The system handed me over to the state.

"Be careful, don't get separated, try to stay together, and watch out for people who come close to us."

Bronya could feel the malicious gazes from those few people, as could Blackie and Seele. Heloise, on the other hand, sat on Blackie's shoulder, looking around at the surroundings with little interest. There was no vegetation at all; the greenery on this space station was truly terrible!

For Heloise, only an environment with abundant vegetation can make her happy and joyful. The huge ecological cabin space on the Nuwa ship is exactly what she likes. Moreover, the crew members are very skilled in cultivating vegetation. She thought she would have to personally beautify the space before she could live there. However, the environment in the ecological cabin far exceeded her expectations.

So now that she's arrived at this space station, when she senses that there isn't a single living plant inside, she feels extremely disgusted with the environment.

Don't you like it here?

Heloise's whispers in Heishi's ear naturally caught Heishi's attention, so he continued to ask, Heloise nodded, "Hmm! The environment here is terrible! There's not a single plant. How can there be no plant in a space station?"

"Smell the air here. This oxygen is completely mechanically produced. There is no fresh scent of plants at all. This place is completely like an industrial base."

"I suggest you don't stay here for too long, or you'll ruin your health."

"We never planned to stay here for long."

Hei hope muttered to himself, and began to observe the people around him. Most of the people here were Ignos, and he did not see any Wengers or other races.

It seems that as a border space station, there isn't much trade between civilizations here, and there aren't many people from other civilizations.

"People from other civilizations can hardly be seen here. When we came in, they called it... a barrier. Is this a space barrier used for defense?"

Seele recalled the communications Bronya had sent her earlier, in which the welcoming remarks from the space station's guide were played clearly, and the mention of barriers caught Seele's attention.

"Probably...and we seem to be quite conspicuous here. Do you think we should disguise ourselves?"

"There's no need to enter normally. We won't stay here for long. We can just stroll around normally. Besides, by showing that we're outsiders, we might attract some intelligence sources to come to us on their own."

Bronya secretly deployed an infiltration drone, allowing Rabbit to operate it and infiltrate the space station's internal database.

The description of the Ignos in the data packet is not particularly friendly; in fact, they are a rather xenophobic civilization, especially towards non-human races.

As for the human race, the Ignos and the Wengers are equally proud. However, although the Wengers are proud, they are also willing to admit their mistakes and even show a high degree of affinity when they finally get along with them.

The Ignos were different; they were aloof and always gave you the feeling that they were superior to you... Of course, the Ignos in the prison area were no longer like that, since the Ignos in the prison... had been largely assimilated in thought.

After being released, he will probably start spreading this theory to his friends and family. Who knows, one day, a red wave might even sweep through the Ignus civilization.

Of course, whether it will actually happen or not is no longer Bronya's concern. She now only hopes to find information about other civilizations or details about the third test in the Ignos' database.

After passing through the large cargo transport hall, they arrived at a main street that looked like a commercial street. There were shops selling all kinds of goods, clothing, food, and electronic products all around. In some places, there was some greenery. Seeing this, Hei hope asked in confusion, "Hellois, didn't you say there was no vegetation on the ship?"

Heloise scoffed dismissively, "They're all machines. They look like plants on the surface, but they're actually all machines inside, understand?"

"Believe me, I am the goddess of life. I know better than anyone whether there is vegetation in this space station!"

Hei hope looked at Bronya, who shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't know why, but it's true, the air here is making it a little uncomfortable for me to breathe."

"Let's finish this quickly and go back to the ship. I doubt most of the crew will feel very comfortable during this rest period."

As Heloise said, there was indeed something wrong with the air inside the space station. It might be due to the difference between the Ignos and humans, resulting in subtle differences in the air they breathe.

"So where do we go next?"

Seele looked around at the shops and felt... they were all pretty ordinary. Even the shops selling electronics had items that looked like old-fashioned antiques.

"Strange, this is a cutting-edge space station, so why do the electronic products sold inside look so old-fashioned?"

