"Master, Ika will accompany you on all your journeys from now on. I promise never to betray you."
Ika raised its eyes. Its voice was gentle but firm, and its gaze held nothing but the purest sincerity.
For an Intelligent Life, activating the master-recognition program meant binding its core code and the fate of the person before it together completely.
Sharing honor and disgrace, life and death.
At this, Lin Yuan nodded slightly.
"Ika, you don't have to call me Master from now on." Lin Yuan waved a hand, his tone casual. "And you don't have to be so formal. We're partners, not master and servant. Just call me by my name—Lin Yuan."
"Is that okay?" Ika tilted its head, a hint of humanlike confusion flashing in its eyes.
It wasn't the sort of dull Smart Machine that only followed rigid programs. Its emotional module was exceptionally advanced; it could even imitate people's subtle facial expressions.
"Of course."
Lin Yuan smiled and gently patted its high-tech shoulder. "But there's no rush. You were just activated, so it's natural to feel awkward. Take your time. We've got plenty of it."
"Oh, okay~" Ika nodded as if it understood. It was still getting used to this equal way of interacting, but its previously tense data streams had clearly relaxed.
It blinked its big eyes, then finally asked, "So... Lin Yuan, is there anything you need me to do now?"
Lin Yuan didn't answer right away. Instead, he surveyed the desolate landscape around them.
"There is one thing."
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. Then he raised his right hand and snapped his fingers crisply in midair.
"Snap!"
At the sharp sound, space seemed to tear under some unseen force. Without warning, a huge spaceship appeared out of thin air in the wilderness, its body pitch-black and its lines exceptionally sleek.
It was about a hundred meters long and triangular in shape. Its surface had no visible seams, as if it had been cast from a single piece of unknown black metal.
When it settled smoothly onto the rubble-strewn wilderness, the technological pressure of a higher civilization instantly seemed to freeze the air around it.
It was like a slumbering steel behemoth, utterly out of place among Earth's existing civilizations, yet breathtakingly beautiful.
"This is..."
Ika's data streams accelerated as it scanned the colossal craft before them.
The spaceship's hatch slid open soundlessly. Lin Yuan walked inside with his hands behind his back, and Ika followed close behind, astonishment growing ever more intense in its eyes.
"C9 Rank... It's actually a spaceship made from C9 Grade Alloy!" Ika couldn't help exclaiming, its voice full of disbelief.
"Lin Yuan, looks like you've got quite a bit of money! Even in the hands of a Star Level powerhouse, a spaceship of this grade would be a luxury item worth envying!"
To be fair, Ika couldn't help thinking that Lin Yuan's future looked dazzling.
A life from a backwater planet that hadn't even truly entered the universe could casually pull out a C9-class spaceship?
It was as absurd as a beggar pulling a black Swiss bank card from his pocket.
Lin Yuan smiled calmly and didn't explain.
Inside the cockpit, the luxury and advanced technology made Earth's existing spaceships look shabby by comparison.
There was a holographic control console, antigravity seats that automatically adjusted to the occupant's body, and an intelligent system with virtually no lag.
"Take control of it, Ika." Lin Yuan sat in the captain's seat and issued the command. "Our destination: beyond the atmosphere."
"Understood! Leave it to me!"
Ika answered excitedly.
As an Intelligent Life, piloting a spaceship was instinctive for it—and one of the things it loved most.
In an instant, countless data streams poured into the ship's control center.
The long-slumbering C9-class spaceship seemed to have been given a soul. Its previously dim control panels lit up with a deep blue glow.
"Hummm—"
The engine's roar was low and powerful, almost inaudible.
There was none of the earthshaking noise and thick smoke of an Earth rocket launch. The spaceship merely trembled lightly before shooting off like a black bolt of lightning, tearing through the air.
The ship's gravity-control system perfectly counteracted the acceleration. Seated in his chair, Lin Yuan didn't feel even the slightest jolt.
