205: Chapter 205 The Earth's Situation

High in the sky, Liliya was like a butterfly that had broken free from its shackles, weaving freely between the buildings.

She spread her arms, letting the air currents lift her light body, her long white dress fluttering loudly behind her.

She would dive one moment and soar high into the sea of clouds the next.

"Giggle..."

Her crisp laughter echoed between heaven and earth.

Song Yang stood on his skateboard, following unhurriedly by her side.

While speeding along, Liliya suddenly stopped and hovered in mid-air.

She tilted her head, her clear eyes curiously scanning this world under eternal darkness.

"Why doesn't your home have a glowing star?"

"According to the knowledge I've learned, life-bearing planets all need a stable star for life to be born."

Song Yang looked at the sky and said somewhat helplessly:

"It went out."

"Went out?"

Liliya's brow furrowed, seemingly trying to understand the meaning of the word. "Stars have very, very long lifespans, billions of years. It shouldn't have gone out so quickly."

"But it happened anyway."

Song Yang said, "Without any warning. Now, the entire world is heading toward an absolute deep freeze. Before long, this place will become an ice ball."

Liliya fell silent for a few seconds, as if searching the information database in her mind.

Then, in a matter-of-fact tone, she spoke a sentence enough to subvert any Earthling's perception.

"Then it's very likely it was captured by someone."

"Captured?"

"Mhm."

Liliya nodded. "In my home, the most efficient energy source is directly utilizing stars. Some powerful civilizations will capture stars and use them as energy cores."

She extended a slender, snow-white finger, pointing toward the empty, distant horizon.

"For this reason, my home has also captured many spare stars and stored them in safe places. If one has a problem, it's replaced with a new one."

Song Yang didn't speak.

He never expected that the Sun, which humanity relied on for survival, was nothing more than a battery in someone else's warehouse.

However, this also conformed to the laws of cosmic development.

In the Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are hundreds of billions of stars. It's only natural that civilizations more powerful than Earth would be born.

Seeing Song Yang lost in thought, Liliya thought he was worried, so she tilted her head and comforted him softly:

"You don't have to worry too much. When we leave here and enter the real universe later, stars can be bought."

She continued in a tone as if discussing going to a wet market to buy vegetables:

"When the time comes, we'll buy a new sun and place it in its original orbit. Earth will slowly return to its original state."

"Buy?"

Song Yang's Adam's apple bobbed. "It must be very expensive, right?"

"Of course."

Liliya nodded as a matter of course. "Stars are extremely expensive; they are the foundation of all energy and life. The value of a healthy Main-sequence Star is about a million times that of an ordinary planet."

Song Yang's heart sank.

A million times.

That's a bit too expensive.

"Then how much is a planet like Earth worth?"

"I don't know that."

Liliya shook her head honestly. "And the transaction price fluctuates based on the buyer's needs, but I know that the value of a planet with life and a barren planet without life is worlds apart."

"Precisely because of this, if Earth is discovered by those Star Pirates and you don't have any ability to resist..."

"Everything on Earth, including all living creatures, will be packaged and sold by them."

Song Yang's pupils suddenly constricted:

"Sold for what?"

"There are all kinds of civilizations in the universe, and their needs are also strange and varied."

"Some civilizations need a large number of slaves to mine dangerous ore veins or engage in the lowest level of work."

"Some nobles like to collect intelligent creatures from different planets to keep as pets to show off their status."

"Some mad scientists or research institutions will buy the organisms of an entire planet to use for scientific experiments or weapon testing; they are treated as batches of experimental consumables."

"And some races are brutal by nature. They will buy life-bearing planets to satisfy their pure desire for slaughter."

The scenes Liliya described hammered bloody images into Song Yang's mind one by one.

A chill climbed up his spine.

He could even imagine hideous interstellar ships descending upon Earth, with humans being tagged like captive livestock, stuffed into cargo crates, and shipped to some corner of the universe to become commodities.

"Aren't there any powers that manage these Star Pirates?"

"There are."

Liliya smiled. "The universe naturally has order. Those top civilizations formed Cosmic Nations, established universal laws, and maintained navigation safety and trade order in the vast majority of star sectors."

"However, these laws are only used to protect recognized 'civilizations'."

Song Yang immediately caught the key point:

"How does one get recognized?"

"It's simple. Your civilization level must reach at least Level 1."

Liliya held up a finger. "And the core hallmark of a Level 1 Civilization is having the capability for stable interstellar communication."

"In the eyes of those Cosmic Nations, a planet that cannot communicate with the outside world is just a piece of uncultivated primeval forest."

"The creatures in the forest, whether they are clever monkeys or fierce tigers, are just 'resources' in the eyes of the discoverer, not 'residents'."

They can be observed and researched, and naturally, they can also be hunted and sold."

Resources.

Song Yang was somewhat surprised.

It turned out that on a true cosmic scale, all humans and all life on Earth were nothing more than the word "resources."

"So, as long as we cannot send our own voice into the universe, we will always just be lambs waiting to be slaughtered."

He spoke slowly, not so much asking Liliya as stating a desperate fact he had just accepted.

"You could understand it that way." Liliya nodded gently.

"However, it's not entirely without hope."

"As long as Earth can establish contact with an alien civilization, it is equivalent to announcing your existence to the Cosmic Nations."

From that moment on, Earth will be included in the basic scope of the Interstellar Civilization Protection Act, and no power can enslave or colonize you anymore."

"This is the first step for all civilizations moving toward the stars, and also the most important step."