Tree King: What? I've become the Abundant Pharmacist?

Chapter 496 Pre-nuclear Technology

Meanwhile, on the other side, in the Grylls 667 galaxy.

"These insects are indeed problematic."

Eve fell into thought as she watched the insect being blasted to pieces by the beam of light.

From a material and elemental perspective, these insects are no different from the insects in the swarm, except that they are different species.

However, they exhibit a strange phenomenon: they feed on intelligence.

Whether it is physical creation or abstract destiny energy, it seems to be in their recipe.

Even the mental cage that Eve created with the power of the Mind Commander was devoured by it, which is enough to show how terrifying these insects are.

This is probably why Ruan Mei's career was ruined.

These insects are really bizarre.

There can't be only one insect.

Eve quickly realized a problem.

How could a swarm of insects, which operates in clusters, possibly consist of only one insect?

Something's not right!

Eve looked up abruptly and saw countless scarlet eyes in the ship's dark ceiling.

"really!"

Eve slipped out of the control room and into the cabin.

We don't know the details of these insects yet, so we can't act rashly.

A large number of insects were simultaneously disturbed, and they quickly flapped their elytra and flew out of the control room, heading straight for Eve.

"So it's become one with the wall?"

Eve quickly noticed that the carapaces on the insects' backs were made of the same material as the starship's walls.

It's likely that the entire starship has become a wormhole.

"The Forest Book of the Sages".

Eve quickly summoned the Forest Book, preparing to unleash a spectacular fireworks display on the insects.

But then a gunshot shattered the sound of the insects flapping their wings.

With a "bang," an insect was shot down by a bullet.

Eve slowly turned her head and saw a man wearing a bulletproof vest raising a gun and aiming it at the swarm of insects.

"Hey woman, come here!"

The man shouted at Eve while simultaneously firing his gun, killing several insects in a short time.

"Who are you?" Eve was puzzled by the identity of the man in front of her.

"Let's talk about it later, let's go first!"

The man retreated while firing, and Eve frowned slightly but still followed him back.

She planned to figure out the situation first.

The swarm of insects followed them like a persistent plaster.

But for some reason, they were initially menacing, as if they wanted to tear them apart, but after the man fired the shot, the swarm of insects did not retaliate, but instead became docile.

"Let's go! Let's get in the car!"

The man quickly led Eve out of the starship and to an SUV. He swiftly fired the last magazine of bullets, then flipped himself onto the vehicle with one hand.

Eve had already taken a seat.

“It’s pretty old stuff.” Eve looked at the off-road vehicle under her. It was completely out of place in the context of interstellar space. It was made of very outdated technology, and the engine it used was even an internal combustion engine.

Even locomotives from 800 years ago wouldn't use this kind of engine anymore.

"Let's go!"

The man glanced at the swarm of insects behind him, immediately turned the key to start the engine, stepped on the gas, and the car's engine roared loudly before driving off, leaving a trail of smoke on the barren land.

Strangely, the insect stopped and showed no intention of chasing after it.

"who are you?"

After shaking off the swarm of insects, Eve looked at the man in front of her with a puzzled expression.

"That's what I wanted to ask you," the man said while steering the wheel.

"Who are you? What are you doing on that starship?"

“Answer my question first,” Eve said earnestly.

The man was silent for a moment, then said, "I am Rex, a scavenger."

"A scavenger?" A question mark appeared in Eve's mind.

Scavenging on such a desolate planet? Seriously?

“And what about you?” Rex asked again.

"My name is Eve. I was on my way to the frontier space station and passed through here, but I was forced to land here due to the interference of the magnetic field." Eve made up a backstory for herself.

Before Ruan Mei could be found, Eve planned to conceal her identity and find out what had happened.

“Interstellar traveler?” Renekton seemed to recall something, and his voice became somewhat low.

"I used to be one too."

"It's a pity we've fallen to this state." Rex shook his head.

“Once upon a time…” Eve realized something.

“Let’s go, it’s just ahead, we’re almost there,” Rex said.

"Scavenger Base".

Eve looked ahead and spotted a small, low mound.

That should be the scavenger base that Rex mentioned.

The SUV stopped in front of the small mound, and Rex and Eve got out.

"A base?" Eve carefully observed the place, but there seemed to be nothing special about it.

"You'll find out later."

As Rex spoke, he covered the SUV with a camouflage cloth.

He covered himself up very tightly, and the color of the camouflage cloth was the same as the surrounding environment, so you might not even notice it if you didn't look closely.

"let's go."

Rex led Eve around to the back of the small mound, where he moved a rock to reveal a dark tunnel underneath.

"This is it."

Rex picked up a glowing fluorite and went inside first.

Because the tunnel was very narrow, Eve could only follow behind him.

She observed it carefully. The tunnel was covered with marks from shovels patting the soil, clearly indicating that it was dug out by hand without the use of any excavation tools or modern technology.

Furthermore, looking at the man's attire, Eve couldn't discern any trace of modern technology.

Keep in mind that we're now in the context of the vast universe, where technology has advanced to an absurd level on every planet.

Even Bellberg has the technology and legacy left by its predecessors.

Eve roughly estimated that this place had probably only just entered the industrial age and hadn't even reached the electrical age yet.

But Rex just said that he was once an interstellar traveler, which means that the technology of his previous planet was at least capable of space travel. How did it end up like this?

“Surprised, aren’t you?” Rex, who was walking ahead, suddenly spoke up.

“What do you mean?” Eve countered.

