Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle Chapter 1325: The Bait

Fiona stared at the strange cube through the eyes of the rat.

She had finally found it.

After exploring countless laboratories, storage rooms, maintenance passages, and abandoned chambers, she had finally discovered the system at the center of the First Citadel. However, the moment she examined the cube more carefully, she realized that something was wrong.

The blue lines running across its surface were flickering irregularly. Some sections had already gone completely dark, while others continued pulsing with a weak light. Every few seconds, the energy flowing through the cube would suddenly weaken before surging again.

It was barely functioning.

"You’re damaged..."

Fiona immediately ordered more rats into the chamber. They crawled around the cube, inspecting it from different angles while others squeezed beneath the surrounding machinery.

She wanted to understand how the system worked before touching anything.

There were no obvious buttons or control panels. The cube didn’t even have a visible access port. It appeared to be completely sealed, yet Fiona could clearly sense an enormous amount of energy concentrated inside it.

She hesitated for a moment before deciding to take a risk.

"Let’s see what happens."

One of the rats cautiously approached the cube.

The moment its tiny paws touched the base, the blue lines across the surface suddenly brightened.

Fiona’s eyes lit up as he saw something happen.

A faint vibration traveled through the floor, followed by a mechanical voice that echoed throughout the chamber.

[ Unauthorized biological entity detected. ]

Fiona immediately became alert.

The voice sounded weak and distorted, as though the system had been damaged for a very long time.

[ Security protocol... unable to execute. ]

There was a brief pause.

[ Primary administrator unavailable. ]

[ Secondary administrator unavailable. ]

[ Emergency maintenance protocol active. ]

Fiona stared at the cube.

"Administrator?"

She suddenly understood.

The system was still searching for whoever had originally controlled the facility. Unfortunately, its administrators had probably been gone for countless years, leaving the AI to maintain the First Citadel without proper supervision.

That also explained why so many systems were malfunctioning.

The facility hadn’t simply been abandoned.

The AI had been trying to maintain it by itself.

Fiona directed another rat toward the cube and cautiously connected her consciousness through it.

The moment she established contact, an overwhelming amount of information flooded into her mind.

Her vision blurred.

For a moment, Fiona felt as though she were standing above the entire Floating Island.

She could see the First Citadel beneath the surface, the enormous energy network running throughout the island, the defensive systems scattered across its outer regions, and the countless mechanical facilities hidden beneath the ground.

The information was almost impossible to process.

"The whole island..."

Fiona slowly realized that she wasn’t looking at a simple floating piece of land.

The Floating Island was a gigantic artificial platform.

The Anima Civilization had constructed an enormous technological network beneath its surface to maintain the island’s altitude, regulate its atmosphere, distribute energy, and control the various facilities built across it.

The First Citadel was only one part of that system.

And this damaged AI was sitting at the center of everything.

Fiona could feel the strain placed on it.

The AI had been continuously reallocating energy to keep the most important systems functioning. The defensive network was still active, the Sentinel facilities were still operational, and the island itself remained stable, but many secondary systems had already been shut down.

It had been surviving under emergency protocols for an incredibly long time.

"So that’s why the Sentinels are behaving like this..."

Fiona finally understood the situation.

Without an administrator, the AI had continued following its last orders.

It was probably to protect the First Citadel... Maintain the Floating Island and destroy unauthorized intruders.

It had been doing exactly what it was designed to do, even though the civilization that created it had disappeared long ago.

Fiona looked at the cube through the rat’s eyes.

"You’ve been alone all this time, haven’t you?"

The AI remained silent for several seconds.

Then its voice echoed through the chamber again.

[ Administrator search incomplete. ]

[ Unable to identify authorized personnel. ]

[ Emergency authority may be transferred under qualifying conditions. ]

Fiona’s eyes widened.

"Transferred?"

Several symbols appeared across the surface of the cube, and without hesitation, Fiona used Rat Swap!

Thud!

In just a second, Fiona swapped her position with the rat!

Suddenly, Fiona felt something. It was a weird connection to something...

[ Candidate detected. ]

[ Evaluating... ]

The connection between Fiona and the AI suddenly intensified.

Every rat surrounding the cube froze.

A strange wave of energy spread throughout the chamber, and Fiona felt as though something was scanning her entire consciousness.

Then the AI finally responded.

[ Biological network detected. ]

[ Distributed consciousness detected. ]

[ Command authority compatibility... ]

There was another pause.

[ Compatible. ]

Fiona stared at the cube in disbelief.

"Really?"

The system responded almost immediately.

[ Emergency Administrator Protocol available. ]

[ Transfer authority? ]

Fiona didn’t hesitate.

"Yes."

The moment she gave her answer, the entire chamber came alive.

Every light suddenly activated.

Ancient machinery surrounding the cube began operating at full capacity, and energy surged through the conduits embedded within the walls.

Far beneath the Floating Island, dormant systems started awakening one after another.

The effect wasn’t limited to the chamber.

Across Eden Island, countless ancient structures suddenly responded to the newly established administrator.

Inside the First Citadel, abandoned control panels illuminated.

Deep underground, enormous mechanisms began moving for the first time in centuries.

And inside the Sentinel maintenance chamber, every humanoid machine suddenly stopped!

Asad’s Bone Dragon was in the middle of tearing apart another Sentinel when the machine froze.

Its crimson eyes flickered once before going completely dark.

The other Sentinels stopped as well.

Asad looked around in confusion.

"What?"

He had been prepared to continue fighting, yet the machines had suddenly stopped attacking!

"Ahh... Did she just use me as bait?"

At the same time, Fiona felt the entire island responding to her consciousness.

Information began flowing into her mind in an organized manner.

She could see the island’s current altitude, structural integrity, energy distribution, defensive systems, environmental regulators, Gate Portals, communication networks, Sentinel production facilities, maintenance systems, and countless other functions.

She could even access the systems responsible for controlling the island’s atmosphere.

"This is amazing..."