The issue of selecting a location for the calibrator.Hearing the captain's words, Yu Sheng instinctively raised an eyebrow: "I was just considering this... Let me check first, how big is this calibrator supposed to be once it's built? What's it like?"
"It doesn't have a definite form; it depends on its interaction with the real world during its construction," the captain explained patiently. "Because the calibrator is essentially just a data structure.
"It's not built as a physical entity in the material world, but rather injected into the 'operational equations' of the world's underlying layer in the form of information, and its physical presence is just an interactable projection cast onto the material world by the world's underlying structure...
"As for its projection scale in the material world... I don't think it will be smaller than the World Bridge was initially."
Yu Sheng could more or less keep up with some of the abstract concepts the captain mentioned. He unconsciously started to think, recalling the black giant tower that descended over the Boundary Land back then, he frowned slightly: "That was a big thing... It needs a large reserved area. But then again, the reality universe is so vast, finding a stable foundation for the calibrator shouldn't be hard..."
"It's not just a matter of building it anywhere," the captain shook his head before Yu Sheng could finish, "the calibrator must be set in the area closest to the world's underlying information structure to ensure it operates at the highest efficiency."
"The area closest to the world's underlying information structure?" Yu Sheng was taken aback, then stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Wait, the place you're talking about..."
"In theory, the landing point chosen when the World Bridge descended 3700 years ago is the most suitable coordinate," the captain nodded lightly, "that projection attempt may have failed, but the preparatory work before projection was carried out seriously."
Yu Sheng blinked.
"...Do we still have to drop it right on my grave?!"
As soon as he said this, the captain, who had been maintaining a serious face, couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Ahem... It was said that it was an accident back then, and wasn't the landing point initially chosen as the Boundary Land? It just couldn't stop in time and continued to fall..."
Yu Sheng blinked, only realizing it belatedly and scratched the back of his head awkwardly: "Oh right, it seems that's indeed the case. This is awkward, I might have overreacted to this matter."
The captain's expression was subtle: "I can understand though..."
"So the most suitable location for the calibrator is still the Boundary Land?" Yu Sheng waved his hand, quickly pulling the conversation back on track, "If that's the case... I might need to have a proper discussion with Baili Qing and the others.
"Oh, by the way, you might not know the current situation of that place—this version of the Boundary Land isn't the same sparsely populated protective wasteland with a few scattered city-states from 3700 years ago. Now the population and density of buildings at the Boundary City center are no joke, and the most troublesome thing is that the Boundary City itself doesn't seem very stable either. Any major event can make the entire city's spatial depth plummet..."
Yu Sheng paused for a moment, unable to help but frown and think while sucking his teeth: "Hiss, thinking about it this way... Actually constructing a wonder similar in size to the World Bridge in the middle of the current state of the Boundary Land, won't that push the entire Boundary City down to depth 5?"
The captain's brows furrowed tightly: "I do know about the changes that occurred in the Boundary Land after the World Bridge collapse event, but I indeed haven't kept up with the situation there for over a thousand years... Is it really that unstable now?"
Yu Sheng opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out, a voice from the side chimed in, answering for him:
"Oh, it definitely is, that place has been plagued with disasters recently. First, a 'Dark Angel' called Anka Aela emerged from the ground, almost poked a hole in the real world, then just a few days later, a replica of Mist City showed up. After that, a second-hand scientist activated the remnants of the old World Bridge, nearly blew up the entire city, and just after wrapping up the aftermath, a place called Fault beneath the Boundary Land leaked, spewing out what was either a historical projection or invading entities..."
Yu Sheng looked down to see Erin muttering while climbing up his pant leg, casually settling on his shoulder once at the top and blinking her big bright eyes at the captain: "Captain, let me tell you, the feng shui of that place is problematic; I suspect the main reason is there's an Ancient God's grave beneath it..."
Initially hearing Erin's earlier words without much reaction, Yu Sheng's forehead vein suddenly twitched at her last sentence: "Hey, what's that supposed to mean? I'm the victim here; I was here first..."
"I didn't mention an order issue," Erin replied confidently, "Just say, is the feng shui of that place problematic or not! Let me tell you, I'm the Omen Goddess, what I foresee usually isn't accurate, but on this I've nailed it..."
"Wait," at this moment, the captain's somewhat serious voice suddenly interrupted the Little Puppet's incessant babbling, "Erin, did you just say there's a fault leakage beneath the Boundary Land?"
