Chapter 129： No. 129

If there is anything in common between the current world and the world that passed through, it is probably "Blue Star".

It’s just that in the world they passed through, the people of the Galactic Empire experienced the era of great annihilation, their homeland was reduced to wasteland, and they finally chose to completely abandon the parent star “Blue Star”, and then survived After the difficult era of great migration, we finally ushered in the era of great explosion, found a new home, set the capital of Sikkim, and officially established the Galactic Empire.

The original parent star "Blue Star" was abandoned and has long been silent in the dust of history. Only in the surviving historical data, it will occasionally be mentioned.

This planet far from the Galactic Empire star field, except for a small number of ancient humans remembered, has long been forgotten by most people.

But in his current world, it is different. Humans have lived on the blue star from beginning to end. This planet has lasted for too long, and its development process has been tortuous and ups and downs. There are many hardships and tribulations in the middle, and even history textbooks cannot be fully recorded.

Ruan Shiqing had never paid attention to the history of Blue Star before, and only had some vague memories of the development of Blue Star in textbooks, but now when he searched, he found something that surprised him.

Three thousand years ago, Blue Star suffered a devastating blow—nuclear war.

The Blue Star at that time was also divided into different countries and races, because of the interests, there was often friction between them. This was originally very normal. Even the current Blue Star Alliance is not monolithic, and there are still many contradictions. But the bad thing is that there are several big countries that have mastered nuclear weapons with extremely high lethality.

After an unprecedented economic crisis, some major powers started foreign wars in order to divert domestic conflicts. Naturally, it is impossible for other countries to sit still and launch a resistance.

The eighth world war broke out completely, and the nuclear weapons that no country dared to use rashly were finally thrown into the war on a large scale.

The technology at that time was quite mature, and nuclear weapons could achieve precise range strikes and minimize environmental pollution.

But even so, the effects of nuclear war are irreversible. A large-scale nuclear war caused a large amount of dust on the ground to rise into the atmosphere, blocking the sunlight, causing a "nuclear winter"[Note 1]; not to mention the explosion of nuclear weapons, which also brought serious radiation.

Because of lack of sunlight, the temperature dropped sharply, a large number of plants died because of lack of sunlight, and wild animals starved to death because of lack of food. The ecology has been severely damaged, the biological chain has completely collapsed, and only human beings can survive with the help of science and technology [Note 2].

But that's not the worst.

During the melee between the two countries, a nuclear bomb fired by country A accidentally blew up a hidden nuclear base in country B.

This secret nuclear base is quite large, with more than a dozen large nuclear reactors. It was originally a secret weapon of country B, but it was accidentally blown up by country A before it could be used.

Country B is an island country, surrounded by sea on all sides. After the nuclear base was blown up, successive explosions caused fires and emitted a large amount of high-energy radiation into the atmosphere[Note 3]; The radioactive substances in the water flow into the ocean through groundwater, and rapidly spread to other sea areas with ocean currents, resulting in extremely serious marine pollution.

In this world war, the number of people who died directly in the war was only tens of millions, but the number of people who died directly or indirectly from nuclear radiation, nuclear pollution and "nuclear winter" was as high as more than 30 people 100 million.

In the five years after the war, the ecological environment has deteriorated severely, a large number of animals and plants have become extinct, and the extreme climate has become more and more severe. The population of Blue Star has finally dropped sharply to less than one billion.

The originally vibrant Blue Star became a wasteland after this war.

The extremely cold climate made the ground no longer suitable for human habitation, so they abandoned the buildings on the ground and chose to live underground with more thermal insulation.

The human beings who encountered the war finally put aside their country and race, and began to try to unite to rebuild their homeland. This is the prototype of the Blue Star Alliance.

These surviving ancestors did not give up their homeland. They gave up all prejudices, concentrated all their strength, and began to rebuild this planet that has become a wasteland.

Until three thousand years later, there is no country in the world, only the Blue Star Alliance and its jurisdiction. Although there are still contradictions and frictions in various jurisdictions, no one dares to rashly provoke war again with the lessons learned from the predecessors.

In the shadow of the nuclear war, after the reconstruction of the Blue Star Alliance, researchers abandoned nuclear energy research and turned to antimatter energy, which is safer and more environmentally friendly. This is also the reason why antimatter energy is popular on Blue Star today, while nuclear energy is declining.

Ruan Shiqing took a close look at the entire development process of Blue Star, and something came to mind.

He remembered the abandoned planet he had seen in his underwater dream. It was also full of withered plants and carrion. The sky was lead-grey, and no sunlight could be seen. There are also abandoned nuclear power plants faintly visible in the distance.

How similar it was to Bluestar. It’s just that the human beings in the dreamland failed to stick to their homeland in the end. They left the devastated wasteland and took the spaceship away from their homeland to find a new homeland; while the ancestors of Blue Star have survived for thousands of years, washed away The sins committed in the past have built a new home on the wasteland of the old days.

Like a branch, two leaves grow. The same source comes from the same source, but diverges at different nodes, and grows into two completely different leaves.

Ruan Shiqing felt that he had vaguely caught a clue.

