novelraw Chapter 1699 - 1698 - Exploring the Array
Chapter 1699 - 1698 - Exploring the Array
Lind was not certain when he ran out of targets, but came back into focus at near the bottom of the quarry. His fists and arms were covered in blood and dust but none of it was his own.
He slowly looked around and saw the terrified faces of men, women, and even children shaking like leaves in the wind before him. He knew nothing he said would matter but he still spoke.
"Leave this place and head south. Never return." He was not shouting but his words carried and the older people did not even pause to pull the children away.
They did not need to be told to confirm his mercy after the brutal display. Lind knew he had lost himself during that madness. He calmed himself and centered his mind. Meeting the true Bastard had unsettled him but the revelation that the fog was his creation and he was to blame for the state of the world had shaken him more than anything.
The possibility he was no different from the Bastard had disturbed his foundation. It could be argued he was innocent, that he was merely the product of the changes like everything else but he refused to be so callous.
His existence had come at a price. He would face it.
He found an entrance and examined it. Unlike the guns or bladed weapons, it was made of a more standard material. It was sealed, however, by a kind of puzzle lock.
It was not a puzzle anyone from Earth could ever solve, but he doubted they would need to. Brute force should still work too.
He merely placed his palm against it and emerald rot spread across it. The puzzle had been its own array and now it was junk.
The door rotted until it fell away and he saw a long tunnel revealed. The dark metal interior was not an abyss but a well lit path.
He recognized imitation lighting when he saw it. They looked like LED panels but they were actually light crystals.
He did see technology he was far more familiar with as he walked the path. He found desks with particle board tops and metal frames lining a wall with computers he would have found in any office.
The compact boxes were the norm before he died compared to the old towers or those that used laptops. Remote terminals were popular too but were notoriously annoying to maintain over a company network so had been dropped by most companies he knew of.
The keyboard had a dust cover as well as the 20" monitor. The LED screen had an orange glow showing it had power on its lower frame.
He took a chance and hit the power button on the computer and monitor. Shockingly, they turned on with a quiet hum!
The Windows loading screen appeared for OS 8! Why Windows 8?! What sick bastard chose that one?!
He sighed at the incongruity but likely getting the license was something hidden or maybe they simply kept an isolated network from the rest of the world.
Still, he hated the tile system with a passion not diminished in his thousands of years of life!
He was immediately suspicious there was no password login. Thankfully, many years of not waiting for IT help and his friend George modifying their terminals for making work less painful, Lind had his fingers fly across the keyboard.
The command prompt was opened and he quickly dove into the system. It only took moments before he found oddities no human programmer would ever add but a cultivator would recognize instantly!
It was convoluted but it was an adaptation of electricity for cultivation arrays!
Electricity was a natural force, essentially low level lightning in the controlled space of machines, but it was usable!
Lind quickly found how the energy was being used and then examined the files publicly available.
He read a lot of fake information his own memories contradicted. It made it seem like governments or some rich and powerful figures knew the end of the world was coming long before it happened!
The reason he knew the lies from the truth was because there was a mental interference array on the damn computer and its software! The instant it tried to interfere with his mind, his harmony flared and shattered it.
He was quietly impressed but it also gave him a grim visage. It meant there was a Fiend on Earth while he was still alive! How had such a thing happened?!
Cultivators could not exist normally due to the severe lack of Qi but a Fiend had come. How?!
The fear his other selves' actions had somehow made it happen rose but the computer had no information on such a matter.
In fact, it had a pack of lies about how the energy guns worked as he now suspected they were using the owner's souls to power them!
The cost was light but it would cut their lives short in the long run!
He found maps of the array and quickly memorized where branches appeared in the caches of the weapons. It was always weapons for the majority of it but plans for the flying vehicles were there too.
He analyzed them and began to appreciate what was going on.
Everything was for the sole purpose of helping the Fiend lay the groundwork for converting Earth into a haven for it. There was only 1. He was certain of that but it was clear it was weakened or it would fear nothing even in the age he was alive.
Still, the Fiend would not kill the planet it lived on intentionally. The massive arrays also were not able to harm the lifeforce of the Earth either.
So, what was going on? What had happened?
It came back to him again. He had caused something to tilt the scales but that knowledge was never going to fall into his hands there.
Instead, he looked at the maps he found and quickly analyzed the pattern before he frowned.
"The array is arranged strangely. It is like it should be connected to another one but there is no line doing so." Grand arrays were much like his layered weavings. Traces connected multiple layers to increase the capabilities of his weavings while arrays could be made more complex by connecting various formations together.
It required more space with the lower grade a material was but the connection still had to exist. The schematic did not show it but he knew where it had to be.
He moved down one tunnel after another. He inspected a few of the caches and noted the doors seamlessly sealed into the walls to close the arrays neatly.
In other words, if those doors were left open, the arrays stopped working but he was able to use his Eyes to grasp tiny formations that would slowly close the doors over a few months if left open.
He wondered if the humans harvested the tunnels themselves but he doubted it. It would not be worth the effort.
The rifles and pistols were now open to him. He could discern that the weapons did pull on the souls of their owners. The heat was caused by the forcible extraction of an energy source of incredible potency.
The blades, however, worked the other way. They took soul energy from their target!
Theoretically, a gun user could restore their soul essence with a blade.
"Perfect little cycle to keep your food alive." Lind was putting some pieces together but the key parts were missing.
He moved until he finally came to the spot where a connection should exist but no door was there. He did not even bother being subtle.
His fist slammed into the spot it should be. The expected shattering of the silvery colored wall never happened as he fell through it!
Lind barely caught himself as he was plunged into pure darkness. He had not felt any resistance at all but it had seemed as solid as the rest of the wall!
He quickly strained his ears and nose to see if he detected anything but nothing came back. There was not even a breeze.
Despite the fact he had destroyed the entrance he came through, it did not seem to affect the tunnel he was in. He turned back and saw nothing but when he put his arm forward, it vanished into the wall once more.
No light or shimmer came with the act either. It was not a formation but an illusion with technology!
How was it done?! He did not hear the hum of a projector or anything but the fact it perfectly hid the tunnel told him it was neither cultivation nor standard technology.
Lind could only file it away as he turned back into the darkness and knew what he had to find.
If he was in the connecting line from one array to the next, it should also have a connection inward to the next ring of arrays.
At the heart of the tunnels should be what he was looking for.
The Fiend at the heart of the web.