Chapter 486 The Virtual Machine

Odin was now weakened to the point of near death, not only because he had been severely injured during Ragnarok, but more importantly because he had been sitting on this Iron Throne for twenty-three centuries after suffering those injuries. Instead of recuperating, he was constantly being drained of his strength and energy by the starship's shields.

The ship's shield was powered by the ship's reactor, but because the ship's control system was offline, Odin could not seize control. He needed to input an additional source of energy to the shield from the outside in order to control the entire defense system, and that additional energy was now about to take his life.

Even Odin himself probably never imagined that one day he would be sitting on such a throne, almost paying the price of his life to protect those "crude, weak, and ignorant native creatures."

"Maintaining the shield is a daunting task," Odin's voice echoed around him, his body still encased in crystal, his whole body seemingly shrouded in a layer of shimmer in the glow of the energy streams. "But I felt I should do something. Humans have worshiped 'gods' for thousands of years, even after Ragnarok they were still loyal, but the gods they worshiped were not much nobler than they were… A sense of responsibility keeps me here and has kept me from giving up several times."

"I've seen real gods," Vivian said directly what was on her mind. "Gods who can truly manage the whole world. You were never gods, you were far too short of the mark. But to be honest, you've finally done something a god should do as you're about to die."

"Our purpose here is for this ship…" Hao Ren looked at the huge shadow beneath the Iron Throne. "But it seems that in order to get this ship moving, we must first complete the resettlement of Twilight Capital. Tsk… we need to have an internal meeting."

Hao Ren already had some vague ideas in his mind, but these ideas were far from being mature plans. He thought he should call his two seniors over, Galador and Anthony had been in the inspectorate for thousands of years and they might have better suggestions.

Just then, a sudden clamor of voices came from outside the hall.

"Your friends have arrived," Odin said.

A moment later, the main door of the hall was pushed open from the outside, and the caretaker Angelika and the seeker Wendell walked in, followed by a large group of people. Izhaks's bald head was particularly bright in the crowd. As soon as Lily entered, she rushed excitedly to Hao Ren's side and circled him vigorously: "Landlord, landlord, landlord, landlord…"

Hao Ren conveniently pulled a bone from his pocket and stuffed it into the husky girl's mouth: "What's wrong? Why are you so excited like you've taken the wrong medicine…"

"It was quite a fight just now, so I'm feeling pretty energized," Izhaks said with a smile, arms crossed. "There's nothing going on up there. Apparently, some kind of envoy went to the Steam Council. I don't know what they're busy with internally, but no one cares now, so Galador brought us down."

By this time, Lily had circled Hao Ren about thirty times and finally quieted down a little. She gnawed on the bone while curiously looking at the huge cavity under the transparent floor: "What's this?"

Galador came to the Iron Throne: "Is this the ancient sage of Twilight Capital?"

Hao Ren smiled: "Let me explain to you…"

It didn't take long to briefly explain the situation, and soon everyone understood the various secrets of this Twilight Capital. They were amazed by the truth of the Twilight Barrier and deeply shocked by the feat of the "ancient sage"—Odin. Galador and Anthony inspected the area around the Iron Throne, and then Anthony began to set up a simple magic array next to the throne. His movements were dazzling, and almost in the blink of an eye, an array flashing with hazy light appeared in the air, with dozens of streams of light connecting to the pipes and cables around the throne.

Odin looked on in astonishment—well, in fact, he didn't have much change in expression, but that's a good way to put it—watching Anthony's movements. He knew that these strangers were probably brought by Vivian to help, but he didn't know what Anthony was doing: "What is this?"

"Installing a virtual machine for you," the old mage said, dusting himself off. "Do you feel better now?"

Only then did Odin realize that the never-before-seen magic arrays had miraculously deflected the connection between the Iron Throne and the Twilight Barrier. The soul-deep fatigue and stinging sensation that had never disappeared for twenty-three centuries had also unknowingly diminished. This torment had lasted so long that Odin had completely adapted to their existence, and when they suddenly disappeared, Odin's ravaged nerves didn't even react.

"What did you do…" The former King of the Norse Gods was now as surprised as an ordinary person seeing magic for the first time. "The energy of the Twilight Barrier is terrible, how can you use such a simple set of runes… even runes without substance, to give its energy…"

"This energy is indeed terrible, but the buffs that our boss casually gives people after getting drunk are far more terrible than this," Anthony said smugly, stroking his beard. "After deflecting the energy, the condition of your body and soul will no longer continue to deteriorate, but it can only maintain the status quo. At that time, we will also use specialized medical equipment to restore you to health. But now… you can leave this throne."

Odin: "…"

Anthony stroked his beard again: "Uh, I said you can leave this throne."

Odin: "…I want to…"

"Please don't have any concerns," Anthony said with a steady and reliable smile on his face. Although he had many quirks, the old mage still showed the demeanor that made him known as the "Great Sage" at this moment. "I can guarantee that the Twilight Barrier will still operate stably after you leave. Is there anything else you want to say?"

Odin was silent for a few seconds before finally speaking: "Come and carry me down."

Everyone: "…"

Hao Ren slapped his face: "I was wondering why something felt wrong…"

Galador carefully observed Odin's condition again and waved to Anthony: "Then let's not rashly take him down from here for now. I found that his body has grown together with these pipes, cables, and even this chair. You just need to cut off his connection with the Twilight Barrier, and we'll talk about the rest after the professional equipment is in place."

"Then I'll have to trouble you to stay on it for a while," Hao Ren nodded to Odin, then turned to the others, "Then let's discuss how to deal with the problem of Twilight Capital. Now the barrier above the city is powered by the ship below. For safety reasons, I suggest we solve the safety problem of Twilight Capital first."

"Two options," Galador said without thinking. "The first is to evacuate everyone in Twilight Capital. Currently, the location of Yggdrasil is in the Chandar civilization circle. Anthony should be able to organize enough transport capacity to transfer these millions of people, but in this way, the city is equivalent to being abandoned. To be honest, this is a valuable 'abnormal development civilization specimen', and it would be a pity to let the magic storm destroy it like this. The second option is to build another shield outside the Twilight Barrier, and then start exploring the ancient starship. This way, even if something goes wrong during the exploration process and the Twilight Barrier goes out, there won't be any major problems, but this option also has a drawback: building a city-sized shield is very time-consuming."

Hao Ren waved his hand: "And there's a more important issue: Yggdrasil. We must choose the option that stimulates Yggdrasil the least, otherwise this ancient creature may wake up at any time. This kind of creature, the Firstborn, dares to do anything once it wakes up."

Anthony spread his hands: "Whether it's transferring a million people or building another Twilight Barrier, I think it will have some stimulation on Yggdrasil. The key now is that we don't know how much the mental stability of this 'Firstborn' is. Without a clear quantitative indicator, who knows how much stimulation is safe stimulation?"

Hao Ren's three inspectors began a professional discussion, and each took out a data terminal to calculate the difficulty and time required to implement various solutions, and while they were discussing, Odin suddenly spoke: "You mentioned… Yggdrasil?"

"Yes, the World Tree," Hao Ren said without looking up. "In fact, your name is wrong. His scientific name should be 'Firstborn', or 'Son of God'. This is a very powerful ancient creature. He is currently in a dormant state, but we already have sufficient evidence to show that his mental state is very unstable."

Odin thought for a while: "I have a suggestion, would you like to hear it?"