"Highest Administrator, may I ask why you called me? Do you need any assistance?"
Facing the cautious inquiry on the virtual screen, Noah shrugged:
"Nothing much. I just called you to see if you would respond."
Hearing this, the Slaughterblade of Carnage looked at the Bottom of Tethys that had been split into four halves and the Energy Hub with 55% damage. Its logical thinking fell into chaos for a brief moment.
The losses caused by two swords were equivalent to at least thirty billion Shell Credits, all just to hear it answer once?
"Understood."
Although furious, it still had to endure. The monotonous mechanical voice sounded again:
"If you need anything, please call me anytime."
After the voice fell, the virtual screen closed.
Seeing this, Noah's expression turned cold. He once again raised the Crown of Valor in his hand.
In an instant, the virtual screen that had just closed immediately lit up again:
"Highest Administrator, please do not act impulsively. May I ask if this unit made any mistake just now?"
"Did I say you could leave?"
Noah questioned sternly:
"What is my identity? What is my status? I didn't let you leave, so how dare you leave?"
The Slaughterblade of Carnage never expected that such a small matter would be pursued, but it had no choice but to maintain an extremely obedient facade toward Noah:
"Understood. This unit will request your permission before exiting next time."
"Have you realized your mistake yet?"
Hearing this outrageous statement, even the Slaughterblade of Carnage couldn't help but feel stunned.
No, where did it go wrong?
A line of text appeared on the screen:
"I'm sorry. I was wrong."
"Where did you go wrong?"
Noah's light and airy four words caused the Slaughterblade of Carnage's logic to fall into chaos.
Where did it go wrong? What did it do wrong? It didn't do anything wrong!
"Highest Administrator, from basic logical analysis, this unit has made no errors."
Seeing this line, Noah raised the sword in his hand: "Furious tides —"
The screen immediately displayed a submissive reply:
"I'm sorry. It was my mistake!"
"Where did you go wrong?"
"You, Highest Administrator, do not need logic, because whatever you do is right. This unit should not have contradicted your instructions. This unit was wrong."
A large amount of repentant text rapidly flooded the screen, as if afraid that being even a second slower would anger Noah:
"In the future, this unit will completely follow your instructions and will not act on its own. Do you have any further questions?"
"Who am I?"
These three words made the Slaughterblade of Carnage search through its entire database without finding a standard answer. It could only reply tentatively:
"You are the founder of Black Shores, the developer and highest administrator of the Tethys System, the Rover."
Hearing the last three words, Noah's face hardened. He reprimanded again:
"When working, use the proper title."
"Yes, Highest Administrator. Is there anything else you need me to do?"
Noah finally nodded in satisfaction and issued a command to the now well-trained Slaughterblade of Carnage:
"Self-destruct."
"Self-destruct program initiated —"
The Slaughterblade of Carnage only thought for 0.1 seconds before immediately shutting down the self-destruct program and displaying a question mark on the screen:
"Are you certain?"
"AI is still so easy to tease."
Noah finally smiled. He glanced at the virtual screen and stopped playing around.
With the power of Space, he no longer needed the Slaughterblade of Carnage to open a portal to send him near the Death Star. He could open a portal for himself.
The previous short conversation had already been enough for him to confirm — the time regression he caused during his first visit to Black Shores had been perfect.
The last time he first left Black Shores, he had told the Slaughterblade of Carnage his name. Now, the Slaughterblade of Carnage's various reactions were sufficient proof that it had lost the memories of that past experience.
Unlike the Slaughterblade of Carnage, which was still treading in place, he had made tremendous progress.
Next, time for the real task!
Calling upon the power of Space once again, a door appeared out of thin air beside Noah. He stepped through it and instantly vanished from the spot.
At the same time, several windows popped up on the operating table at the Bottom of Tethys:
"Warning! 'Rover' is rapidly approaching the Death Star."
"Warning! 'Rover' has arrived near the Death Star."
"Warning! Due to unknown factors, the system core Death Star is disintegrating. Disintegration progress 1%, 5%, 9%..."
This error window grew larger and larger until it covered all other pop-ups.
The originally azure screen on the operating table suddenly surged with a massive amount of code. The emotionless eye pupil showed a human-like expression of shock.
"Ununderstandable! Existing logic is completely unable to understand this!"
All processors ran at high load. The rapid rise in temperature of the unit indicated that the Slaughterblade of Carnage's entire system had pushed its computing speed to maximum capacity.
No matter how the Slaughterblade of Carnage calculated, it could not figure out Noah's motive.
In its eyes, Noah was completely a madman. He came, slashed Black Shores twice without saying a word, exchanged a few sentences with it, and then went to destroy the Death Star black hole.
Why was he doing this? He should not even know what exactly had happened in Black Shores!
"The probability that the target is the Rover has decreased to 49.8%. The probability that it is not the Rover has increased to 50.2%."
No — whether the other party was the Rover or not was no longer important!
The urgent priority was to stop him!
On the other side, near the Death Star.
In the deathly silent starry sky, there was only one massive black vortex, like a greedy giant mouth swallowing everything around it. The surrounding accretion disk presented a brilliant yet eerie red.
However, under the isolation of the Space power, the massive gravitational pull of the blood-red black hole could not affect Noah in the slightest. Green light blazed in his eyes as the Death Star black hole gradually cracked open under the power of Separation.
It didn't matter if he couldn't find the Shorekeeper. It didn't matter if he didn't know the Shorekeeper's location. By disintegrating the Death Star black hole, he could still rescue the Shorekeeper.
"Highest Administrator, please stop!"
A blue virtual pop-up appeared in front of Noah. Text rapidly appeared on it:
"Warning! The Death Star is the core of the Tethys System. Once the Tethys System loses its coding core, it will face the risk of collapse."
"Oh."
Noah didn't even lift his eyelids. The power of Separation was driven even more forcefully.
Seeing that Noah did not recognize the severity of the situation at all, the pop-up in front of him rapidly displayed another line of text:
"Warning! On world lines without this unit's existence, civilization will be unable to resist The Lament."
It was still acting. The Slaughterblade of Carnage was still acting!
But Noah, who was supposed to cooperate with its performance, ignored it completely. Instead, he quietly watched it continue its clumsy improvisation.
Noah glanced at the text and suddenly hummed:
"Keep it simple~ Speak in a simpler way~"
Slaughterblade of Carnage: ... Are this unit's words very complicated?
The screen in front of him fell silent for half a second before displaying another line of text:
"Question: Do you wish to destroy civilization?"
Below this question, another line of bold, red, eye-catching text hurriedly appeared:
"This unit can help you destroy civilization!"
Under the immense pressure brought by Noah, the Slaughterblade of Carnage finally stopped acting and directly revealed its true intentions.
With the assistance of a worldwide Lament, the survival of the entire Solaris depended on a single thought from Noah.
In the Slaughterblade of Carnage's eager anticipation, Noah simply sneered:
"Idiot."
That one simple yet shocking word caused countless red code to surge across the originally blue virtual screen, like a blood-red torrent.
"The probability that the target is the Rover has decreased to 0%. The probability that it is not the Rover has increased to 100%."
"Death Star disintegration progress 41%. Immediate action required."
"Activate highest defense protocol! Eliminate target — Highest Administrator!"
All computing resources were frantically mobilized by the Slaughterblade of Carnage. It finally unleashed the true power of the worldwide Lament.
Endless Sonoro energy converged from all directions toward Noah and materialized. In an instant, it formed a cage that dragged Noah into the Sonoro Sphere space constructed by the Slaughterblade of Carnage.
"Load the Echo of Destruction. Worldwide Lament — World Incineration."
...