A mere dozen seconds later, the view beyond the portholes changed.
The blue sky quickly darkened, giving way to the deep black of space.
The spaceship activated panoramic simulation mode. Its enclosed metal walls seemed to vanish, making Lin Yuan and Ika feel as though they were floating directly in the boundless void.
Looking back, they saw the blue planet floating silently in the darkness, its clouds shifting and its oceans deep.
"Beautiful," Lin Yuan murmured.
As people said, Earth was beautiful. But beneath the starry sky, it seemed especially small, like a fragile glass marble that could shatter at any moment in the storms of the universe.
Lin Yuan gazed into the starry sky, his eyes gradually growing more solemn.
He knew that a massive crisis was brewing in the depths of that seemingly peaceful expanse.
Before long, an exploration ship from the Nolan Mountain Family would discover Earth's coordinates. It would bring the first catastrophe to Earth Humans.
"Fortunately..." Lin Yuan gripped the armrest and thought to himself, A transmigrator's butterfly effect will snuff all this out before it can take root.
Ika keenly noticed the change in Lin Yuan's mood.
"What are you thinking about?" Ika floated over to him and gazed at the boundless sea of stars. "Is the starry sky too vast for you? Beauty and danger usually go hand in hand. That's the law of the universe."
"Yeah. Vast enough to inspire awe."
Lin Yuan tore his gaze away and turned to the small Intelligent Life beside him. Then he suddenly asked, "Ika, how much do you know about the universe?"
This was an important question.
Although Lin Yuan knew the original story inside out, that was still only the perspective of a book. Now that he was here in person, an Intelligent Life with a vast database could help him avoid plenty of minor complications.
"..."
At the question, the light in Ika's eyes suddenly flickered. It seemed to have frozen up, and it didn't speak for a long time.
Lin Yuan's mouth twitched.
Did this thing, like Babata, need time and experience to input information?
"That's all right. We can wait until later—"
Lin Yuan had just started to reassure it when, in the next moment, Ika's voice rang out languidly:
"The peak human race, the Eighteen Royal Clans of the Demon Race, the twelve peak bloodlines of the Starry Sky Behemoths, the origins of the Machine Race... I know the basics about all 108 secret realms of the Primal Universe, I guess.
"Sorry, I'm not omniscient."
"???"
After hearing that string of top-level secrets delivered like a grocery list, Lin Yuan was completely stunned.
He stared wide-eyed at the innocent-looking Ika, his mind buzzing.
Were all Intelligent Life forms this good at humblebragging?
That was what it meant to "know the basics"?
That was what it meant to be "not omniscient"?
Did it realize that any one of the things it had just mentioned could make the Black Dragon Mountain Star Sector—a lower-level universe civilization—fight tooth and nail to get its hands on it?
Lin Yuan slapped his forehead, half amused and half exasperated.
Looks like he'd struck gold this time. Ika's knowledge base wasn't merely extensive—it was practically a walking Cosmic Encyclopedia (Top Secret Edition).
"That's very good news."
Lin Yuan took a deep breath, his confidence growing.
At least once he truly entered the universe, he wouldn't be a clueless novice.
With Ika's help and his own knowledge of the plot, he could venture anywhere in the cosmic expanse!
"Ika, head back."
"Understood! Course plotted."
A blue flame shot from the spaceship's rear. The black triangular craft became a streak of Flowing Light and vanished beyond Earth's orbit in an instant.
Everything was gradually falling into place.
All that remained was for the Void Behemoth Clone to be born!
Time flew by. A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Earth had been anything but peaceful during this time. Nations and factions alike were locked in battles with monsters, fighting for territory and resources, none willing to back down.
A few days ago, Luo Feng's Earthling Clone was born, returning to the public eye.
And now, on Mars.
Lin Yuan opened his eyes...
"At last. Has the gestation succeeded?"
"Roar—!"
A roar, as if rising from the underworld, echoed through the tranquil darkness of space.
Before you continue