Master of the Stars

Chapter 13: The Darksider Species (Part 2/2)

The room went a bit quiet. Then there was someone who laughed immediately:

“Specter… Do you mean a ghost?”

“It’s up to your interpretation. Anyway from my point of view, the so-called Darksider life form is a sort of invisible and intangible thing that even floats around you to and fro. A specter would be a more fitting description.”

“Bleh. Taoster, you’re being super creepy! You ooze of death!” A pretty trophy girl took the opportunity to look frail.

Actually, the majority of people didn’t really feel anything when Liu Tao had just talked. But through the embellishment of frailty and squeamishness from the pretty trophy girl, quite a few people began to have goosebumps.

Some people twisted their heads to look at the surging smoke all around them. There was quite a bit of fear in their hearts.

Contrary to belief, Liu Tao loved atmospheres like these the most. He pushed up his glasses and adapted a calm state: “The facts are as follows: The industry hasn’t published any papers nor raised any relevant concepts on the Darksider life form. Those who know more about it, aside from the various high-end laboratories, would be the military.”

“We can see that the military has crossed paths with Darksider life forms several times from the way they have responded on this warship today. This is a good thing.”

The group of good-for-nothings were seriously bitter and angry when faced with Liu Tao’s customary suspense-holding speech. Some people had already run out of patience:

“You can’t see them!? You can’t touch them!? And you can still research shit about them!? You’re not setting people up to be cheated of their money right!?”

“F*CK OFF!”

Liu Tao smiled and cursed before finally he cut to the chase: “The reason I mentioned the military is because the military has added the Darksider life form as a special type of mutant form. But the majority of research institutes have held a different theory. They believe the two are not the same. The most accepted description would also be somewhat of a conjecture. They believe that it may have been the cause of the ‘Source Zero Virus’.”

“AH!”

It was still the same pretty trophy girl as before, however this time her response was genuine fear. And it wasn’t just her; everyone had ugly expressions.

The shadowy mutant could enshroud over each of their heads at any moment. Even rich kids were no exception.

The Darksider life form was still able to draw their interest in research even though they’ve already established that it was a mutant. However if this warped monster mutant was what made everyone’s lives hell, then everyone would run at first sight of it.

Liu Tao spread his hand open: “Don’t you guys go scaring yourselves okay? What I said was only the most preposterous conjecture of all. This thing has practically no resemblance at all to a virus. Even the conjecture of it being a ‘Living Dark Matter Body’ is more reliable in comparison……”

The pretty-trophy girl pouted at him for a moment, naturally entering into a teasing-flirting style. Someone next to her cursed for a bit.

Liu Tao felt he had been wronged, so he just simply stopped being mysterious and directly made a simple introduction: “In summary, these Darksider life forms are like specters. They are a real existence, but you can’t touch them nor can you see them.”

“According to its nature as determined by laboratories, people have concluded that no contact occurs between it and common particles. Even electromagnetic waves won’t create an active radiation in response. This implies that it's impossible to observe it directly under the vast majority of environments via conventional methods. Yea. They won’t exert any effects on this world’s matter under normal circumstances.”

Someone laughed: “Won’t exert any effects? What sort of threat is that? Those aboard the warship are this tense and nervous… Is it all just to scare people?”

“I’m saying that this only applies to ordinary circumstances…… Have you ever thought about why this thing is called a ‘life form’? This is because this sort of thing possess the ability to interfere with the material plane under certain circumstances. And, it possesses a certain goal.”

“A goal?”

“It can vary vastly. But according to statistics, nearly 40% of cases of interference occurrences are disturbances that stimulate the state of mind of living organisms. It makes people unable to focus their energy. Makes them jittery, quick to temper, sensitive, and etc……”

The visiting Luo Nan to the side felt a stir of emotion. He sized up the burning wraith once more. This fellow still held its “dying-dog” state at this moment, but what had happened beforehand perfectly validated Liu Tao’s description.

