"Survivors?" After hearing the words that suddenly appeared on the data terminal, Hao Ren looked at it in surprise.

The data terminal floats next to a control device, its blue light pulsating slightly as if breathing on the cables and extensions around the device, and in this way, it finally reads the last bit of data that has not been completely erased from the depths of these battered devices: "The machine is connected to the navigation brain in the depths of this ship, and has a rough grasp of how this fleet navigates - and it needs to be navigated by someone alive." ”

Hao Ren looked at the data terminal and motioned for it to continue.

The data terminal opened a set of holographic projections, on which were a fleet of thirteen ellipsoidal ark ships, and some complex lines extended radially around each fleet: "These are the regular repeating signals that were detected before. According to what is currently known here, the pilots of the arks are dead, so the ships are commanded by an automatic system, so the signal transmission between them is mechanical. According to their navigation mode, these ships do not have a fixed flagship, and they rely on networking to connect all the navigation brains together to build a unified, virtual navigation program. The local guess is that this is because the designers considered from the beginning that any ship, including the flagship, could suddenly be wiped out, so they gave the top navigation authority to a ghost host operating on the network, so that as long as the fleet remained a certain size, it could sail without having to worry about the change of flagship......"

Hao Ren waved his hand: "The point, the point." ”

"The point is, such a ghost host is not installed on any ship. And considering that the main engine of each ship is not necessarily reliable during this long journey, this navigation program is not controlled by any one specific terminal. It automatically monitors the fleet. Relying on certain conditions to determine whether their navigation mission still needs to continue," the data terminal floated up and down. "Its detection rule is 'life continues', and the machine found this information from the bottom of the database."

The arks built by each civilization operate in different ways, and this time, they will only continue to sail if the life inside them is still alive. Their thrusters are still unextinguished, so unless something goes wrong with the navigation procedures formed by these ships, there is only one explanation:

"There are still living people on a certain ship...... Hao Ren muttered to himself, then frowning, "but they didn't respond to Nolan's call. ”

"Maybe it's a system glitch, maybe it's not understanding Nolan's high-level language. It's more likely that they're frightened, they may think we're in league with the 'Guardians,'" the terminal retracted all the light, "and of course it's even worse, that the survivors are dead, and there are no more people who know how to manipulate the radar." Anyway, if they don't respond, then we'll have to check every ship. ”

Hao Ren was stunned and looked up at the console in front of him. On one of the console screens, a view from the vast space is displayed. Some dim lights glittered in the darkness, and they were the figures of the other twelve Ark ships in space.

"I hope every ship is built like this......" Hao Ren muttered, connecting to Nolan, "Nolan." You've heard that. Assemble engineering drones, slice through the hulls of each ship, and punch life detectors into them – all the way to the deepest signals. Also, do not interrupt communication requests to these ships. If someone is willing to respond, we don't have to make a hole in their ceiling. ”

"The machine feels that drilling a few small holes in these hundred-plus-kilometer-long behemoths won't collapse their entire system." The data terminal shook itself and muttered, "Unless you accidentally dig through their atmospheric pump or reactor." ”

Hao Ren sighed slightly: "You still believe in my luck after running with me for two years?" ”

The terminal was stunned for a moment. Call the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace: "Nolan, let those drones be careful, it's best to scan the drill at least three times every time you shoot it...... Oh no, it's better to scan it four times. ”

The group exited the Central Control Station and looked out at the massive facility. Now that its core reactor has been reactivated, the once-dim glowing grids and heat sinks are glowing brightly, but with most of the city's ecosystem dismantled and the Control Station no longer functioning like the last remaining head of a giant, it just runs silently in a vacuum, like an artificial star in this icy world shining on a lifeless shelter. Hao Ren looked at the frozen and dilapidated city around him, and knew that there was nothing in the ship that was worth further exploring, so he left some autonomic machinery here to study the structure of the city, while he himself led the people back to the Giant Turtle Rock Platform.

The Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace slowly departed from the ark giant ship called the "Mountains", and then some silver-white points of light flew from afar, they had a square shape and some sharp engineering arms, which were a swarm of drones in response to the summons. The swarm flew towards the silent arks in space, and then a few sparkling lights burst out from the shells of each ark.

The drone began to cut through these weird and silent steel domes and put small detectors inside them.

"I've figured out how to make the first modification of the Giant Tortoise Rock Platform," Hao Ren stood on the bridge and tapped on the console in front of him, "I need at least a high-powered life sensing radar, or a new model of detector hive." These devices are becoming more and more inadequate, and it is difficult for a generic base model to detect life responses through kilometers of steel plates and energy fields, not to mention that in most cases I am trying to detect the strange species created by the Goddess of Creation. ”

"With all due respect, mate," the data terminal said in a deliberately serious tone, "based on your work history, your life detector will rarely come in handy. ”

Hao Ren: "...... It's not what I'm happy to blow up wherever I go! ”

The thirteen Ark ships, each of which is more than a hundred kilometers in size, have an outer protective layer that is several kilometers or even tens of kilometers thick, a complex system of shallow pipes and corridors, and a spherical city surrounded by a thick steel shell, all of which have fallen into disrepair, and tens of thousands of obsolete airlocks and exhaust pipe pump systems maintain the fragile balance inside these ships, which have caused a lot of trouble for the work of the drones. But everything went according to Hao Ren's plan, and within a few hours, the data from the probe group was continuously transmitted back to the Giant Tortoise Rock Platform.

Hao Ren stood in front of the console, and the more important images transmitted by the detector were sorted out by Nolan and projected onto the main equipment. Hao Ren saw the inside of the remaining twelve arks—some had only just reached the surface, but some had already penetrated the core.

The conditions within these arks are different, and although the structure is similar, they have different defects. In one of the Arks, an ice-covered city similar to the one on the Crowd can be seen, but in the other there is only a large, terrifying void inside: the city itself has been dismantled and turned into parts of another ship, which may have been left behind hundreds of years ago.

"It's getting worse and worse...... No life has been found yet, only various wrecks have been found," Nolan's voice sounded beside him, "their shells are intact but their interiors are full of holes, these ships have survived by devouring each other for thousands of years, they may have set sail in hundreds, but now only thirteen ships are still sailing...... The thirteen ships seemed to me like floating corpses, dry and hollow inside. ”

"You've become a lot more emotional since you became a ship," Hao Ren smiled, "Did any arks answer your call?" ”

"No, there is no response on any frequency band, but I can be sure that my signal has been sent to the inside of these ships," Nolan nodded slightly, "The shallowest detectors have been drilled into the cables of those arks, and if there is still no response in this case, then I am afraid it is really 'no one'." ”

Hao Ren didn't say anything, he looked back at the holographic projection, a small probe was burrowing through the spherical city dome of the sixth ark, in its constantly shaking perspective, darkness flashed, followed by a cold dead silence in a faint light, a deserted city appeared under the probe's lens, and the other data transmitted by the probe showed that there was no life here.

Hao Ren began to seriously think about whether these arks were really all extinct, maybe there was something wrong with the navigation program, so that they would continue to operate in the case of extinction. But just as the idea popped into his head, a message popped up from the holographic projection.

Nolan and the data terminal spoke at the same time: "There is a life reaction!" (To be continued.) )