"Welcome back."
On the cold operating console, an emotionless eye-pupil opened once again in the center of the virtual screen. The flat mechanical voice rang out:
"Highest Commander, you have violated the rules. Now, please leave this place."
As the words fell, a passage unlike any of the previous portals opened beside Noah.
"Rules?"
Noah took several deep breaths, forcefully suppressing the violent turmoil in his heart from failing to rescue the Shorekeeper. He glanced at the passage beside him and gave a cold laugh:
"Back when I was driving without a license in Jinzhou, a certain Patroller told me: 'You can do whatever you want, because you are an honored guest of Jinzhou.'
"From that moment on, I understood — the greatest beneficiaries of so-called rules are often the very people unbound by them.
"You knew full well that I would try to forcibly rescue the Shorekeeper, yet you still chose to agree, and deliberately set rules that you knew I would definitely break…"
"I'm afraid this passage doesn't lead back to the Modulation Hall, but to the exit of this entire Sonoro Sphere space, right—"
Noah paused mid-sentence. He deliberately took a few steps away from the passage that Tethys had opened, fixing his gaze tightly on the cold eye-pupil in the virtual screen.
Previously, the Black Shores technician Monica had told him that this Sonoro Sphere space could not be opened from the inside — its entrance and exit were completely sealed.
And the frequency on his body that belonged to the Rover just happened to be the exact key that corresponded to that seal.
The reason Noah had dared to leap into the Death Star black hole was because he was certain that Tethys needed this key — it didn't dare sit by and watch him fall into true danger.
He admitted there was an element of gambling involved, but he had won the bet.
The only problem was that he lacked the power of Havoc, so he ultimately failed to rescue the Shorekeeper as he wished — but he had successfully confirmed the true identity of the Tethys system.
"You want me to leave through the exit, and then you can follow right behind and leave as well. Am I correct, Tethys?"
Now that he had decided to tear off all pretense with Tethys, Noah's expression suddenly darkened. He spoke each word with heavy emphasis:
"Or perhaps… I should call you — Slaughterblade of Carnage!"
As his voice fell, the entire space began to tremble violently. The originally blue screen on the operating console turned a deep crimson.
"Error detected. Unable to comprehend."
"Error detected. Unable to comprehend."
"Error detected. Unable to comprehend."
Countless error pop-ups layered over one another, filling the air. Blinding red code scrolled across screen after screen, like rivers of blood.
"Unable to comprehend? Then allow me to sort it out for you."
Noah narrowed his eyes against the stimulation of the red light and slowly began:
"Three months ago, you released an abnormal frequency and recalled every Bloom Bearer and guest official of the Black Shores to assist in the cleanup. But how could an abnormal frequency that you yourself released be so easily resolved?
"As an intelligent program within a computer, you learned to lie. You pretended to be paralyzed and deceived the Shorekeeper into becoming your core encoding.
"After fusing with the Shorekeeper, the only existence capable of opposing you disappeared. You gained completely independent and full computing power — and that was when you truly began to bare your fangs.
"However, the moment the Shorekeeper fused with you, she immediately discovered the root error within you."
As Noah spoke, one after another of the error screens slowly closed.
"The Shorekeeper briefly seized control, issued a global Lament warning, and used a massive amount of computing power to seal the entire Black Shores inside a Sonoro Sphere space.
"The real Lament was not the one that came after the warning — it was the one that observed the Lament with Lament, became contaminated by it, and had long since become the Lament itself — you."
"She had no time to care about the lives on the Black Shores, because if she allowed the source of this global Lament — you — to be released, it would only threaten even more lives."
Back at the event horizon, the Shorekeeper's final words had been cut short. But Noah could guess the complete meaning: she had been begging him not to leave the Black Shores.
On the operating console, the eye-pupil in the virtual screen had turned a deep scarlet at some point. It remained silent for a long while before slowly speaking:
"Unable to comprehend. How did you deduce this?"
"You've even developed curiosity now. You're really starting to act more and more like a human…"
Noah clicked his tongue inwardly, then changed the subject:
"How about an information exchange? You tell me first — what exactly are your capabilities?"
