We met the boss of the "Ark of the Vessel" and the Tree Elf Observer stationed by the Empire at the Customs Office of the Civil Star Port: This observer report came about the parts of the ghost ship.

This civilian star port has a large number of modular customs offices, and each spacecraft docked here for more than a week can apply for such a free office for handling official duties and handing over various information with the empire management, but of course it can also Used as a place for business negotiations: Many "special" merchant ships passing through the macro world complete their trade activities directly on Starport. They ran from one star port to another. The warehouse was always filled with those long-term moving goods. They were middlemen and transporters. They never left their spacecraft or set foot on any planet except during the outage. . This kind of alien merchants call themselves "Starship Overlords" and their slogan is "We do not produce resources, we are just porters of nature"-but these Starship merchants have nothing to do with these Lin Jing now, I am curious about these What is the significance of Lin Jing also applying for such an office. Although they meet the application requirements, as businessmen, they have no goods, no information to hand over, and they do not need to receive any business partners. Such an office seems to be such a group of businessmen. Doesn't make any sense.

To my question, the boss of the merchant ship, who seemed to be no different from other mimosas, answered with a shameless response: "Anyway, it ’s no use, my ship is finished with the goods. Do you not allow me to take a small advantage here? "

At that time, I felt that the first batch of adulterers who started trading in Macroworld were all printed by a mold: I saw the shadow of the hawker queen of the Imperial Empire in this mimosa.

Sandora was learning about the ghost ship with that tree elf who was an observer, and I was curiously observing Boss Lin in front of me: since I last saw the fluffy mimosa in Shadow City, I have felt about this race I became interested, and then I learned about the ins and outs of this group of Lin Jing in the various Internet residents communities in Shadow City. The more I learned, the more curious: How did this strange race come into being?

Lin Jing is a new race from the edge of the macro world. Official exchanges with the empire were less than a year ago. And before this month, they were all engaged in short-term trade in remote areas and had never appeared in land in the Empire. These perennial herbaceous plants have enlightened intelligence and a higher level of scientific and technological civilization. They have studied their own universe, but for the time being do not know how to jump out of their own world. Therefore, Lin Jing caravans such as the "Plant Ark" are all Is to rely on the purchase of spaceships from other civilizations or apply for public crossing doors to complete self-help tours. This looks like a plant. But in fact, the strange race composed of plants and machinery makes people who are new to them feel puzzled. Even in the shadow city where the strange race has already seen strangeness, Lin Jing's first appearance caused a lot of trouble. Many people are curious, because according to normal logic, such a race that has not yet evolved natural limbs (or other functions that enable them to move) and communication organs cannot start on the road to becoming a higher civilization: they It is impossible to make the first tool, nor to form the first class and conscious cluster. Without the assistance of those mechanical components, Lin Jing can only rely on his roots to perform extremely slow and limited actions. They will also lose their language ability, and even communicate with their families rely on inefficient and ambiguous plant pheromone communication. In other words, the forest essences that have lost their mechanical limbs and auxiliary plug-ins will become creatures just higher than plants: They also retain the ability to think, but they cannot move or speak. No one knows how clever little ideas are turning under their enlarged petioles.

This has not changed in Lin Jing's entire evolutionary history: they have always been unable to escape from their mechanical bodies.

So how did they get started in the evolution of becoming a higher civilization? Or directly: how did they get the first mechanical prosthesis and pass it on to the next generation?

The reason is strange and rare: the original Lin Jing was actually a pet made by another race.

"We call them 'father'," Boss Lin Jingjuan bounced briskly at his desk. His voice, gesture, appearance, and various habits seemed to me to be the mimosa I saw the other day. It makes no difference, "This kind of title is exclusive to the creator, because Lin Jing is hermaphrodite, and there is no concept of parents in our family. The name" father "comes from the civilization of the creator. They are very intelligent, and they were first born on our planet. Bonfire—Oh, a great civilization. They discovered Lin Jing and planted us in their corners: originally only to improve the air in their houses. Later one of the greatest scientists of these great people came up with a whimsy , Connecting the electrode and the decoding device to Lin Jing in his house, it was a historic day: the very great Lin Jing-we call him the eldest son, this title also comes from the creator-he said to the scientist: thank you In this way, I expressed my gratitude for the daily watering. The two words were displayed on the display screen of 'Father', so someone finally discovered Lin Jing's thinking ability. After a long time, the 'fathers' have mastered all the techniques of normal communication with Lin Jing, and know that we have been thinking silently for the past few hundred years, although the thinking is very primitive, close to nightmares and slow Illusions of mind, 'Fathers' still seem very happy. "

