Humanity Is Gone, but I Have Billions of Clones

The confidential secretary’s face was filled with grief.

Li Qingsong’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He said, enunciating each word, "You’re saying that the Strong Core Level Intelligent Mechanical Calamity... will very likely follow us to the Solar System?"

The confidential secretary nodded.

In that instant, a boundless rage erupted in Li Qingsong’s heart.

’I thought the Blutuk Civilization was just going to plunder the Solar System for its resources. I never imagined you’d lead this kind of trouble here!’

’You... You all deserve to die!’

Li Qingsong seethed for a moment before his anger deflated into resignation.

’I’ve already wiped out the entire Blutuk Civilization, and the few who are left are my prisoners. How else can I possibly retaliate against them?’

’Slaughter the remaining captives?’

’It’s meaningless. They’re my assets now. Killing them would only be a loss for me.’

"How long until the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity arrives?"

The confidential secretary shook his head. "I don’t know. No one knows. But we all agreed that it’s highly likely to come.

"After all, proper civilizations aren’t a dime a dozen in the Cosmos. Once it finds the trail of a true civilization, why would it ever let go so easily?"

Li Qingsong’s mind raced as he continued his questioning. "As I understand it, long before our current stage, my civilization had already made numerous attempts to unify the Strong Core Force and had made significant progress.

"We established the Standard Model and were already quite close to the goal of unifying the Strong Core Force.

"Your technology is more advanced than ours, so you must have progressed much further down this path.

"And since unifying the Strong Core Force would make you a Strong Core Civilization, why did you choose to flee instead of going all-out to develop your technology and stand against the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity?"

After all, during interstellar travel, even the largest stockpiles of resources are finite, and much scientific research becomes impossible. Choosing to flee meant almost completely losing the possibility of further technological development.

The confidential secretary replied grimly, "Unifying the Strong Core Force isn’t as simple as you imagine. The only reason you believe you’re close is that your research isn’t deep enough. You haven’t yet discovered the enormous obstacles that lie ahead.

"Our civilization also considered staying in our home star system to develop our technology instead of fleeing. But after an assessment by our team of scientific experts, we concluded that the probability of us breaking through to become a Strong Core Civilization within a thousand years was practically nonexistent.

"Furthermore, even if we became a Strong Core Civilization, there’s still a long way to go from theory to practical application.

"All things considered, we would need at least two thousand years to potentially possess the strength to fight that Intelligent Mechanical Calamity, and that’s assuming we could give it our all and minimize internal strife.

"We didn’t believe the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity would wait that long to arrive.

"We could only flee.

"It was precisely because time was so short that, after discovering your civilization in the Solar System, we became even more determined to come here.

"We originally planned to enslave your civilization to help us gather resources for the next leg of our journey. That way, we could set sail and escape as quickly as possible."

Li Qingsong remained noncommittal and continued, "The data from your civilization indicates that the fleet of a Strong Core Level Intelligent Mechanical Calamity can travel at speeds extremely close to the speed of light, while your fleet’s travel speed is only 3% of light speed.

"With such a massive disparity, were you confident you could escape?"

"When we fled our home star system, we disguised a portion of our fleet and had it flee in another direction as a diversion. At the same time, we deliberately optimized the thrust devices on our main fleet to minimize the brightness of our engine exhaust and improve its directionality.

"We planned to create another diversion here in the Solar System.

"As for whether it would work... that was out of our hands. All we knew was that if we ran, there was a sliver of hope. If we didn’t, death was certain."

Li Qingsong sneered. "You’ve consistently judged that it would follow you to the Solar System. It seems you had no confidence in the diversion you set up in your home star system."

The confidential secretary sighed again. "Time was short. Under such rushed circumstances, we were lucky to buy any time at all. How could we dare to hope for more? But we did intend to be thorough with the diversion here in the Solar System."

Li Qingsong fell into thought for a moment.

Based on the interrogations of this confidential secretary and numerous other personnel, combined with the intelligence gathered from the many Blutuk ships, Li Qingsong knew there was a very high probability that the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity was truly coming to the Solar System.

’In the short term, I probably won’t have the strength to fight it either.’

’Looks like I’ll have to run for it, too.’

’But how to run, the specifics of the escape—that’s something I can plan out carefully to maximize the chances of success.’

’Regardless, the first step is to digest and absorb the technology from the Blutuk Civilization, master controlled nuclear fusion, High-speed Ion Propulsion, and a whole series of other technologies, and truly acquire Interstellar Navigation Capability.’

’Right now, I can’t even get out of the Solar System.’

Li Qingsong continued, "You’re only an Electroweak Civilization. How do you know so much?"

"While exploring nearby star systems, we discovered the ruins of a long-dead civilization. We expended great effort to obtain this information.

"If not for that, we wouldn’t have been able to immediately determine that an Intelligent Mechanical Calamity had targeted us when we discovered that alien ship, nor would we have made the instant decision to flee."

Li Qingsong didn’t dwell on the issue. Instead, he said, "Tell me about the Parasitic Calamity and the Microbial Calamity that you know of."

The Blutuk Civilization was aware of four types of Celestial Calamities in total. The Intelligent Mechanical Calamity and the Infection Calamity had already been briefly introduced, leaving the Parasitic Calamity and the Microbial Calamity.

"The Parasitic Calamity and the Infection Calamity share some similarities. Both begin with a silent infection. However, the goal of the parasite in a Parasitic Calamity isn’t to seize genes, but to control the individuals of a civilization.

"Complete control, from mind to body, leading to total replacement.

"From the outside, the individual appears no different than before. Even their mannerisms and tone of voice are identical, but their core has been completely taken over by the parasite.

"Under these conditions, the parasite quietly produces larvae and spreads them far and wide, infecting more individuals until every sentient being in the entire civilization is infected."

The thought of the entire Human Civilization being infected, of all his relatives, friends, and classmates having their "souls" replaced, sent a chill deep into Li Qingsong’s core.

"What is the purpose of the parasites infesting sentient life? It can’t just be for reproduction, can it?"

"Of course not."

The confidential secretary shook his head. "There might be life forms in the Cosmos that specialize in parasitizing other creatures to sustain their own species, but those would only be called diseases, not a Parasitic Calamity.

"The data we acquired indicates that in a Parasitic Calamity, the parasite’s purpose for infesting the sentient life of other civilizations is to seize everything that civilization possesses.

"All of the civilization’s wealth—including all its resources, technological creations, and most importantly, its scientific data, technological mindset, culture, art, customs, and so on—all of it is taken by them.

"The pathogen of the parasite is deliberately spread throughout the Cosmos by the Parasitic Calamity. Once a parasite matures, it instinctively knows how to contact its mother civilization.

"They will attempt to return to their mother civilization. Disguised as the life forms of the civilization they infested, they use its captured scientific data and technological mindset to contribute to the development of their own."