"We're almost at Rodell City."

"Suroma, the so-called number one power in the world, isn't all that impressive in practice."

"What right do these heretics have to oppose His Excellency the Priest? Their defeat is inevitable."

The cultists of the Fire Thief Worship Cult in the Republic of Fahe, having completed a raid on the Suroma Empire's border, were now advancing toward the nearest densely populated city, Rodell.

Their main target this time was that city.

Although they sneered at Suroma with their words, the cultists knew in their hearts that completely defeating the empire in one strike was impossible.

Their mission was simply to strike Rodell, to make Suroma pay for the earlier assassination attempt.

The cultists drove forward, thousands of vehicles streaming along the highway, and before long they could see the modern metropolis with its cluster of high-rises in the distance.

Then suddenly a thunderous roar came from the very front. Moments later the convoy saw thick smoke billowing ahead, and everyone immediately stopped.

"What happened?"

"Is that an attack from those heretics?!"

The cultists climbed down from their vehicles and widened their eyes.

Out of the rolling smoke emerged large war machines, three to four meters tall, with a bronze sheen!

At first glance they looked like tanks, with heavy chassis and tracks. But mounted above the chassis, besides two large-caliber gun barrels, were four high-speed rotary machine cannons, surface-to-air missile launch cells, and drone launch platforms.

There were even ejection-style grappling chain guns on their sides. This integration of multiple hot-and-cold attack systems into tracked combat machines made them look like mobile war fortresses—machines that had never been seen in the world before.

"What is this?!"

"Super-modified tanks? When did Suroma develop weapons like this?"

"Must have been secretly developed war machines! Are there more behind them?!"

As the fog from the explosions cleared, more war machines came into view, at least dozens of them.

Faced with dozens of two-story-tall war machines, the cultists could not help but feel terror.

Then the war fortresses all emitted mechanical electronic voices in unison.

"Humans within the area have been designated as enemies. Annihilation mode active."

A large-scale slaughter began at once.

The dense fire network from the high-speed rotary cannons instantly tore through many slow-reacting cultists. The survivors hurriedly clustered together and used defensive items and abilities to protect themselves.

But items and abilities are finite, and these terrifying war machines, thanks to their enormous size, could store vast amounts of ammunition, enough to exhaust the defenders.

Some defensive items quickly degraded under continuous assault, especially since the attackers were not only dense bullets but also large-caliber heavy cannons.

The vehicles at the very front were reduced to burned frames by heavy artillery.

"Boom!""Boom!""Boom!"

Several heavy cannon shots struck the protective circle formed by a dozen or so cultists. By the third shot the defensive items had been destroyed, and the dozen cultists were blown to pieces without even having time to scream.

Other cultists, frightened, tried to flee, but when they looked back they found more war machines rapidly closing in behind them.

It was a trap!

Many cultists immediately realized that Suroma had intentionally let them advance here, then deployed the ambush war machines hidden at this spot, intending to annihilate them completely.

"Counterattack!"

A cultist wearing a patterned black robe, whose rank within the cult was clearly higher than the plain black-robed members, shouted.

At his command, the cultists immediately used their abilities and items to attack.

However, the war machines seemed to be made of a special metal with extreme defensive strength; most attacks did nothing.

"Damn it, if you can't pierce the shell, kill those hiding inside!"

A cultist holding a metal rod leaped onto one of the war machines, produced a vial of potion and downed it. With an enraged roar and enhanced brute strength, he ripped open the hatch on top.

He jumped inside intending to beat the driver to death, but discovered that besides stored ammunition and numerous electronic screens, there was no one.

Unmanned?!

"How foolish." A control-area screen lit up and showed the face of Dr. Haisen.

He looked at the cultists and mocked, "Ignorant cultists, have you seen the power of the Annihilator? You actually think you can shake the Empire's rule—how arrogant."

Annihilator—so that was the name of the war machine?

