Chapter 250: The World of Prayers
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The glorious sun shone on the Dawnbreak Island after the disaster. The crumbled, cracked city would probably take a long time to fix, and the giant engine that had been completely scrapped needed an even longer time to repair. The thrilling tumble from the previous night brought the island an unprecedented short night and a hasty dawn. All the institutions of the city were forced to operate at high power, treating the wounded ones and repairing key, damaged equipment. The only good news now was that the casualties were not as serious as they would have imagined. The areas where collapse and cracking occurred were mostly marginal or too old where resident numbers were limited. Also, the earthquake-resistant design of the city itself made it hold on for a long time at the beginning of the tremors. So, the citizens had ample opportunity to take refuge in the more stable central district of the floating isles.
Clouds of dust and smoke, which had not dispersed overlooked the city from a high altitude. The dome had entered a state of traffic control. Only engineering airships or levitating cars that performed the most urgent tasks were flying in the sky. While in the streets below, the citizens were all in a state of order: they spontaneously rescued all those who needed help, and queued up for supplies that had just been salvaged from the collapsed warehouse. They also voluntarily declared if they had been injured in the disaster, and how much their injury would affect their labor capacity. There was no confusion, no complaining, and not even a little glimpse of gloom on the elves' faces. They organized themselves in a surprising manner. The disaster was sudden, but everyone in the city appeared to have rehearsed it many times.
Several big shadows were projected on the dome. They were of the large transportation ships sent from the other floating isles. These bulky ships were quickly completed at the time of the Dawnbreak Island explosion. Presently, the ships brought the elves valuable medication and additional air filters, which were essential: the air in the dome relied on purifying equipment buried in the ground and around the hoop. However, the explosion caused some damage to them. Now, the smoke and smog in the city had to be removed as soon as possible. They could only rely on external devices.
Hao Ren and Hilda were standing on an open balcony atop the tower of the Royal District. Hilda was meditating while Hao Ren was peering at everything in the city using his extraordinary eyesight. He expressed admiration for the elves' reaction to the disaster.
Vimm stood silently behind them.
"My people have gotten used to this kind of thing. Seventy years ago, when the Isle of Serenity disintegrated, they saved the most important resource warehouse on the island with great calmness. About a tenth of the city's citizens were survivors of that disaster," Hilda said softly, "and, more and more floating isles are approaching their limits. The Assembly of Technology is trying to repair some of the dead floating isles that have been extinguished, but the progress has been modest."
Hilda looked exhausted. She had been under the greatest pressure in the last few hours. After a quick meeting with the Assembly of Elders, she began to command refuge and rescue. When the floating isle tumbled and the city began to crack, it was Hilda who allocated evacuation plans for each city. She also came up with the asylum plan at the royal area. After the propulsion unit was completely destroyed, she cooperated in directing the work of stabilizing its floatation: This queen was not just an authority giving orders, she was also an expert in all technical parameters of the floating isles. Now that everything was settled, she did not listen to her bodyguard's advice to go back to rest. Instead, she brought Hao Ren to the open balcony atop the tower, overlooking the whole city.
"This is our current status."
Hao Ren was still looking for the best solution for the elves of Aerym. He already had a few ideas, but still needed to wait for the MDT to confirm which one was the most feasible. Before that, he carefully asked Hilda a question, "If I had the power to get you out of this mess, how much would you be willing to pay?"
Hilda turned her back to the edge of the balcony and spread her hands in despair, as if her whole body would melt under the dome's skylight. She then said, "You can see what we have left. You can take away anything you need. As long as you can help my people live a better life and let them have a real sky like other species have, you can take away everything you see here."
Hao Ren hurriedly explained, "Come on, please, do not think this way. It is easy to misunderstand—I am not blackmailing you or anything. I am trying to help you as a friend, but to be honest, I cannot do it alone, and my ship is just five hundred or six hundred meters long. So, I may need help, and those helpers will be not free."
Hilda paused for a moment and said, "I still have the same words for you. We have no other things. There are no resources in this place. What we have in our hands are just like stones in the eyes of higher civilisations. All we have left is our own labor, but that does not seem to be a valuable thing."
"Forget it. Let us not talk about this first." Hao Ren was scratching his hair, feeling that the problem was becoming more and more difficult, "Rather, first—"
While he was talking, he saw an elf running out from a small door. The elf then knelt down in front of Hilda and said, "Your Majesty, the results for the rough scanning of the World of Prayers are out. We are unable to find Sir Cardillon."
While speaking, the elf handed a rolled document to Hilda with both hands. Hilda took the document and quickly skimmed through it. Then, she frowned and said, "Somebody has hacked into the main memory... They infiltrated it so thoroughly. Notify Eccalom, temporarily close the three auxiliary memories of the World of Prayers, and at the same time, strictly review every application for uploading... Temporarily ban the citizens of the Isle of Prismatic Lights from entering the World of Prayers. The extra rations they consume will be covered by the Royal Repository."
After the elf herald left, Hao Ren asked curiously, "What actually is the World of Prayers?"
Hilda sighed and explained, "Actually, this trouble is not your concern... But, I can let you know. The World of Prayers is a virtual world, established by my predecessor. It has been running for more than 2,000 years, and now it is where we place souls. It is also a special testing ground."
Hao Ren immediately thought of a lot of things, and he knew his guesses were pretty close.
"At the beginning, it was built for scientific research," Hilda slowly explained. "You know our supplies are very limited, we cannot afford to waste them. The failure of certain big experiments meant a cold winter for the whole of Aerym society every single time. So another queen, more than 2,000 years ago, supported by the Assembly of Technology, created a virtual environment called the World of Prayers. Running on a giant server, it was designed by the most excellent magic scholars and astrologers. It is our last big, technological achievement. The World of Prayers simulates the stellar system of Aerym: it has a sun, a planet, which totally simulates the homeland we lived in, and it has entered every rule of the world that we know. It is extremely accurate, down to every grain of sand. A lot of restrictions on the microcosm were added during later stages. The world imitates reality as far as possible in order to carry out all kinds of large-scale experiments, without the use of material resources. The Assembly of Technology was hoping to find a viable way to travel to other stellar systems under Aerym's resource constraints in the World of Prayers. And, they did get some positive results at the beginning: some of the ships we are using now were simulated, tested and verified in this way."
"However, things were of course not as smooth later on." Hao Ren was able to guess that there had to be a plot twist in the latter part of the story.
Hilda nodded. "That is right. The World of Prayers imagined everything perfectly, but the technology needed to travel millions of light-years away to other stars was more rigorous than we thought. We had to fully master the truth in order to create a virtual world that was exactly the same as reality, or else, it would just be an imitation no matter how close it was. There are many unknown mysteries in this universe, and it is impossible for us to speculate in this little cradle. Even some scholars speculate that the mathematical structure of the universe is not necessarily contiguous and that the law of Aerym's stellar system is not necessarily applicable elsewhere. Or perhaps, there is at least a deviation of several decimal points. Also, many other types of technology will be affected by the microcosm when they develop to a certain extent. No matter how precise the World of Prayers is, it is impossible to depict microscopic parts. We can only keep adding patches, and this is not enough. Anyway, after hundreds of years of hard work, the FTL engine made in the World of Prayers created a huge explosion in reality, causing two floating isles to vanish in the explosion. After that, the enthusiasm for the World of Prayers project faded. The bold and talented queen became depressed, and eventually died."
Hao Ren knew that the story was not over yet.