Professor Han's eye sockets were sunken, his face speckled with age spots, and the neural bundles on his head had withered away with the disappearance of the Brain in a Vat's power. He looked as though he could pass away at any moment.
The fusion with the Brain in a Vat had failed, and Professor Han only had a few years left to live.
In fact, even if he had successfully fused with it, his mental capacity would not have been enough to sustain the calculations of the world inside his brain for long.
That was why Gao Gong sneered at him. Being a shut-in was certainly comfortable, but the problem was that he needed to find a sustainable path forward.
Temporary escapism was nothing. If he had the ability to keep escaping until they could no longer find him—or even deal with him—that was the true meaning of virtual reality.
"An alien base." Gao Gong thought for a moment before saying, "If I'm not mistaken, the bionic technology knowledge chain should have been handed to you by an extraterrestrial faction too, right?"
"Yes."
"So this is a conspiracy?"
Professor Han painfully furrowed his brows. "I don't know. It was just that when we had completely realized their theories through our scientific research, those aliens suddenly broke in, captured us, and forced us to conduct bionic experiments."
"And their goal was to achieve complete bionics of us, transforming those alien monsters entirely into carbon-based humans of this planet."
Gao Gong rubbed his chin. Generally speaking, the most common way for advanced civilizations to interfere with lower civilizations was to trade them a technology tree with little potential and pitfalls along the way under the guise of "communication."
From the perspective of a lower civilization, it was completely impossible to tell whether there was a problem with this "advanced alien technology."
In fact, even if they knew there were pitfalls, there would still be planetary factions that willingly fell for the trap.
There was no other reason. Planetary civilizations were usually not a single whole, but scattered alliances made up of numerous sovereign nations. If you stood still while someone else used outside help to charge ahead, they could turn you into an affiliated or satellite state.
Alternatively, domestic interest groups and corporate powers might privately make contact with alien knowledge and package it as technology they had developed themselves. Going even further, opposition parties might use a coup to achieve a technological revolution.
In short, although using "knowledge" to change a civilization was a stale trick, it was absurdly effective.
As long as it was used, it would usually produce results.
There were only a few reasons why advanced civilizations did this.
Either they wanted to use a nascent planetary civilization to verify the feasibility of a certain technological route and the social ecology it produced.
Or they wanted to cultivate the planetary civilization into a subsidiary civilization—for example, an advanced mechanical civilization might cultivate a low-level carbon-based civilization to achieve technological reverse engineering against an enemy carbon-based civilization.
Or perhaps, through the calculations of the planetary superbrain, they discovered that a certain species had immense potential and, once developed, would become the nemesis of an advanced civilization. Thus, they carried out malicious interference.
Under the regulations of the Supreme Civilization Council, advanced civilizations would not—and were not permitted to—deal dimensional blows to lower civilizations. Phenomena such as interstellar colonization had become rare in the current universe.
But rules were rules. They could not suppress the urge to show off their tricks.
For a lower civilization to advance from a planet into the stars, either its potential had to be heaven-defying enough to reach the summit all the way, or it had to endure all kinds of crises—mechanical disasters, alien parasites, technological crises, species mutations—until it was hammered into a seasoned survivor.
Only then could it achieve civilization ascension.
By that point, other advanced civilizations would think, This kid is pretty ruthless—cold enough, shameless enough, and perfect for surviving in the universe. Worried about retaliation afterward, they would turn to bullying the natives of other planets instead.
At that time, the external threats would drop by one level.
Still, alien species had passed down bionic technology, only to bionically transform themselves into the humans of this planet.
That operation was rather baffling.
Were they trying to infiltrate them? Surely not.
There were too few known conditions, and it was impossible to figure it out. Gao Gong changed the subject. "You just said there are many dangerous things in the research institute. Are you referring to the aliens, or something else?"
Professor Han said hoarsely, "During the previous exploration, I secretly opened the research institute's outer defensive mechanisms and wasn't attacked. Even the password was still the numbers from back then, so I can initially conclude that the aliens have probably already left."
"The danger I mentioned consists of the failed products created during a series of biological experiments. Those alien monsters had unimaginably powerful bodies. The failed products that imitated them are beings that even energy weapons cannot destroy."
Is that so? This was getting troublesome. He had originally planned to investigate the place after the Hunting War ended.
Now it seemed that this was a high-level dungeon.
"Since it's so dangerous, tell me where it is. Otherwise, your people might get caught up in it by accident."
Gao Gong revealed a devilish smile.
['Bionic Return to the Source' quest fragment illuminated] [Reward: Incomplete Mechanical Puzzle [1/5] ×1]
With the piece he had obtained earlier, Gao Gong had now completed two-fifths of the puzzle.
A Mechanical Puzzle was a high-level blueprint, at least of "Rare" quality or higher. With enough luck, one might even gamble for a cross-civilization-grade blueprint.
Moreover, these puzzles were generally not individual weapons, but large-scale equipment.