Seele was puzzled. Bronya recalled Aly Wendy's words, "That's probably due to the difference in basic science. You can think of it as the Ignis people now having advanced technology that allows them to fly into space and fight in the sky, but their basic living technology is still at the level of our China in the 90s."

Hei hope looked astonished. "Is this really possible?"

Bronya shrugged. "I don't know. That's what Alyvendy said. Maybe it's because of the Honkai outbreak that caused a strange gap in their technology."

Chapter 451: Under the Shadows

Finding a relatively quiet restaurant inside the space station, the three sat down and took the menu from the waiter to order. The food eaten by the Ignos was not much different from that of humans on Earth, but it was mainly Western. They also saw several very familiar Earth dishes.

After casually ordering a few dishes, Bronya rubbed her temples and used a fictitious communication device to contact the ship. A few seconds later, the communication was established, and it was the bridge's communications officer.

"Dr. Bronya, is there anything you need?"

"Were those Ignos people released?"

"They've been put back. All the Ignos have been returned to the space station. They were very excited. Some of them were reluctant to leave and wanted to join us, but we refused."

"Want to join us?"

Both Blackie and Seele, who were also on the communication channel, looked surprised. What was going on? Did they want to join them? Were they people whose minds had been altered?

"Those guys' thinking has probably been assimilated so much that they think it's not appropriate for them to go back."

"However, our goal is more important, and we don't keep idle people on our ships, so let's refuse. Moreover, the most important thing is the issue of cultural form. Even if we share the same ideas, different cultural backgrounds will eventually become a source of trouble."

Bronya nodded. She wasn't surprised by Hei hope's analytical and thinking abilities. Hei hope hadn't been idle during her eight-year sabbatical; she had taken the university entrance exams and earned a master's degree. She had only been resting for a short time before being brought back to the ship.

"Is there anything else you need to tell us?"

Bronya continued to inquire, and the communicator replied that there was nothing more, and that Bronya could arrange her own time from now on.

"We'll handle the rest ourselves. Hmm... the drone intrusion went smoothly. In 15 minutes, we'll have most of the data from inside the space station."

The drone intrusion went very smoothly. The database core had no physical defenses, and the internal firewall was easily breached. It seems that the Ignos people never even considered setting up protection for their space station core.

It's unclear whether their overconfidence stems from advanced technology or from their belief that no one will ever invade or attack them.

Or perhaps... there's nothing special about the data in this space station, so if it's hacked, it's hacked, and no one cares.

A few minutes later, the dishes the three ordered were served. They were classic Western dishes: steak, bread rolls, vegetable salad, and some desserts.

The quantity wasn't much, but it was basically enough for the three of them. After all, it wasn't meant to fill their stomachs. If they really wanted to enjoy the food, they would have to cook it themselves on the Nuwa ship.

"It looks pretty good, but I wonder if it tastes the same as it looks."

The vegetable salad that was served had bright green and clean white vegetables, with white salad dressing coating the various colored vegetables. The steak was still sizzling hot on the hot plate, and the black pepper sauce on top smelled exceptionally delicious.

The bread had a smooth surface and was very soft to the touch. These looked like very delicious food, and the three of them tasted them with a bit of anticipation.

Bronya and Black Seele naturally ate steak first, while Seele opted for a vegetable salad and bread.

After taking a bite, all three of them nearly spat out the food in their mouths.

"Um! This..."

Black Seele covered her mouth, trying hard not to spit it out. Bronya's expression wasn't good either; she covered her mouth with her hand, looking somewhat terrified. Seele forced herself to swallow, then clicked her tongue and took a sip of the nearby bottled water, only to be met with another blow to her taste buds.

After this setback, the three of them dared not continue eating with their knives and forks for a while.

"This steak tastes...so weird...like a mixture of several things."

Blackie expressed her feelings, and Bronya nodded, her feelings were exactly the same as Blackie's. Seele then put forward a conjecture: since there is no vegetation in this space station, does that mean that no life form can survive except for the people on the space station?

