Chapter 1 The Tremendous Shock

The data terminal was silent for a long time on the other end of the line, so shocked that even the composure of a PDA was shaken.

Ten seconds later, the terminal's voice finally sounded through the communicator: "You're saying... what?"

"I'm sending you the visual," Hao Ren said, sharing what he was seeing. "See? These tendrils, and the equipment connected to them. The signals I sent you were intercepted from these cables. The server's host is a Changzi (Long Son)... there's no way to transport that out of here."

"...Great gods, why do we always run into this kind of mess!" the terminal exclaimed. "Test the other lines again. Maybe the signal flow is being transmitted from other devices."

"Already tested. All the cables are connected to the tendrils, and the signal source isn't from the machines. It's all from the tendrils."

As Hao Ren spoke, he installed more sensors on the metal cylinders and cables, while also using a launcher to fire some probes into the tendrils hanging from the cave ceiling. The signals detected by these sensors forced the data terminal into silence.

Vivian looked up at the symbiotic tendrils and cables. This was obviously a thorough transformation, requiring not only the Zohm people to design suitable machines, but also the Changzi to precisely control the growth of its body to adapt to the human facilities. If the Changzi didn't cooperate, it would be impossible for mortals to achieve this. It was unbelievable, but the facts were before everyone's eyes: the Changzi and mortals on this planet were living in harmony, and cooperating with extreme precision.

"Could it be that the Zohm people found a way to forcibly control the Changzi... well, never mind, that's impossible," Lily said, cautiously touching a metal cylinder next to her, a thoughtful expression on her face. "So the main part of this shelter is actually the Changzi... and everything here is obviously man-made, so the Zohm people aren't trapped in a virtual world by the Changzi. They entered voluntarily. Whoa, my worldview is being challenged."

"Sober guardians..." Hao Ren suddenly remembered what the Guardian Giant had said. "That's right! When the goddess was dying, she sent instructions to some of the guardians to protect the mortals. The Changzi here might be one of them!"

"Guardians who maintained their sanity at the last moment?" Izhaks was surprised. "Wasn't it said that only the Guardian Giants received instructions? The Changzi were all supposed to have gone crazy at the same time..."

"That's just what the Guardian Giant said, but the situation was so chaotic back then, his information might not be accurate," Hao Ren waved his hand. "Maybe some of the Changzi didn't have time to go crazy before being stopped by the goddess herself. The goddess might have chosen others to inherit her will. Anything is possible. Anyway, let's not worry about the truth of the past. The problem now is how to save the billions of people in the virtual world!"

"How do we save them?" Vivian pointed to the tendrils with a wry smile. "If it were just a server or a hard drive array, we could just move it, but this is a Changzi that is symbiotic with the planet. Moving it isn't something that can be done in a short amount of time."

"We've successfully transferred one before, the two in Holletta," Hao Ren still wanted to struggle, and at the same time called the data terminal. "Terminal, scan the deep layers of the planet to see how far the Changzi's tendrils extend. If it's a small body..."

"During the previous crustal rupture, this unit scanned a surge of electricity signals that spread throughout the planet, which may have been a neural impulse from the Changzi," the terminal directly gave a disappointing answer. "Although this unit would like to give you some hope, I'm afraid the Changzi on Zohm Planet is a mature individual. Its tendrils have spread all over the globe. Unless we can push the entire planet away from the sun, there's nothing we can do to stop it from burning up with the planet."

Vivian also shook her head. "Don't forget how we succeeded in Holletta—we used the Erem Elves' engineering fleet. The Erem Elves' technical capabilities are limited, and their equipment probably won't work here. This planet is too close to the sun."

Hao Ren fell silent. He knew that the terminal and Vivian were telling the truth. And he also knew that the difficulties were far more than that: even if the Erem Elves' engineering machinery could be used here, he wouldn't have enough time to mobilize those people and arrange a plan. He also couldn't guarantee that the Changzi would be safe and sound during the excavation, and he couldn't guarantee that the virtual world would remain stable during the process. The last time he worked in Holletta, the project was to eliminate the Changzi as an enemy, so life and death didn't matter, but here... he had to ensure that the Changzi was safe and sound.

