Chapter 1529: After Civilization
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Petrachelys was lying quietly on the surface of the primitive planet. Silently, some small things flew out of the opening on the spacecraft, glowing in faint blue light. They were like fireflies at night, circling the spaceship for two rounds, and then disappeared into the darkness of the jungle.
The probes sent back images on the hologram in the flight deck, showing the dense jungle and ruins in the wood. Nolan shrank to become only a few inches tall to conserve energy. She lay next to the holographic projector and pointed to the images. “I suggest that you take this route. It may be a little longer but easier. The important thing is that the forest is not dense and you can see the sky.”
“Exploring at night is not a good idea.” Nangong Sanba shook his head. “Do you guys not want to wait until dawn?”
“Night may be inconvenient for some, but it’s totally different for others,” Vivian said with her arms crossed and a confident smile. “My senses and combat power in the night are better than during the day. Doggie’s vision is also better at night than during the day. The night does not affect our mobility. The priority is for gathering intelligence, without which things will become more uncontrollable in the spacecraft. So, the sooner we explore, the better.”
It was a little tricky to say that Vivian was an Umbral Divine because of her unique bloodline, but her words still carried a lot of weight. Nangong Sanba acknowledged that and said no more. At this time, Hao Ren turned to Lily and said, “Do not run too fast while exploring outside. We all carry radios, but you could still get lost as this is a planet in a strange galaxy, no one could tell what dangers are out there.”
Lily wagged her tail and said, “Oh, Mr. Landlord, you are too garrulous. How could I get lost when I have such an excellent sense of smell? Have some confidence in my race, please.”
Hao Ren was worried only because he knew the husky race too well. Everyone knew how easy it was for Husky to be carried away by the excitement and going into a disappearing act.
“Everyone else stays on the spaceship.” Hao Ren turned to look at the others on the flight deck. “Y’zaks and Sanba, hold down the fort while we are away. Nolan had activated an emergency shield. So now, the spaceship has a basic shield unit, and together with her armor, this place is the strongest place and the only forward base on this planet. Do not leave the spaceship before we come back.”
“What if there is an emergency?” asked little Y’lisabet. “What if monsters are attacking the airborne regiment of justice?”
What the heck the little girl watched usually?
Hao Ren looked at the cute little demon, eyes twitching. The little demon was a spoiler. But when he thought of the idea of the great unity of Y’zaks, he kept his shirt on. After all, she could be deemed well-learned. “You could use the righteous Demonic Flare and tactical nuclear bomb to teach them to learn to be human…err, I mean monster. There are various weapons in the other garage, and the autonomous robots could act as emergency defense robots. You could use them if your papa’s Demonic Flare could not save the day. It is not difficult to operate them anyway. Nolan can handle that.”
“I still hope that the weapon system could go online as soon as possible,” said Nolan. “I do not demand too much; as long as two rows of the rapid-fire turret are operational, there is nothing we should be worried about.”
“I will count on you to take care of those onboard.” Hao Ren solemnly nodded to Nolan. “Keep in touch. Check in every 30 minutes. If all goes well, we will come back after checking the outer area of the ruins.”
“Bon Voyage.”
Hao Ren, Vivian, Lily, and Nangong Wuyue left the spacecraft. Vivian and Lily were nocturnal creatures. Nangong Wuyue was an elemental creature, whose sensory abilities were very different from ordinary people. Eye vision only accounted for one percent of her sensory abilities.
But the main reason for bringing her along was that Hao Ren needed a healer.
The night was not very cold on this planet, probably because of the primitive jungle and the milder climate zone. Even the air here was somewhat humid. The spacecraft crash-landed on a relatively open wasteland adjoining the forest, which faded and blended in with the low-hanging night sky in the distant. An alien planet, the crashed spaceship, and the impact crater with smoke billowing formed a peaceful and mysterious scene. Hao Ren climbed on top of boulder nearby, overlooking the below. He could not help but take a selfie.
“I will post it on the inspector forum with the caption ‘renowned inspector finally crashed his spacecraft on an alien planet.”
“I will paint a Crayon Shin-chan on your shell if you dare.” Hao Ren shot the MDT a sideways glance. “Stop the crap.”
Lily had also climbed onto the boulder, looking at the crash site and muttering, “That was a rough landing.”
The massive interstellar spacecraft had only performed limited deceleration and angle adjustment during the landing, so it ended up hitting the ground on a steep angle. The terrain of several kilometers around the impact site had changed entirely with a radial crater, still billowing smoke, replacing the original landscape. The edge of the crater slanted outward like a ring of stalagmites. The Petrachelys lay quietly at the bottom of the crater. Half of the fuselage had gone, and the remaining half was severely damaged with sparks and arcs bursting out of the wreckage, producing a pungent ionized smell in the air.
But the spacecraft was self-repairing rapidly. The severest damaged armor plated were interlacing as self-restoration began. A network of lights covered the crystal structure under the armor plates and formed matter out of thin air. Those damaged parts beyond repair dropping off from time to time were replaced by newly formed components.
Self-repair was a necessary function of every inspector spacecraft. Nolan was not exaggerating when she said that every part of this spacecraft was self-reparable. It was just that it took time.
Hao Ren knew that the internal repair process was way more complicated than the external. To speed up the restoration and let the critical components go online as soon as possible, he had left all the autonomous robots, including those from his dimensional pocket, in the spacecraft. Those small robotic tentacles should be busily traversing between the power reactor and the engine and repairing things that were twisted because of the crash.
Hao Ren took a final look at the Petrachelys from the outside and then the three of them headed in the direction of the forest.
“There are two moons in the sky?” Lily looked up as if she had just discovered the wonders of this world. “It is the same as Holletta, but the little moon looks a little smaller. I feel like I want to howl.”
“You better have more self-control in this strange place.” Nangong Wuyue quickly stopped Lily. “You could have attracted the attention of the alien monsters.”
Hao Ren had also noticed the two round moons in the sky. The larger moon with a wood pattern on the surface was dimmer than the smaller moon, which was only the size of a bean but doubling the brightness. It was, indeed, a strange phenomenon.
Could the smaller moon have a more reflective surface?
Vivian released a swarm of bats. These tiny bats, formed by magic power, were equally nimble under the night sky of the alien planet. They quickly disappeared in the woods with shadows flashed past occasionally. Hao Ren knew that these little bats did not go far. They were staying within a few hundred meters of their parent body and scanning every inch of the surroundings like reconnaissance drones. The gathered information enabled Vivian to make a quick and accurate judgment in the complex environment of the alien jungle.
Without the convenience of the blood magic, Lily could only keep her eyes open. Her golden dog eyes glinted in the dark. Everything within a hundred meters was as clear as daylight in her vision. Aided by an excellent sense of smell, she was quite a superb detector.
The three of them had yet arrived at the ruins of the city, but it seemed the city was larger than what they saw from the air. The jungle had swallowed a large part of the ancient civilization. Before long, they began to see traces of man-made objects.
A collapsed metal tower, built of unknown alloys materials and lying on soil and gravel, first came into view. It seemed that the tower was buried and oxidizing underground at first. As the trees and vines grew, the tower was lifted out of the ground, now covered in moss on its skeleton. The decorative coatings and corrodible parts had gone. So, it was difficult to judge what the original functions of the tower were. But one thing was evident right now:
The tower was here to tell visitors that there was once a civilization here.