Chapter 33 "Eating" an Alien's Soul?

"Noah's ark..."

Chen Weiguo chewed on these four words, his eyes filled with an unprecedented sense of gravity and burning intensity.

He instantly understood the strategic value of this thing.

This was more important than salvaging a warship, or even an entire technology tree!

Technology can be learned and caught up with.

But a "sample" of a civilization—a living, complete, extraterrestrial intelligent life form with independent thoughts and memories—the value it contained was immeasurable!

What could they learn from it?

The language, history, culture, and social structure of a higher civilization...

They could reverse-engineer their biotechnology, genetic engineering, and even... the mysteries of the soul!

This was simply a living, walking encyclopedia of the universe!

"Can... can we take one with us?" a young biologist asked, their voice trembling.

This question brought everyone back to reality from their immense shock.

That's right, the treasure was right in front of them, but how could they take it?

"Lin Yuan!" Academician Wang shouted urgently, "What is the maximum payload of your drone?"

"Reporting to Academician Wang, after the upgrade, it is 100 kilograms," Lin Yuan replied.

"100 kilograms..." Academician Wang glanced at the light, blue "jellyfish" on the screen, "It doesn't look big, so it shouldn't be heavy, right? Lin Yuan, try using the robotic arm to grab it!"

"Understood."

Lin Yuan also felt that this thing should be about as light as a balloon.

He maneuvered the "scavenger no. 2" and carefully extended the upgraded robotic arm with stronger gripping force, slowly reaching toward the blue sphere of light named "ashilya".

However, in the next second, a bizarre thing happened.

The robotic arm, made of hard alloy, passed straight through without any resistance the moment it touched the blue sphere of light!

It was as if it had reached into a mass of air.

The robotic arm waved back and forth a few times, but the blue sphere of light remained silently suspended in place, not even creating a ripple.

"Damn, is this thing intangible?" Lin Yuan was shocked, "Academician Wang, I can't grab it! Is it... is it a holographic projection?"

"No! It's not a holographic projection!" a physicist in the Command Center immediately denied, "If it were a projection, it couldn't emit such a powerful life energy field! Besides, your drone clearly scanned its internal structure just now!"

"Then what's going on?" Lin Yuan was a bit confused.

"I understand now..." Academician Wang stared intently at the line on the scan report—"Complete Consciousness Matrix"—and muttered to himself, "It is not pure matter, nor is it pure energy. It is a kind of... a kind of information aggregate that exists in the form of energy!"

"Speak plainly, Academician Wang." Lin Yuan was completely lost.

"To put it simply, you can think of this thing as a... USB drive stored inside an energy shell. It's just that what's stored in this 'USB drive' is a person's entire thoughts and memories." Academician Wang used an analogy that Lin Yuan could understand.

"A USB drive?" Lin Yuan looked at his mechanical claw, "Then we're done for. My claw can't exactly grab the files inside a USB drive, can it?"

This analogy eased the heavy atmosphere in the Command Center just a little bit.

But the problem remained unsolved.

A super treasure that could be seen and was real, but could not be touched.

This was a hundred times more frustrating than returning empty-handed!

"Are we just going to give up like this?" an old expert said, unwilling to accept it, "We went to such great lengths, almost getting Comrade Lin Yuan killed just to enter this treasure vault, and now we can only look but not take?"

Everyone's face was filled with disappointment and reluctance.

Chen Weiguo also frowned deeply.

He looked at the dreamlike "Sea of Souls" on the screen, his brain racing to think of a countermeasure.

Physical grabbing won't work...

Then what about energy grabbing?

"Technology Department! Is there any way to create an energy container to 'contain' it?" Chen Weiguo asked.

"Director, it's theoretically feasible, but we need to first analyze the composition and frequency of its energy shell, and then manufacture a 'Faraday cage' that can resonate with it. This process requires a massive amount of experimentation and calculation. Not to mention right now, even if we salvaged this thing, it would take months to figure it out!" the head of the Technology Department replied with a bitter smile.

Despair.

A deep sense of despair once again enveloped the entire Command Center.

They were like a group of adventurers who had found the legendary City of Gold, only to discover that it was built in the sky and they had no wings.

And just when everyone was at a loss, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck Lin Yuan's mind.

He thought of his second salvage mission.

That time, what he had salvaged was a blue, USB drive-like "data core".

Wasn't that data core also an information aggregate?

How did he bring it back at that time?

He had clamped it with the drone's robotic arm!

Wait...

Lin Yuan suddenly realized a detail he had overlooked.

At that time, in the final moment of the return trip, the drone was heavily damaged by the "Void Devourer" and almost disintegrated.

However, the data core appeared intact on the materialization platform!

What did this mean?

It meant that during the return trip, the data core was not "clamped" in physical space by the robotic arm!

It was very likely "stored" into some... subspace of the deep space salvage system!

Just like playing a game and putting equipment into a backpack!

And the system, after the return trip ended, "spit" it out from the "backpack"!

If this guess was true...

Then did it mean that the system itself possessed the ability to "store" such information aggregates?!

This crazy idea, like a bolt of lightning, cut through the fog in Lin Yuan's mind!

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible!

This 【deep space salvage system】 was mysterious and unfathomable in itself. It could allow his consciousness to travel through space and materialize void debris, so having an additional "storage space" function was completely reasonable!

"Chief! Academician Wang! I... I have an idea!" Lin Yuan shouted excitedly into the communicator.

"What idea? Speak quickly!" Academician Wang was like a drowning man grabbing onto the last straw.

"I'm thinking, have we been thinking in the wrong direction from the start?" Lin Yuan struggled to organize his words, "We've always wanted to use the drone's 'hand' to grab things. But is it possible that we should be using the system's 'mouth' to 'eat' things?"

"The system's 'mouth'?" Academician Wang was stunned.

"Yes!" Lin Yuan became more excited as he spoke, "Do you remember the 'Oracle Civilization' data core I salvaged? It was also an information aggregate, right? I clamped it with the robotic arm at the time, but when I returned, the drone was almost smashed to pieces, yet the core was completely fine. I suspect that it wasn't clamped back at all, but was directly 'absorbed' by the system!"

"Just like... just like pick-up binding in a game!"

"So I'm thinking, regarding this blue 'soul' in front of us, can we also let the system directly... 'absorb' it?"

Lin Yuan's idea was so wild that the entire Command Center fell into a silence that lasted for more than ten seconds.

All the experts looked at each other, their faces filled with confusion and bewilderment.

Let the system... "eat" an alien's soul?

This... what kind of operation is this?

This is no longer in the realm of science; this is fucking metaphysics!

However, after experiencing the initial shock, Academician Wang's eyes suddenly lit up!

He thought of more!

The system absorbed the energy of the "ark reactor"!

The system absorbed the materials of the "oracle-grade armor"!

This system itself was a "black hole" that could absorb and transform various substances and energy!

Since it could absorb physical materials and pure energy, why couldn't it absorb this kind of information aggregate that existed in the form of energy?

Lin Yuan's conjecture, although it sounded outrageous, was actually... logically sound!

"Lin Yuan..." Academician Wang's voice carried an uncontrollable tremble, "Are... are you sure you want to do this? This is just your guess, what if..."

"Academician Wang!" Lin Yuan interrupted him, his tone unprecedentedly firm, "That cleaner is still blocking the door outside! I can't get out! There are so many treasures here, and I can't take them! Either way, I'm returning empty-handed, so I might as well take this gamble!"

"I trust my system!"

"Chief! Academician Wang! Give the order! Let me try!"