Lu Yongchang raised an eyebrow but didn't speak immediately.

"Masakiyoshi!"

Ren Feng's voice was full of anxiety: "How could you..."

“This is for the sake of all of us,” Zhang Zhengqing interrupted Ren Feng. “What if this situation happens again next time?”

"Are we just going to stay put and leave everything to fate, like we are now?"

Ren Feng was speechless for a moment.

He hesitated for a moment: "But, but that's not a reason for us to want these things."

"Don't forget, when we chose to stay on Proxima Centauri, we all signed an agreement."

Zhang Zhengqing's face stiffened.

He remembered.

It seems... there really is such an agreement.

Thinking of the name he had casually signed at the time, Zhang Zhengqing's face immediately turned embarrassed.

"good."

Lu Yongchang chuckled and nodded in agreement, "I promise you."

Zhang Zhengqing looked up in surprise at the holographic projection in front of him.

In the projection, Lü Yongchang, just as he had at the beginning, smiled gently at him.

"Wh-what?"

Zhang Zhengqing opened his mouth and asked in a dry voice.

“I said, I agree to your request,” Lü Yongchang repeated with a smile.

Before Zhang Zhengqing could even feel happy, he changed the subject: "However, I also have a condition."

Zhang Zhengqing composed himself and, without any hesitation, nodded and said, "Please speak."

"Next, I will transfer all permissions."

Lu Yongchang said calmly, "You have absolute autonomy, and I will transfer the complete technology system to you."

"but."

"Correspondingly, you will no longer receive zero help, and you will have to rely on your own efforts for everything."

"Can you accept these conditions?"

A hint of conflict appeared in Zhang Zhengqing's eyes.

But soon, his gaze hardened.

He nodded vigorously and said in a deep voice, "It's acceptable!"

"I believe this is a good thing for us too!"

Lu Yongchang chuckled and nodded, saying, "Keep going, try your best to survive."

...

Communication ended.

Lu Yongchang raised his hand with a calm expression and operated something on the holographic projection in front of him.

"Yongchang, aren't you angry?"

Fang Xu's slightly amused voice came from the side.

"Angry? Why are you angry?" Lu Yongchang asked in a calm tone, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Fang Xu was slightly taken aback.

Clearly, he hadn't expected Lü Yongchang to react this way.

Don't you think Zhang Zhengqing's demands are excessive?

Fang Xu's face was full of struggle. After thinking for a long time, he said again, "When they chose to stay, they didn't want these technologies!"

"Is it too much?" Lü Yongchang shrugged, checked the last part, and pressed the send button.

"They are human beings too, and they also want to survive."

"That's normal."

"Moreover, granting them access to One's systems and providing them with the necessary technological infrastructure..."

"In my opinion, this may not be a bad thing."

A hint of doubt flashed in Fang Xu's eyes.

“The humans who originally remained on Proxima Centauri b were more like parasites,” Lü Yongchang sighed softly. “Even though we’ve left, they’re still consuming zero computing power.”

"In peacetime, this might not have much of an impact."

"But now... you know what the situation is."

"Giving them the necessary technology and letting them make their own choices is undoubtedly a better and more efficient approach."

"On the other hand, it can also be considered as compensation for this incident, since we were the ones who launched those electromagnetic cannon projectiles."

After a moment's hesitation, Lü Yongchang spoke again.

"Only about 2 million humans remain on the entire Proxima Centauri b planet."

"The remaining resources in the Proxima Centauri system are quite abundant for more than 2 million people."

"But do you think a mere 2 million people can support a Level 2 civilization?"

"No matter what we do, the human civilization on Proxima Centauri has embarked on a path of slow death."

"It's just a matter of how long it will take."

Fang Xu looked at Lü Yongchang beside him with a complicated expression and nodded silently.

...

Two years later.

Ross II.

Two enormous cities stand tall on the vast land.

Lu Yongchang sat in his office in the city center and slowly closed his eyes.

His consciousness returned to the system space.

After two years of intensive work by all researchers, the originally "sparse" scientific and technological tree has gradually become fuller.

Against a bright green background, bright white "branches" extend from the main trunk, stretching outwards without restraint.

As the branches of the technology tree matured, the fog at the top of the tree gradually thinned.

Lu Yongchang widened his eyes and focused his attention on the top of the technology tree.

The vision gradually became clear.

The cursor was very blurry, but he could still make out the text within the dim cursor.

[Magnetic Field Control: Basic Shield Technology]

He suddenly realized.

It turns out that the threshold for a Level 3 civilization is mastering shield technology.

The cursor prefix sparked countless inspirations in his mind.

Do you understand magnetic fields?

Perhaps we could learn from the principles of plasma weapons.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

Before I could think about it, a rapid alarm sounded from outside.

Without any hesitation, Lü Yongchang quickly snapped out of his daze and opened his eyes.

Looking at the blood-red holographic projection in front of him, Lü Yongchang's expression changed slightly: "Zero?!"

"Professor, another signal has come from Ross 154!"

"Signal frequency: 1420 MHz. After signal comparison, it can be basically determined that the message was sent by [Hua]."

Upon hearing this, Lü Yongchang's expression immediately turned serious.

"Zero, immediately summon all researchers."

...

Central city, ground command center.

It is very similar in layout to the command center on the Earth, the only difference being that the ground command center occupies a much larger area—almost twice the size.

This is normal.

After all, the Earth, as humanity's flagship, is a prime piece of land.

When designing, those designers wish they could divide a square meter into eight pieces to use!

Directly in front of this spacious ground command center, a huge holographic projection is prominently displayed.

In front of the holographic projection are rows of neat seats.

At this moment, every seat was taken.

All members of the Academy of Sciences gathered here.

Every researcher wore the same expression.

Frowning, puzzled, shocked, astonished...

There is no other reason.

On the giant holographic projection in front of everyone was a line of information from Ross 154.

The information is very simple, only 15 characters including punctuation.

But the amount of information contained within it is enormous!

"Little ones, I might not live to see rescue."