"Achoo!"
In the underground laboratory of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, Lu Zhou was sitting on a bed next to a computer. He suddenly sneezed.
It seemed to be frightened by the sneeze, and the drone with a small TV flew over from the side.
[Master, Master, do you have a cold? Do you need Xiao Ai to check your body? Qaq]
"No, I'm fine." Lu Zhou rubbed his red nose and muttered to himself, "I'm probably being targeted by someone again … Let's continue."
[Okay then. Q (w`)]
Even though he was still a little worried, Lu Zhou's orders were absolute. The drone flew back and was replaced by a robot that was connected to the wall. It handed a black virtual reality helmet to Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou reached out and took the helmet. He put it on carefully and lay back on the soft mattress.
Technology was getting more and more advanced. He vaguely remembered when the Phantom system went online, the VR helmets launched by major manufacturers were as bulky as motorcycle helmets.
Now, Huawei, Da Mi, and other companies had launched their own ultra-thin, high-end products. After putting it on, lying flat on the pillow would not feel uncomfortable at all. In fact, it would not even feel like there was a metal shell on the head.
Lu Zhou set the activation time of the neural access device. He closed his eyes and said "system" in his mind. He soon entered a pure white space …
…
The memory was successfully activated.
When Lu Zhou opened his eyes again, he was already in a grassland.
However, it was completely different from the grasslands on Earth.
The grass here was blue, like an endless ocean. The wind blew past his face and swayed the waist-high waves. It formed a sharp contrast with the azure horizon, but the sky was like a burning flame, emitting a kind of breathtaking energy.
On the far side of the skyline, a fiery red gaseous planet that was countless times larger than a distant star occupied one-third of the sky.
As if he was waiting for something, the person standing on the grassland did not move at all. He just quietly looked at everything as far as his eyes could see, as if he wanted to deeply engrave the beautiful scenery before dusk into his mind …
Lu Zhou couldn't move his limbs, but his facial features were normal. It only took him half a second to figure out the situation.
The terrestrial planet under his feet should be a satellite of a gaseous planet.
Judging from the unwrinkled terrain, the geological activity of this generation should be infrequent, or the geological activity of the entire planet should be stable. In addition, the ecosystem on this planet should be much simpler than that on Earth. There were no traces of artificial development.
Suddenly, the wind on the grassland suddenly became noisy.
Feeling the strong wind blowing in his face, "Lu Zhou" couldn't help but close his eyes.
Almost at the same time, the moment he closed his eyes, a memory that didn't belong to him poured into his mind like a flood.
The tearing scene flashed. Standing in an ancient Roman-style circular arena, he defeated a terrifying opponent with the iron blade in his hand.
Blood splashed, and the scene continued to flash.
A man who looked like a referee stood in front of him and raised his hands vigorously amid the cheers of the audience, announcing his victory.
Immediately afterward, the scene changed again. This time, it was not in the arena, but in a wide hall.
A man dressed like a servant of God placed a stone that emitted a green glow on his forehead and chanted a language that even the Observer civilization could not translate. Then, he placed the stone on his open palm.
From the fragmented fragments, Lu Zhou roughly figured out what the owner of this memory was, as well as some of the "story background" that happened before this memory.
First of all, this memory did not belong to the Calan civilization. Instead, it belonged to a race that sounded like "Puck".
Their bodies were covered with fluff, and their height was generally between one meter and one and a half meters. They had flexible claws, strong feet, and upright beast ears, like large cats walking upright without tails.
Because of the lack of metal mines on their mother planet, it took them a long time to enter the industrial era from the Iron Age. During this long period of time, they even achieved the unification of civilization in the Iron Age.
Entering the industrial era as a single civilization, even if it was an advantage for them, it was also a disadvantage.
The advantage was that because the conflicts within the civilization basically ended in the era of cold weapons, and the long feudal era injected the concept of grand unification and authoritarianism into the civilization, even if there were several regime changes and ups and downs during this period, the turbulence caused by this was stabilized in small-scale local conflicts.
It could be said that the industrial machines of the Puck civilization had never really entered the military field.
Although their civilization included the gene of advocating force, this gene was "transcribed" in a completely different form from human civilization.
For example, compared to negotiations, they were more inclined to solve problems through primitive cold weapons.
Compared to using morality as a standard to restrain behavior, they were more inclined to flaunt honor.
For example, the short average lifespan made them indifferent to life and death, believing in reincarnation and the afterlife … Even if their science had never truly proved these two things.
At the same time, when Lu Zhou read those memory fragments, he noticed that there was a large clerical class and aristocratic class in the Puck civilization.
As the spiritual leader of the clerical class, a profession called prophet played a more important role than the king in the rise and fall of the entire civilization.
Idealism and authoritarianism. The technological level was probably in the early and middle interstellar era. Their development ideas were completely different from the powerful and autistic Calan Empire.
With the support of high cultural identity and the concept of grand unification, they seemed to have no punishment for expansion. Even before mastering faster than light communication, the colonies and the mother planet maintained an unimaginable unity.
Moreover, compared to building a home, they, who were used to living in solitude, were more inclined to migrate towards distant and empty habitable planets, doing everything possible to occupy as much land as possible, even if it was undeveloped wastelands.
Just like the people of Calan liked to breathe the metallic air of the Ring World, these Parker people were as lonely as cats, and they could spend the whole day on the empty prairie.
For example, the prairie planet under his feet was one of the hundreds of colonial planets of the Puck civilization.
