Chapter 1 Remote Thought Array

The tests on the remote thought array continued until nightfall.

A dark blue sky gradually enveloped the earth, and scattered stars emerged from the darkness, watching the world with an age-old, cold brilliance. On this desolate planet, untouched by light pollution, the brilliant stars filled the sky in a nearly magnificent manner. The band-like structure formed by the stars flowed across the sky like a long river, dividing the heavens into two distinct halves from east to west.

It wasn't the Milky Way known to Earthlings, but it was no less spectacular or beautiful.

The moon was obscured by the shadow of the mother planet, only a thin, curved arc visible next to the galaxy. The base clusters and ravines on its surface were hidden by darkness. Obscured by the mother planet, the brilliance of Tian Ding Station was also dimmed. However, due to the large number of artificial facilities around the space station providing illumination, the space station's silhouette was still faintly visible. It was close to the waning crescent moon, silently suspended in the sky like a dull-colored eyeball.

Although he couldn't see it with the naked eye, Hao Ren knew that the Agents living there were probably in their busiest state since their birth. They were busy reorganizing the social structure, repairing the space station damaged by the large-scale EMP shock, cleaning up the chaotic aftermath on the moon's surface after the disappearance of the fortress, studying the data left by humans in the Great Library regarding planetary survival, and... busy observing the changes occurring on the mother planet.

A stretch from Zhu Mu meant visible changes on the planet surface even from space, the Agents couldn't not see it: they are constantly monitoring the mother planet with at least a hundred monitoring devices.

Hao Ren stood on a tower of the outpost base, the data terminal floating beside his head, reporting the latest situation: "N-6 sent a communication, asking what was going on with the tentacles suddenly protruding from the ground. The previous test caused tension among the Agents."

"Just tell them the truth. We told them about the function of the remote thought array before. Now that Zhu Mu has taken over this planet, it means that the Agents can start preparing to move to the mother planet to live," Hao Ren replied. "They will have to accept the fact that the 'Planet Devourer' has become a harmless Changzi sooner or later, and they have to get used to living peacefully with Zhu Mu. Speaking of which, it only caused tension among the Agents? Didn't it cause panic?"

The data terminal paused for a few seconds before replying in a subtle tone, "Logically, it should have caused panic, but when N-6 and the others looked at the mother planet from space, they saw a huge cartoon smiley face... This unit estimates that they weren't even tense, let alone panicked."

Hao Ren: "... Holy crap, there's such an effect!"

Before the data terminal could say anything, Hao Ren heard Zhu Mu's voice from the communicator next to him: "So my emoji is still useful!"

Hao Ren helplessly covered his forehead: "Alright, alright, you don't even want your own majesty, what can I say? But speaking of which, what have you been doing since just now? It's so late, aren't you going to rest?"

As he spoke, he looked up into the distance—the daytime tests had long ended, and everyone had returned to the base's rest area to do their own things, but Zhu Mu obviously didn't plan to stop. He saw that at the end of the distant plain, the tentacle protruding from the ground had changed its form. Most of it had retracted underground, but nearly a third remained outside. Flickering lights, like swarms of fireflies, roamed the surface of the tentacle. Those lights converged, dimming the stars in the sky.

Under the illumination of the fluorescent light, Hao Ren could see large swathes of plants emerging from the ground around the tentacle. A lush forest grew with an efficiency that defied biological common sense, covering the battlefield that had originally become scorched earth and ruins. In the center of this forest, the tentacle itself, reaching towards the sky, was also "growing." Its tip quickly forked, growing huge leaves and hanging vines. The light leaping between the vines reflected the flowing light in the forest below, looking extraordinarily beautiful.

The tentacle was gradually transforming into a towering giant tree tall enough to reach the clouds.

"Beautiful, right? Beautiful, right?" Zhu Mu's voice sounded particularly excited. "This is the new style I came up with! Doesn't it look especially beautiful? I found that the ecosystems in many places on this planet have been severely damaged, with holes that need to be filled everywhere, so I plan to simply give the entire planet a new theme..."

"This unit feels that the more I look at this style, the more it looks like the World Tree from a fantasy novel..." The data terminal gave a pertinent evaluation, "Speaking of which, Zhu Mu, you're not planning to also create a race of pointy-eared, long-legged creatures wearing tree leaves and stuff them in, are you? This planet already has intelligent races registered and settled..."

"Although it sounds cool, don't do that," Hao Ren quickly stopped him before Zhu Mu could answer. "This place is already too damn weird! I can't imagine what it would be like for those Agents to live in Zhu Mu's newly generated forest..."

