The architectural aesthetics of the Champa people are vastly different from those of Earthlings. When I arrived at the Champa ruins, even after confirming the target with the holographic map, I was still dumbfounded, unable to believe my own eyes.

There stood three straight spiral buildings, each as tall as the Empire State Building, arranged in an equilateral triangle amidst the dense forest. Although countless years had passed, the structures remained completely intact. Countless passageways connected each building, and those transparent tubes made the whole structure look so bizarre—almost like a living monster’s gene had been extracted and magnified billions of times.

“What a strange and unimaginable sight! The Champa people actually managed to build such magnificent structures with only a dozen or so people, and they’ve been preserved so well. Their technological level is truly astonishing!”

I couldn’t help but be amazed. According to the investigation conducted by the creator of Queen Mother on this planet, the Champa people landed here more than twenty thousand years ago, and the last descendants of the Champa dynasty disappeared over seven thousand years ago. I had expected to see dilapidated ruins, but these three spiral tower-like structures looked newer than many buildings on Earth that were only ten years old.

Although at the base of these three spiral towers, many plants had already taken over what should have been the foundation, no tree could grow taller than the Champa ruins. With the bio-engineered Tibetan mastiffs clearing the way, I made my way to the ruins, but couldn’t find anything that could be called an entrance.

Looking up, I saw that after rising more than a hundred meters from the ground, each level of the spiral towers had an outward-extending platform, and from a distance, I could see what seemed to be security doors on those platforms. Reasoning it out, I guessed that the Champa people’s technology had reached the point where personal flying devices were commonplace, which is why the entrances were so high up.

“Damn it, there’s too little information. If I had known the ruins were like this, I should have brought Lifeboat 15 over. Now how am I supposed to get in? Should I have Bomb Worker Bee carry me up?”

I quickly thought of several methods, but rejected them all. The most feasible was to have Bomb Worker Bee take a rope up, and then I could climb it. The second was to have Bomb Worker Bee blast open the bottom, so I could walk in unimpeded.

But for the first method, I didn’t have a rope, and there were very few vine-like plants in this forest, so finding a substitute was out of the question. As for the second method, anyone else might have tried it already, but I didn’t dare. Such a massive structure as the Champa ruins couldn’t operate without a huge energy source. Judging from the almost completely sealed construction at the base, there was a high probability that the energy source was located at the bottom. If I accidentally caused a nuclear leak, I’d have no one but myself to blame for dying.

The holographic scan map from Lifeboat 15 wasn’t clear enough, and I hadn’t anticipated this situation before setting out.

“Damn it, if only I hadn’t worried about consuming too much energy and had Lifeboat 15 enhance the scan resolution.”

Risking everything to come to the Champa ruins and ending up with nothing was a huge blow to me. After contacting Lifeboat 15, I decided to activate this last secret weapon and have it fly over to take me up.

After learning of my plan, Lifeboat 15 went through a damn round of reasoning and then replied, “My duty is not to obey your orders unconditionally, but to minimize your risk as much as possible. Therefore, I must reject this request. Also, please return to base as soon as possible. I just scanned the area near you and found a powerful life form prowling near the Champa ruins. This life form is equivalent to a level-four bio-beast and is extremely dangerous.”

“Damn it! Didn’t you say the nearest threat was still five hundred kilometers away?”

“Maybe it moved! I don’t have enough energy to monitor this area twenty-four hours a day. I can’t do anything about such changes.”

“Damn! Send all the nearby creature data to my brain right now!”

Lifeboat 15 agreed, and soon transmitted a holographic map of the fifty-kilometer radius. When I was on the alien spaceship, I discovered that my brain had gained this function—I could communicate with them via mental waves and exchange information. However, back then it was always a one-way transfer, with my brain used as a public browser by the aliens.

The holographic map from Lifeboat 15 showed that the most threatening beasts within fifty kilometers were a pack of dire wolves the size of cattle—seventy percent wolf, thirty percent zebra—and a saber-toothed tiger. The pack of cattle-sized, wolf-zebra hybrid beasts was manageable, about as strong as the Tibetan mastiffs, and not particularly dangerous.

But the saber-toothed tiger was different—a tiger-like beast with wild boar tusks. Its combat power was comparable to a level-three combat bio-beast. Of the four Tibetan mastiffs I lost on the way here, two were killed by another saber-toothed tiger. The other two died when I commanded Bomb Worker Bee to blow up the saber-toothed tiger that attacked me, and they were collateral damage.