At this moment, the frosty voice of Oathkeeper answered their question.
“Stop guessing. Our organization has a traitor!”
“That’s impossible!” Law shook in fright, exclaiming with an incredulous expression. “Those who leak intelligence will definitely suffer backlash from the Soul Flames. Who would survive that‽”
The Soul Flame was another Primal Esper Ability Entity. As its name suggested, this ability was related toward one’s soul and spirit, and currently, Oathkeeper was its host.
Its Esper Ability meant that it was an expert that toyed with the soul aspect of people, making it one of the Super High Risk Esper Abilities. One of its abilities allowed it to prohibit its target from revealing specific information, and Oathkeeper had utilized this ability to prevent anyone in the Holy Accord from leaking its secrets. If a member wished to forcibly divulge information, even if they could endure the backlash, Oathkeeper would still be notified. This was how the Holy Accord had kept its secrecy for so long.
He used his own pinnacle Beyond Grade A strength to spur the Esper Ability of the Soul Flame, so the effect exerted was terrifying. Even Law and Fay, two Beyond Grade As, would not be able to bypass its surveillance and would also suffer backlash if they leaked any information.
Thus, both of them believed that no one could betray their organization.
“Whether you believe it or not, the fact is in front of our eyes. Black Star identified me the moment he saw me, and I was still foolishly believing that no one else knew about the existence of our Holy Accord. This matter must be investigated carefully!”
Oathkeeper’s tone was steely as he shouted.
“There should be someone who has come out with a special method to bypass the surveillance and backlash caused by the Soul Flame. They passed on intelligence to the outside world. The person’s rank is not low either, at least an officer within the organization. For now, I still do not know if they are a core member.”
Both Law and Fay’s expressions turned grim. This matter was related to the survival of their organization and could not be taken lightly.
“Leader, what would you have us do?”
“Both of you are my confidantes, and I believe you in principle. However, everything depends on evidence, so I need to scan your memories. Are you willing?”
Law and Fay were suddenly placed in a difficult situation. While they were not betrayers, any Super would naturally repel others from invading their own mind deep within themselves.
However, they were aware of the increasingly unstable mental fluctuations around them. Thus, both of them swallowed hard, and in order to show that they had a clear conscience, they agreed with difficulty.
The next moment, Oathkeeper raised his hand slightly, and two streaks of flames the color of the starry sky landed on them.
Both of them noticed a unique mental fluctuation entering their brains. Looking at each other, they gritted their teeth before actively letting go of their mental barriers, allowing Oathkeeper to easily penetrate their minds.
Their memories were quickly flipped through by him. The scenes from small to large flashed in front of them. They gritted their teeth, ignoring the tingling sensation of the mental probe as it scanned through their minds.
After a long while, the mental probes were finally recalled back to Oathkeeper who seemed satisfied.
“Very good, the two of you did not let down my expectations.” Oathkeeper nodded before continuing solemnly. “I’ll leave the task of weeding out the traitor to you guys. I allow you full access to thoroughly investigate all the organization officers and report any suspicious personnel to me. I’ll personally scan their memories. Before we can uncover the traitor, we’ll temporarily stop all activities and go into hiding.”
Both of them remained silent, nodding to signify acceptance as they suffered through the throbbing pain that was a side effect from the mental probes. They could not help but sigh.
It seems like the leader is truly enraged this time. If even us confidantes are treated this way, there’s no need to talk about the other officers…
Both of them could foresee that this operation would definitely create a lot of havoc within the organization.
…
The explosion of cosmic energy could not escape the monitoring buoys that were set by the advanced civilizations. These monitoring buoys were used by each advanced civilization to monitor the situation within their jurisdictions, and they were pervasive.
It was just that the qualifications for setting up monitoring buoys were generally reserved for civilizations, and civil organizations were rarely allowed.
Within the Ancient Star Desert, the branch of the Black Star Army did not have much influence, and it naturally did not have the right to set any up. Han Xiao was also far away and could not immediately discover the cosmic energy fluctuations.
The advanced civilizations reacted quickly to investigate the source and impact of the phenomenon but found next to nothing. They did not know what sort of changes this energy surge would create.
Right at this moment, within the quantum network that was invisible to the naked eye, the information packets released from the triangular device were spreading rapidly within the Ancient Star Desert’s domain.
This sort of information packet had incredible camouflage abilities, able to bypass most artificial intelligence firewalls and infect one quantum network node after another. It spread like a virus, but for the time being, it did not show any abnormal reaction, simply lurking beneath the surface.
Only a small number of artificial intelligences, such as the master artificial intelligences from the advanced civilizations, were able to detect and stop it. However, as soon as it was discovered, the information packet would immediately activate a self-destruction program, shattering and deleting its own data, at the same time marking the firewall that it could not break through so other information packets would not take the same risk. It was as though there was a program within that commanded it to avoid those that were overly strong.
