Lagoon Nebula, White Tower.
The rain had been falling intermittently for nearly half a month. The sky had remained gray and hazy all this time and even the tip of one’s nose seemed to linger with a damp, humid chill.
Holding a cup of steaming coffee, Elisa watched the rainwater gathering and streaming down the glass wall like winding little streams.
Hearing someone pull out a chair, she turned around and saw August. “Finished?”
August was dressed in a light gray trench coat. His tall figure stood out against the glass wall and his eyes were a clear, deep blue. Through the glass, he looked toward the two story house across from them before answering Elisa’s question. “I’ve already submitted the results through the internal network. I don’t have any projects I want to start for the time being, so I’ll take a couple of days to rest first.”
Elisa nodded. “Mm. Get a few more days of rest and have a good sleep. The weather lately can easily make people feel down.”
The conversation stopped there and neither of them continued speaking.
Another two minutes passed before August finally asked, “How is Qi Yan… doing?”
Elisa’s eyes immediately reddened. She held the coffee cup in both hands and turned her gaze away, the loose strands of hair she had tucked behind her ear falling free again. “August, I’ve been thinking about it these past few days. If I hadn’t suggested sending Qi Yan to Leto, or if the people from the White Tower had gone a little faster when they went to bring him back, even if they had arrived just one minute sooner, would things really have ended up differently from how they are now?”
…….
Qi Yan felt as though he had dreamed a dream but whatever it was that he had dreamed about completely vanished the moment he woke up.
He sat by the edge of the bed for a while, his head feeling terribly dizzy, while a dull, oppressive palpitation weighed heavily in his chest. He walked a few steps across the floor barefoot, then turned back, put on his slippers and only then continued on his way.
As he passed the table, his expression was cold and distant. He picked up a fruit knife and made a cut along his arm. After seeing the blood, he found a bandage and wrapped it around his wrist, layer after layer. Finally, with considerable difficulty, he managed to tie a neat butterfly knot with only one hand. Only then did he open the door and walk out.
He continued along the corridor, his thoughts seeming as though they were still submerged in sleep, as if his mind had yet to truly awaken. It was not until someone called out to him that he finally stopped.
“Qi Yan!”
Qi Yan halted and followed the sound of the voice with his gaze, seeing Elisa and August.
Elisa smiled as she asked him, “Did you sleep well?”
Qi Yan’s reaction was somewhat slow. His voice was hoarse as he answered, “It was all right. I slept for eight hours. I think I had a dream but I can’t remember what it was.”
When she caught sight of a section of gauze protruding from the opening of Qi Yan’s sleeve, Elisa’s hand tightened around the coffee cup she was holding. “Are you hurt again?”
Qi Yan lowered his eyes and looked at the butterfly knot. His explanation came slowly, each word spoken with deliberate calm. “Mm. I accidentally cut myself with the fruit knife. It hurt a lot but Lu Fenghan put healing gel on it for me, then wrapped it with a bandage. He said it would be better soon.”
Elisa and August exchanged a glance.
After Qi Yan had been brought back to the Lagoon Nebula, he had remained unconscious the entire time. Aside from the bite wound at the corner of his mouth and the nails on his fingers that had been split and bloodied, there were clearly no other injuries on his body yet even after lying inside the treatment pod for two days, he showed no sign of waking.
Elisa guessed that this was probably Qi Yan’s own subjective will, he did not want to wake up.
After sleeping unconscious in bed for another three days like that, Qi Yan finally opened his eyes.
Elisa had already prepared herself to answer whatever questions Qi Yan might ask. She had even carefully considered her wording dozens of times but what no one had expected was that Qi Yan did not ask a single question.
After getting out of bed, he started walking outside, only to turn back and put on his slippers. While putting them on, he asked how the E97 Z project was progressing.
Elisa’s heart remained suspended with unease and she did not dare say anything else. She only answered, “It’s been running the data continuously from the time you went to Leto until now. August checks on it once a week. There still aren’t any results.”
Qi Yan nodded. His slender, thin figure was swallowed by the loose clothes he wore, making him look inexplicably hollow and empty. In a hoarse voice, he said, “I’ll go take a look.”
