Chapter Summaries

Three months after faster-than-light technology transformed Martian life and research, Chen Mengchuan visited the Space-time Traversal and Space Folding Research Center to review a test targeting 228 times the speed of light. The test could bring Proxima Centauri within humanity’s reach, while the chapter ended with Chen Mengchuan joking that Brother Xu had lost weight.

• Chen Mengchuan walked his daughter Zhihui to kindergarten with Zhao Wanyu, who told him she planned to admit another 300,000 immigrants to Qiming City in fifteen batches over two weeks.
• Chen Mengchuan traveled from Qiming City to the research center, where he met Su Ruifeng and heard how faster-than-light travel had accelerated asteroid capture and Solar System exploration.
• Toni told Chen Mengchuan that the team was preparing to test Space-time Traversal at 228 times the speed of light, potentially allowing them to explore Proxima Centauri, 4.22 light-years away.
• When Toni asked about Brother Xu, Chen Mengchuan chuckled and said that he had lost weight lately.

Chen Mengchuan and his colleagues celebrated a successful Space-time Traversal test that reached 228 times the speed of light, bringing humanity close to sending a probe to Proxima Centauri. As the team prepared to explore beyond the Solar System, Chen Mengchuan worried that humanity might not survive the approaching alien civilization.

• Chen Mengchuan told Toni that Xu Shuwei had lost weight from working overtime on the Particle Communication and Space-time Traversal upgrades.
• Tenzhi Technology's Particle Communication network spread across Earth and the Solar System, while gaming and exploration experiences flourished on the network.
• Achen announced that the probe spacecraft had completed a successful Space-time Traversal test at 228 times the speed of light.
• Toni, Su Ruifeng, and Tang Lingling celebrated the prospect of reaching Proxima Centauri in a week, and Chen Mengchuan said the mission would also test the effects of the journey on experimental organisms.
• Chen Mengchuan reflected on the dangers of sending humans into space and wondered whether humanity's preparations could withstand the approaching alien civilization.

Chen Mengchuan and Zhao Wanyu prepared to unveil Tenzhi Technology’s plan to unite Earth’s nations as the Earth Federation. They arrived at the interdimensional gate plaza in Qiming City, where representatives had gathered for the historic announcement.

• Chen Mengchuan explained red dwarfs to Chen Zhihui while holding her.
• Zhao Wanyu arrived to take Chen Mengchuan to work, and Chen Zhihui stayed to watch cartoons with A-Chen.
• Chen Mengchuan asked Zhao Wanyu whether she had arranged the plan, and she confirmed it with determination.
• Chen Mengchuan and Zhao Wanyu flew to the interdimensional gate and arrived at the gathering in Qiming City.
• Tenzhi Technology prepared to promote the Earth Federation and coordinate Earth’s nations and resources.

Tenzhi Technology convened representatives from dozens of countries on Mars to unite Earth’s human civilization under its leadership. As the conference began, the delegates recognized that Tenzhi Technology’s overwhelming advances had made a new interstellar civilization possible.

• Toni, Chen Mengchuan, Zhao Wanyu, Sun Zhongyong, and other Tenzhi Technology leaders gathered before the meeting and entered the venue together.
• Representatives from dozens of countries traveled aboard the Tiansuo to Mars and were awed by Tenzhi Technology’s city, Qiming City.
• Delegates examined materials detailing Tenzhi Technology’s vast technological and material resources as they waited for the conference to begin.
• Chen Mengchuan and the Tenzhi Technology delegation entered, drawing the attention of the assembled representatives.
• The delegates recognized that the conference would mark the end of one era and the beginning of a unified human interstellar civilization.

Chen Mengchuan urged representatives from around the world to unite humanity as the Earth Federation, arguing that the dangers of the interstellar abyss made political unity essential. He presented Tenzhi Technology’s discoveries and warned that humanity might be destroyed before it could prove alien civilizations posed a threat, then hinted that the company had already begun preparing for that danger.

• Chen Mengchuan addressed the gathered national delegations and called for humanity to unite as the Earth Federation.
• Chen Mengchuan described humanity’s vulnerability in space and warned that unknown alien civilizations could threaten Earth.
• Chen Mengchuan presented Tenzhi Technology’s Solar System explorations, including footage of life forms on Europa, and argued that civilizations would prioritize their own survival.
• Delegates argued over Chen Mengchuan’s warnings, while he insisted humanity had to prepare before an alien threat could be confirmed.
• Chen Mengchuan declared that Tenzhi Technology had already begun preparing, and terrifying images appeared on the gravity screens.

