by <unknown>
“Where did this thing come from…”
Han Xiao’s curiosity grew stronger.
He really did not have any impression of this body in his memories. Logically speaking, such a strange thing should not have been unknown in his previous life. He did not know if it was not discovered or hidden by someone.
Han Xiao did not have time to care about Aurora and Feidin, focusing on studying the thing. He tore off a lump of flesh from the ground, broke off a few mechanical parts, and then activated the material detector in his mechanical suit to scan and analyze them.
Not long after, the two analysis reports were shown.
The first was the analysis result of the mechanical parts. It showed that its microscopic structure was very novel. There was no matching material in the database, which proved that the material of this mechanical body seemed to be composed of some unknown alloy. The second document was an analysis of the flesh sample. No matching biological genes were detected, which proved that the source of the flesh sample was most likely not a known species in the explored universe. However, the existence of the Super Gene was detected from it, which was highly compatible with the Mechanic class. Although the cell activity was extremely weak, it also seemed to contain extremely weak electromagnetic energy.
Han Xiao had a theory, immediately tearing off a few more chunks of flesh to test. Every single one of them had Super genes, and they were all Mechanic cells.
“The flesh and blood came from Mechanics…”
Han Xiao recalled the size of this body, and his face twitched.
If the flesh and blood of the body belonged to the same person, it would be fine. But if it came from different individuals… How many Mechanic bodies did it take to construct such a large body?
“Why don’t we test it out?”
Han Xiao shook his head and weighed the flesh in his hands. After hesitating for a while, he activated the [Bold Explorer) skill.
This skill was useless against the character itself, but this body seemed to be different. A piece of flesh that had already been separated could very likely pass the judgment.
As expected, the next moment, the skill took effect.
Buzz!
The world in front of Han Xiao suddenly changed, and images that he had never seen before began to flash back.
It was as if a starry sky had opened up in front of them, and an incomparably glorious galactic civilization appeared before their eyes. As fleets traveled through the starry sky, the territory expanded outward. Planet after planet turned into colonial areas, and cities rose from the desolate planets. Countless spaceships came and went among the planets, and it looked like a prosperous civilization.
However, the next moment, a series of wormholes suddenly appeared in the sky, and an unknown fleet invaded. The flames of war spread to this peaceful civilization, and blood, slaughter, and screams replaced the original prosperity. As the invader advanced, dark green roots extended out of the void and pierced the planets of the invaded like straws. These planets melted, shrunk, and died at a rate visible to the naked eye. In the end, they all turned into liquid nutrients and were sucked away by the roots, leaving nothing behind.
“This is…”
Han Xiao’s pupils constricted.
He was all too familiar with this scene. It was the same as the World Tree War Version!
The World Tree Civilization had invaded this unknown civilization!
Before he could analyze further, the illusion in front of him changed and arrived in a universe.
A large number of Mechanics were gathered there, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the starry sky. Behind them were their own mechanical armies, forming a magnificent formation. Around them were ring-shaped mechanical devices that covered the entire area.
A Mechanical Deity suddenly appeared in the middle of the crowd, releasing a strange energy wave that enveloped the entire area, resonating with the ring-shaped mechanical device.
All of a sudden, the bodies of all the Mechanics in the area exploded, turning into pure flesh and blood, mixing together with their respective armies and then turning into a torrent, pouring into the Mechanical Deity in the center… The size of this Mechanical Deity grew larger and larger, eventually turning into a colossal body. Its flesh and metal fused perfectly, and its appearance was like an indomitable mechanical prosthetic giant!
However, before Han Xiao could be surprised, the scene changed again. The gigantic mechanical body that was still intact a second ago suddenly became tattered, as though it had gone through countless battles. Its appearance was very familiar. It was the mechanical body that Han Xiao and the others had met.
This damaged machine seemed to have been scrapped. It lost all its momentum and slowly drifted in the universe. In the end, it was captured by a huge black hole and swallowed, disappearing without a trace.
At this time, his perspective zoomed out once again. The unknown civilization’s territory had completely turned into darkness, almost cleaner than the desolate universe belt.
The fleet of the World Tree Civilization was like a customer who had eaten his fill. They retreated in satisfaction, leaving behind an empty universe.
This was the last scene of the illusion.
Han Xiao shivered. The effect of the skill disappeared, and his vision returned to normal.
His eyes were still filled with shock as he muttered to himself, “I seem to have discovered something incredible…”
Chapter 1286: World Tree's Shadow |
The information brought by (Bold Explorer] was huge. Han Xiao was both shocked and curious.
What he knew about the World Tree Civilization was only limited to the information available during the war in his previous life. As for the detailed history of the World Tree Civilization, he only knew it briefly, mainly because the information the players in his previous life knew was also quite limited.
