Chapter 95: Dark Forest (I)

Chapter 95: Dark Forest (I)

Picking up from the last chapter — after I woke, Silver Pearl gave me an enormous hug.

There was something in that embrace—the warmth of family, and the bold, generous feeling of friendship.

I had assumed that growing stronger would bring out something bolder in me, some new swagger. Instead, what I felt from Silver Pearl’s arms was tenderness, a lingering, wistful warmth.

It felt like home.

I understood where that feeling came from — Xuanze and Hanming, still inside me. And yet it belonged to me too, filtered through my own consciousness, my own way of feeling things.

Silver Pearl gazed at me with such depth of feeling that I felt, for a moment, as though I were staring into an endless ocean.

She was waiting for Hanming to come home.

I understood that longing.

Ever since I’d taken in cosmic energy, the world looked different to me. Silver Pearl clearly understood that change too—she could see a clear, penetrating brightness in my eyes. And her attitude toward me shifted along with it, from treating me as a mere messenger to pinning her hopes for Hanming on me.

I felt that shift clearly.

So I reached out and gently patted her translucent jade hand. Through consciousness, I told her not to worry — I would bring Miss Hanming home soon.

Silver Pearl told me stories of her closeness with Hanming, and shared what she knew of Xuanze’s and Hanming’s families. It turned out both sets of parents were scientists, and the two families had been friends for generations. Xuanze’s father served as a survey inspector on Cassiopeia HD Star, which was why Xuanze had been the one sent to survey the Blue Planet. HD Star’s technology was highly advanced; their interest in the Blue Planet was purely to understand its people.

Among all the life-bearing worlds in Cassiopeia, only HD Star’s humans bore a striking resemblance to the humans of the Blue Planet — which was exactly what had drawn HD Star’s attention in the first place.

Looking into Silver Pearl’s tender eyes, I told her I wanted to go to HD Star myself, to meet Xuanze’s and Hanming’s families in person.

Silver Pearl explained that HD Star had eight satellites, Bixian Star among them, forming what was called the first star-chain defense. And between that first star-chain and HD Star itself lay another, invisible shield — a defensive net woven from ionized matter. Without HD Star’s explicit authorization, breaking through was nearly impossible.

It was precisely because of that net that certain warlike creatures roaming interstellar space, along with Earth’s virtual humans who came here to explore, could never actually reach HD Star.

As for what I called the virtual Future World, Silver Pearl believed it was confined to Bixian Star — it could never reach the true HD Star. And yet HD Star’s own people could come here, to Bixian Star, to observe projections of humanity from twenty-one light-years away. Earth’s people had no idea this was even happening. Perhaps it was mission data Xuanze himself had funneled to HD Star through the Shadow Pavilion’s core supercomputer.

Silver Pearl looked at me and said,

“If you want to go to HD Star right now, I’m not sure your current strength is enough to break through the ionized defensive net. The traces of Xuanze and Hanming on you still aren’t enough proof that you are them. So you’d have to force your way through on your own strength alone. And even if you managed it, you’d trigger HD Star’s early-warning system, which would only cause unnecessary trouble. So here’s what I think — if you want to meet their families, I can send word for them to come here, to Bixian Star. You’d still get to see them that way.”

I nodded and said,

“That’s a good idea. Please, send word to their families. I imagine they’ve been longing for news of Xuanze and Hanming too.”

Silver Pearl promised to notify the families right away.

As for me, I found myself wondering whether I should go take a look at the Dark Forest first. Du…