I ca n’t help hearing this and interrupted the other side: “Say your creators do n’t have a conspiracy theory or anything? For example, worrying about another intelligent race appearing on your planet will grab a land with yourself and so on. There are many similar stories. "

"Oh, yes, but this idea soon proved to be a joke," Boss Lin Jingchuan vividly unfolded his branches, imitating the gesture of a human hand, "Lin Jing needs to be planted in the soil, our favorite thing It is just the right watering and sun exposure. We don't need any wealth in the hands of 'Fathers'. On the contrary, Lin Jing is an essential plant on the planet of 'Fathers'. Eighty-five percent come from Lin Jing. The two races will not plunder each other ’s treasures. The waste we do n’t need is the other ’s living resources. The wise people know that we do n’t have to compete—I know what you say Where is the earth. Do people on earth worry that too much food and air will crowd out their living space? "

Me: "... this is also true."

"In short, 'Fathers' transformed Lin Jing," the boss's little short legs swiftly ran on the table. "They improved Lin Jing's intelligence, and they also created a device for us to output ideas more easily: just sensors. Plug-in, and then we installed mechanical multifunctional limbs: they can be used as legs. They can also be used as hands. Lin Jing and the 'fathers' live happily together, that is a good day. "

I was just casually asking about the ins and outs of this strange race, but I didn't expect this story to be so interesting. I couldn't help urging him to say: "Then what? Where is your creator?"

The spirit of Lin Jingchuan's boss suddenly fell down, and even the leaves fell to the table in dire slump. The resources of the planet, these robbers invaded the planet of the 'fathers', and after a fierce battle, they won. "

"The 'Fathers' were genetically exterminated by robbers and all died after one generation. But Lin Jing survived. This was because the 'Fathers' modified all the databases and they erased them when the war was about to collapse across the board. Lin Jing has traces of higher wisdom, and then let us disguise as family pets and plants in nature with only simple thinking ability. The robbers did not expect this, plus they also need Lin Jing, a smart servant to help them improve The atmosphere of the planet, so Lin Jing survived. "

Nowadays, Lin Jing are not only alive. And it has also become one of the active races in the macro world, which shows that they eventually killed their enemies, but how did these seemingly weak plants revenge? Especially in the era when the boss of the ship mentioned that Lin Jing had no weapons in his hands, this revenge was too incredible for me.

"It took a long time," Boss Lin Jingjuan jumped in place. "Seven hundred years, it took us seven hundred years to prepare for revenge. We have no weapons, no bases, no place to hide. Not even. Show high intelligence in front of robbers: Only in this way can they continue to relax their vigilance. It seems that Lin Jing has nothing, but we have a way to avenge-evolution and plant pheromones. Lin Jing can do basic communication through plant pheromones, and even Exchange your own genetic fragments or cooperate to create new chemicals. We can control our evolutionary direction and let ourselves produce toxins through purposeful, subtle mutations from generation to generation. We have used 500 years to slowly change ourselves and let His organelles began to secrete a seemingly innocuous small molecule compound—those robbers had superb interstellar navigation technology and weapon technology, but their biochemical and genetic technologies were only average, which was a perfect opportunity. "

I have been completely attracted by Lin Jing ’s story. I did not expect that these seemingly weak plants have such a history, but I still ca n’t think of how they let themselves evolve the toxins to complete their revenge: Lin Jing ’s goal should be It's not just as simple as poisoning a few enemies. It's racial hatred. They need a larger scale.

"It's very simple," said the ship's boss solemnly (if all the leaves were gathered to represent seriousness), "we make ourselves nutritious, easy to digest, and cater to the taste of robbers."

I was dumbfounded.

"For the next two hundred years, Lin Jing became the food that the robbers scrambled to taste, and we also evolved some other gadgets to make ourselves look like medicines with health effects. The robbers were addicted to this. Everyone was obsessed with this. In the end, Lin Jing became their all-democratic food: the toxins accumulated in their bodies, and it took three generations to slowly take effect, and then it broke out. Those stupid things ca n’t bear the revenge of plants for so long, so there ’s no Linked to the food that they have eaten for two hundred years: they have lost fertility and gradually lost their ability to think logically. The robbers tried to use clones to continue their race, but as long as they still ate, they could not escape these toxins. Eventually Those who can manipulate the cloning equipment are also dead. From the training chamber, only the monkeys drooling on their toes—Lin Jing spent 700 years preparing and finally 300 years to appreciate it. This is our story. "

After that, you can guess: we just survived and continued the civilization with the mechanical limbs left by the ‘fathers’. Every new Lin Jing must accept this transformation. Mechanical limbs accompany each Lin Jing's life. Praise 'Father', praise the eldest son, no one dares to look down on Lin Jing again: once the revenge of the plant begins, it will not end. "

I looked at the cheerful tone, as if the boss Lin Lin, who had no sorrow at all, suddenly understood how this group of creatures can still think about the "little bargain point is the point" after the ship was destroyed. : They don't worry. They will not be in a difficult position, nor will they be overwhelmed by any short-term difficulties. Yes, for a race that is so forbearing and patient, it is enough for them to always open up each cluster of their leaves to meet the sun.

