Chapter 1,450 Lin Jing

At the customs office of the civilian starport, we met the boss of the ship on the "Grass Ark" and the tree elf observer stationed by the empire: it was this observer who reported the ghost ship parts.

This civilian starport has a large number of modular customs offices. Every ship that docks here for more than a week can apply for such a free office, which is used to handle official business and hand over various intelligence with the imperial management department. Of course, it can also Used as a place for business negotiations: Many "special" merchant ships traveling in the macro world complete trade activities directly at the star port. They run from one star port to another, and their warehouses are always filled with long-term moving goods. They are middlemen and transporters, and they never leave their spacecraft or set foot on any planet except during outages. . This kind of businessmen from other worlds call themselves "starship dealers" and their slogan is "We don't produce resources, we are just porters of nature" - but these starship businessmen have nothing to do with these forest elves at the moment. I'm quite curious about this. What's the point of Lin Jing also applying for such an office? Although they meet the application conditions, as businessmen, they have no goods, no information to hand over, and no need to receive any business partners. Such an office seems like nothing to such a group of lonely businessmen. It doesn't make any sense.

To my question, the boss of the merchant ship who looked just like any other mimosa responded very shamelessly: "It's all in vain anyway. My ship and cargo are ruined, why don't you allow me to take advantage of it?" "

At that time, I felt that these first batch of profiteers who started trading in the macro world were probably all printed from the same mold: I saw the shadow of the peddler queen of the Fiyali Empire in this mimosa.

Shandora was learning about the ghost ship from the tree elf who was the observer, and I curiously observed the boss of the Lin Jingship in front of me: I have had feelings for this race since the last time I saw that nagging Mimosa in Shadow City. I became interested, and then I also learned about the ins and outs of this group of forest elves in various online resident communities in Shadow City. As a result, the more I learned about them, the more curious I became: How did this strange race come into being?

The forest elves are a new race from the edge of the macro world, and official exchanges with the empire were less than a year ago. And before this month, they were engaged in short-term trade in remote areas and had never appeared in the interior of the Empire. These perennial herbaceous plants possess civilized intelligence and a higher level of scientific and technological civilization. They have thoroughly studied their own universe, but they do not yet know how to escape from their own world. Therefore, forest elf caravans like the "Herb Ark" have You can complete a self-guided tour by purchasing spaceships from other civilizations or applying for public inter-world gates. This looks like a plant. But in fact, the strange race composed of plants and mechanical parts confuses people who meet them for the first time. Even in Shadow City, where strange races are already familiar, the Lin Jing caused quite a stir when he first appeared. Many people are curious, because according to normal logic, it is impossible for a race that has not evolved natural limbs (or other functions that allow them to move) and communication organs to start on the road to becoming an advanced civilization: they The first tools could not be made, nor could the first classes and conscious clusters be formed. Without the assistance of those mechanical components, Lin Jing can only rely on his own roots to carry out extremely slow and limited actions. They will also lose the ability to speak, and even if they communicate with their own kind, they can only rely on inefficient and vague plant pheromones. In other words, the forest elves who lose those mechanical limbs and auxiliary plug-ins will become creatures that are only slightly more advanced than plants: They will still retain the ability to think, but they cannot move or speak. No one knows what clever little ideas are spinning under their enlarged petioles.

This has not changed throughout the entire evolutionary history of the forest elves: they have never been able to break away from their mechanical bodies.

So how did they start on the evolutionary path to becoming a higher civilization? Or to put it more directly: How did they obtain the first mechanical prosthetic limb and pass it on to the next generation?

The reason for this is strange and rare: the original wood elves were actually pets created by another race.

"We call them 'Father'," Boss Lin Jingchuan jumped up and down on his desk. His voice, posture, appearance and various habits seemed to me to be the same as the mimosa I saw two days ago. There is no difference. "This title is exclusive to the Creator, because forest elves are hermaphrodites and there is no concept of parents in our race. The title 'Father' comes from the Creator's civilization. They are very intelligent and were the first to be born on our planet. Bonfire - oh, a great civilization. They discovered the wood spirits and planted us in the corners of their walls: initially just to improve the air in their houses. Then one of the greatest scientists of these great people had a whim. , connected the electrodes and decoding equipment to the Lin Jing in his home, that was a historic day: the great Lin Jing - we call him the eldest son, this title also comes from the creator - he said to the scientists: Thank you , to express gratitude for watering every day, these two words were displayed on the display screen of 'Father', so someone finally discovered Lin Jing's thinking ability. Then a long time passed. 'Fathers' mastered it All the techniques for normal communication with forest spirits, and knowing that we have been thinking silently for the past few hundred years, although that kind of thinking is very primitive, close to sleep talking and slow thinking hallucinations, the 'fathers' still seem very happy. "

When I heard this, I couldn't help but interrupt the other party: "Speaking of which, your creator doesn't have a conspiracy theory or anything? For example, he is worried that another intelligent race appearing on his planet will compete with him for territory - what can be done on earth? There are many similar stories.”

