Chapter 79: Spiritual Monarch
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
“I’m afraid those four meteorites aren’t natural either.” Zhou Pingbo glanced at Heinrich’s increasingly serious expression, “Ika said that the trajectory of these meteorites could be traced back to the Kuiper Asteroid Belt, hundreds of which swooped down on Earth, most of which were shattered by gunfire from both fleets or burned up in the atmosphere. These four, however, were very precise in destroying four human relics.”
In addition to hitting the target, the launcher needed to calculate the likelihood of the asteroid being intercepted by the fleet, and it was unlikely that the directional missiles that could be made at the highest level of Imperial technology at the moment would be able to achieve such terrifying accuracy.
“What is the propulsion device?” Heinrich asked in a hushed voice.
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I mean,” Zhou Pingbo sighed, “no launch device was installed on the asteroid, they were pushed towards Earth by the anomalously shifting gravitational field, and our people didn’t know the technical principles of this alteration of the interstellar gravitational field, nor did they find any special equipment near the Kuiper belt.
“It was almost, almost as if there were eyes watching us, eyes with invisible hands to fluctuate the strings of cosmic gravity, and I was creeped out when I happened to think of ancient Earth physicists looking to the Almighty for the first push of the universe.”
Who is watching all this? Why did this “will” that can drive the stars destroy human remains when the Imperial expedition landed on Earth? What is it doing? Swearing sovereignty over Earth?
But there is no trace of interference by higher civilizations on Earth, and all the flames of the old civilizations have been turned to dust by the growth of everything. Or did the humans from the Einstein Galaxy just not see it?
Lin Xu pondered for a long time, saying, “If the new base at Snow Mountain is designed to the same specifications as the old base at the bottom of the lake, then the self-destruct sequence must be manually activated, with no remote control or internal trigger points for the base.”
The base self-destruct program was designed to meet the zombie invasion, all resistance to end in failure, the base leader would turn on the self-destruct device, with the zombie jade stone.
“This ‘hand’, is it on Earth?”
“I didn’t find any trace of it.”
Zhou Pingbo wasn’t comforted by Lin Xu’s comment, and not finding it was worse than finding it.
“But the specific target it chose to attack meant it must be related to ancient Earth humans.” Heinrich said, pulling up a video in terminal and projecting it in mid-air, the video footage left by the exoskeleton’s action recorder.
Heinrich jumped straight to the clip of the two men seeing the incubation chamber, when Zhou Pingbo suddenly made him stop and pointed to the corpse of the walker in the corridor that had been blown up by Lin Xu and Heinrich.
“What’s this? There are humans inside the base!”
“The living dead infected with the virus, we call them ‘zombies’.” Lin Xu explained.
Zhou Pingbo got closer to see, “They’re… already rotting?”
“Yes, a zombie is a corpse that can attack people.” Lin Xu said, “This virus is contagious and used to pose a great threat to human survivors, and plants and animals also mutated because they were infected with this virus.”
Zhou Pingbo felt a chill run down his back. When the video finally reached the connecting pod, Heinrich showed him a corpse soaked in green liquid, and Zhou Pingbo only felt the chill in his back intensify. “This is again…”
“The corpses left behind three thousand years ago, there were tens of thousands of them.” Lin Xu replied, “All the survivors in the base were here, and they walked in voluntarily.”
“What’s this? A can of euthanasia with preservatives?”
“They didn’t intend to kill themselves at first, but for three thousand years, the base’s energy was unsustainable and the instruments used to maintain the sleeping people’s vital signs all failed, so they died there.”
Lin Xu fished out Yan Yuan’s draft book in the backpack he brought along and handed it to Zhou Pingbo, “This is the medical manuscript of Yan Yuan, the head of the base, and it may be related to the corpses in these connecting pods.”
Zhou Pingbo carefully flipped through the yellowed and brittle paper, he hadn’t used paper products to take notes for a long time.
After a few pages, he could see something, “This man was doing neurological research, mainly on neural firing, and… spinal nerve control and sensory systems. It may be related to keeping the human body asleep, I have to spend some time to see more to draw conclusions.”
“By the way, you just mentioned that the virus is infectious, are those deep sea monsters also infectious?” Zhou Pingbo worried.
“There should be no other zombies on Earth… The zombie virus relies on blood and saliva to spread, and once infected, the transformation process will begin, and if anyone else comes across it, they will be shot in the brain immediately.”
Heinrich followed with, “How is the battle against the deep sea monster?”
Zhou Pingbo waved his hand, not so serious, “Those deep-sea monsters are mainly found in the tropical and temperate waters where food is plentiful, comparable to the giant Zerg in space. It’s just that the soldiers didn’t carry the mecha when they landed, so the cleanup was slow, and the protection and evacuation of the scientists was a bit tricky.”
“Hmm.” Heinrich nodded and looked to Lin Xu, “I’m going back to the Victoria to rearm against the unknown attackers.”
“I’ll stay here, I want to check the waters where the mermaid’s bones are.”
“Okay.”
Lin Xu fished another notebook out of his backpack, “Take it to Ika, see if he can decipher the code inside.”
–
After Heinrich left, Lin Xu said he wanted to go to the sea, but Zhou Pingbo stopped him and drew some blood for the mermaid gene comparison, adding, “The sea where the bones were found is near the equator, do you want to swim all the way there? Go rest first, and I’ll have someone prepare a flying machine to take you there.”
