Only I Walk Alone

The commanders of the Sushui civilization, captured by the mechanical iinsect race, revealed much information about their civilization and were subsequently kept in a large aquarium. Though they lost their freedom, they could spend a peaceful and stable life here.

After receiving this information, Chong Feng personally met with Wu Ge and suggested sending scouts to the Sushui civilization’s star system to gather intelligence, preparing for future expeditions. Chong Feng, unlike the conservative Hu Kong, was a radical advocate of war, driven by the blood of battle within.

Wu Ge responded, “The Sushui civilization is located a hundred thousand light-years from our solar system. With our current jump engine technology, it would take thousands of years to reach them. Rather than that, we should focus on developing our technology. Once our jump engine technology is sufficiently advanced, we can prepare for an expedition.”

However, Wu Ge paused, then added, “But you can start preparing for the expedition. I promise you, within at most three hundred years, our Earth civilization will embark on the era of expeditions!”

Hearing Wu Ge’s words, Chong Feng immediately bowed and knelt, “I shall follow the Supreme Commander’s decree!”

Wu Ge’s plan was to spend the next three hundred years exploring the ten star systems closest to the solar system. They would establish colonies in habitable areas and resource collection zones in resource-rich areas, leveraging the resources of a whole star system to strengthen Earth’s civilization before beginning their expeditions.

As for exploration, the expedition fleet led by Hu Kong was about to reach the Alpha Centauri star system.

Alpha Centauri is a trinary star system with only one planet. No one knows what that planet looks like, and its existence was deduced through mathematical calculations by scientists.

Upon arrival, Hu Kong’s expedition fleet immediately discovered a dead planet cast to the edge of the Alpha Centauri star system.

This planet was three times larger than Earth but appeared fragmented, resembling a watermelon that had been struck and shattered. Numerous planetary fragments floated around, and the planet’s core had completely cooled.

Approaching the planet, the explorers grew increasingly alarmed. It seemed as if something had torn the planet into pieces. They could even see through the cracks to the other side of the planet.

This could no longer be considered a planet; at best, it was a collection of spherical fragments or a spherical meteorite cluster.

Countless small meteorites drifted, occasionally colliding with larger chunks.

The scientists aboard the exploration warship showed a look of surprise, saying, “No wonder the data obtained in the past few hundred years showed this planet as nonexistent. It turns out the planet has become like this.”

Hu Kong asked, “Do you mean, this planet turned into this state only in the recent hundred years?”

The scientist shook his head, “This requires further investigation. The state of this planet is very strange. I feel the whole thing is not that simple. No planet would die in such a way.”

Some scientists began investigating the fragmented planet, while others proposed to Hu Kong to study the movement of the three stars in the trinary system.

From their location, Hu Kong and his team could clearly see the three stars, but the distance between them was vast. Although the three stars were in a trinary motion, this motion was very slow.

Different perspectives yield different data. Four-dimensional beings perceive the motion of stars as fast, similar to how we perceive electrons orbiting protons, while we three-dimensional beings see the motion of stars as slow.

Thus, even though the trinary star system is unique, the changes are very gradual. In this star system, gravity, magnetic fields, and so on might undergo some strange changes, but these are also gradual. If they wish to fully understand the trinary star system, they might have to stay in this system for a long time or even establish a scientific research station.

The scientists investigating the operation of the trinary system left, and Hu Kong returned to the captain’s room to ponder how to report their progress to the Supreme Commander.

At that time, the goat deputy captain came in and said, “Our mission is quite leisurely, General.”

The goat deputy captain had followed Hu Kong for a long time and was one of his confidants. Facing the old goat, Hu Kong said, “This is not a bad thing. For our demon race, life is now the most stable. We don’t have to ponder about space collapsing or worry about invasions by foreign enemies. This is better than anything else.”

The goat deputy captain said, “The Suprem Commander really knows you and the mechanical insect race leader well, assigning you to explore and the mechanical insect race leader to fight is the best arrangement. But doesn’t that mean your achievements will be incomparable to the mechanical insect race leader’s? After all, you are better at fighting than exploring!”

Hu Kong asked, “What do you mean?”

The goat deputy captain said, “We, the older generation, might be accustomed to a peaceful life, but the younger generation of our demon race are warriors at heart. They probably won’t be content with just doing exploration missions forever. If the mechanical insect race always steals the limelight, the younger generation of our demon race might join the mechanical insect race’s army.”

“Join the mechanical insect race’s army?” Hu Kong laughed, “To become cannon fodder? Foolish!”

Hu Kong looked at the vast expanse of space and continued, “In this infinite universe, civilizations with documented information are a minority. Therefore, what the Supreme Commander needs more is exploration, to explore resources, regions, and hidden artifacts. Although interstellar wars are inevitable, how many star systems must be explored before discovering a new civilization? The path of interstellar exploration is endless!”

Hu Kong had a clear understanding of the current situation. He knew that the expansion of civilization most of the time involves exploring unknown star systems, with only a minority of occasions leading to interstellar wars. After all, civilizations without star systems far outnumber those with them.

And even if a civilization is born, it might not be able to study the Unified Field Theory, so most star systems not within the star roads remain unexplored. Those unexplored star systems are endless treasures.

Since joining Earth’s civilization, Hu Kong seemed to have lost the will to fight, entering a mode of retirement. Perhaps he would retire soon.

Survival is always the primary driving force for the advancement of civilization. But once the threat to survival is removed, it becomes difficult for civilization to progress.

Humans are the same.

While Hu Kong was contemplating this, scientists investigating the fragmented planet sent back groundbreaking news.

They had found traces of civilization!