As for the body that Lu Zhou was now in, it was a warrior with a name similar to "Noir". Just a few days ago, he defeated his opponent in a duel with the name of God on the line and became a glorious God's Chosen One.
As mentioned earlier, in the history of the Puck civilization, the prophet played an important role, and the Chosen One was the prophet's right-hand man.
The prophet "foretold the future" through a special ritual called "psionic ritual", told the "best arrangement" to the "Chosen One", who was the only one who knew, and instructed him to fulfill his mission.
In fact, when reading this memory, Lu Zhou was quite skeptical about the rigor of this ritual and whether things like the future could really be predicted by such an unreliable method.
However, the Puck civilization seemed to believe in this.
Even though there were only a few times in their history when the Chosen One did the "right thing" for the world after listening to the teachings of the prophet.
From this point of view, these furry fellows seemed to be even more ignorant of the lessons of history than humans.
However, in terms of technology, these furry guys seemed to be much more advanced than human civilization, so Lu Zhou was not in a position to criticize them …
At this time, footsteps came from behind.
Parker opened his eyes and turned around to look behind him. He saw a gentle beam of light descending from the clouds. A figure followed the light and slowly landed on the azure grassland.
Gravitational ray?
Anti-gravity?
Or … some kind of technology that he did not understand.
For the time being, Lu Zhou didn't care what kind of magical technology these Parker used to travel between high orbit and the planet's surface. He looked at the old Parker who "walked" down from the beam of light. He tried to find clues about this guy from the scattered memory fragments.
However, something strange happened.
In Lu Zhou's or Noir's memory, although there was quite a long memory about this old man, his name did not appear.
Just when Lu Zhou was surprised by this strange situation, the old "cat" suddenly spoke.
"Congratulations, warrior named Noir."
Noir respectfully bowed his head and spoke.
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me, everything is the will of the spirit of the universe."
The old man smiled and carefully looked at the face of the young man in front of him. He nodded slightly and said, "Under its guidance, the bravest man in our civilization came to me. To be honest, a long, long time ago, I was shaken by psionic rituals and oracles, but now I am extremely convinced that all of this is the best arrangement. "
Noir did not speak. He just maintained a respectful posture, waiting for the old man in front of him to talk about the prophecy of the Chosen One.
This was almost a convention.
However, this time, the old man did not seem to want to say much. After studying him for a long time, he only used a vague description to summarize the entire prophecy. Then, he said that it was the "best arrangement" that belonged to God's Chosen One.
"The natural disaster is approaching, no one will be spared, from the border to the holy land … Your mission is to go to the center of this galaxy and find a way out of our civilization."
Shocked by the amazing prophecy, Noir was stunned for two seconds. He immediately asked anxiously.
"How do I find it?"
"Shh."
The old man pressed his dry claws on Noir's lips. He interrupted Noir's question, looked at him with a meaningful look, and continued, "When you get there, you will naturally know what to do … That is your mission."
Perhaps Noir listened to the old man's words, or perhaps he obeyed out of piety, but he nodded silently and did not speak again.
Seeing that the young man in front of him listened to his words, a smile of approval appeared on the old man's face.
"The spacecraft and luggage are ready.
"I hope you can find that slim hope in the center of this galaxy."
At this point, the old man suddenly stopped talking.
After a brief moment of silence, he changed to a soothing tone and continued.
"Even if you don't find it, you don't have to feel guilty about it.
"Your genes, your blood, your bones, your culture, and your language, everything is proof of our existence. You bear all of us. Even if the great Holy Land falls in this disaster that engulfs the universe, we won't have to waste our lives in the long years. "
"Fall of the holy land? How is that possible! That natural disaster … Did you see something? No … I shouldn't have asked this question. "
Muttering to himself, Noir suddenly raised his head, put his right fist gently on his left chest, looked at the old man in front of him firmly, and promised, "I will definitely reach the center of this galaxy! Find a way to resolve the crisis! "
Hearing this oath, the old man just smiled gently.
"Don't be so confident, this is a journey of hundreds of thousands of light-years. Not only are there threats from the universe itself, but you may also encounter many travelers who are also inspired by the spirit of the universe. Among them, there is no lack of experts who are far stronger than us, and not all travelers are kind. It's not easy to survive. "
"But, I believe in you."
The old man's turbid pupils were full of kindness.
As if looking at his own child, the old man looked at him carefully, as if he wanted to remember this last scene forever.
Noir was the same. The two looked at each other, letting the wind on the grassland blow gently, playing this farewell prelude.
It was unknown how many years it would take to reach the end.
Even if they reached the end, there would be no chance to return here again.
Lu Zhou silently accepted the influence of the parting atmosphere, but he did not bring it into the plot.
Therefore, at this moment, his attention was completely taken away by the prophecy about the natural disaster.
However, just when Lu Zhou was thinking hard about the clues about the natural disaster, he suddenly found that the old man's turbid pupils had a touch of sharpness.
That sharpness wasn't easy to detect, but its existence was so conspicuous and out of place.
It was like a sharp knife, piercing deep into his bones.
He was a little confused about the change in the plot.
Just when Lu Zhou was thinking about why the old man suddenly looked at the "Chosen One" with a sharp gaze, a strange feeling suddenly climbed on his scalp.
It was difficult to describe what this feeling was and where it came from.
Lu Zhou looked at the old man again. Just as he was trying to read some clues from his eyes, a terrifying thought suddenly flashed in his mind, and he suddenly reacted.
That old man …
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