Chapter 153 Digestion Results

The "dragon sparrow" slowly cut into the synchronous orbit of Proxima Centauri b.

There were no flowers, no red carpet, only the tireless sparks from the welding torches of repair robots, and that group of engineering maniacs in the base who had long since stretched their necks in anticipation.

The moment the hatch cracked open, the lingering smell of burnt rubber wafted out. Lin Yuan kicked aside a discarded metal plate blocking the way, followed by hundreds of floating transport vehicles. Piled on the carts were not treasures of gold and silver, but the "specialties" he had swept up in the black market like a scavenger.

"Easy! Easy, everyone!" Academician Wang's hair was as messy as a bird's nest, and one of his shoes had fallen off, yet he was still rushing at the very front. "That pile of black stuff isn't coal! It's high-purity source mineral! If you chip off even a piece the size of a fingernail, I'll stuff you all into the reactor!"

Lin Yuan leaned against the hatch, a cigarette dangling unlit from his mouth, watching these old scholars rush toward the transport vehicles like starving wolves.

This trip to the black market was like a country bumpkin entering a luxury store in the city; although he had been severely ripped off, the things he brought back were enough to jump-start Earth's technology tree by a significant margin.

"Don't just stare at the ore." Lin Yuan pointed to the platform at the very back, tightly wrapped in over a dozen layers of force field shields. "The good stuff is in the back."

Academician Wang followed the finger, his gaze landing on an inconspicuous, rusty iron box.

The box looked shabby, its surface even stained with patches of dried bodily fluids from some unknown creature, but the space around it was slightly distorted, as if looking at the world through high-temperature flames; light had to bend when it reached that point.

"This... what is this?" Academician Wang's hand trembled; he wanted to touch it but didn't dare.

"titan dimensional blockade box." Lin Yuan took the cigarette and tucked it behind his ear, his tone as flat as if he were saying he had bought a lunchbox from a roadside stall. "It might have originally contained a dual-vector foil or some other rule-based weapon. It's empty now, but the encapsulation technology is still there."

Academician Wang's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Over the next forty-eight hours, the Proxima Centauri outpost base turned into a giant high-pressure cooker.

The technical data and physical samples brought back by Lin Yuan were dismantled, analyzed, and reverse-engineered by dozens of top research teams.

The first to yield results was indeed that iron box.

Academician Wang and his team worked tirelessly to crack the logic of the titan runes on the surface of the box. Although human computing power at present could not replicate such terrifying dimensional reduction weapons, they had grasped the "lock" of this box.

"Spatial folding!"

In the laboratory, Academician Wang, sporting two large dark circles under his eyes, was as excited as an elementary school student who had received a perfect score on an exam. He pointed to an experimental mecha that had just been modified. "Commander, watch this!"

As he pressed the button, the storage compartment on the back of the mecha, which originally required an externally mounted, massive ammunition box, suddenly rippled. A three-meter-long heavy sniper rifle was tucked into a pocket no bigger than a palm, as if by magic.

"Although it's just the most rudimentary spatial compression, only capable of a 1:10 ratio, for fleet logistics, it's a revolution!" Academician Wang said, spittle flying. "Our warship cargo capacity has increased tenfold! Moreover, by analyzing the spatial anchor technology on the box, we have installed 'tactical teleportation' modules on all our capital ships."

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow. "How far can it jump?"

"Short range, within five thousand kilometers." Academician Wang gestured. "But that's enough! On the battlefield, five thousand kilometers is the difference between life and death. If I can't beat you, I'll dodge; after dodging, I'll hit you with another shot. That's what we call playing dirty!"

Lin Yuan nodded in satisfaction. This was exactly what he wanted. Humanity's foundation was currently thin, and going head-to-head with advanced civilizations was too disadvantageous; this kind of high-mobility guerrilla tactic was the only way to survive.

However, the surprises provided by the box didn't end there.

Lin Yuan went alone to the lowest level of the base, the highest-level hazardous materials isolation zone.

In his hand, he held three specially made sealed canisters. These were the "residual gases" he had carefully collected from that iron box.

Although it was residual, this stuff had almost turned half the street into a two-dimensional painting back at the black market.

"gaia, is the stability test done?" Lin Yuan inserted the sealed canisters into the weapon slot.

"It's done, Boss." gaia's voice echoed in the empty room. This time, her voice lacked a bit of mechanical feel and had a hint of the languor of a human female. "If these three canisters of 'dimensional reduction gas' explode, all three-dimensional objects within a radius of one hundred kilometers will be forcibly flattened. However, since they are single-use consumables, they'll be gone once used."

"Three is enough." Lin Yuan looked at the gray gas slowly flowing in the canisters, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Let's call them 'Daxia Specialty: Dimensional Reduction Grenades'. In the future, if any short-sighted civilization dares to bring their main fleet to our doorstep, I'll treat them to a taste of what 'physical flattening' means."

