Liu Di stood frozen, his entire body numb.
The impact of it all was simply too great, turning his world upside down and shattering his understanding.
Was the world really just a program?
A remnant left behind by future Earthlings?
And had all the people of the future gone extinct?
Like a machine, Liu Di slowly turned his head inch by inch to look at Wen Zhizu. Then... who was he?
"About me."
Wen Zhizu smiled faintly as he looked at the unresolved chess piece in Liu Di's hand.
"That day."
"Was the 1,558th day of the 117th era of the real Earth."
"By your understanding, that should have been Earth 9.9 billion years in the future."
"I remember that date with absolute precision, because by then, I had already been working continuously in an underground base for 120 days. During that time, I had never once gone up to the surface."
"I stretched and prepared to go outside to breathe some fresh air."
"The instant the elevator reached the surface and its doors opened."
"I saw an earth as silent as a ghost domain."
"There was not a single person in sight."
"My colleagues. My kind. They had all disappeared."
"I fell into panic."
At this point, Wen Zhizu's pupils trembled. "My first thought was that they had all emigrated and abandoned me?"
"Humanity on Earth was incomparably powerful back then, with territories divided by starfields."
"I activated the communications system and called out again and again, sending signals to one starfield after another."
"No one answered."
"It was as though every living being in the universe had evaporated into thin air."
"Everything was silent. Only that fundamental, boundless energy remained, sustaining everything."
"I did not give up so easily. I searched for an entire year!"
"In the end,