"Oh. Yes, but this idea soon proved to be a joke," Lin Jingchuan boss spread out his branches vividly, imitating the movement of human hands, "Lin Jing needs to be planted in the soil, our favorite thing It is just the right amount of watering and sunshine. We don't need any wealth in the hands of the 'fathers'. On the contrary, the forest spirit is an indispensable plant on the planet of the 'fathers'. The gases that the 'fathers' breathe have hundreds of Eighty-five percent of the difference comes from the forest elves. The two races will not plunder any of the other's treasures. The waste that neither of us uses is the other's survival resource. Smart people know that we have no need to compete - I know what you are saying. What kind of place is the earth? Do people on earth worry that too much food and air will occupy their living space?"

Me: "...That's true."

"In short, the 'fathers' transformed the Lin Jing," the ship's boss ran quickly on the table with his short legs. "They improved the Lin Jing's intelligence and gave us equipment that can more easily output thoughts: sensors. Plug-in, and then installed mechanical multifunctional limbs for us: they can be used as legs. They can also be used as hands. The forest elf and the 'fathers' lived happily together, and it was a good life."

I was just casually asking him about the ins and outs of this strange race, but I didn’t expect the story to be so interesting. I couldn’t help but urge him to continue: “Then what? Where is your creator?”

However, the mood of Lin Jingchuan boss suddenly dropped, and even the leaves drooped listlessly on the table: "Here comes a group of robbers, robbers from five light years away. They are a group of guys who do all kinds of evil among the stars, gnawing away like pests The resources of each planet, these bandits invaded the 'father's' planet, and after a fierce battle, they won."

"The 'Fathers' were genetically annihilated by bandits, and they all perished after a generation. But the forest elves survived. This is because when the war was about to collapse, the 'Fathers' modified all the databases, and they erased Forest spirits have traces of advanced intelligence, and then let us disguise ourselves as household pets and natural plants with simple thinking abilities. The bandits did not expect this, and they also need smart servants like forest spirits to help them improve. The planet’s atmosphere allowed the forest spirit to survive.”

Not only are the forest elves still alive today. Moreover, they have become one of the active races in the macro world, which shows that they finally killed their enemies, but how did these seemingly weak plants take revenge? Especially in the era mentioned by the ship boss, the forest elves did not have any weapons in their hands. This revenge seems incredible to me.

"It took a long time," Lin Jingchuan boss jumped on the spot, "Seven hundred years, we spent seven hundred years preparing for revenge. We have no weapons, no base, no place to hide. Not even Showing high intelligence in front of the robbers: Only in this way can they continue to relax their vigilance. On the surface, the forest elves have nothing, but we have a way to get revenge - evolution and plant pheromones. The forest elves can use plant pheromones for basic communication, and even Swap our own genetic fragments or cooperate to create new chemicals. We can control the direction of our own evolution and produce toxins through generations of purposeful and subtle mutations. It took us five hundred years to slowly change ourselves and let His own organelles began to secrete a small molecule compound that seemed harmless on the surface - those bandits had superb interstellar navigation technology and weapons technology, but their biochemistry and genetic technology were only average. This was a perfect opportunity. "

I have been completely attracted by the story of the forest elves. I didn’t expect that these seemingly soft and weak plants actually have such a history. However, I still can’t imagine how they let themselves evolve toxins to complete their revenge: The goal of the forest elves should be It's not just as simple as poisoning a few enemies, this is racial hatred, and they need larger-scale results.

"It's simple," the ship's boss said seriously (if folding all the leaves means seriousness), "we make ourselves nutritious, easy to digest, and cater to the tastes of those robbers."

I was stunned.

"In the next two hundred years, forest spirits became a delicacy that bandits competed to taste, and we also evolved some other gadgets to make ourselves look like medicines with health care effects. The bandits were addicted to them, and every one of them People are addicted to this, and eventually the forest elves become their national staple food: the toxin accumulates in their bodies, takes three generations to take effect slowly, and then explodes. Those stupid people didn't expect that the revenge of plants could be tolerated for so long, so there was no way. Relating to the food they have eaten for two hundred years: they lost their fertility and gradually lost their ability to think logically. Those bandits tried to use cloning to continue their race, but as long as they continued to eat, they could not escape these toxins. In the end, Those who knew how to operate the cloning equipment also died, and the only ones who came out of the culture chamber were monkeys that were scratching their toes and drooling. Lin Jing spent seven hundred years preparing, and finally spent three hundred years appreciating all this. That’s our story.”

