Chapter 618: The Giants
Chapter 618: The Giants
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Petrachelys quickly left the ocean and arrived near Io's synchronized orbit.
A large number of ice and rock brought up from the bottom of the sea, as well as building debris floated in space in the aftermath. Eva had not been able to pull everything back down into the ocean. What remained in space was an eternal commemoration of her destruction. According to the MDT's deduction, the ice, rocks, and metal fragments would float in space for tens of thousands of years, and eventually form a ring around Io. If new intelligent life were to evolve on Io someday, they would certainly be curious about how the ring formed around their home planet.
Hao Ren allowed the MDT to pilot the spacecraft and it maneuvered agilely around the debris, zooming past the large black crystals. These crystals were fragments from the black battleship, which had exploded earlier.
"This is it." The MDT stopped the spacecraft in front of the large wreckage. "The largest piece of the wreckage with a completely-intact frame structure. Radar scans show that there's an enclosed space inside. That's a surprise."
The Petrachelys slowly went around examining the wreckage, which was about two to three kilometers long. It seemed to be a rear section of the black battleship and it had neatly-broken-out sections on both ends. This showed that the special cabin section had joint sections designed to break in case of emergency. This section of the wreckage was originally fitted with some black, sail-like crystal panels. But after the explosion, only several broken brackets remained.
"Looks like there's an entrance." Y'zaks pointed to a raised section at the upper part of the wreckage. "Look at the exposed pipes."
Hao Ren nodded. "Let's send an autonomous robot to check it out. If it leads to the interior, we'll go in from there."
An ejection window on the side of the Petrachelys opened, and a small mechanical squid flew out towards the wreckage. It then went into the wreckage from the opening. Soon, the autonomous robot reported that the inside was safe and the passage was unobstructed. From the visual, the interior was very large.
"Lily, Wang, you two come in with me," Hao Ren turned around and said.
Lily jumped out of her chair in excitement. "Yahoo! But, I'm curious as to why you're finally letting me tag along this time, Mr. Landlord?"
Hao Ren shrugged and said, "Because I may need your help—you can dig a lot faster."
Lily saw this as a compliment. She nodded gleefully and followed them out.
The three of them entered through the route the autonomous robot had taken earlier, and soon caught up with the mechanical squid inside. The body of autonomous mechanical tentacles reported to Hao Ren before it illuminated the surroundings with its light.
Their surroundings were cluttered and old, full of traces of corrosion. It appeared that the battleship had suffered serious leakage when it sank to the bottom of the ocean. The interior was not as black as it looked, and most of its walls or interior were gray and white with a plastic, glossy finish. The space where the trio were in was large. One side of the bulkhead (Hao Ren thought it was a ceiling) had exposed broken pipes and cables.
Lily raised her Flamejoy and tapped on the bulkhead near her. "Looks like we're inside a duct, but this place is huge."
"Not only is the place huge, everything in it seems kinda outrageously oversized," said Hao Ren slyly. Looking around and drifting to the nearest bulkhead, he touched a weird disc with a belted shaft, which was a few meters in diameter. "This looks like a valve..."
"Are you sure?" Y'zaks gaped. "A valve this big? I can't even hold it in my hand!"
Hao Ren shrugged. "At least the shape says that it is."
The trio explored a little, and quickly discovered that everything there was strange—there was a valve of a few meters across, a joystick over two meters long, and a button larger than the Xinhua Dictionary. All these things were odd for their sizes. As for the other gadgets of which their functions were unknown, they were equally oversized.
Lily grabbed a joystick that was taller than she was and pried, "Did this spacecraft belong to giants?"
"With things in these sizes, I can't even really get used to them even if I transform back into my original form." Y'zaks ran his hand over a console where there was a row of huge buttons. "My fingers will definitely be cramped. You'll have to swing your arms around in order to type on the keyboard."
Hao Ren was surprised. "You've learned how to type as well?"
The question startled Y'zaks. "...Are you chasing rabbits?"
After fiddling with the joystick for a long while, Lily suddenly triggered something. The oversized metal stick stumbled to the side and the wall behind it became ajar.
Lily lifted her head and looked at the wall, her tail wagging gently. "Oh, gosh... Could this be a door?"
"A dozen-meters-tall door..." Hao Ren was stunned. "Lily, dig!"
The husky maiden began to dig the alloy door. Sparks and ice flew as she dug. Soon, the gap on the heavy alloy gates became large enough for even Y'zaks to pass through. Lily was the first one to sneak past the gap and the next second, Hao Ren heard the husky squeak over the radio, "My god—"
Hao Ren and Y'zaks hurried in; what they saw had them rooted to the spot.
Behind the door was what looked like a flight deck. A huge console and four giant seats were in the center of the cabin, while the four dead bodies of the crew were floating mid-air.
When Lily got in, she actually ran into one of the dead bodies, hitting herself on the head. The giant's head was bigger than her!
The husky struggled for a while before she regained control of her body and fled back up to Hao Ren. "It's really a giant! It scared the hell of out me!"
Hao Ren patted the husky on her head before he flew close to the bodies of the giants, looking at them in awe. The four crew members were wearing some kind of black leather uniform and they were hugging their heads tightly as if they had an extreme headache before they died. Apart from their body size, their faces closely resembled that of humans. Their skin was dark red—however, it was unknown if this was their original skin color.
Hao Ren could roughly figure that the aliens were at least 16 m in height. They were truly a giant race!
"No signs of decay, no traces of dehydration or swelling. They look like they died not too long ago," said Y'zaks, flipping one of the bodies around. "Unbelievable... Mortals rarely have such a strong body, but these bodies have lasted for so long; it's immortal like Buddha in a sense."
Hao Ren was shocked once again. "You've even studied Buddhism?"
Y'zaks could not help but say, "You can't be serious?"
As Hao Ren and Y'zaks busily examined the bodies, Lily plucked up her courage and came up to help. She went around one of the bodies for a long while before suddenly summoning her Ice and Fire Claws. She began to cut the dead giant's hair, and Hao Ren asked dumbfoundedly, "What are you doing? Shaving their hair?"
"Shaving my foot!" Lily scoffed, exposing her teeth. "See this? This could be the cause of death!"
Hao Ren went up to look. He found that the back of the giant's skull was bulging abnormally, and there was a strange bump on the scalp. He reached out and touched it. "It feels like... the skull is pushed out. Certainly, this was not the case when they were healthy. The skin here is stretched abnormally."
"Could it be a brain disease?" Y'zaks scratched his chin. "That's why they behaved so weirdly on Io? Could a brain disease cause them to open fire at each other and destroy Io?"
Lily seemed to be smarter this time. "Could it be that the brain monster was controlling them? That's why they attacked the sirens?"
"It's unclear at this point. The bodies must be sent back for examination." Hao Ren shook his head, and picked up the radio. "MDT, we've found something…"