Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 275: World in Chaos

"Hold. What are you doing here?" Unsurprisingly, we were questioned by the leader of the guards.

"We're a team carrying out a mission issued by the Sacred Wing race," replied Anxashe before showing the white ring to the guards.

Seeing the ring, the guard leader said nothing else and let us through.

'Looks like this ring represents a rather high rank among them. It is surprisingly useful,' I thought joyfully.

With the ring in hand, Anxashe approached the door and held it in front of the genetic lock. After a short scan, the door slid open. An indescribable sense of nervousness suddenly rose within me. It had been two years. What had happened in our absence? I awaited the answer in nervous anticipation. With the door open, Anxashe took the lead and stepped inside. We all followed behind him.

We were utterly shocked by the sight inside. This room was at least triple the size of the old core room. Unlike the old room, the micro-robots in this room were moving even faster in an orderly fashion. There were also a decent number of Sacred Wings, lion-faced beasts, and Eternals in the room, all busy with their own tasks. In fact, the room looked more like a miniature command center.

"Looks like war has truly changed a lot," said Old Du.

To avoid exposure, we entered a relatively empty aisle. None of the people we met inside stopped us to verify our identity. Perhaps everyone was already assigned their respective tasks during wartime, so all of them were only focused on their own work.

At that time, two micro-robots flew by me with a light memory drive. I reached out and tapped the memory. The sight of a destroyed city appeared before my eyes. From the ruined city, I could vaguely see traces of seven colors.

"This is Akko!" exclaimed Zhang Bao'er.

"Yeah. The beautiful Akko palace has actually been reduced to such a state. Looks like the war has reached a very cruel stage," said Old Du.

Just as I was about to expand the perspective to check other areas, the micro-robots flew away with the light memory drive, seemingly in a rush to carry out an important task.

"We need to locate the main server immediately and look for Temo and Dodo before making our next plan," I decided.

In a room with such lax security, it wasn't hard for us to find the main server. Before long, we found one.

"Canyue, we need to insert all three of Little Forest's probes at the same time. Will there be an issue using only one of them?" asked Old Du.

"In the old room, I feel like what we received wasn't affected much by the timing. Little Forest must have told us to insert all three together as a precaution against the alarm. Doing so, if one of us triggered the alarm, the other two can still gather the required information. But with how chaotic this place is right now, I doubt we will attract much attention," I said.

My explanation was logical, so everyone accepted it. Following my suggestion, Zhang Bao'er inserted his probe into the server. Soon, the server started running madly. Our eyes were opened wide as we awaited the micro-robots in anticipation.

Sure enough, the micro-robots appeared before us shortly after, carrying a light memory drive with them. I hurriedly tapped the memory, revealing a recording with Temo in it. He seemed to be in some sort of a research room performing some sort of research. Dodo was beside him, moving around and busy at work.

There were no guards around Temo. I expanded the perspective to cover the scene outside the room. I was surprised to find that Temo was located within the skyscraper in the middle of the city of machines we saw in the memory of the scout we had captured before. The only difference was that in this recording, a massive fleet could be seen around the building. There was also a massive machine rising high into the sky. The machine was so large that we could only see two of the legs holding it up.

"Superweapon. The empire is using the superweapon for the war," said Zhang Bao'er.

"We can see that the universe is already in chaos and has suffered a lot of damage from the war. Since we already know the location of Temo and Dodo, let's go look for them," I said.

"Canyue, are you not going to gather more information from here?" asked Old Du.

"We can't afford to waste more time. The superweapon has been activated, and we don't even know if Zhang Xingxing and the others have gone back to join the war. If they are also participating, they must be having a hard time against a star-level civilization like the empire. We need to return as fast as possible and help them," I said.

Hearing my words, the others turned anxious as well. Too many things had happened after we arrived on this planet. We needed to return to the team as soon as possible. Following my order, we withdrew from the new core room.

"We need to look for that transport ship and leave the control center on it," suggested Old Du.

"We need to first find a flying vehicle before we can sneak into the transport ship," I said, intending to use the same method we used to come here to leave.

Suddenly, a group of lion-faced beasts ran by us.

"Fools. The core component is here, but we're already five minutes late. Move faster. None of us will be spared if any issues arise from our tardiness," scolded a lion-faced beast running behind the group.

Hearing those words, the four of us looked at each other and reached a tacit understanding. We immediately followed the group. After running for about a dozen minutes, we finally arrived at the familiar docking bay. There, numerous small ships were in the process of loading and unloading the goods they were tasked to transport.

There, we stopped following the lion-faced beasts because there was a ship with its door open to the right of us. It seemed to have finished moving its goods. A smart robot with a tablet was standing at the door, seemingly performing a final check on the ship.

I nodded at Zhang Bao'er, and he immediately understood my meaning. He walked forth and said something to the smart robot. The robot appeared astonished and immediately turned around to leave.

After the smart robot left, Zhang Bao'er waved at us. All four of us entered the ship without hesitation. I noted that this was a comparatively large ship. Many massive crates were piled at the back of the ship, making that a perfect hiding spot for us.

Zhang Bao'er stepped forth to inspect the crates with Anxashe. Nodding at me, they said, "Empty."

We looked for a spot surrounded by the piled crates and hid there. This ship would be our ticket out of the control center.

"Bao'er, what did you tell the smart robot? You were able to make it go away so easily," asked Old Du.

"I asked if this ship is heading to the city of machines to receive more supplies. After it said yes, I told it that a container full of engine oil had been overturned. A lot of smart robots are there fighting over the spilled engine oil. If it's late, there won't be any left. I suggested that it take a look as well," said Zhang Bao'er.

"So easy?" said Old Du in disbelief.

Regardless of whether the story was believable, we had successfully entered the ship. The security was obviously much more lax than normal. Perhaps the war was the reason for that. Before long, a string of curses came from afar. The smart robot had probably returned. We immediately sank into silence, listening to the approaching footsteps. A few minutes later, the door of the ship was closed, and the ship itself started trembling.

"We're finally leaving. I had not expected that we would stay two whole years in this control center," said Old Du.

"Damn that Little Forest. He didn't tell us anything important at all. What if 200 years had passed instead? It would be much more troublesome," said Zhang Bao'er.

"But if we had really stayed inside for 200 years, perhaps all these troubles would be long gone by then," I said, suddenly sounding like some profound philosopher.

My words sent everyone into deep thought. In a way, I was right. Time was the best cure for everything.

"There is another possibility. The war might have ended 200 years from now, but the end result is the enslavement of all life forms," said Anxashe.

"Life has only existed for a minuscule amount of the time the universe has existed. Perhaps conflict in itself is the purpose of existence for all life forms," said Old Du.

Before long, we felt the ship stabilize. If I was right, we must have entered the transport ship. There wasn't even an inspection before boarding the ship. It was obvious the empire's focus was fully on the interstellar war.

After some time, we finally felt our ship land on something flat. Black King's city of machines, we were back!