The scientific research spacecraft began to carry out detailed exploration of the asteroid belt.

And the floating city on the gas giant also began a debate at this time.

"You're crazy! It took us 600 years to gain a foothold here, and today you're telling me to go back to that time of wandering? ”

The mayor of the floating city, who was also the previous speaker at the celebration, let out a shocked voice.

Although he believed the chief scientist's words, he didn't think it was a good idea.

"Listen to me, Mayor, we will never have a future in this floating city!"

"Resources are always in short supply, and the surrounding environment is very unstable, so almost every 60 years we will be caught in a big storm here, destroying the previous construction!"

"A gap in the protective cover of the atmosphere almost killed us all! What can we develop in this situation? ”

"It took us 600 years to piece together a primitive spacecraft that could travel between here and the satellite, but how many resources did it bring? Bucket! ”

"Listen to me, this is a rare opportunity, you and I both know that there is not so much kindness in the interstellar, there are not many civilizations like 'guardians' that are at least willing to help, and if we miss this opportunity, we will only be trapped here forever!"

The mayor was silent for a while listening to the chief scientist's heartfelt words, and finally shook his head slowly:

“…… You also know that there isn't that much kindness in the stars, and how far can a colony ship without any escort get us going? Whether or not a habitable planet can be found is unknown. ”

"If we don't even have this place where we can barely stand on our feet, maybe our civilization will really disappear from history......"

“……”

The Chief Scientist's eyes darkened slightly, he knew that what the mayor said was also true, if this desperate choice failed, then the entire civilization would also enter the countdown to life.

But being trapped in this floating city is also tantamount to a slow death, and the chief scientist is not reconciled.

He was about to say something, but he saw the mayor's voice suddenly change and look at him seriously:

"But ......"

"Once, our ancestors also had many arguments in order to continue the flame of civilization."

"At that time, they chose to let the people vote and decide the direction of the whole civilization."

The chief scientist's eyes suddenly lit up: "You mean ......?"

“…… Vote, I will respect the choice of the people. ”

Thus, a great vote on the life and death of civilization began.

The two million people across the floating city were given their own electronic registered votes and voted for one of two options via the city's local area network:

Do you choose to plunge into the dangerous interstellar world once again in a colonial spaceship, or continue with a more stable but hopeless life here?

And three days later, they came up with the results.

Looking at the people who were loading everything they could move onto the colonial ship, the mayor showed a helpless expression:

"Sure enough, people are looking forward to the unknown?"

"No," the chief scientist said, shaking his head, "people just don't like a hopeless future." ”

"Have you forgotten the foundation of our civilization? Speaking of which, it seems like it's been a long time since we've called ourselves that. ”

The mayor was stunned, and then said abruptly: "'The one who never stops like water'?" Ever since those damn aquatic invaders have eaten away at us from within, we seem to have a deep hatred for 'water'. ”

"But that's what we really call when we go into the stars, isn't it? We are, 'Turbulent Civilization'......"

……

The colonial spaceship provided by Li Wenyuan has left the system, and the abandoned mining station and "city" has lost its last life.

He had no interest in restarting a largely unusable mining station, but he was quite happy to have a well-trained scientist.

"Thank you for your help, respected guardian, as agreed, I will no longer be a member of the 'Turbulent Civilization' and will instead be loyal to you."

The chief scientist's words in the scientific research spacecraft made Li Wenyuan stunned, and then couldn't help but ask:

"'Turbulent civilization'? This pronunciation of yours seems to be very similar to the 'Turbulent Empire' in the galaxy now, does it have anything to do with you? ”

“…… They are our enemies, originally an aquatic intelligent race under our rule, whom we have absorbed as citizens. ”

"But we didn't expect them to be so vicious, parasitizing and controlling many people in ways we didn't know about, and then slaughtering the rest of the species."

"After that, they replaced us as the main race of the 'Turbulent Civilization', and we are now a group of drifters."

The chief scientist lowered his head and summed up the history of blood and tears in a few words.

And Li Wenyuan was slightly surprised, he didn't expect that there was such a blood feud between them.

"It's better to be a synth, hard-working, sleepless, and will only follow instructions, without any shortcomings."

After a sigh, he continued to look at the asteroid belt.

A scan of the research spacecraft had just picked up some anomalous signals, and now he was pinpointing the source of the anomaly.

“…… After scanning the entire galaxy, there are only some anomalous signals here, is there something left by humans? ”

Li Wenyuan excitedly narrowed down the scanning range, and finally settled on a rocky asteroid larger than other asteroids.

At about 10 kilometers in diameter, it looks unremarkable, but if it falls to Earth, it is enough to cause a mass extinction.

And that's where the anomalous signal comes from.

"What will be here?"

Li Wenyuan also stared at the asteroid curiously, and sent a drone to try to get closer.

However, the mutation also happened at this moment.

Perhaps a heat source signal was detected, and something that was "sleeping" in the asteroid was activated.

The entire rocky crust was violently blasted open, revealing a faint green glow in the core.

On closer inspection, it can be seen that they are an aggregate of nanobots.

The fluorescence seems to be the source of the anomalous signal, but when the nanobots are activated, they no longer emit these lights, as if deliberately to attract people to explore the area.

Having lost their crust, they still form spheres about 5 kilometers in diameter, and their surfaces ripple as if they were blown in the windless universe.

Subsequently, the activated nanobots peeled away from the surface, gradually spreading from a tight sphere to a storm-like existence.

"This is ......" Li Wenyuan stared intently at the scene in front of him, a little incredible.

The scientific research ship had moved away from the asteroid belt under his control as early as the abnormal movement, and at such a distance it was difficult to see the storm of nanobots with his eyes alone.

Only drones near the asteroid belt are still recording this magical scene.

The storm of these nanobots seems to be extraordinarily destructive, and all the asteroids within the storm's range begin to shrink visibly at this point.

Whether it's metal, rock, or ice crystals, everything they touch is broken down and then synthesized into one of them.

Seeing that the nanostorm was getting bigger and bigger, Li Wenyuan suddenly became alert, and he was almost about to let the unmanned fleet staying in the solar system jump over and wipe out these nanorobots that seemed to never stop here.

But at this moment, the nanostorm seemed to have received some signal and stopped instantly.

And with their stop, a faint signal was transmitted from all the nanobots to the scientific research spacecraft.

[New technologies have been added to the Tech Tree]

[New coordinates have been entered into the star map]

Li Wenyuan, who hadn't heard these two words for a long time, was slightly stunned, and when he looked at the nanostorms again, he found that they seemed to have lost their vitality, as if sending this signal would lead to their destruction, turning into a floating nanorobot dust.

"What's going on......" Li Wenyuan was confused, and in confusion, he opened the technology tree and saw the new technology.

【Builder Research】

[Tech Level: 6]

[Introduction: Through a strange group of nanobot wreckage, we have unraveled the words of an ancient civilization that has been destroyed.] They seem to be related to a kind of giant stargate, but the specific situation still requires us to go through many rounds of research, if we can find their "stargate", then we may be able to speed up the research process, and by the way, find the "gift" left by this ancient civilization? 】

[Possible Technology: None]

"The Door Builder?" After going through all the memories, Li Wenyuan did not find the relevant information.

However, Li Wenyuan is full of interest in this kind of "separate technology" that has neither pre-technology nor follow-up technology on the science and technology tree.

"Yes, we need to improve our scientific research capabilities as soon as possible, so that we can quickly research these level 6 technologies...... The first step of expansion is nearing completion, and when all the scientific research areas are completed, the production capacity will be further increased......"

“…… If memory serves, there seems to be a completely abandoned megastructure nearby? ”