Earth

The moment the alarm sounded, Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi, who were continuing their research on the giant tree in the laboratory, instantly changed their expressions.

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing a deep unease in each other's eyes.

"The exploration team has run into trouble!"

Lu Yongchang composed himself and said in a deep voice, "Zero, take over the footage."

"Connecting with Academician Zhu Ziwen."

"receive."

The holographic image subtly changed.

Looking at the dense, rapidly moving dark green dots, Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi couldn't help but gasp!

Holy crap!

Mao Zhengzhi instinctively blurted out a curse: "What's going on?!"

"I thought it was that giant tree acting up, how could it be those insects?"

Lu Yongchang frowned as he carefully examined the various data: "Something's not right... Why would these insects come to the depths of the forest at night?"

"Shouldn't they be in the surrounding waters...?"

As the alarms grew more urgent, the swarm began its attack.

Everyone in the laboratory was horrified as they watched the tree roots waving and driving away the swarm of insects!

"They actually drove swarms of insects to attack the invaders..."

Mao Zhengzhi murmured softly, "Professor, we have underestimated this giant tree."

"Its intelligence is probably no less than that of humans!"

Lü Yongchang did not answer.

No less than humans?

It's probably... far beyond human capabilities!

If those tree roots are indeed the nervous system, then the brain of this towering tree would be far larger than human imagination!

With such a massive brain capacity, the level of intelligence is hard to define!

Suddenly, he noticed a corner of the holographic projection.

Upon seeing the highlighted name that had been specially marked, Lü Yongchang immediately frowned.

"What the hell is Zhu Ziwen up to..."

The electronic synthesized sound of zero rang out again.

"Professor, Academician Zhu Ziwen has not responded to the communication request."

Without the slightest hesitation, Lü Yongchang said directly, "Force the connection!"

"What kind of time is this? Not answering communications is one thing, but why aren't you on the starship escaping? Are you just waiting to die?!"

"receive!"

...

The moment the communication was connected, Zhu Ziwen's wailing and howling filled the laboratory!

"...Zero! You call this thing a pill bug?!"

"I didn't believe your nonsense!!!"

Lü Yongchang: "???"

The next moment, seeing the giant centipede rushing towards him in the huge holographic projection, he subconsciously took two steps back.

Hundreds of long, two- to three-meter-long ventral feet gently brushed against his face.

Even though he knew it was a holographic image, he still felt a chill run down his spine.

“…Zero?!” he shouted, somewhat exasperated. “Look at your simulation results!!”

"This is way too bad!!!"

"Professor, at that time, there was insufficient observation data, and the simulation results differed significantly from the actual scene. This is normal."

Zero's electronic synthesized voice remained as calm as ever: "The Lost Giant Worm model has been updated."

It cannot understand why Lü Yongchang, Mao Zhengzhi, and others reacted so strongly.

In its view, both pill bugs and centipedes are arthropods, and there is not much difference between them.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that these centipede-like creatures can achieve greater crawling speeds thanks to their longer ventral feet.

Lu Yongchang ignored Ling's words, took a deep breath, and suppressed his discomfort.

"Ziwen, get back to the starship!"

"The plasma cannon's firing rate needs improvement. Next time, we can add another energy storage area, but I don't know if the material strength is sufficient..." Zhu Ziwen's muttering voice came through the communication channel.

"Zhu Ziwen!" Lü Yongchang raised his voice and called out again.

"Huh?!" Zhu Ziwen, who was engrossed in his observation, suddenly snapped out of his reverie. "Professor? When did you connect to the communication?"

"What time is it? Why aren't you back on the starship yet..."

"Professor, the situation is urgent. I'll report back to you later," Zhu Ziwen interrupted Lü Yongchang quickly. "I still need to record the relevant data!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the holographic communication screen, which had only been connected for a few seconds, returned to the initial azure blue interface.

Communication has been interrupted.

Looking at the line of highlighted white text in the center of the azure blue interface, Lü Yongchang's eye twitched.

"That little brat! When he gets back, I'm going to..."

"Professor, calm down, calm down." Mao Zhengzhi said with a smile, "Since Xia Zhou let him stay by his side, it means there is not much danger."

"I think Academician Zhu's next direction is leaning towards individual soldier mechs. This brand-new research direction does require a lot of data to support it."

Upon hearing this, Lü Yongchang shook his head, sighed softly, and said in a low voice, "Of course I understand that principle."

"I'm just worried about Ziwen's safety."

"This is, after all, an alien planet, and the creatures on it exist in forms we can't even imagine..."

"The unknown ultimately means danger."

Mao Zhengzhi thought for a moment and said, "Professor, I don't think we need to worry too much."

"No matter how intelligent or large this tree is, it is still just a tree."

"According to the data transmitted back, plasma cannons and some ultra-high temperature weapons are extremely lethal to it."

"The exploration team we sent out could probably easily take down a level two civilization."

Mao Zhengzhi's words eased Lü Yongchang's brow considerably, but he still kept a close eye on the real-time battle situation presented in the holographic projection.

"Zero, dispatch some more shipborne drones to ensure the safety of Academician Zhu Ziwen and the rest of the explorers."

"No, that's not enough. Send ten Golden Crows over there."

"When necessary..."

"Destroy this giant tree!"

"receive."

The moment the synthesized sound ended, a small fleet consisting of ten Golden Crow battleships and countless shipborne drones quietly broke away from the main force and flew towards the distant lost star.