Due to it being a natural cause, this did not attract a lot of attention from the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation. They were responsible for the investigations of an entire Star System, so there were countless missions for them to do every day, and only the extremely important matters would be passed by the smart system to real people to handle. The smart system ranked the missions according to how important they were, so this mission was placed into a regular mission. After another research team completely lost contact once again, it assumed that all the Observers were dead and stopped investigating that planet. They then told the astronomical observatory to research the environment of this planet first before making further decisions.
Hence, the investigation was put aside for the time being. When the players arrived, only then did this problem get solved—no one was more suitable in exploring unknown dangers than the undying players.
The deputy station chief beside Han Xiao at this time had already become the station chief in his previous life, but he was still the one who gave the mission clue.
Now, these clues had yet to be exposed. Luckily, Han Xiao remembered them, or they would meet dangers if they went there without any information. Han Xiao guessed that if he brought these clues back, it should be calculated into the mission rating.
Nereja took out his communicator, sent over many files, and solemnly said, “Here are the coordinates of that planet and the location of the spaceship’s crash site. My wife’s name is Lenny. This is her photo, please find her.”
“Got it.”
Han Xiao nodded and pulled Feidin back to the hall.
As the spaceship had completed its refueling, the station chief appeared again to express his intentions of sending them away. Han Xiao had gotten the mission that he wanted, so he did not stay any longer. He boarded the ship with the others and told them about this operation.
“You actually accepted a private hire? This is Godora’s internal matter, and we are sticking our nose in it without their permission—won’t Godora have a problem with that?” Herlous was hesitant.
“It’s not like that planet belongs to Godora. Nobody said we can’t go there.”
Han Xiao shrugged and entered the planet’s coordinates. It was shown as an unnamed planet. This planet had not yet been fully investigated, so there was no official name for it in the database. This was one of the differences as compared to the situation in his previous life as well.
In the enormous universe, there were still quite a few undiscovered planets. These resource planets with serial numbers were all recorded into the database after field investigations. The planet this time was clearly an unexplored mysterious planet.
In the dark universe, the spaceship tail was producing a dark blue light as the spaceship headed toward the destination. As the spaceship’s speed reached its maximum, it turned into a stream of light and entered the jump state, disappearing among the fabulous river of stars.
…
A few days later, outside the porthole was a small, gray planet. There was no vegetation and no Fixed Stars nearby; it was desolate. No sun could be seen on the planet, and the surface temperature was extremely chilly. There were some markings of volcanoes, so it should not be as cold as absolute zero.
Clearly, the environment of the planet was not suitable for most life forms to survive.
“Wear the protection suit properly. Once your skin is exposed to the air, your body will be damaged.”
As Han Xiao was speaking, he activated his Void Dragon mechanical suit, adjusted the inner temperature, and maintained it at a stable level. This slight energy cost was not even worth mentioning for the Mini Portable Nuclear Reactor. Although the suit was powered by nuclear energy, the radiation was blocked by the reactor’s special shell. Of course, even if he was exposed to it, Han Xiao would definitely not be damaged with his current Endurance. It would at most give him a negligible damage reduction debuff.
As Herlous was putting on Amphiptere, which Han Xiao lent him, he sighed and said, “If only the Commander Class armor that my brother gave me was still here.”
Han Xiao extended his hand with an expressionless face and said, “Give it back if you’re not wearing it.”
“Come on, don’t be so petty.” Herlous cracked a joke and hastily put the mechanical suit on.
Aroshia did not need the mechanical suit to protect her. As long as she turned into her energy form, she would be able to ignore the harsh environments.
For this mission, Han Xiao had only brought Herlous and Aroshia along—the rest had all stayed in the spaceship. They were not strong enough, so bringing them along would only burden Han Xiao.
As the magnetic field of the planet could block communications, Han Xiao parked the spaceship outside the atmosphere and set a time to pick them up. The three of them used the mini aircraft to land on the planet.
The spaceship entered the edge of the atmosphere. The cabin under it opened, and a mini aircraft flew out. This was the ‘Dragon Butterfly’ scout aircraft, a model used by the Floating Dragon Guards. Han Xiao had learned this blueprint long ago.
After the aircraft took off, the spaceship instantly rose higher and left the atmosphere.
Inside the aircraft, Han Xiao sat at the pilot seat and operated the control planet with ease and familiarity. The other two sat in the passenger seats behind him.
“Let’s go, the research team’s crash site is below.”
The magnetic field affected radars too, but Han Xiao adjusted the location when they were on the spaceship. Their destination was right below.
With a tug of the gear lever, the anti-gravity pipes under the aircraft illuminated slightly as they landed quickly.
It was dark around them, and it was very difficult to see. Such planets that did not have light from a Fixed Star existed in many parts of the universe. Han Xiao switched on the aircraft’s light perception, and their vision became clearer. They could now see the nearby environment.
