Chapter 42: Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind

　　(one)

　　”Are you crazy?”

　　Kolev was calm.

　　Because he felt he heard wrongly.

　　Personally own a habitable planet?

　　What kind of interstellar joke is the imperial princess marrying the son of the new federal speaker!

　　”It depends on people,” Hamilton said. “If it wasn’t such a challenging job, how could I invite you? A living legend of a certain profession, Mr. Hatton.”

　　”That’s true,” Kolev chuckled and walked back calmly on a cane, “I’ve robbed all kinds of things in my life, but I’ve never robbed an entire planet. I need more. information sharing.”

　　Hamilton nodded: “I actually already have a plan, it’s like this...”

　　”Wait, wait!”

　　Kolev’s old eyes were full of light:

　　”Don’t try to fool around! I have promised you that I will be your assistant, and now it’s time for you to share your secrets and share your bargaining chips! Hamilton, it’s time for you to show it to me, that advanced civilization!”

　　Hamilton:...

　　This old man is getting harder and harder to fool.

　　”Okay, if you insist.”

　　Hamilton touched his chin and muttered:

　　”I need to think carefully about how to tell you my experience and what key information I should hide.

　　”If you choose not to help me after I tell you this, I will erase your memory of the last half hour, so that even if your brain is scanned one day, my trump card will not be exposed.”

　　”Come on, who can get memories by just scanning the brain?” Kolev said, “That’s just an immature scientific experiment.”

　　”The Empire should be able to do it.”

　　Hamilton simply said: “Okay, I’ll start after we separate, open that thing ... you actually like the pink color.”

　　Kolev cursed: “This comes with the instrument! This thing is originally a military contraband. It would be great if I can get one!”

　　Lu’s clear and smart voice suddenly sounded: “Boss, your elderly assistant’s underwear and socks are also pink.”

　　Kolev’s old face turned red and he hesitated for a long time, saying things like ‘What’s wrong with pink’ and ‘This is just a normal color’.

　　Hamilton smiled and slumped back in the large retro wooden chair, with memories in his eyes.

　　He spoke briskly:

　　”After we separated, I replenished fresh water and food in the free port, sailed continuously for more than twenty galactic days, and went through four somewhat risky jumps, heading towards the coordinate point I had obtained by chance.

　　”New Imperial Calendar: 724.05.30.

　　”This is my departure time.”

　　(two)

　　The tracks drawn on the star map were erased bit by bit, and the Feinan sailed into the no-man’s land of non-commercial lines. Hamilton also started to activate the floating rudder and drove manually half the time.

　　The radar is turned on to maximum power.

　　Take full advantage of the gravitational slingshot effect to increase energy reserves.

　　The radio was switched to full-channel reception mode to prevent himself from straying into a military restricted area.

　　The previously set coordinate points were getting closer and closer, and Hamilton could already find several unique ‘road signs’ on the enlarged star map.

　　He first passed by a broken rogue planet. One-third of the planet’s body was blown into pieces, and a long meteorite belt spread toward space.

　　——Rogue planets refer to planets that have not been captured by stars. They are generally relatively rare. This rogue planet is likely to be dragged here by interstellar civilization.

　　Continuing from the broken wandering planet, Hamilton spent two galactic days to reach the second road sign.

　　This is the wreckage of a giant abandoned battleship. All valuable items have been removed from it, leaving only the hollow skeleton and the outer armor riddled with holes.

　　This giant battleship is 25,0 meters long and has a small city inside it.

　　It may be something left over from the last civilization era, which has provided many advanced ancient civilizations to the current galactic civilization, or it may have been a symbol of a powerful country that became lonely due to the demise of the political system.

　　Hamilton deliberately avoided this giant battleship wreckage.

　　He was worried that there would be a detector from some force nearby. He just needed to pass this thing to confirm that he was not going the wrong way.

　　When playing “Abyss”, the player’s navigation is not so troublesome. Generally, the target point is reached as soon as the eyes are closed or opened.

　　This is a huge difference that Hamilton cannot understand now.

　　Continuing to sail forward for a day and a half, after passing the second relatively intact rogue planet, Hamilton gradually approached the destination of his trip.

　　A dark gray dust cloud lies flat in the gravitational equilibrium region.

　　Feinan began to slow down slowly and slowly passed above the dust cloud.

　　Omnic Twilight is hiding here.

　　”No. 2, analyze the composition of the dust cloud.”

　　”A good captain is mainly composed of broken ice, with a small amount of rock debris and dust particles. The vicinity is in a near-equilibrium gravitational area. It is not enough to form planetesimals, and no area that can accumulate heat has been detected.”

