Chapter Summaries

Eighty years after agreeing to resume contact, Lü Yongchang tried to reach the human civilization on Proxima Centauri and finally connected with Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing. They revealed that their reforms had failed and only one million people remained, leaving Lü Yongchang waiting for an explanation.

• Lü Yongchang reminded Mao Zhengzhi to notify him before implementing the human genetic modification plan and returned to researching magnetic field shield technology.
• Zero told Lü Yongchang that the agreed eighty-year interval had passed and that computing requests from Proxima Centauri had stopped forty years earlier.
• Lü Yongchang asked Zero to contact Proxima Centauri, but the first communication request failed.
• Lü Yongchang kept trying until he established a connection with Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing, who had both grown old and appeared gloomy.
• Ren Feng told Lü Yongchang that the reforms had failed and Proxima Centauri's human civilization had dwindled to one million people.
• Lü Yongchang asked what had happened, while Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing fell silent.

Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing began explaining how their reforms led to Proxima Centauri’s population crisis. The account shifted to 2340, when Zhuang Wenxing left the child-rearing center and encountered prejudice against communally raised people.

• Ren Feng admitted that he had been too eager for results, while Zhang Zhengqing also accepted responsibility for the failed reforms.
• Lü Yongchang stopped them from arguing over blame and demanded to know what had caused Proxima Centauri’s population to fall so drastically.
• A news report announced that Proxima Centauri’s population had surpassed one hundred million after decades of public child-rearing reforms, and that Head Councillor Ren Feng would name the hundred-millionth child.
• Zhuang Wenxing watched the report after leaving the City Three Central Child-Rearing Center, where he had been born and raised.
• A suited man mocked communally raised people and insulted Zhuang Wenxing, who held back from confronting him after recalling his teacher’s advice to tolerate unfair treatment during his adjustment period.

Zhuang Wenxing tried to find a job after leaving the child-rearing center, but a hiring manager rejected him because he was communally raised. Zhou Sheng explained that the center had misled him about equal opportunities, leaving Zhuang Wenxing disillusioned.

• Zhuang Wenxing went to an office building to apply for a job, knowing he had only a month of temporary accommodation to find work.
• A hiring manager examined Zhuang Wenxing’s identity record, then rejected him after he requested a particular position and threw his identity card onto the floor.
• Zhuang Wenxing heard the women in the office mock him and say that a communally raised person could not work in their building.
• Zhuang Wenxing returned to the dormitory without a job and told Zhou Sheng about the rejection.
• Zhou Sheng said naturally born people ran those companies and stuck together, then told Zhuang Wenxing that the child-rearing center had gotten it wrong.

Zhou Sheng explained to Zhuang Wenxing why communally raised people faced discrimination despite laws protecting them, and revealed how the social public child-rearing system caused naturally born people’s population share to collapse. The chapter ended with Zhou Sheng describing naturally born people’s retaliatory childbearing as a response to their perceived extinction.

• Zhuang Wenxing prepared to report discriminatory employers, but Zhou Sheng warned that companies would dismiss him later under other pretexts, as they had done to Zhou Sheng.
• Zhou Sheng said communally raised people’s population growth had contributed to discrimination and explained that naturally born people’s share had fallen from 100% to 15%.
• Zhou Sheng recounted how Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing introduced the social public child-rearing system while preserving naturally born people’s reproductive rights as a concession.
• Zhou Sheng explained that reproductive technology and artificial wombs let the Child-Rearing Center produce children more efficiently, while communal education left communally raised people with little desire to reproduce naturally.
• Zhou Sheng said naturally born people responded to their declining population share with widespread retaliatory childbearing, which substantially increased their numbers.

Zhou Sheng explained to Zhuang Wenxing how discrimination against communally raised people had grown, while Ren Feng recounted how his ban on natural childbirth deepened the divide between the two groups. The chapter ended with City Three declaring independence and war on all naturally born people.

• Zhou Sheng told Zhuang Wenxing that naturally born people had turned against communally raised people after they displaced workers, then joined forces to block their advancement in major companies.
• Zhou Sheng advised Zhuang Wenxing to seek work at a company founded by communally raised people, while warning that those companies faced pressure from larger corporations.
• After a communally raised person was seriously injured in City Five and naturally born people publicly insulted the group, Ren Feng's government arrested the attackers and sentenced them to death.
• Ren Feng told Lü Yongchang that he had banned natural childbirth without consulting Zero, hoping to quickly resolve tensions between naturally born and communally raised people.
• The ban caused the two groups to cluster in different cities, and City Three eventually declared independence and war on all naturally born people.

