Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 337 The Unexpected Answer

Three seconds after the question was asked, the extraterrestrial intelligent entity began to move.

It quickly swarmed toward the nearest parasite and began to devour it.

Three, five, ten, twenty, fifty...

The questioner was now sweating profusely, knowing that the cost of this question would be much higher than that of a question like "What is your name?"

Judging from the speed at which the alien entities devoured the parasites, they seem to have underestimated the cost.

In less than a few minutes, all two hundred-plus parasites in the inner circle were devoured. Meanwhile, the alien entity, undeterred, began sweeping through the parasites in the secondary inner circle.

This made the soldiers on the outermost perimeter somewhat uneasy, their palms sweating profusely.

As for the members of the delegation, they were even more terrified, and those with less courage didn't even dare to look anymore.

As the parasites rapidly dwindled, the on-site commander, Scrooge, began to worry that there might not be enough of them.

"Quick, get some more parasites off the truck!"

There were about a thousand parasites arranged in several rings around the alien individual, and more than four thousand parasites were transported to the landing site.

The alien entity has already swallowed two rings, and there are two more to go. The new ones must be placed in front before it finishes swallowing them all, otherwise it may attack the soldiers or make contact with the delegation.

For their own safety, the soldiers did not dare to slack off and moved the parasites out of the truck as quickly as possible.

The live footage was simultaneously displayed on the screen of the People's Federation's remote conference. Even though the representatives and committee members from various countries were not harmed by the screen, most of them looked nervous.

"It has already devoured more than five hundred parasites! Is the price to pay for this problem really that high?"

"Judging from its behavior, there seems to be no sign of it stopping."

"The thousands of parasites we transported were prepared for several problems. Are we going to use them all up for just one problem now?"

"It's worth it as long as we get the answer!" Gao Liangwei said in a deep voice. "With the ability to discern, we have a source of food that we can be sure we won't make a mistake."

Mary stared at the screen: "Chairman Gao is right. Even if all those thousands of parasites are consumed by this one question, as long as we get an answer, that's fine."

"The number of things it has devoured has exceeded one thousand."

The scene on the screen was too horrifying. Even knowing that what was being devoured were parasites, their appearance, inherited from their human hosts, still instilled an indescribable fear in those who witnessed it.

"It's already at 1500 meters, and it still hasn't stopped!"

"Almost two thousand!"

"What if the thousands of parasites on site aren't enough? What if the soldiers...?"

"Those soldiers seem to obey orders without question; they must be the elite of Sisia. Your new governor wouldn't be reluctant to part with them, would he?"

Everyone looked at the committee member from Sissia, Toraft, who had a serious expression and remained silent.

At the landing site, Sgorchenko gritted her teeth.

At that moment, a private channel connected in her earpiece, and Yelena's unquestionable voice rang out.

“Scottin, if it doesn’t stop when it’s devoured the third thousand parasites, you immediately lead the mobile team away from the landing site as fast as possible.”

"The action team is moving away?"

Sgorchin glanced in the direction of the several hundred people in the delegation he had been in contact with: "Consul, in that case..."

"This is an order."

"……Yes."

Approximately five thousand parasites were transported to the landing site. Since the problem was raised, the alien entities have been continuously devouring them, and now nearly half of the five thousand have disappeared into its black, viscous body.

Skochin calmly calculated the numbers. If the number of devoured exceeded three thousand, she would immediately lead all the mobile squad soldiers to evacuate.

As for what will happen to the people who came into contact with the delegation, and whether the aliens will travel long distances to find the nearest food after the food is all eaten... she couldn't tell.

But she will definitely carry out Yelena's orders.

Two thousand six, two thousand seven, two thousand eight...

Sgorchen took a deep breath and raised his shoulders slightly.

Just as she was about to raise her hand to give the order, the frantically devouring black slime finally stopped. Two thousand nine...

Sgorchin paused in his raised hand, and the alien entity remained at the level of 2,900.

