Lei Ting had known he would do this, for a very long time.
He knew that no one was loved without reason, so he never craved such unnecessary emotional investment, nor did he even seek to develop a subordinate power base in any true sense.
Because he knew that even if he gained the goodwill of the masses, even if his reputation remained as spotless as white feathers, he would inevitably destroy this city of hearts from within.
As long as he began to act.
As long as he proved through his actions that he would cause harm to actual, existing people and things.
……
……
As the year 4007 drew to a close, an information disaster spread across the galaxy.
The Star Net interference from the outside world finally reached its destination.
Unlike wars within the galaxy, the descent of this invisible interference did not follow conventional paths. It came from the depths of space, intersecting the galactic plane at a 45-degree angle. Its first target was the border region where the Human Federation met the Yabrisak Empire, and with terrifying speed, it enveloped the entire galaxy within days.
The ill-fated Orion Arm was instantly cut off from the outside world. In the final moments before the sudden loss of contact with various star sectors, the Parliament received shocking news.
"What?!" Yundale was stunned. He looked up sharply from his documents, questioning 'Sky River' in his mind: "'Solar Star' destroyed a habitable planet in a Federation-controlled zone?! Are you sure?!"
【I do not possess the concept of 'uncertainty.' 'Conjecture' and 'hesitation' are the privileges of life,】 Sky River replied.
Yundale fell silent. He felt as if he were listening to a machine lecture him on philosophy...
No, he *was* listening to a machine lecture him on philosophy. But he had no time to complain; he could only rise quickly to draft and issue tasks: "Information Security Department, investigate—"
Before he could finish his sentence, the lights in the parliamentary hall flickered. A rapid alarm blared, but the public broadcast from 'Sky River' that should have followed was absent.
"What's happening?!"
The protective shields activated automatically. Everyone in the hall turned pale with shock, scanning their surroundings and preparing for combat.
But soon, realizing that the network was experiencing a once-in-a-century failure, they began fiddling with their external optical computers, discussing the situation in a flurry of alarm and unease: "What's wrong with the Star Net?" "Is it a base station issue?" "Does the enemy have this kind of technical capability?" "Why would you say that?" "I doubt they could break in..."
Generally speaking, the atmosphere in the parliamentary hall was not one of total panic, because the people here knew the current military strength and foundations of the Federation better than anyone outside. If nothing else, 'Solar Star' alone was a massive guarantee of federal security.
Until someone from the Information Security Department let out a scream: "The Star Net... has stopped service!!"
Yundale, having failed to summon 'Sky River' in his mind, furrowed his brows tightly. He closed his eyes and remained silent.
Clamor and panic erupted around him. People are always terrified by the disappearance of familiar things. Even though the Federation, like every large organization, had long been prepared for such situations, whether it was the construction of a new network framework or the preservation and migration of old data, it was not something that could be resolved in a few words.
At this moment, the only person in the core of the Federation's power who still held decision-making authority knew that true upheaval had arrived.
His eyes could see the inevitability of that disaster.
Starting from many years ago.
...
It had to be said that Lei Ting had indeed chosen a perfect time.
The total disconnection of the Star Net caused the entire galaxy to rapidly descend into chaos. The only ones unaffected were likely some indigenous planetary civilizations; every interstellar civilization was now a mess.
The unease of the public, the anxiety of officials, the fleets scattered in space without guidance, the severed connections between star sectors...
Information technology relying on the Star Net failed entirely. Real-world tasks supported by the Star Net's massive databases—such as personnel statistics, home-based treatment for minor illnesses, commercial trend forecasting, and automatic word suggestions during document writing—all vanished from people's lives without warning.
Simultaneously, a large number of criminals began to fish in troubled waters.
For a time, everyone in ordered civilizations felt themselves in danger.
In the following two months, Lei Ting personally destroyed dozens, even hundreds of planets. Against the backdrop of the Star Net's service suspension and his own physical information blockade, not a single distress signal successfully reached its destination.
This was a long-premeditated, man-made disaster. No one would receive compensation for his actions. All populations whose level of pollution would cause 'Spiritual Thought' to undergo mutation met a fair end...
And so, hundreds of billions of people died just like that. Their deaths were not even recorded by any program or written document, and each instance of death was so brief it was almost light.
Yet Lei Ting's heart grew heavier with each passing day.
'Limit Breaker,' 'Double S'—the powerful perception granted by this identity allowed him to remember every disaster he personally triggered, as well as the despair of the people within them.
'Immovable' had never operated at such full power. Facing all of this, his heart was as still as water—
—Mostly.
After the first time he personally destroyed a target planet, he savored the familiar yet foreign pain, staring blankly for half a day before plunging into a nearby star to stay for several days.
After the tenth time, faint silver strands had already begun to surface at his temples.
After the twentieth time, he spent a long time thinking under the searing pain of a stellar corona, realizing that his eidetic memory as a 'Limit Breaker' made it impossible to forget a single face that died by his hand.
After the thirtieth time, he stopped letting himself fall into pain. Probably.
Because he didn't have that much time for regret or guilt. He never had enough time; in the past, he had no time for entertainment, later he had no time for softness, and now he had no time to allow himself sentimentality.
—If this world needs an executioner, and the people under the blade can almost never understand that their fates were decided hundreds of thousands of years before they were born, then would you, for the sake of a beautiful future that may or may not be achievable, defy the world and swing the butcher's knife?
