Chapter 527: It Doesn't Matter, It's All the Same! The Planetary Engine Unfolds!
Just as Paul was at a loss about how to counter, the quick-thinking Dr. Luo Ji immediately spoke up to divert the topic, unwilling to keep tangling with the other party.
"Whether or not you're willing to believe in our vision of peace, the collapse facing the Trisolaran world is imminent: a disintegrating order, severe resource shortages, and a crumbling cohesion."
"Trisolaran civilization is rapidly heading toward extinction!"
The Trisolaran Sovereign was clearly taken aback, but soon gave a low, rustling sigh.
Using tone to convey inner emotion was somewhat redundant in Trisolaran culture, yet under human cultural influence, the Sovereign had gradually learned this novel form of expression.
"It doesn't matter. It's all the same."
The Sovereign fell into silence again. In this universe, extinction was nothing unusual. They had struggled, they had fought. Even if they were heading toward annihilation—so what?
Those lofty advanced civilizations would eventually follow the same path.
"What do you mean? What have you done?" Luo Ji pressed urgently, terrified that the Sovereign had already carried out the one thing he feared most.
"What I have done… is precisely what you most fear."
The Sovereign's smooth, mirror-like face reflected Luo Ji's tense expression. In that instant, Luo Ji knew the worst had already happened.
His gaze swept around, finally fixing on a star chart: the Solar System and Alpha Centauri. Luo Ji's mind went blank.
All thought was wiped away in an instant.
"You sent out the relative positions of the Solar System and the Trisolaran system…!"
As he spoke, Luo Ji's voice trembled. He had long suspected the Trisolarans might do this, which was why he had cautiously come here to negotiate peace.
As long as they had a viable new home, perhaps they wouldn't insist on fighting humanity to the end.
But he had never expected the Sovereign would so decisively choose mutual destruction with humankind!
Then again, it made sense: decisiveness was in their nature. Once their hopes of colonizing the Solar System were dashed, extremity was inevitable.
"Didn't we already send two ships to communicate with you? Why would you still do this!"
Luo Ji fumed in frustration. The Trisolarans had hope for survival, yet that hope was squandered by their ruler's tyranny.
"We have never believed a single word spoken by humanity."
The Sovereign remained calm, betraying no detectable emotion, speaking slowly of its actions:
"I first released the coordinates of the Trisolaran system. Only then did I reveal the relative positions of the Solar System and Alpha Centauri. We do not love our home. We are merely trapped here."
The Sovereign spoke with utter tranquility, as if recounting the most ordinary of matters.
Luo Ji wanted to retort, but words failed him. It was over. The Trisolaran system was finished, and now even the Solar System was in peril.
"So you already had a plan prepared for when colonization failed."
Luo Ji clenched his fists. He wanted nothing more than to rush forward and strike the Sovereign. Such despicable acts belonged only to tyrants.
"Yes. This universe is vast—far beyond what you or I can imagine. The Universal Megacorp may be an advanced civilization, but above you, there are surely greater ones still."
"No matter your goals, in the end you will face judgment from higher civilizations. We will not live to see that day, but it doesn't matter. It is all the same—everyone will step into eternal death."
As its voice fell, the chamber around the Sovereign turned a searing red. A pillar of fire erupted beneath it.
The Sovereign's body was incinerated in an instant. No pain, no scream. In Luo Ji's daze, the scene evoked the tragic image of King Zhou three thousand years ago walking toward the Star-Plucking Tower.
It doesn't matter. It's all the same.
Luo Ji's thoughts seemed pulled by the universe's consciousness into an infinite cycle. The rise and fall of civilizations all repeated the same truth: death is eternal life.
In moments, the Sovereign was gone—reduced to nothing, not a trace left. The Trisolaran world had been thrown into chaos, now dumped in Universal Megacorp's lap.
And with the Solar System's coordinates exposed, humanity had been dealt a cruel blow.
This was the Trisolarans' final act of revenge. Outside, those dehydrating themselves into suspended animation or indulging in their last pleasures calmly accepted mutual destruction with humanity.
For a species that had already repeated destruction and rebirth more than two hundred times, death no longer inspired fear. Eternal annihilation was almost a relief.
Any struggle was futile. Better to dehydrate and sleep, never waking again.
"Damn it, that bastard got off too easy!"
Pani wells cursed bitterly. If he had known the Sovereign would do this, he would have rushed in and torn the bastard apart with his own hands.
"So what now? Do we abandon this planet?"
Pani glanced at Captain Paul. He himself had no interest in this barren world. These Trisolarans were useless—stubborn, rigid, poor partners for cooperation.
Dr. Luo Ji stayed silent, still reeling from the shock. He didn't know what to do. Humanity's position had been exposed; there was no way to run.
It wasn't as if they could tow Earth away. Finding another suitable star system was no simple task. What had been a promising situation was now a dead end.
"We will not abandon Trisolaris. Nor will we abandon Trisolaran civilization. Since their Sovereign no longer wishes to lead, we will take charge."
Paul wasn't truly eager to take responsibility for the Trisolarans. But this was a direct order from Governor Li Ang: Trisolaran civilization must be preserved.
The reason: their evolutionary potential was enormous—greater even than humanity in this universe.
Having absorbed human culture, the Trisolarans could even surpass humans in artistic achievement. Whether in film, cultural industries, or painting and abstract arts, they could attain levels slightly higher than humanity's.
To outdo humans in the very domain where humanity excelled most—art and abstraction—their learning capacity and evolutionary potential bordered on the absurd.
In many other multiverses, humanity's advantages were unparalleled. But here, in the Trisolaran universe, it was the Trisolarans who possessed the greatest evolutionary promise.
Such a "super-blue-chip" force had to be secured by the Universal Megacorp. With the Sovereign dead and the Trisolarans leaderless, it would be easy for the corporation to install its own overseers.
