261: Chapter 259 The Empire's Legacy

The night lamp's decryption capabilities were strong, but even so, the progress bar for that file moved at an agonizingly slow pace.

During this time, Xi Hai took a moment to visit the staff at nearby workstations and toured several equipment rooms on the stargate.

As it turned out, Lagrange's aesthetics certainly did not disappoint him.

It wasn't until over five hours later, after Xi Hai had returned to his office at the Weiyang Academy, that the night lamp issued a "Decryption Successful" notification.

To start with the results: clearly, the Empire had not pursued them.

At the same time, Xi Hai's previous hypothesis about "directly connecting to the Lagrange network" vanished amidst the flickering of the stargate.

During the process of decrypting the file's contents, the night lamp made countless attempts to trace the sender's address, but none were successful.

That file seemed as if it had emerged from another universe entirely.

Ultimately, Xi Hai could only speculate that perhaps the fluctuations from igniting the stargate had triggered something he currently could not comprehend.

However, for him right now, seeing what was inside this file was clearly more meaningful than pondering where it came from—

After all, it was a file suspected to have been sent by the Holy Family Academy!

When Xi Hai used to play Lagrange, he wasn't very familiar with the background lore.

His knowledge of the Holy Family Academy was limited to memories of scavenging for junk in the Angulum Cluster back then.

(Angulum Cluster: One of the gathering spots for CS and studios in Lagrange; the gameplay is similar to search-and-extract, where ship research archives can be excavated from various wreckage.)

He only remembered that many good things could be dug out of the architectural ruins of the Holy Family Academy!

In that case... "night lamp, after organizing the decrypted document, send me the table of contents."

Xi Hai temporarily stopped his musing and spoke to the night lamp.

night lamp: "Received—"

night lamp: "Data is somewhat disorganized, cross-referencing context... editing page numbers... organizing table of contents..."

"Organization complete, table of contents sent."

Xi Hai glanced at the table of contents—

He only took one look at it!

And he was immediately... ahem, he was directly and profoundly shocked by the hardcore content within:

He had expected it to be high-quality material, but he hadn't expected it to be this substantial!

It contained a vast amount of critical data on Imperial standard Warships, including hull specifications, design parameters, and weapon data.

From the Fury-class to the Quaoar-class, and even the 'Trafalgar'-class which only existed in the lore at the time, everything was present.

Of course, the most substantial part was the detailed data for the 'Armada Platform' project at the very end—

It even included complete design blueprints for the platform!

The term 'Armada Platform' might be unfamiliar to some.

Most people's knowledge of it came from its other identity in the game: the Old Empire's rogue AI.

That is, those fortress ships left behind by the Holy Multitude Stars Empire in the Lagrange universe.

After opening preview mode, the design blueprints in the document were presented before Xi Hai in the form of 3D projections.

The weapons and armor were visible at a glance, their cold, ruthless, and menacing aura faintly permeating the surrounding air, causing a phrase to unconsciously surface in Xi Hai's mind—

'Under the wide heaven, all is the King's land; within the sea-boundaries of the land, all are the King's servants.'

This was the signature catchphrase of the Empire faction in the game.

It wasn't a pseudo-profound philosophical statement, nor was it some overused quote from a great man.

It was simply a declaration—simple, direct, yet incomparably domineering, striking fear into those who saw it.

"Is this a random accident?" After watching for a long time, Xi Hai slowly raised his right hand, turned off the display in front of him, and let out a long sigh—

"Or is this a legacy of the Old Empire?"

He didn't know, or rather, he didn't want to know anymore.

Whether this was a coincidence or an inevitability, these Old Empire files, along with the night lamp, were gifts from another universe.

He had already received enough gifts.

All he knew was that whether it was the Empire or Never Ending, they might have different stances and different methods,

But everyone was tirelessly working in their own way toward the same goal—to allow humanity to venture further and further into the starry sky,

To let humanity continue on, endlessly.

[Now—it's time to go.]

A voice seemed to ring out in Xi Hai's mind.

[Go where you are meant to be.]

That voice became increasingly clear.

[Go! Stride forward!]

Xi Hai gradually realized where that voice was coming from.

It was the incredibly blazing hot blood within his own heart!

"night lamp! Send this file to the head of the Industrial Zone! Have them begin experimental production!"

"Prepare a ship! We're going to the Legion General Headquarters!"

"War is coming!"