Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren and Vivian frowned staring at the battlefield recordings.
Vivian gently knocked on the crystal panel of the console with her finger. “That one, can you see it?”
“Yeah.” Hao Ren nodded. “At the last moment, the monsters seemed to show signs of gaining some senses.”
“Not necessarily. But apparently, they had become more orderly and even knew how to watch each other back and coordinate. What do you make of it?”
“They had evolved suddenly halfway through battle? Becoming more intelligent?” Hao Ren wondered. “Or they suddenly got rid of the influence of the Mad Lord and were able to control themselves?”
Vivian shook her head. “I don’t think so. The behaviors of the monsters at the last moment did not look like the result of sudden enlightenment. With hundreds of monsters acting in unison, do you think they all have suddenly changed at the same time?”
No one could answer these questions.
The monsters have been annihilated. Those creatures that the Mad Lord had infected were dangerous. Hao Ren had no intention of catching any of them alive. Star Cluster X was a vast place; Hao Ren believed that those monsters he saw right here just now were not the only minions of the Mad Lord. There would be another opportunity where he could study what they were.
“Logistics drones have arrived to clean up the battlefield and collect samples of the wreckage.” Hao Ren glanced at the report from Nolan. He said, “The key is the festered monsters that look like primordial life forms and those spaceship-like things. They look familiar to me.”
After a while, Hao Ren added. “Let the armed drones anchor onsite and build a circle of defense nearby. Get the engineering type of turrets and fortress missile launcher erected. This hellish place is not safe at all.”
The drone cluster carried out and completed the task allocation with fantastic efficiency. The undamaged armed drones quickly reorganized into formations and began to form semi-permanent turrets in the surrounding space. The damaged drones went to the repair area and underwent the recovery process, or stayed in place waiting for the support of the logistics team. The engineering drones emerged in another corner of space as the flashes of warp jump subsided. They started to build various forward-based radars and turrets.
A new drone nest and 20 independent arsenals were also taking shape.
One of the highest missions of the drone cluster was expansion. Since they were idle right now, they might as well begin to multiply themselves.
Had it not been for Hao Ren in control of them, and they had a high degree of machine-sanity and order, the drone cluster that spread like a virus throughout the universe would be a huge problem.
After the task assignment, Hao Ren turned his attention to the floating continent.
The floating continent had suffered the fierce attack of the festered monsters. Had it not been for the prompt intervention of the drone cluster, the forces of chaos would have destroyed it. Right now, the faint energy shield was still working on the space continent, but it was much weaker than before. Many parts of the shield had signs of thinning out and vibration, which meant the shield was about to collapse.
But it seemed that other than the severely weakened shield, the floating continent itself suffered little damage. Perhaps since it was the chunk of a broken planet itself, any additional damage did not seem to be easily noticeable.
Hao Ren looked at the holographic image of Nolan. “Can you make contact with them?”
Nolan’s expression looked a bit weird. “Well, sort of.”
“What do you mean ‘sort of’?
Nolan switched on the radio helplessly. “Hear it for yourself.”
A wave of sound came from all directions. Indeed, it was so noisy that it sounded like it bombarded their eardrums in all directions.
Indistinguishable voices, shouts, and screams flooded the radio channel. There was absolutely no way one could hear what those yelling voices were all about. Cold sweat was trickling down Hao Ren’s forehead. He focused his mind on finding any words that he could understand. “Wow! Wow! Wow! There have won! They have won! They have beaten the bad guys! Wow!”
“So, the spaceship did not run away earlier. It indeed came to help!”
“Did anyone see my psionic regulator? Did anyone see psionic regulator?”
“Lots of them! There are so many small spacecraft in space! 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000… I have lost count!”
“Did anyone see my psionic regulator? Did anyone see it?”
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There were never-ending noises and chaos as thousands of voices blasting out the speakers. Had it not been for his superhuman physique and mind, Hao Ren would have mentally collapsed. He turned off the communicator and looked at Nolan. “What the hell? Did you just capture all the radio signals on the ground?”
