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Arknights: Theresa'S Miraculous Arrival

Chapter 26: Languages, Programs, and Programmers

There was still some time before the meeting arranged by his mentor, so Xing Chen took the opportunity while both of his senior brothers were present to ask them if there were any military exhibitions in the city recently.

“The city’s War Memorial Museum is open all year, you can just go there,” his eldest senior brother replied.

“Those are all old relics; I want to learn about something more cutting-edge.”

“Then you should go ask the weapon design major, just don’t give me up if you get caught,” his second senior brother chimed in.

“You guys, stop messing with me,” Xing Chen said with a helpless expression… Back home, Theresa was resting her chin in one hand, looking seriously at the computer screen.

“What happened?” Xing Chen asked curiously.

“I took a job, and it runs fine in my system, but why are they saying it doesn’t work?” Theresa asked Xing Chen, utterly perplexed.

“Check the buyer’s account credit score,” he suggested.

“Credit score?” After Xing Chen spoke, Theresa realized she might have been scammed, that someone was trying to get something for nothing. “Let me see… Xing Chen, what do you think of his credit score?”

Xing Chen leaned his head towards the screen and glanced at the other party’s description; it certainly wasn’t the type to be shameless.

Just as he was deep in thought, Theresa suddenly looked up, and her Sarkaz horn directly pricked his neck.

“Ah, sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Xing Chen rubbed his neck, then suddenly noticed a detail: the other party hadn’t specified the programming language. Theresa used C, and he used P. “The two of you aren’t using the same language at all; the program you wrote won’t work in his environment.”

“Huh?”

Seeing that Theresa didn’t understand, Xing Chen had to introduce her to the mainstream programming languages currently used by humans, such as C, P, and R.

“Why do you, a single race, have so many programming languages?” Theresa said with some annoyance.

“Don’t you Sarkaz also have different witchcraft divided by race?”

“Xing Chen, that’s not right,” Theresa sat up straight and earnestly explained the differences between various Sarkaz tribes to Xing Chen. “…In short, bloodline is equivalent to the underlying architecture. Our bloodline differences are vast, but all your computers are based on the same binary—these two things shouldn’t be discussed together.”

“…You talk a lot, so I’ll just assume you’re right,” Xing Chen said dejectedly. He hadn’t expected that, although he wasn’t a computer science major, his knowledge in this area was now inferior to Theresa’s.

Theresa smiled and patted Xing Chen. “Actually, I was just making it up; don’t take it to heart. I believe there must be a reason why you do it that way.”

“Hmm, maybe different languages are adapted to different environments. A new language is created because existing ones can’t solve the problems encountered.” Theresa offered an out, and Xing Chen took the opportunity to try and justify himself.

However, to his surprise, after he said that, Theresa instead fell into thought.

Xing Chen was very curious, but he chose not to disturb her. After a long while, she slowly began to speak.

“Xing Chen, do you believe there’s a language that can explain everything in the world?” Theresa posed her question.

Xing Chen gave an affirmative answer, which somewhat exceeded Theresa’s expectations; she had thought he would deny her idea.

However, he also had to admit that with humanity’s current technology, there was still a long way to go before verifying related conjectures.

And the Terra civilization… “Originium.” The two of them simultaneously spoke the same word.

The assimilation of Originium could be seen as using Originium to describe the manifestations of all things in the world, and Theresa had also successfully decompressed the information stored within it back into the matter of the present world.

“Xing Chen, have you heard of annanah?”

“I know. It was the first Originium you Sarkaz encountered. I also know that you once conspired with your brother to enter the Internalized Universe and seize it from Prythian for the Sarkaz.”

“Nothing ever gets past you,” Theresa said with a bitter smile. “What do you think, could that linguist named Prythian have created the language of Originium simply to describe the world as she sees it, and we are merely insignificant stones in her line of sight?”

“I don’t know about that. The Seer might be able to give you an answer…”

“…Sigh,” Theresa let out a long sigh. She had indeed been a bit thoughtless at the time, only thinking of freeing the Doctor and neglecting the Seer.

“However, if you think about it differently, from the perspective of my world, aren’t my dreams also an explanation of your world?”

Using dreams as a “language,” Theresa thought of the Wandering Heart Demons, but now it seemed that the Wandering Heart Demon race no longer even had its Lord of the Royal Court.

“Wait a minute, I have an idea,” Theresa suddenly had a flash of inspiration. She thought of a way: since both Originium and Xing Chen’s dreams could describe her world, could she use his dreams to fight against the creator of Originium.

“Have you ever considered that perhaps my dreams also have a connection to Originium?” Xing Chen poured a bucket of cold water on Theresa’s idea. “In any case, I don’t recommend you oppose Prythian, especially after losing the Seer as a bargaining chip.”

Theresa understood Xing Chen’s meaning. She hadn’t known about the relationship between the Seer and Prythian before.

Originally, she could have used the differences in ideology between the Seer and Prythian to bring him to her side, but her thoughtless actions caused her to lose this opportunity forever.

“Theresa, I think the Doctor might directly oppose Prythian in the future…”

“But we need the strength of both of them. Having them oppose each other doesn’t align with our stance…”

She really shouldn’t continue to be close to the Seer; in fact, she should actively distance herself a bit to avoid provoking Prythian.

“Don’t forget your brother, and the old Babel forces—now they should be called Rhodes Island Elite Operators.”

“There’s still so much to do, Xing Chen,” Theresa suddenly rested her head on Xing Chen’s shoulder, leaning her entire weight on him. “Xing Chen, I’m a little tired.”

His brain, which had been single for many years, suddenly crashed. After restarting several times, he managed to string together a few sentences.

“Then rest for now,” Xing Chen stroked Theresa’s back, feeling her body temperature. “There’s still plenty of time; it’s not too late to work hard tomorrow.”

Theresa softly hummed in response, then slowly closed her eyes.

They held each other for a long time. After confirming that Theresa was asleep, Xing Chen picked up his phone to book his schedule for the next day.