Onboard Dream Boat One.

Wei Xuan watched Robert sitting with his back to him at the end of the passageway, a panic he could not suppress spreading through him.

Blood was dripping down the other man’s body, and it was clearly not his own, because the score “22” floating above his head glared conspicuously.

Wei Xuan remembered very clearly: the two manned rockets carried a total of 28 people. On the Suroma Empire ship there had been 14 people who, after being exposed to an unknown stimulus, entered a special stress state and were transferred to Dream Boat One.

Dream Boat One had 15 people in total. Six of them, including Wei Xuan, chose to stay and continue the mission, while the other nine took the 14 stress-affected crew and returned. Nine plus fourteen made exactly twenty-three.

Now Robert had twenty-two points. Wei Xuan did not have to think hard to know what that meant.

“You killed them all!”

Wei Xuan shouted in fury and reached for his waist.

Earlier, Ground Control had notified them that a malignant incident might occur on Dream Boat One. Since he had chosen to come alone, he had to carry a lethal weapon.

Shing!

Wei Xuan drew a specially made high-powered handgun and aimed it at Robert, who still faced away from him.

“What happened? Robert! Why—don’t you dare move or I’ll shoot you dead!”

As he warned Robert, he tried to contact the Empire Pioneer and Ground Control with his communicator.

But no matter how he called, the device only emitted a chilling hiss of static.

“It’s useless.” Robert’s voice sounded, “Your signal won’t go out.”

“Damn it! What the hell is going on?!”

No sooner had Wei Xuan spoken than Robert stood up.

His tension immediately spiked. “Don’t move! Get down!”

“Still don’t get it, Wei Xuan.”

When Robert turned around, Wei Xuan froze at the sight of his face; all the blood on him seemed to congeal and stop.

Words failed to describe what Robert’s face had become. It was no longer a human face but a stacked jumble of misaligned features, like a monster painted by a clumsy child.

In that face Wei Xuan even saw the features of his own teammates, which made him doubt whether the figure before him was really Robert, whether his mind had produced some hallucination, or whether this was nothing more than a nightmare.

Maybe the real situation was that he had already died on Terra, or become lost in space.

“You’re far too optimistic.”

Robert’s stiff voice snapped Wei Xuan out of his daze.

“Death at this moment would be a gift from the heavens.”

“Ah—!”

Bang bang bang! Bang bang bang!

Coming to his senses, Wei Xuan lost control. He squeezed the trigger repeatedly, screaming as he unleashed a hail of bullets toward Robert at the end of the passageway.

The specialized high-powered rounds pierced Robert’s body, but Robert did not fall. Instead he took another step forward.

“Wei Xuan, come and look for yourself.”

“What did you—”

Wei Xuan was still stunned that Robert had not gone down after being shot multiple times when Robert lunged. The many pairs of eyes on his face met Wei Xuan’s gaze.

In an instant, countless indescribable horrors flooded into Wei Xuan’s mind. He saw things beyond description; every buried fear surged up at once, crushing and mocking his ignorance and frailty.

On the verge of total mental collapse, he finally understood why the astronauts on the Empire Pioneer had looked the way they did and had gone mad in the videos… this was not something human cognition could withstand.

At that moment he knew Robert had been right — he should never have come. He regretted it completely. Compared to this agony, death truly would be a kindness.

Robert looked at Wei Xuan, who was wide-eyed with mouth agape and frozen in stress response, and for a moment one of the eyes on his face flashed with an odd hint of pity.

Wei Xuan clawed at his head, sank to his knees in torment, and cried out, “No… no no! I can’t listen to you anymore… If I send a distress signal, it will get more people killed! Why did you choose me? Please… kill me!”

…

“…We deeply mourn the loss of twenty-three outstanding astronauts. They are heroes who made significant contributions to humanity. Humanity will not forget them, and we will not abandon the exploration of Terra and space migration because of this setback.”

At dusk, during the joint press conference called by Beixing and Suroma, every speaker wore an especially grave expression.

“…The five remaining astronauts, we will ensure they return safely. A follow-up investigation into such a major loss will be launched immediately, and results will be announced to the public.”

The spokesman’s words struck many in the hall hard, and every viewer watching the live stream felt like they’d been knocked back — stunned and grieving.

Guan Tong was one such viewer.

He was watching the live stream. Of the twenty-eight astronauts from the two manned rockets, twenty-three had died in just a few days; only five remained alive. It was absurd.

What was even more absurd was that the space agencies of both countries did not know why the astronauts had died. Their explanations about what happened on Terra were vague.

Were they being withheld, or did they simply not know?

Guan Tong, who had been closely following the attempt to establish a Terra survival base, was as baffled as everyone else.

In the live chat many comments said they could not accept it.

“Is Terra really that dangerous?!”

“Humanity landed on Terra not long ago; why didn’t anything happen then?”

“I remember the space agencies sent so many probes to this satellite of Tianshui Star. How did they miss any danger?”

“Could it be the Fire Thief…”

“I think it’s the Fire Thief too! That bastard definitely doesn’t want human space migration to succeed, otherwise no one would be left to play the rules it set!”

Many viewers pointed the finger at the Fire Thief; Guan Tong thought it was possible too. If this incident wasn’t properly investigated, the impact would be huge — humanity’s two simultaneous development strategies, space migration and digital life, might be forced to cut one.

Even without the Fire Thief or the Doomsday Rules, humanity would never willingly be trapped forever on a single planet.

“They’ll probably launch more rockets… but after this tragic loss, future rockets might carry mostly intelligent robots.”

Guan Tong speculated, uncertain whether Suroma’s advanced intelligent robots could handle the complexities of the space environment.

He glanced out the window; the sky had grown dim.

“I’ll grab something to eat, then I have to go handle something.”

He turned off the live stream and was about to put his phone away when a message arrived.

Shi Jingyi: “I have important news, sent to you via Ascendant Home.”

When Guan Tong saw Shi Jingyi’s message, he immediately became serious.

Ascending Home could not be breached, so it served as a secure channel. Many people who did not have or did not want to use Communication Scrolls used that site’s private messages instead.

If Shi Jingyi had news she could not say over phone or text and had to use encrypted channels, it had to be extremely important.

He replied at once: “Okay, got it.” 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He logged into his Ascendant Home account and waited a moment before Shi Jingyi’s message came through.

When Guan Tong read the content, his pupils constricted violently and his heart trembled.

“So it’s… like this…”