Chapter 1 Nassaton's Energy Core

The siren city of Nassaton was about to awaken from a century-long period of chaos and darkness, but before that, it had to figure out how to deal with the mess in front of it. The royal palace district and control compartment in the city center had been reduced to ruins in the explosion, and a large expanse of bright fire and continuous energy turbulence flickered like wandering torches over the rubble. Sirens were constantly emerging from buildings all over the city, many of them just recovering from mental breakdowns, while others had just been released from cages by their out-of-control compatriots. The queen and her interior ministers would probably have to expend a lot of effort to sort out the chaos in social order—but compared to the vortex on the Great Barrier, it was a minor problem.

"I still remember what happened when I was entangled with that monster, and some of its sporadic plans sometimes entered my mind through mental connection," the siren queen said uneasily, looking at the great vortex. "It used our siren's magical technology... and a mysterious technology to fuse together and create this huge portal. Nassaton's energy core and a whole set of devices for extracting energy from the Earth's core provided it with initial energy, and its operation is like a living thing. After growing to a certain stage, it began to maintain its own operation... as if by inertia, impossible to stop. And in any case, it wasn't designed with an emergency stop button from the start."

Shaqila's face was terrible: "Once this vortex collapses... will it blow up Nassaton? Or will it blow a hole in the bottom of the Pacific and destroy the planet?"

"No, it's worse than that," Hao Ren said quickly, reading the scan report from the data terminal, "It won't collapse the Earth—it will collapse the entire reality. That's a bigger hole, enough for the real world and another universe to annihilate each other. Of course, the situation may be slightly better, such as the affected area being limited to the galaxy..."

Soma subconsciously asked, "What's the difference?"

Hao Ren shrugged: "There's no difference, it's all over anyway."

The data terminal projected a holographic image of the giant vortex, next to complex energy charts and radial lines, showing the energy structure around the giant portal: "The siren queen is right, it has begun to self-sustain. At this time, cutting off the energy supply can only slow its growth. And this thing is fused with the city's Great Barrier. This unit doesn't think there's any way to pry it off."

Izhaks said in a muffled voice from the side: "Then cut off the energy supply first, at least we can have more reaction time."

The siren queen thought for a moment, then turned and swam towards the back of the palace ruins: "Follow me, we'll go to the energy core."

After swimming only a few steps, she turned to General Vanessa, who had just returned from the Giant Turtle Rock Terrace and was still a little confused about the situation: "Vanessa, take your people and release those alien races. First, appease their emotions. I will personally meet with them later. We've made too big a mess this time."

Vanessa nodded in confusion, then looked up at Hao Ren and the others: "I remember being sent to a very strange place, where there were many with mechanical tentacles..."

"Vanessa, go take care of business first," the siren queen urged from behind, "There are more confused people than you. Also, don't mention tentacles for a short time... it's not a pleasant word."

The siren queen led the crowd towards Nassaton's energy core, constantly encountering sirens who had just regained consciousness and came to ask for instructions. She was assigning tasks in an orderly and quick manner, including counting personnel, releasing still-imprisoned citizens, restoring the function of the core control area, and counting losses. All these arrangements were accurate and in place, and it was impossible to see that she had been trapped in chaos for a hundred years. Hao Ren admired the scene: "Your queen is a decisive person, she looks quite dashing."

"She has always been like this, but she is a very easy person to get along with outside of work," Shaqila swam beside Hao Ren, her expression was very happy, "It's been a hundred years since we met... it's great that everything can return to normal."

The group came to a shell-shaped building behind the palace ruins. Inside this building were many columnar facilities protruding from the ground, like large pipe U-bends. These facilities were covered with a layer of alloy caps, and their sides were curved crystal walls that could be opened, reminiscent of some kind of artistic elevator. The group followed the siren queen into one of the facilities, and then the circular floor beneath their feet suddenly disappeared, and a brightly lit pipe appeared before everyone's eyes.

Powerful pressurized water pushed everyone into the pipe, and Hao Ren found himself heading somewhere with the water flow.

"This is our elevator—also the city's transportation system," Shaqila smiled happily, "This is a large transfer station, and the water flow can take you to many places. Oh, ordinary races may not be able to stand this, but it's quite comfortable for sirens."

"Um... I feel okay," Lily scratched her chin, "But why do I feel like this is like a toilet drain..."

Everyone around immediately glared at the husky who spoke without thinking.

Nangong Wuyue followed closely behind the siren queen. At this time, she couldn't help but carefully ask, "Queen, do you know a siren named 'Elsa'?"

"Elsa?" The siren queen frowned and turned her head, "Who is she to you?"

"She is my mother," Nangong Wuyue said quickly, "I asked Shaqila and Soma, but they have no impression of this name—but my mother should be one of the siren messengers who went ashore."

The selection of messengers who went ashore was very chaotic at the beginning. Many people were chosen by the siren queen on a whim, and many messengers didn't even register when they went ashore, so the messengers themselves were not very sure about the list of companions. Shaqila and Soma had never heard of the Nangong siblings' mother's name.

"Elsa... I remember her. She was a girl with a quirky temper and great courage. She always went to the outer seas to bring back some strange human relics. She liked Viking things," the siren queen could actually remember the name of an ordinary siren, "How is she now?"

"She... disappeared, along with my father. The place where we lived in seclusion was attacked by the Nu Ling, and the whole family disappeared out of thin air," Nangong Wuyue's voice lowered, "This next to me is my brother. Our father is a demon hunter."

"... It seems that a lot has happened on land," the siren queen looked in surprise at the siblings, who would attract attention no matter where they were, "Oh, sirens don't have prejudice against demon hunters. Your siblings' experiences are regrettable, but I believe that Elsa, as a siren, is not so easy to die. She must be reborn somewhere."

At this time, the speed of the water flow in the pipe decreased rapidly, and then a water flow in the opposite direction rushed up from under their feet. At the same time, a large number of precise and powerful small whirlpools rolled up on the walls of the pipe, firmly fixing everyone in a certain position. A curved crack opened on the side of the pipe, and light shone in from outside the crack.

"This is Nassaton's energy source, we call it the Gushing Water Core."

The siren queen pointed to a brilliant light and said.

Outside the pipe was a huge, fan-shaped hall resembling the inner chamber of a shell. The walls of the hall were lined with neat rows of vertical pipes and ridges, and the interior of the hall was filled with bright but not dazzling blue-white light. This light came from the magical thing in the center of the hall: it was a large sphere more than ten meters in diameter, with faint water-like patterns visible on the surface, and its interior was crystal clear like crystal. Around this huge crystal, more than a dozen transparent pipes vertically penetrated the ceiling and floor of the hall, and in the pipes, bright light like water could be seen flowing.

This was the source of Nassaton's power—it was incredible, it had been running for more than ten thousand years. As a creation of a mortal race, this was a remarkable achievement.

"This is directly below the palace. Originally, there was a main pipe that extended directly from here to my palace," the siren queen pointed to a pipe on the front of the Gushing Water Core, which was currently in a dim state. "I could absorb the power of the energy core there and make a series of emergency controls on it. But now the pipe has been blown up, and we can only use the backup system here to cut off its connection with the Great Barrier."

"You want to close the Great Barrier?!" Shaqila exclaimed.