Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 381: Ruin?!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

This ruin definitely had plenty of self-defensive mechanisms remaining and AI guard robots. However, they were all level 2 space civilizations' standard, using Gaussian weapons. In terms of technology, they were not better than the Hope, so their attacks were unable to poke through electromagnetic shields, much less plasma shields.

This combined with the Homo Evolutis' affinity for space wars and close-quarters combat, cleaning up these backward mechanisms was a cakewalk.

To prevent the hidden threat from hurting the normal workers, the Black Star Troopers spent the following month combing the ruins until they could say for certain that this ruin didn't contain anymore threats. It was then that the Hope could send in the salvage team.

The whole salvage team was separated into three rotations, each rotation lasting for eight hours. In total, the Hope had sent out about 2,000 AI robots, 17,000 plus experts, workers, and technicians, 400 plus transport shuttles, and employed the Black Star Troopers around 60 times for the salvage operation.

This was the operation that involved the most civilians after the colonization of the new planet. However, even though the exhaustion was high, the reward was high as well. Other than fetching enough supplies to compensate the materials exhausted in this operation, the leftovers could still last the Hope for another three years. There were also plenty of useable metals. In fact, of the 400 plus transport shuttles, around 100 of them were built using the metals salvaged from this ruin.

The Hope had also gained a great load of information from some broken alien computers. Of course, most of the information was uninteresting cosmic hearsay, they were practically useless for human beings. Regardless, they were still stored in the central mainframe. They would probably have their uses in the future.

There was also technological information, but other than very few esoteric products, most of the technology had already been known to humankind, so the rewards weren't that impressive.

The real exciting reward was the travelogue of the two space civilizations that were at war.

The travelogue recorded the origin and destination of these two space civilizations. They both came from a nearby Shelter that had received the information that this part of the cosmos was rapidly decaying. According to the calculation of the level 3 space civilization and communication via some methods with level 4 space civilizations, it was finally announced that due to some reasons, this part of the cosmos was reaching its end. The solar system was rapidly imploding and staying in it would only lead to death. Therefore, those who wished to survive would need to escape to other solar systems through the star path.

Therefore, these civilizations followed the other civilizations from the Shelter and departed for the star path.

The reason for the war, other than the fact that they were already enemies, this part of space was isolated from the rest, meaning no other civilizations would intervene. Of course, these were merely the preconditions for a war and not the blasting fuse, that would be something else…

"Ruin clues? What is that?"

In most main computers of the ruined spaceships, the term "ruin" was brought up constantly. Of course, to avoid translation mistakes, they had referred to the computers from both space civilizations and the contents were similar, ruin…

"…Looks like it is similar to the situation with the Noah One…"

In a secured lab on the Hope, around 10 people were studying the translated alien languages that appeared on screen. The information stunned everyone there, and the above observation was made by Guang Zhen.

So it turned out that both space civilizations were on guard against each other when they happened to meet in this area. When they were preparing to enter warp drive, they suddenly received a signal that came from nowhere… Yes, it was similar to how the Noah One used the incomplete space warp engine to send out information.

"Those space civilizations that have reached this message, come to us. For the ones who can discern the cause from the effect, come to us. We will award thee the legendary…"

This was the signal received by both civilizations. It was attached with a coordinates and a star path chart. The described location when matched with the two space civilizations' travelogue, coincidentally, or rather naturally… they coincided at the entrance to the star path!

This information silenced the room. After all, this was all a bit hard to believe. Then again, this was the cosmos, so anything was possible. Even a high level ruin had appeared.

Yes, according to the simple analysis of the two and a half Thinkers present, it could be confirmed that this ruin belonged to a high level space civilization. After all, only a level 5 space civilization and above could send information through the confines of space like this…

This was truly unbelievable!

The number of ruins in space was relatively low. In fact, most ruins would just naturally disappear in space, either absorbed by the gravity of planets or consumed by planetary entities like the sun or already salvaged by other space civilizations. In conclusion, 90 percent of space ruins would cease to exist through these methods.

Of course, due to the law of conservation of soul, most of the space ruins would belong to level 1 or 2 space civilizations, followed by level 3. Generally speaking, level 4 space ruins were exceptionally rare. The appearance of one would attract the attention of several tens of thousands of level 2 and 3 space civilizations to fight for it. Even if they returned with just parts of the technology, it could be considered a profitable operation.

For ruins from a higher level space civilization, like level 5 or higher… That was pretty much a legend. From the several ten thousand years of the Blue Race's history, that only happened once, about several thousand years ago. It had caused an all-out war between more than hundred Shelter forces. According to the Blue Race's records, the damage resulting from that war had ruined more than ten solar systems and more than 1,000 level 2 space civilizations were made extinct. Of course, the lucky space civilization who won the war successfully became a level 4 space civilization after about a hundred years of cultivation. and they still had enough technologies left to evolve into a level 5 space civilization…

And this ruin before them was quite possibly a level 5 or higher space ruin. Its value was…

Unpredictable!

This was an existence that might even attract the desire of level 5 space civilizations because the biggest difference between a middle tier space civilization and low tier space civilization, other than the difference in power level, was the specialization of science. Due to the threat of racial senescence, these middle tier space civilizations couldn't focus on unlocking every part of the technological tree like low tier space civilizations did. They had to select one aspect to focus on; therefore, the higher the level, the harder the improvement. For middle tier and high tier space civilizations, even gaining a technology lower than their standards would still help greatly improve their own race's science. It was why level 4 space ruins or above were so valuable.

"What should we do?!"

The core members of the Hope and the two Thinkers were gathered at a secret meeting room to discuss the analysis of the information.

The atmosphere in the room was heavy. Even though most were not Thinkers, the truth was easy to understand. The value of a level 5 space ruin or above was definitely high, and not only level 2 or 3 space civilizations, even middle or high tier space civilizations would fight for it as well…

Furthermore, unlike those space civilizations who were dying, humanity did not have to risk their whole race to fight for a rare ruin, they could just turn around and walk away… However, the key was that this ruin just so happened to be near the entrance of the star path.

Yao Yuan looked around the room and no one answered him. Finally, he turned to Xiao Niao and asked, "Xiao Niao, why don't you tell us what you think we should do?"

Xiao Niao shrugged helplessly. "Fine… honestly, none our possible courses of action are suitable. We can't go back to wait for the Song of Destruction to arrive and we cannot stay here, since this is a pit stop to the star path. Do we want to meet other space civilizations? Shall we continue further in? That's also a dead-end. Who knows how many space civilizations have already gathered at the star path entrance pursuing this space ruin? We might be destroyed by one of those crazy powerful cannons once we arrive. In any case, I personally do not think we should head towards this ruin."

Yao Yuan sighed. He agreed with Xiao Niao. He too did not think it was a good idea to head towards the ruin or even the star path, it was simply too dangerous…

Suddenly, Ren Tao commented, "I'm curious… since we know that this ruin is dangerous, why didn't these two space civilizations know that? Why would they abandon their half-fought war and rush towards this ruin? In fact, I have a hypothesis in mind…

"Could it be that this ruin has hypnotized all the space civilizations near it just like how god-tier space civilizations can conceal new life-preserving solar systems and planets…

"Only the Immortal would not be affected?"