Chapter 985 Sounds of Yesterday (2/2)
Or indeed… Legacies!
”The mystery is solved!”
***
It had probably been a dozen hours without a single change in the subterranean scene. A long period of time later, Galanoud finally opened her eyes—the gaze of the Nature Magister was bright as she delightedly held her scepter aloft. ”I now understand its intention in spreading the plague!”
”Even though the Ultimate Virus resembles a virus and an epidemic, that only scratches the surface. Its true function simply brings about those insignificant side effects as well, and that is why it is so lethal and infectious!”
”Its creator basically wants to leave a legacy by increasing its brethren through the virus—in other words, reproduce!”
One could see that the Nature Power spell which was binding the core of the Ultimate Forage had shattered with a bang, reduced to sporadic fogs of energy beneath the surface. Even so, the milk-white root bundle that was covered in green roots remained motionless under the full control of the Nature Magister's full control. Now, having generally deciphered the legacy of the Ultimate Virus from its core and the information left by the raw Ultimate Virus, Galanoud turned to tell Godard excitedly, ”My initial decrypting of the external information about the Ultimate Virus basically confirms that the creator and disseminator of the Ultimate Virus must be attempting something very dangerous…perhaps, it believes that it has absolutely no chance of surviving that particular undertaking, that it would be something that left the creator with no future!”
”Still, it must do it regardless and thus, before assuming that path of no return, it would procreate or indeed spread its seed! To a certain extent, it was spreading its own legacy by force!”
”In turn, the alleged infection was actually the Ultimate Virus altering its hosts, adapting them to maintain its own legacy—most dead bodies are failures eliminated since they would be lacking in essence, energy storage, innate talents, or indeed adaptability. Failures certainly would not befit the power of the disseminator, and it certainly won't do as its children!”
”However, if adaptation was successful and substantial energy was available to complete basic Ultimate growth, the host would ascend directly as a special younger form of the disseminator, along with the legacy it had deliberately inscribed into the microscopic structure of the Ultimate Virus! That way, those who had gone through the Death of the New would be freed from race and identity to become a progeny of that superior being!”
”It's no wonder that some of the Ultimate Entities with intelligence appear so bizarre… it must be some legacy restraint. Firstly, Supreme individuals would not be infected, but cases in those below supreme and lacking in physique result in complete self-ruin—that is how the virus has appeared so lethal.”
At that, the Nature Magister made a sour face and frowned. ”I haven't decrypted what the legacy actually is since its encryption is simply too advance, and neither the environment nor tools here are ideal…if I could borrow the Mana Net and our civilization's strength like Radcliffe to decipher it, progress would be so much faster…”
”Hold on, Aydril. You mean to say that the virus is actually some sort of legacy?!”
Godard was very much left gaping at the Nature Magister's analysis. He looked up beyond the tunnel beyond the world plagued in hurricanes, seemingly seeing the other colonies which had been reduced to dead cities in surrounding sectors by the Ultimate Virus, and was left bewildered. ”It has killed trillions—and perhaps a hundred times more across this cosmos! But now you're telling me that it is neither curse nor plague, but the reproduction process of some superior being?!”
”That is certainly the case.”
The Elven Archdruid narrowed her eyes while her pointed ears twitched slightly—she looked around her at the magma fracture filled with craters and caverns due to the Ultimate Forage's erosion, and solemnly said, ”The truth is always so simple. That superior being simply does not concern itself with whether normal lifeforms survive, just like how we don't care about the insects or bacteria killed when we burn forests to develop lands for farming… Even so, I have seen through its essence and would completely decipher its fundamental attributes in half a month. Then, I could start attempting vaccination to completely stop any effect that the Ultimate Virus would have on intelligent lifeforms.”
Galanoud sounded pleased and even a little happy. After all, their plan was a great success: they had captured an Ultimate Entity and obtained information of its essence, even uncovering the disseminator's true purpose, which was to create legacies and progenies.
