Chapter 1436 The Beginning of a Fork in the Road

The meeting between the two sides did not last long. They ultimately set the date for nine years later. Without the knowledge of the entire interstellar society, they finalized the new destiny of the dark side universe they were in.

Countless interstellar citizens were still immersed in a happy and peaceful life. In a place they could not see, the three great civilizations and Han Xiao were quietly preparing for the true matter transformation of the dark side universe, approaching the date of the official implementation of the plan day by day.

The long-lost peaceful era passed quickly. Time flew, and the sun rose and set. Time was like flowing water, never to return. The nine years passed quietly amidst the cessation of hostilities by the various forces. The interstellar society had changed with the times, and a new generation of young people had grown up, but it seemed that nothing had changed. The three great civilizations, the Arcane Church, and the Beyond Grade A Alliance still occupied their respective territories.

Today was the appointed date, and also the starting point for the dark side universe’s destiny to officially take a turn.

Central Star Sea, a military restricted zone specially built by the three great civilizations for this day.

Countless information state reaction enhancement devices formed a dense and orderly array in the starry sky, distributed in layers, presenting a spherical shape, while Han Xiao was located at the center point of all the auxiliary device arrays, floating alone in space.

In the distance, the fleets of the three great civilizations surrounded him layer upon layer as guards, preventing accidents and disturbing Han Xiao's transformation.

In the main ship, the remote projections of the three heads of state looked at Han Xiao outside the porthole with solemn expressions and extreme seriousness.

"Your Excellency Black Star, we are all ready, please…"

Marbruce paused, took a deep breath, and said in a deep voice in the communication channel:

"Let's begin."

"…Okay."

Han Xiao's expression was calm, and he responded softly with a complex look in his eyes.

Although he had rehearsed for today more than once in the past nine years, he still couldn't help but feel emotional at the moment it actually happened.

The plan to transform the dark side universe was still a secret to the higher-ups. The three great civilizations hoped to quietly solve this ultimate problem involving the truth of the universe while countless interstellar citizens were asleep, and it would be best to merge the dark side universe with the real universe without anyone noticing. Therefore, Han Xiao had only told the relevant information to Ames and a few other trusted people. Everyone else was still living their normal lives on this day.

Han Xiao's mind sank into his body, and he saw his chest slowly glow, as if it had turned into a white space channel, where space was folded and contracted.

Soon, in a dazzling white light, the World Tree rooted in the inner space appeared outside, emitting a vibrant green light and spinning around.

Han Xiao lowered his head, looked at the miniature figure of the World Tree, and his mind was already connected. He could activate the information materialization function at any time, but at this moment, he stopped, and his eyes changed.

One information anchor point after another flashed in his mind, and a shimmering wave of illusions appeared before his eyes, as if he were reviewing his bizarre and magnificent life over the past hundred years from a third-person perspective.

The final picture was fixed on countless familiar figures, including old acquaintances, deceased enemies, and current friends…

"I hope that everything that has happened here can anchor my existence and prevent me from forgetting… that I was once here."

In the next moment, Han Xiao no longer hesitated and activated the World Tree's information materialization function.

Buzz—

As if the universe was born, Han Xiao's figure was instantly submerged in light, and endless light seemed to pour out, filling everyone's vision.

At this moment, everyone in the entire interstellar society inexplicably felt something and unconsciously thought of Black Star's appearance.

…

Longtan Floating Island, the open-air top floor of the palace.

Ames stood on the balcony with her hands behind her back, looking up at the bright starry sky. Her waterfall-like hair fluttered in the wind along with her black dress, like a dancing black flame.

"Mommy, I just thought of Daddy…"

A childish voice rang out behind her, and a little girl in a small dress skipped out of the room, stumbling on the way and almost falling.

This little girl was about seven or eight years old, with a delicate and cute appearance, a slightly chubby face, and a pair of dark and bright eyes like gems, lively and cheerful, looking very cute and festive. She was the only offspring she and Han Xiao had produced so far.

Hearing this, Ames turned her head and revealed a doting expression on her face. She bent down and hugged her daughter in her arms, scratched her little nose, and said with a low laugh, "I miss Daddy too."

