Chapter Summaries

Toni persuaded Chen Mengchuan to approve a human expedition to Rainbow Star, despite Chen’s concerns about its dangers. The Earth Federation announced the expedition and opened recruitment, stirring excitement across humanity.

• Toni asked Chen Mengchuan to let him lead a team to establish a human outpost on Rainbow Star, and Chen warned him about the planet’s unknown civilizations and dangers.
• Chen Mengchuan agreed to let Toni choose his team, while Toni promised they would go only when safety was assured.
• Zhao Wanyu scolded Chen Mengchuan for agreeing, then offered to select Earth Federation members to protect Toni and keep him in check.
• Chen Mengchuan learned that Toni had already confirmed more than a hundred people for the expedition.
• The Earth Federation announced the Rainbow Star expedition, recruiting one million people and dispatching eight thousand interstellar spacecraft, prompting people around the world to sign up.

As the Earth Federation's fleet departed for Rainbow Star, Chen Mengchuan focused on recruiting young researchers and preparing weapons for the mission. He secretly assigned Toni a squad of combat robots carrying experimental disintegrators, leaving Toni unaware of the weapons but willing to accept the extra protection.

• The Earth Federation sent eight thousand spacecraft and over one million explorers toward Rainbow Star in Barnard's Star System.
• Chen Mengchuan worked to bring young recruits into Mars's weapons research institutions and equipped the expedition with compact Plasma Cannons.
• Chen Mengchuan secretly arranged for A-Chen to monitor Toni and assigned him combat humanoid robots armed with experimental Eternal Particle Interference Molecular Disintegrators.
• Toni noticed he had more and different humanoid robots than other explorers, guessed they were combat models, and accepted their protection.

The exploration ships mapped Rainbow Star’s unusual gravity and diverse intelligent species, including the powerful but nonaggressive Vine People. As the fleet neared the planet, Toni trained to pilot a gravity mech outside the ship, prompting Chen Mengchuan to transfer Toni’s project duties to Chen Xiaoyun.

• The vanguard ships found more than seventy-eight intelligent life groups in the portions of the tropical green zones they had explored.
• Researchers recorded that Rainbow Star’s gravity ranged from 0.613 times Earth’s gravity in the tropical zones to thirty-five times Earth’s gravity at the equator.
• The exploration ships documented the Vine People’s social habits and strength, including their ability to destroy a Gravity Multi-Arm Crab.
• The eight thousand ships approached Rainbow Star while the explorers studied how to operate medium-sized gravity mechs.
• Toni spent long hours training to pilot a gravity mech outside the ship, ignoring Chen Mengchuan’s concerns.
• Chen Mengchuan transferred most of Toni’s project authority and duties to Chen Xiaoyun.

Feng Changjiang traveled with the Earth Federation expedition to Rainbow Star, spending the voyage training to pilot gravity mechs. The fleet arrived and paused near the planet, where the travelers viewed its beauty before preparing to enter orbit.

• Feng Changjiang, a Tenzhi Technology University student, continued training in gravity mechs during the journey to Rainbow Star.
• Feng Changjiang spoke with Toni about their impending arrival and agreed to view the planet from the spaceship.
• The spaceship decelerated and stopped near Rainbow Star as more than a million humans aboard over eight thousand ships watched it in awe.
• Artificial Intelligence Achen announced that the journey had concluded and that the spaceships would enter Rainbow Star's orbit and proceed to their landing sites.
• Feng Changjiang closed his eyes as the fleet prepared to enter orbit.

Toni and his expedition began establishing a base on Rainbow Star and surveying its surroundings. After speaking with Chen Mengchuan, Toni said he would stay until they understood the planet and its resources, leaving Chen to consider who could take over Toni’s projects.

• Xu Shuwei told Chen Mengchuan that the newcomers had arrived, and they discussed Toni’s departure and Chen Xiaoyun handling the workload.
• Toni’s spacecraft landed on Rainbow Star, where the expedition deployed Multi-Arm Crabs to build a base and sent teams out to survey the area.
• A-Chen organized the work, and the humans completed a five-meter-high wall enclosing the hill within a day.
• Toni told Chen Mengchuan that the planet had abundant vegetation and described nearby lifeforms, including a bipedal group that used metal weapons and armor.
• Chen Mengchuan asked when Toni would return, and Toni said he would stay until the expedition understood the planet and its resources.
• After ending the call, Chen Mengchuan considered who could take over Toni’s other projects.

After half a month of exploration on Rainbow Star, Chen Mengchuan reviewed its vast biodiversity, intelligent populations, mineral resources, and humanity’s expanding contact with local civilizations. Human towns endured attacks from Orc and Lizardfolk forces before the fighting stopped, and the chapter ended with the discovery of yu, the metal Chen Mengchuan had been seeking.

