The First Analyst of the Interstellar Era

Chapter 142 : Mechanical Tower

Xie Chunshi's expression suddenly became solemn. Based on the starship certification material and the information that appeared on it, he instinctively matched everything with what he had seen in the Yunlai Notes.

Master Jin had once built a starship to roam the star sea. On that starship, besides Master Jin, there was only a bionic person who survived the robot rebellion at the end of the Empire. The two of them completely disappeared from Star Alliance history.

The only person who knew was Song family ancestor Song Yunlai.

Xie Chunshi had once been fortunate enough to see that notebook. It was also one of the few paper materials from the development from ancient stars to the interstellar era. It clearly stated that Master Jin's starship construction was handled by Chairman Song Yunlai and the Research Institute, with very detailed subsequent processing of relevant materials.

Xie Chunshi's hand had a slight tremor. If this was true, they had likely entered a starship from a hundred years ago.

After the changes in Star Alliance history and the evolutionary descent of energy bodies, they had encountered the greatest creator of the Star Alliance from over a hundred years ago.

"Can we hammer it open?"

Seeing Chen Sui studying the door, Zhou Chen whispered beside her.

The half-squatting black-gold mecha looked up at him: "Are you serious?"

Chen Sui thought of how her long spear couldn't pierce even a fraction of an inch earlier, and wasn't optimistic about this idea.

But Zhou Chen had great confidence in her: "I don't think I've ever seen anything you couldn't hammer open."

Chen Sui looked at him in astonishment: "You want me to hammer with my fist?"

Zhou Chen: "Ah, using a cannon works too."

As he spoke, he raised his lightning magnetic cannon.

Chen Sui looked completely speechless, "Don't you care at all about the well-being of my fists?"

The analyst looked up with sincere calmness, extending her fist toward Zhou Chen's face.

Zhou Chen rubbed his nose tip: "Ahem, that's not what I meant."

When Xie Chunshi came back to himself, he heard them discussing how to pry open this door to get in. Looking at the somewhat malfunctioning verification door lock, he raised his hand and pressed it.

The screen was pitch black.

"After so many years, it probably has no power," Gu Qinxue said softly from the side.

The Commander was reminded by this statement and couldn't help but laugh: "The energy must be depleted."

As he spoke, Chen Sui looked over at him, "This doesn't seem to be a biological verification type. Let me find the energy input port."

She had studied door locks extensively. Having spent many years in the wasteland, exploration teams entered various contaminated areas to find uncontaminated resources. Chen Sui had opened countless door locks like those in research labs.

Many people had praised her, saying her speed at opening door locks rivaled her teacher Chen Jia.

The Zhu Jing Fu members heard this and made way for her on the side. No one was surprised to ask how Chen Sui even knew this skill.

The bullet screen quietly typed out a line.

[Good, Zhu Jing Fu career direction +1]

[As a Zhu Jing Fu student, I'll politely decline this one]

Without the abundance of tools she carried when doing missions outside, but because she often repaired mechas in the base station, she had quite a few useful instruments in her spatial button. So, under everyone's watchful eyes, prying open the energy insertion interface behind the door lock wasn't difficult.

"Huh?"

Chen Sui took out the energy pipe: "There's still energy."

Chen Sui felt somewhat fortunate. After years of changes in the Star Alliance, the material for energy supply had undergone countless changes. She didn't know if their current energy pipes would work, but now the door lock didn't challenge the Zhu Jing Fu members too much. Seeing that there was still energy remaining in the pipe, Chen Sui immediately thought of something and began looking for other interfaces.

"With energy remaining, the starship control switch must have been deliberately shut down."

As she said this, Chen Sui's movements paused. A thought flashed through her mind.

The terrain of Tata Mine Star couldn't have changed so quickly hundreds of years ago, which meant the starship must have crashed underground. Subsequent mineral vein growth covered this layer, but the people in the starship had the foresight to shut down the ship's main control in advance. Any way you looked at it, it didn't seem like an accidental crash.

Surely no one would deliberately crash a starship to commit suicide.

Chen Sui thought silently.

The mecha's hands were somewhat difficult to insert, so Chen Sui simply kicked open the cockpit. The analyst's small figure jumped out.

