Chapter 440

Chapter 440: The Uniqueness of the Planet

“So many?”

Wang Xiao let out a short, surprised exclamation. He had thought his time assisting the experiments was nearing its end, but it now seemed there was no end in sight.

“Don’t lose heart; there will always be a way.”

Ji Yongxing kept clicking the pen in his hand, producing a rhythmic click-clack sound.

“I’m increasingly convinced that Mr. Arthur’s vision is correct. To save humanity, we can’t rely solely on the small fraction of superpowered individuals among us. We must empower everyone to protect their own homes.

“And to realize this vision, the soldier exoskeleton armor is the best solution.”

Wang Xiao nodded in agreement but then shook his head:

“I’m not disheartened; it’s just… I’ve been so busy here lately that I haven’t had a chance to check on the situation at the city walls.”

“Over there? Everything’s been fine recently.”

Ji Yongxing paused to think before continuing:

“Shi Jin and Luke have been working with Ink Drench on city defense matters. The emergence of self-detonating bugs has indeed been challenging to handle, but we’re managing for now.”

He then turned his gaze back to Wang Xiao:

“When it comes to enemies like these, your abilities seem less effective.”

Wang Xiao nodded in acknowledgment. His power was heavily focused on individual strength, and relying solely on himself was insufficient to protect a city wall stretching hundreds of meters.

In contrast, the abilities of Ink Drench and Luke, while perhaps not as destructive as his own, had the advantage of covering a wide area, benefiting nearly everyone along the battle line.

“There’s another question I’d like to ask you.”

Ji Yongxing suddenly interjected.

“Go ahead.”

“Given your extensive combat experience, what type of weapon do you think would be the most versatile for the soldier exoskeleton in battle?”

Wang Xiao fell into deep thought. The most common enemies they faced were extraordinary beasts and mycelial plants.

What kind of weapon could effectively deal damage to both?

Recalling his past experiences of being surrounded, Wang Xiao answered cautiously:

“If it were up to me, I’d choose to carry a chainsaw and… a flamethrower.”

—

Several documents were placed on Arthur’s desk, and Lin Qingliu, draped in the golden giant’s leather suit, found himself deep in thought—a rare occurrence.

Recent research had encountered significant obstacles. Zhou Zhuo’s report indicated that the peculiar fish in the Sea of this planet showed no traces of mycelium.

After further investigation, he had tentatively concluded that these marine creatures were unrelated to the biological samples humans had brought from their home planet.

This aligned with Lin Qingliu’s assumptions, as the appearance of these sea creatures was entirely distinct from that of extraordinary beasts and humans. In comparison, even the Ankang fish seemed almost benevolent.

It now seemed reasonable to deduce that the creatures in the Sea were what Old Era humans had described in their records of this planet: “Basic life forms exist.”

However, after so many years, these creatures had undoubtedly undergone some degree of evolution.

Had humans arrived a few hundred years later, those fish might have already begun to venture onto land.

The pace of evolution did not align with Lin Qingliu’s understanding, yet it seemed entirely logical on this planet.

This was because Lin Qingliu had witnessed numerous similar examples around him—

After humanity arrived on this planet, it took only two to three generations to produce individuals capable of stable mutations, and these superpowers rarely came with any physical side effects.

Such rapid evolution could only be attributed to the unique environment of this extraordinary planet.

Of course, this was not entirely a positive development. With the revelation of documents concealed by the council members, Lin Qingliu discovered that among the first few batches of embryos activated in Hope City, the likelihood of infertility had reached a disturbingly high rate.

As time passed since humanity’s arrival on this planet, and as those who failed to evolve were gradually eliminated, the data began to normalize.

As for the ten original council members, there were no records of descendants in the archives. This was one of the reasons behind the emergence of the inheritance faction; after all, few are willing to leave their legacy without heirs unless they truly have none.

A reasonable assumption is that the planet’s unique properties affected all humans who arrived.

For the council members, who had been adults for a long time, they could not adapt to this change but were not easily killed by it. The result was that, whether they consented or not, they were subjected to covert sterilization procedures.

Similar changes occurred in multiple batches of Accelerated Adults, and the data on them further supported this observation.

The six batches of Accelerated Adults awakened by the council were essentially peers, differing only in the order of their thawing and nurturing.

However, in the absence of any breakthroughs in awakening and nurturing technology, the probability of these six batches of Accelerated Adults being able to reproduce steadily decreased, as if those awakened later had been partially assimilated by the planet.

On the virtual screen before Lin Qingliu, he connected one fact or hypothesis after another, and when keywords like “planet,” “uniqueness,” “mutation,” “evolution,” and “native life” were linked together, only one glaring label remained on the screen—

“Biological Field.”

The theory of the biological field was proposed and gradually refined by Zhou Zhuo over the past two decades.

For Lin Qingliu and a few special individuals like Sleepless, who could directly perceive and sense the biological field, this theory aligned perfectly with their superpowers and was quickly validated.

Yet Lin Qingliu seemed to have subconsciously overlooked a crucial question—

Did the biological field exist before humanity arrived on this planet?

He carefully reflected on the less than a century of human history on this planet.

Based on the current interactions between humans and mycelium life within the biological field, it was indeed peculiar that the creature infected by humans and eventually bursting out could roam freely within the spire, which was filled with humans.

Even if it was tolerated by a few crew members who had not yet become council members, the influence of the biological field did not require a medium.

In other words, the thickness of Hope City’s walls would not disrupt the balance of the biological field between humans and mycelium.

According to this theory, the alien creature at that time should have struggled to move within the spire. After all, it was a single entity, while humans tended to act in groups, and their numbers far surpassed that of the creature.

Yet that alien creature still managed to attack another faction of over ten humans and was ultimately reduced to ashes in the flames of Wencheng’s team.

So…

Lin Qingliu connected the dashed lines to the final label, a sense of caution rising within him—

Caution toward the ground beneath his feet, toward this planet.