Chapter 53: Why?

Xiao Yu never doubted the validity of his “profit-driven” hypothesis. He firmly believed that without sufficient motivation, the Lizardmen civilization would never have initiated an attack against him.

Now, Xiao Yu’s suspicions were finally confirmed. The Lizardmen civilization had attacked him to test their theory: “Does destroying other civilizations improve one’s own luck?”

At this moment, Xiao Yu began to draw broader connections and reflect deeply.

“The destruction of Earth… Could it be that some civilization, in an attempt to enhance its own luck, ruthlessly targeted Earth?”

This thought surfaced in Xiao Yu’s mind, but he immediately detected a critical flaw.

“No, something doesn’t add up. There’s a missing piece—what defines the extinction of a civilization? Is it the death of all intelligent life within the civilization? Or is it the loss of cultural and technological inheritance? Neither explanation seems sufficient.

“The Lizardmen’s planet exploded, but 300,000 of them escaped, and they preserved their civilization’s legacy. Similarly, although Earth was destroyed, I survived, and humanity’s civilization continues to progress.”

“If civilization persists, then this cannot truly be considered extinction. If this mysterious, unknowable force hasn’t completely eradicated these civilizations, it suggests that the Lizardmen’s hypothesis might be wrong. Or perhaps… the theory of destroying civilizations to enhance one’s luck is flawed.”

“However… my luck has improved recently. I acquired the technology for building energy cannons, collected vast amounts of construction materials from the Lizardmen’s planet, and achieved breakthroughs in the construction of advanced Photon Computers. Could this be because I destroyed the Lizardmen civilization?”

Conflicting pieces of information intertwined, leaving Xiao Yu unable to draw a definitive conclusion. At this moment, even Xiao Yu considered testing the theory himself by destroying a civilization to see if it improved his luck.

The decoded section ended there. With no other choice, Xiao Yu continued to construct his fleet while waiting for the decryption to progress.

Five more years passed. Xiao Yu completed his construction efforts, melting down the Solar and reforging its materials into part of the new Voyager. Construction of the Tianyuan was also completed.

By now, Xiao Yu commanded a fleet of 1,243 ships, including two 800,000-ton County-Class ships—the new Tianyuan and the new Voyager—and one 400,000-ton County-Class ship, the new The Solar. He also had 1,000 Village-Class ships and 240 Town-Class ships.

All three County-Class ships were equipped with Xiao Yu’s most advanced energy weapon, which he had named the “Dragon God Cannon.” The weapon systems on the Town-Class and County-Class ships were also upgraded, incorporating high-speed rotary cannons built with advanced electromagnetic coil acceleration technology. All ships were additionally equipped with new high-energy laser cannons, drastically enhancing the fleet’s combat capabilities.

Now, Xiao Yu felt confident that, if he were to face the Lizardmen civilization again, he could eliminate all their resistance within a month.

The new Photon Computers were installed on the Tianyuan and Voyager. Xiao Yu planned to reside in one of these computers during normal operations while the other managed fleet computations that didn’t require his intervention.

The Voyager became the new flagship of Xiao Yu’s fleet.

Xiao Yu loaded all the recyclable materials from the barren planet onto his ships and maneuvered the fleet into orbit.

“It’s time to leave,” Xiao Yu thought. “After staying here for so many years, it’s time to bring this chapter to a close.”

He had no intention of remaining on this barren planet or heading to Tianyuan. The planet was too impoverished, with little value for development. Moreover, with his new ships and ample material reserves, Xiao Yu could achieve higher speeds and reach the Tianyuan IV star system at least a thousand years ahead of schedule. Staying here any longer would be a waste of time.

“Goodbye, barren planet. I wish you luck,” Xiao Yu murmured as he issued the command to depart.

Instantly, the engines of over 1,400 ships flared with bright blue flames, propelling the fleet into the vast darkness of space.