"Wait a moment," energy covered the surroundings, resisting the invasion of surrounding energy storms. Upon directly contacting the energy field's air, Chen Sui couldn't help but think. The storms in the energy field were certainly powerful, but the energy attributes were too mixed. Currently, Chen Sui didn't have the mental energy to think about these things. As soon as she came out, she approached the large door, following the mecha's docking movement, jumping onto the mecha's arm, and toggling some buttons on the outside of the interface.

With just this action, the entire ship suddenly seemed to move.

"Thud!"

A muffled sound spread out.

The corridor lights were instantly lit, white light overtaking the mecha's searchlight, rapidly surging from the distance. The lights above illuminated the entire interior of the starship.

"Beep—"

On the door lock, the screen flashed, and a mechanical expression flickered.

"Hello, I'm Little Jin. Please shout out the code!"

It was an excited girl's voice with a hint of laughter. After hearing it, Chen Sui's fingers curled slightly.

This tone and style, with a bit of a teasing feeling, made her hallucinate Chen Jia.

Chen Sui remembered once being on a mission, trapped in an underground research lab. The Light Team came to rescue her, and Chen Jia, across a door, asked her: "Shout out the door code, and teacher will rescue you."

Chen Sui was only around ten years old then, still somewhat introverted and taciturn. Being teased like this, she could only hold back until her face reddened before softly squeezing out a few words.

Now hearing the same routine, her eyes suddenly showed some contemplation.

The other Zhu Jing Fu members had already made confused sounds: "Huh? What code?"

"Can't we just forcibly break through this thing?" Zhou Chen knocked on the door with his Four-sided Mace.

"Ow! You impudent commoner, how dare you hit the noble King Little Jin!"

Zhou Chen: "?"

"Well, this thing is quite intelligent."

Xie Chunshi stopped his action, "It's an intelligent program embedded in the door lock."

From what he'd heard, during the Empire's time, artificial intelligence was widely popularized. Even the virtual battlefield now used by the Star Alliance was implanted with intelligent programs controlled by a main brain. The programs at that time could connect to mental power, achieving mental power growth even in the virtual battlefield.

It was completely different from today's virtual battlefield simulation.

To put it in context, training in the virtual battlefield at that time could truly cause damage to and enhance the mental domain.

Zhou Chen looked at Xie Chunshi: "So, what's the code?"

"King Little Jin? I'm also King Zhou Chen—"

Halfway through his words, Gu Qinxue suddenly extended her hand and punched Zhou Chen. The young man's voice stopped as he saw Gu Qinxue step forward.

"Little Jin?"

As a member of the Gu family, she was very sensitive to this term.

Compared to "Master Jin," this widely known term in the Star Alliance, the Song and Gu families were more familiar with this title.

"Could it be—" Gu Qinxue looked toward Xie Chunshi. The Commander was silent for a moment before nodding.

In the team channel voice chat, Gu Qinxue slowly said: "Could it actually be the starship that Master Jin drove away many years ago?"

"What??" Zhou Chen exclaimed in shock, "No way, is it real??"

He immediately hugged his Four-sided Mace tightly and reached out to rub the spot on the door lock he had poked: "Sorry, sorry, King Little Jin!"

The door lock displayed a smug expression.

Chen Sui stood up and sat back in the cockpit. Hearing the voice on the team channel, she opened her mic and asked: "Do you have any clues about this code?"

Her eyes were thoughtful. If it was the starship that Master Jin drove away, was it possible to find some special materials to fill the gap left by Black Execution's White Satin Gold Gilt damage, or even—find White Satin Gold Gilt itself.

Gu Qinxue thought for a moment: "I don't know. The Gu family is tight-lipped about ancestor information."

As she said this, she somewhat mockingly added: "But they're very loyal to the old nobility's rituals."

Unlike the Song family's unbroken lineage, the Gu family had left countless branches over the years, and the ancestor's lineage had become quite confused.

Xie Chunshi recalled the contents of the Yunlai Notes and was also puzzled about the so-called code: "The Song family... we should ask Song Yuan."

With his Xie surname, much information about the Song family was beyond his knowledge.

"Ah, so if we can't break down this door and we don't know the password, are we still going in?"

Zhou Chen looked around. The footsteps of the beasts had already begun to shake. The Iron Spine Beasts they had thrown off outside the mine cave were just part of the energy bodies. When the starship's power started, some energy bodies seemed to wake up. The surrounding energy signals quickly became agitated; even Zhou Chen could feel it.

