Chapter 260 Giants

The Tortoise Rock Platform rapidly ascended, leaving the sea behind and soon reaching the vicinity of Aioi's synchronous orbit.

The traces of the previous cataclysm still lingered here: a vast number of bizarre ice fragments, chunks of rock dragged up from the seabed, and architectural debris floated in space, densely filling a large area. Iva had failed to pull everything she brought into space back into the sea. These remnants were an eternal memorial to her rampage. According to the data terminal's projections, these floating ice, rocks, and metal would drift in space for tens of thousands of years, eventually forming a small ring. If Aioi ever evolved new intelligent life, they would surely study this ring around their mother star with great curiosity.

Hao Ren, meanwhile, had the data terminal control the ship as it moved nimbly through the debris. Large, black crystalline structures flashed past the ship; these crystals were all that remained of the destroyed black warship.

"This is it," the data terminal announced as the ship stopped in front of an exceptionally large piece of wreckage. "The largest fragment, and it has a complete framework structure. Radar scans indicate enclosed spaces inside. This unit believes it may be a surprise."

The Tortoise Rock Platform slowly circled the wreckage, which was two or three kilometers long and appeared to be an intact section from the end of the black warship. Its ends were cleanly severed, suggesting that this section might have been special, thus the presence of two easily broken weak points. The exterior of this fragment was originally covered with sail-like black crystal panels, but now only broken supports remained, presumably destroyed by the explosion.

"There seems to be an entrance on top," Izhaks said, pointing to a protrusion on the upper part of the wreckage. "Looks like a pipe burst out."

Hao Ren nodded. "Send an autonomous drone in first. If it leads to the interior, we'll go in."

A hatch opened on the side of the Tortoise Rock Platform, and a small mechanical squid agilely flew out and latched onto the wreckage before burrowing into the interior through the opening. Soon, the drone signaled that the interior was safe and the path was clear. In the images it sent back, Hao Ren and the others saw a very open space.

"Lily, Old Wang, you two come with me," Hao Ren said, turning to the others.

Lily immediately jumped up from her chair, delighted. "Okay, okay! Speaking of which, Landlord, why are you letting me come this time?"

Hao Ren shrugged. "Because we might need your claws – you dig holes faster."

Lily took this as a compliment and happily nodded.

The three followed the path cleared by the drone, quickly joining the mechanical squid in a spacious area. The drone rubbed against Hao Ren with its tentacles as if reporting in, then activated lights to illuminate the surroundings.

The area was cluttered and old, with signs of corrosion in many places. It seemed the warship had suffered severe flooding when it sank to the seabed. The interior of the wreckage was not as uniformly gray-black as the exterior. Most of the walls and interior decorations were off-white, with a plastic-like sheen. The three were in a large space, and a large number of exposed, broken pipes and wires could be seen on one side of the compartment (which Hao Ren assumed was the ceiling).

Lily happily tapped on the nearby bulkhead with Fire and Ice. "Looks like we're in a utility tunnel. This place is huge."

"Not only is it big... everything here seems strangely oversized," Hao Ren muttered, looking around. He floated over to the nearest bulkhead and touched a bizarre disc with an axle. The disc was several meters in diameter. "Looks like a valve..."

"Are you sure?" Izhaks stared. "A valve that big? I can't even grip it!"

Hao Ren shrugged. "At least it looks like one."

The three searched the compartment and soon discovered that everything here was extraordinarily large: valves several meters in diameter, levers more than two meters long, and buttons larger than the Xinhua Dictionary. These were the easiest to determine to be oversized. As for other facilities whose functions were unclear, it was difficult to judge whether their sizes were normal, but they also looked frighteningly large.

Lily pried at a lever taller than herself, muttering as she worked, "Was this ship built by giants?"

"Judging by the proportions, even if I transformed into my original form, I wouldn't be able to use these things," Izhaks said, touching a nearby control panel with a whole row of giant buttons. "My fingers would cramp, and you'd have to swing your arm to type on this kind of keyboard."

Hao Ren was surprised. "You learned to type?"

Izhaks was stunned. "...Why do you always focus on things that normal people don't?"

At that moment, Lily finally succeeded in prying the lever. The huge metal rod suddenly tilted to the side, and a seam silently opened in the wall behind them.

Lily craned her neck to look at the wall, her tail gently wagging. "Whoa... could that be a door?"

"A door tens of meters high..." Hao Ren was dumbfounded. "Lily, dig a hole!"

Without a word, the husky girl rushed forward, scratching and clawing at the alloy door. Sparks flew and ice crystals scattered as she quickly dug a hole large enough for Izhaks to squeeze through. After opening the hole, Lily was the first to dash inside. The next moment, Hao Ren heard the husky spirit scream over the communicator, "Holy crap—"

Hao Ren and Izhaks rushed in, only to be stunned.

Behind the door was a room that looked like a control room. A huge control panel and four giant seats were placed in the center of the room, and floating in the air were the remains of four crew members: giant remains!

Lily had rushed in so quickly that she bumped her head into the head of one of the remains, and that head was bigger than her entire body!

The husky girl flailed in the air for a moment before remembering how to control her direction, then quickly scampered back to Hao Ren's side. "These really are giants! That scared me!"

Hao Ren patted the husky spirit's head reassuringly, then flew to the remains with a look of astonishment and began to examine them. The four crew members were wearing some kind of leather black uniform, and there were no fatal wounds visible on their bodies, but without exception, they were all clutching their heads tightly, as if they had suffered from severe headaches in life. Apart from their enormous size, their faces resembled those of humans, but their skin was dark red—it was impossible to determine if this was their natural skin color.

Hao Ren roughly estimated that these aliens might have been sixteen meters tall or even taller, making them a genuine race of giants!

"There are no signs of decay, dehydration, or bloating. They're like they just died," Izhaks said, turning over one of the remains. "Incredible... Few mortal races have such powerful bodies that they can remain incorruptible for ten thousand years after death. In a sense, they've attained the Vajra body."

Hao Ren was once again shocked. "You've even been studying Buddhism lately?!"

Izhaks was at his wit's end. "Can you focus on something normal for once?"

While Hao Ren and Izhaks were busy, Lily also mustered her courage and came forward to help. She circled one of the remains for a long time, then suddenly waved her ice and fire claws and began to cut the hair on the giant's head. Hao Ren was baffled. "What are you doing? Giving them a haircut in the middle of all this?"

"A haircut, my ass," Lily snarled at Hao Ren. "Look, this might be what killed them!"

Hao Ren leaned closer and saw that the back of the giant's skull was abnormally swollen, and there were strange ridges on the scalp. He reached out and touched it. "It feels like... the skull was forced open. They definitely weren't like this when they were healthy. The skin here is stretched abnormally tight."

"Brain disease?" Izhaks stroked his chin. "Is that why they acted so strangely on Aioi? Did a brain disease cause them to fight each other and destroy Aioi?"

Lily was uncharacteristically clever for once. "Could the mind flayers have controlled them at first? And then they attacked the sirens?"

"I don't know. These giant remains must be sent back for examination," Hao Ren said, shaking his head. He connected to the Tortoise Rock Platform's communication system. "Terminal, we've found something..."