First, there was activity.
A normal Administrative Galaxy had a normally functioning system of production.
That was determined by the very nature of intelligent civilizations.
Yet within the Administrative Galaxy where the Sky Peng Horizontal had arrived, there was no sign of any productive activity at all!
Everyone could see it.
Numerous mining bases had been built around the outskirts of the Asteroid Belt, and each one was equipped with a number of mining ships.
But the mining bases were utterly silent. Not a single furnace glowed with the light of smelting ore.
Some mining ships were docked inside the bases, while others hovered above them. All of them were completely still.
The countless Space Factories and space farms floating in the void were in the same state.
There was not the slightest sign of life!
If that were all, everyone could have assumed that this was an abandoned galaxy.
Or perhaps some sudden cosmic disaster—like a gamma-ray burst—had wiped out all life in the galaxy.
But a closer look at the appearance of these creations of civilization—
made it clear that this probably wasn't the case!
The creations of civilization, which should have been built according to the principles of mechanics and engineering—so long as the laws of the universe remained unchanged, the conventional technology tree would remain unchanged as well. Accordingly, while the creations of different civilizations might vary in detail and style, they would still have to obey objective laws.
Yet in everyone's eyes, these structures appeared to have undergone severe mutations!
What Space Factory grew a dense mass of tentacles, or sprouted thirteen appendages, or was covered in irregular scales?
And what space farm had plants growing inside it that constantly oozed black blood, sprouted claws, or bore six or seven biological heads?
The planets within