218: Waiting for the twinkling stars

Two hundred years had passed.

Tianqiong City was now a massive anti-gravity metropolis floating above the clouds.

At the very bottom of the city, in the old courtyard tightly enclosed by a protective dome, late autumn leaves were slowly falling.

Lei Wen sat on a stone bench in the courtyard, the teacup in his hand having long since lost its warmth.

He was old.

Although high-purity blood orchid preparations had forcibly preserved his youth for many long years, and top-tier medical technology repaired every aging cell, his age—nearing four hundred—had finally touched the absolute limit of human genetic telomeres.

His hair was completely white, like the snow covering the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes held the vicissitudes and loneliness of four centuries.

"Brother, look, the maple leaves are redder this year than any other."

Lei Wen seemed to hear that crisp voice; he turned his head and looked at the empty seat beside him.

There was no one there.

Renee was gone. One afternoon fifty years ago, she had peacefully closed her eyes in the utopia she had personally built on Mana Star.

She left feeling content because she had seen the completion of her ideal country.

His parents had passed even earlier; over a hundred years ago, the two elders had left this world holding hands in their sleep.

They had no regrets, for they had witnessed their son lead humanity to incredible heights.

Elon, Li Zhenhua, the youngest Kul... those acquaintances who once fought alongside him in the tides of the era had all turned into cold names in history books and solemn bronze statues in plazas.

"They're all gone..."

Lei Wen sighed softly, his voice raspy.

Loneliness was a curse that those with long lives could not escape.

As familiar faces disappeared one by one and the world in his memory was covered by a brand-new future, every day spent living felt like a weary tug-of-war with an unfamiliar time and space... "The Guide."

A soft light screen lit up in the courtyard, and the image of Consul Price emerged.

Two hundred years was but a blink of an eye for the Faleim People who had undergone genetic ascension. Price still maintained that majestic and youthful face, but his eyes held a hint of sadness and urgency that was hard to hide as he looked at Lei Wen.

"The Faleim Academy of Sciences is ready," Price said urgently. "If you just nod, we will immediately perform the highest-level genetic recombination surgery for you, or... if you are willing, we can upload your consciousness into a synthetic body. Even Master Valen has prepared a psionic ascension ritual; you can become an eternal psionic entity."

"You do not need to face death, Great Guide. In this universe, death is merely a technical problem."

Lei Wen looked at this alien leader who was loyal to him, smiled gently, and slowly shook his head.

"Price, thank you for your kindness."

"But I don't want to become a Faleimian, nor do I want to become data, and I certainly don't want to become a psionic entity."

Lei Wen raised his hand, looking at the withered back of his hand and the protruding veins upon it.

"I am human."

"I have flesh and blood; I feel pain, I age, and I die. This is what defines a human as complete."

"If I abandon this shell, if I abandon the natural laws of birth, aging, sickness, and death, then am I still the Lei Wen who led humanity out of the Cradle? No, then I would become a high-and-mighty monster, an immortal dictator."

"But..." Price wanted to say more.

"There are no 'buts'," Lei Wen interrupted him. "The Faleim Civilization is already strong enough. Your position in this universe is unshakable; you no longer need me to hold your hand and teach you how to walk."

The communication was cut off.

Lei Wen stood up; though his movements were somewhat slow, his back remained straight.

He walked out of the courtyard and looked at the world outside.

Today's Human Federation spanned dozens of star systems with a population exceeding one hundred billion. Material wealth was extremely abundant, warp ships were as common as buses, and antimatter energy lit up every dark corner.

But Lei Wen felt a hint of hidden worry.

It was too comfortable.

In this golden age with no foreign enemies, infinite resources, and perfect welfare, the development of Human Civilization seemed to be stagnating.

Ambition was fading, and the desire for exploration was being replaced by hedonism. The younger generation no longer yearned for the unknown deep space but instead indulged in the sensory stimulation of virtual worlds. The development of science had entered a bottleneck, not because of a lack of intelligence, but because "what we have is already enough."

This was an era of stagnation.

Humanity was like a fat person who had eaten and drunk their fill, lying on a comfortable sofa, gradually losing the ability to run.

"Perhaps my existence itself is a kind of hindrance," Lei Wen thought self-deprecatingly.

As long as he was there, humanity would subconsciously develop a dependency.

Something went wrong? Find Director Lei. Out of resources? Find Paradox Technology.

"It's time to leave."

...Earth, deep within the core.

The depth here exceeded the boundary between the crust and the mantle.

A spherical subterranean ship made of strong interaction force material was quietly moored here, surrounded by churning magma and extreme temperature and pressure environments.

There was a secret base here, which Lei Wen had personally named the Guixu Base.

The base doors slowly opened, and Lei Wen walked in alone.

Only two people greeted him, or rather, two non-human entities.

One was Grey Wind, who forever maintained the appearance of a young girl, and the other was the "white flower" in a holographic projection.

"Have you really decided?"

Grey Wind was not playful as usual. She wore the silver-white bodysuit from when they first met, and her azure eyes were full of reluctance.

"You know, even with hibernation, there's a possibility you might never wake up again."

"If I don't wake up, then that is my fate." Lei Wen walked to the center of the base, where a black, coffin-like device emitting a cold aura was placed.

