novelhk Chapter 488 Ruan Mei's Starship
Chapter 488 Ruan Mei's Starship
The Grylls 667 galaxy.
Eve traveled thousands of light-years to get here in just two days.
Along the way, she successfully witnessed the diversity of the universe.
Besides celestial systems consisting of three stars, there are even people driving their own planets around the universe.
Building spaceships is too inefficient, isn't it?
Even Eve, who had seen a lot, had never seen anything like this before.
At this moment, Eve stopped on the outskirts of the Grylls 667 galaxy.
"Is this Grylls 667, the forbidden star system?"
Eve gazed at this forbidden celestial system.
As the data shows, its celestial system is very clean, with only one star and three planets.
However, that star was terrifyingly large.
"Where was Ruan Mei's last letter sent...?"
Eve brought up the Void System again and found Ruan Mei's exact location before she disappeared.
Soon, the signal was locked onto the third planet in the Grylls 667 system.
"This is it."
Eve shut down the Void System and flew toward the planet.
Eve noticed a change in the surrounding space as soon as she entered the Grylls 667 system.
Like being trapped in a swamp, space here seems to be locked, making it extremely difficult to stir up. This means that using space warp technology here is almost impossible.
But Eve forcefully neutralized the spatial chains and rushed toward the planet at an extremely fast speed.
Eve quickly entered the planet's atmosphere.
The atmosphere of this planet is not composed of nitrogen and oxygen, but of hydrogen, which also contains a significant amount of carbon disulfide.
These are all results from the analysis of the Void System.
Eve landed on the ground, on a planet completely covered in black bedrock. The light from the star couldn't reach this place at all, so the bedrock was extremely cold, and the planet's core temperature was -114 degrees Celsius.
What is Ruan Mei doing here?
Eve looked around and found the planet to be very barren.
Eve continued walking, when suddenly she noticed something.
There was a starship not far away.
Eve rushed over immediately, and upon closer inspection, she realized it was the wreckage of a starship.
"Could it be Ruan Mei's starship?"
Eve walked into the wreckage and entered the main cabin of the starship.
This starship is enormous, but it is clearly not Ruan Mei's, because it is covered in dust everywhere and its facilities are severely outdated. It has probably been sitting here for hundreds of years.
"Could it be the company's starship?"
Eve searched around for clues, hoping to find something.
It's highly likely that the company was unaware of this information before, and the starship crashed here.
However, the starship's computer was broken, so Eve had to fix it first.
"Strange? This model number?"
Eve thought that a computer from hundreds of years ago would be difficult to repair, but she didn't expect that the system was the same model as the current system.
"Impossible?" Eve pondered.
She quickly fixed the computer and connected the Void System to it.
With a "beep," the long-dormant screen emitted a blue light, indicating that the system had successfully restarted.
Eve quickly reviewed the flight logs, and after reading them, an incredulous expression appeared on her face.
This starship really did belong to Ruan Mei.
"How is this possible?" Eve quickly flipped through the navigation log.
Log number: QM-001
日期：星历8100年7月15日 08:00
Coordinates: Frontier Space Station
The starship has officially set sail, destination—Pinocconny.
The core mission of this trip is to find Eve and discuss the topic of "life" with her.
Her life's destiny is exactly what I've been searching for, but unfortunately, it seems I've gone in the wrong direction on the path of life research. Fortunately, the right path has appeared, and my research can be corrected in time.
In addition, my research has also hit a bottleneck. The life forms I created do have their own thoughts, but they are not complete.
Although the Star Shattering King Worm was successfully created, it only existed for 56 seconds. I need to know where I went wrong.
Therefore, I am very interested in Eve. Besides her life, I am also fascinated by the reproductive remnants on her body. I need this to improve my Ohmu, and I hope Eve will agree to join my research.
My confidence stemmed from the fact that I had found Zandal's manuscripts, revealing that he had also studied insect swarms, which surprised me.
