Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 377 Planet Gaia
When Chen Ming was arguing with the director of the psychic institute.

The ship director, who had been sitting there doing nothing for half a day, couldn't stand it any longer and asked, "Is this what you're talking about?"

The director of the Psychic Institute stared and said, "Yes, Chen Ming is also trying to steal your people. Don't you have any ideas?"

The ship's director spread his hands and said, "I don't really care."

He is already very old, and he can clearly feel that his health is getting worse day by day.

He is not a psychic, and he does not have a strong spirit or a body that is made strong by the spirit. He might decline in a few years.

And even if he really withdraws, even now, he is still very interested in Chen Ming.

After all, Chen Ming has a lot of resources at hand, and he also has the support of An Wuping, his almost half-brother, in biotechnology.

Looking across the empire, anyone who is related to Chen Ming would want to run to Chen Ming and take advantage of the rich resources.

Even the ship's director is no exception.

Although they were the first to start research on phase technology and phase ships.

But only half a year later, Chen Ming was already ahead of them.

Many times, Chen Ming can write down the answers by himself, relying on his own abilities, which would have required lengthy testing and research to achieve results.

This situation really makes it difficult for people to think about competing.

In terms of psychic power, he might be able to compete with Chen Ming because of its particularity and uniqueness, but in terms of pure ship capabilities, he really can't compete with someone like Chen Ming.

Moreover, the director of the ship institute even planned to retire after completing Chen Ming's project.

No longer working on new projects, just being a retired professor and occasionally teaching classes.

He didn't care whether Chen Ming snatched people away or not.

He has looked away.

He could see that Chen Ming was always alone.

Therefore, it makes no difference whether those researchers who were "stolen" stay in the Empire or go to Chen Ming, as long as what they do in the end is always beneficial to people.

The director of the psychic department could understand what the captain of the ship department meant.

Although the two of them don't get along very well, the two departments have been competing with each other for decades under their leadership, and they can see each other's ideas very clearly.

It's the kind of thing where you know what bullshit the other person is going to say as soon as he opens his mouth.

He didn't say anything more relying on his status, but turned to Chen Ming and said, "Okay, I won't say anything else."

"We have already assigned a task regarding the nightmare of that plane."

"Although we haven't encountered anything like this yet, we still need to take preventive measures. Otherwise, if the Empire encounters this kind of thing in the future, it may have to sacrifice human lives."

"Who knows which black hole in the empire will produce a nightmare in the future. I have to get busy with this matter."

The Director of the Psychic Institute said as he stood up.

"It's a good thing I went out with you before, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do."

He waved at Chen Ming and left Chen Ming's office.

The director of the psychic department left, and the director of the ship department did not stay long either.

Although he had already thought about stepping down, he had to finish the tasks at hand.

In addition to Chen Ming's battleship project, he also has a lot of other things to do.

After the two left.

Chen Ming didn't continue to rest, as he still had a lot of things to do.

He first spent half a day gathering those people whom he had previously agreed to participate in the Plane Nightmare project and held a meeting.

Then a second test was conducted to screen out some researchers who looked good on paper but whose actual abilities might not be suitable for Chen Mingguang.

Of course it doesn’t mean that I’m not capable, it’s just that I’m not suitable.

After all, the research direction of the corpse of the nightmare of the plane must be psychic armor, psychic weapons, psychic creatures, black hole technology, gravity technology, space technology and the like.

We can't put the person who was originally responsible for the research of the automation system in Chen Ming's battleship project in here, and the Nightmare of the Plane cannot be automated.

Its body is filled with black hole matter.

Even if Chen Ming wanted to imitate the situation of the Phase Beast Chief to make the corpse move again, he couldn't.

But he also thought of the scavenger. Although this thing cannot defeat the Nightmare of the Plane, it is at least on the same level.

Perhaps using a mechanical body of this size and covering it with the skin of the Nightmare of the Planes could have a similar effect.

But this is certainly not something that can be achieved now.

So Chen Ming only temporarily asked people to withdraw from the project, and he would recruit more people if there was a chance in the future.
In addition to eliminating a group of people who were not suitable for the job, Chen Ming also picked out a group of people who he thought needed his priority consideration after the test.

Compared with those who were eliminated, these people's abilities are obviously more suitable for Chen Ming's new project.

When the new project reaches its initial stage, that is, when the research on the severed limbs of the Nightmare of the Planes is almost complete, he will decide who can participate based on the current personnel list and the actual project progress.

Chen Ming also asked the legion for a new experimental site, and took the limbs of the Nightmare of the Plane out separately, treating it as a separate major project to avoid affecting the project on the main ship.

By the way, it also gives other people some opportunities to get in touch with this project.

