N4 sat beside Li Aozi, her legs crossed and her high heels on the ground, revealing her beautiful ankles. She propped up her chin and sparkles flickered in her eyes:
"I’m really curious, why do you keep provoking the great powers? What’s it all for?"
"For going to space," Li Aozi didn’t bother to conceal it. "You’ll see in a while."
"You could choose to cooperate. Mingji Heavy Industries did just that."
"Which is why you’ve gone three hundred years without reaching space."
Li Aozi said with a teasing tone:
"Because capital pursues profit. Sponsors won’t allow you to do thankless tasks. Developing aviation requires ten thousand civil enterprises to provide parts and materials, at least two hundred thousand workers, to select the best astronauts from hundreds of millions of people, and then send them into space full of Ersha, never to return — there’s no business value in that."
N4 blinked her pretty eyes and said:
"You’re sotis smarter than I thought."
[220/12/21/23:09_Du Zexin: This woman is harder to deal with than I thought, not a single electronic device on her, not even a terminal, it’s all biochips.]
Li Aozi glanced at the drone’s flashing cara and shrugged. Du Zexin’s aversion to Biochemists was too strong, or it might have been the influence of a rivalry of paths.
"If I were you, I wouldn’t get too smart, or else..."
"Or else what?"
"Smart people always have flexible identities and backgrounds, instead of sticking to their own position."
"An interesting viewpoint. I can guess you’ve t a formidable enemy, a big problem."
N4 glanced at the players:
"These are your astronauts? You’re taking these kids into the cosmos? I don’t understand what this trip is all about."
Li Aozi didn’t hide anything. To soone as intelligent as N4, it was pointless to do so; it would only pique her curiosity, and she would take the initiative to find out, making things even more troubleso.
So he answered:
"If you know about Cresta, then you should know what’s out there in the universe."
"I see... You know about Ersha, right?"
"From Lord Entropy to the ancient Destroyer, I know it all."
Li Aozi tily issued a new task to the players ’Witness the Past’, having everyone watch his conversation with N4.
At the sa ti, he downloaded the material he had recorded in the Abandon Mist from the System and projected it through ibei:
"I knew the truth about Azure Star a long ti ago. You all co listen too, there are so things that should be laid out on the table."
He pointed at the projection video of the Abandon Mist:
"Look, this thing is called Abandon Mist, and it can recreate things from past years. It usually erupts from underground, looks like an ocean, but it’s actually just a sea of information. You can use electronic devices to record this information directly, like with this dolphin—if your equipnt is good enough, you can analyze its genetic information and the mories in its brain at this mont."
"And the source of Abandon Mist, do you know what it is?"
Li Aozi pointed at Ersha in the sky:
"Just like Ersha, this isn’t so natural phenonon, nor is it a virus, and it’s hardly a disaster. Because their source is a being that could be considered a deity."
"We can call It—Lord Entropy."
"Oh my!"
The players were shocked, this being their first ti entering such a power-loaded main storyline. Two anchors had already started their live broadcasts, docunting this scene.
"God?" Du Zexin’s consciousness switched back to the Mobile Armor and asked over the broadcast: "Are there really gods in this world?"
"Yes." The person who replied was N4; she rested her hand on her knee and explained: "For humans, there are too many beings that could be called deities. But for the cosmos... deities aren’t out of reach."
"I can tell you clearly," Li Aozi explained: "Everything you’ve learned—chanic, Martial Artist, Biochemist, and our very best Mutants, these legacies, they are all pathways to Ascend to Godhood in the universe."
"Cresta also has these records?" N4 gave Li Aozi a doubtful look.
N4 didn’t know about Li Aozi’s ’Echoer’ talk, and Li Aozi had no intention of telling her, preferring to keep her guessing.
"—Yes."
Li Aozi blatantly lied, fully engaged in his speech, leveraging his imnse Charm to hold everyone’s attention as he gestured:
"Cresta, also known as ’White Tower’. They were an organization in the old era that specifically dealt with extraterrestrial civilizations. Long ago, Cresta was inford that there was a significant threat on Azure Star, and it was imperative to prove the capability to step into the interstellar realm quickly, to earn the right to migrate in the universe."
In sync with the video showing various artifacts and inscriptions from the old era, Li Aozi began to explain:
"According to interstellar principles: The classification of a civilization must be capable of venturing beyond their Mother Star on their own strength, or else they will be viewed as primitive animals.
—And here, venturing beyond their Mother Star actually refers to the ability to conduct various activities within 1 light-year.
Civilizations must not directly contact those above the atomic Energy Level.
Civilizations should not interfere with the progress of those who haven’t ventured from their Mother Star, nor use newly advanced civilizations as battlefields for transference.
Those with potential and on the verge of stepping into the cosmos can be assisted, but not in a colonial or controlling manner, nor with excessive aid that leads to dependency."
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