Chapter 4: The Moon, the Cemetery, and Paradise (Part 2)
After three days of trekking in the Poison Moon Serenkrad, Xiang Ying, Hei Huo, and Su Jie, led by Atlas, finally walked into a huge rumbling building.
In the vast room that resembled a steel fortress, a faint light resembling fluorescent lights shone on the walls, and a long corridor led to the end of darkness.
The clattering footsteps of four people echoed in the corridor filled with the faint roar of machinery.
"It's a really unpleasant place."
The Black Disaster's voice immediately emitted a hollow echo that lingered over the aisle.
"However," Xiang Ying frowned and stared at Atlas' back in front of him, "being deserted is at least better than being trapped deep in the enemy camp. We don't seem to have seen a single living creature along the way."
"Yeah. Hey, Little Tail, didn't you land in Senagard from here? Then why don't you see any of your kind?"
Su Jie asked this, but Atlas, who was walking in front, just remained silent.
It was not until a minute later that he slowly spoke.
"They won't release the nutrient capsules until they land in Senagard."
"What?"
The three warriors obviously didn't understand and asked Xiang Ying in confusion.
"They are created and cultivated here, then encapsulated, gathered in cocoons, and projected to Senagard. All those here are immature."
“…”
They still didn't fully understand what was said, but the three fighters grasped some key words keenly.
“Manufacture”, “cultivate”, “cocoon”, “project”.
"No way..." Black Disaster muttered absentmindedly, "You... don't tell me, this entire Poison Moon, these strange buildings, are a large factory for producing Possessed Moon Envoys?!"
"Yes."
Atlas turned his head, and his red mechanical eyes stared at the three fighters behind him, confirming their guess.
"Poison Moon Sirenkrad is just a religious name. The correct name is the Third Colonial Star Artificial Satellite No. 1, the Protoss Power Source Bio-Weapon General Processing and Manufacturing Plant."
"……What?"
I didn't understand anything at all, but the words "biological weapons" gave the three weapons a vague and bad feeling.
"The possessed moon messenger... is it a weapon specially made by humans? ... Who created this entire moon?──" Su Jie lowered his voice, feeling a little irritated and shocked.
"What about you? How do you know everything here? If that's true, you should have been thrown into Senagard before emerging from that capsule, right?"
“…”
Black Plague asked coldly, and Atlas fell silent for a long time again.
"I am special. I stayed in Selenkrad for about one hundred and twenty years before landing in Selengard."
In the end, he just explained it in a mechanical voice.
Xiang Ying frowned upon hearing this. "You mean... you've been alone on this moon for over a hundred years?! What do you eat?!"
"The factory has enough raw materials to make capsules, which can be taken as liquid food."
“…”
Xiang Ying stopped talking.
He…had actually survived alone for over a hundred years in a world devoid of life! No wonder he was so afraid of being abandoned when he saw Beichen, a woman he could speak the same language with, and followed her regardless of everything.
Even if it is a weapon, it is still an intelligent creature after all.
Even if you look expressionless, you will still feel lonely and isolated in the end.
"arrive."
Atlas' voice, still calm and like a synthesized sound, interrupted Xiang Ying's mixed feelings.
The view in front of them suddenly became clear, and they came to an extremely spacious hall. In the middle of the square, there were countless huge egg-shaped objects.
Atlas led a few people to a small platform at the edge, which connected to a small room that was likely the operating room. He walked in and began to press the buttons on the control panel with his hands quickly, accompanied by bursts of small electronic sounds.
Xiang Ying, Hei Huo and Su Jie lay on the railing of the small platform and looked at the densely packed giant eggs under their feet.
"That... is the 'Moon Tear Cocoon', right? It looks a bit disgusting. The possessed Moon Envoy crawled out of that and attacked the creatures of Senagard, right?"
Black Fate sighed with a grin.
"I didn't expect we're at the birthplace of the Possessed Moon Envoy. It turns out that the three major Senagard races, us humans, and the Possessed Moon Envoys, have such completely different birth methods." Xiang Ying gave a complicated smile. "In other words, if we start destroying all the buildings here, there might be no such thing as the Possessed Moon Envoy in the world?"
"Stupid Shadow, don't you think possessing the Moon Envoy is better?"
Faced with Su Jie's question, Xiang Ying was stunned for a moment, then shook his head.
"No, how could that be possible? Without the Possessed Moon Envoy, how would the War Machines survive? Although Senagard is dangerous, it's still in a very balanced competition for survival. War Machines defeat Possessed Moon Envoys, humans defeat War Machines, and Possessed Moon Envoys defeat humans. Why would we destroy such a stable relationship?"
