Chapter 1 The Warped Space Gradually Calmed

Here was the frontier outpost of the drone swarms. The drone hive, constructed from a modified asteroid and resembling a twisted nest, still floated silently in the distance. Compared to the last time, this outpost had developed, with newly built space factories and connecting structures visible around it. Space watchtowers equipped with sentry guns were neatly arranged around these newly built structures, guarding the vast area like lighthouses.

The Ark Fleet was docked within the protection range of these watchtowers.

All the Arks were currently stationary. Nolan had forcibly cut off the ships' energy with an external controller to conserve their fuel and take the opportunity to perform emergency repairs, barely restoring the most severely damaged engines and warp space generators to a state where they could operate continuously. The Petrified Tortoise slid silently and nimbly through space, eventually landing gently on the hull of the "Throne" Ark.

Katerina watched the situation outside the ship from the bridge of the Petrified Tortoise. Although this wasn't her first time on a spaceship, she was still fascinated by this magical space journey. When she saw the giant Arks, her fascination turned into surprise.

"This Ark is bigger than I expected," the Siren Queen murmured in amazement. "…It exceeds the scale of Nasaton."

The two Siren scribes she had brought with her were in space for the first time. The two snake girls were completely dumbfounded, not even noticing that their tails were unconsciously intertwined.

Vivian glanced at Katerina indifferently: "You once built interstellar Arks. If it were the Sirens of the past, they should have been able to build something of this scale. Nasaton is essentially no different from these Arks."

The Siren Queen shook her head slightly after hearing this, sighing: "We live comfortably now, but we have lost the technology of the past. The people in these Arks possess an entire fleet, but they have returned to a primitive society. Everyone has fallen to this point. What's the point of talking about past glory?"

"Nolan, warm up these Ark engines," Hao Ren tapped the console of the Petrified Tortoise lightly. "Also, call Laurence."

The ship's console immediately lit up, and then a small Nolan, only the size of a palm, crawled out of the gap in the console: "Okay, okay, don't knock, don't knock. I'm doing a system check…"

Hao Ren was preparing to talk to Laurence with a serious face, but he was caught off guard when he saw the mini-Nolan crawling out, and he was immediately stunned: "What… how did you become like this?"

"Are you even asking me?" Nolan put her hands on her hips and glared at Hao Ren with her head raised. "Didn't you download an enhanced plugin for a large space storage container into the ship's mainframe? The mainframe doesn't have enough computing power. I turned off all the messy and useless functions and lowered my resolution to save resources."

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered that the "large space storage container" Nolan was talking about was the thing he had applied for from Raven 12345, which was used to transport the hundred-kilometer-long Ark giant ship to the surface world. The so-called "storage container" was not a tangible piece of equipment, but only a piece of information that humans could not understand. After loading this information into the mainframe of the Petrified Tortoise, his ship had a super cargo hold with a diameter of hundreds of kilometers—however, this super cargo hold would consume a huge amount of the Petrified Tortoise's mainframe resources, so Nolan became like this.

"To be honest, what is the principle behind this…" Hao Ren mumbled, touching his chin as he looked at the palm-sized Nolan, who was still maintaining the posture of putting her hands on her hips: "What principle can there be? Lower the resolution…"

"I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about that cargo hold," Hao Ren said, poking the data terminal at hand. "Why does the hardware function of the ship change when you download a code into the mainframe?"

"This is called an authorized upgrade agreement," the data terminal knew that Hao Ren was going to ask this, and immediately explained, "Did you think the hardware structure of the ship hasn't changed? The hardware structure has already changed with that code. No imperial equipment is fixed. Every tiny part of it can be refreshed and reorganized. What determines their functional structure is the core program of these devices, which is the bunch of things running on the mainframe. To put it bluntly, as long as this program changes, your ship can be reorganized into any form at any time, including but not limited to catapults and excavators, as long as this new form does not exceed the computing limit of the mainframe. Therefore, as long as your superior authority unit issues the appropriate blueprints, the Petrified Tortoise can be upgraded and reorganized in real time. That's how the ship replacement plugin I told you about works. Did you think the inspectors installed the plugins on the ship by driving the ship to a 4S shop to dismantle it?"

