Colonia Storm Tour

Lin Haiyuan asked.

"The entire floating continent is not fixed to a certain surface of the planet. It will experience a clear alternation of day and night as Saturn rotates. Once it moves to the opposite side, we will face a night, and when it moves to the front, we will have day. Saturn's day and night cycle is only 10 hours and 36 minutes. We will experience a much faster alternation of day and night than on Earth."

According to data from Walker.com AI, the floating continent is in a state of darkness or day for an average of about 5 hours.

"Night and day have little impact on us. We have enough lighting equipment, night vision equipment, and detection equipment to find the guys hiding in the dark."

Lin Haiyuan didn't care about the difference between night and day.

Night and day are not obstacles for them; the only difference is that they need to configure and turn on some additional equipment.

"Our reconnaissance scans show that we did not find any place that could be directly sealed to the woman named Exile, but when we located more unusual force field generators, our scans seemed to have awakened the defense mechanism that this floating continent has been operating all along."

Besides multiple purplish-red lattice shields, Walker.com's AI markers indicated that these purple lattice shields almost completely covered the entire floating continent, something never seen before.

"This strange frequency energy field did not hinder any of our scans, but it exhibited extremely strong shielding properties. Our detectors and detection units were blocked outside the energy field and could not enter it. This is why our detection work was not fully carried out from the ground. Without ground reconnaissance, we could not confirm the accuracy of the signals and images transmitted back."

Fenfeng himself is an expert at this kind of thing, so how could he not be wary of similar tactics?

"Furthermore, the continental center point also presents the most significant interference to our scanning; all our satellites are unable to observe any information in that area from orbit. The continental center point with interference may contain the woman we are looking for who is sealed away as Exile."

It's as if the center of the continent, situated within the crack generator, has become a black hole on a radar map—a fog of war yet to be lifted.

"The presence of the upper energy field prevents us from sending probes into the region from orbit, but we have still found a passage, a path from mid-air to the center of the continent..."

Walker.com AI adjusted the perspective on the second small holographic projection to the perspective of the raven drone's detection equipment at the road entrance leading to the center of the continent.

The purple energy field, unevenly distributed, covered the ground and the airspace, proving that the defense mechanism of this floating continent had some problems over the long years. Although visitors could not directly land on a certain location on the continent from the orbit, they could come to the mid-air height of the floating continent and find a large breakthrough point to enter it.

"It seems this trip is indeed not so simple. Since these energy fields appeared after we scanned them, we may have to fight a good battle with the defensive weapons left behind by the ancient pioneer civilization or the guards left behind by the people who sealed that lady. However, since the advent of orbital landing, I have never thought that one day I would have to fight my way through on foot."

Lin Haiyuan rarely faced the possibility of having to fight his way through. In the past, when he was at the air base on the flank of Colonia, he did not have the ability to travel in space and had to fly there honestly.

"Our orbital strike weapons are expected to be unusable. Once inside, our Uranus satellite system will be unable to provide any orbital strike assistance, and even our GLONASS satellite system will be unable to provide truly accurate intelligence. Master, you need to think carefully before going in to find Ms. Exile."

Walker.com's AI cautiously reminded Lin Haiyuan.

"Even if something like the Athena device appears on the ground, giving our reconnaissance satellites a false impression, the GLONASS satellite system's reconnaissance can still provide considerable benefits to our movements. However, what worries me most is my intuition..."

Lin Haiyuan felt somewhat apprehensive when he saw the unknown energy core.

"Master, are you referring to?"

Walker.com's AI is unaware of what Lin Haiyuan is referring to.

"That was just my intuition. My intuition told me that we might encounter an unexpected enemy on the way..."

Lin Haiyuan frowned and said, "This is like a sinister omen."

"Master, is your intuition very strong? Should we just cancel this search for Ms. Exile?"

Walker.com AI asked, "If your intuition is too strong, it means there is a strong danger, and you should avoid it."

"Cancellation is unnecessary. It's not a strong intuition, but rather a vague feeling. As long as we remain extremely vigilant and careful, we should be fine. Does the Raven drone's reconnaissance end there?"

Lin Haiyuan wanted to further investigate the situation along that route to avoid any accidents.

"Our Raven drones detected nothing unusual during the first leg of the flight path; there were no camouflaged or stealthy objects nearby, nor were there any devices that could interfere with or deceive our satellites."

Walker.com AI responded.

"Okay, now send more Raven drones to that area to patrol and scan the first leg of the route to guard against any possible situations. Send dedicated reconnaissance drones to scout the second leg of the route before deciding whether to proceed."

Lin Hai originally planned to send more units to patrol the first section of the flight path to ensure that there were no malicious "natives" from outside the first section of the flight path who intended to ambush them.

"Yes, Master."

Walker.com AI responded.

