Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

"..."

"???"

"professor?!"

Hearing Lü Yongchang's words, Hope couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Can Poseidon withstand its attack?"

"That's uncertain too."

Lü Yongchang answered honestly once again.

"..."

A long silence.

"Calm down, calm down." Lu Yongchang said with a hint of a smile in his eyes, "Just kidding."

"The atmosphere over there seems a bit too stiff, so I'll lighten things up a bit."

In long-distance communication, there was still a long silence.

Hope: You call this "livening up the atmosphere"?

After a long pause, he finally spoke again, asking, "So, you mean it won't attack us?"

"Oh, I'm really not sure about that," Lü Yongchang shrugged and said again.

"After all, it is a species we have never seen before. We don't know its eating habits, let alone its aggressive tendencies."

"All I can say is that, for now, its movements have become much calmer after the sonar was turned off."

Upon hearing this, Hope and Hansent nearly choked on their words: "..."

Hansent: You call this an honest man?

"However, it's just a living being after all," Lü Yongchang said with a smile. "I don't think it can damage our exploration vessel."

"Rise safely."

Hope breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Finally, I heard something accurate.

After making the adjustments, he started the Poseidon exploration vessel without hesitation.

A very slight recoil came from the back of the chair.

The exploration vessel has begun to surface.

In the simulation image provided by Zero, the liquid ammonia organism remained in place, slowly circling, seemingly watching them leave.

"Professor, its aggressive tendencies don't seem strong." Hope breathed a long sigh of relief upon seeing this scene.

"We should be safe..."

Before they could finish speaking, a piercing alarm blared in their ears!

Hansent glanced quickly at the holographic interface that was issuing a warning.

Upon seeing the warning, he stood frozen in place.

"Professor, the instrument shows..."

"We received an ultrasonic signal with extremely high intensity."

Hansent muttered to himself, "The source... is right below."

"It's the ultrasonic waves it's emitting!" Hansent exclaimed, a sudden realization dawning on him. "It's actively searching for us!!"

The next second, in the simulated image, the enormous ammonia-like organism rapidly rose to the surface, chasing after the Poseidon exploration vessel!

"Warning!" Zero's synthesized voice rang out simultaneously, "Impact warning!"

"WTF..."

"Holy crap..."

As the orange-red light source outside the porthole rapidly grew larger, Hope and Hansent instinctively reached out and tightened their grip on their seatbelts.

"Bang!"

A dull thud was heard.

At the same time, Hope and Hansent felt a sudden dizziness, and violent tremors came from all directions!

I got hit!

A thought flashed through Hope's mind.

"Warning! Warning!" Zero's synthesized voice still echoed in the cockpit, "Ship armor damage level: 5%."

"warn!"

"Secondary impact warning!"

……

Within seconds, a series of piercing alarms blared from the Poseidon exploration vessel and the command center!

"What?!"

"The ship's armor is damaged?!"

"What is that thing made of?!"

When he heard the alarm about the damaged ship armor, Lü Yongchang's expression changed drastically!

Are you kidding me?!

To withstand the extremely high pressure inside the ice giant, the armor of the Poseidon ship uses the latest technology from the Human Alliance.

It's no exaggeration to say that, in some respects, even the current flagship, the Earth, isn't as durable as it is!

"Professor..." Hope's voice came through the long-range communication device, broken and intermittent, "Now, what should we do now..."

"Does the Poseidon have weapon systems?"

Lu Yongchang's expression changed slightly.

From the very beginning, Lü Yongchang and the others never imagined that life could exist in such a harsh environment as an ice giant, let alone such an unprecedented and powerful amino life form!

Therefore, in order to save space, Poseidon was not equipped with any weapons or equipment other than its magnetic field shield.

Moreover, judging from the current situation, ordinary weapons probably can't even scratch this deep-sea behemoth that is over 200 meters long—its body strength is even enough to go head-to-head with the armor of a ship!

"Damn it..."

Lu Yongchang's face was extremely ugly.

The occurrence of this unexpected situation basically means that this mineral exploration mission has been declared a failure in advance!

Looking at the massive deep-sea monster churning in the simulated video, Lü Yongchang sighed deeply: "Prepare to initiate the cockpit escape procedure..."

"Professor, wait a minute!"

Mao Zhengzhi's voice interrupted his command.

"It's not attacking the exploration ship, but rather..."

"Play." Mao Zhengzhi's lips moved slightly as he uttered a shocking word.

"Playing around?" Hansent's roar blared from the loudspeaker. "Academician Mao, are you sure this is playing around?"

"We were practically being kicked around like a football!"

"...In a sense," Mao Zhengzhi said with difficulty, "its current behavior does indeed resemble playing with a ball."

Lü Yongchang's eye twitched: "Academician Mao, are you sure?"

Playing and attacking are two completely different concepts.

If it's an attack, he will not hesitate to issue an escape order.

If it's just for fun... then maybe they'll have a chance to manipulate things.

"Professor Lü, do you know anything about orcas?"

Mao Zhengzhi did not immediately answer Lü Yongchang's question, but instead asked a question in return.

"Orca?" Lu Yongchang hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't know much about biological habits."

Mao Zhengzhi suddenly realized: "Professor, if you know about orcas, you should be able to easily see that their behavioral patterns are somewhat similar."

"As the dominant marine predators of our time, orcas exhibit many perplexing behaviors."

"For example, using its tail to swat a seal away, or using its head to carry a sea turtle forward..."

"Although there is a part of hunting involved, there is still a lot of playfulness involved."

"Judging from the behavior of this deep-sea behemoth, I am more inclined to believe that it treated Poseidon as a large toy."

Lü Yongchang fell silent.

"So."

"How can we stop it?"

Lu Yongchang glanced at the extent of the armor damage on the exploration ship: "The Poseidon can't withstand this kind of treatment."

"and……"

Lu Yongchang paused, then said in a low voice, "I'm very interested in it. Its skin, or rather its shell, is very likely the high-strength material we're looking for."

P.S.: Thank you so much, Jiuli乄, for the third "Master" certification! Thank you so much, but I really have absolutely no more left QAQ