“The Darksider life form has a very dangerous nature. Keep in mind that the parts we are unable to observe is meaningless to us. This is because the Darksider life form doesn’t completely cross over with us. However the parts we can discover will certainly be a threat. This is because they’re trying to exert their influence at that very moment, to disturb our plane.”

“How does it disturb? It is very simple. A sentence is enough to describe it; it’s called ‘Know yourself and know your enemy’. Under ordinary circumstances, the Darksider lifeform doesn’t intersect with us. But when it does try, it must first understand, access, and gather our information.”

“A good comparison would be with an active radar. Normal radars don’t ‘turn on’. No one would be able to discover its existence. However the Darksider life form has the nature and aim to search; it will emit a beam for sure, exposing its own position.”

Luo Nan, who was observing the burning wraith at this time, suddenly went stupefied. He concentrated his attention in an unprecedented manner for what would follow.

“Of course the Darksider life form is a thousand times more hidden than a radar. They don’t need to send out probing beams and the like, all they need to do is absorb the various frequency bands in the atmosphere and its fine. Then they can analyze and process it through an incomprehensible method to us. And this is our sole and only chance to be able to probe them.”

Liu Tao had spoken to the climax. His hand pointed at the surrounding mist: “Do you see this ‘Shadow Mist’? A special particle has been released within this mist. These particles are very susceptible to various frequency bands in the atmosphere. As soon as they detect a direction in which a concentration of a relative change in nature has occurred, they can convey the relevant data to the central AI location via sensors that are all over the place. The central AI analyzes and determines the probability that a Darksider lifeform has appeared……”

Lian Yu, who had yet to open her mouth, also became interested. Her speciality just happened to be in the field of communications: “Taoster. You’re quite clear on the matter.”

Liu Tao was waiting for these words and immediately feigned a calm state: “This kind of ‘Shadow Mist’ battle tactic was developed and produced by a laboratory in the wilderness that was funded by my family……”

Upon reaching this point, naturally there were no lack of people who flattered him: “Damnnn Taoster, you kept it super hidden! This technology will pay off big for us!”

“It’s not bad, not bad.” Liu Tao was beaming with smiles. He felt quite invigorated inside.

But the floating-to-the-side Luo Nan had a different mood at this time. He looked around at the surrounding mist and went somewhat dumb at the moment.

The somewhat-quiet Lian Yu asked a question at this time: “If it’s this hard to discover a Darksider lifeform, how do you deal with one?”

“At the present only the Burners…… Actually the discovery of the Darksider life form was a matter that happened after the Quantum Corporation pushed out their Burners and Deep Blue Platform. One can tell that the Burners are highly sensitive to the Darksider lifeform from their combat experience. Only the Burners piloting the Deep Blue Walkers. Only via the means of an established Archetype Format, the burning ‘Fire Format’, can they do direct damage to the Darksider life form.”

“Then……”

Lian Yu still wanted to ask questions, but a long beep sounded out and the exiting door to the room opened. The sliding metal door was still moving when an imposing figure burst in through the mist.

Fine red laser dots filled the room in a chaotic fashion from the bulky weapons frame. They streaked over the group of rich kids, causing them to be scared out of their wits.

“Get down! Get all the way down!”

The fierce and tough voice was magnified by the loudspeaker, piercing their ears: “Everyone. Crawl towards the room’s exit at once in succession. People will assist you outside!”

This person, who had just thrown himself into the room, was certainly a considerably valiant and experienced special figure. Unfortunately he overlooked something from being in the military for a long time. This group of rich kids before his eyes really weren't experienced soldiers of the battlefield.

They were already scared down to the bone from being faced with this sudden change in circumstances.

Barely half a second passed. It was unknown who let loose their throat, but a piercing shriek flooded the entire room. The shriek spurred fear all over and around, like a tempest engulfing the hearts of each and every person.