17: History major, join the team!

Born into a civilization that was once glorious but is now step-by-step marching toward death, studying history is an excruciatingly painful thing, because every glimmer of the past glimpsed during study only makes the reality before him seem even more dismal and unbearable.

The spirits of historians are executed over and over again, their souls jumping back and forth between pride and inferiority, until finally, they can only choose to be like that empire buried by the dust of history, using extreme self-confidence to cover up extreme self-abasement.

White Shark's former teacher, a man who was always spouting off about "heretics" and "aliens," was exactly like that.

Back then, it was he who brought White Shark—who had just escaped that Space City and joined the smugglers—into United University.

Upon enrolling, White Shark rapidly rebuilt his worldview, and under the torment of historical studies, he gradually formed an unattainable dream: to organize and preserve everything from the past. Regardless of whether human civilization ultimately perishes in sinking decline or is reborn in fire, he wanted to transcribe the former glories and record the desolation of the past. He wanted to make human civilization remember where it came from!

However, the archaeology team of United University could barely make a move within any of the regimes. After graduation, he also tried heading to the various signatory regimes of the Order Alliance, entering their "archaeological" units as an accelerated graduate of the history department. But within just three months, he had completely given up on these people—their so-called archaeology was nothing more than destructive modification and utilization of relics, akin to draining a pond to catch all the fish.

Super-sized plasma fireworks had their energy diffusion devices stripped away to be made into torpedoes; small reactors were moved directly onto Warships to power weapons; small mobile scientific research space stations were fitted with armor plating and turned into military outposts... Their so-called archaeology was gradually destroying their own history.

Disheartened, he decided to become an interstellar wanderer, to explore, discover, and record on his own. But reality could not be bypassed; funds became a major problem. Faced with a dilemma, he chose to survive. Thus, he stepped back onto the path of interstellar smuggling.

Driven by the need to make a living, he felt he was losing the passion he once had, replaced by individual credit points and energy currency (the standard universal equivalent for the Order Alliance is energy)...

During this time, he also encountered a junior with pink hair who had dropped out of school during one of his smuggling operations—Baili Ying.

The two were kindred spirits when it came to history, and White Shark gradually came to view her as his former self. He chose to indulge most of Baili Ying's behavior as much as possible, as if reconciling with his own past self. Since he had reconciled, well then, the ideals of youth, please slowly die away.

Perhaps in a few more years, White Shark would truly become like human civilization today, forgetting everything, sinking into decline, running smuggling operations, making money, starting a family, having children... and finally dying silently, turning into a pile of floating inorganic matter in the universe.

Until today, when Xi Hai and his group arrived. Watching those documents that spanned a millennium appear once again, looking at those mottos that were still deafeningly profound after traversing a thousand years, he realized that his passion had never been extinguished; it had just changed the way it burned! And the arrival of Xi Hai and his group blew upon the sparks in these embers, making them blaze with raging flames once again!

Whether they were remnants of a previous regime or legendary events akin to cosmic wonders, this group of people before him was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Should he seize it to give his younger self an answer, or continue doing nothing and slowly rot away? His body made the choice: "May I ask, can I join you?"

———— "You can."

Xi Hai, who was standing opposite him, was startled for a moment, but after meeting White Shark's firm gaze, he chose to agree.