"Little Jin."

Chen Sui spoke up.

The Zhu Jing Fu members looked at her, seemingly not understanding why the analyst spoke.

"King Little Jin, strongest in the universe."

Chen Sui took several breaths before enduring the embarrassment, saying this phrase with her face flushed red.

In her mind, however, she couldn't help but envision Chen Jia speaking across a door: "Call me King Chen Jia once, and teacher will open the door for you."

"Say, King Chen Jia, strongest in the universe."

Chen Sui remembered herself waiting angrily on the other side of the door: "You're so narcissistic!"

"Will you say it or not?" On the other side, the woman waiting in the towering mecha carried a somewhat cold smile, her hand still dragging the mutant corpse she had torn apart. When she spoke, her voice was extremely gentle: "Little Sui?"

As Chen Sui spoke now, it was as if time overlapped. She returned to that damp, dark research lab in the wasteland, with a group of mutants outside eyeing her hungrily, waiting to tear her apart and devour her. But her teacher had come with the rescue, clearing enemies, waiting for her to come out.

"Beep—"

"Verification successful!"

The Zhu Jing Fu members, silenced by Chen Sui's words and still not understanding the situation, saw a confetti-throwing expression appear on the door lock.

"Congratulations on finding me!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the door opened with a click.

"Holy crap!"

Zhou Chen was dumbfounded, looking at the door, then turning to look at Chen Sui: "What's going on?"

Chen Sui gripped the pendant on her chest, her emotions also somewhat unsettled.

Was it a coincidence?

Or was there something about Chen Youjin that she still didn't understand?

But as the door opened, these thoughts temporarily disappeared when the control room's image appeared.

"What! Is! This!!"

As the control room door opened, a bright golden light flickered, warm but not glaring. At the same time, there were materials scattered all over the floor, some unnamed but clearly special at first glance.

Xie Chunshi and Gu Qinxue's gazes passed over Chen Sui, "Little Sui, did you really guess correctly?"

Gu Qinxue said with a smile.

Chen Sui's tone was very complex: "Yes, I actually just guessed correctly."

Xie Chunshi instinctively felt there was some hidden story, but thinking carefully, Chen Sui and Chen Youjin were separated by hundreds of years. Master Jin's family had been completely eliminated during the rebellion. The only one related to her was that bionic person, and the two had left long ago. There had never been any mention of Master Jin having descendants.

Chen Sui didn't explain. Her gaze was attracted to a huge square box in the center, "That should be the thing."

Chen Sui looked at the white square box. From its interior, she could feel an extremely strong attractive fluctuation. As the door opened, this fluctuation completely dissipated. The surrounding energy bodies seemed to smell the rich energy aura and began to stir.

Zhou Chen had already rushed in without thinking, picking up whatever he found and throwing it into his spatial button: "Wait, there are so many materials in here?"

He was already overwhelmed, his movements becoming faster and faster, because Zhou Chen had a premonition that the surrounding energy fluctuations were quite intense and very abnormal.

"This, this, this—White Cloud Stone? This thing has been completely extinct in the Star Alliance since Koris Star fell!"

Zhou Chen unhesitatingly threw it into his spatial button.

Chen Sui immediately reacted: "Something's wrong. Quickly grab the items, we need to leave!"

"The energy attraction from the control room is too strong. This is the energy bodies' 'food source.' We're now looting their food, and the energy bodies are coming, drawn by the scent."

Chen Sui finally understood where her unease came from. She looked at the energy liquid traces flowing all over the starship. When the energy field descended, energy bodies were attracted to the bottom by this energy aura, probably triggering some mechanism on the starship, causing an energy explosion underground.

But now, this location that had experienced the explosion was occupied by other energy bodies. These energy bodies were eyeing the starship covetously, waiting to erode it completely and enjoy the energy within.

But now, all these 'foods' prepared to be enjoyed were being collected into Zhu Jing Fu's spatial buttons.

"If I'm not mistaken, it might be—"

"White Satin Gold Gilt."

Chen Sui opened the square box, looking at the metal inside, her throat suddenly constricting: "This thing carries a very strong energy attraction, not much less than the absorption device."

Zhu Jing Fu carrying White Satin Gold Gilt out was equivalent to being two live targets.

