"Ahh

In the underground laboratory of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, sitting on a bed next to the computer, Lu Zhou suddenly sneezed without warning.

As if frightened by this sneeze, the drone with a small TV flew over from the side.

【Master, master, do you have a cold?】 Need Ai Ai to help you check your body? qaq】

"No, I'm fine," rubbing his somewhat reddened nose, Lu Zhou muttered to himself, "I guess who is worried about it again...... Let's move on. ”

[Okay.] q(w｀)】

Although he was still a little worried, Lu Zhou's order was absolute, and the drone floating next to him flew back with a whining, replaced by a manipulator attached to the wall, and handed a pitch-black virtual reality helmet to Lu Zhou.

Reaching out and taking the streamlined helmet, Lu Zhou put it on seriously, and then lay back on the soft mattress.

Now the technology is really getting more and more advanced, he vaguely remembers that when the phantom system was just launched, the VR helmets launched by major manufacturers were cumbersome and heavy at a glance with motorcycle helmets.

Now, Warwick, rice and other companies have launched their own designs of ultra-thin high-end products, after wearing it, lying on the pillow does not feel uncomfortable at all, and even does not feel a metal shell on the head at all.

After setting the start time of the neural access device, Lu Zhou, who closed his eyes, silently recited "system" in his heart, and soon entered a pure white space......

……

Memories start smoothly.

When Lu Zhou opened his eyes again, there was already a grassland in sight.

However, it is very different from the grasslands on Earth.

The grass here is blue, like an endless ocean, swaying waist-high waves in the wind. In stark contrast to the blue of the horizon, the sky is like a burning flame, exuding a breathtaking energy.

At the same time, on the side of that distant skyline, a fiery red gaseous planet, countless times larger than a distant star, occupies a third of the sky.

As if waiting for something, the man standing on this grassland did not move, but quietly looked at everything as far as his eyes could see, as if he wanted to engrave the beautiful scenery before dusk in his mind......

His limbs couldn't move, but his facial features were normal, and Lu Zhou, who was attached to this body like a séance, only took half a second to figure out the situation.

The Earth-like planet under his feet should be a satellite of a gaseous planet.

Judging from the wrinkle-free topography, 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 of the earth, and there is no trace of artificial development.

At this moment, 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.

And almost at the same time, the moment he closed his eyes, a memory that did not belong to him poured into his mind like a flood of water.

The torn image flashes as he stands in the ancient Roman-style arena of the ring, defeating a formidable opponent with the iron blade in his hand.

Blood splattered, and the picture continued to flicker.

A man who looked like a referee stood in front of him and raised his hands vigorously to the cheers of the crowd to declare his victory.

Immediately after that, the picture turned again, this time not in the arena, but in a wide hall.

A man dressed like a servant of the gods placed a green glowing stone on his forehead, muttering a language that even observer civilization could not translate, and placed the stone in the palm of his outstretched hand.

From those fragments, Lu Zhou probably figured out what the owner of this memory was, and some of the "story backgrounds" that happened before this memory.

Let's start with the most crucial thing, this memory does not belong to the Jialan civilization, but to a group that sounds like "Parker".

They are covered in fluff and are generally between one and a half meters tall, with flexible claws, strong feet and erect animal ears, like large cats that walk upright without tails.

Due to the lack of metallic minerals on their home planet, it took them a long time to move from the Iron Age to the Industrial Age. And during this long time, they even achieved the unification of civilization in the Iron Age.

Entering the industrial age with a single civilization is a disadvantage for them, even if it is an advantage.

Its advantage lies in the fact that because the conflicts within civilizations basically ended in the era of cold weapons, and because the long feudal era injected the concept of great unity and authoritarianism into civilizations, even if there were several regime changes and rise and fall during the period, the turmoil caused by them was smoothly transferred in small-scale local conflicts.

It can be said that the industrial machine of the Parker civilization has never entered the military field in a real sense.

Although the gene of advocating force is included in their civilization, this gene has been "transcribed" in a completely different form from that of human civilization.

For example, they prefer to solve problems through primitive ground-cooled weapon duels rather than negotiations.

They tend to flaunt honor rather than use morality as a norm to constrain their behavior.

For example, the short average life expectancy makes them look down on life and death, believing in reincarnation and the afterlife...... Even if their science never really proves these two things.

At the same time, Lu Zhou, while reading the fragments of memory, noticed that there was a large clerical and aristocratic class in the Parker civilization.

As the spiritual leader of the clergy class, a profession called a prophet played an even more important role than the king in the rise and fall of the entire civilization.

Idealism and authoritarianism, the level of science and technology is probably the early and middle of the interstellar era, and the development ideas are completely different from the powerful and self-contained Jialan Empire.

Underpinned by a high level of cultural identity and the idea of unification, they do not seem to have the penalty of expansion, and even before mastering the means of communication faster than the speed of light, the colony maintained an unimaginable unity with the home planet.

And they tend to live alone rather than build homes, and tend to migrate to distant and empty habitable planets, and do everything possible to occupy more land, even unexplored wastelands.

Just as the Jialan people like to breathe the metallic air around the world, these cat-like withdrawn Parkers can spend an entire day on the empty prairie.

For example, the steppe planet under his feet is one of the hundreds of planets colonized by the Parker civilization.

As for the body that Lu Zhou is now incarnating, it is a warrior who pronounces "Nowa", and just a few days ago, he defeated his opponent in a duel that bet on the name of the Chosen One and became a glorious Chosen One.

