139: Brute force

On the edge of the Apocalypse Galaxy, in a stretch of deep space far from the brilliance of any star, stood a magnificent structure of vital importance to the Angel Empire—the warp relay.

It was a massive space facility, tens of kilometers tall, with a main body forged from pristine white holy stone and golden superconducting metal, shaped like two gigantic Angel wings spread wide toward the void, surrounding a colossal artificial psionic crystal core in the center.

In days past, this core would emit soft golden pulses day and night, stirring up visible psionic ripples in the surrounding space.

Its working principle was to utilize a massive psionic field to create a stable, continuously outward-projecting artificial warp bubble in space. When a ship entered the range of this force field, it would be enveloped by this gigantic bubble without needing to consume its own engine energy, and like a stone fired from a slingshot, it would be "catapulted" along a preset trajectory at a terrifying speed exceeding one hundred times the speed of light.

These relays were like high-speed railway nodes laid out by the Angel Empire across the Milky Way, tightly connecting its vast territories. With them, journeys that originally took years were shortened to months, allowing the massive empire to maintain its rule.

However, at this moment, the relay was like a soulless corpse, floating lifelessly in the darkness.

The core crystal was dim and lusterless, the massive metal wings had stopped their fine-tuned rotations, and the active psionic field that once filled the surrounding space had vanished without a trace.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

On the bridge of the redemption, Amira Radiance slammed her fist against the armrest, the usually noble princess unable to hold back a curse.

"Connection refused! Access locked! Those religious fanatics who betrayed the Empire!"

Just moments ago, she had attempted to activate the relay using her royal supreme access codes, but the only response was a cold psionic feedback signal: 【Error: Access rights for this unit have been revoked. System is in lockdown.】

"Without the acceleration from the relay, we have to rely on our own engines." Governor Raphael's expression was equally grim as he looked at the vast distance on the Star Map. "At our fleet's current cruising speed of 50 times the speed of light, it will take at least a year and a half to reach the capital star sector."

"A year and a half..." Amira closed her eyes in pain. "After a year and a half, I'm afraid the situation in the Imperial Capital will have already changed! That old bastard Losanda must have made all the preparations, perhaps he has even already..."

The passage of time was now like a noose, tightening bit by bit around Amira's neck.

"Can we force a startup?" the adjutant asked. "For example, by forcibly injecting energy?"

"No." Amira shook her head. "The core control protocols of the relay are locked. If we forcibly inject energy, not only will it fail to start, but it will trigger a psionic backlash, or even cause the relay to self-destruct."

A sense of despair spread through the bridge.

"Is this the reason you all look so troubled?"

A voice, flat and tinged with a hint of boredom, suddenly rang out. Major General Trier had walked up to the command console at some point, looking at the massive "dead object" on the screen with eyes full of disdain.

"General Trier," Amira said bitterly, "you don't understand, this is the highest level of psionic lockdown in the Empire..."

"Otherwise what? Otherwise it's just a stubborn rock?" Trier chuckled, a natural contempt held by a materialist toward an idealistic barrier.

"Your Highness Amira, in the dictionary of the Faleim People, there is no such thing as an unbreakable lock, only insufficient computing power for a brute-force attack."

He turned around and snapped his fingers at the few Faleim People technical officers behind him. "Let the technical department move. Show our allies what a scientific way to pick a lock looks like."

"But... this is psionic technology, it's based on spirit and intent..." Amira tried to explain the difference between the two systems.

"Energy is energy, waves are waves, frequency is frequency." Trier interrupted her. "No matter how holy a cloak you drape over it, in the face of the laws of reality that we have mastered, it is essentially just a piece of control code. As long as it is code, it can be rewritten."

Ten minutes later, a small Faleim People engineering shuttle flew out of the hangar of the redemption and headed straight toward the massive relay.

The shuttle did not get too close, instead hovering at a position approximately five kilometers from the relay's core crystal.

"Starting scan of target structure."

"Constructing psionic circuit topology map."

"Encryption node found... Tsk, what complex 'spaghetti code'. Is this the programming style of idealists? No logic, relying entirely on faith and deduction?"

The Faleim People technician inside the shuttle looked at the tangled, chaotic psionic flow diagram on the holographic screen while mercilessly criticizing it.

The Faleim People had encountered numerous idealistic civilizations and had a certain degree of understanding of the underlying logic of psionics; they could even artificially create a small number of high-level psionic users themselves.

The redemption itself came from a fallen idealistic empire, and compared to the technology on the redemption, the psionic encryption of this relay was completely not worth mentioning.

"Activate [Logical Deconstruction Beam]."

As the order was given, a slender probe extended from the front of the shuttle, and a dim blue data beam, almost invisible to the naked eye, shot precisely toward the relay's core crystal.

This was not an offensive laser, but a high-frequency information stream containing billions of computational attacks per second.

The scene that followed made all the Angel people watching from the redemption drop their jaws.

The previously dead-silent relay core suddenly flickered.

"What's going on? What did they do?" Raphael asked in shock.

"Are they... are they attacking the seal?" a psionic officer stammered. "No, not attacking, they are talking to the seal?"

The golden psionic barrier that had originally shrouded the relay, representing the authority of the Church, was now being eroded by an unprecedented force; this force was not a more powerful psionic energy, but a power they could not understand.

The blue beam cut directly into the lowest-level logic of the psionic array, and the once seamless psionic circuits began to show signs of disorder.

Under the Faleim People's algorithmic attack, those complex incantations representing "refusal," "lockdown," and "divine punishment" were like a ball of yarn being unraveled, dismantled and restored layer by layer, then reorganized.

"Encryption node #342 decrypted."

"Bypassing the main control soul's verification program."

"Simulating Saint-level psionic waveband... Disguise successful."

"Injecting Trojan program... Overwriting low-level control protocols."

The Faleim People technician's fingers danced across the console, moving so fast they left only afterimages.

"This... how is this possible?" Judging from the golden light constantly flickering on the relay, Amira could feel the system inside was disintegrating at a rate visible to the naked eye.

It was not broken by brute force, but deconstructed by a higher form of intelligence.

The Faleim People did not use any psionic energy; they had forcibly pried open the door of the gods using only mathematics and logic.

"Is this the capability of a materialist civilization?" Amira murmured to herself.

"Done." About twenty minutes later, the Faleim People technician's relaxed voice came over the communication channel.

"Control has been seized, the system is restarting. By the way, your operating system really needs optimization; there are too many redundant instructions. I went ahead and cleaned up some garbage code for you; its operating efficiency should be improved by 15% now."

As his voice faded. Boom— The long-silent warp relay in the distance shuddered violently.

From deep within that dim core crystal, a dazzling radiance suddenly erupted, golden psionic ripples spread outward like a tsunami, and those two gigantic metal wings slowly spread open, beginning to adjust their angles.

The relay had started, and it was brighter and more stable than ever before.

"Gods..." The Angel officers on the bridge looked at each other, not knowing what else to say besides exclaiming about the true gods.

"Alright, the path is clear." Major General Trier waved his hand, as if he had only done something trivial.

"Your Highness Amira, have your fleet prepare to enter the acceleration orbit."

Amira Radiance looked at Trier's calm and indifferent face, then looked at the relay outside the window that had regained its vitality. She took a deep breath.

"All fleets, take orders!" She sat back in the command seat, her voice regaining its firmness.

"Enter the relay trajectory!"

The massive hull of the redemption started first, and amidst the roar of the thrusters, it slowly sailed into the golden halo at the center of the relay.

The next second, a flash of bright light swept by. The entire fleet turned into an invisible meteor, instantly disappearing from the edge of the Apocalypse Galaxy.