Chapter 80: Such a Coincidence?
Chapter 80: Such a Coincidence?
Stellaron.
When Caelus and Stelle were cooperating with Herta on various tests, they had flipped through some of Herta's research notes on Stellarons. Most of it was incomprehensible.
From what they could understand, a Stellaron was actually a life form; it was alive.
It possessed a special mechanism, responding to the desires of the civilizations on the worlds it inhabited to advance, but the form in which it granted these wishes was always some kind of disaster.
"Did a Fortress Builder make a wish to the Stellaron, something like 'help humanity win, or eliminate the Antimatter Legion'?"
Caelus scrolled through the "Belobog Chronicle of Major Events" that Dan Heng had scanned with his phone.
"The first Supreme Guardian—Alisa Rand."
This was the name that appeared most frequently in over a dozen official Belobog historical texts. As a tribute to the first generation, a commemoration, and for political correctness, this was very normal.
But from another perspective, this person was the most likely human to have come into contact with the Stellaron.
Dan Heng nodded: "The first Supreme Guardian, Alisa Rand, is indeed the most likely suspect."
"And then, the Stellaron fulfilled that person's wish, in the form of a cold wave descending and freezing the world?" March 7th propped her chin on her small hand, pondering.
"Stellaron, bad!"
Stelle declared firmly, her lips slightly pouted, her fair hand gently caressing her chest, feigning a look of compassion for all beings:
"Yes, good!"
Caelus, on the other hand, felt the choice made was wrong. Without the presence of an Aeon-level combat force, even interstellar civilizations couldn't resist the invasion of the Antimatter Legion.
If Belobog hadn't relied on the Stellaron's power back then, Jarilo-VI would have probably become a completely dead star long ago, never lasting until the arrival of the Express Crew.
Even drinking poison to quench thirst was better than dying instantly.
"In the earliest records of major events, it was documented that long before the ice and snow arrived, shortly before the Antimatter Legion attacked Jarilo-VI, a mysterious object fell from space onto the planet."
"That was most likely the Stellaron, but the current amount of intelligence is still insufficient to definitively confirm that the so-called 'mysterious object' was indeed the Stellaron."
"After all, Jarilo-VI at that time might still have maintained contact with other interstellar civilizations."
Swiping his finger across the phone screen, Caelus sent some information to the group chat: "I asked a recently acquired godson of mine to help me check some information."
"A long, long time ago, Jarilo-VI was not only a famous tourist and vacation planet in the galaxy, but its minerals—which seem to be Geomarrow—attracted many capitalist dogs from various civilizations, sniffing their way over."
"But over seven hundred years ago, a large-scale emigration event occurred on Jarilo-VI. Whether it was tourists who had settled here to enjoy their old age, or capitalists attracted by the Geomarrow ore, including the Interastral Peace Corporation, they all suddenly left this place."
Upon hearing this, not only Dan Heng but also March 7th and Stelle were stunned.
"Godson?" March 7th was bewildered, her eyes wide with a blank stare.
"I'm a mom?" Stelle's whole body jolted, her expression suddenly changing, unsure if it was shock or joy.
"One I got while playing a game." Caelus glanced at the Stellaron spirit trying to climb the generational ladder. "That's my godson."
"Hehe, isn't your godson my godson too?"
Ignoring the daily bickering between Stelle and Caelus, Dan Heng looked at the information and pictures in the group chat, his expression extremely strange.
Those were pictures of Jarilo-VI taken by alien tourists from various worlds hundreds of years ago: lush greenery, beautiful azure oceans, and tourist promotional images from that time, showing bays, palm trees, seaside villas, and exquisite palaces.
That wasn't the main point. The main point was...
Digging through the graves of the interstellar network, where information explodes every second, to unearth historical records from over seven hundred years ago!?
Even staff from the relevant departments of the Interastral Peace Corporation would have to deep-dive into servers for ten days to half a month just to find some clues.
How could an ordinary game player possibly achieve such a feat!?
Dan Heng didn't dwell on it for too long; this was a good thing.
However, his impression of Caelus had changed slightly again, in a positive way.
To be able to obtain intelligence comparable to his own while playing games, being able to call upon people was a skill in itself!
"That massive emigration event occurred after the mysterious substance fell to the planet, and before the Antimatter Legion invaded."
Swiping his phone, Caelus smiled and marked several time points on Jarilo-VI's timeline.
"In that case, it's basically confirmed that the mysterious substance was the Stellaron." Dan Heng squinted, lowered his head in silence for a few seconds, then his face gradually became serious.
The local residents of Jarilo-VI didn't know what a Stellaron meant, but those long-existing interstellar civilizations had a clear understanding—it was a sign of doom.
After learning that a Stellaron had landed on this planet, many people fled in fear.
"Why do I feel like something's a bit off?"
Caelus and Dan Heng were the main ones exchanging information. The intelligence March 7th had gathered in the past few days was only about which alley in Belobog had good drinks, and which brand of black stockings perfectly combined warmth and aesthetics.
Even so, she faintly sensed a slight feeling of incongruity.
Caelus clapped his hands and pointed towards the distant Qlipoth Fort.
