Chapter 16 An Encounter That Isn't One

The miner took a sip of his coffee, closing his eyes as if carefully choosing his words. After a moment, he said,

"Actually, my meeting you wasn't a coincidence. I don't know if you'll believe that."

Fang Senyan frowned and said,

"How so?"

The miner said,

"We people all belong to the Empire. Although we're bound by confidentiality agreements, we still understand each other tacitly, especially with the Empire's intentional promotion. Plus, we have access to first-hand data. So, seventeen months ago, we noticed that your Dow Jones index was rising at an astonishing rate."

"Wait!" Fang Senyan said, dumbfounded. "If I remember correctly, isn't that Dow Jones index used for stocks?"

The miner smiled.

"Yes, but it just so happened that the colleague who built this database had the same name, so he used the system to specifically assess the coefficient of the contractor's strength improvement after entering each world. Usually, when they first enter, the strength of the contractors who survive will improve quite rapidly, but the subsequent increase often fails to exceed the mark of 9."

Fang Senyan's eyes flickered.

"So, what's my upward arc?"

"The comprehensive assessment is 184. You can also understand it as your strength almost doubling every five worlds," the miner said seriously. "This data is almost the best result besides the apostles."

"Almost?" Fang Senyan narrowed his eyes and said, "So, there's someone better?"

The miner smiled bitterly.

"I'm sorry, it's not that I don't want to say, but I can't."

As he spoke, he used his right hand to simulate the shape of a pistol, then pointed it at his head.

"I believe you combat types also have certain restrictions, right? For example, using active abilities obtained from the space in your original world should have very serious consequences. We are the same. Once leaked, our heads will explode as if hit head-on by a .78 caliber steel-core bullet. So, in order not to create more work pressure for our sanitation workers, why don't we change the subject?"

Fang Senyan shrugged.

"Okay, I understand your difficulties. So, after you noticed my... that Dow Jones index, you started to actively approach me and befriend me?"

"Yes," the miner said. "Because, according to our推断推断, there's an over eighty percent chance that you are the legendary Chosen One… Your talent is even useful to the space!"

Fang Senyan smiled, but didn't comment much on the miner's statement. Instead, he picked up a pot of coffee and slowly sipped it.

"Being a Chosen One isn't anything amazing. You still need someone's protection to grow."

If Fang Senyan's own team members heard this, they would definitely know that he was talking about Sanzai, and even Sanzai himself wouldn't say that this sentence was wrong. But when it fell into the miner's ears, he just assumed that he was agreeing and smiled:

"The Chosen One can indeed get preferential treatment from the space, so they definitely know more about inside information, and cooperation will also get more preferential treatment. This is the fundamental reason why I found you for in-depth cooperation."

Fang Senyan glanced at the miner and suddenly said,

"What is your relationship with the Big Ben Research Institute?"

The expression on the miner's face froze. After a long time, he said,

"What do you mean by asking this question?"

Fang Senyan said directly,

"I won't say I know everything about the inside of the Empire, but I can see it clearly. With people like you, how could you escape the Big Ben Research Institute's omnipresent reconnaissance?"

The miner was silent for a while before saying,

"We were originally pawns of the Big Ben Research Institute, but now we are completely at odds with them."

"Why?" Fang Senyan asked curiously.

The miner said calmly,

"Although we will receive the space's protection, the royal family's majesty is above everything else. They captured our families and wanted us to reveal all the secrets, but the only outcome of doing so is a head explosion… But if we don't say anything, then the whole family will die. So, those of us who are still alive are cold-blooded bastards who value their own lives more than their families, and are also the mortal enemies of the Big Ben Research Institute!"

Fang Senyan seemed to understand something.

"I understand."

The miner looked at Fang Senyan seriously and said,

"The people of the Big Ben Research Institute are ruthless and only serve the Empire's royal family. They will use any means to achieve their goals. If you plan to cooperate with them, then it is undoubtedly seeking skin from a tiger."

Fang Senyan nodded.

"I know… Okay, what do you want to know?"

"The Nightmare Space… or, more accurately, these Noah Spaces. What do you think they are? Machines? Creatures? Or something we can't understand?"

