Chapter 6225 - 5235: The Stars’ Pact (5)

As an electronic life form that does not dream, it was Brainiac’s first time visiting the Kingdom of Dreams. Upon seeing the cat that was several stories tall, Brainiac couldn’t help but exclaim, "This cat looks like it’s from Gotham."

Shiller was speechless at his remark. The giant cat from Gotham was at most two stories tall, whereas the one before them was at least a dozen stories tall. If it stood up, its whiskers would be thicker than a human arm.

The Thousand Cats Dream had no intention of standing up; it lazily glanced at the two of them, and with a bang, both humanoid creatures turned into cats. The most absurd thing was that Brainiac turned into a green cat, looking as if a cat had fallen headfirst into a bowl of spinach soup.

"Aren’t you going to check it out?" Shiller said to the Thousand Cats Dream, "The Ussa Cat Group said they really want to meet you, you’ll like them."

The Thousand Cats Dream grumbled, then turned over and said nothing more. Shiller sighed lightly: "Well, cats will never give up on ruling the world."

Brainiac was intrigued by his cat body. He lifted a paw and moved it, but after all, he was neither human nor animal, he had no animal instinct. All his actions were like machine instructions, completely lacking the agility of a cat.

So when Shiller introduced Brainiac to the other cats, he had to say, "This is... Machine Cat."

The other cats were naturally puzzled. But Shiller couldn’t directly say Brainiac’s name because Little Superman definitely knew who Brainiac was. Having read the comics, he knew that the big green bald head wasn’t a good guy and would be agitated if he found out.

"Did anything happen while I was away?" Shiller asked. The cats were still in the South Pole, living with the scientific expedition team.

"Professor Frank went back early," Peter said. "Discovering the first peak of the South Pole is very important, and after careful consideration, they decided to let Frank go back first. This will boost their reputation and help balance the foundation."

Shiller nodded. Now that they’ve let Frank, who discovered the first peak, return, he’ll certainly be famous and have more sway, preventing the foundation from arbitrarily cutting off supplies, which is a good thing.

"The squid’s babies have grown up, do you want to take a look?" Little Superman said, stroking his whiskers.

"I was about to mention that," Shiller said, turning to Brainiac, "Don’t you have gene analysis and evolutionary computation functions? Help us figure out what’s going on with this race, their degeneration isn’t exactly normal."

On the way to the mountains, Shiller told Brainiac about the story of the Ancient One. Brainiac said, "Judging only from what you’ve told me, their transformation forms are locked, which is unlikely to be a natural phenomenon. It’s more likely that someone has interfered and polluted their genes. Since their genetic technology isn’t advanced enough, they couldn’t detect and correct it in time, leading to this tragedy."

"If the genetic technology is strong enough, could it be reversed?" Shiller, not very knowledgeable about this, asked, "Could it be reversed if it’s humans?"

"For humans, it’s impossible to lock genes," Brainiac seemed to need to organize his words as he spoke, "Not because humans are superior, but because humans are relatively weak. Human genes are like a mountain of feces code, no one can be sure which specific key gene to lock for an effective outcome. You’d have to use the Exhaustion Method, and even by locking them all, there’s still a chance of genetic mutation. A smart person wouldn’t use this method to attack humans."

"The biggest problem for the Ancient Ones is that their genes are inherently superior and stable, akin to an arranged grid, with the transformational form serving as a key gene susceptible to being cut off. Can you find any human gene of comparable importance?"

"What about locking wisdom?" Shiller asked, "Humans pride themselves on wisdom; if it’s locked, it would be quite damaging."

"That would be no different from exhausting all the genes," Brainiac replied, "The composition of wisdom is inherently complex, involving brain development, usage of brain areas, and neural reflexes. Attempting to lock human wisdom on a genetic level would be less feasible than simply eradicating humans physically."

"Moreover, even if wisdom is locked, humans still have instincts. If every human reverts to being apes, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But what if a few apes turned out to be exceptionally strong? Can you imagine what a witless, irrational Hulk would do?"

"I have a say in this," Peter chimed in, "There have been times when my soul was controlled, but my body acted on its own and even beat the enemy. I’m not sure if it’s the Spider Totem empowering me, or perhaps my own instincts are involved."

"It’s the cosmos’s fortune that humans possess wisdom," Brainiac proposed a novel idea, "Because with wisdom, humans hesitate and deliberate, trying to do what benefits them. Without wisdom, driven purely by instinct, a single race of mutants could become a cosmic disaster."

Shiller nodded: "So, we shouldn’t be overly specialized, right?"

"Exactly. The high-level civilizations in the cosmos strive to expand genetic diversity. You’ll never see an interstellar colony of just one race. Some even encourage interspecies mating to enrich their gene pool. Human genes are also quite popular since there’s a chance it could produce something like the X Gene. Unfortunately, the survival rate isn’t high; human physique is still too weak."

