Millennium Witch

Yvette walked over and saw a luxurious notebook that had not yet been corrupted. It contained information written in the Black Tide language, but Rosalyn, being semi-illiterate, could hardly understand it.

Picking up the notebook, Yvette glanced at the words on it, her pupils contracting slightly.

“I am Athene Omega, CEO of Black Tower Medicines’ Ish City branch, and Vincent Omega’s granddaughter. This is my will.”

"If anyone who comes later can enter here and see this letter, it means that the world has not been destroyed, and I must clarify something for you here."

“I swear by the honor of the Omega family that the ‘divine transformation’ of the Abyss Base remains preserved at the bottom of the Divine Corruption, without being leaked. We are not the sinners of the world.”

"The true source of the anomaly is the sea!"

A more fitting codename was chosen.

Chapter 43 It Came Alive

"Aiselin Omega? That chairwoman?" Rosalyn covered her mouth in surprise after hearing the teacher read the words aloud.

In her dream, she saw that woman, on the large television screen in the Wright apartment. Etherine, dressed elegantly, sat gracefully on the stage of a charity event, passionately raising funds for local orphans. Her speech was incredibly moving; her eyes welled up with tears as she spoke, bringing tears to Rosalind's eyes as she watched on television.

Although her impression of Black Tower Medicine worsened during her time in Blackwater, it did not prevent her from having a relatively good impression of Etherine.

After all, in a sense, she and Etherine were both noble ladies, of similar social class, and both had a lot of kindness and sympathy for the lower classes. If someone attacked Etherine for being hypocritical and putting on a show, she would immediately empathize and feel very uncomfortable.

—Of course, this is on the premise that Aceline is really a good person.

Yvette hummed in agreement, not surprised. If the apocalypse were to suddenly descend, the Abyss Base, hidden in the crater lake, would indeed be a natural refuge. As the CEO of the Black Tower Ish branch and the "granddaughter" of the ruling family of Black Tower, Ms. Aetherine certainly had the right to seek refuge at the Abyss Base.

The real core lies in the last two sentences.

What is the "divine metamorphosis" at the bottom of the Divine Erosion? It sounds like it's related to "gods." Could it be a transcendent existence that even Black Tower Medicine cannot comprehend, so only the word "god" can be used?

The anomaly originating from the sea suggests that the mutation began in the ocean? And when it finally spread to the land, its sheer scale led to the destruction of the original civilization?

The possibility is not small... The reason she is hesitant to cross the sea is because the ocean is a super poison vessel, too dangerous. Who knows what kind of super-large mutant is hiding in it, capable of taking down a child in one bite.

She continued flipping through the pages and found that there was nothing more. In other words, the last words left by Ms. Etherine before her death were only this pitiful little bit; nothing else that should theoretically appear in her last words was found at all.

Therefore, proving her family's innocence was her only obsession before her death.

Yvette put down her notebook and then glanced at Rosalyn, who was rummaging through drawers like a thief—no, a little detective, with great interest.

Then, she pulled a heavy file folder from a dark corner. Most of the documents inside were rotten and moldy, but some fragments were still barely legible. She carefully selected a few pages with barely legible handwriting and handed them to the teacher.

Yvette took it, read it aloud, and translated it for Rosalyn.

"Experiment Log F#933, August 9, 2146, the sixth phase of the Immortality Project is nearing completion, summary of results."

"Recorder: Leo Klaus".

"...(blurred)...success rate: 33% (see attachment for details), a significant increase of 14% compared to the fifth phase of the project."

"The new generation of the Transformation Elixir Type 7 greatly improves the success rate."

"Note: Dr. Dillon Dempsey has recovered his mental state and is able to return to continue leading the experiments."

"Request: Expand experimental permissions and quickly launch Phase 7."

Board of Directors' Approval: Granted.

Undoubtedly, this experimental log reveals far more information than Ms. Etherine's suicide note, leaving Yvette stunned for a while before she could extract the noteworthy details one by one.

August 2146, 8?

She clearly remembered that when she first entered the dream and woke up as an orphan in the Abyss Base, the date was 2125. The year before that was the time when she came into contact with the Hoffman family during her second dream.

Therefore, this report was produced 21 years after the original owner first participated in the metamorphosis project?

For 21 years, the end of the world did not come.

The new terms "Project Immortality Phase 6" and "New Generation Metamorphosis Potion Type 7" immediately reminded her of her own uniqueness and the drug she took when participating in the Metamorphosis Project.

However, the drug she took back then was the Metamorphosis Potion Type II, but here it's referred to as "Type VII"... Is this the product of an iteration?

Could it be that Project Metamorphosis is just a front for Project Immortality? Is conquering genetic diseases a cover story, and researching immortality the real goal?

