Chapter 723 Well... I'm Here!

After much persuasion, the Data Terminal finally decided to give it a try.

The whole thing sounded almost magical, as it was going to attempt to store a fairy inside its memory...

"To be honest, no one knows how this process should be done," Hao Ren said, looking at the Data Terminal lying listlessly on the ground, and the little fairy next to it, staring at him with wide, curious eyes. He stroked his chin and continued, "But I figured it should be similar to your usual scanning and storage of non-standard information clusters. I remember you have a function that can collect and organize the surrounding discrete information, right..."

The Data Terminal's voice sounded utterly devoid of hope: "This unit sincerely wishes it never had that function."

The little fairy blinked, watching this group of people messing with strange things. She didn't seem to realize it had anything to do with her until Hao Ren told her to try to crawl into the hexagonal metal lump on the ground. She then exclaimed in surprise, "Wow?! You want a fairy to crawl into that thing?!"

The Data Terminal immediately flailed on the ground, "Watch your manners! What do you mean, 'that thing'?"

The little one was startled by the Data Terminal's movements and quickly flew up a bit: "But fairies usually live in crystals. How do I get into... this?"

"Enter it the same way you enter a crystal; just treat it as a strangely shaped crystal," Vivian reminded her from the side. "This is important. Your success will determine whether we can safely take you and your compatriots, who are fused with the Earth's core, out of here. Understand?"

Although the fairy race usually seemed chaotic, they weren't stupid. Upon hearing Vivian's words, the little one immediately became serious and looked at the Data Terminal with a sense of mission: "Then... I'm coming!"

She then transformed into a blue light and crashed headfirst into the Data Terminal's outer shell with a resounding thud.

Hao Ren and Vivian simultaneously covered their faces: This first attempt was a complete failure.

"It's... it's okay!" The little fairy scrambled up from the ground, her peculiar life form rendering her impervious to such impacts, but she was still quite nervous about the failure of her first attempt. "I'll try again; I'll definitely succeed this time! I just got a little nervous when I saw its metal shell and suddenly forgot to phase..."

Data Terminal: "... Whatever, this unit has already given up struggling."

Over the next several attempts, Hao Ren and the others watched as the little fairy smashed her face into the Data Terminal's outer shell from various angles and in various postures with a "thud" each time. Although they knew the little one wouldn't get hurt, the repeated impacts still made everyone wince.

Just as Hao Ren felt that further attempts would be a waste of time and was about to resume their previous course of action, a faint blue halo suddenly appeared on the surface where the fairy and the Data Terminal made contact.

The next second, the little one disappeared from everyone's sight.

The Data Terminal didn't react for a few seconds. Then, it suddenly shot into the air: "Oh, oh, partner! The little thing is in!"

"Why do I suddenly feel like this process is a bit perverted?" Nangong Sanba couldn't help but mutter to May, only to almost get sent flying by a tail.

Hao Ren had the terminal try to establish contact with the little fairy in the storage space. A moment later, the little one's figure appeared on the Data Terminal's holographic projection. She seemed to be frolicking in an endless field: "Wow! Awesome! The fairy feels this place is even more spacious than inside a crystal. I can't see any boundaries!"

"Don't run around!" The Data Terminal immediately yelled. "There's a lot of important data in the storage area! Ah, don't eat that! That's the photo album this unit stored! You can't move that either; that's a report! You... you stay put for a while. This unit will set up a virtual partition for you. You can stay in the virtual partition and play; is that okay..."

Hao Ren couldn't imagine what was happening inside the Data Terminal's memory, but the other party seemed to be making a lively commotion before finally settling the little fairy down completely. He then asked, "How much space does a fairy take up? How many can you store?"

"A drop in the bucket," the Data Terminal said smugly, swaying its body. "Their information structure is very simple; they're just a pinprick in this unit's memory. This unit is a specially made Examiner model; the storage space is boundless! Another one or eight million fairies wouldn't be a problem!"

Hao Ren curled his lip: It was struggling for dear life not long ago, but now it's showing off again.

Vivian looked at the little fairy running around exploring in a corner of the holographic projection: "Fairy, how many companions do you have?"

"A few thousand!" The little fairy gave a number well within the Data Terminal's capacity. "Should we gather everyone now?"

Hao Ren thought for a moment: "Would that cause a big commotion?"

"No, it won't," the little fairy said, jumping up and down in the holographic projection. "We built a shielding layer in the Earth's core; it's very safe! The monsters haven't discovered the fairies' hiding place for so many years because of the shielding layer!"

"Transferring the fairies to the Data Terminal's memory first can also reduce our worries," Vivian nodded. "When we start fighting for the Amantir Crystal, those monsters will definitely swarm in, and we won't have the extra energy to take care of these little ones."

