Chapter 1 The Specialization of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace

As an inspector's official vessel, the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace was designed in every detail for the special profession of inspectors—in other words, it had everything one could want and could do anything, although it was mediocre at everything but had everything. It perfectly fit the arduous daily life of every captain who ran around doing odd jobs. The ship had a cargo hold that was not too large but large enough to store small quantities of goods, self-defense cannons that were not too strong but strong enough to kill any mortal, an onboard factory that was not too complete but could basically produce all the necessities, and of course, a set of cabins for scientific research. Thanks to advanced space expansion technology, the spaceship, which looked only a few hundred meters long on the surface, was not short of space. As one of the important cabin sections, the research cabin was also quite spacious. Hao Ren threw the pile of junk he had collected here, and it didn't take up much space at all.

It was said to be researching the Origin Relic, but Hao Ren knew his own level. He was not an expert or scholar at all, and in most cases, inspectors would not be professional scientists. Therefore, this kind of research cabin could basically complete various projects by itself. Its analysis mainframe and servo machinery would complete all the assigned tasks, and the only thing the captain had to do was tell the analysis mainframe what he wanted to know, and after each project was completed, go and see what the equipment had analyzed. Just these two things. With the help of these devices, Hao Ren, a layman in all walks of life, could also brag to people, "I'm working on a key project."

Unfortunately, he could only brag about this to a vampire with a slightly abnormal brain—except for Vivian, no one else in the family was very interested in the Origin Relic. Lily would rather spend her energy on cracking the spicy stick recipe.

Vivian, Hesperides, Hao Ren, and Doudou, who was tucked in Hao Ren's arms, arrived at the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace's research cabin through the newly installed teleportation device in the basement. Hesperides was no stranger to the "space teleportation array," but she had never seen an alien laboratory that challenged her worldview. After discovering that she had been teleported to a strange space full of strange equipment, a large number of holographic projections floating in the air, and buzzing everywhere, she was stunned for a long time like a sleepwalker. Then she grabbed Vivian's arm and asked with a nervous expression, "...What exactly does this landlord guy next to you do? The more I look at him, the more scary he seems?"

"What's so scary?" Vivian had seen the high-tech equipment on the spaceship several times, so she was only slightly curious at this time. She knew that the things here might be surprising, but she didn't think there was anything scary about this bright and clean place.

Hesperides looked at the wide experimental platforms and the mechanical tentacles that wriggled slightly above the experimental platforms: "I regret watching human movies... I always feel that the main purpose of you guys tricking me over from Athens is to soak me in formalin..."

Vivian shook off her old friend's hand with a smile: "I've discovered one thing, you've become even more verbose than before after your brain was repaired."

Hesperides was only surprised by the furnishings of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace's research cabin. If she knew that this strange laboratory wasn't even on Earth, who knows how surprised she would be. However, her attitude towards this place should only be limited to surprise: most older aliens are very slow to understand the concept of "high technology," and there is a subtle misunderstanding. They don't understand, and they don't bother to understand the technology that humans have researched in recent years, and of course, they can't distinguish these things, so Hesperides probably only thinks that this is an extremely advanced human laboratory. As for aliens and outer space... that's beyond her worldview.

The research cabin was a long oval room. In addition to a circle of small general-purpose experimental platforms along the walls, there were also three large analysis machine groups evenly distributed along the central axis of the room. This kind of analysis machine group was a complete set of equipment with complete functions that could cope with most disassembly and analysis work. It included a zero-gravity suspension platform, three sets of precision cutting devices, several energy output and input terminals containing source energy converters, a large number of sensors, and a large number of tentacles hanging above the machine group. Of course, the scientific name of those tentacles was "general-purpose adaptive working arms," but Hao Ren thought it was more appropriate to describe them as tentacles.

Easy to understand, vivid—and extremely graphic.

Those scattered research samples were placed on nearby small experimental platforms for routine testing, while the Origin Relic was placed on the analysis machine group closest to the door. This strange device composed of a series of cylinders and ellipsoids had remained silent since it was dismantled, as if it had lost its power after leaving the temple. However, the analysis mainframe had found the energy input terminal of this device, and now the analysis machine group was injecting energy into this "Origin Relic" for the third time and observing its gradual startup process.

Hao Ren walked around the "Origin Relic" and saw that part of its outer shell had been removed, including its most core large cylinder. The complex structure inside the "relic" was exposed, and he could clearly see those suspicious pipes and containers.