My seemingly immortal body is a successful product of this plan.

But if that's really the case, why was I the only one who survived until the end of the world?

Is it like the American moon landing, where the path to success is unfathomable and unreplicable, so that even someone like Ms. Etherin, the granddaughter of a Black Tower pharmaceutical tycoon, can only watch helplessly as she awaits death, aside from herself?

So, a 33% success rate... could it be some kind of immortality potion? That sounds pretty high...

Thinking about this, and still puzzled, Yvette's gaze fell on the name "Dilron Dempsey" again.

She knew the name because the female doctor who took care of her during her first dream, "Tabitha Clovis," was a student of Dr. Dillon.

However, Dr. Dillon did not seem to be in charge of the Metamorphosis Project. At least, she had never seen Dr. Dillon when she was on the ninth underground floor. She had only heard Dr. Tebbsa mention him when she was chatting with other researchers.

In this log report, Dr. Dillon had a mental breakdown but has since recovered... Is there any connection between his mental problems and the immortality project?

……

"Teacher, are you... alright?" After seeing Yvette staring blankly into the lab log as if petrified, Rosalyn finally couldn't help but call out with some concern after more than ten minutes.

"Hmm...it's nothing." Yvette shook her head. This document revealed too much information, showing her only a glimpse of the secrets hidden in the Abyss Base before the apocalypse. Although it couldn't explain the origin of the apocalypse, it did provide some reliable evidence for her own origins.

As expected, the original owner of this body was very likely an immortal being created by Black Tower Medicine, which is why she awakened here.

It's just that for some reason, all the people who created her died, and she was the only one who survived the apocalypse. There must be some other mystery hidden in this.

Next, she browsed through the other readable experimental logs.

The remaining logs are the final part of the "Sixth Phase of the Immortality Project". Since they are no longer "summaries of results" but daily records, the content is much more bland. They simply record the monitoring of the subjects' conditions, without involving any more secrets or mentioning the mysterious "divine transformation" in Ms. Etherine's will.

She put down the journal and asked, "Are there any places we haven't searched yet?"

“No, that’s all.” Rosalyn shook her head. She was completely baffled by the plans and the possible meaning behind the potions, but the archaeological investigation was still quite interesting. Therefore, she searched around very carefully and even found a lot of professional books in the field of medicine, which she planned to pack up and take back to the manor later.

“Then let’s move on to the next floor,” Yvette said.

After leaving the eleventh basement level and continuing down to the twelfth basement level, the remaining signs of life suddenly diminished considerably.

But that's normal; this is the "central control hub" of the Abyss Base, which is basically where the server data center is located.

This is a spacious metal room with few functional areas. Fluorescent magical vines climb the cold metal walls, intertwining and coexisting with the "cloud container" that has been covered in dust for hundreds of years, illuminating the entire room.

At the heart of the room stood a colossal, columnar machine, encased in a sturdy glass dome. The exposed obsidian-like surface of the machine was covered with countless fine lines. Though they resembled decoration, Yvette was certain that these lines contained a dense array of runes, invisible to the naked eye, representing the knowledge and power that the Origin Civilization was most proud of.

She tried to start it, but there was no response. She even tried inputting magic power through the magic wire, but that didn't work either. As for what went wrong, she had absolutely no idea.

However, even the shrewd Rosalyn found log records in the file folder, which were probably left by the computer room maintenance staff. Many of them were relatively well preserved.

This is far less valuable than the experimental logs of the Immortality Project, since it's just data center maintenance.

But after searching for the parts that had not yet rotted and carefully examining them, one record still caught Yvette's attention.

This is an experimental record from 2128, three years after the original owner participated in the metamorphosis project.

Amidst the vast decay, only a single, indistinct line of text, imbued with intense terror, transcended time and space to reach Yvette's eyes:

"My God..."

"Firefly Core..."

"It...it's alive..."

Chapter 44: End of Exploration

“It’s alive…” Yvette’s delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly as she fell into thought.

Through previous maintenance records, she had learned that the Abyss Base's main control AI was called "Firefly Core".

So the meaning here is quite clear: the AI ​​in the Abyss Base has come to life and become a self-aware being.

However, even so, there are still two possibilities.

One type is "come alive" based on the AI ​​crisis, which is also a common theme in many science fiction genres.

Another type is the "living" state of a semi-mechanical aberration, which is more in line with the apocalyptic vision.

However, Yvette felt the latter was more likely than the former.

This stemmed from some explanations she had seen in a book in the past. It's unclear whether there are any relevant documents, but they were quite convincing.

Those explanations state that self-awareness is composed of three parts: the "body," the "spirit," and the "memory," none of which can be missing. Without any one of them, self-awareness in the universal sense cannot be born or maintained.

