Alice in the Land of Steam

Is Chapter 995 important to anyone?

"Using a game console as an authorization card to open the door? Lingge, you are too humorous, aren't you?"

Alice didn't hold out much hope. Although this was a limited edition SLP game console, there was no reason for it to have such an extra function, right? Besides, even if she wanted to swipe the card, this cube-shaped game console couldn't fit into the long card slot!

"Don't talk nonsense." Ling Ge said bluntly: "Take out the game console quickly."

Saint Shalia also advised: "Just give it a try, Alice."

Anyway, even if he is wrong, there will be no loss. Besides, Ling Ge is always calm and cautious, and he will never do anything without a purpose. Since he made such a suggestion, he must be sure of it. Alice just needs to do it. With your intelligence level, do you still want to question it?

"Just try it, don't blame me if it doesn't work."

Alice grumbled in dissatisfaction, then took down the SLP game console hanging on her belt. This silver-white cube was far more exquisite than any man-made object. It lay quietly in the palm of the golden-haired maid's hand, reflecting a distracting light. It had a metallic texture, but the surface was as smooth as crystal or gemstone, without any trace of artificial craftsmanship.

There was also an identical game console in the president's office of Game Command, but Linger didn't know if it was an illusion, he felt that the game console was not as charming as the one in Alice's hand, as if it was missing something key. So when they first met, what Alice said might not be bragging, the so-called limited edition SLP game console was indeed a unique treasure in the world.

In other words, what is its essence, what sets it apart from other ordinary game consoles?
"You said you want to give it a try, but how do you try it?"

Alice didn't notice the young man standing next to her, and was secretly examining the game console in her hand. She looked at the card slot on the information terminal and the cube in her hand, scratching her head for a few seconds, probably accompanied by various complex psychological thoughts and fierce self-denial, so that the expression on her face changed constantly, sometimes firm, sometimes hesitant. Finally, she decided to break the jar and say: "Ah, never mind - just try it!"

The golden-haired maid grabbed the game console and pressed it directly against the screen of the information terminal. She looked so fierce that she seemed to want to smash the transparent crystal screen. Everyone couldn't bear to watch this scene. Leticia even deliberately said in a voice that everyone could hear, "She is indeed a simple-minded woman. If this method works, I..."

Before she finished her words, a bright light suddenly burst out from the plane where the game console and the information terminal were in contact. The blue light overflowed from Alice's fingers. The suddenly bright light was like the sun, illuminating everyone's face and plunging the rest of the corridor into darkness. Everyone subconsciously squinted their eyes to avoid the strong light. Only Lingge, who had been paying attention to the situation, opened his eyes wide and tried to see something from the light.

However, to the young man's disappointment, he still couldn't see anything until the light gradually dimmed and even completely dissipated. The light neither returned to the game console nor merged into Alice's body, but dissipated naturally, just like... magic?
The moment this idea popped into his mind, Ling seemed to have grasped something, and inspiration was about to come. However, at this moment, Alice was ruining things again, and used a doubtful word to disrupt his thoughts: "Huh, it seems to be really possible?"

She carefully took away the game console and leaned forward to take a look. A new line of text appeared on the crystal screen of the information terminal: "Authentication has passed. Confirmed as the holder of the highest authority. Passing is allowed."

Immediately, the door silently opened to both sides, leaving a path leading to the interior of the control center. However, standing at the door and looking inside, one could only see a deep night, like a dark surface of water, deadly and unsettling. This door had probably not been opened for a long time, so as soon as it was opened, a cold breath came over, climbing up along the spine, giving people a creepy feeling. This was not cold in the physical sense, but a feeling of loneliness and solitude caused by years of no one paying attention to it and lack of popularity.

Is there really someone in a room like this?
Ling was deeply skeptical.

After the door opened, there was a moment of silence, as if no one knew how to deal with the situation. They were the ones who were expecting the door to open, but they were also the ones who were at a loss after the door opened. If entering this door and entering the control center of the game command company means that you are about to touch the deepest truth hidden in this universe, and the past that has been gradually forgotten by the long years, then even the young queen will hesitate. This has nothing to do with personality, it is just the nature of intelligent creatures.

The silence was broken only when Alice turned around.

"You just said," she stared at Leticia, "what would you do if I could open this door, dear Miss Leticia?"

"Uh!"

Leticia's expression froze. She had actually forgotten that Alice was a vengeful person. Now that she had been caught by Alice, what should she do? But the little bat was not the kind of person who would sit and wait for death. She rolled her eyes and quickly thought of a way to deal with it. So she coughed lightly and pretended to be calm and said, "If you can open this door, then I will reluctantly acknowledge your role. It can still be useful occasionally, Alice."

Tsk, what a quick reaction.

Not achieving the expected results, Alice said sarcastically: "Yeah, yeah, it's better than some people who just talk nonsense from the sidelines, right?"

"You!" Leticia was furious, but she couldn't find any reason to refute. After all, she was in the wrong in this matter. It was her fault that she was caught by others, especially the vengeful Alice. Just being sarcastic to her was the best result.

Seeing that Leticia was speechless, Alice immediately became proud. She fully demonstrated the magnanimity of a winner and did not press on to win. Of course, this was mainly because she was afraid that she would say too much and be mistaken by a certain countess as bullying her granddaughter, which would be bad. Instead, she boasted about herself: "I told you, this method is definitely useful. I am indeed a genius player, ha ha ha!"

