Chapter 1023: The 'Tower' Connecting the Sky!

Chapter 1023: The "Tower" Connecting the Sky!

Astonishment, bewilderment, disbelief... and also shock and expressions of utter rejection.

Faces bore a myriad of emotions, each distinct.

Gaia.

The Insof Tree.

And—

The Pioneer standing behind all of this.

But that was not all.

Those present at the scene had also heard from the man named Ye Shi many things they had never known—or even imagined.

Beneath the starry sky at their feet, there once existed a civilization far more prosperous and vast in territory than the Human Union.

After comprehending all truths of this universe, it shattered the void and departed, heading to another universe beyond the box. The planet Gaia at Nanmen Er was merely one of countless legacies it left behind in this universe...

These discoveries were already astonishing enough.

Without exaggeration, it was as if a new door to a world had been opened for the reborn human civilization.

Not to mention the benevolent advice it left for the nascent civilization, which could at least help the young human race avoid decades or even centuries of detours.

According to its suggestion.

Humanity need not follow the same path it took, but could explore its own truth along the road it once traveled.

Beyond these shocking revelations, the young man named Ye Shi had also brought back the truth of history from a world five light-years away.

What was both laughable and lamentable was that it was never some alien civilization hiding in the stars that set the Human Union ablaze—it was always humanity itself.

It was not even a blame that could be pinned on any specific organization or individual.

It was a responsibility belonging to everyone.

Both the dead and the living.

The former as the price already paid, and the latter who must bear the cost and thoroughly settle the mistakes of the past...

"...This sounds hard to accept, but this is what I saw on Gaia."

After a pause, Ye Shi added and continued.

"It is also what the seventeen surviving crew members of the Gemini gradually discovered in the aftermath of their ordeal."

Silence surrounded them.

Even the reporters holding cameras and voice recorders were momentarily lost for words, standing frozen in bewilderment.

Finally, someone broke the silence.

A reporter from Ideal City, snapping out of his daze, spoke up.

"I don't doubt what you said about 'Him,' but about psionic energy and the so-called 'Window of Vision' or 'Fourth Wall'... how can you prove it truly exists? And not that you hallucinated it on an alien planet after inhaling some hallucinogenic gas."

Murmurs spread through the crowd, snapping many who had been awed by the grand vision back to reality.

Dora, standing at the hatch, couldn't help stepping forward and said in a sincere tone.

"I can prove what he says is true."

The reporter's face showed a subtle expression, and he kindly gave her a hint with his eyes, hoping she could provide evidence.

The cultural difference was starkly evident here. On Gaia—at least among the forest tribes—there was no such thing as evidence.

Information transmitted through psionic energy must be something deeply believed in the heart, and both parties must hold it with unwavering faith.

In Dora's view, she had already presented the evidence.

But in the other's eyes, she was merely staring at him with her big, watery eyes, unmoving.

If it were someone prone to self-flattery, they might mistake it for a "confession of love."

Fortunately, everyone present was normal, and even the reporter subjected to that "intense gaze" was merely confused.

"Alright, there's no psionic energy here... That method won't work."

Ye Shi gave a light cough, stopping Dora's efforts.

If she kept trying, she might actually awaken psionic energy in some lucky soul present, as his own psionic energy had awakened that way.

But that would take too long.

Convincing everyone through such means, whether in terms of time or physical cost, was hard for him to accept.

All the surviving factions on Earth were rooted in materialism.

To persuade others, one must use methods that "foolish materialists" can understand.

Facing the gazes that returned to him, Ye Shi continued in a serious tone.

"Among the many relics I brought back, one belongs to Dr. Qiu Shiye. Reliable evidence shows that he was inspired by the Pioneer civilization and, under its guidance, spent his entire life completing that incredible 'Perforator,' following the Pioneer's footsteps to another world, becoming the light of another universe."

"...With the power of psionic energy, I received the inspiration he left behind, activated the 'Perforator' in another way, allowing the light from that other universe to pass through the Fourth Wall and inject into the reactor's gas tank, obtaining the energy to return from five light-years away—"

Before he could finish, he was interrupted by a D-class researcher standing at the edge of the crowd, exclaiming in shock.

