Chapter 183 The Unknown Aggregate

Buzz—

Just then, the throne gathering dust in the spaceship's cabin suddenly flashed with light, and Han Xiao, clad in the Emperor’s Mech Suit, made a dazzling appearance.

With a whoosh, the helmet opened, revealing Han Xiao’s face. He asked curiously, “What major discovery is it that warranted you calling me over specifically?”

“You’re a mechanical expert, come take a look at that big guy outside and tell us what it is,” Aurora said, pointing to the window.

Actually, without her prompting, Han Xiao had noticed the anomaly of their surroundings the moment he spoke. Following Aurora’s finger, he spotted the bizarre mech at first glance.

“Yo, that’s big! A fusion of biology and machinery, kind of like a living mech suit, but not quite… What is this thing? Where did you guys find it?”

After only a glance, Han Xiao was astonished.

He didn't know what this thing was either. It looked many times larger than his Mechanical Deity's normal form, and its body was covered in wounds, as if it had suffered all kinds of cosmic disasters.

“We stumbled upon it suddenly. This space seems to be a closed-off domain…”

Fording explained the ins and outs from the side.

Han Xiao nodded, stroking his chin as he pondered.

“Sounds like this mech has been maintaining a strange domain. You guys accidentally broke into it. If it’s mechanical technology, it should be a high-level application of spatial technology, creating a constant folded field around the mech, or altering certain physical constants within this domain. It’s very advanced technology.”

“But the spaceship's detection instruments didn’t react at all,” Aurora said, patting the console.

“Let me see…”

Han Xiao checked and found that the instruments were all running normally, his eyes flashing.

“Hmm, either the instruments are experiencing virtual interference, or the other party has some amazing cloaking technology. Either way, the tech level is extraordinary…”

Aurora's ride was packed with black technology from the Jace treasure trove, but it was now being fooled. Han Xiao immediately took it seriously.

“Could it be some kind of cosmic phenomenon?” Fording wondered.

“Don’t jump to conclusions so quickly…” Han Xiao waved his hand, taking control, and said, “Since the spaceship can’t move backward, let’s try moving forward to get closer to this big guy.”

“Are you sure?” Aurora hesitated. “I sense a faint life signal from it, but no matter what kind of information I send, I get no response…”

“This big guy is alive?”

Han Xiao was taken aback, and a strong interest arose in him.

He knew Aurora’s ability well, and she rarely made mistakes in her perception.

He originally thought this was the wreckage of some giant mechanical body carelessly discarded by some civilization or mechanic, but if this mech was alive, things got interesting…

“Let’s go take a look.”

Han Xiao hesitated for only two seconds before making a decision, controlling the spaceship to move forward.

Sure enough, this dark domain seemed to only allow forward movement. The spaceship slowly approached the target.

The closer they got, the more intense the size comparison became. The mech’s detailed outline continued to enlarge in their vision, making them feel the insignificance of their own size.

After a while, the spaceship stopped inside a narrow, elongated hole on the mech’s finger, like a super-sized cave extending thousands of meters into the mech’s body.

The hatch opened, and the group stepped off the spaceship, onto the rugged ground.

The ground was a tangle of flesh and machinery, one step soft, one step hard, making it very uncomfortable to walk on.

Han Xiao squatted down, inserted his fingers into a piece of flesh, felt the texture, and observed the muscle fibers. He nodded and said,

“Muscle, tendons, and fat are all here. The texture looks like normal biological tissue, not artificial bio-tendons…”

As he spoke, he exerted a little force with his fingers, and the muscle actually seeped a little blood.

Han Xiao looked up and saw traces of congealed blood stains around the flesh, appearing black and smeared, scattered like blood splashed out by a sudden slash.

His eyes flashed, and he suddenly thought of Old Man Mek’s criminal modification technology. This mech was somewhat similar to the criminal modification's form of biological modification and bio-mech suits.

Just then, Fording’s voice suddenly rang out.

“Black Star, I don’t feel so good…”

Han Xiao and Aurora turned to look and saw Fording clutching his chest, his brow furrowed, his expression seemingly uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong?”

Han Xiao’s heart tightened.

He reached out and poked Fording, triggering the battle information, and his expression changed slightly after seeing it clearly.

In Fording’s status bar, there was a negative status called 【Dissolving】, with the effect of draining 0.01%~0.5% of his health, energy, and stamina per second. However, under the influence of his halo of luck, he only suffered the weakest negative effect.

‘Why didn’t this reaction occur earlier? Could it be that this status only appears when entering the mech’s interior?’

Han Xiao’s eyes narrowed. He opened his panel and glanced at it, discovering that he didn’t have the 【Dissolving】 status, not even a judgment prompt.

Could this effect only target those below Super A Grade? Is it limited to living beings or does it include inanimate objects?

He turned to look at the spaceship parked nearby, and after a simple inspection, he discovered that the spaceship’s outer armor showed a faint tendency to corrode and dissolve. It should be known that the material used for this spaceship was extremely tough, even incorporating some Black Star alloy and having its own recovery ability, yet it couldn’t avoid the 【Dissolving】 status…

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, a guess forming in his mind.