The little girl hugged Ames' arm and stayed comfortably in her arms, blinking her big, bright eyes, and said with a bit of grievance:

"Daddy hasn't come to see me for a long time. Where did he go?"

"He's doing a great undertaking."

Ames smiled lightly.

"When will Daddy be back?" The little girl widened her eyes, her curiosity overflowing.

"I don't know…"

Ames shook her head, held her daughter in one hand, and pointed to the deep starry sky with the other, gently laughing:

"But no matter where he is, he will definitely be watching you, and he will come back when you grow up."

…

Real universe, solar system, the back of Neptune.

A small exploration space station covered with black and blue coating was quietly suspended in outer space, disguised as a meteorite, looking inconspicuous.

At this moment, in the space station's observation room, several intelligent creatures wearing heavy space suits were debugging the instruments. Their body structure was humanoid, but they had hard-shelled skin covered with thorns, and were short in stature, averaging only about 1.3 meters.

Most of these instruments were remote observation instruments. Above the instruments were dense screens, which clearly displayed scenes of bustling Earth cities.

At this moment, one of the hard-shelled people in the room turned on the video recorder, cleared his throat, and spoke in his unique language:

"Twenty-seven thousand and eighty-first star time scale brief record, the target's behavior remains the same today, with no abnormal behavior. We have not been discovered, end."

"Another boring day~"

A thin, hard-shelled person next to him interjected, stretching on his seat, his whole body making crackling friction and collision sounds between his hard shell and bones.

The person recording the video seemed to be the captain. Without turning his head, he responded seriously:

"No abnormalities are the best news. Our job is to ensure that the target does not experience a technological explosion before the main force arrives and develop interstellar weapons that can threaten us."

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm just complaining. I really hope the next shift change comes quickly. I'd rather be cryogenically frozen than stare at this weak surface civilization every star time scale… Alas, I really want to go home."

The previously speaking thin, hard-shelled person said helplessly.

These intelligent creatures did not belong to this region, but were distant visitors from other galaxies, from the Cabang Civilization.

In order to find alien civilizations, the Cabang Civilization sent exploration teams to the interstellar space, riding exploration ships that always had stealth camouflage enabled, drifting in the universe for a long time. All crew members were in cryogenic sleep. When traces of civilization were discovered, the ship's intelligent system would automatically wake up the sleeping crew members.

These Cabang people were one of the interstellar exploration teams. They came to the solar system many years ago, and the ship discovered probes launched into space by Earth's civilization, so they woke up the team. This team used the ship's built-in detection equipment to lock onto the Earth civilization, then chose a remote location to deploy the ship into a small space station, complete further camouflage, and lay dormant.

This Cabang explorer team adhered to the principles of non-interference, non-communication, and non-exposure, silently squatting in the solar system. Through the ship's configuration of interstellar observation equipment, they placed Earth under long-term monitoring and had not been discovered.

"Complain less, pay more attention to your mission." The Cabang explorer captain turned off the video recorder, paused suddenly, and said, "However, the main force is only five hundred and eighty star time scales away from us. We won't have to monitor for too long, and we'll be free."

"That's true. I really want to finish the mission quickly. I can't stand eating these nutrient pastes every day. I really want to go back and eat something good…" The thin Cabang team member said with longing.

This explorer team had long since sent the message about the existence of Earth's civilization back to their home planet. The Cabang Civilization's large fleet had already set off from home, but they had not developed the high technology of stargates. The main force had been traveling at near-light speed in the universe for a long time, and now the distance was not far.

The many explorers stationed in the solar system for many years were just an outpost. Although their technology was much more advanced, they still did not dare to rashly contact Earth's civilization. Their mission was to monitor and observe Earth's civilization 24/7 and guide the follow-up main force… Only when the main force arrived would they have sufficient confidence to easily invade, colonize, or destroy it. At that time, they would consider how to arrange this surface civilization.

The Cabang explorer captain was about to say something, but at this moment, the space station's monitoring radar suddenly sounded a rapid alert.

"Beep beep beep beep—"

Everyone was stunned and quickly gathered in front of the screen, shocked to see that the readings on it had suddenly gone haywire.

"What's going on?"

