The spacious room was deathly quiet, filled only with the faint white noise of electronic components running.
The chair facing away from the door remained motionless, like a silent spectator watching a play.
Chu Guang did not know whether the professor's old friend, the "Observer," was watching from nearby as well.
But even if it was, it probably could not jump out and say anything.
After all, it had said their next meeting would be tens of thousands of years from now.
If he could live to see that day, anyway.
The professor standing on the screen seemed to have sunk into distant memories. He stood quietly in thought for a long while before finally speaking in a gentle, storytelling tone.
"That was a very, very long time ago—more than three hundred years before today."
"I can no longer remember whether it was the first or second time I met it, but it was indeed the first time it had spoken to me so candidly."
"By then, I had already grasped the mysteries of the four fundamental forces and had gradually begun using gravity as a medium to touch the boundaries of dimensions... Just as the Observer had hoped, after mastering power comparable to that of stars, we obtained the key to reaching the stars."
A look of surprise appeared on Chu Guang's face.
"A hyperspace engine? You invented it?"
The professor shook his head.
"No. I was not particularly interested in practical applications. My students mainly handled those things. However, my research into neutrinos, quark-gluon plasma, and gravitons could be said to have laid the theoretical groundwork for hyperspace engines. Deflection shields and the antigravity technology you are familiar with were, in fact, all extended applications of hyperspace theory..."
Not interested, huh...
Feeling that overwhelming air of showing off,