CHAPTER 886: CHAPTER 131: NOTHING AT ALL

Xiang Shan adjusted his breathing once more. Because of the evaporating sweat, the face mask of the protective suit had become somewhat foggy.

Even with the Powered Exoskeleton, this protective suit was quite cumbersome—it was designed for people to quickly run out of their homes, leap into vehicles, and jump into nuclear shelters in the event of a sudden nuclear strike. It’s essentially a "just in case" design, hardly used in practice most of the time.

Using this thing for scientific exploration is a bit inappropriate.

However, for someone without professional training, at least it’s stronger than ordinary military-grade protective suits.

Xiang Shan was heavily panting, with his hands resting on his knees. The six soldiers split into two groups, with four people on alert in different directions, while two were recording something, collecting air samples, and leaving markers.

They had already made one round-trip journey.

Xiang Shan and the others entered "Argon" through the fracture opening and walked all the way to the top of Argon. Still, there were no machines, no operating systems, and no mobile tools like elevators.

Only the severely deformed top.

The end of this path is the narrow space after the severe deformation, with no room to enter.

After finishing their notes, the group returned but did not choose the original route. Instead, they found another path several meters to the left.

But it didn’t seem to matter much.

Xiang Shan could still see the military light sticks they had dropped on the way there.

"Argon" didn’t even have a single wall inside.

Until now.

No Aliens, no alien machinery, no interactive mechanical structures.

Nothing at all.

"At least the rear definitely has rocket engines," Kanhara said optimistically: "There must be something, right?"

According to the records sent back by NASA, the rear side of this thing indeed has several sets of rocket nozzles.

To avoid mechanical damage from falling, NASA originally planned to conduct research in space. However, this plan was unanimously opposed by the upper echelons of the Federation. Researching in orbit would be easily visible to the public, and the sudden exposure of such a thing would cause unpredictable social impact. Other countries unanimously opposed this approach as well.

What if this alien creation contains epoch-making technology?

In the end, the Federation could only record the shape of these rocket engines in space.

The NASA engineer sitting next to Xiang Shan had told him about this on their way there and expressed deep regret about the matter. No matter how successful this landing was, those engines could not survive intact. "Argon" was simply too big.

"However..." The engineer suddenly changed the topic: "Judging from the appearance, these nozzles don’t seem all that advanced either. I think the Aliens’ technology might not be much more advanced than Earth’s. Unless the propellant those nozzles release is something we can’t comprehend."

"If this represents the technological level of those Aliens, it’s truly astonishing. They’re only slightly more advanced than humans, yet they can build interstellar spacecraft!"

Xiang Shan took a deep breath and stood up again.

Perhaps this is the thing that countries care about the most. In the modern sense, "rocket" was born on Earth as a weapon, and a "better rocket engine" implies "better weapons." Being "just a bit more advanced than Earth" conveniently facilitates reverse engineering of technology.

The "bit" that scientists mention might mean multi-billion US Dollar projects and several years of breakthroughs.

Thinking of this, Xiang Shan even felt a slight sense of responsibility mixed with a slight sense of bewilderment.

The group continued walking forward, but soon Xiang Shan heard a "beep" sound.

He looked around like a startled bird: "What’s happening?"

"Geiger counter," a soldier concisely replied: "There’s radiation."

Xiang Shan was startled and took a step back: "Nuclear leakage?" But soon he saw the readings on the instrument held by the soldier: "That low?"

It seems the instruments in the soldiers’ hands were quite sensitive. The radiation here could only be described as "slightly higher than the environmental background," a little above the safety standards for construction materials or civilian industry but below the environment of a hospital’s radiology department.

"Probably to avoid missing any clues," Yawgmoth said: "What if the Aliens’ vision is based on nuclear radiation... Or they usually use nuclear radiation to write ’Safe Exit’... Right..."

"But I’m certain this isn’t a ’Safe Exit,’ nor does it look like a ’Weak Electric Box’ or an ’Elevator’..." Kanhara Tsun glanced around.

The group continued moving forward.

To be honest, this stretch of road still showed no change. The Geiger counter lazily beeped every now and then, indicating slightly elevated radiation, but the readings were still at a level that made Xiang Shan feel "it’s okay even without the protective suit."

They walked like this until large chunks of debris blocked their way.

Yes, debris.

What stood before Xiang Shan and his team seemed to be a collapsed Cliff.

Earlier, they had stepped on debris from further away. Xiang Shan picked up a fingernail-sized piece of debris and weighed it in his hand for a moment, unexpectedly heavy. Meanwhile, the Geiger counter finally buzzed slightly urgently, serving as a reminder to everyone that this was a radiation source.

This thing had an extremely high metal content, even richer than Earth’s richest ore.

And now, they were standing before the giant stone.

"What is this, then?" Xiang Shan was bewildered again.

By "ore" standards, these stones were evidently as pure as possible, as rich as possible.

But by "nuclear fuel" standards...

Sorry, these things couldn’t possibly be nuclear fuel.

Even if a person touched them with bare hands, nothing would happen.

"So what is this?" Xiang Shan scratched his head: "Nuclear waste? Ballast?"

No one answered Xiang Shan. Several soldiers raised their lighting equipment to look. The road ahead was already completely buried by the massive debris, utterly impassable.

The giant, deformed rocket engine was even further ahead, shadowed and unclear.

"Looks like there’s nothing to gain," Kanhara Tsun regrettably acknowledged: "These equipment can’t possibly get over those rubble piles. We’re stuck here."

"Just... just like this?" Xiang Shan suddenly found it a bit unacceptable.

He, Yawgmoth, and Kanhara Tsun, three experts in "handling various emergencies," hadn’t been able to contribute even once.

There were no Aliens here, no machines, no Talisman, no interactive elements of any kind.

It was as if they were stuck in a puzzle game.

Kanhara Tsun looked at the leader of the six soldiers. After reporting, the leader agreed with this conclusion.

Thus, the human exploration of alien spacecraft ended abruptly.