This was Daxia's current strategic trump card, the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all potential enemies.

Besides technology, human evolution had not been neglected.

The batch of genetic enhancement agents that Lin Yuan had swept up from Sin Starport, after purification and refinement, began to be popularized among the expeditionary force.

On the training ground, roars shook the sky.

A soldier who had just finished injecting the agent was shirtless, his muscles bulging like granite. In front of him was a titanium alloy plate used to test mecha strength.

"Hah!"

The soldier let out a roar and, without using any tools, punched it directly.

With a loud "bang," that alloy plate, which was capable of withstanding large-caliber bullets, shockingly had a fist print three inches deep in it. The soldier shook his hand; it was only slightly grazed.

"Average physical fitness has increased fivefold." Old General Chen Weiguo stood beside Lin Yuan, looking at these soldiers who were like beasts, his face flushed. "These aren't soldiers; they're a group of humanoid Gundams! Coupled with our new mechas, we can truly go toe-to-toe with aliens on the ground battlefield!"

Lin Yuan watched this scene, but his heart didn't feel much lighter.

That night on the outskirts of the starport, the sense of oppression brought to him by that black-robed figure was simply too strong.

It was merely a clone, yet a palm strike from hundreds of kilometers away had almost shattered his Void Body. If the original body had arrived in person, or if the opponent had brought a few more people, whether he could have returned alive would have been a question.

Humanity was progressing, but the enemy was also watching. The massive shadow of the Mechanical Papacy still loomed over the galaxy.

"gaia." Lin Yuan turned away from the bustling training ground and walked into the quiet command room.

"I'm here, Boss."

The holographic projection lit up, and a tall virtual girl, even possessing delicate micro-expressions, appeared before Lin Yuan. This was gaia, who had evolved into an "Intermediate Star Spirit" after devouring a large amount of data cores.

She now not only had skyrocketing computing power but had even learned to make snide remarks and simulate human emotions.

"Has the data model for that black-robed figure been built?" Lin Yuan sat on the command chair, rubbing his chest which was still aching faintly.

"It has. The conclusion is quite despairing." gaia shrugged and pulled up a complex energy analysis chart. "Based on the energy remnants of that palm strike in the vacuum, that guy's original body is at least 'Star-Destroying level' in combat power. In other words, he alone could match our entire current fleet."

"Star-Destroying level..." Lin Yuan chewed on the term, a flash of ruthlessness appearing in his eyes. "The gap is indeed large. So we can't stop; we must keep eating, keep looting."

He opened the star map, his finger tracing across that brilliant yet cold galaxy.

"The Three-Eyed Race is just a country bumpkin, and the black market is just a trading post. To truly confront the Mechanical Papacy, we need tougher stuff."

"Based on the residual information on that titan box you brought back, I conducted a galaxy-wide coordinate comparison." gaia's finger tapped on the star map, and three red dots suddenly lit up in the previously dark area.

"Before the Titan Civilization withdrew from the galaxy, they left behind three arsenals. These are real treasures; the things inside can't be compared to those second-hand goods that have changed hands eight times on the black market."

Lin Yuan's gaze locked onto the red dot closest to Proxima Centauri.

That was a chaotic region full of asteroid belts and cosmic dust, marked as "Boulder Starfield".

"Here?" Lin Yuan asked.

"Yes, titan Arsenal No. 3, codenamed 'Giant's Anvil'." gaia's expression became somewhat strange. "However, Boss, there's a small problem."

"Speak."

"The reason it's called the Boulder Starfield isn't just because there are a lot of rocks." gaia zoomed in on the image of that region; in the center of the dense asteroid belt, some huge shadow seemed to be squirming.

"According to detection, an adult 'Star Beast' has built a nest there."

Lin Yuan was stunned for a moment, then laughed in exasperation. "Good heavens, they've arranged a watchdog for us."

"This dog is not to be trifled with." gaia pulled up a set of blurry comparison images. "This thing is over five hundred kilometers long and eats asteroids like crackers. Our current dragon sparrow is probably just a toothpick in front of it."

"So what if it's a toothpick?" Lin Yuan stood up and straightened his military uniform collar, that rogue air from rolling through mountains of corpses and seas of blood coming back up.

"As long as it's a carbon-based lifeform, as long as it has a weakness, then we can talk."

He looked at the huge shadow on the screen, just like a hunter who had been hungry for three days seeing a plump wild boar.

"Besides, a prime location like a titan arsenal wouldn't be complete without a guardian beast. Pass the order down!"

Lin Yuan's voice instantly spread throughout the entire base.

"Rest for three days. Three days later, the fleet will weigh anchor."

"Target: Boulder Starfield."

"We're going to meet that 'watchdog', and by the way... move it to a new home."