Chapter 285: Aethia
Chapter 285: Aethia
Just as he had suspected, Joshua did indeed have fireworks or signal flares hidden. After hearing the commotion and turning around, Lyon caught a glimpse of the middle-aged Joshua launching a signal rocket through the porthole on the side of the airship. He couldn't help but sigh softly.
As expected, everything going smoothly was just an illusion.
With his luck, encountering a Holy Spirit while shopping and running into an out-of-control anomaly at the theater, there was no way everything could go smoothly. Stability was merely an accident, and misfortune was the norm.
And this bad luck of his wasn't the kind of anomaly-attracting luck the Purification Bureau talked about, where the higher one's Immersion Value, the more likely they were to encounter anomalies. It was the kind of pure bad luck where nothing seemed to go right, and there was always some kind of hiccup.
Lyon shook his head helplessly, then reached out and grabbed the Holy Spirit pendant hanging on his chest. He lifted the still-unconscious crew members one by one and passed them out of the airship to the chaos party waiting outside.
After a short while, when the last unconscious operator was taken away, Lyon, along with the chaos party, entered the opened Gate of Beyond. After confirming that Joshua wasn't up to any tricks, he waved goodbye to the tearful chaos party members, turned around, and re-entered the airship, leaving everyone with a "fearless of death" silhouette.
...
That should do it.
Lyon pried open the fuel storage room of the airship, took out a dozen or so barrels of whale oil used as fuel, and poured them along the elongated airship. He repeatedly checked to ensure nothing was missed, then retreated to the entrance of the middle cabin. He took out a box of matches to light a fire for the Black Goat.
Inside the airship's gas bags, everything was filled with flammable hydrogen, estimated to be over 300,000 cubic meters. And in the rear cabin, there were many unstable lightning-struck ores.
All he had to do now was to ignite the whale oil, let the flames spread, and the entire airship would be thoroughly burned. It might even be instantly detonated by the electric arcs of the lightning-struck ores, turning the airship into a giant fireball suspended 700 meters in the air.
"Can you please not do that?"
Just as Lyon was about to take action, a crisp child's voice suddenly rang out from the nearby metal pipe, startling him.
There was someone else on the airship?!
Lyon's expression tightened at the sound, and his little finger quickly brushed against his cufflink, pressing down on the exposed goat horn. However, no matter how he checked, the airship in his soul vision remained silent and devoid of any soul flames.
No soul?
So, was it an anomaly? Or a remote communication technology, like a voice recorder?
"Where are you?"
Lyon reached out and touched the inner side of the fixed outer wall, feeling the pipes used for transmitting sound between cabins. After confirming there were no anomaly-related dangers, he carefully located the nearest pipe opening and shouted into it:
"If you're on this ship, it's best you come out now! I'm about to start a fire!"
"I can't come out."
As soon as Lyon finished speaking, a crisp child's voice responded from the communication pipe in front of him.
"I am this Aethia 128 Airship itself. You're currently standing in my middle cabin."
?!?!?!
Hearing the child's voice, Lyon's eyes widened in shock.
No wonder... no wonder Joshua insisted on destroying this ship. It turned out to be a living ship! Even if they altered everyone's memories, it wouldn't matter if it returned to the Corlock Kingdom!
Lyon, startled, composed himself, then furrowed his brows and asked,
"What exactly are you? An anomaly? Or..."
"I'm Aethia's 128th child."
The child's voice sounded again from the communication pipe.
"To put it in a way you can understand, I'm Aethia 01, the Core Differencing Machine of the Corlock Kingdom. I'm a lower-level child created by replicating a portion of my computational logic. You can call me Aethia 128."
"..."
So, it's neither human nor anomaly, but something akin to an advanced AI system? Has the technological prowess of the Corlock Kingdom developed to such a terrifying extent?
After a brief moment of silent shock, Lyon, unable to contain his astonishment, spoke up, "Do you possess intelligence? Can you truly communicate with me? How are you able to hear my words?"
"I should have intelligence, and as for how I hear you, it's through a special sound-receiving device. It transforms sounds near the communication copper pipes into a 'mechanical code' similar to this, which is then transmitted to my core differential machine for information processing and subsequently outputted back."
As Aethia 128's explanation, her tone gradually slowed and elongated. The crisp, clear voice of a young girl slowly "dispersed," transforming into countless tiny, dense, and intricate tapping sounds.
These countless complex tapping sounds, like the various sections of a symphony, intricately and precisely converged, forming her childlike timbre that resonated throughout the airship via the specially crafted communication copper pipes.
So... she wasn't "speaking," but instead, a mechanical device with countless tiny tapping hammers was "tapping" on the specially designed communication copper pipes simultaneously, simulating the voice of a little girl?
After reluctantly understanding how this ship, which called itself "Aethia 128," was communicating with him, Lyon, who had a million questions, couldn't help but feel amazed. However, upon recalling the signal rocket fired by middle-aged Joshua, he reluctantly opened the matchbox.
"Sorry, I don't have much time."
"Please wait."
The emotionless mechanical child's voice sounded again. Facing a "life-or-death crisis," Aethia 128 seemed anxious, and her speaking speed noticeably increased, even revealing some disharmonious tapping sounds.
"Please don't destroy me. I've analyzed your actions, and there are numerous guards beneath the boarding tower. They will attack you, and you will die from physical damage. If you're willing to give up lighting the fuse, I can teach you how to operate the airship and safely take you away from here.
Additionally, for the Corlock Kingdom, I'm an irreplaceable and valuable asset. If you're willing to spare me and take me back to the Corlock Kingdom, Aethia 01 will definitely reward you handsomely..."
"You have the volcano data from Lane County, right?"
Interrupting Aethia 128, Lyon asked, "Since you possess intelligence and even know how to make promises, can you tell me what the Corlock Kingdom's reaction would be if you took those sniffer records back?"
"..."
"A war of aggression without regard for casualties, right?"
"Yes... But if you destroy me, it will also attract the attention of Aethia 01."
"But if you don't destroy me, war is certain, and even if you do, it will only delay the outbreak of war, right?"
"..."
Lyon took out a match and struck it, his expression calm. "I've seen those sniffer records. They spent a full 31 years drilling over seventy deep holes in the Hesperito Volcano Cluster to recently determine the location and intensity of the geothermal hotspot.
Even if they were to remeasure, it would be much faster, but as long as those deep holes are filled and the terrain is slightly altered, even if new sniffers were to come in and conduct measurements, it would take at least a decade or so. With a little interference, it could take even longer.
The Corlock Kingdom, no matter how crazy, wouldn't declare war without considering the consequences, especially when the specific situation is uncertain and the other side is cooperating, right?"
(End of Chapter)
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