Chapter 166 The Underground World's Mental Space

Han Xiao had originally thought that the underground species must build nests near the mines and couldn't move. However, Melos's report refreshed his impression. The underground species could actually move by themselves?!

This concept was equivalent to finally reaching the enemy's high ground and preparing to destroy their crystal, only to find that they had picked up the crystal and ran away!

"They actually took the initiative to escape. Could it be because I invaded their nest last time?"

Han Xiao was quite surprised and reasoned for a while.

The entire nest besieged him, an intruder, but he escaped easily, and many of his kind died in battle. Although only a few thousand aliens were killed, under the wide-area mind connection, the other underground species seemed to be there in person. In other words, he alone had scared tens of millions of underground species in this tribe, leaving an indelible psychological shadow on them.

Knowing how to fear the strong was an instinct, so the aliens in Nest Number One regarded him as their natural enemy, so they all migrated. The wide-area mind connection provided the underground species with efficient decision-making capabilities…

"It should be like this."

Han Xiao rubbed the back of his neck, feeling that he was pretty close to the truth. The underground species had animal habits, and would take the initiative to retreat when encountering irresistible danger.

This situation made his mind suddenly clear.

The biggest reason for the Sunil's crusade against the underground species was to destroy the Whispering Stone mine protected by the underground species. Now it has been confirmed that the underground species can actually mine and transport the mines themselves. Since they can migrate, there is room for resolving this conflict.

As long as the underground species leave Sunil Star with the Whispering Stones and change to an uninhabited planet as their habitat, the problem will be solved easily. In this way, the Sunil would not have to carry out the extermination, which would be an optimal solution for both parties.

Han Xiao frowned and immediately realized the difficulty. This approach seemed to be very good, but in fact, its feasibility was very low. To capture hundreds of millions of underground species alive, and to choose a habitable, uninhabited planet, and prepare a large number of spaceships for migration, would cost dozens of times the manpower and material resources.

If they could migrate, the Sunil would have left long ago.

Obviously, the Sunil did not have such ability, and they did not want to abandon their home that they had worked so hard to build.

Therefore, eliminating the underground species was more cost-effective and a permanent solution. For the Sunil, protecting the underground species was a waste of resources, and destruction was always the easiest.

"So, if migration is used to replace extermination, there must be external forces involved, such as large consortia…"

Han Xiao frowned. Then the question came, what was the point of spending a lot of resources to migrate the underground species? Could the benefits brought by an uncivilized race be comparable to the cost of interstellar migration? If it could not be repaid, then the value of the rescue would be greatly reduced.

According to the content of the employment, keeping the underground species was unnecessary.

And now, it could be determined that the Sunil would definitely carry out the idea of extermination.

So this meant that the power of life and death of a species depended on his own thoughts.

So, to save or not to save…

Han Xiao hesitated. There was originally no room for maneuver in the conflict between races, but now another possibility had emerged. Even if the Sunil realized it, they would never take the initiative to bring it up. So as long as Han Xiao did not make a suggestion, the crusade would continue until the underground species were completely wiped out.

He was originally just an executor and only needed to fulfill the employer's requirements, but when he realized a new method, his role changed. He was no longer a simple mercenary, but became the only decision-maker who could decide the survival of a species, and the pressure of making a decision shifted to his head.

When there was no choice, Han Xiao would not have a psychological burden, but the situation was different. A weak species could not even control its own life and death, and he had the power to decide the survival of an entire race.

After thinking for a long time, Han Xiao sighed, "Melos, continue the operation and attack another nest."

"Understood."

Melos hung up the communication.

Han Xiao put away the communicator and called Sylvia over to supervise the construction team. Then he left the construction site and found Fording, who was enjoying the natural atmosphere in the forest.

In the lush forest, Fording was sitting cross-legged under a tree. Invisible psychic fluctuations rippled in the air. This was a manifestation of a psychic practicing mental strength.

Psychic power was a mixed energy of Qi and mental strength. There were also awakened abilities similar to psychic power among the Esper abilities, but psychics were able to be among the five major superpower systems because they had a complete and systematic training system. As long as a person had talent, they could master psychic power through training, without the genetic mutations of the Esper abilities.

"What do you want from me?"

Sensing Han Xiao's footsteps, Fording opened his eyes, revealing a polite smile, hiding a trace of alienation in his eyes.

Fording was very resistant to the Black Star Army's employment in this war. The massacre of an indigenous race touched his bottom line, and Fording's attitude towards Han Xiao had undergone subtle changes because of this.

"I want to ask you for a favor. It's still the same request as last time, to study the wide-area mind induction of the underground species and try to communicate with them," Han Xiao said slowly.

"Didn't I refuse before? My answer is still the same."

Fording said without thinking. He knew that this war was not wrong, but he still did not want to be an accomplice to the massacre.

Han Xiao was not surprised. Based on his understanding of Fording, this guy tended to be neutral and kind.

"You misunderstood. This time it's not for the same reason as last time…"

Han Xiao explained the idea of migrating the underground species and smiled faintly, "If we can build a bridge of communication, perhaps this hypothesis can become a reality."

Fording's eyes suddenly lit up, and he stood up abruptly. "Are you telling the truth?!"

"You know my reputation," Han Xiao smiled.

Fording stared at Han Xiao, and suddenly revealed a gentle smile that was enough to make a girl scream, and the surroundings were dyed into a warm color.

"I knew I didn't misjudge you. Let's go, I will do my best to help you."

The two smiled at each other.

Coming to invite Fording to help was exactly the decision Han Xiao had made. He chose to protect the underground species.

It was not because of a burst of kindness, but because he advocated sustainable development.