The data terminal simulated the future scene: "It's nothing more than a bunch of AI robots living on an elven-style World Tree, studying druid doctrines while researching planetary development technology. There's also an indescribable Old One buried underground, using tentacles to make gestures in the sky to secretly observe and be funny when they have nothing to do... Hee, very beautiful!"

As the person who single-handedly caused all this, Hao Ren could only cover his face with his hand after hearing the data terminal's deduction: "How did it develop into this?"

But no matter what, Zhu Mu seemed really happy.

Although he had an optimistic and cheerful personality and never complained, losing his body was ultimately one of the greatest regrets of this Changzi—the Zhu Mu people were reborn through the Origin Blood, and the Tanagoth ecosystem flourished under his efforts. However, as the life gardener himself, Zhu Mu could only live in the form of data inside a supercomputer, floating in the cold and boundless space. This was not a happy ending in any way.

Now, he finally obtained a new body—even if this body had serious damage, even if this body was tens of billions of light-years away, even if he needed to rely on an antenna and translation device to control this body, he still felt satisfied.

So Hao Ren didn't plan to interfere with Zhu Mu's "performance" on this planet. He believed that this kind, honest, and extremely loyal Changzi to the Goddess of Creation would handle everything well, just like he did in Tanagoth, allowing this planet, which had been ravaged by war for thousands of years, to return to peace and prosperity as soon as possible.

Although he was about to make the style of this planet weird...

At this time, Zhu Mu's "fast-growing forest World Tree" had grown to the height of the clouds. Although it was currently just a skeleton with sparse branches and leaves, it was already a heaven-supporting spectacle in the eyes of mortal races. Hao Ren saw circles of light spreading out from the tip of the tree, as if forming a protective force field around the forest, and Zhu Mu's voice came from the communicator: "Eh?"

Hao Ren casually asked, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know what it is... Ever since I spread out the branches and leaves, I've been hearing voices coming from the universe," Zhu Mu's tone sounded quite troubled, "and it's getting clearer and clearer..."

Hao Ren was stunned: "Can you hear it clearly? What's the content?"

Zhu Mu was silent for a while, seemingly trying to distinguish the information coming from the universe. Hao Ren also saw all the branches and leaves on the towering World Tree in the distance swaying slightly, like antennas adjusting their direction—a moment later, the communicator transmitted Zhu Mu's deliberately imitated strange tone:

"Turn off all channels! Turn off all channels! Whoever it is, turn off all channels quickly!"

"Where did this all-channel communication come from! Oh my god, I can't block it, it's going to kill me!"

"Who knows where this is coming from?! If you can contact them, tell them to turn off their mics!!"

"It's over, we're definitely going to die this time. We don't even have a usable cannon. If we get caught up..."

"We're going to die, we're going to die, we're going to die..."

Hao Ren listened in a daze: "What the hell is all this?"

"I don't know, but translated, that's roughly what it means," Zhu Mu said innocently, "and these signals shouldn't have just appeared. I heard something when I first projected my consciousness onto this planet..."

Hao Ren and the data terminal looked at each other... Well, you can't really look at each other with a brick, but he glanced at the shell of the PDA, his face full of confusion: "Why do I feel like these signals have something to do with us?"

The data terminal shook: "Maybe it's just a broadcast that some civilization in this place accidentally sent into space thousands or tens of thousands of years ago. This kind of thing is very common."

Although that's what he said, Hao Ren still felt that something was wrong. Under the influence of something called "demigod intuition," he looked around while thinking.

In an inadvertent glance upwards, he saw an exceptionally bright star slowly moving across the sky in the brilliant galaxy.

That was the crystal resonance antenna in orbit...

Hao Ren shuddered: "I think I know what's going on..."

"Ah?" The data terminal was confused (although it didn't have a head). "What do you understand?"

Hao Ren didn't answer the terminal's question, but shouted into the communicator: "Zhu Mu, can you find the source of those voices?"

"Whoa—" Zhu Mu was startled, but quickly reacted, "Although it's a bit difficult, I should still be able to find it—my senses are suppressed here, but my situation is better than yours, and the signal source doesn't seem to be very far from here."

"Okay, take advantage of the fact that the signal hasn't been interrupted and quickly analyze its source—can you establish communication with the other party?"

"That would be much more difficult, after all, I'm just a tree..."

What kind of tree are you!

"Okay, I got it," Hao Ren waved his hand. "I'll go find Nolan and see if I can connect you and that set of resonance antennas together."