Freeze the entire population, activate my Superman system?

Ying's words made everyone's hearts sink.

"Based on past experience, the Night Ghost Tide will be the first to besiege the major cities."

If the main city holds out, the Night Ghost Tide will turn around and sweep across the entire wasteland.

Every ranch, mine, and camp will be searched.

She paused for a moment, then gave a bitter laugh.

"A million-strong tide of Night Ghosts would devour even a fifth-tier being if surrounded, without exception."

"Millions of dollars."

Ling Shuang repeated the number.

"According to this businessman, it's more than that."

Ying continued, "The last tide was less than half the size of this one, and three pastures similar to Frostridge Wasteland were still completely devoured."

In another region, there's a main city called Frostnight, which was almost breached.

Zhang Mu asked curiously from the side,

"What's the difference between wild night demons and the night demons you herd? Are they also big-headed monsters?"

Since learning Zhang Mu's name, Ying has not given him a friendly look.

"Yes, Night Demons are the creatures most likely to produce perfect white crystals. You can tell by how big their heads are; their entire bodies are replenishing the source crystals in their heads with nutrients."

Every seven years, the ranchers would capture a group of Night Demon Mothers who had not reached the third rank, mark them with slave marks, and then send us slaves to herd livestock.

But whenever the Night Demon tide arrives, all the Night Demon mothers are killed, because they break free of the slave mark and return to their wild Night Demon hordes.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Mu was so frightened that he immediately turned around to look for Wang Can.

He also keeps a big one.

Ying snorted coldly.

"No need to look anymore. When I was cooperating with that big guy to intercept it, I realized that its intelligence had been completely erased."

Besides, the Night Ghost Tide had already formed; if it wanted to rebel, it would have already fled.

At that moment, a thought flashed through Ling Shuang's mind.

The Night Demon Tide, which occurs every seven years, sweeps across the entire wasteland.

This kind of periodic disaster is like a cleansing mechanism set up by someone.

Trial of Civilization.

The word suddenly popped into Ling Shuang's mind.

The ruins of Atlantis, the words of the guardian Batica.

This is an abandoned trial world.

Could these periodic tides be the "cleansing process" of the training ground?

But wasn't the previous Civilization Trial already over?

He suddenly thought of another very harsh reality.

Other human safety zones,

Will we be able to cope with this disaster?

Thinking of the inexplicable evolution of his own Night Demon Mother,

Ling Shuang had a bad feeling.

The birth of the Night Demon King

Perhaps it has something to do with the existence of humans in this world.

"Xiao Yi, how many people can your Xuan Nu 01 hold?"

Ling Shuang suddenly spoke.

Wu Yi stood silently behind him, having already discerned the seriousness of the situation from his tone.

"The purpose of designing the Mysterious Maiden 01 is not to carry people. In addition to our one hundred mechs, the crew is three hundred and twenty people."

However, if non-essential equipment is removed and all compartments are filled, it can accommodate around a thousand people.

"Do you have enough energy reserves to keep it running continuously?" Ling Shuang asked, expressing her doubts.

Wu Yi remained silent for a moment.

"The power system of Xuan Nu 01 is divided into two parts."

Conventional flight uses a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for propulsion, which provides ample fuel.

However, activating the wormhole jump engine, the energy shield, and maintaining the activity of those mycelia require a different energy source.

The bioenergy generated by those cosmic bacteria themselves.

"Cosmic bacteria?" Ling Shuang looked at Wu Yi.

Wu Yi raised his right hand and flipped his wrist.

What was horrifying was that silvery-white mycelium crawled out from the cuffs of his combat uniform, weaving a fine pattern around his wrist joint, like some kind of living tattoo.

Zhang Mu's calm demeanor vanished, and she stared intently at his arm.

"Don't worry, to operate the Luan Bird Mecha, you must coexist with the cosmic bacteria."

"These fungi were discovered on the far side of the moon."

Ling Shuang's pupils contracted slightly.

"In 2031, the permanent scientific research station on the far side of the moon will be established."

During the site selection process, the probe detected unusual energy fluctuations at the bottom of a crater.

After drilling, a network of mycelium more than ten meters thick was discovered.

"It's the parent source of everything you see right now."

"This information of yours should be classified, right? If it's inconvenient to talk about it, you don't have to."

Zhang Mu obediently covered his ears with his hands.

"According to the wartime regulations of the Nantianmen Project, once the civilized base is confirmed, the management will have the highest level of classified authority."

Wu Yi was lost in his memories at that moment.

"At first we thought it was just a microbial community in some extreme environment."

But after collecting the samples, the research team discovered a surprising fact.

These hyphae did not evolve naturally.

There are traces of gene editing; the gene sequence contains incomprehensible coding fragments, as if it were artificially designed.

They can survive in extreme environments, remain active in vacuum, radiation, and extremely low temperatures, and even metabolize in the absence of water and oxygen.

Most importantly, they are not aggressive towards humans, but they are abnormally bloodthirsty towards laboratory subjects such as mice.

It's like someone specially prepared this for us.

Ling Shuang's brows furrowed slightly.

"Has the source been traced?"

"I don't know," Wu Yi replied curtly.

"Experts at Nantianmen have studied the area for a year but have not reached any conclusions."

They could only confirm one thing: the designers of these cosmic bacteria possessed technology far surpassing that of humans, and at the very least, they were friendly, as they had left behind an instruction manual.

"Instruction manual? And then what?"

"They are just some stone slabs, written with hieroglyphs."

Later, the country decided to utilize these cosmic bacteria.

Wu Yi lowered his voice, "The core of the Nantianmen Project is the power system and weapon system of the aerospace fighter."

Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion is sufficient for Earth orbit, but it cannot support deep space travel.

The emergence of cosmic bacteria fills this gap.

He pointed to the silver-white behemoth behind him.

"The hyphae are embedded in every joint, every energy conduit, and every armor plate of the organism."

They form a symbiotic ecosystem with the organism.

Without cosmic bacteria, the Mystic Maiden 01 is just a metal lump flying inside the Earth.

"But then a problem arose." Wu Yi changed the subject, "After Xuan Nu 01 was built, we discovered that the core function of the cosmic bacteria required a special energy source to activate, which was not mentioned in the instruction manual."

Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen can only maintain their basic activity; they cannot power the warp drive or the energy shield, and even the mycelium's self-repairing ability will be greatly reduced.

"What kind of special energy?" Ling Shuang asked.

What Wu Yi said next shocked everyone present.

"It's an energy source crystal from a strange beast. Two years ago, a strange beast appeared on the moon!"