"That's impossible! You mean you conjured a tank of reactor fuel out of thin air?!"

The young face was filled with disbelief and suspicion.

It was purely academic doubt.

Ye Shi patiently explained.

"Yes, after the matter and energy of this universe travel to the universe of the Creator, they can only exist as electromagnetic waves—for example, the light I mentioned is one form. Conversely, when the light from the Creator's universe projects into our world, it naturally unfolds into something else... This is just my personal speculation. As for why the unfolded thing is helium-3, I don't know, but I can tell you it didn't come from nothing."

"There are limits to information transmission through psionic energy. From Dr. Qiu Shiye, I can only obtain information I already know, such as how to operate that Perforator. As for the principle of the Perforator and how Dr. Qiu Shiye received His revelation, I don't know—unless he returns from the other world to tell me in person."

Looking at the stunned academy researcher, Ye Shi turned to the reporter interviewing him and continued.

"As for psionic energy, that's actually easy to verify... After all, the Alliance's research institutions have already initiated projects on it, and we've even been using it for a while. It's just called by different names. The Gemini crew called it psionic energy, while we call it the 'morphogenetic field.'"

It was not a taboo topic.

The morphogenetic field had long been an open secret in the Alliance, and now it had become a public research subject.

The Wasteland Era was over.

They no longer needed to hide their trump cards for strategic advantage; more importantly, they needed to build closer trust with their partners and gain a deeper understanding of themselves.

Now was the time to do that.

Ye Shi took a newspaper from his pocket.

It was a certain issue of the *Goblin Observer* from three months ago.

Ever since he made that bet with Jiang Xuezhou, he had found a piece of paper and a pen on the Orion and copied down an issue of the *Goblin Observer* he had seen through the "morphogenetic field."

Though he only copied one page, it was enough.

Given the distance between the Solar System and Nanmen Er, even electromagnetic waves would take five years to travel!

This page of newspaper could already prove a great deal.

Looking at the crowd that had quickly gathered around him, Night Ten spoke slowly.

"The time signature at the end and the traces of ink are enough to prove when I wrote this content... You only need to find the issue of *Goblin Observer* published three months ago according to the version number, and naturally you'll know I'm not lying."

The debt-ridden big-eyed onlooker widened his eyes.

"Holy shit, that works?!"

He certainly knew Night Ten wasn't bullshitting, but he never expected the guy to strip himself bare in front of everyone.

And with Brother Guang's tacit approval!

A glint of sharpness flashed in Fang Chang's eyes, and an intrigued expression rose on his face.

Meanwhile, the reporter from *Goblin Observer*, who had previously been pushed to the outskirts of the crowd, finally squeezed back to the front row with all his might.

And the moment he laid eyes on that handwritten newspaper, his skeptical face instantly showed a look of seeing a ghost.

That report—

Was exactly what he had written!

"Identical..."

His face nearly squeezed out of shape, he blurted out those words.

And the moment those words left his mouth, the entire bridge of the defense platform erupted in uproar!!!

......

......

[Your Majesty Salun,

Following your orders, I traveled alongside General MacLennan to the Alliance's defense platform deployed in low Earth orbit, attending the victory ceremony the Alliance held to welcome the heroes returning from Proxima Centauri.

Due to the great distance, I did not see with my own eyes the magnificent warship built in the era of the Human Federation... But in truth, I feel it no longer matters whether I saw that glory of bygone days, for something even more astonishing lay before me.

This is no exaggeration, merely what I saw and thought.

From the moment I stepped into the space elevator's lift cabin, the shock and awe within me never ceased.

The enormous lift cabin shuttled back and forth in the sky, transporting tens or even hundreds of tons of payload to the heavens beyond my sight.

The scene struck me not only with its sheer "scale."

But also its abundance.

Soon we boarded one of them.

As the elevator rose higher and higher, before long I saw the southern sea shrink to the size of a palm, the desert in the center of the continent, and even Norton City and Triumph City far in the west...

