Chapter 37
The spaceship came out of stealth mode and emerged from the darkness, the hatch slid open silently, just two steps in front of Rong Yuan.
Rong Yuan stepped forward, the lights in the corridor came on, the hatch closed behind him, and the lights outside the spaceship went out from beginning to end. The stealth mode was turned on again, and in the blink of an eye, the spaceship seemed to disappear again.
In the empty corridor, there was no one except Rong Yuan, and there was no sound. Even the air seemed to be completely still. He stood there for a while before moving forward.
"Tick, tick, tick."
The sound of footsteps rang out softly, and the echoes collided, amplifying the sound several times, making it seem even more lonely. As he moved forward, rows of lights came on and off, and except for where Rong Yuan was, there was only silent darkness everywhere else, and time seemed to be infinitely stretched here.
In a trance, there seemed to be the sound of footsteps and someone shouting -
"Don't eat it secretly, little brat! That's tonight's dinner, and I haven't cooked it yet!"
"Wow, look, that nebula is so beautiful! Let's go there next!"
"Stupid, do you know how far that is?"
"Hahahaha, I'm invincible! My Eagle mech is first in the speed competition!"
"Hmph, if you have the guts, have a real competition with the captain."
"Fuck, do you want me to die?"
"Captain, Tata said he wants to race with you... mmmm... let me go..."
"Don't fight. Fighting is not good."
"Get out of here, Dunker, this is a love exchange!"
“Pah~”
The lights in the room at the end of the corridor came on. This was a room of nearly 100 square meters. There were many large and small display screens on the wall. In front of it was a huge transparent glass curtain wall. The scene outside was clearly visible, but at this time, all you could see was darkness. Occasionally, you could see white sand and gravel being blown by the wind. The desks and workbenches in the room were clean and spotless. A dozen chairs were neatly arranged, revealing a cold and dead silence.
Rong Yuan walked to the table and picked up a photo frame. In the photo, eighteen people were sitting on chairs, standing on the side, lying on the sofa, drinking tea, reading, fiddling with equipment, and playing together. When the shutter was pressed, everyone looked at the camera with a smile, and the happiness of that moment was forever frozen on this small piece of paper.
In the interstellar era, people stored most of their information in electronic form. Rong Yuan, who came from a planet in the initial stage of civilization, printed this photo out of habit and placed it on his desk. However, he did not expect that this would be the only memorial left by all the members of the Feiyan team.
Putting down the photo, Rong Yuan sat on the chair, lost in thought for a moment, and called out, "Number Two."
"Here, master." A lazy electronic voice rang out, and at the same time, a series of waveforms flashed by on the largest screen in front of Rong Yuan.
No. 2 is the replica of Noah, the intelligent computer that Rong Yuan exchanged from the Book of Merits. It has a very direct name, "Noah No. 2". Compared to the original Noah, who demanded a name that reflected his importance from birth and was picky and nitpicking, No. 2 was extremely indifferent to these external things. He used such a simple code name for more than a hundred years, and never found a carrier for himself. He always existed in the star network in the form of data. He had no entity, but he could be said to be omnipresent.
"Report the situation." Rong Yuan said.
"The fleet will arrive at Red Prison Star in fifteen hours, twenty-seven minutes and thirty-three seconds." The electronic voice of No. 2 said this as the waveform jumped.
"What's the response on Starnet?"
"It's just as expected." Number Two replied. At the same time, the picture on the screen changed - tall buildings that stretched from the sky to the ground like chopsticks, a group of people in ragged clothes, and a silly grinning face in the middle of the screen.
The next moment, white text surged in like a tide, flooding the entire screen.
"An old man's face but a three-year-old's heart, this anchor is really weird."
"Stop calling the host naive. Don't you see how handsome he is when he kills people decisively? The host is definitely playing dumb!"
"Hahaha, does he really not know that he is broadcasting live? That's too weird, right?"
"It's because of this that we can see the host's true (stupid) side! If it's all acting, then wouldn't his acting skills be better than Miss Keke's?"
"Keke, my goddess, don't compare her with any garbage."
"Ke Ke, get out of here. I just want to see Bai Le now!"
"After all these years, who knew that Red Prison Star would be like this? This is horrible. The top leaders of the empire should apologize to the people of the country! Left Prime Minister Sean did nothing and allowed Prison Star to commit crimes. Step down!"
"Do you still remember those children? They were so pitiful. I wonder how the Empire will place them? If possible, I want to adopt one."
"Me too. I want to adopt the child named Lili. I wonder if the Empire will allow it."
