An unknown liquid floats in the giant translucent metal tube, and the liquid is soaked with bodies of many different shapes - aliens, or in other words, civilizations in appearance.
Lu Ning got the text translation component from NE-002, with the help of which she could translate the text on some metal books under the metal tubes and nearby.
Generally speaking, the civilization of "Rangers" has a tradition of advocating individual force. Lu Ning and others carefully walked step by step to this place that looked like a specimen room. In fact, they did not set up any killing mechanism here.
The strongest defense is always themselves. Of course, this does not mean that there are no defensive measures, but that these defensive measures are add-ons for other purposes - now Lu Ning's team just walked over without activating any function, so naturally there are no defensive measures. Activated.
"This is the trophy showroom." Lu Ning said after carefully looking at the inscriptions under several metal pipes.
"Loot?" Spades asked in disbelief, pointing to the aliens who were obviously still sleeping in the metal tube.
"Every time the Rangers defeat a civilization, they will collect the best genes of that civilization and make a perfect specimen to put in their own private display room... The same is true here."
"Were all these civilizations defeated by one person?" Recorder was a little surprised.
"It can't be said that they are one person. The Rangers have a life tradition similar to that of a tribe, and the leader represents the tribe. Judging from the inscriptions, they roamed the universe like this, looking for opponents, and then defeating them... for an unknown number of years. "
Longmai walked to the wall, where weapons were displayed on the weapon racks. Even though the years passed by, these weapons still showed no traces of rust. Instead, they were coated with a dark and heavy color by time. Although they are huge, since the Rangers who are about three meters tall can use them, humans can barely pick them up.
"Rangers are very good at metallurgy. The metal they make is the best raw material for weapons. At least..." Lu Ning walked over, pulled out an army standard dagger and touched it lightly on the edge of a battle axe. , the tip of the dagger was immediately cut off.
"It is a technological level that we have not been able to reach so far."
"Captain, is there any record here of why they left? If they left with preparation, there is no need to leave everything behind, right?" Tie Mei asked.
"There are only some records related to the showroom here, and there is no part about leaving. Maybe we have to look elsewhere. By the way, although these are called specimens, they are all alive. You'd better be careful." Lu Ning pointed at the metal pipes, "The glory days of the Rangers are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of years ago. These are extremely ancient civilizations. Even if they are defeated, we don't know what kind of abilities they have."
"Oh, can't you wake them up one by one and give them a good beating?" Recorder was a little disappointed, "These are all amazing specimens. It would be quite a discovery if they could be transported back."
"Don't use this kind of thing to tempt me, recorder, and mind yourselves." After scolding her slightly, Lu Ning continued to walk inside.
There is a wide descending staircase. The Ranger's architectural style is as bold as Lu Ning's impression. There is no narrow corridor or anything like that. The smallest passage so far is actually the elevator.
After going down the stairs, they immediately came to another room. Spades shouted in admiration from behind, and Lu Ning was not surprised by what was in front of her - the statue.
The Rangers do not use carrier storage like the Observers, perhaps related to their lifestyle. Everything is directly carved on the metal and displayed in the form of exquisite statues. The floor below is almost like a museum, with a large amount of metal castings, carefully carved freeze-frame scenes, both flat and three-dimensional, and even some miniature models of planets.
"War, war, war." Tiemei walked past each statue, "They record their most proud past events, and they regard this as an honor."
"After all, they have defeated countless civilizations." Spades sighed, "They have really been to many places, and the universe is broader than we thought."
"Captain." Longmai found some clues from a relief painting on the wall, "This painting seems to be interesting."
"Let me take a look." Lu Ning walked over. The painting was a war scene on an interstellar battlefield. A warship lay between two stars, with four huge "petals" extending from the rear, and the ship in front The cannon fired like a spear, and the scene stopped here.
It is difficult to judge the proportions on the screen, but Lu Ning can still read through the text introduction below. This is a picture of the Rangers firing the main gun of the naval gun by extracting the star energy of a galaxy.
