Chapter 1 The Little Fairies

The three little fairies spoke with such confidence that Hao Ren was momentarily stunned...

"We don't know the way back! Because we were caught in a spatial turbulence and drifted here!" "The starship's navigation computer is broken—and we wouldn't know how to use it even if it wasn't." "You're lying, we all know how to use it, it's just you who doesn't!" "Anyway, we don't know where the battlefield is anymore."

The three little fairies chattered at once. Hao Ren was now somewhat used to the speaking pace of these tiny creatures, so he was able to sift through a pile of irrelevant information and gather the truly useful parts. This time, the clue was simple:

The planet fortress where the fairies lived had suffered a massive explosion on the battlefield. The spatial turbulence generated by the explosion had thrown this huge celestial wreckage into the distant reaches of space, and in the process, the starship's navigation computer had been severely damaged. Now, this wreckage had no power, no navigation, and was completely reliant on drifting through the universe, so the fairies had no idea how to return to their homeland.

Although they were born from resonance crystals, they didn't seem to have the ability to find their home planet by tracing the resonance signal.

But Hao Ren quickly thought of something else: "Then how did those guys who besieged you before find you?"

"The bad guys can track the resonance signal!" The smallest of the three fairies jumped in front of Hao Ren, her hair filled with arcs of electricity from excitement, and her words crackled like lightning. "They want to destroy the crystal, to destroy the nexus created by the goddess!"

Hao Ren heard a brand new word: "Nexus?"

"The Terminal Nexus!" said the short-haired boy fairy. "It's where we were first born."

"It's full of what you call 'resonance crystals.'" "The lightning left by the goddess never stops." "Many, many companions are born from the crystals every day!" "Most of the fairies live in the nexus!"

"That's the Crystal Star we're looking for!" Hao Ren suddenly became excited, but then looked dejected. "Forget it, you can't find it yourselves anyway... I'm curious, how come those corrupted monsters can find you by tracking the signal, but you fairies born from the crystals don't have that ability?"

The long-haired fairy looked distressed: "We should have it... but we don't have a queen. Fairies without a queen can't do anything."

"That's right, that's right, there must be a queen sitting on the throne for the fairies to function!" "And only the queen can let the fairies know what they should do!" "Ah, I found my spiritual energy regulator! It's hanging on my waist this time."

Hao Ren was a little confused: "But you said before that you don't have a queen."

"Yes, yes, we don't have a queen." "But fairies must have a queen! She just hasn't appeared yet!" "The goddess said we have a queen!"

"I suspect it's another historical remnant problem from when the Creation Goddess's mind split," Vivian whispered to Hao Ren. "These fairies are probably not 'complete products'. The Creation Goddess might not have finished the last step when she created them..."

"I think so too." Hao Ren frowned and nodded gently.

At this moment, the data terminal suddenly spoke, floating to the three fairies: "According to what you just said, the navigation computer is broken and not lost—that means the Nakdal starship's navigation computer is located on this piece of planetary debris?"

"Yes, yes! The control center of the original planet warship is on this piece of debris!" "The doomsday weapon is also installed on this continent." "But when the planet exploded, most of the doomsday weapon was torn off, and now only the base is left..." "But the navigation computer is still intact!" "Although it's also broken..."

Hao Ren understood what the data terminal meant: "You can't fix it, but maybe we can—can you take us to see the navigation computer?"

The three fairies nodded together: "Okay, okay!"

The control center of the planetary fortress was not far from here. After leaving the Great Temple where the fairies lived, it could be seen in the distance, standing quietly at the end of the great plain, pointing straight to the sky like a black sword.

However, the towering temple was only the part of the control center's structure exposed on the surface. A planetary fortress, of course, could not place its vital center on the surface where it could be easily attacked. Beneath the temple was a shaft hundreds of kilometers deep and layers of armored walls. Only after passing through these heavy, insane layers of protection could one reach the true location of the navigation computer.

The ancient transport system had long been unusable due to geological misalignment and energy disconnection, but because this vital location had multiple sets of complementary backup systems, there were still a few remnants of the lighting leading to the control center—looking down the shaft, the intermittent faint lights stretched into the deepest darkness like winding fireflies, making one shrink back.

