parentshiftbook Chapter 689 Horror
Chapter 689 Horror
Valak stood still, but the images from a few seconds earlier remained in his eight crystal eyes.
His colleagues.
That old officer who had personally torn apart enemy armored vehicles in three border wars.
Just as they lunged at the "bipedal creature," they were frozen in place.
Completely unable to comprehend what had happened, it was as if the other party had frozen everything with just a glance.
The officer remained suspended in mid-air in a pouncing posture, even the venom flicked from the tips of his tentacles solidified into still water droplets.
After the two black giants entered, they carried the "sculpture" out like a piece of cargo in a warehouse.
The whole process seemed so natural that it even made his hands go numb.
Valak glanced at himself; the silvery-gray tips of his tentacles hadn't returned to normal, and the bark texture was still trembling slightly. It was a physiological reaction caused by excessive tension.
Just then, a tall shadow stopped in front of him.
He was a black giant priest.
The other's slender body blocked part of the cold blue light, and the mouth, resembling a vertical crack in the center of its chest, opened and closed slightly, emitting a low vibration. Valak subconsciously looked up, and all eight of his crystalline eyes locked onto the other.
"Walk."
The black giant priest spoke, also in the language of the tentacle tree.
Several black giants stood behind him, like several black city walls.
Especially after personally experiencing the Black Giant's combat power, the sense of oppression was far more real than that of naval cannons.
Having witnessed the inexplicable time freeze before, the tentacle trees offered no resistance and followed the black giant priest out of the laboratory. The corridor was quiet.
The light emanating from the walls was soft and steady, with no exposed energy lines or complex mechanical structures.
But the more this happened, the more uneasy Valack became.
Because he couldn't understand it at all.
His tentacles unconsciously swept across the wall.
The miniature detector in the watch started beating wildly.
Unknown mineral.
Unknown energy structure.
Unknown stable field...
Numerous red "unresolved" characters kept appearing on the screen.
The canopy of Valack gradually narrowed.
When he reached the corner, he saw the black giants lined up on both sides.
A whole row of black giants, tens of meters tall, stood there silently, like statues cast from black steel.
At the same time, the energy detector on his watch suddenly vibrated.
drop.
Level 5.
drop.
Level 5.
drop.
It's still level five.
One reading after another popped up.
Valak's pace slowed unconsciously, and the light in his crystal eyes contracted slightly.
Suddenly, another reading popped up.
[Out of range]
The watch flickered violently.
The characters jumped three times in a row before finally settling on a line of glaring red text.
"The target being detected exceeds the current measurement limit."
Valak's tentacles froze instantly, and he slowly raised his head to look at the end of the corridor.
The end of the corridor seemed to connect to a large hall, and at the exit stood two black giants, each a hundred meters tall!
Level 6!
It's definitely Level 6!
And this being... is it just a sentry post here?!
Valak suddenly felt his canopy become heavy.
He recalled the fleet's initial expedition reports.
[Target Civilization: Primitive Level]
[Recommendation: Conquest is advisable]
Is this what you call primitive?
His tentacles began to tremble slightly.
If more than twenty level five and several level six guards are merely sentries responsible for watching the corridor...
What about those "fierce battles" they encountered in the void before?
Looking back now.
Valak finally understood.
Their entire expeditionary fleet... was merely experimental material for the master of this world.
At the end of the corridor, the black giant priest submitted a teleportation request to the level six black giant guarding the side.
Watching his kin, hundreds of meters tall, operate on the giant screen beside him, the black giant priest's thoughts drifted far away.
He always felt that the palace and laboratory where the master lived needed to be expanded.
I didn't realize it when I walked over, but now it seems that only a level 5 Black Giant could be placed there because of the low ceiling in the corridor, which really undermined the master's dignity...
A moment later, the application was approved, and the runes of the teleportation array in the hall emitted a soft white light.
Upon seeing this, Valak paused for a moment.
The black giant behind them did not urge them on.
But that silence was even more suffocating than any urging.
Finally, Valack went up.
hum...