After all, the people involved in a small project under Chen Ming's big project will only be Chen Ming's people, or at least people related to Chen Ming. There is definitely no independent project that can recruit more people.

By the way, doing this can also cooperate with the Minister of Psychic Power. He said that he could help Chen Ming find someone, so Chen Ming must give a reason to find someone.

Except for the new project.

There was a slight problem with Chen Ming's request for cooperation with the research team that developed the arc launcher and the focused arc launcher.

It seemed that his actions were too obvious. As soon as he and the group issued a request for cooperation, a group of people immediately rushed over to the group like sharks smelling something.

A bunch of cooperation invitations like Chen Ming’s filled their group’s mailbox.

This is a technical matter in itself. Chen Ming would not get angry if others compete with him, nor would he use his privileges to stop them.

He just used his deep repair psychic power to optimize the sample he had brought for testing.

Then the optimized new energy arc launcher was sent to the research team.

And they were still given the same cooperation share as before.

So in the end, the R&D team agreed to cooperate with Chen Ming and sold part of the patent rights to Chen Ming.

Although Chen Ming always used whatever he saw when installing weapons and other items on his own spaceship, he used whatever was useful.

And they all relied on their own abilities to crack the technology and bought the materials to make it themselves.

But when it comes to technology development, Chen Ming still has to respect the developers.

What's more, Chen Ming really thinks that the arc launcher is a very promising weapon, and he is very optimistic about the market prospects of this weapon.

He believed that arc weapons would be effective even if they were installed on Imperial warships instead of his own.

After being busy for most of the day.

Chen Ming finally finished the things around him.
After he confirmed that there was nothing he needed to do there for the time being, he turned his attention to the wormhole.

The wormhole at the other end of the wormhole of the Origin Galaxy is still approaching the galaxy that Chen Ming had previously detected from a distance, and is expected to reach that galaxy in one day.

While it hasn't actually arrived yet, Chen Ming has already prepared to go ahead and investigate.

The Supreme Point had already reached the edge of that galaxy through a jump in advance.

What he had to do now was to reach the highest point.

Under the influence of psychic energy.

Chen Ming's real body appeared in the command room at the highest point in an instant.

All the sensor scanning data has been sent to the spacecraft's control console.

Chen Ming sat in the main seat in the command room and called up the approximate data of the galaxies that had been detected at a considerable distance before, and opened it together with the data just obtained.

Judging from the data he had just detected, this galaxy itself was a very normal galaxy.

One star plus five planets, no satellites.

However, the state of the planets in the galaxy is somewhat special. Each of these planets is frozen.

No matter how far they are from the stars, as long as they are planets in the galaxy, Chen Ming can only see ice and snow on each planet and cannot see the original appearance of the planet at all.

It is obvious that the star is a yellow dwarf star of the same type as the sun, and its estimated age may be even younger than the sun.

But just as Chen Ming had discovered from long-distance observation before.

The light from this star is very dim and cannot provide enough light and heat for the planets in the galaxy.

Chen Ming was not sure why.

But he knew that a normal star would never experience such an inexplicable decrease in energy intensity.

Combined with the fact that Chen Ming's wormhole is approaching this galaxy, it is hard not to wonder if there is any connection between the two.

Is this galaxy also a very special galaxy? Is it also a wonder galaxy?
With this thought in mind, Chen Ming's Supreme Point did not stay at the edge of the galaxy for too long.

Instead, they dispersed and began to investigate every planet, including stars, within the galaxy.

He released a detector and approached the star, and at the same time used psychic power to bring several different exploration ships, each heading to a different planet in the galaxy.

Chen Ming handed over most of the planets to Yu Hui to control the spacecraft for reconnaissance.

It then drove the Zenith to the second planet in the galaxy.

This planet is the most special of the five planets in the galaxy.

It has an atmosphere, albeit an extremely thin one due to the cold climate, but it does have one.

And it happens to be within the habitable zone of stars with normal energy intensity calculated by Chen Ming.

So no matter what, Chen Ming must go and see this planet in person.

The spacecraft entered the thin atmosphere.

The next moment, the blizzard directly submerged the highest point.

The fierce wind was so strong that Chen Ming, who was inside the spacecraft, seemed to be able to hear its whistling sound.

The sensor's high-precision scanning capabilities are also limited.

Outside the atmosphere, there are atmospheric layers that limit high-precision scanning, and inside the atmosphere, there are blizzards that affect the accuracy of high-precision scanning.

Chen Ming had no choice but to land first and get close to the ground before proceeding normally.

Fortunately, the crystallization of human technology still has its role.