"It seems you are quite thoughtful!"
Heihuo laughed loudly and patted Xiangying on the back.
At this moment, a mechanical roar was heard above the hall. A giant egg of a slightly different color was grabbed by a huge mechanical claw and slowly descended to the ground, making a loud muffled sound as it hit the ground.
After a while, Atlas came out of the operating room.
"Do you have a clear destination?"
Xiang Ying and Hei Huo Su Jie exchanged glances, then nodded as if they had reached a consensus.
"It's probably outside the capital of Heyang."
They had to contact someone they knew immediately, and Rui was the best candidate. First, he could solve Black Disaster Su Jie's hunger problem - after all, Rui was their former user. Even if they hated being used by other people, Rui should be an exception. Second, the solution to the Moon Poison Syndrome was too important, and Rui's identity and status were just enough to spread the news smoothly - before Mayor Wilvis made things unsolvable.
"Okay, the coordinates have been determined, everything is ready, and we can launch at any time."
"etc."
Su Jie interrupted Atlas.
"You just said—'you guys'? Aren't you going back with us?"
"Not yet," Atlas shook his head slightly. "Activating the photon teleportation field requires a tremendous expenditure of celestial energy. I'm running low on energy, and my body sustained some damage before the teleportation. I need to repair and replenish my energy here before I can proceed to Senagard."
"Is that so?" Xiang Ying pondered for a moment, "Then when can you go to Senagard again?"
"The fastest is 60 days, the slowest is 64 days."
"Two months?"
He nodded to Ying and smiled at Atlas.
"Will you come find us then?"
"I'm not looking for you, I'm looking for Beichen."
Xiang Ying twitched his lips. "Then they're looking for us, just the same!... Ahem, well, take care of yourself and heal your wounds. Your guide will be waiting for you."
A strange light flashed in the red mechanical eyes for an instant. Atlas nodded expressionlessly, but for the first time, he stretched out his tail and poked Ying's shoulder.
──It's probably a gesture of goodwill.
Although they did not travel together for a long time, they had one very important thing in common, which was that they wanted to protect Beichen. With this resonance, a subtle, cold tacit understanding gradually formed between them.
Then he turned around and brought his three weapons to the giant egg of a different color - the "Moon Tear Cocoon". He pressed a large protruding button on its surface, and the giant egg opened with a puff, revealing the inner wall that looked like a gel.
Black Fate twitched his brows. "Hey, could it be... that we're going to land on Senagard in this?!"
Atlas nodded mercilessly, making Blackbane's face turn even greener.
"We're weapons of war. Do we really have to land in the cocoon of the Moon Envoy? That's too weird! If someone sees us, will we be mistaken for some mutated monster and captured?"
Su Jie also complained a few words. But he also knew that this was the only way to go back, so he was the first to crawl into the cocoon while muttering to himself.
Seeing that Su Jie was so easy to talk to, Hei Huo stopped complaining and followed him in, leaving Xiang Ying standing outside.
"How are we going to communicate in two months?"
"I'll use the Star Spirit Field Scan function to search for Beichen."
"That's good."
Xiang Ying said as he reached out and patted Atlas on the shoulder.
"I hope we can protect our master together in the future."
Then he also entered the cocoon. Atlas pressed the button again, and the cocoon closed, with no visible gap on the surface.
After returning to the operating room and performing some operations again, the giant claws on the dome of the hall once again steadily grabbed the cocoons containing the three weapons and sent them to a large passage with conveyor tracks.
Atlas watched Cocoon leave, his tail completely hanging down.
"Hey, what's that rumbling sound outside?"
"Who knows? Maybe they're planning to cook us and eat us."
"Boiled eggs with a fighting weapon? Excellent dish."
"No way, they should be preparing for projection." Xiang Ying interrupted Hei Huo and Su Jie's somewhat creepy joke with a frown.
At this moment, the whole cocoon suddenly shook violently!
The three fighters scrambled to maintain their balance, but the next second, a fierce feeling of weightlessness overwhelmed them, accompanied by a sharp, ghostly, wailing friction sound coming from the outer layer of the cocoon.
“Wa ...
Even the weapons that bravely fought against the Disaster Emperor on the battlefield couldn't help but scream instinctively and fell into a heap in a daze in their cocoons.
The huge cocoon rushed towards Senagad.
Two hours later, they will stand on the land of Senagade again - even if they are so seasick that they don't know east from west.
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