After passing the endpoint of the imaginary submarine, what spread out before everyone's eyes was a breathtaking silence.
There was no bone-chilling wind or blizzard like in Russia, nor eternally burning giant rocks or frozen ruins like in Northern Europe.
Looking down from the warship's portholes, endless golden wheat fields stretched out. They swayed gently like golden waves in the mild breeze, rippling regularly and serenely like the breath of the Earth.
And at the edge of those wheat fields, there was not a trace of war.
Only a few scattered villages existed, along with the Great Wall that seemed to envelop the entire planet, floating in the air.
"Is this… a Lostbelt with Depth E?" Steve sat in the captain's seat, holding a freshly brewed cup of black tea, his gaze fixed on the ground data displayed on the holographic screen. "How peaceful. It's like a false utopia."
"Steve, the Shadow Border has landed safely."
Da Vinci's voice came through the communication line. In the background, the sound of wheels rolling over soil could be heard. "The magical energy concentration here is very high, but it lacks any violent nature."
"The air composition is perfectly suited for human survival… Aside from the slightly frightening Great Wall floating in the sky, it's almost a perfect idyllic landscape."
"Please be careful, Da Vinci-chan." Steve took a sip of tea and said quietly, "The more perfect something appears, the deeper the distortion within it tends to be."
"As per the original plan, please conduct ground reconnaissance and make contact with the local residents to gather information."
"We will continue stealth navigation in the stratosphere and provide complete mapping visibility and fire support."
"Understood! Then we'll leave the protection of the skies to you, our guardian in the heavens~"
The communication cut off.
Steve set down his teacup and lightly traced his fingers through the air.
The massive holographic projection instantly switched from optical images of the ground to a complex cascade of data.
The Rewloola-class battleship—a pinnacle of humanity's federation technology from a parallel future world—was currently operating at maximum optical camouflage and thermal shielding systems, hovering silently like a ghost at an altitude of 30,000 meters.
However.
Just as the Shadow Border entered the village—
"Tiiiing—!"
A piercing alarm suddenly blared across the previously silent bridge.
The defense system interface, originally blue, instantly turned a dangerous deep crimson.
Countless data streams, as if drawn by an invisible force, began to jump and recombine violently.
[Warning! Warning!] [High-intensity external data intrusion detected!] [Source: Global Ground Network Node (Great Wall Terminal)] [Intrusion Level: S! First layer of firewall breached! Attacker is attempting to analyze foundational logic code!]
"Oh?" Steve raised one eyebrow slightly. There was no sign of panic on his face—only a faint hint of interest.
He spun his chair around to face the furiously blinking red alarm.
"Breaking in without even a greeting? What a rude host."
...
Meanwhile, in the depths of distant Xianyang Palace, the massive mechanized sacred body of the First Emperor, floating in a sea of mercury, emitted an eerie light.
"…Hmm?"
That majestic and captivating voice echoed through the empty hall. "What is this? It is neither Confucianism nor Mohism. It is not the principle of immortality, nor is it mechanical technique…"
Just moments ago, the planetary surveillance system Great Wall had detected an extremely faint yet highly dissonant presence of something alien.
Unlike the Shadow Border crawling on the ground like an ant, this was something massive and refined—like an iron bird floating high in the deep sky.
No, it was not a bird.
It was a city.
A city of steel and light, floating in the air.
"Interesting… Truly interesting."
The First Emperor's mechanical compound eyes flickered with childlike curiosity and greed. "How could such an exquisite creation have escaped my sharp eyes and hidden in the heavens? What kind of barbarian tribe is this? And what kind of technology do they possess?"
"Since you've come all this way, let me take a good look at what your heart is truly like!"
Driven by the Emperor's will, an enormous computational capacity erupted instantly from the central processing unit of Epang Palace.
It was not a mage's spell, but a pure torrent of data.
Under electromagnetic control, billions of microscopic machine units (magical nanobots) transformed into invisible tentacles, instantly crossing 30,000 meters to penetrate the Rewloola-class battleship's defense systems.
Analyze, disassemble, and absorb.
This was the consistent practice the First Emperor had followed for the 2,000 years he had ruled the planet.
Any unknown technology had to be dismantled, analyzed, and then integrated into the wisdom of Great Qin.
However…
This time, he kicked an iron plate.
In fact, it was an alloy steel plate brought from deep space, containing the chill of absolute zero.
...
"…Ah, that must have been tough."
Watching the intrusion data surge onto the screen like a torrent, Steve helplessly shook his head.
He had to admit that the First Emperor of this Lostbelt was indeed a genius.
He had transformed what should have been a mystical art form into a technological mechanical ascension.
This architecture—using the Great Wall network for distributed computing and integrating it with the Xianyang Palace mainframe—was extremely close to a planetary-scale supercomputer that could have existed in his era.
