Age of Cosmic Exploration

(How powerful are the demons? And what are the demons?) were the two biggest questions in Yao Yuan’s mind after listening to ZERO’s explanation.

Humanity had once crossed swords with the demons, and honestly, the demons was a scary race. This was not only because of their numbers, but their ability to demonize everything and anything. If not for the massive amount of Homo Evolutis on the Hope, humanity would have been completely demonized at that weird space.

There were massive demons as well, like the giant thing that appeared from within a whole planet. One of its claws was already several ten thousand meters long. If the whole thing escaped the planet that birthed it, it would be huge, definitely bigger than this giant tree.

Even so... in the eyes of a high tier space civilization, no, even just a middle tier space civilization, such a threat should practically be a non-threat!

Indeed, for a middle tier space civilization who could already manage super long range attacks, level 4 to 6 space civilizations had the capability of sniping the demons or even destroying the cursed solar system from afar, especially since demons wouldn’t be able to send out the creator’s particle. In other words, demons were merely a weird-looking organism, not that much different from the zerg race.

So... how could such a race threaten a high tier space civilization?

This creation of practically another dimension and the Song of Destruction greatly amplified the demons’ threat, and this was something Yao Yuan couldn’t wrap his head around.

And now, he heard something even more unbelievable from ZERO...

This fake real space was created by a god-tier space civilization to "shelter" themselves from the demons. Yes, shelter, not to dissect, capture, or breed, but shelter... So just what kind of existence were demons?

Fine, perhaps that question could be answered later because that was simply too far away from humanity’s current level and progress. After all, the demon race was a rarity in space. One thousand solar systems might breed only just one, or else the whole cosmos would be empty by now. According to the chance of probability, humanity might not even stumble across another demon race in its history, so the question of the demons could be ignored for now... Another more pressing question remained: if this was a space created by a god-tier space civilization, doesn’t that mean that the giant tree belonged to a god-tier space civilization as well?

"Impossible! This cannot be the ruin of a god-tier space civilization because... god-tier space civilizations wouldn’t leave behind a relic type ruin. Do you still not understand the meaning of a god-tier space civilization? They are civilizations on the level of myths, their power is way beyond the comprehension of normal space civilizations. For such a level of space civilization, the revival of an entire civilization is nothing. It’s like how much effort the Hope would require to build a shuttle," ZERO immediately corrected him.

Yao Yuan nodded and went into deep thought. According to ZERO’s hypothesis, it meant that this space civilization had just so happened to stumble across this space left behind by a god-tier space civilization? Just like how humanity had chanced upon ZERO’s UFO? The biggest difference between the two was that humanity was barely a level 1 space civilization when they obtained the UFO, while this space civilization was already in the high tier when they obtained this impossible space.

Therefore, unlike humanity, who could do nothing with the UFO, this space civilization was able to operate this space technology.

"No, this high tier space civilization is not as powerful as you give it credit for. They hadn’t reached the level of mastering this illusory reality, or else this relic type ruin wouldn’t have been created in the first place. This is because if they had truly mastered this space technology, other than god-tier space civilizations and high ranking demons, nothing could threaten the survival of this space civilization, because at the very least, they could still escape to this dimension to hide," ZERO commented with derision.

Yao Yuan didn’t understand it completely, so he asked, "What if the cause of destruction is indeed a god-tier space civilization or high ranking demons like you said?"

ZERO glanced at Yao Yuan as if saying, "How can you ask a question that is so incredibly dumb?"

It only took a moment for Yao Yuan to come to the answer himself. If it was really a god-tier space civilization or high ranking demons who destroyed this space civilization, then this ruin wouldn’t have existed in the first place, because this illusory space wouldn’t have been able to stop them from wiping the whole space civilization off the plane of existence...

By now, the two of them had reached the bridge of the Hope. Along the way, ZERO kept opening and closing the large-sized clothes that were covering her body and kept twisting her ankles. In fact, Yao Yuan had been rushing since they left the room that housed the central mainframe. She could only attempt her best to keep up behind him barefooted. Thankfully, most of the journey was done in the auto-mobile; otherwise, how could a small-bodied woman like her keep up with Yao Yuan when he was in his space armor?

Yao Yuan discovered the weird motions ZERO had been making. After some hesitation, he asked, "Can you feel pain as well?"

ZERO rolled her eyes and said, "Isn’t that a stupid question? The uniqueness of this space aside, I myself have gone beyond the limitations of normal logic, math, and programming, so why can’t I feel pain? I can feel all ranges of emotions from happiness to sadness, from joy to despair, from pleasure to pain. I am practically no different from a normal human being, other than the lack of a physical body... are you insulting me?"

Yao Yuan immediately apologized. "I’m sorry, you know I don’t mean it like that. I’m just worried about your current situation... Since this space is real and people can get hurt and die, you need better armor than the shirt on your back. If you died, I’m sure Xiao Niao would be incredibly sad, so you better put on some armor."

ZERO’s face started to blush. She muttered with her head lowered, "You think so? He will be sad because of that? Alright then... I’ll put on some of the unimaginably ugly armor you humans have designed... I hope Xiao Niao appreciates the sacrifice I’m making for him here..."

In any case, ZERO obediently put on a suit of female Black Star Trooper space armor. Looking at the way she walked in the thing, it was an issue for her to walk from one spot to another, much less fight. Regardless, at least she was much more protected now.

On the other hand, Yao Yuan made use of the time ZERO went to change to start thinking.

Even though what ZERO revealed was a buttload of information, he still managed to filter several important pieces out of it.

First, the Hope indeed had entered the giant tree and the giant tree was indeed the relic type ruin left behind by a high tier space civilization. This was the proposition that allowed for the remaining analysis.

When the Hope entered this ruin, it had either entered the supposed illusory physicality space, or the ruin itself consisted only of this space; both explanations worked.

Based on the information given by ZERO, this illusory physicality had two dimensions to it. One was the light dimension, or the actual state of this space. The lifeforms of a god-tier space civilization would normally exist in this light dimension. For them, this was the actual space, and any injury or death suffered here were permanent.

In contrast, there was also a dark space. This dark space was a simulated space, normally used in experiments or simulations...

These were the details filtered from the information given by Yao Yuan. Yao Yuan couldn’t tell whether they were authentic or not, but since there was no other choice, he chose to believe ZERO for now.

Lastly was the definition of the Immortal. Everything false and illusory wouldn’t be able to affect the Immortal; therefore, he didn’t sink to the dark dimension but woke up in this light dimension instead, and this... was probably humanity’s only saving grace!

In fact, Yao Yuan had gained an understooding of how this ruin had filtered out and finally selected the most powerful race. They had simulated a space scenario in the dark dimension and sped the time up. Based on the various races’ response to internal and external strife, one would be able to tell whether the race in question had the potential to become a high tier space civilization or not. It was the only reason why the ruin had attracted so many space civilizations, because it was only through this way that they could out pick the best of the best. When the race left the dark dimension and arrived at this light dimension, they would be rewarded with the technology left behind by this high tier space civilization...

As for the rest of the space civilizations who failed... would they be slaughtered to serve as soul for the victor, or would they be kept in the suspension of the dark dimension forever?

Who could really tell...

Of course, Yao Yuan wouldn’t leave the fate of humanity in another race’s hands. Furthermore, even though this was a crisis, it was also a great opportunity...

If he could reach the reward in this ruin before anyone else!

Then humanity would definitely be the race that had the most potential. Even if the rest of the space civilizations woke up and objected, humanity would be a middle tier space civilization by then, so they could just wipe out any voices of dissent!