Age of Cosmic Exploration
chapter-382-30041322

Chapter 382: Fake Approach

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Many present did not think much about Ren Tao's hypothesis.

After all, humankind already knew that cosmic adapters were separated into different levels and that those above grade S had their individual skills, like Diviners and Whisperers. In comparison, other than Deceivers, all of the skilled cosmic adapters had no absolute advantage over each other, so as time went by, even Yao Yuan did not consider his All-Rounder power as something special.

Of course, their understanding of the All-Rounder's, or the Immortal's, scary value increased after Blue 6 joined the Hope. The fact that he could ignore the limitations given by god-tier space civilizations and locate newborn life-preserving planets or solar systems was impressive enough.

First, let's talk about life-preserving planets. Even though there would still be a neutron star fragment assault not long after settling on the planet, landing one life-preserving planet meant that there would be a new wave of Homo Evolutis awakenings. This was the desperate wish of any space civilization. Furthermore, even for just a few years, life on the planet would be like paradise. They could also allow those born on the Hope to witness for themselves the beauty of nature, the blue sea, and the sky.

Unlike before, humankind now knew to expect the neutron star fragment. Even though the creation of Kun Lun was impossible in those few short years, creating a fleet of Hope-sized spaceships was not impossible.

Let's also not forget about the precious plants and animals…

A newborn solar system, now that would be a real treasure. Just like those precious metals on the Hope, they were metals desired by mid-tier space civilizations. Therefore, finding a newborn solar system was like hitting a jackpot, an impossibly lucrative jackpot at that.

These were powers unique to the Immortal, the ability to ignore the limitations or hypnosis by god-tier space civilizations, the ability to suppress the progress of demonization. These were powers desired by even level 9 space civilizations. There was even a rumor stating that to go from level 9 space civilization to a god-tier space civilization, one of the prerequisites was the Immortal.

What Ren Tao said was based on these rumors on the Immortal. To verify his hypothesis, the AI and programming experts as well as Zhang Heng were busy for the next two days, and the result was…

"It is really close to Unit Leader Ren Tao's hypothesis. When these two space civilizations received the signal, they stopped fighting immediately, and without any cross communication, both of them departed from the battlefield. From our two days of close observation and autopsy reports, many ruined spaceships still contained living aliens when the war was abruptly ended. They died from asphyxiation several hours later. This goes to show how deep in a hurry those two space civilizations were when they left."

A lieutenant who was an expert in recon reported to the core members of the Hope using the reports and results that his team had managed to collect over the past two days.

The room of about ten frowned when they heard this information. Then they turned to look at Ren Tao, who was blanking out. This dude had guessed correctly again…

Yao Yuan did not put much attention on Ren Tao like the people around him, because his focus was completely on the meaning of the information which was just revealed. At the same time, his Thinker power was activated.

The first consideration was simple. Was it possible that both space civilizations had decided upon a sudden truce in the middle of a heated war and together headed towards the same destination? The answer was no. Unless there was a great cosmic catastrophe, like a supernova, and there was no other choice but to form a temporary truce, these two space civilizations would not have done that.

In other words, they had left the battlefield instantly after receiving the signal, abandoning even their own citizens, just like… they were hypnotized.

Ren Tao had noticed this and proposed such a hypothesis. This ruin had sent out the signal to hypnotize all the space civilizations towards it. The only reason humanity was immune was probably because of Yao Yuan, the Immortal. After all, the Immortal was immune to hypnosis by god-tier space civilizations. This ruin might be powerful, but it would not be a god-tier space civilization. The possibility that its signal could influence an Immortal was possibly nil. Then in that case, this might be a good opportunity…

"We are not entering the ruin!"

Yao Yuan looked around and announced firmly, "But we have to move forward. There is already no way back. Other than the star path, we have nowhere else to go, so we must proceed!"

This statement sounded like a contradiction because the ruin just so happened to be at the star path's entrance. In reality, humanity, including Blue 6, had no idea what a star path was. It was a rumor among the many space civilizations because level 3, 4, or 5 space merchants would use the star path to go visit other solar systems for trade; therefore, the existence of star paths was confirmed. However, what kind of existence it was and what kind of mechanism it used to link different systems, that was an unknown.

Was it a technological product? A natural occurrence? A wormhole entrance? No one knew. Since the ruin was at the star path's entrance, it was hard to tell whether they would be able to circle around it or if they had to pass through it.

"Of course, we can't just waltz into it, because who knows how many space civilizations were attracted to it already, so before heading towards this star path entrance, we need to make some preparations…"

Yao Yuan's plan was simple. First, since they were 70 percent confident that those space civilizations had been hypnotized by the ruin, they would not attack at first notice. Of course, this was a huge proposition, as whether that was true or not still remained to be seen. In general, this was the biggest possibility, and the possibility the Hope banked all its hopes on.

With this hypothesis, they needed to make many preparations, and these preparations were to make the Hope look as old as possible.

This was not a new plan, they had used this method before when they were heading towards the cursed planet. After all, humanity's biggest concern in space for now was self-preservation. To avoid danger, run at the first notice of danger and cleverly avoid conflict. That was the philosophy of everyone on the Hope. Of course, it was also because of this philosophy that Yao Yuan felt so aggrieved at the Shelter and led to that war that ruined an entire Shelter.

Back to the topic at hand, during the Silent Journey, the Hope already had the plan to change its surface and had planned accordingly. With a switch of the outer wall, the Hope would look old and beaten and certain places would look like they were poked with holes. The Hope appeared like a space tin can that would implode at any given moment.

Other than that, they had to work on the appearance of the many vassal alien spaceships as well. They had to be modelled to have the appearance of level 2 space civilizations that were similar to the human spaceship. Even though the Hope, with its chopstick shape, was too unusual, making it look like the vassals were on certain parts similar to the Hope was still doable.

Just think about it, a broken ship with heavy weapons that desperately needed repairing after a war, those big civilizations probably wouldn't be interested in one, as it wouldn't look like a profitable investment. Being shot at by a heavy weapons during the process of consumption wouldn't be worth it.

Therefore, in the next month, the Hope used the materials left in the battlefield to conduct this change. The Genesis had to be exposed as this was an obvious heavy weapon. It would deter level 2 and 3 space civilizations from targeting the Hope so easily.

After solving all these problems, they realized that they had already spent around two months at the battlefield ruin. After fixing some societal issues, the Hope left the battlefield and headed towards the star path at the beginning of the third month.

The Hope still used the warp drive technology. In the past three years, several space and energy experts on the Hope had introduced more upgrades to the energy output of the warp drive technology. Now the Hope's warp drive speed was almost five times light speed, and the energy exhaustion was at least 5 percent less than when they got it from the alien civilization. For the Hope, warp drive was already a mastered space technology.

Just like that, the Hope continued travelling for another 6 months, then one day, it was pulled out of warp drive without warning like a giant hand had grabbed it out from warp drive space…

The moment they left warp drive, the Hope's scanner could clearly see the mess of alien spaceships all around them. Like the Hope, they were all heading towards the same direction…