I handed over to another world

Chen Lin's holographic projection suddenly lit up in the ward. Zhou Rui immediately wanted to stand up and salute Chen Lin, but before he could do so, Chen Lin waved his hand to signal him not to be so formal.

"Zhou Rui, I know you have questions."

Chen Lin's voice was lower than usual, with a rare hint of fatigue.

Zhou Rui struggled to sit up: "President, if you let me use the raw stone..."

"The Reapers are not our enemies."

Chen Lin suddenly interrupted him, and the projector waved his hand to call up an encrypted image - the image showed the internal structure of the Reaper's mechanical body, and under the metal shell, there was actually a blue energy flowing that was similar to the power of the mind.

Zhou Rui's pupils shrank suddenly: "This is impossible..."

“We thought so at first.”

Chen Lin's projection approached the bed. "It was not until three days ago that our linguistics team deciphered the basic communication protocol of the Reapers."

The image switched, showing a blurry scene of space. Huge energy lines appeared on the surface of a Reaper mothership. Those lines combined together represented some kind of peaceful language for help.

"They are not invaders, Zhou Rui."

"They are fugitives who were driven here by something."

Chen Lin's voice was heavy, "The Mind Stone will have a fatal resonance on them, just like..."

"Just like with the elves."

Zhou Rui suddenly understood, remembering what Liyana had said about the influence of the Mind Stone on the Elf King's Court. The reason why the copied mind device posed a fatal threat to the reapers was precisely because these reapers were sensitive to the Mind Stone...

Chen Lin nodded: "Using the raw stone will trigger a chain reaction. We are not sure what will be awakened, but the Reapers obviously know this, so they have been avoiding direct conflict with our main fleet."

"This is also the real reason why we gave up directly launching warships to bombard these guys and instead engaged in an inefficient ground battle."

The ward fell into a brief silence. Zhou Rui looked at his bandaged hands and said, "Then what about our previous sacrifices..."

"It's not in vain."

Chen Lin pulled up the star map and marked a dozen flashing red dots. "The Reapers left coordinate data on every battlefield. After decoding, these were their former homes. Now, all these star systems have become... this."

The star map zoomed in, revealing a strange star field where the stars appeared an unnatural dark red and the surface of the planets was covered with some kind of black veins.

“Mind pollution.”

Chen Lin closed the star map. "The Reapers call it the 'Devourer', a cosmic threat that can infect psychic energy... They fled here because they detected the fluctuations of the Mind Stone and thought we had experience in fighting against it."

Zhou Rui felt dizzy: "So this war..."

"It was a tragic misunderstanding."

Chen Lin's projection began to flicker, as if the signal was interfered with. "I have sent a ceasefire request to the Reapers through the neutral channel, but their social structure is very special and it takes time to reach a consensus."

"In the meantime, I need you to—"

The communication was suddenly interrupted, and the lights in the ward instantly turned a warning red. Zhou Rui's medical monitor issued a sharp alarm, indicating that his vital signs were fluctuating violently.

"Captain Zhou!" Medical staff rushed into the ward, "The Reaper mothership is approaching the medical station orbit!"

Zhou Rui pulled off the IV tube and struggled to get out of bed: "Give me the spare Mind Blade."

"But your condition—"

"This is an order!"

His voice was hoarse but firm.

When Zhou Rui staggered to the observation deck, the huge Reaper mothership outside the porthole had already occupied half of his vision.

But strangely, it did not launch a direct attack, but instead released thousands of small probes.

One of the detectors suddenly turned towards the medical station, and familiar blue patterns lit up on its surface.

Zhou Rui's backup mind blade began to resonate, and the blade unfolded on its own, projecting a holographic image - the image showed Chen Lin standing in an unfamiliar metal hall, with a reaper entity made of light standing next to him.

Shockingly, the Reaper's energy field resonated harmoniously with the Mind Blade.

"Zhou Rui." Chen Lin in the video said, "The Harvester Council has agreed to a ceasefire. The evidence they showed shows that the 'Devourer' is moving towards the Milky Way. We need to act immediately..."

The image suddenly distorted, and a black symbol that did not belong to any party forcibly cut into the communication channel.

The moment the symbol appeared, Zhou Rui felt a piercing chill, as if some existence was "watching" him through this symbol.

