Chapter 343: Lighthouse Curse |
After years of development on Water Blue Star, the old cities had all been rebuilt, and the standard of living had gradually improved.
This meant that Water Blue Star now had quite a few entertaining attractions.
For instance.
"This is rather interesting."
Having rested for the night, Chen Mang reappeared on the streets of Water Blue Star at daybreak. He looked up at an advertisement displayed on the exterior screen of a nearby high-rise.
-
"The first fully holographic, virtual, multiplayer interactive, open-world exploration online game in history."
"Here, you can treat it as pure entertainment and fully explore this unknown world."
"Here, you can become a lifestyle player and craft all sorts of items."
"Here, you can be a lone wolf, roaming the ends of the earth and roaring out against injustice."
"A perfect leveling system."
"Excellent class balance."
"Multiple Qi Yu, diverse development paths, allowing every player to forge their own unique self."
"Pre-registration is now officially open for the explosive server launch!"
"Virtual Pod: Priced at 399,000 Heng Xing Coupons. Offers a superior, perfectly realistic second-world experience."
"Virtual Helmet: Priced at 9,900 Heng Xing Coupons. Excellent quality at an affordable price."
"Virtual Pill: Priced at 9.9 Heng Xing Coupons. Upon consumption, automatically enter the game via hallucinations. The only drawback is that each entry is as a guest; you cannot officially hold player status."
-
"A virtual online game,"
Chen Mang murmured, gazing at the advertisement on the building's exterior screen. Filled with emotion, he said nothing more.
In his previous world.
The one thing he had looked forward to the most was the day virtual reality MMOs would officially be released. As long as he could witness the launch of a virtual online game before dying of old age, he felt his life would have been worth it.
However.
Perhaps his desire had simply been too strong.
In the end, he had still managed to witness this scene, albeit through an incredibly bizarre method.
'The people on Water Blue Star are truly fortunate,' he mused.
Rumor had it.
This virtual online game was built using the Battle Training Virtual Space and Xiao Ai as a foundation, allowing for multiplayer connectivity. It even included the role of Train Captain. However, the Train Captain class in the game had become a heavily pay-to-win profession.
Commoners simply could not afford to play it.
Only huge spenders could afford to maintain it.
He felt this was quite reasonable.
After all, in the real world, this profession was absolutely a massive resource sink.
"If I ever have a child in the future, I cannot even imagine how happy they would be, growing up able to play virtual games."
Chen Mang shook his head, chuckled, and continued walking forward.
If he truly had a child.
Then that child's life could only be described with the word 'bliss.'
Of course.
That was contingent on their civilization developing reasonably well; otherwise, it would be quite miserable.
For a full six months.
Chen Mang had stayed on Water Blue Star and Xuanwu Star for an entire six months. During this half-year, he had barely handled any train affairs.
He had focused entirely on relaxing, entertaining himself, and having fun.
He gave off the strong impression of an emperor neglecting his court sessions to indulge in his harem.
After resting for these six months.
The persistent sense of tension from being pressed for time had largely dissipated, and his entire being felt much more relaxed. Thus, he finally reappeared inside the control room of the Stellar Train.
"Long time no see, Captain. It seems you have thoroughly enjoyed yourself over these past six months,"
Xiao Ai's voice echoed through the train.
"It was alright,"
Chen Mang replied with a smile. Dressed in beach shorts and wearing square-framed sunglasses, he sat down in his chair and opened the train log on the console screen to check the various data metrics from the recent period. "Taking six months off felt much better."
"Did anything major happen during these six months?"
"No. If there had been, I definitely would have notified you immediately, Captain."
"Mhm."
Chen Mang said no more and entered work mode, inspecting the train's various data metrics over this period one by one.
Every component was operating normally.
The Doppelganger Radar also showed that everything was normal, with no external enemies approaching.
Before his vacation, he had even instructed Biao Zi to regularly send personnel to inspect the prison within the Dark Abyss. Everything there was normal too; the trapped member of the God Race showed no signs of breaking free.
The entire world seemed to have been frozen in place.
Fixed at the exact moment before his vacation.