Chen Mengchuan revealed Tenzhi Technology’s planetary-class Plasma Cannon on Mars and announced plans for a vast network of similar weapons to defend against alien civilizations. When the United States delegation challenged whether the cannons could threaten Earth, Chen Mengchuan’s answer enraged the national representatives and left the gathering in chaos.

• The representatives saw a gigantic planetary weapon installed on Mars, and the delegations erupted in anger and alarm.
• Chen Mengchuan identified it as a planetary-class super-giant Plasma Cannon and said Tenzhi Technology had built twenty-three, with plans for many more throughout the Solar System.
• Chen Mengchuan invited representatives from every nation to speak, and a white-haired woman from the United States asked whether the weapon might be turned on Earth.
• Chen Mengchuan said Tenzhi Technology would never target Earth under human control, but added that they would not do so once humanity’s objectives aligned against interstellar civilizations.
• The representatives interpreted Chen Mengchuan’s answer as a threat and loudly protested, demanding to know whether he was declaring war on Earth’s nations.

France, the Island Nation, and several other governments condemned Tenzhi Technology and declared they would defend national sovereignty, while Russia abstained from the decision. The Chinese representative then took the microphone, and his opening words caused the venue to erupt again.

• The French representative denounced Chen and Tenzhi Technology, declaring that France would never compromise or yield.
• The Island Nation representative echoed France’s condemnation and vowed to take up arms if necessary.
• Several other governments protested Tenzhi Technology’s weapon as the venue divided into opposing camps.
• The Russian delegation chose to abstain, prompting uproar and speculation about its relationship with Tenzhi Technology.
• The Chinese representative stepped to the podium, and his first sentence set off another uproar.

At a meeting on Mars, China and Pakistan supported establishing the Earth Federation, but more than 80 percent of national representatives opposed it. Chen Mengchuan accepted the vote’s result, then declared that Tenzhi Civilization would go to war against every country and region that had opposed the Federation.

• China declared its support for Tenzhi Technology and called for humanity to unite by establishing the Earth Federation, while the United States delegation stayed silent.
• The Island Nation and many other governments opposed the Federation, while Pakistan and countries with close ties to Tenzhi Technology supported it.
• More than 80 percent of the 233 country and regional representatives voted against establishing the Earth Federation.
• Chen Mengchuan told the representatives that the meeting was over and that spacecraft would return them to Earth.
• Chen Mengchuan declared war on every Earth country and region that had opposed the Earth Federation.

After Chen Mengchuan declared war on the countries opposing the Earth Federation, Tenzhi Technology's leaders and governments around the world reacted to the looming conflict. The Island Nation mobilized for war as public anger and boycotts against Tenzhi Technology spread, leaving the world increasingly divided.

• Chen Mengchuan told Tenzhi Technology's leaders to settle internal affairs and said Earth's weapons could not harm them, while the others resolved to support him.
• Chinese government representatives convened a core meeting, discussed Chen Mengchuan's declaration, and agreed to focus on China's own affairs.
• U.S. officials decided not to oppose Tenzhi Technology, recalling the destruction of the Seventh Fleet and the technological gap between them.
• The Island Nation's leaders declared the highest wartime alert, issued military orders, and announced Tenzhi Technology's declaration of war through the media.
• People in the Island Nation criticized their government and its opposition to the Earth Federation, while reserve soldiers assembled across the country.
• After the global conference details became public, people around the world flooded Tenzhi Technology's website with hostile comments and began boycotting its products.

After most Earth governments rejected the Earth Federation, Chen Mengchuan declared war on the opposing nations and told Tenzhi Technology’s employees why he believed humanity needed to unite. He then revealed a fleet of thousands of spacecraft and ordered A-Chen to launch it, leaving its destination unstated.

• Media and netizens across China rallied behind Tenzhi Technology as Earth’s nations mobilized and entered the highest level of war readiness.
• Chen Mengchuan addressed Tenzhi Technology’s employees, explained that more than eighty percent of governments had opposed the Earth Federation, and declared war on the opposing nations.
• Chen Mengchuan said that advanced technology could help provide for everyone and make the war the start of a new interstellar age.
• Tenzhi Technology’s executives watched as thousands of spacecraft appeared in formation in space, though they did not know when the fleet had been built or who controlled it.
• A-Chen appeared in a humanoid robot body, confirmed she was ready, and launched the spacecraft through blue origin point rings at Chen Mengchuan’s command.

