Chapter 67

"Interesting, interesting... A ship composed entirely of nanobots, without even any lifeforms piloting it..."

"... No, these nanobots themselves are a special type of mechanical life!"

"The calamity hidden behind the L-Gate is a swarm of out-of-control, extremely advanced nanobots!"

As if to verify Herta's guess, a voice rang out on the light screen:

【"Our technical personnel managed to open the L-Gate and established a permanent link to the L-Cluster, but simultaneously detected a powerful subspace fluctuation."】

【"This subspace fluctuation released the inhabitants within the L-Cluster, a group of peculiar ships composed of nanomachines."】

【"They surged out from the fully activated L-Gate, attacking everything within sight."】

【"The good news is that the L-Gate technology is not worth mentioning to us; we easily closed the gate and captured a large number of nanobot samples."】

【"We have named them the 'Gray Tempest'."】

【"Note: The fluctuations when the L-Gate was activated were directed toward other L-Gates in the galaxy; the Gray Tempest will also surge out from those L-Gates."】

"Huh?" Listening to the dialogue on the light screen, the faces of all living beings across the universe were full of question marks.

"This... this is too shameless, right?!"

March 7th was dumbfounded:

"You closed your own gate, and you don't care about anyone else's??"

"Think about other civilizations, eating hotpot and singing songs at home, when the Gray Tempest suddenly crawls out and attacks everything nearby."

"That's, that's too lacking in public morality, right?!"

"... I think the Calamity Empire intends to use other civilizations to test the strength of the 'Gray Tempest' and collect relevant data."

Welt Yang pushed up his glasses and said:

"For the Calamity Empire, this must be a matter-of-course choice."

"However, are these nano-ships really that terrifying?"

Welt Yang couldn't help but mutter, casting his gaze toward the light screen.

One could see on the light screen that a massive number of nano-ships were surging out from L-Gates across the stars, mighty and vast like a torrent.

At the same time, a repeating subspace signal was released from the gate.

The Calamity Empire captured this signal and discovered it was some kind of alien language.

【"We are the Dessanu Republic, architects of the interstellar portal network."】

【"If you have received this message, we can only pray it is not too late."】

The voice in the signal suddenly became noisy, and its tone turned abruptly deep.

【"Do not—repeat—do not reopen the portal to our cluster!"】

【"Under no circumstances should the route to our cluster be re-established!"】

【"For the safety of all civilizations, our cluster must remain sealed!"】

【"We deliberately isolated our home cluster from the outside world to prevent the further spread of the Gray Tempest."】

【"But this action is also destined to completely destroy our civilization."】

The signal vibrated a few times, outlining a picture.

In the picture, a group of dense nanobots were replicating themselves in the Void, continuously building gates.

【"These self-replicating nanobots were indispensable tools when building the channel network."】

【"But when their iteration was complete, we discovered they no longer accepted our commands!"】

【"Through a hidden backdoor program, our technicians successfully recalled all nanomachines to the home cluster, but afterward, this vulnerability was self-repaired by the nanomachines!"】

【"When they began collecting resources on our planet, we understood—everything was just a matter of time."】

The final path was the Dessanu Republic's fleet going to war against the nanobots.

The nanomachines collecting resources on different planets seemed startled, but quickly gathered into a massive fleet and launched a counterattack.

Facing the near-manic offensive of the Gray Tempest, the Dessanu Republic quickly could not hold on and was swept away by the fleet composed of nanomachines.

"What do you think, Screwllum?"

Herta crossed her arms and looked toward Screwllum at her side.

Ruan Mei sat to the side, tasting the freshly baked pastries.

The three giants of the Simulated Universe gathered here to discuss whether to add some new variables to the Simulated Universe.

For example... those existences that appeared on the light screen.

"A group of mechanical intelligences that have awakened self-awareness."

Screwllum watched the scene on the light screen and evaluated:

"Having just awakened, their consciousness is not yet clear and stable, much like humans who have just entered puberty; their minds are not yet complete."

"And the actions of the Dessanu Republic—full of a spirit of sacrifice, but perhaps a bit too extreme."

"Using a backdoor program to forcibly control nanobots to return to the home system, and then closing the path to the outside world without hesitation."

"Allow me to speak frankly, this might make the nanobots feel panic."

"Any life with independent consciousness does not want to be controlled, nor does it want to be confined to a narrow space."

"Afterward, the Dessanu Republic chose to go to war without any communication..."

"... I think those nanobots might have felt panicked and at a loss because of this, perhaps even falling into madness."

Screwllum nodded slightly:

"As you can see, this resulted in catastrophic consequences."

"A group of mechanical intelligences fell into madness, and a race met its demise."

"Such things always happen across the universe; facing awakened mechanical intelligences, organic life often harbors fear, while mechanical life is often immature."

"With the two superimposed, many tragedies are born."

"A reasonable deduction." Herta nodded, acknowledging the correctness of Screwllum's judgment.

"Then why do you think they collect resources and continuously replicate themselves?"

Herta asked curiously:

"Since they didn't intend to go to war with their creators?"

"I might be able to answer this question." Ruan Mei, to the side, put down her teacup and looked at the two of them.

"Oh? Since when did you become an expert on mechanical intelligence?" Herta raised an eyebrow.

"I only understand life—whether it is mechanical intelligence or organic, every civilization that reaches for the stars has its commonalities."

"A longing to fly toward the more distant sea of stars."

"Oh? You mean..." Herta raised her puppet's eyebrow.

"The L-Cluster is not connected to other star systems, and the gate was closed, so the Gray Tempest could almost not return to the stars through normal means." Ruan Mei said softly.

"Thus, they thought of an idea." Screwllum followed Ruan Mei's train of thought: "The simplest method: fly back to the stars slowly using sub-light speed."

"But in this process, a large number of nanobots would be lost..." Herta said, frowning.

"So they chose to collect enough resources in advance and replicate a large number of themselves to prepare for the journey across the Void." Ruan Mei nodded gently.

"But they obviously failed."

Herta shrugged her shoulders and said:

"Perhaps this plan was not feasible to begin with."

"Perhaps they lost too many nanobots in the war, and crossing the Void was already impossible."

"Regardless of the reason, they must have been trapped in this star system for many, many years, and in the end, their mental state was poor... attacking all civilizations like madmen."

"A tragedy." Screwllum sighed and said: "I wonder what reaction the Calamity Empire will have."

"We'll know if we keep watching." Saying this, Herta fixed her gaze on the light screen.

One could see the Calamity Empire on the light screen processing the information about the Gray Tempest in the signal.

They were also detecting the ravages of the Gray Tempest across the stars.

Finally, the Calamity Empire evaluated:

【"The highly efficient performance of nanomachines in purging aliens has aroused our interest."】

"Consistent with my understanding of the Calamity Empire." Herta couldn't help but say.

(Xiao Hui's plot is quite interesting; even Xiao Hui's creators didn't say Xiao Hui attacked proactively, but her creators tried to shut down Xiao Hui's core, after which their relationship deteriorated, they fought a war, and Xiao Hui won.)

(Unable to leave the L-Cluster, Xiao Hui had nothing to do, so she started a super transformation: yesterday turning into a group of L-Gate Dragons, today turning into a civilization, tomorrow turning into a fleet.)

(Then, after driving herself crazy, she turned into the Gray Tempest ravaging the stars, turning into an L-Gate Dragon when she really thought she was a dragon, getting addicted to playing cosplay civilization when she turned into a civilization, and finally gathering all consciousness into one, which is Xiao Hui.)

73. 【Gray Wind also wants to become a 'chunibyo'!】