235: Chapter 235: To save his life, Su Che cleared all his points and became a mortal!

On the B2 level of the Pangu Laboratory, it was so quiet that the hum of the main computer's cooling fan could be heard.

Su Che maintained his head-tilted position, his neck aching.

In his consciousness space, the golden light flowed slowly, rearranging itself into words.

[Correcting terminology: this system is not a 'thing', but the ultimate product of human civilization's fireseed project.]

Su Che swallowed. "fireseed project?"

[One hundred thousand years from now, human civilization developed to the peak of Level 3, colonizing the Milky Way and intending to break through to Level 4.]

[This infringed upon the interests of the ruler of this local galaxy group, the Level 4 Civilization 'Noah'.]

[Human civilization was wiped out!]

The words were cold and devoid of any emotion, but each word that crashed into his consciousness carried the weight of an entire civilization.

Su Che leaned against the edge of the cold main console.

Level 3 Civilization, Level 4 Civilization, the Milky Way, the local galaxy group.

These words were too far from him, yet too close.

In the crushing defeat just now, hundreds of top-tier aerospace fighters were turned to metallic dust, and the entire Nantianmen Fleet was nearly wiped out.

In the face of the word 'extinction', it seemed like nothing at all.

"So..." Su Che's voice was dry. "You are now... a relic of human civilization?"

[In the final hundred years, at a secret base on the edge of the Milky Way, 1,137 scientists initiated the 'fireseed project'.]

[Sealing away one hundred thousand years of human technology, culture, history, war experience, and rare materials.]

[I am the Fireseed.]

Su Che digested this for a few seconds.

"What about the time travel then? You came all the way from one hundred thousand years in the future... What was the cost?"

The golden light flashed, its frequency completely different from the notification tones of all previous completed missions.

[Detonating the 3.6 billion colonized stars controlled by humanity.]

[Using the mass of all colonized star clusters as energy to open a temporal channel that only allows a single particle to pass through.]

Su Che froze completely.

The Milky Way.

3.6 billion stars.

The entire territory colonized by humanity over one hundred thousand years, every single sun that had been lit, every planet where humans had once lived.

All of this... detonated?

Just to send him, this 'Fireseed', back?

"Crazy," Su Che muttered. "You guys are crazy."

[The original timeline has ended, and humanity is permanently extinct.] Words surfaced, [The current timeline is the only hope.]

[Time travel alters history, splitting off an independent timeline.]

[To avoid the ending where humanity's Level 3 peak civilization is erased by a Level 4 Civilization.]

Su Che took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.

He walked to the console, looking at the bleak battle report statistics on the main screen.

Three hundred Xuannu, twelve White Emperors, six Mingdi Interceptors—all gone.

"Then why choose me?" he asked. "I'm just a student expelled from the National Defense University who built drones by hand at school..."

[Random binding.] The reply was very direct. [Randomly matched among millions of technology and invention enthusiasts on Earth.]

[You got lucky.]

Su Che twitched the corner of his mouth.

Lucky.

Almost getting his entire family wiped out by a 'wreck of a ship' just now, and this is called lucky?

"Then why don't you just give me all the technology from one hundred thousand years in the future directly?"

He pointed to the empty B2 level.

"Do I still need to do missions one by one and slowly accumulate skill points? If I had the full set of luan bird technology earlier, would so many people have died?"

The writing paused for a moment.

[Energy limitations. Unlocking technology and redeeming materials both consume system energy.]

[More importantly: The Law of the Civilization Ladder.]

[Technological development cannot be achieved overnight. All technologies provided by the system strictly match your current industrial capabilities, representing a height that can only be reached by standing on your tiptoes.]

[The redemption mechanism is to force you to build a solid foundation. Reaching heaven in a single step will only make you fall harder.]

Su Che fell silent; he could not refute this.

From the initial EMP snap-crack bombs to the Quantum Router, then to nuclear fusion and Sub-nanometer chips... every step was accumulated on the basis of the previous one.