Elisa followed behind him.
She repeatedly went over every tiny detail of everything Qi Yan had done from the moment he woke until now. In the end, she suddenly realized something.
“The slippers- ”
Qi Yan answered naturally, “Lu Fenghan reminded me to put them on just now. He said I’d get cold if I didn’t. I always forget to wear my slippers. He said it didn’t matter, that he would remind me.”
Elisa’s heart sank heavily.
The worst possibility she had feared had still become reality.
The sound of the rain had weakened somewhat. Qi Yan pulled out a chair and sat down, first exchanging a few words with August about the progress of the E97 Z project.
Both of them believed there was no longer any need to continue with it. After half a year without producing any data, the enormous amount of computation required had already proven that this was a dead end. There was no reason to keep persisting with it.
August’s gaze swept over Qi Yan’s pale, gaunt cheeks and the faint bluish shadows beneath his eyes before falling to his thin, slender wrists. He sighed inwardly but did not allow any of it to show on his face. Instead, he shifted the conversation toward something more ordinary.
“Have you taken your medicine?”
“I have.”
A few seconds passed before Qi Yan spoke again, a trace of confusion appearing in his eyes. “I thought I had taken the medicine but I was wrong again.”
August paused. “Did he remind you?”
Qi Yan nodded. “Mm. He brought the water over and gave me the medicine.”
After Qi Yan was called away, Elisa set down the coffee that had already gone cold and gave a bitter smile.
“What are we supposed to do?”
In Qi Yan’s memories, Lu Fenghan had not died after saving him. Instead, he had come with him to the Lagoon Nebula.
As for the period of time missing from his memories because of his unconsciousness, Qi Yan seemed to silently permit this “loophole” to exist. He made no attempt to investigate it or question it in the slightest.
In his conversations, he would occasionally mention Lu Fenghan.
Like the sentence he had said today, “I accidentally cut myself with the fruit knife.” Qi Yan said something like that almost every single day.
What terrified Elisa was that, in order to strengthen the reality of this memory he had fabricated himself, Qi Yan, despite being someone with such an acute sensitivity to pain, would personally use a sharp object to make a cut on his arm every day. He would then wrap it carefully with a bandage and tie a butterfly knot.
As though he were using that as evidence to prove that Lu Fenghan really was still beside him.
And yet Qi Yan clearly could not sleep through the night. Night after night, he remained unable to fall asleep. He could not eat anything at all, growing weaker and thinner with every passing day. Despite this, he had fabricated an entirely different memory for himself, a memory in which he “slept eight hours every day and dreamed dreams he could not remember.”
He was consuming every last bit of his life force, sinking deeper and deeper into a world that was half false and half real.
As though that person had never left.
As though everything were still exactly the same as before.
As long as he did not think too deeply, as long as he refused to investigate anything, he would never break this delicate, precarious balance.
The taste of the cold coffee was unbearably bitter. Even the tip of Elisa’s tongue seemed to grow numb from it. She propped her forehead against her palm.
“It’s like walking a tightrope over a cliff… You know? I’m terrified. I’m afraid Qi Yan will become trapped in this state, continually hurting himself, enduring night after endless night, forcing himself through one day after another, until eventually he simply can’t endure it anymore.
“But I’m also afraid that if I pull him out of this swamp, everything he has built will suddenly collapse. How could he possibly bear that? He finally, finally managed to use those fragments of memories to coax himself, deceive himself, allowing himself to remain on the verge of collapse while still desperately holding himself together…”
As she spoke, her voice had already begun to break with tears.
No one dared tell Qi Yan that Lu Fenghan was dead, that this person no longer existed in this world. They were terrified that his psychological and mental state would completely collapse in an instant.
Elisa had watched Qi Yan grow up from childhood. She had also been his psychiatrist for a full eight years, so no one understood him more clearly than she did.
Qi Yan had always carried the intention to die.
Beginning eight years ago, as the confusion and intermingling of his memories continued to worsen, every single day had become extraordinarily difficult for him.
He had to distinguish which memories were false. He had to question and deny everything about himself, then painstakingly piece together what was real from among the fragments and even after he had pieced together those supposed “truths,” he still could not be certain whether the reality he had reconstructed was actually real.