All electronic devices burst into sparks at the same time, and the entire medical station fell into darkness.

Under the final emergency lighting, Zhou Rui saw that his mind blade was undergoing a terrible change - the silver-white energy was being dyed black.

He acted decisively and used up his last bit of strength to throw the weapon out of the airlock. The moment the weapon entered space, an ominous purple-black energy burst out, forming a distorted space like a miniature black hole.

"This is... the Devourer?"

Zhou Rui muttered to himself.

At this time, the backup system of the medical station was finally activated, and Chen Lin's communication was reconnected: "Zhou Rui! The Reapers are helping us to establish a joint defense line, you must..."

"I understand."

Zhou Rui interrupted him, his eyes firm, "This is not a war, but a call for help!"

Outside the porthole, new energy patterns lit up on the surface of the Reaper mothership, this time forming the "π" symbol in human mathematics - a universal peace signal.

Zhou Rui took a deep breath, he knew that the real challenge had just begun.

Deep in the darkness of the universe, something more terrifying than war is awakening.

Humans and the Reapers are just the latest characters added to this grand narrative.

……

The Earth Red Dragon Association, in the meeting room of Shangdu.

Chen Lin had just finished talking to the senior executives in front of him about the recent situation. He said in a serious tone, "The situation is somewhat beyond our imagination. According to the communication database we have established between the outer galaxies and the Reapers, we are very likely to face a very dangerous interstellar enemy next."

“What’s the worst possible outcome?”

Vice President Li asked Chen Lin, "The outer ring galaxy is an area that we could not even imagine at the beginning. It is a newly discovered galaxy by our Red Dragon Association. Even if the battle over there is really a failure, I am afraid it will not affect us, right?"

"That's true, but no one can be sure that this battle won't affect our civilization." Chen Lin said to Vice President Li, "After all, this is the first time we've encountered something like this, so we need to treat it with caution."

"It will still affect the solar system at that time."

Chen Lin looked around at every senior member of the association present. Their expressions gradually changed from initial shock to solemnity.

"Everyone," Chen Lin's voice broke the silence, "This is not an ordinary interstellar conflict - the technological level of the Reaper civilization is far beyond our imagination, because they are cyborgs, but they are still forced to retreat by the Devourer. If we don't take it seriously..."

His words were interrupted by a burst of rapid alarm sounds.

The holographic projection in the center of the conference room suddenly switched, showing a real-time image of the outpost in the outer galaxy - the originally stable stars were dimming at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if something was "sucking" their energy.

"This is impossible……"

Vice President Li stood up suddenly. "How could the energy at the stellar level decay so quickly?"

The technical director quickly retrieved the data: "President, abnormal spatial fluctuations have been detected! This energy pattern..."

His voice suddenly trembled. "It is exactly the same as the estimated data we calculated before! This is an attack!"

Chen Lin's pupils suddenly contracted, and he quickly arranged: "Let the fleet of the outer ring system activate the defense mechanism, and only use the attack method when you are 100% sure. Everyone, silence!"

"President!"

The head of the military department stood up suddenly and said, "Shouldn't we just fight these alien civilizations directly?!"

"If Jingmo is discovered, won't we still be unable to avoid a fight?"

"'Devour' has broken through the three lines of defense of the Outer Rim Star System! At this rate, it will reach the solar system in at most three months!"

The conference room fell into deathly silence. The data on the projection was still jumping. The star had turned dark red, and the surrounding planets were gradually being enveloped by some kind of black veins - just like the Reaper's homeland shown on the previous star map.

Vice President Li sat down slowly: "I propose... to activate the isolation zone plan that we prepared earlier."

This term made everyone present gasp. The isolation zone plan was part of the Red Dragon Association's highest-level civilization continuation plan, which meant that they had to prepare for the worst. Once a crisis occurred and the plan was activated, it basically meant that the situation had exceeded their expectations.

"Seconded."

"Seconded."

……

The vote was unanimous with astonishing speed.

Chen Lin took a deep breath and said, "Well, Vice President Li will be responsible for the implementation of the quarantine plan. We must complete the preparation of the first batch of colonial fleets within two months... The technical department will do its best to analyze the data provided by the Reapers and find out the weaknesses of the Devourers. We must immediately establish a joint command center and act quickly!"