Vivian opened her bat wings and flew with Hao Ren into the depths of the shaft, while the three little fairies flew ahead to lead the way. The faint light emitted by the fairies effectively supplemented the lighting in those areas lacking lights, allowing Hao Ren and Vivian, who both had night vision, to clearly see the surrounding details.

Most of the shaft remained intact, but there were still many signs of breakage and tilting in the middle. In some of the most severely displaced sections, the entire shaft had even broken off completely and shifted laterally by hundreds of meters, with intruding rocks almost cutting off the passage, leaving only some narrow cracks and holes for the fairies to pass through. Usually, the fairies could pass through these cracks to the depths of the control center, but Hao Ren obviously couldn't, so in many cases, he had to use a cutting beam to open a path.

After passing through the deep vertical passage, they successfully entered the control center of the planet warship Nakdal: a hexagonal prism-shaped hall.

"This is the control center!" The long-haired fairy flew around in front of Hao Ren, introducing it with a somewhat proud tone. "This used to be a super lively place. The Guardian Giants used to control the entire fortress and fight the enemy here, and many fairies helped adjust the equipment status."

"But now it's useless." "Even if it's repaired, Nakdal can't continue to fly, after all, the engine is gone." "The main power furnace is also gone..." "The weapon system is also gone!" "But we still come here occasionally, for gatherings or something."

The control center was deathly silent. The buzzing of operating equipment and the hustle and bustle of people coming and going were gone, but from the scale of this hall and the huge equipment prepared for the Guardian Giants, Hao Ren could still faintly imagine how magnificent and busy this place once was. The hexagonal hall had several platforms of varying heights, each large enough to build a house on, and on these platforms could be seen control devices as high as six or seven meters and equally huge seats. The whole hall was like the kingdom of giants in a fairy tale, and in fact... it was indeed prepared for giants.

The average height of the Guardian Giants reached over ten meters, so one could imagine the scale of the facilities they used.

In the great destruction that Nakdal encountered, all the Guardian Giants who fought here died in battle, but the fairies, due to their unique life form, relied on fusing with the crystals in the fortress to escape that most terrifying moment. In the thousands of years that followed, the fairies collected the remains of giants from all over the continent and buried them on the grasslands, and the remains of giants in this control center were no exception.

After burying the giants, the fairies rarely returned to the control center, because it was empty and there was nothing. It was far less attractive than the world on the surface, which at least still had green hills and clear waters. But on special occasions, such as when the fairies suddenly remembered the past, they would return here to commemorate their former comrades through gatherings.

The control center was not completely dark. Hao Ren looked around and found that there were still sparse and faint lights flickering slowly in some corners. If he listened carefully, he could even hear some subtle humming sounds coming from under the floor or behind the walls.

Obviously, some remaining backup power lines were still operating.

This was truly a centipede that dies but does not fall. As a super warship built on a planetary foundation, Nakdal had countless subsystems and backup modules. These countless subsystems could ensure that even if the starship was torn apart, its wreckage could still "survive" independently, and even maintain a certain degree of combat capability independently.

"Where is the navigation computer? Or where is its interface?" Hao Ren looked around the hall and couldn't find anything obvious that could serve as a central host, so he simply asked.

"There!" The smallest fairy flew into the air, pointing to the top of the hall. "That's it!"

Hao Ren looked up and saw a huge, almost dizzying dome structure that made him slow his breath. He then realized that the real focus of this hall was on the top.

Countless huge alloy skeletons were interwoven at the top of the hexagonal prism-shaped hall, forming a nest-like structure. Pipes and lines meandered between these skeletons, forming a network, and all these things eventually converged in one place, which was a heart-like... huge crystal.

The huge crystal was fixed on the dome by a sturdy metal structure. Hao Ren felt that its texture was very similar to that of the resonance crystal, but unlike a normal resonance crystal, this "heart" looked dim at the moment.

This was the first time he had seen a "resonance crystal" that did not glow or resonate with other crystals. An idea emerged uncontrollably:

Every resonance crystal has life, and the crystal above the hall... it has died.