The Cabang explorers quickly debugged the instruments, but there were no malfunctions. The various parameters of the outside world that were detected were becoming increasingly abnormal, especially the coefficients such as space curvature, which had undergone an alarming shift.

At the same time, with Earth's civilization as the center point, a large number of space wrinkles appeared, and the range was spreading outward, at an extremely alarming rate.

"What is this phenomenon? There is no similar event model in the database!"

Everyone widened their eyes, shocked.

At this moment, an invisible energy wave suddenly erupted and spread rapidly toward the universe, instantly sweeping across the major planets and their space station. The energy readings instantly exceeded the radar's power limit, burning out the radar device.

Everyone was startled and hurriedly touched their bodies, but they did not suffer any damage under this energy surge.

"This level of energy surge is unprecedented. What exactly happened…"

Just as the group was extremely surprised, the space wrinkling phenomenon had already spread to the vicinity of the space station. Through the porthole, they discovered that all the space within their sight had ripples of twisting wrinkles.

From their perspective, it was as if the entire universe had become a stirred mud pit, with torrents of starlight and dark matter constantly swirling.

In the midst of the heavy wrinkles, they seemed to see strange phantoms, countless unseen civilizations and planets, floating and sinking, looming within them.

In a daze, they suddenly had an intuition.

—This universe seems to be about to become different.

…

"Attention, everyone! The new version will be online in five minutes. Everyone is working overtime today. Everyone must log in as soon as possible. I'm checking, do you hear me?"

Zhu Xiaohua ordered loudly. Seeing the dozens of employees in the studio respond, he nodded in satisfaction, turned around, and walked into his private office, closed the door, and rubbed his hands excitedly as he looked at the new *Galaxy* game pod placed in the center of the room.

Ever since the Black Star Army series of videos he made using the ID "Meat Bun Beats Dog" became popular, Zhu Xiaohua's career had been on track. He rented a floor as a studio, expanded his business, created a brand, and made a lot of money.

Now that the popularity of *Galaxy* had reached an all-time peak, he paid more and more attention to this main business. Two days ago, *Galaxy* entered a version update, and today was the day the update was completed. The 6.0 version would be officially launched, and he attached great importance to it, preparing to log in as soon as possible.

As soon as he thought that the new version would unlock higher levels, Zhu Xiaohua couldn't wait.

Although the plot of *Galaxy* now seemed to be heading towards peace, making it difficult to find explosive points, he believed that the players would be the protagonists of the stage after *Galaxy*. Now that it had been unlocked to the Calamity Grade, as the level continued to increase, the players, who feared that the world would not be in chaos, would definitely not be able to hold back. They would definitely disrupt the game's pattern, and thus spontaneously lead to countless conflicting, interesting, and exciting stories. In this way, there would definitely be no shortage of materials for making videos…

Zhu Xiaohua already had an idea and planned to adjust the focus of the videos after that, no longer focusing on the Black Star Army, but chasing the experiences of various collisions between players and NPC forces, and making various series and interview records.

Just thinking about the fact that he had an inexhaustible source of material and the possibility of a big sale, he was so excited that his bladder tightened.

"I'm going to make a fortune this time!"

Zhu Xiaohua was excited and skillfully lay into the game pod. The hatch closed, and the built-in screen showed the countdown to the completion of the update. He stared at the time passing by second by second, hating that time was passing too slowly, and couldn't help but shake his legs.

"There are only a few seconds left… five, four, three, two, one! All right!"

The countdown on the built-in screen reached the last second and turned into a log-in interface, finally becoming the 6.0 version he had been thinking about.

Zhu Xiaohua was overjoyed, impatiently started the game pod, quickly closed his eyes, and prepared to enter the game.

However, after closing his eyes and waiting for more than a minute, he did not enter *Galaxy* as before. Zhu Xiaohua waited anxiously and couldn't help but open his eyes.

"Strange, why can't I log in? Could it be that the game pod is malfunctioning? No way, I just replaced it two days ago…"

Zhu Xiaohua was puzzled and opened the game pod, then crawled out again, squatted down, and wanted to lift the lid of the game pod to check if there was a problem.

