Chapter 513: What Happened? (1/2)

Chapter 513: What Happened?

Translator: EndlessFantasy TranslationEditor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Their fleet travelled along the edge of a huge asteroid whirlpool. Arwa had noticed it fast enough, then ordered the fleet to react in the nick of time for them to escape the pull of the massive whirlpool. Nevertheless, the incident had cost Arwa 62 starships.

It all happened in just under 10 minutes.

An even more pressing issue for them was to avoid the whirlpool by going around it. This extended their three-day journey to five.

No one knew how much these two extra days would cost them. All of them, Arwa included, were grateful for their narrow escape.

They suffered heavy casualties on the third day, when the rocks around them were too dense for their weapons to handle. The asteroids breached their safety parameter and crashed onto the starships. Arwa had not fortified the ship hulls, and this oversight costed him dearly.

The seemingly tough hulls of the starships crumbled easily under the impact of the asteroids.

Arwa's heart ached as the starships exploded, one after another. Each starship carried a few hundred people in them!

His face turned paler and paler. Xiao Wan watched and sympathized with him, but she could not say nothing to console him. There was nothing she could do about their situation.

No one knew that, despite Arwa's pale expression, he was still as determined as ever. He knew that this was the time for them to persevere.

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Ye Chong played around with the dimension keystone in his hand. Kui had said that Celest's dimension keystone had other uses.

The dimension keystone was a fine thing. The Research Consortium did not specialize in spatial science, but they had some incredible results. This dimension keystone had incorporated almost everything they knew in spatial science, including the most practical ability of dimension storage. This dimension keystone was the epitome of dimension storage technology.

The Research Consortium had only began to dabble with spatial science when it was the field's golden age in He Yue Galaxy. The Three Aristocratic Families had focused mainly on mech dimension keystone technology, but the Research Consortium chose to study dimension storage.

The Three Aristocratic Families had prospered due to their choice of specialization. The Research Consortium, however, were not rewarded for their efforts in the field. Nevertheless, their dimension storage technology was also one of a kind, like Celest's dimension keystone.

Celest's dimension keystone could be used to store large objects. It was more advanced compared to the dimension keystones designed by the Three Aristocratic Families. In terms of storage, the keystone had its own interesting features. The dimension keystone technology that the Three Aristocratic Families worked on were based on a one-on-one relationship - a dimension keystone can only be linked to one mech.

The Research Consortium's dimension storage technology was based on one-to-many relationships. This meant that the same dimension keystone could be linked to multiple objects, and transfer them into the alternate dimension.

Dimension storage technology was in some sense a very useful mechanism. However, the cost was high, and the new approach meant that they were not able to establish stable one-to-many relationships for dimension storage just yet. Later on, the field matured, resulting in well established dimension storage technologies today. However, the Research Consortium had missed the opportunity to surpass the Three Aristocratic Families by then.

Ye Chong did not know how much stuff this inconspicuous metal ring could hold.

He found that, the better something was, the more people liked to make them look mediocre.

No one would have guessed that the inconspicuous metal ring was such a priceless treasure.

Ye Chong began to search the lab.

Kui had said that the lab was the center of all research in the Research Consortium since its founding. This place was home to the best products of every generation of Consortium members. Ye Chong translated that to mean that everything in the lab was gold.

He started out by picking them out slowly, but in the end found that there were too many things here, and he did not recognize most of them. The ring on his finger did not so much as beeped, like it was a black hole. He decided then to just store everything away into the ring. He did not know how many things he had taken in the end, much less what they were.

However, there was one thing he could be sure of - they were all good stuff.

He even took away all the equipment in the lab.

He also threw away his bag and put his belongings into the ring. It was safer that way, after all.

Ye Chong was like a locust plague, scouring the place clean. The lab was huge, and despite moving quickly, it still took him awhile to clear all the things inside. These were things accumulated over hundreds of years by the Research Consortium! Later, Ye Chong worked almost mechanically. Where at first he would be pleasantly surprised when he recognized something useful, he now worked without thinking.

He stopped abruptly, and looked in front of him.

There was a black circle floating not far ahead of him. He had reached a corner of the lab without knowing it.

The black circle was almost identical to the one he had seen before. The first two times he saw the black circle, unpleasant things followed. In the fIrst time, he nearly died in the underground cave of an attack, and the second time he had saw a red-tailed beast appeared.

He recalled what Kui had said. They had first found teardrop mineralite and an unstable spatial window right here.

Could this be the unstable spatial window?

Ye Chong knew nothing of spatial science. He did not even know what a spatial window was. His mind was filled with questions.

What was beyond the spatial window?

The black circle hovered eerily in the lab.

Ye Chong decided to circle around the black circle. Who knew if it was dangerous!

Best to be careful.

Ye Chong wanted to go around the black circle because he saw more things in the corner. He wanted to keep those things in his ring too. The circle looked eerie, but Ye Chong thought he should be safe if he left it alone. After all, the circle had been here for years. If it was dangerous, the Research Consortium would have put safety measures in place.

Ye Chong walked around the black circle without incident.

He looked down and began to go through the items in the corner. It was a secluded corner, the things there were already gathering a thick layer of dust, a sharp contrast to the sparkling clean outlook of the other parts of the lab. This was curious. He did not pull all the things into his ring right away, but crouched down to inspect them instead.

At that moment, unbeknownst to him, the black circle behind him began to alter.

The black circle began to expand, then contract, expand, contract …

It pulsed rhythmically like a human heart without a sound. Ye Chong was absorbed in whatever was in his hands at the moment and did not notice anything amiss behind him. He was surprised at what he found. The object he had in his hands was strange. He had never seen anything like it.

A light blue colored fungus grew on a pink colored colloid object.

The fungus looked weird. It had thin tendrils, like human hair. The tendrils did not lie down, but instead swayed in the air like seaweed in water. Ye Chong did not recognize this organism. Lunatic Guan's chip had no records of anything like it.

Could this be some new species?

Ye Chong carefully brushed away the dust and took the entire rubbery object.

Behind him, the black circle had switched from pulsation to gradual expansion. The two-dimensional black circle now expanded like a balloon towards it surroundings.

Ye Chong put the pink colored colloid and the unknown blue fungus into his ring and stood up.

Suddenly, his vision turned black.

The black circle had swallowed him whole. Immediately after, the darkness began to shrink inwards, growing smaller and smaller.

Right after he finished modifying his engine to run on teardrop mineralite, Shang noticed that he had lost contact with Ye Chong. By then, the black circle was already a black dot in the air. It exploded in a bright light and disappeared.

Shang gasped, ”Ye!” He was out of the modification workshop in an instant.

When he reached the laboratory, it was already empty.

Shang searched like crazy for Ye Chong around the entire base, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Ye Chong had simply vanished into thin air.

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Ye Chong only felt his vision darkened. He fainted in the next moment.