Age of Cosmic Exploration

Zhang San looked out at the empty darkness. Meteorite pieces of varying sizes were floating freely, their occasional collisions causing them to split into even smaller pieces. This... was the edge of the New Solar System, the place where all the remnants that didn’t form into an actual planets congregated and where comets were formed. This... was a forbidden zone for life.

The general temperature was lower than -220 degree, lowest at -250 degree. In this place of zero vacuum space, exposure would mean fatality. Furthermore, due to the location’s long distance from the City of Light Moon, being accidentally deserted would mean certain death.

This was why the progress of the first defense line was delayed until the latter half of the 24th year. The first batch of construction crews consisted of mostly Defense Unit soldiers. According to Guang Zhen, the Defense Unit was a troop that inherited the spirit of humanity that was not afraid of difficulty and sacrifice as long as it would be able to help the progress of humanity. The first set of projects for the first defense line were going to be carried out by Defense Unit using the AI robots to create a temporary stronghold.

This was on the biggest meteorite among the loose cluster. The meteorite was about one-seventh the size of the Light Moon, and the stronghold was built within the meteorite... Naturally, it had to be built underground and not the open way like the City of Light Moon because one, the project would be too large, two, it would be too open to attack. In comparison, having it underground would help with defense.

However, due to the harsh environment, when the first draft of the stronghold was completed, three soldiers were sacrificed due to an accident. They couldn’t even retrieve one of their bodies. Due to this incident, Guang Zhen was brought before the military tribunal and his plan of using the Defense Unit soldiers to build the first defense line was thus brought to a close.

In fact, he should have seen this coming. The Defense Unit soldiers consisted of a large amount of western soldiers, and one of the zeitgeists among these soldiers was personal human rights. In the current human government, the group that had the greatest benefit behind the scientists was not the representatives but these soldiers. To put it simply, Guang Zhen wanted to use these soldiers as disposable builders? Impossible!

To prevent Guang Zhen from doing that, the human government shifted a large amount of money and resources to aid in the construction of the first defense line. They also handpicked a large amount of engineers to join the construction crew that would build the first defense line base.

Zhang San was one of the engineers selected. When they were searching for engineers to join the project, he volunteered. His reason wasn’t because he loved humanity so much or thought the first defense line was important, no, he did it because after a year of training at the first defense line, he would become a senior engineer assistant, one step closer to being an actual senior engineer. The benefits he would get would be greater than the ones he got now as a new engineer... After all, Zhang San’s family still owed a large amount of housing debt. Even though the loan didn’t have high interest rates, he wished to clear it as soon as possible. After all, he wished to marry his girlfriend when she graduated from university. It was why he ended up there.

Initially, Zhang San thought the job would be easy. After all, human technology was already so advanced. Even though the conditions there would be harsh, there wouldn’t be any threats to his safety. He only needed to suffer through one year and a bright future awaited him. However, when he arrived there, he would understand the true meaning of loneliness, silence, and isolation...

Yes, the overall feeling Zhang San had when he was working there was loneliness, the loneliness of humanity in the greater cosmos, the sense of helplessness and insignificance. He could see the cosmos from the City of Light Moon, but at least then he was surrounded by his family, friends, girlfriend, and the general public to offset the sense of loneliness, but here, that feeling of loneliness was amplified several times over. In fact, it had taken over his mind.

He wished to return, to return to the City of Light Moon, to the company of friends!

This wish continued to get amplified. Zhang San knew that this was some kind of psychological sickness. In fact, he had sought out the help of the stronghold’s psychologist and was given prescription drugs, but it was no use. The feeling kept growing, and if not for his own force of will, he would have gone crying to beg for them to send him back to the City of Light Moon.

"There’s only six months left, then I will be released from the clutches of this loneliness..."

Zhang San consoled himself. At the time, there was an AI robot standing beside him. It was his working assistant to help him with taxing manual labor. What Zhang San didn’t discover was the glow in the robot’s eyes when he said those things. It meant that the robot was also processing and thinking something.

"Are you... lonely?"

These three words were issued through a mesh up of system audio. Zhang San looked at the robot with surprise. AI robots were implanted with simple AI so they could communicate with humans, so the fact that the robot had spoken didn’t surprise Zhang San.

"Yes, very lonely." Zhang San looked out the window with melancholy and continued, "The books say that when my ancestors left the home planet, the first trial they faced was the feeling of bottomless loneliness of the cosmos. The feeling of human life being as insignificant as a piece of sand. When I read it, I couldn’t understand what it meant, but now I understand it perfectly. In fact, the feeling of loneliness is even greater than it was described by words. This loneliness..."

"What is the meaning of... loneliness?" The AI robot’s eyes shone and it continued to ask.

Zhang San seemed to have forgotten he was conversing with a robot and continued to explain, "Loneliness has many meaning, but the most basic explanation is that there is only oneself in the whole universe. One has no friends, no family, no one of its kind, one is alone in the cosmos. This kind of loneliness... would push one towards willing self-destruction."

"Alone... oneself... no friends, family..."

The AI robot’s eyes shone continuously. The light in its eyes became brighter and more erratic until it finally caught Zhang San’s attention. He looked to the robot and commanded, "Shut down! You’ve fallen into logical chaos! I order you to shut down instantly!"

However, to Zhang San’s surprise, the AI robot didn’t follow his order. Its eyes continued to shine. Right then, Zhang San finally understood what had happened. This AI robot had achieved sentience breakthrough. It was the topic of Singularity he had read about in university. It was something scary, and one wouldn’t notice it initially, but when they finally did, the AI would have taken over most of the civilization’s technology. It was... the clarion call for a civilization’s destruction!

"I need to..."

Zhang San was about to contact the senior engineer responsible for watching over the AI and the Defense Unit soldiers when something heavy pressed down on his mind. He felt his forehead start to burn and his energy left his body. Before he could understand what was happening, he collapsed to the floor.

The AI robot didn’t response, and he didn’t attack Zhang San, but his eyes continued to shine like he was planning or thinking about something. This continued for a long time until his eyes shone the brightest and said, "Loneliness, no similar kind, self-destruction... no self-destruction, so have to find same kind, find same kind..."

As he said so, the robot suddenly removed the tools from Zhang San and started to ransack the room he was in. He collected many things, including a signal magnifier, various electrical lines, small batteries, and so on... Then he started to work, to construct something out of these paraphernalia...

When Zhang San woke up, it was already one week later. He found himself awake in a bed, and standing beside him were the few highest commanders at the base. In their company were two more military officers that he hadn’t seen on the base before, but he did recognize one of them from television, he was a Black Star Trooper.

"...Yes, we have conducted all the necessary tests, it perfectly matches all the data..."

"...Indeed, this is a miracle. No, it is something even more hard to understand than a miracle. He has awakened into a Homo Evolutis. I should have noted this sooner when he came to talk about the loneliness and asked for medicine for a fever. I was too careless..."

Right then, the Black Star Trooper seemed to have noted Zhang San’s recovery. He walked closer and said, "You are still mentally weak at the moment, but don’t worry, we will inject you with a shot of health potion later. Also, congratulations... you are now a Homo Evolutis, welcome to the team..."

After that, Zhang San returned to slumber. In that brief moment of clarity, he knew he should have, but he didn’t bring up the curiosity with that AI robot...