Chapter 172 The Holographic Universe Reconstructs

The Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace quickly detached from the edge of the holographic universe and began returning to Zolm at maximum speed. Outside the ship, those small celestial light spheres extinguished in patches, and the textures of the Milky Way and nebulae trembled and dimmed as if stained with noise, and darkness spread throughout the entire "universe," a scene reminiscent of the planetarium's starry sky hall when the lights were turned off one by one. Hao Ren returned to the bridge, wanting to try increasing the ship's speed again, but this ship was ultimately an imitation, and it had already reached its speed limit.

The entire control hall was constantly vibrating. The constantly extinguishing cosmic starry sky outside was pressing down from all directions, and Hao Ren could almost feel the ship's outer shell being peeled off piece by piece. He couldn't help but worry that the entire virtual world would collapse.

But fortunately, as they gradually approached Zolm, the surrounding collapse finally began to subside. Those patches of dimmed starlight became frozen images in the distant darkness. It seemed that the collapse of the "world" was limited to the outer regions, and the core of this virtual universe was still stable.

"How many navigation signals have been sent out?" Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief and immediately turned to look at the Corpse姬 terminal. "Can we still contact the drone swarm?"

"I can contact them, but it's back to the previous forwarding state. I can only exchange briefings, not send navigation coordinates," the terminal shook her head. She was returning to her "human" state, and the functions she had barely recovered in the border area had disappeared again. "But I sent out a portion of the navigation signal earlier. The probe drone swarm can roughly locate our current position based on them... the error is probably a few light-years."

"Searching for a planet within a few light-years..." Hao Ren sighed. "Well, it's better than searching randomly in the entire universe. Order the drone swarm to launch probes immediately to find Zolm's real location."

The terminal gave an "oh" and then looked up at the image transmitted from the external monitor: "...The holographic universe seems to be reconstructing again."

Hao Ren frowned and looked at the projection on the console. He saw that behind the ship, the previously dimmed "cosmic starry sky" was being relit. Those small celestial bodies that had once disappeared flickered and reappeared as if they had been reconnected to electricity. Patches of starry sky brightened up, casting a hazy starlight on the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace's smooth outer shell—beautiful, but unreal.

"What does this mean? Is the system becoming stable again because we left the border?" Hao Ren felt a faint unease in his heart. "Was the previous situation a rendering error caused by an overflow bug at the border?"

"This unit is not good at guessing, but this unit has a bad feeling," the terminal jumped off the console and pointed to another set of holographic projections. "Look down there, Zolm's situation seems a bit strange."

The planet Zolm was already close at hand, emerging from above the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace's front armor plate like a crystal clear sphere. Its surface was covered with large areas of pleasing blue and green, full of vitality. Hao Ren immediately realized what the data terminal meant by "strange."

When he left Zolm before, although the planet was also covered with blue oceans, other places were basically a hazy gray, and large areas of land showed a withered and barren color. That was the vegetation degradation caused by the war—in the recent dozens of cycles, this planet had never been so vibrant. It was always placed in various wars and disasters, and it was impossible to look like this.

This planet was different from when Hao Ren left.

"The northern hemisphere, that location is suitable for landing, there is a large area of ​​uninhabited area," the data terminal said, pointing to a spot on the planet's surface. She made the judgment based on the remote sensing information fed back from the ship, "Be careful and you won't be discovered."

Hao Ren frowned slightly: "The terrain has changed... Where is Nolan?"

"It's probably not easy to find her," the terminal shook her head. "The map has changed, and I can't be sure if Nolan is still in the same place. Besides, she doesn't have a navigator on her."

"Navigator?" Hao Ren was suddenly reminded by the terminal. "That's right, I gave her a staff. That thing is a product from outside this world and won't be reset. Track its signal."

According to safety regulations, the auditor's personal equipment, especially firepower equipment, must have embedded identification components. This is not limited to the high-power weapons issued by the Empire, but also includes the equipment that the auditor personally collects and configures. Hao Ren was able to boldly give Nolan the Sentinel Staff, which was several levels of technology beyond this planet, because of this: he could always grasp the location of this weapon, and in an emergency, he could even remotely shut it down, so he didn't have to worry about it falling into the hands of people who shouldn't use it. And now, this identification component can also help him find Nolan—if the guess is correct, this world has been reset again, and Nolan may not be in the original place.

Although Hao Ren's various devices had been messed up by this world's "simulation" function, and even the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace had become a knockoff, fortunately, the world's background program rigidly followed the "real" principle in any case, and technologies such as navigation and positioning were obviously within the scope of the simulation program's understanding. Therefore, he successfully discovered Nolan's signal.

Hao Ren landed the ship in a wilderness. After stowing the ship, he found that it was located in the suburbs of a small city, and it was early morning, so not many people should notice it.

He and the terminal stood on a high ground overlooking the small city in the distance, seeing a peaceful and serene scene. There was no smoke, no refugees, no streets and houses destroyed by war. The entire city was shrouded in peaceful slumber.

"...This world has indeed been reset again. Looking at the architectural style, and this atmosphere, it's completely different from before," Hao Ren gazed at the scenery in the distance. Although he saw peace and tranquility, a vague uneasiness spread in his heart. "This time it looks like a peaceful world?"

"It's not even a world war..." The terminal was also surprised. "Didn't Nolan say that the recent dozens of cycles of this world were all bad ends?"

"I don't know what's going on, but it seems that this world suddenly chose a beautiful script," Hao Ren shook his head. He was about to walk down the high ground when he suddenly remembered something, "Have the probe drone swarms set off?"

The terminal nodded: "They have already set off and will arrive at the predetermined location soon, but it will take some time to find our real coordinates. After all, we didn't have time to send out all the navigation signals before."

Hao Ren thought for a while and suddenly patted the terminal's shoulder: "You can control my personal space, right? Like taking out the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace."

"If you give this unit temporary permission, this unit can operate it for you... Why?"

"I'm giving you a mission. You return to the real world, bring Vivian and the others, enter the dream plane from the Tanagus Rift, and then come and pick me up in the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace. Also, I want you to bring my hibernation pod—that is, bring my main body with you."

"You mean bring your physical body into the dream plane?" The terminal widened her eyes. "But your spirit body is already here! We've never tried this before, will there be any problems?"

"No, because this is just a virtual space in the dream plane. Strictly speaking, I'm just connected to this place, so there's no question of a spirit body entering," Hao Ren pointed to his feet. "I have a hunch that something big is going to happen here... No, something big has already happened, so we must immediately drag all the combat power we have on hand over here to deal with the situation. And if necessary, I must be able to return to my main body and control the ship at any time. Before that, you must ensure that the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace finds out where the real Zolm is."

The terminal silently looked at Hao Ren for a while and nodded slightly: "Understood, leave it to this unit."

"I'll leave the work in the real world to you," Hao Ren waved his hand to the terminal. "I'll take care of things in the virtual world."

The next second, the terminal's figure had disappeared into the air.

It returned to a certain hibernation pod located in the southern suburbs. Next, it would bring people and drive the ship, guided by the probe drone swarm, to find Zolm's real location, and before that...

Hao Ren walked towards the town in the morning light. The navigator in his hand showed that Nolan was just ahead.

The morning glow gradually appeared on the horizon, and the sun was about to rise from below the horizon. A vibrant red light leaped and surged in the distant sky, as dazzling as flames. Hao Ren took one last look at the horizon before entering the city. The brilliant morning glow seemed to light up a new day in this world like a sea of ​​fire.

Hopefully, this is a good omen.