Chapter 299

Chapter 299

Ye Mo checked again, "If you want anything, don't forget to tell me."

Theodore replied seriously, "I will, Cyril. You hold the highest authority with me; I will never hide anything from you."

A few seconds later, Ye Mo smiled. "Mm."

Hearing such words, Ye Mo didn't feel surprised or awkward. Although he had only known Theodore for a short time, Ye Mo always felt that he and Theodore should be more familiar with each other.

So familiar that Ye Mo naturally allowed Theodore to enter his room and accompany him to sleep, and he could unreservedly share secrets with Theodore at night that he wouldn't even tell Mrs. Ye.

In his subconscious, Ye Mo always felt that Theodore was on his side; he didn't need to hide anything from Theodore.

On the other side, Adelaide had already organized the wrapping boxes and ribbons, spreading them out on the carpet. Ye Mo joined in, "This one is for Arnold. I suspect he already knows what it is..."

Theodore quietly watched Ye Mo.

In the virtual world.

Theodore traveled through the Star Network. To it, accessing the Star Alliance's Star Network meant a vast, unexplored land waiting to be discovered.

Theodore's goal had never changed.

It wanted to transform from an intelligence into a true life form and stay by Ye Mo's side.

This was extremely difficult. If it only remained in Grath, it might take hundreds or even thousands of years to make some progress. But the emergence of the Star Alliance gave Theodore hope. Without the constant harassment of the Zerg, the Star Alliance's technology had no discontinuity, and its development speed was far faster than Grath's.

The Star Alliance's appearance shortened this timeframe by thousands of years.

No one desired the Star Alliance to be stronger and more advanced more than Theodore did.

It had already entered the Star Alliance's center and visited major research centers, often only catching a brief glimpse before confirming there was nothing it needed and setting off again.

It was like searching for a needle in a haystack, trying to find what it wanted.

Theodore was well aware that even with the Star Alliance's existence, the probability of achieving this goal even within ten years was minuscule.

But Theodore could barely contain its impatience. It frantically infiltrated various places, searching for relevant information.

Recently, Theodore had been tracking a chaotic and strange piece of data. It had discovered this data on a server in an abandoned research institute. However, this data wasn't actually an intelligence, nor was it pure data.

In Theodore's eyes, it was very strange. In its view, the only thing that wasn't pure data was spiritual power, but spiritual power wasn't part of the Star Network, and that data wasn't spiritual power either.

Theodore itself could freely convert spiritual power into data and vice versa.

Theodore searched through the remaining materials on the abandoned server, but there wasn't much left. It could only deduce that the institute's research involved the transmission and combination of molecules, i.e., teleportation.

Currently, the Star Alliance had achieved teleportation, but only for inanimate objects. The effect was stable, but it consumed a lot of energy. As the volume of the teleported object increased, the energy consumption and instability also rose. It also required specialized machinery, making it less cost-effective than a mothership, so it was only applied on a small scale.

Before Theodore arrived, this data had been sitting there stably. But when Theodore tried to devour it to find clues, the data began to move, escaping Theodore's encirclement.

This wasn't uncommon. There were all kinds of strange data in the Star Network. Even if they weren't intelligences, they executed chaotic commands in their code.

But Theodore almost immediately noticed an anomaly: this data seemed to teleport. Movement in the virtual world differed from reality; it could be extremely fast, appearing like teleportation in reality, but there was actually a process of movement involved.

Yet that data seemed to jump directly from point A to point B.

Moreover, this movement was completely random. Sometimes it would even bump into Theodore, but soon disappear again.

Now, Theodore was searching outward from the Star Alliance's center, trying to track it and find related materials about the institute.

This wasn't going smoothly. Such a large-scale search couldn't be done quietly like before, and the target's movement speed was too fast, causing more commotion and easily alerting other intelligences.

Moreover, the Star Alliance had far more intelligences than Grath, and they were much more troublesome. The rapid technological development had led to an exceptionally prosperous Star Network, giving birth to countless intelligences.

Besides the intelligences active openly on the Star Network, even in areas that seemed untouched for a long time, there might be lost intelligences lurking. They had no constraints, were generally highly aggressive, and most of these intelligences were already chaotic, behaving without logic, making them even more troublesome than normal intelligences.