As mentioned earlier, the prophet played an important role in the history of the Parker civilization, and the chosen one was the right hand of the prophet.

Through a special ritual called a psionic ritual, the Prophet "foresees the future" and tells the "best arrangement" to the "chosen one" as the only one who knows, and instructs him to carry out his mission.

In fact, when reading this memory, Lu Zhou was quite skeptical about the rigor of this ritual, and whether such a thing could really be predicted by such an unreliable method in the future.

The Parker civilization, however, seems to be convinced of this.

Even on a rare occasion in their history, the Chosen One did the "right thing" for the benefit of the world after heeding the teachings of the prophets.

From this point of view, these fluffy creatures seem to know the lessons of history before humans.

However, in terms of the level of science and technology, these furry guys seem to be much more advanced than human civilization, and Lu Zhou has nothing to complain about their position......

At this time, there was the sound of footsteps behind him.

Parker, who opened his eyes, turned to look back, only to see a soft beam of light falling from the clouds, and a figure slowly falling on the blue grassland along the light.

Gravitational rays?

Anti-gravity?

Or...... Something he didn't know.

Regardless of what kind of magical technology these Parkers used to travel back and forth between high orbit and the planet's surface, Lu Zhou followed Noa's line of sight and looked at the withered and aging Parker who "walked" from the beam, trying to find clues about this guy from the scattered memory fragments.

However, something strange happened.

In Lu Zhou's or Nowa's memory, although there is a rather lengthy memory of the old man, his name does not appear.

Just when Lu Zhou was surprised by this strange situation, the elderly "cat man" suddenly spoke.

"Congratulations, warrior named Noa."

Bowing his head respectfully, Noir said.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me, everything is the will of the Spirit of the Universe."

The old man smiled, carefully examined the face of the young man in front of him, nodded lightly and said, "Under its guidance, the bravest of our civilization has come to me. Truth be told, I wavered about psionic rituals and oracles a long, long time ago, but now I'm incredibly sure it's all for the best. ”

Noir didn't speak, but only maintained a humble posture, waiting for the old man in front of him to tell the prophecy that belonged to the Chosen One.

It's almost a routine.

This time, however, the old man did not seem to intend to say much, and after studying him for a long time, he summarized the entire prophecy with only a very vague description, and then said the "best arrangement" that belonged to the Chosen One.

"A natural disaster is approaching, no one is spared, and there is a fire from the border to the holy land...... Your mission is to travel to the heart of this galaxy and find a way out of our civilization. ”

Startled by the astonishing prophecy, Noir was stunned for two seconds before immediately asking anxiously.

"How do I find it?"

"Shh

The withered paw pressed against Noir's lips, and the old man interrupted Noir's question, looked at him with meaningful eyes, and continued, "When you get there, you will naturally know what to do...... That's your job. ”

Perhaps it was the old man's words, or perhaps the obedience that came from piety, Noir nodded silently, and did not speak again.

Seeing that the young man in front of him listened to his words, an approving smile appeared on the old man's face.

"The spaceship and luggage are ready."

"May you be able to find that faint hope in the middle of this galaxy."

Speaking of this, the old man suddenly stopped talking.

After a brief moment of silence, he changed to a reassuring tone and continued.

“…… Take 10,000 steps back, and even if you don't find it, you don't have to feel guilty about it. ”

"Your genes, your blood, your bones, your culture, your language, everything is proof that we exist. You carry all of us, and even if the great Holy Land eventually falls in this catastrophe that engulfs the universe, we will not waste this life for a long time. ”

"The Holy Land has fallen? How can it be! The Scourge ...... Do you see something? No...... I shouldn't have asked that. ”

Muttering to himself, Nuwa suddenly raised his head, gently placed his right fist on his left chest, looked at the old man in front of him with a determined gaze, and promised, "I will definitely reach the center of this galaxy!" Find a solution to the crisis! ”

Hearing this oath, the old man just smiled softly.

"Don't be so confident, this is a journey of hundreds of thousands of light years, and it's not just a threat from the universe itself, you may meet a lot of travelers who are also inspired by the universe. Many of them are far stronger than us, and not all travelers have good intentions, and it is not easy to survive. ”

"I trust you, though."

The cloudy pupils were full of kindness.

As if he were looking at his own child, the old man looked at him carefully, as if he wanted to remember this last face forever.

It was the same with Nowa, who just looked at each other, letting the wind blow gently on the prairie and play the overture to the farewell.

I don't know how many years it will take to reach the end.

And even if you reach the end, you probably won't have a chance to come back here.

silently accepted the edification of the parting atmosphere, but Lu Zhou did not bring it into the plot.

Therefore, at this moment, his attention has been completely taken away by the prophecy about the natural disaster.

However, just as Lu Zhou was pondering the clues about the natural disaster, all of a sudden, he found that the cloudy pupils had taken on a sharp edge from some time.

The sharpness was not easy to detect, but its presence was so conspicuous and full of disobedience.

It's like a sharp blade, piercing deep into the bone marrow.

I'm a little confused about the change of plot.

Just as Lu Zhou was thinking about why the old man suddenly looked at this "chosen one" with a sharp gaze, a strange feeling suddenly crept up on his scalp.

It's hard to describe exactly what this feeling is and where it comes from.

He made eye contact with the old man again, and just as Lu Zhou was trying to read some clues from his eyes, a terrible thought suddenly flashed through his mind, making him react violently.

The old man......

Look at "yourself"!