However, he did know the basic situation. The growth of the World Tree Civilization was basically filled with war. They kept exploring the universe, conquering and destroying countless civilizations and races. The three Universal Civilizations were not the first to be discovered; they were not special from the World Tree’s perspective, just more prey on their path of conquest.
Through the images he saw earlier, Han Xiao roughly figured out the origin of this mechanical body.
This unknown civilization should have been the ruler of a certain area in the unexplored universe. According to what he saw, its scale was not inferior to any one of the three Universal Civilizations. The three Universal Civilizations only ruled this area of the explored universe. Other civilizations existed in the wide unexplored universe, exploring further and expanding their territory just like the three Universal Civilizations.
Although the explored universe had already entered the galactic society era, in an infinitely bigger perspective, the entire universe was still in the ‘exploration era’. In the past, the World Tree Civilization discovered this unknown civilization. Hence, they traveled through space and invaded, stirring up the flames of war, biting off their territory bit by bit… The way the World Tree Civilization invaded was not just simply occupying the target civilization’s territory. Most of the time, it devoured the enemy’s planets completely. Therefore, lost territories were almost unretrievable.
The opponent had to either defend against the World Tree Civilization’s attacks or yield their territory gradually, losing resource-rich planets that would become the World Tree’s fertilizer, forming a vicious cycle. In Han Xiao’s previous life, the three Universal Civilizations faced this exact situation.
Clearly, this unknown civilization was no match for the World Tree in terms of military power. Hence, it tried to find a breakthrough in the form of individual strength. Through some kind of unique fusing technology with Beyond Grade As as the core, countless Mechanics willingly sacrificed themselves, hoping to create an even stronger individual being.
Although the illusions Han Xiao saw we
re the only source of information, he had a feeling that this unknown civilization’s goal should be to artificially create a Super that exceeded the Beyond Grade A territory!
However, the illusions did not show if it worked. All he knew was that the mechanical body was defeated, fell into a black hole, and disappeared without falling into the hands of the World Tree. This unknown civilization was destroyed in the end, devoured completely along with its territory, not leaving any traces behind. It became another victim of the World Tree Civilization.
“Such a horrifying enemy…”
Han Xiao mourned for this unknown civilization for a few seconds and then sighed.
God only knew how many revolutions and disasters a civilization had to experience and overcome to grow to the universal level. After conquering all these obstacles step by step and creating a glorious civilization, the inheritance and hard work of countless generations were destroyed so easily, disappearing in the universe forever.
Countless years of hard work vanished overnight.
Although he had witnessed the terror of the World Tree Civilization before, seeing this again, Han Xiao still felt pressured.
If not because he knew how horrifying the World Tree was, he would not have done everything he could to delay the World Tree’s arrival. Even though he had many trump cards he never had in his previous life, he still could not say that they would win this war with full confidence.
“Now’s not the time to worry about this. What’s going to come will come sooner or later. It’s just a matter of time…” Han Xiao shook his head, exhaled softly, and put his focus back on this mechanical body.
“This big guy’s level is very high, probably above four hundred. But it doesn’t feel like it has reached the higher territory to me…”
Han Xiao pondered.
Although he had yet to enter the higher Grade, he already had some ideas and knew that the God’s Trait Transformation was something he had to overcome.
The method this unknown civilization used was to forcefully stimulate quality change using quantity and complete the evolution. Therefore, they sacrificed tons of Mechanics. However, the life hierarchy of this mechanical body did not seem to evolve.
Even though Han Xiao could not understand the principles of the technology this unknown civilization used for the time being, it did not stop him from intuitively feeling that this was the wrong path. It was more of a bet than an actual attempt.
Therefore, this thing’s total level was most likely not an accurate indicator of its strength. It was like having many ‘subclasses’, which gave it a lot of levels, but its actual strength did not undergo a revolution.
Nonetheless, it was definitely an improvement. It might have touched the edge of the higher territory… Even so, it was still beat up this bad by the World Tree. It was indeed quite horrifying.
“This mechanical body contains the essence of tons of Mechanics of an unknown civilization. I should be able to derive a lot of new technology from it, especially this unique fusing technology that’s somewhat similar to the Felon technology but quite different in its own way…’
wn
Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.
The value of this mechanical body might be on par with Jayz’s technology treasure. It was filled with the technical essence of different Mechanics.
Among them, the most valuable should be this fusing technology. This exact technology might not be useful to him, but it could give him some insights to come up with something new.
While his thoughts were spinning, Aurora, who was standing to the side, saw that Han Xiao did not say anything despite studying it for quite a long time. She could not help but curiously ask, “Any discovery?”. Han Xiao nodded, smiled, and said, “You’ve really brought me a big surprise this time.”
Then, he gave Feidin a meaningful look with an even more content expression.
Feidin was really his lucky star!
He guessed that this mechanical body should have drifted in the universe and finally fallen into the explored universe through a wormhole.