There was absolutely no difference between six months ago and yesterday.
"..."
Chen Mang's expression gradually turned peculiar. "Xiao Ai, you should be familiar with the hypothesis that the universe exists only because someone is observing it, or rather, the meaning of the universe's existence lies in being observed."
"If all living beings in the universe were to die, and no one was left to observe the universe."
"The universe would automatically cease to exist."
"Take the famous double-slit experiment, for instance. The presence of an observer leads to completely different experimental results."
"Tell me..."
"Is it possible that I am the protagonist of this universe?"
"That this universe exists because of me?"
"Whenever I start working, all sorts of things happen. But as soon as I rest, everything pauses, only to resume the moment I clock back in?"
"Uhm..."
Xiao Ai's helpless voice echoed through the train. "Captain, in the context of the universe, six months is an incredibly short amount of time, barely worth mentioning."
"Normally speaking."
"It is exceedingly normal and common for there to be zero changes over six months in the cosmos. The frequent series of events you encountered prior to your vacation were the anomaly. Under normal circumstances, things do not occur that rapidly."
"Barring any accidents, the next six months will also..."
The very next moment.
Xiao Ai's voice abruptly cut off. After a brief pause, it resumed, though now laced with a hint of bewilderment and confusion. "Captain, the Cyber Miner reported seeing the little fatty. They say something has gone wrong on his end, and he is anxious to see you..."
"Sigh."
Chen Mang let out a long sigh and projected the visual from the Cyber Miner's dream onto a side screen. "See? What did I tell you? It cannot be that there is some mysterious force in this region, right?"
"The moment I take a break, absolutely nothing happens."
"The second I start working, all the problems come knocking."
"There has been no news from that little fatty for six months. When I burned incense for Tuo Tuo, I even burned a stick for him on the side. Turns out, he didn't die after all, and he pops right up the moment I clock in."
Xiao Ai fell silent and said nothing.
The AI was currently in a crashed state. Although this was too small a sample size to draw a definitive conclusion, the timing was far too coincidental. During the Captain's six months of leave, the Stellar Train had experienced unprecedented peace. There had not been a single conflict. Yet, the moment the Captain returned, an incident struck.
"Chen Mang!"
Far away in the Naomi Civilization, situated on an Ore Star, the little fatty looked panicked, his expression mixed with fear and unease. Gazing at the mysterious traveler before him, he spoke with a trembling voice, "Something happened. Something seems to have gone terribly wrong with the Naomi Civilization. I am not completely sure, but I feel something is completely off."
"A while ago, my father suddenly ordered me to return home immediately."
"I definitely refused at first. My relationship with him has never been good, and since I hadn't achieved any great success, I had no face to return."
"But for some reason, my father was suddenly incredibly forceful. He didn't even try to reason with me; he simply sent a group of people to kidnap me and drag me back. Only then did I realize he had actually hired an exceptionally powerful private security firm to secretly protect me this whole time. No wonder I had never encountered any pirates! I honestly thought they had all gone out of business."
"After returning."
"Both my father and mother had extremely gloomy and awful expressions on their faces."
"I had never seen them look so grim. No matter how difficult things were in the past, my parents had never acted like this. On my way back, I didn't come into contact with anyone; the private security firm delivered me directly to my house."
"It wasn't until—"
"My father took me out onto the street."
"That I finally realized something was wrong."
"Everyone on the street was looking up at the sky."
"Everyone."
"Every single person had their head tilted up at a perfect 45-degree angle, staring at the sky. At first, I thought there was something up there, but I later realized the sky was completely empty. Furthermore, nobody seemed to feel that anything was amiss."
"They weren't just standing still and staring."
"They were going about their daily business while keeping their heads tilted upward toward the sky."
"The entire society was still functioning normally, just like always. The streets were filled with the shouts of vendors and the chatter of pedestrians. If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't sense anything wrong; everything sounded perfectly normal. But the moment you opened your eyes, you'd find the sight utterly bizarre."
"And it wasn't just this planet either."
"Rather..."
"Everyone in the entire Naomi Civilization is acting this way."