“I am not a psycho, okay!” Nolan rolled her eyes. “These were the signals beamed from the ground into space. Got it? These were the signals they sent! All the conversations have mixed together at the same frequency. I could not have possibly separated them out!”
“What about sending them a message?” Hao Ren was flabbergasted. “Would they shut up and listen?”
Nolan randomly sent out a message to the space continent, and then a new wave of voices came back in.
“Wow, wow! They talk! They talk! They are talking to us! Should we reply? Should we reply? Should we reply?”
“I don’t know what to do now! By the way, they have so many spacecraft, and each of them is so tiny.”
“Did anyone see my psionic regulator! Did anyone see my psionic regulator?”
“Shut up! Your psionic regulator is hanging around your neck!”
“I think we should let the Queen decide. After all, the queen is the smartest one!”
“How many times have I said that we do not have a queen!”
“This is what it is.” Nolan turned off the communicator and looked at Hao Ren with a nervous-breakdown look.
Hao Ren’s mouth twitched a couple of times. He finally realized that there was no way to communicate.
The unknown race on the surface seemed to possess a very peculiar way of thinking. They were noisy and messy and could hear the message that people sent them, but they never bothered to reply in a meaningful way. They seemed to be immersed in their own endless debates, leaving no room for others to intervene.
But when listening to their conversations, this race seemed to have rational and logical thinking.
“What should we do?” Vivian looked at Hao Ren calmly and indifferently, which also calmed Hao Ren down. Apparently, it was not that the vampire maiden could not make up her mind. It was just that she wanted to know what was in Hao Ren’s mind.”
“Let’s get down there.” Hao Ren quickly decided. “There is still a barrier when talking over the radio. Maybe we can figure out something when meeting them face-to-face.”
“It can be dangerous.” Nolan reminded. “We might have just saved the survivors on the space continent, and they seem to the enemy of the Mad Lord, but we knew nothing about this race. We have no idea what their reactions would be when outsiders land on their place.”
“We have millions of armed drones surrounding this pace. If Vivian and I were in danger, we could teleport ourselves back up here. With such proper security measures in place, it would be a shame if I am still afraid of going there.” Hao Ren waved his hand. “You will hover over us and get ready to retrieve and cover us. Most importantly, control your urge to shoot; you have had enough fun just now.”
“Ready to go down?” Hao Ren jabbed the MDT, which lay on the console mumbling to itself about not being able to take the pilot seat, not being able to join the battle, not being able to take charge of the drone cluster and stuff like that. “Stop complaining. We have a job to do now.”
He poked it a couple of more times, only then the MDT floated up reluctantly. “Yeah, all right. Boss.”
The survivors on the surface seemed to be completely incommunicable, but as a professional inspector, Hao Ren had decided to broadcast his friendly intention before he let Nolan descend. Unsurprisingly, his broadcast had stirred a new round of noisy and disorderly debates among the mysterious race. And there was still no welcoming or decline signal received.
But judging from the excitement and anticipation of their noisy discussions, perhaps these strange fellows had no problem with the third encounter. Or would they?
Nolan slowly descended and successfully passed through the shield over the continent, which was undoubtedly good news. She finally came over a cast wilderness and dropped Hao Ren, Vivian, and Lil Pea down.
The endless grassland extended out in front of his eyes. Hao Ren could see the gray mountains and lush forests in the distance, and huge palaces, cities and things like giant turrets dotted between these natural landscapes. There was a thin atmosphere, the atmospheric pressure of which was relatively comfortable thanks to an artificial life-sustaining system.
Many unknown light sources floated in the atmosphere, giving this broken planet just the right amount of illumination in dark space.
Hao Ren could see no one around. All he saw was only grass swaying on the prairie. Based on the life detection report that the MDT gave him, Hao Ren was sure that he had not come to the wrong place. He opened his hands and broadcast his voice through the translation plugin.
“We come in peace and to help. Who is in charge to talk to me now?”
After a while, Hao Ren finally saw a small shimmering figure emerged from the nearby bushes.
It was a sprite, only as tall as his knee.