"I knew what you were worried about from the moment I saw it."

"Technology, right?"

“Everyone I’ve saved has had this question,” Rex said calmly.

“Indeed,” Eve nodded. “You said you're an interstellar traveler, but…”

"It's all because of those hateful insects! Otherwise, my daughter..." Rex suddenly erupted in rage, his voice filled with fury, and his steps became unsteady.

"Are you alright?" Eve asked with concern.

"I'm sorry, I lost my composure." Rex shook his head.

He stopped and opened a rusty iron gate in front of him.

"We've arrived."

Eve followed Rex inside, and Rex pressed a button on the stone wall.

A rhythmic ringtone sounded.

A short while later, a rustling sound began.

Three or five children emerged from the hidden stone cave.

"You're back, Rex!"

"Great!"

We are all very worried about you.

Several children surrounded Rex, some worried, some happy, and some silent, but clinging tightly to Rex's leg.

Seeing this, Eve's guard was lowered considerably.

It seems Rex isn't a bad person after all.

"Kids, of course I'm fine."

“By the way, we have a new partner today, Eve.” Rex stepped aside, revealing Eve behind him.

"It's an older sister!"

"It's so beautiful!"

"Hello Eve, I'm Aisana..."

Several children gathered around Eve, jumping for joy, as if they were not on a dangerous planet.

"Eve Eve, how did you get here?"

"I have half a loaf of bread here... but I can only give you half."

The children chattered away, and Eve was a little overwhelmed.

Eve has a unique gentleness and patience with children.

"Children, this is our food rations for next week."

Rex placed his backpack on the table and took out a dozen or so unidentified cans of food and some dried bread.

"Wow!"

"Thank you, Rex!"

Upon hearing about the food, the children immediately swarmed around the table.

They chirped and chattered like little sparrows.

Although the children seemed very lively, Eve noticed some problems.

They suffered from severe malnutrition and appeared to have some psychological problems as well.

However, these problems seem insignificant when it comes to surviving on this planet.

"Come with me."

Rex slipped away from the children and took Eve to another room.

Once the door was closed, the children's noise subsided considerably.

“You look a little sad,” Eve said, seeing right through Rex.

Unlike when he was talking to the children, Rex seemed powerless after closing the door.

“I picked them all up one by one.”

“But, nobody knows if we’ll live to see that day.” Rex clenched his fist.

“Can you tell me about your situation? Maybe it will make you feel better,” Eve continued.

Rex remained silent for a long time before finally speaking:

"I used to be a repairman at the Interstellar Peace Corporation."

"Twenty years ago, I took my daughter with me on a project that was originally headed to a research space station on the planet Dim Star."

"But unexpectedly, an accident occurred while traversing the Grylls 667 system."

"The spacecraft's logbook is malfunctioning, and the system has issued a serious error, rendering even warp drive and space jump technologies unusable."

"I have no choice but to dock on this planet for repairs."

"Like most of the ships that crash-land here, the swarm of bugs appeared."

"My laser weapons, my spaceships, all my available means are useless against them."

"The N3 spaceship, which integrates several planets and was built by countless genius engineers, is like tofu in front of them, and it will break at the slightest touch."

"But in the end, I escaped and survived here."

"But my daughter was eaten by insects in that attack..."

At this point, Rex's voice choked with emotion, and tears streamed down his face, stirring up a fine layer of dust.

“Oh, I feel so sorry for you,” Eve comforted.

Rex paused for a moment, then continued, "Later, I discovered that these insects seemed to have a certain characteristic."

"They can only see... no, I should say they can only sense the presence of technology."

"What does this mean?" Eve asked, puzzled.

“I once experimented with this. I made a laser gun myself, and after wandering around the surface for a short while, insects appeared and chased after me.”

"But when I lost the laser gun, the insects gave up chasing me and ate the laser gun instead."

"Later, I experimented several more times and found that technological weapons had no effect on them at all; on the contrary, they would become excited."

"So I guess these insects feed on technology."

Eve nodded slightly; this was roughly consistent with the information she currently possessed.

In other words, under the swarm of insects, the planet's technology has been locked down.

"After repeated testing, I finally discovered that these insects' sensitivity to technology is roughly at the pre-nuclear era."

"As long as pre-nuclear technology is used, the insects will not be disturbed."

"That's why I use the old technology of the internal combustion engine."

"Pre-nuclear technology..." Eve pondered to herself.

Prenuclear technology is an abbreviation for a technological era; its full name should be the technology before controlled nuclear fusion.

Humanity's development of technology is phased.

Just like weapons, before controlled nuclear fusion, human research on weapons was largely the same: how to make weapons fly faster and farther.

Essentially, it's still a war fought over boiling water.

However, after the invention of controlled nuclear fusion, humanity's use of energy reached a new level, so we no longer bothered with using this method of boiling water for fighting.

The invention of controlled nuclear fusion propelled this civilization into the interstellar age.

Therefore, on the scale of cosmic civilization, the pre-nuclear era and the post-nuclear era are a very clear dividing line.

“It seems you understand all this, so I don’t need to explain further.” Rex’s tone softened.

"Later, while I was fighting these insects, I also discovered another characteristic."

"That's because they're very brittle."

"Technological weapons do no damage to them at all, but it's a different story when it comes to firearms."

“They simply can’t withstand something that only has a primitive mechanical structure and the principle of gunpowder activation.” Rex picked up the rifle that was placed aside, which still had many scratches on it.

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