The research on the insect swarm above is very detailed, with detailed experimental data on different types of insects. He even conducted experiments, attempting to raise a large number of insects in captivity and let them fight each other, hoping to eventually obtain the breeding command for the Queen Insect.
Unfortunately, he failed. Just like my experiment, the Ohmu only existed for a few seconds before exploding and dying. I needed to find the reason, and Eve was an indispensable part of the process.
In addition, two weeks ago, the deep space observatory captured a group of unusual biological signals. The signal sources were scattered across multiple galaxies, and their gene sequences did not match any known organisms, and they exhibited characteristics of rapid evolution.
Even more worrying is the detection of "conscious energy guidance" in the signal, which suggests the possible existence of an unknown intelligent manipulator behind it.
This could very well be a signal from the swarm, which excites me greatly.
Because this could be a species that has never been discovered before, or even an intelligent species, I plan to take a detour to find the swarm first, and then arrive at Pinocone.
Before setting off, a backup plan was left for Kai: if he did not reach Pinocene within 30 days, he should hand over the signal data from the observatory to the Black Tower.
The starship slowly sailed away from the port, and stardust outside the window flowed like shattered gold. I only hope that this time I can find a breakthrough.
.............
Log number: QM-004
日期：星历8100年7月18日 16:20
Coordinates: Exit of the jump portal on the outer edge of the Grylls 667 galaxy
The plan was forced to be interrupted.
I arrived at the location of the biosignal, but I never expected it to be the Grylls 667 galaxy.
This galaxy has always been listed as a no-route zone, which made me hesitate.
But the biosignal was very strong; the swarm was right in front of me, so I had no choice but to send the starship inside.
As soon as I entered the Grylls 667 system, I realized that this system was not so simple, and the starship's various indicators dropped rapidly.
Soon, the starship's warp drive circuit suddenly malfunctioned. The AI indicated that it was caused by an unidentified particulate matter blockage, forcing it to detach from the warp tunnel and make an emergency stop for repairs on the nearest third planet.
The maintenance AI estimates it will take 8 hours to complete the circuit cleaning.
During this break, I conducted a deep scan of the surrounding biosignals.
The result made my heart tighten; the originally very strong biological signal was now extremely weak.
It even disappeared for a time.
I believe this demonstrates the insect swarm's characteristic of "actively avoiding scanning," further proving the uniqueness of these new swarms.
The signals eventually converged on the third planet in the Grylls 667 system, which was the planet I was staying on.
I immediately activated the starship's "energy shield warning mode" and instructed the AI to prioritize repairing the warp drive, while I planned to travel there in a small spaceship.
Lena sent me an encrypted message, reminding me that "a large-scale starship disappearance occurred on Grylls 667 three hundred years ago, and the cause remains a mystery to this day."
Although I have some concerns, I believe that research cannot stagnate.
....................
Log number: QM-005
日期：星历8100年7月18日 23:15
Coordinates: Edge of the third planetary belt in the Grylls 667 system
Disaster struck without warning.
Just as I entered the third planet, the starship was suddenly surrounded by an overwhelming swarm of insects.
They are the source of that unknown biological signal.
These insects are about half a meter long, with dark gold exoskeletons. They can spray highly corrosive mucus from their mouthparts. Even more terrifying is that they move in a highly coordinated manner, seemingly exhibiting a collective consciousness.
I was delighted; my guess was right after all. This was indeed a newly emerged, unknown species of insect.
I reviewed my experiments and Zandal's manuscripts and found a problem: a genetic defect.
The insect colony we have discovered is very likely incomplete, representing only a small portion of the species. Therefore, I am unable to reconstruct all the genes of the Queen, which led to the Queen's collapse.
Now, this unknown species of insect is right in front of me, and I'm very excited.
But I know that now is not a good time to get in touch with them.
I tried to start the warp drive, but found that the drive had been interfered with by a special magnetic field and was completely malfunctioning.
