Nick assumed the guise of one of the Shark Mother's sharks and swam deep into the ocean.
There were four primary knowledge repositories and several dozen secondary knowledge repositories.
The primary knowledge repositories were very hidden, while the secondary knowledge repositories were in locations that were easier to find.
However, the secondary knowledge repositories only knew the basics of Star Energy and Pure Energy, which was enough to learn how to make the Seeds work again.
Additionally, the secondary knowledge repositories knew where the primary knowledge repositories were.
The Enlightened Ones had designed it like that because of security reasons.
The primary knowledge repositories were extremely important, and they could not be lost during the era reset.
And they had been right.
Almost all, if not all, secondary knowledge repositories had most likely been destroyed by the Sun.
Nick swam deeper into the ocean and eventually reached the ground.
Then, he dug into the ground.
After around five kilometers, Nick transformed into his human form and put the contraption of generators back on his body.
"Welcome back," Assistant said, appearing in front of Nick.
Nick didn't answer and just continued digging down.
He had to dig for quite a while since this knowledge repository was very far down.
After a while, Nick was covered in magma.
The heat down here had reached horrifying levels, but a Fallen could deal with the heat.
At a depth of about 30 kilometers, Nick noticed a difference.
The temperature had dropped drastically.
In fact, it was far below zero, which was very unusual.
Normally, the deeper one dug into the ground, the hotter the temperature became.
But it was far below freezing here.
"Connection with Deep Core Base established," Assistant said.
Nick was surprised when he heard that.
"Deep Core Base is operational?" Nick asked.
"Deep Core Base is in standby mode. All non-essential processes are halted," Assistant answered.
'That means their reactors still work. Even after thousands of years.'
Then, Nick finally realized why the surroundings were so cold.
'They are using a Zephyx generator that siphons the potential of life.'
'The energy inside the Earth's core is necessary for life to exist. The magma moves around deep underground, replacing the cold and dead matter with warm matter.'
'Deep Core Base is essentially stealing energy from Earth itself, but since it is only a single one, the impact is minuscule.'
'If there were hundreds of these bases, the Earth's core would freeze and stop moving. That would be devastating.'
'Luckily, it's only one. Maybe three, assuming the other two knowledge repositories are also like this.'
"Keep it on standby," Nick said. "I will tell you what to activate. Do not activate anything without my command."
"Of course, Emperor," Assistant answered with a polite smile.
"Are the defenses active?" Nick asked.
"Deep Core Base has one Primary Drone, but it only acts when Deep Core Base is in immediate danger. Your credentials as Emperor have been transmitted to Deep Core Base, and you have been granted administrative access," Assistant answered.
Nick nodded.
For a moment, he had feared that he needed to fight the defenses of Deep Core Base.
Luckily, the Enlightened Ones had not been that stupid.
Sometime later, Nick's perception picked up Deep Core Base.
It was a huge underground complex surrounded by cold and brittle matter.
According to physics, Deep Core Base should fall deeper underground since the brittle matter couldn't possibly hold the weight of this heavy base.
However, thanks to Nick's advanced knowledge in engineering, he knew exactly how Deep Core Base remained stationary.
'Spatial Fixture,' Nick thought.
There was a machine that could anchor one object to another in space.
This kept the two objects at the same distance from each other.
If Deep Core Base were just fixed in space, it would shoot out of Earth at insane speeds since Earth itself was moving through space.
Because of that, it had to be fixed to Earth's core.
Of course, the expansion of space itself was also taken into account.
Sadly, the expansion of space became faster and faster as time passed, which would require more energy to keep the Spatial Fixture running.
However, these things only grew relevant in millions or billions of years.
By then, Deep Core Base would have frozen Earth's core anyway.
After looking at Deep Core Base for a while, Nick approached its entrance.
"Activate the entrance. Do not, under any circumstance, allow any kind of light to activate."
"Affirmative," Assistant answered.
The next moment, a force field came out of the entrance.
All the brittle matter was pushed away, creating a vacuum.
Then, the entrance opened, and Nick walked through.
BANG!
The entrance closed, and the forcefield outside disappeared, making all the matter crash into the closed entrance.
"Welcome to Deep Core Base, Emperor," Assistant said.
Nick looked around and saw the base to be in pristine condition.
There was no dust anywhere.
'There are also no piles of ash. Most likely, there were no humans here when the era was reset.'
'The Enlightened Ones probably feared that the Sun would find this place if humans died in here.'
'They created this base and essentially just forgot about it.'
As Nick walked through the base, he also saw many machines that were in pristine condition.
'They all have Zephyx inside. With a bit of Pure Energy and Star Energy, I can make all of them run.'
'This is huge. These are machines that we can't make yet.'
'Sadly, transporting them is impossible without a Sanctuary.'
A Sanctuary was probably the most advanced object the Enlightened Ones had been able to create.
It was the culmination of all their knowledge.
Nick knew how to make one, but he didn't even think about it.
A Sanctuary was essentially a Space Bag made of Pure Energy.
However, compared to a normal Space Bag, this thing had many more functions.
One of them was its ability to stay hidden from any kind of perception.
That included the Sun and the Null.
Yet, since it couldn't be perceived, it was also impossible to find it without knowing where it was.
One couldn't feel it in their hand, and one couldn't sense it in any other way.
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