• Chen Mengchuan learned that Rainbow Star had more than 30,000 recorded species and 392 intelligent life populations, including over 30 rudimentary technological civilizations.
• Chen Mengchuan took interest in the Lizardfolk kingdoms, whose population exceeded 150 billion but whose people still believed their world was flat.
• Humans established trade with Orc tribes for their metal rods, while Orc children arrived in human towns and educators began learning the tribes’ languages.
• Orc and Lizardfolk forces attacked more than 800 human towns, but humanity’s gravitational barriers and forceful expulsions stopped the fighting with little killing.
• Toni and the Earth Federation’s mid-level leaders pursued diplomatic relations with local civilizations, while Chen Mengchuan held back his doubts.
• Humanity surveyed more than 200,000 mineral veins, including deposits of yu, the metal Chen Mengchuan had been waiting to find.

Chen Mengchuan learned about Metal Yu and the thousand-year lifespans of War-tier Orcs on Rainbow Star as humanity expanded its exploration across nearby star systems. With most discovered civilizations far less advanced than humanity, he focused on accelerating space travel and seeking civilizations capable of meaningful technological exchange.

• Chen Mengchuan studied Metal Yu, a rare, extremely durable metal prized by Lizardfolk and Orcs, and learned that War-tier Orcs wielding inherited clubs made from it had fought the Multi-Arm Crabs.
• Chen Mengchuan confirmed with A Chen, Toni, and scientists that the oldest War-tier Orcs had lived for more than a thousand years, prompting the Earth Federation to send biologists and chemists to investigate.
• The Earth Federation expanded exploration to 270 star systems and found 78 planets with life, most of them suitable for human habitation but home to civilizations far behind humanity.
• Chen Mengchuan continued searching for a civilization with technology comparable to humanity's and added researchers to the Eternal Universe Particle, Space-time Traversal, and Space Folding departments.
• Chen Mengchuan worked with the Space-time Traversal and Space Folding teams to pursue faster space jumps, hoping to extend humanity's reach and find new sources of progress.

A powerful Lizardfolk army overwhelmed humanity’s first base on Rainbow Star, bypassing its gravity defenses and breaching its spacecraft. Chen Mengchuan ordered the fleet to withdraw and then authorized a large-scale retaliatory strike.

• The Lizardfolk army charged through the human base’s gravity field and smashed through its walls.
• Toni received the distress alert, and human spacecraft rushed to reinforce the besieged base.
• Lizardfolk warriors breached more than a hundred spacecraft and killed crew members inside them.
• After hearing Toni’s report, Chen Mengchuan ordered the ships to retreat and regroup at high altitude.
• The Lizardfolk destroyed the base as the surviving human fleet gathered overhead.
• Chen Mengchuan authorized the spacecraft to fire their Plasma Cannons indiscriminately at the attacking Lizardfolk.

After the Lizardfolk destroyed a human base and killed more than 4,200 people, Chen Mengchuan ordered a devastating counterattack and the conquest of their kingdom. The discovery of a radioactive magnetic mineral opened a new research direction, while Chen Mengchuan and Zhao Wanyu faced the loss and the end of any chance for peace.

• Chen Mengchuan reviewed the battle report, recognized humanity’s weakness in close-range warfare, and watched the Lizardfolk celebrate their victory at the ruined base.
• Chen Mengchuan’s forces annihilated the Lizardfolk gathering at the base with beams of light, then he ordered the commanders to conquer the kingdom.
• Nearly ten thousand human spacecraft appeared above the Lizardfolk capital, forcing the kingdom to surrender within hours.
• A-Chen reported that a crescent-shaped radioactive magnetic mineral could disrupt gravitational fields, and Chen Mengchuan and Toni assigned researchers to analyze it and learn how the Lizardfolk used it.
• Zhao Wanyu visited Chen Mengchuan after seeing the casualties, and he embraced her as he concluded that humanity and the Lizardfolk had only conquest or destruction left.

Chen Mengchuan found that exhaustion among researchers was contributing to stalled weapons projects, including the Space-Cutting Weapons Research Center’s Source Point Circle displacement technology. On Rainbow Star, Toni accepted the Lizardfolk King’s formal surrender, while an exploration spacecraft 407 light-years from the Solar System was destroyed just after exiting space traversal.