This research institute might contain clues to new quest fragments.
A quest web was different from a quest chain. As long as one did not get stuck at a stage, a quest chain could be continued indefinitely.
A quest web, however, was different. It required different quest fragments to be pieced together.
The more quest fragments one gathered, the greater the chance of assembling a "quest web."
But that was only a possibility.
Sometimes, one might illuminate a certain "quest fragment" only to discover that there was nowhere to go.
Such situations did exist.
That was why many players would rather keep grinding away at quest chains than do quest webs.
After all, quest chains at least provided periodic quest rewards.
It was only in the middle and late stages of the game that players understood that "quest webs" were one of the few paths that could bypass "professional knowledge chains" to create large-scale equipment, and even ascension equipment.
Gao Gong naturally would not let this "quest web" slip away.
Not to mention that he knew a great deal of background information about Planet Mechsplit.
More importantly, he had player lackeys he could order around.
Wasn't it just basic rewards? He could provide those.
"All right. Rest once we reach my territory. This place isn't safe."
Gao Gong clapped his hands and gave Huang Yuanli a look. The young married woman immediately planted her hands on her hips and began calling out to the tribe members like she was herding sheep.
At this moment, the young married woman already had a hint of the bearing of a "Grand Elder."
Suddenly, Gao Gong's expression changed slightly. Immediately afterward, the young married woman's face stiffened as well.
She suddenly sensed an intense malice.
The malice was so powerful that it felt as though they could be swallowed at any moment.
They had been targeted!
Gao Gong narrowed his eyes. He had clearly driven away all the radiation beasts in the surrounding area.
Logically speaking, no radiation beast should wander in here for a short while.
Unless the enemy had been coveting them for some time.
Moreover, there was a vague sense of familiarity.
In the next moment, he understood why.
A huge metal head burst out from behind a tree. Using all four limbs, it moved as fast as lightning. Its mouth gaped wide, its sharp metal teeth like rows of daggers. A tribe member was caught off guard and bitten in half. The Reaper jerked its neck upward, lifted the upper half of the body in its blood-smeared jaws, and charged back into the forest.
A Reaper!
The figures of those steel monsters had appeared in the forest once again.
The corner of Gao Gong's eye twitched. It wasn't that he didn't want to act; a powerful sense of danger had surged up from the depths of his heart.
The moment he acted, he would certainly be ambushed.
Elegant footsteps rang out. A bright-red Reaper slowly emerged from the depths of the forest.
Its neck was twice as long as an ordinary Reaper's. Its six wings were not folded beneath its ribs like a cockroach's, but spread open like blades.
Its four forelimbs were slimmer than those of other Reapers. They had even grown five hooks each, like human fingers, and slowly rotated as it walked.
Red feelers, a red shell, and a relatively slender body compared with the male Reapers.
Although it had changed considerably, Gao Gong recognized it at a glance.
It was that female Reaper!
And now, the female Reaper had reassembled her family. She was even stronger than her husband.
Name: Reaper Queen Radiation Level: C+ HP: 3660/3660 Stamina: 900/900 Bioenergy: 13530 Biological Attributes: Strength 51 Agility 48 Endurance 35 Intelligence 15 Perception 27 Skills: Steel Slash Lv9, Whirlwind Slash Lv6 (Advanced), Six-Ring Execution Lv4 (Elite), Electromagnetic Lash Lv8 (Elite), Mental Shock Lv5 (Elite), ?? Boss Template: Mother Beast's Grasp Effect One: Mentally control Reapers of the same species Effect Two: Emit female hormones, causing Reapers to mutate explosively for a short time Effect Three: Absorb the essence of different types of mechanical bio-beasts and give birth to Reapers with stronger biological characteristics
Gunshots suddenly rang out. Not far from Huang Yuanli, a tribe member's body jolted, and a bloody hole appeared in his forehead.
A short distance away, a juvenile Reaper slowly withdrew its smoking forelimb. Its forelimb was no longer a "biological sickle," but a biological gun barrel.
Its "father" was very likely a gun-beast.
"I don't have the energy to look after you anymore," Gao Gong said without turning his head.
"I know!"
The young married woman displayed the decisiveness of a leader, her eyes instantly turning vacant.
"Old people, children, and the seriously injured retreat first. Everyone else, cover them."
In the next moment, a juvenile Reaper charged over. Its pair of biological sickles had transformed into biological spears, thrusting straight at the young married woman.
However, another juvenile Reaper suddenly appeared and slammed into it from the side. Amid a heavy impact, it forcibly knocked the other one out of its attack path, sending it crashing through a nearby large tree.
At the same time, two juvenile Reapers suddenly emerged from the forest and stood in front of Huang Yuanli on either side, like guards.
The mechanical system's telepathy had a very special effect called "Mechanical Possession," which allowed one to "command" machinery for a short time.
Gao Gong watched the approaching Reaper Queen, inhaled deeply, and slowly drew Red Unicorn. Then he released the scabbard.
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