The Sunil's employment would be gone once it was completed. Extermination was a permanent solution, while migration would leave the underground species behind, which had potential benefits and was equivalent to harvesting two servings of chives from a vegetable field.

The underground species was a very promising race, and might have the opportunity to become a new NPC resource place, which was worth investing in. Although the initial investment was not small, Han Xiao today had the capital to spend. Transplanting chives, digging a hole, burying some soil, and counting one, two, three, four, five.

Mental communication avoided the problem of language barriers. If a consensus could be reached with the underground species and the underground species were allowed to voluntarily leave Sunil Star, they would be able to gather together on their own, saving a lot of energy and not having to capture them alive one by one.

However, with the civilization level of the underground species, they may not be able to understand the concept of "universe" and "planet". They had never even looked up at the starry sky. Therefore, the only way was to make the underground species feel the threat of death like this time, and let fear dominate them, so that they would surrender for survival.

Therefore, appropriate slaughter was still necessary.

In addition, there was another reason for doing so. The epic feeling of saving a race was obviously more immense, and players would prefer this kind of savior role-playing, so they would have a greater sense of belonging to the Black Star Army.

Of course, restoring Fording's favorability was also a reason. Han Xiao didn't want the chives in his house to pull themselves out of the ground and run away.

…

Half an hour later, the underground world.

The expeditionary force established a temporary camp, and the lighting equipment made the dark underground world as bright as day. The Sunil armored forces were on guard around the perimeter.

Melos had received the next instruction, leading the army to advance towards Nest Number Two marked on the map.

Arriving at the edge of the nest, the vanguard quickly encountered a large group of underground species, about three or four hundred.

"Damn, this is much uglier than the photos."

Many players showed disgusting expressions, especially many female players who looked pale. This kind of alien monster with insect characteristics was simply an unforgivable heretic in this era of face value.

This group of underground species also discovered the expeditionary force and came over, their tentacles waving repeatedly, seemingly curious about what these upright creatures they had never seen before were.

Bang, bang, bang—

The next moment, the armored forces opened fire in unison!

The Sunil armored soldiers had stern faces and decisively pulled the trigger of the large-caliber armor-piercing assault gun. The gunshots broke the silence of the underground, and the dazzling muzzle flash illuminated the underground. The dense rain of bullets easily tore apart the bodies of hundreds of underground species, turning them into a pile of minced meat.

"Advance!"

The officers of each squad shouted loudly, and the Sunil troops advanced in large strides. The heavy armor stepped on the ground, their steps were neat, and the players on the side looked at them with admiration.

Rumble, rumble, rumble—

At this moment, an earthquake-like sound occurred in the nest, and the ground vibrated slightly. The sound of thousands of beasts galloping approached rapidly.

"Defensive formation, hold the line!"

The Sunil troops quickly changed their formation, stood ready, and prepared to withstand the impact.

Boom!!

A dark torrent poured out from various passages. The number of aliens in Nest Number Two also reached tens of millions, continuously emerging, and the ground kept shaking.

At this moment, Melos finally spoke, his voice like thunder.

"Black Star mercenaries, free to fire!"

Hundreds of thousands of players rushed out fiercely, and the crowd lit up with colorful lights.

Boom—

The two torrents collided fiercely, and the war broke out suddenly!

…

At the same time, Han Xiao and Fording came to the Sunil Research Department and borrowed more than a dozen underground species that had been captured alive.

More than a dozen underground species were held in separate cells, without letting them come into contact with each other. A small pile of Whispering Stones was placed in the middle to provide them with wide-area mind induction.

"You are the expert, I'll leave it to you." Han Xiao stretched out his hand and made an inviting gesture.

Fording smiled slightly and released psychic power to touch the Whispering Stones.

The underground species regarded the Whispering Stones as communication base stations, equivalent to servers. As long as the psychic adjusted their mental fluctuations to the frequency of the aliens, they could log into the online chat channel of these dozen underground species.

After adjusting for a while, Fording's eyes lit up. "It's done."

As soon as he finished speaking, Fording's expression became strange.

"What's wrong?" Han Xiao raised his eyebrows.

"Uh… It's not quite what I imagined." Fording looked strange. "Accept my mental link, I'll pull you in too."

Han Xiao nodded and felt Fording trying to connect to his mind, without refusing.

The moment he accepted, his vision suddenly split into two. One side was the real world, and the other side entered a white space that seemed to have no boundaries. This was the mental network space, and he could cut off the link at any time.

And the underground species and Fording were all inside, in the same position as in the real world. Their appearance was a blurry luminous body, and only their body outline could be seen.

Before Han Xiao could recover, a dozen underground species chattered through mental fluctuations.

"Wow, another comrade has come."

"Why do you guys look different? You're so ugly."

Han Xiao was stunned. He didn't expect to be regarded as a compatriot by the underground species. With the aliens' level of cognition, they probably thought that all individuals who could log into the mental network were compatriots.

After chattering for a while, the attention of this group of underground species quickly shifted and they chatted with each other.

"Why are we locked up?"

"I don't know, and you've already asked this question."

"Those long creatures are so strange. They actually feed us things and take away our poop."

"Haha, I understand now. It's because our poop is the food of those creatures."

"So that's it! I get it! So we poop more and they will feed us more!"

"So perverted, there are actually creatures that eat poop."

"Hehe, I just pooped a lot, I'll definitely be able to eat a lot next time."

"Wow, that's amazing."

What the hell is this… Han Xiao's mouth twitched. From the perspective of the underground species, this conclusion was really reasonable and well-founded.

He thought that this group of underground species was suffering from great hatred, but he didn't expect that it was this kind of strange style…