Chapter 341: God Race |
The war was over.
It ended with extreme abruptness.
The Dead End Star System.
The Zerg Civilization was no more, officially declared extinct.
However...
A new journey had begun once again.
"..."
Accompanied by Biao Zi and the others, Chen Mang walked across the brownish-red soil of this planet. Everything in sight was barren, save for a slowly rotating black hole looming in the distance.
There was no gravitational pull.
Calling it a black hole was inaccurate; it looked more like a profound, pitch-black Wormhole.
He pulled a token from his coat and casually tossed it into the black anomaly. Soon, a faint layer of light enveloped the group. This was their pass. Without this protective barrier, they would be instantly torn apart by the intense spatial forces upon entry.
"Let's go."
Leaning on his walking stick, Chen Mang took the lead and stepped toward the black hole. The Stellaris Train had transformed into a brooch pinned to his chest, and his bowler hat sat securely on his head.
The experience was completely different from traversing a standard Wormhole.
It felt a bit like pushing open the Refrigerator door and instantly appearing in another world.
A flash of white light blinded them momentarily.
Immediately after, the scenery changed.
The group found themselves standing on a massive continent.
Xiao Ai informed him that the Doppler Radar indicated they were currently located in the Dark Abyss. As for the exact scale of this Dark Abyss or their specific coordinates within it, that remained unclear.
The only known fact was this:
Within a radius of one hundred thousand light-years, there were no planets at all, aside from this very continent.
Nor were there any stars.
Dead silence was the overarching theme of this region of space.
However—
It was not pitch black.
The ground beneath them was glowing, radiating a significant amount of heat that made the area surprisingly warm.
"This is quite peculiar."
Chen Mang looked down at the light seeping through the cracks in the ground and stamped his foot. Normally, this kind of phenomenon meant excessive geothermal energy, so extreme that it could counteract the freezing temperatures of a starless void where the outside environment was nearing absolute zero.
Such situations were not entirely unheard of.
But logically speaking, in such a scenario, stepping on this ground should not just feel warm—they should have essentially started to vaporize.
He scanned his surroundings.
As far as the eye could see, there were no boundaries, no horizon. There was only the light bleeding from the fissures in the earth. Looking up, a dense mass of black clouds blanketed the entire continent.
It did not just cover the sky above.
It wrapped around the sides as well.
It was as if they were standing inside a colossal black box.
Indeed.
This was not a planet, but a continent—a flat landmass that looked like a massive, artificially constructed fragment of a shattered world. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for such a fragment to have an internal heat source.
In the distance...
Piles of resources were gathered, countless materials stacked high.
This was not a mining site.
These were already extracted and piled up together. He did not even need to mine them; he could simply haul everything away.
About forty percent remained.
The other sixty percent had been consumed by the Zerg Civilization.
To prepare for his final battle with the Zerg Civilization, he had gathered a staggering quadrillion units of iron ore. Yet, surprisingly, he had barely made a dent in his stockpile. He had not even used up a trillion units; the expenditure was practically zero.
The level 200 Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon, powered by his stellar energy core, only consumed one hundred million units of iron ore per shot. There was simply no way to exhaust his reserves.
Add to that the mountain of resources he had just plundered right here.
No wonder people said war was the fastest way to make a fortune.
It really was fast.
And insanely profitable.
However...
"..."
Chen Mang suddenly narrowed his eyes. He spotted something familiar. The continent before him was divided into eighty-one distinct sectors, each piled high with massive quantities of iron ore. And in front of every sector, there was a specific insignia...
It was...
A symbol resembling a shield.
He recognized this emblem.
"Xiao Ai, if I am not mistaken, this crest should be the mark of the Niya Civilization, right?"
"Yes, Captain."
"Excellent."
Chen Mang spoke softly, his expression calm. It seemed the owner of this mysterious resource cache left behind by an ancient power had been found. It belonged to none other than the Niya Civilization, the very one that had been completely erased from the universe.
Except...
Was the universe's efficiency really this poor?
It was understandable that the previous train captain had been missed; an unknown dust nebula had shielded his train from detection.
But what was the excuse for missing this massive resource depot?
Was it hidden by another dust nebula?
Or was it simply too difficult for the universe's rules to scan inside the Dark Abyss?