“This domain can only be entered, not exited. Whether it’s living or non-living, entering the mech will trigger dissolving. It feels a bit like a Venus flytrap. Interesting. I'm afraid this is a trap drifting through the universe. People who accidentally stumble upon it can’t escape, and they all become its nutrients…”

Fortunately, there was a healer with plenty of mana in the team, otherwise it would be a little troublesome.

He signaled Aurora to heal Fording, while he conjured a metal needle and thrust it deeply into the flesh on the wall, trying to cause damage. If this big guy was an independent entity, it should display battle information.

Ding!

The next moment, the panel moved slightly, and a prompt popped up as expected.

Han Xiao opened it and his expression changed.

The mech’s level, species, and abilities were all question marks, only the name wasn’t a question mark, but it didn't make much difference either, called 【Unknown Aggregate】.

—This thing’s level is actually so high?!

Even for those like Manison and Sorokin whose total levels were higher than his, he could now see some of their information, but the fact that almost all of this mech’s information was question marks could only prove that the level gap was too large. In the currently explored universe, Han Xiao estimated that only Urnos had such a high level.

“What on earth is this thing…”

Han Xiao’s curiosity grew stronger.

He didn’t recall anything about this mech in his memories. Logically, such a unique thing shouldn’t have gone unnoticed in his previous life. He didn't know if it hadn't been discovered or if someone had secretly hidden it.

Han Xiao didn’t have time to care about Aurora and Fording. He focused on research. He tore off a mass of flesh from the ground and broke off a few mechanical parts, then activated the mech's built-in material detector to scan and analyze the two.

Before long, two analysis reports were released.

The first was the analysis result of the mechanical parts, showing a very novel microstructure. There were no matching materials in the database, proving that the mech’s material seemed to be some kind of unknown alloy.

The second file was the analysis of the flesh, which did not detect matching biological genes, proving that the source of the flesh was likely not from known species of the explored universe. However, the presence of Supergene was detected, which was highly matched with the Mechanic class. Although the cell activity was extremely weak, it seemed to contain extremely weak electromagnetic energy.

Han Xiao’s heart stirred. He tore off a lot more flesh for testing, and each piece had Supergene, all mechanic class cells.

“So all this flesh comes from mechanics…”

Han Xiao recalled the mech’s size and his face twitched slightly.

If the flesh on the mech was from the same person, it would be fine, but if it came from different individuals… with such a large size, how many mechanic bodies would it take to construct it?

“Should I try probing it?”

Han Xiao shook his head, weighing the flesh in his hand. After hesitating for a moment, he activated the 【Bold Explorer】 skill.

This skill was useless on people, but this mech seemed a little different. A piece of flesh that had already been separated had a high probability of passing the judgment.

As he expected, the skill took effect the next moment.

Buzz—

The world before Han Xiao’s eyes suddenly changed, and scenes he had never seen before began to flash back.

As if a starry sky was spread out before him, a star civilization of unparalleled glory came into view—fleets crisscrossed the starry sky, their territories expanding outward, planets turning into colonial regions, and cities rising from barren planets. Countless spaceships came and went between planets, a scene of prosperity that seemed comparable to a cosmos civilization.

However, the next moment, a wormhole rift spanning the starry sky suddenly appeared, and an endless unknown fleet invaded on a large scale, spreading the flames of war to this peaceful civilization. Blood, slaughter, and screams replaced the original prosperity.

As the invaders advanced, illusory deep green roots probed out of nothing, like straws inserted into planets that fell into the hands of the invaders, and these planets melted, shrank, and decayed at a visible rate, eventually turning into liquid nutrients and being completely sucked away by the roots, leaving nothing behind.

“This is…”

Han Xiao’s pupils shrank.

He was too familiar with this scene. It was simply a replica of the World Tree War!

Invading this unknown civilization was none other than the World Tree civilization!

Before he could think more, the illusionary scene before his eyes changed, coming to a cosmic space.

A large number of mechanics gathered here, sitting cross-legged in the starry sky, followed by their respective mechanical legions, forming spectacular formations, surrounded by ring-shaped mechanical devices that enveloped the area.

A Mechanical Deity suddenly appeared in the center of the crowd, emitting a strange energy wave that enveloped the audience and resonated with the ring-shaped mechanical devices.

Suddenly, all the mechanics in the area exploded into pure flesh, mixed with their respective legions, then turned into torrents, all pouring into the Mechanical Deity in the center… The Mechanical Deity’s size grew bigger and bigger, eventually becoming a towering mech, flesh and metal perfectly fused, the appearance of which was like a heaven-supporting mechanical mech suit giant!

Before Han Xiao could be surprised, the scene changed again in the next second. The giant mech that was still intact in the previous second suddenly became tattered, as if it had experienced countless battles. Its appearance was very familiar, precisely the mech that Han Xiao and his group had encountered.

The damaged mech seemed to be scrapped, losing all power, slowly drifting in the universe, and was finally captured by a giant black hole, swallowed into it, and disappeared without a trace.

At this time, the perspective became macroscopic again. The territory of the unknown civilization had completely turned into a darkness, almost cleaner than the barren universe belt, with no stars to be seen.

The World Tree civilization’s fleet, like well-fed diners, leisurely retreated, leaving only an empty, dark universe.

This scene was the last picture of the illusion.

Han Xiao shuddered, the skill effect faded, the illusions all disappeared, and the vision returned to normal.

His eyes still held a look of surprise as he murmured to himself:

“It seems I’ve discovered something incredible…”