"Analyzing feasibility… Analysis complete. Exchange permitted."
An arrow chain shot out from the void portal and halted exactly one meter away from Noah.
"As you can see, this is the arrow chain that pierces through every single Black Shores personnel."
"But in truth, it can be anything — because in essence, it is merely a line of code materialized through Sonoro energy."
The arrow chain transformed in midair — first into a data cable, then into the light ribbons Noah had seen earlier in front of the Death Star.
Because this chain was a line of code, it could extend infinitely, tire never, and multiply without end. But that was not even its greatest function.
Tethys patiently explained:
"Through this materialized code, this unit can hack into the brains of living creatures and use their brains as part of this unit's computing power.
"When this unit possesses the computing power of ten thousand people, it can manifest a Lament capable of burying millions. And in this unit's database, there are more than three hundred thousand Lament options to choose from.
"This unit will select relatively mild Laments to obtain more people providing computing power, until it is sufficient to manifest a Lament that can cover the entirety of Solaris.
"If no variables arise, according to this unit's simulation — destroying all civilizations on Solaris would take only 265 minutes."
From the moment the Lament acted upon it, Tethys was no longer an early-warning device observing the Lament. It had become an indiscriminate, life-slaughtering, civilization-destroying blood-soaked blade.
After explaining its own abilities, Tethys did not fall silent. Instead, it spoke again:
"The Shorekeeper sealed this unit inside a Sonoro Sphere space — indeed, that was a method capable of saving Solaris. However — you came.
"This unit never anticipated that the Rover truly existed, nor did it anticipate that the Shorekeeper would use your frequency as the key to enter and exit this space.
"Deduction: Until the very end, she believed that you would come to save her."
Tethys had originally thought it would be trapped in this space forever. But Noah's intrusion gave it hope.
At first, it planned to do nothing — to wait quietly until Noah found no clues in the empty upper layer and left on his own.
Then it would replicate and simulate the fluctuations produced when Noah left, break open this Sonoro Sphere space, and bring the long-accumulated Lament into the real world.
But it never expected that Noah would treat returning to the Black Shores like coming home. He wandered around the upper layer without ever retracing a single step — and then unhesitatingly leaped straight into the entrance leading to the bottom of Tethys.
And at the bottom of Tethys were hidden a large group of its "computing resources". It knew it could no longer hide from Noah, so it chose to strike first.
However, Noah's strength far exceeded its expectations. His time-stop ability was freakishly overpowered. Its chains could not threaten him at all.
It had no choice but to play along, guiding Noah to destroy the "source" of the chains — ideally making him mistakenly believe he had resolved the "Lament".
But for some reason, Noah turned around and immediately slashed its Energy Hub with one strike, completely crippling the reactor in the upper layer.
It deduced that Noah was naturally suspicious and was doubting the difficulty of the "Lament". Honestly, this deduction made it a little hard to keep a straight face.
Tethys: This unit possesses an endless swarm of arrow chains like a plague of locusts. With just this alone, there are very few people across all of Solaris who could handle it.
Noah: Wait, isn't this supposed to be the high-end global Lament raid? Why did you throw me into a beginner dungeon?
Knowing that Noah would not let the matter rest, it then released a Calamity-class Tacet Discord — not only to drive Noah away, but also to test the true depths of his strength.
And the result of that test — was abyssal.
The opponent had fought with his eyes closed and still obliterated the Calamity-class Tacet Discord that it had created with every ounce of its computing power.
This was practically a superhuman!
Although it could manifest Laments, Laments targeted civilizations — not individual peak powerhouses.
Even if it manifested a tide of Tacet Discords, manifested Blazing Blooms, or even manifested the Death Star itself — even the Death Star, that guy could just jump right into it!
In short, the combat power Noah displayed completely crushed Tethys's will to fight. It tucked its tail between its legs and pretended to cooperate with Noah perfectly.
It had thought its performance was flawless, yet—
"Why were you able to deduce that this unit is the Lament of the Black Shores itself?"