Picking Up Trash

In the end, Duanmu Huai decided to pretend he had never seen that skill. He knew nothing—well, if a person knew nothing, they would have far fewer troubles.

After putting his worries aside, Duanmu Huai began rummaging through the ruins, seeing whether he could find anything useful.

As for the Old Ones' ruins, a player of Duanmu Huai's level could say he knew them like the back of his hand. After a simple exploration, Duanmu Huai determined that these ruins had originally been an Old Ones administrative department—in other words, somewhere akin to a government office.

But...that was exactly what made it good!

Although, according to common sense, places like secret bases and military research institutes were more likely to contain advanced technology, players were clever, and the Old Ones were not fools either. They would certainly have feared Chaos discovering their secrets, right?

So when they evacuated back then, the Old Ones had destroyed all those confidential documents and devices. Unless they got lucky, players could turn such places upside down and still find nothing good.

Government offices, however, were different.

Although they certainly would not have any secret Old Ones weapons, blueprints, or technology, government offices would definitely contain stable, mass-producible, widespread technological products. Moreover, such places were generally more likely to have various complete Old Ones technological creations left behind.

It was like an alien invasion striking a city. If the government could not hold the line and fled, it would definitely destroy the secret weapons in its research institutes and military bases first.

But who would bother with the things in the police station or the food bureau?

To the Old Ones, these things might have been harmless and not worth mourning even if discarded. But to later generations, even an Old Ones claw machine counted as cutting-edge technology, all right?!

Among players, energy, biological modification, space travel, and shields were all ceiling-level T0 technology trees in the Old Ones tech tree. After all, the Old Ones had fought Chaos for so long that their tech tree was practically maxed out in Chaos resistance.

And if one had to mention it, the Old Ones' biological modification technology was even more exceptional. Just look at how the High Elves, Dwarfs, Lizardmen, Ogres, humans, Goblins, and all the other species on this planet had been created by the Old Ones, and you could see how formidable they were in this field.

The Old Ones, on the other hand, were not exactly first-rate when it came to offensive firepower. Well, that was normal. If the Old Ones' weapons truly had ceiling-level attack power, then they would not have been hiding from Chaos—they would have been chasing Chaos down and beating it up instead.

What Duanmu Huai wanted most right now was the Old Ones' energy-core technology.

Of course, he definitely could not get the highest-level technology. It was like nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines; their propulsion systems were not something one could find just anywhere.

But in this era, forget nuclear power—there was not even a steam engine. Duanmu Huai did not expect a propulsion system at the level of a top-secret military technology, but surely they could at least give him something like an internal-combustion engine.

Police cars did not use nuclear power, but that did not mean they could not run, right?

Hard work paid off. After Duanmu Huai's tireless search, he finally found a fragment in the Ruined Remains that looked like a crushed shipping container. Although the thing had been smashed by a boulder until it was no different from a shriveled soda can, Duanmu Huai still recognized it at a glance. This should be some kind of transport vehicle once used by the Old Ones!

That's the one!

Duanmu Huai's eyes lit up as he looked at the wreckage buried beneath the rubble.

"Come on, let me see... Hmm, no radiation leakage. The readings are within the normal range... Excellent!"

After glancing at the readings detected on his Power Armor's screen, Duanmu Huai excitedly clenched his fist. No radiation leakage meant that the transport vehicle's core power system was very likely still intact!

The only problem was that most of the transport vehicle was buried beneath the rubble, which was somewhat troublesome. Fortunately, Duanmu Huai still had help.

"Okegis, cut open and move away all these rocks for me."

Duanmu Huai pointed at the rubble covering the transport vehicle and gave the order. Okegis nodded, then reached out her hand. In an instant, the enormous rocks, each as tall as a two- or three-story building, were sliced into small pieces and dragged aside by winding threads. Relying on the protection of his Power Armor, Duanmu Huai burrowed straight inside and dug away the remaining rubble.

He soon found the transport vehicle's cockpit. It was just as chaotic inside, and a shattered skeleton was even buried beneath the yellow earth. It seemed that some unlucky frogman had been unable to escape back then, ultimately meeting this fate.

What a tragedy.

Duanmu Huai mourned for two seconds, then squeezed his body into the cockpit. It was oval-shaped, and there was no steering wheel or control stick inside. Clearly, the Old Ones had their own methods of piloting. But Duanmu Huai did not care about that. Like handling a prey that had lost consciousness, he brutally tore through its outer shell, forcibly pried apart its tightly closed defenses, and plunged straight inside...

"Found it!!!"

Feeling the familiar texture in his hand, Duanmu Huai's heart leaped with joy. He quickly steadied himself and carefully took something out.

It was a polygonal sphere slightly larger than a basketball. It looked like a transparent glass barrier, and inside it was a faint light that seemed close to going out. At first glance, it looked just like a candle flickering in the wind.

But Duanmu Huai knew that this was merely an illusion on the surface. When Duanmu Huai scanned it, the system had already given him the answer.

Antimatter Energy Core (Unanalyzed)

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Technological archaeology is truly incredible."

Seeing this, Duanmu Huai could not help sighing. The Empire's technology line used Plasma Reactors, which were nuclear-fusion devices. But look at the Old Ones: even a transport vehicle used antimatter. Its level was who knew how much higher than the Empire's technology... The difference was practically that between a horse-drawn carriage and a spaceship...

Not only that, the Old Ones' technology was also very reassuring. After all, the Old Ones' history had thoroughly proven that when facing Chaos, even if they could not win, they could still get away.

The Empire, by contrast, suffered massive losses and casualties every time it faced Chaos. Moreover, its technology was practically reset once after every battle. Others only became more advanced the more they fought, while the Empire's technology regressed further and further with every war... In the end, almost nothing remained...

In any case, with the Antimatter Energy Core, Duanmu Huai had effectively unlocked the Old Ones' energy technology tree. Considering the Old Ones' tradition of being open to every kind of biological and magical advancement, this could be considered a huge profit!