• Chen Mengchuan reviewed the Space-Cutting Weapons Research Center’s records and found no progress on Source Point Circle displacement technology.
• Chen Mengchuan recognized that researchers’ fatigue and unmet needs for rest were contributing to delays across weapons projects.
• Toni and the other commanders arrived at the Lizardfolk royal palace and listened to music recounting the fate of Lizardfolk civilization.
• The Lizardfolk King knelt before Toni and offered a staff and crescent magnet, marking the kingdom’s submission.
• An exploration spacecraft ended its space traversal 407 light-years from the Solar System and was immediately torn apart by a flash of light.

After an exploration ship was destroyed near HD112410, Chen Mengchuan feared that an unknown alien civilization far surpassed humanity. He ordered Toni back to Mars and began arranging the first wave of humanity’s evacuation from the Solar System.

• A continuous alarm warned the Martian base of an enormous threat, and Chen Mengchuan relived the final hours of human civilization from his dream.
• A-Chen told Chen Mengchuan that an exploration ship had been destroyed near HD112410, 407 light-years from the Solar System.
• Chen Mengchuan examined Musca and HD112410’s information, then reviewed the ship’s final transmission: a dark frame followed by a white one.
• Chen Mengchuan concluded that the ship had been destroyed by an instantaneous attack beyond humanity’s capabilities and feared the unknown civilization would find the Solar System.
• Chen Mengchuan ordered A-Chen to summon Toni to Mars and begin evacuating the first wave of humans.

Chen Mengchuan told Earth Federation officials that an unknown, technologically superior civilization had destroyed one of humanity’s spacecraft and might trace its route to the Solar System. He declared that all humanity must evacuate, leaving the officials in uproar as Zhao Wanyu stood to respond.

• Chen Mengchuan addressed the assembled Earth Federation officials as the chief person in charge of its Technology Department.
• Chen Mengchuan announced that humanity faced its most dangerous war and that the Solar System had been exposed.
• Chen Mengchuan explained that an unknown civilization had destroyed a spacecraft near the HD112410 yellow giant star, 407 light-years away.
• Chen Mengchuan called for the immediate evacuation of all humanity, provoking a chaotic reaction from the officials.
• Zhao Wanyu rose from her seat as the officials looked to her.

After an alien civilization destroyed an Earth Federation exploration spacecraft near HD112410, Chen Mengchuan warned the Martian conference that humanity might have only months to escape. The Earth Federation began planning a three-wave evacuation of the Solar System.

• Toni realized that the alien civilization near HD112410 could be far more advanced than humanity and feared the consequences.
• At the Martian base, Zhao Wanyu calmed the meeting and opened the floor for questions.
• Chen Mengchuan explained that the spacecraft's destruction could not have been caused by a celestial disturbance and said the alien civilization might reach the Solar System in months or years.
• Chen Mengchuan directed the meeting to focus on evacuation, and the Earth Federation approved a three-wave plan to move humanity away.
• The Earth Federation prepared to send 700 medium-sized spacecraft carrying 3.36 million people within three days, followed by larger evacuations one month and three months later.

The Earth Federation launched humanity’s first evacuation fleet as leaders defended the decision to send people into space despite public opposition. On Mars, Chen Mengchuan discovered that spacecraft production and Rainbow Star development were far behind schedule, and he demanded faster progress from Toni.

• The Earth Federation announced that an alien civilization might reach the Solar System within half a year to three years, and selected 3.36 million people for the first evacuation.
• Zhao Wanyu, Chen Mengchuan, and former national leaders defended the evacuation and exploration missions, arguing that humanity needed to look outward to survive the cosmic jungle.
• Three days later, the Federation sent 3.36 million people aboard 700 spacecraft into the Solar System despite ongoing protests.
• Xu Shuwei told Chen Mengchuan that spacecraft construction could reach only 60% of its target, while Achen reported that Rainbow Star development was projected at just 30 to 40%.
• Chen Mengchuan ordered resources redirected toward supplies and demanded a solution from Toni, warning that someone else would take over if Toni could not speed up development.

Toni ordered Rainbow Star's intelligent civilizations to evacuate the mineral resource zones before humanity purged those areas and extracted their resources. After mining surpassed its target, he discussed the cost of the decision with Xu Shuwei while Chen Mengchuan continued organizing humanity's evacuation.

• After wrestling with Chen Mengchuan's demand, Toni ordered the intelligent civilizations in the resource zones to evacuate before the first fiery sun set.
• A-Chen relayed Toni's decision, and humans used gravity equipment, spacecraft, and Gravity Multi-Arm Crabs to expel the civilizations, suppressing resistance.
• More than thirty hours later, Toni ordered resource extraction and repurposed ships and equipment to boost mining, which exceeded its target by fifty percent.
• Xu Shuwei called Toni, discussed Chen Mengchuan's pressure and Earth's evacuation, and heard Toni describe the life and civilizations of Rainbow Star.
• Toni told Xu Shuwei why destroying the planet's civilizations had weighed on him, and Xu Shuwei acknowledged the consequences as Chen Mengchuan continued the evacuation plan.

