“In about three months, this asteroid will collide with that life-bearing planet. Hm… I’m very curious to see what measures this primitive Level 2 Civilization will take to respond in that time. Oh, right. To help them discover it a little sooner, I should do a bit of tinkering,” Xiao Yu thought.
With this idea, the few Town-Class ships that had originally been prepared to destroy the asteroid changed their objective. They flew over the asteroid but did not fire their weapons. Instead, they sprayed a quantity of bright silver liquid.
Once released, this substance was rapidly cooled by the frigid vacuum of space, solidifying across the asteroid’s surface. The ships circled it once, coating its entire body in this liquid layer.
As a result, the asteroid’s overall color turned mirror-like silver, and its albedo increased by several dozen times. This would make it reflect starlight far more effectively and be easier for the intelligent beings on the planet to detect.
Satisfied with this little project, Xiao Yu finally withdrew his attention.
In the asteroid belt, the ferocious battle continued. Now that the asteroid had been destroyed, the Level 4 Alien Beast had lost all cover. Its enormous body was completely exposed to Xiao Yu’s fleet assault.
The engagement had lasted nearly half an hour already. In that time, Xiao Yu had lost at least a thousand small ships and more than five County-Class vessels. Fortunately, none of the larger City-Class or Province-Class ships had been lost.
After all, Xiao Yu was almost at the level of a Tier 5 Civilization, and in overall strength, this beast was inferior to him. If it didn’t try to escape, Xiao Yu was confident he could kill it within ten hours.
But reality disappointed him.
After yet another Town-Class ship blasted off one of its tentacles, the Level 4 Alien Beast’s body flickered and charged straight toward the weakest point in Xiao Yu’s formation. Several Village- and Town-Class ships tried to intercept, but they were destroyed in an instant.“It’s trying to flee,” Xiao Yu realized immediately. But he had no intention of trying to block it. He knew that if the creature truly wished to escape, there was no way he could stop it.
“This lesson should be enough. Hopefully it will stay quiet for a while,” Xiao Yu thought to himself. “A thousand small ships don’t matter, I can replace them anytime. As long as it stops bothering me, that’s enough.”
“Despicable technological civilization… just wait. I’ll be back for you,” came a cold, venomous message echoing in Xiao Yu’s mind. Through the tachyon probes, he watched as the Level 4 Alien Beast rapidly fled toward the outer star systems.
“Crazy thing. Not worth my time.” Xiao Yu snorted disdainfully and didn’t bother replying.
At last granted a temporary peace, Xiao Yu gathered his fleet and began heading once more toward the life-bearing planet.
“I’ll stay hidden for now. When the asteroid is about to strike, I’ll reveal myself. In the meantime, I’ll carefully observe their civilization,” Xiao Yu reflected, quietly maneuvering to the far side of the planet’s moon and establishing a base.
Like Earth’s moon, this satellite was tidally locked by the planet’s gravity, with its rotation and revolution periods synchronized so that one side always faced the planet. By settling on the far side, Xiao Yu had no need to worry about being discovered.
However, he did spot several orbiting probes circling the moon at low altitude.
“Perhaps they’ve already noticed me,” Xiao Yu thought. “But it doesn’t matter. For a primitive civilization, the first discovery of alien life is an overwhelming shock. If that were made public, it would cause social upheaval. So I can be certain that even if they’ve detected me, that information will stay restricted to the highest levels of their society and never reach ordinary people. Consider it a bit of psychological preparation, a prelude to my coming appearance.”
That was Xiao Yu’s plan.
And so, on this moon, Xiao Yu unreservedly began constructing a large base. Various mining facilities, smelting plants, and foundries all commenced construction one after another.
While building, Xiao Yu also used radio transmissions to link up with several satellites orbiting the planet.
“As expected, the development of civilizations always follows certain parallels, especially when it comes to technological civilizations. Their level of technology should be just slightly ahead of humanity during Earth’s era, but not by much. Their computers still use binary systems. In that case… taking over this satellite will be easy.”