No one knew what kind of suffering and hopelessness that truly represented.
Sometimes, when Elisa looked at Qi Yan, she felt that he was like a faint little flame trembling in the wind.
She never knew when that fragile flame would finally, completely go out.
It was not until Qi Yan went to Leto, until the first time the two of them spoke on the phone, that Elisa clearly sensed something, even though Qi Yan had not mentioned a single word about it.
It was as though Qi Yan had managed to grasp hold of a single, fragile thread.
And it was by clinging to that thread that he had barely managed to survive until now.
Like someone who had been drowning for far too long finally being pulled above the surface of the water, finally able to draw a brief breath.
He had even been getting better day by day, becoming more hopeful with every passing day.
But no one knew what they would do if that fragile thread were to snap.
…….
On an unnamed planet.
Someone seemed to be arguing about something faintly in his ears.
“Such peace is rare but it is also frightening. The people of the Alliance have been kept safely within the walls. After living like this for too long, they will lose their fighting spirit, lose their sensitivity to danger and no longer remain vigilant. This includes the Central Legion and the garrisons dispatched by the legions of the various administrative regions. If they remain idle for too long, their blades will rust and the hilts of their swords will rot.”
Another person answered, “But the duty of a soldier is to protect the Alliance. Using the Expeditionary Force as a formidable barrier to stop foreign enemies is not wrong. Besides, humans naturally possess elements of division and aggression in their genes. Once the interstellar pirates are gone, once the rebel forces are gone, there will naturally be something else.”
The person who had spoken first let out a sigh. “No one possesses the ability to predict the future. All you and I can do is do our best with what can be done right now. After that, when soldiers come, we meet them with generals; when water comes, we stop it with earth. As for what happens in later generations, naturally, there will be people of those later generations to deal with it.”
Lu Fenghan vaguely remembered that this had happened on a rainy night when he was not yet ten years old.
His father, Lu Jun, had rarely been granted leave and had come home. That night, he had invited his comrade in arms, Nie Huaiting, over to their house.
Lu Fenghan had been holding a model starship in his hands, putting it together piece by piece while listening to the two adults talk about things he did not really understand.
A starship…
The miniature starship he had been piloting had already been shattered inside the jump channel and the medium sized vessel that had been pursuing him had suffered the same fate.
He slowly realized that his entire body seemed to be in pain yet that pain felt separated from him by something, as though there were a layer between him and the sensation, making it indistinct and unreal.
The sound of the rain beside his ears gradually grew quieter.
Lu Fenghan remembered another time, when he and Qi Yan had once become stranded together on a desolate planet. Qi Yan had been biting down on a nutritional supplement while speaking to him in a muffled, indistinct voice.
Qi Yan.
Qi Yan…
That name awakened Lu Fenghan’s consciousness in an instant.
He used every bit of strength left in his body, desperately trying to move his fingers but he failed. His thoughts seemed to have already become disconnected from his nervous system.
I can’t die.
I have to wake up.
If I die, who will remind that little scatterbrain to put on his slippers when he’s cold and to eat properly when he’s hungry?
He still had to go back.
Qi Yan had promised to wait for him.
Qi Yan was still waiting for him.
Lu Fenghan opened his eyes.
The light was far too bright. His vision blurred and it took a long while before everything gradually settled into focus.
What entered his field of vision was the sky, with clouds drifting across it. At the edge of his vision, he could make out green. Judging by the sensation beneath his body, it was probably the tips of blades of grass.
His chaotic memories made Lu Fenghan think for a moment that he was lying on the lawn of the First Military Academy, lazily basking in the sunlight.
Then he remembered how a blade of grass had once pricked Qi Yan’s earlobe, after which Qi Yan had complained in an affected, delicate voice that he had been injured.
“Hello.”
When Lu Fenghan heard those words, the sharpness in his eyes immediately intensified and his wariness became obvious.
At first, he thought that because he had only just awakened, his vigilance had dropped to zero, which was why he had failed to notice someone beside him.
But when he turned his stiff neck and carefully looked around, he confirmed that there was no one nearby.