"In this place, it is a tradition for ship bosses from different worlds to introduce each other's glorious history of their race and civilization." At this time, the conversation between Sandora and the tree elf observer came to an end, the tall and thin tree elf Turning his head and saying, it turned out that he also heard the conversation just now, "The story of Lin Jing is the most exciting one, but the only problem is that these Lin Jing like to tell this to others too: I have heard these stories for six Again, you want me to give you a back ... "

I:"……"

Ok. It is conceivable that after all, the mimosa encountered in the previous two days is a guy who does not distinguish between simple and complex. Lin Jing's way of thinking seems to be different from other races. Once they communicate with others, they will consider themselves All the thoughts are listed regardless of their priorities. You will feel Lin Jing's hospitality and easy communication at the first contact, but you will feel a little noisy for these perennial herbs after a long contact. But how to say I also talked to Starfield. It ’s acceptable to Lin Jing ’s slightly talkative nature. After all, they ’re just talking a little bit more, and the broken reminder of Starfield has almost reached a level of continuous self-circulation ...

"Let's talk about the business first," I turned my attention away from Lin Jing's affairs. Seeing the relaxed look on Sandora's face, I knew that the ghost ship was basically stable. "That part confirmed that the ghost ship was dropped. Come down? "

"OK, that's it," Sandora said, passing a small cylindrical metal object, which was less than a foot long and the thickness of the egg. And one end was broken, and its size was smaller than I expected: When I first heard that the ghost ship hit the debris on the "Plant Ark", I thought it was a big thing.

"I just checked, this is a common external sensor on the Empire spacecraft. The manufacturing date is in line with expectations. It is a relic from the heyday of the old empire." Sandora said as she handed that sensor to Xiao Xue. Through this, coupled with Xiaoxue's ability to predict, one should be able to lock where the ghost ship will appear next time. "

"My mother should be a bit safer in this matter." Xiao Xue muttered as he took the metal post.

"Your mother has just returned from a business trip and asked her to rest for two days," I tilted the bear boy who was picking fat and leaning. "And you are almost growing rice bugs at home. I am worried that you will rust in front of the TV if you are not active."

Xiaoxue grinned at me, finally holding the broken sensor probe and closing her eyes, she would trace the information context of this item and find other components that have spent time with her for more than 100,000 years. It is a process that is difficult for others to understand. If you have to explain it, it is equivalent to holding a leaf to the forest to find the tree it once belonged to. This is an impossible task, but you must know that everything born in the void is in a vast ocean of information. There is nothing exception. The eyes of the prophet can look down on the stairs of the void to all the steps from this step. Spreading Derivatives: Although sorting out a ghost ship from such a large amount of information seems a little weird, Xiaoxue has her own special method.

I waited silently with Sandora for a few minutes. During that time, the boss of the ship Lin Jing ran back to chat with the observer, and finally Xiao Xue opened her eyes suddenly: "I found it."

"Where is it?" Santora and I agreed.

"Three days later, the watch world of the capital is over a red dwarf more than 3 million light-years from the earth," Xiao Xue returned the metal pillar to Sandora ~ lightnovelpub.net ~ It will appear around the Macro World Channel. Occasionally it will drift to a desolate place, but its stay time in these desolate areas is usually short, as short as the Empire ’s radar station is too late to scan them. This time the ghost ship will stay there for three seconds. "

Three seconds ... This is really short.

Sandora didn't care much: "Enough, let's send someone to set up a siege in the past. Three seconds is enough to start the gravitational trap. Xiaoxue, is that ship armed?"

"Unarmed," Xiao Xue shook her head. "But it's hard to say if there is any inside the boat. There is too much information about one-time jumps, and it looks vague."

Sandora and I waved their hands indifferently: It is good to be able to locate the upcoming position and time of the ghost ship. Xiao Xue, the bear child, is still unambiguous in doing the business.

At this time, the boss of Lin Jingchuan has once again held the Observer Xinggang and is opening the conversation box with great interest: "Well, let me tell you something about my adventures ..."

I suddenly thought it would be better to leave this place sooner ... shouldn't this group of Lin Jing be the dragon gods! ? (To be continued ...)