Chapter 884 - 342: Lighthouse Curse

"Sigh."

Chen Mang let out a long sigh and projected the scenes from the Cyberminer’s dream onto the nearby screen: "See, I told you, there can’t really be some mysterious power in this region, right?"

"Whenever I’m on vacation, nothing happens."

"As soon as I go to work, everything starts coming up."

"That Little Fatty hasn’t sent a single message for six months. When I was lighting incense for Tuo Tuo, I lit one for him too, just in case. But it turns out he wasn’t dead, and he showed up as soon as I went back to work."

Ai remained silent, saying nothing.

He had already fallen into a suspended state, and even though the sample size was too small to draw any conclusions, it still seemed incredibly coincidental. During the six months the Train Captain was on vacation, the Constant Star Train had experienced an unprecedented level of peace, with no conflicts at all. Yet, as soon as the Train Captain returned, unexpected events began to occur...

...

"Chen Mang!"

Far away in the Nami Civilization, Little Fatty, who was situated on a mineral star, looked anxious with a trace of fear and unease. He nervously addressed the Mysterious Passenger before him: "Something’s wrong. I think something’s happened to the Nami Civilization. I’m not sure, but I have a bad feeling about this."

"Some time ago, my father suddenly told me to come home immediately."

"Initially, I refused, given my poor relationship with him, and I hadn’t accomplished anything significant, so how could I face going home?"

"But for some reason, my father became extremely adamant. Without saying another word, he sent a group to forcibly bring me back. Only then did I realize that he had hired a very powerful private security company to ensure my safety. That’s why I never encountered any pirates—I thought they all went out of business."

"After returning home."

"My father and mother’s expressions were grim, extremely unpleasant."

"I’ve never seen such somber and unpleasant looks on their faces. Even during tough times before, they never looked like this. On the way home, I didn’t interact with anyone, as I was delivered directly to the house by the private security company."

"Until—"

"My father took me walking down the street."

"That’s when I realized something was off."

"Everyone on the street was looking up at the sky."

"Everyone."

"Everyone was gazing up at the sky at a 45-degree angle. At first, I thought there must be something up there, but later I noticed there was nothing, and it seemed no one felt anything was wrong about it."

"They weren’t stopping to look at the sky."

"But rather, they were doing their own things while looking up at the sky."

"The whole society was still operating normally, the streets filled with vendors’ shouts and people chatting. If you closed your eyes, everything would seem normal, but when you opened them, everything looked very eerie."

"It’s not just this planet."

"But..."

"Everyone in the ’Nami Civilization’ is like this."

"Even the private security company escorting me was the same way. At first, I thought they were concerned I might see their faces or that there was some kind of special protocol, so I didn’t think much of it."

"Most importantly—"

"I saw on the news, the speech by the ’Nami Civilization’ leader. Even the leader and numerous senior officials were like this, but none of them seemed to notice anything bizarre!"

"Everyone is like this!"

"Only my father, my mother, and I remain normal. In the entire civilization, only the three of us are in a normal state. It’s like everyone else has gone mad or is being haunted. My father... suspects it’s the Celestial Palace, believing that civilization’s extinction is near."

"I’ve returned with them to the Southern Border mineral star in the Nami Civilization, to wait here... for the civilization to return to normal, or face its demise."

"What should we do?"

"Chen Mang, you are a leader of civilization, do you know what the cause of this is?"

...

"..."

Sitting in the train room, Chen Mang, after listening to Pang’s account, furrowed his brows slightly, feeling as if he had just heard a ghost story.

The subsequent development of this story should be.

At some moment, everyone suddenly tilts their heads to look at the family of three, then squeezes out a sinister smile, saying, why aren’t you looking up?

What a cliché story.

Like something that could be published in a story magazine.

"Are there ghosts in the cosmos?"

"There could be," Ai uncertainly replied: "There are many forms of civilization, and perhaps there is one in the form of ghosts. But so far, there is no information about such a form of civilization in my database. Even if it does exist, it’s an extremely niche form of civilization."

"Even more niche than the cultivation civilization form."

"However, on the Black Tortoise Star, there is an extremely niche branch of cultivators called the Ghost Cultivator, which might have some commonalities."

At this moment—

Little Fatty handed over a photo taken on the planet.

In the scene.

Everyone was looking up at the sky at a standard 45-degree angle. Chen Mang even had Ai calculate it, and it truly was a perfect 45-degree angle. From this perspective, normal living was entirely feasible, with peripheral vision accommodating most daily activities.

Only the eyes would feel uncomfortable.

They needed to roll downwards.

That’s why everyone had a dead fish-eye look, which appeared quite creepy.

After a long while.

He finally spoke, conveying a message to Little Fatty.

"It might not necessarily be a disaster caused by the Celestial Palace. If it was, not many have explored it, and the disaster shouldn’t cover everyone within your civilization. Furthermore, since even the Southern Border is affected, the spread is too fast."