But the current information is too little, he can't fully grasp this erratic feeling, he needs more information and clues to support his guess.

After thinking about it, he applied for half a year's sick leave in the internal system of the institute, and then brought his light brain and went to the library in the city center.

Maybe by figuring out the connection between the two worlds, he can find a way back.

The city library is managed by service robots and is open 24 hours a day. Ruan Shiqing booked a room at a hotel near the library. Apart from eating and sleeping, he spent the rest of the day in the library to check materials.

After three months, Ruan Shiqing lost five pounds and found some useful information to support his guess, but he still had no clue how to go back.

Rubbing his temples tiredly, Ruan Shiqing sighed and told himself not to rush too much,

Putting away his brain, he planned to go out and let his thoughts go out. During this period of time, he was eager to find a way to go back, and he kept pushing himself very hard. breakthrough.

From the quiet library, the noisy and lively voices rushed into my ears, Ruan Shiqing took a deep breath, and only had a down-to-earth sense of reality.

In the past three months, he always felt that he fell from one dream into another.

The whole person feels unreal.

This feeling was even worse when he stepped into the lively street and saw the stall owners on the roadside.

Looking at the familiar gray cloak and the familiar face, he stopped in surprise, his eyes fixed on the other person.

The stall owner in the cape was doing business. After receiving the money from the customer, he greeted Ruan Shiqing with a smile. He did not show any surprise, as if the two were still on the B3024 star The underground people met at the market, and greeted enthusiastically and cheerfully: "I have entered a lot of good things, do you want to see Mr. Ruan?"

Too shocked, but calm down.

Ruan Shiqing walked to the booth and looked down at the things on the booth, all of which were old-fashioned gadgets: "Who are you? How come you are here?"

"I recently acquired an antique key 'Time', the name comes from 'The man of heaven and earth, the inverse journey of all things; the man of time, the passer-by of a hundred generations'[Note 4], Mr. Ruan should see See?" He avoided answering, but pointed to a black-grey key on the booth.

The key is different from ordinary keys, it is half the size of a palm, but it is not gorgeous. The whole body is black and gray, only the key handle is curved with complicated patterns, and the key shaft below does not have any serrations or protrusions that a normal key would have, and it looks like some kind of decoration.

In this stall full of quirky antiques, this key appears too ordinary and mundane.

But Ruan Shiqing did not dare to take it lightly, not only because of its name "Time" and its origin, but also because... the things the stall owner sold to him in the past has never been approved.

From the earliest 09, to the later hatched dragon eggs and a bag of dragon crystals.

Since the little dragon cub ate the dragon crystal, he tried to find the stall owner, but the other party disappeared like the world, leaving no trace.

In addition, I encountered various incidents later, so the matter of looking for someone was nothing.

?"

"They are all old customers, so I'll give you a discount. One piece is 20% off, and two pieces are 40% off." He pointed to a crystal ball on the booth: "You bought this crystal ball together, You can get a 40% discount, and the total is only 5,000 yuan."

An old decorative key and a crystal ball that can be seen everywhere, 40% off for five thousand.

In the past, Ruan Shiqing would have turned his head and left, but now he paid the money without blinking: "It's all."

The stall owner made a business, and his smile became more enthusiastic: "You will never suffer from this transaction!"

Ruan Shiqing played with the things in his hand, but couldn't help but ask again: "How did you live—"

"Hey!" Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by the stall owner raising his hand. He pointed to the thing in Ruan Shiqing's hand and smiled meaningfully: "I have given you the answer."

After finishing speaking, she put away the stall, waved her hand without looking back, and walked away.

Ruan Shiqing wanted to chase, but after a few steps, he found that the stall owner was like a fish in the water, and after a while, he disappeared into the crowd. He stood on the street where people came and went, looked at the key and crystal ball in his hand, frowned for a moment, and turned back to the hotel.

Back to the hotel room, put the key and the crystal ball in one place, Ruan Shiqing studied for a while, but found nothing special.

But the origin of the stall owner is a mystery, and he suddenly appeared in this world and sold him these two things. Ruan Shiqing felt that the other party would never just lie to him for fun.

Although it is not clear whether the other party is an enemy or a friend for the time being, but if he can really help him go back, even if it is an enemy, he will go to the end.

And he has a strange intuition - these two things will help him get back.

It's just that I can't find the key for a while.

Ruan Shiqing tried all kinds of methods and tossed it until the early morning, the key was still the same key, the crystal ball was still the same crystal ball, and there was no change.

He struggled in vain, exhausted and anxious.

For the past three months, he has been admonishing himself to keep calm and not to be in a hurry. mood.

The key was clutched tightly in his hand, and he was about to throw it out in anger.

Only when it came to throwing, the fingers clenched hesitantly. After a stalemate for a while, he sighed, relaxed his body, and slumped down in the armchair holding the key.

That night, Ruan Shiqing held the key, lay on the table, and fell asleep restlessly and tiredly.

So he didn't know that, after he fell asleep, because of the ups and downs of his emotions, the overflowing mental power was absorbed by the key in the palm of his hand, and a faint gray light gradually enveloped him in it...