"Even the private security firm that escorted me on the way back did the same. At first, I assumed they were just worried I'd see their faces, or that they had some strict company policy. I didn't connect the dots at all."
"Most importantly—"
"I saw a broadcast from the leaders of the Naomi Civilization on the news. Even the supreme leader and all the high-ranking officials were behaving exactly like this! Yet not a single person realized there was any abnormality!"
"Everyone is like this!"
"Only my father, my mother, and I... out of the entire civilization, only the three of us have maintained our normal state. It's as if everyone else has gone insane, or they've seen a ghost. My father... he suspects this might be the doing of The Palace. He believes our civilization is on the verge of annihilation."
"He returned with me to the southern frontier's Ore Star in the Naomi Civilization, waiting here for our civilization to either return to normal or face its demise."
"What should I do?"
"Chen Mang, you are a civilization leader. Do you have any idea what could cause this?"
"..."
Sitting in the train's control room, Chen Mang furrowed his brows slightly after listening to the little fatty's recount. He felt as if he had just been told a ghost story.
The subsequent development of a story like this should be:
At a specific moment, everyone would suddenly turn their heads to stare at the little fatty's family of three, flash a sinister smile, and ask, 'Why aren't you looking up?'
'What a cliché trope,'
'It sounds like a cheesy campfire story.'
"Are there ghosts in the universe?"
"There might be," Xiao Ai replied with some uncertainty. "Forms of civilization are incredibly diverse. Perhaps there is a civilization based on spectral entities. However, as of right now, there is zero information regarding such a civilization in my database. Even if one exists, it would be an extremely niche type."
"Much more niche than even a Cultivation civilization."
"That being said, on Xuanwu Star, there is an incredibly rare branch of cultivators known as ghost cultivators. There might be some similarities."
Right at that moment—
The little fatty handed over a photograph he had taken on the planet.
In the image.
Everyone was looking at the sky at a standard 45-degree angle. Chen Mang even specifically asked Xiao Ai to calculate it, and it was indeed a perfect 45-degree angle across the board. From this perspective, one could carry on with life completely normally, as their peripheral vision was sufficient for the vast majority of everyday tasks.
It was just that their eyeballs would be extremely strained.
They would constantly have to look downward.
This was why everyone seemed to have a vacant, dead-fish-eyed stare, making them look exceptionally disturbing.
After a long while.
Chen Mang finally spoke, sending a message back to the little fatty.
"It isn't necessarily a disaster brought about by The Palace. If it were a calamity stemming from The Palace, the disaster shouldn't encompass every single person in your civilization, given that most people haven't even gone inside to explore it. Besides, even the southern frontier has been affected. That transmission speed is far too fast."
"It seems more like some sort of... civilization curse?"
"Of course."
"I just coined the term 'civilization curse.' It's only a guess. Since your family is completely fine, the key to solving this mystery must definitely lie with you. Didn't you say your father is there too? Is it convenient to bring him over? I'd like to have a chat with him."
Just then—
"Eh? Wait."
Chen Mang enlarged the dozen or so photographs the little fatty had sent on the screen. He observed them frame by frame for quite some time before noticing a subtle irregularity. Furrowing his brow deeply, he finally spoke.
"Xiao Ai, have you noticed that these people's line of sight appears to be fixed?"
"No matter how they turn or move around, the direction they are tilting their heads up toward the sky is completely stationary?"
"Even though each person is looking in a completely different direction, their individual gaze toward the sky is locked in place?"
"In nautical navigation."
"There is a structure known as a lighthouse, used to guide passing ships and point them in the right direction. Could the existence of these people be acting like... lighthouses?"
Xiao Ai also quickly caught on.
"Captain, are you suggesting that these people have turned into lighthouses? That they are guiding the way?"
"It looks more like they are pointing toward a specific coordinate."
"But there should only be a single set of coordinates. Everyone is looking in a different direction. You would only be able to derive a coordinate if everyone's line of sight converged on the same spot."
"It might be encrypted."
Very soon.
Chen Mang came to a conclusion. These people's behavior was primarily due to cognitive interference.
