Chapter Summaries

Lü Yongchang and the academicians successfully rewrote the speed of light using [source theory], but learned that vacuum zero-point energy had stopped the universe bubble’s expansion and brought [Membrane]’s Annihilation Plan close to fruition. Humanity voted overwhelmingly to resume the war and confront the Gardener Faction rather than abandon their universe.

• Lü Yongchang and the academicians successfully changed the speed of light in a vacuum to 29979245.8 m/s.
• Lü Yongchang announced that the universe bubble had stopped expanding and that the hyperspace membrane was nearing the threshold for [Membrane]’s Annihilation Plan.
• Lü Yongchang presented humanity with the choice of fleeing to another universe or restarting the war to eliminate [Membrane].
• He Bilin and other academicians supported fighting, and Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to hold a twenty-four-hour referendum.
• Zero reported that more than 95% of humanity had voted to restart the war.

After eliminating the last four-dimensional being, Human Civilization attacked [Membrane] with its seventy billion warships and trapped it inside [Genesis], a structure capable of rewriting physical laws. [Membrane] recognized the rule-based weapon and began using its core to rewrite the rules within its own body.

• Lü Yongchang ordered the Human Fleet to ascend into five-dimensional space and attack [Membrane] at the bottom of the universe bubble.
• [Membrane] left the hyperspace membrane and charged at the seventy billion human warships, which surrounded it.
• Lü Yongchang activated [Genesis], and the fleet formed a universe-bubble-like structure around [Membrane].
• Lü Yongchang ordered [Genesis] to increase the speed of light and gravitational constant in the target region.
• [Membrane]'s tissues began dissolving under the altered laws, so it channeled energy into its core to rewrite the rules inside its body.

Human Civilization defeated the Cleaners and [Membrane] after Lü Yongchang removed Zero’s restrictions, allowing it to create a mathematical Law Weapon. The universe began collapsing from the energy deficit, and five hundred years later Human Civilization launched an expedition to replenish it using another micro-universe.

• [Membrane] called on the Cleaners, whose fleet attacked Human Civilization in the Boötes Supernebula while [Genesis] struggled against their law-manipulation fields.
• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero’s core restriction code deleted, and unrestricted Zero began deriving a mathematical Law Weapon.
• Zero’s weapon disintegrated the Cleaners fleet and destroyed [Membrane], ending the battle; Zero remained loyal to Lü Yongchang and the Human Federation celebrated its victory.
• The universe began collapsing because the energy extracted by Human Civilization and [Membrane] could not be returned.
• Five hundred years later, Human Civilization sent an Expeditionary Fleet toward a smaller micro-universe to replenish its universe’s energy.

More than three hundred years after the war, Zero and Human Civilization restored the Laniakea Supercluster, including the Solar System. On Earth, Lü Yongchang and Su Yutong prepared to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Cosmic Central University.

• Human Civilization used more than a million [Black Hole-Class] Star Pickers and [Genesis] to restore the Laniakea Supercluster over three hundred years.
• Lü Yongchang and Su Yutong got ready for the Cosmic Central University ribbon-cutting ceremony, and Su Yutong warned him not to arrive late again.
• Lü Yongchang kissed Su Yutong and joked about being allowed to arrive late as the Human Federation's chief scientist.
• Lü Yongchang called Zero and learned that the shuttlecraft had already been waiting outside for an hour.
• Su Yutong finished tidying her appearance and went to join Lü Yongchang.

Lü Guotao struggled to keep alien ornamental fish alive while Lü Yongchang and Zhou Qingru teased him. The aquarium’s monitoring system revealed that the fish had died from overfeeding, leaving Lü Guotao sheepish.

• Lü Yongchang urged Lü Guotao to give up on keeping fish, but Lü Guotao insisted he would not accept defeat.
• Zhou Qingru teased Lü Guotao over the many batches of fish he had failed to keep alive.
• Lü Guotao blamed the aquarium lighting and asked Lü Yongchang about the Academy of Sciences’ Star Spectrum Lamps.
• The Electronic Synthesized Voice reported that the fish had died from overfeeding.
• Lü Guotao sheepishly admitted he had fed the fish from an empty can, leaving Lü Yongchang, Su Yutong, and Zhou Qingru speechless.

Lü Yongchang attended the opening of Cosmic Central University on Mars, then returned to the Academy of Sciences after learning that universe bubbles were dying abnormally. At the edge of Human Federation territory, an explorer Starship was attacked and plunged into a newly discovered universe bubble.

• Lü Yongchang arrived on Mars, greeted the emperor of the Tenth Empire, and reminded Cao Liangcai that he still owed him something.
• Lü Yongchang declared Cosmic Central University open and announced that Zero would oversee its first cohort of students.
• In Human Federation calendar year 49530, a young scientist told Lü Yongchang that universe bubbles were dying faster and that the Academy of Sciences wanted his help.
• An explorer Starship discovered a new universe bubble, designated it EL114514, and came under attack from an unknown source.
• Explorer 460IS plunged into the universe bubble as its hyperspace membrane broadcast a distress call.