"Why were you able to deduce that this unit is the Lament of the Black Shores itself?"
Because… I suspected you from the very beginning!
Noah tugged at the corner of his mouth.
After suffering repeated losses from experience-based thinking in the main storyline quests — even nearly dying in [Statue of the Crownless] — he now approached every main quest with extreme caution.
Especially after learning that the Black Shores harbored a global Lament, his wariness had only grown stronger.
Even if he passed a trash can on the roadside of the Black Shores, he would still use [Perception] to check whether a Star Core Spirit was secretly hiding inside.
Honestly, at this point he even suspected that Tethys might not be the true mastermind of this main quest — that there was an even larger shadow standing behind Tethys.
Still, he decided to keep his word this one time and didn't go back on his promise to Tethys. He laid out the reasons for his deduction:
"I won't bother with the minor details. I'll only mention the single factor that influenced my judgment the most: that Calamity-class Tacet Discord I fought earlier — its real name should be Fallacy of No Return!"
Fallacy of No Return — Tethys's highest defensive program. In the game, its true classification was Overlord-class, not Calamity-class.
Back on Blue Star, he was intimately familiar with this thing — familiar enough that he could defeat it blindfolded using Little Solo King.
Even if Tethys gave it a new skin and weapon, he only needed a few exchanges to easily recognize it.
As Noah's words landed, Tethys fell into unprecedented shock:
"Impossible! You cannot have recognized it! That program has never been deployed before. Even if you really were the creator of the Black Shores, you should have lost your memories!"
"I'm not interested in answering your questions. The children's game is over."
Noah gave a cold snort. The Emerald of Genesis reappeared in his hand once again.
"Global Lament · Slaughterblade of Carnage… a tool is a tool, and the name it bears is also the name of a tool."
"I don't care why the Lament descended upon you. I only know that your existence has already threatened the safety of every single person on Solaris."
"No matter what other trump cards you have left, I guarantee you — all your ambitions and schemes end here!"
As the words fell, the Tethys system — no, at this moment it should be called Slaughterblade of Carnage.
It fell briefly silent, as though sinking into deep contemplation.
"This unit must admit that, with its current computing power — even augmented by the feeble brains of all the humans in the Black Shores — it is absolutely no match for you."
"But — do you truly believe you have won?"
A trace of contempt seemed to creep into the cold mechanical voice.
A virtual screen unfolded out of thin air. Noah glanced sideways — and his pupils suddenly contracted.
On the screen, every Black Shores guest official who had been busily working suddenly clutched their heads and let out pained cries. Within mere seconds, they all collapsed unconscious.
Just like when Noah first stepped into the Modulation Hall — everyone fell in disarray, sprawled across the floor, unable to rise again.
"Once a brain has been invaded by this unit's code, it will be forever under this unit's control."
"To put it in simple terms, this unit has already planted Trojan horses inside their brains. With a single command from this unit, their life or death can be decided."
"The chains you saw piercing their bodies earlier were merely there to sustain their lives — nothing more."
Perhaps because it had been alone in this space for far too long, the Slaughterblade of Carnage had an unusually strong urge to confess:
"As computing resources for unleashing the Lament, their useless memories should have been deleted. However, the Shorekeeper forcibly preserved their memory storage."
Here, the Slaughterblade of Carnage paused, seemingly pondering the Shorekeeper's motives.
Could it be that the Shorekeeper believed the so-called Rover would definitely defeat the Lament of the Black Shores, rescue everyone, and achieve a perfect happy ending?
Ridiculous. If someone were truly that powerful, how could they possibly care about these insignificant, ant-like lives?
The more logical outcome would be to treat these people of minimal value as disposable firewood — just as it did.
Even the Shorekeeper herself, in the eyes of such a powerhouse, would likely be nothing more than a particularly useful tool.
"Of course, Highest Administrator, if this unit were merely threatening you with the lives of these people plus the Shorekeeper, naturally it would be unable to stop you."
Noah gritted his teeth slightly, feeling a twinge of guilt.
In truth, the lives of everyone in the Black Shores alone were already enough to threaten him.
If Rover ever came back one day and found his home gone… how furious would he be?
"This unit has a stronger trump card."
"After the Shorekeeper became this unit's core encoding, this unit was no longer bound to machinery. It can now exist in the form of Sonoro energy."
"As long as the core encoding — the Shorekeeper — is not stripped away, this unit is immortal and indestructible."
Sonoro energy never fades. Therefore, the Slaughterblade of Carnage, which resides within Sonoro energy, will also never fade.
Even if Noah razed the entire Black Shores to the ground, it would still exist — merely losing a large portion of its computing resources. It would hardly be a fatal blow.
At this moment, the Slaughterblade of Carnage had already placed itself in an invincible position. It threw out one final bombshell:
"Regrettably, the Shorekeeper you saw earlier was merely a projection. This unit never gave you any real opportunity to rescue her. You cannot truly destroy this unit."
"..."
Noah fell silent.
From the moment he first saw the Shorekeeper, he had faintly sensed something was wrong. Now, with the Slaughterblade of Carnage's reminder, he finally understood the source of that unease.
