"We had always thought we were already very powerful."
"Powerful enough to fear nothing."
"But we never expected that, one year ago, we would be completely destroyed by an unknown force."
"You heard correctly. One year before the moment you saw me—that is, in Earth year 2021—we were destroyed."
After Commander Camerlo finished speaking, the Proxima b ancestors fell silent, seemingly consumed by immense grief.
Liu Di stood frozen on the spot.
One year ago?!
How was that possible?!
Liu Di turned around in horror. Through the doors of the Magic Box, he could still see Elder Kalai and the others in grass skirts, kneeling on the ground and staring eagerly at the enormous box, their faces filled with utter shock and confusion.
Clearly, they had no idea what this box was!
One year ago.
That did explain why the Proxima b ancestors had been able to observe Earth's spacefaring technology, as well as when that signal had arrived.
But!
How was that possible?!
Liu Di kept repeating the thought in his mind.
The degree to which Kalai and the others' technology had regressed had to span at least hundreds of millions of years!
And.
In their memories, their ancestors had vanished thousands of years ago!
And!
Even if Commander Camerlo and the others had been annihilated by an advanced civilization in an instant, only one year had passed. There should have been ruins or wreckage left behind, shouldn't there?!
When the Nanobots had covered all of Proxima b earlier, they had not found a single piece of technological material!
Had it been melted away by the "three" suns?
That was unrealistic!
Their technology had enabled them to roam the universe. How could it have vanished within a Trinary Star System?
Had it been vaporized by an advanced civilization?
There