The Origin Relic was an elaborately structured magical creation. The lower half of it had a large number of exquisite metal plates and crystalline structures engraved with mysterious symbols. Those exquisite metal plates had regular shapes and precise and uniform "printed lines" like circuit boards in electrical appliances, which were obviously the result of industrialized production. The reason for judging that the Origin Relic was a magical creation was because preliminary analysis showed that the operation mode of these metal plates was a typical magic array rather than a circuit diagram in technological products. The difference between the two was obvious: most of the lines on the circuit board were only used to conduct energy, and their functions were completed by various components connected to these circuits, while the lines of the magic array were the main body of the functional components. They used different materials to "write" specific lines, so that the lines themselves had the function of components and even produced more complex effects. This was the essential difference between the two.

This kind of thing from a technological system completely different from that of Earth opened Hao Ren's eyes. He had only seen the rough application of magic and alchemy products in the Dream Plane, but the one in front of him... obviously belonged to the "high technology" of magical civilization.

The crystalline structures that were also engraved with runes were similar to the metal plates. They should be more critical energy carriers, or the power during operation was relatively large, so different materials were used to manufacture them.

Between these exquisite structures, a large number of winding pipes could be seen running through them. These pipes were intricately entangled together, and most of them were connected to one place after several aggregations: the center of the Origin Relic, where there was a cylindrical container more than one person tall.

"I tried to activate it a few times before, but because of the lack of core components, each activation could only make it run for a short while, and it was impossible to see what those pipes were used for," the data terminal was already connected to the analysis mainframe, and now it was speaking on behalf of the analysis mainframe, "but basically, the possibilities such as purification devices, water or other liquid synthesizers, and climate modification devices have been ruled out. Now the most likely possibility is: the Origin Relic is a culture tank, a culture device that combines synthesis, customization, shaping, and growth functions."

As the data terminal spoke, it gently touched the cylindrical container exposed after the back cover of the Origin Relic was removed twice: "And according to the size of this thing... it is most likely used to cultivate some kind of humanoid creature."

Vivian took a light breath: "That sounds a little evil."

"Just a guess, just a guess," the data terminal controlled the tentacles above the analysis machine group to remove the other protective plates on the edge of the Origin Relic, "but the possibility of this guess is as high as ninety percent—this 'relic' has been used. This is its 'feeding port'. Some residual substances were found here and in the core large container, although they were severely denatured... but it can be confirmed that they are residues of highly complex organic matter."

The analysis machine group connected the general-purpose energy interface to some crystalline protrusions inside the Origin Relic and directly injected suitable energy into it. The Origin Relic immediately emitted a low humming sound, and the metal plates and crystal devices inside the machine shell lit up one by one. At the same time, some things like operation panels also lit up on its front, but only strange symbols that were constantly repeated were refreshed on it.

"The analysis mainframe is trying to crack this operating system, hoping to find the operating records of the Origin Relic, but these records should be stored on the missing component of this device—now the Origin Relic only has an interaction interface similar to machine language, and because it lacks a key instruction set, this interaction interface is completely useless. All the options don't work," the data terminal said regretfully, "but even these useless options reveal some truths. They have words such as 'growth acceleration, emergency deactivation, writing innate memory, and injecting thinking', which completely conforms to the guess that the 'Origin Relic is a humanoid creature synthesizer'."

Hao Ren felt a strange chill on his body: "Synthesizing humanoid creatures... who exactly did it synthesize?"

The data terminal shook its body: "Who knows? The most important thing is gone, so we can't determine at all what it will combine in what way, and what kind of finished product will be produced in the end—we are like only getting a pile of empty test tubes, and we can only judge that they are used for chemical experiments based on the model of the test tubes, but we didn't get the most critical formula."

"Actually, I have an idea..." Hesperides suddenly said in a low voice, "I heard Vivian say that you snatched this thing from Bessems, right? He also gave it the name 'Origin Relic'—the word 'origin' itself has profound meaning."

A large number of thoughts in Hao Ren's mind were uncontrollably surging. He suddenly felt that a large number of things he had previously grasped seemed to be shaking, and even his long-held speculation about the relationship between aliens and the Dream Plane had to be overturned!

Bessems, the old shadow demon who mastered a lot of forbidden knowledge, gave this ancient device for synthesizing humanoid creatures the name "Origin"...

Could it be that the aliens on Earth are not time-travelers from ten thousand years ago, but... were synthesized in large quantities by this device?!