"Can you detect what the heat source at the core is?"
"It does not show up on the radar screen. We would need to send someone down through the surface fissures to investigate, but that might entail considerable danger."
"I'll go!"
The moment Xiao Ai finished speaking, Biao Zi, who was standing nearby, enthusiastically volunteered. "Let me handle this! I'm an expert at exploration."
"No rush,"
Chen Mang nodded slightly, declining Biao Zi's eager request for the moment. He merely waved his hand. The Stellaris Train landed heavily on the ground, and instantly, countless robots swarmed out carrying Refrigerators. They began shoveling massive amounts of resources into the appliances, teleporting them directly back to the train.
Before doing anything else...
They needed to secure the loot first.
It was better to pocket the small gains before looking for the big prize, lest they end up with nothing at all. Besides, the sheer volume of resources in front of him was already a massive windfall, far from a mere small gain.
"Phew..."
He looked at the bustling scene before him, a smile playing on his lips as he exhaled softly. Everyone claimed the Dead End Star System was a barren, resource-poor region, but he found it to be quite abundant. Wasn't this a massive haul?
A little barrenness was actually fine.
It meant no one would fight him for it.
Since this cache was left by the Niya Civilization, there was a high probability this Dark Abyss was the one located to the south of the Dead End Star System, potentially quite a distance away.
He deduced this because he had not seen any energy strikes on the Doppler Radar.
Nor had he spotted the devastating blast from the level 4987 Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon.
They had hidden this very well.
He never underestimated any civilization. As the saying went, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Even for a fourth-level civilization like the Niya Civilization, which had been forcibly erased by the universe, the stray fragments of resources they left behind were enough to make him marvel.
If only he could naturally possess this much wealth one day.
The once-silent continent suddenly burst into lively activity.
Countless robots scuttled about like worker ants, working at a frantic pace.
The area felt brimming with life and energy.
"Captain."
Xiao Ai, standing beside him, suddenly spoke up. "I have a question that perplexes me. Generally speaking, the purpose of a strategic resource cache in the universe is for long-distance resupply. After all, not everyone possesses a Refrigerator like ours that can teleport supplies at will."
"If a battlefront is stretched too thin,"
"a civilization needs to establish numerous strategic depots across space to ensure immediate access to materials. That way, even if their logistical Wormholes are severed, they will not deplete their reserves and become a stranded ship in the cosmos."
"But—"
"Who in their right mind would place a 'strategic resource cache' inside the Dark Abyss?"
"Were they planning to traverse the Dark Abyss entirely?"
"..."
Chen Mang fell silent for a long moment. Suddenly, it was as if Xiao Ai's words had sparked an epiphany. He looked down at the radar display on his tablet and whispered, "No."
"The Niya Civilization's territorial expansion was primarily focused along the Z-axis."
"Their domain's diameter along the X-axis was only one hundred thousand light-years—which is the Dead End Star System we see now. But their vertical depth along the Z-axis stretched a staggering 1.87 million light-years, spanning across several star systems."
"They must have attempted to explore the Dark Abyss."
"However—"
"Even if they wanted to cross it, the logical method would be to detour around it, not plunge straight through. The environment inside a Dark Abyss is incredibly hostile, demanding extremely high armor specs for any train, and offering zero resupply options for years on end."
"The amount of stray Core Energy drifting within the Dark Abyss is also minuscule, practically non-existent."
"So I believe..."
"They might not have been trying to cross the Dark Abyss at all. Instead, there could be some deep secret hidden within it. Perhaps they wanted to relocate their civilization here, or maybe they foresaw an impending crisis and sought refuge inside the void."
Any choice made by an entire civilization might seem foolish in the eyes of outsiders.
But it was absolutely never made in error without reason.
Of course.
With the exception of the Qi Ya Civilization.
The first time he encountered traces of that particular civilization was right after he had upgraded his Train Stereo to unlock a unique, universe-level Overlimit Effect. He had picked up a civilization broadcast they left echoing through space.
-
[Level 1 Civilization, Qi Ya Civilization]: Hello, hello, can anyone hear this? Our civilization's cosmic coordinates are... Everyone is welcome to come visit us! -
Yeah.
That civilization had been completely wiped out by the Zerg Broodmother, Qi Ya.
