The deep-diving ship continued to move forward in the abyssal realm for a total of three and a half days, which at first glance sounded like a very bad result, only three and a half days, not even as long as some powerful imperial commanders could continue to fight in the abyssal realm, but thinking about another thing, no one doubted: it went all the way to the most polluted depths of the abyss, and the distance it traveled had already crossed the stable limit of the products of the material world, and the pressure it had to endure increased several times with each step forward. In the first day, the ship may have been in the same area that Sandora had entered, but after that it had entered a completely unattempted death zone.

The deep-diving ship is designed to resist the pollution of the abyss far more than any starship we have, it can do almost perpetual motion when cruising near the abyssal gate, and will only collapse when it continues to penetrate into the danger zone and reach a certain limit, according to the speed of the deep-diving ship, it has already crossed the shallow area of the abyss, and it is very likely to touch the "strange frontier".

The shallow area of the abyss is Tavel's way of describing it, she roughly stratifies the known environment of the abyss, the gate of the abyss is the entrance, and the place near the gate of the abyss is the shallow area of the abyss, where the pollution is thick but not deadly, and there are unstable passages between the forces of the abyss that can be safely passed - that is, the voids created by the fog surge that we observe, these unstable passages greatly reduce the danger of the shallow area of the abyss, as long as these voids can be accurately found, The average mid-level Hiling Apostle can also fight in an abyss environment. There is a clear dividing line when crossing this shallow zone, which has never been observed, but Tavel deduced the existence of this dividing line based on the data we extracted from the database of the original prototype of the diving ship, and all the abyssal fog should come to an abrupt end after this dividing line, and on the other side of the line is the highly polluted zone of uniform concentration, where the abyss no longer presents a measurable state, at the same level of deep diving depth, Abyssal pollution is equally strong in every existing space. And it increases exponentially as the depth of the dive increases, and this area is called the deep abyssal zone. Since there is no "superior" safe passage in the shallow area, and there is no fog that can be delineated, the deep diving ship will face great challenges in navigating in this area, and there is no opportunistic safety route, everything depends on the protective performance of the hull itself. If the deep-diving ship can still move forward after crossing that dividing line: even if it is only an inch forward, it is said that the design of the star ship is correct, indicating that its protection system does have the characteristics of continuous operation in the abyssal realm. At most, the intensity needs to be improved. It can be said that the dividing line between the deep and shallow areas is also the dividing line that determines the fate of the deep-diving vessel, and if it does not succeed in crossing this line and survives in the deep zone for a short time, our deep-diving boat will have to be redesigned.

The inability to cross the demarcation line means that the deep-diving vessel relies solely on a safe path to pass through the shallow zone.

Thankfully, the deep-diving vessel should have crossed the demarcation line on the second day of departure, and after that it continued to sail for about 35 hours, and came into contact with the so-called "strange frontier".

Strange frontiers are Sandora's words. She is used to refer to the limits of our current technology on the analysis of phenomena deep in the depths of the abyss. There is no clear dividing line between that area and the deep abyssal zone, and the reason for this division is also based on the information we have obtained from the database of the prototype of the deep diving ship. According to the database, after the deep-diving ship arrived in the deep zone for a period of time, all the research data began to decline sharply, and the scientific research team led by Occam seemed to have advanced a certain distance in the deep zone and suddenly failed to collect any useful information, which indicates that after a certain level of depth, the bizarre scene presented by the abyssal realm will be completely beyond the scope of the existing technology, and the ship's instruments will be helpless against any phenomena that occur around them. The boat is still able to sail. But the crew no longer recognises the constellations around them – that's how it feels. Obviously, the division of the Strange Frontier depends a bit on the level of the ship's equipment or our current level of technology, with the scientific and technological strength of the new empire, the Strange Frontier will definitely arrive earlier than what Occam encountered back then.

There are two vague layers behind the Strange Frontier, the "Barrier Zone" and the "Bottom Layer", both of which are speculated areas, and there is no evidence of their existence at the moment, and Occam has not been able to cross the dead door of the "Strange Frontier" back then. Tavel only imagined a bottom layer of the abyss based on the repeated occurrence of the "abyssal order signal phenomenon", and then added a "barrier area" on top of this bottom layer.

Ninety percent of all our assumptions in the Abyssal Realm are based on such speculations and inferences. And the dive boat, or the whole dive plan. It is to slowly fill these conjectures to the fullness of flesh and bones.

The Abyssal Gate hovered silently over the red surface of the Red Giant's blazing red, surrounded by a circle of ghostly obelisks that flickered regularly. In order to maintain the stability of this gate, from a distance, it looked as if a small black round hole had been poked out of the radiant skin of the red giant, revealing the true core of the cold darkness of the planet. From the outside, the surface of the red giant star is stormy, the crimson plasma hurricane roars past at tens of thousands of meters per second, and the abyssal gate is as quiet as a pool of black water; Inside, on the contrary, the red giant hides order in its turbulent surface, and each of its erupting columns of plasma fire is based on laws that can be accurately described by several mathematical models, in the eyes of scientists, the red giant is as stable and silent as a small flame that burns quietly, but the abyss is violent and twisted, it is strange, perverse, it challenges all the laws of the material world, and it subverts everything inexplicably: although it seems to be just a pool of black water without any waves.

