Age of Cosmic Exploration

Chapter 199: The All-Rounder!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

There was only one person who wore red armor in the entirety of Black Star Troopers.

Actually, the space armor had always had a paint job problem. This was due to the freedom of expression, exemplified by Earth’s combat jets. The pilots liked to add changes to his or her vehicle’s paint job as a memento, like adding a star after taking down an enemy craft or the like. Therefore, a small thing like paint was actually a point of contention within the Black Star Troopers.

Initially, the space armor’s original color was silver with black, metallic accessories. However, the color silver was simply too eye-grabbing. The troopers’ missions normally entailed them traipsing through space, and with the black color background, the silver space armor was pretty much asking for it to get shot at.

After a long and tedious discussion, grey, black, and green were eliminated for dark purple. Therefore, all of the space armors were awash in dark purple, and no exception was allowed. The only leeway was adding a sphere to represent Earth for team leaders and adding images of military insignia for those with military ranks.

The only non-purple armor was the red one owned by Captain Yao Yuan.

Therefore, the person who arrived was Yao Yuan. In fact, he came fresh from the discussion on the Deceiver with Ren Tao and Xiao Niao.

Other than the preliminary confirmation that the Deceiver could aid in Homo Evolutis awakening, they discussed its future possible uses. Of course, these were all speculations.

They also touched upon the uniqueness of the All-Rounder. If the All-Rounder was also a super grade S cosmic adapter, could he have some skills are that more powerful than the ability to use the weakened states of other Homo Evolutis skills at once? If not, the All-Rounder didn’t really live up to the super S grade.

While they were in the midst of discussion, they received a message from the Hope’s communication center. The sixth Black Star Trooper unit had issued a distress signal. During the short communication, they said they were ambushed by two super species and that three Black Star Troopers were severely injured. They needed emergency transport to get them back to the Hope.

The super species were native animals that were found on the new home planet after the mother nest war. Thankfully, during the initial sweep, none of the scouting party went deep into their territory, or they would have definitely been completely annihilated. In the end, they escaped with about 40 deaths.

After a series of aerial surveillance, they realized that the super species’ territory was marked with alien carcasses with numbers reaching up to the hundreds. Using high-definition photo capturing, one could see that the cause of death for these monsters were the claw marks and bite marks all over their bodies. Through the magic of the electromagnetic scanning radar, only two slightly bigger native super species were found to occupy the area. In other words, two wild beasts had taken down so many alien monsters?

This news was quickly relayed to the higher authority in the Barracks. This was scripted into high confidential clauses immediately and a heated debate ensued.

However, the shock this news brought to the Barracks was peanuts compared to how it had shaken the field of biology. Due to the severity of the issue, only the highest persons of interest were given intel, including Ivan and Saburo, but not to Bo Li due to the difference in her field of study.

The confidentiality clause was to prevent the news of such dangerous animals from creating havoc among the public.

This was something completely different from the alien. During the mother nest war, mankind used its own power to defeat the mother nest alien. The presence of such an alien instilled fear in people’s hearts since the target was something concrete. There was something one could point at and say "this is the thing that makes me fearful." Therefore, to eradicate that fear, one only needs to remove the target causing it. The government’s deforestation and monthly scanning might seem excessive to some, but they were carried out with the purpose to clear out the fear in people’s hearts. They created a mirage that the government was actively handling the source of their fear, allowing them peace of mind.

But the feeling caused by the super species was not fear, but anxiety. It was something abstract; the anxiety of being attacked by animals was something ingrained in the evolution of mankind.

Since there was one such super species, there must be another stronger and scarier than it to bring balance to nature. They were the natives of this planet, and they were even stronger than the alien monsters, indestructible when facing the Defense Unit’s Gaussian weaponry. Furthermore, they hid in the dark reaches of the forest, a place where they obviously had the upper hand.

Of course, mankind could survive in cities guarded by armies, electromagnetic security systems, a constant shuttle patrol, and Gaussian watch towers. But what different would that be from living in jail?

A small number of biologists tried to extrapolate the details of this super species based on the little information the Hope had compiled. First, the creature had high intelligence. Based on the aerial pictures taken, they showed that these creatures could already create handy products, like sharpened spears from wooden sticks, and even process dead bodies by airing them after dipping them in salt water. This proved that their intelligence was at least at the level of orangutans.

Ivan suggested the possibility of these beasts being resistant to the alien’s cellular consumption effect. They might have some kind of unique DNA strain that prevented the alien from consuming them. This was why they could eat the alien monster meat.

They were also as territorial as tigers. They rarely wandered out of their territory and were highly territorial.

