Command Escape

Trapped inside a giant crystal a thousand kilometers underground, Bai Ge had plenty of ways to get out if that was all he wanted.

For example, he could teleport randomly again. After all, a cosmic coincidence-type teleportation only required one hundred thousand units of electricity.

The generator set in his imagination produced twenty thousand units per hour, so it would only take five hours.

But that would amount to creating another containment object.

Bai Ge's original plan had been to teleport there and back, making a huge profit.

Now that he would have to create another one, Bai Ge naturally wanted to consider other options as much as possible.

"I don't know how large this cavity really is. If the crystal shell is relatively thin, and I drain all the air from here, will the pressure cause this place to collapse?"

"No... Even if it collapses, it's more likely that I'll simply be buried alive and stuck in an incredibly tiny crevice. After all, the entire crystal could very well be extremely thick."

Bai Ge absorbed the high-temperature gases here every moment.

Most of these gases were inert and were stored in a corner of the Material Universe.

To prevent the gases from spreading through the universe at the speed of light, Bai Ge specially severed a section of spacetime, forming an enormous Spacetime Box.

There was nothing outside the box—the so-called 'Non-existence' zone.

That way, the high-temperature gases would remain trapped in this corner and would not destroy his entire Material Universe.

At an absorption rate of five hundred kilograms per second, he could absorb forty-three million two hundred thousand kilograms of gas in twenty-four hours.

That was roughly all the gas inside a cube with six-kilometer-long sides.

The cavity here far exceeded that volume. Trying to absorb all the gas was simply a pipe dream.

"It would take too long. It's not worth experimenting with."

"If I can stay here for three hours, I'll have to thank the heavens!"

Every second, Bai Ge endured immense pain. Without the Calm Command, he would have collapsed long ago.

It wasn't that he couldn't remain calm. Rather, once the command was turned off, his normal self would have to bear tremendous psychological pressure, and he might well develop trauma.

So he tried not to keep the Calm Command active for too long each time.

Bai Ge toured the cavity, which was larger than a city. Everywhere he looked, there was nothing but spinel.

Even if other elements existed, they had been mixed into the spinel.

This made him feel as though he were inside a crystal palace.

"Of the traits I have, none of the others are useful. Only Universal Unlock remains."

"If I treat the entire crystalline aggregate as a lock, understand its sealing principle, and then figure out how to unlock it, would that let me open it...?"

Bai Ge immediately thought of using the Universal Unlock command.

In theory, this trait could open the sealed space.

When he constructed the unlock command for the final time, Bai Ge had not completely removed the conceptual lock from its settings.

He had only removed invisible locks.

Now, Bai Ge was like someone trapped inside a locked box. He could see it and touch it.

"If this works, Universal Unlock is far too useful."

For now, Bai Ge had to figure out how the cavity was locked and how it should be opened.

"By a rough estimate, the entire Crystal Island consists of at least eighty million huge crystals. Ignoring the smaller pieces, it should be divided into three layers, inside and out."

"The outermost layer is constantly melting, making it the most unstable state of matter in solid form."

"The second layer has a complex composition. It consists of incomplete crystals and has definitely fused with a great deal of other material."

"Only the innermost layer consists of relatively pure square crystal. The crystals in this cavity contain especially few impurities. The gem-grade material around me alone can be measured in millions of tons..."

Bai Ge suddenly smiled. He realized that Crystal Island was actually unstable.

It shouldn't originally have been at this depth. It had probably been forced down from the upper layers by the movement of the mantle.

It simply hadn't completely dissolved because it was too large.

This wasn't one seamless crystal. It was composed of countless crystals pressed together.

In other words, external force could completely disrupt the delicate balance of the interlocked spinel, after which it would split apart from the cavity and break into two halves.

"Stop absorbing the gases!"

After thinking of this, Bai Ge hurriedly stopped absorbing the surrounding gases.

Now, he actually needed the cavity to remain filled with gas, because that would indicate that the crystal was 'loosened.'

"Bell, simulate this supercrystal."

In an instant, a crystal composed of imaginary material appeared in his imagination.

The crystal's surface was irregular, but its overall shape was egg-like.

