Chapter 1 Exploring the Star Gate

Exploring the Star Gate is an extremely important matter concerning the survival of all humanity, and no amount of caution is excessive.

Personnel from the GRU, the Global Supernatural Alliance, and the Special Affairs Bureau waited outside the Star Gate for a long time, but the Star Gate remained inactive. So, they came to the conference room to discuss how to deal with the Star Gate.

Actively dispatching personnel there is definitely not an option.

This is no longer the 1970s when the Voyager Golden Record was sent into space.

Officials from various countries have long realized how dangerous it is to send human information to unknown civilizations.

An unknown civilization (assuming they possess intelligence equal to humans) could completely analyze human gene samples to develop biological weapons targeting the human species.

They could easily wipe out humanity by launching only a few missiles.

And sending high-level extraordinary individuals is also not feasible.

First of all, any Earth object attempting to pass through the Star Gate requires Earth to pay a "toll," which is the energy required to traverse the planet.

The higher the level of the extraordinary individual, the higher the toll required.

Sending a small number of extraordinary individuals would be meaningless.

A large army of extraordinary individuals would require astronomical energy reserves.

Moreover, the situation on the other side is completely unknown. If an army of extraordinary individuals is teleported there and manages to control the leaders of the other civilization or destroy their civilization, that would be fine.

However, if the army of extraordinary individuals is teleported there and is controlled by the other side,

it would spell disaster.

Li Ang listened in the conference room as senior strategists and think tanks repeated their discussions many times.

Ultimately, the conclusion everyone reached

was the same as that reached in countless previous meetings—seal off the site, dispatch scientific researchers without extraordinary powers, in a closed environment,

and use the simplest unmanned robots to observe the Star Gate.

This approach ensures that human civilization does not have a significant disadvantage in information warfare.

Earth has dozens of Star Gates leading to unknown worlds. The other side can fail countless times, but humanity can only fail once, and it's game over.

"In a sense, this action plan is quite ostrich-like,"

Li Ang grinned and said to Xing Hechou beside him, "Phase 1: We declare that nothing is happening.

Phase 2: We say that maybe something is happening, but we shouldn't take action.

Phase 3: Maybe we should take action, but we can't do anything.

Phase 4: Maybe we could have done something back then, but now it's too late."

"This is the only option we have."

Xing Hechou spread his hands helplessly and said, "Earth is the only one we have.

Although various forces now have doors in hand and can transfer some of their people to the Door Worlds,

the basic foundation of industrial facilities is still on Earth.

If we are too aggressive and Earth is attacked by multiple Star Gate worlds simultaneously, we who are fighting on our home turf might be dragged into a protracted war of civilizations.

I don't know which civilization will win in the end, but for most Earthlings who have not been able to migrate to the Door Worlds, they will definitely lose."

"Hmm,"

Li Ang nodded casually, "Do you think this phenomenon of dozens of Star Gates connecting to Earth simultaneously has ever occurred in history?

For example, the Cambrian explosion of life was caused by species from multiple planets arriving on Earth at the same time, competing for dominance over Earth.

In the end, marine invertebrates, the Trilobita class, won.

They occupied Earth and began their long reign.

What's happening now has also happened in history.

It's just that human civilization on Earth has gone from being the challenger to being the challenged in the ring.

If humanity can win challenge after challenge, then it can continue to maintain its rule over Earth.

If it loses, human civilization can only migrate to different Door Worlds.

We and the United States, Russia, and the European Union will sever ties, forget each other's existence over the long years, and eventually degenerate into primitive civilizations in the Door Worlds,

waiting for the next Door World battle to arrive."

"Huh?!"

Xing Hechou was surprised and stunned when he heard this, "Li Laodi, did you think of this yourself, or did you find some key, verifiable evidence?"

It's no wonder that Xing Hechou was so shocked.

Li Ang is an extraordinary individual with absolute autonomy over the Star Gate, and judging from his performance in the Door World battle,

the quality of the Star Gate in his hands will definitely not be low.

It is really possible that he has found some key evidence in his Door World to prove that Earth's current situation is that of the challenged in the ring.

Only by defeating the civilizations behind all the Star Gates can we continue to occupy Earth and not be driven out of our home.

