Chapter 6206: Mechanical Soul Utopia (73)

Professor Dale gathered his strength, slowly stood up, collected his belongings, took his cat, and headed deeper into the cave.

The cave walls were adorned with more murals, depicting various themes. Some showcased the scenery of the mother star system, while others detailed the life of the Ancient Ones. Clearly, they had etched every bit of information they deemed necessary to leave behind on the walls.

Professor Dale reviewed them one by one, gaining a deeper understanding of this race. Undoubtedly, it was a resilient and extraordinary race; anyone familiar with their history would acknowledge this fact. Whether humans could ever reach their heights was a question that tugged at Professor Dale’s mind. It was undeniable that even just touching the edges would take a long time.

As he continued, he arrived at a large chamber resembling a banquet hall, with passages branching out in all directions, suggesting further exploration was possible. Professor Dale did not hesitate; instead of venturing further inside, he chose another passage leading outward and continued examining the murals.

The content of these murals remained historical, but this time they depicted religion and culture. In the history of the Ancient Ones, there was once a religious revival; their religious development was similar to that of humans. Initially, it was simple natural beliefs, but as they evolved, they gradually stopped worshiping gods. However, billions of years ago, there was a massive religious revival, enveloping nearly half of the Ancient Ones’ population.

Professor Dale continued to look ahead and discovered that, in reality, the Ancient Ones’ society had split into two factions at the time. Facing irresistible degeneration, one group sought assistance from special powers, believing they had found a way to communicate with Outer Gods, aiming to use divine strength to extend their race. Meanwhile, the other group believed in self-reliance and subsequently researched the Shuggos.

These two factions could be understood as theologians and scientists. Even civilizations as advanced as the Ancient Ones could not avoid the conflict between magic and technology. Unfortunately, neither path bore fruit; the theologians contacted some unknown entity which had no positive effects, and the scientists’ Shuggos also rebelled multiple times, eventually causing the race’s demise.

Professor Dale was intrigued by both paths. After finishing this passage, he returned to the previous hall, chose another path, similar to flipping pages in a book. Indeed, the new path started discussing their research on the cosmos.

They believed that beyond the cosmos, there was another cosmos, with unknown entities observing the Material Universe, dubbing it the Outer World. The Ancient Ones deemed it potentially dangerous yet resource-rich, continually attempting to explore it, with some allegedly finding a so-called door.

They studied rituals, learned about Outer Gods, and attempted to summon them, all in vain, until the large-scale religious revival during which they managed to summon something, albeit without truly understanding it.

Evidently, the Ancient Ones were not adept at researching magic; they lacked certain inherent talents, or perhaps, a degree of madness. Their mental state was much more stable than their corporeal form, having completely achieved socialism in terms of system structure, enjoying extremely long lives, mental health, and emotional stability, rarely losing sanity.

This stability hindered their communication with Outer Gods; failing to establish contact, or frequently losing connection once contacted. Even on Earth, degeneration persisted as an issue, yet they never abandoned hope, nor did anyone succumb to madness. Thus, progress on summoning Outer Gods remained stagnant.

Returning once again to the hall, Professor Dale chose several paths and found the one detailing the development of science and technology. The records on this path were incredibly fascinating, making Professor Dale regret not bringing Professor Dexter along.

What truly captivated him was the process of Shuggos’ birth. According to the records of the Ancient Ones, Shuggos were not conjured out of nowhere; they utilized a substance from Earth resembling petroleum—a black liquid, according to the murals. They took this substance home to cultivate, using the Ancient Crystal for hypnosis and control.

Indeed, Shuggos never obeyed them from start to finish. They managed to make Shuggos work for them by relying on their civilization’s mind control technology. Thus, the subsequent rebellions weren’t truly betrayals; they were merely errors in hypnosis, leading Shuggos to break free from mind control and then attack them.

The murals mentioned several unexpected findings concerning Shuggos’ experiments. Initially, they had no intention of cultivating such a form of monster, but later discovered it was the most suitable form. Essentially, Shuggos grew into such forms naturally; apart from providing some nutrient and performing control, the Ancient Ones didn’t intervene much.

Upon realizing this, Professor Dale was speechless. Assuming it was akin to a robotic rebellion like the crisis of intelligent machines, it turned out they had fished a monster out of the sea, raised it, and then used mind control to enslave it for labor; wasn’t this purely deserved?

