Chapter 8 Absorbing Energy

Facing the personal inquiry of a national treasure-level academician, Lin Yuan was so nervous that his palms were sweating. He was just a scrap collector; he had never seen such a grand scene.

He swallowed hard and tried to make his voice sound steadier: "Academician... Academician Wang, I..."

"Don't be nervous, young comrade." Academician Wang's tone was very gentle, sensing Lin Yuan's unease. "You just need to tell us exactly what you experienced, from beginning to end. Don't leave out a single detail."

Lin Yuan took a deep breath and nodded.

At this point, there was no point in hiding the so-called "deep space salvage system" anymore. The existence of this metal plate itself had already transcended common sense; adding the setting of a "system" didn't seem so hard to accept.

Moreover, he had a faint feeling that this system might be even more important than the metal plate itself.

He decided to tell the truth. Of course, regarding the parts that were too fantastical—like his consciousness projection and soul leaving his body—he planned to describe them in a way that was easier to understand.

"It happened like this..." Lin Yuan began his narration. "Around this afternoon, I was cutting a piece of scrap iron, and then... I don't know what happened, maybe I got an electric shock or something, but something suddenly appeared in my head."

"Something?" A recorder standing behind Academician Wang immediately pricked up his ears.

"Yes, something... like a computer program or a game interface," Lin Yuan said, choosing his words carefully. "It called itself the 'deep space salvage system'."

"deep space salvage system?" Academician Wang's brow instantly furrowed into a knot; he had never heard of such a combination of words.

"Yes." Lin Yuan braced himself and continued, "That system said it could let me control a... a drone to enter a place called the 'Cosmic Graveyard' to salvage the... remains of alien civilizations."

When he finished saying this, the entire temporary command headquarters fell into a dead silence.

Everyone looked at him as if they were looking at a fool.

Cosmic Graveyard?

Alien civilization remains?

This sounded even more far-fetched than pulp fiction.

Even Academician Wang, who had been pleasant just a moment ago, had a flash of doubt in his eyes. He was more inclined to believe this was an accidental object of unknown origin rather than some system or aliens.

"Comrade Lin Yuan," Zhang Wei reminded him in a low voice from the side, "please be serious. This concerns national security."

"Everything I said is true!" Lin Yuan grew anxious. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's the truth! I can... I can demonstrate it for you!"

"Demonstrate?" Academician Wang was taken aback. "How will you demonstrate?"

"The system said that as long as I concentrate, I can enter that... salvage interface again," Lin Yuan said. "However, my drone was damaged during the last salvage, and the system said it needs energy for repairs. I don't know how to handle that."

Hearing this, Academician Wang and the surrounding experts exchanged glances.

"Damaged? Needs energy for repairs?" Academician Wang keenly caught the keywords. "Energy? What kind of energy?"

"I don't know. The system interface only shows that 100 points of energy are needed, but it doesn't say what this energy is." Lin Yuan looked bewildered.

Academician Wang fell into deep thought.

A physicist behind him pushed up his glasses and whispered, "Elder Wang, this sounds too... absurd. It's more like a hallucination born from psychological trauma. Perhaps he found this metal in some accident, and then his brain fabricated a story about a 'system' to explain this object that exceeds his cognition."

This explanation sounded reasonable and was immediately met with agreement from many people.

However, Academician Wang shook his head.

He pointed at the black metal plate on the ground and said, "A hallucination? Then how do you explain this thing? Its very existence is the greatest mockery of our current physics! Since matter we cannot understand has already appeared, why can't we accept a 'system' that we cannot understand?"

He turned to Lin Yuan, his gaze burning. "Comrade Xiao Lin, think carefully again. Did that system give any hints about where energy can be obtained?"

Lin Yuan frowned, trying hard to remember.

Suddenly, he recalled something.

"Upgrade! Right, there's a 'drone Upgrade' option on the system interface. It's grayed out and says 'Locked'. But there's a line of small text next to it saying... saying that rare materials salvaged can be consumed to upgrade the drone."

"Rare materials?" Academician Wang's eyes suddenly lit up, and his gaze instantly shot toward that black metal plate!

"Could it be..."

A thought so bold it made everyone's heart race appeared in the minds of all the scientists present simultaneously.

Could the energy source and upgrade materials for this so-called "system" be... the very "trash" it salvaged?

It was a perfect closed loop!

Academician Wang's breathing became rapid.

"Quick! Bring the portable energy sensor over! Set it to the highest precision!" he commanded loudly.

A researcher immediately scrambled to bring a sophisticated instrument and cautiously approached the black metal plate.

On the instrument's screen, a steady baseline suddenly showed an extremely weak but definitely present upward fluctuation the moment it neared the metal plate.

"There's an energy reaction! Extremely weak bound state energy! Within its internal structure... a massive amount of energy is locked away!" The voice of the researcher operating the instrument was trembling.

Academician Wang snatched the instrument away to check the data himself, his hands shaking slightly from excitement.

"That's right... it's this... it's like a packaged battery, a super battery that we completely cannot understand!"

He suddenly turned back and looked at Lin Yuan as if he were looking at a treasure.

"Comrade Lin Yuan! Right now, immediately, try to communicate with your 'system'! Ask it if it can absorb the energy in this metal plate to repair your drone!"

Lin Yuan was also affected by the tense atmosphere. He nodded, closed his eyes, and concentrated.

"System? System, are you there?" he called out in his mind.

The cold mechanical voice rang out once again.

[host, I am here.]

"Great!" Lin Yuan was overjoyed and quickly asked, "My drone is broken and needs 100 points of energy to repair. This black plate—the one I salvaged—can the energy inside it be used?"

[high-purity unknown alloy detected... beginning analysis of energy structure...]

[Analysis complete. This substance contains high-density compressed energy, which can be absorbed by the system.]

[Would you like to absorb this substance and convert it into system energy?]

[Warning: This substance is an extremely rare spaceship structural material. Once converted into energy, the process will be irreversible. Please choose carefully, host.]

Lin Yuan immediately opened his eyes and relayed the system's words to Academician Wang.

Upon hearing the two pieces of information—"can be absorbed" and "extremely rare spaceship structural material"—all the scientists present gasped.

It was confirmed!

Everything Lin Yuan said was true!

In this world, there really existed a "system" that could salvage alien technology! And Lin Yuan was the only "key"!

Academician Wang's face turned red with excitement. He grabbed Lin Yuan's shoulders, his voice trembling: "Absorb it! Let it absorb it! We must witness this process with our own eyes! This is the most important step in the history of human civilization... no, the history of the entire Earth's civilization!"

The surrounding scientists also crowded around, every face filled with fanaticism and anticipation. What they were about to witness was the moment myth became reality.

Lin Yuan felt a bit intimidated looking at this group of nearly crazed scientists.

He closed his eyes again and issued the command to the system.

"System, absorb the energy from this metal plate. But... don't take it all, can you leave me a little? This thing looks quite valuable."

[Instruction confirmed. Absorption threshold set, retaining 10% of structural integrity.]

[Beginning absorption...]

In the next second, under everyone's tense gaze, that black metal plate began to undergo an incredible transformation.