Hao Ren weighed the situation in his mind. The Amantir Crystal was the primary goal of this operation. That crystal meant the ultimate location of the Origin Star and definitely couldn't be given up. It belonged to the "main quest," but the Amantir Crystal wouldn't grow legs and run away on its own. In addition, the corrupted monsters outside had just fought a big battle with the drones and Guardian Legion, suffering heavy losses. They shouldn't have any major actions for quite some time, so this "main quest" was equivalent to being in a stable state for a long time.

Taking advantage of this opportunity to bring out the fairies hiding in the Earth's core seemed like a very good choice.

The only regret was that they had already reached this place, only a few layers of protective walls away from the Amantir Crystal. The mission objective was almost within reach. Giving up on a mission that was already 80% or 90% complete made it feel like all the sneaking around they had done so far had been a waste...

But there was no other way. Hao Ren himself knew that the fairies couldn't be given up either. If they sacrificed the fairies in the Earth's core just to rush to get the Amantir Crystal, neither he nor his teammates would be able to accept it.

"Let's do it. We'll go to the Earth's core to pick up the fairies first." He took a breath and summarized his complex thoughts into this one sentence.

The little fairy, already living in the hard drive, didn't know what Hao Ren was thinking. She just blinked and said very seriously, "Actually, the fairy also suggests you go to the Earth's core first—because something bad will definitely happen if you go directly to get the Amantir Crystal."

Hao Ren was stunned: "Something bad? Why?"

"Because the Amantir Crystal is connected to the monsters' Nightmare Lair below. If you take the Amantir Crystal directly, the big guy who's dreaming will wake up immediately," the little one said in a soft voice, as if even the blunt fairy couldn't help but feel nervous when talking about this topic. "That big guy has been dreaming for thousands of years, and its dream has accumulated countless monsters! At that time, the entire planet might be dragged into the nightmare!"

Hao Ren and his group couldn't help but look at each other in dismay. This little one seemed to have inadvertently revealed some rather amazing information!

"What nightmare? What big guy? Tell us the details quickly!" Vivian couldn't care less about being reserved and asked quickly, "You said there's a 'Nightmare Lair' below the Amantir Crystal? How did that come about?"

"It appeared not long after those Guardian Giants turned into monsters," the little fairy began to gesture again, as if that would make her muddled explanation easier to understand. "The fairy doesn't know what the Nightmare Lair looks like, but some monitoring lines still work, so we know there's an extra space in the stratum below the Amantir Crystal. A lot of monsters will emerge there, all created by a very~ big~ monster..."

The little one's explanation was becoming increasingly chaotic, but just as Hao Ren couldn't help but interrupt her, she suddenly seemed to remember something: "Ah, right, do you remember those monsters you saw in the Rift Valley before? The ones that emerged out of nowhere from the platforms below!"

Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged a glance and turned back: "You mean those monsters that were 'summoned'? Are those summoning platforms under the Rift Valley related to the Nightmare Lair you're talking about?"

"Those aren't summoning platforms," the little fairy said, hands on her hips. "Those are things that extend from the Nightmare Lair! And those brains connected to the platforms, those brain monsters are made from the Guardian Giants' brains. Their mission is to dream!"

Nangong Sanba frowned and subconsciously repeated the word, "Dream?"

"That's right, dream, dream the same dream as the big monster in the Nightmare Lair," the little fairy nodded vigorously. "Those brain monsters in the Rift Valley are responsible for dreaming with the big guy in the Nightmare Lair, and then projecting the things in the nightmare into the real world. And those brain monsters on the surface are responsible for integrating the monsters projected from the nightmare into armies, commanding them to fight!"

So that was the truth about those monsters? The true source of Amantir's endless monster army?

He remembered the information he had received from Salaman during their previous conversation:

No matter how many were destroyed, no matter how many monsters were completely purified into elementary particles, Amantir's legions never decreased, but instead grew stronger. Their rate of proliferation even exceeded the theoretical limits of collecting resources from the battlefield and Amantir's own production capacity. At least two-thirds of the monsters were illogical, as if they had appeared out of thin air...

Hao Ren had previously thought that those platforms under the Equatorial Rift were summoning platforms, but now he learned from the fairy that those things were actually dream creations—and the source of this terrifying dream was actually under the Amantir Crystal!

Fortunately, he hadn't gone straight to take the Amantir Crystal...

"Using nightmares to create legions," Vivian shook her head. "That's a common trick of the Mad Claws."

Hao Ren looked at the little fairy on the holographic projection: "Why didn't you say such important information earlier?"

The little fairy looked innocent: "You didn't ask—and the fairy forgot about it before!"

Everyone: "..."

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