Chapter 976 (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A bright flash of light, and then the fabric of space snapped back to its original form. The Petrachelys appeared in the vast nothingness of outer space.
This was the border outpost of the drone swarm. The outpost, modified from a tiny planet hovered quietly at a distance. Compared to the last time they saw it, the outpost looked like it had seen some major upgrades. There were newly built space factories and connecting structures around the outpost. Watchtowers armed with picket cannons surrounded the newly built structures, guarding the wide area like lighthouses.
The ark fleet were docked within the perimeter of the watchtowers.
All the arks were in an idle state. Nolan had forcefully cut off the power source in these ships using external means to save fuel, and conducted some emergency reparation works in the meantime to replace the most heavily damaged engine parts and dimensional distortion generators until they could at least function normally. Petrachelys flew silently in space, and landed easily on the Royal Throne.
Katreina observed the arks outside from Petrachelys. This was not her first time in a spaceship, but she was still excited from the novelty of space travel. Besides, the massive arks outside filled her with great awe.
“The arks are bigger than I expected.” The Queen of the Sirens commented softly. “… They’re much bigger than Nasaton.”
For the two secretaries she brought with her, this was their first time in outer space. Those two sea snake ladies were simply dumbfounded, and failed to even notice that their tails were intertwining together.
Vivian gave Katreina a measured look. “You once built interstellar arks as well. Sirens from those early days can probably build these. Nasaton is not so different from these arks.”
The Queen shook her head in response, and sighed. “We lived a peaceful life today, but we lost our technology from olden days. The people on these arks owned an entire fleet of ships, but they lives had regressed to more primitive ways. We have fallen so low now, what use is there to speak of the past?”
“Nolan, get the engines of these arks warmed up.” Hao Ren tapped lightly on the control panel on Petrachelys. “Also, call Lorenz.”
The control panel lit up immediately, and then a tiny, palm-sized Nolan wriggled out from a gap in the panel. “Alright, alright, stop tapping, I was doing a systems check…”
Hao Ren was preparing himself for a formal call with Lorenz, but was shocked to see Nolan becoming so tiny. “You… What happened?”
“You’re asking me? Really?” Nolan looked up and glared at Hao Ren with her arms akimbo. “It’s all because of that massive spatial cargo hold plug-in that you downloaded into the ship’s mainframe. Our computation power was not enough, so I had to deactivate all non-essential systems and even my own resolution to squeeze out enough resources.”
Hao Ren was taken aback. Two seconds later, he realized that the “massive spatial cargo hold” was the one he requested from Raven 12345, meant to transport the huge ark that was over a hundred kilometers long to the Surface World. The so-called “cargo hold” was not actually a physical thing, but information that humans could not interpret. After downloading this information into the Petrachelys’ mainfrme, the ship would have a super huge cargo hold of a few hundred kilometers in diameter. Of course, sustaining a cargo hold of this size would consume a lot of energy from the Petrachelys, and that why Nolan came to be so tiny.
“Really, what’s the logic behind this…” Hao Ren stroked his chin and muttered while studying Tiny Nolan, who still had her hands on her hips. “Logic? Reducing my resolution can…”
“Not you. I meant the cargo hold.” Hao Ren carefully poked at the IDT. “Why did downloading a code into the mainframe alter the ship’s hardware?”
“It’s called the Upgrade Authorization Agreement.” The IDT expected the question from Hao Ren, and immediately began explaining. “Do you think ship’s hardware is immutable? The hardware always changes with the code. Every tiny part of this physical ship can be reassembled, and these structural changes are determined by the core software of the relevant systems, all of which operate in a layer above the mainframe. Basically, if there are code changes, your ship can physically assemble to any form, including but not limited to catapults and excavators, as long as the new physical form does not exceed the mainframe’s computation limit. So, if someone with administration rights offered a suitable blueprint, the Petrachelys will re-assemble and upgrade itself on the fly. That’s what I meant when I talked to you about ships installing plug-ins. Do you think all the Examiners line their ships up at the 4S shop whenever they want to install plug-ins?”
Hao Ren listened with increasing surprise. He always thought that the ships needed to go to some maintenance factory to perform their system upgrades. To think that these ships were so high tech — load a plug-in, and even the hardware gets an upgrade…