As Lin Haiyuan requested, more Raven drones were teleported from the Colonia flank air base to the entrance and exit of the floating continent. The Raven drones were dispatched to keep a close watch on the boundary of the first flight path in case of any situation. They were operating on an extremely unfamiliar floating continent, and if they were not careful, they would encounter all sorts of trouble if they entered it without warning.

Once inside, the chaotic gravitational field signals within hinder the normal warp-out process, making retreat far from easy.

Once enough Raven drones have been teleported into the first segment of the floating continent to perform patrol and surveillance missions, WalkerNet AI will stop the time-space teleportation of reconnaissance drones into the area.

If you want to launch a reconnaissance drone, it's more convenient to wait until the Colonia flank air base is close to the "hole" before launching the reconnaissance drone to fly into it for reconnaissance. This applies to both launching and recovering the reconnaissance drone.

These reconnaissance drones and the reconnaissance drones used by the network core have undergone different modifications. They no longer use the cyclone engines used in space, but instead use common plasma propulsion engines to navigate in space and the atmosphere. They also fly at higher speeds than when using cyclone engines and are equipped with more advanced reconnaissance equipment, enabling them to detect camouflaged or cloaked objects at high speeds, as long as their camouflage or cloaking methods are not beyond common sense.

Therefore, deploying reconnaissance drones is much more convenient than deploying the slightly slower Raven drones, as they can complete battlefield scans more quickly and avoid potential threats as much as possible thanks to their high speed.

There will only be one update today.

The unknown energy core is something found in the Fallen Empire and ancient tombs. When I first saw its color, I thought it was something from a higher-dimensional demon...

It seems that the only thing the stars haven't done is shatter the "abort" virtual world of the Holy Guard.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Vanishing into the Void (VIII)

Theme song: Nine Realms - Black Ice 9

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The entire fleet tactically warped to the opening where the energy field coverage was incomplete, and Colonia's flank air base immediately launched multiple reconnaissance drones into the opening.

Every point along the first route has been thoroughly monitored by the Raven drones. The fact that the Raven drones have not detected any unusual activity indicates that the area along the first route is temporarily safe. As for the second route, which has not yet been explored, we do not know what will happen.

Reconnaissance drones, identical in appearance to Apollo fighter jets, gained extremely high speeds from the green exhaust plumes of their tail plasma thrusters and entered the cave one after another.

Once inside, all the reconnaissance drones were grouped in column formation and flew together to ensure that the airborne scanners had no blind spots or omissions.

Because they are still within Saturn's atmosphere, when the reconnaissance drones fly in formation at high speed, you can hear not only the roar of their engines but also the screeching sound of other aircraft passing by at high speed.

On the holographic projection that Lin Haiyuan saw, bright white grids appeared in the areas scanned by the reconnaissance drone, indicating that they had been scanned by the airborne detector.

However, the reconnaissance drones are currently scanning only the first segment of the flight path, so naturally they won't find anything unusual, as the Raven drones have already scanned it once.

The main event was the scanning of the second route. The reconnaissance drone, with a speed exceeding Mach 6, quickly crossed the boundary between the first and second routes and entered the range of the second route.

The mystery surrounding the second air route has been gradually unveiled, and the images captured by the reconnaissance drones have been transmitted back to the air base on the flank of Colonia.

In the slowly playing video images, Lin Haiyuan initially saw the same scene he had seen on satellite scans, but after a few seconds, it changed.

Many "people" with the same characteristics appeared. These people looked very strange. Their arms, legs, feet and heads were not directly connected. Their bodies were all blue, except for three large eyes that radiated blue light on their heads, which looked like long leaves. They gave people a very ominous feeling.

"Holy crap, why are higher-dimensional demons here?!"

Lin Haiyuan recognized what those "people" were at a glance, because their strange and incomplete appearance made them undoubtedly high-dimensional demons (Shabanash)!

"Communication signal detected on a public channel. The signal is unencrypted and its source is suspected to be within the object you, Master, refer to as a higher-dimensional demon. Do you wish to connect?"

Walker.com AI asked.

"On my command, prepare to cut off communication. Be aware of potential intrusions through the communication signals. Once communication is established, let me hear what these high-dimensional demons say besides cannibalism."

Lin Haiyuan was neither an idealist fool nor a pacifist, so he wouldn't ask questions like whether higher-dimensional demons came from the virtual realm or whether they could be peaceful.

If you are an idealistic empire in the game and you get involved with a high-dimensional demon, there is a dialogue option that asks, "Are you from the Void Realm?" The high-dimensional demon's answer is intriguing: "The Void Realm... I know, it's very close to our homeland." It's interesting that the high-dimensional demon's background has similarities to the Void Realm.

"Connection in progress..."

After WalkerNet's AI voice passed, a strange voice filled with many indistinguishable radio noises appeared.

"Coming here... was incredibly foolish, humans..."

It is worth noting that this higher-dimensional demon speaks in proper English.

