Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

But this time, Hai Si did not attack immediately, but was observing.

So, Noah also tried to capture the flow of emotions belonging to Haisi in this stalemate. She had an idea - since Haisi was not a life that was inherently incompatible with Terra civilization, but became a threat to Terra civilization by chance, then is it possible to let Haisi return to his rightful position?

Noya's eyes became brighter and brighter. She felt that when she touched Haisi's ocean of emotions, Haisi's reaction was not violent, and he did not even have any self-defense instinct. Instead, he accepted Noya's consciousness very smoothly. The emotions he conveyed were not only curiosity, but also a sense of identification, as if he regarded Noya as a member of his own community.

--prey--

--evolution--

--Survive--

——Continuation——

Survive! Survive! Survive!

The Swarm! Return to the Swarm! Survive at all costs!

It was a female voice, and this voice seemed to have been echoing in Haisi's ocean of emotions for a long time, like a radio broadcasting an endless brainwashing loop.

At all costs - to survive -

"... Luo."

At this moment, above Haisi's spiritual sea, the sigh of Precious sounded faintly.

"Your will always guides them."

Luo, the person in charge of the Deep Blue Tree, seems to be a friend of the Doctor and also a friend of Priss. Her voice actually remains in the spirit of the Hai Si. Her voice has always been the guideline of these Hai Si and the cornerstone of their existence.

Precious said only that one word before falling silent. Noya knew that even when she mentioned the Deep Blue Tree, her attitude was always disparaging. But hearing the voice of her former friend again was a significant shock to her. Noya did not disturb Precious, but continued to sink deeper into the sea of ​​emotions, as if diving deeper into the ocean.

Then, she suddenly felt her spirit being guided by some force and was instantly captured by gravity. When she felt herself falling suddenly, she originally wanted to try to stabilize her spirit, but when she stretched out her hand, she fell on an office chair. She stood up, looked around, and then saw a familiar back.

"……PhD?"

She stood up in confusion. She looked at herself and seemed to be much shorter than her original body. Then, she found a wall at random and printed on the wall a blurry image of a short girl in a white coat.

This is obviously not me...

I must have been dragged into some strange memory of a previous civilization!

Noah made a judgment and turned to look at the doctor who had his back to her. She was a little curious about what the doctor looked like in the previous civilization. She stepped forward and tried to see the doctor's face clearly, but before she got close to the doctor, she heard a familiar voice.

"Luo, have you finished your work?"

"...Huh?" The petite girl froze, feeling like her round-frame glasses were about to fall off. She quickly adjusted her glasses before turning around. What she saw was [Puresis]. No, to be precise, it was the former Prissis. There was no strange diamond-shaped mark in her eyes now, and she looked much gentler.

Precious... could she be so gentle?

She couldn't help but feel a little curious. After all, in her eyes, Precious was mostly... very cunning.

It's no exaggeration to say that when communicating with Precious, it felt like communicating with a calm madman, but the Precious he saw now was very different from the one he had met before. She looked at Luo with a gentle look, which really made Noah, who was used to the battle of wits and courage with Precious, feel a little uncomfortable.

"Finished...right?" Noah didn't know if Luo had finished the work at hand, but this was the only answer she could give. "Pureseth, where are we?"

"Eh? Are you half asleep? We're at the Deep Blue Tree Project Research Institute, right?" Precious blinked. "Although the workload has been a bit heavy lately, it shouldn't be enough to make our talented junior lose her mind, right?"

"Stop talking, Priss. Everyone's under a lot of pressure right now, including Law." The doctor turned his head and looked out the window. "We have to ensure that all plans are implemented. We still have to go to Rhodes Island next."

"I'm just concerned about our little genius schoolmate. She finished her studies earlier than the rest of us and even became the head of the Deep Blue Project—oh, I remember you were originally supposed to be the head, right?"

"...I just think Luo is a more suitable candidate." The doctor shook his head without further explanation. "The situation is special now, and everyone should contribute."

