Alien invaders'... source of life
"This substance is called —%&*@ by them."
The monster made a very strange, harsh and unpleasant sound.
"… What?"
Xu Xin and the other two were a little confused for a moment.
"%&*@, this is what they call this substance." The monster said, "I don't know how to call this substance in human language."
"Um... can you repeat it again?" Xu Ying looked confused.
“%&*@.”
"What the hell is this..." She gave up. "Forget it, can you describe what this thing is? Is it also a liquid?"
"No." The monster shook his head. "It's not a liquid. It's a... solid. A red crystal."
… crystal
"Just taking in a crystal of this size would provide an individual with a day's supply."
The monster raised its arm, which was longer than its leg, and stretched out its hand with only four fingers, and pinched with two ink-black fingers.
About... the size of a fingernail.
"This... This is the first time I've heard of this," Xu Ying felt very curious, "Is this the source of your energy? Don't you need to eat?"
"Eat? Do you mean, eat other creatures like you do on Earth? No.
”
The monster shook his head slowly. "They just need to ingest that substance. This is actually the substance that makes up the surface of the mother planet. This layer of substance gave birth to their species. They can't eat the corpses of creatures on Earth like you do. The water inside the corpses is poisonous to them. Although they won't die, they will feel uncomfortable."
The material that makes up the surface of the planet? !
Xu Xin was amazed.
My goodness, this race of theirs is eating the planet to reproduce.
"Ah... So you don't eat, no wonder..."
Xu Ying recalled her own experience and couldn't help complaining: "No wonder the food we were provided with during the first few years of our captivity was so bad. It was dry and tough, like chewing dry wood. I thought they were deliberately abusing us..."
“… I don’t know. I wasn’t born at that time.” The monster twisted its neck, and the “muscles” on its body seemed to move rhythmically.
"Uh... Indeed."
"What about you?" Shi Wanyun asked, "Aren't you eating either? I remember that when I first saw you, you seemed to be... holding a cup and drinking something."
"Because I am trying to understand and appreciate the diet of Earth humans." The monster grinned, and at the same time, a thin long tongue stretched out in the air, then retracted, "I also have the organ that Earth humans use to taste flavors, the tongue."
Uh... alien invaders don't even have tongues.
Xu Xin felt a little embarrassed.
It seems that his imagination is still a little barren.
But it is true that we can learn from the monsters that the alien invaders survive by eating the "stones" on their home planet, so they don't need a sense of taste at all.
But, this guy, now that he can drink something...
Xu Ying tilted her head and looked at the monster in front of her, "Aren't you afraid of water?"
"… I'm not afraid physically, but I used to be a little scared mentally. This is related to the environment I grew up in." The monster said, "But that was in the past. In this time and space, I'm no longer afraid of this kind of substance that doesn't harm me."
"Then do you need that red crystal as the source of life?" Shi Wanyun asked.
"It can be my life source, or it can not be." The monster said, "I can also maintain my life by eating like humans."
I see…
"Okay, so we already know that they need this substance to survive, then what?" Xu Xin asked, "There is no such substance on Earth, so where do they get it from? Did they bring it from their 'mother planet'?"
"Yes, the mother planet supplies."
…
The home planet of the alien invaders is very large. Even today's Earth is much smaller than that planet.
On it, there are countless lives that feed on "surface crystals".
Because there is no food chain, the creatures on the "mother planet" have no so-called natural enemies, so at the beginning of life, life on that planet was extremely prosperous.
After organisms spread all over the world, hostile relationships also emerged even without food chain relationships.
"Territorial consciousness" is a consciousness engraved in the genes of the creatures on that planet, similar to the food chain of creatures on Earth.
Because of "territorial disputes", it is natural that lives will inevitably fight against each other.
After a long period of reproduction and development, a group of alien invaders stood out from the crowd, successfully evolved extraordinary intelligence, and became intelligent life.
They suppress other life forms, have no natural enemies, and have "food" everywhere. As a result, their numbers have skyrocketed in the past ten thousand years.
All over the world.
Their technology also began to grow exponentially.
But the good times didn’t last long.
This planet has nurtured countless lives since its birth. The source of life on the surface, the reserves of crystal, are already very scarce compared to ancient times.
This planet has reached the end of its life and its crust is basically inactive.
This substance, created by crustal activity, has become a non-renewable resource.
At the same time, scientists have tried every possible way to study synthesis, but have not come up with any alternatives.
