Everyone's playing Red Giant? I, Black Hole, devour everything!

The deeper you go into the dark matter halo, the clearer the gravitational wave signal becomes.

Meanwhile, the density of dark matter in the surrounding area is also increasing in tandem.

Three hundred times.

Four hundred times.

Five hundred times.

……

The overwhelming amount of dark matter tumbled in the gravitational field, forming a dense, dark ocean.

And in the deepest part of this dark ocean, the source of the gravitational wave signal finally revealed its true form.

The moment Lin Tian's senses touched it, he was completely stunned.

It was a man-made metal structure.

It floats in the densest central region of dark matter, as quiet as a sleeping behemoth.

Its shape looks like a flattened ring, much like a donut.

The size of this "donut" was so large that Lin Tian didn't know what words to use to describe it.

Tens of millions of kilometers!

It's worth noting that the diameter of the sun is only about 1.4 million kilometers.

If you put this ring on the sun, it would be like putting a stadium next to a basketball.

The difference in scale is beyond what the word "huge" can describe.

Lin Tian remained silent for a long time; he needed time to process everything he was seeing.

Metallic structures.

A diameter of tens of millions of kilometers.

It is suspended in the core region of the dark matter halo.

The surface was covered with symbols and characters he had never seen before.

More importantly, it continues to emit extremely weak gravitational wave signals.

"This is definitely not a natural celestial body," Lin Tian immediately concluded.

Naturally formed celestial bodies could not possibly have this geometric shape.

The flat, perfectly regular rings are too uniform.

It was organized to a near-perfect degree.

Moreover, its surface is engraved with symbols.

Those symbols do not belong to any known writing system on Earth.

But Lin Tian only glanced at it and immediately sensed an inexplicable pattern.

More importantly, this region is the core of the dark matter halo.

Dark matter does not participate in electromagnetic interactions, meaning that any detection method that uses photons as carriers is completely ineffective in the face of dark matter.

If this structure were made of ordinary matter, its photon signal would have been completely obscured by dark matter long ago.

But it just so happens to be here.

This illustrates one point.

The civilization that built this structure has mastered detection and manufacturing technologies that transcend electromagnetic interactions.

They used gravity.

Just like Lin Tian now.

"This is probably not something human," Lin Tian murmured to himself.

Just then, a pure golden announcement descended upon the entire online universe without warning.

[Observer "Lin Tian" has been detected discovering ancient ruins—]

[Relic Name: Dark Matter Collection Station of the Previous Observer Civilization, Ayers]

This relic belongs to the background storyline of the online game "Cosmic Online".

"The previous generation of cosmic observers who disappeared into the annals of history"

[Hidden Quest Triggered: Explore the ruins of Ayers and uncover the truth behind the demise of the previous generation of Observer civilizations hundreds of millions of years ago.]

[Mission Reward: Unknown.]

Countless thoughts flashed through Lin Tian's mind in an instant.

Previous observer civilization?

Previous generation of cosmologists?

The combination of these words gave Lin Tian an unprecedented sense of awe.

He always believed that "Universe Online" was something created by the will of the universe when it descended upon Earth a hundred years ago.

But now, a hidden quest tells him that there were observers long before humans existed.

Moreover, they left behind relics.

"And that was hundreds of millions of years ago..."

Human civilization has only existed for a few thousand years.

The extinction of dinosaurs happened only a little over 60 million years ago.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, the ancestors of mammals on Earth were still struggling to survive in the shadow of reptiles.

But even back then, a civilization capable of building such a mega-project already existed in the universe.

"It seems that the Universe Online is much larger than I previously imagined."

The world's depths are far greater than he had anticipated.

They are just newcomers who have just stepped onto the stage in this long river of history.

Thinking of this, Lin Tian suddenly felt an indescribable excitement.

The unknown means opportunity.

The remnants of civilizations from hundreds of millions of years ago mean that countless undiscovered secrets are still hidden in this universe.

……

Meanwhile, the world channel of Universe Online.

The announcement caused a huge uproar the moment it was released.