As the doctor turned around, Noah felt her hair stand on end. Through the window, she saw a huge creature looming in the dark blue water. She couldn't see the whole appearance of this behemoth from the window, but from what she could see, it might be the largest creature Noah had ever seen.

She swallowed hard. She did know from Prisseth that the Deep Blue Tree was essentially a transformation of a giant beast, but she hadn't expected it to be so big.

Behemoths... in the minds of the Terrans, they are almost synonymous with gods, but in the previous civilization, they were just materials for transformation.

"This……"

"What's wrong? You transformed it yourself, but now you find it scary?" Precious said maliciously, "Luo, you're not that timid, are you?"

"This is part of the plan. It's not a bad thing to have respect for nature," the doctor said. "Civilization was born from nature, but it must never be controlled by nature. We will not succumb to unknown destruction. For the sake of survival, everything is worth it."

"Survival...survival..." Noah muttered to himself as he gazed at the Deep Blue Tree outside the window. "So is survival civilization, or is it life?"

"..." The Doctor did not respond to this sentence, perhaps because in Luo's memory, she did not ask such a question, or perhaps because even the Doctor did not know how to answer it.

The previous civilization had been destroyed, and Noah knew this very well. Their efforts were fruitless.

Perhaps their backup plan is still flourishing, but there's no doubt that civilization without people is meaningless. All that remains of the former civilization are these traces, and the only known surviving member of the former civilization, the Doctor, has lost his memory.

The traces of the previous civilization have almost disappeared from the earth, but the imprint of the previous civilization has profoundly influenced the growth of Terra civilization.

It can be said that the Terran civilization was built on the ruins of the previous civilization.

Noah did not say these cruel words.

After all, there is no point in saying it out loud, after all, it is just a memory.

"Right... Real Luo, you've been trying to assimilate my consciousness since the beginning. If this was our first encounter, it would be fine, but your senior sister Precious has already done it once. I won't be manipulated so easily by you."

As soon as these words were spoken, Noah's memory space solidified instantly, and soon everything became blurred, and the real Luo, the real person in charge of the Deep Blue Tree Project who was hiding in Haisi's spiritual ocean, finally appeared in front of her.

"—What should I call you? I don't remember you, my compatriot."

"You may have misunderstood. I just accidentally acquired some blood of the previous civilization, but I am not your compatriot." Noah shook his head and looked at the remains of what might be the third previous civilization it had ever seen. However, unlike Priss and the Doctor, Luo's state seemed to be able to only exist in Hai Si's spiritual ocean. If it were not for his ability to dive into other people's hearts, he would not even be able to access this consciousness.

"...bloodline...I don't care about so-called bloodline." Luo shook his head. "The reason why I think you are my compatriot is not because of bloodline."

"……what do you mean?"

"There's a mark on your soul. This mark proves you've been infected by the Warp. To prevent this from happening, we developed a creation called the [Grey Spike]. The Grey Spike can stabilize your consciousness, preventing you from straying from the Warp. Everyone in our time has this mark on their souls—"

Luo's words startled Noah, but she quickly reacted. "...I don't quite understand. What do you mean?"

"Even though you want to deny it, in my opinion, the mark on your soul means that you have at least been influenced by the Grey Nail—" Luo explained, "If you are not from our time, then why were you infected by the Warp? And why were you marked by the Grey Nail?"

"……I do not understand……"

Noah's voice trembled a little.

"Mark? Grey Spike? Warp? What on earth are you talking about?"

"I'm saying this—in my eyes, there's no difference between you and me. We're both relics of a bygone era."

Chapter 19: Hunting

Noah was upset.

If at the beginning she thought that the other party had misjudged her only because of her uniqueness, when the other party told her the real reason, Noah realized how her soul was different from others.

In fact, it has been like this from the beginning. The strength of her soul is far higher than that of most people. Her ability to contact emotions, accommodate emotions, and even manipulate emotions is essentially based on the fact that her [container] itself is very large. The strength of her soul is even strong enough to be on par with the famous world's strongest warlock, the Witch King, and she can come and go freely in Hai Si's spiritual ocean without being affected by Hai Si at all.