Yes, the lift cabin did not go straight up and down; it traced a graceful arc above the atmosphere, reaching receiving stations hundreds or even thousands of kilometers above the ground.

That was the Alliance's space station in geosynchronous orbit, shaped like a steel ring perpendicular to the ground!

We flew to the center of the ring... roughly the central point, and then two folded arms extended from the inner side of the ring, connecting with the lift cabin we rode.

We left the lift cabin through a narrow hatch, entered the interior of that ring-shaped structure, and transferred to other vehicles there. And the moment we finally arrived at our destination, I saw through the porthole a sight I will never forget in my life.

There, on that steel structure hundreds of meters long and wide, stood rows of electromagnetic naval cannons with astonishing caliber and length!

They stood like raised spears, pointing straight into the darkness beyond the atmosphere.

To be honest, that thing gave me a great sense of security, so much so that the originally lonely and cold universe no longer seemed so dark in my eyes.

I had seen similar cannons on the islands of the South Sea Alliance, but here they were densely packed, dozens of them!

And that wasn't all.

The confident looks in the workers' eyes told me they had even more of such things.

According to them, these electromagnetic cannons could overload the deflector shields of a frigate's core with just three shots, enough to replace the space junk orbiting the Earth to deal with threats from the Lagrange points.

I cannot imagine how terrifying a full salvo from this battery would be, let alone what would happen if they turned their muzzles on us.

I heard the South Sea Alliance has a special warhead that allows shells to fly within the atmosphere with extremely low kinetic energy decay.

If this is true, from the moment the Alliance mounted electromagnetic cannons on the low Earth orbit defense platform, the era of the steel airship was over.

I don't know how to express the shock and disappointment in my heart in words. In some fields, we may indeed have been left far behind by our opponents.

And what's more disheartening is that while we are still trying to vie for dominance on the ground, they have already set their sights on the stars and begun to prepare for the future of human civilization.

Please forgive me for writing these words in this private, non-public letter. I fear that any euphemism on my part might lead you to misjudge the current situation... and that could prove fatal for us.

The Wasteland Era is over. The room for trial and error left to us may be limited.

Perhaps we should quickly adapt to the tide of history, shift our thinking from confrontation to cooperation, and actively participate in the affairs of civilizational progress like other survivor factions.

A new era no longer needs a dominant overlord. Only two paths may lie before us—

Either let the glory of the Valyrians fall silently like dust, or let it become one of the shining stars in the brilliant galaxy.

Your loyal envoy, Ostil, the Ten-Thousand-Man Commander.

]

......

With the victory ceremony welcoming the heroes home concluded, this reunion after more than two centuries finally came to an end.

As for the shocking news Night Ten brought back from Proxima Centauri, the survivors on Earth will probably need some time to digest it.

Including his proposal to establish an extrasolar exploration fleet.

Though it is indeed a good idea, such matters cannot be decided by a single person's words or a nod.

Behind the scenes, unseen by ordinary people, pushing for the formation of this "fleet" will require some behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

But these matters are no longer Night Ten's concern—he who first opened his mouth to shoot the breeze.

After returning to the low Earth orbit defense platform, he received a mission personally assigned by the shelter manager—

To take the "envoy" from the planet Gaia back to the surface via the space elevator, and then travel by steamship and train to the Unity Building in Dawn City.

In fact, flying from the South Sea Alliance directly to Dawn City by plane is possible, without the need for so many transfers.

However, the manager's intention is for her to take this opportunity to travel and see more of Earth, to better understand the planet of the "progenitors."

This place can be considered half her home, after all.

Additionally, the Unity needs some time to prepare and discuss how to handle relations with the "Gaia civilization."

Even though the Alliance's opinion plays a decisive role, Chu Guang still needs to hear from others, especially the Academy and the Enterprise.

Upon hearing the "chieftain's" arrangements from the "progenitors," Dora proved quite cooperative.

Back on Gaia, she had been eager to see how the legendary progenitors, said to live in the sky, actually lived.

Taking the elevator back to the surface.

The moment she stepped out of the open hatch, she was stunned by the sight before her.

"So huge!!"