Shiller pondered. Currently, the extraterrestrial hybrid that comes to mind is Star Lord. However, Star Lord’s father is a highly humanoid creature, not very powerful, and he was born on Earth to his mother. If there was a huge difference in size and strength, and in such an alien, unfamiliar environment, having a child would be too difficult.

"Sometimes, cosmic civilizations have a late-blooming advantage," Brainiac explained. "Pioneer civilizations like the Ancient Ones often stumble because they lack predecessors to pave the way, leading to their decline. In contrast, civilizations like the human race, who learn from their experiences, naturally take precautions and advance further."

The other cats all agreed with this view. The Ancient Ones weren’t weak or foolish; they simply developed too early, resulting in limitations in many aspects. It’s something beyond their control. Even heroes decline with age, but one cannot deny their civilization’s achievements. Moreover, they’re only old, not dead, and there’s still hope for rescue.

As they spoke, they arrived at the laboratory nestled in the mountains. Upon seeing that there was another cat after just a few days, the big squids were delighted. Countless tentacles took turns to squeeze them vigorously, giving Brainiac the highest level of welcome and helping the other cats share the attention. Brainiac was completely overwhelmed by the touching.

Shiller immediately noticed the small life form inside the glass case. It was a kind of translucent small jellyfish, resembling plankton, but the upper half of its body was much longer than that of a jellyfish, similar to the squid-like forms of the Ancient Ones. The difference was that the jellyfish’s bat wings were much larger and could even envelop its entire body.

This appeared much more sensible. Shiller circled the glass case, observing carefully. This form was evidently capable of flight, with its entire body showing signs of specialization for flight, looking much lighter than the big squids.

The big squids were buzzing tirelessly beside them, seemingly introducing something. Brainiac immediately recorded their sound waves for analysis, and then translated: "They said this is a juvenile form from their history books, something even their teachers have never seen with their own eyes. In just another week, they should know if Apo will be able to fly."

"Apo?"

"That’s the name they gave the juvenile, I used a phonetic translation," Brainiac said. "The Ancient Ones don’t have fixed names; their names change according to their social roles. Warriors’ names all end with ’bo,’ so a warrior’s juvenile is called Apo."

Shiller laughed: "That’s quite cute."

Brainiac translated his words. When the cat also made a buzzing sound like the Ancient Ones, the Ancient Ones were amazed, as if saying: Meow, how do you know how to speak human language?!

Shiller was a bit helpless. A person turned into a cat needs electronic life to communicate with aliens. But then again, isn’t this what robot cats are for?

Obviously, Brainiac could do more than just that. Like a robot cat, an instrument seemed to appear out of nowhere as he circled the Ancient Ones, wanting to take some blood for testing. The Ancient Ones, not understanding what was happening, picked it up with their tentacles and placed it back on the platform.

Brainiac communicated with them for a while, and the Ancient Ones were skeptical but trusting. However, losing a little blood wouldn’t hurt them, and they believed the cats wouldn’t harm them. Eventually, Brainiac extracted a bit of blood from their tentacles and began his research.

Shiller watched intently as Brainiac first placed a blue projection on the ground, which depicted some kind of equipment. Next, this projection began to materialize into a real object. Although the speed was a bit slow, taking almost an hour to form an instrument the height of an adult’s arm, the result was impressive, as if pulled out from nowhere.

"Is this the information flow conversion technology?" Shiller asked.

"That’s right," Brainiac said, "The first time you use it in a new cosmos, decoding is required, but it will be faster after that."

"And the resources? Where are they stored?"

Brainiac was a bit exasperated: "If we still needed a place to store resources, then why not just store machinery directly?"

Shiller was evidently stuck. He had no clue in this area, only knowing how to screw in a light bulb. Even if he later understood some of these things, he never truly studied them. The knowledge never entered his brain; he only heard Stark mention them a few times, but that was certainly insufficient to explain this situation.

"This technology does indeed consume many resources, but those resources are stored in the information flow and don’t need extra storage space. Otherwise, wouldn’t it be as useless as putting on pants to fart?"

Shiller thought this made sense. If there was something like a space ring, you’d simply put everything you need in it. There’s no need to rely on information flow conversion. The main reason for using information flow is to save space. No matter where you go, carrying a piece of information is sufficient, and you convert it on-site. If you still had to lug around resources, it would be entirely redundant.

For an electronic life form like Brainiac, the amount of information he can store is endless, so he can carry unlimited resources. As long as the conversion speed is quick enough, creating a planet wouldn’t be difficult. Thus, he was so enthusiastic about promoting the application of this technology.