If it were the Lei Ting of the past, he would have tried to find a compromise, a more tactful way to solve the problem.
But after so many memories of the 'previous time' had resurfaced, the greatest lesson he had learned was that one cannot be soft-hearted when achieving great things.
—Yes, in the 'previous time,' Lei Ting had also faced this problem.
At that time, he had hesitated. But during the days he spent hesitating, the pollution erupted, officially expanding to an administrative capital planet in a certain Federation star sector. Using that as a base, it radiated out to surrounding sectors through the transportation system.
That catastrophic expansion of pollution eventually led to the total 'aberrant demonization' of all biological life on over a dozen planets within a short time, sending them flying into space. The flames of chaotic war began to burn from the Federation's heartland. If the 'Recorder' hadn't performed a desperate one-for-many trade, using their very foundation of existence to confront that patch of pollution directly, perhaps the Orion humans would have been destroyed then.
But because of this, the 'Recorder' dissipated on the spot. The Principal's 'Spiritual Thought' underwent a severe mutation because his life form did not belong to the 'Orion humans,' making it impossible for him to return to the 'Radiant Exemplar.'
Thus, His 'Spirit' merged into the 'Gazer,' both filling the latter's cracks and adding a massive burden. Meanwhile, the 'Thought' merged into Lei Ting's power, making him even stronger and even causing new changes in his abilities.
After that, the 'Gazer' remained in a state of stasis and slumber in the void for years. The Orion humans were suddenly deprived of the protection of two reasonable, thinking super-powered entities. The 'Lover's' thoughts and emotions were so chaotic that He Himself didn't understand what He wanted to do, only knowing the general direction. The 'Radiant Exemplar,' meanwhile, was merely a cold and ruthless response system...
Furthermore, a large amount of 'Spirit' containing pollution returned to the 'Radiant Exemplar' without being processed. Quantitative change led to qualitative change; the system's redundancy database was shattered, and the golden star began to be stained by chaotic darkness.
From a certain day onward, anyone could undergo mutation in their sleep—especially ordinary people with psychological trauma, followed by super-powered individuals with psychological trauma. The process of these two mutating would, in turn, cause onlookers to mutate as well. Such disasters and post-disaster scenes would then create new psychological trauma for people far away—
—Hesitating out of a moment of mercy, and nearly killing even more people because of that hesitation.
Lei Ting would never commit such an error again.
Even if almost everyone who did not know the truth would view this act of pruning as a sin and an atrocity. Even if such behavior made him appear like a paranoid autocrat and a murderer...
Because those people whose Spiritual Thought had mutated without their knowledge were as bright as signal flares in his eyes.
He knew they were the enemy's tentacles. He had to cut them off.
They—men, women, or things—each innocent or not, had been suffering from pollution since before they were born, expanding that pollution with their lives and existence...
He had to cut their lives short.
……
……
December 4007. Lei Ting opened his eyes.
The winter of the calendar had arrived; the information winter of the galaxy had arrived.
The once noisy starry sky was now left with only stellar radiation. People who were once brought as close as if face-to-face by the Star Net were now separated by a distance that ten generations could not bridge.
Although there was a technical foundation built from analyzing the Star Net, and various major powers began to build their own local area networks—with the Federation building particularly fast because their base stations had recently been replaced...
But everyone knew that the era had changed.
In the year 4007, forums closed, games collapsed, and the Star Net stopped service.
Data center construction, network communication, information technology services, network security protection, smart product design, Star Net data induction... countless industries and their practitioners thus walked onto a crossroads of the era.
Almost all people of insight were seeking new changes, because time waits for no one; those who keep up live, and those who fall behind die.
At the same time, very few people knew that a trolley problem left over from history had forced the ordered creatures of the entire galaxy onto a path of death.
And in the face of such a historical turning point, almost everyone else besides the 'Limit Breaker' was either on the tracks or was the bystander passing by with a plunger.
Although Lei Ting knew that the group of people passing by with plungers also had their own roles, and those roles were so important as to be irreplaceable, but—
In the starry sky, a tall man in black-gold armor stood quietly. Behind him, a planet blossomed like a flower. And this time, no fleet went to deploy a resource capture net to intercept their path for Lei Ting.
He opened a pair of eyes that were once deep and gentle; the light of reason within them was cold and ruthless.
—But in this world, only he had the ability, and the heart, to make the choice.
So that the history of humanity would not stop at a certain moment in the future as it did 'last time,' so that a large-scale peace could continue for another four hundred years, and for the eternal victory of ordered life, he had to, and could only, do this!
Even if, when he bypassed the 'individual' to pull that lever, watching the train he personally released roar past, he had already become—the greatest sinner in the thousands of years of human history!
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 灵思 | Spiritual Thought | Refers to the mental/spiritual essence or psyche of humans in this setting. |
| 异魔化 | Aberrant demonization | The process of mutating into a monstrous, chaotic entity. |
| 阳星 | Solar Star | Lei Ting's title/codename. |
| 天河 | Sky River | The AI system of the Human Federation. |
| 永戴尔 | Yundale | A high-ranking official/member of the Federation Parliament. |
| 记录者 | Recorder | One of the powerful super-powered entities from the "previous time." |
| 凝望者 | Gazer | One of the powerful super-powered entities; associated with the Principal. |
| 爱人 | Lover | One of the powerful super-powered entities. |
| 马桶搋子人柱力 | Plunger-wielding bystander | A reference to a specific version of the "Trolley Problem" meme. |