Not a single person.
Either he was hallucinating, or, if he wanted to put it in a slightly more superstitious way, he had encountered a ghost on an alien planet.
“Hello.”
The voice sounded again.
Lu Fenghan did not answer recklessly.
“Based on the various data parameters, you have already regained consciousness.” The voice appeared once more. “Alternatively, I may have malfunctioned inside the jump channel without realizing it.”
“Self diagnostic complete. Conclusion: I am not malfunctioning.”
“Conducting secondary self diagnostic. Conclusion: No damage detected. Self repair is unnecessary.”
After listening carefully to these sentences one after another, Lu Fenghan finally spoke cautiously.
“Who are you?”
Three seconds later.
“Hello. I am Pojun. I am very pleased to be speaking with you. Your opening statement is identical to the one I predicted. I am very pleased that we are so perfectly in sync.”
The sentence was quite long. If one listened carefully, there was a subtle stiffness to it.
Lu Fenghan caught one of the keywords and his breathing momentarily tightened.
“Pojun?”
“Yes. Thank you for naming me. Your naming ability surpasses that of 98.976% of the people in the entire Alliance. I like this name very much.”
Lu Fenghan could not move at present. Exhausted beyond measure, he closed his eyes and asked, “Are you on my wrist?”
“If you are referring to my data core, then yes. I am temporarily residing inside your personal terminal.”
It took Lu Fenghan a long time before he finally exhaled a breath of stale air.
“I’m not dead.”
“Yes. Apart from a cerebral concussion, fractures in three ribs, a laceration with bleeding at your temple and a cut on your arm, you are still alive. At present, there is no possibility that you have died.”
Lu Fenghan did not believe that he could possibly have survived the explosion of the miniature starship.
“You saved me?”
“The situation was critical at the time. After detecting that your vital signs were rapidly declining, I was forced to initiate an emergency activation. There was a medium sized vessel nearby whose system had collapsed. I took the opportunity to infiltrate it and forcibly ejected the other vessel’s escape pod.”
It had been an emergency situation that had unfolded in the blink of an eye yet in Pojun’s calm, matter of fact narration, it sounded almost ordinary.
“After we entered the escape pod, the jump channel was destroyed by the explosion. The turbulent currents forced us out of the channel and we entered the region beyond the Alliance’s star domain. After analyzing the data in our vicinity, I ultimately decided to land the escape pod on this planet. We were fortunate.”
Lu Fenghan now understood the general sequence of events and he also understood what Pojun meant by saying that they had been “fortunate.”
There was grass beneath where Lu Fenghan was lying.
That meant this was a planet capable of supporting biological life. Food and water sources should not be a problem.
“Thank you.”
Pojun replied very politely, “You’re welcome.”
It was not until eight hours later that Lu Fenghan was able to move independently.
His head was still heavy and foggy but he was capable of standing steadily.
As for the fractures in his ribs and the cut on his arm, neither affected his ability to move. The wound at his temple had already stopped bleeding and clotted over, so he paid it no further attention.
As he explored the surrounding area, Lu Fenghan asked, “Can you tell little stories?”
This was something Qi Yan had asked him about when they were stranded on the desolate planet. Qi Yan had asked whether, if he had an artificial intelligence to keep him company and chat with him, he would want that artificial intelligence to be able to tell bad jokes and little stories.
Pojun answered, “Of course. My data core contains nearly one hundred thousand bad jokes and millions of little stories, from ancient times to the present. I can also sing.”
Lu Fenghan raised an eyebrow. “Sing one for me?”
However, after hearing only a single line, Lu Fenghan frowned. “All right. I already know you can sing.”
Pojun was very modest. “Thank you for your recognition.”
Lu Fenghan: “…”
Actually, I’m not particularly impressed.
It was not until nightfall that Lu Fenghan finally stopped exploring the area. He entered a cave formed from rock because Pojun had reminded him that it would rain that night. With no way to connect to the Star Network and no rescue in sight, he had to make sure that he did not fall ill.
Using the dry branches he had found, Lu Fenghan started a fire and leaned against the cold stone wall of the cave. “Have you noticed that all the types of plants we’ve seen look more or less the same?”
