Age of Cosmic Exploration

The Parlei Race was known as a race of barbarians. Even though there was insult in it, the Parlei Race themselves loved the name.

In actuality, the Parlei Race was only a small offtake of a bigger race. In the wide cosmos, there were all sorts of lifeforms, but in reality, to be able to unite the whole planet and venture into space, the civilization had to contain more than a handful of races. This was why Blue Race was only slightly surprised when they saw the different looks of humanity. Mammals were the first among all the various lifeforms to gain sentience. Generally speaking, the evolution of all mammals was similar, the major difference would happen in the eyes, hair, skeletal structure, or even height.

The major race that the Parlei Race belonged to was number nine in terms of size among the several hundred thousand sentient lifeforms. The race was called Pa, it was an onomatopoeic word. It meant a loud bang. Every civilization had a different way of translating it, but for human beings, it was written in one word, "Pa."

The Pa Race was not mammalian, they were a type of plant-based animal. It was complicated, but basically they were animals with plant-like features. They were like man-eating flowers but had mobility and animal intelligence. The Pa Race could absorb sunlight for photosynthesis, or they could directly consume other plants or animals for nutrients. Even their reproductive system was divided into two. One, they could mitosis out their progeny, but the young needed to be raise from the most basic bud. The time needed was long and the exhaustion on the mother’s body was huge, especially the exhaustion of ‘soul’. It was basically a suicide mission.

The other type was similar to the reproduction among humans. There was nothing special to describe about that...

The Pa Race valued natural selection and competition above all else. In other words, theirs was a dog eat dog word. Internally, those with capability, like great commanders, brilliant minds, exceptional scientists, or cunning strategists, were all at the top. On the other hand, those who were not blessed with these talents, no matter how important their bloodline, were treated as nothing more than servants.

Externally, the Pa Race was known in space as the most famous barbarians. This was because their combat method was crude and coarse, favouring swarming their enemies with pure strength. No matter whether it was space fleet combat, ground combat, or capturing enemy ships, their preferred strategy was to suffocate their enemies with sheer force... Of course, if that could be called a strategy.

In conclusion, this was a race that believed in the system of natural selection right to their bones. They had no need for slaves other than cosmic adapters, and all the other aliens were sources of food and soul... According to the Pa Race’s customs, the waste of any food was despicable. Therefore, consuming even the bones was the most moral action.

The Parlei race was an offtake of this Pa Race. They were also the most pure of the many Pa Race offtakes. After capturing the eight humans from the cursed planet, the eight humans were pulverized into meat cakes and tossed into pots to be cooked and consumed after confirming there were no cosmic adapters among them...

After consumption, Fleet Chief Pap Pap realized that these mammals were excellent food sources, as they had tender flesh and, most importantly, high soul content. They were unlike normal space lifeforms; their soul content was similar to that of cosmic adapters even though they weren’t...

On the second day, after the 8 humans were eaten, about 300 the Parlei Race babies were confirmed to have received soul, and it was a thick degree of soul. Even though there was no birth of a new cosmic adapter, and they were not expecting one, this type of soul ratio was still a great source of happiness for the Parlei Race. Therefore, even though Fleet Chief Pap Pap was afraid of the legends surrounding the cursed planet, he still gathered his personal guards and a large number of Parlei soldiers.... In reality, there was no one that was not a soldier in the Parlei Race, even the females and children could be counted as soldiers. In any case, Fleet Chief Pap Pap gathered almost 100,000 soldiers to descend on the planet. The legend of the cursed planet, the demons, the greediest civilization in the whole cosmos, had completely left Fleet Chief Pap Pap’s mind. Was the Parlei Race a civilization of cowards? Be it a godlike civilization or a civilization of demons, words would come after a skull bashing!

Just like that, on the third day, the Parlei Race’s main fleet landed on this cursed planet... It was worth noting that since the Parlei Race was the purest offshoot of the Pa Race, they had the combination of plant and animal in their genes, which made them immune to the viruses common in space, since there was no virus that could infect both animal and plant at the same time. This was also the reason why the Pa Race could grow so big in space.

