Chapter 6: We Were Defeated

Chapter 6: We Were Defeated

The image on the television was silent.

The shot was taken from outer space.

Against the vast, pitch-black backdrop of space, stars twinkled like scattered points of light.

In the distance of the frame, dense clusters of conical objects floated silently, a scene both grand and eerie.

Chen Feng, who had spent two months in the military, recognized these conical objects.

This was the star fleet that the World Government was so proud of, the pinnacle of current human technology, hailed as the beginning of humanity’s next chapter.

The fully organized fleet consisted of over a thousand large Motherships, tens of thousands of frigates, and nearly one hundred thousand medium and small Combat Ships.

Near the fleet group, several large space stations were busily producing Colonial Ships, each reportedly capable of carrying two hundred thousand passengers.

Nearly one hundred Colonial Ships had already been built. They were just waiting for the final reliability verification and a breakthrough in life-freezing technology. Then, twenty million people would board the Colonial Ships and officially take humanity’s farthest step into space.

Such a massive fleet stacked together looked incredibly magnificent.

Suddenly, against the cosmic background, a flash of light appeared within the fleet group.

Then, pinpoints of light began flashing one after another in space, almost illuminating the dark Universe.

It was an explosion. In an extremely short time, over a hundred thousand Warships exploded simultaneously.

In the blink of an eye, these hundred thousand Spacecraft all turned into brilliant fireworks and utterly dissipated into space.

The image on the television was despairingly beautiful.

Within the fleet group, tens of millions of people lost their lives instantly.

Humanity’s most powerful force, its greatest pride to date, vanished into thin air in an instant.

A voice-over appeared on television.

“This was the scene five minutes ago. Our star fleet has been completely annihilated.”

The voice-over’s tone was calm, but it carried a note of sorrow and despair.

Chen Feng knew who owned this voice.

When he was still in the military, he often heard this person speaking on television.

This was the current leader of the World Government.

As soon as the words on TV ended, a massive, disk-shaped black shadow appeared in the frame, approaching rapidly from the distance.

The black shadow’s flying speed was unbelievably fast, yet behind its flight path, there was no expulsion of any medium used for propulsion, indicating its propulsion method was different from all energy technologies mastered by humans.

This was exactly the same object Chen Feng had seen last time, the one hovering in the sky.

After breaking through the debris field formed by the remnants of the star fleet, the black shadow abruptly stopped in space.

The instant transition of such a colossal object from extreme motion to complete stillness, completely defying the laws of inertia, made Chen Feng feel an intense discomfort. It was like a cat scratching glass next to his ear, making him dizzy and nauseous.

Immediately after, the television picture disappeared, leaving only pitch black, but the voice of the commentator did not stop.

The owner of the voice continued, speaking in an indescribable tone, “I’m sorry. We were defeated. We prepared for five hundred years for this day, but we were still defeated. We couldn’t even… offer the slightest bit of resistance. I’m sorry…”

The voice gradually faded away.

Four words abruptly appeared on the television screen: “Signal Lost.”

So, these people had known from the very beginning that this day would come.

Systems like the star fleet and the military structure were all preparations made for this day.

It was just that the gap in strength between the enemy and themselves was too vast. It was like how no matter how strong an ant colony is built, it is futile in the face of a world-ending flood.

This wasn’t even a case of a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

Lost in these thoughts, Chen Feng’s nose suddenly felt itchy. He rubbed it subconsciously. Looking at his hand after lowering it, his knuckles were covered in sticky, dark red blood. He didn’t even know when it had started flowing.

Hmm, that ghostly thing should have entered the atmosphere by now, right?

Exactly like last time.

The television exploded without warning. The lights suddenly dimmed.

Chen Feng’s vision turned blindingly white again. The familiar yet strange tearing pain surged from all over his body once more.

Even with prior experience and some mental preparation, he still couldn’t resist this soul-deep agony.

He slowly collapsed onto the floor.

Just before dying, he only vaguely cursed in his heart.

Just knew it, hiding underground was useless.

…

His eyes opened.

Dawn was approaching again.

Chen Feng lay quietly in bed, his fingers rubbing the bedding. As the pain receded and his mind cleared, he silently recalled and memorized the melodies of “Dullness” and “Night Has Grown Deep” twice more in his head.

Only then did he slowly sit up, hugging his knees, his thoughts swirling. He felt an inexplicable sense of melancholy deep inside.

When he died the first time in the dream, it was too sudden. He had no idea what happened, so he didn’t feel much.

