Chapter 508: Star Ring

The green train departed the Abyss, weaving through varied terrains and landforms.

Sometimes gliding alongside the sky, flying in parallel with hundreds of massive atmospheric creatures, each over a hundred meters in diameter, resembling vast brown jellyfish;

Sometimes diving into rock strata, swimming freely amid magma reaching thousands of degrees;

Only by sitting inside this nameless train can one truly understand how vast and bizarre the Killing Grounds are.

Li Cheng and the others even saw through the window thousands of snow-beast-like creatures, covered entirely in white fur, gathered around a clearly man-made stone altar, lighting bonfires;

As the nameless train passed overhead, the snow beasts excitedly celebrated, pinning down a snow-beast noble adorned in gold and silver onto the altar, slicing open its chest and abdomen, pulling out its organs, and holding them aloft toward the train.

Clearly, these native snow beasts of the Killing Grounds had developed rudimentary self-awareness and intelligence, yet remained in a primitive societal stage, regarding the train as some deity to be appeased.

"Is this Shang Dynasty, or the Maya, or the Aztecs?"

Wan Li Fengdao wiped sweat from his forehead, "What classic nostalgic knife-fighter outfit."

Where there is backwardness, there is advancement. When the green train entered an ocean, a city spanning over two hundred square kilometers suddenly appeared beneath the waves.

The entire city was built around an undersea volcanic crater, drawing energy from geothermal heat,

Its structures were made of living coral, adorned with bioluminescent algae. Buildings were connected by transparent chitinous tubes, within which high-speed directional ocean currents propelled vehicles (mechanical submarines with fish-like streamlined shapes) swiftly through.

When the green train appeared, the living electric ray artillery platforms on the city walls turned in unison to aim at the train, watching it depart with intense wariness.

Lei Yesi, Bai Ma Mubei, and Li Cheng marveled, slightly regretting that the ocean civilization's inhabitants were literally fish, shrimp, crabs, sponges, and starfish—not beautiful merfolk with human upper bodies.

"Judging by architectural style and energy efficiency, this ocean civilization's technological advancement is roughly equivalent to mid-20th-century Earth."

Claudia took a deep breath; the saying "borrowing another's stone to polish one's jade" held weight—surviving, let alone developing a civilization, in the Killing Grounds' perilous environment must have its reasons.

If all the knowledge from this underwater city could be brought back to Lujie, the Monutong Alliance and other guilds would surely spare no reward.

"Something feels off,"

Li Cheng's voice interrupted Claudia's musings. He rubbed his chin seriously: "I once read a paleobiology paper from the Evil Science Alliance. Based on fossils collected from various regions, the Killing Grounds' history far predates that of the human species."

The carbon-14 dating method commonly cited in popular science does not apply to Killing Grounds fossils; the reason is simple—carbon-14 originates from cosmic ray neutrons interacting with atmospheric nitrogen nuclei, and many locations in the Killing Grounds lack these conditions.

Moreover, carbon-14's half-life is only 5,730 years, with an effective upper limit of about fifty thousand years.

Nevertheless, scientists can still determine the age of rocks, minerals, and biological fossils through methods such as radioactive isotope decay, optically stimulated luminescence (measuring the number of electrons in minerals since their last exposure to light), and amino acid racemization dating (where left-handed amino acids in buried dead animals slowly convert to right-handed forms over time, influenced by temperature),

and other techniques.

Based on current samples, the oldest rocks and minerals in the Killing Grounds date back over three billion years; the oldest biological fossils extend to one billion years ago.

Keep in mind the known area of the Killing Grounds is as vast as an entire solar system, with habitable regions far exceeding Earth's surface area; the rich ecosystems across its regions prove life existing there is unsurprising—lifelessness would be strange.

But this raises a more bizarre question: if the Killing Grounds offer such favorable conditions for life and such an immense timespan, why has no native species civilization arisen capable of fully conquering—or even destroying—the Killing Grounds entity?

Homo sapiens took thirty thousand years to progress from social cooperation to agriculture.

From agriculture to the steam age, it took ten thousand years.

From the steam age to the electrical age, it took less than a hundred years—technological advancement accelerated exponentially.

You don't need highly advanced technology, nor even the Killing Grounds' intervention to accelerate growth; real-world humanity, in another one or two centuries, will surely build a von Neumann cellular automaton,

capable of self-replicating using surrounding environmental materials, branching out endlessly, and exploring the Killing Grounds like the colony ships in sci-fi novels.

Even under the most conservative estimate, one million years would be more than enough for such automata to crawl across the entire Killing Grounds, planting flags in every reachable corner (some spatial anomalies, like micro black holes, would be bypassed).

The question arises: if the Killing Grounds' entity offers such favorable conditions for life and such an immense timespan, why has no civilization far surpassing humanity emerged?