"If the first Supreme Guardian made a wish to the Stellaron, including the doomsday theories that were popular for a while during the Great Emigration, this information should have been passed down through the generations with the position of Supreme Guardian."
"And in these historical books Dan Heng sent to the group, some are missing volumes, and the rest have no related information, let alone the word 'Stellaron' ever appearing."
March 7th, activating her world-shaking wisdom, concluded: "Belobog officials are deliberately hiding the existence of the Stellaron!"
Her expression was like someone who had discovered a great, unknown secret, but she quickly became composed.
"But from a ruler's standpoint, concealing information that could cause chaos should be quite normal, right?"
If the truth about the Stellaron and the cold wave being disasters brought about by the first Supreme Guardian Alisa's wish to the Stellaron were made public, the impact on the Supreme Guardian's authority and the entire regime would be subversive.
Belobog, already struggling on the brink of doom, couldn't withstand such chaos.
Dan Heng nodded: "Currently, we can only confirm that the Supreme Guardian knows of the Stellaron's existence."
"Then what if we add this?"
Caelus pulled out an old, yellowed newspaper from his pocket and spread it on the table.
"This is..."
Dan Heng pressed his palm on the newspaper and turned it around. Due to the paper's quality, he first glanced at the date, and was immediately stunned, his eyes widening slightly:
"A newspaper from nearly a thousand years ago? Where did you find it?"
A newspaper this old, you couldn't even find it by digging through trash cans, right?
"Found it at Serval's place."
Caelus shrugged and smiled: "Take a look at the report on it first."
Stelle and March 7th leaned over. There wasn't much useful content, and the three of them quickly finished reading the news.
"Researching forbidden knowledge, attempting to subvert the Fortress Builders and the Belobog regime?"
March 7th frowned slightly, reading out the eye-catching headline on the newspaper.
Stelle blinked.
She had finished reading it, but she had also mostly forgotten it.
She wasn't thinking at all. After all, Caelus and she were one person; it was enough for Caelus-cub to think for her~
Why should she bother wracking her brain?
After Dan Heng finished reading, his indifferent expression changed slightly.
What March had read was the headline. The detailed content of the newspaper summarized the Supreme Guardian Cocolia Rand's handling of the research department.
A large number of personnel were executed by the Silvermane Guards under the charge of rebellion, the head of the research department was exiled to the outer snowplains, and several Fortress Builders among them were stripped of their positions and demoted to commoners.
Very few people in the entire research department survived.
"Political struggle..."
Dan Heng hit the nail on the head, voicing the true meaning behind the newspaper's content.
Where there is power, political struggle is inevitable; this is the nature of any organism. But a group of scientific researchers were clearly not capable of actively plotting a rebellion.
This crime was clearly forced upon them, and there was only one reason for the purge.
"They touched something they shouldn't have?"
"Then, in Belobog, what could make the entire research department invest all its manpower to study, and also cause fear in the Supreme Guardian?"
Caelus smiled, posing the question.
"The Stellaron!"
With the logic so clear, even March 7th could make the inference immediately.
"Such a fierce reaction is already beyond the level of preventing the Stellaron's existence from leaking." Dan Heng's eyes were heavy.
In apocalyptic times, those were some of the nation's few high-end intellectuals. Killing them like that was also a great loss for the ruler.
"Could it be..."
The Astral Express crew had dealt with Stellarons quite a bit. Apart from the geniuses who studied them, they could be said to be among the people who understood Stellarons best.
Dan Heng knew that Stellarons were living things, possessing the ability to communicate, but those who communicated with Stellarons usually didn't end well.
Although many things couldn't be confirmed yet, based on the currently known intelligence, it was speculated that the Supreme Guardian could communicate with the Stellaron.
If they followed their usual practice of directly explaining their intentions to the ruler, they would probably suffer the same fate as the research department personnel in the newspaper, hunted down by the entire military force of Belobog.
Thinking of this, Dan Heng felt a pang of fear.
Fortunately, he had listened to Caelus's advice and approached the Supreme Guardian as a tourist.
This fellow usually goofed around, caused trouble, and acted improperly, but he was surprisingly reliable at critical moments!
Beyond that, there was also some admiration.
To be able to gather so much key intelligence while sightseeing, perhaps luck was also a factor, after all...
Dan Heng glanced at the newspaper again. Given Serval's personality, it was hard to imagine she would still keep a newspaper from nearly a thousand years ago.
Noticing the faint doubt between Dan Heng's brows, Caelus crossed his arms.
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you, before Serval opened the Everwinter Workshop, she was one of the Fortress Builders."
"Hmm!?" Dan Heng's eyebrows shot up instantly, his expression subtly brilliant as he guessed something: "A Fortress Builder?"
"That's right, a Fortress Builder working in the research department. Her research project... she didn't tell me, but you should be able to guess, right?"
Caelus snapped his fingers.
Dan Heng was stunned.
Such a coincidence?
It was too coincidental, so coincidental that it was hard to believe it was a coincidence?
Or perhaps...
Dan Heng looked at Caelus with profound meaning in his eyes, then shook his head again.
That should be impossible, right?
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