History

Due to the accident he had suffered, David tossed and turned all night, unable to fall into a deep sleep. Just as he finally drifted into a hazy slumber, he was jolted awake by his identity bracelet on his wrist.

The smart butler took this opportunity to remind him that Jessica was already waiting at the door.

According to the smart butler's reminder, David realized this was an appointment he had made with Jessica to attend a book signing for the famous author Burgess's new work, War and Love.

Originally, he had intended to decline Jessica's invitation to the signing, but upon hearing the smart butler mention that the destination was a physical bookstore, he immediately decided to go.

His ignorance of the world and the loss of memory from this body made him desperate for information, yet he didn't even know how to look up data in this world; a physical bookstore became his best option.

As he walked with Jessica, he could tell that her attitude toward him was not that of a good friend, and with him remaining silent the entire time, her demeanor grew even worse.

After giving a brief acknowledgment, David quickened his pace to walk beside Jessica, his gaze constantly scanning everything around him.

The cars hovering just above the ground, the entire city completely covered by stone, and even the houses built as sturdily as fortresses without a single window—this strange design gave him the feeling that this world was extremely unsafe.

The bookstore they were heading to was not far, so they didn't take any transport. After walking about three kilometers, just around the corner from the street where David lived, he saw crowds of people standing in front of the bookstore.

David looked behind him with some unease. There was nothing there, but in reality, a strange, translucent shadow was lurking invisibly in that spot.

He had discovered this after waking up in the basement, and when he first noticed the translucent shadow, it had nearly scared him to death.

After many experiments, he found that this strange translucent shadow followed him as its target and could obey his commands to move.

Although the only ability this translucent shadow had shown so far was invisibility, with no other powers, it still alleviated the loneliness he felt upon arriving in this world.

David had tested earlier that Jessica could not detect the invisible translucent shadow at all, but with nearly a hundred people ahead, he was still worried that someone might notice it.

"We're late; it looks like we'll have to wait in a long line!" Jessica said with some dissatisfaction.

She had gotten up at seven o'clock for this signing, and it wasn't even eight yet. One had to know that it was currently the holidays, and she usually slept until at least nine every day.

David smiled without speaking. He didn't care about the signing; he was more interested in entering the bookstore to find books of interest.

"Don't crowd! Today's signing event won't start for another hour. Mr. Burgess will be here in a while, so please wait in line!" the bookstore clerk shouted loudly, trying to maintain order.

"Jessica, I'm going inside to read; I won't keep you company!" David said to Jessica.

"Go on, go on!" Jessica waved her hand. She had found a few acquaintances by now and no longer needed David's company. Although these acquaintances weren't exactly friends, she preferred them over the boring David.

David felt that the way Jessica treated him was like how one treats a backup option. It seemed his predecessor must have been an admirer of Jessica's for her to have such an attitude.

However, none of that mattered to him now. He walked past the scattered crowd and into the bookstore.

Although there were more convenient e-books, it did not affect the sale of physical books, as could be seen from the scale of this bookstore.

The clerk glanced at him, saw that he wasn't trying to cut in line, and ignored him.

There were over a dozen large electronic posters in the bookstore, most of which displayed promotional posters for War and Love.

The bookstore's glass walls were well soundproofed; at least the noise from the hundred people outside didn't carry into the shop, making the interior very quiet—the perfect environment for reading.

David walked past rows of bookshelves. These shelves were categorized into philosophy, politics, law, military, economics, culture, education, sports, linguistics, art, history, geography, and so on, to make it easier for readers to choose.

David walked to the history section, found a book titled History of the Interstellar Federation, took it, and went to a seat nearby to open it and start reading.

Except for him, there was no one else in the bookstore. Anyone who came to this physical bookstore at this time was here for the signing event of the famous author Burgess's new book, War and Love.

Since the signing was taking place at the entrance of the bookstore, the interior remained in such a quiet state.

