In the End, They Could Only Brute-Force Their Way Through

Just as one of the Collectors had worried before, the research facility's defense mechanisms were still operating normally.

To the Collectors, having a rhizome severed was like having an arm cut off. It was not a fatal injury, at most meaning they had been expelled from the research facility.

The rhizomes outside the research facility had not been attacked by its defense mechanisms.

The Collectors guessed that the defense mechanisms had activated because the machinery's energy supply had been cut off. That was likely the trigger.

The Collector that had cut off the machinery's power, intending to move the Radiance Civilization's machines away, and whose rhizome had been the first to be destroyed, apologized to its kin.

"I'm sorry. It was all my fault..."

It accepted any punishment the collective imposed. It had originally wanted to kill itself, but suicide would not solve the problem. Its own value was far too insignificant compared to the losses its mistake had caused the collective.

They were facing unimaginable wealth this time. The creations of the Radiance Civilization within the research facility had all been preserved intact. If they could comprehend and absorb the technology within, the collective's technological development would advance by leaps and bounds. It was an invaluable treasure that the deaths of a trillion Collectors could not exchange for.

There was also all manner of information, materials, and knowledge within the research facility. The Collectors would have been willing to trade all their subordinate civilizations for it.

"Don't blame yourself. I was actually about to mobilize some rhizomes to bring back some of the Radiance Civilization's machinery too."

The other individuals did not blame it too much, because that Collector had merely been the first to act. At the same time, several Collectors within the research facility had intended to