"Holy crap! A gold announcement?!"

"Ancient ruins? The previous generation of observer civilization? What on earth is all this?"

"The Ayrs? Has anyone heard of that name? I've been playing for over a decade and I've never seen this thing in any information."

"Nonsense, this is a background storyline that the will of the universe just revealed! Who could have known before?"

It wasn't just the Great Xia Kingdom; the global channels were also discussing it.

The beacon of light:

"Wait, what?! Ancient observer civilization?!"

"Previous generation of observers? You mean there were other observers in the universe before us?"

"Jesus Christ, is this guy the favored son of the cosmic will?"

Russia:

"Hurrah! This Lin Tian from the Great Xia Kingdom is quite something."

"First the black hole route, then the ancient ruins—how many more hidden events can he trigger?"

"I'm really curious to know what's hidden in this site."

Observers of the British Empire and the Gallo-British Empire were also engaged in heated discussions, but their tone was more or less tinged with sourness.

After all, who wouldn't want to trigger a hidden quest of this caliber?

But a newcomer from the Great Xia Kingdom beat them to it.

Tenseishosha, the land of cherry blossoms:

"Didn't Senior Yamamoto go to see this Lin Tian? What happened?"

"What kind of luck did Lin Tian have? The black hole route wasn't enough, now he has an ancient ruin?"

"What's the panic? It's just an ancient ruin. Hundreds of millions of years have passed, what could possibly be left inside?"

"That's right, Yamamoto-senpai is a core member of our Amaterasu-sha, dealing with a novice is more than enough for him."

But these voices were quickly drowned out by another piece of news.

"Breaking news: Ryosuke Yamamoto has located Lin Tian's position."

……

Tokyo, the land of cherry blossoms.

The atmosphere in the top-floor conference room of the Amaterasu headquarters building was as oppressive as a solid iron plate.

A dozen or so men in black suits sat around a long table, each with a solemn expression on their face.

"waste!"

An elderly man with gray hair coldly uttered two words.

No one dared to speak.

"That piece of trash, Yamamoto Ryosuke! I sent him to contact Lin Tian to discuss cooperation, not to threaten him."

"And the result?"

"They just told him to 'get lost' and he didn't dare utter a single word."

"President," a middle-aged man sitting on the left spoke cautiously, "Yamamoto... he's also acting in the best interests of Amaterasu. The data on the black hole route is extremely important to us. If we can get our hands on it, our neutron star route might advance even further—"

"Go further?" The old man sneered. "Didn't you see Lin Tian's attitude? Someone who can push the trajectory of a black hole to a disturbance of a hundred light-years within two weeks—you expect to subdue him by threats?"

The middle-aged man was speechless.

The old man sat back down in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the table, one tap at a time, the rhythm slow and heavy.

After a long silence, he finally spoke again.

"Recall Yamamoto Ryosuke."

"But President—"

"I'm not finished." The old man raised his hand to interrupt him, his tone suddenly turning icy. "I'm not bringing him back to rest. I want him to lead the team again, with all our spies in the Seventh Sector."

"This time, we're not going to discuss cooperation."

"They went hunting."

The air in the conference room seemed to freeze.

Hunting.

These two words carry a completely different weight when spoken by the president of Amaterasu-sha.

"But President, the Seventh Star Sector is, after all, the territory of the Great Xia Kingdom. If we launch a large-scale operation—"

"Large-scale? Who said large-scale?" The old man's lips curled into a sinister smile. "What we want is not a direct confrontation, but a precision strike. Lin Tian's coordinates have already been locked by Yamamoto. He's currently in the wasteland, a place even the Great Xia Kingdom's patrols don't bother to go."

"Moreover, it's time to move those 'spies' we've planted in the Seventh Sector."

"After raising them for so many years, isn't this the day we've been waiting for?"

The middle-aged man's pupils contracted slightly, then he nodded emphatically: "Yes, President. I'll arrange it right away."

"Remember, be quick. Get this done before the Great Xia Kingdom's officials can react."

"yes!"