Man on the ark, forced to become king

So she hasn't even gone to the research institute these past few days, just wanting to enjoy a few more days of peace before trouble comes knocking.

Presumably, trouble will come soon—

hum-

The golden crystal hanging from the ceiling, serving as a chandelier, shimmered. Suddenly, Lin Lu appeared in the living room, her eyes meeting those of the doctor who was curled up on the sofa.

"Ha~"

The professor yawned again, casually placed the steaming water glass on the coffee table, and sat up straight.

It seemed that the movement had pressed down on her waist-length hair, and she frowned slightly, sighing, "You've come."

"Should I go over some lines with you?"

Lin Lu didn't stand on ceremony and sat down on the sofa. She picked up the kettle on the table, glanced inside, and said with disdain, "Why isn't there even tea? You're serving plain water to your guests?"

"Plain water is the healthiest. Besides, you're not really a guest, so you should be grateful that you have something to drink."

The doctor rolled his eyes, his face clearly showing his reluctance.

"You've arrived, and so has the trouble. My comfortable days are over."

"You've fallen!"

Knitted cardigan, plush pants, and that excessively young face—where is the image of the evil spirit from the Tower of Babel? She looks like a homebody who doesn't want to move at all; if you added a few comic books, she'd look even more like one.

Seeing her listless and dejected appearance, Lin Lu felt heartbroken and criticized her righteously: "Look at Kal'tsit, she never thinks about taking a break, she works diligently and conscientiously. And look at you, doesn't your conscience hurt!"

"If anyone's in pain, it's your conscience. I've fought half my life, can't I even enjoy myself?"

He spoke with such confidence that he shifted to the side, slumped onto the sofa like a limp rag doll, exuding an aura of utter laziness.

"I'm already an old man. You even want to pry off my coffin, which I use to prolong my life, and use it as a stove. What can I do?"

"Once the stone coffin is modified, this awakening will probably be the last time. Can't you have some pity on me, a dying man?"

"No."

Lin Lu glanced at her sideways, completely unmoved.

"You call yourself an old person? Even if you really are old, all that stuff about birth, aging, sickness, and death doesn't apply to me. The Golden Tree doesn't care about that."

"Don't tell me you're not dead yet. Even if you were dead, it wouldn't matter. You still have to get up and work."

"The stone coffin is gone, but don't you have the even better blessing of the Golden Tree?"

"As long as the Golden Tree is still here, death is not a thing for you. Even suicide won't work. Just stuff him into the furnace of life, and he'll come out jumping around right away."

Are you kidding me? You think you can run away once you're inside the Golden Tree? No way!

Even if you become a ghost, you still can't escape the work you're supposed to do!

Wow, you're really heartless!

The doctor was stunned for a moment before he realized what was happening, and his expression of despair was evident.

Oh right... she forgot that the Golden Tree is completely unreasonable. The rules of life and death are useless there. If the level of blessing is high enough, one can live forever. It's hard to die even if one wants to, so what's the point of having a stone coffin?

Doesn't that mean she has to work for the Golden Tree until the world ends?

That's terrifying; that's what a real life sentence is.

"Alright, alright, stop fooling around."

Seeing her feigned sorrowful expression, Lin Lu felt disgusted, stepped aside, and ended the conversation.

"In short, you are now a person of the Golden Tree in life and a ghost of the Golden Tree in death. Don't even think about running away! Immortality is something many people would kill for. This is your blessing!"

"alright."

The PhD student shrugged and resigned himself to his fate.

"What do you want me to do this time?"

"It's nothing, just your old profession, the way you coordinate wars. Otherwise, would we send someone as weak as you to the battlefield? The war between the Golden Tree and Hai Si will start soon, and you'll be in charge of logistics."

"Also, what do you know about Haisi?"

"My original profession is scientific research!"

The doctor glared at her, retorted with dissatisfaction, then sat up straight and recalled, "Hai Si... I'm not really sure either, but there was a similar research project back then, very similar to the Hai Si you described."

"This world is a cradle created by man. We place our last hope here and have developed several plans for it. Some have been lost to time, some are broken, and some are still in operation today."

"Experiment number DWDB-221E, the Black Crown, which we later called 'The Survival of Civilization,' the one that Theresa had, does it sound familiar?"

"The experimental project Montr is a very complex system that we call the 'Overseer Project.' It is related to the moon in the sky, and its manifestation on Earth is an entity that can live indefinitely, used to guide new civilizations—it is now called Kal'tsit."

"The experimental project Welkin, later renamed Project Sky, has a final product that can be seen every day—the sky above the world today."

"The Lateran terminal, they seem to regard that thing as a god? Actually, it was also part of the Black Crown, but some changes happened later, and it became an abandoned project, so it can only be considered a half-finished product."

"besides……"

"Wait, let me sort this out first."

Lin Lu stood up from the sofa, paced back and forth a few times, her brows furrowed into a knot.

Ever since he returned to the Golden Tree, he'd felt something was off, and now even the Doctor was behaving strangely.

I used to ask her questions, but I never got a straight answer. They were all vague riddles. Why is she suddenly acting like this today, spewing out all sorts of useful information like beans popping out of a bamboo tube?