It was the equivalent of performing abnormal actions, but the brain rationalizing those actions as perfectly normal, while attempting to adapt their daily habits to accommodate this change as much as possible.
It was similar to a curse.
'But a curse capable of instantly spreading across millions or even tens of millions of light-years... that would have to be a bloodline curse, right?'
As for whether the purpose behind all this was truly to point out a coordinate, he had no way of knowing just yet.
He still needed to have a chat with the little fatty's father.
He had a premonition.
This man harbored many secrets.
Before long—
An unfamiliar middle-aged man appeared on the screen. The man stepped forward and immediately spoke in a deep, serious voice. "Are you the mysterious traveler my son spoke of? I heard you're even the leader of a civilization?"
"As a civilization leader, you've been constantly contacting my son to obtain internal information about our civilization."
"Do you realize what kind of catastrophe it would bring upon my son if this matter were to be exposed?"
"My son may be naive enough to be used by you, but do you think I am just as naive?"
"The disaster you've brought upon your son is no small matter either,"
"I gave him a life free of worries about food and clothing."
"And along the way, you gave him a Naomi Civilization where everyone stares up at the sky."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Do you really not understand what I mean? You should know better than I do how all of this was caused. Your son is naive, but do you think I am naive as well?"
The middle-aged man fell silent for a long moment before asking hoarsely, "How much do you know?"
"I know a lot."
Following that.
The middle-aged man received a blueprint. His pupils violently contracted, a flash of utter horror passing through his eyes. This document was shockingly the blueprint of the Unknown Palace. This was absolutely something outsiders could not obtain.
It even included the interior design of The Palace.
Secrets that not even the government had managed to decipher were now clearly displayed on the blueprint in his hands.
The information contained within this blueprint was more than enough.
The middle-aged man's body began to tremble violently, unable to stop. Eventually, veins bulged on his forehead as he ruthlessly crumpled the blueprint in his fist. Approaching a complete mental breakdown, he roared hysterically, "Do you think I wanted to see any of this happen?!"
"I only wanted to provide my wife and son with a good enough life!"
"Is that a crime?!"
"What did I do wrong?! As a man, shouldn't I try my best to give my family a better life?!"
"I have always been a law-abiding citizen. I never once did anything illegal. But ever since that Palace suddenly appeared above my home, everything changed. Our entire civilization was reduced to this state!"
"Yes."
"I know that there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world, and that all of destiny's gifts come with a secret price tag. But I never imagined the cost would be this catastrophic! I only wanted my family to live a little better; I never wanted to destroy the Naomi Civilization!"
"What do I do now?"
"What am I supposed to do now? Who are you? Just who exactly are you, and why do you possess the blueprints to The Palace?"
The man dropped to his knees, weeping bitterly in a state of utter breakdown.
The composed demeanor he displayed earlier had vanished without a trace, thoroughly obliterated by a single blueprint.
No one knew just how much pressure he had been enduring recently. Everything had started the moment The Palace manifested. He knew he had personally destroyed the Naomi Civilization. Unable to bear such astronomical guilt, his sanity had long been teetering on the edge of collapse.
Yet, if given the chance to do it all over again.
He would likely still make the exact same choice.
When a person is starving.
They do not care whether a civilization perishes or not.
"Uhm..."
Chen Mang looked at the man's reaction on the screen with a bizarre expression. He had merely thrown out a random bluff to bait him, yet the other party spilled everything immediately. Judging by his initial appearance, Chen Mang had assumed he would be quite a difficult person to deal with.
With the entire civilization in this state, the few of you were acting as if nothing was wrong.
It would have been a miracle if the three of you weren't hiding some massive secret.
It seemed like he...
Had stumbled upon some earth-shattering secret.
"Tell me everything you know, from the very beginning. Right now, I am the only one who can save your civilization—if you don't wish to see the Naomi Civilization completely wiped out, that is."
"I can tell you the truth."
"Your civilization has been hit by the 'Lighthouse Curse.'"
"Have you heard of Universe Ge Lei? That Palace is a type of Universe Ge Lei. Once a civilization enters it to explore, the curse spreads throughout the entire civilization. Everyone will gaze toward a specific location in space, serving as a beacon to guide a high-level civilization from the depths of the universe right to your doorstep."
