Chen Lin pondered for a long time before realizing something. He quickly instructed Seele and Gepard to open more of the scattered containers and check inside.
Sure enough, when Gepard cautiously pried open the last container, Chen Lin found yet another human corpse inside.
Corpses of humans who had died from fatal wounds littered the ground, but where were the robots?
Or rather, where were the mech-servants?
That was the most suspicious part!
Chen Lin turned to the others and said, “Everyone, get moving. Search the area and see if you can find any robots!”
The group responded affirmatively, and even Chen Lin himself joined the search, bringing Phantylia along as they delved into the nearby buildings. Whenever he had a spare moment, he conjured a few psionic phantoms to assist, but the residual unknown psionic energy in the area interfered, greatly limiting their effectiveness.
They were in a massive factory. By examining the long-idle machines and assembly lines, Chen Lin quickly deduced that this was a replication plant. Here, mechanical bodies were assembled according to fixed blueprints, and then corresponding intelligence modules were installed, allowing these cheap replicants to perform simple labor.
However, due to the urgency of their search, Chen Lin inevitably missed some details. Thankfully, Phantylia followed behind and double-checked everything. Before long, she discovered a peculiarly designed computer.
She carefully examined the large crystalline screen and followed the disconnected cables surrounding it. Tracing these cables further, she stumbled upon a highly concealed room. As she peeled away the metal panel that served as a disguise, a thick, heavy door was revealed beneath.
The unsettling silence of this place was suffocating. Unless absolutely necessary, Phantylia had no intention of forcefully destroying the metal door.
Fortunately, her true form did not need to worry about such physical barriers—nothing in the material world could stop her. She leaned into a quiet corner, and from within her body, a golden, shimmering wisp of light emerged. Ignoring the thick iron door entirely, it phased straight through.
“Huh?”
Passing through five or six heavy doors in succession, Phantylia finally reached the deepest chamber. Unlike the chaotic mess outside, this place was an orderly data control center filled with intricate circuits and equipment.
Numerous replication pods were connected to terminals all around. Inside these pods lay a large number of unfinished mechanical frames, some with their lids left open, as if someone had been calibrating them. However, apart from these skeletal frames, Phantylia saw no other robots.
As she moved closer to inspect them, she found that the craftsmanship of these frames was on par with those of modern mechanical civilizations, and their designs were remarkably elegant.
After telepathically reporting her findings to Chen Lin, she immediately withdrew without hesitation.
After all, as a spirit entity, she could not physically interact with objects in the real world. However, she had a vague feeling that if she continued reinforcing herself with a mix of psionic energy and the abundant energy within the [Zroni Nexus] for a few more decades, she might one day be able to maintain her spirit form’s resilience while also gaining the ability to interact with physical matter!
Regardless, her discovery at least confirmed her master’s suspicions about this city’s original inhabitants. That counted as a contribution, right?
Not long after she returned to her body, Chen Lin relayed the information to Serval, Seele, and Gepard before rushing to the scene himself.
“Master.”
Chen Lin nodded and looked up at the half-torn iron wall that had been used as a disguise. “You’re sure the equipment inside isn’t damaged? And the energy storage is still intact?”
“Yes, I went in and checked everything. There’s no sign of destruction…” Phantylia hesitated and asked cautiously, “Master, do you intend to activate those machines? I can’t guarantee that they’ll turn on successfully.”
“We won’t know until we try. But I’m not just interested in how these robots are calibrated—I want to find out if there’s any record of this city, or rather, any mention of when something went wrong here. That’s the only way we’ll figure out when this unknown city even appeared.”
As he spoke, Chen Lin grasped Phantylia’s shoulder. Using the [Zroni Nexus], he adjusted their coordinates little by little. Before long, the two of them arrived inside the chamber without having to damage the door.
As for why he avoided breaking it down…
There was no way to know if any security systems were still operational. Many security mechanisms back home were designed to function independently, and there was no guarantee that these wouldn’t still be active.
