Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 32: Chapter 32: The Terrifying Mechanical Race

The spaceship once again flew over the temporary camp.

As soon as the spaceship approached the camp, Chen Ming saw the cow beast, which was chained up but still struggling.

In fact, after learning the truth about the animals’ madness and experiencing it himself, this cow beast, whose mind was damaged by the Mind Pulse, was no longer useful to Chen Ming.

However, Chen Ming didn’t rush to kill it, intending to see what its final outcome would be.

Yet, when Chen Ming saw it, a question suddenly popped into his mind.

How do these mad animals precisely locate him?

Previously, the cow beast discovered him hiding in the bushes across the river without any warning, and even earlier, those purple-tailed deer suddenly appeared next to the camp.

Chen Ming didn’t say much about the sky jellyfish because the spaceship made such a large noise, but the cow beast and purple-tailed deer gave Chen Ming the feeling that their eyes were solely fixed on him.

Is it because, as a human, there is something special about him?

Chen Ming wasn’t quite sure how to explain this situation.

However, Chen Ming thought to himself, since the Mechanical Race holds an inexplicable hatred towards humans.

Then it’s not unreasonable to say that the animals, driven mad by the influence of the Mechanical Race’s Mind Pulse, could directly locate human presence.

Without thinking too much, after the spaceship stabilized, Chen Ming picked up his farming tools.

He still had things to do next.

Time passed quickly.

It was the night of the fifteenth day since Chen Ming arrived on the Planet.

Part of Chen Ming’s day was spent investigating those three buildings.

The rest of the time was mainly spent on farming.

The first batch of pulp oranges he planted had all been harvested, while the second batch, although Chen Ming felt that the probability of staying on the Planet until the next harvest was not high.

But since he had extra seeds, Chen Ming continued to plant as usual.

During the day, he repaired his weapons and was affected by the Mind Pulse, so his mental state wasn’t very good.

So even if he wanted to go to the suspicious location of the Mind Pulse Device, it had to wait until Chen Ming recovered by the next day.

Nightfall grew deeper.

Chen Ming lay in bed in the living cabin, finding it somewhat hard to fall asleep as he did the previous night.

Because the place he’s going tomorrow might involve a battle.

It’s not the type of battle where the spaceship uses technological and era advantages to attack animals, which are not even on the same level, but a battle where the difference in strength between the two sides cannot be ascertained.

Chen Ming wasn’t particularly optimistic about the spaceship’s firepower, but the storage capacity limitations of the spaceship’s storage cabin meant that Chen Ming couldn’t make any last-minute preparations.

Looking at the Machine Gun panel in front of him with those insufficient material transformation options.

Chen Ming could only sigh and force himself to sleep.

”The Mechanical Race...”

The next day.

Chen Ming woke up early again.

This time, Chen Ming didn’t attend to his daily tasks but started the spaceship at the first moment of being fully awake.

Flying towards the coordinates determined yesterday.

Today, Little Stone seemed to sense that Chen Ming’s state was different from usual and proactively climbed onto Chen Ming’s shoulder, rubbing his face.

However, today Chen Ming didn’t have the time or leisure to play with Little Stone, only able to pat its head and tell it not to run around.

Chen Ming needed to devote all his energy to what might happen next.

As the spaceship gradually approached the target location.

Chen Ming closed the porthole protection layer that only closes when the spaceship enters the atmosphere, observing the external situation only through the spaceship’s external cameras.

Before long, the image of the target location appeared before Chen Ming’s eyes.

It wasn’t the mechanical structure filled with various advanced equipment Chen Ming had previously imagined.

Here was just an open field with a mechanical device, approximately two meters tall, set squarely on the ground, looking very... simple.

And beside the equipment, there were a total of three mechanical beings with distinctly different shapes, moving around.

Those were the Mechanical Race.

The mechanical being closest to the equipment was about one and a half meters tall, with four mechanical arms, each equipped with different specialized equipment.

It appeared to be specialized for maintaining equipment, part of the Mechanical Race.

The other two mechanical bodies had entirely different shapes from this logistics-oriented Mechanical Race.

Standing two meters tall, their forms resembled mantises, with slender builds covered by gray-green external armor scarred with signs of wear and tear.

Their left arms were mechanical arms constructed in the manner of human arms, while their right arms were replaced by a special large weapon.

This weapon’s appearance was similar to firearms, visibly showing many coils exposed, seemingly some kind of Electromagnetic Weapon.

Although this Electromagnetic Weapon was almost half the length of the mechanical body itself, Chen Ming didn’t feel any sense of incongruity when looking at it.

Instead, it made these two mechanical beings appear even more menacing.

As Chen Ming saw the Mechanical Race through the camera.

The Mechanical Race simultaneously spotted Chen Ming’s spaceship.

The two mantis-like combat mechanical bodies both raised their right arm’s large Electromagnetic Weapons, aiming at the spaceship in the sky.

Chen Ming immediately ordered the two Machine Guns to sweep in the direction of the Mechanical Race while he maneuvered the spaceship for a rapid dodge flight.

However, along with two almost contiguous dull thumping sounds reaching Chen Ming’s ears.

Chen Ming suddenly noticed on the spaceship’s panel that the durability of the bottom armor had decreased from 100% to 99%.

If it were just this, it wouldn’t be much, but immediately afterward, a few words appeared behind the armor durability indicator.

Armor pierced.

In an instant, cold sweat broke out on Chen Ming’s forehead. He immediately abandoned the plan for a counterattack; before the two mechanical bodies could prepare a second shot, he promptly activated the Overload Grid.

The engine overclocked into operation, and the burst of speed instantly escalated the spaceship, vanishing from the mechanical beings’ shooting range.

Chen Ming, a bit shaken, glanced at the screen showing footage from a camera below the spaceship while activating the spaceship’s full three-dimensional imaging.

The footage on the screen revealed two new holes in the bottom armor of the spaceship.

On the three-dimensional imaging, it was clearly visible that the bullets from earlier had pierced through the armor and were stuck between the spaceship’s armor and structure.

The bullets fell just short of piercing through the hull structure, potentially damaging the spaceship’s component functions.

Civilian spaceship armor is just too thin.

Luckily, he didn’t let the spaceship face them below.

Otherwise, if those two shots had hit the porthole directly, the heat shield armor outside the porthole would have been penetrated immediately, with the same fate awaiting the porthole glass.

Even Chen Ming himself might have met his end here.

Fortunately, Chen Ming did not allow that scene to transpire.

And now Chen Ming realized clearly enough.

If he wished to harbor any intentions against the Mechanical Race, against the Mind Pulse Generator they protected.

Then relying solely on the current Iron Ore No. was far from enough.