Chapter 1 In the Midst of Destruction

Amidst the tremendous explosions and continuous stellar tremors, Zhuomu finally shattered into pieces.

The complete death of the Firstborn led to the planet's demise several hours ahead of schedule. Those deeply buried tentacles released all their contained primal energy. The powerful force from time immemorial washed over the land. Under the witness of the drone swarm and the Censor, Zhuomu first erupted in a flash of light from the equator, followed by a red glow spreading along the cracks on the planet's surface. Within a minute, it turned into millions of fragments, heroically flying towards the sun.

Within the debris, a dimly lit object was exposed from the planet's core. It burst out a tiny spark of electricity, and then that light flashed and disappeared.

That was the core energy station built by the Zhuomu people, the last material relic left by this civilization. Now everything was over.

The drone swarm circling in the planet's orbit showed no sentimentality towards this scene. They completed the data transmission task and now began to dismantle the temporary antenna array assembled earlier according to the program. The swarm of small drones, led by the mothership, quickly dismantled the ring antenna into pieces, and then opened space-time gates in space and left this place. In the end, only a silver-white Censor flagship remained in Zhuomu's former position. It faced the sun with its bow, watching this once life-rich planet complete its final journey. After the scattered fragments of the planet turned into dust in the sunlight, the Jvgui Yantai changed direction. At the same time, a small hatch opened in its lower half, and a silver-white, rectangular object with flashing lights floated out of the hatch and began to orbit Zhuomu's former orbit.

This small monument was used to commemorate a cradle that once nurtured life, and it was also a substitute for the Zhuomu people to remember their former home: after all, all the materials created by this race had disappeared, and they did not even have the ability to leave a monument for themselves.

After completing the last bit of work, the Jvgui Yantai opened a space-time gate at the bow and jumped into the warp space bubble.

When the darkness outside the ship disappeared, the shimmering, solemn structure of the Crystal Core Research Station appeared before everyone. Hao Ren ordered the ship to dock at the No. 1 connecting bridge of the Crystal Core Research Station. At the same time, he used the ship's mainframe to directly connect to the mainframe of the Crystal Core Research Station to inquire about the results of the previous large-scale information transmission. Although the drone swarm had previously sent a successful signal, it was still more reassuring to confirm it himself at this time.

"The database has been established. The souls of sixteen billion Zhuomu people and the friendly Firstborn are all staying in the database," the data terminal reported the situation in the research station. "The human souls are currently in a frozen state. It is best not to awaken them until we build a suitable virtual world. The Firstborn's soul is slightly tired, but the situation is good, and he should be able to accept your inquiry soon."

"I'm going in to see him," Hao Ren watched the door connecting Bridge No. 1 to the main body of the research station slowly open, and said to the terminal in a low voice, "Is the communication link ready? This time, we shouldn't need to go through Nolan for relay, right?"

"No, the database is our own now. This unit has established an administrator account. Your conversation with the Firstborn will be clearer than before."

"Very good, by the way, notify that giant, I will meet him later. Vivian, Lily, and everyone else—come along if you want, it's quite boring on the ship anyway. Terminal, you stay here to take care of the ship's mainframe and provide remote support."

As Hao Ren spoke, he walked towards the exit of the bridge. Halfway there, the terminal said from behind, "This unit still wants to emphasize that you have violated a total of sixteen safety regulations in this incident, especially the last one. If the permissions were sufficient, this unit would really want to revoke your ship license..."

Hao Ren waved his hand without looking back: "Alright, alright, I don't even have a license anyway."

A group of people left the bridge in a noisy manner. Walking at the end was "Gun." The cat girl carefully scooped Dou Dou out of the pot and placed it on her head, trotting to catch up with Hao Ren's figure: "Big cat! Big cat! Meow was so good this time! Where's Zhen's little dried fish? Zhen's little dried fish..."

The central hall of the Crystal Core Research Station was still the same as before, radiant, solemn, and magnificent. The crystal structures in all directions made this place full of an elegant, mysterious, but cold and detached atmosphere. Hao Ren let "Gun" take Dou Dou to play aside, while he himself came to the crystal spire in the center of the hall.

