Global Crossing: Empire of Stars, by Feng Ying
One day in [year], people woke up to discover visitors from the cosmos. A research vessel claiming to come from the Human Federation informed Earth of a startling fact: the Solar System had accomplished the greatest feat since its birth. The entire system, Earth included, had broken away from its original universe and arrived in a new one.
In this vast expanse of stars, countless NPC factions repeatedly spawned in dark galaxies beyond the reach of civilization's light. Nascent life planets lost the right to reach for space, while civilized nations were beset by endless nightmares and gradually fell into decline.
Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships, Flagships, Titans...
Space Stations, Spaceports, Star Fortresses, Interstellar Fortresses, Sky Pillar Fortresses, Battle Stars...
Psionic Ascension, Mechanical Ascension, Gene Ascension—the paths of evolution were endless.
Civilizations gave rise to Heroes, and Heroes forged epics. In this universe, only Heroes were immortal!
Lin Zhichen piloted his Petrel-class Frigate, cautiously threading his way through the Asteroid Belt.
The metal hull, more than a hundred meters long, darted through the belt like a fish, passing within a mere hundred meters of the nearest meteorite.
At this distance, a hundred meters was practically nothing in space.
The dense meteorites and slow-moving starships made it feel like a hunter with a gun feeling his way through a Dark Forest. Every step could mean the difference between life and death.
This was the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars in the Solar System.
Three years ago, this had been a quiet stretch of space, empty save for the occasional clamor of colliding meteorites.
Now, it was a hunting ground, where hunter and prey could trade places at any moment.
Three years ago, the entire Solar System had suddenly crossed into the New Universe. One day, the ten billion natives on Earth woke up to find that they had gained personal panels, just like NPCs in a game.
Before the panicked masses could recover, a fantastically advanced starship arrived in orbit around Earth and brought the natives greetings from the Human Federation. Fortunately, the humans of this universe were no different from those of the original universe in either their genes or their appearance.
In the space of a night, the bewildered people of Earth had gone from natives who had never left their home planet to citizens of the Interstellar Era.
Then they discovered how strange this universe was. Not only did everyone have a character panel, but NPC monsters—pirates in spaceships—also spawned in the starry expanse.
Though these pirates were a little dim-witted, they were far more diligent than ordinary people. They roamed space day and night, swarming any lone starship they came across. Their victims and cargo were often wiped out without a trace. But when faced with a powerful fleet, the pirates kept their distance, making them a terrible nuisance.
This was the New Universe's normal ecology. StarNet, the Federation's network, had detailed information about it: throughout the boundless sea of stars, in regions untouched by intelligent life, mindless creatures spawned in such numbers that they could make any intelligent life shudder.
This unusual situation made exploring new star systems enormously costly. Every colony system was built atop heaps of starship wreckage and human lives.
The Solar System was extraordinarily fortunate. It had crossed into the Edge Zone of the Human Federation, exchanging places with a normal star system. Its barren planets had suddenly become habitable, and it was home to more than ten billion Natural Persons. The Federal Government immediately took a keen interest.
A Defense Fleet was quickly assembled to maintain order on the planets.
After a brief transition, the United Nations became the Earth Autonomous Government. Earth joined the Human Federation as a unified whole and received its support, leaping from a primitive industrial planet into the Interstellar Era.
Because of the threat posed by NPC monster fleets, the intelligent civilizations of the New Universe's Milky Way Galaxy valued fleet construction above all else. The Federation even distributed Star Net Helmets to the people of Earth free of charge.
In a Virtual World much like the metaverse, every citizen could acquire a profession through vocational training.
Lin Zhichen had chosen to be a starship captain. His dream was to command a ship and sail across the sea of stars.
The advantage of this profession was that anyone who earned a grade of A or higher on the graduation exam could claim a standard Frigate from the Federation for free after graduating.
The long journey through space was bound to grow tiresome. The unchanging sight of meteorites beyond the porthole made him lose focus.
He opened his personal panel:
Name: Lin Zhichen Status: Faint red Gender: Male Age: 21 Talent: Heaven Rewards Diligence, Purple Effect 1: Effort brings rewards; practicing a skill improves it. Effect 2: Members of his faction benefit from this talent. Psionicist Awakening: 99.93%, not activated Profession: Starship Captain, White, Advanced Effect 1: Starship Evasion +8% Effect 2: Sublight Speed +5% Skills: 1. Cultivation * Qi Refining to Godhood, Red, 99.93% 2. Ship Command, White, Advanced, 78.42% Evaluation: A weakling with limitless potential!
Just a little more! He psyched himself up, felt the faint weakness in his body, and suppressed the urge to continue cultivating.
Qi Refining to Godhood required Refining Essence into Qi first. But where did essence come from?
