An Ominous Melody and a Dire Premonition

The little girl’s voice, though resonant and powerful, carried a slight static, reminiscent of an old-fashioned phonograph from a bygone century.

Yet, the lyrics diverged significantly from the “Blood Type” Lan Sen remembered, even as they seamlessly clung to the original melody, creating no discord.

Indeed, the Northern Siberian accent was mimicked with uncanny precision.

Upon hearing that voice, an image instantly formed in his mind: a sweet loli, her face flushed, hands rubbing together against the biting cold, clad in a plush coat and tall boots, a felt hat perched atop her head, amidst the frozen coniferous forest.

Initially, Lan Sen would have simply assumed this was Is’s unauthorized rearrangement of the original song.

It wouldn’t have been the first time she had transformed a renowned piece beyond recognition, only for it to remain captivatingly beautiful.

“New Century Doomsday Warrior,” “March to Paradise,” and “Ode to Purgatory” were all testament to her masterful works.

This time, however, he found himself thinking otherwise.

In contrast to the simulated human voices Is created through technological means, the little girl’s intimate voice possessed a peculiar enchantment, compelling listeners’ minds to wander into a realm of vivid imagination.

As Lan Sen became utterly immersed in her song, he was overcome by a powerful illusion, as if he had been transported to another era.

He felt as though he glimpsed the future.

Should he continue down this corridor, death awaited him.

Indeed, this very song was the Spiritbane song, imbued with a subtle magical power, chanted by Gloria, the current narrator, harnessing her own soul’s essence.

It was also the alarm bell that the Dustfolk heard day and night within the Immaculate Realm.

The Spiritbane song, when combined with the Death Signal Tome, which contained remnants of Origin’s truth, could induce a compulsory resonance across the souls of all listeners throughout the world.

Once souls were woven into a colossal network, the Spiritbane form could be fully realized.

Subsequently, an entire world, driven by the Spiritbane song, would coalesce into a perfectly unified entity, operating with utmost efficiency according to the future meticulously charted by the Blasphemous Demon God.

Even the most despairing future would be utterly overturned by its power.

The formidable strength of the Spiritbane song lay in its extreme coerciveness, juxtaposed with the listener’s own volition.

Moreover, in its perfected state, the Spiritbane song was a transcendent soul ability, reaching a staggering Tier 50, surpassing countless laws and mystic arts, capable of rivaling the combined Sacred Judgment spells of the Supreme Divine Realm.

Even certain Archdeities within the Supreme Divine Realm, those with less resolute minds, would harbor rebellious thoughts upon hearing the perfected Spiritbane song.

Truly, it was a divine art of indoctrination.

However, having lost both the Death Signal and her physical body, Gloria, in her current soul-only state, found her solo rendition of the Spiritbane song incapable of swaying an entire world.

At most, she could employ the Spiritbane song, alongside the Fool’s Practice, to subtly influence the thoughts of a select few individuals within the narrator’s sphere of disturbance.

Should the number of affected individuals grow too large, the Origin remnants’ power would leak, triggering an imbalance in spacetime shifts and ultimately leading to irreparable spacetime rifts—a truly troublesome outcome.

Thus, a subtle touch was all that was needed.

It certainly wasn’t because her throat was itching for a moment as a karaoke star.

Meanwhile, Lan Sen, utterly oblivious to his fate being orchestrated by unseen hands, abruptly halted his steps.

Amidst the ominous lyrics and melody, he felt as if he witnessed his own future dissolving like snowflakes.

‘I must not advance further!’

“Wish me luck, pray for me, do not fall upon this field, wish me luck…”

Lan Sen immediately froze, his senses on high alert. “Is, Is! Stop singing, damn it! Your broadcast system has been compromised. Can’t you hear what you’re singing?”

Having participated in the electronic warfare of the Third World War, Lan Sen knew all too well that an AI, strictly operating according to its underlying logic, posed a far greater threat once breached than any tangible nuclear warhead.

After all, a nuclear warhead might not know your home address, but an AI could easily trace it through the network.

Given that the Larry Ring Station housed the Skyfire Phase Wave Cannon, a heavy moon-based weapon powered by the Heart of the Galaxy, its network was almost entirely closed off, accessible only to a select few Vanguard-class command ships.

Yet, an unfamiliar voice, distinctly not Is’s, now echoed through the broadcast system.

Moreover, the loli-like tone was utterly incongruous with Is’s personality.

She was, after all, a staunchly heterosexual woman with a perfectly normal sexual orientation.

There could only be one explanation: she had been infected with a virus.

Lan Sen had a premonition that there was an infiltrator within the Larry Ring Station.

He speculated that the infiltrator had first used a virus to disrupt Is, causing her to redirect station personnel away from the Skyfire Cannon.

Then, the infiltrator would guide him towards the quantum acceleration device, allowing them to tamper with the fire control room.

It was even plausible that his own vomiting symptoms were the result of the hidden infiltrator secretly lacing his supplies.

‘It must be the Alliance!’

‘They intend to unleash a major operation using the Skyfire Cannon!’

‘I cannot allow them to succeed.’

“Is! Is!” After this sudden surge of insight, Lan Sen hastily spun around, boarded an unoccupied hovercar, and sped back the way he had come.

“Help me contact Mela in the Department of True Sight; I have urgent information to report.”

“Oh, why must you spoil my fun? If you do this again, I won’t sing for you anymore. Hmph!” A slender silhouette was cast by a projection in the corridor.

With her arms crossed over her chest, she stood rooted to the spot like a tree, a look of impatience etched upon her face, clearly intending to halt his reckless actions with the power of her words.

“You claim my broadcast system has been compromised, but where’s your proof? I, for one, suspect you’ve been infected with X’s mechanical virus! You’re not acting like your old self at all. The old you was fiercely loyal to your work, indifferent to everything else, and never actively sought trouble—a pure, unadulterated slacker. But now, you look utterly desperate to reincarnate.”

“A man of honor doesn’t argue with a woman. All I can say is this: the Larry Ring Station has an Alliance infiltrator! I must request my superiors to halt the Skyfire Cannon’s charging sequence and initiate an internal inspection. Otherwise, both our lives will be in peril!”

“Are you actually concerned about me, or has your brain truly fried? Asking the Department of True Sight to conduct a component inspection? Aren’t you afraid they’ll make an example of you first? Even if you’re cleared after their investigation, they’ll still manage to manufacture suspicion against you. The Department of True Sight hasn’t met their quota this month, you know.”

Is retorted with a huff, “Besides, even if there is an infiltrator, they’d be from the Alliance. With their sophisticated disguise methods, what could you possibly uncover? If the Department of True Sight truly investigates, they’ll just indiscriminately purge our own people, without even touching a single eyelash of the Alliance.”

Ignoring Is’s incessant chatter, Lan Sen opted for the upper hall at the upcoming fork, heading towards the Department of True Sight’s reporting room.

“There’s another crucial point. Have you forgotten? The Heart of the Galaxy’s security system is exceptionally robust. Take the Larry Ring Station, for instance: it requires not only genetic identification but also retinal and voiceprint recognition. Virtually every access point, or any device of even minor significance, demands successful identification before granting usage permissions. How could a spy, whose data isn’t registered, possibly evade these checks and infiltrate the station?

“And that’s not even mentioning me. My security system is airtight, with layers of protection deployed around my core. Aside from that old fox Skynet, I don’t believe anyone could crack it… X, perhaps, counts as half an exception.”