He opened the History of the Interstellar Federation and saw a sentence on the title page.

"To be or not to be, the world is on the edge of a cliff!" — Federation Grand Marshal Danton.

Pondering the meaning of this sentence, David turned to the content pages of the History of the Interstellar Federation. He then saw the history of this world—a magnificent, iron-and-blood-stained history.

In Star Calendar 10116, a violent spatial tremor occurred on the outer edge of the sixteenth spiral arm of the Interstellar Federation.

This spatial tremor triggered an unknown shift in space, overlapping a corner of two universes: the God's Universe and the Interstellar Federation.

The point where the Interstellar Federation and the God's Universe overlapped was Planet 82 of the sixteenth spiral arm. Before the two universes overlapped, Planet 82 of the sixteenth spiral arm was just an obscure, ordinary resource planet.

The environment there was harsh, and humans could not survive there at all.

But after the two universes overlapped, Planet 82 of the sixteenth spiral arm underwent a miraculous change; the oxygen content and the levels of various other gases in the atmosphere shifted, turning it into a habitable planet.

At the same time, a large amount of Krypton Crystal ore was discovered deep underground on Planet 82 of the sixteenth spiral arm.

Krypton Crystal ore was the primary energy source for the Interstellar Federation. It was precisely because of the existence of Krypton Crystals that the Interstellar Federation could roam the universe and rule the entire Interstellar Federation.

However, Krypton Crystal ore was also the foundational energy source for the God's Universe. When the two universes overlapped, both sides, who were preparing to initiate negotiations, discovered the Krypton Crystal ore on Planet 82 of the sixteenth spiral arm.

From 10116 to 10200, a period of nearly a hundred years, the two universes engaged in a war concerning the survival of their races on Planet 82 of the sixteenth spiral arm.

That great war was only briefly mentioned in the History of the Interstellar Federation, but one could imagine the cruelty of that war just by the fact that Planet 82 of the sixteenth spiral arm was renamed War Star.

In the autumn of 10200, huge bugs appeared in the unstable space above War Star. These bugs emerged from space and landed on War Star.

Then, countless bugs of various sizes—ranging from human height to dozens of meters tall—rushed out from the bodies of the giant bugs, crazily attacking everything they could see.

The war situation changed in 10200. Neither the Interstellar Federation nor the God's Universe could withstand these powerful bugs on their own.

Both sides discovered that the bugs could grow by devouring all kinds of matter: human corpses, the wreckage of interstellar warships, buildings on the ground—everything they could see was their food.

The Krypton Crystal ore, in particular, stimulated them, and every time the bugs occupied a Krypton Crystal mine, their numbers would explode.

In 10202, the Interstellar Federation and the God's Universe signed an alliance treaty. From then on, the two universes jointly opened a defensive line on War Star to resist the invasion of the bugs.

These bugs were also known as the Zerg, a race incapable of communication that possessed a predatory and aggressive nature.

In the ten thousand years that followed, the War Star became a formidable line of defense for the two universes, where countless warriors from the Interstellar Federation and God's Great World fought in bloody battles.

Of course, the Zerg also used various methods to assault the planets neighboring the two universes; although the two universes constantly intercepted them, some Zerg still managed to break through the defenses and enter nearby planets.

Because the Zerg could not enter other planets on a large scale, they were unable to truly form a numerical advantage, and the nearby planets did not develop large-scale Zerg swarms due to the concentrated clearing efforts of the Interstellar Federation and God's Great World.

However, this did not mean that the Zerg threat had vanished from these planets, as Zerg larvae were extremely difficult to detect; they could hide deep underground, rendering them invisible to scanning devices.

At the appropriate time, these larvae could grow into various forms based on their surrounding environment to attack the life forms on the planet.

This endless war caused the Interstellar Federation a great deal of trouble, leading to the construction of more interstellar warships and the appearance of more defenses throughout the universe to ensure that more distant planets would not be affected by the Zerg.