Earth calendar, year 2096.

Fifty years have passed since the human fleet left the solar system.

In the vast universe between our solar system and Proxima Centauri, a large fleet of 1,251 starships drifts "slowly" at 10% of the speed of light.

Occasionally, a faint light would flash from the tail of the starship, only to quickly fade away.

That was the light produced by the intermittent operation of the Hall thrusters.

Although the spaces between star systems are extremely vast, there are still small amounts of interstellar dust and gas.

For a starship traveling at 10% of the speed of light, this extremely sparse interstellar matter would still generate considerable resistance.

Therefore, while conserving energy as much as possible, Zero could only control the Hall thrusters of all starships to perform irregular, intermittent jetting.

Just as the fleet was sailing normally toward its destination, several probes sent an alarm to the flagship, the Earth.

A few seconds later, several large radio telescopes set up on the exterior of the Earth starship quietly changed their angle, pointing their lenses at a dim star in front of them—Proxima Centauri.

...

Inside the Earth.

Central Supercomputing Center.

Inside the dimly lit cabin, indicator lights flickered everywhere.

The hum of the cooling system filled the entire cabin.

A red light, carrying a warning connotation, suddenly appeared in a corner of the supercomputing center.

[An anomaly detected!]

[Situation assessment in progress...]

[Error! The current situation is not part of the scheduled events!]

[Warning! Warning! Level 1 anomaly!]

Red light instantly filled the entire supercomputing center!

[Executing wake-up procedure...]

[Awakening personnel: ...]

...

A sudden alarm sounded in Lü Yongchang's ears.

Perhaps due to the long period of hibernation, the alarm sounded particularly faint, giving people a sense of unreality.

"Professor Lü..."

"Professor Lü, there's a problem with Proxima Centauri!"

With each urgent reminder, Lü Yongchang gradually regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes.

He subconsciously took a breath.

"Cough cough cough!"

The residual deep-sea fluid in his lungs instantly made him realize the wickedness of the world.

He coughed as he reached out and pulled off his mask.

As a tingling sensation came from inside his trachea, a long white tube was pulled out of his nasal cavity.

After a violent coughing fit, Lü Yongchang finally recovered.

He endured the discomfort in his abdomen and climbed out of the hibernation pod.

Zero's virtual avatar stood in front of the hibernation pod, looking at him respectfully.

"zero?"

"What time is it? Have we... arrived at our destination?"

As soon as he spoke, Lü Yongchang was startled by his own incredibly hoarse voice.

"Professor, it is currently August 11, 2096 in the Earth calendar."

"2096?" Lu Yongchang's brows furrowed instantly.

According to the original plan, they were supposed to arrive at their destination in Earth year 2146, but now, the awakening time has been brought forward by a full fifty years!

As he remained conscious for longer periods, his consciousness gradually became clearer.

He noticed the flashing red lights around him.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, his expression changed drastically: "Zero, what happened?!"

The red light flashed, and it was woken up prematurely...

Lü Yongchang instantly realized why he had been awakened.

[Level 1 Abnormal Situation]

In Lü Yongchang's setup, he would only be awakened prematurely if an abnormal situation of this level occurred.

As for what constitutes a Level 1 abnormal situation...

It's quite simple: they encountered an alien fleet, the hibernation pods malfunctioned on a large scale, or the fleet lost more than 10% of its starships in a short period of time...

In summary, it can be summed up in one sentence.

Only situations that could lead to the extinction of human civilization are considered Level 1 abnormal situations.

At that moment, countless terrible thoughts flashed through Lü Yongchang's mind.

“Professor, it’s the Proxima Centauri civilization.” Zero said, while unfolding a holographic projection in front of Lü Yongchang.

"The latest observations show that Proxima Centauri appears to have undergone a series of unusual changes."

Lü Yongchang reached out and swiped the projection interface, quickly browsing through all the observation data.

"this……"

...

A few hours later.

Earth Command Center.

"Everyone, the situation is urgent, so I won't waste any more words."

Lu Yongchang stood solemnly in front of everyone and reached out to turn on the huge holographic projection next to him.

"Our destination, Proxima Centauri, has also encountered a similar situation to ours."

As he spoke, he pointed to the right side of the projection: "Here are the latest observations about Proxima Centauri."

"And on the left are the observation results from fifty years ago."

"As you can clearly see, Proxima Centauri's brightness has decreased by one level in the last fifty years."

"According to Zero's calculations, at the current rate, Proxima Centauri will die out in about 120-150 years and become a black dwarf that only exists in theory."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's expression changed slightly.

"How could this be..." Fang Xu stared at the holographic image in front of him with a grim expression. "Is there an energy harvesting device belonging to an advanced civilization on Proxima Centauri, just like ours?"

Lü Yongchang nodded silently.

That should be the case.

"Actually, this was an expected result."

As he spoke, he sighed deeply: "Since the information we sent could be detected by advanced civilizations, there is no reason why the Proxima Centauri civilization could escape this attack."

"This also proves the correctness of the Dark Forest Theory."

Fang Xu's expression grew increasingly grim: "So what do we do now?"

"Should we go to Proxima Centauri again?"

We originally thought that after escaping the solar system, humanity would be greeted by a star system suitable for long-term habitation and development.

But who would have thought that it was a star system that had been given a suspended death sentence!

"certainly."

Upon hearing Fang Xu's question, Lü Yongchang answered without hesitation.

This answer stunned everyone present.

"Let me start by explaining the most fundamental reason," Lü Yongchang said with a wry smile, shaking his head. "We don't have enough supplies."

"Although we still have a lot of survival supplies, our fuel and replacement parts only allow us to travel to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri."

Everyone fell silent.

This is also the biggest pain point for human civilization at present.

"So, we still have to compete with the Proxima Centauri for that dying star?" Fang Xu sighed heavily and said softly.

"good."

Sensing the heavy atmosphere in the command center, Lü Yongchang took a deep breath and clapped his hands lightly, drawing everyone's attention.

"Of course, there is also good news... or rather, a half-good news."