She immediately realized that it was about to speak.

The scene was deathly silent. The very few people who had access to watch the live stream were all waiting intently in their respective places.

Everyone wants to know what the answer will be after paying such a high price.
A series of incomprehensible gurgling sounds began to emanate from the black mud body.

This moment filled many people with despair.

Is the answer something that cannot be expressed in human language? Then even if we obtain the answer, what value would it have for humanity?
However, at the end of this incomprehensible string of sounds, a word that humans could understand actually appeared.

"Mind Network".

……

At the Human Alliance meeting, after the extraterrestrial intelligent being gave his answer, all the committee members were briefly stunned.

Each person took a moment to process the information before starting the discussion.

"Mind network? Did I hear that right? It ended by saying mind network?"

“Indeed. Of the series of sounds emitted by this alien entity, I only understood the last few words, ‘psychic network.’”

"I remember that the mind network is a special kind of mental energy product that appeared in the twelfth rule, [Digital Abstinence]? How did this guy come out of his mouth! Could it be... could it be that they, the home world of this alien intelligent being, also had a mind network?"

"You're not suggesting that this lump of black mud is also a sublimator, are you?"

"This……"

"It's not impossible! Don't forget Qimo Star, wasn't that also a planet destroyed by the Fire Thieves using the strange fog that appeared in the [Mist Beast] rule? This means that the rules that occurred on our Tianshui Star may have appeared on many civilized planets in the universe, then..."

"Alright, let's not stray from the point! Since it says so, it means that the mind network may be the key to identifying parasites, at least until that string of language can be analyzed and deciphered."

"But the Mind Network was shut down long ago after the [Digital Abstinence] rules ended, and current Ascendants can no longer use it!"

"Yes, the mind network has been unusable for a long time. Even if we knew the answer, what use would it be? It would be completely useless..."

Having sacrificed nearly three thousand parasites, all they received in return was an incomprehensible language and an unusable method, leaving everyone with a deep sense of frustration.

“In any case, we have gotten an answer…partial answer.” Torraft showed optimism at this point.

"Furthermore, it spoke such a long string of alien language earlier, providing a considerable amount of linguistic data. Perhaps our linguists can use AI to decipher it. If we can crack its language system, that would be an even greater achievement!"

No one thought it would be so easy to decipher alien languages, but it was still a glimmer of hope.

Moreover, now that we know one of the answers is the mental network, humanity has a direction and a way of thinking to strive towards.

“Hey, you guys…” Mary began, “How about this next question: How do humans access the mind network?”

The committee members were taken aback by what they heard, and at first glance, it did make some sense.

Since the mind network is one of the answers to identifying parasites, asking how to activate it is tantamount to sticking to this path to the bitter end.

Humans have already activated the Mind Network. The conditions for activation were simple: as long as the mental powers of two ascendants made contact and they simultaneously had the thought of a mental connection, a minimal Mind Network could be established.

[Digital withdrawal] This method has become ineffective after the rule ends. However, why it failed is still unclear to humankind, but it is believed to be related to the fire-bringers.

Gao Liangwei said, "If we ask this question, the answer given by the alien entity will be just like the hidden information in that previous rule. That would be almost meaningless to us."

"Yes. When the rules end, the methods become invalid, which is like the Firebringers not allowing humans to continue using the Mind Network... Even if we get the methods, regardless of whether they are the same as those under the rules, we may not be able to use them."

"Such a valuable question was wasted, and such a question will certainly come at a high price."

Seeing the numerous objections, Mary snorted, "I was just saying it offhand, but now that I think about it carefully, it really wasn't very mature."

Her expression changed drastically as soon as she finished speaking.

As if something major had suddenly happened, she abruptly disconnected from the remote connection.

The other committee members were taken aback, unsure of what was going on. At that moment, a private communication channel also came through Gao Liangwei's earpiece.

An astonishing piece of news arrived: France and the Republic of France had launched an attack on the Solomon Empire!

(End of this chapter)