On the surface of the planet, around 100,000 the Parlei soldiers either rode on their own Pa (imagine loud voice) siege engines or swarmed the plains carrying long-ranged weaponry. In conclusion, this was not an army... It was everyone for themselves!

At that time, the group of humans had hidden in the cervices after discovering the UFO. Among them, Austin observed the surveillance video before him with a drawn expression. This video came from the surveillance devices that were left on the surface a few days ago.

In the video, a group of weirdly dressed aliens was massacring on the surface. This was a group of... how shall we describe these aliens? Some were wearing something like a spacesuit, but from observation alone, it was obvious that their spacesuits were much better than human beings’. Some were completely naked too. They were about 5 meters tall and had a green complexion like plants, but muscles covered their ape-like bodies. Other than that, there were also many such aliens that had machinery attached to their bodies, like robot arcm or even robot legs that were bigger than their whole bodies. They were spider-like robot legs, caterpillar tracks, tentacle robot legs. There were all kinds of these, but the scariest was those whose bodies was almost totally mechanized...

When this group of aliens whose technology was god knows how many years ahead of human beings’ appeared on this planet, every single lifeform on the planet was torn open by them easily. They swept across the planet’s surface like a group of locusts. In almost a crazed manner, they chowed down any and all plants and animals that they met. Their cruelty and craziness sent shivers down those who were watching the video. Right then, they sighed in relief after listening to Austin’s advice that they go down a crevice that they had found. It was because of him that they were fortunate enough to avoid these locust-like aliens.

Austin studied the video until the surveillance device was destroyed for some unknown reason. He screamed and ordered, "Keep moving forward and do not stop! This is not a place for us to stay, we have to arrive at our destination before 6 PM today! This is our last hope, we must hold on to it!"

With Austin’s order, the group slowly moved forward again. They took one step after another deeper into the dark. No one knew what kind of future awaited them... death or salvation? Or would they all become nothing more than bodysuits for the alien octopuses?

Nobody really knew... They moved forward only because they were asked to and there was no better option.

On the other hand, even though the Parlei Race was called a race of barbarians, they were still a level 2 space civilization at their peak. Naturally, they would not tear through the whole planet to find their prey. They relied on their best tracking technology. Very soon, they found many tracks that led them to the mammals that lived on the planet’s surface...

A small unit comprising of 300 plus Parlei soldiers found them first. After they located about ten of these mammals using their tracking devices, all of them swarmed the small unit of mammals with a deafening roar. After a short struggle, these native mammals were taken care of easily. However, due to their battle lust... well, since they were the Parlei Race and there was no time when they were not lusting for battle, there was no living mammal left. In fact, all of them had been pulverized into meat cakes. Therefore, none of the the Parlei Race soldiers could tell how these mammals differed from the eight mammals they had captured. However, it was doubtful that these barbarians would be able to tell the difference even if they were not in meat cake form...

These ten mammals had tentacles coming out of their skulls...

After that, to not waste any food, these 300 plus Parlei Race soldiers had a happy barbeque. Combined with the luxurious host of plant and animal resources provided by the planet, the Parlei soldiers had a feast. The food, including meatballs made from the mammals’ flesh, went shuttling down their throats...

At the same time, a distance away from this cursed planet, a spaceship shaped like a chopstick appeared in space. In the spaceship, Blue 6 continued his sentence with a face full of terror.

"The term ’cursed planet’ refers to a planet that has survived the threat of a neutron star fragment. In other words, the sentient lifeforms on this life-giving planet evolved to a level 2 space civilization, left the home planet for the wide cosmos, but then they returned. Theoretically speaking, a neutron star fragment should have threatened the solar system, but due to some unknown reasons, there are a few solar systems in the cosmos that managed to avoid this fate, and the life-giving planet in this solar system is called a cursed planet...

"Why it is called a cursed planet is a secret to us low level civilizations, but we, the Blue Race, did manage to get a clue or two through our information network. This was a titbit from middle-tier civilization... it is because other than cosmic adapters, all other lifeforms that enter the proximity of the cursed planet will be demonized!

"The demons are the common enemy of all the living beings, souls, and materials in space! They are the greediest existence in all of the cosmos!"