Otherworld Girl Development Guide

Upon hearing this, Queen Estée fell silent, carefully examining Zhou Mingrui as she pondered whether or not she should reveal some of her secrets.

"Young man, why do you want to know about mythology?"

"Because the Abyss Sea represents the future of Shangqiu. We emerged from the Abyss Sea, and even with our continuous exploration, we still don't fully understand some aspects of its deepest parts. However, we have established a foothold in the Abyss Sea and are gradually developing it..."

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Mingrui decided to "tell the truth".

"...If there really is some threat hidden there that we are unaware of, and if we can't stop it, the mainland won't be able to remain unscathed either."

Zhou Mingrui's meaning was simple: from a perspective of interests, an incident in the Abyss Sea would affect the mainland, illustrating the principle of mutual dependence.

Queen Estée hesitated for a moment, then said, "Never mind, you'll find out sooner or later, Corliss anyway..."

"grandmother?"

Corliss tilted her head to look at Queen Estée, who patted her head affectionately and said to Yuri beside her:

"...Yuri, please prepare some tea and snacks, and some black tea."

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Yuri turned and left the room.

"You...come with me."

After speaking, Queen Estée walked towards the reception room in the room, gesturing for the others to follow.

Chapter 226 Ancient Legends (Correction)

Once everyone was seated in the reception room, Yuri pushed in a cart and placed tea, snacks, and drinks in front of them.

He then closed the door and stood guard at the entrance.

"Who are they?" Queen Estée looked at Bell and Tio with a kind expression.

“They are my family, and also Corliss’s friends.” Zhou Mingrui meant that they were people he could trust.

Queen Estée looked at Corliss, and seeing that she did not refute, she picked up her teacup, took a small sip, and asked softly, "What do you want to know?"

"Regarding the goddess's most precious treasure..."

Although Zhou Mingrui himself had never seen the goddess's treasure, the old man had mentioned some information about it. The goddess's treasure was a creation of technology, and a high-tech creation with a level of technology far exceeding that of the present. At least with the current technology in Shangqiu, it was impossible to reverse engineer it.

Reverse engineering may sound easy, but if you don't have the technology, you can't reverse engineer it, and you might not even be able to understand the underlying technical principles.

"Regarding the goddess's treasures..." Queen Estelle put down her teacup, her eyes lost in reminiscence, and said, "...According to mythology, these are treasures bestowed upon humanity by the goddess to ensure human survival during difficult times. It is said that there are seven such treasures in total."

"STC module?"

"STC module, what is that?" the Queen asked with interest.

“Ah…” Zhou Mingrui organized his thoughts and said, “...The so-called STC is similar to an industrial mother machine, which can enable human pioneers on barren planets to maintain a standard level of technology.”

The Queen's eyes flickered for a moment before she continued, "Could you explain in more detail?"

"Yes, I'm not an expert on this. As I understand it, a complete and fully functional STC system is a high-tech computer that can provide colonists with various architectural details, allowing them to build efficient shelters, generators, and transportation vehicles using all available local materials, even without any prior knowledge..."

"...For example, users only need to ask how to construct houses and power-guiding devices, and the STC module can produce them as long as there are enough materials..."

Technology? It all comes down to archaeology. Those tech enthusiasts treasure STC like the back of their hand... cough cough, wrong topic. In short, STC is a manifestation of a civilization's comprehensive technological strength.

The Goddess Treasure from Shangqiu has a programmable 3D printing function, but it feels like the treasure is missing the most crucial part. It's like a complete computer has been disassembled, with the CPU, graphics card, memory, hard drive, and other sub-modules separated.

"So, I think maybe the goddess's seven treasures were originally one..."

As he spoke, Zhou Mingrui realized he had said too much and smiled sheepishly. In terms of theory, Tio and Lingdang knew far more than he did.

"That's right. In mythology, the original seven treasures were indeed one. However, in order to drive out the demons in the Abyss Sea, some of the treasures created by the woman were damaged, and some have disappeared."

"Your Majesty, we came from the Abyss Sea, and so far we have not seen any so-called 'demon,' only sea beasts..."