Now I understand why the Grylls 667 system is known as a no-route zone.
Strangely, the communication system also failed, making it impossible to send out distress signals.
In desperation, I deployed six miniature probe robots in an attempt to uncover the swarm's weaknesses.
The images transmitted back by the robots showed that a starship wreckage was suspended at the center of the swarm, its surface covered by a thick biological cocoon. The cocoon emitted a strong consciousness signal, which should be the "control core" of the swarm.
It was only then that I realized I was the prey, lured here by the swarm of insects.
Although I am excited, this is indeed bad news. The swarm has gained intelligence, which is the most troublesome thing.
They may now be collecting technologies from intelligent beings to improve their own evolution.
In addition, all the weapons I have now are completely ineffective due to the spatial problems of the Grylls 667 system, which may be why the swarm is now using this place as its habitat.
My only chance now is to get the situation out of here.
I recorded the entire incident in the voyage log and transmitted it back to the main starship. I also programmed this information to automatically send distress signals towards Pinocene and Black Tower space stations after the starship crashed.
I hope you receive this message.
...............
Log number: QM-008 (Encrypted Emergency Log)
日期：星历8100年7月19日 04:03
Coordinates: Third planet in the Grylls 667 system.
I returned to the main ship.
But the swarm followed, and the field shield was on the verge of collapse under the swarm's attack.
The swarm of insects began to ram the ship's hull, and the consciousness signal from the wrecked biological cocoon grew stronger and stronger, attempting to invade my nerves. I could vaguely sense a feeling of "hunger."
It's not appetite, but a thirst for technology, for energy, for everything that can promote evolution.
I activated the starship's data self-destruct program, destroying all core technical data related to the Genius Club, retaining only the navigation logs and swarm research data.
The swarm seemed to have sensed my intentions, and suddenly increased the force pulling the starship, rapidly approaching the ancient wreckage.
They wanted to drag me down with them.
Unfortunately, the starship was breached.
All my methods seem to have failed against this swarm of insects.
They are frantically devouring my wisdom.
If you see these words, whether it's Eve or Black Tower, please be very careful.
This is no ordinary swarm of insects; the consciousness manipulator behind them possesses extremely high intelligence. I have already...
....................
The navigation log ends here.
After reading the contents of the log, Eve frowned.
"I didn't expect it to be another swarm of insects." Eve had a bad feeling.
Moreover, it is an intelligent swarm of insects.
According to Ruan Mei's description, these insect swarms not only possess a collective consciousness but also a considerable level of intelligence.
Ordinary insect swarms are driven by reproduction and appetite, but these intelligent insect swarms are driven by intelligence.
This was something Eve had never encountered before.
There are actually insects that feed on intelligence?
Just as Eve was thinking, she suddenly heard a rustling sound behind her.
Eve reacted quickly, instantly realizing that it must be a lone insect.
She quickly activated the Void System Drive Intelligence Engine, preparing to use an Intelligence Cage to imprison it.
Eve wanted to see what was so special about this insect, which is why she chose to use this method. Otherwise, what if it would just die instantly from a beam of light?
Eve turned around abruptly, and sure enough, an insect lunged at her with its claws outstretched.
At that moment, a virtual cage made of numbers descended from the sky, trapping the insect inside.
Eve stepped forward to check on the situation, but she quickly realized something was wrong.
This little bug was actually gnawing at her mental cage, and it was even managing to move it!
This cage, which even the most powerful guards could hardly break, was somehow gnawed open by this little insect.
Eve immediately used Echo of the Forest to instantly kill the bug.
"It's not as powerful as I imagined, but it can gnaw at the cage of intellect, and the suppression of the intellect's destiny has no effect on it..."
"This seems..."
Eve immediately realized that something was wrong.
This doesn't resemble a breeding swarm at all; it's clearly a biological weapon created by the Heavenly Crush Intelligence.
...................................................................
Hi, hi! (o=^?ェ?)o ┏━┓