Chapter 387 - 355: Essence and Attempt

Chapter 387: Chapter 355: Essence and Attempt

In the Human Federation’s conference room, the commissioners were all rather unsettled.

Ever since the Parasite attack at the Landing Site, the situation on the ground had remained unclear.

Before the video feed cut out, they had confirmed that the questioner finished their question, but they didn’t get to hear the answer.

The news that had come from Sisiya a short while ago was not optimistic either.

The Parasite Ascenders had slaughtered massive numbers of ordinary Parasites, trying to starve the Alien Intelligence of the food it needed—a tactic designed to harm humanity.

The Human Federation had never anticipated such a mutually destructive tactic.

All they knew now was that the Sisiya soldiers had suffered heavy casualties and had withdrawn from the core area. Uninjured soldiers from the outer defense line were rotating in to fill the gaps, but there had been no further updates.

"This was our mistake."

As everyone grew anxious, Gao Liangwei was the first to admit their shortcomings.

"We were constrained by our conventional thinking and made two cognitive errors. First, we believed the number of Ascenders among the Parasites was extremely low, making them difficult to organize. Second, we assumed that even if these Parasite Ascenders did organize, they would be used sparingly as a precious combat resource. But we were wrong on both counts." ℴ

Toravt clenched his fists. "That Prophet gathered all the Parasite Ascenders on Wuze’s side, but instead of having them fight the coalition forces head-on, he sent them on suicide missions. He’s absolutely ruthless!"

"The Prophet is clever. It knew that a few hundred Ascenders couldn’t decide the outcome of a frontal assault, so it used them as a surprise attack force instead."

"The Prophet’s plan nearly succeeded," another commissioner added, looking relieved. "If the World’s First Ascender, ’Shadow,’ hadn’t been on the scene to intervene immediately, they would have certainly killed the questioner and used the opportunity to ask a different question."

Mary looked at Gao Liangwei and asked, "Chairman Gao, was Shadow’s appearance at the Landing Site truly not at the behest of North Star?"

"No, we were not aware of it."

Mary then turned to Toravt.

"Then what about you, Sisiya? ’Shadow’ was wearing one of your Sisiya soldier’s uniforms. What’s your explanation for that? Did he just steal a set from a warehouse and put it on, and your elite troops on site didn’t notice an unfamiliar comrade in their ranks?"

Hearing this, Toravt frowned and shook his head.

In Sisiya, only Yelena and Sikokun knew about Guan Tong entering the Landing Site; Toravt was in the dark.

"Regardless of his motives, his intervention was crucial. He may have saved many innocent lives," Toravt said. "For that alone, I, as a commissioner from Sisiya, am grateful to him."

Just then, a new piece of information reached the Human Federation.

It wasn’t an update on the situation on the ground, but rather a result from the earlier action of placing a "Psychic Power Lens" item on the food.

The research department had successfully obtained an extremely brief but valuable internal recording of the Alien Intelligence devouring the food.

And after analyzing the recording, they made a startling discovery.

An analyst, connected to the conference room via a remote link, projected the video onto the screen. It showed a dense swarm of black particles, smaller than ants, moving at high speed.

The movement of these particles was extremely harmonious, giving off a strange sense of rhythm, like a meticulously composed symphony.

But the video was extremely short, ending in less than three seconds, leaving the commissioners completely bewildered.

The analyst’s voice chimed in. "Honorable commissioners, what you are seeing is a cross-sectional recording of the Alien Intelligence devouring food, slowed down 1,000 times."

"What? Slowed down a thousand times!" one commissioner couldn’t help but exclaim in a low voice.

If they hadn’t been told, no one could have imagined that the high-speed black particles in the video were actually a visual effect slowed down a thousand times.

Mary said in surprise, "It’s still that fast even when slowed down a thousand times? Doesn’t that mean the original speed is completely imperceptible to the naked eye?"

"Correct," the analyst said, a trace of irrepressible excitement in his voice. "And besides being slowed down, this video has also been magnified nearly ten thousand times."

The commissioners were once again astounded.

The analyst continued, "Based on our analysis of these black particles, we believe... we believe that these black particles might, in fact, be..."

The analyst took a deep breath.

"They’re likely nanites or nanobots! This Alien Intelligence is probably an entity formed by the aggregation of hundreds of billions of nanites or nanobots! Its feeding process is actually a process of complete decomposition, occurring in the instant it makes contact with a target!"

...

In the core area of the Landing Site, the vast, spherical black Shadow Realm had not yet dispersed.

Within the Shadow Realm, Guan Tong was lost in thought.

The Alien Intelligence had already started acting abnormally after the question related to the Apocalypse Rules.

