Truth be told, Asurmen's ramblings gave Hao Ren goosebumps. If only Lily was here, she would probably have goosebumps again.
"Now that you mention it, I can't help but think of the horror movies I watched in the middle of the night. Before the movie, I felt that the big house was deserted. But after the movie, I felt that the big house was bustling with people. Wherever I went, I felt like there were people hiding," Hao Ren sighed with his arms crossed. "I didn't expect that one day my job would be more indescribable than the movie."
Vivian gave Hao Ren a strange look. "You're bored, so you watch horror movies alone? What's the theme? "
Hao Ren felt a little awkward. He wanted to brush it off, but when he saw Vivian's serious and curious eyes, he could not help but blurt out, "It's about vampires …"
"… Hey!" Vivian exclaimed.
"I didn't expect a vampire to be as cute as you." Hao Ren laughed awkwardly and quickly changed the topic. "Asurmen, we didn't see anything with our detectors. Could it be the special energy released by the dormant spaceships of the Denizens of the Stars?"
Vivian did not know how to respond to Hao Ren's "cute" comment. She glared at him and then looked at Asurmen's crystal curiously.
"I'm not sure," Asurmen said honestly. "The Denizens of the Stars are a complex and ever-changing race. To adapt to the environment, we can change our life forms and characteristics semi-actively. I've been away from my race for too long, and this Star Cluster X … has a special environment. Before we know why the dormant spaceships are here, I don't know if they will release those whispers. But one thing I'm sure of is that the whispers come from many different individuals, and it's very noisy. Even if the dormant spaceships are the source of the whispers, it's definitely not the only source. "
"All in all, this Star Cluster X is full of mysteries. Stay alert." Hao Ren shook his head as he tapped on the control panel. "Today is our first real exploration of this area. Be careful. Nolan, bring all the detectors online and set the output to maximum. Keep the warp engine half-active, and preheat the artillery system. If anything happens, just blow a path and step on the accelerator. "
"Understood."
Following the guidance beacon left by the detection drones, the Petrachelys soon arrived at the nearest "glowing cloud" near the Executor's home planet.
The black barrier caused by the spatial distortion quickly dissipated like a soap bubble bursting. Normal starlight was transmitted to the holographic projection on the bridge through the external monitor, and in the center of the projection was the huge luminous cloud that was impossible to be ignored by the naked eye.
Just like the image sent back by the remote equipment, the glowing cloud looked very similar to the primitive dust clouds in space. Not only did it have a common flat disc shape, but the edges of the disc had countless irregular "ribbons" that looked like material ejection belts. Seeing this scene, Hao Ren could only marvel at the vastness of the universe. The Denizens of the Stars were really a life form that no ordinary race could imagine.
Such a huge "interstellar dust cloud" … was actually a sleeping Denizen of the Stars.
"Approaching at low speed." Nolan's voice rang on the bridge, and the Petrachelys' conventional engine started up. The hundred-meter-long "ship" went from a stationary state to a predetermined speed as if it was weightless, and with a series of afterimages created due to the coordinate drive, it approached the "cloud" in space.
Although it was a low-speed approach, this speed was also compared to warp jump. Facing a behemoth with a diameter of more than a thousand kilometers, even if the small Petrachelys rushed at ten times the speed of sound, it still looked like it was crawling in space.
When they were within a certain distance, the MDT suddenly reminded, "The drones received the signal at this distance."
Sure enough, as soon as the MDT's voice trailed off, the holographic projection in front of Hao Ren lit up, and Nolan's voice rang. "External full-band communication received … decoding complete, beginning playback."
"Unauthorized unit detected approaching. Please submit contact authorization or identification code."
"No contact authorization or identification code received. Not a member of the fleet."
"Scanning other types of identification signal … analysis … determined to be an unidentified unit of the same race." Determining if it's contaminated.
"No contamination detected. No hostile activity detected. No target signal found in the attack list. Determined to be a neutral unit."
"Level 2 contact authorization issued. Compatriot, you may enter the unit's coverage area. Please proceed with caution, this is currently a war zone. "
The external communication ended there, and after that, there were some undecipherable fluctuations of information. It seemed to be some sort of reaction from within the glowing cloud, and the attack on the drones did not come.
"Seems like we passed." Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked at Vivian with a puzzled expression. "Did they mention a 'war zone'?"