This was the sentence that impressed Fang Senyan the most among the miner's questions.

Fang Senyan couldn't answer the miner at the time. Because this was still an area he had never thought about, never touched. The miner obviously didn't expect Fang Senyan to answer, and told him very simply:

"According to our research, the Noah Space should be a very peculiar mechanical flesh-like biological existence. It has a strong self-repair ability, but in certain key aspects of the mechanical structure, it needs the help of assistants, just like crocodiles need plover birds to help them clean their oral hygiene."

"According to the initial design, this assistant should have been created by the great power that designed or manufactured the Noah Space at the same time. The two should be symbiotic, similar to ants and aphids. Ants protect the safety of aphids, and the excrement of aphids is the delicacy of ants. However, for some unknown reason, this assistant did not appear. Therefore, in order to avoid its own destruction, the Noah Space, with high intelligence and autonomy, began to actively select contractors who could replace the assistant while strengthening humans according to its own instinct. This is the origin of the Chosen One."

After hearing the miner's analysis, Fang Senyan immediately judged that he was definitely not lying, because these words were reasonable, seamless, and could not be said by someone who did not have an in-depth understanding of certain situations.

So Fang Senyan returned the favor and recounted some of his own experiences. The miner thought for a while and said:

"Since we can determine that space is a peculiar life form, and its power is astonishing, even able to travel upstream in the river of time, it can basically be assumed that the energy it consumes is also exceptionally terrifying. According to the principle of conservation of energy, space should also ingest a considerable amount of terrifying matter from the outside world to maintain its activities and life needs."

"That's right." Fang Senyan nodded and said, "As far as I know, the Empire is about to provide the space with an astonishing amount of ore, fuel, and various kinds of products."

The miner smiled. The smile made Fang Senyan feel a little uncomfortable, as if he was mocking him for knowing too little.

"That's just a superficial phenomenon, Mr. Sailor. If you really think that the Nightmare Space can't live without these supplies from the Empire, then you are very wrong! If the space were so easily controlled by the Empire, then it would have completely become a vassal of the Empire and even been dismantled long ago. In fact, these materials provided by the Empire to the space are only equivalent to certain seasonings in our kitchen. With these things provided by the Empire, the space may live more comfortably, but without these things, the space will definitely be able to survive!!"

After hearing the miner's words, Fang Senyan's expression changed drastically, because if all the information the miner said was true, then it would inevitably involve a problem, that is, since there are multiple spaces, then if survival resources are limited, it will definitely involve the allocation of survival resources!!

The most direct example is the Earth. The emergence of World War I and World War II, in essence, was still the occupation and distribution of limited resources on Earth! As for the subsequent Iraq War, it didn't even bother with a fig leaf and went directly for the oil!

After thinking about these things, Fang Senyan hesitated for a moment and couldn't help but say:

"If your theory really holds true, then the multiple Noah Spaces… are not as peaceful as imagined?"

"Peace?" The miner sneered, mocking, "Mr. Sailor, you should be one of the people who have benefited the most from the space battlefield, right? Why do you have such naive ideas!!!"

"Contractors are recycled by their affiliated space after death, and all the rewards you get after killing contractors belonging to other Noah Spaces are created by your own Noah Space at the cost of its own precious source energy! You can understand source energy as replenishable vitality. If it weren't maintaining the mentality of encouraging you to kill contractors of other Noah Spaces, why would it go to so much trouble?"

"Then… what is the intention of the Bloody Battlefield?" Fang Senyan couldn't help but ask in shock.

"The low-level Bloody Battlefield is of course to accelerate the evolution of contractors," the miner said seriously.

"But the high-level Bloody Battlefield is estimated to have changed its nature… You can understand the Noah Space as a war weapon like an aircraft carrier. It has no attack power itself, or rather, it is limited by certain rules and cannot attack each other. All the lethality lies in the fighter planes it carries. The strength of different Noah Spaces also depends on the strength of the contractors to which they belong! If I'm not mistaken, the high-level Bloody War has become an arena for power struggles between Noah Spaces. The powerful Noah Spaces will use their own strength to obtain more and larger living space and living resources!".