A man-made world, a false canopy obscuring the sky, a black crown upon which the hope for the survival of civilization is placed, and Kal'tsit is actually an experimental product, responsible for guiding the progress of civilization?

Putting everything else aside, these few sentences alone contain an absurd amount of information.

What puzzled him even more was the doctor's sudden change in attitude, which seemed very strange no matter how he thought about it.

Why didn't you tell me these things when I asked you before?

"I'm only saying what can be said at this stage; what can't be said still can't be said."

The doctor shifted his body, finding a more comfortable position, and chuckled, "You can think of me as an NPC who issues quests. Only when you reach a certain progress in the main quest can you unlock the later parts of the story—okay, just kidding, but that's pretty much the idea."

"Your existence is an accident for this world. We didn't consider visitors from another world back then. But it doesn't matter. The Golden Tree is strong enough now, and you have the ability to deal with crises on the planet's surface. So this part of the data can be released. As for what's outside the planet, that's a real problem. I'll have to keep it to myself for now."

"If you're going to hold it in, then hold it in. You don't need to tell me. I don't know what was outside this world before, but now it's surrounded by old enemies like the Golden Tree."

"If you have too many lice, you won't feel itchy; if you have too much debt, you won't worry about it." Lin Lu doesn't care much about things outside the world. In fact, she thinks that big troubles outside might not be a bad thing.

The Outer Gods and the Supreme Will that followed from the border have not yet descended. He also found fragments of the Flame God in Sherag. What does this mean?

This suggests that those evil beings were likely attacked by something else after arriving in this world, leaving them unable to spare the energy to reach out into the world.

If the one who takes action is the 'big trouble' that the PhD is keeping to himself, wouldn't that just be dogs fighting?

Lin always welcomed such things; let them bite each other, preferably dying together, saving him the trouble and effort.

"Go on, focus on Haisi, let's solve the immediate problem first."

"Oh, then let's talk about Hai Si."

The doctor nodded, thought for a moment, and continued explaining the previous topic.

"I seem to have forgotten the specific experiment number, since it wasn't a project I led. Back then, we all called it 'Project Deep Blue'."

"The initial purpose of Project Deep Blue was environmental modification. Specifically, we created a completely new species with extremely strong reproductive and environmental adaptability, the ability to store and modify genes, and the ability to absorb various nutrients. In the established plan, when the environment of this world reaches a preset critical point, Project Deep Blue will be activated, releasing the stored gene pool. These organisms will then guide the harsh living environment in a beneficial direction, ultimately creating fertile soil suitable for survival and many organisms, allowing the barren land to return to its original cradle. Of course, the entire experiment is very complex, and its functions are not limited to these, so it cannot be explained in a few words."

"I'm not sure if the so-called Ocean Si is a product of Project Deep Blue. If it is, then the experiment has obviously failed."

"What should have been an environmental modification system gave birth to a truly sentient life. It deviated from the original experimental trajectory, strayed into an unknown direction, and regarded other life forms as enemies and nutrients. This should not have happened."

"You should know that it was designed to coexist peacefully with humans."

"However, if we find the core... perhaps you could think of a way to search for it on the seabed? After all, the original intention of Project Deep Blue was very good, and maybe we can even correct it."

"I'll consider this after I smash them all."

Lin Lu was somewhat dismissive of the doctor's statement. Before she was fully confident that she could completely control the Hai Si group, the purpose of this war should still be to destroy the race.

"Even if the Deep Blue Project has good intentions, it has now become an enemy of existing civilization, even wanting to devour all life as nourishment. In particular, it can even devour the life force of the Golden Tree, which is a hidden danger that must be eliminated."

"No matter the reason, I will not show mercy to a threatening enemy. Such things should either not be done at all, or they should be done to the extreme. Unless there is a way to completely control them, it is better for such things to disappear completely."

After hearing the doctor's explanation, and with Isamara's memories, he had already guessed why Haizi had changed his mind and abandoned his original intentions—it was most likely the result of the Agorians' own self-destruction.

But this doesn't mean he'll have any pity for Hai Si; what needs to be destroyed will still be destroyed.

Of course, the issue of Agor's reckless actions will also need to be addressed after the war. This has nothing to do with any lofty ideals like justice; it's simply because I don't like those guys.

Chapter 253 Three Hunters Come Ashore

“...I’m so sorry, Skadi, Laurentina.”

A tall figure stood by the window, and the golden behemoth, like a pillar supporting the sky, stood between heaven and earth, rising into the clouds. Its radiance shone down from the clouds, illuminating Skadi's dormitory and also onto Goredia's face.

Before going ashore, after discovering that she could not contact Agor, all she could think about was re-establishing communication with her homeland and returning to that underwater homeland.

But now, knowing the truth, even a general who has participated in countless battles finds it difficult to speak, especially... in front of his former subordinates.

The Deep Sea Hunters are a special force established by Agor through experiments on and modification of young people who either hate the Sea Heirs or have a strong will. They exist specifically to deal with the Sea Heirs. They are the high wall guarding the borders of the country and the sharp knife that can inflict heavy damage on the Sea Heirs.

Those young people stepped into the cruelest battlefields and experienced the most difficult battles at a young age. They should have been adorned with glory, and their achievements should have been recorded in the history of Agor for future generations to sing their praises—that's how it should have been.

However, none of that happened.