everyone was shocked, and even Lian Shandora almost exclaimed aloud!

Even though I had mentally prepared myself to accept any bizarre answer before Taville spoke, I never expected the truth to be so explosive! This thing turned out to be the "gate component" that led to the Xyrin People’s escape from their Mother Star!

Sandora’s gaze showed a momentary trance, but she quickly composed herself, casting an incredulous glance at the massive relic floating in outer space before fixing her eyes back on Taville: "Are you sure? This is the startup terminal that opened the Progenitor Abyss Gate of the Hometown World?!"

Taville nodded slowly and forcefully: "I can confirm the data is indeed engraved on its inner shell. Unless the Abyss Xyrin intended to play a horrible joke on future generations seventy thousand years ago, this should be the truth: this startup terminal before us caused the extinction event of the Hometown World back then. It was one of the original gate-opening devices!"

I instinctively glanced at the Abyss Xyrin beside me, feeling that although she is an unprecedentedly exceptional Naughty Kid, she certainly wouldn’t make such a deadly, cruel joke, especially considering seventy thousand years ago was practically a past life for her. Back then, the Xyrin weren’t even Naughty Kids yet.

Sandora didn’t respond immediately; she only slowly turned her head, looking at the massive relic suspended in the Dark Space, looking at that "initial factor" that triggered everything: It was this thing, a creation from a civilization on the other side long extinct, that opened the five-light-year-large, mutant Abyss Gate back then, destroying the Xyrin People’s Hometown, forcing them to flee, and ultimately initiating the history of the Xyrin Empire. That unseemly, peculiar object was the beginning of everything—even I, an outsider who joined midway, found it hard to remain calm. I could hardly imagine the storm of emotions Sandora was experiencing internally.

But in the end, Her Majesty the Queen only ended her reflection with a soft sigh: "Dwelling on the past is of no help; we should be glad we’ve freed ourselves from the shackles of hatred—Taville, don’t mind where it came from; it’s merely an ancient device, an ancient device that can be used by the Empire. Understand?"

"Understood," Taville saluted, with a steady and solemn voice.

"Good," Sandora nodded, "Now tell us what you know about it. How did this end up in the hands of the Abyss Xyrin? I’m sure nobody in the Old Empire Era even knew this startup terminal existed. Back then, nobody even knew what bridge building meant—this thing wasn’t originally with the Abyss Xyrin."

"We don’t know either, the ’message’ inside the startup terminal doesn’t mention anything about it," Taville shook her head, "An extraordinary creation such as this is undoubtedly immortal; it likely drifted somewhere in the Void until it fell into the Abyss Xyrin’s hands at the right time. I don’t think it’s an important issue—the important thing is that it should be usable, and that’s enough."

Taville’s outlook on life is pretty relaxed; as long as it solves a problem, it’s a good thing, regardless of where it came from—this is also the mindset of most Xyrin Apostles. But I couldn’t help looking at the Abyss Xyrin again: she theoretically connects all the dots before us. She somehow acquired this ancient startup terminal, linking the destruction of the Hometown World with numerous chaotic lines between the Void Catastrophe. She holds the most historical truths and is the weaver behind most epic events. If we consider the Void, the Abyss, the Catastrophe, and the Empire as a vast, complex, unordered three-dimensional web, then the Abyss Xyrin often occupies the center, directing this entire matrix. Despite a host of mind-boggling "unexpected factors" (like acknowledging a dad a few days ago, like the ancient Naughty Kid, like filling the talent points for being a Jokester Parent, maintaining it unwaveringly for seventy thousand years), I have to sincerely admire this complex yet simple "ultimate manipulator." However, this manipulator also has things beyond her control: facing her startup terminal passed down for tens of thousands of years, she can only look as bewildered as we do, and upon meeting my gaze, she helplessly turned her head away, "It’s useless looking at me, I really don’t know where I picked this from, it’s probably going to remain an unsolvable mystery."

At this point, Taville had already started introducing us to the various attributes of this startup terminal. She adjusted her glasses with a formal expression, "First, I need to report an unusual phenomenon: the message inside this startup terminal indeed confirms it came from the other side, but it is vastly different from the other side products we’ve salvaged in the past, its components don’t exhibit the ’attribute deficiency’ phenomenon. Although we still can’t analyze what material it’s made of, its mass, strength, and physical and chemical properties can all be measured, which is vastly different from typical other side products. This was the primary reason we initially didn’t associate it with the other side: this thing looks perfectly normal; it doesn’t seem to come from the other side at all. Theoretically, that is."

No ’attribute deficiency’? I raised an eyebrow, intrigued by this fact.

It is well known that the greatest rift between the other side and us is ’incompatibility’, from material to energy and any other random thing; in short, except for Void, nothing on the Void Ladder’s secondary products are compatible. The materials we salvage from the other side often exhibit bizarre phenomena like unmeasurable mass or unmeasurable hardness; even the Abyss on each side can’t affect the other side (this is also the Abyss Xyrin’s "Da Ye" footing), the incompatibility manifests differently in various substances, but it is always present to some degree.

Up to this day, determining if an item has ’non-measurable attributes’ is an important indicator for us to judge whether it comes from the other side.

But this Ancient Startup Core is completely compatible with our side?!

I looked at Taville, with an inquisitive gaze asking if she was sure of this matter, and she immediately nodded firmly, "I said ’theoretically’ at the end out of habit, it’s just my quirk to add cuteness, but I’m totally confident in my test results."

Me: "?"

I feel like I just heard something utterly useless yet with a massive amount of information!

"Oh, that last sentence was Bubbles’ suggestion; she said this would improve Her Majesty’s favorability. Although I don’t understand what it means, saying it doesn’t harm," Taville explained methodically, and before I could lose my expression, continued the topic, "Additionally, I found this ancient device has no energy reaction... we might have to solve its power supply issue, but compared to the predicament of the startup core being irreparable, this should be relatively easier to address."

As Taville finished, the Abyss Xyrin spoke up next to her: "I’ll explain some things about the startup terminal... there might be some connection between the other side and this one." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please head to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)