The cultists glared at the mocking face on the screen and furiously beat at the internal consoles with metal rods, trying to smash all the screens and control systems to cripple the Annihilator.

"Then go and be buried with this Annihilator."

As Dr. Haisen finished speaking, he remotely activated the unit's self-destruct system.

With a boom, the missiles stored inside the Annihilator detonated, destroying the machine and blasting that cultist to death.

In just seven or eight minutes, the black-robed cultists suffered heavy casualties. Against these intelligent war machines, human flesh and blood was simply too fragile.

Watching the battle remotely from the laboratory, Dr. Haisen looked very pleased.

His new weapon, crafted by his own hand, had achieved great results on its first outing, proving his worth.

However...

Dr. Haisen thought of something and turned into a separate lab.

At the center of the room stood a special intelligent robot propped up by multiple supports. It looked lifelike, almost indistinguishable from a human.

Haisen stared at it, his eyes full of mingled hope and fanaticism, whispering, "His Majesty's most prized 'Angel'—if it can be activated successfully, humanity may truly step into a new world..."

...

Landing Site.

The questioner appointed by the Human Consortium stepped before the alien intelligence and asked the question that the conference vote had decided upon.

"Please tell us, given humanity's current level of technology, by what means can we obtain a safe, cheap, and nearly limitless source of energy?"

At the Human Consortium meeting, the final chosen question was about energy.

Compared with other issues, energy was urgent and unavoidable.

Tianshui Star is rich in energy resources, and because its population had drastically declined, it superficially appeared not to lack energy.

But the reality was quite the opposite.

Whether it was Suroma's intelligent robot programs, humanity's space migration projects, or other large-scale scientific initiatives in progress, all were devouring energy like black holes.

According to AI-assisted projections, at humanity's current consumption rate, within about a year many projects would have to be suspended due to energy shortages.

That would be unacceptable for humanity as a whole.

To fight the Fire Thief and the Doomsday Rules, every country was seeking breakthroughs in various research areas.

For example, Suroma's heavily augmented AI consumes astronomical amounts of electricity every day.

Other large research infrastructures similarly require huge energy support.

And space migration, one of humanity's self-rescue options, consumes enormous rocket fuel.

So far only two experimental manned rockets had been launched; if the experiments succeed, launches for migration would proceed continuously, requiring vast energy supplies.

Because of these issues, the nations reached consensus to see if questioning the alien intelligence could resolve the energy problem.

This alien intelligence's ship could make jump travel—it must be using some kind of super energy. If humanity could master that energy, its overall technology would leap forward dramatically.

After the question was posed, the alien intelligence immediately began consuming the parasitized forms arranged around it.

Other soldiers had seen this several times and were barely accustomed. Guan Tong, however, was witnessing the black sludge devouring life up close for the first time and felt horrified.

Its way of consuming humanoid life, leaving not even a scrap behind, inevitably caused psychological shadows and visceral disgust and hatred in every human who saw it.

No wonder many people online demanded the Human Consortium try to kill the alien intelligence—first, to avenge those consumed; second, to strike back at the Fire Thief.

The rules stated the Fire Thief would reclaim the alien intelligence after the rule period ended. People wanted to try killing it now, to see how the Fire Thief would retrieve it—out of hatred, many wanted to attempt that.

But the Consortium could not yield to such popular sentiment; they had to protect humanity as a whole.

Guan Tong glanced at Sigaochin beside him; she looked grave, staring fixedly at the alien intelligence and constantly calculating how many it had consumed.

If things got out of control, she would undoubtedly order an immediate response.

But how much food would this question require?

Guan Tong heard the questioner clearly.

It was not surprising the Consortium wanted more energy to power humanity's self-rescue projects.

But could this thing actually provide the nearly limitless energy humanity dreamed of?

Guan Tong watched the ravenous black sludge. He had another matter on his mind.

It's coming!

An alien parasitic form drifted near the location where his living dead were placed. Without hesitation it enveloped and swallowed several parasitic forms in the area, including the living dead.

