"Take back the star core?" Zhang Fan was somewhat stunned after hearing this. "Humanity can't even leave Earth now, where can they take back the star core?"
"Are the difficulties that humanity faces now more difficult than those of our ancestors?" the old man asked rhetorically. "It took our ancestors 100,000 years to reach the surface from underground, while our starting point is right on the surface."
"Compared to our ancestors, we've already won at the starting line, so how dare we complain?"
“This…” Zhang Fan was speechless. Compared with the suffering of the last three hundred years of ancient humans, the impact of an asteroid on the current human world is nothing at all.
Humans who have suffered disasters today can at least see hope and believe that things will get better. But what about ancient humans? Without the star core, their lives will only become more difficult day by day, and they will never see the dawn of hope.
But they didn't give up even in that situation, so what do we, as their juniors, have to complain about?
The old man took off a sapphire-like pendant from his chest and handed it to Zhang Fan: "Here, take this."
"What is this?" Zhang Fan took the egg-sized pendant with both hands.
“It records the history of our ancestors,” the old man said. “Now I’m giving it to you; you must tell it to all mankind.”
"If a race doesn't even know its own history, then that race has no roots, and it will tell present-day humanity..."
"Where do we come from, and where are we going?"
“Old man, wouldn’t it be better if you told humanity yourself?” Zhang Fan suddenly felt the pendant in his hand become incredibly heavy. He felt that it would be more convincing if the other person said it.
"I'm out of time." The old man shook his head. "The hypnotic midge can only stop time, but it can't extend it. I..."
"He only has one day left to live."
“Old man, you…” Zhang Fan was a little flustered.
"It's alright, birth, aging, sickness and death are all normal things." The old man smiled happily. "Besides, my mission is complete, and I will hand it over to you young people from now on."
After the old man finished speaking, the thin, transparent wings on his back began to fall off.
Zhang Fan's eyes widened, wanting to remind the old man, but the old man waved his hand and said, "There is one more thing. We don't know who stole our star core, and our ancestors didn't know the other party's identity either."
"We can only confirm that the other party comes from a civilization that is more advanced than ours. Perhaps the other party deliberately concealed their identity. After all, stealing a star core from the same faction, logically speaking, the other party might be punished by the laws of other more advanced carbon-based civilizations."
"The pendant I just gave you is called 'Stardust.' It contains a small amount of material that our ancestors took from the star core after launching a manned spacecraft close to it."
"If you bring stardust within 10,000 kilometers of the star's core, the pendant will glow."
"Stardust will guide you to our star core. Of course, 10,000 kilometers is far too short in the vastness of space, so you'll have to rely on your own efforts."
"Ten thousand kilometers..." Zhang Fan was somewhat bewildered. Ten thousand kilometers is certainly a long distance for humans, but in the universe, it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
"So you should make good use of the traces left by the insects. When we performed DNA surgery on the queen cockroach, we took advantage of the insects' phototaxis."
The old man pointed to the surrounding dome and continued.
"See that? The fluorescence of the dome is because it once absorbed the light of the star's core. This is also why our ancestors were able to survive underground after losing the star's core. Of course, compared to before, this light is much dimmer."
"Instinct will lead the cockroach queen to approach the star core, and what you need to do is follow the tracks left by the insects and find the star core."
After the old man finished speaking, all the thin wings on his back had fallen off, and his already thin limbs became even thinner, as if the moisture was being drained from his body.
The old man gently stroked the heads of the two mantises beside him with affection and said softly.
“'Little Blue' and 'Little Flower' are a couple. They have been guarding me here for over a hundred years. Now I am handing them over to you.”
The old man took out two egg-like objects, separated the "eggshells" in the middle, and two streams of energy swirled around the demon flower mantis.
As the eggshell continued to compress, the two mantises shrank in size until the eggshell closed, trapping them inside.
The old man handed two mantises to Zhang Fan.
"An eggshell?" Zhang Fan stared wide-eyed at the egg in his hand. "It can be used like this?"
"Oh? So you've already made 'eggshells'?" the old man asked, somewhat surprised. "What did you use them for?"
"Hl3 heavy nuclear fusion bomb..."
"Fools!" the old man exclaimed angrily. "Humanity hasn't made any progress at all! Wasting technology on such pointless things!"
Zhang Fan blushed deeply and lowered his head in utter shame.
“Whenever it’s convenient for you, you can let Little Blue and Little Flower out to move around. They are very intelligent.” The old man calmed down and continued, “Don’t worry, they won’t return to their original shape after they come out. If you want them to return to their original appearance, just shine stardust light on them.”
“Young man…” The old man sat down, let out a long breath, looked up at the dome, his body bathed in the fluorescent light of the dome, “The future of humanity depends on you young people…”
“But, sir…” Zhang Fan was a little flustered. He felt that he still had many questions to ask and many things he didn’t understand that he needed to consult the other party.
"Old man?"
"Old man?"
Zhang Fan immediately had a bad feeling. He gently pushed the old man's body, but the old man's body was stiff and he didn't move.
"Old man..."
Zhang Fan knelt down and kowtowed three times to the old man's body.
"You should rest. Leave the rest to us young people."
Zhang Fan buried the old man's body next to a banyan tree and planted flowers all around it.
Zhang Fan put the stardust pendant around his neck, put the little blue and little flower into his pocket, and then returned the way he came.
There are just too many things to do.
Back in the treehouse, Zhang Fan carefully sorted out his thoughts. The first thing he needed to do was to tell all of humanity about this forgotten history.
But what can he do? He can't even leave the underground now, let alone send a message to Earth.
If Liao Changtian were here, he would always be able to provide a solution, no matter what kind of problem we encounter.
Zhang Fan was very distressed, so he opened the game, which was the only possible way he could think of to contact Liao Changtian.
After entering the game, Zhang Fan feared that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment, so he opened the game's world chat interface without any expectations.
A week has passed, and the chat interface only contains two brief messages:
ID: Southern Wild Pig: Is anyone there? If you're still breathing, make a sound.
ID Little Willow Leaf Knife: Squeak.
...
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