The development of events unfolded with unforeseen speed.

Mingmei opened the balcony window early in the morning, only to see that the sky, usually gray and gloomy due to the snow, had been completely replaced by a dark, metallic gray.

It was the starship of the space pirates.

The entire sky above H country was now enveloped.

"My gosh!"

Mingmei heard Lu Xiaoyao's exclamation through the wall.

Immediately afterward, the alarm sounded throughout the streets, and the matter was broadcast live on television and the internet.

However, the content of the news was somewhat…

"Who are they kidding?"

Mingmei chuckled, watching the news report that the ancient Blue Star (Gu Lan Xing) had discovered aliens for the first time and would hold friendly meetings with them. The news urged everyone not to panic at the sight outside and assured them that everything was still proceeding in an orderly manner.

The country's starting point was good, trying to appease everyone.

Mingmei took out her phone and browsed the internet for discussions about the steel "beast" overhead.

[1L: Cough, is this something we can discuss right now? I heard the top leaders have already held video conferences with leaders of other countries overnight.]

[2L: Didn't they say everything is under control? Everyone, stay calm.]

[3L: Stay calm, who are you kidding? If the authorities weren't secretly controlling public opinion, do you think there would be so little discussion now? Some things are destined…]

[4L: Say less, upstairs, or you'll disappear!]

[5L: So, what exactly has everyone figured out? Is this going to be the end of the world?]

As Mingmei watched, the page refreshed, and the previous discussion instantly became a 404 error. Wasn't this cover-up even more suggestive?

"In this way, everyone is probably even more panicked, right?"

Mingmei murmured. The cold wind blowing through the unclosed balcony window made her shiver. She stood up, closed the window, and started chatting with Guigui.

[Host, if you look at the foreign internet, there's no control there. All kinds of weird things are happening.]

Guigui couldn't help but remind her of the current environment. Although the censorship here was strict, there was a reason for it.

"Like what?"

Mingmei was curious. Guigui thought for a moment and then showed Mingmei the information it had found.

It had to be said, things outside were truly "free."

Some alien enthusiasts were probably having the most exciting and happiest day of their lives. A group of people stood on top of tall buildings, setting off fireworks, bonfires, and shining laser pointers at the sky.

Some people stripped naked and wrote obscene things on their bodies. Guigui immediately censored it for Mingmei, who watched the whole thing with a "subway old man looking at his phone" expression.

"Aren't they worried the aliens might be bad?"

Mingmei didn't understand these online antics.

[There are worried people. Didn't you see people committing suicide on livestreams, saying they'd rather off themselves than fall into the hands of aliens?]

Seeing that Mingmei had probably missed some things due to the overly graphic videos and comments, Guigui showed her some other comments. A sense of loss and despair swept over her, as if the world had already accumulated too many things that made it impossible to breathe.

And the appearance of these aliens was like the last straw, leading them directly down the road of no return.

"But in some ways, they were right."

Mingmei recalled the heavy numbers in the future, and her heart felt as heavy as if it were weighed down by a stone.

A few people survived by accident, while the vast majority were forever sealed on this planet.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Mingmei's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of knocking on the door. When she opened it, she saw several classmates who had previously bought boxed lunches from her.

The events of the morning had left them with no time to do anything else, so they immediately found Mingmei to buy roujiamo (Chinese meat patties) to stock up on.

Even Wang Dian, who had previously only spent two points, went all out and bought two high-quality roujiamo.

After buying them, Wang Dian waited until the end again.

The others left, and Mingmei saw that he hadn't left, so she asked him what was going on. He was straightforward and simply said, "You are a Hua Lan Star (Hua Lan Xing) person. You definitely know more about this history than we do. When will the star pirates really attack, and when will the Zerg come?"

"According to historical timelines, the star pirates' appearance is indeed earlier than expected, but it can't be ruled out that the 'appearance' written in Hua Lan Star's history books has a different meaning from our understanding, perhaps referring to the time of invasion. According to historical records, the invasion mentioned in the books is six days later, as for the Zerg... twenty-one days."

After Mingmei finished speaking, Wang Dian remained silent. Mingmei watched as the fingers holding the bag of roujiamo tightened from time to time. She thought he was going to say something after hesitating for a long time, but in the end, he still didn't say anything.

He still had points to buy roujiamo, but not many.

He couldn't be sure now whether he could live until the Zerg invasion…

This period of history was not only being studied by Mingmei and the others, but also by people outside the game who were curious.

"So… the fact that so many people from Hua Lan Star survived is not just a coincidence?"

Qiao Xiyu sat in the virtual classroom and accidentally mentioned the Zerg and the star pirates' method of plundering planets while learning from Mo Wenshu. The latter happened to mention ancient Blue Star (Gu Lan Xing).

He had previously learned about the history of Hua Lan Star simply because he was leading the Federation army to be stationed there and wanted to learn about it out of courtesy.

The more he learned, the more surprised he became.

A "primitive star" refugee lagging behind interstellar technology by thousands of years had actually used several hundred years to develop into a major star field with a resounding reputation in the interstellar community, relying on another undeveloped primitive star.

As a result, when he mentioned this to his temporary teacher today, it seemed to let him know something else.

"Do you know what happens after a planet with intelligent life that has not yet been discovered is found by star pirates?"

"What?"

"Those star pirates will assess how the planet can bring them the greatest profit, whether it is population or resources.

If resources are scarce and only population exists, they will take all the people on the planet and sell them to planet lords who don't like robots and prefer human labor.

If it is a resource-based planet, they will even directly slaughter the entire population, leaving only robots to specialize in mining."

"Why not…" Qiao Xiyu couldn't wait to ask why they couldn't sell the people and occupy the planet's resources to earn extra money. To this, Mo Wenshu only sneered.

Then he answered the other party's confusion: "Do you think that in this era, there are no slaves anymore? Even the nobles of the empire are expressly prohibited from privately raising slave populations. What kind of simple characters do you think those who trade with star pirates and traffic in human beings are?

If those people knew that star pirates occupied a planet with resources, how many days do you think those star pirates could occupy it?"

Mo Wenshu's meaning was very simple.

Star pirates will always only choose one of the two between population dividends and resource dividends for insurance.

And his hometown, a planet with developed agriculture and animal husbandry and beautiful mountains and rivers, was not outstanding in either of these aspects.

They were not as lucky as the ancient Blue Star people. Those star pirates did not perform the most basic genetic upgrades for them.

The physique of the people on their planet could not withstand the cosmic rays that left the planet's atmospheric protection. By the time the star pirates reacted, only a few of the slaves who had been looted by that starship merchant ship remained.

Among them were him and Yan Hui.

He watched his relatives die in front of him with twisted expressions and hideous faces…