Hearing this, the first thing Zhou Chen did was charge his lightning magnetic cannon: "Damn, then I'll run faster."

[You all—]

[I can't believe you've dug out Master Jin's starship]

[Goodness, Zhu Jing Fu can already guess how many energy bodies will chase them, but haven't thought about shaking them off, right?]

[Asking Zhu Jing Fu not to take materials would be more painful than killing them]

[Wait, is this just any material? This is left by Master Jin!]

[As everyone knows, many of the Star Alliance's rare materials were researched by Master Jin]

[Goodness, the reviewers in the control room have gone crazy.]

[I see Director Jian sitting quite upright, it's probably only Director Gu who's anxious]

Gu Pingyang was indeed anxious. Before the door lock appeared, he had consistently viewed this as one of Zhu Jing Fu's tricks and hadn't taken it to heart.

Although these students often caused some big disturbances in energy fields, Gu Pingyang only saw it as a means of seeking attention. He just hadn't expected that Zhu Jing Fu would be so good at finding things.

That was Master Jin!

Let alone the countless rare materials inside, even if there was nothing, it would still be big news that would shock the Star Alliance.

Master Jin's whereabouts were unknown—anyone who had studied history knew this.

The reviewers in the control room appeared calm, but their light brains were already sparking, frantically contacting their relationships, trying to intervene through the council to force the Zhu Jing Fu school team to hand over what they brought out from the starship.

In the competition field, Zhu Jing Fu looked at the square box. Several people worked together to throw it into the spatial button. Zhou Chen looked around, wishing he could take even the wall coverings: "We've packed everything, do we have a chance to leave?"

He could already hear the low roaring sounds of energy bodies, rising and falling, probably quite numerous.

The control room door was still closed. Chen Sui's perception shot out, her fingers trembled, but her movement to grip the long spear showed no decrease in strength.

"Large numbers of energy bodies are gathering, prepare to break through."

Zhu Jing Fu was on high alert in the energy field. Just as they watched the analyst mark out energy body signals around them, the control room door suddenly flickered, and a bright light seemed to rush from the door to the central screen.

"Driving mode activated."

A blue light lit up on the operating panel, various signals flashed inside the room, and the starship's monitoring cameras immediately appeared on the big screen.

"Damn, this starship is still functioning!"

Zhou Chen was full of surprise. After experiencing explosions and descents in the energy field, enduring years of energy erosion, it seemed the original owner had anticipated that people coming in would be blocked from leaving.

Xie Chunshi's expression was serious. He could roughly guess that Master Jin had left things on this starship and, fearing that people might discover it and be trapped in the future, had stored enough activation energy in the starship's interior. After all, Tata Mine Star was located in a marginal area, and a usable starship would be enough to bring people who fell onto the mining star back out.

"Abnormal fluctuations detected. Activate clearing mode?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhou Chen looked at his teammates, saw them nod, and immediately responded.

As soon as he finished speaking, he looked toward the central monitor. In the image, a black cannon mouth popped out from the top of the starship. The doors around the starship opened, and a white light pillar rushed out, directly shattering the energy barriers around the energy bodies.

"Bang!"

"Crash—"

Various collision and dragging sounds erupted.

"Thud!!"

An energy body with huge sharp bone spikes growing from its back was pushed by the white light from the other end of the corridor, directly hitting the control room door.

"Crack!"

The bone spikes on the energy body's back hit the door and instantly broke!

Zhou Chen watched, his neck shrinking: "Thank goodness, thank goodness," he rubbed the back of his hand: "Good thing we weren't impulsive."

They had opened the door to come in, not forcibly blasted it open.

Chen Sui looked at him from the side: "You make it sound like—"

"You were the one doing the hammering."

Zhou Chen laughed a couple of times: "I was concerned for you!"

"With such a hard door, how painful it would be to hit it!"

Zhou Chen was about to say a few more words, but before his eyes, the energy body that had crashed into the door was carried away by the light pillar from above. The energy aura diffused into the room through the door. That gunpowder-scented energy smell surprised Chen Sui internally.

To be honest, this starship had quite a lot of energy, all in the defense and attack systems.

"The starship won't go far, at most it can reach the surface."

When the central panel lit up, Xie Chunshi had already checked the starship's information.

