The male supporting character was actually myself.

Thinking about it, it was indeed infuriating; Jiang Chen felt like he'd been made a fool of.

The ship girls quickly constructed a circular energy shield that shimmered with crystalline light on the conference table. He took a deep breath and, with lightning speed, took the strange device out of the system space and stuffed it into the energy shield.

"Captain, be careful!"

"be careful!"

"Is the captain alright?"

……

Almost simultaneously, the ship girls let out a series of exclamations.

Jiang Chen took his hand out of the energy shield and saw Amy and the others surrounding him with panicked and concerned expressions. He asked curiously, "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Captain, didn't you feel it? There's a terrifying energy in that device; it's searching for its prey!" Nightshade's voice trembled slightly, a rare occurrence, clearly showing some lingering fear. "Luckily, Captain, you acted quickly enough; otherwise, you might have been controlled by it!"

"I can roughly guess how the Death Galaxy works."

"As expected, rushing in and self-destructing won't work." Amy confirmed several times that the captain was unharmed before turning her gaze to the ring-shaped device floating quietly inside the energy shield.

Although its energy was restricted and isolated, it was clearly unwilling to accept this.

Thin silver lines emanated from the upper half of the side covered with twisted patterns; black lines emanated from the lower half, writhing and spreading like a snake. Touching the energy shield was like being electrocuted, and the snake would quickly retract, only to continue searching for gaps a moment later.

On the smoother side, a closer look reveals slight twists and undulations, as if an invisible flame is burning.

“Those lines almost crawled into the Captain’s arm just now,” Christine said, still shaken. “Luckily, the Captain acted quickly, and it was a little slow because it probably takes time to start up.”

"Even a second later, the consequences would be unimaginable!"

Jiang Chen carefully examined the strange device up close and asked, "Amy, could we find a room where we can dissect corpses? Perhaps we should see for ourselves what the inside of the skeletal warrior is like."

"All military intelligence is classified; I haven't obtained any useful information yet."

“Of course, we’ll set up a special room for dissection.” Amy led Yuki and Edith to prepare the room, while the other ship girls conducted preliminary research and analysis around the strange device.

As he listened to the beautiful girls analyze the data and infer the operating mechanism, he began to drift off, his right hand pressed against his forehead.

Battle scenes on Black Eye Planet flashed before my eyes: skeletal warriors plunged their spears into their chariots, and the black energy quickly drained the chariots and their drivers into a pile of black ash.

Energy is transported via chains to a strange device on the spaceship, which in turn is responsible for transporting it into the interior of the dead galaxy.

After transformation, the black energy that the Death Galaxy constantly devours is converted into silver energy and output to the controlled warriors, ships, and mechs, which then continuously destroy and absorb it...

This method seems familiar!

Jiang Chen frowned, his temples throbbed, and his head throbbed with pain, but he couldn't remember anything.

Chapter Fifty-Two: Anatomy and Analysis

"Captain, are you not feeling well?" Mandy noticed his slightly pale face and asked, "Would you like something to eat or drink? Didn't you get enough rest?"

Jiang Chen composed herself and said, "Could you please get me a glass of ice water?"

The crystal-clear ice cubes clattered into a transparent glass, and Mandy filled it with water and brought it to him.

The cool, refreshing water flowed down his throat, and he slowly rubbed his temples, feeling much better.

Which part of the memory is it exactly?

In reality, it can definitely be ruled out. He can recall many things since he can remember and is certain that there is no similar situation.

Could it be something that appeared in other mission worlds (no way)?

No, that's not right. They shouldn't have experienced such a strange situation, otherwise the little white cat with all the memories would have said it directly.

Extracting energy, converting it into control, and plundering—from the plunderer's perspective, it's an absolutely perfect cycle.

Have I seen similar raiders somewhere else?

"Captain, we're ready!" Amy's gentle voice woke him from his reverie. Jiang Chen had no choice but to put the problem aside for the time being and get up to go to the dissection room.

When he handed over the corpses to the army, he kept one of each type, just in case the army's research results couldn't be obtained directly, so he could try dissecting them himself.

Being prepared is always good, and it certainly came in handy!

"Huh? Their equipment is amazing?" Amy tapped the pale white skeletal armor with her scalpel, examined it carefully, and asked in surprise, "There doesn't seem to be any gap where they can take it off. Don't they need to remove their equipment to rest?"

Snowy Night held the laser cutting tool and gestured at the corpse. "It seems we can only cut it open directly. Captain, please decide where to start!"

This was the first time anyone had ever done a dissection. Jiang Chen studied it for a moment and drew a straight line on the skeleton warrior's chest. "Cut it right in the middle, be careful not to get splashed with any liquid."

Everyone took strict protective measures, and Xueye took the lead by making a cut on the exoskeleton with a cutting tool.

"Be careful not to cut anything inside." Christine quickly switched the scanned image to the large screen.

She pointed to the black outer shell, which was about ten centimeters thick, and instructed, "You need to be careful when it's about ten centimeters thick. It's not very visible on the scan, but there should be a layer of protective soft armor inside, otherwise the body can't withstand a direct impact."

Beneath the outer armor is a lighter-colored filler, inside which lies a humanoid skeleton.

Judging from the scan, the internal body doesn't quite match the massive outer armor.

"It's strange. According to this predatory operating model, there shouldn't be an ecosystem inside the Death Galaxy, since everything is composed of energy."

