Zhang Fan continued to watch the two old men play chess. Soon after, another old man entered the pavilion.
"What are you doing here?" The newly arrived elderly man was somewhat surprised to see Zhang Fan there.
“I asked him to come,” Grand Duke Ryan said with a smile, pointing to another seat next to the chessboard. “I’m so sorry I didn’t discuss it with you beforehand.”
“That’s too much of an overstatement.” Erwin, the dean of the Royal Military Command Academy of Ryan, walked over and sat down. Although he said it was nothing, his tone clearly carried a hint of dissatisfaction. “You’re the boss, so naturally we’ll do as you say.”
"Ah, I'm getting old." Grand Duke Ryan touched his forehead sheepishly. "I don't have much time left, so some things can't be done step by step anymore."
Erwin remained silent. He had read the examination report personally issued by the director of Ryan Central Hospital, and the situation was getting worse. He had no doubt about the result, because the director of the Central Hospital had been the personal physician of Grand Duke Ryan for many years.
Although Grand Duke Ryan appeared to be in good spirits, the better the Grand Duke was in spirits, the worse Elf felt the situation was.
This must be what they mean by a final burst of energy before death.
"Speak up, everyone," Grand Duke Ryan said with a smile, sipping his tea and playing chess. "It's rare for the three of us to have this opportunity to get together. I wonder if we'll have another chance like this in the future."
Who wants to speak first?
Zhang Fan felt as if he were the only outsider, his eyes curiously shifting back and forth between the three old men.
"Why don't you go first?" Erwin put down his teacup and looked at Zhang Fan.
"Me?" Zhang Fan was stunned for a moment. "What do you want me to say?"
“Tell us about your past. We’ve never asked about your experiences before coming to Ryan, but now we have to.” Erwin then glanced at Grand Duke Ryan. “There’s no need to be shy about the ‘Star Core’. In fact, much of the information I’ve given you comes from the Grand Duke himself.”
"The Grand Duke has known of your existence and purpose for a long time, but he has not arranged for you to meet for the sake of caution. We have no ill intentions."
Zhang Fan remained silent. He had always felt that there were hands manipulating everything in Ryan's life, but he had never been sure. Now he was certain that the "boss" behind the scenes was Grand Duke Ryan.
Thinking about it, it makes sense. Zhang Fan's behavior in Ryan can almost be described as lawless. If it weren't for the coordination from the highest level, how could things have been so easily suppressed and intentionally guided in a positive direction?
“Young man, I will tell you everything about the ‘Star Core’ in Ryan,” Grand Duke Ryan said solemnly. “But before that, can you tell me about the planet you came from, and everything about it?”
Zhang Fan glanced at the three elderly people present, and after careful consideration, he introduced the splendid culture of that distant blue planet.
A short time cannot cover the entire history of Earth. Zhang Fan's narration focuses on the history of the ancestors of Martian humans and what happened after Earth was hit by an asteroid and entered a new era.
The three elderly men listened intently, their eyes shining, as if they were listening to a myth.
"It's truly remarkable." After listening to Zhang Fan's story, Zhu Yifu sighed deeply. "In such a desolate cosmic wasteland, there actually exists a civilization that has entered the interstellar age."
"Don't you know?" Zhang Fan frowned. "You took the 'Star Core,' and you actually say you didn't know it belonged to someone?"
"It's the fault of our Ryan royal family." Grand Duke Ryan shook his head with a wry smile. "It's nothing more than a helpless act of self-deception and burying one's head in the sand."
The story of the "Star Core" dates back to the ancestors of the Ryan royal family.
The nation of Ryan originated in Adelaide, but back then Adelaide didn't specifically refer to the city of the royal capital, but rather to the entire capital planet.
Every planet has its own life cycle, and at that time, Adelaide was undoubtedly in the final stage of its life cycle.
Various geological and meteorological disasters occur frequently, and torrential rains and thunderstorms lasting for months are common.
The scientists at Lane have concluded that Adelaide’s “core” is aging and unable to support the planet’s ecosystem, and that the planet is likely to fall apart within the next hundred years.
A hundred years may seem like a long time, but for a planet, it's almost the time it takes to take its last breath before it dies.
Even worse, the environment on the surface of Adelaide may become uninhabitable within the next decade.
Of course, people did not stand idly by. Adelaide had already stepped into the threshold of interstellar civilization. In the first hundred years after realizing that the planet was aging, they invested almost everything in space research and development, which further promoted the rapid advancement of interstellar technology.
Settlements have been established on several planets closest to Adelaide, capable of accommodating up to 30,000 space colonists scattered across these alien cities under the domes.
However, the figure of 30,000 is undoubtedly a drop in the ocean compared to Adelaide's population of over 3 billion.
