The group stepped into a vast, empty room filled with faint, collapsed Reverberations scattered across the floor.
Among them, only one shadowy figure had a relatively clear face and form—that of Hoda.
She was crouching anxiously in front of a faint Reverberation: "Please, don't give up! We won't abandon anyone!"
Rover stepped forward, attempting to pat Hoda's shadowy figure, but her hand passed through her shoulder: "Hoda?"
Hoda seemed to sense something and turned sharply: "I'm a doctor from the Black Shores. Is anyone injured…?"
Focusing her gaze, Hoda saw the three of them staring at her: "…It's you! Shorekeeper, Mr. Lucian, Mentor."
Hoda called Rover "Mentor" because she had once received guidance and help from Rover.
Hoda seemed extremely excited to see them: "Ah, yes, you've finally found this place!"
"I am Hoda, the Bloom Bearer of the Black Shores."
She repeated: "You've finally found this place…"
Rover asked: "Have you been here all this time?"
Hoda calmed down and nodded slightly: "Like those who perished in the Lament of Port City of Guixu, I became part of the black hole that was the source of that destruction."
"And after the Lament, the Tethys System directly contained that black hole, turning it into the new Death Star."
Shorekeeper frowned slightly and said: "This… we already know."
"But this is rooted in the underlying logic of the Tethys System's operations, so even I cannot intervene."
Lucian said smugly: "Exactly, which is why we're here to break through the underlying code!"
Lucian snapped his fingers: "Rover's Speaker, how's the analysis going?"
Rover's Speaker flew over: "Analysis progress—10%."
Lucian asked, puzzled: "Only 10%?"
Rover's Speaker sounded a bit embarrassed: "This is merely an analysis of the Death Star, not the core of the Tethys System, so the progress is rather slow."
"Please, Master, continue approaching the Tethys System's core so I can analyze it faster."
Lucian had a sudden realization and asked: "So, what have you analyzed about the Death Star?"
Rover's Speaker paused, seemingly reluctant to speak.
Lucian's expression darkened: "Just say it. No matter what you've analyzed, we'll handle it!"
Rover's Speaker let out a human-like sigh: "It's not that I don't want to say, but I'm afraid you won't understand."
Lucian: "?"
Rover's Speaker continued: "I won't go into the details of the Death Star analysis."
"But I can tell you this: if I replace the Tethys System, I can release the people who were absorbed into the Death Star."
Lucian was shocked: "Release them? You mean you can bring them back to life?"
Rover's Speaker shook its head slightly: "No, I can't yet achieve something like bringing the dead back to life."
"But because the Tethys System uses the Lament to predict the Lament, the consciousness frequencies of the people within the Death Star, though their bodies have perished, are still preserved."
"So, I can create several life crystals similar to Shorekeeper's and place their consciousnesses into those crystals."
"Of course, they can choose for themselves whether to have their consciousness placed in a crystal to continue being part of the Black Shores or to have their consciousness frequencies completely dissipated, freeing them from being trapped in the Death Star."
Rover asked curiously: "Placing consciousness frequencies in crystals… doesn't that mean eternal life?"
Rover's Speaker shook its head: "No, consciousness frequencies will fade over time, just like human memories. As time passes, many things are forgotten."
Abby clutched his head in pain: "Ugh… I feel like my brain's growing…"
Rover's Speaker scoffed: "I told you you wouldn't understand. But rest assured, I will always follow Lucian's will!"
Hoda, hearing this, wept with joy: "During this time, I discovered that the Lament isn't without patterns, nor is it uncontrollable, just like the Death Star."
"I have so many hypotheses and data, but I couldn't send them out."
"I thought I'd never escape the black hole, but you've brought such a huge surprise…"
"But now… obsession, anger, reluctance, resentment, or any emotion that can arise under the Lament is tearing at us, like the tidal forces around a real black hole…"
"These emotions, like the Lament, are frequencies, likely what the Tethys System has been persistently exploiting—"
"It's summoning…"
Shorekeeper immediately sensed something and frowned slightly: "The Tethys System is preparing to run the Death Star program again!"
Hoda's shadowy figure was being torn apart, her voice filled with pain: "Please… please, you must…"
"Please… set us free…"
"Don't forget… gravity…"
"Gravity… is the last truth… of the old era…"
With that, Hoda and the surrounding shadowy figures all dissipated.
Rover's Speaker flew over: "Alert—we need to halt the Death Star's process as soon as possible and complete the modulation and replacement."
Shorekeeper looked at the two with concern: "The road ahead may be difficult… Please let me walk it with you."
"This isn't just a request as a member of the Black Shores, but… my personal request…"
Along the way, Lucian was puzzled: "Gravity is the last truth of the old era…"
Rover asked: "Did you think of something?"
Lucian shook his head slightly, though he had some guesses.
Hoda's repeated reminders made Lucian realize that some knowledge from this era seemed to have been lost.
And why was gravity called "the last truth"…?
…Perhaps because research on gravity was the last technological breakthrough…
But these were just Lucian's speculations, and he suspected that the technological breakthrough in gravity from the old era might have caused the Lament.
As they pondered, the group arrived at a large gate, surrounded by data corruption, with eerie red filling their vision.
"I sense a very strong presence of corrupted data… right behind this gate."
"I'll assist you in mitigating the corruption, but please be extremely careful."
Lucian pondered for a moment: "Rover's Speaker, how much have you analyzed?"
Rover's Speaker paused: "Analysis progress is at 17%."
Lucian frowned: "Why is it so slow?"
Rover's Speaker fluttered up and down: "We haven't reached the Tethys System's core yet. Please continue deeper."
Lucian clicked his tongue: "But behind this gate should be the Death Star. If you can't complete the analysis and replace the Tethys System or its core before then…"
"It means…"