Being able to ask "Who gave this to you" proved that 'Solar Star' had already discovered something was wrong with the pendant. Shane felt a surge of joy at this, though he wasn't surprised.
He had witnessed the wisdom and divine power of this mortal god—ten years in the future.
Back then, he had already betrayed the Federation and spent several years trying to escape the control of that man who always called him unintelligent. During that time, he had nearly died at the hands of 'Solar Star' countless times. Like most people, he had once harbored deep-seated hatred and hostility toward this man who had been his superior and had guided him through several combat training sessions.
But now...
Shane took a deep breath and pulled the pendant out from under his collar.
"This is an heirloom from my parents," he said, his expression gradually becoming steady. "It’s the only thing they left me. Also, Your Excellency 'Solar Star,' I have intelligence that I must report to you in private."
Having been fortunate enough to live a second life due to the influence of spacetime fluctuations, even though his memories were largely blurred by the self-stabilizing nature of spacetime, he had done his best to strengthen himself while maintaining his mental stability.
Though he didn't know why the development of events unrelated to him in this life differed so drastically from the last...
This time, he would do his part for the sake of it all!
"I need to report regarding..." Shane took two steps forward, looking up at Lei Ting’s visor. He mouthed the words for the 'Ethereal Plane.' "...that matter. I require an absolutely secure environment."
"Shane?!"
Valianna had not expected the young man to act this way. For a moment, a faint blue glow instinctively flickered in her eyes, and her mind connected directly to a weapon located on the other side of the flagship.
In the weapon display room, 'Champion' flashed with light.
Susanna, meanwhile, raised a finger. Her left wrist detached, and the structure of her arm split and reorganized. Centered on the severed wrist socket, she assembled a cold, sleekly designed bolt launcher.
An energy glow like molten lava appeared at the muzzle, but in the next moment, Lei Ting raised a hand to stop her chassis from pre-heating and charging.
"—Do you know what you are saying?"
Lei Ting looked down at Shane. His psychic power directly shredded the other's supernatural self-defense system, scanning him from top to bottom, inside and out. He confirmed that Shane was not suffering from mental control, drug-induced hallucinations, sensory disturbance, or Ethereal pollution.
It was strange. The boy shouldn't have come into contact with information regarding the 'Ethereal Plane' yet.
"I... I know."
Even though he had been a seasoned supernatural warrior in his past life, Shane nearly suffocated under the terrifying pressure of suddenly facing a star in its prime.
However, he wasn't worried that 'Solar Star' would misinterpret his abrupt approach—especially as a single Omega—as having some other meaning.
If he had viewed the man as a Great Demon King during his most difficult times in his previous life, the man before him now was nothing short of a saint, a god walking the earth.
How could 'Solar Star' have such filthy thoughts like those other people?
Don't make him laugh!
Shane looked up at Lei Ting, his eyes filled with solemn expectation.
As for Lei Ting... after confirming that the boy's words were indeed of his own volition, he pondered for a moment and actually nodded to Valianna and Susanna.
The two were slightly stunned. They silently stood down from their combat stances and turned to leave the room.
Under Shane’s bright gaze, Lei Ting gestured for him to follow and turned to float toward his own 'office.'
Once they reached that high, vast, and empty hall, Shane suddenly spoke: "This place... isn't secure enough."
Lei Ting glanced at him.
"I know this place is more secure than that room in the Federal Parliament, but it’s still not enough," Shane said with a sunny smile. "At least, not for now."
'That room in the Federal Parliament'... did he mean the room where he spoke with 'Gaze'?
Even Lei Ting himself had only recently come into contact with that information. Where did Shane learn of it?
It seemed some very interesting things had happened.
Lei Ting crossed his arms and tilted his head, shutting down all monitoring equipment within the room's partitions.
The stars and flames outside the windows were abruptly cut off. In an instant, the metallic room held only the two of them, surrounded by lights, steel, and vast, dark screens.
"Still not enough, Your Excellency 'Solar Star,'" Shane said again. "I know this place is more secure than the twelve control rooms of the Ringworld, but it’s still not enough."
...The 'Ringworld control rooms'? How could Shane know about that?
Even Lei Ting had only figured out the Ringworld's specific structure through his perception when he visited it in person. Despite its massive shell and tens of thousands of sectors, its operation was essentially managed by twelve evenly distributed control rooms.
But Shane shouldn't have been to the Ringworld, nor should he know such secrets.
A suspicion rose in Lei Ting’s mind. He waved a hand, shutting down the entire glass-like viewing screen.
"Still not enough... at least for now," Shane whispered with a serious face. "I know this place might be more secure than the main control room embedded inside a living Star Beast... but Your Excellency, it is still not enough."
He knew about the matter of the third planet in the New Solar System?!
Lei Ting’s brow twitched. He raised a hand, opening all the aforementioned barriers, then grabbed Shane by the shoulder. The two disappeared in a flash of golden light.
In almost an instant, they landed on a nearby barren planet scoured by grey-white sandstorms. Immediately, a massive sphere of star-alloy enveloped them, isolating them from any possible external prying.
A flow of energy like golden sunlight lit up. All metallic electronic devices within the alloy sphere suffered severe interference and temporarily ceased functioning.