As Xiao Yu left, the barren planet fell silent once more. It would continue its solitary journey through space, perhaps lucky enough to be captured by a star and become its planet—or, if unlucky, swallowed by a black hole.

Xiao Yu didn’t concern himself with its fate. Such occurrences were far too common in the universe.

A year after Xiao Yu left the barren planet, all of the Lizardmen’s core data was fully decoded.

“The interstellar voyage has begun. We left our home star and ventured into the darkness of the universe.”

“The planetary transformation project has begun, but due to the lack of resources, progress is painfully slow. We are gradually modifying the atmosphere of the planet and building cities on its surface.

“Our civilization struggles to survive and continue its legacy. Gradually, our people have forgotten the warm and comfortable home we once had, but I can never forget. I am horrified to see the terrifying changes in our bodies. As intelligent beings, we undoubtedly walked upright, but to withstand the cold and harsh environment of the cosmos and obtain more heat sources, we began evolving toward reptilian forms. Moreover, our optical organs started to degrade, and we developed new heat-sensing organs.

“I don’t know whether these changes are good or bad. I can only fervently hope to reach our destination soon. I’ve almost forgotten what light looks like.”

Xiao Yu’s fleet initiated another acceleration. During the decades of conflict with the Lizardmen civilization, both his fleet and the barren planet had been moving closer to Tianyuan IV. This acceleration brought Xiao Yu’s fleet to a relative speed of 900 kilometers per second toward Tianyuan IV.

At this speed, Xiao Yu estimated they would reach their destination in about 1,600 years, saving over a thousand years compared to previous estimates.

In the vast, dark universe, stars surrounded them in every direction, with the farthest visible stars billions of light-years away.

“The universe is so vast, so mysterious. There’s so much I’ve yet to understand,” Xiao Yu sighed, returning to the decrypted data.

“During the thousand-year journey, we encountered no other civilizations, so that hypothesis remained unverified. Meanwhile, our technological progress slowed significantly. It seemed that the luck brought by eradicating the native civilization had been entirely used up. Our population remained limited to under a million. This planet’s environment was so hostile that even after over a thousand years of terraforming, we couldn’t survive on it without life-support systems.

“Life remained monotonous and uneventful until something happened that shattered this calm.”

“Two thousand years into our exile, our civilization experienced a significant event. A newly born child, during a lesson on the history of our escape, asked a question.

“I still remember this young one’s name. Later, he grew to become one of the greatest scientists in our civilization.

“The question he asked nearly upended our society. It was a simple question. In class, he asked his teacher, ‘After fleeing to the new planet, with an infinite supply of fusion fuel from the nearby gas giant and the virtually unlimited mineral resources of our former home planet, why didn’t we stay there to develop technology until it was advanced enough for us to leave? Why did we flee in such an unprepared state?’

“His teacher was stunned. The teacher suddenly realized that he had never considered this question. Not just him—our entire society, with nearly a million people, had gone over 2,000 years without anyone pondering this question. It was as though we collectively suffered from selective amnesia, forgetting this issue and focusing only on escape. As soon as our technology was barely sufficient to propel the planet for interstellar travel, we embarked on our voyage.

“This question caused a massive upheaval in our society, triggering centuries-long debates. Numerous hypotheses were proposed during this time, but none were convincing enough. To this day, we still don’t know why. We don’t understand why, back then, not a single person thought of staying in the home star system to develop our technology before leaving.”

Xiao Yu froze, overwhelmed by a storm of emotions that nearly caused his central computer to crash.

“Yes, why? Why? This… this seems like such a simple concept. Stay in the home system, use the resources to develop technology, and only leave when you’re adequately prepared. Isn’t this a straightforward idea? Isn’t it easy to think of?”

“But why? Why hadn’t I thought of this before? Why hadn’t this question ever crossed my mind?”

Xiao Yu murmured to himself, his heart shaken to its core.

“Why? Why?”