　　Molly Two’s voice is cold and clear.

　　Hamilton said: “Detecting gravitational anomalies, no matter how weak the anomaly is, needs to be reported.”

　　”Yes, Captain.”

　　Molly Two started working diligently.

　　But Hamilton did not let Feinan stop. Instead, he followed the direction in his memory and headed towards the center of the dust cloud.

　　The spacecraft sank slightly, and the small sounds of the hull being hit by broken ice continued one after another.

　　”Captain, there is a gravitational anomaly ahead, and the range is very small.”

　　”Can you detect what’s causing it?”

　　”We lack the corresponding equipment and cannot detect it,” Molly No. 2 answered immediately.

　　Hamilton nodded.

　　Then you can only rely on yourself.

　　The spacecraft slowed down again and slowly submerged into the dust cloud. Hamilton seemed to be in a sea of ​​clouds, advancing slowly and steadily toward the middle level of the dust cloud.

　　The subtle collision sounds became clearer.

　　”Captain, do you want to turn on the protective shield?”

　　”Don’t turn it on.”

　　Hamilton whispered, staring straight ahead.

　　The dust cloud blocking his view suddenly disappeared, and the ship fell into a pure vacuum.

　　Just when Hamilton was a little disappointed and felt that he had overshot and rushed out of the dust cloud, he suddenly froze.

　　The spaceship stopped moving.

　　The engine was running normally, all instrument indexes were normal, and the radar was working. But at this moment, the 130-meter-long-axis exploration spacecraft suddenly lost all kinetic energy and acceleration and hovered in the middle of the dust cloud.

　　This is a square vacuum space, about 20 kilometers long, wide and high, with Feinan at the center.

　　”No. 2 ... are we still?”

　　”From a physical perspective, that’s true,” Molly No. 2 immediately replied, “There is insufficient information in the database to provide corresponding analysis.”

　　Even though it was Hamilton who came here on his own initiative, he still felt a little uneasy at this moment.

　　He remembered that the ‘Chosen One’ did not encounter so many problems.

　　That guy flew into the dust cloud, discovered an abnormal space vortex, and after getting in, he found an abandoned highly automated mechanical city.

　　”There is a flow of information arriving on our ship,” Molly Two reminded.

　　Before she could finish her words, the projection screen in front of Hamilton turned pitch black, lines of numbers and text flashed rapidly, and finally a series of imperial lingua franca appeared.

　　[Civilization information ... has been accessed. 】

　　[Civilized terminology ... has been changed. 】

　　[Inquiry begins. 】

　　[Low-level life form, please use the most concise language to describe your purpose of coming here. 】

　　Purpose?

　　Hamilton frowned and looked at the projection screen in front of him.

　　He didn’t like this interrogation-like tone, especially the word ‘low-level life form’.

　　Da da da, this time there was a typing sound effect on the projection screen.

　　[If I find that there is a lie in your answer, you will lose this opportunity. 】

　　”I’m here to find answers, and I also want to get benefits,” Hamilton thought for a few seconds before answering, “This is an adventure and a redemption ... Number 2, help me convert it into words.”

　　Molly No. 2 did not respond.

　　Da da da.

　　[Your simple and primitive assisted driving program has been put into protective hibernation. Its program is too primitive. I can understand your language. 】

　　[The following is the second question. 】

　　[Will you allow me to scan your brain completely? 】

　　”Not allowed,” Hamilton replied decisively.

　　[Very good, you have the autonomy of consciousness and are qualified to continue communicating with me. 】

　　[The third question. 】

　　[What are you trying to redeem? 】

　　”My family, myself, everything I care about, who knows.”

　　Hamilton exhaled softly:

　　”I don’t know what I’m trying to save. I just want to live and do something to save my parents and friends.”

　　[I need to remind you that once a carbon-based lower life form is brain-dead, even if it has a complete molecular structure diagram of the body, it will be difficult to reproduce the same personality. 】

　　[Thinking bodies born from the same structure and different time dimensions are fundamentally different. 】

　　”I can’t fully explain it to you because I don’t understand it either.”

　　Hamilton said slowly:

　　”This is the answer I’m trying to find.

　　”I don’t know if they are dead now, or if they are still living in some unknown corner at this moment.

　　”But I felt like if I didn’t do something, they might still suffer in the future.”

　　There was no typing sound for several minutes.

　　Hamilton looked at the flashing cursor on the screen in front of him.

　　Did he mess up?

　　The ‘Chosen One’ didn’t say there were any assessment items ... What the hell is this?

　　[Did you get here by mistake? 】

　　”This is more than three questions,” Hamilton said.