The impact of the blizzard that swept across the entire planet on the spacecraft itself was not as great as Chen Ming had initially thought.

And although the blizzard engulfed the highest point, there were no problems with the highest point's reconnaissance system and ordinary sensor equipment.

Even the climate analysis device installed in the highest point sensor found that the climate on this planet, except for the extreme temperatures and strong winds caused by blizzards, all other indicators are extremely suitable for human survival.

After confirming that there was no problem with the sensor, Chen Ming was a little confused for a moment. He didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

But no matter whether it is good or bad, Chen Ming has to go and take a look after landing.

Soon, as the altitude of the highest point decreased, Chen Ming discovered that the problem he was facing was not the blizzard on the planet.

It’s a question of landing from the highest point.

When the spacecraft lands, the buffer engine nozzles at the bottom of the spacecraft will melt the snow on the surface of the planet.

If there is only a few meters or tens of meters of snow, it would be fine. Just shake the spacecraft a few times at the highest point to melt all the snow under the spacecraft and then land.

But the average depth of snow on this planet is at least hundreds of meters, and after a rough scan from the highest point, Chen Ming also found that the terrain under the snow was obviously uneven, and there was no place to stand.

And the unevenness of the terrain is not due to rugged topography or the influence of solid ice.

This is because there is an ice-covered jungle under the snow in the area where the highest point landed.

A jungle with countless trees hundreds of meters high.

The snow accumulated from the roots of the trees to the crowns, and continued to accumulate upwards for dozens of meters, forming the topmost layer of snow that Chen Ming was seeing now.

Only when the shallow snow melted could Chen Ming barely see the crowns of the giant trees that were still standing tall in the blizzard.

The crowns of these towering trees, hundreds of meters high, were blocking Chen Ming's spacecraft from landing.

This distance is enough for Chen Ming to do something.

He immediately increased the output power of the sensor, trying to figure out the scale of the giant forest and then look for a suitable landing location.

But the results of the spacecraft's scan did not tell him a suitable location. Every area within sight was covered with jungles covered by these giant trees.

but.

The ship's scans told him something else.

That is, underground, deep beneath this jungle, there is a vibrant world hidden beneath the ice and snow.

This is a world filled with green, blue and purple at first glance.

The green and purple ones are vegetation, and the blue ones are luminous plants and luminous fungi that are spread throughout the entire underground world, making the underground, which should be pitch black, as bright as the surface.

The environment of this underground world is similar to any habitable planet Chen Ming has ever seen.

With the naked eye, you can see lush plants and a wide variety of animals everywhere, full of vitality.

And the climate in the underground environment is very mild.

The freezing of the surface seems to have no effect on the underground.

According to Chen Ming's investigation, the source of heat for this underground world seems to come from geothermal energy deeper underground.

No matter how cold the surface is, the underground remains warm due to the protection of the thick earth and the giant trees that support this underground world.

The underground world is a paradise isolated from the rest of the world.

Chen Ming knew about an underground ecosystem before, but that ecosystem was very different from what Chen Ming saw now.

That ecosystem was born based on the natural geographical conditions of the planet. It is an ecosystem located deep underground in the underground hollow areas that exist almost entirely on the planet.

The dominant color of that ecosystem is darkness, and in the darkness there are countless ferocious predators.

Every living thing in that ecosystem, whether it is a plant or an animal, has weapons to fight against more powerful creatures.

Because creatures without the ability to resist simply cannot survive in such an environment.

The weapon in the hands of a psychic whom Chen Ming had killed before was made from the bones of a psychic individual among the predators called night owls in this ecosystem.

Although Chen Ming had discarded that weapon a long time ago, he always remembered the things about the Night Owl and that unique ecosystem.

Chen Ming thought about it for a while and did not continue trying to land the highest point.

Because in the scan from the highest point, almost all the land on the entire planet was covered by those giant trees.

Landing was possible only on the now frozen ocean.

So Chen Ming simply decided not to land.

He put on the biological armor that had been optimized for the first time using the power armor of the Shining Civilization, and jumped down from a high altitude.

Watching the blizzard outside.

For a moment, Chen Ming seemed to feel that the planet beneath him was crying.

Before Chen Ming had time to confirm his feeling, he fell into the snow hundreds of meters deep.

Chen Ming quickly found a huge tree buried in the snow and dug along the trunk all the way into the depths of the snow and underground.

The tunnel he dug behind him was soon covered with snow, and the temperature sensor on his armor was telling him that the temperature outside was rising rapidly.

The earth and giant trees of this planet have extremely strong thermal insulation properties.

With only a few dozen meters of separation, the temperature difference between the surface and underground has reached hundreds of degrees Celsius.