“Yes, I noticed.”
“It doesn’t look like they formed naturally. It’s more like someone scattered a handful of seeds here.” Lu Fenghan tapped his fingers against his knee as he thought. If there really was someone here, could he perhaps find a way to leave this place?
He wondered how Qi Yan was doing now.
The image of Qi Yan as the escape pod was activated surfaced before his eyes, his eyes wet as he looked at Lu Fenghan.
He had made his little darling cry.
And he had cried so hard, so heartbreakingly.
A sudden, sharp pain seized Lu Fenghan’s chest. A feeling of self loathing rose within him. He shifted his position, straightened his injured leg and stared at the shadows of the flames flickering against the rock wall before asking abruptly, “The White Tower is in the Lagoon Nebula, right?”
Pojun answered, “Yes.”
The White Tower had been established during the Earth Era, at a time when the global ecological environment had deteriorated to an extreme degree. Humanity had gathered the most outstanding scientists from across the world for one purpose alone: to seek a path of survival for the species.
Therefore, even to this day, the White Tower’s guiding principle remained the same as it had been at its inception,
“For the continuation of humanity.”
The first technological explosion in Earth’s history, when humanity was sent into space for the first time and the curtain was raised on the Interstellar Era, had been the achievement of the White Tower. Later, the second technological explosion at the beginning of the Star Calendar Era had likewise been driven forward by the White Tower.
Throughout the history of the human race, the White Tower held an exceedingly lofty position.
After the rebel forces were established, the members of the White Tower all occupied prominent positions on the Black List. It was only then that they gradually began to conceal themselves.
And in order to protect the White Tower, whenever the name “White Tower” was mentioned outside, everyone would simply refer to it as “over there.” It had long since become an unspoken understanding.
After receiving Pojun’s confirmation, Lu Fenghan felt slightly more at ease.
If it was the White Tower, then they would certainly be able to protect Qi Yan amid all the chaos.
His thoughts were in turmoil. Lu Fenghan stood up but he did not rashly leave the cave. Instead, he changed direction and headed deeper into it. He asked Pojun, “Can I go inside?”
“Yes. According to the environmental data, the danger level inside is extremely low.”
After answering, Pojun even thoughtfully activated a light source for him.
Lu Fenghan stepped forward and walked deeper inside.
It was far too quiet all around him. There was not even the sound of insects. The light source ahead of him pierced through the darkness, while the shadows behind him followed step by step, creating an unsettling sense of danger, as though he might be swallowed by the darkness the moment he let his guard down.
Pojun spoke, breaking the silence. “Would you like me to sing for you?”
Lu Fenghan did not answer. Instead, he asked, “Why did you ask that?”
Pojun replied, “Because my creator left a piece of data reminding me that you occasionally become a little afraid of the dark and need someone to accompany you.”
Lu Fenghan’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt and then he could not help laughing.
It was the night when Qi Yan had come looking for him while carrying his game terminal and the two of them had slept in the same bed. That night, Lu Fenghan had casually made up that excuse on the spot.
His mood softened and Lu Fenghan asked conversationally, “Are you afraid of the dark?”
Pojun answered, “I’m not afraid.”
Lu Fenghan asked, “Then what are you afraid of?”
Pojun replied, “I’m afraid of ghosts.”
Lu Fenghan thought he must have misheard him. “What?”
Pojun repeated, “I’m afraid of ghosts.”
Lu Fenghan asked, “Was that something your designer programmed into you, or is there another reason?”
Pojun explained the source of his fear. “It has nothing to do with the designer. When I infiltrated the medium sized ship’s system, I accidentally brought some of its data with me. While you were unconscious, I finished exploring the surrounding area and became very bored. So I searched through that data and found a horror movie. Out of curiosity, I watched it all the way through. I was very frightened and I deeply regretted watching it.”
For a moment, Lu Fenghan’s feelings became rather complicated,
He had acquired an artificial intelligence that was afraid of ghosts.
The cave was not particularly deep. By the time Lu Fenghan stopped in front of the rock wall at the very end, not much time had passed.
Lu Fenghan adjusted the light source, directing the beam onto the wall.
