Chapter 56: Anti-matter Energy Engine +1

Liu Mu's eyes widened. At this moment, the place she was in was exactly the hallucinatory scene generated last time when she recovered the Giant Sun Fragment that had erupted with energy in the seaside canyon. That clear realization appeared in her mind once again—she was no longer on Earth!

"What is going on?" She opened her mouth to speak, only to find that her voice did not seem to travel through the air, but rather entered her brain through the vibration of her head tissues. While she was in shock and confusion, a bone-chilling cold suddenly came from her hand.

She hurriedly looked over. A faint light from an unknown source allowed her to see that her exposed hand had actually formed a layer of frost, and in her perception, this had taken no more than two or three seconds.

Just as she was about to put on her protective gloves, the black pillar in front of her moved. It vibrated again, and at the same time, a line of strange, character-like symbols appeared on it.

Appearing simultaneously with these symbols was a glowing palm print that emerged where her palm had just pressed. The print contained almost every line from her palm, and the light flickered on and off, as if inviting her to place her hand on it again.

Liu Mu hesitated for only a moment before placing her hand on it. Unlike the tactile sensation from last time, this time it was actually warm.

The moment they made contact, a strange sensation traveled from the skin of her palm, as if countless tiny particles were in contact with her skin. The cold feeling vanished, and along with it, the layer of frost disappeared.

Just as she was surprised that this pillar could actually warm her hands, a series of information flashed through her mind. The appearance of this information was almost as smooth as communicating with Heitao A.

【Detected that your body temperature is dropping rapidly. Temperature-sensing protection is not activated. Please insert a Giant Sun Fragment to activate the system protection mechanism.】

Liu Mu blinked. The style in which this information appeared was exactly the same as the characters on the pillar, yet she should not have been able to recognize such characters.

"Who are you?" She opened her mouth to speak, only to find her mouth stiff, exhaling a fair amount of white mist, her voice trembling.

So it was her own body temperature that was dropping!

In order not to freeze to death inexplicably in the Huoshan, she hurriedly asked again, "What is a Giant Sun Fragment?"

The characters on the pillar vanished, and new ones appeared. This time, her pupils dilated slightly, because the information on it clearly read: 【Heitao A is at your service. The Giant Sun Fragment required to activate the system is the one in the Recovery Space. Do you wish to use a portion to activate the host protection mechanism?】

"Use, use it!" Liu Mu's teeth chattered. After saying this, she bit down hard to avoid looking even more pathetic, but she had too many questions.

However, at this moment, she could feel that thumb-sized fragment being taken out of the Recovery Space, and then it merged into the black pillar like a drop of water.

The moment the fragment merged, the black pillar disappeared from before her eyes, and the next second, it appeared in the center of the Heitao A Xitong space, still standing straight like a pillar.

It was as if that had always been its place; the base merged perfectly with the space. It stood five meters tall, and every edge lit up with a pale blue light, flickering intermittently in a certain pattern.

But before this, the other thing Liu Mu noticed was that the moment the black pillar disappeared, she saw countless identical pillars within her field of vision, scattered all around at varying heights, like a forest of black pillars.

In the distance, there still existed something massive, indescribable, impossible to look at directly, and filled with danger.

Seeing these—or rather, it was not just 'seeing'—negative emotions surged up again: desolation, sorrow, despair, coldness...

However, when these emotions impacted her brain, she did not become unable to bear it like last time, nor did her brain instinctively shut down her bodily functions, leaving her in a state of being conscious yet unable to perceive—or rather, a conscious coma.

Instead, the moment she felt these emotions, the surrounding light suddenly twisted, and the next instant, she 'returned' to the Huoshan.

【Heitao A Xitong is at your service. Congratulations to the host for obtaining an Anti-matter Engine *1. System energy has been partially replenished and has entered Low-Efficiency Operation Mode. This mode enables the following permissions: Recovery Space expanded by two times; 88 new categories of items can be recovered (view details); material decomposition efficiency increased by two times; except for the energy consumption of using Mutation abilities, other system functions no longer require decomposing recovered materials for replenishment; the system can perform limited improvements based on the host's wishes (Improvement Command); one system-protected creature can be added, etc. Please view the details of each functional change yourself, Host.】

Liu Mu stood where she was and sneezed. Sudden cold and sudden heat—no one could stand that.

She had some guesses about the relationship between that black pillar and the system, as well as that mysterious space, but the most urgent matter was, "Scan for any other energy sources nearby. You said before that the energy eruption was this engine?"

【Scanning... Scan complete. Scan result: Apart from the Huoshan geothermal heat, there are no other energy sources. Yes, before the Anti-matter Engine enters sleep mode, it releases a large amount of energy to reduce damage to its own interior, triggering volcanic eruptions and temperature rises.】

Sure enough, the volcanic eruption and the sudden doubling of the temperature were all because of this thing.

Liu Mu figured this out, glanced at the crater, decided not to go in for the time being, and turned to leave before asking the system, "Is that system protection mechanism protecting me? What are its functions?"

【In Low-Efficiency Operation Mode, the system will provide the host with basic and limited protection, including monitoring heat sources within a 50-meter radius, maintaining the host's normal body temperature, monitoring the host's physical health and creating a wellness plan, providing rapid hemostasis and accelerated wound healing when the host suffers minor injuries (view minor injury range), strengthening immunity by 10%--50% based on the host's own immune system, etc.】

Liu Mu suddenly remembered something, "Will that detoxification function I had before also be strengthened?"

【All functions within the immune system can be strengthened.】

"I say," Liu Mu leaped between the cooled rocks, "you only entered Low-Efficiency Mode now that you have some engine, what were you before?"

Heitao A did not give an answer immediately, seemingly thinking of a way Liu Mu could accept, 【Idling.】

"You guy, don't use slang, let's be civilized." Liu Mu's lips curled slightly, deciding to test it, "Now, start monitoring for anyone within a 50-meter radius at all times, especially those carrying guns."

【Please allow the system to remind you: the system can only monitor heat sources, such as human bodies, mutated organisms, explosions, combustion, etc., and cannot monitor whether there are unused weapons.】

"That works too," Liu Mu had just finished speaking when a miniature 3D map appeared in her mind. It was almost entirely red, exactly the same as the flow of lava.

She was speechless. This heat source monitoring did not seem as useful as she had imagined.

But she quickly changed her mind. Leaving the lava area, she immediately discovered several moving red dots on the edge of the 'map'. When she zoomed in on their shapes, they were clearly humans carrying guns.

"Good grief, they really are coming back for a sneak attack. I must have been too lenient with you lot!"