Of course, we may have seen the 'devil' before, but in the face of a 533mm or 650mm heavy torpedo, all beings are equal.

"Demons—I've never actually seen what they look like. But in the legends passed down through generations, demons are monsters that can freely travel through the sea and the air, greedily reaping the lives of the goddess's people..."

"...These demons were eventually defeated by the goddess and banished to the abyss, where they were buried in the bottomless abyss."

The old gentleman illuminated the mural on the wall with his flashlight. In the mural, octopus-like creatures floated in the air, using their tentacles to grab humans on the ground.

The ruins were discovered by the cult by chance and subsequently became the cult's top secret. There were no written records of them, only oral accounts passed down by the cult's leaders.

With a soft rustling sound, the assistant used a flashlight made in Shangqiu to dispel the darkness in the ancient stone path, and the two slowly walked down into the ground.

"My lord...is the legend true?"

An assistant beside him opened his mouth and asked. Ever since he entered an unknown ruin in the Krobel Autonomous State, the murals on the walls had almost shattered his worldview... But the good news was that since the master had allowed him to enter this ruin, it meant that he was very likely to become the next Grey Robe Elder of the Order.

"Of course... sometimes legends aren't just legends. The truth we seek is also related to the demons in the Abyss Sea, or rather, the truth uses the technology of demons." The old gentleman patiently explained.

"Then, sir, why have we come here?"

"Hehe... Of course, we're here to find what the demons left behind. They once came to the continent, and although most of their traces were erased by the goddess, do you think they might have secretly left something behind?" the old gentleman said mysteriously.

After speaking, the old gentleman walked down the ancient passageway into the ground. This place used to be a monastery, but no one knew that in the oldest documents, it was once a religious stronghold that worshipped demons.

As they went deeper, the murals on the walls became increasingly bizarre. A large group of humans knelt on the ground worshipping octopus-like creatures, and one by one, humans lined up to enter strange machines, while some overseers holding whips and dressed in strange clothes watched coldly.

After passing through a half-open stone gate, you enter an underground "city" filled with weathered black stone statues, each with a hidden and sinister symbolic meaning. Clusters of pitch-black stone buildings, exhibiting bizarre distortions of geometric laws, push the twisted and insane to the extreme.

"This is the trace left by the demons, one of the few underground cities that were not destroyed by the goddess."

After saying this, the old gentleman strode into the city.

The two walked through the empty city, the light from their flashlights dispelling the surrounding darkness. The strange, platform-like, overhanging buildings on either side were made up of countless layers of rectangular, circular, or pentagonal stone slabs stacked together.

The air seemed to resonate with ancient causes, and language could not clearly explain these extremely subtle emotions; they were more like some kind of vague psychological symbolism and aesthetic association.

The visual impact was softened, along with the ancient myths lurking in forbidden texts that should not be read.

The two followed the incredibly wide road in the center of the city and entered the building at the very center of the city.

"We've arrived. Here lies what we've been searching for: the demons' creations, divine machines..."

The assistant stared wide-eyed at the "monster" towering in the hall before him.

"Truth is supreme!"

Chapter 227 Scaring the Eagle

Zhou Mingrui lay on the bed in his hotel room.

Zhou Mingrui wrote a detailed report on the myths about Queen Estée and sent it to the old man... He kept recalling the myths the queen had told them, and some of the things he had learned were even beyond his expectations.

After tossing and turning for a while without being able to fall asleep, Zhou Mingrui got up from the bed, opened the door and walked into the living room. He sat on the sofa and stared blankly at the night view outside the window.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him. Zhou Mingrui turned around and saw Lingdang walking towards him with a quilt in her arms.

"Why aren't you asleep yet, it's so late?"

Lingdang walked over and sat down next to Zhou Mingrui, then lay down on her side on the sofa, resting her head on his lap, pulling the small blanket over herself, and closing her eyes, saying, "Hehe... Lingdang can't sleep, but Lao Zhou, you're not sleeping either~"

Zhou Mingrui stroked Lingdang's hair: "Are you going to sleep here?"