"If this is not resolved swiftly... In a few years, a massive army will descend upon the Naomi Civilization."
"When that time comes, it will mark the day the Naomi Civilization is eradicated."
All of the above.
These words.
Were naturally all made up by him. The psychological defenses of this man were already nearing the breaking point. By applying a little more pressure, Chen Mang ensured the other party would tell the truth and reveal even more details.
Still, in his heart, he couldn't help but give a thumbs-up to his own naming skills.
'Lighthouse Curse.'
'What a fantastic name.'
'Quite sophisticated.'
'It makes it sound as if it were a real thing.'
Soon enough—
His psychological defenses thoroughly shattered, the man knelt on the ground. A dazed, reminiscing look crossed his face as he began his tale. "That was a long, long time ago. Back then, I was nothing more than a lowly worker in a furniture factory."
"My family was incredibly poor."
"We couldn't even afford to eat a full meal."
"Normally speaking, residents of the Naomi Civilization receive basic living allowances. However, our marriage was unofficial at the time, and without proper household registration, we couldn't claim the basic citizen welfare of the Naomi Civilization. Life was extremely difficult."
"Until..."
"One day, I found a desk in a garbage dump."
"I was ecstatic at the time."
"Because even though the desk was a bit old and worn, it was still usable. As long as I took it back and washed it clean, I would possess a desk of my very own. I could add a new piece of furniture to my study—a new piece of furniture that belonged entirely to me."
"I was just a laborer."
"I wasn't some intellectual, nor did I have any actual need for a desk."
"But I still brought it home and scrubbed it meticulously clean. I even specifically applied a fresh coat of black paint over the surface, using paint I had stolen from the furniture factory. Every time I came home from work and sat at that desk, I would fantasize that I was just like those big corporate bosses, commanding the winds and clouds from my desk, where a casually signed signature could decide the fates of countless families."
"That feeling left me mesmerized."
"Until—"
"One day, an object I had never seen before suddenly appeared inside the drawer. At that time, our rented apartment could be described as entirely bare; there was practically nothing but four walls. I vividly remembered every single item we owned, so I was absolutely certain that this object had never been in our house."
"I saw a Telescope."
"After researching online for half the day, I finally learned that it was a White-grade Train Component Telescope. What's more, someone had leveled it up to Level 10. Upgrading it to that rank requires a full eight Murphy Stones and a massive amount of resources."
"It was easily worth three years of my salary."
"I still remember exactly how I felt at that moment. My breathing quickened, my heart pounded violently, and every cell in my body was frantically screaming at me that as long as I sold this Telescope, I would become rich overnight!"
"I would be able to afford a hearty meat meal for my family, buy everyone new sets of clothes, and switch my pregnant wife to a private hospital room with a far superior medical team."
"Just one Telescope."
"Could improve the lives of my entire family."
"But..."
"I didn't dare to sell it. I had no idea how this Telescope had appeared inside my desk drawer, and I was too afraid to recklessly sell off a component, terrified that its original owner would track it down. That was until a short while later, when I discovered yet another object had suddenly materialized in my drawer."
"It was a porcelain doll."
"I figured selling this wouldn't cause any trouble. I took it to the 'Flea Market Street' in the city. Very quickly, a sharp-eyed individual took an interest in it. The person excitedly asked for a price. Forcing myself to remain calm, I held up five fingers while maintaining a completely blank expression, not saying a single word."
"In my mind, I was already calculating that I would sell it instantly the moment they made any counteroffer."
"But to my shock, the person asked me if I meant five hundred thousand."
"Although my body stiffened, I subconsciously nodded my head."
"The buyer was incredibly straightforward. Without uttering another word, they tossed down a spatial pocket and a business card before leaving in excitement, telling me to contact them immediately if I ever had high-quality goods like this in the future."
"Just like that."
"I dizzyingly returned home carrying five hundred thousand, suddenly in possession of the very first spatial pocket of my life. That was... ten years of my salary!"