Space began to distort.
The next second, the light faded.
Valak stared in disbelief at the sight before him.
The sky overhead was no longer the color of sulfur.
Instead, a warm, orange-tinged sun shone.
The wind blows across the plain.
In the distance, the river murmured, and large swathes of yellow-green vegetation swayed in the wind.
"Space teleportation...?!"
If he weren't afraid to speak, Valak felt his voice might have become severely distorted.
He carefully stepped on the grass beside him to confirm that it was real.
And no matter how you look at it, the surroundings don't seem like an illusion.
But they were clearly indoors before...
Looking back at the other members of their clan who were equally shocked, and feeling that familiar spatial dizziness, there was no doubt that they had indeed been teleported!
In the Tentacle Tree Civilization, only flagship-level warships have sufficient power and energy sources to complete spatial teleportation, and the teleportation equipment itself is much larger than the hall we just saw!
This technology...
"This is where you will be living for the foreseeable future," the black giant priest's voice came from the side.
Valack glanced at his watch instinctively.
The environmental monitoring system started beating wildly, clearly indicating that no specific data had yet been detected from the suddenly changed environment.
But Valak had already recalled that he had seen it on the ship before, and this must be another area of this world.
Recalling the conclusions of the warship's inspection at the time, Valak cautiously turned to the Black Giant Priest.
"grown ups……"
The ends of the tentacles are bent into a respectful arc.
"The environment here... is not suitable for our race to live in for a long time."
"Oxygen levels are too low, nitrogen levels are too high, and there's a lack of..."
The priest didn't speak, but suddenly reached out and ripped off the life support system on his body.
Snapped!
The device crashed to the ground.
Valak and the other tentacle trees were startled by his sudden action, their tentacles flailing wildly, their crystal eyes filled with terror.
Without a life support system, he wouldn't survive much longer in this environment...
Air rushes into the vent.
warmth.
Moist.
It also carried a familiar scent that left his mind blank.
His movements froze.
The watch data was finally updated at this point.
Tests showed extremely high oxygen concentrations, low nitrogen levels, and, more importantly, 0.3 percent of specific aromatic hydrocarbons in the air. Varak's eight crystalline eyes widened simultaneously.
This ratio...
The air composition is exactly the same as that of the northern temperate zone of Harlowian's home planet during spring!
The priest withdrew his hand, his tone indifferent:
"The environment here has been transformed; you no longer need a life support system."
Valak looked down at the wreckage of the life support device on the ground, then slowly raised his head to look at the sky.
This moment.
Valak suddenly felt even more terrified than when he had faced the time stop.
While time stopping is terrifying, it can at least be understood as "some kind of ultra-high-level weapon".
But now...
The other party was able to replicate the spring air of their home planet out of thin air in a strange world.
Moreover, it involves mass modifications.
This is no longer a difference in strength, it's a difference in the level of civilization!
So great that they couldn't even imagine the other's limits.
After a brief period of chaos, more prisoners were teleported over, and a large number of tentacle trees stumbled out of the white light.
Some trees still retain the terrified posture they had when they were captured.
Some trees emitted short, sharp screams after discovering that their life support systems had been removed.
However, after being reassured by Valak, they quickly calmed down.
Several young tentacle trees even squatted down and used their tentacles to dig through the soil for testing.
Finally, they stared blankly at the result, dumbfounded.
"Soil trace elements..."
"Just like the agricultural regions of our home planet..."
"How is that possible?!"
A young technician's voice was trembling.
Seeing this, Valak sighed and forced himself to calm down.
He is the commander-in-chief.
The fleet is finished, but at least he still has to maintain order.
"Everyone line up."
He issued the order: "Assemble in their original formations. The logistics team will check the wounded, and the technical officers will tally the equipment losses. Other units will be divided into groups according to the fleet; some will search for food, and others will collect tools and materials. We need to establish a camp before nightfall..."
The familiar commands finally calmed the crew down a little.
At least... there's still someone who can command them.