Two modified ferryman-class medium-sized barges patrolled several kilometers above the Abyss Gate, a distance equivalent to half a foot stepping into the death zone, so the Ferryman-class barges were also equipped with a new shield designed to combat the erosion of the abyss. These barges are as practical as any other engineering boat, with a boxy appearance and an extremely flat body, which looks like a playing card floating in space: a twelve-kilometer-long playing card. There are several large rectangular openings in the barge's hull that run up and down the entire ship, and at the edge of the openings are a force field traction system that looks like some kind of ancient refining well, and in the center of this traction system is a space door leading to the barge Gnaku. The towing system can tow cargo over without touching the target, and the space gate sends the cargo to a high-concentration ghosting environment, in which it is ghosted. The abyss is neutralized, purified, and eventually the cargo is safely preserved in Gnaku.

However, the "ferryman" barge does not have the ability to drag things from the Abyss Gate, and we need some more ...... to "fish" the "Drifting Bottle" from the opposite side of the Abyss Gate Special workers who work in extreme environments and who have to do it manually: we can't afford any surprises on this project.

It was still in the space workstation next to the Abyssal Gate, which was already the front-line command center of the Deep Dive Planning Team, and the staff of the Planning Team were nervously watching the situation of the first engineering team. They have entered the Abyssal Gate and are now active in the outermost layer of the shallow zone. Although it was already a safe place to be fairly close to the main material realm, it was only relatively deeper. The engineering team had only limited protection, and the "salvage vessels" they used were also built on the principle of deep-diving vessels, but because they had to try to extract physical materials from the abyssal environment, the salvage vessels had a higher chance of coming into contact with the contaminating substance. The whole work has to be done with great care.

A bearded middle-aged man wearing an assistant technician's uniform appeared on the communication screen in front of us, he was the leader of the brave engineering team, the engineering team established contact with the command center in the abyss domain, and the transmitted picture was obviously distorted and stuttered - the place where they worked was only a few dozen kilometers away from this command center, but the communication situation was so unoptimistic, which made me suddenly have an unreal feeling, as if the extremely advanced imperial technology around me was not the most advanced technology, Instead, he was talking to the soldiers on the old radio station from World War II.

The bearded middle-aged man has a strong figure and a stiff face. Although he was dressed as a researcher, I really thought it was an Imperial soldier wrapped in a white robe, and Tavel introduced me to her junior assistant, who, according to her, was a "front-line field scientist", in short, the kind of Empire technician who preferred to carry dozens of tons of explosives to the battlefield rather than work on theories in the lab, assembling new bombs while collecting data on enemy casualties - no wonder he led the engineering team into the Abyssal Gate as an assistant technician.

"The environment here is harsh, and there is a slight shaking of the hull. Just now, the gravitational force inside the ship suddenly rose by one percent. The bearded front-line field scientist "said in a gruff voice, his gaze not lingering on the communicator for long. Instead, he quickly glanced around, seemingly keeping an eye on a lot of data that was constantly refreshing, "There could be a lot of stuff trying to kill us." ”

"Pay attention to your shield readings, a new wave of pollution is being created within the Abyssal Gate," Tavel frowned, one of her mass projections was personally monitoring the readings in the ghostly obelisk next to the Abyssal Gate, "It seems that there is a continuous interaction of information from the Material World and the Abyssal Realm, which has loosened this door a little. ”

"Of course, Chief Technician." The bearded man's eyes drifted to the side, as if he was confirming Tavir's warning, and then expertly maneuvered on the console, "We see that thick fog, the scale is really large, the abyssal aura that has escaped has touched the workship, and our outermost shield is disintegrating itself, but it is far from reaching the danger point, and it seems that it can withstand this impact." We can't move our position, the security databases that came off the dive ship are coming back to their home and they're working badly, so I've just set up the workboat as a temporary navigation tower so that we can get some more databases back safely...... Oh, the impact is coming...... Ziz ......"

The bearded man's voice was suddenly replaced by a loud murmur, and the image coming from across the Abyss Gate suddenly turned into a large mass of distorted bright lines. The surging abyssal force disrupts the orderly combination of the contact signals, causing them to become crumbling clutter. The bold bearded man really resisted the impact with the workboat, and everyone suddenly became nervous, only Tavel remained calm: "It's just that the communication is interrupted, and the workboat is designed to be strong enough to face all kinds of crises in the shallow area." I know the guy Vida, he just likes to play with his life, but he doesn't like to die. ”

Sure enough, as Tavel had said, the workboat soon reappeared on the contact list, and the bearded man's report could barely be heard in the violent clutter: "The shock continues, Chief Technician, we see a large gray-black ...... At least after the equipment was processed a grayish-black fog that shrouded the workboat. It was as if they could tell that the workboat did not belong to their worldly realm. The shield system was rapidly refreshing, and the tainted shield attempted to self-detonate inward, but was stopped in time. We're still sending navigation signals to the 'Drifting Bottle', and the shock may have affected one or two of the databases and lost their sights...... Oh no, the workboat might be a little polluted, I'm not sure. But just now two escape towers suddenly disintegrated......"

