Chapter 65: 042 Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind [Super Large Chapter Vote Request]_3
Yang Ming maintained a semblance of calm on the surface, yet inside, he was exclaiming in disbelief.
Had he been exposed just like that?
“Can you directly scan for abnormalities in my genome?”
[Is there any difficulty in that? I can directly scan all the information carried within your body, including the brain, but I won’t do so, as I respect the right to consciousness equality.]
[You have earned the right to enter this place, and whether you can obtain the treasure you desire depends on whether you truly understand the meaning of consciousness and civilization. Of course, you can also seek the direction of life evolution here.]
[Please come inside, rare Subordinate Ancient God Life Form, I should not have referred to you as a lower life form.]
...
Ahead of the ship, the point of light flickered once more.
Yang Ming’s gaze became hazy, and before he could react, the environment around him underwent a drastic change.
Just a second ago, he was on his beloved ship, Feinan.
The next second, he found himself in the stark vacuum of a black hole, able to breathe unimpeded, surrounded by darkness.
Ahead, faint lights twinkled.
Those lights merged into patches of brightness.
Yang Ming was pulled towards those patches of light, which grew increasingly bright and searing, and although grand music seemed to sound by his ears, it was merely a hallucination.
Yang Ming closed his eyes subconsciously.
The push and the pull dissipated at the same time.
Under his feet, it felt as though land had appeared, comforting gravity slowly increasing, his vision rapidly returning.
Barefoot, he stood on the surface of a planet with a deep gray hue, with metallic structures filling his view to the horizon, equilateral triangles filled in various areas, and Yang Ming felt as though he could receive profound and complex information directly from these structures.
Yes, this was it, he had seen these structures in a video!
This was Intelligent Mechanic Dusk!
It was the Intelligent Machine city that the ‘Chosen One’ had stumbled upon!
It housed a vast array of emerging technologies and countless high-tech materials. It was said that even the buildings themselves, once dismantled, could be directly used to patch together the hull of a new type of warship!
Along with this realization, Yang Ming felt something peculiar.
This sensation… was similar to Abyss’s holographic technology…
The first time he experienced immersive holographic online gaming had given Yang Ming, along with a host of other youngsters, a tremendous shock, making them exclaim, ‘Wow, Earth’s technology has developed to this extent without me noticing!’
Yes, it had that virtual feeling.
This was not the real material world.
Yang Ming immediately realized that his body must still be on the Feinan, but using some incomprehensible technology, his consciousness had been connected to a virtual world.
Out of nowhere, Yang Ming heard a voice, genderless, ageless, very neutral.
(IV)
“How should I address you, Subordinate Ancient God Life Form?”
He turned around slowly to see the source of the voice—a sphere floating in front of him.
It was roughly the size of a fist, indiscernible in material, with warm yellow particles chasing each other inside.
“My name is Yang Ming,” Yang Ming said calmly, “that’s my current name.”
“Hello, Yang Ming. Your civilization seems to require such polite greetings.”
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“Hello, how should I address you?”
“You can call me Patroller, Tomb Guardian, Examiner.”
The sphere spoke softly in Galaxy Language:
“While scanning the information from your ship, I discovered something interesting, you’ve fabricated your own identity to deceive others.”
Yang Ming thought for a moment: “My story is a bit long, do you wish to hear it?”
“I would like nothing more,” laughed the Tomb Guardian, “although I am indifferent to the passage of time, I still feel a tinge of loneliness.”
“I can only start from the middle,” Yang Ming said, “it was a research vessel belonging to a powerful force, conducting research on Ancient God Life Forms, and I was a maintenance worker responsible for repairing the ship’s hull…”
Yang Ming briefly recounted from Valkyrie’s two rampages, to being abandoned by the Empire as a political scapegoat, then being pursued by the Guel Alliance and running through the stars in a ragged quest for freedom.
He deliberately omitted all information about Earth.
While Yang Ming told his story, the sphere flickered faintly, leading him through the endless metal jungle.
The sphere laughed:
“To escape from the pressure of two powerful entities is truly not an easy feat.
“I can sense that you have strong personal consciousness, unwilling to become someone else’s puppet, and possess the strong will to pursue freedom.
“You remind me of the last life form I guided.”
“Who? Can you share?” Yang Ming immediately asked.
“He was called Levi Sherman, an interesting lower life form.”
Yang Ming: …
The name was like a clap of thunder.
Wasn’t that the founding Emperor of the Sherman Empire?
Didn’t that guy kick the bucket thousands of Galaxy Years ago?
The sphere sighed: “Unfortunately, he did not complete all the assessments here, his progress stopped at the Third Rank. After that, he was unable to reach this place again, losing the qualifications to undergo the assessments.”
“Do you know what that life form did?” Yang Ming asked, frowning.
“I don’t care.”
“Don’t care?”
“Yes, he might have established a new civilization carrier,” said the sphere slowly, “or merely used the technology obtained here to strengthen a political entity. I suspect the latter is more likely. External information means nothing to me.”
Yang Ming chuckled: “Then how am I to believe what you say?”