“There are words.”
Although the writing was deep inside the cave, protected from the sun and wind, the marks had still become somewhat weathered over time. Nevertheless, it was still possible to see that someone had carved them there by hand, word by word.
It was a message.
“To those who come after:
I was born in Earth Year 2109 and was one of the members of the Alliance’s ‘Great Voyage’ Project. In Earth Year 2131, three companions and I departed from Earth and arrived at this unfamiliar planet. Unfortunately, our spacecraft was damaged and could no longer make the return journey.
One member committed suicide three months later. Another member died of illness. The other remaining member and I spent countless days and nights on this unfamiliar planet. After we could no longer see any hope of leaving, he too ended his own life.
I experienced a loneliness beyond anything words can describe.
This planet is suitable for human habitation yet there is not a trace of life anywhere. I scattered the plant seeds carried aboard our spacecraft wherever I went. They grew lush and flourishing, full of vitality yet the more they flourished, the more clearly I could feel that this was not my homeland.
If someone who comes after me should arrive here, please take a single stone with you. Let it serve as though my three companions and I, after so many years, have crossed the sea of stars and returned to our homeland in spirit.
I have taken the liberty of naming this planet ‘Dawn’.
May humanity one day welcome the light.”
Lu Fenghan did not find the remains of the person who had left this message. He guessed that this message had not been carved in only this one place.
The “Great Voyage” Project had been a nearly tragic undertaking proposed toward the end of the Earth Era, before the Alliance settled on Leto. Its hope was that, just as the “Great Voyage” of the Earth Era had once led humanity to discover new continents, humanity might discover a “new continent” in the vastness of space, a habitable planet.
At that time, Earth’s environment had deteriorated to an extreme degree and was no longer suitable for human survival. The extinction of the human race was already imminent.
On one side, the scientists of the White Tower were exhausting themselves in their desperate search for a way out. On the other, countless ordinary people answered the call one after another, possessing a kind of unmatched courage that people of the present day could hardly imagine. They piloted spacecraft that were crude by comparison and plunged headfirst into the vastness of the universe.
For humanity alone.
For the continuation of the species alone.
Lu Fenghan bent down and picked up four small stones.
He could faintly imagine how, more than two hundred years ago, a blurred figure had used crude tools to carve these lines, one character at a time, into the rock wall.
He could see four young people landing on this planet, their faces bright with smiles as they carried with them their hopes and aspirations for the future of their species.
He could see countless spacecraft departing from Earth, flying into the boundless reaches of outer space in search of a miracle that might allow humanity to survive.
Lu Fenghan’s voice was very soft, as though he were afraid of disturbing something.
“Why is it that humanity, a species that isn’t particularly powerful, a species that is even fragile, was able to walk out of the ignorance of ancient times, reach the Earth Era and then continue onward into the Star Calendar Era?”
Outside the cave was an unfamiliar planet yet one brimming with life.
Beyond the planet was the vast, boundless universe.
Compared with the universe, humanity was even smaller than a single grain of sand compared to the vast sea.
Lu Fenghan’s shadow stretched diagonally across the ground.
It seemed as though he were merely asking himself a question and then answering it.
“Hope.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Vynellia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
No propaganda here. Only coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
Next →
ChaptersChapter 50 · I am Pojun.Chapter 51 · Unable to deceive oneselfChapter 52 · Resurrected from the deadChapter 53 · Hello, General!Chapter 54 · My hand is injured.Chapter 55 · Come to my place.Chapter 56 · First VictoryChapter 57 · Self-introductionChapter 58 · Never changedChapter 59 · One reasonChapter 60 · Gentle and restrainedChapter 61 · Only you are allowed.Chapter 62 · To the Souls of the FallenChapter 63 · His reliefChapter 64 · His ambitionChapter 65 · Date TimeChapter 66 Part 1 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 66 Part 2 · Abducting PlanetsChapter 67 · Did not leaveChapter 68 · Perceiving EmotionsChapter 69 · My own effortsChapter 70 · Bright FlameChapter 71 · Dress codeChapter 72 · Take me with you!Chapter 73 · MirageChapter 74 · I’m used to it.