Essence was one's innate essence, replenished by the food people ate. There was a limit to how much the body could produce each day, and after meeting its normal needs, only a tiny amount remained.
Lin Zhichen thought back to his previous life, though his memories had grown hazy.
He vaguely remembered that it had been the late Ming Dynasty. He had cultivated with his master in a remote mountain temple. Gifted with exceptional talent, he had reached the Yin God realm in just sixty years, only a step away from becoming a Yang God.
Then the Qing Soldiers had entered the pass, destroying temples and monasteries. The temple had been burned to the ground. His master and fellow disciple had died in battle, leaving him alone to fight his way out.
Though he burned with resentment, he knew the tide of history favored the Qing, not the Ming. So he had staked everything on crossing the Yang Fire Tribulation and becoming a Yang God True Person, a feat unseen for a century, so he could challenge the true dragon of the human world. But he had turned to ash in the sea of flames, leaving behind only a trace of Yang-transformed divine consciousness to cross time and space and arrive several centuries later.
The New World was already in the Age of Dharma's End, with no conditions for cultivation. Even with the help of the nascent Yang God within him, it had taken him eighteen years to barely cultivate an Yin God—still weaker than he had been in his previous life, let alone close to the Great Dao of the Yang God.
Unexpectedly, when he was eighteen, the Solar System crossed over.
It seems that the moment I become a Yang God will be the moment my Psionics awaken!
He was thrilled, but held his emotions in check.
Psionics in the New Universe were different from cultivation in the Old Era. Even newly awakened Psionicists could interfere with the physical world. Making a nuclear bomb with their bare hands wasn't a dream.
By comparison, ancient cultivators had to reach the Yang God realm before they could affect matter. No wonder cultivators in his previous life had been hunted down by the imperial court like dogs, while Psionicists in this world were high-status and treated like their betters wherever they went.
But now he had an even greater advantage. As a gift for arriving in the New Universe, every person on Earth had received a Talent Panel that displayed their personal information.
Fifteen percent of Earth's population had gained a talent, far more than the five percent reported by the Federal Government.
Talent grades began at gray and white, followed by the five colors of red, orange, yellow, green, and blue, with higher colors indicating better talents.
Based on that sequence, there should also be violet, indigo, and perhaps more colors. Yet there had never been any mention of them on StarNet.
His talent, Heaven Rewards Diligence, was violet. Even if his guess was right, it was the highest grade. With such an impressive talent, he didn't dare reveal it. He had kept his head down and, three months ago, finally finished his virtual studies, graduating with an A- and earning a Frigate.
Fortunately, his personal panel could be disguised if he wished. Now, a hidden dragon had been released from its shackles, free to roam the sea.
Intelligent life in the New Universe could see its own skill proficiency through its panel, but learning and practicing skills worked no differently than in the original universe. Effort didn't always bring progress, and skills could even deteriorate if left unpracticed for too long. The panel only provided a reference.
"Captain, we've got something!" The radar operator's report interrupted his daydreams. He hurried over and saw several faint red blips flickering on the radar.
They marked unidentified vessels. They couldn't be larger than his Frigate, meaning they were no more than 200 meters long.
"Can you identify them?" Lin Zhichen asked.
"Captain, they're Pirate Raiders! Three of them," the radar operator replied confidently.
Lin Zhichen quickly considered the situation. Pirate Raiders were small pirate ships that spawned in the area, and their ship class was comparable to a Frigate's.
Of course, as the weakest kind of monster, Pirate Raiders had to be judged by the standards of civilian ships. Although they were about the same size, they were no match for professional warships like Frigates.
He opened the Frigate's panel.
Petrel-class Frigate Size: Length 183 m, width 56.1 m, height 21.5 m Hull Value: 300 Armor: 0 Shield: 150 Shield Recharge Rate: 1% + 1% + 1% Damage: 7.46 Speed: 160 Evasion: 60.3%
The Petrel-class Frigate had three standard weapon cores: the Sentry Core, which specialized in fleet defense; the Missile Core, which focused on offense; and the Interceptor Core he was using, which had three S-slot weapon hardpoints.
In theory, the Missile Core was best for solo combat, since it could carry Torpedo Launchers, a major weapon on small ships.
But torpedoes were so large that a Frigate couldn't carry many. He might have to return for more after a single battle, which wasn't suitable for a solo player like him.
After all, the round trip between the Asteroid Belt and Earth took more than twenty days. By comparison, neither Laser Cannons nor Electromagnetic Cannons in the S-slot had that drawback.
"One against three is risky, but with the right tactics, it's worth a try."
With that thought, he looked toward his crew.
Name: Gunner DQXJ Gender: Male Age: 19 Profession: Gunner, Novice Talent: Gunnery, Gray Effect: Kinetic Weapon Range +1%
Before you continue