"Shame on the Hundred Flowers! Despicable the Hundred Flowers! Die!"
"Ah, I saw my former classmate. She was a good girl, and I never heard that she had committed any crime! How come she is in Prison Planet?"
"Really? You can't be traveling back in time, right? Haha."
“It’s terrifying when you think about it.”
"By the way, who is that beep-beep-beep? Am I the only one who wants to know who the person is who is always blocked?"
"We're both looking for the identity of this mysterious person. Anyone who knows please come out and share your information."
"According to my guess, that person is an investigator from the Empire's legendary special forces unit numbered zero."
"Go to hell, don't try to fool us with the settings in the novel."
"I also saw my former neighbor... Aren't there supposed to be only criminals on the Red Prison Star who have committed heinous crimes and cannot be pardoned? What crime did my neighbor commit? Can someone explain it to me?"
"Why are there so many people on Red Prison Star? Why are there so many children?"
“I can’t imagine what those girls will encounter in a place like this.”
"Shut up, Moral Emperor! Isn't public? Don't you know that there is no distinction between men and women? Don't you know that even if you have offspring, they will not be considered citizens of the Empire? Why are you pretending to be innocent now? It's ridiculous!"
“I knew the law, but I didn’t know it was like this.”
"I can only say that reality is more cruel than imagination."
This is the content of the transaction between Rong Yuan and Bai Xiang.
——From that day on, a thumb-sized, invisible, unmanned camera has been quietly hovering around Bai Le, showing everything he sees, encounters, and talks about completely and truthfully on the largest live broadcast platform of the Star Network for people to watch, review, and think about. The painful struggles and cruelty of the people on the Prison Star, small kindnesses and bad betrayals, no matter good or bad, can be seen by the audience of the entire Star Network.
Of course, the live broadcast on Starnet is one minute delayed compared to the actual filming content, because the video is first processed by No. 2, which blocks all content related to Rong Yuan. At the same time, if Bai Le is doing some activities that are not suitable for viewing, such as going to the toilet or taking a bath, the picture will also be blurred.
This was undoubtedly a gamble for Bai Xiang.
Because Rong Yuan required absolute truth, Bai Le himself was unaware of the existence of the camera. If he did something intolerable during the live broadcast, it would be magnified a thousand times on the Star Network. The anger and disgust of netizens would be enough for the court to make the most stringent judgment. The live broadcast format also made all means of circumvention and sophistry useless. At the same time, everything on Prison Star was broadcast live, and Bai Le, as the anchor, would inevitably be angered by those whose interests were damaged and would be vented on him. At that time, Bai Le's future would undoubtedly be much worse than it is now.
But as long as he performs well in the live broadcast, or in other words, as long as there is something likable about him, then Bai Le will rise to the top in one step. His past crimes, his identity as the son of the greatest star pirate in the history of the empire, his past on the Prison Star, his character flaws, and his inadequacies will all be covered by the glorious light of "the hero who exposed the darkness of the Prison Star." This will become his greatest umbrella of protection, and he will be protected and cared for by the empire for the rest of his life. Whether .
The result was either extremely good or extremely bad. Rong Yuan thought Bai Xiang would hesitate and consider for a long time with such a huge difference in results, but he agreed without saying a word.
——In Bai Xiang's eyes, his son is perfect, the cutest, most sensible, and kindest child in the world. How could anyone not like him? You must be kidding! He is only worried that too many people like Bai Le, which will affect his normal life in the future.
In the past, when Rong Yuan was in the Feiyan team, he had Noah as technical support on the Star Network, and No. 2 was always hidden in the invisible network in the form of data streams, providing some assistance to Noah and acting as the "brain behind the king". Therefore, apart from Wandou, Noah and Amirida, no one else around Rong Yuan knew about the existence of No. 2. After a dramatic change ninety years ago, Rong Yuan lost both Wandou and Noah, and only No. 2 remained with him.
Three months ago, when No. 2 discovered that Rong Yuan had suddenly lost contact, it immediately mobilized all monitoring and communication equipment and soon discovered that Rong Yuan had been sent to Red Prison Star. Then No. 2 started the spacecraft, which was orbiting the planet in a high orbit in outer space without power, and immediately rushed to Red Prison Star, arriving on the planet only two days later than Rong Yuan.
There was a communication device on Rong Yuan's combat uniform, so No. 2 sent a message to Rong Yuan when he was close to Prison Star. However, at that time, Rong Yuan was with Hei Feng and others, and he wanted to see more of this place, so he did not accept No. 2's suggestion to leave immediately and continued to stay here.