You can guess what happened after that: we survived like this, and continued civilization using the mechanical limbs left by our "fathers". Every new forest elf must accept this transformation. Mechanical limbs accompany every forest elf throughout his life. Praise the 'father', praise the eldest son, and no one will dare to look down on the forest spirit from now on: once the plant's revenge begins, it will not end. "

I stared blankly at Lin Jing, the boss of the ship, who had a cheerful tone and seemed not to be worried at all. I suddenly understood what was going on with these creatures who could still think "it's a little bit cheap" even after the ship was damaged and its cargo was destroyed. : They will not be sad. They will not be in trouble and will not be knocked down by any short-term difficulties. Yes, for such a tolerant and patient race, it is enough for them to always be energetic and open every cluster of their leaves to welcome the sun.

"Here, it is a tradition for ship bosses from different worlds to introduce the glorious history of their races and civilizations to each other." At this time, Sandora's conversation with the tree elf observer also came to an end. The tall and thin tree elf He turned around and said, it turned out that he had also heard the conversation here just now, "The story of the forest elves is the most exciting one, but the only problem is that these forest elves like to tell these stories to others too much: I have listened to these stories for six times. Once again, you must be willing for me to carry one backwards for you..."

I:"……"

All right. You can imagine this. After all, the Mimosa I met two days ago was a guy who didn’t distinguish between simplified and traditional speech. The Lin Jing’s way of thinking seems to be different from other races. Once they communicate with others, they will Everything that comes to mind is listed in no particular order. When you first come into contact with them, you will feel that the forest spirits are hospitable and easy to communicate with. However, after being in contact with them for a long time, you will feel that these perennial herbaceous plants are a bit noisy. But after all, I also talked to that guy from Star Territory. I can accept Lin Jing's somewhat talkative nature. After all, they just talk a little too much. The bastard in Star Territory has almost reached the point where a mouth can endlessly cycle itself...

"Let's talk about business first." I turned my attention away from Lin Jing's matter. Seeing the relaxed look on Sandora's face, I knew that the ghost ship matter was basically settled. "The part was confirmed to be dropped from the ghost ship." Did you come down?"

"Sure, this is it." Sandora said, handing over a small cylindrical metal object, which was less than a foot long and about the thickness of an egg. And one end is still broken, and its size is smaller than I expected: when I first heard that the ghost ship impact debris was found on the "Grass Ark", I thought it was how big it was.

"I just identified it. This is a common external sensor on the imperial spacecraft. The manufacturing year is in line with expectations. It is a relic from the heyday of the old empire." Sandora said while handing the sensor to Xiaoxue, " Through this thing, coupled with Xiaoxue's prophecy ability, we should be able to determine where the ghost ship will appear next."

"My mother should be more prudent in this matter." Xiaoxue mumbled as she took the metal pillar.

"Your mother just came back from a business trip. Let her rest for two days." I glanced sideways at this picky little naughty child. "And you are almost developing rice bugs at home. If you don't move around, I'm worried that you will get stuck in front of the TV."

Xiaoxue grinned at me, and finally grabbed the broken sensor probe and closed her eyes to concentrate. She would retrace the information of this item and find other components that had spent more than 100,000 years with it. It is a process that is difficult for others to understand. If you have to explain it, it is equivalent to taking a leaf and going to the forest to find the tree it once belonged to. This sounds like an impossible task, but you must know that everything born in the void is in a huge ocean of information, and there is no exception. The eyes of the prophet can look down on all the stairs from the void. Spreading derivatives: Although it seems a bit incredible to sort out a ghost ship from such a massive amount of information, Xiaoxue has her own special method.

Sandora and I waited silently for a few minutes. During this period, the Lin Jingchuan boss ran to chat with the observer. Finally, Xiaoxue suddenly opened her eyes: "Found it."

"Where is it?" Sandora and I said in unison.

"Three days later, in the outer world of the capital, over a red dwarf star more than three million light years away from the earth," Xiaoxue returned the metal pillar to Sandora, "Ghost ships do not always appear in the macro world. Around the waterway, occasionally it will drift to a desolate place, but its stay in these desolate areas is usually very short, so short that even the empire's radar stations have no time to scan them. This time the ghost ship will be there. Stay there for three seconds.”

Three seconds... This is really short enough.

Shandora didn't care much: "That's enough. Let's send people to set up a siege first. Three seconds is enough for the gravity trap to turn on. Xiaoxue, is that ship armed?"

"It's unarmed," Xiaoxue shook her head, "but it's hard to say whether there are any inside the ship. There's too much information jumped at once, and it looks blurry."

Shandora and I waved our hands indifferently: It's good to be able to locate the location and time of the ghost ship's upcoming appearance. Xiaoxue, a naughty kid, is unambiguous when it comes to getting down to business.

At this time, the Lin Jingchuan boss had once again grabbed the Starport Observer and was chatting enthusiastically: "Hey, let me tell you about my adventure back then..."

I suddenly felt that it would be better to leave this place as soon as possible... Could these forest spirits believe in the Dragon God? ?