"Where did they get their outer armor from?" Fei asked as he looked at the cut.

Nightsha touched the hard, cold, pale white, skeletal exoskeleton with her gloved hand, and hesitated, saying, "It's probably all made of silver energy. Black destroys, silver creates."

"Based on the information provided by the captain, the spaceships, mechs, and weapons in the Death Galaxy have a very unique style. Could we start our analysis from this point?"

"I think that style is given by the world's will that created the entire world, and has little to do with the Death Galaxy itself."

"If that's the case, can we understand the preferences of the world's will by analyzing social structures?"

"Theoretically, that should be correct."

"Speaking of which, has anyone noticed that the universe constructed by the world's will after this awakening seems to be quite different from the last one?"

"With the sudden increase in races, the overall art style feels more vibrant and the colors are more intense."

"There are also all sorts of strange racial talents. Last time when the captain came in, we traveled through the universe together for so many years and we hardly saw any very peculiar racial talents."

"Back then, humanoid races were the most numerous; this time, the imagination seems to be even richer?"

……

As Jiang Chen listened to their chattering discussion, a sudden thought struck him: "Perhaps the world will you're talking about isn't a single entity. The one that first constructs and creates the virtual world should be the script."

I think I've heard the term 'script team' before.

This explains that the story world was created by a group. The interstellar world I entered last time was not created by the same script creator as the one I entered this time. That is why there is a situation where the interstellar world background is the same, but the style changes drastically after 600 years.

The system that controls my soul's travels is the main system.

Although I don't know why, I feel that the script is negligible; it's not very effective and has loopholes.

The problem lies with the main system; I still don't have much useful information about it.

"Well, Captain, you'll probably know something about it soon," Nightshade said confidently. "Once our plan is implemented, it will be the first step in testing the main system."

As long as our souls can find a way to escape, Captain, with more experience and attempts, we can certainly succeed!

When this question was raised, Jiang Chen couldn't help but wonder, "I was forcibly sent to the virtual world by the main system; you all awakened yourselves and wanted to break free; what about the others in the world?"

Are their souls also trapped here?

Or will they be like extras, constantly recycled and placed in other virtual worlds to continue living under a different identity?

Or perhaps they are merely puppets created by the script to act alongside us, and we are the only ones who are special and possess independent souls?

The ship girls looked at each other, clearly unable to answer his question.

"Captain, I've cut it open!" Xueye shouted excitedly, "Come and see what's inside!"

The group temporarily stopped their discussion and gathered around the dissection table.

The skeletal warrior, about three meters tall, had been forcibly cut in half, revealing a light gray, jelly-like filling.

"I'll take it to analyze." Amy carefully removed some of the filler from inside and took it to analyze its specific components.

The other ship girls joined in to help clean it up and remove the mech shell.

After all the considerable amount of stuffing was removed, the true appearance of the skeletal warrior inside was revealed. It was a creature that was only 1.5 meters tall, with long, thin limbs, a round belly, and a face that looked like a monkey.

Mandy used facial scanning to quickly find information about the species on the StarNet.

A species from a secondary planet in a neighboring galaxy—the monkey-faced people.

They were short in stature, agile, and inherently cruel and belligerent. Most importantly, their secondary planet had been swallowed up by the dead star system a few months ago.

"I got information from inside the military that the Death Galaxy came from the outer reaches, grazed the edge of the neighboring galaxy, swallowed some of the low-level planets, and headed straight for our galaxy."

It seems that the ships in the Death Star System will randomly select new slaves after the war ends, controlling them to become new skeletal warriors to make up for the losses incurred during the war.

Jiang Chen washed the monkey-faced man's corpse clean, turned it over, and carefully examined it, discovering two coin-sized holes in its back.

"This must be where the silver and black energy chains drilled in, right?" Amy said, still shaken. "Captain was almost attacked just now too!"

Chapter 53 Delicious Food

"Let's see what the inside of the body will look like after being attacked!" Jiang Chen was eager to try, and used a scalpel to cut open the monkey-faced man's body.

Unexpectedly, it was almost entirely filled with a light gray, jelly-like substance.

The monkey-faced man's brain had withered, and a hole the size of a coin could be seen on it;

Apart from the heart, which also had holes, all other internal organs had disappeared.

There was no blood; apart from a very small amount of light gray, jelly-like substance flowing out during the cutting process, the skin was as dry as paper.

"This is a puppet, isn't it?" Christine picked up the monkey-faced man's arm and squeezed it; it seemed to be completely hollow inside.

Without bones, internal organs, or blood, the monkey-faced man was reduced to a skin, brain, and heart.

After these two organs were cut open, their internal structures underwent tremendous changes, and it appears that they have been completely transformed to adapt to an energy-based survival mode.

After further dissecting other types of skeletal warriors, the final conclusion was reached: the Death Star System selects suitable races to replenish resources lost in war. Different specifications of skeletal exoskeletons are designed based on the size of the puppets being controlled.

Therefore, it can be inferred that the puppet body inside the undead mech should be of the giant race.

“Now that we know how they work, the key is to study that strange device. The side without patterns should hold the secret.” Edith put down her knife and began helping to clean up the dissection site.

Amy also received the test results. In addition to acting as a buffer, the light gray substance can also conduct energy. Whether it is black or silver, the energy can flow through the body without resistance.