Moreover, as Adelaide's ecological environment deteriorates, even with official information blackouts, more and more people, relying on their limited astronomical knowledge, are able to guess that Adelaide is heading towards extinction.
One prominent manifestation of this was the surge in immigration applications and tourist visas to extraterrestrial cities, which directly overwhelmed the network servers of the Lane National Immigration Administration.
In fact, national-level network servers are not so easily paralyzed. Even if the number of daily applications doubles, it is impossible to paralyze the National Immigration Administration Center.
There is only one reason why a national-level network server would be paralyzed: the state wants it paralyzed.
We cannot respond to the public's demands without doing so.
Even if these alien settlements were fully open and completely disregarded quality of life and sustainable development, a settlement with a total population of 30,000 could only accommodate a maximum of 100,000 people.
At this point, deciding who can go and who cannot becomes a test of human nature.
The most virtuous approach would be to send the elderly, the weak, women, and children, but this was immediately opposed by the rationalists, who argued that it would be more reasonable to send young and strong people, as well as elites such as scientists and engineers. Then, the human rights advocates opposed it... Each faction had its own argument, and all of them were reasonable.
This is a contradictory choice. Why can you go, but I can't?
Compared to a population of 3 billion, 30,000 or 100,000 are a tiny minority. Regardless of which school of thought or theory is used to select the candidates, they will face unanimous opposition from those who lost the election.
Following the rule of majority rule, this is very democratic, and no one can say anything more.
Amid the public debate, Adelaide has experienced increasingly frequent natural disasters, with an earthquake of magnitude 10 or higher occurring somewhere on this planet almost every month.
People should be thankful that these earthquakes occurred in the wilderness or uninhabited areas, rather than in densely populated cities.
But how long can this good fortune last? After a magnitude 9 earthquake completely destroyed a medium-sized city, the people, under immense pressure, finally reached a consensus:
Draw lots!
This seemingly frivolous approach, devoid of emotion and rationality, has become the most democratic approach.
People pushed this cause with great enthusiasm, and even established a "supervisory committee" to oversee the entire lottery process.
On the night of the nationwide lottery, people truly experienced what it meant for the streets to be deserted. Everyone stayed at home, glued to their televisions, waiting hopefully for the phone to ring.
The computer management center of the Lane National Immigration Administration stores the identity serial numbers of all Lane citizens. Randomly selecting 100,000 numbers from this database takes only a few seconds. Similarly, the National Telecommunications Center's computer can dial these 100,000 winning phone numbers via voice, a process that takes only a few minutes.
Those one in ten thousand lucky winners, who were excited and thrilled, were only happy for one night before being told the next morning that the lottery was invalid.
Because some people suspect that someone tampered with the computer system responsible for the lottery, and others suspect that there is a mole in the "Supervisory Committee" and that someone is colluding for personal gain, it seems that they have long forgotten that this "Supervisory Committee" was elected by them through democratic voting.
Of course, those who won the lottery also had objections, arguments, and tried to protect their legitimate rights.
The solution to the dispute is simple: just vote! One person, one vote—how fair!
Then the lottery results were rejected.
"Hahaha—" Grand Duke Ryan, who was recounting the past, laughed heartily, tears streaming down his face. "This is Ryan's past. Compared to the people of Blue Star after the 'New Era' you mentioned, I think we are just a bunch of clowns."
"Whether you leave Adelaide or not, the result is the same, isn't it?" Zhang Fan looked at Archduke Ryan, unable to tell whether the heartbroken old man was crying or laughing.
“Yes.” Grand Duke Ryan nodded. “Our scientists have already done the calculations. Regardless of whether the ecosystem of the alien colony can maintain independent operation for a long time without the support and maintenance of its mother planet, the shock wave and helium flash generated by the explosion of Adelaide alone can wipe out all advanced life forms in the nearby star system.”
“What’s the point of living a few more years?” Grand Duke Ryan shook his head and sighed.
"If that's the case, why not tell them the truth?" Zhang Fan paused for a moment, then continued, "Just to give them a vague hope?"
“You are very clever,” Grand Duke Ryan smiled. “When you become the leader, you will understand that the stability of a country is more important than anything else.”
"The alien colony was the only hope for the people of Lane at that time. As long as it existed, no matter how small the chances were, people believed they had a chance to go to another planet."
“So the concept of an alien settlement is actually something you’ve been fueling,” Zhang Fan continued, picking up where Grand Duke Ryan left off. “If Adelaide doesn’t exist, there simply won’t be a safe alien refuge.”
“A white lie.” Grand Duke Ryan nodded. “Otherwise, the desperate masses would cause the country to collapse before disaster even arrives.”
"And then what happened?" Zhang Fan continued to ask.
"And then?" Grand Duke Ryan took a sip of tea to calm himself down. "And then it's the story you already know."
“A down-on-his-luck young nobleman named Charlie Hussein brought us a new hope.”
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