　　[I would like to ask you a few more questions to determine whether to accept you. 】

　　Hamilton frowned tightly.

　　He felt that now he could only follow his intuition and not lie, but tell ‘part of the truth’.

　　”I didn’t enter by mistake. I know there is something hidden here. I thought it would be a treasure and I came here specifically to find it.”

　　[Can you understand the value here? 】

　　”I don’t understand. You didn’t introduce yourself.”

　　[Interesting low-level life form, I need to scan your energy level to determine your danger level. This will avoid your private parts. Do you accept it? 】

　　”accept.”

　　Hamilton is quite confident in his heart.

　　Captain Hanton has been scanned hundreds of times, from the Human Rights Council to Cole Harbor Prison, but nothing unusual has been detected!

　　A light spot appeared outside the bridge, and the light spot illuminated rays that seemed to penetrate the entire ship.

　　...

　　”Then I went in,” Hamilton said curtly, drinking the fine wine.

　　Kolev frowned: “Is it really a high-dimensional civilization? Where are the results of the scan? You can’t fool an old man whose curiosity is about to explode like this!”

　　”The personal privacy part cannot be disclosed. It is indeed a relic left by a high-dimensional civilization.”

　　”Oh, this ... okay, keep talking, don’t stop.”

　　Hamilton chuckled, the memories in his eyes became darker and darker, and he began to pick and choose the information for Kolev.

　　then...

　　(three)

　　Da da da!

　　The typing sound effect appears again, this time seeming a little edgy.

　　[Are you an independent part of the ancient god’s life form? Compared with the real life forms of ancient gods, you are too weak, but you have some of their characteristics. It is really a strange existence. This is so interesting. 】

　　Hamilton looked calm on the surface, but deep down he was screaming, “Fuck you.”

　　Was he exposed directly?

　　”Can you directly scan the genome for abnormalities?”

　　[Is there any difficulty in this? I could directly scan all the information your body carries, including your brain, but I won’t do that. I respect the right to equality of consciousness. 】

　　[You are qualified to enter this place. Whether you can get the treasure you want depends on whether you truly understand the meaning of consciousness and civilization. Of course, you can also find the direction of life evolution here. 】

　　[Please come in, a rare secondary ancient god life form. I shouldn’t have called you a low-level life form before. 】

　　In front of the ship, the light spot flickered again.

　　Hamilton’s vision was a little blurry. Before he could react, the environment around him changed drastically.

　　One second, he was in his beloved spaceship.

　　The next second, he was already in a black vacuum, his breathing was unimpeded, and he was surrounded by darkness.

　　There was a faint light flickering ahead.

　　Those light spots pieced together the light spots.

　　Hamilton was dragged towards those light spots, and the light spots became brighter and hotter. Grand music seemed to be ringing in his ears, but it was just his own auditory hallucination.

　　Hamilton closed his eyes subconsciously.

　　The pushing and pulling forces disappear at the same time.

　　Hamilton felt as if there was an extra piece of land under his feet. The gravity that made him feel comfortable was slowly increasing, and his vision quickly returned.

　　He stood barefoot on the surface of a dark gray planet. He saw endless metal buildings as far as the eye could see, with equilateral triangle elements filling every area. Hamilton seemed to be able to directly receive profound and complex knowledge through these buildings. Information.

　　Yes, this was it, he had seen these buildings in the video!

　　This is Omnic Twilight!

　　It’s the omnic city that the ‘Chosen One’ accidentally found!

　　It contains a large number of emerging technologies and countless high-tech materials. It is said that these buildings can be dismantled and even sewn directly into the outer skin of a new warship!

　　Then, Hamilton felt something strange.

　　This feeling ... The holographic technology of “Abyss” seems to have the same feeling...

　　The first time he experienced the immersive holographic online game, it gave Hamilton a great shock. Hamilton and a large number of young people once lamented: ‘Oh my god, it turns out that earth’s technology has developed to this point without me paying attention! ‘

　　Yes, it’s that virtual feeling.

　　This is not the real physical world.

　　Hamilton immediately realized that his body should still be on the Feinan, but the other party used some incomprehensible technology to connect his consciousness to a virtual world.

　　Hamilton suddenly heard a voice that could not distinguish gender, age, and was very neutral.

　　(Four)

　　”How should I call you? Secondary Ancient God Life Form.”

　　He slowly turned around and saw the source of the voice - a sphere floating in front of him.

　　It was about the size of a fist, and I couldn’t tell what kind of material it was made of. There were warm yellow particles chasing each other inside.

　　”My name is Hamilton,” Hamilton said calmly. “This is my current name.”