She also understood what Dragon Vein was focusing on, which was the "petals" unfolding behind the warship, which was a structure similar to a Dyson sphere. This theory has been temporarily abandoned in the technology tree of this world. After all, the materials and time required to make a Dyson sphere are enough to implement a better stellar energy utilization plan. But the Rangers are a little different.
"This side is a statue of a star. I can basically infer that these are civilizations defeated by the Rangers. Captain, but is this the force they advocate?" Dragon Vein pointed at the image and said, "Use the power of stars to directly attack It wouldn’t be right to break a planet. So… I just looked up the star map.”
"The fantasy star galaxy scene captured by the Alliance, right?"
"Yes, in the images taken by the alliance, the stars in this galaxy have not yet entered the blue giant stage. We can almost judge that this is the phantom galaxy we are in." Longmai nodded affirmatively.
"The problem is..." Lu Ning frowned, "Unless this picture only shows the main parts, it can't be what it looks like in the painting."
Stars, ships, planets. According to NE-002, the Rangers thought the sunlight here was too strong, so they smashed a planet to block the light. In other words, the asteroid belt should have been formed by the shattered planets.
But it is still a little too close. The "petals" unfolded by the spacecraft are not actually wrapping the star, but only absorbing the star's energy from one side. It does not appear to be that big in proportion, and the size of the planet is not considered a "petal". It is even larger than the spacecraft itself. If there is no problem with the scale, then the distance between the stars and planets in the picture should be very close, so close that the Iron Thorns, White Mountains and Jupiters in the asteroid belt are all inside the stars. .
At that moment, Lu Ning immediately thought of a possibility.
"Dragon Vein... In astronomy, can a blue giant star return to the main sequence state?"
Dragon Vein smiled bitterly: "Captain, I was about to say that this is too appalling. You know, all the celestial objects observed by the alliance so far follow the birth, old age, illness and death of the planet, especially stars... blue giants and red giants, both The same, symbolizing the state of stars entering their twilight years, and how do such stars return to their original youthful appearance? Reversal the fusion process inside them? Or inject new hydrogen and helium elements? No one can answer, because it can't be done."
"But... the Rangers did it." Lu Ning reached out and gently touched the bumps on the relief, "If there is no problem with the scale of this painting, then some things can be explained. The distance between the Phantom Star and the star is so It's far away, and the normal light is not enough, so how can it be called 'intense'? At that time... the rangers at that time did two things."
"Crush the planet to form an asteroid belt, and return a blue giant star to the main sequence stage." Dragon Vein's voice had a hint of trembling in it, "Is this possible? I can't think of it...unless time is reversed, Captain, this Has civilization reached that level?"
"I don't know, wait, if you put it this way, they also did the third thing." Lu Ning also recovered slightly from the shock, "It is impossible to return the stars in the asteroid belt to the main sequence stage. Returned, so those stars within it all appeared later. Dragon Vein, do you think it was the Rangers, or some other civilization after that?"
"No matter which one, the conclusion is the same. This planet, no, this galaxy, before humans or the observer civilization you mentioned set foot on, it had already been reshaped by some other civilization in the universe." Dragon Vein squatted slowly. Lower body, "Everything here may have nothing to do with nature, but... this is interesting! Captain! We need to conduct a space cruise! We have to land on the three remaining solid planets! Since they are not naturally possessed by this galaxy, then they should What’s left behind!”
"I know." Lu Ning let out a long breath and calmed down a little, "It's just that more people have to make a decision on this matter. There are more than one beacons. In the near future, NE-002 may be able to get a summary. . This is not an exploration mission that our team can complete."
"Yeah." Longmai nodded.
"In addition, since the Rangers were able to return the Blue Giant to the main sequence star state, maybe we can also find a way for them to stay, or even we must do the same thing."
Lu Ning turned around and suddenly found that except for her and Longmai, everyone else was gone. The door at the end of the showroom opened, and someone obviously left from there.
