From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 675 Arrival
When the three-hour "black box mode" set by the laboratory ended, Amber finally left Saleh's laboratory with a head full of operating principles, instructions and usage restrictions.

As for the 'Tactical Time Travel Device MK1', Saleh did not hand it over to Amber directly, but at the latter's strong request, he prepared to debug it during the last period of the voyage to ensure that the device would not be in the best condition when it was handed over to Amber, but at least there would be no major bugs.

As Saleh often said during the three-hour product launch, "Time travel is not a trivial matter."

In order to prevent the user from being excluded from the target timeline, the 'Tactical Time Travel Device MK1' will strip the user's quantum state of its connection with the original timeline when traveling, making it temporarily a "time island".

In this case, Amber will be temporarily in a state of 'complete loss of contact'. Not only will other people be unable to find him, but even Saleh and Lilith, who have a special relationship with him, will lose contact with him during this period.

Amber also raised a question at this time. Since this device can scan a small amount of tactical equipment and record its quantum state, allowing him to carry some auxiliary tactical equipment to travel through time, can Lilith also enter the data storage device of the tactical equipment and travel through time with him?
But this possibility was rejected by Saleh as soon as it was raised.

The reason is very simple. That is, in Lilith's current state, even if she is compressed and put into a storage device, her size when traveling through time is larger than anyone imagines.

This is not just a matter of calculating storage space, but a "huge volume" on another level, so it is impossible to time travel with Amber at the moment.
This also means that after Amber activates the device to travel through time, he will truly enter "lone mode", and all decisions and actions must rely on himself, without any support from the outside world.

Similarly, in order to ensure the stability of the timeline, the Forerunner civilization built in some rigid rules when developing similar devices, mainly based on ethical and military security mandatory settings. In Saleh's description, these restrictions are called "Space-Time Paradox Restriction Protocols."

The first is the principle known as 'Novikov self-consistency' in the human world, which makes the 'Tactical Time Travel Device MK1' prohibit any jumping behavior that may cause logical contradictions in the timeline at the underlying operation.

For example, the most famous "grandfather paradox" is blocked. If the device detects that the user is trying to kill his ancestors, key historical figures, or destroy his own birth conditions, the device will forcibly freeze the operation and forcibly interrupt the time and space travel to start backtracking.

In addition, there is the restriction of "mandatory information closure".

This limitation prevents the user from bringing the blueprint of future technology back to the past in its entirety. The device will encrypt the super-era information in fragments, allowing only the triggering of something called "technological inspiration" - for example, revealing some fragments of technology and formulas from the future to a researcher in the current timeline, allowing him to mistakenly believe that it is his own intuition.

In addition, when Saleh or the Forerunner civilization was developing the time-travel device, they forcibly added "causal stability" to the underlying operating logic of the device, dynamically limiting high-risk operations by calculating the user's disturbance value of the space-time continuum in real time.

For example, the built-in "Database of Key Events in the History of the Universe" collected after Saleh accessed the Atlas database prohibits users from getting involved closely within 1 hour before and after these "key time points".

At the same time, if the user's intervention in non-critical events leads to major changes in the future, the device will trigger the "timeline peeling" operation and completely lock the access rights of the timeline, unless Saleh creates a new one.
In addition, the user cannot leak any technological knowledge to the ancients to help them "change their fate", because the device will monitor according to a certain index set by the forerunners to evaluate the level of civilization. If the threshold is exceeded, the device will directly initiate self-destruction.

Judging from this limitation, Amber felt that the Forerunners were worried that the civilizations they wanted to destroy would travel through time to provide some kind of "future assistance" after acquiring this technology, causing the Forerunner civilization to be unable to complete their mission of "genocide."

Although Amber would most likely not trigger the last restriction, Saleh still informed and reminded Amber that it was absolutely forbidden to travel back to the time before the device was invented by the Jeram people.