Ren Feng explained that the uneasy balance between naturally raised and communally raised people had lasted for years before the eve of all-out war. In City Three, Zhuang Wenxing and Gong Shanshan wondered when the conflict would end, while the communally raised population relied on its growing numbers to outlast the naturally raised people.

• Ren Feng told Lü Yongchang that the conflict had begun with minor clashes and efforts at reconciliation, but the uneasy equilibrium had lasted more than ten years.
• Zhuang Wenxing walked through City Three, where a growing population and birth-batch ties had helped the communally raised city thrive.
• Zhuang Wenxing met his wife, Gong Shanshan, and they walked home together under the city’s marriage system of partnership and mutual support.
• Gong Shanshan asked when the war would end and what war would be like, but Zhuang Wenxing admitted he did not know.
• The communally raised people took a stalling approach, believing they could win by outlasting the naturally raised population.

Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing recounted how an attack on City Two triggered a war between the naturally raised and communally raised, leaving cities devastated. City Four remained the only functioning city in the Proxima Centauri system, but its population was still divided.

• Zhuang Wenxing learned that City Two had been attacked and went home with the person beside him.
• Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing saw the damage to City Two's outer wall and concluded that war had begun.
• Zhang Zhengqing ordered City Four to prepare for war after City Five activated its city-ring electromagnetic cannon.
• The communally raised deployed powerful weapons, and the naturally raised retaliated with space-based weapons, causing widespread destruction and casualties.
• Ren Feng told Lü Yongchang that City Four was the only normally functioning city left, with a deep divide between its naturally raised and communally raised residents.

Lü Yongchang refused to rescue the Proxima Centauri Humans outright, offering limited scientific coordination as they prepared one final attempt to save their civilization. Back aboard the Earth, he began preparations to dismantle a Lator secondary flagship and research magnetic field shields, aiming to advance Human Civilization to level three.

• Lü Yongchang warned Ren Feng and Zhang Zhengqing that the Human Fleet could offer little help, and Ren Feng said the Proxima Centauri Humans would make one final attempt before accepting extinction.
• Lü Yongchang agreed to have Academy of Sciences personnel coordinate with them, while Ren Feng promised to transmit eighty years of data on the social public child-rearing system.
• After the call, Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to summon Cao Liangcai and the others to Laboratory One to begin researching magnetic field shield technology.
• When Zero told him the Spaceport would take more than three months to finish, Lü Yongchang ordered robots fitted with propulsion modules to dismantle a Lator secondary flagship in space.
• Tao Yuda and Cao Liangcai arrived at Laboratory One, and Lü Yongchang told the researchers it was time for Human Civilization to become a level three civilization.

Lü Yongchang and his team tested their first Magnetic Field Shield Generation Unit, which successfully deflected ion beam and plasma attacks. The experiment ended with a Type II Electromagnetic Cannon projectile damaging the unit because its power output was insufficient.

• Lü Yongchang announced the first experiment and ordered the Magnetic Field Shield Generation Unit activated.
• Lü Yongchang observed the data as Zero confirmed that the unit had successfully generated a magnetic field shield.
• Lü Yongchang tested an ion beam attack, and the shield deflected the beam into the isolation chamber wall.
• Lü Yongchang tested a Plasma Bomb, and the shield dispersed the plasma around its surface.
• Lü Yongchang ordered a Type II Electromagnetic Cannon test at maximum power despite Zero's warning that the shield could not stop the projectile.
• The projectile struck and damaged the Magnetic Field Shield Generation Unit after the shield deflected its path but failed to divert it completely.

After the shield experiment succeeded, Lü Yongchang sensed that the technology tree had advanced and secluded himself to inspect it. He broke through to a level three civilization, learned the basics of plasma shield technology, and fell asleep while the researchers continued organizing the experimental data.

• Lü Yongchang ordered the researchers to organize the successful shield experiment’s data and prepare to study how multiple shield units could work together.
• Lü Yongchang hurried to his office, ordered Zero to bar entry, and entered the technology tree space.
• Lü Yongchang broke through to a level three civilization, with basic shield technology becoming the foundation of the new technology tree.
• Lü Yongchang examined the newly available technologies and focused on Magnetic Field Control: Plasma Shield.
• Lü Yongchang absorbed the plasma shield knowledge, drank concentrated nutrient solution to ease his mental fog, and asked Zero to wake him when the data organization was finished.