When he saw Ye Zi, at such a young age, fighting alone against insects and beasts to save his younger brother, and when he learned about the existence of Paradise City on Prison Star, Rong Yuan began to think about what he should do.
His spaceship was not small in size and could barely carry thousands of people away from here, but then what?
Should we only save the people we see in front of us and pretend that the others don't exist? Should we also pretend that we don't know what will happen to the Prison Star in the future?
He can take some people out of this hell, but how can he arrange their future? Young children need special care, the injured need treatment, people born on the prison planet need to go to school for normal systematic learning, and they must have formal identity certificates to live in the outside world. The many habits these people have developed on the prison planet are bound to be unsuitable for normal society and require long-term guidance and correction... Can he do all of this?
Perhaps it would not be impossible to succeed with a little effort. Doctors, nurses, teachers, anyone can be hired as long as there is money. However, Rongyuan is not willing to do such a troublesome thing.
We cannot turn a blind eye to the tragedy happening before our eyes, but we also cannot save them temporarily and then abandon them to drift in the larger world.
Therefore, Rong Yuan chose this way - openly! Expose all the darkness to the sun, tear open the ugly scars, and expose the stinking pus to everyone. Regardless of whether the people outside want to see all this, he wants to let those people know: it is here! Such people really exist! Such things are happening!
He believed that no matter what the reasons were for the Landia Empire to establish such a prison planet and allow the evil deeds here to ferment, no matter who the person behind the scenes who controlled Oris was, public opinion, public sentiment, pressure from both home and abroad, and the long-established Interstellar Alliance's advocacy of humanitarianism would force the upper echelons of the empire to face up to the existence of the prison planet and deal with the matter as quickly as possible with a relatively more just and equitable attitude, clearing the name of the innocent and giving compensation, giving the best care to those children, bringing out a series of responsible parties and dealing with them seriously, doing everything possible to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future, and making these public on the interstellar network to prove that Landia was still the peaceful, stable, and just country, and that the royal family of Landia was still innocent, noble, and friendly, worthy of the support and trust of all citizens; and that those allied countries who took the opportunity to criticize and question Landia would know that Landia was still Landia, and that a few mistakes would not affect her strength and beauty.
And all of this is inseparable from the existence of StarNet.
Starnet is recognized as the greatest invention in the Interstellar Alliance. Its emergence marks the transition of civilization in the Milky Way from the dark forest of ignorance to the alliance era where people can communicate, collaborate, exchange and coexist with each other.
The core of StarNet is the quantum computer.
There is a special phenomenon in quantum mechanics called quantum entanglement. In layman's terms, two quanta have countless states. They may be particles or waves, they may rotate to the left or right, they may dance a waltz in the void, or they may be a quiet thinker. But no matter when and no matter how far apart they are, their states are always corresponding. When the state of one quantum changes, the state of the other quantum - even billions of light years away - will also change synchronously.
As a result, information can be transmitted at speeds faster than the speed of light, allowing people in the Milky Way to appreciate Bai Le's silly smile and express their opinions to each other at the same time even if they are tens of thousands of light years apart; allowing the Landia Empire to rule hundreds of star systems across thousands of light years; allowing anyone to stroll in virtual space on any habitable planet on the other side of the galaxy as long as they sit at home and connect to the star network.
Of course, this does not mean that all computers in the alliance are quantum computers. In fact, in general, there is only one information base station with a quantum computer as the core in the space orbit of each habitable planet. All devices on the planet must pass through this base station when connecting to the star network for information transmission and exchange. Only a few core planets, such as the Imperial Star of the Landia Empire, have multiple base stations.
At the same time, the emergence of StarNet also indirectly led to the unification of time, currency, and weights and measures within the Interstellar Alliance.
Before the emergence of the star network, each planet defined its time unit based on the rotation period and revolution period of its own planet or satellite. As for units of length, weight, currency, etc., there might be dozens or even hundreds of them on just one planet.
After the emergence of Star Network, the time of Star Network is the time of all planets in the alliance, even if they have to go through several springs, summers, autumns and winters in a year, or the winter alone takes decades; the currency of Star Network is the currency that is circulated on all planets, and the past barter trading method has completely become history.
Rongyuan's Noah and Noah 2 are, in essence, also quantum computers, but they have the ability to autonomously absorb knowledge and evolve. Compared with the base stations of the Interstellar Alliance that only serve to exchange information, they are more advanced.
