In fact, this was a dream.
A dream from a long time ago.
Lu Zhou reached out and picked up a piece of “paper” flying in the air.
This was some kind of media tool made from degradable translucent material. Today’s news was written on the paper.
[The invincible Empire fleet ends the five-year civil war! Marshal Ince captured!]
Lu Zhou had a look of realization on his face.
Currently, he was in a time period shortly after General Reinhardt’s death. The Empire fleet had just destroyed the last group of revolutionists. As a result, the rebels went underground, trying to disintegrate the Empire fortress from within.
The powerful armed military began to fight the rebels that hid among them. It was almost like the Empire had a tumor that was slowly destroying itself from within.
Lu Zhou finally understood what The Observer was saying.
The only thing he was surprised about was that General Reinhardt had actually surpassed Ince in terms of military ranking. A lot must have happened during the five-year war…
Chen Yushan looked at the “newspaper” in her hand and asked curiously, “Who is Marshal Ince?”
“… Probably some higher-up in the Empire fleet. I don’t know a lot about this game either,” Lu Zhou said. He threw the thin paper film in the air and watched it disappear into bubbles. He smiled and said, “Let’s go, I’ll show you around.”
The world was big.
It would take an entire lifetime to explore everything.
There were busy commercial districts, endless farmlands, and even artificial mountains and rivers. Unless someone was looking down on a space station or spacecraft, they wouldn’t be able to tell that this was a ring-shaped world at all.
Chen Yushan thought of this as a mini-vacation. Thus, Lu Zhou wanted to show her as much of the world as possible. They went on an anti-gravity rail trail and arrived at one of the tallest elevator towers.
This was one of the entrances for the Calanians to enter and exit the Ring world from outer space. It was also a vital link in the transportation system of the entire Empire.
And, it was one of the few places that overlooked its section of the Ring world.
Chen Yushan stood in front of the tower floor-to-ceiling windows and stared at the scenery outside the window. Her eyes widened as she looked around.
After a while, she spoke emotionally.
“It’s so beautiful…”
Lu Zhou, who was standing next to her, nodded.
However, he spoke in a regretful tone.
“Yeah… It’s like a miracle.”
The energy harvesting towers had leaf-like energy films, and they looked like tall trees in a forest. The films swayed in the air from the solar wind, trying their best to absorb the solar energy and converting them to all kinds of energy for the world to use.
There was no need for nuclear power plants here; they didn’t need ancient technologies such as fusion reactors.
The entire star was their nuclear core. There was no need to reduce the energy conversion efficiency by adding a middleman reactor. As long as the star was alive, their energy source would continue to live on. Whether it was zero-point energy or antimatter, nothing compared to the energy source from a natural star.
There was no need for sunrises or sunsets here. It could be twenty-four hours of day or night time. The creatures that lived here did not need to rely on the change of day and night. Instead, they used standardized clocks to tell the time.
Not only that, but thanks to the central temperature control system, there could never be any kind of weather disaster. Whether someone was walking in a farmland or in the middle of a skyscraper building, the temperature always stayed at a constant comfortable level.
Even though Lu Zhou spent many hours in this world, when he saw everything in front of his eyes, he couldn’t help but feel sentimental.
This is what five centuries of technological progress, wisdom, and hard work look like.
I can’t imagine how much effort the engineers spent to build this utopia.
They really created a paradise.
However, they were also the ones that destroyed it…
After Lu Zhou and Chen Yushan came down from the elevator tower, Lu Zhou brought Chen Yushan to the shopping area, as well as the Empire Park, which was said to be one of the most spectacular places on the Ring world.
Throughout the journey, Chen Yushan excitedly looked around, which was a contrast to her usual composed and cool self.
“This is incredible, did an AI really generate this?”
Lu Zhou nodded.
He wasn’t lying; in some sense, this was true.
Chen Yushan looked back at Lu Zhou and spoke excitedly.
“Hey, do you think our future will be like this?”
Lu Zhou: “Not sure… Maybe after a millennium.”
They had to find a star with the right number of planets. Then, they had to use some kind of weapon to destroy the planets. Then they would have to use some kind of science fiction space engineering to build a gigantic ring around the habitable zone…
But then again, the culture and ethics of each civilization were different. There was no “ideal” as to what an advanced civilization could look like.
Compared to the Calanian Empire, Lu Zhou felt like Earth was more of an extroverted civilization. Not only did humans actively send out space “postcards” to the universe, naively believing that they were not alone in the universe, but they were also interested in using rockets to go beyond their tiny planet.
For a civilization like the humans, they might be more interested in exploring the boundaries, as opposed to building a labor-intensive giant engineering structure around their home.
In some sense, the humans had many advantages over the Calans as a species.
Of course, it was too early to make a conclusion.
“After a thousand years… Looks like we’ll only be able to experience this in a video game.”
Lu Zhou smiled and didn’t say anything.
Of course.
Do you plan on living for a thousand years?
You’ll become a mummy by then.
After walking around the commercial area and Empire park, they returned to the plaza.
Chen Yushan looked at the flying cars and spoke.
“I feel like I know what the game is about. The storyline is short, and I haven’t played with the combat system yet… But I feel like everything here is a brand new world, I feel like players that enjoy exploring will like it.”
Lu Zhou: “I don’t need a lot of people. As long as it’s enough to keep my experiment going. Probably… around 100,000 people.”
Chen Yushan smiled and said, “We’re Star Sky Technology. Forget about 100,000 people. Let’s make a bet, we’ll be able to sell out a million copies!”
Lu Zhou: “… I never make bets outside my expertise.”
Chen Yushan rolled her eyes and spoke.
“So boring, aren’t you going to give me a chance to win?”
Lu Zhou awkwardly chuckled.
No way.
Do you really think I like losing?
Forget about it.
Chen Yushan suddenly remembered something, and she curiously asked, “Oh yeah, oh yeah, what about the Respawn Team? Where did they test the game? Can you show me the place?”
“This world was built not long ago, this is actually my first time here,” Lu Zhou said. Of course, technically speaking, this was his first time existing in this time period of the Ring world.
However, not much of the Ring world had changed.
“So you’re saying we’re the only two people in this world?”
Lu Zhou felt like Chen Yushan was overly excited for some reason.
Lu Zhou didn’t know what was so exciting, but he still nodded and replied, “Yeah.”
“… That’s amazing.”
For some reason, Chen Yushan, who was cheerful just a second ago, suddenly felt embarrassed.
“Hey…”
“Now what?”
“What do you mean now what… Forget about it,” Chen Yushan said. “Don’t you feel like…”
“Feel like what?”
“… Don’t you feel like, we’re kind of on a date?”
Chen Yushan felt her heart rate beating faster and faster. She was even surprised at how forward she was.
Lu Zhou did not expect this.
He contemplated seriously for a moment before replying, “We are?”
It looked like Lu Zhou didn’t pick up on Chen Yushan’s signal. Chen Yushan began to panic.
“How is it not?”
Lu Zhou said, “A date consists of shopping and a movie.”
Chen Yushan: “Let’s go then!”
“… Go where?”
“Go shopping?”
“I don’t have money!”
“I’ll pay!”
“No, I mean… We don’t have money,” Lu Zhou said awkwardly. “Technically, we don’t have credit.”
It’s not like we can pay in yuan?
Other than rail transit, everything in the Ring world required payment in the form of credits.
There was an awkward tension in the air.
Suddenly, Lu Zhou noticed that Chen Yushan was frozen.
Did she…
Disconnect from the game?
Oh, come on.
