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Chapter 508 Star Ring
The green train departs from the abyss and travels through different terrains and landforms.

Sometimes it glides through the sky, flying alongside a vast array of brown jellyfish-like atmospheric creatures, hundreds of meters in diameter;

Sometimes they drill into the rock strata and swim freely in the magma that is thousands of degrees hot;
Only by sitting on an unnamed train can one truly understand what it means to be in a vast and unpredictable battlefield.

Li Sheng and the others even saw through the windows tens of thousands of white-furred, yeti-like creatures gathered around a deliberately constructed brick altar, where they lit a fire.

As the nameless train passed over the altar, the Yetis celebrated excitedly, pinning a Yeti nobleman adorned with gold and silver to the altar, cutting open his chest and abdomen, removing his internal organs, and holding them in their palms towards the train.

Clearly, these native Yetis of the killing field have begun to possess self-will and intelligence, but they are still in a primitive society, treating the train as some kind of deity that needs to be appeased.

"Is this the Shang Dynasty, the Maya, or the Aztecs?"

Wanli Fengdao wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "What classic retro sword fighting outfit?"

Where there is backwardness, there is also progress. When the green train entered the ocean, a city covering an area of ​​over two hundred square kilometers suddenly appeared underwater.

The entire city is built around an underwater volcano, extracting energy from geothermal energy.
Its structures are all made of living coral and decorated with bioluminescent seaweed. The structures are connected by transparent chitin pipes, inside which is a high-speed directional ocean current that propels the vehicles (mechanical submarines with a streamlined fish-like shape) to move quickly.

When the green train appeared, the live electric ray gun emplacements on the city wall all turned to aim at the train, watching it go away with utmost vigilance.

Reyes, White Horse Tombstone, and Li Sheng marveled at the sight, feeling a little regretful that the inhabitants of this marine civilization were all fish, shrimp, crabs, sponges, and starfish in the literal sense, rather than beautiful fish-men with human upper bodies.

"Judging from the architectural style and energy efficiency, the technological advancement of this maritime civilization was roughly equivalent to that of Earth in the mid-20th century."

Claudia took a deep breath. As the saying goes, "the stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade." To survive in such a dangerous environment as the battlefield and even develop a civilization must have some merit.

If we could bring all the civilization of the underwater city back to the slums, the Witch Alliance and other guilds would definitely not be stingy with their rewards.

"Something's not right,"

Li Sheng's voice interrupted Claudia's reverie. He rubbed his chin and said seriously, "I once read a paleontology paper from the Evil Science Alliance. Judging from the fossils collected from various places, the history of the killing field is far longer than the history of the human species."

The precise carbon-14 dating method commonly heard in popular science is not applicable to fossils from the Killing Fields. The reason is simple: carbon-14 originates from the interaction between cosmic ray neutrons and atmospheric nitrogen nuclei, and many locations in the Killing Fields do not have this condition.

Furthermore, carbon-14 has a half-life of only 5730 years, with an effective upper limit of only 50,000 years.

However, scientists can still use methods such as radioactive isotope decay, optically stimulated emission (to measure the number of electrons a mineral was exposed to light for the last time), and amino acid racemic dating (the left-handed structure of amino acids in buried dead animals slowly transforms into the right-handed structure with temperature changes).

Methods such as these are used to measure the age of rocks, minerals, and fossils.

Based on the samples obtained so far, the oldest rock minerals in the killing field can be traced back to more than 3 billion years ago, and the oldest biological fossils can be traced back to 1 billion years ago.

It's important to know that the explored area of ​​the killing field is as large as an entire solar system, and the habitable area is far larger than Earth. The rich ecosystems in various places prove that it's not surprising that there is life; it would be strange if there were no life.

However, this leads to an even more bizarre question: since the killing field has a vast habitable area and a rich ecosystem, why hasn't a native species civilization emerged that can completely occupy or even destroy the killing field's physical structure?

It took Homo sapiens 30,000 years to go from understanding social cooperation to learning agriculture.

It took 10,000 years to go from agriculture to the steam age.

The transition from the steam age to the electrical age took less than 100 years, with the speed of technological development increasing exponentially.

It doesn't require highly advanced technology, or even a battlefield to force its development. In another one or two hundred years, humanity will definitely be able to create von Neumann's cellular automata.
Like a base vehicle in a science fiction novel, it can utilize the surrounding environmental materials to self-replicate, continuously branch out, and explore the battlefield.

Even with the most conservative estimate, a million years would be enough time for the automatons to traverse the battlefield and plant their flags in every accessible corner (though they would have to bypass some anomalous areas, such as miniature black holes).