As the scope of infection expanded, the efficiency of transmission also increased proportionally. Within the quantum network, transmission was not affected by distance, so without anyone knowing, massive numbers of quantum network nodes in the Ancient Star Desert domain were infected.
At some point, an information packet was transmitted to another quantum node, but this time, it ran into the strongest artificial intelligence firewall it had ever encountered. The moment it entered the peripheral surroundings of the node, it was scanned, and the information packet immediately blew itself up.
However, a surging data stream gushed out from this node to envelop the information packet. When it had self-destructed about sixty-five percent of itself, the remaining fragmented information was forcibly intercepted.
The next moment, the data streams converged into a human shape.
Manison’s Virtual Soul gazed at the remains of the information packet floating in front of him with a curious expression.
Eh, a never-before-seen data structure… what’s this thing, attempting to infiltrate my sub-base?
Chapter 1100 - Prematurely Triggered Disaster Even
In the Central Galaxy was the Abyss of Stars, the home of the Federation of Light’s headquarters.
The duty of an inspector was different from that of a secret intelligence department. The former acted as a pan-universal intelligence agency and did not involve itself in the political battles of the advanced civilizations. Most of the time, the intelligence agencies of the three Universal Civilizations would cooperate to deal with various special phenomena, including monitoring and tracking to prevent possible disasters.
At this very moment, in a conference room within this particular agency, a group of high-level executives sat around a round table, discussing the emergency reported from the Ancient Star Desert branch inspector.
The explosion of cosmic energy was considered a red alert at any time and required a meeting
to be convened to discuss the strategy taken.
“The content of the report is quite detailed, and the cause and effect were quite clearly outlined. A scavenger team dug up a safe of an unknown civilization, releasing the source of this incident. This belongs to the second category of accidents. However, the traces of the ruins excavated completely disappeared before the inspector’s team’s field survey began, and they suspect it has something to do with a projection of a high-dimensional information state interfering with reality… The most important questions now are, what exactly did it release, why was there a cosmic energy burst, and what impact would this have?”
A humanoid creature who looked sickly at first glance was speaking. When he spoke, he stood up tall and thin, resembling a bamboo stick. His skin color was pale purple, with white lines, and his eyes were long and narrow, with yellow pupils.
This was Sidreun ‘Purple Fire’ Korna, the highest officer from the inspectorate from the Federation of Light’s side, a Beyond Grade A seed. He was a hybrid of races, but his main bloodline came from the Deweine tribe, a racial species with superior racial talents.
The Federation of Light employed a multi-racial living system, and hybrids were an important part of their nation.
Due to the difference in beliefs, preferences, appearances, and other factors delineating each race, racial issues had always been a deeply rooted disease in the federation, but everyone was already used to it.
“These archaeological teams never learn their lesson, ” a member grumbled. “Of the various universal disasters in history, be it an organic extinct virus, mutated monsters, or anything else, how many of them were caused by digging up ancient relics?”
“You can’t put it that way. Many of our technology in the early years was also derived from the reverse engineering of ancient civilizations. Besides, compared to the triggering of disasters due to advanced technology going out of control or the invasion of foreign enemies, the severity caused by archaeology pales in comparison.” Sidreun shook his head weakly.
At this time, one of the executives glanced through the past records and muttered, “By the way, it’s quite rare for high-dimensional information states to interfere with reality itself in the past, but with the increase in the exploration of the universe, this phenomenon seems to have become more frequent.
“According to the statistics provided by our predecessors, during the exploration era, the average number of information state interferences was around 467 times a year, which only counts those events that were discovered and recorded. In the past century though, this number has risen to 2,150 per year, almost five times the number. Although this could be attributed to the improvement in our detection methods, it can also be seen as an increase in the frequency of interferences as well.”
“Information states have always been an important research direction of the advanced civilizations. We are only responsible for the submission of reports. Regardless of the result, that is a problem for our scientists, not us.” Sidreun waved his hand tiredly with an obvious lack of interest.
It was understandable that he was mentally weary after sitting in his position. This inspectorate department was responsible for wiping the backsides of people all over the universe, akin to watching a group of crazy kids making trouble everywhere for him to clean up afterward.
No matter how he tried to remedy things, countless more would still appear the next day. If he had a bad temper, he would have exploded in fury at least once a day in this department.
Thus, with the passing of time, a man would turn into Buddha, whereas fish would also become salted and preserved[1].
Everybody here did not come from a research background, so they had a limited understanding of the causes of information state projection and interference. To them, this phenomenon was akin to a special mirage, and the difference was that this was not limited by time and space and could really interfere with the real world.
Another of the executives said, “After comparison, the unknown text that the scavengers submitted does not have a match in our database to any civilization. If this is an information state projection, then the source is either from an extremely ancient civilization, or it’s from unexplored civilizations that exist somewhere in the universe.”