Avoid any unexpected circumstances that would prevent the device from being invented, thus causing a recursive paradox
"In short, you can only use this device to facilitate your infiltration activities, but don't think of using it for any crooked purposes. Believe me, the few 'cheat' you humans can think of are just the ones that occupy a corner in the list of restrictions."

This was the last sentence Saleh left before Amber left the laboratory. It was this sentence that completely dispelled Amber's idea of ​​using this device to do some "sexy operations".

Leaving Saleh's laboratory and walking in the corridor of the Dawn, Amber began to think carefully about her plan.

It goes without saying that the interior of the Star Dragon Empire's palace is densely packed with various detection and defense devices, and there must have been a "psychic detection radar" specifically designed to prevent psychics. This also means that if Amber really wants to take advantage of this meeting with Agnes to complete the infiltration, she must not only be careful to avoid all guards, but also cannot use any psychic power during the process.
"Fuck, it's a bit like the infiltration into Stilton's mansion in Dishonored 2. Both are restricted and unable to use abilities, but the palace I'm considering infiltrating is much larger than that mansion. Or is it like being a Pilot and relying on physical strength to move around?"

Thinking of this, Amber realized that maybe she also needed to strengthen her physical training?

"Elowen." Amber called out the name of the ship's onboard control personality of the Dawn without hesitation.

"I'm here, Lord Amber~"

"Enable a comprehensive training room for me, set to 'Psychic Training Mode', highest intensity, psychic powers disabled. I'll be there shortly."
-
When the twelve-day jump was about to end, Amber walked out of the comprehensive training room, washed and bathed, and with the rare help of Isabel, she took care of her appearance and changed into a retro style outfit full of Star Dragon Empire style.

"Are you sure I want to wear this? Your empire's clothing is too complicated and really inconvenient to move around in."

While Isabel was concentrating on fixing Amber's wavy collar, the latter couldn't help but complain when she saw herself in the mirror with a completely different style.

"Why, you're still planning on sneaking into the Grand Palace the day you arrive?"

While saying these words which were extremely 'treasonous' to the imperial people, Isabel rolled her eyes at Amber in annoyance, and then patiently smoothed out the inconspicuous wrinkles on Amber's clothes, like a virtuous wife.

As the intelligence chief of the Atlas Group and also the current "first wife" in the group, Amber naturally informed Isabel of her plan. At the same time, as a child of the imperial nobility, Isabel naturally knew many important matters of the Star Dragon Empire nobles. Of course, she would follow them to the imperial capital this time.

“That’s not the reason.”

Isabel ignored Amber's words and sighed, her tone becoming more like a wife giving instructions to her husband before he left the house. "Just dress appropriately. After all, you are meeting Her Royal Highness the Princess this time. Not to mention how noble her status in the Empire is, the Empire itself is also a place that pays attention to these red tapes. If you really want Atlas' business to expand in the Empire, you also need to appropriately conform to the local traditions and customs at this time."

Amber: "Okay, okay, I'll do whatever you say. Speaking of which, Isa, why are you becoming more and more like a housekeeper?"

Amber

Seeing Isabel's unfriendly expression, Amber immediately kissed her skillfully, physically suppressing her anger.

At this moment, a notification came over the ship's radio that the jump was about to end.

Soon, Amber and Isabel arrived at the bridge and witnessed the moment when the "Dawn" left hyperspace and arrived at Saint-Saunière, the capital of the Star Dragon Empire.

Although it has the authorization of Agnes and the arrangement of Viscount Basf, this is the capital of the Star Dragon Empire after all, so the location of the "Dawn" is still in the star port outside the orbital defense platform.

After a brief authorization confirmation, the super flag "Dawn" slowly entered a specially expanded docking port following the guiding boat under the surveillance of almost all the HCPs who had come out of the starport and the patrol fleet that had arrived.

"Docking error is within acceptable range, port docking procedure begins."

As the voice of the ship's control personality sounded, dozens of electromagnetic docking devices extended from the docking port and surrounded it like the limbs of a spider, and finally docked with the standard interfaces on various parts of the "Dawn" ship.