However…
"That is precisely the planetary-scale problem."
Steve's fingers rested lightly on the control panel, his black eyes radiating a golden light of world-shaking wisdom.
"The concept of space might be a bit too difficult for humans playing in the mud on Earth's birthplace, don't you think?"
In this parallel world, Steve was the one who had led humanity's federation from Earth, completed the construction of dozens of space colonies, and made Earth a sacred site.
His warship systems were designed to survive in deep space environments filled with intense radiation, high-level interference, and even threats from extraterrestrial civilizations such as predatory planets.
The underlying logic was something that Earth sphere algorithms could never comprehend.
"If you want to see it so badly, I'll let you see as much as you like."
Steve's smile deepened as he pressed the Enter key.
"Counterattack program activated."
Codename: Colony Drop — data version, of course.
Boom—!
If the data stream had audio, a deafening thunder would have roared above Xianyang Palace at this very moment.
Steve had not used a complex virus or set up an elaborate trap.
He had done only one thing.
He had compiled a massive database—accumulated over hundreds of years since the founding of the Human Federation—on themes such as space travel, colony construction, Dyson sphere theory, and warp drive parameters, compressing trillions of entries into a single file.
Then, following the tentacles the First Emperor had extended, he sent it all back.
This was more than mere data.
It was a conceptual shock.
To an ancient emperor who believed Earth is the only existence and the sky is merely a lid, the grand worldview of an endlessly spreading sea of stars, hundreds of billions of humans proliferating in space, and Earth is nothing more than dust in the universe was nothing short of a nuclear attack on his cognition.
...
"What is this…?"
The First Emperor's usually smooth mechanical thoughts suddenly faltered.
The amount of incoming data was too great.
It far exceeded the very concept of knowledge he had understood over the past 2,000 years.
Those strange equations, those incomprehensible massive architectural blueprints, those steel giants navigating the dark void, and… those mad ideas of freedom and exploration that had no place in the True Unified Kingdom of Human Intellect.
[Warning! Memory Overflow!]
[Warning! Logical loop conflict detected!]
[Warning! Contamination by unknown worldview meme detected! Isolation attempted… Failed! Isolation failed!]
"No… impossible… this scale…"
The First Emperor's voice began to break, and the massive machine floating in the air—his sacred body that had been shimmering like breath—suddenly—
Shzzzt—!
Like an overloaded lightbulb, it emitted a blinding white light and then instantly vanished.
The entire Xianyang Palace was enveloped in deathly silence.
That one second.
For the First Emperor, whose thoughts moved at the speed of light, it felt like an eternity had passed.
His thoughts stalled, and his logic collapsed.
The omniscience and omnipotence he claimed felt incredibly small and fragile before the vast information pouring in from the stars.
...
One second later.
With the sound of backup power activating, the First Emperor's body glowed red once more.
The cooling system was running at full capacity, expelling large amounts of white mist to lower the astonishingly high temperature of the core processor.
"Hahaha…"
Although it was a mechanical voice, at this moment, the sound the First Emperor made resembled a drowning fool desperately crawling back up, mixed with shock and screams.
"That was close… My body… nearly overheated and melted…"
He slowly raised his massive mechanical head and once again gazed toward the distant sky.
This time, however, his eyes no longer held only arrogance and greed.
Instead, they contained unprecedented terror and excitement, along with… a fervor for encountering a worthy opponent.
"Poison called space…?"
The First Emperor murmured quietly, his mechanical tentacles trembling slightly. "How wonderful the words there is a heaven beyond heaven are."
"It seems this guest is not just a ground rat—there is a real dragon in the sky as well."
"Issue my decree!"
His voice regained even greater dignity as he shouted, "Strictly monitor that flying ship! But do not provoke it until I have deciphered this poison!"
"I wish to play chess with this guest from the heavens."
...
"Phew… All done."
Steve clapped his hands and nodded in satisfaction as he watched the red alarms disappear from the screen and the Great Wall network suddenly become obedient (and a little timid).
"It seems the First Emperor still needs some time to digest the esoteric knowledge gained from the Universal Century."
He picked up his still-warm cup of tea and raised it toward the distant Xianyang Palace on the screen.
"This is a small gift, Your Majesty."
"I hope your immortal body can withstand the changes of the coming era."
With that, he took a sip, and a light of joy shone in his eyes.
This was the pinnacle of hacking technique.
If you want to peek, I'll let you peek until your brain explodes.
"Da Vinci, how are things on the ground?"
He answered the call, his tone as casual as if he had just swatted away a troublesome mosquito.
"No problems here, Steve! We've met the villagers and are trying to communicate… By the way, were there any energy fluctuations on your end?"
"Nothing at all." Steve smiled lightly. "It was just a little greeting to the owner here."
…
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