After the researchers completed the Shield Generation Unit Coordination Algorithm, Lü Yongchang proposed Precision Magnetic Field Shields that would use Zero to tailor shields to incoming attacks. He also introduced Plasma Shields, a last-resort defense against kinetic weapons, and explained how they would work.

• Lü Yongchang woke when Zero told him the data compilation was complete and joined the researchers in Laboratory One.
• The researchers tested a magnetic field shield generated jointly by five shield generation units, and Cao Liangcai worried that humanity relied too heavily on Zero.
• Lü Yongchang explained that Precision Magnetic Field Shields would analyze incoming attacks and create localized defenses sized to conserve energy and strengthen protection.
• Lü Yongchang said the next generation of Optical Quantum Computers would soon boost Zero's computing power enough to handle the task.
• Lü Yongchang introduced Plasma Shields and explained that a ship could confine and circulate high-temperature plasma around its hull to destroy or block incoming kinetic weapons.

Six months after the Human Fleet reached Gliese 555, Hope awoke aboard Home Ship 279 and learned about Dawn Star, his damaged prospecting ship, and the training required to settle on the planet. He toured the ship and ended by looking out at Dawn Star, his future home.

• Zero awakened Hope and told him the fleet had arrived at Gliese 555 and completed Dawn Star's first enclosed surface city.
• Hope learned that Dawn Star's 1.9 g gravity meant he needed a week of rehabilitation before training to use exoskeleton armor and move into the city.
• Zero told Hope that his mineral prospecting ship had been badly damaged in a battle with the Lator Civilization, but the Human Federation would give him a new ship.
• Hope recalled his childhood dream of becoming a scientist and his memories of a hurricane and Black Lady Two, then declined Zero's offer of medical treatment.
• Hope toured Home Ship 279 and stood at its observation deck, looking out at Dawn Star.

Hope spotted an experimental Golden Crow Battleship and learned it was testing magnetic field and plasma shields. Lü Yongchang’s team found that the shields could withstand intense weapons fire, but the plasma shield overloaded some generator units and prevented the ship from attacking while active.

• Hope noticed Light Satellite One near Dawn Star, then spotted a Golden Crow Battleship with unusual hull protrusions.
• Zero explained that the ship was testing magnetic field and plasma shields, and Hope watched the test through a Holographic Projection.
• Lü Yongchang’s team fired high-energy ion beams at the experimental ship, whose magnetic field shield deflected all 1,000 shots.
• The researchers tested the plasma shield against a Metal Storm of enhanced projectiles, which melted on impact and partly replenished the shield.
• Tao Yuda reported that the plasma shield blocked the Metal Storm but overloaded some Magnetic Field Shield Generation Units.
• Lü Yongchang pointed out that activating the plasma shield left the Golden Crow unable to attack.

Lü Yongchang and the researchers considered how weapons could pass through the Human Fleet’s plasma shields, then discovered that magnetic field shields inherited from the Lator Civilization had a critical vulnerability. The chapter leaves the researchers realizing that enemies could exploit the shields’ uniform magnetic-field direction to destroy the fleet.

• Lü Yongchang rejected the idea that a plasma shield’s inability to return fire was acceptable and insisted that its defenses be improved.
• Cao Liangcai explained that opening localized gaps in the plasma shield would weaken and destabilize it, making that approach impractical.
• Tao Yuda suggested equipping electromagnetic cannon projectiles with miniaturized magnetic field shield generation units, and Lü Yongchang judged the idea workable.
• Lü Yongchang realized that the Lator Civilization’s magnetic field shields all pointed in the same direction, allowing enemies to develop weapons capable of striking the Human Fleet.
• Lü Yongchang explained that the Lator Civilization had overlooked the flaw because it mostly fought weaker civilizations and had little independent research and development capability.

Lü Yongchang proposed a changing magnetic-field algorithm that would protect the Magnetic Field Shield and give Electromagnetic Cannon Projectiles a “one round, one code” function. A month later, Hope passed his test, signed the documents to live on Dawn Star, and traveled there, where he saw the planetwide climate-control satellite network.

• Lü Yongchang explained that changing the magnetic-field direction would make the shield difficult to penetrate and synchronize it with the cannon projectiles.
• Hope passed his test aboard Home Ship 279 and applied to live on Dawn Star despite the daily Medical Pod treatment required by its gravity.
• Hope departed aboard a Black Lady Two and saw other ships heading toward Dawn Star as well.
• Hope spotted the Golden Crow battleship leaving the Planetary Spaceport and noticed satellites encircling Dawn Star.
• One explained that the Planetary Climate Control Satellites had confined the planet’s global storms to the restricted X Region.