The reason? They shared her name.
In the vast universe, having a duplicate name was a massive taboo. Everyone desperately wanted to ensure their own uniqueness, whether it was their personal name or the title of their civilization.
Because of this intrinsic logic,
Although he wasn't sure exactly why the Niya Civilization set up a supply depot here, he firmly believed it had been the correct decision made by their leaders based on the circumstances at the time.
Forty-eight hours later.
All the resources in the area had been successfully cleared out. The sheer volume was staggering, making it far from an easy task.
He did not immediately tally up his new hoard.
Instead, he looked at the tablet screen Xiao Ai handed him.
The Robot R&D Center did not just manufacture mining droids; it could also produce another type of unit—the Robotic Dog. He just hadn't had much use for them until now. However, for exploring this cramped, hazardous terrain, they were the perfect tools.
A large pack of newly constructed Robotic Dogs was continuously descending into the fissures in the ground.
Chen Mang sat comfortably inside the train cabin. Only after fully securing his own safety did he officially commence the exploration operation.
So far,
Not a single Robotic Dog had encountered danger.
It seemed as though there was no threat at all.
Until the very next moment—
"Crash."
The feed on his tablet suddenly dissolved into a flurry of static noise. This meant the specific Robotic Dog he was monitoring had just been annihilated, its camera destroyed instantly.
"Hmm?"
Chen Mang frowned slightly. "Replay the footage from right before this unit was destroyed."
Quickly!
In extreme slow motion, he clearly saw it... a thin black line whipped out from deep underground, striking the Robotic Dog in a fraction of a second before the feed cut to black. And that black line...
What the hell!
A flash of sheer astonishment crossed Chen Mang's eyes.
It was actually a strand of hair.
This instantly reminded him of an item on the train that had been ignored for a long time—the strand of hair he had once brought out from a dreamscape, or rather, a strange coarse hair. It was a miraculous item.
Its maximum load-bearing capacity was originally one ton.
Any weight exceeding that limit would cause the hair to elongate infinitely.
But once it stretched past a certain threshold, it would stop elongating, and its load-bearing capacity would spike to a terrifyingly exaggerated level.
Were these two things...
Somehow connected?
Right at that moment—
One after another, the Robotic Dogs began dying in rapid succession. Slowing down the final moments of their feeds revealed that every single one was destroyed by a whipping strand of hair. But he had manufactured a massive number of these drones.
Even under such frequent and bizarre attacks,
A huge horde of Robotic Dogs continued to pour endlessly through the cracks, pressing deeper into the earth.
Until!
The fastest drone suddenly dropped into an underground cavern. Its camera captured a single, fleeting frame before the unit was instantly flattened. However, a swarm of other Robotic Dogs flooded into the cavern right behind it.
As more and more footage was transmitted back to the train,
The image on the screen gradually pieced itself together, becoming crystal clear.
It was an unfathomably colossal cavern...
It spanned nearly half the size of the entire continent above. Calling it a cavern was an understatement; it meant the continent had been essentially hollowed out.
Within this massive expanse,
Stood a structure resembling a cross. Pinned to this cross by five massive spikes was a petite girl. She looked to be about 1.55 meters tall. Her hair trailed for meters, possessing the ability to stretch infinitely.
With her hair wildly disheveled, she thrashed violently in the cavern, laughing with unhinged madness.
An eerie purple light bled from her eye sockets.
Furthermore—
Inside this hollow space, besides the imprisoned girl at the center, there were twelve massive, rumbling machines whose noise was steadily weakening. Based on the operating manuals etched onto their chassis, their function was clear.
They were Gravity Engines.
When operating at full power, they could compress the gravity within a given space by hundreds of times.
With a full dozen of them running, the gravity inside the cavern was at least several thousand times that of Water Blue Star.
Under such extreme gravity, most advanced materials would simply collapse. Humans wouldn't stand a chance; their bones would instantly shatter into dust, and their brain fluid would be violently squeezed down to the soles of their feet.
In this kind of hellish environment,
Normal lifeforms simply could not survive.
If the gravity was pushed just a little higher, it might even trigger the formation of a black hole.
Surrounding the perimeter were four more machines generating massive arcs of electricity. They bore no manuals, leaving their true purpose unknown.