“About 6,000 meters to reaching the ground,” Herlous said.
“Hold on, there might be some turbulence.” As Han Xiao spoke, he suddenly turned off the engine and the anti-gravity levitation device.
Hu!
The aircraft instantly descended forcefully.
Shocked, Herlous said, “What are you doing?”
Before Han Xiao had chance to reply, the aircraft suddenly trembled. Electric sparks erupted from the internal circuits, and at least three-quarters of the buttons on the control panel became unresponsive.
A warning appeared on the radiation detector, and a shadow that looked like a sandstorm swept toward them as seen from the screen.
“At 2,000 to 6,000 meters altitude on this planet, there is a radiation storm that can incapacitate most of the devices in a spaceship. That’s how these research spaceships crashed. However, there are still about 2,000 meters for them to buffer before crashing onto the ground, so their shield would be able to prevent them from shattering into pieces when the smash into the ground,” Han Xiao explained. “High-class spaceships can make it through, but Godora’s research spaceships obviously would not have too many high-end devices equipped.”
“What should we do then?” Herlous was stunned. “Aren’t we trapped on this planet in that case? Plus, our spaceship won’t be able to pick us up.”
“Don’t worry. Every once in a while, the radiation storm will weaken—we will be able to leave then.” Han Xiao was not worried at all; he remembered the mission process. Furthermore, when it was completed, this mission was turned into a dungeon, and the Dungeon Crystal could be earned through doing daily missions in that space station. Countless players had come to this planet before, so he was extremely familiar with it.
The gravity of the planet was quite strong, the aircraft was falling at a very fast speed. They passed through the radiation storm very soon and saw the mountains and craters on the ground, rapidly closing in. At this height, with the strength of the aircraft shield, it would defini
tely successfully shatter into pieces.
Of course, the three of them would not die from the fall, but the aircraft was a resource, and Han Xiao did not want to give it up easily. As he pressed a button, gliders popped up from the two sides of the aircraft. He switched the aircraft to nerves controlling method and connected the gliders to the nerve signal of his arm. It was as swift and smooth as controlling his own arms.
With the engine still off, the aircraft slowly turned from falling into gliding, quickly approaching the ground.
Boom!
Finally, the aircraft landed on the ground in a slanted angle, stirring up a huge amount of sand and dust. The shield generator was still working and flickering. The shield and the incapacitated thrust engine were not in the same system and had different fundamentals. Although the shield had been affected by the radiation storm, it had already recovered to a certain extent.
Turbulence still lasted in the aircraft for quite some time before quietening down. Aroshia rubbed her butt. Since she did not turn into energy form, her butt was hurting from the turbulence.
Han Xiao stood up and pulled down the manual handle on the hatch. The hatch popped open, and extreme coldness blew onto their faces. The temperature inside the mechanical suit lowered largely in an instant before slowly recovering to the normal temperature.
“The air temperature is about minus a hundred degrees. It is… actually higher than expected. Looks like there are bodies of water on this planet.
Han Xiao stretched his arms and legs, breathing in the oxygen from the mechanical suit. He was not planning to run around in this kind of place without wearing a mechanical suit.
Aroshia almost froze from the coldness and hurriedly turned into energy form. After entering Grade B, she had become much more skilled in using her powers. When she turned into energy form, she still maintained her human figure, including all of her facial features. Other than her body being made up of bright energy, everything else remained unchanged.
“The landing location deviated a little from the target without a radar.” Herlous looked around. “Looks like we can only slowly search for the remains of the research ships.”
Han Xiao squatted and touched the ground. Under the rough and black dust were hard rocks—the density of the planet surface was rather high. He then looked up and searched for certain markings on the sky.
Very soon, through the vision zoom of the mechanical suit, he saw the light from the spaceship outside the atmosphere. He pointed in that direction and said, “There is no need to search. The target is right there.”
Chapter 461 - [Interstellar Beast] (2)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The weather was freezing. On the empty gray planet surface, craters could be seen everywhere. The spaceship outside the atmosphere was acting as a guide, so Han Xiao, Herlous, and Aroshia walked in that direction. Although the gravity of this planet was quite high, it had minimal impact on Grade B Supers. After a while, a spaceship wreckage appeared before them.
This was a Godora research ship. Its light gold shell was covered in black dust, its body was twisted by the crash, and behind it was a fissure that stretched hundreds of meters with pieces of the spaceship here and there. Clearly, the spaceship had skidded for a distance after crashing.
Herlous looked at his tactical screen and said, “It’s dead silent, and there are no thermal signs. I think we should go there to take a look.”
“Thanks for making a suggestion that no one thought of.” Han Xiao rolled his eyes.
