Cutting-edge Technology: I Provide the Brains, the State Provides Everything

248: Civilizations destroyed along the way, the heinous crimes of the Star-Eating Entity!”Run! It’s a trap!”

The line of Chinese characters, flickering with a faint red glow, was like a curse from hell, nailed firmly onto the holographic screen and into the hearts of everyone present.

In the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, 26,000 light-years from Earth, surrounded by alien civilizations, a standard piece of Morse code, styled like something from Earth’s last century, had appeared?

This wasn’t just bizarre; it was terrifying!

”Wh-who sent this?”

”War Wolf” widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief. ”Could it be that there’s a fellow countryman of ours in this godforsaken place? Or is it haunted?”

”Haunted?” Lu Chen sneered, the surprise in his eyes quickly receding, replaced by a deeper coldness. ”In the face of quantum mechanics and high-dimensional space, the low-level concept of ’ghosts’ has long been obsolete.”

He reached out, his fingertip gently tapping the red text.

”Whether the sender of this message is man or ghost, and whether this is a benevolent warning or an enemy trap, we no longer have a path back.”

”Since we are already here, even if it’s a mountain of knives and a sea of fire ahead, we must push through and see!”

Lu Chen waved his hand decisively, his voice resolute: ”heavenly craft, lock onto the signal source location! The entire fleet, maintain ’Dimensional Submergence’ status and continue advancing!”

”I want to see exactly who is playing tricks!”

[Yes, Master!]

The massive expeditionary corps started moving again, silently approaching the signal source—that pulsar cluster known as the ”Corridor of Death”—like ghosts traversing the cracks of time and space.

However, as the fleet went deeper, the scene outside the windows became increasingly shocking.

This was the nuclear bulge of the Milky Way Galaxy, which should have been the densest and brightest region of stars. But what greeted everyone’s eyes was a stretch of dead, gray darkness.

It was as if a bustling city had been instantly drained of all vitality, leaving behind only ruins and dry bones scattered everywhere.

”heavenly craft, open the panoramic scan and remove the dimensional filter.”

Lu Chen’s voice was low. ”Let everyone see: this is the enemy we must face.”

As the command was issued, the image on the holographic screen instantly became clear.

”Hiss—”

The next second, a collective gasp swept across the bridge.

Even War Wolf, who was accustomed to life and death, felt his scalp tingle, a chill shooting straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head!

Floating on both sides of the fleet’s path were countless enormous, bizarrely shaped ”corpses.”

They were not the corpses of living beings; they were—the corpses of planets!

To the left was a rocky planet that should have been full of life. But now, it looked like an apple that had been half-eaten, with half the planet gone! It exposed a dark red core and distorted crustal structures.

On the remaining half of the planet’s surface was a thick, mold-like layer of black substance. Those were dead nano-robots; after consuming all the planet’s energy and organic matter, they simply died there, becoming the planet’s shroud!

”That is the ruins of a ’Silicon-Based’ Civilization.”

Su Qingying said in a trembling voice, her gaze fixed on a massive fragment. The outline of a city could faintly be seen on it—a magnificent complex of buildings constructed entirely of crystals, breathtakingly exquisite.

But now, those crystals had lost all their luster, turning gray, brittle, and seemingly ready to crumble into dust at the slightest touch.

In the ruins of this civilization, countless ”statues” maintained the posture of their last moments before death. Some were running, some were embracing, and some were roaring at the sky.

But they had all turned into gray stone.

”Star Devourers don’t just consume energy; they devour the ’orderliness’ within matter’s structure,” heavenly craft’s voice carried a hint of sorrow. ”For them, the more advanced the civilization and the more precise the architecture, the better the taste.”

”Beasts!”

A young staff officer cursed, his eyes red. ”They are practically locusts! They are the cancer of the universe!”

But this was only the beginning.

As the fleet continued to advance, more and more ”corpses” appeared before everyone.