But what was plainly visible to the naked eye was this:
The energy conduits for all these machines ran up through the fissures, connecting directly to the eighty-one sectors on the surface. Now that Chen Mang had hauled away all the resources, the machines were running purely on the residual energy trapped within their internal circuits, teetering on the verge of complete shutdown.
At this point!
Everything became crystal clear!
This was never a strategic resupply depot for the Niya Civilization, nor was it some grand base for exploring the Dark Abyss.
It was merely a...
Prison.
Those mountains of resources were hoarded here solely to power these sixteen machines.
The planetary fragment was carved into this specific shape and hollowed out just to build a perfectly inescapable cage for this seemingly frail girl.
Astonishing amounts of wealth had been burned for the sole purpose of her imprisonment.
Who knew how long she had been trapped here.
However—
Today was apparently the day she would finally break free!
"..."
Chen Mang's face darkened slightly as he glanced back at the Wormhole behind him. He rested his hand on the train's control lever, ready to retreat at a moment's notice. After all, he had already taken the resources. But his instincts screamed that the monster imprisoned below was dangerously abnormal and could trigger an unimaginable crisis.
At that moment,
Xiao Ai's voice echoed through the cabin. "Why would the Niya Civilization expend such a monumental price to build a custom prison for her? If she was a dangerous threat, why not just execute her directly, or hurl her into the depths of the Dark Abyss?"
"No,"
Chen Mang narrowed his eyes and shook his head softly. "Anything you can think of, the Niya Civilization would have thought of too."
"The reason they didn't kill her is probably because they couldn't."
"I finally understand why this resource cache was preserved even after the Niya Civilization was completely erased by the universe. It's highly likely that even the universe itself is incapable of erasing her existence."
"Her actual combat strength might not be overwhelmingly high."
"Otherwise, she wouldn't have been suppressed by these machines for so long."
"But her existential dimension, or perhaps her very identity, must be incredibly unique."
"Since the Niya Civilization couldn't destroy her, their only option was to lock her in this cage, where she has remained ever since."
Once, when he used a Dream Stone to enter the dreamscape...
He had encountered a girl squatting by a river washing her hair, and he had taken a strand of hair from her. Of course, that girl wasn't the exact same one down below, but the two shared a striking, eerie resemblance.
He suspected...
This was highly likely an unknown race, an existence akin to the cosmic behemoths of the void.
Exceedingly bizarre and impossibly tyrannical.
He had zero desire to have any further dealings with such an entity.
In the next second—
Chen Mang materialized one-tenth of the resources he had just looted and dumped them back onto the eighty-one sectors on the surface.
Rapidly,
The dozen or so machines roared back to life, operating at high efficiency to firmly suppress the girl in the cavern once more. Seeing this, the girl who had been laughing maniacally abruptly unleashed a frenzied shriek, sending faint ripples through the nearly solidified air deep underground.
"Phew..."
Chen Mang let out a long sigh of relief and couldn't help but laugh. "Damn it, trying to escape on my watch? Keep dreaming."
The ten percent of resources he had returned would be enough to keep these machines running for another hundred years.
That was plenty.
A hundred years from now, even if she managed to break out, he wouldn't be afraid of her.
God knows what the hell that thing was.
Just looking at her sent a chill down his spine.
He admitted that with the current strength and foundation of the Human Civilization, he was nowhere near capable of building such an extravagant prison. While he didn't know exactly what she was, if the Niya Civilization went through so much trouble to contain her, she was undoubtedly a terrifying abomination. Maintaining the seal for now was definitely the right move.
If he accidentally released some apocalyptic monster, the first place to suffer would likely be the Dead End Star System.
And that was his territory.
Losing out on ten percent of the loot was not a big deal. This was a creature that even the universe itself couldn't erase. If she actually fled to the Dead End Star System, he would be in deep trouble. The resulting losses would far exceed this minor pile of resources.
Chen Mang grabbed a Refrigerator from the train cabin and tossed it onto the empty ground outside. This would make it convenient to travel back here next time, and easy to return a century from now to replenish the resources and renew the seal.
Just then—
He raised an eyebrow. With all the machines operating at maximum output, the girl was once again brutally pinned down deep underground. At first, she had the strength to scream, but now she couldn't even manage that. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her jaw clenched tight, and her body was trembling slightly.