No matter how extraordinary this starship looked, it couldn't change the fact that it was an object from hundreds of years ago. Performance inevitably had defects. Xie Chunshi even felt that getting Zhu Jing Fu from underground to the surface would be no easy task.

"Isn't there still—" Zhou Chen thought of the mine cave above, showing a confused expression.

But he had barely started when he noticed all his teammates looking at him.

A bad feeling immediately rose within him.

Chen Sui smiled at him, her voice though calm, sounded very creepy to Zhou Chen's ears: "Possibly, probably, maybe, you need to go out and clear a path."

Zhou Chen immediately looked up at the monitoring camera: "With so many energy bodies, you want me to go out?!"

Although the starship's internal clearing program was very powerful, certainly enough to deal with conventional star beasts, but for energy bodies—

Perhaps Chen Youjin at the time could hardly have predicted that star beasts would one day evolve to this state.

Low-level energy bodies could be cleared away, but high-level energy bodies, after being hit by the white light, quickly mobilized large amounts of energy to resist. Their bodies crouched down, lying on the ground emitting low growls, their gazes constantly watching the position where the energy aura was emanating.

[Ultimately, I, the Lucky King, bear it all]

[Wuwu, Master Jin truly left so many things, and even left a way out for people]

[Except for the code being somewhat difficult to guess, everything matches my imagination of Master Jin]

[Who understands, this is Master Jin, I'm like an exploding flower now, my whole body is shaking]

[Zhu Jing Fu, you've done it, wuwu]

[I'm really curious, if it were people from the Song or Gu families guessing, I could understand, but how did Chen Sui know?]

[Could it be because they both have the surname Chen?]

[Master Jin has no descendants, and her origins, traced back, have long been extinct (whispers)]

[Is it possible, just saying, is there a possibility, that it was just a coincidence?]

[To be honest, you should check out the Zhu Jing Fu Combat System forum, these people have been guessing these things from the start]

[What Master Jin Master Jin, world's first, Emperor Sui Emperor Sui, universe's strongest, I'm not saying, Chen Sui was previously in the Combat System, so—you understand]

[I don't understand, can't we discuss this topic in a more elevated manner? Why does it feel like childish role-playing when brought up?]

[A starship full of materials, obtained through such childish coaxing, all went into Zhu Jing Fu's pockets]

[I don't think that's necessarily true. I heard the Gu family proposed convening the council. Since it involves Master Jin, whether Zhu Jing Fu can keep these materials is uncertain]

[How should I put it, the Main Star, the Song family head has already gone to the legislative hall]

[Goodness, now the bullet screen is full of my legislative hall connections]

How Zhu Jing Fu planned to leave the underground wasn't what Gu Pingyang in the control room cared about. If not for the consideration that they were still in the Star League Competition, he would even want the family head to directly send people in.

Once he obtained Master Jin's things, first, he could force those stubborn researchers at the Research Institute to bow their heads, and second, Master Jin had an extraordinary position in the hearts of the Star Alliance people, even casting a lingering shadow among the old nobility. This was an opportunity for the Gu family to gain more voice.

The council was convened, and everything would definitely revolve around what Zhu Jing Fu brought out.

But at present, Zhu Jing Fu was surrounding the agile attacker, with the analyst beginning her persuasive tactics.

It was nothing more than those few phrases, but Zhou Chen was particularly receptive, especially when Gu Qinxue said: "You go out, I'll hold onto you. I absolutely won't let any energy body touch you."

Zhou Chen was certain that Chen Sui's exaggerated praise made him float partly, but Gu Qinxue's words completely solidified his determination.

With such words, even if they asked him to go out and fight a group of energy bodies, there would be no problem. If Gu Qinxue pointed in a direction now, he could blow up the entire Gu family, let alone a mine pit.

Watching the black-gold mecha carrying the gun cannon walk out of the control room door, Chen Sui gave Gu Qinxue a thumbs up: "It had to be you."

Gu Qinxue's lips curved slightly, her spirit raised to twelve parts, her eyes slightly warm.

"I said I wouldn't let you get hurt," she drew out her thorny fire whip, her movement though slow, carried a powerful aura, "whoever dares to touch you, I'll kill them."

Chen Sui blinked, watching Gu Qinxue's energy charging fluctuations, more intense than usual, her eyes flashing with surprise.