If that is the case, then all the arrangements of the Global Supernatural Alliance, the officials of various countries, and the guild organizations will be rewritten.

"Don't be nervous, I'm just saying it casually."

Li Ang waved his hand casually, glanced at the relieved expression on Xing Hechou's face, and felt nothing in his heart.

The Special Affairs Bureau and the Different Society must have more information than he does.

Perhaps the Different Society had already thought of Li Ang's conjecture, but they did not want to cause widespread panic, so they did not announce it to the outside world, or even to senior members like Xing Hechou.

"Li Laodi, don't scare me,"

Xing Hechou breathed a sigh of relief, slapped his thigh helplessly, and said, "I'm old and my heart is not good."

"Next time, I'll pay attention."

Li Ang grinned and turned to continue looking at the holographic projection in front of the conference room.

The Star Gate in Siberia is the second most frequently active Star Gate after the Mayotte Islands.

The GRU plans to build a fortress with an even higher level of security here.

At the Star Gate exit, they will install a stasis field that is always on.

This way, no matter what is launched from the other side of the Star Gate, the stasis field can capture it,

preventing potential missiles from exploding quickly and preventing teleported extraordinary creatures from using their abilities.

The full-band stasis field is one of the GRU's trump cards. They did not specify whether it was a technological creation or an extraordinary item.

However, there is no doubt that keeping the full-band stasis field on all the time will consume a huge amount of resources.

Therefore, the GRU will cooperate with the Global Supernatural Alliance and the Special Affairs Bureau to jointly manage the Star Gate exit in Siberia.

Major events that can affect the world order are quickly finalized in this temporary conference room.

Li Ang and others are also preparing to leave here.

However, at this moment, a piercing alarm sounded in the camp.

"What's going on?"

Li Ang frowned and released his powerful divine power, covering half of the camp.

The Star Gate in Siberia opened again, and this time, something was delivered from the other side of the Star Gate.

A stone book.

Everyone rushed to the Star Gate at the first time.

The stone dictionary has been strictly protected.

After a complicated, meticulous, and cautious series of tests, analyses, and observations, it was finally determined that this was a stone creation without any technological or extraordinary elements.

The stone is book-shaped overall, made of gneiss, and divided into thousands of pages.

Each page is densely engraved with neat text, and next to the text are pictures.

The pictures include stars, planets, liquid oceans, soil, rocks, mountains, plants, animals, and so on.

In short, this is a dictionary with explanatory pictures.

"What... is going on?"

Among the think tanks attending the seminar, someone couldn't help but exclaim in shock, "Why would they send a dictionary over? Isn't this... courting death?"

In civilizational studies, a dictionary is one of the best tools for understanding a civilization.

A complex dictionary contains a wealth of text that can be analyzed and studied by outsiders.

Even if the specific meaning of the text is unknown, it can be deciphered slowly.

The pictures accompanying the text greatly reduce the difficulty of deciphering the text, increase accuracy, and reduce errors and misunderstandings.

Theoretically, even if the entire United Kingdom and Europe were destroyed now,

as long as a copy of the *Encyclopædia Britannica* was left for future generations,

future civilizations could understand all aspects of the United Kingdom.

Sending a dictionary to an unknown civilization is tantamount to handing over important information about one's own civilization,

which is an extremely serious and fatal mistake in the laws of civilizational warfare.

"The dictionary is sent to us, and the pictures in the dictionary are to reduce the difficulty of deciphering and reduce potential misunderstandings.

That is to say, the dictionary itself is a gift, meaning that the civilization behind the Star Gate wants to establish communication with us,"

someone in the think tank quickly said, "The reason for choosing a stone dictionary is that the stone itself is hard and can withstand wind and sun.

And choosing natural stone can minimize the leakage of their technology.

If I'm not mistaken, this should be a small part of the entire civilization's dictionary, mainly introducing basic concepts such as the sun, moon, and stars.

We need to release the same goodwill before they will send more dictionaries."

Everyone present was excited.

This is the first time that a Star Gate world has actively released goodwill towards Earth.

After much consideration and discussion,

the GRU, the Global Supernatural Alliance, and the Special Affairs Bureau decided to send a stone dictionary of the same material to the Star Gate.

It will also include basic concepts such as the sun, moon, and stars.

