Chapter 1 The "Broken" Resonance Crystal

Seeing the dim, enormous crystal, Hao Ren knew that the fairies’ definition of “broken” was far worse than he had imagined.

The navigation mainframe of a planetary warship wasn’t built with conventional technology—it probably wasn’t even the work of the Guardians, but personally crafted by the Goddess of Creation herself. And its function was probably more than just a “navigation mainframe.” Hao Ren believed these resonance crystals were full of mysteries. The Goddess of Creation had focused a great deal of energy on these crystals during the last moments of her life and built the secret projects of the X-Cluster around them. Therefore, anything related to these mysterious crystals was probably as significant as the unfinished Creation Engine.

Using resonance crystals to create a starship's navigation mainframe… was it to allow these starships to undertake some special function?

In any case, these crystals were still completely incomprehensible black technology for Hao Ren. Although his equipment could analyze every physiochemical property of these crystals and the energy fluctuations they released, the secrets contained within the crystals themselves were beyond these superficial properties. More importantly, Hao Ren didn’t know how to revive a crystal that had already “died.”

But he still needed to do something. Not studying something unknown wasn’t the style of an inspector.

Under the guidance of the fairies and the scanning analysis of the data terminal, Hao Ren found a way to lower the enormous crystal. The ancient lifting mechanism was re-energized, and with a series of ear-piercing creaks, the fixtures above the crystal began to operate, lowering this behemoth, which was more than ten meters high, to less than half a meter above the floor.

After a cursory observation, Hao Ren immediately discovered the unusual nature of this crystal.

It had an unusually regular shape, a perfectly symmetrical octagonal prism, narrowing at both ends. On the crystal's surface, which had lost its luster, dense lines could be clearly seen. The data terminal emitted a beam of strong light onto the crystal surface, and the shallow structures inside the crystal were also revealed—within it were equally complex and mysterious patterns.

This “finely processed” characteristic was not present in the previously collected crystals. Even the neatly arranged crystal lattices in the fairy settlement weren’t as regular and precise as this crystal.

"This unit cannot detect its deeper structure," the data terminal flew around the crystal, making a surprised sound. "It has very complex encryption… Even though it has stopped running, this information-based encryption protection is still working. This unit's performance is not enough to crack it…"

"Even the Goddess of Creation, who didn't go to school, is a proper, genuine deity," Hao Ren could only sigh at this result. "She couldn't have poured less effort into these 'relics.' It's normal that you can't crack it."

The terminal stubbornly shone the scanning beam on the crystal for a long time, but the result was still no progress. It also tried to release energy stimulation to awaken the crystal, but to no avail.

"No, this thing is completely 'broken,'" the data terminal returned dejectedly to Hao Ren's shoulder. "It no longer accepts any external energy stimulation. When this kind of crystal remains 'silent,' it's like an information black hole. Unless you can break through its 'horizon,' you'll never see the truth inside."

Hao Ren clicked his tongue, inevitably feeling a great disappointment, while Vivian curiously reached out and stroked the surface of this large crystal: "Speaking of which… There are crystals like this in my Red Sea of Blood, it feels really incredi—"

Before she could finish her words, an anomaly suddenly occurred!

The crystal, which had been dim and lusterless just a second before, suddenly bloomed with a bright light. The light flashed and disappeared quickly, then rapidly contracted into the crystal, giving the whole crystal a wonderful, shimmering state. Where Vivian's palm touched the crystal, circles of milky white ripples rippled out. Where the ripples spread, the complex patterns on the crystal's surface began to change erratically.

It instantly "came alive"!

"I…" Vivian was startled by the sudden change, pulling her hand away as if burned. "I didn't do anything!"

Hao Ren quickly comforted her: "Don't panic, don't panic, it's just been activated, I have experience with this."

As someone who regularly activated illusions or mechanisms by touching ancient relics, Hao Ren was indeed qualified to say this…

After Vivian removed her hand, the crystal didn't dim down, but continued to maintain a shimmering state and began to emit a pleasant, wind chime-like sound. In this soft chiming, a gentle female voice came:

"Administrator connection detected—authentication complete, attempting to obtain hub authorization and activate preset protocol."

"Error, unable to connect to the hub—the throne is not activated, the hub administrator is missing."

"The administrator has adopted the wrong connection method, please activate the hub first. This access is closed, the Nakdal crystal enters standby mode."