”Wait!”
Soon, however, Galanoud's pleased expression changed at once. ”That's not right!”
Her scepter dropped from her grasp, and the Nature Magister's calm expression became panicked. ”No! If all of this is true…if the information that I have received is not wrong…”
”If there really is a certain superior being, a powerful intelligence that is leaving a measure to create progeny and sustain its legacy, there is no reason that it only spreads in the form of a virus!”
Those words jolted Godard, who appeared relaxed with a perfectly accomplished mission as well. The Murloc High Priest pondered for a moment, before his face turned as well. ”That's not good! You're right!”
”The epidemic is simply the fastest way. That superior lifeform would not care if the other creatures survived, but that does not mean infection is the only crude measure it could apply… there are simply too many embodiments of legacies!”
It could have been a ritual, a crystal, a recoding, a paragraph of text in a book—or even a song or voice conducted through the air!
Perhaps, it could even have been some reckless prophesizing in which someone was inspired to randomly open a dimensional passageway to distant realms, causing otherworldly information to swarm at them…and cause an irreversible epidemic!
As long as sufficient information was contained to form a vivid image towards the world, an undetectable subspace vibration would have been enough, much less some virus—like how the Seven Gods and Radcliffe had concealed those presences, with sufficiently complex information produced, a legacy could be created out of nowhere to infect other lifeforms!
”We have to take precautions against all unknown information that has to with foreign worlds, and not just epidemics or viruses!”
Sharing a glance, both Galanoud and Godard reached the same conclusion at the same time. Their expressions were somber, and the Nature Magister soon said quietly, ”The Mycroft headquarters must be notified.”
”Even if the dangerous plan is a success, the steady plan must continue as well! Before the epidemic is completely stopped, we must never let our guard down!”
Although their theory was correct, it had come too late.
It had been dozens of days ago, even before the Ultimate Virus showed signs that it was close to Mycroft's otherworld colonies. A Void recon ship had been recalled under emergency summons by the Imperial External Exploration Department to avoid venturing too far and the possibility of getting caught by the plague and hence being lost.
The recon ship had certainly not encountered the epidemic or any form of virus, with every record indicating that everything was normal.
However, the External Exploration Department had still disinfected it completely from the inside out over a dozen times before retrieving the vessel, with the explorers assigned to the ship essentially changing bodies to ensure there was absolutely nothing lurking within.
After the disinfecting procedure that was virtually murder, the recon vessel was finally cleared as safe. In the Void base which had been taken back to the Void installation in a certain otherworld, the External Exploration Department began extracting the in-built data vault inside the ship to complete the Multiverse charts of Mycroft.
Even so, what lay within those data vault had not merely been the topography of the Multiverse and the distribution of worlds… within them were also the many exchanges with Void civilizations they had encountered, along with records of any special information, wavelengths, and dimensional turbulences within the Void.
And in that seemingly ordinary data vault of sound frequencies, venom known as a legacy that had never been discovered lurked.
”Analyst no. 531 now recording and commencing dissection task.”
In the Zeta Ram system, the Void base headquarters of the Mycroft civilization which was set up in the Multiverse in the Zeta Ram system, an elven analyzer was primly turning on his Information Terminal used for work, adjusting the screen to begin his daily tasks. He would analyze the substantial information that appeared trivial inside data vaults and extract valuable details, such as communications transmitted faraway from special worlds or Void phenomena, or simply exchanged wavelengths which had been lingering around in dimensional turbulences over countless worlds.
Today was no different than any other: there was nothing special, the temperature of the Void base was optimal, breakfast was scrumptious, the night life of the day before rich—the analyst smiled as he recalled the rounds of passion, but that did not affect his work. He steadily entered the passcode and entered the data vault, adjusting information and began his browsing analysis tasks.
”Time: 29th of March, Starfall year 848. Commencing study of the data vault from inside the Void recon vessel, Dawn.”