Chapter 1367 Whispers From the Star Cluster

To be honest, A Su-man's mystical statements made Hao Ren feel uneasy – if Lily were here, the girl would probably be all fluffy again.

"Hearing you say that, I can't help but remember watching horror movies late at night back in the day. Before watching, I felt like the big house was desolately quiet, but after watching, I felt like the big house was bustling with activity, and I felt like there were people hiding everywhere," Hao Ren said, hugging his arms. "I never thought that the work I do one day would be more unspeakable than in the movies."

Vivian looked at Hao Ren strangely. "You watch horror movies alone at home when you have nothing to do? What kind of theme?"

Hao Ren suddenly felt a little embarrassed. He wanted to gloss over it, but seeing Vivian's serious and curious eyes, he couldn't help but say, "About vampires..."

Vivian: "...Hey!"

"I didn't expect there would be a cute model like you back then," Hao Ren chuckled twice, quickly pulling the topic back to the right direction. "A Su-man, we didn't see that situation with the detection instruments. Could it be the special energy released by those dormant Star-Folk ships?"

Vivian was rendered speechless by Hao Ren's "cute model" comment and could only glare at him before curiously looking at the A Su-man crystal.

"I'm not sure," A Su-man said honestly. "The Star-Folk are a complex and ever-changing race. To adapt to the environment, we can semi-actively change our life forms or characteristics. I've been separated from the group for too long, and this X star cluster... the environment is very special. Before I know why those dormant ships are here, I don't know if they will release those whispers. But one thing I can be sure of is that those whispers come from countless different individuals, very complex and noisy. Even if the dormant ships are the source of these whispers, they are definitely not the only source."

"In short, this X star cluster is full of mysteries, and there are mysterious and unpredictable things everywhere. Let's be vigilant," Hao Ren shook his head and tapped the control panel lightly. "Today is equivalent to our first real exploration of this area, so be careful. Nolan, put all the detectors online, turn the power to maximum, keep the warp engines in a semi-active state, and preheat all the artillery systems. If we encounter a situation, blow a path and then step on the gas."

"Nolan understands."

Following the guide beacons left by the probe drones, the Tortoise Rock Platform soon came to the nearest "glowing cloud" to the Executor's mother star.

The black barrier caused by space warping quickly dissipated like a soap bubble bursting. Normal starlight entered the bridge's holographic projection through the external monitors, and in the center of the projection was the huge glowing cloud that could not be ignored by the naked eye.

Just like the images previously returned by remote devices, this glowing cloud looked very similar to the primitive dust clouds in the universe at first glance. It not only had a common flat disk shape, but also had countless irregular "streamer" structures on the edge of the disk, like material ejection bands. Seeing this scene, Hao Ren could only sigh that the universe is full of wonders, and the Star-Folk are really a life form that is difficult for ordinary races to imagine.

Such a huge "interstellar dust cloud"... its main body is actually a sleeping Star-Folk.

"Approaching at low speed." Nolan's voice sounded on the bridge, and the Tortoise Rock Platform's conventional engine was activated. This "small boat" hundreds of meters long seemed to have no weight, directly entering the predetermined speed from a static state, and approached the "cloud" in space with a series of afterimages caused by quasi-coordinate driving.

Although it was said to be low-speed approach, this low speed was compared to hyperspace jumps. Facing a behemoth with a diameter of more than a thousand kilometers, the small Tortoise Rock Platform seemed to be crawling in space even if it rushed past at ten times the speed of sound.

When approaching a certain distance, the data terminal suddenly reminded, "The drone received the signal at this distance."

Sure enough, as soon as the data terminal finished speaking, the console projection equipment in front of Hao Ren lit up, and Nolan's voice sounded at the same time: "Received external full-band communication... decoding completed, starting playback."

"Unauthorized unit detected approaching – please submit contact permit or identification code."

"No contact permit or identification code received, not a member of this fleet."

"Scanning other types of identification signals... analyzing... determined to be an unidentified unit of the same race. Determining whether it has been contaminated."

"No contamination detected, no hostile behavior detected, no target signal retrieved in the attack list, determined to be a neutral unit."

"Issue level two contact permission. Compatriot, you may enter the coverage area of this unit. Please proceed with caution, this is currently a war zone."

The external communication ended here. After that, there were some unanalyzable fluctuations of information, which seemed to be some reactions generated inside the glowing cloud. The attack encountered by the previous probe drone did not arrive.

"It seems to be a pass," Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked at Vivian a little puzzled, "Did the other party mention a 'war zone' just now?"

"That's right, they did mention a war zone," Vivian frowned. "Does that mean someone is fighting here? And the Star-Folk are one of the warring parties?"