Any Robotic Dogs that dropped into the cavern were instantly crushed into iron pancakes by the horrific gravity.
It was a good thing Biao Zi hadn't gone down.
Otherwise, he could have been served as a hamburger patty at a fast-food joint right about now.
The footage he retrieved was completely silent, pieced together and restored from multiple heavily corrupted fragments. It played out like a stuttering slideshow, rendering the images of the girl disjointed and erratic.
"Let's head out."
Chen Mang had no intention of sticking around any longer. He simply saved a few of the reconstructed photos, planning to ask the Zerg Broodmother, Qi Ya, about them when he returned. She was a princess of a god-tier civilization, after all; she might know something.
Soon after—
The Stellaris Train returned to the Zerg home world.
"This..."
Summoned to the train's cabin, Qi Ya stared at the images on the tablet and blanked out for a moment. As if recalling an ancient memory, she magnified the frames in disbelief, studying them meticulously. Only then did she speak, her tone laced with uncertainty.
"Does she possess terrifying vitality? Is she virtually unkillable?"
"Indeed."
"And her hair can stretch almost infinitely?"
"Yes."
"Then it is exactly as I feared..." A flicker of pure terror crossed Qi Ya's eyes, and her voice actually trembled. "Where did you get these pictures? Please don't tell me you saw her with your own eyes."
"We saw her with our own eyes. We snapped the pics while she was sleeping."
"Then you have phenomenal luck."
Qi Ya squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. She remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "There is a mind-bending legend that very few people in the universe know, simply because no one dares to spread it. My father told it to me when I was young."
"In this universe,"
"There exist the Universal Rules that maintain and operate everything. They possess no subjective will. It's like a level 100,000 AI—incredibly advanced, boasting unimaginable computational power and unparalleled processing ability, but utterly devoid of emotion or conscious thought."
"They are solely responsible for keeping the cosmos spinning."
"However—"
"Legend has it..."
"A long, long, long time ago, the Universal Will of that era was not the one we have today. The original Universal Will actually developed its own emotions. It yearned to possess a race of its own."
"The former Universal Will scanned the physical appearances of every species across all planets and selected the form of human females as the template for its chosen people. It named them the God Race."
"Just how powerful was this race?"
"From the moment of their inception, they were the most powerful species in existence—the sole god-tier civilization. The Universal Will used every conceivable method to funnel all the resources and fortuitous encounters in the universe directly to its own race."
"The God Race of that era..."
"Was the most overwhelmingly oppressive civilization in history. Even if every other civilization in the cosmos united, they could not defeat the God Race. It was only from that era onward that the term 'god-tier civilization' was gradually adopted."
"Within the universe,"
"Every tier of civilization has a promotion standard, except for god-tier civilizations. Under the Universal Rules, a god-tier civilization is technically just a ninth-level civilization. The title of 'god-tier' is merely a consensus. And the agreed-upon benchmark to reach that title is possessing one percent of the combat strength of the ancient God Race."
"..."
Chen Mang remained silent. All the resources in the entire universe... gifted to a single race.
He could not even begin to fathom it.
Just how unimaginably extravagant would such a lifestyle be?
They probably had so many resources they could use one portion, throw away ten, and still never run out, right?
"But—"
Qi Ya continued, "The glory of the God Race lasted a mere century. In the 101st year of their existence, the universe itself seemed to realize that the rules it had established to maintain order had committed treason."
"And so, it self-destructed the original Universal Rules and spawned a completely new set."
"The universe is not controlled by anyone."
"It is entirely an autonomous reaction."
"Similar to how your white blood cells activate when your body suffers a wound. You do not consciously command your white blood cells."
"Although the newly birthed Universal Rules immediately set out to destroy the God Race, those beings were fundamentally created by the previous Rules. They simply could not be killed, could not be erased, and could not even be properly detected."
"As a result,"
"The Universal Rules banished nearly all of the God Race into massive black holes for imprisonment. From that day on, there were no more traces of the God Race in the cosmos. Under the rectification of the new Rules, everything returned to normal, and the universe resumed its standard operations."
"It's just that..."
