Xiao Yi, what's the progress? Jiang Lijin asked in her mind.
No good... I'm stuck. Xiao Yi’s voice grew impatient. It let go of the perimeter, but there's a wall in the core area—I can't get through.
What kind of wall? A firewall?
Not a firewall. Xiao Yi’s speech quickened. It’s a logic lock. No offensive power, just blocking the way. Needs a password.
Crack it.
Can’t. Xiao Yi sounded aggrieved. It’s not a regular code lock. It threw me a... riddle.
A riddle? Jiang Lijin’s brow twitched. Read it.
Xiao Yi cleared its throat and translated the data: "Without beginning or end, with no return. I hide before cause and effect, and you stand after the end." Host, what does this mean?
Jiang Lijin said nothing.
Without beginning or end, with no return. Before cause and effect, after the end.
Each word was recognizable on its own, but together they reeked of some mystical nonsense.
Time? Space? Or some kind of specific coordinate?
Saien was still talking beside her. He walked over to the console, pressed a few buttons, and pulled up a set of data.
Look at its energy consumption curve—unbelievably stable. No matter how much computing demand we feed it, its core fluctuation is always a straight line. It’s as if it’s not even trying.
He turned to face Jiang Lijin. Your Highness, do you think it’s working, or is it asleep?
Jiang Lijin stared at the straight line and didn’t answer.
She was still thinking about the riddle.
Before cause and effect, after the end.
She was someone who should have died in a mission world, yet she had come here. Did that count as standing after the end?
And before cause and effect? Was that the entity that sent her here, arriving first at the origin of this universe?
The disorienting sense of timeline disorder gave her a headache.
Host, how about we just try a few passwords? Xiao Yi suggested, like your birthday? Or "Open Sesame"?
Shut up. Jiang Lijin snapped back without patience.
This was the central brain—randomly entering passwords could trigger who knows what defensive mechanisms.
Chiron stood nearby, his gray eyes fixed on Jiang Lijin.
He keenly sensed she was off today. From the moment she entered, she had spoken little, and her gaze kept clinging to that central pillar.
Cold? Chiron stepped closer, his voice very soft.
The server room was indeed chilly, and Jiang Lijin wasn’t dressed heavily. Standing here for a while, her fingertips had already turned pale.
Not cold. Jiang Lijin shook her head.
She pulled her hands out of her coat pockets and walked toward the central pillar.
Your Highness, don’t get too close, Saien warned from behind. That thing has an electrostatic field on its shell—it hurts if you get zapped.
Jiang Lijin didn’t stop.
She walked straight up to the central pillar. Up close, the low-frequency hum became more distinct.
Xiao Yi, is it still waiting for the password?
The input box for the riddle is still lit. Host, have you figured out the answer?
No.
Jiang Lijin answered bluntly.
She really couldn’t. She had never had much patience for this kind of cryptic game.
If she couldn’t crack the password, she’d try another approach.
Jiang Lijin raised her hand and reached for the metal surface of the central pillar.
Behind her, Saien gasped sharply. Just as he was about to speak up to stop her, Chiron raised his hand to block him.
Chiron stared at Jiang Lijin’s back, lost in thought.
The moment her fingertips touched the metal surface, there was no electrostatic shock as Saien had mentioned, no rejection reaction at all.
The touch was icy cold, with a hard, heavy texture.
Jiang Lijin pressed her palm flat against it.
Host, what are you doing? Xiao Yi asked, puzzled.
If I can’t find the door, I’ll knock on the window.
Jiang Lijin slowly moved her steps along the metal surface, shifting her hand around.
She knocked left, touched right, her movements completely haphazard.
The surface of the central pillar was perfectly smooth, not even a seam to be felt.
Her knocking wasn’t heavy, producing dull thuds.
Dong, dong, dong.
The sound echoed through the empty server room.
Saien was dumbfounded. He had received countless researchers visiting the central brain. Every single one of them stood behind the safety line, watching from afar with awe or greed.
Jiang Lijin was the first person who dared to reach out and knock on the central brain’s shell.
Chiron, is Your Highness... looking for a switch? Saien lowered his voice, his tone tinged with absurdity.
Chiron didn’t speak, but his gaze followed Jiang Lijin’s hand closely.
Jiang Lijin circled half of the central pillar.
She found no physical ports, no hidden buttons.
This thing was just a solid metal cylinder—flawless, without a single defect.
Host, it’s useless. Xiao Yi tried to persuade her in her mind. I can’t even find a physical port on its perimeter. It’s purely quantum-state transmission. Touching it like this won’t get you anywhere.
Jiang Lijin stopped.
She pressed both hands against the pillar, her forehead leaning against the icy metal.
Xiao Er, is that you?
She whispered in her heart.
No response.
The low-frequency hum in the server room continued, the lights flowing methodically.
Jiang Lijin withdrew her hands and stepped back two paces.
Let’s go. She turned to look at Chiron. I’ve seen enough.
Since she couldn’t solve the riddle or find a physical breach, there was no point in lingering. She needed to go back and reorganize the clues.
Chiron nodded and turned to bid Saien farewell.
Though full of doubts, Saien didn’t ask questions. He walked over to the console to prepare to close the airlock’s access.
Just as Jiang Lijin turned and took her first step away—
Buzz—
The low-frequency hum in the server room suddenly shot up an octave.
The cold blue light across the entire space flickered violently.
Saien’s hand jerked, almost pressing the wrong key. What’s happening? The energy consumption curve is spiking!
The old director stared at the screen. The normally flat line was climbing at an angle that defied physics.
Chiron spun around instantly, crossing over to Jiang Lijin in a few strides and shielding her behind him, his eyes locked warily on the central pillar.
The light spots on the pillar’s surface were in total chaos.
The lights, originally flowing in a regular pattern, now scrambled wildly across the metal casing.
They collided and merged, the cold blue gradually shifting into a blinding pure white.
Host! Host! Xiao Yi screamed in her mind. It moved! The core data wall is gone! It’s outputting a massive data stream outward!
But Jiang Lijin showed no panic. She gently pushed Chiron aside and gazed directly at the central pillar.
The blinding white light raced across the metal surface, eventually gathering at eye level directly in front of Jiang Lijin, coalescing into a rectangular faintly glowing screen.
The screen floated in midair, emitting a soft halo.
Saien was completely frozen, his mouth hanging open, unable to utter a sound for a long time.
The central brain had never reacted like this. It had always been a quiet, passive provider of computing power.
Now, it had actively materialized a screen.
The server room was dead silent, with only the faint hum of instruments.
The halo gradually stabilized, and in the center of the screen, a few black characters slowly materialized.
They were not the interstellar script common to the Empire—they were the Han characters of Jiang Lijin’s Blue Star.
Square and straight, each stroke exuding a long-lost familiarity.
There were only four words on the screen.
【Long time no see.】
Jiang Lijin’s breath caught for a second.
She stared hard at those four words, her eyes inexplicably stinging.
These four words were not a lofty command—they were an profoundly emotional greeting.
【Xiao Er…】 she called out a name in her mind.
The words on the screen flickered, as if responding to her, then slowly faded away.
A second line appeared: 【You arrived later than I calculated.】
Jiang Lijin took a step forward.
Chiron instinctively tried to pull her back, but she raised her hand to stop him.
“Who are you, really?” Jiang Lijin spoke aloud, her voice echoing through the machine room.
She didn’t use her mental system channel; she said it directly.
Saien and Chiron exchanged glances, both seeing shock in the other’s eyes.
Was she actually speaking with the mainframe?
The words on the screen changed once more.
【Who I am depends on how you define me.】