This Star Field’s name was Blackhole Edge. It was a place where large wormholes frequently appeared, so things like this were not rare.
In Han Xiao’s previous life, this mechanical body was never discovered. However, it might not have been because no one found it. It was also possible that it was not thrown into the explored universe by the wormhole. This should have something to do with the butterfly effect he caused. After all, wormholes were always very random.
Now, however, Feidin had come across this big guy… Han Xiao could not help but be amazed by Feidin’s luck. He was like a walking portable ‘adventure trigger’.
Aurora came over and stuck around Han Xiao to keep asking him about what he discovered. Han Xiao thought about it, skipped most of the information, and explained the nature of this mechanical body ambiguously, acting as if he discovered this information through technological analysis.
“This means that this big guy should now be asleep because it’s severely injured?” Aurora’s eyes spun, and she said with anticipation, “Should I send in life force and help him recover?”
As soon as she said that, before Han Xiao replied, a notification popped up on the interface.
You have triggered the hidden mission (Visitor from Afar)!
Mission Introduction: You accidentally discovered the wreckage of a unique mechanical body from an unknown civilization. There seems to be a weak sign of life in this wreckage. It should have a lot of secrets, and you might be able to acquire some valuable intelligence from it.
Mission Requirements: Repair the mechanical body and awaken it.
Basic Reward: 5 Billion EXP, 2 Random Rewards, and 1 Character Summon Card.
Bonus rewards will be given based on the Mission Rating. Mission Rating is given based on the extent of the mechanical body’s repairs.
Remarks: This mission might affect the developments of some events and cause unpredictable impacts. Please choose carefully.
“A mission?” Han Xiao narrowed his eyes.
This mechanical body was unconscious and heavily damaged. Who knew if it still had an individual consciousness? If he asked Aurora to heal it, it might create many unstable factors.
The unknown impact mentioned in the remarks of the mission should consist of mainly two things. Firstly, the World Tree’s information might be leaked all over the world by this guy. Secondly, this guy’s strength was unknown, which might be a threat.
Furthermore, if this mechanical body regained its ability to move, how was he going to reverse-engineer it? Of course, studying an immobile object was the easiest. He could do it in any position he wanted!
Whether emotional or logical, Han Xiao did not plan to have his plan disrupted by this mission. He shook his head.
“No need, keep it this way. I’m going to study this thing thoroughly first.” “Alright then, call me when you need me.” Aurora did not mind.
Although she was the first one to discover this mechanical body, she did not mind letting Han Xiao decide what to do with it. It was a sensitive time, and she did not want to cause trouble for Han Xiao.
Han Xiao nodded. He came to the edge of this long wound and tried opening the secondary dimensional army box outside it.
Mechanical Force lightning bolts jumped around like dancing golden snakes, opening a gate. Tons of mechanical soldiers flew out. This strange area did not seal up the secondary dimensions too like when he was in the Celestial Star Alliance dimension.
Very soon, these mechanical soldiers spread out like ants moving on the surface of this mechanical body, searching for the core that maintained this territory.
Han Xiao planned to store this mechanical body first in case someone discovered it while it drifted in space. This territory sealed up usual movements but not the quantum network, otherwise Aurora would not have been able to send him a message so easily.
Scanning reports were sent to Han Xiao one after another. Not lon
g after, the entire mechanical body was scanned. The mechanical devices in most areas were no longer working, except for a small area at its chest. One of the devices in it was what activated this territory.
The mechanical soldier rapidly dug a hole in the mechanical body’s chest and turned off the device from inside.
Buzz!
The next moment, the territory was shut down. The black space around disappeared and returned to the normal cosmic space.
“It’s deactivated.”
Han Xiao nodded, summoned the engineering machinery army, planted a directional wormhole generator, and set the target coordinates as the mechanical life civilization in the Black Star Army’s territory
After a while, an enormous wormhole appeared. The mechanical troops pushed the mechanical body into the wormhole. A few minutes later, Han Xiao received a message from Psionic Prime saying he had received the cargo.
Then, Han Xiao retrieved all of his troops, cleaned up any traces, turned to look at Aurora, and said with a smile, “Your discovery this time is very helpful to me. You’ve done a great job.”
Aurora’s eyes sparkled. “Do I get a reward then?”
“What do you want? I will grant it as long as it’s not too overboard.”
“Hmm… I haven’t decided yet. I’ll tell you when I have.” Aurora giggled.
“Alright then, take it as I owe you a favor.”
Han Xiao shook his head, swapped into the King, and teleported home right away. He could not wait to study the technological secrets of the mechanical body.
He had a feeling that he might be surprised by what he would obtain from this mechanical body.
Aurora and Feidin remained in place and looked at each other.
After half a minute, Aurora softly said, “What are you looking at? Go to the ship.”
“…Are we going to continue traveling?” Feidin’s lips twitched.