It ate them...!

Guan Tong's eyes brightened. He turned to look at Sigaochin, who met his gaze with a trace of excitement on her face.

Of course she knew where Guan Tong had placed the living dead. Seeing them consumed eased her a little.

The living dead being usable as food meant Guan Tong had an opportunity to ask a question—this seemed unfavorable for Xisiya. But from another perspective, if some question caused the alien intelligence to go out of control and parasitic forms ran low, perhaps Guan Tong's living dead could fill the gap at a critical moment.

Sigaochin did not know exactly how many living dead Guan Tong could create, but she was sure it would be many, otherwise they could not supply the number needed for questioning.

At this point the alien intelligence stopped after consuming a little over a thousand food units.

Everyone was surprised by that number.

Not because it was too many, but because it was too few.

They had prepared tens of thousands of parasitic forms as food, thinking the question's answer would require huge consumption.

In the end the consumption was less than the previous question about "how to identify parasitic forms."

A bad premonition grew in Sigaochin's heart.

She suspected this likely meant the answer would disappoint humanity.

The next moment, a deep voice emerged from the black sludge.

This time it used almost entirely human language, with only one short syllable unintelligible.

"You cannot obtain this kind of energy, because this planet lacks [redacted], making it impossible to overcome the limits of materials science."

"Can't overcome the limits of materials science?" The questioner seemed so desperate he became agitated, "Then doesn't that mean—"

Before he finished, muffled gunshots rang out.

"Bang!""Bang!""Bang!""Bang!"

The questioner's vital points were instantly cut down by bullets; he died on the spot.

Everyone present was momentarily stunned.

Guan Tong looked toward the sniper pavilion; there was no doubt the snipers inside had shot the questioner.

As the Consortium-appointed questioner, he must never speak beyond his question once the question was done; that violated the rules.

Sigaochin came to her senses and said, "Go retrieve the body!"

Some soldiers immediately advanced to clear the questioner's corpse.

At the Human Consortium's remote meeting, the committee members fell into silence after witnessing this.

After a moment, one committee member spoke first. "I... I can understand why he lost control. He must be like me—coming from a research background—so he immediately grasped the implication of the alien intelligence's answer."

The other members looked at him, waiting.

The member took a deep breath, his tone betraying despair. "From the analysis of the alien intelligence's answer, there may exist a special substance in the universe which we lack on Tianshui Star, so we cannot overcome the foundational limits of materials science."

"And materials science might well be the basis for accessing infinite energy—that's not surprising. Many cutting-edge fields can't progress because of material limitations."

"For example, electronic chip technology: our research into silicon-based chips has nearly reached physical limits; constrained by materials, we can't push further into smaller nanometer processes."

"Also the energy density limits of batteries, the melting point limits of spacecraft coatings, biocompatible media in biomedical fields... Breakthroughs in these areas hinge on materials. If we can't break through the materials barrier, humanity's frontier tech can't reach a new tier."

When he finished he looked despondent, clearly struck hard.

The other committee members also looked grim; they did not expect the answer to be so unfavorable.

"If our planet lacks that special substance, could other planets like Terra have it?" Gao Liangwei said in a low voice. "If Terra doesn't, might other planets in our system?"

"No... no one knows."

"If no one knows, then try to find it. Never giving up is humanity's creed."

"I agree with Chairman Gao on that." Mary said. "But first we need to clarify what that special substance is." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"As for deciphering its language, we need more samples. Since this consumption of parasitic forms was small, we should pose another question tomorrow immediately and, through repeated questioning, gather lots of data for translation." a committee member proposed.

"It is indeed necessary to ask more questions. That will require more parasitic forms. So, is there progress on the Mind Network research?" Torafuto asked.

None of the members responded.

Mary said, "Previous methods failed; with no leads we can't start. Chairman Gao, has your Countermeasures Research Office on Beixing found anything?"

Gao Liangwei recalled Zhang Minglu's report and shook his head.