The question arises: given that the conditions for life to flourish in the physical killing field are so favorable and the time span is so long, why hasn't a civilization far surpassing humanity been born?
The seemingly advanced underwater city of Atlantis is actually only at the technological level of the mid-20th century. When they see the green train, everyone is on high alert.

The possibilities contained within this are chilling to contemplate.

Everyone present except for Gray Rain was intelligent. White Horse Tombstone and the others also realized this, and they all turned to look at Wanli Fengdao, who was the highest-ranking and most senior.

"Why are you all looking at me?" Wanli Fengdao asked, puzzled. Reyes put on a slightly obsequious smile, "Brother Xiaodao, you're so knowledgeable, haven't you heard any rumors about this?"

"There seems to be a rumor."

Wanli Fengdao scratched his head. "I heard Hanshui Shi mention it a long time ago. They have some kind of big filter hypothesis among their top players."

Reyes quickly said, "Details, details!"

“I didn’t ask any further questions.” Wanli Fengdao said matter-of-factly. Seeing the astonished, annoyed, and frustrated looks on Li Sheng and the others’ faces, he shrugged. “You guys are still too naive. You’ll understand when you get to my age. When you’re in the battlefield, there’s really no need to pry so much.”

"Aren't you curious, buddy?"

The White Horse Tombstone couldn't help but ask: "The origin of the killing field, the origin of the chosen one's name, the meaning of the player's existence, and even the way to escape fate."

"First, I don't think top players fully know everything you're asking. Second, knowing too much won't improve your survival rate; instead, it will become a mental block, or even a demon."

Wanli Fengdao said frankly, "Have you watched Infinite Terror? Do you understand the part about the fourth stage of the Gene Lock and the inner demons?"

"This"

The white horse tombstone stood facing Claudia and Reyes.

Li Sheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Indeed, sometimes the more you know, the more unfortunate you become. It's like some street shops that look glamorous, but actually use lymph node meat and zombie meat."

He paused for a moment, then suddenly realized there were other people present, and quickly waved his hand, saying, "I meant the food delivery business, not the Star Casting Anvil."

At Zhuxing Anvil, we would never engage in shortchanging, selling inferior goods, delivering the wrong item, or exploiting our customers. Every customer is a dear friend or family member to us.

Gray Rain, who was fast asleep in his chair, heard the keyword and instinctively replied: "Forum follows Casting Star Anvil Meow, follow Casting Star Anvil, thank you Meow."

Our Starcasting Anvil may go out of business, but it will never change.

As the group chatted, the carriage door opened again, and the headless reindeer returned with ease, greeting them, "I've finished talking to Tungsten Bone. He's off to hunt a specific divine abomination. As long as you don't provoke him, he won't come looking for you."

My next stop is the Star Ring Ancient Battlefield, so I'll get off here now. See you again sometime!

After saying that, the headless reindeer picked up a fishing rod, a bucket, and a small stool from its seat.

Li Sheng rummaged through the automated warehouse and found several titanium alloy fishing rods that he had prepared a long time ago. He gave them to Reindeer Brother as a gift and casually asked, "Star Ring Ancient Battlefield? Do train stops even have names?"

"The site doesn't have an official name; I came up with one myself. As for the reason... look out the window."

Everyone turned to look out the window and saw the green train proudly rushing out of the ocean. Just as it was about to crash into the dome, it suddenly leaped and arrived in a vast expanse of space.

A comet composed of molten metal drifts in space, along with an asteroid with a surface area comparable to that of Australia, its surface covered with traces of burning, bombing, and earthquakes.

Outside the asteroid, countless ice particles, rock fragments, dust, and metal parts that have been broken down by time into irreparable fragments float, forming flat, arranged rings, much like planetary rings.

"Rumor has it that tens of thousands of years ago, a superhuman equivalent to level 40 in human form fought an interstellar war with his opponent in this place. The two sides tore through space, melted the rock layers, and threw the land into space. Such great power could not escape the ravages of time, leaving only the traces of the battlefield."

The headless reindeer sighed, then perked up, "The good news is that there's a type of fish that can survive in space on the planetary rings. I brought a radioactive lure this time, so I'm guaranteed to have a 100% catch today, no skunking!"

Amidst everyone's blessings and farewells, Reindeer Brother, carrying his fishing rod and bucket, happily disembarked from the train and drifted towards the planetary rings.

When the train started moving again, neither the reindeer nor the passengers noticed that a huge figure emerged from the depths of the dark, sunless canyon on the far side of the asteroid, comparable to the Australian continent, and was looking in the direction the train had left.

More accurately, it was looking towards the back of the fifteenth carriage, at the astronaut leaning against the glass window, still oblivious to everything.

(End of this chapter)