"Then what are you lowly, hunted high-dimensional beings doing here?"

Lin Haiyuan said dismissively.

The high-dimensional demon on the other end of the communication was silent for a while, seemingly surprised by Lin Haiyuan's words that revealed the secret and was in a state of mental confusion.

Why would a lower-level three-dimensional being know these things about us? This isn't something those short-sighted three-dimensional beings would know, unless…

"Psionicist"

The higher-dimensional demons quickly found the answer: the possibility of being a psionicist alone was enough to explain everything.

"You know a lot... arrogant human... you should have been to... the Void Realm..."

The high-dimensional demon who spoke with Lin Haiyuan could only imagine that it was the almost omnipotent virtual realm.

The existence of the virtual realm can provide that kind of knowledge because the virtual realm and the dimension they live in can be said to be neighbors. That is the only way to understand them, if these human ships have not entered their dimensional world and are still conscious enough to record their operations.

"So, what else do you want to say? Higher-dimensional beings."

Lin Haiyuan questioned, as he had no idea why the other party had initiated the conversation.

“There’s nothing here that you’re looking for… We’ll deal with you… You know too much… Then we’ll devour everything about you… We’re starving…”

The communication from the higher-dimensional demon was not yet over; his appetite was palpable in his words.

As for how higher-dimensional demons feed, that's another topic altogether, since these things don't seem to have anything that looks like a mouth on their bodies.

“I’m here to kill you and devour you, you’re not even worth a son of a bitch.”

Lin Haiyuan made a chop gesture with his right hand and then swung it down. Walker.com's AI saw the gesture and immediately cut off and blocked the communication, ensuring that it would not respond even if it was received.

There's no point in continuing this blatant attempt to cover up the truth; the next step is to see who can eliminate whom first.

Kill them and devour them to ensure our shelter's location remains hidden. This is a life-or-death battle to satisfy our hunger. The hunt begins. Don't let these prey escape alive to deliver the message to the psionic empire they represent...

As the blue high-dimensional demon pondered this, it also gave an order—it was common knowledge that traveling to and communicating with the illusory realm required a large number of psionic beings to perform rituals, something the high-dimensional demons also knew. Just like the worlds they had visited, there were numerous jump signals and psionic jump signals, which were all bait and coordinates to lure them there.

During the conversation, when many individual blue high-dimensional demons appeared in the reconnaissance drone's field of vision, they did not actively attack the passing reconnaissance drone, as if they understood that their weapons could not hit the high-flying and fast-moving warplanes.

The blue, high-dimensional demon, appearing as a lone soldier, wields a variety of ranged weapons, each of which appears strangely incomplete in relation to its owner.

That is, the various parts of a long-range weapon do not appear to be actually connected. It is unclear whether the parts that connect them are invisible to humans who can only observe in three dimensions, or whether they are fused together by some ethereal energy so that they do not fall apart when swung or fired.

These blue, high-dimensional demons, who looked like marines, did not fire, but the defensive structures around them had already opened fire. First were those strange, silver-gray turrets that looked like they had very thin armor. These turrets were strange because they were shaped like the heads of high-dimensional demons lying flat, except that they had decorations that looked like bull horns.

The high-dimensional demon defense turret, with its "piercing electric eyes," didn't unleash a dazzling barrage of energy projectiles when it attacked. Instead, it fired inconspicuous "gray ripples" at hypersonic reconnaissance drones. The dense gray ripples attacked the passing drones like an anti-aircraft barrage. These gray ripples seemed harmless, but the damage they caused was actually terrifying. It was a weapon that applied the principles of five-dimensional energy manipulation on a low-dimensional plane, with a very simple and unpretentious name: Matter Decomposer.

This is an energy weapon that can effectively penetrate armor and shields. It can be said to cause effective damage to any type of target, unlike most other weapons that are at a disadvantage or simply powerless against armor or shields.

Amidst the dense gray ripples, the high speed and agility of the reconnaissance drone played a crucial role. Thanks to its speed and small size, the reconnaissance drone evaded the attack of the matter decomposer and continued to move forward, avoiding all the attacks from the matter decomposition waves.

At this moment, the large defense platforms began to emerge as if "awakening from a dream." These large defense platforms were like a high-dimensional demon inserted into and fused with the base. Multiple bright blue beams of light instantly illuminated the sky like a light show. These beams were shot out from the three "eyes".

Even faster-than-light particle (tachyon) beams are meaningless if the weapon system cannot accurately aim at the target, but barrage fire makes up for this shortcoming, instantly destroying some of the advancing reconnaissance drones in the bright blue flash of the dimensional beam.

The reconnaissance drones directly hit by the dimensional beams had no chance of crashing; they were instantly blown up in mid-air. The explosions from the destroyed drones added a brief burst of fireworks to the light show.

"These higher-dimensional demons have also established a land-based array of dimensional beam emitters. Interesting."