Hao Ren was stunned as he listened. He thought that he needed to drive the ship to some kind of maintenance factory to upgrade the system. He never expected this thing to be so high-tech. The hardware was refreshed along with the machine…

At this time, the little Nolan had completed the restart of those Ark engines. In the dark background of space, the surfaces of the thirteen giant ships lit up one after another. The old ancient engines started running again after a few days of rest. At the same time, the communicator on the console was also activated. The holographic projection flickered a few times, and an old man with white hair appeared on the screen.

Laurence's expression seemed a little excited and confused, as if the sudden communication caught him off guard. The old man was stunned for a while before asking, "Your Excellency Hao Ren? Are you calling me?"

"Um… just call me Hao Ren, 'Your Excellency' sounds weird," Hao Ren waved his hand, his expression becoming serious. "Are you ready? I've found a temporary place for the Ark to stay."

Laurence's first reaction was… no reaction.

The old man didn't understand what Hao Ren meant for a while, and he couldn't believe his ears when he understood. When he realized that this "temporary place to stay" referred to a planet, he didn't feel any joy or excitement, because shock had completely overwhelmed these two emotions. It wasn't until Hao Ren repeated his words again that Laurence suddenly woke up: "Are you talking about a new planet?!"

"It's leased to you," Hao Ren explained this in advance, then turned slightly to the side, allowing Katerina to step forward. "The planet you are going to lease is called 'Aioi', and this is the Queen of Aioi. Currently, for some reasons, this queen and her people do not live in Aioi, so that planet can be temporarily lent to you. We hope that both parties can discuss the specific terms face-to-face."

"Where are you now?!"

"Right on the hull of your Ark," Hao Ren smiled. "Can you leave now? It's best if you and the Queen discuss on my ship. There are complete recording devices here, which can record all the terms you set."

Laurence looked around, judging from the background on the image that he should be in a relatively high-level room, perhaps a king's castle, or the library of scholars. He nodded: "I can tell them that I am going to the Ancestral Furnace to obtain knowledge. I now have extremely high authority among these people, and as long as it involves the Ancestral Furnace, they will not question my words."

Hao Ren hummed: "Well, very good. Tell the people around you, and then I will let the data terminal go over and pick you up directly."

After the communication was hung up, "Gun" poked his head over from the side, tugging at Hao Ren's sleeve: "Big, big cat, are you done talking?"

Hao Ren looked at the stupid cat in confusion: "I'm done talking. What's up?"

"Gun" immediately looked very happy, pointing at the little Nolan who was sitting on the edge of the console in a daze: "Then can I eat the mouse, meow?"

Hao Ren: "…Go lie down over there!"

A moment later, Laurence was directly teleported to the teleportation room of the Petrified Tortoise.

The old man was wearing a coarse gray-white robe, like the scholars of the Ark world. He had many strange ornaments hanging on his chest. He had white hair and beard, and he was holding a hard cane in his hand. When he walked out of the teleportation room, he looked like an old mage from a fantasy medieval world, or like an old prophet preparing to lead the people—this second impression was very consistent with his current positioning in the Ark.

The Nangong siblings took the old man out of the teleportation room. Hao Ren greeted Laurence immediately after seeing him, and then opened the main holographic image of the Petrified Tortoise, which showed the full picture of the Ark Fleet: "How does it feel to see these ships again with your own eyes?"

Laurence stared at the vast space in the holographic image, as well as the thirteen giant ships neatly arranged in space. After a long time, he sighed softly: "I and these ships are too old…"

Vivian stepped aside between Laurence and Katerina: "Then find a way for the young people before you old guys completely shut down."