Chapter 314 Breaking Through the Fog
In the consciousness space, Xian Yu, who had been traveling a long distance, suddenly found that the surrounding scenery had changed.
Gray-white dense fog permeated, with countless spores suspended within, leading to visibility of less than ten meters; the ground beneath his feet became a soft and elastic fungal mat, with countless sac worms rapidly crawling through its dense, spongy channels.
The sky, meanwhile, was obscured by fungal-like shadows several kilometers high.
They all seemed to be alive, rhythmically breathing, swaying, and ejecting more spores and symbiotic larvae.
Oh oh…
This must be the natural landscape of a so-called “fungal mat planet,” right?
For the Gaia Zerg, it was a habitable planet, but for humans, breathing the atmosphere for just five minutes would likely result in alien larvae bursting forth…
The human garden worlds overrun by the Zerg swarm in the apocalypse must have been transformed into this state.
To be honest, it was a bit horrifying, but compared to the dozens of genders in reality, it was far from a cultural shock.
Suddenly, Xian Yu saw giant tentacles waving in the sky through the gaps between the massive fungal hyphae.
【That’s not me.】
The Mainframe, who had been leading the way, reminded him, 【“They” are coming.】
The next second, a giant eye suddenly appeared, blocking Xian Yu’s path.
Xian Yu was startled, then steadied himself and took a deep breath.
“Calm down! Calm down! Hello, I am an envoy sent by humanity.”
【We. Know.】
The giant eye’s gaze focused, and its thoughts were directly transmitted into Xian Yu’s mind.
“Please forgive my presumptuousness, our, uh, chieftain sent me here to propose a win-win transaction. Can you understand the meaning of ‘transaction’?”
【Affirmative. Pay. Price. Exchange. Benefit.】
“Right! Our enemies are on their way here. We can lure them to this place, and you help us defeat them. Afterward, you can claim the spoils of war.”
【Survival resources. Already possessed. Enjoyed. Proposal. Not interested. Avoid. Needless conflict.】
Under the Mainframe’s information modulation, the Zerg psionic language translation improved by leaps and bounds, becoming smoother and smoother.
“Is that so—”
Xian Yu was neither angry nor flustered.
“If you don’t lack resources, then why do you attack humans passing through here? Those disappeared ships, you must have eaten them all, right?”
There likely aren’t many intelligent species that can out-logic Xian Yu.
【…】 Faced with such an accusation, the leader of the rogue Zerg chose to remain silent.
“So you still lack resources, don’t you? Perhaps you don’t lack nuclear fuel, or various metallic and non-metallic elements, but what about zero element? Do you not lack zero element either?”
【…】
The Zerg bio-warship continued to remain silent.
“Our enemies are carrying a lot of zero element. You… can take ninety percent of it after defeating them.”
The reason for not saying one hundred percent was actually to reduce the other party’s suspicion.
【To defeat a human fleet, we need no help. Ninety percent of the spoils does not seem reasonable.】
Hmph…
Xian Yu sensed the other party’s lack of confidence.
As the Cangyuan First Strategist, he wasn’t here for nothing!
“Really? According to Star Alliance navigation records, the probability of a shipwreck in this entire star system is 17%, and near the brown dwarf it’s 75%. This means that some people can still escape from here.
“Why don’t you pursue them? You probably can’t, right? Or the zero element required for pursuit is greater than what you can obtain.
“Our enemies’ warships have powerful engines. Unless they penetrate deep enough into this area, descending to a sufficiently low orbit, they are very likely to escape.”
Xian Yu speculated that these bio-warships were severely lacking in zero element, which prevented them from performing warp travel at will, or that they could only perform a short-range warp after a long period of zero element intake.
【Perhaps that is the case.】
“So, we can ensure that those warships are lured over. This is the meaning of our cooperation, and why we should take 10% of the reward.”
【Sounds. Reasonable.】
Excellent!
Xian Yu was ecstatic, but this emotion was not broadcast as psionic fluctuations; he maintained a calm demeanor on the surface.
“I’m glad you think so.”
【But before cooperation, we still want to know why you are doing this? We sometimes hunt our own kind, but there are always sufficiently compelling reasons.】
Xian Yu then noticed that the other party’s language could now be perfectly translated into natural human language.
The Mainframe is amazing!
“That group of enemies plans to steal our heritage, which was very likely our only hope of returning home.”
【Return home. Return to Earth?】
“Yes! You know Earth?”
【All my kin know. To you, it is paradise. To us, it is a hellhole. But now, none of that matters.】
“Then do you know what happened on Earth?”
【No, we do not know. My cluster is not vast. The Mainframe, as the former leader’s decision-maker, responded to the will of the Swarm, but on the way to lead us to Earth, it was turned to ash by the weapons of Infinite Deep Space. The survivors consequently broke away, briefly controlled and studied by Infinite Deep Space.
【After Infinite Deep Space left, the remaining researchers said they were destroyed by more powerful machines, with no survivors—】
【The researchers gradually ran out of food. We did not dislike interacting with the researchers, nor did we dislike their feeding. I suggested they take off their spacesuits and enter our bodies, to survive as symbionts, gaining endless nutrition and energy for their tiny human bodies, fearless of the vacuum, low temperatures, and radiation that could easily kill them—】
【The researchers refused. We felt regret. For organic beings, what could be more important than existence? They said they did not want to degenerate into parasites, saying that after the failure of human civilization, the individual’s continued existence was meaningless.】 【But even as parasites, the meaning of life outweighs death. We cannot understand, but we respect their choice—】
【They all starved to death in the end. After that, more than a hundred of what you humans call “years” passed, and I suddenly realized that they were not averse to our proposal; they simply felt a “despair” that we could not empathize with, and wished to end their own lives.】
Xian Yu was silent for a long time.
