Qi Heng remained silent for a long time.
He bore at least some responsibility for the Tianjia Civilization’s present condition, even if he had known nothing about the consequences at the time.
The Zerg’s persecution by so many interstellar civilizations was inseparable from all the enemies he had made. The fuse had arguably been laid the moment he established “colonization and conquest” as the civilization’s objectives.
The number of civilizations in the Milky Way that could truly be called advanced could be counted on one hand.
The strongest had been the Tianjia Civilization at the peak of Level 6. Next came the Mora Civilization, which was somewhat weaker and had reached the middle stage of Level 6.
The remaining three were all in the early stage of Level 6.
Back when Qi Heng was still playing the game, crushing any one of them would not have required much effort.
Qi Heng remained silent.
Call it avoidance, fear of trouble, or valuing his own life, but he genuinely did not want to wade into the Tianjia Civilization’s muddy waters.
A0’s objective was exceedingly ambitious.
Reviving the Tianjia Civilization and restoring the Zerg to the position they once held sounded idealistic. In Qi Heng’s view, however, it was little different from indulging in fantasy and smashing an egg against a rock.
The Tianjia Civilization had once been the Milky Way’s hegemonic civilization. Every civilization in the galaxy had acknowledged Tianjia as supreme.
More than twenty thousand years ago, the Zerg could still remain on their homeworld, quietly develop, and grow stronger.
That was clearly impossible now.
The Mora Civilization, which had replaced Tianjia, would never allow the Zerg another opportunity to rise.
It was not that Qi Heng looked down on the Tianjia Civilization.
As the saying went, even a rotten ship still had three thousand nails. Yet judging by Tianjia’s current condition, it probably did not even have one thousand left.
Under such circumstances, agreeing to A0’s mission of [Civilization Revival and Ascension] would mean that Qi Heng was either suicidally stubborn or simply stupid.
He did not believe himself capable of paying such an enormous price for a group of Zerg he had never met.
The war ten thousand years ago had shaped the Milky Way’s political situation ten thousand years later.
Anyone who thought about it for even a moment could understand how difficult and perilous it would be for the Zerg to redevelop their civilization and once again walk the path to supremacy paved with blood and fire.
If hostile civilizations noticed even the slightest sign of it, not only would the Zerg’s circumstances become even worse, but Qi Heng, the “obsolete Overlord and chief culprit,” would probably be captured, paraded through the streets, and executed in the most extreme fashion.
Qi Heng was not exaggerating.
He had simply done far too many terrible things while serving as Overlord.
If anyone discovered that he was the Overlord…
The corner of his mouth twitched.
Rather than saving the Zerg, perhaps he should protect himself first.
[A0, how much do you know about the Zerg’s current circumstances?]
Qi Heng told himself not to think too far ahead.
Compared with A0’s unrealistic objective, figuring out how to survive in District 49 was more important.
District 49 was unquestionably not as simple as it appeared. If Qi Heng intended to live there, he needed to understand it thoroughly.
【My apologies, Overlord.】
【After the Tianjia Civilization’s Central Think Tank was destroyed twelve thousand years ago, the system lost all contact with the Zerg. Every record related to them ends at the moment the Tianjia Civilization fell.】
A0’s answer made Qi Heng’s heart sink.
The Central Think Tank had been the crystallization of the Tianjia Civilization’s collective wisdom, effectively a replica of A1 that managed the civilization’s entire database.
Although Qi Heng had already expected it to have been destroyed, hearing it confirmed still left him feeling regretful.
[In other words, you know nothing about the Zerg’s present condition.]
【Correct.】
A0’s answer was undeniably disappointing.
Qi Heng had hoped to obtain enough information from the system to plan his next steps. Instead, A0 had failed him precisely when it mattered most.
It appeared that he would have to investigate the secrets of the slums himself.
The realization made Qi Heng feel as though he were having another heart attack.
Fortunately, he was not someone who liked dwelling endlessly on problems.
[Then what use are you?]
【The system was damaged during dimensional transit and requires repairs. Activating the remaining functions also requires corresponding amounts of energy. Overlord, you may collect energy to repair the system and unlock additional functions.】
【Ninety percent of the system’s functions are identical to those available while you were playing the game. The remaining ten percent have undergone minor changes after being converted into reality.】
【Specific information will be provided automatically when the relevant functions are unlocked.】
[What exactly counts as the energy the system requires? Electricity? Nuclear energy? Energy blocks? Energy crystals?]
Qi Heng offered several examples.
Even now, he still did not know what the system “ate.”
If its requirements were the same as they had been in the game, he certainly could not afford to supply it.
【Any form of energy may be converted into the energy required by the system. Only the conversion rate differs. Energy crystals possess the highest conversion rate. One hundred standard units of energy crystal may be converted into 0.1 units of system energy.】
[…]
Qi Heng was left speechless.
It really did insist on eating only the finest things.
Times had changed. Where was he supposed to find energy crystals to feed the system now?
Energy crystals originated from extremely rare high-energy crystal deposits and had been considered scarce even within the game.
They had remained expensive and rare even at the Tianjia Civilization’s height, much less now, when the Zerg had fallen into abject poverty.
Qi Heng treated A0’s explanation as though it had gone in one ear and out the other.
Nevertheless, replenishing the system’s energy was unavoidable.
No matter how difficult it proved, he would have to try.
