Changkong Fighter

Chapter 247 Ascension Ceremony
Rupa was in very poor condition. When Liu Jun saw it, he finally understood what "in poor condition" meant. Its protective suit was wrinkled and its skin was dull and lifeless, like an octopus about to die in a seafood market.

As Lupa, huddled up, saw Liu Jun walk in, his dull, lifeless eyes met Liu Jun's gaze, and the weariness emanating from them was clearly visible.

The human and the alien creature stared at each other for a moment, and Rupa's skin changed slightly.

You've arrived.

"Are you feeling unwell?"

Rupa looked at Liu Jun with his octopus eyes, his gaze seeming to say: Nonsense.

"what did you eat?"

This is what the technicians asked him to inquire about: even if an alien civilization has done something to humanity, as humanity's only alien captive, he must protect it and figure out the alien civilization's social structure and its purpose.

Judging from its condition, this alien octopus is quite resilient. It's been a year, and it's managed to survive for so long using only the nutrition bars it carries. If it were a human captured for that long, eating and drinking only small amounts of food, it would have died long ago.

So, if Rupa tells humans what it eats, with current human technology, synthesizing some food shouldn't be a problem, right?

After a moment of silence, Rupa looked at Liu Jun.

I am destined to die.

As Rupa spoke, its skin changed; its dark skin became transparent, revealing that its internal organs were in a state of failure, and the colors emanating from its body were far less vibrant than when it was first seen.

“We can let you go back, in exchange for knowing your purpose.”

Putting it back—the higher-ups told him to say that, so they must have their reasons. It's a deal, after all. Survival is the primary goal of living beings, so if releasing Rupa in exchange for specific information about extraterrestrial civilizations is a worthwhile trade.

After "seeing" what Liu Jun said, Rupa remained silent. Liu Jun looked at the technician, who indicated that there was no problem with the machine, and then turned his attention back to Rupa, waiting for its response.

A minute passed, and Rupa gave its answer: "I had no choice, and neither did you."

Hmm? Choice? Liu Jun always felt that this Rupa was like a "riddler," only saying half of what he meant and giving a mix of truth and falsehood. But that wasn't something he needed to think about. If the sky fell, there were still superiors to take responsibility.

Liu Jun didn't know what to ask at that moment. He felt that Rupa was always like this, no matter what he asked. However, he had a question that he considered his own: "Why do you only communicate with me?"

[Upgrade, Ceremony]

What is an "upgrade ceremony"? Liu Jun felt like he had heard it somewhere before. According to Rupa, he was "upgraded" because he shot it down in a dogfight.

The technicians on the side exchanged excited glances. Sure enough, this alien octopus was "adaptable to its users," and Chang Kong was always able to extract some important information, which would help them deduce the social structure of alien civilizations and improve their social models of aliens.

The remaining models will need to be obtained through further discussions.

Generally, important information is not obtained through specific questioning, but rather inadvertently revealed during conversations. They wanted Liu Jun to ask the alien octopus for more information, but unfortunately, Liu Jun had to carry out a mission soon and didn't have much time to stay here.

"So, is there anything else you'd like to say?"

"Keep it safe, I'll give it to you." Liu Jun looked at the experts beside him, his eyes asking if they had any questions. The experts exchanged glances and shook their heads.

"Well then, see you next time." If Rupa is still alive when I see him again.

Rupa didn't speak, his gaze fixed on Liu Jun until his figure disappeared behind the gate.

After Liu Jun left, a researcher stepped forward and held up the "translator" in his hand to Rupa:
"Rupa, what do you want to eat?"

The only response they received was Rupa's silence, as if she had truly decided to starve herself to death.

Half an hour later.
A high-level conference room at Southeast University.

A large number of experts and academicians were urgently called to halt their ongoing research projects and come to the conference room for a meeting.

At the entrance, people consciously put their mobile phones in the basket and entered the highly secure conference room one after another. Signal jammers were set up around the room. A leader who could only be seen on television went on stage, pressed a remote control, and played the events that happened in the research institute where Rupa was being held on the large screen behind him.

After reviewing the records, all the experts present wore solemn expressions. Some even took out medication from their pockets and put it in their mouths, or opened bottles of Wahaha purified water and drank it down.

Next, the intelligence department compiled all the intelligence it had obtained since making contact with the extraterrestrial civilization, from Type 3 to Type 1, as well as various biological weapons, so that even some experts who were not very familiar with the overall situation could clearly understand the current battlefield situation and the extraterrestrial civilization's intelligence.

"Upgrading ceremony?"

This thing sounds a bit like a Darwinian society: survival of the fittest.

"It is very likely that the alien civilization is a society where the stronger party has more say, which could explain why Rupa was willing to talk to the humans who shot it down. That symbol should be a kind of identification."

From this perspective, Liu Jun's status in the alien civilization should be in the "elite class," or even higher. Just thinking about this duel-like ritual is too "barbaric"—grinding circuit boards into axes to chop people up. Some academicians felt their brains twitching just thinking about that scene.

"In addition, we discovered something else: when we studied the crystals extracted from the alien bio-weapons we obtained, we found that they were engraved with a large number of light paths, which are very similar to our integrated circuits."

As the academician spoke, the internal structure of the crystal was displayed on the large screen. By continuously magnifying it, one could see the densely packed 3NM optical paths inside, with light signals rapidly shuttling and intersecting within, even reminiscent of the "Nine Chapters" that the University of Tokyo is currently researching.

"The processing technology of extraterrestrial civilizations far surpasses ours."

The design and control of the optical path are very important. Precise control of the propagation and focusing of light is required to ensure accurate patterns. If the optical path design is unreasonable or contains errors, it may cause light to interfere with each other or scatter.

Judging from the crystal processing technology obtained, the yield rate is very high. Almost every piece is a qualified 3-nanometer process optical path, and the yield rate is much higher than that of human chips.

You can see the leopard in the tube!
Judging from these details, the strength of extraterrestrial civilizations cannot be limited to what they have shown. This is inconsistent with the weapons and equipment currently deployed on the battlefield, and something just doesn't seem right.

"Are we... fighting a proxy war?"

After a think tank member uttered those words, the room fell into a deathly silence.

(End of this chapter)