The seemingly advanced underwater Atlantis city remained stuck at mid-20th-century technology levels; upon seeing the green train, its entire population went on high alert.

The possibilities hidden here are chilling upon reflection.

Everyone present except Hui Yu was intelligent; Bai Ma Mubei and the others realized this too, and turned their gazes collectively toward Wan Li Fengdao, the highest-ranked and most experienced among them.

"Why are you all staring at me?" Wan Li Fengdao asked, bewildered. Lei Yesi put on a slightly sycophantic smile: "Little Dao Ge, you've seen so much—haven't you heard any rumors about this?"

"There might be rumors,"

Wan Li Fengdao scratched his head, "A long time ago, Han Shuishi mentioned something among the top-tier players—a 'Great Filter' hypothesis or something like that."

Lei Yesi hurriedly said, "Details! Details!"

"I didn't ask further," Wan Li Fengdao replied confidently. Seeing Li Cheng and the others look astonished, frustrated, and exasperated, he shrugged: "You're still too young and naive. When you reach my age, you'll understand—in the Killing Grounds, there's no need to dig too deep."

"Aren't you even curious?"

Bai Ma Mubei couldn't help asking: "The origin of the Killing Grounds, the source of the Summoned's name, the meaning of players' existence, even the way to escape fate."

"First, I don't believe the top-tier players fully understand what you're asking. Second, knowing too much won't improve your survival rate—it'll only become your psychological burden, even your inner demon."

Wan Li Fengdao said calmly: "Have you ever watched Infinite Horror? Do you understand the concept of the fourth-stage gene lock's inner demon?"

"This—"

Bai Ma Mubei, Claudia, and Lei Yesi exchanged glances.

Li Cheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully: "Indeed, sometimes knowing more brings misfortune—like some roadside shops that look shiny and clean, but actually use lymph meat and zombie meat."

He paused, suddenly realizing others were present, and quickly waved his hand: "I mean food delivery vendors—not Zhu Xing Zhen Tai."

"Our Zhu Xing Zhen Tai never shortchanges customers, substitutes inferior goods, misrepresents products, or exploits patrons. Every customer is my beloved family."

Hui Yu, who had been lying in his seat snoring, heard the keyword and instinctively replied: "Follow Zhu Xing Zhen Tai on the forum, thank you for following Zhu Xing Zhen Tai."

"Our Zhu Xing Zhen Tai might go bankrupt, but it will never go bad. Huh-huh-huh."

As the group chatted, the carriage door opened again. The headless reindeer returned casually, greeted them, and said: "I've finished talking with Tung Bone. He went out to hunt a designated divine corruption. As long as you don't provoke him, he won't come after you.

My next stop is the Star Ring Ancient Battlefield—I'm getting off here. Until we meet again."

Saying this, the headless reindeer picked up his fishing rod, bucket, and small stool from his seat.

Li Cheng rummaged through his 3D storage compartment and pulled out several titanium alloy fishing rods he had prepared long ago, offering them as gifts to the Reindeer Brother, then asked casually: "Star Ring Ancient Battlefield? Do the train's stops even have names?"

"Stops don't have official names—I named this one. As for why—look out the window."

Everyone turned to look outside, seeing the green train surge out of the ocean and, just before colliding with the dome, suddenly teleport into an empty expanse of space.

The space floated numerous comets formed from melted metal, alongside a small asteroid whose surface area rivaled that of Australia, its surface scarred by burns, bombardments, and seismic traces.

Surrounding the asteroid drifted countless ice particles, rock fragments, dust, and metal components degraded by time beyond reconstruction, forming a flat, ring-like band resembling a planetary ring.

"Legend has it that tens of thousands of years ago, a transcendent being roughly equivalent to a human Lv40 fought a stellar-level war with an opponent here. The two sides tore open space, melted rock strata, and hurled landmasses into the void. Yet even such mighty power could not escape the weathering of time — all that remains are the scars of that battlefield."

The headless reindeer spoke with feeling, then his spirit lifted. "The good news is, there's a kind of fish that can survive in space living on the planetary ring. I brought radiation-glow lures this time — today I am guaranteed not to come back empty-handed, a hundred percent haul."

Amid everyone's well-wishes and seeing-off, Brother Reindeer, fishing rod and bucket in hand, hopped off the train in high spirits and drifted toward the planetary ring.

But when the train started up again, neither the reindeer nor anyone aboard noticed that, deep within a lightless canyon on the far side of an asteroid the size of the Australian continent, a massive silhouette emerged, gazing in the direction the train had departed.

More precisely, it was looking toward the back row of the fifteenth carriage — toward the astronaut who was leaning against the glass window, still oblivious to everything.