"Recorder, Spades, Ironbrow! What's wrong with you three? Answer!"
"It's okay." Recorder's surprised voice immediately came from the team communication, "We saw that you and Longmai were getting excited while admiring a work, so we didn't bother you and went to look for clues ourselves."
"Clue?" Lu Ning made a questioning voice.
"This time it was Tiemei, not me who found it." Spade said quickly, "We came here following the mark."
"What mark?" Longmai also asked.
"Captain." Tie Mei got straight to the point, "I found some codes left by someone through the etching method. Because this is metal, it seems that this method can only be used... and the Ranger metal is also very corrosion-resistant. Those The code is difficult to detect, so we have to search carefully with a shadow light."
"Since you mentioned the secret code, is it something we can understand?" Lu Ning said.
"Yes, we all learned it before setting off. It is a simple text that has been used by the Alliance military for many years. It can be used if the information is not confidential and the situation is urgent."
Someone has been here.
Lu Ning looked stern, quickly walked out through the door, and quickly caught up with Tie Mei and the others. Under the illumination of their shadow lights, there were indeed shadows on the wall that were difficult to identify, all of which were directional signs such as "front", "right", and "left".
"I think these are the people from the advance team. They must have discovered this place." Longmai followed and walked over. "It seems that the mark was left in a hurry, but there are no other traces. Be careful that something special happened."
"Follow the signs carefully and see where we are directed."
The five people slowly followed the mark around the corridor, walked down several stairs, and finally entered a large circular room. Spades, who had been looking for the mark, suddenly stretched out his hand to stop the recorder behind him.
"What's wrong?" The recorder was blocked and immediately turned around, almost hitting the gun butt.
Spades shook his hand, making a "silence" gesture, and then waved the shadow light. There was a sign on the wall at the entrance of the room that was different from the previous one.
【Danger】.
Lu Ning looked inside the room. The huge tables and chairs, bookshelves, cabinets... In short, it was all furnished with such functions, as if it were a living room. There was no danger at all. She looked up at the ceiling again. The metal on the white ceiling gave off a soft light.
Click.
She turned on all her detectors, and a large number of feedback readings came in, but the processing results were all normal.
"Danger? Where is the danger?" Recorder pressed Spades' arm and stepped into the room. He looked around, but there was still nothing, including a possible surprise attack.
"This is a safe room. What kind of mystery are you trying to lure us here?" Recorder looked around and continued to move forward, and everyone was staring at her - in fact, everyone knew that she was fulfilling her duty as a commando. responsibility, but now this responsibility seems too dangerous.
Just when Lu Ning was watching the recorder move all the way to the center of the room, she suddenly stumbled and fell down without taking the second step.
Bang!
The steel ax hit the ground hard, and with a huge force, he stopped his body from falling forward. The recorder used this reaction force to exert force to reverse the falling trend, and then swung his ax and swept out: "There is indeed a trap!"
The ax swung out in a semicircle in the air, but the recorder didn't seem to realize that he had made a cut in the air. Instead, he used castration to swing the ax beautifully, leaned back as if to avoid something, and then swung the ax again to chop out. .
"Recorder! What's going on?"
"Captain! This guy is a bit difficult to deal with! Come here and help me!"
"What are you fighting with?" Lu Ning shouted.
Hearing these words, Recorder was stunned for a moment, and his movements stopped. At this moment, everyone suddenly saw a crack appearing on Recorder's shoulder, and it was just a crack.
"Humph, I thought I really ambushed some opponent."
Recorder also caught a glimpse of the outer layer of his shoulder being torn apart a little, but he just shook his head.
"What's going on? Recorder! What did you just encounter?" Tiemei asked in a low voice. At this time, he was already watching the situation around him like a cheetah.
"How should I put it?" Recorder put the steel chopping ax on his shoulder, opened his hand and looked at it, then looked down at his feet, "It seems like a physical hallucination?"
