In the Ringworld, Lei Ting was happily bullying his "Golden Corn," Lucas was fleeing for his life from the relentless pursuit of various media outlets, and the Fungi-people were peacefully writing papers in search of their own brains. Everyone had a bright future ahead of them.
Meanwhile, in the direction of the Federation’s Capital System...
Falin Valentine flipped through the reports on his data pad and bowed his head to report to his master. "The 'Solar Star' has been missing as planned for approximately six days..."
"Wait a little longer," Angye said lazily, wearing a full-coverage blindfold. "The 'Solar Star' has left and won't be back for a while. This is the perfect time for them to come looking for trouble."
Falin, also wearing a full-coverage blindfold, lowered his head slightly.
He knew his master was waiting for an opportunity. Or rather, the Federation Council was waiting for an opportunity.
At such a critical moment, allowing the "Solar Star" and that anomalous fungal parasitic organism to leave Federation space was part of the plan.
"Initially, they will be very courageous... but the fact that the 'Solar Star' does not appear directly in any media reports will cause them to have doubts—'Has he really left?' 'Has he come back?'—and these doubts are the reason they will delay too long, lose morale, and ultimately meet inevitable failure."
Angye leaned back into the sofa, saying leisurely, "Those ghost-things that are always sowing their malicious dust all over Federation space will surely appear; it's only a matter of time. And they are your enemies as well... Are you happy? The two great enemies of the rebels are about to face each other head-on."
Falin remained silent, like a stone devoid of emotional response.
"Ah, look at me, I forgot you've been brainwashed." Angye sighed. "It's all your fault, Falin. Why did you have to betray me? Oh, well, actually, you were never loyal to me, so it can't really be called 'betrayal'..."
As he spoke, he let out an interested chuckle. "Losing one's eyes is truly inconvenient. If this headache continues, I might just undergo Abyssalization one of these days."
Beneath his blindfold, there were no eyeballs now, only a pair of hollow sockets. Within them churned a rolling black mist constrained by the orbital bones, which constantly emitted shrill shrieks into his mind.
Back when he still had eyeballs, these forces were bound by the spiritual flesh of the eyes and became his power, only causing him headaches during his midnight dreams.
But... he should never, ever have tried to influence that sun-like spirit while Lei Ting was in a bad mood.
And since he had done so, it was not incomprehensible that the eyes carrying that power would be scorched as if staring at the sun from point-blank range, nearly dying at the hands of the "Solar Star."
From then on, Angye understood one thing completely: the "Immovable Solar Star" was truly immovable.
That violent, harsh solar wheel was not to be offended, not to be tempted, and not to be shaken.
But fortunately, he stood on the Federation's side. Moreover, Evenheiler had deceived him.
—A truly suicidal act.
"Continue to wait," Angye issued his command. "Also, tell Yondell to hide that little octopus wife of his well.
"The Abryssac people have too low a resistance to the 'Boiling' virus, and that little thing is, after all, the former Crown Prince. If something goes wrong with it, it will still be quite troublesome."
***
"Fine, I understand." In the Yondell manor, the gentle and refined master of the house spoke with a smile. "Thank you for your hard work. Also, please record my next sentence and play it for Upton."
"?" Falin silently opened the recording interface of his light-computer.
"Piss off!" Yondell said.
"..." Falin finished the recording in silence and closed the interface.
"Excuse me." Yondell nodded to Falin with a smile and turned to walk out of the reception room. Beside him, an electronic butler controlled by an AI automatically floated over, placing two neatly wrapped small gifts into Falin's hands—one marked for Angye and one for Falin.
Falin silently carried the gifts and the recording away.
On the other side, Yondell went to his backyard with his sincere and gentle smile, but his expression suddenly turned cold.
Because he saw a pink-haired youth sitting opposite two brown-haired young men, and they were... talking quite happily.
Yondell stood at the doorway for a good while before suddenly letting out a sharp cough.
The three were startled and stood up one after another. "Father?" "Father!" "Vice Speaker Yondell..."
"The Abryssac Prince had best spend less time out of the water lately," Yondell said coldly. "It is for your own good."
At the phrase "for your own good," one of the two brown-haired young men suddenly clenched his fist.
Yondell saw it. But he remained indifferent. Because these two children who called him "Father" and looked exactly alike... were his own superpower clones.
They had manifested in the world using the appearance of children he once had; they themselves did not know they were not real lives, and Yondell was accustomed to isolating his connection with them, treating them as a pair of truly existing children.
It was just that he could never truly look at them as "children."
As for the incident where the Abryssac Crown Prince proposed marriage years ago, it was essentially this pink octopus seeking refuge.
The current King of Abryssac, "Abryssac Tu En Spot," had been intentionally infected with the "Boiling" virus. Before his superpowers went out of control, he sealed himself within the royal palace deep in the "Hegren Starry Waters" and urgently sent out his most beloved child, Arin.