Valack lowered the vibration frequency and added, "Don't let your guard down."
however.
As soon as he finished speaking, the teleportation array lit up again.
The Black Giant Priest is back.
All the tentacle trees fell silent instantly, and countless crystalline eyes simultaneously looked at him warily.
The priest didn't waste any words, he simply raised his hand.
A blue arc of light flashed, and two machines appeared out of thin air.
One small, one large; the two machines were designed with an almost austere simplicity, looking like two silver-white square boxes. "This is the third type of biological breeding device."
The priest pointed to the small machine, then reached out and pressed the groove.
Blue light swept across.
hum...
A pale green nutrient block appeared out of thin air in the blue light.
"...It can provide long-term nutrition for a population of millions." The priest spoke as calmly as if he were introducing ordinary furniture.
Suddenly, a chorus of gasps filled the air around them.
Millions of dollars.
A machine the size of a palm?
This is no longer a technical skill, this is a miracle!
Then the priest pointed to another one: "This is a material printer."
He reached out and pressed his hand against the rune, then released it.
The same blue light flickered, and within the light, the phantom of a house appeared simultaneously.
After the blue light faded, the house did not disappear; instead, it remained standing there.
It's like someone forcibly dragging a painting into reality.
The entire camp was completely silent.
Thousands of tentacle trees froze in place, their crystal eyes flashing wildly.
Valak even heard someone's breathing holes gurgling from being so shocked.
The priest calmly added, "These two machines are very easy to use. Just press the switch, think about what you want, and they can detect your mental fluctuations and create the corresponding food or tools."
Among the group of shocked tentacle trees, Valak was the first to recover. Looking at his colleagues around him who were eager to try but also hesitant, he slowly walked up to the tree.
Following the example of the black giant priest, he extended his tentacles and pressed them against the runes.
The first thing that came to his mind was a bowl of soup.
His home planet's springtime soup in the northern temperate zone.
When I was little, my mother would cook this every year.
He hadn't had a drink in a long time since the expedition.
hum.
A flash of light.
A bowl of hot soup appeared.
A hexagonal shallow bowl, pale orange broth, with three thin slices of mushroom floating on top.
It was even still steaming.
Valack slowly picked up the bowl, somewhat incredulously, and took a sniff.
Then, the tentacles began to tremble uncontrollably.
The taste is exactly the same as I remember.
At that moment, he finally understood completely.
They were not facing an "advanced civilization" at all.
Rather, it is something that has transcended their theoretical framework!
Material printing.
Environmental restructuring.
Time is frozen.
These things... were merely "daily necessities" for prisoners of war to the other side.
Valack suddenly thought of something else.
When their fleet first entered the plane, they did not detect any orbital defense systems, so they assumed that the place was undefended.
But now, he suddenly realized.
Perhaps it's not that it can't be detected, but rather that the other party simply can't be bothered to hide.
Or rather...
What they were able to detect was what the other side had allowed them to see.
then.
Valak suddenly remembered his home planet.
His bark tightened instantly.
The flagship database contains both world coordinates and Hallowan coordinates.
The bipedal creature had already accessed the entire database.
Valak lowered his head and looked at his tentacles.
The silvery-gray color is fading rapidly, starting from the tips and gradually turning white.
That was their race's most primal fear response, meaning their bodies were entering an extreme survival state.
Behind him.
The young adjutant was holding the printed food, carefully smelling it, a hint of relief at surviving a close call even appearing in his bright eyes. Beside him, the old logistics officer trembled as he stroked the printer's casing.
Pale green sap slowly flowed down his bark, a physiological phenomenon caused by extreme shock.
Valak slowly retracted his tentacles and raised his head.
The warm sun still shines on the plains, the wind blows across the river, and the air carries the familiar scent of our home planet.
Even in such a familiar environment, he only felt cold all over.
He finally realized it.
He personally handed over the gate to his home planet to a monster civilization whose power was beyond measure!
The tree crowns of Valak bowed silently, producing a very slight vibration:
"It's over..."
"It's all over!"