“There’s really no peace for a moment—”
After being ambushed twice, the tough guy from the grassland was starting to buckle.
“Executive Officer, do you think we should keep moving? My personal advice is to never stop unless you’re too tired to walk.”
“Yes.” Lu Yuan looked up, “Everyone, keep jumping up. We’ll take the natural corridors of higher branches. The radiation there is stronger, so the biological density should be smaller.
“Also, everyone turn on their rear-view cameras. We’ll walk a bit slower and observe clearly before taking a step.”
“Okay!!”
The branches at 300 to 400 meters high were relatively thin. Although they were still strong enough to support the weight of the team, their surfaces were slippery, requiring very careful steps. When forced to jump, their hearts pounded with fear.
Human acrophobia is still very difficult to eradicate.
Even so, no one opposed the route chosen by the Executive Officer, and no one wanted to return to the ground.
The Emerald Star species in the surface area all seemed formidable.
The group returned to their initial mission, continuing to chase the radio signal in the jungle. The players were responsible for vigilance along the way, while Lu Yuan, as the boss, had an easier time and could think while walking.
In the two recent encounters, there was an easily overlooked detail: the thermal imager failed to give an alert in time.
Even the earlier incident where they were almost eaten by a super creature was the same. “Our thermal imaging system is very likely to be ineffective on this Emerald Star,” Lu Yuan told his team members after careful consideration.
“From now on, everyone, don’t rely on this detection method anymore.”
“Huh?”
Ma Lou turned his head.
“But Executive Officer—carbon-based organisms will definitely dissipate heat when they move.”
Lu Yuan insisted: “Not necessarily here. There’s no harm in being careful.”
An intuition told him that controlling body heat was extremely important for organisms. After all, it violated the laws of thermodynamics. Although the principle was still unclear, the fact was clear enough.
“...Okay.” Ma Lou nodded.
The team quietly delved deeper into the jungle, constantly pinpointing the location of the radio signal source as they moved.
Finally, after nine hours of arduous trekking, their view suddenly opened up, revealing a relatively sparse giant tree forest.
Intricate sky bridges and building platforms were constructed on top of these giant trees, and the ground was also densely packed with human-style building complexes. Some of them had already been deformed and collapsed by vigorously growing plants, but the core parts were largely intact.
It was a semi-circular metal dome with a diameter of several hundred meters, clearly containing a very large interior space below.
And looking at its sturdy appearance, it felt as if the main body of the building was still underground.
“What a huge new dungeon!”
The players almost said in unison.
This trip was hard, but it was worth it!
Pale green sunlight slanted down from above, illuminating the large metal dome, dazzling and brilliant, like a victory settlement screen.
“Look, you can still make out letters on it!” Grassland pointed to the outer wall of a crumbling building, “DS|—... Diverterless Supersonic Inlet, a DSI intake?”
Guo Li Cheng, who had the best English, thought for a moment.
“What are you talking about? I think it should be an abbreviation for Deep Space Infinity, Infinite Deep Space!”
“Oh—right, your guess is more reasonable. So, this architectural complex is actually the ruins of an Infinite Deep Space facility? That cosmic mega-corporation on the same scale as Cangyuan?”
“It must be~~”
This was a major discovery!
Everyone was afraid of attracting animals again, so they didn't dare to cheer loudly, but their hearts were full of joy.
Lu Yuan said to Ye Xing next to him: “The leaves here are thinner. See if you can contact the transport plane.”
Ye Xing didn't move, his energy highly concentrated.
“What’s wrong?”
“Boss, something’s wrong. It feels like someone is watching us.”
“In the ruins?”
“No!” Ye Xing turned around, “Behind us!”
At his words, Lu Yuan, whose perception was slightly lower, although he didn't feel watched, also sensed something.
The sound of the wind, the scent, the movement—it was hard to pinpoint, but something was off!
“It’s almost time, show yourselves!”
Ye Xing stared at an empty branch 100 meters away, raising his explosive gun.
Suddenly, a trembling “ripple” appeared out of nowhere on that branch, followed by more “ripples” appearing in the vicinity.
More than a dozen figures successively disengaged their optical camouflage, revealing their true forms, looking down coldly at them.
These people were tall and slender, with agile postures, wearing close-fitting soft armor similar to Cangyuan combat suits but thicker, with ornate robes covering the outside of their armor, and their faces exposed.
Regardless of gender, they all had long, pale golden hair, and their faces were painted with various colored patterns. Their skin was so white it seemed to glow.
These people’s body temperatures were completely consistent with the background forest; infrared detectors couldn't read any heat from them.
What kind of space elves!?
Lu Yuan almost blurted out.
Inside the Li Star industrial ship, the temporary foreman Moto was found by the young players as soon as he logged on.
“Boss! Something incredible suddenly appeared in the database!”
Moto came to the main control room and found a new folder on the computer desktop, named: SCV.
“SCV? I remember that’s like the worker unit in StarCraft, right?”
“Oh, that, actually StarCraft is also a fan creation, the earliest prototype should be the mech the female protagonist used to fight the Alien Queen in the second Alien movie. It was Cameron’s idea forty years ago.”
“Oh—”
Moto recalled, it should be a human-operated robot about four meters tall, walking on two legs, slow and a bit clunky.
Frankly, it was better than nothing.
However, after opening the blueprint, Moto realized he was terribly, incredibly wrong.
This SCV from humanity’s golden age was completely different from the small, insignificant thing he had imagined; it was a behemoth!
It stood nearly 20 meters tall, weighed 240 tons, used nuclear power, and its main body was a torso equipped with a hydrogen-3 reactor. In addition,
there were three optional modules.
Module one, locomotion device: switchable between full tracks, spider climbing legs, and Mecanum wheel walking legs.
Module two, large robotic arms: a wide variety, perfectly adapted to various excavation, clearing, and construction needs.
Module three, back toolset: selectable between a crane, additional robotic arms, and an industrial drone hive.
The SCV could be operated by one person, with two standard drivers. The fully enclosed cockpit was located in the head, and the neck was used to provide high-quality active hydraulic suspension to prevent driver dizziness.
Inside the head cockpit, there was a toilet, a rest bed, a life support system, as well as a simple kitchen, a small cold storage, and VR entertainment facilities.
In other words, drivers could stay on standby for long periods inside, and the SCV had the ability to operate independently on alien planets for extended periods without resupply stations.
Even more exaggerated, it could be optionally equipped with a Zero Element Furnace and black technology 【zero element Field Coordinator】, the latter allowing it to control the shape of the zero element field at will within a certain range, letting the massive SCV move around like light engineering machinery, easily accelerating and braking, and even climbing cliffs!
Of course, this also allowed it to lift heavy objects weighing tons.
SCV drivers in the golden age, what an enviable and exciting profession—
Moto sighed from the bottom of his heart.
He could already imagine the players looking up at the SCV, eager to get into the cockpit and experience it.