Chapter 1 The Truth About These Creatures

To be honest, Hao Ren didn't know what the creature that had suddenly popped up in front of him was—based solely on the first impression, he decided to call it a "pixie."

It was a humanoid creature only as tall as his calf, like a human scaled down proportionally. This small creature appeared to be female, wearing a light blue dress of an unidentifiable material. She had very beautiful and delicate features, and a semi-transparent body like a spirit. She had long hair, the ends of which shimmered with fine sparks of electricity, as if charged. Tiny glowing particles constantly scattered from the dancing sparks, flying around the pixie.

The pixie, cautiously emerging from the bushes, stood about ten meters away from Hao Ren, carefully observing the large figure before her from this "safe distance." Her eyes were full of curiosity and wariness, but she kept her face tight and didn't say a word.

Was this the noisy creature from before? It had become quiet now… So, it meant that it would be noisy when with its own kind, but would become speechless when nervous?

The large and the small stared at each other for a long time. Hao Ren believed that he had fully demonstrated his friendliness with a kind smile and harmless body language, so he waved to the pixie in the distance: "We..."

But before he could finish speaking, he heard the pixie exclaim in surprise, "It spoke!" Then she turned and ran back into the bushes.

"Is there something wrong with the way I'm expressing myself…" Hao Ren was stunned and hadn't reacted yet. "Why did she suddenly run away?"

"I think you can now understand how Lao Wang feels when he goes out," Vivian sighed, looking at Hao Ren with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. "Maybe creatures of our size seem very scary to these little guys?"

"I don't think so. The inhabitants here are much bigger than us," Hao Ren's lips curled slightly, and he raised his hand, pointing to the ancient-looking halls and cities in the distance. "Look over there, does the style look a bit familiar?"

Vivian followed the direction of Hao Ren's finger, and a look of surprise and realization immediately appeared on her face: "That's… the architectural style of the Gates of Sluun?!"

"Yes, the city of the Guardian Giants," Hao Ren lowered his hand, speaking with confusion and contemplation. "Before landing, I noticed the architectural style on the surface. There's no doubt it's something from the Guardian Giants, but I don't know why the inhabitants here have become these… three or forty-centimeter tall… tiny tots."

Vivian was about to say something when she suddenly heard a very dense rustling sound from the surrounding bushes. Then, one after another, the tiny tot creatures emerged from the bushes as the grass swayed.

They were all only thirty or forty centimeters tall, wearing light blue dresses or clothes of similar material, and their entire bodies had a slightly transparent texture like spiritual beings. Moreover, after so many tiny tots gathered together, Hao Ren discovered something: it seemed that these "pixies" were indistinguishable in terms of gender from their appearance alone—they all had equally delicate faces. If it weren't for the slight difference in their clothes, no one could tell their gender just by looking at their faces!

These small creatures didn't know where they had been hiding before, but now they all came out at once. Hao Ren looked in a daze as they gathered more and more around him, and countless bright sparks jumped between them, as if they were communicating in this way.

But even with so many of them gathered, the pixies still had no intention of actively speaking or approaching. Countless bright, large eyes were just staring curiously at the two uninvited guests before them. Hao Ren felt goosebumps rising on his skin after being stared at for less than half a minute, and he could only take the initiative to speak: "...We're here to help. Can you send a representative?"

The pixies were startled again by Hao Ren's voice and took half a step back at the same time, but this time they didn't run away. After looking at each other for a while, they suddenly burst into a wave of sound:

"Oh, oh, oh! It really spoke! It's talking to us!"

"It looks very strange! I thought Guardian Giants were supposed to be very, very tall. This one looks so short!"

"But it's still much taller than us!" "Of course it's taller than us. Many things are taller than us!" "He definitely can't fit into the secondary pressure relief pipe." "But we can't fit either—the secondary pressure relief pipe is so narrow." "Yes, we can! I went in last time!" "You're lying!"

The pixies started to make a racket again, and it was completely disorganized, with no logic at all. Hao Ren was completely excluded from the communication circle of these tiny tot creatures by just saying one sentence. He stared blankly for a long time before finally waving his hand impatiently: "Listen-to-me! Can you send a representative to communicate with me?!"

The pixies were startled again, followed by an even more lively discussion and noise, but this time, when they were making a racket to the point where Hao Ren was about to lose his temper again, they actually chose a few representatives—Hao Ren was so moved that he almost burst into tears when he saw three timid tiny tots walking out of the group and approaching him.

Finally, he could communicate normally with these strange creatures… maybe?