The most crucial part, the "spirit body," is essentially a high-density aggregation of a large number of soul runes. From the perspective of runic literature, there is no difference between the soul and matter or elements.

In the understanding of the world by the original civilization, there is currently only one way to obtain "soul runes," which is through the unique transformation ability of the "brain," a biological organ.

But this does not mean that only beings with brains have spirits, because after a person dies, the soul runes do not disappear, but rather disperse into the natural world.

Plants, microorganisms, and other mindless organisms cannot produce soul runes themselves, but their bodies have the ability to act as carriers, so they can attract some soul runes from nature and integrate them into their bodies.

This situation gives rise to what is called "spirituality," which is also the basis of the idea that "all things have a spirit."

Therefore, with this theoretical support, governments around the world have special requirements for high-end AI chips such as "Mind Cores," requiring super companies like "Sky Dome Technology" to install "exorcism" modules that can automatically clean up soul runes during production, in order to prevent the accumulation of too many soul runes in the Mind Core and the generation of a slight spirituality.

However, to be fair, this is just a way to reassure the public, because in various studies and tests, the materials used in the mind core have a very weak ability to carry soul runes, and can almost be regarded as insulators.

Given that it is an insulator in itself, and has the "exorcism" function that monitors it regularly, if it could bring the core of the mind back to life, then the edifice of runic literature of the Origin Civilization would probably be clouded by a huge dark cloud.

……

Due to the extensive decay of the logs, apart from this bizarre record of what appeared to be the self-awareness of the controlling AI, Yvette saw no other useful textual information.

Looking back further, nearly 20 years later, the immortality project within the Abyss Base continued to progress steadily. This might suggest that the fact that the Firefly Core "came back to life" did not cause any major consequences and had already been quelled.

After putting the log back, Yvette and Rosalyn wandered around the twelfth basement level for a while, but without finding any new information, they continued down to the thirteenth basement level, which seemed to be the last level of the abyss base.

Upon arriving at this floor, Yvette noticed a proper noun through a nameplate with still clearly legible lettering, which made her gaze pause slightly.

The bottom of the divine erosion.

This is where the "divine transformation" is preserved!

Since there were no magic vines on this floor, after pushing open the already slightly ajar door, the two were greeted by a huge metal room through the illumination magic, with everything clearly visible.

Similarly, the large room contained very few items, except for a central display stand encased in glass, resembling a museum exhibit.

However, contrary to Ms. Etherine's suicide note, the glass dome is now broken, the shelf is empty, and the so-called "divine transformation" has long since disappeared.

Yvette and Rosalyn were somewhat disappointed with the result, but not surprised.

After all, so many years have passed, and the survivors hiding behind the door have all mutated. Even if they originally had some, they probably don't anymore, and they might have ended up in the stomach of some mutant.

but……

Unwilling to leave, Yvette and Rosalind walked around the edge of the Eclipse, searching for any new discoveries.

Then, this very act of caution led Yvette to actually make a discovery, finding a hidden little door.

Its color is the same as the surrounding metal walls, and it is not easy to spot it immediately unless you look closely.

Passing through the small door, the master and apprentice found themselves in a tiny metal room. The room was empty, with something on the ground that looked like a manhole cover.

But this is definitely not some kind of escape route, otherwise it's hard to imagine that Ms. Etherine wouldn't know.

A moment later, using the mechanical structure, Rosalyn turned on the valve and saw the scene beneath it.

—It really is an escape route. But it leads to a smooth rock wall outside the mountain, below which is a bottomless abyss. Unless you have flying equipment, there's not much you can do besides feel the wind. It's worth mentioning that the walls here are all carved from granite, which logically suggests is because they touch the bottom of the crater lake.

So the two of them had no choice but to leave disappointed.

However, as she was leaving, Yvette noticed a line of text engraved on the back of the small door to the room, which read—

"The Well of Eternal Night".

Although she wasn't sure if there was any special meaning behind it, she thought she would probably never come back here again in her life.

……

After completing her second exploration of the Abyss Base, Yvette felt much lighter in the following days, as if a knot in her heart had suddenly been untied, and she no longer had to worry about certain things.

Of course, the truth about the apocalypse, the truth about the divine transformation, and many other answers buried under the dust of history remain to be explored, but that is something that can only be learned by fate. She can simply wait quietly and doesn't need to force herself to do anything.

Rosalyn, on the other hand, was simply immersed in the joy of exploration and had a lot of fun.

In addition, because the Magic Light Vine was so beautiful, she brought back quite a few from the Abyss Base. This convenient plant can grow naturally without any care and can also provide light in shady places, making it a very useful night light at night.

then……

With no more specific goals or pressures, life on the manor returned to tranquility once again.