297: Chapter 300 Wasteland Empress: Thank you for that half a steamed bun back then.

The air in the command module was permeated with a suffocating, metallic chill.

It was the scent of residual high-energy particles left behind after the warship had just completed an intergalactic jump.

Jiang Chen sat alone in the captain's chair, staring at the holographic projection he had forcibly linked to the Wasteland Plane, his emotions a tangled, complex mess.

In the projection, the woman with silver hair and red eyes sat upon her throne.

On that stunningly beautiful face, there was none of the usual murderous decisiveness; instead, it held a tenderness that transcended time, deep to the extreme.

She looked at Jiang Chen.

Her gaze seemed to span several light-years and thousands of years of Wasteland time, landing directly upon the boy who, back then in a rented room, had offered half a steamed bun to the phone screen.

"Father God..."

Jiang Wanqiu's voice was very soft, yet it reverberated in every corner of the command module.

She gently lifted the rusty, slightly dented metal can.

It was the can of braised pork that Jiang Chen had casually sent her long ago.

In this hellhole of a Wasteland where even the air was toxic, this can was not just food; it was a miracle, an anchor of faith, and her only lifeline in the abyss of despair.

"Do you still remember?"

Jiang Wanqiu lowered her head, looking at the can, her lips curling slightly upward—it was the most beautiful sight in the entire Wasteland.

"That day, Dawn City was almost trampled flat by a mutant beast tide."

"I was covered in blood, hiding in a gutter, thinking that was the end."

"It was at that very moment that the white, glowing, and impossibly soft 'sacred object' descended from the sky."

She looked up, her ruby-like eyes reflecting Jiang Chen's face.

"Many people ask me why I am so obsessed with you."

"Why I would offer the resources of an entire planet to you."

"The answer is actually very simple."

"Because that half a steamed bun back then taught me that there is something in this world called 'being loved'."

Jiang Chen fell silent.

He looked at the girl on the screen, then at the "pacifier" he held in his palm, just retrieved from the ruins, along with the yellowed letter.

Seventy thousand years.

The Wasteland was a graveyard abandoned by time.

And he, Jiang Chen, was the reckless youth who had barged into this graveyard carrying a "delivery."

"Wanqiu."

Jiang Chen's voice was dry, filled with an indescribable emotion, "The coordinates you gave me... and this letter, I've seen them."

"But I still want to ask you."

"If I hadn't offered that steamed bun back then, what would have happened to you?"

Jiang Wanqiu did not hesitate at all.

She looked into the camera, that cold and gorgeous Wasteland Empress, and revealed a pure smile that would make all God-level Civilization tremble:

"Then I would have died in that gutter."

"So, thank you, Jiang Chen."

"Thank you for that half a steamed bun you threw to me during that long, endless night."

"Because of it, I had the chance, seventy thousand years later, to cross planes and deliver the entire GDP of the Milky Way Galaxy to you."

The communication signal cut off in that instant.

Perhaps the energy consumption on her end was too high, or perhaps the cross-dimensional refraction had reached its limit.

The screen plunged into darkness.

Jiang Chen sat in that priceless captain's chair, still clutching that small rubber pacifier in his hand.

He felt the warship around him, capable of rewriting the fate of galaxies, and felt the alien civilization fleets kneeling under the starry sky outside the window.

"Half a steamed bun."

Jiang Chen suddenly chuckled and shook his head.

He felt that all of this was absurd to the extreme.

His original intention was just to survive, to pay off that damned debt of five hundred thousand, or perhaps just to ensure his mother could get her medicine.

And the result?

He had become the village chief of the universe.

He had become a man who kicked stars like soccer balls and managed galaxies like his own backyard.

Academician Chen Shuyin walked out of the laboratory, holding the final analysis report. She walked over to Jiang Chen, and seeing him lost in thought, did not disturb him.

She simply sat down silently and held Jiang Chen's hand in hers.

"Jiang Chen."

"Do you know what we are facing now?"

"It's not just the anger of that group of 'The Keeper'."

"We are touching... the most fundamental truth of this universe."

Jiang Chen put away the pacifier, placing it in the deepest part of his storage compartment; it was the core secret of his life and the original motivation for all his actions.

"I don't care about any truth."

He stood up and glanced at the radar; the signal representing that higher-dimensional civilization known as "The Keeper" was getting closer and closer.

They were coming.

Bringing with them the arrogance of wanting to reset everything, and that contempt for the cheapness of life.

But this time, they were not facing those indigenous people who could only tremble in fear.

They were facing Jiang Chen.

"They want to harvest this farm?"

Jiang Chen walked to the control console, looking at the dense array of signals representing the entire Galactic Federation combat units, and revealed a malicious, profiteer-like smile:

"Then let's show them."

"Whether this bunch of insects, which they had been feeding like livestock for tens of thousands of years,"

"truly have the qualifications to... bite back at their masters!"

"Old Zhao!"

He waved his hand abruptly, and the lights throughout the bridge instantly turned a suffocating blood-red.

"luan bird! Firepower at full capacity!"

"Causality Weapon, charging!"

"Get all those Wasteland missiles into the launch tubes, now!"

"Since they want to come and eat..."

"Then today I will teach them what is known as—"

"The hospitable way of the Dragon Country people!"

As soon as this order was given.

The entire galaxy began to tremble.

It was a roar from Earth, a vengeance from the Wasteland, and the final—ultimatum from a man who had evolved from a debt-ridden student into a master of the universe, to this fucked-up universe.

Ultimatum.

He watched the coordinate point on the screen growing larger and larger.

It was a god.

It was also prey.

"Get ready."

Jiang Chen said in a low voice, "I'm going to break this game completely."

As soon as he finished speaking.

The void shattered.

That group of high-and-mighty "The Keeper" finally revealed their true form.

Their massive, eerie, and halo-adorned fleet descended upon this star sector like a giant net, covering the sky.

They not only brought no gifts, but they didn't even offer a single greeting.

There was only the purest intent of destruction.

But within that cold intent, Jiang Chen keenly captured a trace of trembling that belonged to the "high-and-mighty."

It was fear.

Even if they were gods.

When they saw the man holding the "Causality Weapon controller," and when they saw that modified wuling hongguang, still covered in construction dust from Mars.

They finally realized that what they had kicked was not an iron plate at all.

It was an abyss deeper than hell!

"Is this the so-called ultimate truth?"

Jiang Chen sneered, his finger pressing down on the launch button.

He watched the warships surging forward like a tide, and looked at the darkness that was supposed to symbolize despair.

There was not a shred of gloom in his heart.

Only that...

The kind of pure combat pleasure he hadn't felt in a long time, the kind that erupted from the need to protect his family and to win a breath of dignity for that silly girl—

A pure pleasure in battle.

"All of you... be wiped out!"

Amidst the earth-shattering sound of energy explosions.

Jiang Chen's figure disappeared into the brilliance.

And all he left for this world was that string of legends about—

"The poor student who sold braised pork," an eternal legend.

This great interstellar voyage belonging to humanity.

Finally, truly began.

Even if the path ahead is destruction.

Jiang Chen would still smile and treat this destruction... as a victory banquet.

The story would eventually come to an end.

But his story was far from over.

Because as long as there is one more steamed bun, even if it is a rotten one from the Wasteland.

He, Jiang Chen.

Would never admit defeat.

This, was him as this universe's... only—

Ultimate Player.