After he asked the question about the [Wordless Book], it had undergone a complete change, no longer even adhering to the fixed logical process of "question-feed-answer."

However, it seemed to have preserved its rule of not eating the questioner. Guan Tong had previously misunderstood, thinking it wanted to eat him, when in reality, what it truly wanted to eat was... the Wordless Book.

After Guan Tong stored the [Wordless Book] in his panel’s inventory, the Alien Intelligence deflated like a punctured balloon, collapsing limply to the ground, as if it had crashed.

This change was so peculiar that it was difficult to guess the reason behind it.

’The [Wordless Book]’s attraction to it proves this thing is truly extraordinary,’ Guan Tong thought. ’Perhaps even more special than I imagined.’

’But I haven’t gained any new information. Not only did I get nothing, but I invested a huge amount. It would be a massive loss to just give up now.’

He had indeed invested a great deal this time. Not to mention the time cost of the past half-month, the final battle with the Parasite Ascenders alone had consumed a significant amount of his Psychic Power, and he had even suffered internal injuries from the shockwaves.

Just now, for the sake of evasion and testing, he had also used up the single-use item, the [Silver Clone Talisman]. On top of that, maintaining the Shadow Realm was rapidly draining his stored Psychic Power.

To give up and leave now would mean all his investments had gone down the drain, which was something he found very hard to accept.

But what he found most unacceptable was failing to obtain any valuable intelligence—knowing the Alien Intelligence craved the [Wordless Book] might count, but it wasn’t very meaningful to him.

After a moment of thought, something suddenly occurred to him.

’Tear out a page... and try it?’

Feeding the entire [Wordless Book] to the Alien Intelligence just to try and get information was something only a madman would do.

But what if he just tore out a single page?

When Guan Tong first got the Wordless Book, he had idly flipped through it out of boredom, only to find he could never reach the end. The pages seemed infinite.

In that case, tearing out a page and letting the Alien Intelligence eat it to see what would happen was worth a shot.

...But he had to make preparations first.

Guan Tong first put some distance between them, then checked his senses on the Shadow Line he had left on Shangyuan Zi.

It was a precaution he had taken when he parted ways with Shangyuan Zi. If necessary, he could instantly use Body Shifting to get to her location.

After confirming everything was in place, he took out the [Wordless Book], turned to a blank page, and tore it out.

Although writing on it was difficult, tearing out a page seemed easy. Whether the torn-out page still retained its power, however, was something Guan Tong didn’t know, as he had never tried it.

But the moment he took out the [Wordless Book], the alien lifeform lying inert on the ground began to stir again. Guan Tong immediately manipulated a hand of shadow to grab the torn page and present it to the creature.

Like a tiger pouncing on its prey, the black sludge leaped forward, and the torn page was instantly devoured without a trace.

Seeing this, Guan Tong immediately returned the [Wordless Book] to his inventory and then stared intently at the alien lifeform, watching to see if it would change.

His attempt seemed to have worked. The alien lifeform that had devoured the page began to change visibly. Its original form, like a pool of viscous black mud, rapidly transformed into a massive structure.

’Is that... a spaceship...?’

Guan Tong stared at the outline, which resembled a spaceship, not quite understanding why this change was occurring.

The next moment, a broken, intermittent voice emanated from within it.

"God... Star-Ark..."

’What is it saying?’

Guan Tong was confused.

’Is it answering my question?’

"...Out of control... fragment..."

The short, fragmented words came to an abrupt halt, and it immediately reverted from its spaceship-like form back into a pool of black mud.

Guan Tong hadn’t understood at all. Just as he was wondering whether to tear out another page to feed it, he saw a small part of its body suddenly split off from the main mass.

Then, Guan Tong watched, wide-eyed, as that small piece of the Alien Intelligence’s body transformed from a "lump of mud" into a page of a book.

’This is...’

Guan Tong couldn’t believe it. ’Did it eat it and then spit it back out?’

’But why?’

This thing had already eaten a total of nearly one hundred thousand Parasites, yet he had never seen it spit a single one out.

He manipulated a shadow to try and pick up the page, but being cautious, he didn’t bring it near him. Instead, he had the shadow hold it at a distance.

He then took out the [Wordless Book] again, but this time, the Alien Intelligence didn’t react. It didn’t immediately try to chase after it and devour it like before.

Guan Tong was filled with confusion. Just then, he heard a commotion outside the Shadow Realm. Sikokun had returned with people.

’...I should leave this place first.’

Since the Alien Intelligence had stabilized, there was no longer a need for him to summon the Living Dead.

His current priority was to take the "page" formed from a part of the Alien Intelligence’s body, leave this place, and properly think about what had just happened.