The signal interference was severe, the image coming back from across the Abyss Gate was almost frame-by-frame, the expression on the bearded man's face was still light, and more and more alarm lights were appearing in the control hall behind him - it didn't seem to be as relaxed as his tone was. Sandora decisively gave the order: "Immediately float up, we will send the second group of engineering teams down." Send me a briefing on the condition of the ship, and I'm asking the team of scientists to analyze why you're contaminated now. ”

"Probably...... No need to be so troublesome. We can deal with this little problem, Wiham has gone to the base of the escape tower to check the damage, and now the warning system has not sounded the alarm, our shields are still intact, this should be just an accident," the bearded voice suddenly became clear, and the picture returned to normal, "Oh, the impact has passed. Come and go as fast as you go. Alright, Chief Technician, and Your Majesty, now let's talk about what we confirmed: the database that broke off from the dive ship may have suffered a worse impact than expected, we only received a total of seven navigation requests, yes, out of a hundred databases, only seven made it back to the shallow area alive, and two of them suddenly lost connection just now. We have to stay here. Continue to provide navigation for the remaining five databases. They can't go home on their own. More storms are forming, and there is a delay in switching to Engineering Team 2 once the navigation signal is terminated or the switch is made. There's a ninety percent chance that those databases will be lost—that's the last little thing in the whole plan, and I have to keep the Empire's possessions!" No need to send a second engineering team, in a minute we can send the first database out of the door, please be ready to receive. ”

The bearded man was resolute, and it seemed that his team of experts could really solve these problems, so Sandora no longer insisted, but told them to complete the task as soon as possible, and then asked Tavel to check it out.

The bearded man gave a military salute and hung up the communication.

Soon, the barge waiting on this side of the Abyss Gate received the "cargo delivery" signal from the engineering team, I don't know whose idea it was, the contact code between them was like this: Open the door, your courier ......

From the middle of the Abyss Gate appeared a small inconspicuous whirlpool, and then a small thing with a faint blue light floated out of the whirlpool, compared to the Abyss Gate as a whole with a radius of hundreds of kilometers, this blue brinket was as inconspicuous as the sesame seeds on the baked cake - well, I admit that I really lacked words at this time. The workboat managed to capture the first floating database and teleport it out of the Abyssal Gate, and all went well when this sesame seed was ...... Ahem, it seems that it is quite difficult to turn the brain, in short, when this inconspicuous little thing floats out of the abyss gate, the entire command center is immediately filled with a relaxed atmosphere.

As soon as one database is back in our hands, the whole project will be more than half successful.

"Very well, we've observed the target - but it doesn't seem to be doing very well, its shield is almost extinguished, and it doesn't accept our external orders, and there may be some level of system damage, but hopefully the database preservation procedures designed by the scientists are still functioning...... Our traction beam caught it! "A report came from Barge No. 1, and then we saw a number of faint indicator beams radiating from the walls of the rectangular passage in the center of the barge, which wrapped the database that had just floated out of the Abyssal Gate and quickly pulled towards the space door that it used to receive the cargo," a strong Abyssal reaction was detected, and a danger signal was transmitted along the traction beam...... The barrier system worked well and we kept the contamination at bay. This thing needs to be thoroughly cleaned, and it smells disgusting all over its body. ”

How big is an escape database? In fact, it is very small, in the abyss environment, the smaller size means that it is easier to obtain efficient protection, those drifting bottles equipped with navigation systems and the most efficient driving engines are only the size of a small car, and the size of a "ferryman"-class barge is measured in kilometers, and it looks somewhat comical to use such a behemoth to pick up something the size of a small car to go home, as if Megatron carefully picked up a jingle bell from the grass. But we did it for a reason: only something as large as a barge could carry enough equipment to operate right next to the Abyssal Gate, and it also had to carry a "cleaning device" that quickly purified the Abyss to sterilize the freshly salvaged drifting bottles. It's not that we haven't thought about having a high-speed maneuvering spaceship skim through the Abyssal Gate to retrieve the database, which might be more efficient and less comical, but there is a chance that the pollution will be extended to the salvage force: the gain outweighs the loss.

Soon the other databases were out of the abyssal realm under the guidance of the workboat, and the whole salvage process seemed to be going more smoothly than we expected. Among them, only one "drifting bottle" was lost, it was severely infected, the shield had been completely extinguished, the shell was twisted like a mess, and the inside of this completely abyssal mechanical body burst out with the light of the eve of self-explosion, and as soon as it came to the material world, it immediately tried to disperse the abyssal aura on its body through self-explosion - fortunately, there were a large number of sentinel cannons nearby, and on the eve of its explosion, the high concentration of ghost energy rays completely purified everything. The contaminated database only produced a small spark in space, but it was instantly swallowed up by the brilliant light of the red giant, and then Tavel felt distressed like something......

"First engineering team, your mission is complete, return immediately."

Sandora breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the communicator.

There was no response.

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