Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

The cultural shock brought by this contact was greater than anything for the people of the Heavenly Dao Palace.

Although they had followed Fang Zheng to other worlds before, those worlds still maintained similar civilizations and values. But just now, they encountered two completely different alien civilizations that they couldn’t even begin to comprehend ——— well, for Fang Zheng, he was quite calm about it.

After all, he had seen crazier things than this.

”What do you think would happen if we really met these... aliens?”

Asuna thought it over for a long time before she couldn’t resist asking, having no appetite for either the cackling chickens or the grumbling bears.

In reality, Asuna didn’t even have an appetite for the chicken leg in front of her now.

”We won’t meet them.”

Fang Zheng was eating happily.

”If it’s not necessary, we won’t contact them.”

”Eh? Is that so?”

Eiriri looked curiously at Fang Zheng.

”I thought we would go and chat with them.”

”What’s there to chat about? Do you think aliens would have a common language with us? Even with humans, why would aliens want to communicate with you?”

”Uh......”

Faced with Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Eiriri was momentarily speechless, but Misaka Mikoto curiously picked up the conversation.

”But we have powerful abilities and civilizations too!”

”You who haven’t even gone beyond Earth-Moon orbit should stop deluding yourself.”

Fang Zheng glanced at Misaka Mikoto.

”Don’t think your LV5 appears strong, but to aliens, you’re basically a mutant among lab mice. Interesting, but nothing special otherwise. To communicate with advanced civilizations, you must first reach the same level. Look, if I wasn’t human, I wouldn’t even bother with Academy City. Do you care about the inventions and creations of ants in an anthill when you drive past on a highway?”

”...........”

Misaka Mikoto fell silent, but her lips were pouting high, obviously very dissatisfied, but... what could she do?

”Aren’t you the same, Classmate Misaka?”

At that moment, Shihou Souki took the opportunity to hit back mercilessly.

”You also never cared about those with lower or no abilities, right? How much effort and pain they went through for their abilities’ gain and enhancement, Classmate Misaka, you don’t care either, right?”

”Shihou———!”

Hearing this, Misaka Mikoto angrily clenched her fists, but she was speechless. As Shihou Souki said, Misaka Mikoto never considered these issues.

”Alright, let’s eat, no fighting.”

Fang Zheng wasn’t in the mood to watch them bicker at the dining table and casually pacified them before he said anything more, then glanced at Shihou Souki.

”You should say less, or I’ll send you to have a heart-to-heart with Saya.”

”Uh......”

Hearing this, Shihou Souki turned pale and immediately lowered her head, saying nothing more.

In fact, after Shihou Souki was caught by Fang Zheng, to prevent her from causing any trouble, he invited Shihou Souki to have a heart-to-heart with Saya and delve into Saya’s psychic realm.

As a result, completely unprepared, after seeing the world through Saya’s eyes, Shihou Souki’s SAN value hit zero, almost leading to a mental collapse. Fortunately, Fang Zheng was prepared, and Kurumi used a Fourth Bullet to rescue her back, or Shihou Souki would have gone completely mad.

Precisely because of this, Shihou Souki now has a psychological shadow and avoids Saya at all costs...

The only thing keeping Shihou Souki balanced is that Misaka Mikoto is treated quite similarly, even though Misaka Mikoto joined of her own accord. Still, Shihou Souki is very aware that, in Fang Zheng’s eyes, Misaka Mikoto isn’t actually more important than herself, which gives Shihou Souki some little satisfaction.

Thus, she chose to provoke Misaka Mikoto in front of Fang Zheng, jumping around the danger zone with pleasure.

And at that moment, Nymph, who was busy eating at the table, suddenly lifted her head.

”Master, the unmanned reconnaissance drone has reached the target star.”

”Oh? Transmit the image for a look.”

Hearing this, Fang Zheng immediately showed interest, but...

”Wait, let me finish this bite first!”

At that moment, Eiriri disregarded the young lady’s etiquette and hurriedly swept the rice in her bowl clean in a few bites, while Black Cat glanced at her and sighed.

”You can still eat? Never mind, I’m done.”

As she spoke, Black Cat put down her chopsticks, and Feli, looking pale, stood up.

”Sorry, I’ll leave for a moment...”

”Isn’t that a bit exaggerated.”

Looking at the reactions of the people in front of him, Fang Zheng shook his head and then directly opened the screen. Soon, an image appeared before him.

It was a city frozen in ice and snow.

