Age of Cosmic Exploration

"What is happening?!"

Ten seconds after the last warp, this question was issued across all over the Hope. The things that unfolded before their eyes were too weird and too illogical.

Outside of the Hope, a great amount of unknown things were changing...

Unknown things, because it was hard to tell what they were. Globs of unknown gyrating masses were shifting not far away from the Hope. Some of them were illogically large, the smallest of them being several thousand square meters, while the larger ones were bigger than the Hope, as large as a small planet.

These unknown masses filled up the space around the Hope. Some of them were metallic, others looked like rocks, flesh tumors that looked suspiciously like the zerg’s mother nest, and rolling fire and ice. They were all still changing and shifting.

If there were only changes in forms, then it would not have been so surprising. After all, since they had left Earth, the people on the Hope had seen many miracles from various high tier space civilizations. For example, the trademark in the alien plant was one of them. Perhaps this kind of weird form was something high tier space civilizations wanted?

However, things were more complicated than that because the changes were simply too curious. For example, a four-legged creature would suddenly appear from a ball of flame before extending previously absent wings or changing into a giant weapon. However, the scariest was that it would change into a shapeless monster and start consuming the smaller unknown masses around it.

This kind of weird interaction was happening all over the space. The unknown masses kept morphing into unknown creatures to consume the other unknown masses around it. Some of them even morphed into creatures with obvious sexual properties and started mating in space. This was not even the weirdest of them all...

Many shapeless creatures, after consuming many unknown masses, would hug themselves and curl into eggs that would start beating like a heart...

Inside the Hope, after the initial shock, the related personnel started closely scanning the situation in space. The first thing they noticed about this curious place were the five lifeless planet revolving around the one life-preserving planet. This was something that would not happen in space. Around this one planet was where most of these unknown masses congregated. However, the other thing that attracted the Hope’s attention was that in the space further away from this planet was a fleet of spaceships. This observation sent more chills down the spines of people on the Hope compared to the earlier creepy freak show.

"Open the creator’s particle! The Hope is entering ECS system, and send out all Space Combat Jet Prototype 011s!"

Yao Yuan spotted the mass of alien spaceship as soon as they arrived and felt extreme danger within this space. He immediately ordered the Hope to set up its defenses. Next, a large amount of creator’s particle was released from the Hope and the Hope slowly disappeared from everyone’s eyes. This was the optical illusion courtesy of the ECS system. 10 seconds after that, the Space Combat Jet Prototype 011s that had been waiting flew out of the Hope. Soon, there were around a hundred of combat jets surrounding the Hope... But!

The creator’s particle suddenly disappeared!

Yes, the creator’s particles that had supposedly spread across this space suddenly disappeared. No matter how hard the Hope tried to create more creator’s particles, they all disappeared!

The first to observe this were the personnel in the surveillance room. This news was quickly brought to central command. Yao Yuan and all the people there started to break out in cold sweat, some of them even fainted from extreme pressure.

This was something that had never happened before! Ever since the creator’s particle technology landed in humans’ hands, be it the information taken from the space merchants or information given by Blue 6, there was no technology known in space that could wipe out a wide area of creator’s particle completely. The most one could do was to create a space using a creator’s particle isolator.

In other words, in the recorded wars of level 6 space civilizations, the creator’s particle remained a wall that could not be broken. This wall had protected a large number of weak space civilizations, like humans on the Hope, against enemies who had overwhelming advantages in technology, resources, or weapons. The creator’s particle was that last shred of hope at escaping, and it would not be wrong to call it the last safety measure, but at that moment, the Hope’s last safety measure had been taken away!

"Start moving! F*ck, don’t stop here! Start moving using the Hope’s biggest propulsion force available. What? Where to? F*ck, do you really have to ask that? Towards that life-preserving planet!"

Yao Yuan’s eyes were red from anger and agitation. He stood up from his captain’s chair and yelled out his orders. When the few fainted workers still lied there unmoving, he himself rushed to the control panel to help. Even Ren Tao, who was standing beside him earlier, moved to contribute.

Several seconds later, Yao Yuan started to calm down. His hands remained moving, but he asked, "Ren Tao, do you think there is a space civilization above level six? The fact that our creator’s particle has disappeared, is it... due to the presence of such a high tier space civilization?"

Ren Tao was sweating profusely beside him. Other than the fact that he had to operate something he did not quite understand, he was worried and fearful of many things. However, he took a deep breath before answering, "That is unlikely. The rarity of high tier space civilizations aside, if there is really such a high level space civilization around, this part of the space would have been wiped clean. We would not have seen these many unknown things and other space fleets floating about. If you told me that those high level space civilizations could directly convert a planet into fuel or collect all these planets into their spaceship, I would believe it. If that were the case, would we still see something like this?"

Yao Yuan had given his orders and the Hope was accelerating as he commanded. The Hope was preparing to enter warp drive to get close to the planet. Right then, he turned back to ask Bo Li, "Bo Li, could it be that something is wrong with the spaceship internally? Like the creator’s particle vibrator needs maintenance or something of that sort? Can that explain the creator’s particle situation?"

Bo Li shook her head and said, "Unlikely. The important devices within the Hope have undergone more than 10 inspections, so the chance of them breaking down is extremely low. You need not worry about that... The only explanation I can give regarding this is that this area of space is covered with creator’s particle isolators."

"Covered with creator’s particle isolators?"

Yao Yuan turned to look at the dark and empty space that spread indefinitely. How could such an empty space be filled with creator’s particle isolators? Furthermore, the isolators could not exist in nano form. The size of the machinery aside, there was also the issue of energy requirement. The isolators required a large amount of energy to operate. If they were made into nano size, their effect would probably last for a second before short circuiting.

To put it simply, before becoming a level 4 or 5 civilization, there was no way the creator’s particle isolator could be made into nano size and then spread across space. This was the natural limitation of productivity. It was something possible for high tier space civilizations only, and herein laid the question. If there was a high tier space civilization, wouldn’t it be easier and simpler for them to wipe out the entire solar system using their scientific power than waste their resources building nano isolators?

"In other words, it is unlikely that there are creator’s particle isolators spread across space, and it is not something wrong with the Hope internally... then could it be these curious masses we see before us, or there is a high level civilization’s ruin nearby?"

At that moment, Yao Yuan’s mind came up with such an answer. However, he understood that it was only speculation. After all, there were too many variables to consider. The loss of the creator’s particles could lead to many unforeseeable troubles, so much so that Yao Yuan had the thought to have the Hope immediately warp away.

Just as Yao Yuan was hesitating, the fleet of spaceships started to change as well!

It was not that they started attacking the Hope, but these spaceships started to melt... Well, melt was not exactly the right word, but they were undergoing constitutional changes. Some of them changed into rocks, others fire, ice, or more substances that humans could not name. Then they started to spread out in space, like all the spaceships were infected with some kind of disease....

The more shocking discovery was that one of the planets revolving around the life-preserving planet suddenly started to grow tumors, flesh, and tentacles...

An indescribable madness unfolded before the humans’ eyes in this dark space!