But at this moment, the door was suddenly knocked on, and a few employees walked in with helpless expressions.

"Boss, there's a problem. None of us can log in."

"Hmm? It turns out I'm not the only one. Then it seems it's not a problem with the game pod. Did you check the official website?"

"I checked it. It seems that no one can log in."

Hearing this, Zhu Xiaohua was stunned for a moment, walked to the computer, opened the official website of *Galaxy*, entered the web forum, and found a lot of players posting, all unable to log in.

"Then it seems that there's a bug in the new version. Maybe the quantum computer itself is malfunctioning… But it's strange, everyone can't log in. Such a big thing, the official should issue a statement to explain it, but why is there no movement?"

Zhu Xiaohua flipped through the posts, somewhat puzzled.

"Why don't you ask?" An employee suggested.

"Hmm, that's fine. I'll ask the official personnel about the situation."

Zhu Xiaohua nodded.

He had been invited to attend several professional league events as a guest, so he had internal channels to contact official personnel. He might as well ask about the situation.

Picking up his phone from the table, Zhu Xiaohua opened his social software, found the official personnel he knew, and was about to send a message to inquire.

But at this moment, a commotion suddenly came from outside the office, mixed with exclamations.

"What's going on outside? Why is it so noisy?"

Zhu Xiaohua frowned, paused editing the message, strode out of the office, and immediately saw all the employees gathered by the window, looking up, as if they were looking at something.

"What are you looking at? Go back to your posts… hmm?"

Zhu Xiaohua was a little dissatisfied and strode over, also crowded to the window, subconsciously glanced outside, and his tone suddenly stopped.

He saw that on the road outside the window, all the pedestrians had stopped and were looking up at the sky, and every balcony and window of the surrounding buildings had people peeking out, maintaining the same posture of looking up at the sky, with expressions of horror and shock on their faces.

Seeing this strange scene, Zhu Xiaohua suddenly felt a tightness in his heart and slowly raised his head to look at the sky.

It had just passed dusk and night had just fallen. A brilliant galaxy had already appeared in the sky. More stars lit up in the night sky, with stars like a waterfall and an inverted galaxy. It was shaking and rotating. The sky seemed to have turned into a vortex and was completely twisted, as if someone was stirring the sky.

"This, this is…"

Zhu Xiaohua stared blankly at this scene, completely unaware that his mouth was wide open.

Just as everyone was dumbfounded, a spatial ripple suddenly appeared in the sky, and interstellar fleets appeared out of thin air in the sky, as if they were already there, instantly attracting the attention of everyone on the ground.

Zhu Xiaohua also looked over, but suddenly widened his eyes, staring blankly at the identical insignia on the outer armor of these battleships and spaceships… He was too familiar with this insignia. He recognized it at a glance.

Before everyone could react, the next moment, an even more familiar figure suddenly appeared in the air, as if awakening from a slumber, slowly opening his eyes.

The expression on this figure's face slowly changed from the initial daze to joy, and finally to nostalgia. His lips moved slightly.

"Home, I'm back…"

Although it was far away, for some reason, the voice seemed to ignore the distance and rang in the hearts of everyone who was looking at him.

At this moment, Zhu Xiaohua and all the employees around him felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar, with blank faces and blank minds.

At this moment, the figure in the sky seemed to sense the aura of an acquaintance, lowered his head, and looked down. Across the distant night sky, his eyes met Zhu Xiaohua's from afar, revealing a playful smile.

Zhu Xiaohua instantly woke up from his dream, shuddered, took a big step back in disbelief, tripped over a table and chair, and fell to the ground with a thud.

His eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and his face was filled with disbelief. His lips trembled, his voice unconsciously rose, and he exclaimed:

"Black, Black, Black, Black… Black Star?!"

…

On this day, the world ushered in a drastic change.

Countless phantoms that should have disappeared into the river of history reappeared.

Some called it "Total Invasion", and some called it the "Turning Point of Fate."

Some felt it was a cuckoo occupying the nest, and some felt it was branching out.

Some believed it was the beginning of the end, and some believed it was the continuation of life.

But regardless of their views, everything that happened on this day was remembered by countless people, ushering in a new era.

—

(End of main text)