"I had worked hard my entire life!"
"I swear, I worked harder than the vast majority of people. I worked three jobs a day—aside from the furniture factory, I took on two odd jobs. Yet, in my entire life, I had never seen so much money."
"From that day forward."
"My life was transformed. My family wore new clothes, we had meat dishes on our dining table, and my wife was moved into a private hospital room with a much better medical team. The other expectant mothers in the hospital enviously told my wife how generous I was, and how much her husband truly loved her."
"I clipped that spatial pocket onto the most conspicuous spot on my belt. Wearing my new clothes, I stood by my wife's side, grinning widely without saying a word."
"In that moment."
"I felt as though the back I had kept bent in subservience for a lifetime had finally straightened up."
"After that, the desk continued to occasionally spit out various items. I established a cooperative partnership with the person who had bought that first item. I gradually became wealthier and wealthier, eventually founding my own company. However, more and more people began to suspect the origins of my supply channels."
"Some even pointed out that everything I sold seemed to be a Cosmic Taboo Item."
"Left with no other choice."
"I was forced to set up my own supplier network, heavily acquiring all sorts of rare goods. Although this diluted my profit margins, at least I now possessed a legitimate, public supply channel. But even so..."
"My profits remained dozens of times higher than those of my peers."
"The items that brought in the highest profits were all obtained for absolutely nothing. I required zero capital for them."
"None of my competitors could ever match me."
"For items that my competitors also carried."
"If they sold it for five hundred thousand, I would gladly take a 'loss' and sell it for three hundred thousand."
"I never lost a price war. Gradually, more and more people came to know that the goods I sold were completely unique, and for anything others did have, my prices were guaranteed to be lower."
"Of course."
"Along this journey, I also encountered quite a few treacherous plots. I had stolen many people's piece of the pie, and plenty of them wanted me dead."
"But every year, I paid an exorbitant fortune to hire private security firms. I was the largest taxpayer and provided the highest employment rates locally. Furthermore, I gifted massive amounts of wealth into the hands of various officials."
"The officials on my planet were the most comfortable and well-fed bureaucrats in the entire Naomi Civilization, aside from those on the political capital world."
"From the bureau chiefs all the way down to the interns."
"Every single one of them received a generous gift from me during holidays and festivals."
"On that planet, everything I did was given the green light. Nobody could stop me, nor would anyone try to get in my way. Countless people wanted to curry favor with me. The screening rate for government postings on that planet became the highest anywhere."
"Every time a few job quotas opened up."
"A massive number of people from other planets across the entire Naomi Civilization would try to test into our world. Everyone knew that as long as they worked a full ten years on this planet, they would lack for nothing for the rest of their lives."
"Looking back at this journey."
"I admit, it was that desk that changed my destiny. But does that mean all my own hard work can just be erased? I endured all the hardships that came my way. There was once a painting from a Level 9 civilization that I successfully auctioned for an astronomical price, yet I never received a single cent of it. Did I ever complain about that to anyone?"
"Until..."
"Until one day, the desk began transmitting new items just like always. But when I opened the drawer, I found it completely empty. I originally thought the desk simply wouldn't transmit anything back ever again."
"But after I pushed open the window, I saw the colossal Palace suspended in the sky above the planet."
"I knew right then that this was the new item that had been transmitted over. It was just a bit too large, and the drawer couldn't hold it."
"From then on."
"Everything began to change."
"Afterwards, a copper key suddenly appeared inside the desk drawer. Logic told me that I might have been dragged into an earth-shattering conspiracy. I grew terrified. I once believed that after destiny had bestowed upon me enough gifts, I would be able to face the music calmly when it finally demanded a price."
"But when the time truly came, I realized I was actually just a coward."
"I couldn't bear to die. I couldn't bear to part with my family, nor could I part with my current life."
"Like a madman, I hauled the desk through an underground tunnel I had excavated, taking it to a secluded corner. I wanted to completely crush the desk using a hydraulic press."
"However..."
"It was just..."
The man kneeling on the floor suddenly let out a miserable chuckle. "However, who could possibly refuse the toll demanded by destiny?"
