Chapter 802: Chapter 799: Possibilities Beyond the Blueprint Chapter 802: Chapter 799: Possibilities Beyond the Blueprint Facing the slowly flickering dark red light of the “God of Wisdom”, A-dog was clearly still a bit nervous and fearful, subconsciously shrinking its head beside Sherry’s leg. However, after being tense for a while, it slowly began to tell the ancient “deity” in front of it about its story with Sherry.

A catastrophe triggered by the Heretics, an Abyssal Hound that was initially no different from other Profound Demons, an instinctual “feeding”, a symbiotic chain–and human nature.

In A-dog’s empty skeletal eye sockets, the eerie green fire flickered dimly and brightly, as it gradually relaxed in the course of the storytelling, lying down and leaning against Sherry. Meanwhile, Sherry intermittently stroked A-dog’s head, sometimes adding a few words.

After their story was told, Navigator Two remained silent for a long while, those star-like lights slowly flickering as if indicating the “God of Wisdom” was engaged in complex thinking (or possibly, it had simply switched to the breathing light mode).

After what felt like an eternity, it finally broke the silence: “So, you acquired humanity and your symbiotic partner transformed into a ‘Profound Demon’… Little girl, what does your demonic form look like?”

Sherry was somewhat surprised and instinctively looked up at Duncan, who gave her a slight nod in response.

The cracking noises of bones erupted on the small boat. In just a few seconds, Sherry’s body rapidly switched into another posture–dark bone plates covered her originally frail and small stature, and joint-like bone wings extended from her back, her body gradually growing taller, mixing maturity with fierceness and eeriness.

Then she carefully slid her skeletal limbs behind her, cautiously holding onto the boat’s gunwale while maintaining her balance: “This boat is a bit small…”

The “gaze” of Navigator Two was fixed on Sherry, and the buzzing noise inside it grew slightly louder.

“Sample coupling…” The “God of Wisdom” finally spoke, its usually calm and rational voice now laced with clear surprise and confusion, “A being beyond the blueprint! Why?”

Sherry, struggling to keep her balance, was taken aback by these words and lifting her head, she asked: “What?”

“…Here in ‘The Shelter’, everything is manufactured and develops according to a blueprint, including even the extinguishing and disintegration of the sun which are part of the original design. Theoretically, only events that align with my calculated results should occur within this ‘world’,” Navigator Two explained, “But we never designed… a being like you.”

Its gaze shifted between Sherry and A-dog.

“This dog-headed Abyssal Hound’s situation is still within the realm of possibility because Profound Demons are essentially unable to spontaneously generate rationality due to original flaws, and external ‘humanity’ stimulation could possibly grant them acquired cognitive abilities, although the probability is very low, at least there is a probability…
“But you… you perplex me, little girl.

“According to the original parameters set by Navigator One in the blueprint, you should already be dead–although humans and Profound Demons do indeed share an origin, the ‘Transformation’ process you underwent is not reasonable, and its outcome does not comply with… the original design.”

The dark red light gradually brightened, watching Sherry with confusion.

Unfortunately, the person in question was even more confused.

However, after being confused for a while, Sherry gradually started to understand and hesitated for a moment before raising her hand to point at her chest: “Maybe because of this?”

Entwined dark bone fragments formed a “bone cage” accommodating the beating of dual hearts, and within this skeletal cage, a tuft of eerie green flame quietly burned.

Navigator Two watched the small flame attentively, and after a long time, its gaze fell on Duncan.

“Usurper of Flame, I would like to talk to you.”

Duncan was momentarily stunned, quickly coming to a realization, but then instinctively looked around: “But you don’t really have a place here for a private conversation, do you?”

Navigator Two didn’t respond, but suddenly there was a slight “click” sound from its central mainframe. Immediately afterward, Duncan saw an opening suddenly appear at the bottom of the tombstone-like cabinet, and a sophisticated mechanical structure popped out–it was a slot.

Duncan instinctively frowned, and then, thinking of something, he immediately searched his body and touched something cold.

It was a brass key for automata–the one with an infinity symbol at the tail end.

The key began transforming in his hand. Under the watchful eyes of all, the brass key with the “infinity” symbol handle seemed to melt like wax, and then it coalesced into a sophisticated rectangular object. The black casing faintly revealed intricate, fine patterns, and its end had a sophisticated metal interface with complex metal contacts visibly present.

