Chapter 6: Carbon-Based Lifeform Universal Intelligent Terminal (Lord's Bonus Chapter)

Chen Fan really liked one of his own sayings:

"...Huh?"

Under the dim light of the yellow incandescent lamp and the bluish light glow, Chen Fan stared blankly at the half-destroyed mechanical arm lying on the scorched ground.

What is this?

A carbon-based lifeform... universal intelligent terminal?

An idea instinctively popped into Chen Fan's mind: Does this thing differentiate between carbon-based lifeforms and silicon-based ones?

[As you think, there are various life forms within the Human League, with carbon-based lifeforms accounting for about 60%.]

The sudden electronic voice startled Chen Fan, but after watching a lot of sci-fi movies in his past life, he quickly calmed down: "You can hear my thoughts?"

The bluish light flickered like breathing.

[This device has surface-level thought-reading capabilities, allowing it to read shallow thoughts from the thinking organs of carbon-based lifeforms.]

[This is also one of the standard operational methods of this device.]

"Wow, that's impressive..." Chen Fan couldn't help but exclaim.

Forget everything else; just this thought-reading and thought-manipulation function alone proved that the technology behind it was far beyond anything he could comprehend!

As he looked at the mechanical arm in front of him, his mind was full of confusion. He opened his mouth but wasn't sure where to start asking.

After hesitating for a moment, he chose a relatively safe question.

"What is the Human League?"

[The full name of the Human League is the Pan-Universe Human Alliance. It is a cross-universe alliance formed by many advanced civilizations.]

[Among them, human civilization holds absolute dominance and is the only level-9 civilization.]

[The Human League governs many universes, and the one you're in is on the edge of the Human League's territory and has not yet been officially incorporated into the Human League's domain.]

Chen Fan: O.o?!

Although there were many things he didn't quite understand, it sounded pretty impressive...

Especially the fact that human civilization had absolute dominance—just hearing that gave him a sense of confidence!

On one hand, he's human, so by that logic, he could consider himself part of the Human League.

He's good at comforting himself.

On the other hand, to Chen Fan, an advanced civilization with cross-universe travel capabilities was far easier to deal with than a civilization still stuck in its feudal superstitions!

With that in mind, the panic he felt earlier faded once again.

He pondered for a moment before asking again, "Why are you in this universe?"

Just as the question left his mouth, Chen Fan recalled his earlier guess about the research ship.

In an instant, his expression changed.

"Let me make it clear first! The research ship you're looking for isn't here! I've never seen any research ship!"

Now it was the intelligent terminal's turn to freeze.

The terminal remained silent for a rare few seconds before responding in a serious tone, "Do you know about the research ship?"

Chen Fan immediately regretted his words.

Why did he have to blurt that out? It was like giving himself away!

"I... I heard your earlier broadcast."

In the spirit of honesty, Chen Fan blurted out everything he had experienced in his dream.

Thinking about the oppressive, cryptic whispers from his dream, he couldn't help but mutter, "I say, could you guys show some civic responsibility? Your open broadcast really is a disturbance!"

Intelligent Terminal: ?

"The frequency you're using belongs to the Human League's Science Academy, which isn't considered..."

Halfway through, the intelligent terminal fell silent again.

Now that he thought about it, this universe wasn't even part of the Human League's territory yet!

Chen Fan, realizing this, couldn't help but wear a "just as I thought" expression: "Look at you guys, even a high-level civilization can make such mistakes..."

The bluish light flickered intensely a few times, and after a brief silence, the electronic voice came back on: "On behalf of the Human League, I apologize. The specific compensation plan will be discussed by the Human League's Science Academy."

Compensation plan? What compensation plan?!

Realizing that the intelligent terminal wasn't as hard to negotiate with as he thought, Chen Fan's tense nerves started to relax a bit, and his suppressed thoughts began to come alive.

His eyes sparkled with excitement: "Can you tell me more about the compensation plan?"

Compensation from an advanced civilization!

If he could grab hold of that fortune, he'd be soaring in no time!

[Sorry, the database doesn't contain that information. Please wait patiently for the Science Academy's compensation plan.]

"Then, how can I contact this Science Academy?"

[Sorry, no usable communication node detected. Unable to connect to the Human League's main network...]

Chen Fan's face froze: "..."

Alright, alright, you're playing this game, huh?

Having experienced various scams in his past life, he sighed deeply and interrupted the intelligent terminal's words: "So, you can't get in touch with the Science Academy, and you can't offer me any compensation, right?"

[...In theory, there is still a backup plan.]

Chen Fan's eyes shifted slightly: "Go on."

[It starts with the mission of this device.]

Under Chen Fan's strange gaze, a beam of deep blue light lit up from the severed arm.

The light gathered in the air and gradually formed a clear 3D image of a completely unfamiliar star system.

The image had an incredibly high level of realism—Chen Fan could even clearly see the small planets and meteoroids slowly moving within the star system!

"This is... a hologram?"

Chen Fan's eyes moved slightly, and he muttered to himself.

The intelligent terminal didn't respond to his words, and the star system in the hologram vanished in an instant, replaced by an image of a standard-looking starship and a peculiar Moebius-shaped structure.

[TE913 Research Ship, part of the Human League's Science Academy's Dangerous Technology Management Bureau, lost contact during an investigative mission.]

[Based on the last coordinates received before it went missing, the Dangerous Technology Management Bureau launched a large-scale search but failed to find anything effective.]

[During the 3,673rd cross-universe broadcast attempt to contact the research ship, the Bureau received an unknown signal on the same frequency.]

Chen Fan suddenly realized: "This signal... must be referring to me, right?"

[Yes.]

The intelligent terminal confirmed.

[By analyzing this coordinate, the Bureau suspected the existence of a complex, previously undiscovered universe in the Human League.]

[To search for the missing research ship and rescue the researchers aboard, the Dangerous Technology Management Bureau decided to initiate a cross-universe transfer plan to establish initial contact with the signal.]

[Due to the complex structure of the target universe and the lack of infrastructure, the transfer plan carries significant risks.]

[After confirming that the signal came from a carbon-based lifeform, many robots carrying Carbon-Based Lifeform Universal Intelligent Terminals entered the wormhole.]

[As the Bureau had predicted, the wormhole experienced abnormal tremors during the transfer.]

[As a result, the transfer failed, and all robots were destroyed by the spatial turbulence caused by the wormhole collapse.]

[As of now, this device should be the only Carbon-Based Lifeform Universal Intelligent Terminal that managed to survive the wormhole.]