"I can't tell. These Star-Folk ships are all in a dormant state. There are no signs of war," Hao Ren shook his head. "It can't be the war on the Executor's mother star... that war is indeed fatal to the Executors, but it shouldn't be a big deal in the entire X star cluster."

After confirming that the "identity verification" was effective, Nolan cautiously started the engine again and flew towards the glowing cloud disk, accelerating while taking over Hao Ren's words: "Currently, our exploration of this star area is greatly limited. The power of the divine power storm is still interfering with all detection methods, and outside the range of the drone swarm is a chaos to us – this 'undetectable area' far exceeds the range we can currently detect. So even if there is a war deep in the X star cluster, we may not be able to observe any phenomena, and these dormant starships we are currently seeing cannot explain anything."

As she spoke, the Tortoise Rock Platform had reached the edge of the glowing cloud disk and touched its material boundary. Hao Ren saw the ship flying under a huge material ejection band, which hung above like a twisted veil. The upper antenna of the Tortoise Rock Platform stirred up this layer of "veil", bringing up a strange glimmer, like a stone thrown into the lake.

"I feel like I'm getting into a giant jellyfish's belly," Nolan said of her feelings. "Boss, when can I become this big... such a big 'spaceship' looks so cool!"

"What's wrong with you, you have the same problem as the data terminal," Hao Ren glared at the ship girl. "I've never heard that a PDA can grow up to become a starship host, and a frigate can grow up to become an aircraft carrier!"

The data terminal flew up and hit Hao Ren on the head: "Why did you bring me into this when you talk!"

"He should have been asleep for a long time, maybe even not long after the Creation Goddess fell," A Su-man sensed the surrounding environment through the split crystal. Although separated by the thick armor and shields of the Tortoise Rock Platform, through the unique senses of the Star-Folk, he could still clearly "see" and "feel" that he was inside a compatriot, and he could also feel some of his compatriot's situation. "The mental framework presents a uniform divergent state, all traces of material solidification are quite blurred, and I can't sense any orderly thinking..."

Hao Ren casually asked, "What does that mean?"

"It means that we can't wake him up by shouting," A Su-man explained in a way that ordinary races could easily understand. "This compatriot's hibernation is very thorough... even thorough to the point of being a little strange. I have never seen a hibernation state in which even the mental framework is highly divergent."

Hao Ren was immediately a little worried: "Could it be that he has fallen asleep and died?"

A Su-man: "...Although it is hibernation, it is not the same concept as sleeping in your understanding. And we underwent identity verification before entering here, which shows that the basic functions of this dormant ship are still running, but the main consciousness is completely asleep."

Hao Ren frowned and did not continue to dwell on this topic, because the Tortoise Rock Platform had now entered the interior of the glowing cloud.

After entering the interior of the cloud, he found that the material density of this thing was much higher than he had imagined. At the beginning, the images from the external monitors could still vaguely see the starlight outside the cloud, but soon the images could only see groups of rolling and flowing "fog" like sand curtains. The Tortoise Rock Platform was advancing in a grand sandstorm, and all directions were vast and boundless.

However, soon, some strange things appeared in this vast world.

Hao Ren saw something shiny emerge from the light and clouds, drifting and revolving around the Tortoise Rock Platform. From those fleeting silhouettes, he seemed to see crystal arched domes, flying beams, sky bridges, and huge pointed cluster structures. They seemed to condense from the light fog, and then silently return to the light fog.

Vivian also saw the same scene and immediately asked A Su-man, "What are those things?"

"This sleeping place is 'awakening' locally due to our visit," A Su-man explained. "However, this awakening is limited to a very small range and has nothing to do with the ship's main consciousness. What we see is like the past projection awakened by external stimuli, but this projection can be seen and touched."

"In other words, if we fly a whole circle in this cloud with a diameter of one thousand kilometers, we can see its entire appearance?" Hao Ren raised an eyebrow. "Then won't we hit some structures? What if a pillar happens to emerge in front of us?"

"That kind of situation will not occur, because we can only awaken a small part, and the awakened things are not the real ship structure. Although they can be touched, they will break and disappear with slight damage, just like counterfeits, so even if we really hit them, it doesn't matter..."

As if to confirm this statement, a crystal pillar that could not be avoided really appeared in front of the Tortoise Rock Platform while A Su-man was speaking – Nolan didn't have time to react and crashed into it head-on. Hao Ren saw the pillar shatter into countless crystal clear fragments on the bow of the Tortoise Rock Platform, and then silently dissipated in the air.

"Scared me."

The ship girl said with lingering fear.