"So, you're the representatives sent out, right?" Hao Ren vowed that he had never conducted such a strange third-kind encounter since he started his job. He felt that he wasn't contacting the representatives of a surviving civilization as an inspector at all, but leading a class in kindergarten. "Let me introduce myself first. My name is Hao Ren, and next to me are my partner and assistant, Vivian Ansessta, this little guy is called Dou Dou, and this flying brick is called the data terminal—we come from a distant world, and we discovered your battle with those corrupted monsters when we passed by here. Because we are also at war with those corrupted monsters, we lent a helping hand."

The data terminal flew out with a whoosh: "Partner, you're not right! This unit clearly gave itself a name called Patti An..."

No one paid attention to this neurotic PDA. The tiny tots standing in front of Hao Ren looked up at him and chattered, "Oh, oh, oh! We want to thank you!" "That's right, that's right, thank you for helping! Otherwise, we would have really died this time!" "Did you come from a very far place? A very, very far place?" "So there are such powerful guys in other places! We thought the Guardian Giants were the most powerful!" "The Guardian Giants are also super powerful, they just don't have enough people..." "I didn't say the Guardian Giants weren't powerful..." "It feels like only we aren't powerful."

Hao Ren's forehead broke out in a cold sweat. The situation didn't change much even with these representatives sent out! This group of tiny tots was completely talking to themselves! He couldn't imagine how such a chaotic group of creatures formed their own civilization and survived in this dangerous star sector until today...

Perhaps they weren't a complete, independent civilization?

Hao Ren's thoughts turned, and he couldn't help but look at the magnificent architectural ruins in the distance.

Apart from these huge buildings belonging to the Guardian Giants, there didn't seem to be anything built by these tiny tot creatures on the surface. They must be living in the cities and temples of the Guardian Giants.

However, despite having the bad habit of talking to themselves, the three tiny tots who were sent out as representatives were somewhat better than their compatriots. In the process of chattering, they could still communicate with Hao Ren.

When Hao Ren asked about the origin of this space continent, the pixies chattered, "This planet is called Nakdal! Very powerful Nakdal!" "'Planet' is something from the past! Now this is actually the debris after Nakdal was blown up." "But this debris is also very, very big!" "Nakdal was built by the Guardian Giants, the Guardian Giants are very powerful." "But the enemies are also very powerful. They have a fortress called Amantir, which destroyed Nakdal..."

As long as you asked a question, the pixies would immediately answer with a myriad of answers. This certainly allowed Hao Ren to gather more information, but at the same time, it made the information extremely chaotic. He couldn't even analyze and organize these seemingly related things that were actually a jumbled mess. Fortunately, Hao Ren had brought the data terminal with him. The terminal's data processing ability allowed it to simultaneously record all the information and organize it into a general order, which prevented Hao Ren from being completely confused by these noisy pixies.

In the pixies' rambling introduction, Hao Ren learned that this space continent used to be part of a planet called "Nakdal," and that this so-called "planet" was actually an armed fortress!

It didn't seem wrong to describe it as a planetary battleship.

The surface buildings and underground pipes and machinery that had been observed in space before weren't fortress clusters at all. All of them added up were just parts of a larger fortress. When complete, this planet possessed powerful planetary-level shields and propulsion capabilities, as well as some kind of terrifying doomsday weapon. It could be said to be one of the most powerful weapons of war Hao Ren had ever heard of in this universe.

However, another planetary fortress—Amantir—launched an attack on Nakdal.

Two fortresses with similar strength, one of which launched a sneak attack on the other when it was unprepared. The result was, of course, without suspense. The planet where the pixies lived was blown to pieces and then drifted through the universe in the form of wreckage.

Vivian frowned: "Was Amantir also built by the Guardian Giants?"

"Yes, yes! All three planetary fortresses were built by the Guardian Giants!" "The fortresses all have doomsday weapons called the Endless Torrent!" "But Nakdal's Endless Torrent didn't have time to aim..." "So it was blown up by Amantir!" "But Amantir seems to be broken too. Its doomsday weapon seems to have been damaged when it was used..." "It suddenly started fighting!"

Hao Ren and Vivian looked at each other, and at the same time read a message from each other's eyes:

Civil war among the Guardian Giants?

Or… the war between the corrupted and the uncorrupted?

(Recommending a book, 《革.命吧女神》 (Ge.ming Ba Nu Shen - Revolution, Goddess), the writing style is lighthearted, and the ideas are quite creative. It's a story about starting a great revolution of mortals in another world with the goddess. If you're interested, you can check it out.)