Of course, the dictionary itself is written in the world's rarest language, Badeshi, from the Bishigram village in the northern mountains of Pakistan.

This Badeshi language belongs to a branch of the Indo-Aryan language family and has long been subjected to the encroachment of Torwali and Pashto.

To this day, only three elderly elders in that village can speak it, and it is on the verge of extinction.

Using this language can minimize the exposure of human civilization's information.

Even if the other party possesses memetic weapons that can launch an attack through the power of words, the damage caused will be extremely limited.

Since the Badeshi language only has spoken words and no written words, the written words are also randomly generated patterns using computer programs.

After the patterns are generated, the computer and the computer programs are also destroyed to minimize memetic erosion.

Soon, this Earth civilization dictionary, which 99.99% of the people on Earth cannot understand, was thrown into the Star Gate.

According to the think tank's speculation,

if the civilization behind the Star Gate is smart enough and as developed as human society,

then they should also quickly crack the Earth civilization dictionary and understand Earth's intention to release goodwill.

Li Ang was about to leave, but after seeing this situation, he took the initiative to stay. He was also a little curious about the intentions of the civilization behind the Star Gate.

"Last time in that deep-sea behemoth script mission,

I originally thought that the deep-sea civilization, which possessed cross-space teleportation technology, might have a door that could pass through the door and reach the Earth world of the script mission.

But the deep-sea civilization did not have a Star Gate and was still under the absolute control of the Killing Game,"

Li Ang said silently, "If we were to classify these worlds according to their level of mystery, Earth might be the one with the highest level of mystery.

Many extraordinary resurrections have occurred here in history, and a large number of players have been born.

The worlds of Huang Shi and the others may be on the same level as Earth.

Below Earth should be the Door Worlds and Star Gate Worlds.

They only have a channel to Earth, and they haven't given birth to many players themselves.

Further down are the worlds where the script missions are located.

There have never been players who can travel through time and space at will.

However, what is the reason for all these differences?

Could it be that humans have been special throughout history?

No, it shouldn't be.

There are also many humans in the worlds of script missions, speaking the same language, with the same world background, and without genetic differences or reproductive isolation.

More likely, Earth itself is special in the system of the Killing Game..."

Li Ang's thoughts were interrupted by the next round of alarm bells.

The civilization behind the Star Gate quickly sent another dictionary over.

This time, the dictionary was even thicker than the last time.

It was like the *Encyclopædia Britannica*, detailing the situation of that world.

They call themselves "Alskalisan" and come from a remote and desolate star system.

The center of the star system is a dim red dwarf star, surrounded by three planets.

The Alskalisan live on the second planet.

Their species can be traced back to vertebrates two million years ago. After a long period of evolution and accumulation, they developed civilization, built cities, and developed technology.

From the dictionary pictures, the Alskalisan appearance is similar to humans, but they have no hair on their bodies and their skin is paler (possibly because there is not enough sunlight).

They claim that they once established a powerful civilization, but five hundred years ago, they were invaded by an external civilization, and their cities were destroyed.

The survivors eked out a living in the underground, and their civilization declined.

In the process, they came into contact with the Killing Game and gave birth to a small number of players.

However, due to racial genetic defects, adult individuals in this civilization are very weak and slow, and their perception of time is relatively slow. Few can become high-level players with powerful extraordinary powers.

Most people die in missions.

Player qualifications are more of a drawing-out curse than a blessing for them.

(To standardize units of measurement, the Alskalisan explained in the dictionary that they once mastered atomic energy knowledge no less than that of Earth civilization, using the observation of atomic oscillation frequencies to determine the unit of "seconds." On this basis, they developed divisions, hours, months, and years similar to those on Earth. Therefore, there will be no misunderstandings between the two sides on concepts such as time.)

The current Alskalisan population does not exceed five thousand, all living in underground ruins.

The oceans of the entire planet were evaporated by space-based weapons in ancient civilization wars.

Only a few powerful mechanical creatures on the planet's surface are preying on each other.

The entire civilization is in danger.

Their exploration team discovered an active Star Gate in the ancient civilization cities on the surface that was placed in a laboratory by ancient scientists.

Due to the lack of water, the clan is about to die.

After careful consideration by the elders of the clan, they decided to send a dictionary to Earth to explain the situation and request Earth's assistance.