While the three Universal Civilizations were the undisputed universe hegemons today, they were not omniscient nor omnipotent. They did not know what had existed in the past, nor did they know how many civilizations there were in the unexplored universe. Thus, they had not stopped their pace of exploration and research.
“Did anyone discover any negative effects?” Sidreun questioned.
“For the time being, no. The specific details are still under thorough investigation. At present, it is impossible to predict what sort of disaster this is. Maybe it’s not even a disaster.”
Everyone shook their head.
At this moment, a voice sounded.
“This is a disaster within the Virtual Domain.”
The hologram in the center of the round table suddenly transformed into the face of Manison.
Seeing this, everyone went into an uproar.
“Mechanic Emperor Manison!” Sidreun’s expression sank, and he shouted, “How dare you infiltrate the network of an official institution!”
Everyone on scene had an ugly expression as Manison had just too many criminal convictions. Even his ally, the Federation of Light, guarded their official networks against Manison, for fear that all their confidential information would be stolen by this neighbor of theirs.
There was a saying in the universe—One cannot expect a Virtual Mechanic to have morals.
They were like the bosses behind the scenes in the casino, and it was in their nature to peek at the cards of others.
“It’s not the first time. Why are you all so surprised?” Manison was perfectly calm. “This time, however, I’m here to deliver some intelligence.”
“I don’t believe you!” Sidreun gritted his teeth. You obviously could knock on the door, but you chose to come in through the window instead. Would it kill you to send out an official notice?
“This method is faster. I don’t like to wait.” Manison continued as though he heard nothing. “Furthermore, this disaster is currently fermenting. Every second wasted means increased damage.”
Hearing this, Sidreun temporarily suppressed his anger, frowning as he asked, “So, what have you spotted?”
Manison showed the scattered information packet that he had intercepted as he explained, “Not too long ago, a special information package attempted to infiltrate my sub-base, and after it failed, it tried to self-detonate itself. I managed to salvage a portion of it, and from there, I gleaned its general structure. This may be a new form of quantum network virus, where every information package is a source of infection. It will constantly replicate itself and has strong camouflage, permeability, and infection abilities.
“I tracked it down, and this virus is spreading rapidly in the quantum network of the Ancient Star Desert. Countless nodes have been compromised. Working backward, I concluded that this virus might be related to the cosmic energy explosion some time ago, so I came over to notify you.”
Looking at the material that Manison presented, the expressions of the executives gradually turned grave.
“Turns out, it’s a new type of quantum network virus.” Sidreun felt a headache coming. “The quantum network is one of the cornerstones of our galactic society, and this sort of highly contagious virus is the most troublesome. If left untreated, communications might be paralyzed, data lost, and intelligence stolen… What exactly does it do?”
“This virus is still in its incubation period. Once it breaks out, it will rewrite the underlying logic of the infected artificial intelligence and activate a kill order against all living bodies, setting off a mechanical rebellion,” Manison answered calmly as though he was giving a lecture.
At the current stage of the galactic society, every household possessed some for
m of artificial intelligence or machinery. Once a rebellion occurred within the Star Field or even within the universe, the consequences could be imagined.
Sidreun shivered involuntarily. If Manison had not invaded to pass on the message, the longer they delayed, the more serious this situation would have become. It might even shake the ruling foundation of the three Universal Civilizations.
Thinking of this, Sidreun’s expression toward Manison softened a lot more.
When he’s not up to mischief, this ally was actually quite the reliable person.
He suddenly stood up, throwing away his ‘salted fish’ halo, and solemnly declared, “This matter is too huge. I’ll report it to the President immediately!”
…
A few hours later, the three Universal Civilizations had all received the news, calling an emergency joint meeting.
“… The situation is as such. Right now, the Ancient Star Desert has become the epicenter for this new quantum virus. With every second, the number of nodes being infected by the virus, which has been named ‘Intelligent Plague’, is rapidly increasing. We need to take immediate measures.”
Bader summarized the situation, expressing his position.
The Pope of the Arcane Church narrowed his eyes, saying in a deep tone, “Isolate the entire Ancient Star Desert. Until the virus is completely eliminated, the entire Ancient Star Desert is forbidden from interacting with the external universe’s quantum network. Stargates are all to be closed, and fleets are to be sent to the periphery of the Ancient Star Desert to prevent the source of infection from leaking out in any form.”
“Hmm.” Urranrell nodded in agreement.
This was like treating a normal biological plague, where only isolation would allow it to be completely eliminated.
To barricade all communications within a Star Field, only the three Universal Civilizations had the qualifications and capabilities for such a huge project. If the trio could arrive at a common intention, they would be able to enforce the decree. This was the highest power the three Universal Civilizations had given themselves in the Civilization Conference.
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