Humanity completed its second mass migration, sending 276 million people away from Earth as the planet grew subdued. On Rainbow Star, Chen Mengchuan oversaw preparations for the final migration, including construction of thirty thousand giant spaceships.

• A young man aboard a spaceship arranged to eat and attend training with Xiao Yaping as their vessel traveled toward a distant star system.
• More than five thousand spaceships arrived from Rainbow Star, and humanity began its second great migration from Earth.
• A-Chen, intelligent machines, and people across Earth coordinated the loading of 276 million people onto twenty-five thousand ships, which departed without ceremony.
• Chen Mengchuan turned his attention to the final migration after the first two stages were completed.
• Humanity relocated its metal smelting plants to Rainbow Star and mined its resources to build the frameworks of thirty thousand giant spaceships.
• Scientists and biological experts gathered on Rainbow Star and identified more of its usable biological and plant resources.

Rainbow Star supplied abundant plants, livestock, and marine life for humanity’s evacuation fleet, while the Earth Federation continued its migration preparations. As the final half month began, loaded spacecraft appeared above Earth, bringing humanity closer to leaving its homeworld.

• Rainbow Star’s resources were tested and gathered, including fast-growing Rainbow Melons, superior livestock, and giant Rainbow Shrimp.
• Within two months, Rainbow Star prepared enough biological supplies to sustain thirty thousand spacecraft for a hundred years.
• The Earth Federation’s third migration phase continued under Chen Mengchuan and Zhao Wanyu, while officials managed public information to preserve confidence.
• In the final half month, spacecraft that had completed loading tore through the void and appeared above Earth, startling and inspiring humanity.

A boy aboard a human spaceship wondered whether their artificial refuge could still be called civilization after they fled Earth. Elsewhere, Xu Shuwei reassured Toni that the scattered fleet and Chen Mengchuan’s plans gave humanity a chance to survive and eventually return to the Solar System.

• Ayang argued with other teenagers about whether their spaceship was better than Earth and whether Achen, the AI who rescued them, was responsible for the disaster.
• After the teenagers parted, Ayang sat alone, feeling trapped in a metal cage and questioning what civilization meant after abandoning their homeland.
• Toni told Xu Shuwei that there had been no news from Mengchuan and that the ship’s crew were struggling emotionally.
• Xu Shuwei explained that the fleet had scattered to avoid being wiped out and urged Toni to focus on what they could do while trusting Chen Mengchuan.
• Toni reflected on his past arguments with Chen Mengchuan and tried to imagine what Chen would do next.

On the sixty-ninth day of humanity’s migration, Chen Mengchuan and Zhao Wanyu discussed growing despair and unrest aboard the ships, while Chen Mengchuan waited to learn whether humanity’s contingency plan in the Solar System could stop the Musca aliens. The chapter ended with the Solar System’s defenses standing ready for the unknown alien civilization.

• Zhao Wanyu chased Chen Zhihui over a paint-stained dress, and Chen Mengchuan intervened but was struck with a clothes hanger.
• At dinner, Chen Bingzhou raised troubling signs aboard the ship, and Zhao Wanyu and Chen Mengchuan said negative emotions were spreading across the fleet.
• Zhao Wanyu revealed that six people had died by suicide aboard their ship and that others had attempted sabotage, prompting Achen to secure restricted areas with armed humanoid robots.
• Chen Mengchuan waited for the contingency plan left in the Solar System to strike the Musca alien civilization.
• Across the Solar System, planetary-scale weapons and the particle-light early-warning defense system remained ready for the aliens’ arrival.

A year into the voyage, an artificial snowfall brought renewed cheer to the people aboard Chen Mengchuan’s spaceship, though he remained anxious about the missing evacuation ships and the Fly Civilization. At a council meeting, Chen Mengchuan agreed that the spaceship could settle on a nearby habitable planet, while warning that it might not yet be far enough from the Solar System to be safe.

• Chen Mengchuan watched his daughter Chen Zhihui play in the artificial snow, which lifted the spirits of the spaceship’s inhabitants.
• Zhao Wanyu told Chen Mengchuan that she missed her parents, who were aboard another evacuation ship that had not reestablished contact.
• Zhao Wanyu called a council meeting and raised the possibility of finding a habitable planet where the spaceship could settle.
• Chen Mengchuan explained that habitable planets were plentiful but that he had delayed settlement because the spaceship was not yet at a safe distance from the Solar System.
• Chen Mengchuan offered to stop the spaceship at a suitable nearby planet if the people wanted a home, moving many council members to tears.