　　”Hello, Hamilton. Your civilization seems to require such a polite greeting.”

　　”Hello, what do I call you?”

　　”You can call me ranger, gravekeeper, and examiner.”

　　The ball of light whispered in Galactic language:

　　”When I was scanning the information carried by your ship, I discovered something very interesting. You forged your identity in order to hide it from others.”

　　Hamilton pondered for a few times: “My story is a bit long, do you want to hear it?”

　　”I wish I could,” the tombkeeper said with a smile, “Although I can ignore the changes in time, I still feel a little lonely.”

　　”I can only start from the middle,” Hamilton said, “It is a powerful scientific research ship that is conducting research on the ancient god’s life forms, and I am a maintenance worker responsible for maintaining the ship’s hull...”

　　Hamilton briefly talked about how Valkyrie went berserk twice, to being abandoned by the empire and pushed out to be a political scapegoat, to later being tracked down by the Guel Alliance, and running around in embarrassment among the stars for freedom.

　　He deliberately ignored all information about the earth.

　　As Hamilton told this, the light ball flickered slightly, leading him to walk in this endless metal jungle.

　　Guangqiu smiled and said:

　　”It’s really not easy to escape the pressure of two powerful political systems.

　　”I can feel that you have a strong sense of autonomy, are unwilling to be someone else’s puppet, and have a strong will to pursue freedom.

　　”You remind me of the life form I guided last time.”

　　”Who? Is it convenient to reveal it?” Hamilton asked immediately.

　　”His name is Levi Sherman, an interesting lower life form.”

　　Hamilton:...

　　This name is like thunder.

　　He seems to be the founding emperor of the Sherman Empire?

　　Didn’t that guy belch tens of thousands of galactic years ago?

　　Guangqiu sighed: “It’s a pity that he didn’t complete all the assessments here in the end, and his results stayed at the third stage. After that, he was no longer able to arrive here, and he lost the qualification to accept the assessment in the future.”

　　”Do you know what that life form did?” Hamilton asked with a frown.

　　”I do not mind.”

　　”Don’t care?”

　　”Yes, he may have opened up a new civilization carrier,” Guangqiu said slowly, “or he may just use the technology obtained here to strengthen a political body. I think it is most likely the latter. Information from the outside world It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

　　Hamilton smiled and said: “Then how can I believe what you say?”

　　The ball of light said slowly: “This requires your own judgment.”

　　Hamilton asked: “So what’s here? What’s the way to get in here?”

　　”There is only one way to enter here, resonance of consciousness,” Guang Qiu said. “I will only communicate with the consciousness that has reached the passing line in various indicators. He must have a strong sense of purpose and a sufficient sense of belief. When you lose this A sense of conviction that I would refuse to talk to you, as was the case with the last one.”

　　Hamilton thought carefully.

　　The slogan that a certain ‘Chosen One’ shouted to the live broadcast audience came to mind.

　　’I hesitated when I discovered the whirlpool. If my ship was destroyed, I would have nothing and become a pauper. But one belief supports me, I want to make money! Become a young model in the club! If you lose, see you on the rooftop! I’m done with stud! ‘

　　The next scene in the live broadcast was two beauties wearing bikinis appearing next to him, calling out to the boss in a coquettish way.

　　Is this a fucking sense of faith?

　　Hamilton is in constant communication with the ball of light.

　　They are curious about each other.

　　This ball of light was not taking him on a meaningless stroll. About ten minutes later, Hamilton was brought to an inverted pyramid-shaped building.

　　Inexplicably, Hamilton felt a divine aura.

　　Guangqiu’s voice was a little more serious, and he said slowly:

　　”Next, every choice you make is very important. There are ninety-nine test questions in it. This is a comprehensive evaluation of your cognition and thinking. This evaluation will affect how much we value you next.

　　”After you enter from here, everything about you, your thoughts, your memories, and any ripples in your consciousness will be captured and analyzed by the master brain here. When you can’t move forward, you can exit directly, even if you can’t pass a level. It doesn’t matter, you will get a gift.

　　”Don’t be too anxious, Hamilton. Generally speaking, if the guide who comes here for the first time can pass more than three test questions, he is already very good. This is limited by your cognition, perception, and acquired knowledge. It is even more limited by the civilization you come from and your understanding of the universe.

　　”Because it’s more pleasant to chat with you, I can give you a tip.

　　”The answers to the test questions are not important, what is important is your thinking process.”

　　Hamilton blinked: “What will happen if I choose not to go in now?”

　　”I will send you away from here, and after continuing to have a pleasant chat, I will erase your memory of this place.”