The gentle female voice subsided, and the light on the crystal surface gradually dimmed, but this time it didn't completely lose its light, but remained at about one-third of its previous brightness—this should be the so-called "standby mode."

The three little fairies had been staring blankly at this scene since just now, as if they were frightened. At this moment, they suddenly reacted and immediately jumped up and down, shouting: "Ahhh! Activated, activated! Administrator authority!" "Queen! This is the Queen!" "So this is what the Queen looks like?" "The Queen looks different from us!" "Although it's different, she is the Queen, definitely right." "Yes, yes, that's right, that's how the goddess set it up…"

The three-person team of little beans began to scurry around Vivian while shouting, flashing like out-of-control currents within a few meters of Vivian, while still shouting: "Queen, oh, Queen, you are the Queen of the fairies, oh." "Turns out the Queen is different from us." "Queen, Queen, why didn't you tell us earlier?" "La la la~~ In short, the fairies have a Queen!"

Vivian had woken up from her daze at this time, but was still confused: "Don't spin, don't spin, I'm dizzy—can anyone explain what's going on? How did I suddenly become the Queen… I don't even know you!"

"You are the Queen!" the long-haired fairy said very firmly. "Only the Queen can activate this kind of crystal that directly connects to the hub!"

"And the crystal just said that you are the administrator, oh!" "You just didn't know it yourself!"

Then the three little fairies began to fly around Vivian's head, cheering as they flew: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty…"

When Hao Ren first saw the fairies' reaction, he thought it was a farce, that these extremely out-of-the-box guys had made some mistake, but after slightly connecting what had just happened, he couldn't help but take a deep look at Vivian: "I think… the fairies' words can't be taken as a joke."

Vivian: "Huh?"

"Don't be fooled by the unreliable appearance of these little ones," Hao Ren pointed to the three fairies. "They are the last creatures created by the Goddess of Creation. The goddess absolutely couldn't have created these creatures for fun, and you—you can also be regarded as the goddess's final 'posthumous work.' Moreover, the reason we came to this galaxy was because of the star chart in your soul. The resonance crystal was first discovered in the depths of your Red Sea of Blood. These clues can all be connected…"

Seeing the serious expression on Hao Ren's face, Vivian couldn't help but become serious as well: "You mean…"

"The things the Goddess of Creation left in the X-Cluster should be for you—in this case, it shouldn't be unimaginable for you to become the 'Queen' of these fairies."

Vivian looked blankly at the fairies beside her, and the latter immediately became happy and continued to jump and cheer…

Vivian: "…Why don't I feel happy at all that I'm going to be their queen?"

To this, Hao Ren could only helplessly spread his hands: "This is not a question of whether you are happy or not, the Goddess of Creation has decided after research…"

"Tch."

"If she is really your queen, then the fairies now have a queen, right?" Hao Ren decisively stopped teasing Vivian and turned to look at the fairies. "You said that as long as the fairies have a queen, they will know their mission? Do you know now?"

"Not yet, da!" The smallest fairy waved his arms hard. "The Queen must sit on the throne before it will work!"

"The Queen sits on the throne." "The fairies will hear the Queen's voice." "Only by establishing such a connection…" "Will the orders left by the goddess be displayed!"

"Sit on the throne?" Hao Ren frowned, and then a scene he saw in the illusion suddenly appeared in his mind.

On the crystal planet, there was an ancient palace. In the palace, there was a throne made of crystal. The figure suspected of being the Goddess of Creation sat on the throne and merged with the crystal…

Was that the true meaning of that illusion?

However, this question couldn't be answered by the fairies, because these muddleheaded little beans only knew these superficial information engraved in their souls. They only knew that the fairy race needed a queen, and this queen needed to sit on the throne—but specifically what the queen did and what the throne was for, they knew nothing about it.

They said the Queen herself should know these things.

"What can I know?" Vivian looked at Hao Ren with a wry smile. "My memory is fragmented."

"Then we can only hope that this crystal can tell us something." Hao Ren didn't force Vivian's memory, but turned to look at the crystal that was still emitting a faint light.

Obviously, it had "revived," which meant that the data terminal could interfere with it to a certain extent.

Perhaps the terminal still couldn't crack the deep secrets of the crystal, but it should still be feasible to read something from its surface.

While the data terminal began to deal with this crystal, Hao Ren prepared to go and see the wreckage fragments collected from the battlefield.