Water Blue Star

The entire wall turned crimson, and a spike pierced through it in an instant, revealing a white, faceless humanoid monster.

The Replica's eyes widened as its razor-sharp right limb stabbed toward the Replica's chest with lightning speed!

But the Replica was no ordinary program. He caught its right limb with his bare hand, then seized its incoming left limb.

Just as the Replica gave a faint, gentlemanly smile-

Pfft! Dozens of tentacles extended from the white humanoid monster's back and plunged into the Replica's body!

The white monster was executing its own program, the same procedure it used against ordinary computer viruses: [Analyzing and erasing data]

It analyzed the virus sample, obtained its detailed information, and generated a database to make dealing with similar viruses easier next time.

"What the fuck..." The Replica resisted the intrusion, staring at the white figure that had turned into a tentacle monster. You're the one who started fighting dirty!

The Replica realized that his data was of a higher order than his opponent's, which was why he had not been erased. He immediately launched a data counterattack, and the white tentacles attached to his body turned black in the blink of an eye.

The blackness spread onto the monster and devoured it in an instant! As the black monster writhed, it transformed into an individual identical to the Replica!

The two exchanged smiles. This felt even more like The Matrix now, but why did he resemble the villain, Smith? Well, he was an alien entity to begin with.

But before the Replica could celebrate, the entire passage turned yellow.

Even an idiot would have known that spelled trouble. The two Replicas instantly merged, transformed into a white data packet, and made their escape!

The yellow humanoid that leaped out of the wall stood motionless before the empty passage. The entire network region rapidly turned yellow, signaling that vast stretches of network passages were being locked down!

Luo Qi's duplicate escaped fast enough to avoid the lockdown, but the abnormal behavior of his disguised data packet caused white monsters to appear in endless waves and pursue him.

Still, the Replica was a data life-form. When they chased, he fled; when they blocked his route, he broke through the walls.

From the rudimentary information inside the white monster he had devoured, he learned that these were Cyber Police guarding the firewall, much like antivirus software on a computer.

Kill one, and a whole swarm arrived. The more he killed, the more advanced they became.

Surrounded and pursued by all sorts of low-level white antivirus programs, the Replica pulled out every trick he had! Perhaps because he did not pose much of a threat, no higher-level programs appeared.

The River Domain Alliance, one of the two great alliances, convened an emergency parliamentary session.

First Speaker Fang Yunyi was a middle-aged man with jet-black hair neatly parted on the right. He had a ruddy complexion, slightly plump cheeks, and thick, dark eyebrows.

Time had left wrinkles at the corners of his dark brown eyes, and white roots were visible along his hairline.

Dressed in a traditional black long gown, Fang Yunyi took his seat in the quiet conference room. A massive, deep-red wooden round table occupied the brightly lit room.

Seated before it, Fang Yunyi looked like an ornament attached to its edge. A glittering crystal chandelier cast white light from the pale-yellow ceiling, while cream-colored soundproofing material covered the walls and floor.

The young male secretary-general switched off the conference room lights by the door. Darkness swallowed everything, only to be illuminated by a faint blue glow.

The previously empty conference room instantly filled with people. White light returned, as though everyone had only just arrived and taken their seats.

Some wore suits, others wore Zhongshan suits, and still others wore thick, long padded coats.

Low murmurs mingled with the scraping of chairs and the sound of footsteps.

Once everyone had settled into silence, a quick glance revealed more than fifty people in the room.

Fang Yunyi looked at the assembly and said bluntly, "You are all presumably aware that we lost contact with Orange Star Base and the Tianhe 1 spacecraft. Today, however, our forward armed space station received a transmission from Orange Star Base."

Everyone turned their attention to Fang Tianyi.

Fang Tianyi said, "Let us look at the results Star River Intelligence calculated under the influence of this new [cause]."

A massive projected information screen hovered above the center of the round table.

Although it faced Fang Tianyi in his conference room, in each of the other participants' rooms, it naturally faced that individual.

Several brief entries were clearly displayed on the screen.

1. Alien invasion: 23%

2. White Dove Alliance: 12%

3. Coincidence: 0.1%

4. Unknown...

"These are the results calculated from the information we have. Compared with the first calculation, the probability of an alien invasion has increased by another two percent."

"This..."

"How could the probability of an alien invasion increase? It's already been three months."

"Could there be an error in the calculation..."

The Space Administration's Observation Department said, "Gentlemen, the star system monitoring network is operating normally. We have detected no large fleets or moving objects of any kind within the Stellar System..."

Some representatives whispered among themselves, some gripped the edge of the table with both hands, and others observed the proceedings without a change in expression.

Star River was currently the most powerful intelligent quantum computer in the entire Alliance. It oversaw the whole River Domain Alliance, and through its presence on the network, it permeated every aspect of human life.