If one looked inside it, one would see enormous, bar-shaped octahedrons and rhombic dodecahedrons interlocking with one another.

They seemed like countless gear teeth meshing together.

Because of the immense pressure, they were meshed extremely tightly. Layer upon layer, they maintained a cavity in the middle.

"Bell, if I emit high-frequency vibrations inside the cavity, can I destroy the balance from within and make this aggregate split apart?"

"Yes. The pressure here isn't enough to alter the molecular structure in a short time, so this crystal that fell from the upper mantle is actually just like a pile of screws pressed into a clump. As long as the vibrations are strong enough, combined with the external pressure, it can be 'misaligned' at the cavity, splitting into two halves first, then continuing to break apart until it gradually disintegrates." Bell answered.

Bai Ge was delighted. Wasn't this a lock?

With the cavity at its center, any cross-section could divide Crystal Island into an upper and lower half like a lock clasp.

"The principle of this 'lock' is that external pressure forces several crystals to interlock. It's actually just the simplest hasp lock."

"As for the key, that's even simpler. This 'lock' was never truly fastened; it merely had the 'bolt' slid into place. A powerful Sonic Oscillator can simply 'shake it loose.'"

Although Bai Ge had the technology for a Sonic Oscillator and could make one now, Shadow Lord's passive ability meant that, apart from speaking, he could not produce any sound. So even though Bai Ge possessed the key, he couldn't open the lock.

But... Universal Unlock didn't require Bai Ge to have a key, nor did it require him to use one...

He only needed to know how to unlock it.

Looking at this 'lock,' he only had to say one sentence, and it would open on its own.

"Heaven help me if it's judged as destroying the lock. Under the settings of Universal Unlock, destroying the lock cannot count as knowing how to unlock it."

Bai Ge looked at the crystal palace and silently thought:

"Universal Unlock."

"Boom! Crack-crack-crack-crack..."

A continuous series of vibrations suddenly erupted. Countless echoes reverberated through the cavity, as if a giant were grinding its teeth.

The sounds of crystals rubbing and striking against one another grew louder and louder. At last, the dome suddenly tilted, as if the 'sky' itself had slanted.

"It really works..."

Bai Ge knew that the upper and lower structures had begun to shift out of alignment. Once even the slightest imbalance appeared, the pressure of more than a million times the normal amount would maximize that instability.

The entire Crystal Island seemed like a seashell that had suddenly opened.

"Eeeeeee—bang!"

A series of ear-piercing sounds rang out. Then, all at once, dazzling green flooded Bai Ge's vision.

"I don't feel any heat... As expected, even when Thermal Energy is converted into electrical energy, it gets absorbed by the bow tie first... In Shadow Lord's state, I can't directly use my cellular traits to absorb heat."

No one had ever looked with their 'naked eyes' through molten slag at five thousand degrees Celsius. Bai Ge was therefore astonished by the vast expanse of green liquid.

Bai Ge felt as though he had become color-blind, as if a green lens covered both his eyes.

"This is nearly five thousand five hundred degrees... The wavelength of the light lies between green and blue."

"But there are also many orange and white things..."

In the crowded green molten slag, there were thin streaks resembling lightning cracks or shattered glass. These streaks were white.

Different materials produced different colors. Here, one might see a world of pure violet or a world of pure blue.

The entire world was bizarre and surreal, constantly moving. Because it was so viscous, it was impossible to distinguish up from down or left from right.

The pressure was too great. Bai Ge couldn't move at all and could only drift with the current.

The cracked crystal egg appeared black in his vision. It had split into two parts, like the two halves of an egg pried apart.

They spun around each other like yin and yang fish, pushed and jostled by the molten slag as they rubbed, collided, and continuously melted away.

Watching the black behemoth recede into the distance, Bai Ge stopped paying attention to it and began collecting high-temperature material!

He absorbed five hundred kilograms of molten slag every second, and a special area had also been set aside in the Material Universe to store it.

"Every extra second I endure means I can obtain more high-temperature material..."

Bai Ge's body did nothing, allowing itself to be compressed as fluid continuously vanished from around his head.

His imagination was like a black hole. Under Bai Ge's control, it frenziedly devoured everything around him.