Chapter 58: This is What You Call Dimensionality Reduction!

Although people had gone to investigate before and returned safely, they ultimately found nothing at all.

One thing was certain: the forest at this moment was undoubtedly extremely dangerous.

It harbored a massive number of monsters.

If they ventured deep into the forest with the objective of investigating the monsters and capturing a live specimen, returning empty-handed would be one thing. But the moment they actually made a discovery, it would truly be a one-way trip with zero chance of survival.

However, they had come specifically for the purpose of investigation.

And they had indeed made preparations beforehand.

Furthermore, as long as they handed the captives over to Consultant Shen right before them, Consultant Shen's ability was more than enough to safely extract them in an instant!

Yet, facing this proposal, Shen Yu shook his head.

"Too risky."

"Commander..."

"I know you are not afraid of sacrifice, but we haven't reached that point yet." Shen Yu interrupted Song Yao, looked at the soldiers before him, and said, "Since you all know who I am, you should also know that our civilization is not fighting alone."

Just as his voice fell, he suddenly raised an eyebrow and smiled, "They're here."

The next moment, Interstellar Shen Yu's figure materialized beside him, accompanied by gray mist.

This caused the expressions of quite a few soldiers to finally show a subtle change.

However, they still remained motionless.

Their mental fortitude and composure were evident.

Interstellar Shen Yu had not expected such a scene before him. After a brief moment of surprise, he turned to Shen Yu and said, "I've brought the reconnaissance device for you. However, this thing has a few too many functions. I'll just watch from the side and see what kind of monster it is this time."

"Alright." Shen Yu nodded.

The next moment, a huge device directly materialized right in front of them.

Moreover, it maintained a floating posture.

Not far away, many of the engineering corps actively engaged in base construction cast their gazes over. Yet, although curious, they did not cause any commotion; everyone continued performing their duties in an orderly fashion.

Only Song Yao and the soldiers in front of him looked at this suddenly appearing object with varied expressions.

From the outside, it was a pitch-black sphere.

Yes, a sphere.

It was quite large, with a diameter of about twelve meters—quite a massive ball that gave off a feeling of immense weight. Yet, it floated with extreme stability. Furthermore, despite its surface appearing utterly smooth, it reflected no images at all, possessing an indescribable, eerie quality, as if it defied common sense.

"I have authorized you with the highest clearance level," Interstellar Shen Yu said to Shen Yu. "Unlike the anti-eye-bug drones from before, this reconnaissance equipment is a standard intra-planetary reconnaissance unit in interstellar warfare, representing frontline technology. Its most basic functions are invisibility and mimicry; every unit of the entire device can block most physical forms of detection. You can give it a try."

"Activate the invisibility function," Shen Yu commanded directly.

The next moment, right before everyone's eyes, the pitch-black sphere vanished entirely!

It completely disappeared!

Song Yao and all the soldiers widened their eyes at that moment, subconsciously searching around.

Yet even knowing it was merely invisible and that the object was still right there, not the slightest trace of such a colossal entity could be seen!

There were no distortions at the edges, the sunlight still beat down directly, and they could even feel the gentle breeze blowing from ahead!

No one even bothered to try infrared detection equipment, because they could easily guess that doing so would only be asking for humiliation.

Was this the technology of an interstellar civilization?

However, this was only the beginning.

Shen Yu didn't ask Interstellar Shen Yu about the new features. After thinking for a moment, he said tentatively, "While maintaining concealment, conduct a reconnaissance of the surrounding area and transmit the reconnaissance footage to my personal terminal."

Thus, without anyone noticing, the projected image on the personal terminal upon Shen Yu's wrist immediately changed.

It directly projected the entire panorama of the entire base!

Moreover, it was in a three-dimensional stereoscopic format, displaying every single corner!

The soldiers could clearly see themselves within it, and even see every weapon and piece of equipment on their bodies! No matter how deeply concealed, everything was listed individually and evaluated in detail.

This included muscle fiber strength, torso force exertion, and even psychological states!

This gave everyone the unsettling sensation of being completely exposed. As soldiers, it even sent a slight chill down their spines.

Even everything hundreds of meters deep underground was clearly visible!

What was dimensionality reduction strike?

This was a dimensionality reduction strike!

All hidden methods and reconnaissance skills honed through grueling training were completely meaningless in front of such a thing!

"Deactivate invisibility," Shen Yu ordered once more.

The next moment, everyone clearly saw that pitch-black spheres of varying sizes—though identical in color—had floated around everyone at some point, filling the entire space.

The smallest ones were only the size of peas, while the largest ones were roughly the size of basketballs.

They were completely silent, drifting like phantoms.

Some even floated with the wind as people walked by. Clearly within arm's reach, they seemed as if they could never actually be touched.

Too powerful!

Only this single thought remained in everyone's minds.

Even viewing it through the lens of science fiction, it was hard to understand the principles behind it.

Yet this display was an unquestionable, overwhelming suppression of human civilization in this era!

"Although it's a reconnaissance unit, it also possesses certain attack and capture capabilities," Interstellar Shen Yu said from the side. "It has a control-field combination and superposition function, capable of controlling and bringing back anything from microorganisms to giant objects, including collecting partial tissue structures. Furthermore, it possesses a certain degree of compositional testing capability, allowing it to provide a basic analytical investigation report on the spot. Aside from these, it has many hidden functions that I won't list one by one."

The entire scene fell into dead silence.

Song Yao, standing nearby, didn't know what to say at this moment.

Shen Yu, however, did not hesitate at all and directly issued an order. The next moment, all the separated units reunited, became invisible once again, and flew toward the forest.

"Wait a moment, we should have some results soon," Shen Yu said.

However, when he looked back at the many soldiers before him, he could distinctly sense that beneath their silence lay a certain indescribable suppression.

Without even needing to guess, he knew the reason.

"Do you have any questions?" Shen Yu looked at Song Yao.

Sure enough, after hesitating for a moment, Song Yao spoke up, "Commander, may I ask what else we are needed to do?"

"You want to ask what else you *can* do, right?" Shen Yu pointed this out bluntly.

"..." Song Yao took a deep breath, and finally said in a deep voice, "Reporting, Commander! Yes! That is what I want to ask!"

Although he was not a combat unit but a desk officer, he had grown alongside the entire team.

Therefore, he clearly understood that his comrades were different from ordinary soldiers.

Being able to avoid sacrifice was naturally a good thing. However, they had trained bitterly, overcoming one unimaginably difficult obstacle after another, and even conquering the fear of death, step by step walking all the way to this day and this place. Obviously, it was not so that, in a time of national crisis when they were needed the most, they could merely stand here and do nothing.

Therefore, the powerful device they had just witnessed, while shocking, also filled them with a sense of dread.

They were not afraid of death, but they were afraid of becoming useless and unable to fulfill their self-worth.

To put it simply, they had been somewhat demoralized by the formidable device originating from the interstellar civilization.

"Rest assured," Shen Yu said with a serious expression. "Your role is significant, immensely significant. Courage and the indomitable spirit are forever the most needed and most precious qualities for a civilization fighting against the apocalypse. The reason you feel you cannot play a role right now is simply because you haven't been armed yet!"