According to the itinerary sent by Viscount Bassoff before Amber's departure, the giant ship "Dawn" can only stop at the starport, and the baron will lead everyone to the docking area of ​​the orbital defense platform by transport boat, and then take the aerospace plane to the surface.

Although the whole process is somewhat complicated, according to Viscount BASF's description, this is the most simplified process for foreign guests.
While waiting for the transport boat to enter the deployment bay of the Dawn, Amber saw through the porthole of the deployment bay that the twilight line of Saint Saunière was winding on the surface of the planet, and the capital area of ​​the Star Dragon Empire was as conspicuous as a group of rubies inlaid on jade.

"Sir Amber! You are finally here. I have waited for this day for so long!"

Almost at the moment when the hatch of the transport boat opened, Viscount Basf rushed out with an agile posture that was completely inconsistent with his body, then rushed to Amber and grasped his hand familiarly.

"You are too polite, Baron." Even Amber, who was used to the other party's enthusiasm, was a little overwhelmed.

However, the Baron was obviously in a hurry to go through the next process, so he did not exchange too much greetings with Amber here, and took Amber, Isabel and several other entourage members on board the transport boat.

Including Saleh, everyone else will be on standby on the 'Dawn' in real time, and the few people following Amber and the others are actually Osana, who was promoted to vice president of Atlas Private Defense Company, and several other 'cat girls' under her.

On paper, they were the two men's personal bodyguards, but their real mission was to protect Isabel, who had relatively weaker combat power.

Because Amber herself actually does not need protection. As the strongest individual combat force in the Atlas Group, there is no one in the entire group who is qualified to protect her.
With the careful arrangement of Viscount Basf, the subsequent journey to the surface was extremely smooth, and Amber also had a rare opportunity to calm down and fully experience the luxury of the Star Dragon Empire royal family.

With a slight vibration, the silver-white space plane carrying Amber and others also detached from the hanger in the docking area of ​​the orbital defense platform. The imperial designers racked their brains to make this space shuttle vehicle have the corresponding functions while also having an appearance decorated with gilded reliefs. Under the light emitted by the stars, it was like a luxurious giant bird, sliding into the low orbit of Saint-Saunière.

The palace-like structure and decoration of the cabin made it difficult for Amber to imagine that she was in an aerospace plane.

This is an extremely luxurious gravity simulation system for an aerospace plane. The reason for its activation is simply to allow the chandeliers inside the cabin to hang down in a zero-gravity environment, making the crystal chandeliers sway in the amber light and casting mottled shadows on the cedar paneling.

"These people have to know how to live, this is too luxurious"

Amber was amazed at the structure inside the cabin like a country bumpkin entering the city. Even though he was now the actual controller of a giant global enterprise, in terms of "enjoying life", he obviously couldn't compare with the Star Dragon Empire royal family who used the whole country's strength to benefit him.
Soon, the aerospace plane fell into the atmosphere of Saint-Saunière. According to the schematic diagram on the screen in the cabin, Amber and his team would land directly at the royal airport in the imperial capital.

As the altitude of the aerospace plane continued to decrease, the spectacular scene of the Saint-Saunière metropolitan area became clearer and clearer in everyone's eyes. Not to mention the Roma people like Osana, although Isabelle was the child of an imperial noble, she had only been to Saint-Saunière and had never directly entered the metropolitan area.

Although Amber had come here many times in the game of her previous life due to quest instructions, that was the future Saint-Saunière that was destroyed by war and turned into ruins, not the current huge capital area known as the "Crown of the Empire".

"Sir Amber, the princess is waiting for you at the airport, and we have prepared a grand welcome ceremony!"

"grand?"

Amber's eyes couldn't help but twitch when he heard this word. He had always believed that given Agnes' current situation and the identity of the Atlas Group, this meeting should be low-key, which was why he considered using this visit to "make trouble".

But now it seems that my arrival has become a major event that everyone is paying attention to and knows about?
"Tsk, this opening method is a bit bad."

(End of this chapter)