The strength of her soul is indeed super-model, even beyond what a normal person should have -

However, she was not completely unaware of it. The first time she realized it was when she learned to plant the seeds of spirit in other people's hearts. That's right, it was after she learned the skill of possession that she discovered strangely that she could easily take over other people's bodies.

You know, even in the hands of a master of the Originium technique of the telepathic system, this kind of technique that can easily assimilate others or even completely transform others' minds is rare.

The soul is the most sophisticated technique in the world. Even the Witch King dare not say how advanced his research in the field of soul is, but Noah can do it easily, including manipulating a large amount of emotional flow, inciting, controlling, and even devouring. Her soul can withstand it. Even at this stage, Noah can completely abandon her original body - after all, she still has a backup that has not been activated.

That is the Transformer Cluster that has recovered after being torn apart by the Blood Demon Lord. If Noah's body dies now, she will be resurrected with the help of the Transformer Cluster. Her soul can easily match the bodies of others. Not only the Transformer Cluster, but even now, it is very easy for her to take away the body of a Hai Si. The strength of her soul is so terrifying, so terrifying that it is almost impossible to get lost, as if there is an anchor locking her consciousness.

And this anchor rope is the gray nail that Luo mentioned.

When Luo was observing Noah's soul, he discovered the mark of the Gray Nail and thought that the other party was his compatriot, that is, the relic of the previous civilization.

Because the people of the previous civilization developed the technology of subspace folding, they needed to use the Gray Nail technology when participating in the folding, so the people of the previous civilization would have such a mark on their souls. But if Noah is not a member of the previous civilization, why does she also have the mark of the Gray Nail?

Could it be that Noah had actually been to the Warp? And had returned with the help of someone who happened to have an unused Grey Nail in their possession? So, to prevent Noah's soul from being consumed by the Warp's contamination, they used the Grey Nail to stabilize it?

"Things may be a little complicated, and I can't answer your questions." Luo looked at Noya and said, "Don't panic. Even though you're not my compatriot, I hold no ill will towards you. If the Deep Blue Tree itself hadn't suffered severe damage, the derivative you call Haisi wouldn't have gone to such a rage. On this point, on behalf of the members of the former Deep Blue Tree Research Group, I apologize to the existing civilization on Terra."

"...I understand." Putting aside his doubts about his soul for the moment, Noah knew that meeting Luo was a great opportunity. After all, Luo was clearly much friendlier than Precious. "Let's not worry about what's wrong with my soul for now. Since you're willing to say this, it means that, unlike Precious, you're more friendly toward outside civilizations. So, I have some questions for you..."

Noah finally met a friendly former civilized person, so she naturally wanted to know something about the Deep Blue Tree. After all, the more she knew, the better she could deal with Hai Si.

The sea creatures should not have become Terra's nightmare. They should have been used by Terra, which was the Doctor's original intention.

Miss Luo, who inherited the doctoral position, should have a way to control Hai Si...

But perhaps sensing Noya's intention, she shook her head regretfully. "Ever since the Deep Blue Tree's mainframe was severely damaged, its control over the derivatives has been significantly reduced. With the mainframe damaged, there should have been backup hosts in charge, but perhaps due to an accident or some other reason, most of these backup hosts have lost connection to the Deep Blue Tree."

Although Luo lives in Hai Si's spiritual network, her authority has been reduced due to the problem of the Deep Blue Tree.

The core of Haisi is the four mainframes, which are the divine components of Haisi.

[Spreading Branches], [Heart of Corruption], [Lifeline of Origin], and [Insoluble Iceberg] are the four mainframes that represent the four directions of the Deep Blue Tree Project.

【Migration】【Growth】【Survival】【Reproduction】

The most special host among them is the one code-named [Heart of Corruption]. If the original intention of other hosts is to maintain the existence of Haisi, which is a derivative of the Deep Blue Tree, then the source code of the host representing [Migration] is completely different.

The now damaged [spreading branches] are the host where Luo is. Although irreversible damage has occurred, it is still growing continuously, just like a vegetative person. Although the brain has lost consciousness, the body will not stop normal physiological activities.

