Age of Cosmic Exploration
chapter-330

Chapter 330: Closer

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"What is this?!"

This was how everyone who saw the scene felt. They saw the spaceships morph like they were infected and the planet that was becoming flesh. This change was unlike the zerg’s fake planet as it was a real planet undergoing this ridiculous change. The sight was really shocking!

Yao Yuan was rendered speechless for a long time. He and the majority could not understand what they were looking at. A great amount of spaceships were changing in front of their eyes, but none of them had any clues as to why it was happening. Was it some kind of super high technology? Or an extremely dangerous space virus? After all, the cosmos was limitless, perhaps there was a virus that could infect even non-living substances? It was not impossible.

When the people on the Hope saw this, they felt fear shaking the very essence of their souls, because… the Hope was in the range of this infection! The disease was spreading across the group of spaceships in a conspicuous manner, and the Hope was right in its pathway!

"What is going on? These spaceships are morphing! Is this some kind of high-tech weapon? Or is it some kind of weird infection?" Yao Yuan roared with his eyes flashing red. Unfortunately, no one was able to answer his question, not even Ren Tao or Bo Li beside him.

"Recall all the Combat Jets, we are using the space warp…" Yao Yuan could feel danger encroaching, so he finally decided to give the orders to warp. After all… even though they were there to save the Noah One and its members, it was silly to sacrifice the Hope for that.

However, right then, Ren Tao pressed down hard on his shoulder and said, "Wait… Don’t you feel that something is weird? Those changes to the spaceships happened in the blink of an eye. Every spaceship within the range of infection has morphed, and technically speaking, the Hope is in that range, but nothing has happened to it. So don’t be so rash… or are your senses are telling you we could be destroyed at any moment?"

Yao Yuan was startled. He did not finish the orders he wanted to give and thought about it before adding, "You’re right, it doesn’t feel like the danger is enough to engulf the spaceship completely. The danger is there, but it is incoming danger like usual."

"Then that answers your question," Ren Tao said as he pulled back his hand. "Just now I remembered something. You still remember how Blue 6 once said that the so-called cursed planet is where demons are born and the demon race is the greediest race in the whole cosmos? They are the cosmos’ biggest enemy, but what exactly is the demon race? No one knows, not even Blue 6, who came from a level 3 space civilization. He only mentioned one thing about them…"

"Mentioned one thing? Wait, mentioned one thing…" Yao Yuan’s Thinker power started operating, and known clues as well as the situation before him started to collect in his mind. Suddenly, he said, "That’s right! Only cosmic adapters could defend themselves against the demons! Blue 6 once said that this legendary demon race could only be fought by cosmic adapters!"

Ren Tao pointed at the screen and said, "Doesn’t this confirm that? This is the cursed planet, and since none of us know what the demon race is, could it not be a kind of mysterious space virus? And these are all the materials and lives that have been infected! From the information taken from the space merchants and the messages given by Blue 6, we can confirm one thing, and that is the rarity of cosmic adapters. There will not be another existence like us human beings. In that case… does this not confirm the hypothesis? The Hope has plenty of cosmic adapters, and that is why we are not getting infected!"

Yao Yuan sat back down the captain’s chair. He thought about it and said, "You make sense, but most of it is still hypothesis. There is no evidence to show that you’re right, but… we can still continue to try out the plan, or else the preparations and sacrifices we have made along the way will have been for naught. Of course, if the danger I sense reaches the maximum, I will immediately order the Hope to warp!"

Ren Tao shrugged. "You’re the chancellor, Yao Yuan. That is your decision to make, I’m just giving you my analysis."

Then central command started to quiet down. After a few minutes, Yao Yuan suddenly whispered, "Haven’t you been averse to this rescue mission? Then… why did you stop me just now?"

Ren Tao turned to say, "Who knows? Perhaps it was force of habit that compelled me to conduct the analysis, or someone or something was clamping down my mind, or… I was touched by your desire to save your fellow man. And deserting all the plans at the last minute seems too much of a waste. In any case, you can make of it any way you want."

"…Is that so? Regardless, thank you…"

At the same time, in the group of alien spaceships, even though they were in the infection range and were already morphing, that was not true for all of them. Among them, a small number of spaceships did not enter that scary evolution, or rather… the morphing was decelerated due to some reasons.

One of these spaceships belonged to a mammalian race. They walked on the ground with two feet and had a pair of arms. However, their arms were slender and long like they had no skeleton. They looked more like tentacles than arms. Furthermore, they had more than 10 fingers on each tentacle, and they too were slender and long. Comparatively speaking, their tentacles seemed to be more agile than human hands. Their brains were round and big and their eyes were large. They looked like how human beings pictured alien would look like.

In this spaceship, everyone was in this despair. This spaceship’s leader was a grade A cosmic adapter. It was because of him that the infection was slowed down, but the ship only had one cosmic adapter. Even though the infection was slowed down, it was not stopped. The lifeform furthest from this cosmic adapter was the first to experience this change. Some became monsters and others robots. Even in central command. where this cosmic adapter was seated, there was small degree infection happening. For example, one of the ship operators suddenly realized that stray flesh tumours had replaced some of the control buttons. That was why they were in despair.

"…There is no need to run. After calculating the speed of the curse spread, its speed is faster than light. We need time to enter warp drive. Before then, we will be completely infected."

This cosmic adapter sounded calm even though he was delivering their death sentence. However, the way his body was shaking belied his anxiety and frustration. He was leading his main race’s strongest fleet, and he was his race’s only cosmic adapter. After his race lost these two important assets, they would slowly decline towards extinction. It was inevitable. The curse was exceptionally cruel because it was slow. This cosmic adapter had to sit there and watch his civilization crumble before him. No matter how old one was, this was not something one could accept easily.

The people around this cosmic adapter hugged each other and started to wail… they could only wait helplessly as the curse caught up to them. Then again, the cosmic adapter had in his hand a self-destruct button. At least they would be able to die in their original form. This was the only consolation they had, and they were luckier than other races in this aspect.

"Then let us begin. Let us use our most perfect form to return to Star God’s embrace…"

The cosmic adapter closed his eyes. When he was going to press the button, he suddenly sensed something. A palpitation in his heart made him open his eyes. He then yelled, "Quick! Use all available surveillance devices to scan this area!" He pointed to a direction into space, and down that direction was exactly where the Hope appeared!

In the next second, in front of everyone’s eyes, a large, perfectly fine spaceship appeared in empty space. The ship was… not infected in the smallest of ways!

"Is that… the sun? No, it is something greater than the sun. It feels so warm, like the feeling of home… Star God, have you arrived to save your people?!"

When the cosmic adapter saw this spaceship, tears came out of his eyes. He yelled excitedly, "Activate all propulsion systems that are still usable! Get us close to that ship as fast as we can! That place, that right there is our only lifeline!"

At the same time, many ships that had cosmic adapters on them also used the very last of the energy that they had to rush towards the Hope at their highest speed…

Simultaneously, the planet that had started to change seemed to have achieved life, because it started to vibrate like an egg or like a beating heart. Some kind of sinister change was happening within it…