At Alan's urging, Lin Li considered how his memories of Earth, and the ties that bound him to it, were growing fainter. He agreed to have a child.
On this visit home, he found that almost everything familiar had vanished as Earth Civilization developed.
The skyscrapers were gone. So were the crowded streets, the traffic lights, the hurried pedestrians, and the little shops tucked into every corner...
In their place was the vista of an interstellar civilization against the vast emptiness of space.
Colossal structures, fortress-like marvels, machines interacting with machines, and energy surging against energy.
Ancient culture and tradition, rich with the weight of history, had been broken down and folded into a new era by a thousand years of rapid progress.
Earth was no longer the Earth he remembered, and humanity was no longer the humanity he remembered. The familiarity was gone. Looking at the Solar System, Lin Li almost felt it was no different from the Nomu Civilization or the Shacha Civilization of years past.
That strange mix of familiarity and alienness unsettled him. It did not feel like home.
So he agreed to stay with Alan, raise a child, and become part of this civilization's life.
"We can design the baby's talents," Alan said.
Lin Li shook his head. "No need. Let's combine your genetic template and mine at random."
"All right..." Alan immediately ordered a Skyworm Breeding Sac online.
It was the best artificial womb in Earth Civilization, and exceptionally expensive. Ordinary people could only use a Breeding Pod, a machine that simulated the environment of a womb.
But Lin Li stopped Alan. "We don't need one. I've decided to carry my child myself. I don't want my child to be just an industrial product."
"Then... I'll do the same." Alan nodded.
They each implanted