The scanner, which had successfully survived a world-ending crisis and withstood the erosion of countless eons, was just broken like that.
Lin Xiaohe couldn’t believe it: “Impossible. I didn’t do anything!”
Their Jiuzhou Star didn’t have many high-tech products, and the scanner was one of the extremely rare ones!
Old Black Brother closed his eyes in pain. If the culprit wasn’t the Lord Sovereign, if it had been anyone else, he would have gone up and fought them to the death.
The dawn sky gradually turned red, and a red sun slowly rose.
Everyone once again received a reminder from the Holy Stele.
【20%】
The fewer the words, the bigger the matter.
It had jumped up by 7 percentage points all at once.
What caused the collapse to accelerate? Would it continue to accelerate?
The time left for all civilizations was running out.
Everyone at the Life Safety Center felt as if someone was choking them. They couldn’t say a single word.
At this moment, whether someone was an Awakened or what principles those civilizations used to create Awakened — none of it mattered anymore.
Lin Xiaohe took a deep breath and waved her hand: “Everyone, go attend to your own tasks.”
“Okay.”
After everyone had walked out, Lin Xiaohe stared blankly at Kailin Renault.
The Holy Stele’s countdown was like a death knell, casting a thick layer of gloom over the hearts of all living beings.
Lin Xiaohe deeply understood what Changqing had said: 【In the universe, civilizations that are not good at capturing information, analyzing information, and hiding information cannot go far.】
For example, right now, even if the Ark was built, Lin Xiaohe didn’t know where to lead everyone to escape, or how to escape. She didn’t even know what kind of world-ending crisis this was.
When it rains, it pours.
When the collapse process jumped to 25%, the Black Domain welcomed a group of uninvited guests.
At first, the Stardust mutated creatures on the outskirts of the Jiuzhou Star System became restless and agitated.
Enduring their fear, they requested entry into the Jiuzhou Star System.
Lin Xiaohe agreed and ordered all Stardust humans to prepare for battle.
Soon after, the area around the Jiuzhou Star System seemed to darken.
Then, a star region 800,000 kilometers away from Jiuzhou Star was silently torn apart.
These uninvited guests, who did not come with good intentions, were not natural geometric forms, but were composed of countless polyhedral crystals that continuously split and recombined.
Their outlines flickered between cubes and icosahedrons.
There was no light source around them, yet they devoured the already thin surrounding light, refracting only at their edges a cold, pale white glow that belonged to no known spectrum.
Wesley looked grave and said to Lin Xiaohe: “They are not any known spacecraft.”
If they weren’t from any of the seven eras of civilization, then they were products of an extradomain civilization.
The moment the six Spike Star envoys saw these spacecraft, they were first startled, and after muttering among themselves for a long time, they sent Number Three over to negotiate with Lin Xiaohe.
“We can tell you everything we know, but you have to reserve six spots for us on the Ark.”
Lin Xiaohe’s brow moved slightly, and a hint of seriousness appeared on her face.
Although the six Spike Star envoys had a relatively friendly attitude, they had never proactively proposed a deal to her, let alone lowered themselves like this.
It seemed the sudden appearance of the polyhedral lifeform spacecraft had put considerable pressure on them.
“Fine. Who are they?”
Number Three’s branches swung uneasily, and its tone carried a hint of urgency: “They are the Ola people! It’s said they were born from the uncontrolled information network left behind by a highly advanced cosmic civilization.”
“This civilization was as high as Level 10 — the true gods of the entire universe! The information network they created was so complex that it surpassed a certain critical point, and a collective consciousness based on pure information and logic naturally emerged.”
“They are souls born from the chaotic sea of data, the ultimate product of all code, and the embodiment of all logic.”
Lin Xiaohe was puzzled: “Are they very powerful?”
Number Three coughed twice. Although it really didn’t want to admit it, the facts were right there: “They’re a tiny bit strong. Not only is their individual combat power astonishing, but they also possess an extremely high-level technological civilization.”
In Number Three’s view, the Ola people were practically cheating.
From the moment they were born, they inherited the legacy of a Level 10 civilization.
Even if it wasn’t all of it, a lean camel was still bigger than a horse. A few words from a Level 10 civilization were enough to let a newly emerging civilization skip from Level 0 straight to Level 2.
As long as their core wasn’t destroyed, the Ola people could not die and could not be extinguished. Relying on their ultra-advanced technology, they manufactured body after body and transmitted their consciousness into them.
At the thought of going to war with the undying, unextinguishable Ola people, Number Three’s scalp went numb.
Lin Xiaohe suddenly spoke up: “Between the Ola people and the Zerg, who’s stronger?”
“One is a cold-faced killer, the other is the universe’s shit-stirring stick. About evenly matched, I’d say!” Number Three couldn’t help but complain.
Remembering that Lin Xiaohe had endless entanglements with the Zerg, it quickly added: “Actually, they’ve never clashed head-on. Uh… there’s a rumor that the Zerg’s super-strong computational ability might be related to the Ola people.”
Lin Xiaohe: “Since they’re so powerful, why are they here? Do they have a way to avoid the crisis?”
Number Three scratched its head awkwardly. Instinctively, it wanted to conceal information, but meeting Lin Xiaohe’s dark eyes, its heart trembled, and it answered honestly.
“Although the Ola people are very powerful, they have no ambition to rule the universe. They’re more interested in researching who they are, where they came from, and where the disappeared Level 10 civilization went.”
So the Ola people were basically the universe’s wanderers. They loved poking into every nook and cranny, especially star regions involving secrets. Sweet or salty — they had to have a taste no matter what.
It was precisely because of this damned trait of theirs that they, like the Spike Star civilization, had fallen into this giant pit.
Number Three deliberated for a while: “Avoiding the crisis… the Ola people might be able to do it, but only might.”
As for why, it really didn’t want to say.
Even as aliens, they still wanted to save face.
Lin Xiaohe didn’t press further, only said with some dissatisfaction: “Instead of staying put in your own territories, why did you all come running to our star region?”
Number Three felt bitter inside. If they had known this star region was like this, they wouldn’t have come either!
“Outside the domain, the God War is raging. Our Spike Star civilization loves peace. We just wanted to find a quiet, undisturbed star region and live our own lives.”
In plain terms, they were afraid of being caught up in the God War, so they wanted to find a place to hide from the fighting.
“What’s the God War about?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Then make it short.”
“Several God Nations started fighting.”
Lin Xiaohe gave it a dead-fish stare. That was way too short!
Number Three laughed awkwardly and pointed at the polyhedral crystals: “Lord Sovereign, how about we deal with them first?”
One by one, crystal beings flew out of the polyhedral crystals, lining up uniformly to face Lin Xiaohe, solemn and murderous.
Immediately after, a majestic voice spread out in ripples.
“Descent!”