Immediately, Paul ordered a search of the palace. Soon, in a remote corner, they discovered a Trisolarian preparing to dehydrate itself into dormancy.
"Who are you, and why are you here?"
Paul fixed his eyes on the figure.
"I am Monitoring Officer 4396. The Leader sent me here to transmit the relative positional data of the Trisolaran system and the Solar System."
The monitoring officer answered truthfully.
Paul fell into thought.
The Trisolaran world placed no value on the individual. They had no names, only job titles combined with a numerical designation.
Even the Trisolaran Leader was no exception.
With the sole exception of children just born and still in their growth stage, any Trisolarans without a position would be forcibly dehydrated and thrown into the incinerators to be reduced to ashes.
Because of this, the Trisolaran world had no risk of an aging society. Only those in their prime, individuals deemed useful, were allowed to survive.
Idlers were not fit to live.
In addition, Trisolaran reproduction was quite unusual.
When they mated, their organic matter would fuse together. Roughly more than half of that matter became reserve energy for the new life, while the remainder refreshed their cells, generating a brand-new body.
This new body would then undergo fission, splitting into three to five entirely new Trisolaran infants.
That was how the Trisolarans reproduced. Every child could quite literally be considered "a piece of flesh fallen from the parent's body."
These children automatically inherited a portion of their parents' memories and knowledge, becoming the continuation of their parents' lives, and beginning their own.
This made Trisolaran society's class system extremely rigid, even ossified. There was almost no possibility of breaking through one's station and advancing.
If the parents were monitoring officers, their children would still be monitoring officers.
If the parents were the Leader or part of the upper echelon, their children would grow up to be Leaders or elite officials as well.
For the majority, their fate was to become monitoring officers, spending their lives listening to outside signals from within a room barely two or three square meters.
Though they would feel boredom, loneliness, and solitude, their brain organs had an exceptionally high resistance to emotional overload, so they would not let chaotic feelings interfere with their work.
Otherwise, most Trisolarans would immediately choose suicide.
Seeing the monitoring officer trembling in fear, Paul became curious and asked what he was so worried about.
"Monitoring Officer 1379 was my great-grandfather. The position I now hold was passed down from him. I was born already knowing what kind of species humanity is."
"You're terrifying. You inflict all sorts of inhumane punishments on your own kind. I have never seen such a violent species as humans. I'm afraid you'll soak me in water and torture me endlessly."
The candor of Monitoring Officer 4396 left Paul both amused and exasperated. Humanity was indeed a violent species, but this was an age of harmony—outwardly, not inwardly.
"We won't waste our time on you."
Paul had no interest in torturing an innocent Trisolaran monitoring officer. These thought-transparent Trisolarans did not even require interrogation. Ask them a question, and they would simply answer.
Getting them to talk was easier than coaxing a three-year-old child.
At present, the vast majority of Trisolarans had chosen dehydration hibernation. That meant whatever the Universal Megacorp intended to do here would encounter no interference or resistance from them.
That, at least, was good news.
Originally, Paul had thought that after landing on Trisolaris, they would need to deploy large forces in a bloody suppression campaign—slaughtering Trisolarans until rivers of blood flowed—before they could proceed with the next phase.
But these Trisolarans, recognizing the times, had organized no resistance at all. Only a rare few emerged in the final moments before doomsday, just to take one last look at their homeworld.
After all, in ordinary times, common Trisolarans had no right to see the outside world. For them, a spontaneous journey was impossible.
"The Trisolaran Leader is using gravitational-wave broadcasts to spread signals, hoping to attract strikes from advanced civilizations. The fastest that could work would be a few years. For now, we still have time to take some Trisolarans with us."
Dr. Luo Ji quickly calculated the timeline. In theory, once their presence was exposed, a strike from a higher civilization could come at any moment.
The very next second, an attack from some corner of the Milky Way could annihilate this fragile world of Trisolaris.
The longer they lingered here, the greater the chance of being collateral damage.
"No. It isn't just the Trisolarans we're taking."
Paul shook his head. Luo Ji was stunned. Not just Trisolarans? Could it be… the entire Trisolaran planet? But producing thousands of planetary engines in so short a time was impossible.
He knew the Universal Megacorp possessed some technology to move planets, but that was the kind of massive project that consumed inconceivable amounts of time and effort.
To deploy such a colossal system on short notice was simply impossible.
Paul offered no explanation. He merely took out his communicator and transmitted an order to the fleet in low orbit: "All clear. Begin the operation."
Very soon, the Universal Megacorp deployed large numbers of ground forces and airships, moving the dehydrated, hibernating Trisolarans onto their warships, clearing out vast tracts of land.
Then, they began positioning enormous cubic structures one by one at planned locations.
Exactly as Paul anticipated, the Trisolarans ignored humanity's actions. Some even cooperated, guiding the way.
So long as they got to ride on a spaceship, take a tour, and see their homeworld with their own eyes, they were satisfied.
Once the arrangements were in place, Paul stood at the Hyperion's central command platform, looking down at the massive cubic devices covering the ground. At his command, countless cubes instantly began to transform.
According to pre-set programs, they unfolded into fully formed planetary engines.
Immediately afterward, the built-in AI drilling beasts began boring downward, laying the foundations. The massive forces unleashed violent tremors across the land.
Howling hurricanes swept everything away. Black smoke blotted out the sky. Towering colossi tens of thousands of meters high stabbed straight into the heavens, as if to gouge a monstrous wound into the sky itself.
And this was not just one planetary engine—there were more than a thousand of them.
Thanks to AI automation and shape-shifting metals, what would normally take years or decades to construct could be completed in just two or three days.
Such industrial miracles could only happen under the Universal Megacorp!
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