Chapter 458: Space Crisis and... Lin Xia?

Chu Bamboo’s expression was grim as countless possibilities raced through his mind. Finally, he said gravely, “Hive, deploy the drones. Scan the Moon’s current situation.”

“As you command.” Hive’s voice was respectful.

Hive then projected a light screen, displaying over twenty video feeds. The initial screens showed drones launching from the Aerospace Carrier’s hangar into the vastness of space. Then, the images changed rapidly.

As the drones attempted to breach the atmosphere, they suddenly exploded out of nowhere.

“…Huh?” A look of surprise crossed Chu Bamboo’s face.

“It’s a laser defense system!” Hive suddenly interjected. “Initiating cognitive search… Target locked. It appears to be a planetary-grade defensive weapon developed by C Company!”

Chu Bamboo: “???”

Chu Bamboo felt his brain short-circuit for a second. “Hold on, let me get this straight!”

‘The Moon has a laser defense system? And it was made by my own company…’

“…Does Earth have one too?” Chu Bamboo asked, shocked.

“There is no information on that matter…” Hive’s voice was completely flat.

“According to my records, one exists!” Little Mushroom Head suddenly chimed in. “But the specific details are hidden within the Nuwa Mainframe! Please connect to the mainframe before inquiring further.”

“…Fine!” Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched. ‘Then why didn’t I notice anything unusual when I entered Earth’s atmosphere before? Or does this defense system only attack outsiders?’

‘But I’ve entered from outer space and landed on Earth before… and I wasn’t attacked then, either!’

“So, this defense system… it must have some level of intelligence! It doesn’t just attack everything indiscriminately?” Chu Bamboo speculated.

After a moment of thought, Chu Bamboo ordered the Aerospace Carrier to slowly orbit the Moon within the Star Sea. Even though the view from space was crude, it still provided him with a lot of useful information.

‘No, that’s not right. At first, I thought the Moon was blue-green! But the color is different from every angle… It must be an issue with this newly formed atmosphere… I see. No wonder the Moon looks its normal color from Earth! It must be some kind of special configuration…’

Understanding dawned on Chu Bamboo, but it was accompanied by a growing shock at the legacy of the precursor civilization. ‘Did the precursor civilization do this too? For this era’s technology to be so advanced… No, wait, Hive said the planetary defense system was a C Company product…’

‘In other words… it’s also possible that an AI like Z is behind this!’ A new possibility occurred to Chu Bamboo.

‘Who’s to say the Moon was necessarily terraformed by the precursor civilization? It could have been done in the post-precursor era by Z and the others. With some precursor civilization artifacts and the power of a Divine Being, pulling this off wouldn’t be impossible at all.’

He observed carefully. ‘But they’ve actually managed to grow a lot of plants on the Moon’s surface… But these plants!’

On the surface of the Moon, huge, bubble-like objects could be faintly seen. Inside those bubbles were forests and cities…

But at the same time, the areas outside these bubbles retained the Moon’s original, barren appearance…

‘But in these barren lunar regions, there’s some kind of tide-like mass… and it’s attacking the bubble cities?’

“…Hive, zoom in. Yes, on that black tide… Magnify!”

Chu Bamboo gave the order. Although the Aerospace Carrier couldn’t directly break through the atmosphere to enter the Moon’s airspace, its high-precision observation instruments could function as a high-accuracy satellite.

‘Never mind the future; even in the era Chu Bamboo had transmigrated from, satellite surveillance accuracy had reached the meter level…’

And then…

“Robots?!” Chu Bamboo was shocked. He had originally thought the attackers would be the Ten Thousand Races, but instead…

‘But aren’t the robots completely under Z’s control? Could it be…’ Chu Bamboo recalled the contents of the diary: mechanical creations placed on Mars would gradually slip out of control and start doing strange things after being contaminated.

‘However, these mechanical creations didn’t exhibit any characteristics of artificial intelligence…’

‘They’ve lost control! They’re attacking humans! That has to be it.’ Chu Bamboo was silent for a long while, his gaze shifting toward Mars. ‘So, this is the contamination from Mars? It didn’t head straight for Earth… but attacked the Moon first?’

Having made his assessment, Chu Bamboo made up his mind. “Alright then, let’s head to Mars!”

‘Even if Mars has a similar defense system… since it’s controlled by Z, my identification should be registered, right?’

‘In other words, I should be able to land directly…’

The Aerospace Carrier began to travel at high speed.

“…Roughly how long will it take?” Chu Bamboo suddenly thought of something.

“…Approximately one hundred and seventy-two hours!”

Chu Bamboo: “…”

To be fair, this speed was actually absurdly fast. In the real world, for instance, launching a spacecraft to Mars usually takes six to nine months… and that’s only when Mars is at a relatively close point in its orbit to Earth! Compared to that, a journey of just under two hundred hours was nothing—

‘But the problem is, my reset timer is running out…’

‘To get held up by something like this! I never would have imagined.’ Chu Bamboo rubbed his temples, a headache forming. But then, an idea struck him. ‘I have the power of Light Transformation. Traveling at the speed of light… I could probably reach Mars in just a few minutes! The only problem is…’

‘I might easily overshoot it!’

‘But, if I aim for Mars from the start… then when I use Light Transformation, I should just crash into the Martian surface, right? I can even do some rough calculations…’

“You’re incredible, Old Fang!” Chu Bamboo exclaimed with sincere admiration. ‘The Light Divine Techniques are just too damn powerful.’

He decided to give it a try. ‘Things might go wrong, but hey, what’s the worst that can happen? I die.’

After making some adjustments and preparations, Chu Bamboo took a deep breath, left the Aerospace Carrier, and floated in outer space.

There was no air in outer space, but with Chu Bamboo’s current Cultivation, breathing wasn’t a necessity. His body was a self-sustaining system.

“And now… huh?!” Chu Bamboo’s movements froze for a moment. He instinctively swatted back at the empty space behind him, his shadow transforming into dozens of sharp blades that shredded everything they could… and yet, there was nothing. The space was utterly empty!

Chu Bamboo stared at that empty patch of void for a long moment, his brow gradually furrowing. He sensed something was wrong.

“…Ah Zhu!” a cheerful voice called out. It was Lin Xia’s voice.

Chu Bamboo’s pupils contracted. ‘Did that voice come from behind me?’ Immediately after, he heard another voice. “How strange! It took you a very, very long time… to come and meet us! By the way, you…”