This time, knowing some of the cause and effect, shocked by the fact that humanity would truly perish a thousand years later, his emotions were more unsettled.

But in truth, he had little connection to that world, nothing he couldn’t bear to part with, so he always felt a sense of separation from the world a millennium later.

Even now, he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure if it was reality or an exceptionally vivid dream, because both possibilities had many illogical aspects.

Yet, he couldn’t help feeling regret in his heart for the demise of the entire Human Civilization.

It was too tragic. The entire Civilization had strived together for five hundred years, only to be wiped out in an instant.

In the vast Universe, humanity was too insignificant and small.

It was a hard-to-describe feeling, tinged with sorrow for humanity, a sense of powerlessness, and a bit of regret and loss.

It took Chen Feng a long time to break free from these complex emotions.

He chuckled self-mockingly, thinking to himself, so what if it was real?

So what if humanity really goes extinct a thousand years later?

What does it have to do with me?

Whether now or a thousand years later, I’m just an insignificant ordinary person.

What can I change?

What business of others can I meddle in?

Just taking care of myself already takes all my effort.

Chen Feng jumped off the bed and said subconsciously, “Xiao Wei, make me a cup of…”

Forget it, why did I make the same mistake again?

Chen Feng shrugged and made his own breakfast. He put a cup of hot milk and two steamed buns into the microwave oven and pressed the button.

A sharp crack sounded from the microwave, followed by a light, brittle noise.

The ceiling light in the kitchen went out. The power tripped.

White smoke rose from the back of the microwave, and a burnt smell filled the kitchen.

The microwave was fried.

He hadn’t used the microwave in a year and was a bit absent-minded. He forgot you couldn’t put metal objects inside.

Unlucky. That’s at least a couple hundred bucks gone.

Chen Feng mumbled under his breath and went to the bathroom to wash up.

While pouring water into his mouthwash cup, a glimpse in the mirror caught his eye. He saw his own slightly pale face in the reflection and froze.

He remembered very clearly that his skin tone wasn’t like this before.

Being an apartment manager wasn’t a high-intensity outdoor job, but he still walked around outside quite often.

Chen Feng’s original physique wasn’t overly strong, but he wasn’t weak either, and his skin tone was standard, not too yellow or too pale.

But the face in the mirror had a sickly pallor. It clearly showed the serious sub-healthy state caused by staying indoors too long, lacking exercise and sunlight.

Chen Feng was puzzled.

I just slept for one night, what’s going on?

Did the changes in my physique from the dream carry over to the outside world?

This time in the dream, he had almost never gone out.

After all, Xiao Wei would take care of everything, and he knew he would die sooner or later anyway, so whether he exercised or not didn’t matter.

So during the last two or three months in the dream, his health condition and skin tone had indeed become like this.

Considering there was no difference before and after the last awakening, he assumed it would be the same this time and hadn’t paid any attention to it.

Now he knew the reason.

Last time, when he was living as a Subsistence Allowance Recipient, although he indulged in pleasure, he didn’t shut himself in his room like a complete shut-in. He went out occasionally to play ball or run with people.

After all, last time he still had his eye on some pretty girls among other Subsistence Allowance Recipients, so he maintained a moderate amount of exercise. Therefore, the change in his skin tone wasn’t very noticeable before and after.

But this time, he trained a bit during two months as a reserve soldier, but then he forced himself to stay in for ten whole months, the kind of shut-in lifestyle with no sunlight, which messed him up.

Chen Feng rubbed his face and clenched his fist. He did feel a bit weaker.

Forget it, I’ll pay more attention from now on. I’ll get back into the habit of running this month.

But before that, I should copy the songs.

Chen Feng took the day off. He shut himself in his room the whole day, didn’t even go out for lunch, and painstakingly handwrote the complete scores for both songs.

He hadn’t mastered digital scoring techniques yet, so he had to rely entirely on manual work.

Although it was a bit of hard work, looking at the notebook densely filled with musical notations, Chen Feng felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.

Outside the window, the sun was setting. The glow of the dusk sun shone through the window, falling on the black synthetic leather cover of the notebook, reflecting a hazy brilliance.

Chen Feng gently rubbed the cover, his heart full of anticipation.

No matter if I have this dream again or not, no matter if I can copy more songs in the future, as long as I handle these two well, my fate should change somewhat, right?

When I earn my first bucket of gold, what should I do with it?

Just how much can my first bucket of gold actually be?