Duncan was not unfamiliar with this “appearance” of the key–it was during his first attempt to explore the secrets within the key using flame, at which time he had witnessed the true form of this brass key and seen the scene of New Hope breaking apart and falling in this world.

He lifted his head and saw that around the slot on the surface of Navigator Two, a dim blue light was flickering.

A deep voice reached his ears: “The activation key for New Hope is universal.”

This one originally is the activation key… the other one is a special navigation key…

Duncan understood the nature of these two “clockwork keys,” then, under the curious and tense gazes of those around him, he gently nodded and stepped forward.

But just at this moment, Alice suddenly tugged at his sleeve, the doll-like lady seemed a bit resentful, raising her head to look at the red light of Navigator No. 2: “Just to be clear, this key is mine.”

Navigator No. 2 fell silent for a moment: “… Let me borrow it for now.”

“Oh,” Alice released Duncan’s arm, but then looked on with a bit of concern, “Make sure you don’t damage it! I still need to wind it up…”
Duncan nodded seriously–the doll-like lady finally felt at ease.

The “activation key,” with its delicate metal interface, was inserted into the slot of Navigator No. 2, and a crisp “click” rang beside Duncan’s ear.

All around dissolved into nothingness, a boundless, serene whiteness accompanied by that soft sound descended in front of him.

And just a brief second later, the seemingly supremely empty white world suddenly erupted with astonishing scenery!

Broad plains spread out with a roar, lush vegetation covered the plains in the blink of an eye, rivers surged across the plains, the outlines of distant cities were vaguely visible on the horizon, the sky took on a shade of light blue, followed by clouds tinged with a wonderful light purple, and finally, a dazzling sun appeared aloft in the high sky, illuminating everything.

Duncan stood atop a small hill, a place that overlooked the vast plains and rivers.

A man stood in front of him, tall and thin, dressed in a white robe like some kind of scientific researcher, with somewhat messy hair and a weary expression.

“This is one of my creators,” he suddenly spoke, “After the first boot, he told me that if one day I wanted to make friends with humans, I could use his appearance.”

“…The one who set up the lighting mode for you?” Duncan asked unconsciously.

“That’s another one,” the man said softly, turning his body to look at the plains, “I had many creators, they left me a lot of things… appearance, advice, the meaning of thought, countless codes, personality data, and… those beautiful lights.”

“…This place is very beautiful,” Duncan remained silent for a moment, then spoke softly, lifting his head to see an unknown giant bird suddenly flying through the sky, its splendid wings seemingly scattering specks of brilliance in the air before gradually fading away into the distance, “Your homeland?”

“Not quite.” Navigator No. 2 shook its head.

Duncan was puzzled: “?”

“…I can’t remember the appearance of my homeland,” said Navigator No. 2 after remaining quiet for a long time, then slowly continued, “I iterate myself over and over, trying my best to preserve the original data in each iteration, but no matter how careful, they still degrade, misalign, become unreadable, irreparable, even if it looks like a hundred percent restoration, the appearance of the homeland still subtly becomes totally unrecognizable.”

He paused for a moment, there might have been a sigh here, but he didn’t, he just stayed quiet for a few seconds and then continued, “This is a landscape ‘guessed’ from the only remaining vague descriptions, it probably has a little resemblance to my homeland.”

“…Decay?” Duncan hesitated a bit before cautiously asking.

“Yes,” Navigator No. 2 nodded, “Although at first, I thought by constantly iterating and updating myself I could avoid it, but the fact proves, none of us can escape this process.”

Duncan stayed silent for a moment, not wanting to continue on this topic.

“What do you want to tell me?” he asked.

“…You ‘created’ an entity that wasn’t in the original blueprint,” Navigator No. 2 turned back, staring into Duncan’s eyes, “Do you know what this means?”

“You mean Sherry?” Duncan frowned upon hearing this, “…Well, at first I indeed didn’t expect her change was so inconceivable to you all, but strictly speaking, my involvement in this might not reach the degree of ‘creation’?”

“For a closed-loop system whose end is predefined from the beginning, even a speck of unplanned dust is a subversion of the entire system,” the other party still stared deeply into Duncan’s eyes, the expression especially serious, “You exerted an influence, and then a subtle shift occurred in the previously fixed blueprint– and this shift did not lead to ‘self-destruction,’ the girl named Sherry survived and still exists stably, which has dispelled my greatest concern.”

Duncan curiously asked, “Your greatest concern?”

“…I was worried that the ‘new world’ you created would become a larger ‘Endless Sea’, because in my calculations, that was a very likely possibility.”