She laughed wildly, although she seemed to have forgotten that it was Lingge who first proposed this method. The young man did not want to take credit, but turned around and said to everyone: "Since the door is open, let's go in."

This is the most important thing at the moment.

He walked in after he finished speaking, and Saint Shallia followed closely behind him. Since the two of them entered the headquarters building of the Game Command Company, they seemed to have reached some kind of tacit understanding. They had been communicating with each other through their eyes, but others could not see it. Seeing the two of them walk into the dark control center without hesitation, the people who stayed outside looked at each other for a while, but still chose to follow.

After entering the control center, although the surroundings were shrouded in darkness and visibility was very limited, everyone was still shocked by the scene they saw. It was just an ordinary room from the outside, but the space inside was so vast that it was unimaginable. Whether in front of the eyes or above the head, the vision was endlessly extending forward, as if it would never reach the end. Some huge shadows were hidden in the darkness, and their outlines looked like some kind of machinery. The edges and lines revealed a sense of industrial coldness.

Linger reached out and touched it, and his palm was cold, a bit like steel, but incredibly thin. In addition, he also touched some uneven touch panels, buttons, crystal screens, and pipes. These pipes not only clung to the steel surface, connecting one huge machine after another into a whole, but also extended their tentacles to every corner, passing through the walls, the floor, and even the heads of the people. Looking around, it was as if countless sea snakes from ancient times were swimming in the deep abyss, which was creepy.

Both the machinery and the pipes seemed to be in operation. If you put your hand to their joints or exhaust holes, you can feel the warm gas slowly and evenly escaping, just like the breathing of life. Linger couldn't help but feel that these machines and pipes were actually alive, but then he felt it was too absurd, and shook his head gently to put this idea behind him.

"Turn on the light, turn on the light!" Alice shouted as she came in, but there was no response. She touched her head in surprise: "The voice control system is not working? Could it be broken? What a trouble."

"Go that way."

Ling Ge suddenly said, while pointing his finger forward. Following the direction of his finger, everyone looked up, and the next moment they all showed surprised expressions, because they actually saw a huge blue light column standing in the depths of the darkness, as solemn and sacred as a tower that penetrated the sky and the earth. The light column was surrounded by circles of strings of 0s and 1s, which slowly rotated clockwise and counterclockwise, forming a never-ending data stream. The faint light flowed out from the gaps between these characters, illuminating a small area around, and then spread to the darker corners. The reason why Ling Ge and his group were able to maintain a limited field of vision was also due to the influence of the light column.

"What is that?" Alice couldn't help but gasp. "Where is the control center? How come there is such a magical scene? Could that beam of light be the supercomputer that the Game Command Company has been promoting?"

No matter what it is, we will know when we go over to take a look. Everyone moved towards the direction of the beam of light. The huge machines and metal pipes that were looming in the distance just formed a passage, so that the group would not get lost in the depths of darkness. Only when you get very close can you vaguely hear the low hum coming from these machines, which is a bit similar to the sound of a steam engine starting, but not so wild and rough, as if it wants to show everyone in the world the power it has gained from steel and industry, but a more cold, precise, and high-frequency sound, which reminds Ling Ge of the prototype of the differential engine preserved in the Institute of History of Linville University. The two are similar.

According to Alice, a computer is an information terminal based on digital logic and code operations used by people on Earth, with functions such as high-speed calculation, data storage, and program operation. A palm-sized personal information terminal can store data equivalent to the total collection of books at Linville University, and the Internet network that connects all information terminals can be said to be able to find any information you want to know, which is a bit similar to Olvera's [Library of Truth].

If these huge machines hidden in the darkness are so-called computers, and the metal pipes throughout the control center are the data transmission lines that connect the ports of these computers to each other, then how huge is the data and information stored inside them?
The purpose of the game command company to build this control center can't really be just to store and calculate some game data, right? This lie can only deceive Alice.

"Do you feel so, too, Ling?"

Suddenly, a voice came from the side. The young man turned around and saw his own appearance in the pair of emerald green eyes that were as peaceful and distant as a lake. He slowed down his pace, walked side by side with the girl, and asked in a voice that could not be heard by others: "What do you feel?"

Saint Shalia whispered, "These machines must contain very important information, right?"

It seemed that she and he were thinking the same thing. The young man nodded and replied, "If they were not important, there would be no need for Her Majesty the Goddess to keep them in such a hidden place."

Lingge even felt that even the young royal girls who had not lost their memories in their previous lives probably did not know that there was a control center in the Holy Temple of Heaven. This could be seen from Saint Shallia's expression at the moment.

"But I think," the shepherdess turned her eyes away from Lingge and fell on the huge machines that stood still in the darkness. Their outlines were silent as if they had a heart of stone, "the importance I understand is not the same as yours."

Not the same meaning?
Ling Ge was slightly stunned and couldn't understand this statement for a moment.

Important is important, is there a different nature?
But he quickly realized that the importance of things can indeed vary from person to person. For example, something that is very important to some people may be just an ordinary thing and not worth mentioning to others.

However, this statement is not actually appropriate here.

Because the master of the Holy Temple of Heaven is Her Majesty the Goddess who created the world. Strictly speaking, everything in this universe, from as small as dust to as huge as planets, is closely related to Her. How could there be something that the Goddess thinks is very important but is not important at all to mortals?
It's just your illusion... Just as Ling Ge was about to say this, he heard Alice's voice coming from the front -

"Ha, finally! I'm the first one!"

Give me some meow