The Heart of Corruption was originally under the charge of Researcher Ishamara, but now something has clearly changed in the Heart of Hatching.

The original meaning of these four projects is:

Survive, collect nutrients, and distribute resources.

Migrate, expand territory, and plunder resources.

Reproduction, efficient reproduction, consumption of resources.

Grow, provide nutrients, and produce resources.

After hearing these words, Noah seemed to realize something. After hearing the responsibilities of these so-called hosts, that is, the gods of Haisi, she suddenly realized something. When Prisseth said that the original intention of the Deep Blue Tree was to build a biological ark, she had not realized what was going on.

But after Luo explained in detail the responsibilities of the four major hosts, she suddenly realized that the Deep Blue Tree's plan was actually a self-consistent supply relationship.

Simply put, the entire Deep Blue Tree Plan revolves around resources: plunder, production, distribution, and consumption. To put it another way: farmers cultivate the land, producing resources; hunters hunt, plundering resources; leaders distribute food, allocating resources. After ensuring survival, the only thing left is reproduction for continuation.

In fact, in a sense, the Deep Blue Tree Project is a distorted ecosystem, and Hai Si has the ability to evolve and transform his own genes, which makes Hai Si's adaptability terrifyingly high. It also allows Hai Si to adapt to various extreme environments.

...In a sense, Hai Si is truly a particularly perfect creature.

Although it itself was shaped by pre-civilized people...it can indeed be called perfect.

No wonder there's such a fanatical religion devoted to Hai Si. This simple and crude... beauty? Noya didn't know how to describe Hai Si's existence, but she somewhat understood the Deep Sea Church's admiration for him.

If there really is a so-called creature battle royale, Haisi is undoubtedly the one most likely to win.

Is that why they are so keen to assimilate with Hai Si?

However, in Hai Si's eyes, those fanatical people are probably resources that they need to plunder.

For Hai Si, there is no such thing as mercy and humanity, only survival at all costs.

It is precisely because of this that Hai Si’s existence is incomprehensible to most people.

The most terrifying opponent is undoubtedly unknown, but there is a special existence between Hai Si and humans.

Deep Sea Hunter...

"I think I understand what you mean." Noah raised his head. "You mean, the only way to fight against the Hai Si is to make the Hai Si and humans understand each other—and this bridge is the Deep Sea Hunter?"

"...In fact, I don't know what kind of existence the deep-sea hunter you mentioned is. Although I exist in this spiritual ocean, I have almost no way of accessing information from the outside world."

Luo shook his head. "But your idea is correct. There is only one way to ease the conflict between the Haisi and humans, and that is to have a middleman recognized by both the Haisi and humans. If the deep-sea hunters you mentioned can fulfill such a role, then your understanding is correct."

At this moment, Noah was in doubt.

If, according to Luo, there was no substantial conflict between the Deep Blue Tree Project and Terra Civilization, then why did Prissius ask him to shut down the Deep Blue Tree Project...

One of Luo and Precious must be lying, or perhaps both of them are lying. From their respective perspectives, they told their own solutions to themselves, the only ones who could take action.

Perhaps both methods can achieve Noah's goal, but there are obviously vastly different subsequent impacts between these two choices.

Noya didn't raise this question. Letting Luo and Precious know each other's existence was inherently dangerous. She had to first decide which side she trusted, or whether to trust neither side...

Alas... Noah is walking on thin ice now. No matter which side he chooses, he may be dragged into the bottomless abyss.

"...Then, our communication should end here. Miss Luo, I will consider your proposal." Noah decided to cut off the connection between them first. Luo's existence obviously gave her a new choice.

However, Noah could only believe part of what these two former civilizations said.

"Wait—I have another question." At this moment, Luo spoke. She hesitated for a long time, but still spoke, "Is she awake?"

"...you mean?"

"Prophet, or Doctor, she would probably prefer to call herself Doctor."

"...Yeah." Noya could sense the other person's emotions, and after some hesitation, she nodded. "If you're referring to the doctor I know, she has indeed woken up. And she's currently helping Terra overcome the difficulties ahead."