Hope arrived on Dawn Star and saw its volcanic terrain, an azure body of water, and the enclosed surface city. Meanwhile, Lü Yongchang began planning a Plasma Cannon to prepare the Human Fleet for the unknown threat of the Gardener Faction.

• Hope experienced a smooth landing on Dawn Star and spotted a volcano and an azure body of water from Black Lady Two.
• Hope exited Black Lady Two in his Exoskeleton Armor and reached the human surface city.
• Tao Yuda reported that the new magnetic field and plasma shields had passed their tests, while Cao Liangcai described improvements to electromagnetic cannon projectiles.
• Lü Yongchang warned that the Dimensional Strike Ships and the nearby core of [Hua] made powerful weapons essential.
• Lü Yongchang proposed developing the Plasma Cannon, a high-powered, short-range shield-breaking weapon.

Lü Yongchang revealed the Battering Ram, a starship built around a massive Plasma Cannon designed to overwhelm enemy flagship shields. Its hundred-kilometer magnetic barrel would be formed by modified drone swarms, but its range would be limited to about a hundred kilometers.

• Cao Liangcai and Tao Yuda reacted with disbelief when Lü Yongchang showed them the Plasma Cannon’s hundred-meter-wide muzzle.
• Lü Yongchang revealed the Battering Ram, a five-hundred-meter starship designed to carry the cannon and breach enemy flagship shields.
• Lü Yongchang explained that the cannon fired a powerful plasma stream through a magnetic-field barrel rather than using Plasma Bombs.
• Lü Yongchang said modified drone swarms would act as mobile Magnetic Field Shield Generation Units to form and extend the barrel beyond a hundred kilometers.
• Lü Yongchang told Cao Liangcai and Tao Yuda that the cannon’s range would be about a hundred kilometers, making it a close-range weapon for breaking shields.

Hope returned to his home in Dawn Star City One, reunited with Hansent, and agreed to explore the planet’s volcanic region with him. Hope learned his Type VI Mineral Prospecting Ship had arrived, while Hansent hinted that his own ship might be unusable.

• Hope arrived at his house and learned that Dawn Star City One had been built using the blueprints for City One on Ross 154.
• Hope reunited with Hansent, who had arrived in the city a week earlier and said few people had awakened or passed the Exoskeleton Armor tests.
• Hansent persuaded Hope to apply to leave the city for mineral prospecting, and they planned to visit a volcanic crater the next day.
• Hope discovered his prospecting ship might have been damaged during a battle with a Space Pirate Civilization, and Hansent suggested his own ship had problems too.
• The Home Intelligent Butler told Hope that his Type VI Mineral Prospecting Ship had arrived at Dock 6.

Hope and Hansent explored the waters and active volcano on Dawn Star's A2 Plain, finding promising mineral samples. On Earth, Lü Yongchang oversaw the first test of the Plasma Cannon aboard the new warship Battering Ram.

• Hope received his prospecting ship before Hansent and left him lamenting that his own ship had not arrived.
• Hope took Hansent to inspect the waters beside City One before they traveled to the Central Volcano.
• Hope and Hansent drove toward the crater, analyzed volcanic samples, and found copper, nickel, and gold that suggested a major deposit.
• Lü Yongchang watched as Zero deployed Battering Ram's drone swarm to form a magnetic-field gun barrel for its Plasma Cannon test against Golden Crow.

Lü Yongchang tested the [Battering Ram], whose single plasma strike destroyed the [Golden Crow] despite its strongest shield. Tao Yuda then proposed adapting the weapon’s plasma-wrapped drones into guided missiles.

• Lü Yongchang ordered the [Golden Crow] to activate its Plasma Shield and commanded the [Battering Ram] to attack.
• The [Battering Ram] fired an immense plasma column, exhausting its power and wrecking its own hull.
• The plasma overwhelmed the [Golden Crow]’s shield and pierced its armor, destroying the battleship in one strike.
• Tao Yuda questioned why the [Battering Ram] had been designed for only one shot, and Lü Yongchang explained that enemies would destroy it before it could fire again.
• Tao Yuda proposed using disposable, plasma-wrapped drones as guided missiles controlled by Zero.