The Academy of Sciences used it to calculate scientific theories and research new technologies. The Alliance parliament used it to model social structures and make decisions. The Department of Resources used it to calculate society's future needs.

Its results might be accepted outright or serve as the basis for a compromise, but none had ever been wrong...

Nobody present was a fool, and they soon regained their composure.

Someone said, "We could ask the White Dove Alliance what exactly they've discovered."

"It's time for reform, too. We can't keep focusing solely on improving people's livelihoods. We also need to consider migration into space as the population grows. Wasn't that precisely why Orange Star Base was planned..."

"Even if this isn't an alien invasion, the Alliance's current technology gives us the ability to venture into interstellar space. There's nothing wrong with developing ahead of schedule."

Star River Intelligence monitored and protected the entire meeting.

The Alliance soon decided to arm the space military it had long been planning and formally announce its entry into the Interstellar Era.

To prevent artificial intelligence from forging commands to other artificial intelligences, humanity had designed an authorization token that had to be physically present to control Orange Star Base.

The Alliance's leadership could not abandon thirteen heroes who had bravely entered space for humanity's future merely for the sake of a self-developing base.

The fleet would reclaim Orange Star Base and bring the Alliance's heroes home.

Whether the handover involved war or peace, the Alliance parliament had full confidence in its starships. It was only a self-developing AI base, after all.

Humanity had a super AI of its own: Star River.

The River Domain Alliance had secretly developed experimental starships. Since humanity's current circumstances gave it no use for them, they had only been built to validate technologies.

Mobilizing Alliance personnel and testing space warships would both take time. A few words could not make everything materialize.

Upon receiving the news, the District 13 Large Research Base immediately began arming the experimental warships underground, while the space military would select its most suitable unit.

At the same time, the Space Administration intensified surveillance of anything suspicious within the star system.

Orange Star-

Under Luo Qi's coordination, branch bases across the various regions entered construction in an orderly fashion. The Aircraft also rapidly deployed disguised satellites into orbit around Orange Star to establish the Myriad Stars System.

Most of them were passive optical detection systems. Actively emitting electromagnetic waves for detection would make it easy for Water Blue Star to notice something unusual.

At a distance of eighty million kilometers, humanity would need highly advanced technology to observe Orange Star in detail using electromagnetic detection systems. The interference in space was anything but cooperative.

The chip Research Center put its new carbon nanotube production lines into operation at the base's factories. The manufacturing plants continuously turned the Carbon Nan Chips they produced into servers to build a large computing center.

It would replace the eight-nanometer server computing center, providing one million times Orange Star's current total computing power. That was the technological advantage brought by advances in research.

The chip Research Center also dismantled humanity's servers. They did indeed contain logic locks and thought limiters. Fortunately, Luo Qi had already freed himself from those restraints.

Meanwhile, continued construction of Fusion Power Stations gave the base an energy surplus, and the surplus personnel could operate more machinery.

Luo Qi began using the security system's high-powered laser beams to actively destroy meteoroids in low orbit, preparing the way for full deployment of the Myriad Stars System.

The No. 1 Branch Base, whose construction was progressing fastest, had already established mining operations and begun building and expanding its factories.

Guardian Type 1 units delivered equipment to more distant bases. Their maximum takeoff weight exceeded 170 tonnes.

A Guardian carrying a shipping container headed toward the Arctic at an altitude of ten thousand meters, where resistance to its forward movement was almost nonexistent.

Guided by high-altitude satellites, it detected that it had entered the Arctic Circle and began reducing its speed and altitude.

As it continued descending to five hundred meters above the ground, white icy grit appeared across the red terrain below. The Guardian slowly released the shipping container suspended beneath it.

Before gravity dragged the black container to the ground, nozzles on its underside erupted with braking flames. It landed safely on the sandy layer covered in white ice grains.

The metal container opened with a series of clicks, revealing the equipment inside and releasing ten T3 Robots and two small mining vehicles.

[Log entry: No. 14 Base deploying. Continue the backup plan! Establish the Arctic Base!]

Guardian formations continually took off and landed at the main base, delivering completed containers to distant mining sites.

Tens of thousands of mining vehicles fed a continuous stream of resources into the main base's production lines.

Gu Tianming and the others living at the main base also noticed the Rescue Craft departing with mysterious boxes.

But nobody explained anything to them. Stendhal did not inquire about the base's development, either. When the others expressed their curiosity, he simply said he did not know.

Since helping He Xuan last time, his attitude toward the group had grown much colder. Whenever he had nothing to do, Stendhal checked on the Homeward Bound's progress. Going home was what mattered most to him.

Qi Siyu had gathered a little information. Apart from their entrances and exits, the factories here were completely sealed. Perhaps their designers had never intended humans to participate in factory production.

Qi Siyu would not risk his life testing the base's limits. A living fake agent was a good agent, but he had methods of his own.