As global unrest escalated, Tenzhi Technology deployed spacecraft over major cities around the world, prompting evacuations and military mobilization. When the Island Nation’s officials ordered an attack on the ship over Jingdō City, Chen Mengchuan told Achen to carry out their plan, and the spacecraft redirected the missiles into the city.

• Governments worldwide entered war readiness as protests, resignations, attacks on Tenzhi Technology businesses, and threats to overseas Chinese spread.
• Tenzhi Technology spacecraft appeared above core government and economic cities around the world, triggering war alerts and mass evacuations.
• The Island Nation’s officials ordered its forces to shoot down the spacecraft hovering above Jingdō City.
• The Island Nation launched missiles at the spacecraft, but Achen used its antigravity devices to halt and redirect them.
• The missiles exploded across Jingdō City, devastating part of the city and causing severe casualties among the Island Nation’s forces.

The Island Nation launched a full-scale attack on Tenzhi Technology’s ships, but Achen used gravity fields and antigravity barriers to force the weapons’ explosions back onto the ground. The attack devastated more than a hundred cities and wiped out the Island Nation’s ground forces, leaving the watching nations shaken by Tenzhi Technology’s power.

• The Island Nation’s Prime Minister ordered a full assault on the hovering Tenzhi ships after an earlier missile strike was intercepted and killed hundreds of soldiers.
• Island Nation forces fired thousands of missiles, shells, and rockets at the ships across more than a hundred cities.
• Chen Mengchuan told Achen to end the attack, and Achen used gravity fields and barriers to suppress the incoming weapons and their explosions.
• The explosions devastated more than a hundred cities and killed every Island Nation soldier in the blast zones.
• Achen reported that the explosions had ended and the Island Nation military had not launched another attack, while other nations watched the destruction in alarm.

Chen Mengchuan ordered the destruction of the Island Nation’s remaining military forces after Tenzhi Technology’s spacecraft devastated its cities. As survivors emerged from underground shelters, Achen asked whether to launch humanitarian rescues, and a United States commander declared that the war had ended.

• At the Martian base, Achen asked Chen Mengchuan whether to destroy the Island Nation’s remaining aircraft and ships, and Chen agreed.
• Achen ordered the spacecraft to fire electric-field proton bombs, destroying the Island Nation’s deployed combat aircraft and vessels.
• Sun Zhongyong asked Chen Mengchuan about the white projectiles, and Chen explained how the electric-field proton bombs worked.
• Achen reported that civilians, including women and children, had survived in underground shelters and asked Chen Mengchuan whether to conduct humanitarian rescues.
• Island Nation citizens emerged from the shelters and saw the devastated cities, while the United States fleet’s commander said the war ended there.

After the destruction of Island Nation, Tenzhi Technology’s leaders argued over responsibility for the millions killed while Chen Mengchuan remained withdrawn. Governments worldwide accepted the Earth Federation, and Zhao Wanyu issued its first decree placing national administrative networks under A-Chen’s oversight as the transition began.

• Sun Zhongyong, Xu Shuwei, and Toni debated the deaths of more than six million people in Island Nation, and Xu Shuwei punched Toni before Toni tripped him in return.
• A-Chen appeared and stopped the fight, while Chen Mengchuan continued to refuse visitors; the next day, Zhao Wanyu and A-Chen mediated a reconciliation between Xu Shuwei and Toni.
• After Island Nation’s destruction, opposing nations and then neutral nations including the United States and Russia agreed to establish the Earth Federation.
• Zhao Wanyu convened the second Global Government Delegation Exchange Conference and announced the Federation’s first decree, requiring governments to connect their administrative information to Tenzhi Technology’s particle network for A-Chen to oversee.
• The decree required countries to adopt a unified administrative software system with more than four hundred language modules, while preserving existing government policies during the transition.

The Human Earth Federation centralized national resources and armed forces under Achen and national representatives, auditing public servants and restructuring their pay. Within months, global law enforcement, public services, and resource distribution were reorganized, establishing what historians called the New Order of Human Civilization.