On a side note, the Ultimate Vaccine usable for the public that was Saburo’s project had reached a bottleneck. There were zero breakthroughs in the past few months. The main reason was that the Ultimate Vaccine’s most central activator was Component X. However, the effect of injecting Component X into normal citizens was an unknown and thus banned, so the research had reached stagnation. Even though the tour could tide the public’s desire to visit the planet, if there was still no result on the vaccine front, things could get incredibly pressured for Yao Yuan.

Incidentally, the Hope came into contact with the super species then. Based on the fact that these super species could consume the alien meat without fear, it meant that their bodies had some natural resistance against the alien cell. Understanding this resistance could be the breakthrough Saburo needed.

Therefore, when the news came, for the sake of eliminating these super species and improving the vaccine research, Yao Yuan and Guang Zhen gave out the jungle survival training order. It was also a good opportunity to train the new troopers.

Of the 10 trooper units, 6 of them had contact with the super species. The number of these species was extremely low. Thus far, they only stumbled into 5 of them, and 3 had already been chased away from their nest. The troopers couldn’t catch up to the beasts that were extremely familiar with the geographical condition of the forest, so they had to settle with evacuation and not elimination.

The only exception was this pair of male and female super species. They refused to leave their territory. Even after the joint attack of multiple trooper units, they stayed. About 10 troopers almost died in combat. Two days ago, Yao Yuan himself led a team to lay siege to this pair, and he had managed to hurt the bigger male.

Unexpectedly, the pair left their territory and started ambushing other units. Before the distress message from the sixth unit, there had been other sightings and attacks reported by other units, but it was clear that the sixth unit had suffered the worst.

Yao Yuan didn’t dare hesitate. He rushed to the hangar, put on his red space armor and rushed to the signal location. While he was flying through the air, his acute senses picked up a concentration of malice beneath him. He saw through the window an area of leveled trees. He immediately ordered the shuttle to decrease elevation. As long as the distance wasn’t larger than 100 meters, the electromagnetic field generator inside the space armor would cushion the fall.

When he reached the scene, he saw two troopers there, one of them barely breathing and another with serious injuries. When he wanted to launch a counterattack, the two super species ran. Yao Yuan couldn’t sense their malice anymore, so they must have retreated deep into the forest.

"Shuttle operator! I need assistance; we have someone seriously injured here!" Yao Yuan screamed into his communicator.

Then he ordered the trooper who was still standing, "Cut down the surrounding trees to create a landing spot for the shuttle!"

The trooper was stunned. Before breaking out an embarrassed smile, he said, "My weapons were ruined by that super species, I…"

Yao Yuan frowned and tossed him his own sawblade, yelling, "Go, now!"

The trooper accepted the sawblade with his unharmed hand and started sawing. In just a few minutes, about 100 trees in the area fell. He rushed back to Yao Yuan’s side huffily, asking Yao Yuan, who was squatting beside the other trooper, "Captain, how- how is he?"

Yao Yuan examined the trooper quietly. He shone light into his eyes and saw that the trooper was expiring. His mouth was quavering. Yao Yuan moved his ear closer to his face and heard the whisper, "Cap, captain, please, give me… a last rite. I don’t want to... die like this…"

Yao Yuan sighed inaudibly. He stood up and said seriously, "May God look over the soul of a young man who fought bravely on the battlefield to his last moment…"

The trooper closed his eyes, but there was a smile on his face as if he was relieved. Yao Yuan and the remaining trooper stood in silence. Suddenly, a strange feeling entered his heart. It was as if something deep inside him had gained an addition. More specifically, imagine there was a pocket inside Yao Yuan, and it was inserted with something extra.

Not only Yao Yuan, but the trooper beside him felt it. He dithered for a time before commenting, "Captain, I’m not sure whether this is appropriate or not, but I somehow felt his soul entering yours. No, it’s more like his soul was pulled by the glorious glow of yours. I’m sorry, I don’t know how to describe it; it was a weird feeling…"

"Yes, I feel it too."

Yao Yuan continued with a complicated expression. "It was as if an invisible pocket had opened up within me and his soul is residing within…"

Because Yao Yuan was an All-Rounder, he had access to Anima’s skill, so he could see the light orbs that represented the Homo Evolutis. Even though he couldn’t see the light spots that represented the normal people, from what the few other Animas told him, in the soulweb, normal citizens were represented by light spots that were smaller in size and brightness compared to the light orbs that represented the Homo Evolutis. The biggest one among them was his own, a fireball several hundred times bigger than normal orbs. Like the sun, it radiated warmth and light in the soulweb.

Why would his own light orb be so huge? Could it have something to do with the reason the All-Rounder was a super S grade cosmic adapter alongside the Deceiver?

Yao Yuan believed he had stumbled across the answer then…

When he submerged into the soulweb, he could see a small orb circling his own giant fireball. The light orb wasn’t distinguished, it was kept alive by the warmth of his own fireball!