At this moment, Lily's eyes suddenly lit up as she remembered something. "That's right, the brain core! The Changzi's brain core seems to be able to survive independently, and all its memories and thoughts are in the brain core—that thing doesn't seem to be very big, does it?"

Everyone's hope was ignited, and Hao Ren also thought of the red sphere he had brought out of the Demon King's Castle: as the Changzi's thinking core, its size was only a few meters. If he could peel that thing out, maybe there was a chance!

"Okay, we'll go deeper to see where the Changzi's brain core is located," Izhaks' booming voice gave everyone confidence. "Landlord, do you know how to find it?"

"It's simple, follow the nerve signals," Hao Ren immediately pointed to the sensing devices he had just set up. "Connect these things directly to the tendrils. The Changzi's strong nerve signals are all sent from the brain core, so it should be easy to detect."

The research results of the Crystal Core Research Station finally came in handy. Through the analysis of the two Holletta samples, Hao Ren now had a certain understanding of the Changzi's physiological characteristics. He knew how to track the Changzi's nerve signals and identify most of the latter's tissues and organs. He believed that the brain core was buried deep underground, but it shouldn't be too deep: being too close to the Earth's core would cause it to be scorched by high temperatures, which would affect the stability of the brain core.

Hao Ren released all the autonomous machines in his personal space, plus the teammates who had come with him. A large group of people began to install the sensing devices on the Changzi's tendrils in the cave. The sensors were shaped like palm-sized cylinders, and would immediately deform when they came into contact with the object to be scanned. The lower part of the sensors could perfectly fit the rough and uneven surface of the Changzi's tentacles. After learning about Hao Ren's actions, the data terminal immediately began to cooperate. It used all the spare threads of the spaceship's mainframe to analyze the massive amount of data from the sensors and find the part that belonged to the biological nerve impulses. Everything suddenly seemed hopeful again, and everyone was encouraged.

Lily was responsible for cutting open the outer shell of the alloy cylinders with her claw blades, and placing the sensors on the surface of the containers holding the tendrils without affecting the operation of these devices. Just as she was carefully and meticulously doing this work, a sudden and intense tremor almost knocked her off the alloy cylinder.

"Boom—crack—"

A strange sound of rock strata rubbing against each other came from above everyone's heads, and the noise was louder than before. The entire underground shelter began to shake violently, sounding as if the entire planet was about to collapse on top of them. Lily shouted in mid-air, "Wow! Landlord, another earthquake!"

"Partner! Sunrise, sunrise!" the data terminal's voice echoed through all channels. "The sun is rising, and the crust above you is heating up. Get out of there!"

Hao Ren barely managed to stand firm in the violent tremor. After waiting for the tremor to subside slightly, he looked up at the shelter's roof and then rejected the evacuation suggestion: "Wait a little longer. It looks like it can hold up here."

"Are you serious?!"

"I'm not being impulsive," Hao Ren explained his thoughts. "This is deep underground, so it should be a little more stable. The crustal collapse should start from the surface first. This place can probably last until the second or third sunrise. And this shelter itself looks very sturdy... give me some more time. Maybe the brain core is hidden below."

The data terminal was silent for a few seconds, seemingly calculating the feasibility, and then it sighed in a very human-like way: "Understood. It looks like it can indeed hold up. Be careful. Evacuate immediately if there are signs of collapse—otherwise, if the disaster prevention system doesn't react in time, billions of tons of crust collapsing will mean instant death."

Hao Ren nodded and continued to work on what he was doing.

A huge Changzi tendril lay horizontally in front of him. This was a tendril that should be a main signal line. It was placed in a long alloy trough, and the upper part was full of electrodes and nutrient solution pipes. Hao Ren reached out and stroked the rough surface of the tendril. Although this had always been the number one dangerous enemy he had to face, a strange feeling now gave him other ideas.

"I don't know if you can hear me..." Hao Ren patted the tendril's skin. "We're working hard. You have to hold on too."