Chapter 9

Qi Heng didn't speak for a long time.

He should bear some responsibility for the current state of Tianjia civilization, even if he was not aware of it at the time.

The fact that the Zerg were targeted by so many interstellar civilizations was inseparable from the fact that they had made enemies everywhere. It could be said that the fuse was laid when they set the goal of "colonization and conquest" for civilization.

The number of civilizations in the Milky Way that can be called advanced can be counted on one hand. The strongest among them is the Tianjia civilization, which is at the peak of the sixth-level civilization. The second is the Mora civilization, which is slightly inferior to the Tianjia civilization and is at the middle level of the sixth-level civilization.

The remaining three were all in the early stages of Level 6 civilization. If it were when I was still playing the game, I could have killed them without much effort.

Qi Heng remained silent. Whether he was trying to escape or was too lazy to deal with the trouble or was just trying to save his life, he really didn't want to get involved in the mess of the Tianjia civilization.

A0 has ambitious goals.

Realizing the great revival of Tianjia civilization and returning the Zerg to their original position sounds ideal, but in Qi Heng's view, this idea is nothing but a wishful thinking and a futile effort.

The Tianjia civilization was once the dominant civilization in the Milky Way, and all civilizations in the entire Milky Way respected the Tianjia civilization.

More than 20,000 years ago, the Zerg could still grow stronger on their home planet. Now it is obviously impossible. The Mora civilization that replaced the Tianjia civilization will not give the Zerg a chance to rise again.

It’s not that Qi Heng looks down on the Tianjia civilization... As the saying goes, a rotten ship still has three thousand nails, but given the current situation of the Tianjia civilization, let alone three thousand, I’m afraid there aren’t even a thousand.

In this case, if he agreed to A0 to complete the [Rise and Renaissance of Civilization], he would be either courting death or stupid.

Qi Heng thought he couldn't afford to pay such a huge price for a group of Zerg he didn't even know.

The war ten thousand years ago influenced the situation in the Milky Way ten thousand years later. Anyone with a little thought could understand how difficult and dangerous it would be for the Zerg to redevelop their civilization and walk the path to becoming king again, paved with blood and fire.

If the forces of hostile civilizations discovered this during this period, the situation of the Zerg would not only become worse, but he, the "outdated overlord and culprit", would probably be arrested, paraded through the streets, and sentenced to death.

Qi Heng was not exaggerating, he had done too many bad things when he was the Overlord. Once he was discovered to be the Overlord... The corners of his mouth twitched, and he felt that instead of saving the Zerg, he should protect himself first.

[A0, how much do you know about the current Zerg information?]

Qi Heng told himself not to think too much.

Compared to A0's unrealistic goal, how to make himself survive in District 49 is more important right now.

District 49 is definitely not as simple as it seems. If you want to live here, you must understand it clearly.

I'm sorry, Your Excellency.

[Ever since the destruction of the Tianjia Civilization's central think tank twelve thousand years ago, the system has lost contact with the Zerg. All information related to the Zerg ends at the moment of the Tianjia Civilization's demise.]

A0's words made his heart sink.

The Central Think Tank was the culmination of the wisdom of the entire Tianjia civilization, equivalent to a replica of the entire civilization's database, A1. Although I had anticipated its destruction, I still felt a little disappointed when I actually heard about it.

[Which means you know nothing about the current situation of the Zerg.]

【yes. 】

It has to be said that A0's answer disappointed Qi Heng. He had wanted to get some information from the system so that he could plan what to do next, but he didn't expect A0 to fail at the critical moment.

...It seems that I can only find out the secrets of the slums by myself.

Qi Heng was a little upset when he figured it out, but luckily he wasn't the type to dwell on it. He asked, "Then what's your use?"

[The system needs to be repaired if it is damaged during the journey, and the remaining functions require corresponding energy to activate. Lord, you can collect energy to repair the system and activate more functions.]

[Ninety percent of the system's functions are the same as they are in the game, and the remaining ten percent will have slight changes after being implemented.]

[Specific situations will be automatically triggered when you turn on the corresponding function. ]

What kind of energy does the system require? Electrical energy? Nuclear energy? Energy blocks? Energy crystals?

Qi Heng gave several examples, and he still didn't know what this system "eats".

If it were the same as the gaming system, I definitely wouldn't be able to afford it.

Any energy source can replenish the energy required by the system, differing only in conversion rate. Energy crystals have the highest conversion rate, with 100 units of standard energy crystals converting into 0.1 unit of system energy.

[……]

Qi Heng was speechless. He really only picked the good ones to eat.

Things are different now. Where can I get energy crystals to feed the system?

Energy crystals are produced from rare high-energy crystal veins, and are considered scarce even within the game. Even at the peak of the Tianjia civilization, they were extremely expensive and rare, let alone in today's impoverished times.

He just ignored A0's words.