"The desk was destroyed, but the desk was merely a casing. Its true form was actually a Refrigerator."
"I brought that Refrigerator back into my study."
"Over the next six months, Cosmic Taboo Items still occasionally appeared inside the Refrigerator. Only, I no longer had the desire to auction them off like I did in the past. Because the Naomi Civilization had already begun to undergo changes without anyone noticing."
"It was as if everyone's cognition had been altered."
"Everyone stared up at the sky."
"I didn't know what was happening, and I had never heard of any 'Lighthouse Curse' before."
"But I knew."
"That the Naomi Civilization seemed finished."
The story was long.
Chen Mang listened earnestly through the end. In silence, he lit a cigarette and did not speak for a long time, allowing the swirling smoke to drift through the train's control room and sting his eyes red.
He was not moved by the true emotions of the man in the story.
Instead.
He finally understood!
He finally grasped how his future self intended for him to locate The Palace.
The universe was vast.
Tossing a Palace into a Time Fissure would indeed send it back into the past, but it would materialize in a completely random corner of the universe. Forget not knowing its specific coordinates; even if one knew them, retrieving it would be incredibly difficult.
His future self must have done it this way:
That Telescope was his.
The Palace was his.
The Refrigerator was also his.
The protagonist of this story appeared to be the middle-aged man, but it was actually himself all along. Chen Mang was the 'Goddess of Destiny' the man spoke of.
The Refrigerator's Overlimit Effect must be the ability to occasionally suck any random Cosmic Taboo Item from across the universe straight into its interior.
Therefore—
As long as both the Refrigerator and The Palace were thrown into a Time Fissure together, then given enough time, these two objects would inevitably cross paths one day.
The Palace would be drawn in by the Refrigerator's gravitational pull.
By the exact same logic.
Tossing the Telescope in alongside them.
As the timeline stretched out, this Telescope was destined to be drawn in by the Refrigerator as well.
This way.
These three completely unrelated items would manifest in the same pocket of space.
And through the entanglement created between the Telescope and his Cyber Mine, he was granted the opportunity to become aware of all these events.
Hence—
The current Chen Mang, the Level 10 Telescope, the Refrigerator of unknown level, and the future Palace.
These four entities that originally existed in separate times and spaces.
At this precise moment.
Were thoroughly connected together.
His future self had successfully delivered the items straight into his own hands.
As for where the Refrigerator's Overlimit Effect came from... without a doubt, on some future day, Qi Ke Xiu's R&D team would recreate the Primordial Blueprint of the Refrigerator. After multiple re-screenings, they would manage to obtain this specific Overlimit Effect.
It might even be a completely unique Overlimit Effect.
Otherwise, this Palace could very well be drawn into the hands of some other civilization that happened to possess the same Overlimit Effect.
But in this current timeline and space.
This Refrigerator was likely the only one in the entire universe that possessed this exact Overlimit Effect.
No matter what his future self threw into the Time Fissure, there was a chance it would emerge from this Refrigerator.
This Refrigerator was the key.
A key that linked the past and the future.
The middle-aged man had simply used this key temporarily to improve his own life.
There was one major flaw with this plan.
And that was...
The Telescope ending up in the Refrigerator, and subsequently using the entanglement with the Cyber Mine to inform him through the dreamscape, was a scenario with an extremely minuscule probability. What if the man had sold off the Telescope the exact moment he received it?
Wouldn't he then never learn about these events transpiring an unknown distance away?
Therefore...
That step must have merely been a fortunate coincidence.
The true mechanism his future self had established had to be this 'Lighthouse Curse.'
By blanketing the entire civilization with the curse and interfering with everyone's cognition, he was transmitting the Naomi Civilization's cosmic coordinates to him through this exact method.
This was the correct sequence of events.
"Utterly genius,"
Chen Mang murmured, his expression slightly dazed. Even though he and his future self belonged to the very same entity, he couldn't help but admit that this scheme was incredibly brilliant...
The biggest problem right now.
Was.
How was he supposed to receive these cosmic coordinates?