He turned to the night sky outside the window. The direction of the normally invisible outer ring galaxy seemed to be faintly flashing an ominous red light. "This is the first time that human civilization has had a head-on confrontation with an extraterrestrial civilization. I always have a vague feeling that it's not good."

When the Devourer's vanguard tentacles pierced into the NGC-7723 galaxy, the entire Red Dragon Association's quantum telescope array was overloaded simultaneously.

Fifteen minutes later, the restored observation footage plunged all astrophysicists into silence.

The yellow star, which was originally in its prime, now looked like a flying insect caught in a spider web.

Dark red energy veins grew out from the void, wrapping the entire star into a cocoon-like structure.

Thirty-two minutes later, 17% of the star's mass had disappeared.

"It's doing interdimensional energy transfer."

The technicians analyzed, "These veins are the projections of the four-dimensional structure in three-dimensional space. We have detected abnormal fluctuations in the Dirac Sea."

Chen Lin stared at the real-time star map. The black area representing the Devourer was advancing at a speed of 0.8 light years per day, and soon twelve new black areas lit up on the periphery of the outer ring galaxy, forming a perfect icosahedral structure.

"Latest battle report!"

The emergency communication on everyone's side was cut into the main screen, "The Reaper mothership group tried to establish a defense line in the orbit of HD-40307g, but failed!"

In the picture, the silver ring battleship with a diameter of 3,000 kilometers was penetrated by black veins as soon as it completed the space jump.

The purple lines spreading across the battleship's surface transformed the entire fleet into dark red crystalline dust within three seconds.

These dust particles are then reorganized at the quantum level to become new Devourer tentacles.

At this time, within the outer ring galaxy defense line, Zhou Rui's breath condensed into white frost in his protective suit. He floated among the wreckage of the warship and witnessed the emergence of the Devourer's true body.

It was a collection of energy that was constantly changing its form, with a faint light flickering at its core.

"Energy level exceeds threshold!"

The portable AI is continuously sounding the alarm, "Immediate evacuation is recommended!"

Zhou Rui noticed snowflake patterns on the tactical eyepiece, and severe pain came from the neural interface. It was obvious that something was polluting his consciousness.

"Captain Zhou! Cut off the connection!"

The sound in the communication channel became distorted, and Zhou Rui quickly activated the escape pod. The moment the hatch closed, he saw an unforgettable scene - the core of the Devourer unfolded into a twelve-dimensional hypercube projection, and the Earth-like planet wrapped in black veins instantly collapsed into a two-dimensional plane.

The atmosphere of the gas giant was sucked into a spiral band of light, and the stellar matter completed the transformation from plasma state to degenerate state within ten minutes.

……

"According to the latest calculation results."

Representatives of astrodynamics displayed a holographic model. "The Devourer's trajectory is 17.8 degrees to the spiral arm of the Milky Way. There are 137 relics of intelligent civilizations on its path, all in an energy vacuum state."

Vice President Li coughed, and the blood-red arrow of the Devourer's Path passed through the solar system and extended to the core of the galaxy.

"So they are harvesting the energy of the entire outer galaxy's spiral arms?"

"To be more precise, it's clearing obstacles."

Chen Lin interrupted at this time, pointing to the blue dot on the edge of the model, "The star map provided by the Reaper shows that the cantilever structure will shift when the Devourer appears. We suspect that they are carrying out engineering on a cosmic scale."

"But very fortunately, these little gadgets are not actually moving towards the solar system as we previously thought."

The astronomer in charge of the relevant research stepped forward, and a macroscopic image appeared in front of everyone. Everyone at the scene saw that the huge red light spot representing danger would directly bypass the outer area of ​​the solar system and go straight into the more distant area.

In other words, the solar system is safe as a whole.

"The Devourer probably didn't come specifically for us. Its core target is actually galaxies and planets. It doesn't care much about the civilizations on the planets."

The astronomer zoomed in on the image. "The destruction of the Reaper civilization is a common occurrence in the universe, but it is a tragic accident for a civilization. If we were to encounter such a situation, I'm afraid we would have to seek refuge on the origin planet or other planes to survive..." (End of this chapter)