Age of Cataclysm: I can light up the technology tree

It was dark.

A huge arthropod was swinging its hundreds of ventral legs quickly, twisting its body covered with a hard exoskeleton, and flexibly moving through the lush forest.

Occasionally, it would slow down its pace a little, lower its head and nibble a few bites of food at the roots of the tree trunks beside it.

Even though the food in this area was very rich, it still had no intention of stopping.

Suddenly.

For the first time, it stopped its somewhat hurried steps and raised its head to look forward.

A light breeze blew, bringing a warm and slightly damp breath.

It pressed its abdomen against the soft ground and felt it carefully.

A slight vibration came from the front, as if foreshadowing something.

After confirming the specific direction, it swung its ventral legs again and walked forward quickly.

A few seconds later, the view suddenly opened up!

The lush forest came to an abrupt end here!

In front of it was an ocean that could not be seen at a glance!

As it moved forward, its body spontaneously underwent some changes.

The color of its body changed, becoming very similar to the color of the beach.

For it, this was like an instinct, and it hardly took any energy.

It ran quickly to the beach, lowered its head and drank a few sips of slightly warm fresh water.

Then, it raised its head and looked around.

There were many of its kind staying on the coast.

They gathered in groups of three or two, communicating with each other with the help of tentacles.

It did not join them, but silently raised its head and cast its eyes to the sky.

The starry sky was bright.

Some doubts appeared in its small brain.

In some vague memories, there seemed to be two large and bright balls in the starry sky at night.

Although the brightness was not as good as the light ball in the daytime, it could still dispel the darkness of the night.

But now... these two balls are gone.

Just like the light ball in the daytime, they disappeared suddenly.

Where did they go?

What are those small spots of light in the night sky?

Questions arose in its mind, filling its underdeveloped brain.

After a long time, it felt a little tired in the neck after keeping the same posture.

It shook its head and lowered its head to drink a mouthful of sea water again.

The warm sea water slowly fell down its esophagus, washing away the doubts in its heart.

It didn't know the answers to these messy questions, nor could it figure out the truth behind them.

But it knew that since the two spheres disappeared and the daytime sky was occupied by the huge disk, "sunbathing" became warmer and more pleasant, and the forest became much safer.

The most important point is that it sees more and more of its kind every night.

This is a good thing.

The memory hidden in its genes tells it that every time such a situation occurs, their population will have a stable reproduction cycle of a few decades or a hundred years.

The next will be a peaceful era.

Thinking of this, its mood suddenly became happy.

It quickly swung its ventral foot and ran towards the groups of its kind in the distance.

...

Human fleet.

Most of the probes loaded with samples have returned to the fleet.

Under various perfect isolation measures, Zero controlled the robot to carefully send various samples into a special biological laboratory.

In order to ensure the biological activity of the samples, the biological laboratory has been temporarily transformed into an atmospheric environment similar to the Lost Star.

A dedicated experimental robot was busy preparing for the experiment in the biological laboratory.

Thanks to the breakthrough in robot technology, biologists no longer have to take huge risks to contact alien biological samples.

Of course, this is also limited.

Once a special situation that the robot cannot handle is encountered, it is likely that biologists will still need to go into battle in person.

"Professor, the detector has discovered unidentified creatures in the coastline area of ​​the Lost Star."

The reminder sounded in a flat tone, but it caused an extremely unpleasant response.

"Hiss!!!"

"Where? Where are the unidentified creatures?!"

"Is it humanoid?"

"I wonder if they have wisdom..."

"..."

For a while, the laboratory was filled with various discussions. Mao Zhengzhi was particularly excited. With a red glow of excitement on his face, he quickly walked through the crowd and squeezed to Lv Yongchang's side.

The next moment.

The holographic image showed the images taken by the probe.

Although there was almost no light source on the surface of the planet and only dim starlight in the sky, the images sent back by the probe were still as bright as daylight.

But...

Lv Yongchang looked at the empty coastline and frowned slightly.

"Zero?"

"Where are the unknown creatures?"

He asked Zero with some doubt.

In his opinion, there were no abnormal objects near the coastline except for the extremely narrow beach.

On the beach, for some reason, there were many strange patterns that looked like traces left by crawling creatures.

Not only Lv Yongchang, but other scientists also showed a hint of confusion in their eyes.

"Professor, it's a protective color."

As soon as the voice fell, dense red circles appeared in the holographic projection.

Lv Yongchang was slightly stunned, and subconsciously took a step forward, closing the distance between him and the holographic projection, and observing more carefully.

After several minutes of observation, he noticed the strangeness of these red circles.

Although the red circle area is very similar to the surrounding beach, it still reveals some flaws when moving - those slowly extending lines are the best proof.

"Hiss..."

Lv Yongchang glanced at the number of red circles, took a breath, stepped back half a step and said: "So many?"

"This beach... is almost full, right?" He muttered to himself, "Where did they come from..."

"According to the crawling tracks and observation records, all creatures appeared from the forest." Zero quickly gave the answer and marked the crawling "tracks" in the holographic projection.

Mao Zhengzhi frowned and uttered a soft "Tsk... That's not right!"

"In that case, why didn't the detector find these creatures during the day?"

"The protective color suitable for the beach should be very conspicuous in the forest."

"Academician Mao, please wait."

The electronic synthesized sound sounded, and the image in the holographic projection began to accelerate and reverse.

Soon, the strange lines on the beach disappeared one by one.

Finally, the beach returned to its appearance smoothed by the sea.

Time began to flow normally.

Seeing the first line suddenly appear at the junction of the beach and the forest, Lv Yongchang's eyes suddenly flashed with a look of realization.

"Chameleon?"

He said with relief: "These creatures can change their protective color at any time according to the surrounding environment!"

"No wonder the detector can't find them during the day!"

After a moment of silence, Lv Yongchang spoke again: "Can you simulate their basic form?"

[Basic information is insufficient, and the simulated form may be quite different from the real object. 】

As a line of reminder text emerged, a slightly strange creature began to slowly emerge in the holographic projection on the side.