“I see———— In short, this is our motive: to return home.”
【Returning home is a good thing. We can help you return home, but you must also help us.】
The subconscious vision before Xian Yu’s eyes changed again.
The massive eyeball belonging to the bio-warship disappeared, and many blurry black human figures appeared around him. The one at the head was very tall, six others were of normal adult human size, or adolescent human size.
In addition, there were more than a dozen child-sized figures.
They had not appeared before.
It seemed that, to show goodwill, these Zerg creatures had transformed their appearance into human form.
Little did they know, this actually made it easier to trigger the uncanny valley effect!
They looked like Slender Man!
【These are our young, whom you have not met before. They are hiding beneath the clouds of the celestial body you call a brown dwarf.】
The alien young waved their “hands” at Xian Yu.
“Hi—”
Xian Yu also greeted them.
【Our young need to grow, they need zero element. As long as we accumulate enough zero element, we can embark on our journey.】
“Where to?” Xian Yu was somewhat wary.
【Like you, we will follow the beacons left by other kin when they evacuated Earth, and return home.】
“Approximately how much zero element is needed?” Xian Yu asked cautiously, “Because— forgive my bluntness, your sizes are quite massive.”
【At least this much more is needed.】
The other party sent him a very large number.
Xian Yu was stunned for a few seconds, then realized that it was not a human unit like kilograms, but the specific number of zero element hydrogen atoms.
“Alright, please wait a moment—”
He had the mages outside calculate it and found that it wasn’t an exceptionally large amount. For Reid’s Imperial Fleet, there might even be a 30% to 50% surplus!
“Do you really only need this much?”
Xian Yu was skeptical about the number, so he confirmed it again.
His mouth was his own, no harm in asking.
【Only this much is needed. We utilize zero element far more efficiently than human ships. Furthermore, along the return route, there are supply caches left by our kin in advance.】
Hmm!?
“Then— besides the supply caches you need for your journey, will there be more left elsewhere? Can you share some with us? Because we also really, really want to go home! You must understand this feeling, right? Please, I beg you!”
Xian Yu immediately dropped all pretense and shamelessly begged the other party.
A true man knows when to bend and when to stand tall!
The cluster leader pondered for a full minute.
【Most of the clusters that were summoned were slaughtered by the human “Golden Fleet” 300 “years” ago—so,
Yes, I think I can tell you a few locations, but if you, as humans, try to retrieve them, you will definitely face obstruction from the Swarm’s ground guards, and you will very likely be eaten.】
It’s okay! We can revive even if we get eaten!
Xian Yu almost blurted it out.
“No problem, we can solve the remaining issues ourselves. Thank you!”
【Alright.】
Four sets of coordinates and corresponding information were then transmitted to Xian Yu.
After interpretation by the Scholar players outside, it was discovered that three of them were on navigation routes within the Star Union Space. The resources in the supply caches, besides zero element, also included elemental materials in the form of high-molecular polymers.
As for the amount of resources in a single supply cache, it was equivalent to the current reserves of a large Cangyuan mining site, or more than ten years’ worth of bio-zero element extraction from Emerald Star!
As for the fourth supply cache, located far outside the Star Union Space, its reserves could only be described as astronomical.
Good,
An unexpected gain!
At this moment, not only were the players of the expeditionary force cheering, but even the Executive Officer, who was trying to maintain his persona, found it difficult to suppress the upward curl of one corner of his mouth.
Of course, the prerequisite was that Cangyuan had to last until then!
Now, they had only obtained the “treasure map.”
“Then the next step is the specific tactical arrangements. If possible, please follow my troop deployment!”
Xian Yu looked up at the cluster leader.
Let’s talk business! He had finally arrived at his strongest subject.
Two and a half hours later, the massive Imperial pursuit fleet, a total of 14 naval warships, exited warp travel 480,000 kilometers from the brown dwarf.
Crossing this boundary meant that they could no longer quickly disengage from combat via warp, and could only choose between victory or defeat.
But Major General Reid was unconcerned, unaware of the hidden dangers.
In his eyes, the Cangyuan expeditionary fleet was already a stray dog hiding in the corner of a gravity well.
Desperate and struggling.
Defeat?
Please, don’t tell science fiction stories…
It must have been hard for you to come all this way to die!
“Notify all ships, Battle Readiness Level One! Lift all electromagnetic restrictions, conduct anti-stealth scans!”
“Yes!”
The First Mate on the Oka loudly repeated his order.
This repetition of the supreme commander’s order, as an ancient naval tradition, always invigorated Reid, his desire for power instantly greatly satisfied.
Whoosh! Huge currents surged from the superconducting capacitor array into the OTH band antennas on both sides of the ship, transforming into electromagnetic waves carrying extremely high energy, sweeping at light speed.
Just 6 seconds later, the radar had surveyed the entire airspace near the brown dwarf.
“Suspicious targets detected!” the radar operator reported loudly, “Numbers and volume consistent with the Cangyuan Fleet and its carrier-based aircraft! Bearing:
345! Located on the brown dwarf’s equatorial plane! Distance: one hundred ninety-eight thousand kilometers.”
“Excellent! Raise kinetic shields to maximum, full speed ahead! Launch nuclear missiles in advance to clear interstellar dust!”
Reid looked at the Oka’s captain and smiled.
“The battle will end within 12 hours. Discuss the specific date of the celebration banquet with the councilors. Oh, right! Also contact Silver Fox TV; I want them to broadcast this great victory live under the Emperor’s nose!”