"During the eradication of the God Race, a select few managed to escape imprisonment through unknown means and scattered across the universe. Every time one surfaces, it brings cataclysmic disaster, requiring the civilizations in that sector to expend tremendous manpower and resources to suppress them."
Chen Mang nodded thoughtfully. "Based on what you're saying, if these members of the God Race resurface, shouldn't the Universal Rules intervene? Does the universe just ignore them?"
"Well..."
Qi Ya hesitated slightly. "The reason is unclear. Perhaps the universe felt that the rebellion of the previous Universal Rules left behind a hidden flaw, or maybe it's something else entirely. Since that incident, the Universal Rules essentially entered a standby state."
"Even when a member of the God Race appears, the Rules will not intervene."
"It's as if they fell into a deep slumber."
"They only rouse themselves to patch things up when a literal glitch in reality is born. It is obvious that the universe has heavily restricted the autonomy of the Universal Rules to prevent such a rebellion from happening ever again."
"This sounds incredibly hard to grasp." Lao Zhu, who had been listening from the sidelines, looked a bit dazed. "Are you saying that the universe itself has no consciousness, and everything within it is born and resolved autonomously? The universe can't even fully control these things?"
"Is it really that hard to grasp?"
Qi Ya tilted her head. "Just think about your own body. When cancer cells appear inside you, your body automatically gets to work, preparing to kill off the mutated cells."
"Many cancer patients who die don't actually die from the cancer cells themselves."
"They die because their own immune system responds too ruthlessly. It attacks the cancer so aggressively that it accidentally kills the host."
"Can you consciously command your body to tone down its attack on the cancer?"
"And who designed this set of rules operating inside your body?"
"They were born naturally."
"Your body works this way, and so does the universe."
"A set of rules was naturally born—a set of rules that both your body and the universe deem capable of maintaining maximum operational order. You have no control over this system. It is not controlled by anyone, and it has no master."
"But—"
"If one day your body suddenly decides, 'No, I want to become a person too,' and an organ transforms into a little human inside you... at that point, the fundamental rules of your body have to step in and erase that little human. Then it has to figure out what caused this anomaly so it can weed out the flaw in its future evolution."
"That is how humanity evolves."
"And that is exactly how the universe evolves."
"Why did the Universal Rules at that time choose the human body as the template for the God Race? This is also why every advanced civilization, upon reaching the peak of evolution, will deconstruct and reassemble their forms into human shapes, regardless of their original appearance."
"It is because the human form is the most perfect vessel in the universe."
"Although humans initially possess no power or special abilities, their form mirrors the natural laws of the cosmos, subtly containing the essence of the Heavenly Dao."
"If a colossal glitch ever appears in the universe,"
"It is entirely possible that the current Universal Rules might accidentally crash the entire universe while trying to patch it. That is all within the realm of natural phenomena."
"This is the sheer terror of the God Race. Even god-tier civilizations hold profound dread toward them. That is why I said you were incredibly lucky to see a member of the God Race face-to-face and make it back alive."
"No,"
Chen Mang corrected softly. "It is you who is lucky. We dug that God Race remnant out of one of your civilization's resource caches."
After Qi Ya left,
Chen Mang looked down at the tablet screen displaying the girl's image once more. Who could have guessed this creature was actually part of the God Race...
In terms of background,
Was there anyone in the entire universe with a higher pedigree than this thing?
But no matter how absurdly powerful they used to be, they were now nothing more than the remnants of a fallen dynasty.
The fact that a mere fourth-level force like the Niya Civilization could keep her locked up here for eons proved that her strength was nowhere near what it used to be.
He naturally had zero intention of freeing this God Race remnant.
However, now that he knew her identity, he figured she could serve as an absolute trump card, couldn't she?
If some superior civilization ever bullied him and he couldn't win, he would just chuck this monster right into their backyard.
It would be great if he could sell her for cash.
She would definitely fetch an astronomical price.
The God Race had no men; they were entirely composed of females like her. They didn't reproduce biologically—they were conjured out of thin air by the old Universal Rules. A species forcefully manufactured this way had no organic roots in the cosmos. Bereft of the ability to procreate, they were a race ultimately unacknowledged by the natural universe.
True, they wielded terrifying power.
But they were like water without a source.