However, it is impossible not to replenish the system energy, so he has to try no matter how difficult it is.

Qi Heng thought for a while and thought that the easiest things to get in a slum like District 49 would probably be electricity and nuclear energy.

——If the steel and clothing materials needed to make identity documents are all on Tianyun Star, then there must be an industrial production line, and if there is a production line, there must be energy.

Qi Heng had an idea in mind and said, "You go into hibernation and let A1 come out."

【yes. 】

A0 responded slowly.

After the system AI switched to A1, Qi Heng didn't say anything to A1, closed his eyes and prepared to rest.

He hasn't slept since last night. His body can handle it, but he feels inexplicably tired mentally.

He had originally planned to cultivate his mental strength for two hours before resting, but now it seems that it would be better to get enough sleep.

Perhaps he was really tired. Not long after Qi Heng closed his eyes, his breathing became even and long, and he fell into a dream.

He had a dream.

…

In the magnificent palace, jade pillars with carved railings and steps made of white jade extend continuously upward, finally extending to an unreachable platform.

The decoration on the platform is extremely luxurious.

A large chair carved from black crystal was placed in the middle of the platform. Every part of the chair was carefully carved with patterns. The flower buds and flower centers supported by the patterns were embellished with precious and rare Fire Crystals that were priceless.

The moment Qi Heng opened his eyes, all he could see was the vast hall and the tall, wide dome on top of it. The relief paintings carved on the dome seemed strangely familiar to him.

I should be sleeping.

So...what's the situation now.

Thinking of this, his brain, which never stopped working when he was awake, naturally started to work and began to analyze what was going on.

Possibilities emerged and were denied one after another, until only one remained.

——This is a dream.

Why was he able to confirm this? Mainly because of the déjà vu of the murals on the dome and the scene.

The furnishings here are very similar to the temple on the Zerg home planet in the game. The main console in the game is also set up here. Except for the players and the NPCs summoned by the players, no NPC in the game can step into here.

Eliminating the possibility that I had traveled through time again, the only option left was dreaming.

After all, he was lying on the straw bed in Yan Ning's house before falling asleep. No matter how he thought about it, it was impossible for him to appear in the temple of the Zerg mother planet ten thousand years later - according to the information provided by A0, the Zerg mother planet Tianjia had long been destroyed in the war.

"Why am I here?" He muttered to himself in confusion.

Even if he was dreaming, he shouldn't dream of the temple, as he had never been here.

If he was not familiar with the layout of the temple and the stories told by the murals on the ceiling, it would be difficult for him to connect the temple in front of him with the pictures displayed inside the game. The difference between the two is even greater than the difference between the photos before and after beautification.

Qi Heng stood up straight, and suddenly he thought of a possibility.

Is it possible that the dreams you see now come from another part of yourself, such as the memory of the master - the fusion process is irreversible and cannot be stopped, so it is very reasonable to dream about the master's past during the process.

When the game becomes reality, the overlord will exist as long as the Tianjia civilization exists.

Before he entered the game and controlled the Overlord, did he have self-awareness and could he act independently... Before he could think about it, the scene in front of him suddenly changed.

This time he appeared in a palace.

He was still sitting high up on the throne, reclining, and looking at the dozens of Zergs below who were bowing in salute with a rather comfortable posture and relaxed mood.

The one with long hair on the left should be a female, and the one with short hair on the right should be a male, right? Qi Heng tried hard to distinguish them but couldn't help frowning.

——Why is this scene so blurry?

The Zerg in front of him seemed to be wrapped in fog, so hazy that he couldn't see them clearly.

He couldn't see their faces and figures clearly, and could only vaguely see their movements, but inexplicably he could feel their heartfelt submission and respect for him.

No, not to themselves, they were paying homage to the Lord.

Starting from the second scene, the dream began to become disorganized, and Qi Heng could only passively accept the strange yet familiar scenes.

The scenes in the dream were very clear, but he could not see clearly the Zerg other than himself in the dream. No matter how carefully he looked, it was still a blur.

He guessed the identities of the Zerg that appeared most frequently, trying to match them with important NPCs in the game, but except for a very distinctive Zerg, the other Zerg looked exactly the same at first glance under the cover of fog.

More importantly, the Overmind has ruled the Zerg for thousands of years, and the replacement rate of NPCs during this period is very fast, which makes it much more difficult for him to identify them.

…

Qi Heng had never expected that he would have a dream all night long.

For the entire night, from the time he fell asleep to the time he woke up, he was in a dream, watching the development of the Zerg from the perspective of a master.

The moment he opened his eyes, the scenes he saw in his dream were still lingering in his mind. He could remember them all as soon as he thought about it, as if he had experienced it himself.

[A1……]

Qi Heng wanted to ask A1 what was going on, but when he called up the system interface, he saw that his fusion degree with the first stage of the Overlord had increased by 1%.

Needless to say, this 1% must be related to yesterday's dream.

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