Chapter 1031: What Li Qi did

Ennette was born into a civilization that had long possessed the ability to Transmigration between stars.

She was writing her history homework.

Characters were transmitted to the device via a brain-computer interface, and once she finished editing, she could send them directly.

Ennette wrote about her favorite and most proficient topic: the 'Identical Twins' brought about by 'Epochal Transition'.

Since the last epoch, kindred spirits from a parallel world had brought interstellar technology to her civilization.

This was a very strange phenomenon, but it did exist, seemingly from ancient times. Historically, this had occurred six times.

The first time was when their ancestors first encountered that magical 'parallel world'.

At that time, the ruler was a powerful king named King Eagle, whose army had already flattened the entire continent, leaving no opponent.

Then, after a solar eclipse, an army as powerful as King Eagle's emerged on the continent, and the other side… also called themselves 'King Eagle'.

The two armies fought, but as the battle progressed, they discovered with horror that on the opposing side, there were 'similar' existences to themselves.

The reason they were called similar was that those people were not entirely themselves; there were always slight differences.

For example, they were injured in a battle where they had never been injured before.

Or perhaps, they were healthier than themselves, and the other party did not have their scars.

This difference caused immense confusion, the battle quickly ceased, and scholars from both sides began to discuss the differences between them.

Then they found that even the scholars were extremely similar; only a small number of people did not find their 'Identical Twins'.

Identical Twins was the name they gave them.

This contact quickly expanded in scale, and the two King Eagles also began to meet.

The two ambitious monarchs met each other, confirmed the major events in each other's life journeys, and finally concluded that only one person could survive.

One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.

But the way to determine the victor could not be a crude, beastly private struggle, but on the battlefield.

So, both sides departed.

The two armies began their battle.

This battle was so exhilarating, such an evenly matched contest. King Eagle had never encountered such a formidable opponent in his conquest of the entire continent.

The tactics, strategies, martial arts, and even the technical skills of the artisans on both sides rapidly improved during this struggle. A year of progress was equivalent to the past decade.

This battle continued for three years.

After three years, it was finally time to decide the victor.

Both King Eagles were full of confidence.

However, at this moment…

They both discovered that their opponent had disappeared.

All Identical Twins vanished, and the battle ended inconclusively.

King Eagle's pain and regret lasted until his old age; he even had this matter engraved on his tombstone. Everyone who read it seemed to feel the anguish in the King's heart.

For example, Ennette, when she was studying, this inscription was a mandatory memorization, and it was very long, making her as miserable as King Eagle at the time.

But no matter what, King Eagle had the chance to prove himself, but this was the outcome.

But this was the first recorded appearance of a 'parallel world' in history.

Subsequently, this would occur once every epoch.

The second time, during the second Epochal Transition, everyone in the world discovered another gender of themselves.

Yes, another gender. They saw in their own bedrooms a self with a similar life trajectory but completely opposite gender. This time also caused immense chaos, and in some sense, even led to an increase in population birth rates, leaving a considerable amount of research Materials for biology.

What kind of thing would a person conceive with themselves? That was also a popular topic.

Ennette sometimes wondered if she would fall in love with someone who suddenly appeared in front of her and completely understood her.

But thinking about it carefully, if such a person truly existed, she would probably run away immediately.

That would be too terrifying, someone who completely understood her and was similar to her. Would she fall in love with herself? What kind of person would fall in love with themselves… just thinking about it felt terrifying.

However, fortunately, it didn't last too long, only three years.

After three years, all the 'selves' disappeared.

This again caused a huge disturbance; many families were torn apart, and the remaining things were difficult to deal with, but society always had redundancy, and eventually, it passed smoothly.

Thus, time and again, people gradually became accustomed to the 'Identical Twins' that appeared during 'Epochal Transition'.

During the last Epochal Transition, Identical Twins appeared who surpassed the civilized era, bringing advanced technology.

This contact allowed Ennette's civilization to flourish. Their technology advanced rapidly, and they established the first unified interstellar government during the civilization's first period of interstellar expansion.

In subsequent space colonization, the civilization rapidly expanded. Although they didn't encounter any aliens, on many unclaimed planets, they established a spherical region centered on their home star's sun, whose territory consisted of the galaxies visible to the naked eye in space.

This region was not large in the Universe, but it was actually more than ten light-years in size.

Because there was no high-efficiency superluminal technology, the expansion of the entire civilization was severely restricted. For the sake of stabilizing the regime and avoiding division, the civilization set its territorial limit to a radius of eleven light-years centered on its home star's sun.

They calculated that within eleven light-years, the civilization's government leaders could still maintain basic control over the civilization's frontier regions.

If it were larger, the civilization would be unable to connect its ends, eventually collapsing and splitting, just like the end of all those Empires with overly large territories.

Therefore, eleven light-years was set as the maximum expansion distance for Ennette's civilization. Within this range, the civilization expanded to over one hundred fifteen settlements.

And Ennette, she happened to live on a moon of a gas giant planet ten light-years from the capital, a colony at the extreme expansion limit of the civilization's territory.

The civilization controlled these colonies by monopolizing light-speed spaceship technology. Ennette often saw huge fleets of spaceships sweeping across the sky; those were the monthly travel fleets.

However, she didn't have a very deep impression of the civilization itself.

Because, apart from the firm control over light-speed spaceship technology in extraterrestrial colonies, the civilization's intervention in extraterrestrial colonies was very slight. After all, even with light-speed spaceships, it would take ten years to reach Ennette's hometown from the capital. As for other ordinary civilian spaceships, even the fastest, it would take at least two hundred thirty years to arrive.

