"We search for suitable creatures, capture them, understand them, and record them. We are … the captors."
"You are free to move around, observe, and ask questions, but you are not allowed to attack."
After saying these two sentences, the tentacle's voice disappeared.
Mini Susumi, the Scholar, and the other five creatures looked at the vast white platform in front of them …
It was as if he didn't know what to do.
"What … should we do?"
A living being had voiced out the question that all living beings had.
They could see the stars if they looked up, but they were not in the Void. If they looked closely, they would see a transparent wall between the stars and the platform.
At the same time, there was some … gas, so they could communicate.
"There should be a way to go back …" One of the creatures said, "Since we can move freely, there must be a way. We should look for it … By the way, how did they bring us here? We just need to use the same method to get out. "
"You're right." Another creature said, "Although the possibility is small, we have to look for it."
"Yes! We must not give up, we must move! That's right! "
The five creatures seemed to be planning to use this method to get out. The Scholar looked into the distance and said, "Where should we go? Let's go check that one out first."
The Scholar pointed at a giant object floating on the platform in the distance.
The object was more than three hundred meters in diameter. Although it was huge, it was still a baby … a baby of the Void Bus.
Other than this one, there were a few more nearby. They were more than a kilometer away from each other. These babies floated about ten meters above the ground as if they lived here.
On this spacious platform, they were indeed the most eye-catching sight.
"You!"
Just as the Scholar was about to move, one of the creatures suddenly walked over and said, "You're going to act alone?"
"Yes. But I'm not going alone … I have a companion. "The Scholar pointed at Mini Susumi.
"You really have a problem!" The creature said, "I noticed that you weren't afraid at all. You looked very calm. You must know something! "
"You can see my expression?" The Scholar said, "That's really impressive. But I still have a lot of things to do, so I won't talk about that for now."
After saying that, the Scholar turned to leave, but the creature immediately grabbed him and said, "Wait a minute. You … "
"Attack detected. The attacker will be treated as trash and will be dealt with." Suddenly, a circular hole opened up on the smooth ground. The creature that was about to grab the Scholar screamed as it fell into the hole. Then, the hole closed up.
It seemed that the 'captors' here were quite strict when it came to judging aggression. The remaining creatures were stunned and did not try to stop the Scholar.
"How dangerous …" the Scholar said as she walked away. "But as long as we don't do anything out of line, we should be fine. We need to be careful …"
Lin didn't say anything. She just looked up.
If he looked up. Many aircraft could be seen flying under the starry sky. The largest of them was over a hundred meters long, but most of them were only tens of meters long.
The platform that Lin and the Scholar were on now felt like a mothership, and the aircrafts were the troops released from the mothership.
As the tentacle had said, the 'captors' were probably preparing for a war.
At this time, the Scholar had already reached the first Void Bus cub.
The cub seemed to have noticed the Scholar's approach as well. It shook its body slightly and extended a tentacle from its ice-like surface. The tentacle slowly extended towards the Scholar, but it stopped about one meter away from the cub.
Then, it reached toward the left side of the Scholar's body. It gently pushed the Scholar to the side.
Crack.
The moment the Scholar was pushed away, a circular hole opened up on the ground where the Scholar had been standing, and a large amount of … something like white jelly poured out from the hole.
"This is …" When the Scholar saw the 'jelly' pouring out, he couldn't help but step back. The jelly continued to pour out of the hole until it piled up into a pile of jelly more than ten meters high on the ground.
The Void Bus pierced its tentacle into the pile of jelly, and then the pile of jelly rapidly decreased until only a few small pieces were left on the ground.
This should be the Void Bus' food … It seemed that they were raising these Void Buses here?
After eating, the Void Bus stopped moving. The Scholar looked at it for a while, then said to Lin, "This place is too strange. We should send a message back, but I don't know if it'll be a problem."
"Of course you can," Lin said. "In your current state, you're constantly sending messages."
"… That's true," the Scholar said. "That means they won't notice us sending messages … No, not necessarily, just that they don't care."
"That's it. Keep moving."
"… I think you're a little different …" The Scholar said as she walked forward.
Although this place was vast and empty, there was nothing special about it other than the Void Bus cub. The Scholar walked on the platform and kept looking around, trying to find something special to observe, but since he couldn't find anything, he continued to walk toward the nearest Void Bus.
This Void Bus was only about a hundred meters tall, and it was relatively small. After getting close, it didn't react at all, as if it was asleep.
"This creature … It's always a sight to behold …" The Scholar looked at the Void Bus and said, "But what are they raised for? Are they responsible for teleportation? "
"Do you want to know about it?"
"What?" The Scholar turned her head and saw a creature appear beside her.
This creature was wearing armor and looked like a creature called a 'bug'. Obviously, it also came from the city of Floating Rock.
However, this creature was a little … special.
"Who are you?" The Scholar looked at the one meter tall creature and asked with confusion, "Are you also from that …"
"I come from the Kingdom of God." The bug-like creature spoke to the Scholar in the common language of Floating Rock. "But that was a long time ago. I live here now. You must have just passed the test. I heard that many new creatures have been captured recently."
"Have you lived here for a long time?" The Scholar asked. "Where have you been before? There were no citizens here. "
"What's a citizen?" The 'bug' said. "Never mind, I've always been down here." Then, it poked the ground with its foot.
"You can think of this place as a very large warship." The bug continued. "Your current position is at the back of the warship. This is also where these creatures live."
As it spoke, it looked at the floating Void Bus. "Other than these, there are many more. We … the captors raise these creatures in large numbers, provide them with food, and use their abilities."
"And our main living area is inside the warship," the bug said. The bug said, "It's like a city with a programmed living system. I've lived here for a long time, so I know a lot about the system. I also like to answer questions for creatures like you who have just arrived, but in fact, as long as you follow their rules, there won't be any problems."
"Then do you know … what the captors are?" The Scholar asked.
"They should have introduced you to them before," the bug said. "They capture creatures like us, but I don't know … what their real purpose is" the bug replied.
"But on the surface, their purpose seems to be to learn about the details of our civilization's technology, and then extract useful technology from it to strengthen and modify themselves."
"Learn?" The Scholar asked. "They look very … developed, so why do they still want to learn from us?"
The Scholar knew that the technology level of the Floating Rocks was not much different from the Voids.
"Even the most developed creatures have to learn from the most primitive creatures," the bug said. "They … have told me that before. Of course, I think they have other reasons to use us, but we just don't know it. By the way, it's okay to talk about them and speak ill of them. It's not against the rules, but remember, there must be no 'hostile' behavior, and that includes directly or indirectly harming any target."
"Okay … I understand," the Scholar said.
"In fact, the captors are quite 'lenient' with us. They let us live here, and other than some work, they don't ask for anything else."
"Work?" The Scholar asked. "What kind of work is that?"
"Operating machinery," the bug said. "Not every creature's job is the same. You'll only know what you need to do when the time comes … Anyway, I have a temporary job now, which is to bring you around to understand this place."
After that, the ground in front of the bug opened again, and a hexagonal disc slowly rose from it.
The disc was about six meters in diameter, and the bug climbed onto the disc from the side. Then it said to the Scholar, "Come on up, this is … the transportation here."
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