After considering the matter for a while, Qi Heng concluded that electricity and nuclear energy would probably be the easiest forms of energy to obtain in a slum like District 49.
If the steel used to manufacture the identification tags and the material used to make the clothing were both produced on Tianyun Star, then an industrial production line had to exist somewhere.
And wherever there was a production line, there had to be a source of energy.
Qi Heng now had an idea.
[Return to sleep. Bring A1 back.]
【Yes.】
A0 answered slowly and reluctantly.
After the system AI switched back to A1, Qi Heng said nothing further. He closed his eyes and prepared to rest.
He had not slept since the previous night.
His body could endure it, but mentally, he felt an inexplicable wave of exhaustion.
He had originally planned to cultivate his mental power for two hours before sleeping. Now, it seemed more sensible to ensure that he received enough rest.
Perhaps he truly was exhausted.
Not long after Qi Heng closed his eyes, his breathing became slow and even, and he sank into sleep.
He had a dream.
Within a magnificent and imposing hall, ornately carved jade pillars and white-jade steps extended continuously upward until they reached a lofty platform that seemed almost beyond reach.
Everything on the platform was lavish to the extreme.
A broad throne carved from black crystal stood at its center. Every part of it was covered in intricately sculpted patterns. The carvings formed flower buds, and their centers were set with precious Fireglow Crystals so rare that they could not be purchased at any price.
When Qi Heng opened his eyes, he saw the vast hall spread out below him and, overhead, the enormous vaulted ceiling.
The relief carvings and murals decorating the dome felt inexplicably familiar.
I should be asleep.
So… what is happening now?
The moment the thought arose, his mind began working automatically, just as it did whenever he was awake.
One possibility after another appeared and was rejected until only a single conclusion remained.
This was a dream.
How could he be certain?
Primarily because of the murals on the dome and the overwhelming sense of familiarity produced by the surroundings.
The layout and furnishings strongly resembled the Sacred Temple located on the Zerg homeworld within the game.
The game’s main control console had also been located there. No in-game NPC could enter the temple except the player and those personally summoned by the player.
Once Qi Heng ruled out the possibility that he had transmigrated yet again, dreaming became the only remaining explanation.
Before falling asleep, he had still been lying on the dried-stalk bed inside Yan Ning’s home.
There was no conceivable way he could suddenly appear ten thousand years in the past inside the Sacred Temple on the Zerg homeworld.
According to A0’s information, Tianjia, the Zerg homeworld, had long since been destroyed in the war.
“Why am I here?” Qi Heng murmured in confusion.
Even if this was a dream, there was no reason for him to dream of the Sacred Temple.
He had never actually visited it.
If he had not recognized its arrangement and understood the story depicted in the murals above, he would have found it difficult to connect the temple before him with the images displayed inside the game.
The difference between them was greater than that between photographs taken before and after aggressive beauty filters.
Qi Heng straightened in his seat.
A possibility suddenly occurred to him.
Could the dream he was seeing originate from another part of himself?
For example, the Overlord’s memories.
The fusion process was irreversible and impossible to stop. Dreaming of the Overlord’s past during that process would be entirely reasonable.
Once the game became reality, the Overlord must have existed for as long as the Tianjia Civilization itself.
When Qi Heng was not logged into the game and was not controlling the Overlord, had the Overlord possessed self-awareness?
Had he acted independently?
Before Qi Heng could think more deeply, the scene before him abruptly changed.
This time, he appeared inside a palace.
He was still seated high above everyone else, reclining casually against the throne. His posture was comfortable, and his mood relaxed as he looked down at several dozen Zerg bowing before him.
The long-haired Zerg on the left should have been female Zerg, while the short-haired ones on the right should have been male Zerg.
Qi Heng tried to distinguish them, but he could not help frowning.
Why was the scene so blurry?
The Zerg before him appeared to be shrouded in mist.
No matter how he looked, their appearances remained indistinct.
He could not see their faces or figures clearly and could only vaguely make out their movements.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, he could feel their sincere submission and reverence.
No.
It was not directed toward Qi Heng.
They were bowing to the Overlord.
From the second scene onward, the dream became increasingly disordered.
Qi Heng could only passively receive one unfamiliar yet strangely familiar landscape after another.
The scenes themselves were extremely clear, but he was never able to see any Zerg other than himself properly.
No matter how intently he stared, they remained like flowers viewed through fog.
Qi Heng tried to guess the identities of the Zerg who appeared most frequently, hoping to match them with important NPCs from the game.
However, aside from a very small number with especially distinctive traits, all the others appeared nearly identical beneath the mist.
More importantly, the Overlord had ruled the Zerg for ten thousand years.
NPCs had been replaced extremely quickly throughout that period, making identification even more difficult.
Qi Heng had never expected to dream throughout the entire night.
From the moment he fell asleep until the moment he woke, he remained within the dream, observing the Zerg’s development from the Overlord’s perspective.
Even after opening his eyes, the scenes he had witnessed remained in his mind.
The moment he recalled them, every detail returned with perfect clarity, as though he had personally experienced everything.
[A1…]
Qi Heng had intended to ask A1 what had happened.
However, when he summoned the system interface, he noticed that his first-stage fusion progress with the Overlord had increased by one percent.
There was no need to ask.
That additional one percent was undoubtedly connected to the previous night’s dream.
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