Chapter 460: Interstellar Beast (1)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The Great Mechanic Han had evolved his race once; his genes were optimized, so his looks were naturally good. Even he was sometimes shocked by how handsome he was when he looked in the mirror. However, Charm was more like affinity—it influenced the default Favorability and hidden options when communicating with others. The effect of some abilities also depended on Charm, such as the summoning abilities and beast controlling abilities.
When affinity was insufficient, others might refuse to communicate further.
The player that triggered this mission in the previous life definitely had enough Charm, so they did not meet any obstacles. According to Han Xiao’s rich experience, if the missions could not be triggered even after following the process that he remembered, it would most likely be because a certain hidden prerequisite was not achieved. In those cases, Charm not being high enough was a common one.
However, Han Xiao was definitely not going to put points into his Charm attribute as he was not short of missions. Plus, what on earth was the use of affinity? Being strong was much more useful!
Feidin lived up to his role as an attractiveness focused main character; he convinced Nereja straight away. This mission was not difficult—they just had to investigate the target planet. The mission could be completed even if they only investigated the remains of the spaceships. However, getting a high rating as not that easy. They had to find the majority of the truth about why the research teams had lost contact and find the missing Observers. The mission was called [Interstellar Beast], which was a clue for the players.
Of course, finding Nereja’s wife was one way to increase the rating, dead or alive.
In the mission reward, the monetary reward was grayed out, which meant that it was locked, and no matter how high the rating was, there would not be any extra monetary reward. Nereja only had so much money.
I triggered this mission many years before the players did before, so the process should be somewhat different. There are many uncertain factors in this, but the key point should be the same...
When the previous players accepted the mission, the background was different. At that time, the Godora superiors had already sent more than one research teams in, but they had all gone missing. However, they did send back some new intel before going missing, stating that the planet was shrouded in a strange magnetic field that could disrupt most common communications, hence causing all the research teams that landed on that planet to lose contact with the outside world. The crash marks of the spaceships could only be seen by the observation equipment in the space station, which meant that there was definitely something else that had happened to the research team between the time of them losing contact and landing.
Due to it being a natural cause, this did not attract a lot of attention from the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation. They were responsible for the investigations of an entire Star System, so there were countless missions for them to do every day, and only the extremely important matters would be passed by the smart system to real people to handle. The smart system ranked the missions according to how important they were, so this mission was placed into a regular mission. After another research team completely lost contact once again, it assumed that all the Observers were dead and stopped investigating that planet. They then told the astronomical observatory to research the environment of this planet first before making further decisions.
Hence, the investigation was put aside for the time being. When the players arrived, only then did this problem get solved—no one was more suitable in exploring unknown dangers than the undying players.
The deputy station chief beside Han Xiao at this time had already become the station chief in his previous life, but he was still the one who gave the mission clue.
Now, these clues had yet to be exposed. Luckily, Han Xiao remembered them, or they would meet dangers if they went there without any information. Han Xiao guessed that if he brought these clues back, it should be calculated into the mission rating.
Nereja took out his communicator, sent over many files, and solemnly said, “Here are the coordinates of that planet and the location of the spaceship’s crash site. My wife’s name is Lenny. This is her photo, please find her.”
“Got it.”
Han Xiao nodded and pulled Feidin back to the hall.
As the spaceship had completed its refueling, the station chief appeared again to express his intentions of sending them away. Han Xiao had gotten the mission that he wanted, so he did not stay any longer. He boarded the ship with the others and told them about this operation.
“You actually accepted a private hire? This is Godora’s internal matter, and we are sticking our nose in it without their permission—won’t Godora have a problem with that?” Herlous was hesitant.
“It’s not like that planet belongs to Godora. Nobody said we can’t go there.”
Han Xiao shrugged and entered the planet’s coordinates. It was shown as an unnamed planet. This planet had not yet been fully investigated, so there was no official name for it in the database. This was one of the differences as compared to the situation in his previous life as well.
In the enormous universe, there were still quite a few undiscovered planets. These resource planets with serial numbers were all recorded into the database after field investigations. The planet this time was clearly an unexplored mysterious planet.
In the dark universe, the spaceship tail was producing a dark blue light as the spaceship headed toward the destination. As the spaceship’s speed reached its maximum, it turned into a stream of light and entered the jump state, disappearing among the fabulous river of stars.
...
A few days later, outside the porthole was a small, gray planet. There was no vegetation and no Fixed Stars nearby; it was desolate. No sun could be seen on the planet, and the surface temperature was extremely chilly. There were some markings of volcanoes, so it should not be as cold as absolute zero.
Clearly, the environment of the planet was not suitable for most life forms to survive.
“Wear the protection suit properly. Once your skin is exposed to the air, your body will be damaged.”
As Han Xiao was speaking, he activated his Void Dragon mechanical suit, adjusted the inner temperature, and maintained it at a stable level. This slight energy cost was not even worth mentioning for the Mini Portable Nuclear Reactor. Although the suit was powered by nuclear energy, the radiation was blocked by the reactor’s special shell. Of course, even if he was exposed to it, Han Xiao would definitely not be damaged with his current Endurance. It would at most give him a negligible damage reduction debuff.
As Herlous was putting on Amphiptere, which Han Xiao lent him, he sighed and said, “If only the Commander Class armor that my brother gave me was still here.”
Han Xiao extended his hand with an expressionless face and said, “Give it back if you’re not wearing it.”