"Uh... yes," the Little Puppet instinctively shrank her neck at the captain's serious demeanor, and her tone turned earnest as well, "It happened just a few days ago; initially, a Wandering Entity named 'Knight' suddenly invaded the Exotic Realm of the Boundary Land and began rampaging, then we discovered that an anomaly space called Lodaxim High Wall occasionally connects into the Exotic Realm..."
Erin immediately recounted to the captain the anomalous situations that had occurred in the Boundary Land recently, and visibly, the captain's expression grew increasingly serious during this process.
Yu Sheng saw this and also became tense: "So, is there a serious problem with the Boundary Land?"
"The serious issue isn't the Boundary Land itself, it's the fault you mentioned," the Captain said with a grave expression, "Do you know what's beneath it?"
Yu Sheng exchanged a glance with the Little Puppet on his shoulder.
"From what Baili Qing and the others said, it seems that beneath the fault lies the 'historical ruins' of the Boundary Land," Yu Sheng hesitated and said, "They mentioned the previous version of the Boundary Land is submerged down there."
"...That's not incorrect. A large amount of the abandoned data structure of the Boundary Land is indeed deposited in the fault, but that deposit area is the fault itself, not 'below' the fault," the Captain shook his head, looking into Yu Sheng's eyes, "Think again, what else lies below there?"
Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned, then quickly recalled the deep layer version of Boundary City he and Baili Qing had seen at the bottom of the fault, as well as the "No. 66 Wutong Road" located in the Great Void in the city center. His expression turned a bit complex: "You wouldn't be talking about my grave, would you..."
Unexpectedly, the Captain still shook his head: "Have you considered even further down?"
This left both Yu Sheng and Erin bewildered, and then Yu Sheng felt his spiritual intuition jumping wildly. Although he didn't quite understand the situation, a strong sense of unease had already welled up from within: "What do you mean, you mean that's not the end?! That was already the first grave you built for me in the New World, and further down there could still be..."
He abruptly stopped mid-sentence, a light bulb seemed to go off in his mind as he realized something.
The Captain's voice came from beside him:
"Your place of slumber is located in a data void at the very center of the New World. It was formed by the final Rift left from the end of the Old World. Strictly speaking, that spot could be considered the original blast point of the entire universe today—whether from the perspective of space or time."
The Captain lifted his hand, a ripple of starlight spreading from his fingertips, outlining a small hourglass within it.
The Captain pointed to the center of the hourglass.
"At this spot, it seems you have understood."
Yu Sheng took a deep breath: "…So beneath there is the Old World?!"
"What the hell?!" the Little Puppet on his shoulder exclaimed in shock, and Erin nearly fell off, "Isn't that wrong? The Old World should be gone, right? The old man specifically mentioned it when he told me history, said you burned that place to ashes..."
"Didn't you stay for the second half of that lesson?" The Captain looked at the Little Puppet with a complex expression, "The process of 'burning to ashes' was essentially an information archiving. After archiving, the data package of the Old World was sealed within the base information structure of the universe."
Erin blinked her eyes.
"...What does that mean?"
"It means the installation package of the previous world version actually still exists, just commented out by the Captain with a pair of slashes," Yu Sheng finally realized, tapping on the Little Puppet's head, "and now the comments are failing!"
"Wait, wait, hold on, Lao Yu, while your understanding is correct, it's not that serious," the Captain quickly raised his hand, "The isolation of the Old World's data structure is more secure than you imagine, it won't be so easily dereferenced on a large scale, the current issue is merely a minor data leak—but the key is, such a data leak is an issue from zero to one, it shouldn't occur at all..."
The Captain suddenly paused here, frowning as he asked, "Besides the wandering entity invasion into the Exotic Realm and anomalous spatial phenomena you just mentioned, were there any other incidents? Although the Boundary Land crashed in, it has completed a full local conversion and won't cause spontaneous 'brittleness', there must be some other factor..."
Erin blinked, her little brain working hard until she suddenly realized: "Ah, wait, I think I've got it... Yu Sheng, do you remember when the Beauty God sent us a message? Back then, next to the mirror in the room on the second floor at home, a heap of cracks appeared, and the Beauty God warned us that a bunch of out-of-control Dark Angels was drilling towards somewhere, also said that the old tree was intercepting them, but barely holding it back..."
Yu Sheng instantly reacted: "Damn it!"
This time it was the Captain who was left baffled, he stared wide-eyed at Yu Sheng and the Little Puppet: "Beauty God? A member of that Angel cluster? You can get in touch with them?!"
"We happened to make contact," Yu Sheng replied very seriously, "but we haven't figured out a way to replicate it yet."
The Captain was stunned: "…What's the principle behind this?"
Yu Sheng: "No. 66 Wutong Road is a very complex location..."