With Phantylia’s guidance, Chen Lin located the facility’s power supply. However, the dense tangle of circuits and an overwhelming number of unmarked buttons left him completely at a loss.
Crap, the governor has hit a wall…
With no other options, Chen Lin left Phantylia to watch over the site while he went back to bring the others. Serval had extensive experience dealing with energy-related devices, making her the best choice to handle the system safely.
Before long, he returned, first bringing Seele inside, followed by Serval, who was lugging a massive backpack, and finally, a thoroughly blackened Gepard, who looked as if he had just climbed out of a chimney.
Serval, who was fiddling with the power unit, turned around and burst into laughter at the sight of Gepard.
“Bro, hahahaha… what kind of getup is this?!”
“…” Gepard’s face darkened.
Seele looked surprised. “Hey, Gepard, what happened to you?”
After taking a moment to recover, Gepard sighed and explained, “I was exploring a room when something triggered. Several robots fell from the ceiling…”
“And then they all attacked you?” Serval asked curiously.
Gepard shook his head. “That’s what I thought at first, so I got ready for battle… but they just sparked a few times, started spewing smoke and oil, and then collapsed. The room was small, and the door got bent out of shape, so I couldn’t get out in time and got completely covered. That’s when the governor showed up…”
“Alright, clean yourself up.” Chen Lin cut in. “Seele, come with me. We’re going to disconnect the circuits on those mechanical frames and pick a few intact ones to take back.”
“Got it!”
Crack, crack, crack!
With brute force, Seele tore the mechanical frames out of their pods. She was so strong that a few of them even had their arms ripped clean off, making Chen Lin’s eye twitch.
In the meantime, Gepard hid in a corner, using psionic energy to cleanse himself of the grime, while Serval enthusiastically studied the unfamiliar devices. Many of the tools she had brought seemed to come in handy, and Phantylia assisted by handing things to her.
After about half an hour of work, Serval had repeatedly disassembled and reassembled the power unit before finally figuring out how it functioned.
“Lin, I’m about to turn it on,” she called out. “The craftsmanship here is top-tier. Some of the metals and composite materials inside are things I’ve never seen before… Also, the power system wasn’t broken—it was deliberately shut down. The energy reserves are still full.”
Chen Lin nodded. “Turn it on. Be ready—if anything goes wrong, get to my side immediately, and we’ll pull out.”
After confirming, Serval powered up the system and tapped away at the terminal for a while…
Snap!
The previously dim room was instantly flooded with light, and a low humming noise echoed as various devices whirred to life. Screens lit up one after another, only to flicker briefly before fading again.
As for the anticipated danger—there was none.
Seele curiously poked at a screen. “Is this thing broken?”
“The circuits are heavily deteriorated, and so is the hardware. I checked a few areas earlier, and they all looked similar to this. This place must be really old.” Serval pulled a small device from her backpack and connected it to the circuits. As arcs of electricity flickered in her hands, she muttered, “If we want to see what’s inside, this should let us project the data… I’ll give it a try.”
As she worked, Chen Lin glanced at his [Intelligence Log] and saw that the progress bar for the event “Mystery of the Pit · Exploration” had slowly risen from 10% to 13%.
“…Damn, what kind of encryption is this?” Serval sucked in a sharp breath and scratched her head in frustration. “This is going to be a pain.”
The encryption process often involves an entire set of symbols, arranged in ways that don’t always follow logical patterns. When decrypting something like this, brute force is typically the most effective approach…
However, brute force decryption comes with its own drawbacks. While a sufficiently fast processing speed guarantees eventual success, the downsides are significant—first, it’s time-consuming, and second, it requires access to all the encrypted symbols. Otherwise, what exactly is there to brute force?
If that were the only problem, then at worst, it would just take a little extra effort. That alone wouldn’t have made Serval this frustrated.