From a civilizational perspective, the Ancient Ones disregarded such matters, but even without considering moral issues, the experimental risks were too high. Feeding an unknown, powerful, and wise life form so much nutrient, merely hoping mind control could suffice, was overly naive.

This time, Professor Dale did not return to the banquet hall, having realized that the murals on these caves weren’t random; each cave’s murals were likely related to the cave’s destination. The cave they arrived at narrated the general history, while the content on each cave and the final chamber it led to were interconnected.

Professor Dale was here in search of gear, so he proceeded along the scientific and technological path. He hoped to find a laboratory or equipment storage at its end. However, upon reaching the end, it was sealed, seemingly with the Ancient Ones having taken measures to prevent direct entry into their research institute.

It didn’t appear to be defense against technology theft, but rather maybe some dangerous material inside, if not Shuggos, something primitive civilizations could not utilize and easily cause an explosion.

The door’s material was unprecedented, definitely beyond what people of this era could open, presumably as a selection filter; if one couldn’t open the door, it was best not to proceed.

Returning to the banquet hall once more, Professor Dale rested briefly. Having walked so long, he was somewhat fatigued, so he snacked a bit and took a short nap, with Shiller accompanying him throughout. Fortunately, the mountain’s interior wasn’t cold, presumably due to some temperature control system in operation. They had a peaceful sleep, and after waking up, headed toward other caves once more.

This time, Professor Dale chose the war path. The Ancient Ones hadn’t experienced other interstellar wars; they only fought with Earth’s creatures, and it was on the surface. The murals depicted various monster forms, which Professor Dale recorded.

Even though billions of years have passed, whether these monsters are still present remains unknown; they could be enemies humanity will face in the future, so recording them is certainly beneficial, though preservation with caution is necessary to prevent panic.

The Ancient Ones also recorded these entities’ weaknesses. However, close to the end of this path, a gigantic octopus head appeared. According to the records, this terrifying entity concealed in the ocean depths was the most powerful enemy they had encountered, devoid of weaknesses.

The mural recounted that they repelled this giant octopus with a mutually destructive strategy; if it didn’t retreat, they would have detonated Earth. The truth was straightforward.

Ancient Ones from that era were still capable of blasting a planet, and as a last resort, using the great white space to produce capabilities disruptive to Earth would force the giant octopus to avoid direct confrontation.

As the end of this path wasn’t sealed, Professor Dale instructed Shiller to turn off the lights. He cautiously felt his way inside, crouched at the entrance, and listened intently for any sounds. After noting the silence within, he slowly straightened his body and turned on his headlamp.

Shiller hovered above him in bewilderment; if there were danger, he would certainly alert him, as a cat’s senses are much sharper than those of humans. Having heard no sounds, Professor Dale’s mental duel with the air was puzzling.

Shiller abruptly turned on the main lights, causing Professor Dale to close his eyes briefly. After his vision recovered, he looked at the walls’ abundant equipment in surprise, which was entirely beyond his expectations.

Though he had anticipated this might be a weapons cache, he hadn’t imagined the sheer variety of equipment. The walls housed mecha, evidently used by Ancient Ones to armor their bodies for protection.

The opposite wall displayed innumerable mechanical tentacles of various models, likely the squids’ exoskeletons to compensate for tentacle insufficiencies. These tentacles housed numerous devices: some for cutting, some for drilling, others appearing to be power generation units.

There were indeed flight devices. In later stages, Ancient Ones no longer possessed flying abilities, but even humans managed to build planes, so naturally, they did too. Given that their physical strength still far exceeded humans, there were personal flight devices, not unlike those used by the cats.

The weapons followed. Ancient Ones did have firearms, distinct from human ones. They seemingly employed high-powered laser weapons, specifically cold lasers. Professor Dale struggled to comprehend them fully, but they were undoubtedly advanced and formidable.

Next were even more astonishing vehicles. The giant squids could drive vehicles, only theirs resembled human submarines, more accurately, akin to human airships—extremely large and impressive.

Professor Dale approached and gazed upon the colossal object. Larger than humanity’s biggest airliners, it lay quietly within the Antarctic Mountains’ cave. Billions of years ago, such enormous machines already roamed Earth’s oceans, where gods and ghosts would flee; truly a captivating thought.