*That is the nightmare of the galaxy,* Shane thought. *And also the galaxy's hope.*
"Tell me," Lei Ting said deeply. "What do you know?"
It was clear now that the person before him was a far cry from the Shane in the 'original work'—the protagonist who had been dragged from a hot-blooded shonen manga into a melodramatic soap opera. Lei Ting had to figure out what was going on.
"Before that, I must first explain: my soul has returned from ten years in the future, Your Excellency. I am a 'person from the future,'" Shane said, dropping a bombshell. "I can provide evidence regarding this."
"..." Lei Ting wasn't particularly surprised. Was he the only one allowed to transmigrate while others couldn't be reborn?
Who knew if he might perform a 'return to the past' drama himself one day... Since he could transmigrate his physical body back hundreds or nearly a thousand years, what was a mere soul returning to its youth?
After knowing that he was destined to travel through time when his hair was white, he had already figured it out: there was no essential difference between transmigration and rebirth. Both were miracles created by spacetime shifts. No matter how vast the energy required for a spacetime transition, there were plenty of places in the universe where the flow of time differed from other regions... the most common being black holes.
So, although the definition of 'time' varied among different schools of thought, massive celestial bodies could inherently cause changes in the gravitational web and the rate of material change. While spacetime travel within the universe was rarely recorded, it was theoretically possible.
Furthermore, he himself was an 'outsider' who had traveled through spacetime.
Therefore, Lei Ting simply nodded, signaling for the other to show his evidence and sincerity.
Shane held up the wooden pendant, opened it, and displayed the Galactic Empire emblem inside.
"My maternal ancestor from over a hundred years ago... was one of the humans sent out to 'probe' the stars," Shane said. "She somehow came into contact with one of the last few groups of Galactic Empire remnants wandering the stars and obtained this from them. They believed it would one day reach the hands of a 'key figure'..."
"Where is your AI?" Lei Ting asked suddenly.
He could see that the boy was racking his brains to find the right words to gain his trust, but it was completely unnecessary.
He knew more than Shane imagined.
Shane was genuinely stunned by this question, his pupils dilating. In this life, he didn't have that 'AI' by his side!
"You came back too?!" Shane’s eyes widened, and he broke into a joyful smile. "That makes sense. When you disrupted the spacetime structure, I was able to return to the past because I was too close... Ah, I understand. Your memory must be as blurred as mine, right? No wonder everything is a bit different..."
"..." Lei Ting tilted his head noncommittally.
His memory was indeed blurred, but that was because of transmigration...
And 'everything is a bit different'? Did the development of events now deviate from what this Shane remembered? Then... perhaps the other hadn't been reborn, but had traveled from a parallel space?
Unfortunately, his own memories were still in a blurred state and hadn't fully recovered...
...Wait.
A flash of insight struck him, and Lei Ting’s heart suddenly grew heavy. He realized a problem: *'Memory blur is a self-preservation instinct during transmigration'*—where did that information come from?!
From the moment his memories first awakened until now, he seemed to have never doubted the authenticity or credibility of those memories.
Even when he worried about whether things would happen, or if future upheavals would be more dangerous than he imagined, he only worried about history changing beyond expectations. He had never doubted the reality of that memory itself.
Could it be... that the mental influence he received was more than just that initial bit?!
No... that memory had awakened alongside 'Solar Star: Immovable,' a power that was almost 'absolute' in nature. It couldn't be information implanted by others. By contrast, it was more... it was more like...
...Like objective information preserved by the core of his soul under the influence of 'Immovable'!!
Could it be... that 'transmigrating into a book' didn't actually happen? Or rather, he did transmigrate, but the memories of the 'original work' were actually recollections he had accumulated in a 'previous loop'?!
"Regarding the future, what do you know?" Lei Ting asked, looking into Shane’s purple eyes, which seemed to shimmer with light. "You said I disrupted the spacetime structure. What does that mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like," Shane answered straightforwardly. "In the future, when the galaxy was on the brink of destruction, you created a celestial body with sufficient mass to tear through spacetime and perished together with the enemy."
'Created a celestial body with sufficient mass to tear through spacetime'...
Lei Ting was dumbfounded.
Good heavens. According to Shane, this person had returned from ten years in the future. Did that mean in ten years, he would be able to do something like 'creating a celestial body to perform hardcore physical spacetime travel'?
That’s a total cheat code!!
However, regardless of whether that 'creation' involved using certain 'raw materials,' for a supernatural being capable of such a feat to have no choice but 'mutual destruction' as a last-resort measure...
At that moment, Lei Ting suddenly thought of the Galactic Empire’s 'Emperor' who had severed his own life force.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 虚灵位面 | Ethereal Plane | A mysterious dimension or plane of existence mentioned by Shane. |
| 星空巨兽 | Star Beast | Massive living creatures that dwell in space; one is mentioned as having a control room. |
| 不动 | Immovable | Part of Lei Ting's power 'Solar Star: Immovable' (阳星·不动). |
| 冠军 | Champion | The name of Valianna's weapon. |
| 毁灭之手 | Hand of Destruction | Shane's officially registered ability name. |
| 毁灭者 | Destroyer | Shane's codename/title. |