Scratching her head awkwardly, she admitted, “Lin, I might really be out of my depth here… This encryption uses patterns and symbols, and every stroke has to follow a specific logic. I have no clue where to even start.”
“No worries. Is there a section dedicated to data storage on this thing?” Chen Lin waved it off. Decryption couldn’t be rushed. Given his theory, the original owner of this city was likely some ancient entity from who-knows-when. Their encryption techniques and logic wouldn’t necessarily match modern standards, so there was no point in blaming anyone.
Serval nodded. “Yeah, there should be.”
“Then dismantle it and give it to me. I’ll see if I can crack it myself.” Chen Lin sighed. “This place is seriously eerie. All we’ve found are simple machine frames—there’s no sign of their original owners at all…”
As Serval got to work dismantling the data components, Chen Lin contacted Bronya back at Qlipoth Fort to check on the situation there.
After confirming that everything was stable, he asked a few more questions, got his answers, and ended the call. By then, Serval had already shut down the power completely and disassembled the massive computer, leaving it in pieces. She had managed to extract several data modules that Chen Lin needed.
With the data modules in hand, he entered the [Zroni Nexus]—his most formidable trump card. Back when he first entered, he had forced Phantylia into submission here. Within this realm, he could command whatever he desired, as long as he had enough [Zro Dust].
“Can you decrypt this thing’s password?”
Standing in a lush, flower-filled forest, Chen Lin willed the [Zroni Nexus] to respond. Almost immediately, an overwhelming sense of excitement flooded his mind—almost as if the entire realm was crying out, Dad! You finally remembered to feed me!
From the vast reserves of [Zro Dust], a small handful floated into the air. A surge of psionic energy emerged, cradling the data modules in his hand. Seeing that his plan was working, Chen Lin began contemplating what might be stored in these files. More importantly, why did this underground mechanical city have an unknown psionic shield protecting it? And what was the deal with all the organic corpses inside?
At least within the galaxy, psionics and mechanical beings were usually worlds apart. Their ideologies directly opposed each other, and they almost always saw the other as heretical. Outside of certain bizarre loopholes—like the infamous Psionic Canned Goods exploit—most psionic and synthetic civilizations couldn’t coexist. Even if they did absolutely nothing, their diplomatic relations would still plummet on their own…
So why were they suddenly working together here?
As he puzzled over this contradiction, the data modules—suspended in psionic energy—were gently returned to his palm. Moments later, an enormous stream of information flooded his mind.
In an instant, Chen Lin not only learned the passwords for these data modules—he also acquired an entirely new language!
“This… is the language of that civilization?” He was genuinely surprised.
The [Zroni Nexus] responded with an affirmative pulse of information, along with a message: If you run into anything else you can’t solve, just come back here. It even provided him with the method it had used to decrypt the data.
Rather than brute-force guessing with [Zro Dust], the Nexus had actually created a short-lived parallel timeline, set within the current era. It had handed the data modules to someone on Jarilo-VI, then accelerated time while they worked on the decryption. In the end, the process had revealed both the passwords and the contents of the data.
The Nexus grumbled about the encryption being excessively complex, claiming that it had taken over a decade to crack fully.
Along with the decrypted information, the Nexus had also uploaded the newly translated language directly into Chen Lin’s mind. This wasn’t just some crude force-feeding of knowledge—it had completely bypassed the process of learning the language, granting him both fluency and firsthand experience using it.
Incredible.
Now that he had the passwords and understood the civilization’s language, Chen Lin was about to leave the [Zroni Nexus] when a wisp of purple mist appeared in front of him, tugging at his sleeve. A message accompanied it.
Chen Lin raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying you want to eat some [Zro Dust]? You feel like you’ve reached a critical point and need it to break through?”
—
This is a fan translation of 在星穹铁道点群星科技树真的没问题吗? by 杏雨诗韵 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!
Reader discussion
0 Comments
Be the first reader to share a thought about this chapter.