296: Chapter 299 It all started with that half a steamed bun

The lights in the command room were dimmed, and only the star map on the main screen was flickering with a faint glow.

Jiang Chen sat on the captain's chair that could overlook the entire Milky Way Galaxy. He held no wine in his hand, nor was he gripping a Causality Weapon; he was simply staring into the void, somewhat lost in thought.

He lit a cigarette, the ember dancing in the darkness.

Zhao Gang was busy with a few technicians, cleaning up the spoils of war they had just seized—several tons of associated ore sent by alien nobles, harder than diamonds.

"Boss, this batch of goods has been put into storage."

Zhao Gang's voice carried a hint of fatigue. "With the previous minerals added, our current inventory is more than enough to fill up the entire Milky Way Galaxy."

Jiang Chen nodded but did not speak.

He was still thinking about that steamed bun.

Was it really that steamed bun?

He remembered it very clearly; it was the first night after he transmigrated. The wind outside the rented apartment scraped against the security door like a knife.

A debt of five hundred thousand, a critically ill mother, a desperate younger sister, and his own self, on the verge of collapse.

At that time, his eyes were filled with nothing but darkness.

"I really thought I was going to die back then."

Jiang Chen exhaled a puff of blue smoke, his voice sounding exceptionally ethereal in the narrow command cabin. "My phone was frozen, Zhao Tianba was pounding on the door, that feeling of suffocation... honestly, I still remember it even now."

"If that app hadn't popped up, I probably would have already lost my life in that dilapidated rented apartment."

Academician Chen Shuyin walked over at some point, holding a glass of warm water.

She looked at this man who controlled the fate of countless galaxies and suddenly felt that he had become both strange and yet unusually close.

"That steamed bun you mentioned."

Academician Chen Shuyin asked softly, "Was it really... just a coincidence?"

Jiang Chen looked at her, a bitter smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

"A coincidence?"

"How can there be so many coincidences in this world?"

"Looking back now, the appearance of that system, Jiang Wanqiu's despair, my transmigration, and every 'gift-giver' I met along the way, every enemy who wanted to scheme against me..."

"They are like a thread that had already been woven."

"Every step I take is actually me following the path paved by that steamed bun, sprinting toward the truth."

The atmosphere in the command cabin gradually grew heavy.

Jiang Chen reached out and took out the old storage device that had always been on the table; it was the first piece of loot he had brought back from the Wasteland.

Back then, he thought it was a blueprint for a Lithography Machine.

Now it seems, it was an admission ticket for an entire civilization.

"Sometimes I wonder."

Jiang Chen watched the receding streams of light outside the window. "I went from a poor student to the master of the universe. Did the system choose me, or did I... choose this system?"

"Does it make a difference?" Academician Chen Shuyin retorted.

"It makes a huge difference."

Jiang Chen snuffed out the cigarette butt, his gaze becoming scorching hot:

"If the system chose me, I am just a puppet being manipulated, and sooner or later, I will be harvested by that 'The Keeper'."

"But if it was my own will that chose this path..."

"Then this is a full-blown—counterattack."

He stood up and walked over to the Law of Causality controller, which he had dismantled and reassembled countless times.

The rust on that thing was gone.

In its place, some kind of high-dimensional energy was constantly seeping through, even faintly revealing a trace of... Jiang Chen's own aura.

"Throughout this journey of mine."

"Defeating the Eagle, subduing the Empress, and even putting this starry sky into my pocket."

"I didn't do it to become anyone's puppet."

"I did it to... completely trample these rules under my feet."

Just as Jiang Chen was immersed in memories of the past.

The communication terminal suddenly rang.

It was a special encrypted channel, coming from the place closest to him, and the only "home" he had in this universe—Dawn City.

Jiang Wanqiu's voice came through.

It was no longer that high-and-mighty Empress persona, but a whisper filled with deep affection, even carrying a hint of coquetry.

She had evidently used some means to break through the communication barriers and connect the channel directly to Jiang Chen's warship.

"Father God."

Jiang Wanqiu's voice echoed, carrying a longing and determination that had traversed billions of light-years:

"Are you still looking at those wrecks?"

"Or are you lamenting the absurdity of your journey so far?"

Jiang Wanqiu's voice paused, carrying a trace of sweetness to the extreme, soft and tender:

"Don't look back anymore."

"Those past sufferings, those creditors who once made you feel lowly, have all turned to dust."

"You are now a god."

"You are the only one in Dawn City, and the source of faith for all living beings in the entire Wasteland."

On the screen, the silver-haired woman slowly raised her head, her red eyes flashing with a brilliance that even exceeded the brightness of a star:

"Wanqiu doesn't remember how I survived."

"I only remember..."

"That night, in that cold and hungry darkness, the thing you threw in..."

"Half a steamed bun."

"That was the most delicious thing Wanqiu has ever eaten in her life."

"That wasn't just food."

"That was my life."

"That was... the first time I felt the warmth of being loved."

As she spoke, Jiang Wanqiu gently stroked her abdomen, a shy yet sacred tenderness of a new mother appearing on her face:

"Father God, are you doing well over there?"

"Have those 'female craftsmen' around you been bullying you?"

"Don't forget..."

"I have prepared an entire warehouse of... the best resources in the Wasteland for our child."

"That is the... final dowry I have left for you and our child, using the wealth of the entire world."

"As long as you return."

"We... will be able to be together forever."

The voice on the other end of the screen came to an abrupt halt.

All that remained was Jiang Chen's long silence.

Zhao Gang, listening from the side, turned red in the face, feeling so awkward he wished he could crawl into a crack in the floor.

Academician Chen Shuyin silently turned her head away, looking at the sea of stars outside the window, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes.

Although she was arrogant and always competed with that Empress, at this moment, she had to admit.

Jiang Wanqiu's love for this man was too pure and too heavy.

It was the absolute sacrifice of one civilization to another "god."

Jiang Chen gripped the communicator, his fingertips turning slightly white.

He looked at that pile of priceless minerals, looked at the mothership he had decorated into an amusement park, and looked at these subordinates who would go through fire and water across the stars for a single word from him.

The pinnacle of life?

Perhaps it was.

But he suddenly felt that every footprint beneath this pinnacle was so heavy it made him breathless.

"Is it worth it?"

Zhao Gang asked cautiously.

"Worth it?"

Jiang Chen turned his head, looking at that galaxy which now completely belonged to him, smiling somewhat tragically, yet somewhat madly:

"For that steamed bun."

"For this bit of bullshit tenderness."

"To turn the entire Milky Way Galaxy upside down, to drag those high-and-mighty gods off their pedestals..."

He let out a long breath, turned, and strode toward the captain's chair at the very front of the command room.

"It's too worth it."

"Old Zhao, take note."

"Send another thousand tons of spicy strips to the Wasteland."

"Tell them..."

"I, Jiang Chen, will be back soon."

"Bringing..."

"Something that will make the entire universe tremble..."

"Revenge!"

Jiang Chen pressed the full-power acceleration button for the engines.

The luan niao starship turned into a streak of light in the starry sky, disappearing into the deepest part of the Dark Forest.

That was the direction toward the final judgment.

It was also his, as the "Milky Way Village Chief," last time...

Tender farewell.