“Come on, don’t be so petty.” Herlous cracked a joke and hastily put the mechanical suit on.
Aroshia did not need the mechanical suit to protect her. As long as she turned into her energy form, she would be able to ignore the harsh environments.
For this mission, Han Xiao had only brought Herlous and Aroshia along—the rest had all stayed in the spaceship. They were not strong enough, so bringing them along would only burden Han Xiao.
As the magnetic field of the planet could block communications, Han Xiao parked the spaceship outside the atmosphere and set a time to pick them up. The three of them used the mini aircraft to land on the planet.
The spaceship entered the edge of the atmosphere. The cabin under it opened, and a mini aircraft flew out. This was the ‘Dragon Butterfly’ scout aircraft, a model used by the Floating Dragon Guards. Han Xiao had learned this blueprint long ago.
After the aircraft took off, the spaceship instantly rose higher and left the atmosphere.
Inside the aircraft, Han Xiao sat at the pilot seat and operated the control planet with ease and familiarity. The other two sat in the passenger seats behind him.
“Let’s go, the research team’s crash site is below.”
The magnetic field affected radars too, but Han Xiao adjusted the location when they were on the spaceship. Their destination was right below.
With a tug of the gear lever, the anti-gravity pipes under the aircraft illuminated slightly as they landed quickly.
It was dark around them, and it was very difficult to see. Such planets that did not have light from a Fixed Star existed in many parts of the universe. Han Xiao switched on the aircraft’s light perception, and their vision became clearer. They could now see the nearby environment.
“About 6,000 meters to reaching the ground,” Herlous said.
“Hold on, there might be some turbulence.” As Han Xiao spoke, he suddenly turned off the engine and the anti-gravity levitation device.
Hu!
The aircraft instantly descended forcefully.
Shocked, Herlous said, “What are you doing?”
Before Han Xiao had chance to reply, the aircraft suddenly trembled. Electric sparks erupted from the internal circuits, and at least three-quarters of the buttons on the control panel became unresponsive.
A warning appeared on the radiation detector, and a shadow that looked like a sandstorm swept toward them as seen from the screen.
“At 2,000 to 6,000 meters altitude on this planet, there is a radiation storm that can incapacitate most of the devices in a spaceship. That’s how these research spaceships crashed. However, there are still about 2,000 meters for them to buffer before crashing onto the ground, so their shield would be able to prevent them from shattering into pieces when the smash into the ground,” Han Xiao explained. “High-class spaceships can make it through, but Godora’s research spaceships obviously would not have too many high-end devices equipped.”
“What should we do then?” Herlous was stunned. “Aren’t we trapped on this planet in that case? Plus, our spaceship won’t be able to pick us up.”
“Don’t worry. Every once in a while, the radiation storm will weaken—we will be able to leave then.” Han Xiao was not worried at all; he remembered the mission process. Furthermore, when it was completed, this mission was turned into a dungeon, and the Dungeon Crystal could be earned through doing daily missions in that space station. Countless players had come to this planet before, so he was extremely familiar with it.
The gravity of the planet was quite strong, the aircraft was falling at a very fast speed. They passed through the radiation storm very soon and saw the mountains and craters on the ground, rapidly closing in. At this height, with the strength of the aircraft shield, it would definitely successfully shatter into pieces.
Of course, the three of them would not die from the fall, but the aircraft was a resource, and Han Xiao did not want to give it up easily. As he pressed a button, gliders popped up from the two sides of the aircraft. He switched the aircraft to nerves controlling method and connected the gliders to the nerve signal of his arm. It was as swift and smooth as controlling his own arms.
With the engine still off, the aircraft slowly turned from falling into gliding, quickly approaching the ground.
Boom!
Finally, the aircraft landed on the ground in a slanted angle, stirring up a huge amount of sand and dust. The shield generator was still working and flickering. The shield and the incapacitated thrust engine were not in the same system and had different fundamentals. Although the shield had been affected by the radiation storm, it had already recovered to a certain extent.
Turbulence still lasted in the aircraft for quite some time before quietening down. Aroshia rubbed her butt. Since she did not turn into energy form, her butt was hurting from the turbulence.
Han Xiao stood up and pulled down the manual handle on the hatch. The hatch popped open, and extreme coldness blew onto their faces. The temperature inside the mechanical suit lowered largely in an instant before slowly recovering to the normal temperature.
“The air temperature is about minus a hundred degrees. It is... actually higher than expected. Looks like there are bodies of water on this planet.
Han Xiao stretched his arms and legs, breathing in the oxygen from the mechanical suit. He was not planning to run around in this kind of place without wearing a mechanical suit.
Aroshia almost froze from the coldness and hurriedly turned into energy form. After entering Grade B, she had become much more skilled in using her powers. When she turned into energy form, she still maintained her human figure, including all of her facial features. Other than her body being made up of bright energy, everything else remained unchanged.
“The landing location deviated a little from the target without a radar.” Herlous looked around. “Looks like we can only slowly search for the remains of the research ships.”
Han Xiao squatted and touched the ground. Under the rough and black dust were hard rocks—the density of the planet surface was rather high. He then looked up and searched for certain markings on the sky.
Very soon, through the vision zoom of the mechanical suit, he saw the light from the spaceship outside the atmosphere. He pointed in that direction and said, “There is no need to search. The target is right there.”