Chapter 0 The Bold Explorer Reveals Fragments of the Past

The fragments revealed by [The Bold Explorer] brought a massive amount of information, causing Han Xiao's heart to surge with surprise and wonder.

His understanding of the World Tree Civilization came solely from the war versions of his previous life. He only knew a rough outline of the World Tree Civilization's specific history because the information known by the player community in his previous life was quite limited.

However, some basic information was clear. The World Tree Civilization's path to prominence was essentially a history of war, constantly exploring the universe, conquering, and destroying countless civilizations and races. The three major civilizations were not the first to be discovered and were not special in the World Tree's eyes; they were merely another prey on the road to conquest.

Through the vision just now, Han Xiao roughly pieced together the origins of this machine.

This unknown civilization should have been the overlord of a certain region in the unexplored universe. The scale shown in the vision was not inferior to any of the three major civilizations. The three major civilizations were entrenched in the explored universe, only ruling this area, while other civilizations existed in the more vast unexplored universe. This was why the three major civilizations were constantly exploring outward, expanding their territory.

Although the explored universe had already entered the era of interstellar society, if the perspective was infinitely magnified, the entire universe was still in the "Age of Exploration."

And on a certain day in the past, the World Tree discovered this unknown civilization, so it crossed the starry sky, launched a large-scale invasion, ignited the flames of war, and gradually devoured the other side's territory. The World Tree's method of invasion was not simple occupation; most of the time, it completely swallowed the enemy's planets, like a gluttonous beast that ate everything and only took in without ever giving back. Therefore, lost territory was almost impossible to recover.

The opponent either resisted the offensive or retreated step by step, shrinking its lines. The planets that produced resources became fewer and fewer, turning into nourishment for the World Tree, creating a vicious cycle. The three major civilizations in his previous life also faced the same situation.

Obviously, this unknown civilization was not the World Tree's opponent in terms of military power, so it tried to seek a breakthrough in individual power. Countless mechanics voluntarily sacrificed themselves, using a Super-A grade individual as the core, and through some kind of strange fusion technology, attempted to create an even more powerful individual.

Although the only source of information was the vision, Han Xiao felt that the goal of this unknown civilization was to artificially create a transcendent being beyond the Super-A grade, becoming a breakthrough in the overall situation!

However, the vision did not show whether it succeeded. It only showed that the final result was that this machine was beaten to scrap, fell into a black hole, and disappeared, not falling into the hands of the World Tree. And this unknown civilization was eventually destroyed, and even the universe area it was in was swallowed up, leaving no trace, becoming another victim under the World Tree.

"What a terrifying enemy..."

Han Xiao mourned for this unknown civilization for a few seconds and sighed softly.

For a civilization to develop to a cosmic scale, it had to go through countless changes and disasters. It stumbled all the way, creating a brilliant and dazzling culture, but the inheritance and hard work of countless generations were so easily destroyed and disappeared into the universe.

Countless years of foundation, all lost in one day.

Although he had witnessed the terror of the World Tree Civilization before, seeing this scene again still gave Han Xiao a lot of pressure, and his mood became heavy.

If he didn't know the other party's terribleness, he wouldn't have tried his best to delay the arrival of the World Tree. Even now that he had many trump cards that he didn't have in his previous life, he wouldn't dare say that he was 100% sure of winning this war.

'Now is not the time to worry about this. What's coming will always come, sooner or later...'

Han Xiao shook his head, exhaled softly, and refocused his attention on this machine.

"This big guy's level is very high, probably above 400, but the feeling it gives me is that it shouldn't have reached a higher level..."

Han Xiao pondered to himself.

Although he had not yet entered a higher level, he also had a lot of insights. Divine Transformation should be an unavoidable threshold.

The path of this unknown civilization was to forcibly use quantitative change to promote qualitative change and complete the promotion. Therefore, a large number of mechanics were sacrificed, but the life level of this machine did not seem to have sublimated.

Even if Han Xiao didn't understand the technical principles used by this unknown civilization for the time being, it didn't prevent him from intuitively feeling that this path had gone astray. It was more like a desperate gamble.

Therefore, the overall level of this thing was probably falsely high, just like having multiple "sub-classes," which divided a lot of levels, and the actual combat power did not undergo earth-shattering changes.

However, there was definitely progress. It may have touched the edge of a higher level... But being beaten to scrap by the World Tree in this state was still a bit scary.

"However, this machine contains the essence of a large number of mechanics from an unknown civilization. If reverse engineering is carried out, a lot of new technologies should be derived, especially this kind of strange fusion technology, which has something in common with the convicts, but has embarked on another path..."

Han Xiao's eyes lit up slightly.

The value of this machine may not be less than the Jess Technology Treasure, and it was full of the technical essence of different mechanics.

Among them, the most valuable was this fusion technology. He might not be able to use it, but maybe he could use it to create something new.

Just as his thoughts were racing, Aurora, who was beside him, saw that Han Xiao had been studying for a long time without saying anything, and couldn't help but curiously asked:

"Did you find anything?"

Han Xiao came back to his senses, nodded, and smiled: "You gave me a surprise this time."

Saying that, he looked deeply at Fording on the side, his smile even thicker.

To run into such a thing, Fording was indeed his lucky star!

He estimated that this machine had gone through some twists and turns and eventually fell into the explored universe through a wormhole.

This star field was named the Black Hole Boundary, which was a frequent occurrence of large wormholes, so this was not uncommon.