"Okay, I'll stay by your side for a while." Bell shrank back.

"Ok."

"Hmm~"

Looking at the bell that soon emitted even breathing sounds, Zhou Mingrui couldn't help but smile and shake his head, not wanting to wake her, and once again recalled Estée's story.

Thinking it over, Zhou Mingrui chuckled self-deprecatingly. He figured he should leave the professional matters to the professionals. The trade talks were tomorrow, and the Shangqiu diplomatic team was brimming with enthusiasm.

In a room on a high floor of the hotel, the diplomatic corps from Shangqiu were having their final discussions before tomorrow's trade talks.

Inside the Shangqiu Comprehensive Command Center.

A meeting is underway, attended entirely by bigwigs from Shangqiu.

"You've all seen the report sent back from Krobel, haven't you?" the old man said in a serious tone.

"I've seen it..."

"The content differs somewhat, but overall it still has some reference value..."

Mythology alone is not very convincing, but the combination of mythology and the goddess's treasure greatly increases the credibility of the myth.

"So, regarding the demons in the Abyss Sea, should we prepare as if they truly exist?"

Suddenly, the air in the small meeting room froze... as if a sword of Damocles was hanging over their heads.

Although the myth describes it as a demon, according to the analysis of the Shangqiu Professional Think Tank, it can be understood as a war between two civilizations.

However, it's quite unexpected that a planet could give rise to two civilizations, or perhaps one of them wasn't even a native civilization of Mingrui.

However, in battles between civilizations, there is no mercy or good and evil; everyone is fighting for the survival of their own civilization.

One is humanity, represented by the goddess. The humans on the continent are descendants of this civilization. Perhaps it was because of this war that the continent's orbal technology suffered a technological setback... However, just how powerful the technology was back then is clear from the orbal engines that could affect gravity.

The other side is another civilization. Judging from the description, they can travel freely between the ocean and the sky. Their origin should be the ocean. There may still be a few surviving groups who have retreated to the deepest part of the abyss to recuperate. And sea monsters, which do not conform to natural evolution, may be created by them through biotechnology, or perhaps they are food.

However, it's impossible to get the rabbit to give up the Abyss Sea. There's spiny crystal... grating stone... oil... copper ore... manganese nodules... marine fisheries... and water resources...

The Abyss Sea is full of treasures and is an indispensable part of China's fifty-year grand strategy. Unless things really get to the worst point, China will absolutely not give up the benefits in the Abyss Sea.

"If there really is a civilization in the deepest part of the Abyss Sea, is communication possible?"

One expert asked, "After all, if another civilization truly exists on the seabed of Mingrui Star, communicating with it would be the best option, to see what each side's demands are, and whether there is any possibility of peace. War would definitely be the last resort."

"I don't know, everything is unknown... But if we really follow the myths, the possibility of peaceful coexistence is not high, because the other side does not regard humans as equals."

After all, in mythology, the sea demons viewed humans as a resource, and the conflict between the two sides was almost irreconcilable.

It's roughly equivalent to a person suddenly appearing on Earth who captures humans, doesn't treat them as human beings, and uses them as "raw materials." The first thing the rabbit has to do is to do everything in its power to get rid of this thing.

"If that's the case, abandon illusions, prepare for struggle, and my heroic People's Army will surely defend the dignity of our motherland with our blood," the old man said resolutely.

"We're not at that point of crisis yet, but a proper increase in military equipment is necessary. As the frontline stronghold, the Xirang Base needs to be strengthened in terms of both weaponry and stockpiles..."

"...Shangqiu should also conduct corresponding military training and emergency evacuation drills, after all, it's a coastal city..."

"...Let the other side of the Earth ramp up missile production; it might also stimulate domestic demand..."

"Wouldn't this provoke the United States?"

"It's good to scare them a little. Things will be much better next year. Our Type 005 aircraft carrier and Pengkun-1 will be completed and put into service at an accelerated pace. Type 006 and Type 007 will be started at the same time. By then, our military strength will be further enhanced."