Chapter 1 Survivor?

"Survivor?" Hao Ren looked at the data terminal in surprise when he heard it speak.

The data terminal floated next to a control device, its emitted blue light illuminating the cables and extension accessories around the device, pulsing gently as if breathing. In this way, it finally read the last bit of data that had not been completely erased from the depths of these weathered devices: "This unit is connected to the navigation mainframe deep within this ship, and has a general understanding of how this fleet navigates—its navigation method requires someone to be alive."

Hao Ren looked at the data terminal, motioning for it to continue.

The data terminal opened a holographic projection, showing a fleet formed by thirteen ellipsoidal ark-class behemoths, with complex lines extending radially around each fleet: "These are the regularly repeating signals detected previously. Based on the information currently available here, the ark's operators are dead, so these ships are being commanded by an automated system, which is why their signal transmission is so mechanical. According to their navigation model, these ships have no fixed flagship; they rely on a network to connect all the navigation mainframes together, creating a unified, virtual navigation program. This unit speculates that this is because the designers considered from the very beginning that any ship, including the flagship, could be suddenly wiped out, so they entrusted the highest navigation authority to a ghost host active on the network, so that as long as the fleet maintains a certain size, it can continue to navigate without having to consider the issue of flagship changes..."

Hao Ren waved his hand: "The main point, get to the main point."

"The main point is that such a ghost host is not installed on any one ship, and considering that the mainframe of each ship may not be reliable during this long journey, this navigation program is not controlled by any specific terminal. It automatically monitors the fleet and relies on certain conditions to determine whether its navigation mission should continue," the data terminal floated up and down. "Its detection rule is 'life continues'. This unit found this information from the bottom layer of the database."

Every civilization builds arks with different operating methods, and these ones will only continue to navigate if life still exists inside them. Their thrusters are still not extinguished, so unless there is a problem with the navigation program formed by these ships, there is only one explanation:

"There are still people alive on one of the ships..." Hao Ren murmured to himself, then frowned. "But they didn't respond to Nolan's call."

"Perhaps it's a system malfunction, perhaps they don't understand Nolan's advanced language, or more likely they're scared, they might think we're with the 'Guardians'," the data terminal retracted all the light. "Of course, there's a worse possibility, that the survivors are almost all dead, and there's no one left who knows how to operate the radar. In short, they didn't respond, so we can only check each ship."

Hao Ren was stunned, and looked up at the control panel in front of him. On one of the screens of the control panel, the scene in the vast space was displayed, and some dim lights were shining in the darkness, which were the figures of the other twelve ark-class behemoths in space.

"Hopefully every ship has the same structure as this one..." Hao Ren muttered, and connected to Nolan's communication. "Nolan, you've heard what's going on here. Summon the engineering drones, cut open the outer shell of each ship, and send life detectors in—until you can scan the deepest signals. Also, don't interrupt the communication requests to these ships. If anyone is willing to respond actively, we don't have to drill holes in their ceilings."

"This unit thinks that drilling a few small holes in these behemoths that are more than a hundred kilometers long won't crash their entire system," the data terminal muttered, shaking its body. "Unless you accidentally puncture their atmosphere pump or reactor."

Hao Ren sighed slightly: "You've been running around with me for two years and still believe in my luck?"

The terminal was stunned, and called the Petrified Tortoise Rock Terrace: "Nolan, tell those drones to be careful, it's best to scan at least three...oh no, scan four times every time you drill down."

The group left the central control station and looked at the entire facility from the outside. Now that its core reactor has been reactivated, the once-dimly lit grating and heat sinks are emitting bright light, but because most of the important equipment of the city's ecosystem has been dismantled, the control station is like a giant's remaining head, unable to produce any effect. It just silently operates in the vacuum, illuminating the dead shelter like a man-made star in this cold world. Hao Ren looked at the frozen and dilapidated city around him, knowing that there was nothing worth exploring in this ship, so he left some autonomous machines to study the city's structure, while he himself took the people back to the Petrified Tortoise Rock Terrace.

The Petrified Tortoise Rock Terrace slowly left the ark-class behemoth called "Qunluan", and then some silver-white light spots flew from afar. They had a square shape and some sharp-edged engineering arms. These were the drone swarms that had come in response to the call. The swarm flew to the silent arks in space, and then some sporadic flashes burst out from the outer shell of each ark.

The drones began to cut these strange and silent steel eggs, and put small detectors inside.

"I've thought about how to do the first modification to the Petrified Tortoise Rock Terrace," Hao Ren stood on the bridge and tapped the control panel in front of him. "I need at least a high-power life-sensing radar, or a new model of detector hive. These devices are becoming more and more insufficient. The universal basic model is difficult to detect life reactions through several kilometers of steel plates and energy fields, not to mention that in most cases, I have to detect those strange species created by the Goddess of Creation."

"Excuse me, partner," the data terminal said deliberately in a very serious tone, "According to your work resume, your life detector will rarely have a chance to be used."

Hao Ren: "...It's not like I want to go somewhere and have it explode!"

Thirteen ark-class behemoths, each more than a hundred kilometers in size, had outer protective layers several kilometers or even ten kilometers thick, complex shallow pipeline and corridor systems, and a spherical city surrounding a thick steel shell. All of these things had been in disrepair for many years, and tens of thousands of old airlocks and drain pump systems maintained the fragile balance inside these ships, which brought a lot of trouble to the drones' work. But everything was carried out according to Hao Ren's plan, and after several hours, the data from the detector swarm was continuously transmitted back to the Petrified Tortoise Rock Terrace.

Hao Ren guarded the control panel, and the more important pictures returned by the detector were sorted out by Nolan and projected onto the main device. Hao Ren saw the situation inside the remaining twelve arks—some had just detected the surface, but some had drilled into the core.

The situations inside these arks were different. Although the structure was similar, they had different defects. In one of the arks, you could see a frozen city similar to the situation on "Qunluan", but in another ark, there was only a huge and terrifying hole: the city itself had been dismantled and recycled into parts for another ship, and that ship may have already dropped out of the formation hundreds of years ago.

"The situation is getting worse and worse...No life reactions have been found so far, only various kinds of wreckage have been found," Nolan's voice sounded next to him. "Their shells are intact but their interiors are riddled with holes. These ships have been struggling to maintain themselves by devouring each other in the past few thousand years. They may have started with hundreds of ships, but now only thirteen ships are still sailing...In my opinion, these thirteen ships are like floating corpses, dry and empty inside."

"After becoming a ship, you've become more emotional than before," Hao Ren smiled. "Have any of the arks responded to your calls?"

"No, there is no response on any frequency, but I can be sure that my signal has been sent inside these ships," Nolan nodded slightly. "The shallowest detectors have drilled into the cables of those arks. If no one responds in this case, then there is probably really 'no one'."

Hao Ren didn't say anything. He turned to look at the holographic projection. A small detector was drilling in from the dome of the spherical city of the sixth ark. In its constantly shaking perspective, darkness flashed by, followed by a cold silence in a faint light. An abandoned city was presented under the detector's lens, and other data returned by the detector showed that there was no life here.

Hao Ren began to seriously consider whether these arks had really all become extinct. Perhaps there was something wrong with the navigation program, which is why it continued to run until now even when life had become extinct. But just as this thought popped into his mind, a message jumped out on the holographic projection.

Nolan and the data terminal spoke at the same time: "Life reaction!"