The Discovery

The Ricken soldier had indeed completed his task. He was only a preliminary screener; once he discovered something of value, he activated the alarm, and then all the equipment in the room where he was located would be remotely taken over by the actual intelligence department.

Soon, the short two-minute video caused a huge uproar among the high-ranking members of the Riken Race. On Liwen Planet, Liwu Planet, and even Ricken 'Mother Planet, more than 60% of the large Optical Observation instruments began to adjust their angles, pointing their lenses at the location where the monitoring instruments had been destroyed.

They quickly located the fleet.

"I bet these warships are definitely not Zerg."

"Arther! This is not the time for jokes!" Hamis snapped at Arther shrugged indifferently.

Upon discovering this new fleet, the high command of the Riken Race, after a brief period of panic, surprisingly calmed down, and even showed some schadenfreude.

The Riken Race are now surrounded by the Swarm, but from another perspective, Riken Race are also being protected by the Swarm.

So no matter where this fleet comes from or what its purpose is, if it wants to cause trouble for the Riken Race, it must first get past the Swarm.

This made the atmosphere of what should have been a very tense meeting seem a little too relaxed. The Rikens felt that the current situation had little to do with them, and they were now just spectators, hoping to see the Zerg crush the new forces and hoping to have fellow sufferers with them.

However, the Swarm doesn't have a good reputation among the Riken Race. It would be even better if the new forces could fight the Zerg to a bloody standstill and both sides would be severely weakened.

They showed no concern for their own safety, believing the Zerg to be incredibly powerful. The newcomers, judging by the size of their warships, were only slightly stronger than them.

"It seems the Swarm must have discovered them long ago, which is why they remained inactive. We were overthinking things."

"But these new guys, the main engines at the stern of their warships look somewhat familiar." Because a large number of large optical instruments were pointed at the new force's fleet, the Ricken team had also obtained clearer videos and photos of them.

Looking at the fleet, which was predominantly dark red, a major general in charge of ordnance and logistics said with some doubt.

"Safang, what have you discovered?"

At this moment, Major Safang was deep in thought and did not answer. Suddenly, he waved his hands and extracted the stern of the dark red warship separately. He then opened a picture of a Riken Race warship, extracted the stern, and put them together.

The officers around him gathered around, and slowly, everyone's mouths dropped open.

"I know that when technology develops to a certain level, there will be similarities, but this is too much," a general muttered.

"If you don't show the full picture, I can't tell which one is which at all."

"There are some differences in the details, but they are indeed too similar." Safang pushed up his glasses and realized why they looked familiar before, but now he was even more puzzled.

"This isn't a matter of compatibility at all. Every civilization, in its development, possesses its own culture and develops its own style. Leaving aside the differences between us and the Zerg, even before our Riken Race unified the land, the cultural and stylistic differences between various nations and tribes were diametrically opposed. And we are separated from this new power by countless light-years. Even if we both primarily follow the mechanical technology route, it's difficult to be this similar."

"That's right!"

Zunliken fell into thought.

After a moment, Hamis suddenly spoke up, "Have you ever thought about why the new forces would come here?"

"I suspect they were attracted by the nuclear explosion, so they can't be too far from us." The Second Fleet's commander, Novaru, thought for a moment and replied, "Why are you suddenly bringing this up?"

Instead of answering, Hamis asked, "Where did our engine technology come from?"

Novaru rolled his eyes. Hamis's train of thought was too disjointed; he almost couldn't keep up. However, he still answered, "A reverse thrust from the Treasure Ship?"

"That's right, have you considered another possibility?"

Novaru had caught up with Hamis's pace by now, and he laughed, "How could that be? I admit, these newcomers are indeed a little stronger than us in terms of the size of their warships, but if you say they are the owners of the Treasure Ship, then I can't agree."

Hamis wasn't embarrassed or annoyed; instead, he nodded and said, "That's true, I think so too."

Suddenly realizing what was happening, Safang interrupted Hamis loudly, saying, "I think I understand what Lieutenant General Hamis means."

"Oh? Then go ahead and tell me."

Safang nodded, paused for a moment, and said, "Our engine technology comes from Ancient Spaceship; it's like learning by doing. While this greatly reduced our self-development time, it also inherited their style. The spaceship engines of the new forces are not similar to ours." After saying this, he looked at everyone, his meaning self-evident.

"Since they weren't the owners of the Ancient Spaceship, then we're touching the same thing!"

"You mean, they also have an Ancient Spaceship?" Zunliken was somewhat shocked and couldn't accept it, but after thinking about it carefully, he realized that this possibility was very high.

I have a bad feeling about this.

"What a coincidence, I'm pregnant too."

When something that was meant to be a lucky gift turns out to be a deliberate arrangement, it's generally not a pleasant feeling.

"So, perhaps the new forces weren't attracted by the nuclear explosion."

"That's right, that's exactly what I meant." Hamis nodded.

"Guess what was the first thing that came to my mind?"

"Some kind of experiment?"

"Haha, it seems we have similar ideas."

"A certain civilization or force used us as test subjects, but now that they see we are about to be wiped out by the Zerg, they're rushing here in a panic?"

"This script is good, I like it."

Me too.

"It seems we've been underestimated."

"It's simply an information asymmetry. I believe we are no less intelligent than any other race."

"However, this plan has taken quite a long time to set up. If the person behind it has malicious intentions, we may have a hard time resisting them."

"So, the Zerg are that variable?"

"That's probably true."

"How are they different from us?"

"There are too many to list. At the very least, they mainly follow the biotechnology route. Even if you give them an Ancient Spaceship, they would still have to reverse engineer it and convert it into relevant biotechnology, which is much more troublesome than for us."

"But in that case, the new route might be more valuable. The Zerg are in trouble."

"I'm a little happy..."

--

Sarah, who was receiving all of this in real time, sighed inwardly, "A civilization destined to be raised like pigs, why think so much..."