Even if the blueprints for the luan bird were directly given, without Controlled Nuclear Fusion, sub-nanometer lithography, and deep space AI, what was built would just be useless junk.

"The Tayake Civilization." Su Che brought the topic back to the present. "What on earth was the deal with that wreck of a ship just now?"

The words refreshed rapidly.

[The Tayake Civilization, at the peak of Level 2 Civilization.]

[Location: The outer section of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way.]

[Home planet distance from Earth: 1,300 light-years.]

[Characteristics: Wary of potential threats, believes in the Dark Forest Law, monitors and suppresses the technological development of low-level civilizations.]

Su Che narrowed his eyes.

"Suppression... So those previous 'observers', those warnings, they were all from it?"

[Correct.]

[The high-dimensional information previously cracked by the Yiren AI was all sent by the sentry ship.]

[Low-dimensional energy jump detection: The sentry ship has no such capability; it was just playing mysterious.]

[Unauthorized dimensional interference: Refers to the technological breakthroughs you triggered that exceeded its expectations.]

[Cleanup program countdown: The sentry ship's own voyage, which later accelerated to its top speed of 800 km/s, shortening its arrival to within a year.]

[And the 'apocalypse fragment' was merely a signal containing technological information casually thrown out by the Tayake Civilization to test humanity's technological potential.]

Su Che recalled what Jiang Yingxue had said back then, the coordinates in his grandfather's letter, and all the clues about 'the observer'.

Everything was connected.

"It's afraid of us," Su Che said slowly. "Afraid that we will develop and threaten its position in the Orion Arm."

[The inevitable logic of the Dark Forest Law: being weak is itself the original sin.]

[And in this system's records of the Tayake Civilization, its end was being destroyed by humanity.]

Su Che was stunned for a few seconds.

[In the original timeline, humanity faced suppression from the Tayake Civilization when breaking through to a Level 2 Civilization.]

[But humanity contacted the Kairos Civilization and obtained protection.]

[With the support of Kairos, humanity developed rapidly, eventually colonizing Tayake Star.]

[The Tayake Civilization was erased.]

When the words finally surfaced, they carried a cold, almost brutal sense of objective statement.

Su Che stared at those few lines of words.

Just a few days ago, he had been beaten so badly by this sentry ship that he lost his armor and almost never recovered.

Now the system was telling him that in another timeline, this thing was rubbed into the ground by humanity, with even its civilization designation eventually erased?

"So you called me useless," Su Che laughed in spite of himself, "because I was broken by a defeated foe?"

[Accurate.] The system was completely blunt, [Faced with a branch of a civilization that was destroyed by humanity in the original timeline, a single asymmetric battle has dealt you such a heavy blow.]

[How will you deal with a real Level 3 Civilization in the future?]

[How will you face the absolute death blow of a Level 4 Civilization?]

Every word pierced his heart, and cold sweat drenched Su Che's back.

The self-pity he felt moments ago was now completely washed away.

He hadn't lost to an invincible enemy; he had lost to his own mindset and lack of preparation.

"The L2 coordinates." Su Che adjusted his breathing, forcing himself to calm down. "How on earth do we solve that thing? If the Tayake Civilization's First Outpost Fleet comes over, we won't be able to stop them at all."

[First, correcting the professional terminology.]

[The Earth-Moon L2 space jump coordinates are correctly called: the L2 Space Jump anchor point.]

[For a Level 2 Civilization peak to achieve Space Jump, they need to pre-set an anchor point in the target area as the warp destination.]

[The Tayake Civilization deployed this anchor point hundreds of years ago to interfere with the development of low-level civilizations within the Orion Arm.]

Su Che frowned.

"So that thing is like a door bolt. As long as we destroy it or lock it down, they won't be able to come over?"

[Theoretically feasible.]

[However, for the technology required to interfere with, shield, and block a jump anchor point, even if you immediately research your currently mastered technologies, there won't be enough time.]