• Achen and 2,789 national representatives consolidated governments’ state-owned assets and assessed public servants’ minimum gray-income values.
• Most civil servants and law enforcement personnel accepted their assessments, while others requested asset tracing; the Federation recovered gray income and rebalanced public-sector pay.
• The Federation completed unified control of law enforcement and armed forces, deployed surveillance devices and gravity mechs, and retrained personnel.
• Criminal incidents declined, and more than 300,000 criminals were sent to Federation prisons for sentencing and reeducation.
• The Federation collected detailed population records, resettled homeless people, improved medical care, and created new jobs through resource redistribution.
• Human civilization’s systems changed rapidly, and historians and social researchers called the transformation the New Order of Human Civilization.

Chen Mengchuan reviewed the Earth Federation’s progress and the exploration of nearby star systems. Toni reported that his team had discovered four Earth-like planets in the Barnard's Star system.

• Achen told Chen Mengchuan that the team had explored fourteen stars in the Alpha Centauri system and found no planets suitable for human habitation.
• The Earth Federation’s reforms resolved hunger, stabilized society, expanded education, and accelerated scientific research and space exploration.
• Toni arrived with the Barnard's Star report and explained that his team had investigated the nearby red dwarf.
• Toni announced that the team had found four Earth-like planets in the Barnard's Star system.

Chen Mengchuan learned that explorers had found four planets orbiting Barnard's Star, including one with vast green vegetation and regions potentially suitable for human survival. He ordered ten groups of deep-space exploration craft to investigate it, while wondering whether intelligent life inhabited the planet.

• Toni told Chen Mengchuan that the project team had discovered four planets around Barnard's Star, including a giant planet with potentially habitable tropical regions.
• Toni revealed that instruments had detected extensive green vegetation on the planet, and Chen went with him to the exploration project team.
• Chen and the team examined a model of the planet, which showed oceans, ice caps, green regions, and a ring of planetary debris.
• Chen ordered ten groups of deep-space exploration craft to prepare to explore the planet.
• As the project team celebrated, Chen wondered whether the planet's life included advanced civilizations and how they compared with humanity.

The Earth Federation’s exploration fleet arrived at Rainbow Star, a huge Earth-like planet whose colorful magnetic fields appeared to create habitable green belts along its tropics. As spacecraft descended toward the surface, the explorers discovered buildings beneath the greenery.

• Scientists debated how Rainbow Star could have oceans and plants despite its enormous size and expected gravity.
• Chen Mengchuan and other astrophysicists proposed that overlapping magnetic fields caused the planet’s uneven gravity and supported its tropical green belts.
• Zhao Wanyu joined Chen Mengchuan to watch as 120 exploration spacecraft arrived in Barnard's Star System.
• Chen Mengchuan ordered the spacecraft to spread out and begin low-altitude exploration, and they landed across the planet.
• The team watched spacecraft descend along the tropical green belts and saw buildings on Rainbow Star.

Chen Mengchuan and the exploration team confirmed that Rainbow Star supported two intelligent civilizations, then observed and captured a Lizardfolk from one of them. The chapter ends as the team turns its attention to the separate Orc-like civilization on the planet.

• The exploration team discovered extensive settlements on Rainbow Star and confirmed that the planet had intelligent life.
• Toni explained that Rainbow Star’s civilizations had not developed spaceflight, and the team identified distinct civilizations near the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.
• Chen Mengchuan watched the vessel approach a Lizardfolk settlement, where the residents launched hot-air balloons and attacked it with bows and crossbows.
• Chen Mengchuan ordered the Gravity Multi-Arm Crab to capture a Lizardfolk, and the vessel escaped the settlement’s attack.
• Chen Mengchuan asked Toni about the other region, and the screen showed an Orc-like civilization living among crowded stone buildings.

Chen Mengchuan’s team encountered the Orc civilization on Rainbow Star and discovered that its people wielded extraordinarily strong metal weapons. After the Orcs destroyed a Gravity Multi-Arm Crab, Chen decided to pursue conquering the planet for its resources and unknown metal, pending Earth Federation procedures.

• Chen Mengchuan ordered a Gravity Multi-Arm Crab to descend and collect an Orc specimen while the Orcs attacked the spacecraft with enormous spears.
• A huge winged beast rammed the spacecraft, but the anti-gravity force field repelled it and sent it falling away.
• The Orcs with large round heads resisted the defensive electric field and smashed the Gravity Multi-Arm Crab apart with powerful metal clubs.
• Toni noted that the clubs seemed harder than dense steel, and Chen decided to conquer Rainbow Star for its unusual material.
• Zhao Wanyu said the decision had to follow Earth Federation procedures as Chen considered occupying the planet and its resources.