Interstellar Survival: Invasion

After that conversation, silence descended while the projection was still covered by darkness. We couldn't see anything at all.

"Were they swallowed by darkness?" asked Domo, breaking the silence.

A few minutes later, light slowly returned to the projection. Slowly, we saw a perfectly straight path. At the end of the path was a small door. The rippling space had vanished.

"You have successfully restarted your mind to remove all disturbances. A new obstacle is probably waiting beyond that door," said Bulu, sounding as confident as someone who knew what was behind that door.

The two slowly approached the door. Our perspective followed the two as they advanced. Before long, they opened the door and walked through it. A wall of spinning gears appeared before our eyes. The gears were all connected to each other, perfectly covering every single angle in the room, leaving no way out.

"Is this a false appearance as well? Do I need to restart my mind again?" asked the great sovereign.

"The enemy won't use the same trick twice. This is not a false appearance. It is real. But since they can build something like this, there is definitely a way to break through this place as well," replied Bulu confidently.

"You claim this is real? Since this is also a part of the mental prison, how are you sure that it isn't fake?" asked the great sovereign.

"Like I told you, there are true and false appearances to everything. In this mental space, the enemy had constructed a maze. We need to look for the core, the true nature of this maze, if we want to leave," said Bulu, giving another complicated answer.

"Where's the source? Do you have any way to get out of this maze?" asked the great sovereign.

"This is a contest between you and Dirk. You are the only one who can find the core of this obstacle," said Bulu, seemingly not willing to help.

"What's so difficult about this? Just bomb your way through," I heard Zhang Bao'er mutter.

"Every part of this maze is closely linked to another. Every single gear moves in accordance with a set of patterns. One of them should be the answer to solve this puzzle, but I don't know which is the right one," said the great sovereign.

"If I remember correctly, Dirk used to be a soldier of the empire's Midstar Army. He was in charge of maintenance work at the space fort in the Horsehead Nebula," Bulu hinted.

"I'm aware of the space fort. It's the tool the empire uses to blockade the Horsehead Nebula. Are you telling me this maze is related to the fort?" asked the great sovereign.

"I'm still not sure. If you really can't solve this puzzle, we can just blast our way through," said Bulu. Zhang Bao'er looked exceptionally smug upon hearing those words.

"I have an idea," said the great sovereign.

All of us focused on the great sovereign.

"Since Dirk was a maintenance worker, these gears must be something he is very familiar with. I have a way to scan them and look for their convergence point," said the great sovereign.

"All the gears are tightly connected. There is no space for us to squeeze through. Every single gear is moving in a select set of patterns. What idea do you have?" asked Bulu. Seeing that even a superior life form needed its answer, the great sovereign grunted smugly.

"You must have forgotten about it. I am capable of producing experts at getting through narrow spaces, the pulp worms," said the great sovereign.

The great sovereign extended its right hand out, revealing about a dozen pulp worms in its palm. The pulp worms looked exceptionally nimble, and they were small enough to get through the gap between the gears. They set off and vanished from view.

"These worms will return with information regarding the convergence point. We only need to wait," said the great sovereign as it brought Bulu to a large bearing to rest.

"Single-gender reproduction. These worms probably have terrible genes," said Zhang Bao'er, still as prone to belittling others as ever.

"Without these so-called worms with bad genes, we won't be able to defeat the Divine Empire," said Master Crystal.

Shortly after, the great sovereign stood up.

"I found the convergence point," said the great sovereign in excitement.

"Where is it?" asked Bulu.

"It's somewhere we can't see. It's below us. We need to think of a way to get down," said the great sovereign.

"How do we go down? Have your worms found a way?" asked Bulu.

"The pulp worms only found a path they could use. But you don't have to worry. We can have the worms carry over some explosive liquid and blast that convergence point apart," said the great sovereign.

"How do we find explosive liquid here?" asked Bulu.

"There is no need for that. This is a mental space. You can have it just by thinking about it," said the great sovereign as it pulled out several glass tubes containing explosive liquid from its back.

"These tubes are too big. How are the worms supposed to take them through the gaps?" asked Bulu.

At that moment, the great sovereign did something all of us considered cruel. It had the worms wait in a line before making each of them drink some of the liquid.

"See, problem solved. The liquid is in the worms. These little fellows only need to gather around the convergence point. Once there, they will explode and blow up the convergence point," said the great sovereign.

"Wouldn't that kill all the worms?" said Bulu, who was visibly unhappy.

"These are all my children. They're not as smart as the cores. On Wisdom, commoners only exist to serve higher-tier cores," said the great sovereign. It was clear that even on Wisdom, there was a clear hierarchical structure separating the people into different classes.

The great sovereign did not stop working while talking. Before long, each worm had been fed the liquid. They hurriedly wriggled away.

"So you're really going to blow this maze apart with your worms. I'm quite curious about the prowess of your worms," said Bulu.

Utilizing an unknown method, the great sovereign managed to show the perspective of the worms on the projector. Behind the gears was a narrow space. Several worms could be seen wriggling ahead. Before long, they were through the narrow space and were in front of a golden, massive gear. The numerous connections it had with the other gears proved that this was most likely the convergence point for all the gears.

"This is it. Do it, worms," ordered the great sovereign. It raised both its palms above its head, looking like it was praying for the worms that were about to sacrifice themselves.

After receiving the command of their progenitor, the worms charged unhesitatingly toward the golden gear. The scene of an intense explosion did not appear. Rather, about a dozen bright flashes erupted like lightning. Next, an odd scene appeared. The parts connecting the golden gear with the other gears started opening like falling dominoes. All the affected gears stopped spinning and then withdrew and vanished into empty air.

"This doesn't look difficult at all. You only need to release a couple of worms to get the job done. Anyone can do it," said Domo, downplaying what was in fact an impressive feat.

With the gears vanishing, a round opening leading downward appeared. Whistling wind could be heard coming from the dark hole. Right outside the hole, a ladder could be seen leading into the darkness below.

"Just how many levels are there to this mental prison? Why does it feel endless?" said Zhang Bao'er, who was getting impatient.

"That's hard to say. Maybe there are 10 levels. Maybe there are endless levels. It's too easy to set up these rooms mentally," said Old Du.

Bulu and the great sovereign exchanged glances, and then Bulu took the lead to step into the dark hole. It was a tight squeeze. Even in their small forms, Bulu and the great sovereign could only walk in a single line. Constant odd screams were coming from the darkness that felt eerie even to us spectators. The two little fellows started going down the stairs, but the staircase seemed endless.

"Bulu, are you sure there is an end to this staircase? It doesn't sound like we're getting any closer to the screams," said the great sovereign.

"I agree that we need to change our trajectory. Use your mind to create a torchlight. We need to take a look at our surroundings," suggested Bulu.

The great sovereign did as told and produced a torchlight. Instantly, the eerie screams grew louder. With the torchlight, we discovered that the walls around the tunnel seemed to be made of some sort of ceramic tile. Numerous delicate drawings could be seen on them, and the vividness of the drawings instantly captured all our attention.