He had to admit,
Having the young miss of a god-tier civilization tagging along was incredibly beneficial. Where else would he learn such ancient cosmic secrets?
How utterly bizarre.
The rules of the universe could be swapped out. They could even develop emotions and create their own species.
When the referee personally steps onto the field and hands a cheat code to one of the players, how were the other civilizations supposed to compete?
With this little interlude out of the way,
He turned his attention back to the Doppler Radar. He desperately wanted to travel to the Naomi Civilization and retrieve his structure, The Palace. He was certain there was something hidden inside it—something invisible to everyone else. Since it was a gift left by his future self, he would definitely be able to decipher it.
But...
How the hell was he supposed to get there?!
He didn't even know which direction the Naomi Civilization was in!
Or how many light-years away they were!
"Fuck..."
Chen Mang let out a long sigh, sitting in his chair and lighting a cigarette. He muttered in frustration, didn't his future self even consider how he was supposed to retrieve The Palace when tossing it back through time?
You could have at least dumped it in the Dead End Star System!
Tossing it into the Naomi Civilization's territory—wherever the hell that was—how was he supposed to go pick it up?
Why not just hurl it outside the universe entirely, and he could just pop outside to fetch it?!
He couldn't even empathize with his future self, completely baffled by whatever thought process had led to that decision. Had he really not considered this glaring logistical issue?
Forget it.
He would table that problem for now.
The most pressing matter at hand:
Inventory his new resources, perform another comprehensive upgrade on the train, and roughly consolidate the remaining resources in the Dead End Star System. Once that was done, he could start plotting his next objective.
There weren't many star systems neighboring the Dead End Star System.
Nor were there many resources around.
As for how far the closest star system actually was, he had no idea. He didn't dare upgrade the radar any further, either. If he accidentally triggered a Universe Ge Lei, it would be a disaster.
Heading down the X-axis was highly likely a dead end.
That region was likely occupied by a high-level civilization.
Heading up the X-axis...
Also didn't feel like a viable option.
As for the other side of the Dark Abyss, that was completely out of the question. He had no way of crossing it anyway.
Looking at it now,
His only option was to try mining in some of the regions the Starlight Civilization had passed through. Even though the number of Ore Stars in those sectors wasn't high, the silver lining was the absence of powerful civilizations. The profit would be small, but the risk would be proportionally low.
As for what to do after that...
He would just have to take it one step at a time.
However, right at that moment—
"Warning, Warning, Warning!!!"
Piercing alarms suddenly blared throughout the train cabin.
On the Doppler Radar screen,
At the extreme edge of the scan, one hundred thousand light-years away, a massive cosmic behemoth nearly two light-years in diameter had sensed the radar ping and was now hurtling toward him at terrifying speed!
Every time it moved forward, the surrounding fabric of space was crushed and shattered.
It continuously tunneled through the resulting spatial fragments.
Its velocity vastly exceeded the speed of light.
Any nearby planets and celestial bodies were instantly caught in its gravitational wake and pulverized to dust.
This... was a Universe Ge Lei deployed by some unknown civilization.
"Motherfucker..."
Chen Mang glared at the radar screen, his face ugly. Seriously, was the universe not chaotic enough? How was any random faction allowed to scatter these landmines everywhere?
Where the hell did this Universe Ge Lei pop out from?
He could clearly tell,
This was not the same Universe Ge Lei that had annihilated the Kasa Civilization.
The good news was,
Even though the target's speed was monstrously fast—achieving superluminal travel by continuously crushing space and performing high-frequency micro-jumps—the distance was vast. It was a full one hundred thousand light-years away. The radar estimated that, maintaining its current speed, the beast would take seven years to arrive.
It definitely wouldn't be able to catch him.
Let alone seven years,
Even if it only took one hour, it still wouldn't catch him.
In the blink of an eye, he could jump to countless regions via his Refrigerators. Catching up to him was mathematically impossible.
But the problem was—
He had already claimed the Dead End Star System as the sovereign territory of the Human Civilization. Even if the behemoth couldn't catch him, letting it rampage recklessly through his star system was unacceptable. If he did nothing to stop it, decades from now, his Dead End Star System would be reduced to a sprawling ruin.
Wherever it passed,
Not a blade of grass would survive; everything would be utterly devastated.