Amidst the howling snow and wind, one could see a dilapidated city. Its exterior looks somewhat like a fusion of wood, steel, and stone. If placed during its heyday, it might indeed have its own charm, but now, only broken ruins remain along with Nymph’s calm report.

”According to the scan, this cluster of buildings was constructed approximately 2,500 years ago and has been abandoned. The planet has completely lost all traces of life.”

”............”

Looking at the dilapidated buildings and the lifeless, barren land, the people in the restaurant had complex expressions. Just a moment ago, they had seen the satellite signals released by the civilization on this planet and the images stored within. Although their worldviews were indeed different, none of them expected it to end up like this...

”What was the cause?”

Fang Zheng popped a piece of cauliflower into his mouth, inquiring casually as if watching a nature documentary.

”As of now? It’s because stellar movement caused the planet to deviate from its original orbit, leading to a sharp drop in temperature and the entire planet being completely frozen, entering a long ice age.”

”So the civilization on this planet is extinct, is that right?”

”Yes.”

Fang Zheng sighed, shrugged his shoulders, and the others too showed complex expressions.

The extinction of a civilization... for these young girls, it was too overwhelming. Kuroko Shirai muttered to herself, looking incredulous.

”I never thought just a change in planetary orbit could lead to something like this...”

”That’s quite normal. Perhaps one day, this might be humanity’s fate.”

Saying this, Fang Zheng also helplessly shook his head. The fate of a civilization unable to leave its home planet is just that, simply too fragile. A common scourge could completely annihilate their existence. Much like a primitive tribe living on a volcano island, if the volcano erupts and they don’t have aircraft or ships to escape, then there is only one path to take.

But just then, Nymph’s voice sounded again.

”Please hold on... Master, we have an unexpected discovery!”

Accompanied by Nymph’s words, the scene quickly switched, and everyone saw a peculiar-looking steel spaceship parked on an empty field not far from the cluster of buildings.

”What is that?!”

Seeing this, everyone became interested. Fang Zheng gestured, and soon the image zoomed in. Before long, a somewhat crude-looking spaceship appeared clearly in front of everyone.

”Analyzing alloy quality... complete. It is made of special metals, built approximately thirty years ago. From the radiation emitted, it’s preliminarily judged to be using a nuclear fusion power system, with the level of analysis likely between a Level 4 and Level 3 civilization.”

Nymph manipulated the drones, quickly analyzing the spaceship.

”A powerful flying brick... it’s probably not that simple. Maybe it’s due to different gravity influences?”

Fang Zheng studied the spaceship on the screen; its size appeared similar to a sailing ship from the Age of Exploration, just in a sealed form. Even if it uses nuclear power, such a shape wouldn’t escape planetary gravity—at least not from something like Earth’s gravitational field.

At this moment, a few small figures in fully enclosed spacesuits emerged from the spaceship—they were genuinely small. After putting on space suits, these aliens were about the same size as the girls from Heavenly Dao Palace. This indicated that without the suits, who knows how tiny they would be.

”These people seem quite normal!”

Seeing this, Asuna breathed a sigh of relief. Although they couldn’t see what these people looked like due to the thick helmets, at least they had two arms and two legs—after having seen the clucking chickens and snorting bears beforehand, the girls felt their threshold for ”normal” had significantly lowered.

”Let’s just hope they don’t eat people.”

Fang Zheng chuckled, then silently maneuvered the drones closer. The technology of this spaceship was quite outdated; it had no protective shields or special weapons. It didn’t even have basic missiles, just a few machine guns...

Well, installing machine guns on a spaceship was indeed quite... something.

Fortunately, the machine guns were at least remote-controlled.

While Fang Zheng was pondering, he saw these aliens take out a flag from the spaceship and firmly plant it into the icy snow, kneeling down to perform a series of rolls before the flag.

That’s right, they held their knees with both hands, curling themselves into balls, and circled around the flag.

”What are they doing?”

Though the girls had been shocked twice in a row, it didn’t mean they were immune to the third.

”Perhaps it’s some kind of ritual?”

”A rolling ritual?”

The more the girls watched, the more confused they became, unable to make sense of it. However, Fang Zheng didn’t care. Instead, he focused on the flag. Under the freezing cold, the flag practically froze instantly, making the pattern on it clear.

It was an eye wrapped in twisted tentacles.

Mm... this pattern was very familiar to Fang Zheng.

It seems that the Goddess’ thoughts might change, but her taste won’t change in this lifetime.