His future self must have assumed he had a way, but perhaps he had come into contact with this too early, before acquiring such means. However, purely by chance, he had obtained live photographs from inside the Naomi Civilization.
Perhaps he could take a more opportunistic approach.
For instance, he could ask Qi Ya. As a member of a God-tier civilization, she might know something about this.
His casually blurted 'Lighthouse Curse' had actually turned out to be the truth.
He just never expected that this Lighthouse Curse had been set up by himself.
Yet, there was still one detail he didn't understand.
Chen Mang furrowed his brow, staring at the little fatty's photographs on the console screen. Although everyone in the Naomi Civilization was looking up at the sky, they were still incredibly far away. How was he supposed to receive the coordinates of the other party's civilization?
Of course.
He could try asking the little fatty's father right now to acquire the exact cosmic coordinates of their civilization.
But that wouldn't align with the correct procedure mapped out by his future self.
It would constitute a deviation from the plan.
These people looked as though they were observing the universe. Observing...
Wait?
Suddenly, something clicked in his mind. He pulled out the Telescope he had upgraded to Level 500 from his drawer and looked at the seemingly useless panel on the console screen.
-
Telescope Level 500 Overlimit Effect: Observable Universe.
-
He immediately grabbed the Telescope and gazed into the depths of the universe.
He paced around the control room's floor-to-ceiling windows, staring off in different directions one by one.
Finally.
When he looked toward the lower right.
He saw countless motes of light gradually welling up within the lens. Ultimately, these dots of light converged to form a string of cosmic coordinates.
"RA 13h42m08.1s, Dec +09°28'38"
-
And these cosmic coordinates.
Were exactly.
The precise coordinates of the Naomi Civilization within the universe. The cosmic coordinates of any civilization were its very lifeblood. Once a civilization's coordinates were exposed, it was highly likely to attract the greedy gaze of ravenous wolves.
And yet, at this very moment, the coordinates of the Naomi Civilization floated before him with absolute precision.
Everything was finally clear.
The current state of the Naomi Civilization truly was his own doing.
"It really is..."
Chen Mang silently lit another cigarette. He didn't recall being quite so aloof and uncommunicative. Since he had already left coordinates, couldn't he have spared a few words to offer a hint?
Or perhaps the 'Lighthouse Curse' was only capable of transmitting coordinates.
And was unable to send messages.
Right at that moment.
The specks of light within the lens gradually began to fade.
Sensing something, he forwarded a message to the little fatty's father.
"I have already resolved the issue for you."
"You may return now."
"Keep that Refrigerator safe. Don't lose it. It doesn't belong to you. In a few days, its owner will come to collect it. Don't worry, he won't harm you."
"At this very moment, your life has only just begun."
"The Goddess of Destiny has withdrawn her demands for payment. From this point forward, all you will receive are gifts—unconditional gifts."
The Naomi Civilization was not located very far from him.
The answer provided by the AI was.
It lay just on the other side of the Dark Abyss. Well, in terms of sheer distance, it was naturally far. But when spoken of, it didn't seem impossibly distant. Barring any accidents, in a few tens of millions of years, the blast he had fired from the Arkanon Main Cannon would actually pose a credible threat to the Naomi Civilization.
That was, assuming the Naomi Civilization managed to survive for tens of millions of years.
And if they really could survive that long.
Then that attack would likely no longer pose any actual threat to them anyway.
With that, the matter came to a close for the time being.
As for the little fatty's father.
His life experiences had been enriched once again. Very few people ever got the opportunity to experience something like this—the feeling of being the only one awake while the entire world was drunk.
Though the little fatty's father had seemed on the verge of a breakdown.
Most people would break down when faced with something like this.
Humans are pack animals.
When, one day, you suddenly discover that everyone around you is completely naturally engaging in behaviors that wildly defy common sense, the terror of being collectively abandoned, coupled with the total deconstruction of common sense, will inflict a massive shock upon one's psyche.
Especially.
When discovering that this abnormal behavior sweeping across the entire civilization was actually caused by oneself.
Few people could bear the crushing guilt of having personally destroyed their own civilization.
Of course, there were probably some who might find that rather exhilarating.