"..."
Chen Mang stared grimly at the cosmic behemoth charging toward him on the screen, remaining silent. He was debating whether or not he should just kill the damn thing.
If he genuinely wanted to kill it,
And was willing to burn the requisite resources,
He definitely could.
For starters, he could hop over to the Dark Abyss and tank the blast from the level 4987 Light Energy Main Cannon. That would instantly skyrocket the train's armor stats to an absurd level. Defense wouldn't be an issue. And the level of his own Akhenaten Light Energy Main Cannon was plenty high enough.
If push came to shove, he could just upgrade it a little more.
Then, powered by the Stellar Ammo Depot, he could fire the Main Cannon continuously at practically zero cost.
No matter how massive the beast was,
Under such an intense, high-frequency, continuous bombardment, it would be forced to die right before his eyes.
If he had to fight,
He was not afraid.
But...
He was hesitant to act. A civilization capable of planting a Universe Ge Lei of this caliber was undeniably powerful. The moment they realized their trap had been destroyed, their forces would immediately swarm the region to eliminate him.
He was not exactly eager to see that happen.
He was temporarily incapable of withstanding the full wrath of a high-level civilization.
After a long time,
Chen Mang let out a heavy sigh. He rubbed his temples gently, keeping his head down in silence.
Humans...
The moment they gained attachments, they started to hesitate and second-guess their actions.
According to his original plan, once he stripped the Dead End Star System bare of its resources, he hadn't planned on sticking around anyway. He would have just left for another region to continue mining. A Universe Ge Lei wouldn't have been his problem; he would have been long gone.
But ever since his first Civilization Wonder, Zerg's Silence, anchored itself within the Dead End Star System...
He had suddenly developed a certain emotional attachment to the sector.
He was reluctant to simply abandon this territory now.
A moment later.
Chen Mang piloted the train, jumping through a Refrigerator to another Refrigerator tens of thousands of light-years away. He was going to test if he could kite the cosmic behemoth to a different region, minimizing the collateral damage to his Dead End Star System as much as possible.
However.
It was quite obvious.
The creators of the Universe Ge Lei had clearly anticipated this exact tactic. After registering that initial radar ping, no matter where the Stellaris Train jumped to, it made no difference. The behemoth stubbornly locked onto the exact spatial coordinates of the train at the moment of that first scan, charging straight for it without deviation.
Its objective was absolute.
Its execution was unflinching, lacking the slightest hesitation or thought of stopping.
"..."
Seeing that it was impossible to lure the cosmic beast away, Chen Mang silently lit another cigarette and prepared to head deep into the Dark Abyss. It seemed he would have to make use of that level 4987 energy blast after all.
He was going to eliminate this Universe Ge Lei.
It was just...
A real pity.
He had originally planned to save this trump card for a more critical moment.
A level 4987 energy supply was equivalent to a spirit herb in the Cultivation world that had grown for hundreds of millions of years. It was exceptionally rare and nearly impossible to casually stumble upon. It required immense amounts of time to condense.
This was the sorrow of being a lower-tier civilization.
The ultimate trump card you carefully prepared could be effortlessly baited out by another civilization's basic attack.
Right at that moment—
Xiao Lu, who had been sleeping in the train cabin this whole time, had unknowingly hopped onto the chair. It kept nudging Chen Mang's waist with its head, constantly craning its neck to stare at the colossal cosmic behemoth on the radar screen.
The intent was obvious.
Xiao Lu wanted to fight?
"You?"
Chen Mang looked down at Xiao Lu and couldn't help but shake his head and laugh. "Leave adult matters to the adults; kids shouldn't get involved. I can handle this. It's just a mere Universe Ge Lei. Tricky, sure, but far from impossible to deal with."
"Its diameter is nearly two light-years across."
"You're barely 0.1 light-years."
"You guys aren't even in the same weight class."
"How could you possibly beat it?"
"Go back to sleep."
As if it had understood him perfectly,
Xiao Lu started bouncing up and down, growing even more anxious. Its jaws snapped open and shut rapidly as it panted with frantic urgency. Even though Xiao Lu didn't have arms to gesture with, Chen Mang felt like he understood what it was trying to say...
"Are you saying..."
"Your mouth has gotten bigger?"