There were two reasons why he hadn't sent Arin to the Ringworld for the protection of the Integration: first, the Integration Council was full of prying eyes, and second...
"The Integration is not safe; the Human Union should also pay attention to threats from within the galaxy."
—These were the original words Spot had Arin bring.
In addition, Spot had sent a vast amount of technical knowledge and rare materials. They came to the Federation with Arin under the guise of "marriage gifts," even though everyone knew the Federation itself was not safe—especially for an Abryssac.
Particularly since Arin did seem to have... some schemes, but not entirely enough.
He didn't understand politics, military affairs, livelihoods, law, commerce, or social etiquette. His head was filled entirely with the petty, dark intrigues of how to struggle against nobles in a royal palace. His vision was not broad enough; even if he were given a super-strong superpower and a faction that could provide whatever he wanted, he would likely only ponder how to gain some benefits for himself that had nothing to do with the sea of stars.
This fellow's best choice back then would actually have been Lei Ting. As long as he had made a grand proposal of marriage to Lei Ting, even if Lei Ting himself and the Federation disagreed, the public opinion and attention would have allowed him to live safely.
And Lei Ting's capabilities made his future limitless. Sooner or later—and now, that day had arrived—more than 75% of the Federation's power would depend on his strength. Being associated with him was definitely not a bad thing.
But in the end, the person he chose was the then-powerful Gerach Yondell.
A Federation Vice Speaker who could never truly love anyone, let alone allow Arin to come within ten meters of him, and who only refrained from crushing Arin to death out of respect for the King of Abryssac.
To be honest, it was quite a death-defying move.
Why exactly had Spot made such a choice? Why did he dote on Arin so much, and why had he sent Arin to a nation that shared a blood feud with his own?
No one knew the truth. The Abryssac Royal Palace was already sealed, completely cut off from the outside. Even with something as significant as the "Solar Star" passing through the Hegren Starry Waters, Spot hadn't even sent out a single decree.
If the conch horns around the palace hadn't been playing the funeral dirge that only Abryssacs could fully understand, the various Dukes of Abryssac would likely have already begun their civil war.
"Please return to your quarters, Crown Prince." Yondell's eyes, radiating a blue-violet glow, swept over the spot where the "three" had been, instantly retracing their conversation. He then said indifferently, "Do not let King Spot's painstaking efforts go to waste."
After saying this, he turned and left. his reaction was like that of a master specialized in physical exorcism seeing an irredeemable wretch he couldn't just punch to death.
—If he hadn't been stopped by Angye at the beginning, and later restricted by the Speaker's orders, and if the two of them hadn't actually established any real relationship... he would have long ago caused this alien who dared to drug him to die of a sudden illness, followed by immediate cremation to forbid an autopsy.
Playing dirty, are we?
To be honest, between the two Vice Speakers in the Council who prioritized Federation interests above all else, that Angye next door—whose Federation style was nauseatingly persistent—was the one responsible for... open schemes in critical moments!
***
On the rooftop of a hotel somewhere in the Ringworld, Lei Ting and Evenheiler leaned back in the complimentary stargazing loungers, looking up at the intensely brilliant red sky.
Actually, they were currently in the Inner Ring, seeing the radiance of the "Galactic Core" after multiple layers of filtering. Most of it came from red stars over ten billion years old. The nearest one was not far away, its ever-changing patterns visible to the naked eye. It was called "Flame-001," the most familiar introductory planet for the "Stargazers" of the Galactic Star-Net.
In the short time Lei Ting and his companion spent gazing at the violent starry sky, "Flame-001" underwent roughly thirty different types of planetary atmospheric disasters. Every moment, endless stellar storms crashed against the Ringworld's defense systems. Every spark of light triggered was the whisper of a fading star, yet each could also elicit a burst of enthusiastic cheers from the distant observation decks, a mix of a thousand racial languages that the Orion hearing system might not even be able to distinguish.
"To be honest, I'm very curious why the Ringworld has changed hands several times, with several generations of vaguely traceable controllers..." Lei Ting said softly. "I think anyone can see that this place itself is a life-support pod designed to sustain the life of a civilization. Since its builders chose to construct it, why would 'it' or 'they' leave it?"
—Who were the builders of the Ringworld? The answer to this question remained a mystery to this day. But everyone knew it was a massive treasure trove built by a humanoid race no taller than twenty meters, which had been excavated intermittently but vigorously for tens of thousands of years, yet still held a vast number of secrets within.
Why exactly was it built?
Where did its builders go?
Could it be that they came from that chaotic, violent, and disordered starry sky within the Galactic Core?
"I don't know," Evenheiler said succinctly. "But, I'm thinking about something..."
"What?" Lei Ting turned his head, looking at the other man's profile and those eyes.
Evenheiler was silent for a moment, withdrawing his gaze from the Galactic Core to meet Lei Ting's eyes. The latter could see a familiar look of solemnity in those grey-green eyes, which made him