"Yes, they did mention a war zone." Vivian frowned. "That means there's someone fighting here? And the Denizens of the Stars are one of the parties fighting? "
"I can't tell. These Denizens of the Stars are all in hibernation mode, there's no sign of a war." Hao Ren shook his head. "Surely they're not talking about the war on the Executors' homeworld … That war may be deadly for the Executors, but it shouldn't be anything significant in Star Cluster X."
After confirming that the 'identity verification' worked, Nolan carefully restarted the engine and flew towards the glowing cloud. As she accelerated, she continued what Hao Ren had said. "Currently, our detection of this sector is greatly limited. The power of the divine storm is still interfering with all detection methods, and beyond the range of the drone cluster is a mass of chaos. This' undetectable zone 'is far beyond our current detection range. So even if there really is a war in the depths of Star Cluster X, we may not be able to see anything, and these hibernating starships that we've seen so far don't mean anything. "
As they spoke, the Petrachelys had reached the edge of the glowing cloud and touched its material boundary. Hao Ren saw the ship flying under a huge material ejection belt. The material ejection belt was like a twisted gauze hanging above, and the upper antenna of the Petrachelys stirred this' gauze ', creating a strange ripple, like a stone thrown into a lake.
"I feel like I'm in the stomach of a giant jellyfish," Nolan said. "Boss, when can I become this big … Such a huge 'ship' looks so cool!"
"Why do you have the same problem as the MDT?" Hao Ren rolled his eyes at the shipgirl. "I've never heard of a PDA becoming a starship's mainframe, and a frigate becoming an aircraft carrier!"
The MDT flew up and bumped into Hao Ren's head. "Just tell me, why did you bring me along?"
"He should have been in hibernation for a long time, maybe even not long after the fall of the goddess of creation," Asurmen said, using the split crystal to sense the surrounding environment. Even through the thick armor and shield of the Petrachelys, through the unique senses of the Denizens of the Stars, he could still clearly 'see' and 'feel' that he was in the body of a compatriot, and he could also sense some of the conditions of this compatriot. "The mental skeleton is in a state of uniform dispersion, and all the traces of solidification are quite vague, and I can't sense any orderly thoughts …"
Hao Ren asked casually, "What does this mean?"
"This means that we can't wake him up by shouting," Asurmen explained in a way that was easy for ordinary races to understand. "This compatriot's hibernation is very thorough … so thorough that it's a little strange. I've never seen a state of hibernation where even the mental skeleton is highly dispersed."
Hao Ren was suddenly a little worried. "Could it be that he's dead in his sleep?"
Asurmen said, "… Although it's hibernation, it's not the same concept as your understanding of sleep. Also, before we entered here, we went through identity verification, which means that the basic functions of this hibernation spacecraft are still running, but the main consciousness is completely asleep. "
Hao Ren frowned and did not continue the topic because the Petrachelys had now entered the glowing cloud.
After entering the cloud, he found that the material density of this thing was much higher than he had imagined. At first, the image from the external monitor was still a blur of starlight outside the cloud, but soon, the image was only a rolling, flowing "fog" that looked like a curtain of sand and dust. The Petrachelys seemed to be moving forward in a large scale sandstorm, and it was a vast expanse in all directions.
But very soon, something strange appeared in this vast world.
Hao Ren saw something shiny emerging from the light and clouds, drifting and rotating around the Petrachelys. From those silhouettes that flashed by, he seemed to see an arc-shaped dome, flying beams, suspended bridges, and a huge pointed cluster structure. They seemed to condense from the light fog and then quietly returned to the light fog.
Vivian saw the same thing and immediately asked Asurmen, "What is that?"
"This sleeping place has partially 'awakened' because of our visit," Asurmen explained. "But this awakening is limited to a very small area, and it has nothing to do with the main consciousness of the spaceship. What we see is like a projection of the past awakened by external stimuli. It's just that this projection can be seen and touched."
"That is to say, if we fly a full circle in this cloud with a diameter of 1,000 kilometers, we can see it in its entirety?" Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. "Then won't we hit some structure? What if a pillar happens to appear in front of us? "
"That won't happen because we can only awaken a small part of it, and the thing that is awakened is not the real structure of the spacecraft. Although it can be touched, it will shatter and disappear with a little damage, just like a fake. So even if we really hit it, it's not a big deal …"
As if to prove this statement, as Asurmen spoke, an unavoidable crystal pillar appeared in front of the Petrachelys. Nolan did not have time to react and crashed into it. Hao Ren saw the pillar shatter into countless crystal fragments on the bow of the Petrachelys, and then silently dissipated into the air.
"That scared the hell out of me."
The shipgirl said with lingering fear.
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