But none of that mattered to Ennette.

This little girl was looking forward to next year's 'Epochal Transition'.

Yes, next year.

In her life, there was a once-in-a-millennium Epochal Transition. At this time, a channel from another world would open, and Identical Twins from a parallel world would intervene here.

After finishing her homework and submitting it to the System, Ennette looked at the 'sun' in the sky.

The real 'sun', which was the star of this star System, looked like nothing more than a small red dot at this distance. The 'sun' they actually saw was the giant gas giant planet that occupied almost half of the sky.

Her hometown was a moon of this gas giant planet, where ecological transformation had already taken place. Huge domes were built in the canyons to protect against massive storms. The surrounding living environment had been altered through chemical means, allowing people to travel between various satellite cities.

It was said that life forms living on ordinary rocky planets were terrified when they first came to such colonies.

Because they had never seen such a massive celestial body hanging so peacefully in the sky.

The gas giant planet occupying half the sky was too spectacular for these people; many technicians, officials, and visiting teachers from the home planet would be paralyzed with fear.

This was the frontier of civilization, and the civilization often called upon people to support this area.

However… distances measured in light-years were still too difficult to cross. Even if star sectors from the core regions of civilization came to support, even with hibernation technology, a round trip would take several years. If departing from the home planet, it would take ten years, and for two frontier towns, it would be at least twenty years.

This was why the civilization had to limit its territory. When a territory nominally belonging to you does not know your manifold, does not understand your thoughts, and does not care about your commands, then the division of civilization is only natural.

A radius of ten light-years, that was the limit.

Ennette finished all her homework, then she pressed her hover chair, floated into the air, and quietly awaited the arrival of her Identical Twins.

There were actually stairs, but she still chose to use the hover chair.

Because she couldn't stand up.

If one looked closely, one would notice that her legs had atrophied somewhat.

Despite being an interstellar civilization, they couldn't even cure paralysis, and had only just learned how to connect nerves.

This was actually due to the relationship with the Identical Twins.

The technology for light-speed spaceships and interstellar colonization was propagated by the Identical Twins of the last epoch, which led to a very lopsided development of civilization. Although light-speed spaceships had been built and significant achievements had been made in many automation technologies, biology and medicine were still very backward.

The most advanced biological technology was probably only the hibernation technology developed to complement light-speed spaceships.

Sitting in the hover chair, Ennette looked at the dim gas giant planet in the sky.

The scene was so magnificent; one could see huge storms swirling on the surface of the gas giant, as if a blood-red, very large eye was staring at the ground.

If one was new and not used to seeing it, it was easy to be frightened.

Compared to the gaze of the stars, Mortals seemed too insignificant.

Therefore, when being watched by the stars, it felt as if nothing else mattered. In front of the Universe, humans were so tiny.

Ennette once had many dreams, but now most of them were gone.

Since she was diagnosed with a congenital spinal problem, her condition rapidly deteriorated, to the point where she lost sensation in her lower body within a few years.

Originally, she was a girl who loved to jump and skip, and her dream, long ago, was to be a planetary explorer, holding various instruments, searching for treasures, mineral veins, and even terrain suitable for building satellite cities in desolate wildernesses.

Just thinking about it felt very romantic.

Fighting against natural, roaming in valleys, wandering among the stars, and even naming the new terrain she found. If she found a new mountain, she would name it Mount Ennette.

How wonderful.

However, when she was a child, all of this became impossible.

She lost the possibility of becoming a planetary explorer.

Despite this, Ennette was not discouraged, nor did she complain about fate. She still attended classes, still went to and from school normally with her hover chair, and her grades were still good.

It was just… a bit regretful.

So, when she learned about the existence of 'Identical Twins', she thought to herself…

The doctor said this disease was very rare, possibly appearing in only one out of several million people.

Then, her Identical Twins shouldn't be so unlucky, right?

Perhaps she could see herself still jumping and skipping.

Perhaps she could see herself who had achieved her dream?

Thinking this, she couldn't help but rejoice.

Although she herself could no longer stand up, what if her parallel world self could stand up?

Ennette looked forward to it.

The young girl didn't understand—

In life, some things are cyclical, consciously or unconsciously recurring, just like daily breakfast, or like her going to school every day.

And some things are one-time events, seeing the beginning, then seeing the end, and never seeing them again in the rest of one's life.

Often, people do not perceive the difference between the two.

Just like the accustomed breakfast, only when the person who makes you breakfast passes away do people suddenly realize that although the time lasted very long, it was actually… a one-time event.

Only the beginning was silent, the process accustomed, and at the end, one suddenly realized that breakfast was not available every day.

And Epochal Transition, on a long scale, is cyclical, but in Ennette's life, this is a one-time miracle.

She was looking forward to a miracle.

Soon, a year passed.

Ennette saw herself.

Herself with healthy legs.

That 'self' looked at Ennette's hover chair in astonishment.

And Ennette excitedly watched the other party jumping when she appeared.

Two possibilities collided here, giving rise to more possibilities.

Meanwhile, such things were repeating in almost all places in this space-time.

Zoom out the perspective.

From Ennette, to the entire satellite city.

Then to that gas giant planet, then to the huge star.

Galaxy, galaxy cluster, Observable Universe… and even the entire space-time.

Finally, above space-time, one could see… an eye.