So, could all this steak and vegetables be synthetic foods, instead of pure vegetables and meat? And Seele suspects that even if these so-called meat and vegetables aren't synthetic, they've definitely been frozen for a very, very long time...

"I suddenly don't want to eat anymore..."

"I don't want to anymore..."

The three of them finally reached a consensus and decided not to continue eating. They got up and left the restaurant. When the restaurant owner discovered this, he just looked regretful and called someone to clean up.

Continuing through the space station's corridors, Bronya sighed, "I don't know what else interesting is left in this space station..."

"I guess there's not much left. Although this space station is large, most of the area is fortified and serves a military purpose. There are limited places we can go. We might as well go back now. I guess the others will soon lose interest in continuing to wander around the space station, just like us."

The food wasn't very good; most of it was probably synthetic. The water was similar—pure water, which was probably purified water discharged from some kind of equipment.

This kind of water tastes really unpleasant to drink.

"So, you're saying you've already entered the database?"

"We're inside. Almost everything inside has been copied. Can you guess what this place is used for?"

"what for?"

"Border trade, scientific experiments, biological experiments—border trade is just a front. All the transport ships that come here are for transporting experimental equipment and subjects."

"Then biological experiments. The arrogance of the Ignos people led them to believe that their bloodline was compatible with the bloodlines of other human alliance races. They conducted experiments on the secretly transferred Wenger people and people of other races, attempting to fuse their bloodlines."

Blackie and Seele's expressions turned to astonishment. "Aren't they... courting death?"

Bronya shrugged. "But what does that have to do with us?"

"Furthermore, I have already found the evaluation of us humans in the database: inferior bloodline, weak body, no research value whatsoever, just ignore it."

Bronya smiled. If we're really talking about humans, they should be the most authentic humans, right? I never thought they would be looked down upon by orcs, especially because of their human bloodline.

"Let's go back and post the results of our exploration to the public channel. I'll upload the contents of the database to Su Xi separately later."

"Furthermore, we need to inform our mermaid friends that they haven't logged onto this space station yet. In my opinion, it's better for them not to log on, otherwise, a few mermaids might be transferred and used as experimental subjects."

"Yes, our own food is definitely the best."

The food on the Nuwa ship is all preserved in its original state, not to mention that the time frozen inside the pocket space ensures that everything is in its original condition. Even frozen meat won't turn into 'zombie' meat over time. The same goes for vegetables. In addition, both the Nuwa and Ningye ships have complete small-scale ecosystems, enough to feed a ship full of people by growing vegetables.

Furthermore, the water purification systems inside the Ningye and Nuwa ships are among the most advanced in China. They are not collection devices, but rather use special distillation machines to distill pure water.

As for the air... it works like a normal oxygen concentrator in China.

So it's fine to move around in Ignos's space capsule for a short time, but... in the long run, who knows what kind of health problems might arise.

After returning to the ship's interior, the three of them ran into Su Xi, who was also returning to the ship. "Oh! What a coincidence, you're back too."

Su Xi greeted the three women, letting the others go ahead while she stayed behind to ask, "Bronya nodded and sighed slightly, 'Yes, you must have noticed, just breathing the air is so comfortable. We even tried some food, all of it was synthetic food—synthetic meat, synthetic vegetables, and the water seemed to be some kind of industrial purified water...'"

Su Xi immediately laughed, "Listen up! Not every civilization is as crazy about infrastructure as our Celestial Empire. Many civilizations only know how to pursue high technology and ignore infrastructure."

"Alright, don't worry about it. We're not staying here for long anyway, we'll be leaving soon."

Bronya nodded. "Did you see what I sent you?"

"Huh? What is that?"

"You haven't seen it yet... Then I suggest you take a look first, and we can talk about other things after you've finished watching it."

"Let's go back to the ship. I can't wait to eat something normal to soothe my mouth."

"I also want!"

"Yes, I want some too. What I just ate... made me feel nauseous."

...an hour later...

"Holy crap...really? A biology experiment, and this kind of one at that..."