Over one hundred billion kilometers away from the stellar system lay the pitch-black void of space. The red dwarf’s faint glow could not reach this far. From here, it was impossible to distinguish that star from any of the others around it. There was no other light source, this was a realm of eternal darkness.
Amidst this vast blackness, a small silver-gray spacecraft suddenly emerged from the endless void. The fact that it was visible within the observable universe proved that it was currently traveling via conventional propulsion. Its velocity had reached more than 250,000 kilometers per second, nearly ninety percent of the speed of light.
As he did so, the farthest-range probe transmitted back a visual report. In the image, a small silver-gray spacecraft was seen racing forward at incredible speed.
The vessel was only a dozen meters in diameter, a true midget by Xiao Yu’s current standards. But despite its small size, Xiao Yu didn’t dare treat it lightly. With its speed data in hand, he could easily deduce that this ship’s technological level exceeded his own, and not by a small margin.
My name? My name? Who could possibly know my name? Is this some kind of prank? Are there people in the universe this bored? Who is this? Where did they come from? What do they want? Xiao Yu’s mind raced through these bizarre questions.
And then came another message.
“I’ve come to find you for a reason. Don’t worry, I mean you no harm. I’m here to eliminate certain dangers before they take root. It’s important, to you and to me both.”
“First, tell me who you are.” Xiao Yu steadied his mind and asked coldly. While responding to the message, he had already begun preparing in secret. His vast fleet began to mobilize, and weapon systems were brought to readiness.
Was this a joke? A stranger suddenly emerging from nowhere, even calling him by the name he used during Earth’s era, how could Xiao Yu possibly trust something like that so easily? No matter how you looked at it, this situation reeked of strangeness.
“Who I am doesn’t matter.” the mysterious ship replied. “What matters is that my arrival will benefit you.”
At that moment, the strange ship continued to advance at high speed. Perhaps due to relativistic effects from such rapid conventional travel, its response time wasn’t very fast. It was still swiftly approaching, and had now entered the outer edge of the stellar system, around ten billion kilometers out.
“Stop. Stay outside the system.” Xiao Yu said coldly. “Otherwise, I don’t care who you are or what you intend to do, I will attack.”
Xiao Yu had every confidence in saying that. The ship’s technology might be more advanced than his, but so what? It was just a single ship. Even if it was the product of a Level 6 Civilization, Xiao Yu did not believe that a tiny vessel smaller than a Village-Class ship could pose a threat to his fleet.
After all, his ships were equipped with Four-Dimensional Shields and spatial weapons!
“Alright.” The strange ship replied calmly, and its speed instantly began to plummet. Within just a few seconds, it came to a complete stop.
“Such terrifying maneuverability! In just a few seconds, it decelerated from near-light-speed to a full stop! This… this is definitely technology from a Level 6 Civilization!”
Xiao Yu’s heart was filled with silent worry. Based on the current intel, he formed several hypotheses.
First of all, this entity had called out his name the moment it arrived. That meant it already knew quite a lot about him, extremely detailed knowledge, in fact. And that was terrifying. Think about it, all this time, he had been darting around the universe, thinking his movements were hidden, only to find out someone had been watching him all along, even knowing the name he used back on Earth. That was an absolutely chilling thought.
This detail was critical. It forced Xiao Yu to consider a complete revision of his development strategy. He would need to reassess the overall state of the galaxy. After all, if his every move could be tracked by such an entity, then how safe were the havens he believed were secure? This was a question that deserved serious thought.
Secondly, this stranger had said, ‘To eliminate certain dangers before they take root.’ Xiao Yu didn’t fully understand what that meant, but he was certain, it had something to do with something he had recently done. The statement further confirmed that this unknown being had been monitoring him all along and knew his actions intimately.
“Tell me who you are. And how do you know my name?” Xiao Yu said coolly.
He had a vague feeling that the next words from this mysterious being would be something shocking. These were things only he needed to know, there was no need for the intelligent beings under his command to learn of them. So Xiao Yu had no intention of summoning Luka Two or the other scientists to help discuss this matter. This was something only he would handle.
“You should know, I mean you no harm. In fact, I couldn’t harm you even if I wanted to. Alright, to prove that, let me first tell you a bit about yourself.”
Now that the small ship had decelerated from relativistic speeds, the time-dilation effect had vanished, and its replies came more quickly. After receiving Xiao Yu’s inquiry, it responded without delay.
“You come from a planet called Earth. That planet orbited a yellow dwarf star, it was the third planet from that star, which you called the Sun. To be precise, you left Earth 12,545 years ago. You left because some unknown force caused the destruction of Earth. But before the explosion, you used a mysterious black stone to separate your soul from your body, and fused it with a computer.”
The unknown entity spoke slowly, recounting events as though playing back a history reel of Xiao Yu’s life after leaving Earth. Xiao Yu’s heart began to sink.
This being even knew about his encounter with the Lizardmen on the way to Tianyuan IV, and how he had wiped them out. Not only that, it seemed to know everything Xiao Yu had done, the Guardian Droplet incident, the Luka incident, the white dwarf alien beast, the infinite proliferation-type alien beast…
It knew it all.
As though it had been secretly embedded within Xiao Yu’s fleet the entire time, experiencing all those events alongside him.
“Right now, you’ve just emerged from the ruins of the Trolor Civilization. You’ve obtained spatial weapons, and are currently recuperating, building your strength. You’ve just finished assembling an army of intelligent lifeforms, and you’re planning to set out in 150 years to find the Molian Civilization, correct?”
After saying this, the mysterious being fell silent, as if waiting for Xiao Yu to fully absorb everything he had just heard.
Xiao Yu had plunged into utter shock. There’s a saying, ‘An enemy you can see is not terrifying. It’s the one hiding in the shadows that will kill you.’ And now, the worst-case scenario had occurred. An unknown being knew everything about him, while he hadn’t even sensed a thing.
“You… who exactly are you? How do you know all of this?” In Xiao Yu’s voice, for the first time, crept a sliver of something very rare, fear.
“Because… I am you.” the mysterious being replied calmly. “To be precise, I am you from five hundred thousand years in the future. I came back to this time because you’ve done something very foolish, something that, if left unchecked, will cause enormous trouble for your future self…”
[T/N: The chapter title is – Chapter 380: I Come from the Future. I decided to hide the chapter for obvious reasons since this is a massive spoiler, it’s the first time I’ve done it so let me know if you guys want more of this in the future or not. Also, this cliffhanger is insane and I can’t for the life of me figure out what he’s done wrong.]