The reason why this machine was not exposed in his previous life was not necessarily because no one had encountered it, but there was also a possibility that it had not been thrown into the explored universe by a wormhole. This should have nothing to do with his butterfly effect, after all, wormholes themselves were highly random.

But now, this big guy was encountered by Fording... Han Xiao could only sigh again at Fording's luck, which was simply a walking external "adventure trigger."

Aurora came over and pestered Han Xiao to get to the bottom of it. Han Xiao thought about it, omitted most of the origins, and ambiguously explained the nature of this machine, pretending that the results were obtained through technical analysis.

"So, this big guy should be seriously injured and dormant now?"

Aurora's eyes rolled, and she eagerly tried:

"Then do you want me to inject life force and let him recover?"

As soon as she finished speaking, before Han Xiao could answer, the panel suddenly moved and a prompt popped up.

[You have triggered the hidden mission [Distant Visitor]!]

[Mission Introduction: You accidentally discovered a peculiar machine wreck from an unknown civilization. This wreck still has a faint life response and seems to hide many secrets. Perhaps you can obtain some valuable information from it.]

[Mission Requirements: Repair the machine and wake it up.]

[Basic Reward: 50 billion experience, random reward x2, character card x1]

[Additional rewards depend on the mission evaluation, and the mission evaluation depends on the degree of machine repair.]

[Note: This mission may affect the development of certain events and cause unpredictable effects. Please choose carefully.]

'This can even trigger a mission?'

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes.

Now this machine was in an unconscious state and seriously damaged. He didn't know if it still had independent consciousness. If it was healed back, there would be many more unstable factors.

On the one hand, the information about the World Tree would probably be known to everyone by this guy, and on the other hand, this guy's strength was unknown and might pose a threat. The unknown effects mentioned in the mission notes should be the consideration of these two aspects.

Moreover, if this machine recovered its ability to move, how could he reverse engineer it? Of course, an individual that could not move was the most convenient for research. He could put it in whatever position he wanted!

For both emotional and rational reasons, Han Xiao did not intend to disrupt his plan with this mission and shook his head.

"No need, keep the status quo for now. I'll pull this thing back and study it thoroughly."

"Okay, call me when you need me." Aurora didn't mind.

Although she was the first to discover this machine, she didn't mind handing over the disposal rights to Han Xiao. The situation was sensitive now, and she didn't want to cause trouble for Han Xiao.

Han Xiao nodded, came to the edge of this narrow wound, and tried to open the secondary dimension armory from the outside.

Arcs of mechanical force jumped and flickered, like golden snakes dancing wildly in the sky, opening a spatial door. A large number of mechanical soldiers flew out—this strange field only blocked the actions of the main universe environment and did not block the secondary dimensions like the All Star Cluster dimension.

Soon, these mechanical soldiers dispersed and acted on the surface of the machine like small ants, looking for the core device that maintained this field.

Han Xiao planned to recover this machine first, so as not to let it drift in the universe and be discovered by someone else. This space blocked conventional movement, but not the quantum network, otherwise Aurora would not have been able to easily send the message back.

One scanning report after another was transmitted to Han Xiao. Before long, the entire machine was scanned. Most of the mechanical devices were dormant, and only a small area deep in the chest was still operating. One of the equipment groups was the device that activated the field.

The mechanical soldiers quickly drilled a hole in the chest of the machine and turned off the device from inside.

Buzz!

In the next moment, the field closed, and the surrounding dark space suddenly disappeared, turning back into the normal starry sky.

"It's unlocked."

Han Xiao nodded secretly, summoned the engineering machinery team, set up a directional wormhole guide, and set the coordinates to the mechanical life civilization of the Black Star Army's territory.

After a while, a huge wormhole appeared in front of him. The mechanical troops pushed the machine into the wormhole. A few minutes later, Han Xiao received a message from You Zu, confirming that he had received the goods.

Han Xiao then recalled all the troops, cleared the traces at the scene, turned to look at Aurora, and nodded with a smile:

"Your discovery this time is very helpful to me. I'll remember your contribution."

Aurora's eyes lit up. "Then are there any rewards?"

"What do you want? As long as it's not too much, I can agree."

"Um... I haven't thought about it yet. I'll tell you when I think about it." Aurora smiled playfully.

"Okay, I'll owe you a request."

Han Xiao shook his head helplessly, put on the Emperor, and teleported home directly, unable to wait to study the technical secrets of the aggregate machine.

He had a feeling that he might get unexpected gains from this machine.

And Aurora and Fording stayed where they were, staring at each other.

After half a minute, Aurora opened her mouth faintly:

"What are you looking at? Aren't you going to start the ship?"

"...Are we going to continue traveling?" Fording's mouth twitched.

"Of course! This time we helped Black Star again. Maybe there will be new discoveries next time!"

Aurora was full of enthusiasm.

She had lived under the protection of Black Star and Hela for too long and had always wanted to help Han Xiao. Now that she had finally made a contribution, she only felt full of motivation, and her enthusiasm for exploration continued to rise.

"Can you change Nilo over..." Fording said weakly.

He had been wandering outside with Aurora for more than a year, unable to return home, and had become a Dayu against his will.

If he had known that he would be captured by Aurora and act as a tool man for so long, he wouldn't have separated Morning Star. A close spiritual communication had now turned into a long-distance relationship...

If you asked how he felt, he was quite regretful now!

--

(When I looked today, *The Legendary Mechanic* has slowly risen to the Four-Star Hall of Fame after about a year. It's so stable. Thank you for your support, brothers~ (*｀▽´*))