Chen Ming recorded various data he obtained from field investigations, and was also constantly analyzing the soil of the planet and the samples of the giant trees he had just obtained.

It can be said that the composition of the soil of this planet is not significantly different from that of any habitable planet, but it does seem to be very suitable for the survival of life.

Among those giant trees, Chen Ming found traces of a powerful natural chlorophyll with a unique structure.

This illustrates one thing.

That is, these giant trees once relied on photosynthesis to survive, and the world was not like this before.

Chen Ming continued to move underground.

The excavation continued for dozens of meters.

He followed the roots of the giant tree and finally reached the underground world.

Looking around, he saw only prosperity and vitality.

Even through the protective suit, he could feel the vitality of this underground world and a feeling that made people addicted to this world.

After the armor system confirmed that the external environment was one that humans could survive in, Chen Ming tentatively removed the armor he was wearing.

An unprecedented sense of comfort, as if he was supposed to be born here, grow up here, and live here, completely surrounded Chen Ming.

Chen Ming's expression suddenly froze.

Because Chen Ming had never experienced this feeling before, he was not sure whether this was a precursor to some kind of attack.

But he soon relaxed.

Because he felt his consciousness becoming clearer and his fatigue gradually disappearing.

He just stood there, as if he was lying in a comfortable bed.

The whole world seemed to be changing to make him more comfortable and allow him to stay on this planet longer.

It was not some unknown psychic power or some other means that was interfering with his perception and causing him to have such an illusion.

This is what really happened.

Because the detector Chen Ming carried with him was reporting that the oxygen and carbon dioxide content in the underground environment, as well as various values ​​closely related to the environment that are invisible to the naked eye, were undergoing obvious changes.

Becoming more in tune with his body, more in tune with his consciousness.

The world is adapting to him.

This planet... is "alive".

If Chen Ming guessed correctly, this planet should also be a cosmic wonder.

It is a planet shrouded in the consciousness of the true Mother Earth, it is a true Gaia planet.

The feeling Chen Ming had when he first arrived at the planet was real: the planet was crying.

It sensed its arrival and placed some hope on itself.

Of course, gods don’t exist. Chen Ming just had such a feeling.

In his understanding, this planet should have a certain consciousness, and this consciousness will protect everything that exists on the planet.

Just as Chen Ming believes that the phase space itself also has consciousness and will create species like phase beasts to protect itself.

Anyway, in this universe, abstract concepts like dimension can give birth to consciousness, and man-made inanimate objects like spaceships can give birth to ship spirits.

It is quite normal for a vibrant planet to give birth to consciousness.

It is also normal for a self-aware being to try to save itself.

At this point, Chen Ming finally confirmed one thing.

That is, the ecological environment in front of us definitely did not exist underground and under the glacier from the beginning.

It is more like the situation where after the environment within the galaxy has undergone drastic changes, countless creatures, under the guidance of the planetary consciousness, follow the underground root veins of the giant tree to seek a way out again in the underground where geothermal heat maintains the temperature.

Because he noticed that the creatures underground all had certain characteristics of adapting to the cold environment, but they had not evolved completely. Instead, it seemed that they had evolved for a period of time and then stopped evolving.

This can just explain what Chen Ming saw.

It would be impossible for the giant trees on the surface of the earth to grow without sufficient sunlight from the stars.

In the earliest times, the climate on the surface was absolutely no different from that underground.

It wasn't until the star began to cool that life on the surface was forced to evolve traits to adapt to the environment.

After evolving for a period of time, new life began to appear underground, so all the creatures still struggling on the surface hid underground.

He started life again underground.

So why does the light of stars become dim?

Chen Ming didn’t know, but he didn’t mind helping the planet regain everything it had in the past.

He really wanted to see what the planet would be like after it was restored to its original state.

And he just happened to know a technique.

Climate modification technologies.

Perhaps this technology could be used on this planet to make up for the fact that the stars in this galaxy are too dim.

Or perhaps, he could start with the stars in this galaxy?
Chen Minggang was thinking about whether he should start from the stars to investigate the sudden climate changes within the galaxy.

The detector he had just sent out to approach the star suddenly sent back a message.

On the dim star in the galaxy, there is an extremely bright spot of light moving rapidly.

Chen Ming's first reaction was that it was a stellar flare.

And judging from the photos sent back by the detector, it was indeed an irregularly shaped bright spot, accompanied by a large amount of erupted stellar material, and it seemed to be just a flare.

But in Chen Ming's understanding, only stars with normal or frequent activities will have flare activities.

How could a star with a sudden drop in temperature, which has caused a originally habitable planet in the galaxy to be transformed into an apparently icy planet, still have such a bright flare?
(End of this chapter)