Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 256: City of Machines

"What? You're saying Bulu is a life form belonging to an array-level civilization?" Zhang Bao'er exclaimed in shock.

Temo did not say anything, but he nodded firmly.

"Canyue, did you hear that? We're rich! Bulu's level of civilization is even higher than Temo's," said Zhang Bao'er, still in excitement.

"I've long known that. Let's start moving," I suggested.

Temo, who was no longer in a trance, started moving toward the path. The others followed behind him, with Zhang Bao'er and I keeping to the rear of the group. I walked with Bulu in my hand.

"Canyue, how did you find out that Bulu belongs to an array-level civilization? Why hadn't you told me about it earlier?" nagged Zhang Bao'er.

"I'll explain after this when we have more free time. Let's focus on leaving this place," I said.

We increased our speed as we moved through the opened path, leaving the encirclement at a rapid pace. It was also then that we noticed that there were even more beasts in the encirclement than we had thought. There were at least dozens of layers of encirclement around us.

"Good lord. Where did so many variance sensor beasts come from?" said Zhang Bao'er.

The moment Zhang Bao'er spoke, all the variance sensor beasts pointed their noses at him. At that moment, he seemed to have attracted the attention of all the beasts present. Seeing that, he immediately shut his mouth and walked in silence. As I walked with Bulu in hand, I could see all the beasts bowing slightly wherever we passed.

'Bulu's presence is surprisingly effective against them. Looks like we'll need to borrow more of its strength in this conflict against the beasts,' I thought in disbelief.

We walked for three hours under the gaze of the variance sensor beasts before we finally reached the final layer of the encirclement. None of us dared to stop walking. We continued trudging forward, and we only slightly relaxed when we could no longer see any variance sensor beasts around us.

"I did not expect to walk out of that encirclement safely," said Old Du, still feeling some lingering fear.

"But we're still trapped in the blood pool. And beyond the red fog above us is the expansive maze system. We are still half a day away from the Black King Base," said Dodo. That was an accurate yet cruel piece of news.

"Warriors, we can only rest for five minutes before we have to continue our journey. We need to reach the base as soon as possible to resume contact with the fleet," I said.

All of us knew that only by leaving the blood pool would we stand a chance at succeeding in our mission. Thus, we gathered ourselves and continued on. While walking, Anxashe helped place the awake Bulu into the backpack.

"Dodo, is the fleet still not contactable?" I asked.

"I'm not receiving any signals from them. I suspect that the maze system above us can also block signals." Dodo still did not have any good news to share with us.

A journey of five hours did not sound far, but we were an exhausted group. Thus, less than one hour later, we were already incapable of advancing.

Suddenly, a Wargod soldier shouted while pointing at a black silhouette in the distance, "Look, what's that?"

There was a black silhouette amid the red fog. When we looked carefully, we noticed that it was a variance sensor beast.

"Why is there still one of them here? Don't tell me there are different clans occupying different areas and that this beast is from the clan ruling this area," said Old Du anxiously.

I immediately raised my laser gun in preparation for battle. The team was currently exhausted and agitated, so even a tiny incident could greatly affect the team's mood.

"Wait, that looks like a corpse," said the observant Anxashe as he pushed my gun down.

Only then did I notice that the variance sensor beast ahead of us was already dead.

"Weird. Why is there a variance sensor beast corpse here? Who can kill a variance sensor beast here?" I asked Temo.

"I thought these beasts could all regenerate from their injuries? Why is this one dead?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"We're probably near our destination. Forget about the corpse. Keep going ahead," said Temo with a commanding tone.

We did as told and increased our pace. As we advanced, we encountered even more corpses.

"All these beasts have burn wounds. I wonder what caused them," said Anxashe, who had made a new discovery after observing the corpses in detail.

We did not stop to investigate the cause of death. According to Temo, we were close to our destination. The only thing we wanted was to leave this disgusting place filled with corpses. After about 10 minutes of walking, the familiar sounds of flying vehicles rang out above us.

"Canyue, listen!" said Zhang Bao'er softly.

I hurriedly silenced Zhang Bao'er with a gesture. Both our group and our enemies were still hidden from each other. The sounds might be coming from enemy ships.

"Deputy Commander Canyue, I found that based on the analysis of the sound waves coming from above the fog, the maze complex is not as extensive here. In fact, the sky itself should now be visible beyond the fog," said Dodo.

"Stay in combat formation and march forward slowly. Dodo, try to contact Zhang Xingxing and the others," I ordered calmly.

More and more sounds of flying vehicles could be heard above us. From the sounds, there were probably a decent number of vehicles above us. These vehicles were also slowly moving in our direction.

"Canyue, these sounds are so familiar. Don't you feel anything by listening to them?" asked Old Du softly.

"I feel the same, but I can't think of where I've heard them before," I said.

"Air defense drones. That's the sound made by air defense drones," said Dodo, who was much better than us in terms of data analysis.

Realization dawned upon us. The sounds we were hearing were actually made by what we feared most, the air defense drones.

Old Du said angrily, "I didn't expect to see these drones here. Looks like Emperor Fille has started mixing technology and beasts. What we have learned about his army so far is probably useless now. This is truly a daring emperor."

"Yeah. I thought that their soldiers would rebel upon learning about the beast army, but it appears I have been too simple-minded. The emperor must have merged the two types of armies already," I said.

"You people are underestimating the emperor. The imperial army guarding outside this area is completely unaware of what's happening on these planets," said Temo, shattering the new conclusion we had just drawn.

"If that's the case, explain these drones to us," questioned Zhang Bao'er while pointing at the sky.

"These sounds are not made by those so-called drones. They're made by a different type of life form," said Temo coldly.

"What? You're saying these sounds aren't made by machines?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

At that moment, one of the sounds started approaching us rapidly.

"The drones are coming!" said Old Du.

"Don't move. Be completely still," Temo hurriedly warned.

Hearing the tone of his voice, we did as told. A few seconds later, something looking like a drone flew through the red fog and hovered above us. To my astonishment, I saw that the flying object did not look like the air defense drone we were familiar with. It looked bigger, and it even looked like it had four limbs. It only appeared for a split second before it vanished into the red fog again, as though it hadn't noticed us.

"Those fellows are patrolling. We need to leave. The base is not far away," said Temo.

"Which direction should we go in?" asked Old Du.

"Move in the same direction as the patrol beast from earlier," said Temo.

We followed Temo's suggestion and moved in the same direction as the patrol. More and more corpses could be seen around us, and roughly 10 minutes later, I stepped out of the fog. A peculiar yet imposing sight entered my eyes. Then I immediately felt a pair of powerful arms drag me back into the fog. I looked back and saw that it was Anxashe.

"Temo told me to drag you back," Anxashe briefly explained.

"You nearly exposed all of us. You won't be able to hide outside the fog," said Temo.

"Canyue, what did you see outside?" asked Zhang Bao'er curiously.

"It was too short a time. I only caught a glimpse of an imposing city. Numerous metallic life forms filled the city," I explained.

"Looks like the records are right. This is really a city of machines," said Temo while shaking his head.