Herlous shrugged. “You’re really being more and more gentle in your words. I keep having a feeling that you’re targeting me.”
“I’m only well-mannered toward strangers.”
“I’m flattered.” Herlous changed the topic. “This mechanical suit of yours has quite a number of functions.”
“What, the armor your brother left you does not have these functions?”
“Ha. My brother knows me too well. He knows that I don’t like these fancy functions; the armor that he tailor-made for me has maximized combat functions. To know how strong the enemy is, I just have to fight him. What’s there to analyze? Speaking of which, these people on my home planet took my armor and have been researching it for a year. I even gave my brother’s notes to them, so they should have gotten some results by now. How about we find a chance to return there and get my armor?”
“You actually made a genuine suggestion,” Han Xiao said with a surprised tone. “How shocking.”
Herlous was speechless. I really want to draw my sword, but I have to maintain a smile.
As they casually chatted, the three of them arrived at the wreckage. This was a medium-sized research ship. It was divided into many cabins and was more than ten meters high. As they got closer, more details appeared before their eyes. There was a huge hole on the side of its body, but the hatch was still closed. Han Xiao peeked into the cabin; it was completely dark. Apparently, the system was basically incapacitated.
“Let’s go in and see if there are any survivors or corpses,” Han Xiao said. Although he remembered how the mission would go, since he came at a different time, he did not know if there would be any slight changes.
He explored inside the cabin, and no one was in it. Han Xiao switched to the tracing interface and discovered some panicking footsteps. After extracting the newest markings, he realized that these people did not leave the spaceship. There were also markings of someone being dragged along the floor in some rooms.
“Hmm, it’s obvious that the shield did not fully protect them, and some people fainted. However, none of their footsteps left the spaceship. It seems like everyone disappeared into thin air. The hatch is closed, which means that that hole was made by something else. It looks like there are some special life forms on this planet, and these things are the reason for the ship crew’s disappearance.”
Han Xiao spoke fluently. He walked around the scene and briefly investigated. The situation was not much different from the mission in his previous life, which instantly lessened his worries. Ever since his Intelligence attribute became higher, he realized that his memory had become stronger as well. Some of the blurry memories started becoming clearer.
The mission rating depended on the investigation results. Hence, although Han Xiao knew where the final Boss was, he was not in a hurry to go there. He moved to the control room of the spaceship, found the central computer, and manually rebooted the spaceship system.
Hum!
The spaceship shook, and all the rooms inside lit up.
“Reboot complete. Initiating self-diagnostics… Damage rate 72%. Most devices are incapacitated. Fuel leak detected, 3% energy remaining. Activating Advanced Power Saving Mode…”
Han Xiao pressed a few buttons. “Turn on ship recordings.”
“Insufficient energy. Request rejected.”
“Switch to manual mode.”
“Please confirm Observer ID.”
Han Xiao thought about it before taking out his communicator and searching for a while in the notes. Then, he entered Kerlodd’s ID.
“Connecting headquarters database… connection failed. Signal disrupted by an unknown source. Connecting local database… successfully connected. Authorizing access… authorization failed. This ID is not in the crew list of this ship.”
“Godora’s operation system is so damn terrible.”
Han Xiao’s mouth twitched. He dismantled the central computer shell and pulled out the smart chip directly, taking the chip back to the space station would have the same result.
He dismantled all sorts of core parts of the spaceship—all of them would increase his mission rating if he took them back. Then, the three of them walked out of the cabin. There was nothing valuable left inside.
Herlous hesitated and said, “If the crews were captured by some life form, doesn’t that mean that said life form can fly? Since there are no signs of any creatures walking outside here. How do we find it then?”
Herlous’ eyes sparkled. “So, these Observers might still be alive!”
“I don’t know.” Han Xiao gave a perfunctory reply. “There’s another spaceship wreckage nearby. Let’s go there to take a look.”
Soon after, they found the wreckage of the second research ship. Identical to the previous one, there was no one inside. However, the markings were different. There were messy footsteps outside the spaceship and even signs of a battle. The second batch of Observers on this ship were stronger than the previous ones, so they still had the strength to resist after crashing. However, their ending was clear—they had all been defeated.
“There are more ice markings one the ground but no frozen blood, so no one should have died. There aren’t many battle markings, so these Observers were clearly demolished.”
After looking through the clues, Han Xiao dismantled all the core parts of this spaceship as well and said, “Let’s go. I roughly know where that creature is.”
Following the path in his memories, Han Xiao advanced quickly without stopping. Usually, only by collecting more clues nearby would they be able to discover the nest of the Boss. However, the mission rating would not be high this way. In his previous life, there were more spaceship wreckages at that period in time, meaning that there were more clues. The clues they had now were many times fewer, which was not very beneficial. Han Xiao, however, did not have to go through so much trouble—he headed to the location in his memory directly.
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