"Here... take it. This is the supply list. The final version."

Song Yinglong stuffed a glowing tablet into Liu Haiyang's arms, took off his helmet covered in ice and snow, ignored the no-smoking sign welded on the wall, took out a box of cigarettes from the magazine on his chest, lit one, and took a long puff.

Liu Haiyang placed the tablet in front of him, thought for a moment, then pushed it aside. He retrieved a notepad from the file holder in the corner of his desk and flipped to the latest page. On the page, a few words and sketches were scribbled with a water-based pen, but they were so simplistic that only Liu Haiyang, the one who had written them, could understand them.

"We still have some places to search. Why are you in such a hurry?" Song Yinglong rubbed his sore eyes, the whites of his eyes bloodshot, while holding a cigarette in his mouth. "We haven't found the two people the old man mentioned yet."

"I've found it." Liu Haiyang leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs on the desk, and looked very relaxed.

"When? Where? Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Have you heard about the 'mothership sending people over again' incident?"

"Of course, we were just chatting in the corridor!"

"Okay, let me be honest. About two months ago, the mothership's central command decided to use this planet as a resource center." Liu Haiyang narrowed his eyes. "They are the person in charge of the investigation sent by the Ministry of Industry. Besides bringing 'that little bit of information', they also said they want to blow the planet up. The blasting team is already prepared and is just waiting for the order from above - so we have to consider evacuating."

"What? Star-blasting mining? Isn't this too detached from public opinion? I remember that until the routine data synchronization last month, there was still a group of people on the Internet who supported immigration." Song Yinglong took another puff.

"I heard it's a technological breakthrough," Liu Haiyang said without missing a beat. "Just like when he joined the Beiyang government in 1928, became a rare official in 1947, and joined the Nationalist government in 1949, there are always people who choose to remain conservative when times are about to change. You've studied history, do you remember the reactions from all sides when the commercial fusion reactor was first built?"

Song Yinglong shook his head woodenly: "I didn't teach those things when I was a kid."

"Okay, let's put it this way. Ten years at the most. After ten years, the pragmatic group in our bureau will have to step aside. From now on, take a longer-term view and be less utilitarian. Maybe you can move up a level. Otherwise..." Liu Haiyang's eyes suddenly sharpened, but when he saw the look on the guy's face, they quickly returned to normal. "Forget it, you won't understand even if I tell you. Go back and rest. The heating system has been repaired. Take a shower. We'll launch the thing in a couple of days, and then we can go home."

He remained half-lying, watching Song Yinglong stand up and leave, closing the door behind him. Even as the door closed, the guy expertly flicked his half-smoked cigarette butt into the trash can beside the door, not a single polite word uttered—both of them. Liu Haiyang didn't think their failed small talk stemmed from a generation gap. He believed that even without instruction, one could learn on their own. Look at how well he's learned to smoke, isn't he? Although their educational journeys spanned thousands of years, history was unchanging. All history was about things happening now or in the future. If one didn't learn well, someone would always come along.

It'll just cost you a little.

He closed the notepad and tossed it back onto the table, crossing his arms and stretching them behind his head. As the chair creaked under the weight, he muttered softly, "May, June, July... No, it should be earlier. What happened on the mothership in the past six months seems to be connected?"

There is indeed a connection.

Yesterday afternoon, when two men in industrial-powered exoskeletons knocked on the gate of the forward base, his vague suspicions were finally confirmed—the mothership's central control was indeed carrying out a shady plan behind the scenes. The large-scale mobilization of military, personnel, and resources on the mothership must have begun as early as last year, and his own resurgence was likely part of that. He just didn't know how many hibernators had been awakened. Not all, but certainly a lot. As for the opportunity, perhaps it was just as he suspected, a technological breakthrough bringing about a comprehensive social upgrade, just like the Industrial Revolution. A brand new era was about to dawn.

Time passes too fast, and it will be even faster in the future. As an ancient person, if you want to adapt to this rapidly changing world, you must find the right way.

Focusing entirely on a single professional field is one option, but Liu Haiyang won't go that route. He realizes that highly segmented professional fields are only the most basic stage of social development. As time progresses, the overall macroeconomic benefits of a single technological breakthrough will become negligible. Consequently, these segments will begin to merge, ultimately integrating them into larger categories, each of which will be equally accessible to everyone. Humanity will ultimately move towards a future where everyone is nearly omniscient and omnipotent.

Of course, it’s not the right time yet, comrades still need to work hard...