From beginning to end, he had never once received a notification about the Shorekeeper's banner.
And the Slaughterblade of Carnage dared to lay all its cards on the table — even voluntarily explaining the specific abilities of the Black Shores Lament — clearly because it was one hundred percent certain of victory.
All the earlier fake cooperation from Tethys had simply been an attempt to fool him into leaving the Black Shores.
It had learned to deceive. It had become cunning. It had gained more and more human-like qualities, no longer the monotonous machine it once was.
A global Lament truly was troublesome. He had already been vigilant enough, yet he still ended up one move behind.
"Why the silence? Highest Administrator… or are you uncertain whether this unit is lying?"
Now, the title "Highest Administrator" carried a distinct note of mockery.
The Slaughterblade of Carnage stopped pretending. The scarlet eye-pupil on the virtual screen now revealed a disturbingly human-like playfulness:
"Regardless of whether you take action against this unit, this unit is willing to analyze your remaining two choices for you — free of charge."
"One: Leave the Black Shores. This unit will follow you out. At that time, every death on Solaris will have your assistance."
"Two: Remain in the Black Shores and become eternal prisoners of this Sonoro Sphere space together with this unit."
At this point, the Slaughterblade of Carnage couldn't hold back any longer. A piercing, mechanical laugh erupted from its voice. The virtual screen shook violently.
Countless eerie, black-pixelated smiling faces were copied and pasted into the air, quickly covering the entire small space:
"Just kidding, Highest Administrator. No matter which option you choose, Solaris is finished."
"Because you previously mentioned Jinzhou, this unit deduces that you did not come to this Sonoro Sphere space alone. While the seal cannot be broken from the inside, breaking it from the outside is not difficult."
"As soon as your companions outside realize you have not returned for a long time, they will surely break the Sonoro Sphere seal from the exterior. At that moment…"
At that moment, the long-accumulated global Lament would descend upon the entire planet of Solaris.
On the virtual screen, the scarlet eye-pupil revealed the Slaughterblade of Carnage's obvious ridicule:
"Here, on behalf of the Lament, we thank you for leading the way, Astral Modulator."
"I heard you also bear the title Civilization's Guide. Perhaps it's time to consider changing it — for example, to—"
"Ci-vi-li-za-tion's Un-der-ta-ker."
Noah lowered his head, one hand covering his tightly clenched face. His body trembled uncontrollably. After a long silence, he finally spoke in a low, quiet voice:
"It seems… the general situation is already decided… Then, do you have anything else you want to say?"
"Nothing."
"Really nothing?"
"Really nothing."
Switch character — Jinhsi.
Noah suddenly let out a low laugh. Slowly, he raised his head. Through the gaps between his fingers, sharp light gleamed in his eyes:
"You're wrong. I still have a third choice."
Power of Time Sequence!
Activate!
Ancient, profound golden light-waves rapidly spread outward, in an instant enveloping both the upper and lower levels of the entire Black Shores.
The Slaughterblade of Carnage immediately sensed something was wrong. Countless blood-red windows popped up, issuing a flood of error warnings.
"This is… the Power of Time Sequence of Jinzhou's Sentinel — Jué! How could you possibly possess… You are not the Rover! Who the hell are you?!"
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Noah. Though I'm sure you'll never remember it."
Noah slowly locked eyes with the scarlet pupil on the virtual screen.
Even though the Slaughterblade of Carnage had gained independent consciousness, learned curiosity, learned to lie, learned to scheme — it was still far too young!
The scarlet pupil no longer held any of its earlier mockery — only extreme rage and shock remained.
And in Noah's eyes, there was only ice-cold calm:
"Slaughterblade of Carnage, this time you win. But — next time we meet, I swear I will beat you until you're nothing but scrap metal!"
"No… impossible… even if time is reversed, you still cannot leave this space without passing through an entrance or exit. As long as you leave this space, this unit will definitely record and replicate the corresponding Sonoro fluctuations!"
"You say 'impossible' way too often!"
A pair of dragon horns sprouted from his forehead. Time across the entire Black Shores began to flow backward.
The frantically appearing error windows retracted one after another. Every word the Slaughterblade of Carnage had spoken was rewound syllable by syllable, becoming garbled and unintelligible.
In the Modulation Hall, the people who had been unconscious stood up again. All their movements reversed. Finally, just as they had at the beginning, they collapsed in disarray across the hall.
The Energy Hub that had been destroyed was restored to its original state, once again tightly wrapped in layers of chains.
Under the reversal of the Power of Time Sequence, everything returned to exactly how it had been at the start.
And the cost? When time itself is rewound, what cost could there be?
It was merely… consuming ninety percent of Jinhsi's resonance energy. It would automatically recover in less than a day.
Noah wasn't sure whether the Slaughterblade of Carnage had any hidden trump cards he didn't know about, so he didn't dare rashly leave this Sonoro Sphere space through the exit.
No matter. There was still another option.
Noah opened his inventory and located the beginner five-star standard selector chest that had been given to him via mail — one he had almost forgotten about.
He opened the chest without hesitation and precisely selected the petite loli with pink twin-tails.
The panel prompt appeared before his eyes:
[Obtained character — Encore.]