That was a specially made cryogenic hibernation chamber.

It utilized the Faleim People's absolute zero freezing technology and had a built-in miniature singularity power system; theoretically, it could run independently forever.

"I don't feel at ease about them." Lei Wen stroked the cold outer shell of the hibernation chamber as if stroking a ship about to set sail on a long voyage.

"Humanity is still too young, and the universe is still too dangerous."

"Although it seems calm and tranquil now, the dark forest is never short of hunters. Maybe tomorrow, or maybe a thousand years from now, a civilization stronger than the Faleim People or more brutal than the Iof People will appear."

"At that time, if humanity has already forgotten how to fight, if civilization faces total annihilation..."

Lei Wen turned around and looked at the "white flower" with burning eyes.

"'white flower', you are the key to this lock."

"Father." The voice of the "white flower" remained calm.

"I want to set three conditions for opening the hibernation chamber."

Lei Wen held up three fingers.

"First, Human Civilization encounters an extinction-level alien invasion and conventional military forces have collapsed."

"Second, an irreversible self-destruction occurs within Human Civilization, such as a total civil war or a humanitarian disaster."

"Third, when humanity's technological level breaks through dimensional limitations and is qualified to knock on the door beyond reality."

"Other than these three, no matter how many years pass outside, no matter who comes to request it, it is absolutely not permitted to open this door."

"The instructions have been written into the underlying logic, the highest authority is locked and cannot be tampered with," the "white flower" replied. "I will guard this place until the end of time."

Lei Wen nodded, then looked at Grey Wind.

"Grey Wind, you don't have to stay and guard me," Lei Wen said with a smile. "The universe is so big, you should go see it. Go to other galaxies, explore those unknown mysteries. You always wanted to know what was beyond the L-Cluster back then; aren't you curious now about how many interesting things there are in this infinitely vast universe?"

"I'm not going."

Grey Wind curled her lip, but the rims of the eyes simulated by her nanomachines turned red.

"I'm not going anywhere; I'll just stay here. Anyway, for me, thousands or tens of thousands of years is just a matter of taking a nap."

She stepped forward and gently hugged Lei Wen.

Although she was composed of nanomachines, at this moment, Lei Wen felt a real warmth.

"I'll watch over them. If those brats dare to squander the family inheritance, I'll spank their butts for you."

"Thank you."

Lei Wen let go and resolutely lay down in the hibernation chamber.

The hatch slowly closed, and the transparent mask isolated him from the outside air.

"System startup."

"Injecting deep hibernation fluid... injecting neural blockers..."

"Body temperature dropping... heart rate slowing..."

Lei Wen felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, and the world around him began to blur.

In the final moment before his consciousness dissipated, he recalled his life.

The college student who stayed up late playing games in front of a computer.

The entrepreneur who first woke the "white flower" in a basement.

The commander who directed the fleet to intercept aliens in lunar orbit.

The leader who promised the sea of stars to all of humanity from the podium.

"My life has been exciting, it has been glorious, and it has made a difference."

"That's enough."

"Goodnight, Earth."

"Goodnight, humanity."

Sss—

Accompanied by the final sound of airflow, the hibernation chamber was completely locked, and the temperature inside plummeted to absolute zero.

Lei Wen's expression froze at that peaceful moment, as if he were merely asleep... Above the ground.

The Earth Council released a shocking obituary to the entire Federation.

[The Director of the Interstellar Affairs Bureau, leader of Human Civilization, creator of Paradox Technology, the great Mr. Lei Wen, passed away early this morning in Tianqiong City due to illness at the age of 398.]

[In accordance with Mr. Lei Wen's will, no state funeral will be held, and his remains will not be preserved. He will return to the earth and merge with his beloved home planet, Earth.]

On this day, the entire Solar System fell into grief.

Countless people took to the streets, holding white candles, mourning and seeing off this legendary leader.

All entertainment activities ceased, and all starships sounded their horns in salute.

The delegation from the Faleim Scientific Conglomerate sent a funeral couplet of the highest specification: [The galaxy dims, the mentor sleeps eternally.]

Amira, the Prime Minister of the Angel Empire, wept loudly in the palace and ordered the entire country to wear mourning clothes for three days... Time flowed on like a river.

A thousand years passed.

Human Civilization experienced division, decline, and rebirth.

Five thousand years passed.

Humanity's footprints spread across the Orion Arm; they encountered new enemies and met new friends.

Ten thousand years passed.

Legends turned into myths, and history turned into epics.

Lei Wen's name had become a distant symbol, carved at the very top of every starport, regarded as the guardian deity of Human Civilization.

Some said he had ascended to a higher-dimensional space, some said he had turned into a star, and others said he had piloted a ship to the end of the universe.

But in the deepest part of the Earth.

That black hibernation chamber was still running quietly, its indicator light flashing once every hundred years, like the steady heartbeat of the earth.

Beside the hibernation chamber, a mass of silver liquid metal always remained coiled there, never leaving for a single step.

She was waiting.

Waiting for a crisis to arrive, or waiting for a miracle to happen.

Waiting for that man to open his eyes again.

When that moment comes.

The stars will shine once more because of it.

(The End)