Lin Xu actually did not feel tired. After passing out in the ice cave, those white chocolate-flavored liquids were absorbed again. He remembered that Heinrich’s scales and blood had a subtle aroma of energy, so if that stuff also had a replenishing effect, Lin Xu accepted it well. The constant strain only gave him a headache and exhilaration, not yet a moment of sleepiness. But when Zhou Pingbo pushed him back to his room to rest, Lin Xu asked, “Did you force Marshal Chu to rest too?”
This question made Zhou Pingbo stare for a moment and then smile, “When he was a child, I told him that a child who stays up late cannot become a dragon. But now that he hasn’t become a dragon and is staying up late, I can only say that my story was wrong.”
Lin Xu was forced to lie down on his bed in a room where the light was in blackout mode, staring at the ceiling. Heinrich as a child… The image of the young Heinrich from the Star Ocean game immediately came to Lin Xu’s mind. Little Heinrich was probably a lively and mischievous child.
He tried to portray Heinrich’s current angular face as a child’s, and when he thought about it, he actually fell asleep quietly.
–
Upon returning to the Victoria, Honda Agana greeted him to report on the attrition of the fleet during the interception of the asteroid, and informed Heinrich that General Kalt wanted to speak to him. Heinrich told Honda Agana to tell Kalt that he would reply as soon as possible, and then to gather the fleet admirals, who needed a detailed report of the asteroid attack to rearm. After handing over the command matters, Heinrich walked straight to Ika’s workshop and handed him the notebook.
“Dr. Lin gave it to me?”
“Yes, this is a manuscript left behind by the ancient Earth people three thousand years ago, Lin Xu wants to ask if you can decipher the code in it.”
The code format on ancient Earth was very different from today, but it was a task given to him by Lin Xu, and Ika immediately replied, “I will do it.”
Ancient Earth manuscripts from 3,000 years ago… Was the Crown trying to tell him something?
Ika put down the task at hand and started to look through the manuscript, Heinrich turned to leave when Ruth’s voice suddenly sounded, “Marshal Chu, General Kalt has requested to board the ship, Captain Honda Agana has agreed. The general is calling your private line of communication, is it connected please?”
Kalt was so eager to see him? Heinrich put Ruth on the line, and Kalt’s serious square face appeared on the video screen.
“Marshal Chu,” Kalt said with a resounding voice, his eyes as sharp as eagles, bringing out many creases at the corners of his eyes. Ryan looked so much like him that Ika, behind Heinrich’s back, could see the figure on the light screen with a glance up, and for a moment he thought of this insignificant thing.
“Hello, General Kalt…”
Before Heinrich could ask what he was doing here on the Victoria, Kalt was the first to interrupt, “Marshal Chu, there’s something I’d like to interview you about.”
“Sure.” Heinrich’s tone was light, “General Kalt is in a hurry?”
“Very important,” Kalt’s breathing was unsteady, looking at the background he was speeding through the Victoria, “I don’t feel comfortable talking over comms, Marshal Chu, is there a signal shielded area on the Victoria?”
Heinrich and Kalt were the commanders of both fleets and held all the armed forces in the Solar System at the moment, what could possibly be going on that would require Kalt to be so vigilant?
“There is, Ruth will take you there, please follow her signposts.”
Heinrich then told Honda Agana to put off the general meeting and head to the signal shielded area to meet with Kalt first.
After Heinrich stepped into the room, Kalt had his adjutants and guards all leave the room, leaving himself and Heinrich alone.
“Please, be seated.” Heinrich changed back into a straight black uniform and reached out to invite Kalt, who was pacing back and forth with his arm behind his back, to sit down. It wasn’t obvious from the video, but face to face, he noticed that Kalt’s eyes were crawling with red blood, seemingly in a constant state of high tension, and the air pressure around him was even heavier, pulling his uniform tighter.
“Marshal Chu…”
“What did General want to talk about?” Heinrich looked cold, uninfected by Kalt’s anxiety, unable to see any emotion.
“Marshal Chu, I am a member of the Rememberers.”
Heinrich sat down in his seat and looked at Kalt flatly, the bombshell dropped between Kalt’s words failed to stir his face. This caused Kalt to calm down as well, leaning forward and resting his body against the table, “Marshal isn’t going to arrest me and escort me back to the Empire?”
Heinrich, “That’s not what you came to see me about.”
“No.” Kalt replied, “I wanted to tell Marshal that I know who used gravity to push the asteroid to attack Earth.”
Heinrich’s brow finally twitched, “This has something to do with you being a Rememberer?”
Kalt was born on Haven, later enrolled in Deep Blue Military Academy, after graduation, he relied on military merit all the way to be promoted to admiral, stationed in the border area of Dionysus Region, and accumulated a lot of prestige in the border area, as long as he did not expose himself, no one would associate him with the Rememberer organization. But now, he made a great determination to reveal his true identity, to justify what he was about to say.
“Yes, this matter is related to the history of the Ark fleet, and the promoter is called Spiritual Monarch.”
The two strange, meaningless words in Imperial went round and round in Heinrich’s mind twice.
“What’s the ‘Spiritual Monarch’?”
“I don’t know, some in the historical records guessed He was an electromagnetic wave creature, others guessed He was a consciousness body, and others thought that He could rattle the stars enough to be called a god. I am worried that He is here for revenge.”