The over-expanding number of alien creatures is consuming this substance at an almost crazy rate.
This is a big problem.
If we look at the number of alien creatures at that time and the rate at which they increase, the remaining amount of this source of life on the planet, even if all the resources in various strange locations around the world are exhausted, it would not even last for 500 years according to the time units on Earth!
Five hundred years may not seem like a short time. At least people in the modern world can still live comfortably. But on a planet where technology has developed to the point where the top rulers can achieve near immortality, for the rulers of that planet...
Can only live another five hundred years
This is so horrible!
All highly intelligent creatures are prepared for danger in times of peace.
As the news spread, panic began to spread throughout all the territories on the planet.
The rulers of these territories originally wanted to take control of more resources in their own hands. When this news came out, they became even more crazy.
Thus, a world war that swept the entire globe began.
Territory wars with high-tech weapons are much more brutal than imagined.
In that war, countless species were exterminated, and the number of alien invaders was reduced to 2% of its peak.
It was an extremely cruel war that paralyzed everything in that world.
Fortunately, they had a technological foundation, and it took them about a hundred years of Earth time to return to their peak technological level.
As the numbers of alien creatures that have experienced the world war have decreased, the rate at which they consume the "source of life" has been greatly slowed down, giving them more time.
Thus, all the territories reached an agreement.
Gather global strength and focus on space.
They have to go to outer space to find resources and the source of life they need for their lives.
This is the beginning of alien creatures colonizing and exploring space.
At that time, it had been nearly 20,000 years since then, calculated in Earth time units.
That's right, alien invaders began exploring space 20,000 years ago, before humans on Earth had formed civilization and when they were still primitive humans.
It was also 20,000 years ago that the alien invaders experienced a period of super-fast technological development and fell into a technological bottleneck.
During these 20,000 years, due to the scarcity of resources and the limits of their knowledge and understanding, their technology has made almost no progress.
They can only explore aimlessly in the endless universe, looking for the vague future of this race that has reached its end.
Thousands of years ago, they found Earth, the blue planet in the Milky Way that they both loved and feared.
At first, they were just afraid of the intelligence of humans on Earth.
At the same time, scientists are crazy about studying the human brain, because if they possess a brain with such great potential, the technological development of their race may be able to restart after 20,000 years!
But then, they discovered the most exciting substance on the planet.
…
"... the white crystal on Earth?" Xu Xin asked softly.
"Yes." The monster nodded, "Crystal from Earth."
"… Could it be that the white crystal on Earth is related to your red crystal?" Xu Ying also asked.
"Yes." The monster nodded.
"This is the first time in nearly 20,000 years that their species has discovered substances related to the 'source of life'."
This sentence carries so much weight!
After 20,000 years of searching, we finally found hope for the survival of our race.
Xu Xin and the other two could fully understand their ecstasy and excitement at that moment.
But since the victims are humans, there is nothing to talk about.
"... Hmm? Wait a minute, this should have happened not long after the invasion of Earth, right?" Xu Ying suddenly felt something was wrong. "If the source of your life also exists on Earth, then why didn't more alien creatures immigrate to Earth during the three hundred years I was enslaved?"
"There are two reasons."
The monster answers Xu Ying's question.
"First, this planet is not suitable for them to survive. This land is full of a terrifying substance that can dissolve them - water. The air also contains water molecules. Most areas are prone to rain. Most areas here are difficult for them to survive. For them, the Earth is equivalent to a planet with a very harsh environment."
Well... that's it.
If they don't want to come into contact with water, sea water is fine as long as they don't get close to it, but if the air is humid, there is really nowhere for them to hide.
However, what does water mean to them
"The second point is the crystal."
The monster continued.
"The white crystals on Earth are only somewhat similar to the red crystals that are found all over the planet at a material level, and cannot be used directly. However, they can transform this crystal and, under certain conditions, convert it into red crystal, but such conditions are not available on Earth."
"Oh..." Xu Ying understood immediately, "In other words, you need to transport the white crystals mined from Earth to your home planet?"
"That's right." The monster nodded its disproportionately shaped head and continued, "After experiencing the initial ecstasy, they found that the efficiency of mining white crystals is very low, and the conversion efficiency is not high either. With their current technology, it is probably only... about 500:1."
500:1
"Five hundred tons of white crystal can be transformed into one ton of scarlet crystal?"
