Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 1365 - 687: Slipping Away Quietly

"Ying!" Keke tilted her little head, showing a very proud expression.

Lou Fei’Er was instantly curious: "What exactly did you get just now?"

Xu Xin looked ahead into the corridor: "Let’s move forward first and talk as we walk."

When Xu Xin entered the bracelet with Jin Yue, Li Wenxi had already been talking to the monster for some time.

In each of their hands, they held the two items that Xu Xin had picked up from the counter and stored in the bracelet.

A stack of transparent membranes and a metal rod capable of releasing lasers.

The monster was visibly surprised by these two things, making its already ugly face even more hideous and sinister.

"The transparent membrane is meant to be worn on the body, to shield against the erosion caused by concentrated scarlet crystal rays on alien invaders... It’s like a raincoat."

"And the metal rod, which can emit short lasers at temperatures of billions of degrees, is a tool for cutting scarlet crystals."

As they walked deeper down the corridor, Xu Xin whispered to Lou Fei’Er explaining.

"...Ah?" Lou Fei’Er’s eyes widened, "...Such a coincidence? Why are there things like this here?"

"It’s precisely a coincidence. According to the monster, normally, there wouldn’t be so many alien invaders gathering around this world tree. The fact that there are so many this time is likely because of these two items," Xu Xin said.

"Mm." Li Wenxi chimed in: "These alien invaders are likely holding a selection here."

"Selection?" Lou Fei’Er was a bit confused, "Selection... of what?"

"Selecting a worker to process the scarlet crystals," Jin Yue said quietly.

"This..." Lou Fei’Er was at a loss for words.

Did they just stumble into a selection process by accident?

"The monster said that the reason for this selection might be that the giant spaceships of the alien invaders have moved again after a millennium," Xu Xin observed as he looked deeper into the corridor and continued, "Activating the giant spaceships requires a large amount of concentrated scarlet crystals as fuel. With the four giant spaceships starting simultaneously, it may have consumed most of the ’Source of Life’ meant to be distributed to other alien invaders on Earth, thereby necessitating the recruitment of more workers to cut scarlet crystals."

The monster mentioned that cutting scarlet crystals is a highly secretive and challenging task that must be completely under the leader’s control; only then can it ensure full possession.

Even the slightest leak external is not permissible.

Thus, to minimize potential leaks, all the workers for this task are meticulously hand-picked by the leader and the number is also kept to a minimum.

The fewer the workers, the smaller the chance of problems occurring.

Fewer workers result in lower productivity.

So, every time the scarlet crystals as the ’Source of Life’ are distributed to all alien invaders, they barely meet the requirement.

It’s even insufficient, hence there are always alien invaders who don’t get the ’Source of Life.’

But this time, after a millennium, the giant spaceships are restarting, consuming a large amount of scarlet crystals that have been cut and are ready to be distributed as the Source of Life to the alien invaders.

If more workers are not recruited at this time, come next distribution of the ’Source of Life,’ most alien invaders likely won’t get anything.

That absolutely mustn’t happen.

Given the situation now, if a situation where the Source of Life cannot be distributed arises, chaos will ensue!

So, the monster believes many alien invaders gathered inside this world tree, and these tools for cutting scarlet crystals appearing here, clearly indicate the selection of new workers for cutting scarlet crystals.

As to why these two items are displayed like exhibits, it’s probably just to let these alien invaders have some contact.

After all, inside the world tree, no one has weapons, and mechanical jellyfish fly around monitoring every position, making it impossible for these items to be stolen.

But the other party didn’t anticipate that Xu Xin and his group would disrupt the scene using a small piece of scarlet crystal and steal these two items with the cloaks of stealth.

"So that’s how it is..." Lou Fei’Er remained puzzled, "So scarlet crystals are really manually cut by the alien invaders themselves? I thought their technology was highly advanced and everything was automated, but it turns out they still need ’workers’ for manual cutting?"

She pouted and said.

"I also asked about this," Li Wenxi smiled, "According to the monster, this is because the light from the scarlet crystals is too strong for machinery to remain long-term under such illumination; otherwise, they’d be directly damaged by overheating. Moreover, it’s more reassuring to have them work manually rather than relying on potentially hacked machinery, while also being much cheaper and easier."

Earlier, Xu Xin took an entire layer of transparent membranes from the platform; he estimated that there were at least thirty or forty sheets.

The monster also informed them that the reason for so many is that the membranes are disposable.

Every time a cutting operation takes place, one sheet of membrane is consumed and used up.

This is their method of shielding against the intense rays of concentrated scarlet crystals.

They don’t have materials capable of completely resisting the radiation from concentrated scarlet crystals without being damaged; using machines for cutting would require frequent casing replacements, which would be very troublesome, plus machines are prone to malfunctions.