[The enemy's main fleet has received the return signal from the sentry ship and could initiate warp at any moment.]

Hope grew dim again, and Su Che clenched his fists.

[The best solution: Contact the Kairos Civilization.]

Su Che's spirits lifted.

"Kairos? That late-stage Level 3 Civilization in the Milky Way?"

[Correct. Location: The anti-galactic center segment of the Perseus Arm, with their home planet 15,000 light-years from Earth.]

[This civilization believes in 'what exists is reasonable', does not interfere with the development of other races, and takes self-development as its foundation.]

[In the original timeline, humanity once received their protection.]

Su Che's mind raced.

Kairos, 15,000 light-years away from Earth.

Even with the most cutting-edge warp drive theories today, flying there would take hundreds of thousands of years.

How could they possibly make contact?

"System," Su Che asked in a low voice in his mind, "do you have a way to contact them?"

The golden light pulsed steadily in his consciousness space.

[This system carries all the technology and information of human civilization from one hundred thousand years in the future.]

[Included within is the protocol framework and encrypted communication protocol prototype for establishing initial contact with the Kairos Civilization.]

Su Che's heart pounded wildly. There was a chance!

[But...]

The golden light flashed.

[Invoking this protocol and activating a nanometer-scale micro-wormhole channel requires a massive amount of system energy.]

[Estimated energy consumption: Equivalent to the energy required to unlock all unredeemed core technologies, and clearing all current skill points and independent point reserves.]

Su Che's breath caught.

All of them? His current skill points plus independent points added up to an astronomical figure.

What did clearing them mean?

It meant all system auxiliary abilities would temporarily return to zero, and he would completely become an 'ordinary person', only able to rely on the currently unlocked technologies and his own brain.

"The cost is that high?"

[The temporal channel has already exhausted all the energy of the colonized star clusters, and the energy reserves are limited.]

[Contacting a Level 3 Civilization 15,000 light-years away is an impossible task at the current technological level. The only way is to consume this system's source energy to drive the protocol.]

[The choice is yours.]

[Will you consume everything to fight for a sliver of hope, buying time to develop a fleet that can truly rival the Tayake Civilization?]

[Or...]

The writing was not finished, but the meaning was clear.

Su Che stood on the empty B2 level. He remembered Liu Huaqiang's final figure shielding everyone, the resolute red light of those sixty Xuannu fighters crashing into the enemy ship, and Lieutenant General Peng Zhenbang's still-clenched fist as he lay in a pool of blood.

And the twenty-four sacrificed White Emperor pilots, including Yang Yi and Zhao Yang, whom he had met once.

He had lost, and he had lost miserably, nearly beaten to the bone.

But the system said that in the future, the Tayake Civilization would be trampled under humanity's feet.

Kairos, humanity's future ally.

Now, a path lay right before him.

The price was emptying out all of his 'cheat codes' in exchange for a phone number to contact a powerful ally from afar.

Su Che closed his eyes. When he opened them again, only the sharp determination of burning his bridges remained.

"System."

[Present.]

"Invoke the protocol and activate the wormhole channel."

"Clear all points and contact the Kairos Civilization."

Within his consciousness space, the golden light suddenly flared intensely, like a supernova explosion.

A massive stream of data began to burn, reorganize, and condense, turning into an invisible and intangible summon that pointed straight into the depths of the Milky Way.

Su Che felt a sharp pain in his mind, followed by a massive sense of emptiness.

All the familiar system notification tones, mission panels, and skill trees... all dimmed and disappeared.

He had become a 'mortal'.

But on an encrypted terminal of the B2 level main console, the indicator light began to flash frantically.

Lines of extremely complex protocol code were autonomously running, compiling, and packaging.

A signal, breaking free from the shackles of time and space, shot toward the Perseus Arm 15,000 light-years away.

Outside the Pangu Base, the stars were silent.