"Yes." The monster nodded. "But even so, Earth is still the first planet they have discovered in outer space that has the raw materials for creating their life source. According to the reserves they have already discovered, if they mine them all, it will allow their race to continue for at least another tens of thousands of years."
Tens of thousands of years...
It sounds like a lot, but it's very short for the continuation of a species.
The ancestor of mankind, Homo sapiens, has been around for 250,000 years. If we trace back to ancient apes, it is even longer.
In the billions of years of evolution of life on Earth, ten thousand years is just a moment.
Not to mention that these alien invaders have been exploring space for 20,000 years.
"Although tens of thousands of years is not a lot, it can at least alleviate the increasingly scarce resources on the mother planet and stabilize their mentality. Moreover, this is only the proven reserves, and there are still many unexplored areas. For example..."
The monster looked at Xu Ying: "For example, the underwater underground world area where humans on Earth currently live."
"Ah!" Xu Ying covered her mouth, and then her eyes slightly changed as she looked at the monster, "Is it really you? You're the only one who discovered it."
"Yes, only me, because I am the only one who has no fear of the ocean. Only I can survive for a long time in the humid areas near the ocean." The monster admitted.
"Hmph, wait until you finish what you want to say. I still have a lot of questions to ask you." Xu Ying thought of her experience in the underground world, and her voice suddenly became a little cold.
"I will tell you everything I know." The monster said, "In short, this is the main purpose of their colonization of this planet. For them living on their home planet, this is just a... harsh mine and experimental site. So of course they will not continue to increase the number of colonists."
I see…
"The red crystal they are using now was sent from their home planet. It is a crystal that is roughly the size of the space in this tree house."
The monster stretched out a twisted hand and pointed downward, stating the purpose of its visit: "I know the current location of the crystal. I am seeking your cooperation because I want to use your power... to destroy the crystal."
There was a flash of surprise in the eyes of Xu Xin and the other two.
But the three of them didn't say anything. Instead, they looked at the monster, wanting to hear what it had to say.
"Because of the strategic importance of the Earth, that crystal was concentrated by almost all the spare resources of the mother planet. It can at least allow these people to survive here for thousands of years. This is why they only need to absorb a little, which is enough to meet their needs for a day."
"At the same time, a huge amount of resources have been spent to build a one-way channel between Earth and the mother star to transport materials from Earth to the mother star, but there is no channel to transport resources from the mother star to Earth. It is very difficult to transport resources from the mother star to Earth, and it still requires crossing the sea of stars."
Xu Xin took a deep breath.
He knew what the alien invader wanted to say.
He began, "You mean, if we destroy the red crystal... the alien invaders will lose their source of life and will have to... leave Earth."
"Yes. That's what I meant." The monster nodded.
The scene fell silent for a moment.
This amount of information is a bit difficult to digest.
It's even a little unreal.
Xu Xin had a lot of questions in his mind, but before that...
"This... is too important. Let's talk about it last. I want to confirm why you... want to come and join us, and want to drive away those invaders." He asked, "Why? If I'm not mistaken, you have always been one of them in this time and space, otherwise..."
Xu Xin looked at Shi Wanyun: "Otherwise you wouldn't have sent her to find an opportunity to kill me. So, why did you drive them away?"
“… I am not one of them, I just collaborate with them to realize my experiment.”
The monster slowly explained.
"Now, my experiment has been discovered by them and they have destroyed my experiment. There is no need for me to cooperate with them anymore."
"Your experiment?" Xu Xin narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling that something was not right. "What experiment?"
"An experiment to create a completely new biological race." The monster's eyes opened wider unconsciously. "I want to create a race... that can accept me."
… What
"The race that can accept you is..." Xu Xin vaguely guessed something, but he couldn't believe it.
"A race that is half Earth human and half home planet human." The monster said without hiding anything.
As it said this, its eyes opened, and it can be seen that it was a little excited.
"You are actually doing this kind of experiment!" Xu Ying stood up suddenly, in disbelief and a little angry, "You are actually continuing this experiment! You..."
"Ah!" Shi Wanyun suddenly screamed, interrupting Xu Ying's words.
She looked at the monster in surprise, her lips slightly opening and closing, and finally spoke: "I saw in your World Tree, in the house No. 5, the wall full of capsules..."
Both Xu Xin and Xu Ying have shrunken genitals.
Both of them had seen that scene in Shi Wanyun's memory.
The capsules hanging on the wall are all half-human, half-monster creatures!