Sensing the approach of the controller, layers of light and shadow floated on the crystal spire, and the research station's mainframe gave priority to displaying the situation of the new database named "Zhuomu." Hao Ren saw a holographic projection showing a scene of blue sky, white clouds, and blue water. The scene was so beautiful that it was almost unreal: lakes and rivers were scattered across the endless grassland, and the clear water reflected the blue sky, which looked like a fairyland.

"This is what home originally looked like," a slightly androgynous voice sounded in the hall, "Mother's garden, very beautiful, Mother likes it very much."

Hao Ren was slightly startled, realizing that this was the Firstborn's voice: because a brand new connection method had been established after being transferred to the Crystal Core Research Station's database, he could now hear the other party's voice very clearly.

Then he remembered where he had heard the exact same voice:

It was when he was in the Zhuomu virtual world, he followed the Grey Fox mercenaries to the Northern Wasteland ruins. When crossing the Grey River, he half-dreamed and half-woke up and heard a voice warning him—that sounded like this one!

"Was that you?" Hao Ren asked in surprise, "The one who spoke to me near the Grey River..."

"It was me," the Firstborn admitted very frankly, "I discovered that you were from the outside world. I was worried that your spirit would die in my dream, so I wanted to warn you."

"So that's how it is," the truth came out, making Hao Ren feel surprised and unbelievable, "So you spoke to me once at that time... If we could have communicated more at that time, the situation probably wouldn't have been so critical this time."

The Firstborn did not respond. He seemed not very good at "hypotheses," or perhaps he was not interested in this topic.

Hao Ren's attention returned to the holographic projection screen. It showed Zhuomu in the Firstborn's memory, a thriving world before the disaster. Looking at the world that was almost a fairy tale scene, it was difficult for Hao Ren to connect it with Zhuomu, which had been turned into hell under the scorching sun. He hesitated and asked, "You... do you plan to rebuild it? Rebuild it in the virtual world, or..."

"Just want to see," the Firstborn's answer was straightforward and simple, "I used to take good care of the garden, so I want to keep these pictures, and let Mother see when she comes back."

Hao Ren was stunned, and changed the subject slightly: "I still don't understand how I entered your dream. The first time I entered, I didn't make any connection with you. I was just sleeping... Do you know what's going on?"

"I feel... you have something that resonates with me, that's probably the reason."

Hao Ren raised this question just to change the subject. He didn't want to face the heavy fact of the goddess's fall so quickly, but he didn't expect the other party to really have an answer. He immediately asked urgently: "Resonance? What kind of resonance? I also tried to bring my friends into the virtual world later but failed. Do you know what's going on?"

"I don't know about other people's situation, but you..." The Firstborn was silent for a few seconds, "You must have source blood flowing in your body, I can feel that you are somewhat similar to me. I don't know why you look like this, but you... are you also a guardian made by Mother?"

Hao Ren was stunned when he heard this, and looked at Vivian next to him inexplicably: "Source blood flowing in my body? Do I?"

Vivian blinked: "Anyway, I didn't find it."

Everyone felt inexplicable about what the Firstborn suddenly said, and Hao Ren instinctively felt that the other party had made a mistake, probably because he had some sequelae after being exposed to the sun for more than two thousand years. But at this moment, Lily suddenly twitched her ears and remembered something: "Oh, right! Landlord, you probably really have source blood in your body! Did you forget the time when the branding ceremony was held in Holletta? You absorbed all the source blood into your body!"

Hao Ren suddenly remembered this, but immediately felt something was wrong: "Didn't they find that the source blood quickly decomposed and disappeared at that time? There shouldn't be any residue in my body."

Vivian frowned: "That's just a matter of the material level. In terms of material composition, the source blood did disappear, but the influence of that kind of thing is probably not just material... Maybe it has already caused unknown interference to your spirit? Such as allowing you to enter the Firstborn's dream."

Hao Ren subconsciously touched his chest: "I'm going... sounds creepy."

The Firstborn silently waited for Hao Ren and the others to discuss for a while, and then suddenly asked with anticipation: "I have answered so many questions for you, can you tell me where Mother is now?"