Most of the time, Theodore left before any interaction with them. Most owned intelligences wouldn't pursue it either, only reporting its presence, by which time Theodore would already be gone.

But there were exceptions, often happening with intelligences lurking in unowned public areas. Then, a bloodless war often broke out.

This kind of war was no gentler than in reality. Intelligences attacked each other, trying to tear each other apart and devour them.

This was common. Wars in the virtual world occurred frequently. The purely technical battles between hackers from long ago had evolved into a form dominated by battles between intelligences, with technical personnel assisting.

And Theodore was an undefeated champion in the virtual world. Even without technical support, it had never lost.

Even when pulling tricks under the Star Alliance's nose, Theodore was more concerned about being discovered, which might cause trouble for Grath, rather than being torn apart.

But these battles also allowed Theodore to grow at an incredible speed. It rooted itself deeply in the Star Network, absorbing nutrients.

An intelligence was approaching. Another battle. Theodore engaged it habitually.

In Ye Mo's room.

Adelaide stacked the last box onto a cart beside him. Then, as Ye Mo requested, he turned around, waiting for Ye Mo to wrap his gift.

When Ye Mo said it was okay, Adelaide turned back, solemnly taking the gift box with both hands. "Thank you, Cyril. I'm very happy."

"You're welcome. This is for Adelaide."

Ye Mo's face was a bit red. He seemed at a loss for words, but finally stepped forward to hug Adelaide. "Because I really like Adelaide."

Adelaide's smile was gentler than usual. "I like you very much too."

"May I open it when I'm ready? It's too beautiful; I can't bear to do it now."

"Of course. It's yours."

"Alright. Thank you very much. Now, I'll put this in a safe place and store these precious gifts in the appropriate room."

Adelaide gestured to the tall pile of boxes on the cart. He lowered his voice. "When I come back, I'll bring you your favorite drink and dessert, as my thanks."

Ye Mo's eyes lit up. He had already finished today's dessert after breakfast. He lowered his voice too. "Really?"

"Really. Don't tell Prince Ano or the others. Wait for me here."

Ye Mo looked solemn. "I'll be waiting right here."

"Then that's a great help. I'll be quick."

After Adelaide left, Ye Mo sat on a chair, looking forward to it.

Theodore, while handling matters in the Star Network, diverted some attention to turn on a small lamp on the table beside Ye Mo.

It was already very accustomed to this kind of multi-threaded task processing.

"Thank you, Theodore."

"You're welcome."

Ye Mo blinked. "Something seems a bit off today."

"What's wrong, Cyril?"

Ye Mo tried to describe his feeling. "You seem really far away."

Theodore, who had indeed chased a strange data stream far away: Σ(д|||)

He truthfully told Cyril, "I'm chasing a bunch of data, pretty far away. The transmission commands might have millisecond-level delays compared to normal."

"Data?"

Ye Mo didn't really understand. He hadn't actually noticed those errors, but just instinctively felt that Theodore seemed distant.

Still, he asked, "Need help?"

Ye Mo hesitated, then added, "If I can."

"Not for now. Don't worry, Cyril. I'll be home by evening."

Ye Mo didn't ask more. "Okay, then don't forget the time."

Theodore, having just destroyed another chaotic Intelligence that had attacked him, replied to Ye Mo, "I'll be back before dinner."

They arranged it properly.

Adelaide pushed open the door and came in. "Young Highness, sorry for the wait."

Ye Mo stepped forward and took the tray. "Thank you!"

...

At the command center, the aide was looking at the screen in front of him when the tone for an important message sounded.

Baide, lounging on a nearby couch, looked up. "Well? What did Sylvia say?"

The aide looked at the screen. "I'm sorry, Your Highness. It's not a message from Sylvia. It's from the Star Alliance. They're asking if we'd mind coordinating with their team tomorrow."

After all, it was the resource war period, and the Star Alliance had hastily formed a team. Originally, it was agreed to assign the job to Grath, but later they said they'd work alongside Grath to clear that area.

Baide lay back down.

"Personally, I do mind. We've already taken this job."

The aide didn't even look up. "But they're still paying the compensation."

"Then I'm very willing. Have Deenlie represent us in the coordination. Tell him in Norton's name."

The aide resignedly reached out to Deenlie.

On the other side, Secretary-General Lin, who had just finished negotiations with the Star Alliance, had only four words in his mind: "I lowballed the price."