With the support of Xiao Yu’s vast computational power, it took him less than one second to completely seize control of the satellite without affecting its normal operations in any way. Using this satellite as a relay, Xiao Yu extended his consciousness down to the planet’s surface installations…
In the blink of an eye, he acquired an immense amount of data.
“Carbon-based organisms. Once mature, they stand about 1.4 meters tall, with an average weight around 80 kilograms. Hm… their muscles and bones have much higher density than humans, so their bodies don’t appear bulky. This is probably due to the slightly stronger gravity on this planet compared to Earth. As for their anatomy, it can be broadly divided into several systems: neural tissues, respiratory tissues, digestive tissues… all quite straightforward, not much different from humans.”
“Oh, nations have already disappeared? The entire world has merged together? That’s promising, this civilization has real potential. The unification of nations means the elimination of internal friction. They can devote more focus to space exploration and technological advancement, and it saves me a lot of trouble. Otherwise, after moving them all onto my ships, I would have had to think about how to integrate them.”
Xiao Yu browsed the flood of information with great interest and in an excellent mood.
“Perhaps I should go see for myself,” Xiao Yu considered. “The network connected to this satellite is just a local network, physically isolated from their external internet. I can’t get a deeper understanding of their social structure.”
Of course, when Xiao Yu thought of going in person, he didn’t mean bringing the Yanjing down. Although, having mastered antigravity technology, the Yanjing no longer feared planetary gravity and could descend directly to a planet’s surface like a science fiction movie from Earth’s era, doing so would be too shocking. Xiao Yu worried it might scare these adorable little creatures to death.
Under Xiao Yu’s control, a small Village-Class ship quietly departed the moon base. It skillfully evaded several orbiting satellites and slipped into the planet’s atmosphere.
At this time, the hemisphere was in darkness. Just like many Earth creatures, the organisms of this world were diurnal and rested during the night. Xiao Yu’s arrival attracted no attention at all.
The Village-Class ship hovered beside a river, silently suspending itself only two meters above the ground. Its bottom hatch opened, and three armed robots slowly disembarked.
Xiao Yu believed that if this scene had been filmed and shown to people in Earth’s era, it would have been an absolutely perfect opening sequence for a science fiction movie, requiring no editing whatsoever.
He found the thought faintly amusing.
“Intelligent life is almost always social. Because sapient creatures aren’t known for physical strength, they cluster together and depend on shared intelligence to survive. Hm… this must be the outskirts. If I search nearby, there should be intelligent lifeforms here. I’ll capture one to bring back.”
After the three robots disembarked, the Village-Class ship silently rose into the sky and vanished. The three machines made some minor adjustments to adapt to the planet’s gravity, then split up to search in different directions.
“The composition of this planet’s atmosphere isn’t identical to Earth’s, but it has some similarities. Oxygen concentration is lower, while helium content is significantly higher,” Xiao Yu noted as he analyzed the data transmitted by the robots and continued directing their advance.
“This place… if I’m not mistaken, it should be some kind of plantation. These plants must be their food.” Xiao Yu speculated. “In that case, there must be intelligent life nearby.”
As expected, his prediction was soon confirmed. After the robots walked about a kilometer, a low, crude building came into view.
“For my robots, it’s definitely a bit cramped. But given that the local intelligent life is only about 1.4 meters tall on average, this would be perfectly adequate for them.”
Xiao Yu carefully maneuvered the robots closer. Before they even reached the building, the sonic detectors picked up a rhythmic thump-thump-thump.
Activating the infrared sensors, Xiao Yu saw in the darkness a creature about the size of an Earth cat barking fiercely at his robots. If not for the rope tied around its body, it would have charged them already.
“A dog? But the sound is so strange… capture it.” Xiao Yu thought in amusement and ordered one robot to advance. It discharged a jolt of electricity, and the creature, functionally equivalent to a dog, collapsed unconscious.
“Who’s there? Trying to steal? You’ve got a death wish!”
The building’s lights snapped on, and a native intelligent being appeared in the doorway.
All three robots turned to look at it. For an instant, their eyes met.
“Ahhh!”
A shrill, terrified scream tore through the night.