A civilization must leave its home planet if it is to develop in the long term. A planet's resources are limited, and gathering all members of a civilization on a single planet poses a significant security risk. Therefore, every intelligent race with normal thinking abilities must venture into the stars—or some other realm—after completing the initial technological accumulation on their home planet. In short, they must leave their cradle.

But the Erem Elves faced a desperate dilemma: the distance from their cradle to the nearest supply point was enough to deter any fledgling space civilization. With their initial aerospace technology, it was impossible to reach. They could not, like other civilizations, find stepping stones and resource production sites within their own solar system, and then slowly research various space technologies with ample material and energy support. Nor could they find a Proxima station that they could reach within their lifetime.

For a normal civilization to enter space, unless they were intelligent enough to directly research deep-space navigation technology and faster-than-light engines on their home planet without making a single mistake, they would inevitably need to seek stepping stones within their original star system, and use other suitably distant planets as footholds to launch a series of studies. The initial technological accumulation of faster-than-light engines is accompanied by great risks. Many experimental facilities containing powerful forces cannot be directly built on the home planet, and the most primitive faster-than-light engine fuels can usually only be extracted on a large scale from uninhabitable gas giants. Even without these two conditions, there should be at least one other sun around the original star system—not too far away, at least close enough to ensure that the initial pioneers can arrive within a generation.

But the Erem Elves had nothing. They had just broken out of their gravity well when they faced an insurmountable chasm—unless they could somehow develop deep-space navigation facilities directly, skipping various transitional technologies, they would be trapped in this tens of millions of light-years of barren land.

It was not impossible to build a deep-space starship directly with only one home planet, but it required not only talent but also great luck. And the Erem Elves ultimately did not have such good luck. They exhausted the planet's non-renewable resources without finding the right path, and then could only slowly wait for death in the desolate tens of millions of light-years.

The planet began to dry up, star resources were extracted, and even the planet itself was reshaped into a heliocentric space floating island with higher energy utilization efficiency. Then the space floating island was slowly reorganized into other forms. The elves trapped in their cradle could only continuously transform their limited resources, carefully calculating to extend their civilization as much as possible. Their homeland was completely changed, becoming increasingly overwhelmed. The Erem Elves, who once thought they had reached the pinnacle of civilization, weakened day by day, and finally could only guard a lonely sun and a space floating island that had been reshaped countless times and was almost unrecognizable in its original form, struggling to survive. The population also began to decline sharply under cruel resource restriction laws.

"When I was born, Erem had reached the critical point of collapse," Hilda said quietly. "No matter how much we cherish our home, resources are constantly being consumed. There is no truly sustainable resource cycle system in an isolated star environment. In recent centuries, we have even had to find ways to extract energy and matter from the sun. For this reason, we have built many corona stations—a very dangerous facility, costly and unstable. The operation of each corona station requires huge human and material costs, and sometimes even the lives of many excellent magus experts, and this is only a temporary solution."

Hao Ren looked at Hilda curiously: "So you decided to build a portal when you found that you couldn't build a deep-space spaceship?"

"Yes, this was a grand plan proposed when my husband was still alive, but until he died in a corona station explosion, we were unable to build a truly stable super portal that could lead to the depths of space," Hilda sighed. "After his death, I spent thirty years using the strength of the whole country to build a huge space-time accelerator. That thing almost exhausted all the energy accumulated by the three corona stations in a hundred years, but its first start-up caused a huge accident. I was on the observation tower with the ministers to witness the commissioning ceremony... and then everything exploded. I don't know how serious the consequences will be, so now I must go back as soon as possible. My people must be in chaos, and they need someone to appease them."

Vivian glanced at Hilda secretly with deep feeling: "I don't know why, I always feel a sense of empathy for those Erem Elves..."

Lily nodded in understanding: "Because they are all poor."

Everyone glared at this heartless husky: Is this the time to say this?

Izhaks smiled slightly, looking around at the others: "Now you know what I meant when I said those words to the demon hunters at that time, right? Resources are precious and cannot withstand internal friction. When I came here on the immigration ship, I once heard an old man say that any civilization has a 'fault tolerance value' in the process of development. This fault tolerance value is determined by the resource reserves of their homeland, the race's own development capabilities, the home environment, and other factors. The higher the resource reserves, the better the surrounding environment of the home world, and the stronger the self-development ability of the civilization, the higher the fault tolerance value, and vice versa. If a civilization wants to develop, it must transfer to other nearby places before the resources in one area are exhausted. For this reason, they must learn to protect the environment to reduce losses, plan routes to prevent going astray, and most importantly, try to avoid internal friction to prevent waste. The resource reserves and surrounding environment of the home world are predetermined, and people can only decide for themselves. Many races are born in fertile places, with abundant resources on the planet, and ample resource production sites and stepping stones around the planet, so they waste recklessly, using all their family property on civil wars. Finally, when they wake up, they find that they can't even build the last spaceship to Proxima, while some races are born in desolate and barren places, and they must make careful calculations in every step they take—whether they can live to leave the cradle is still unknown. There are many unfair things in the world, and nothing is more unfair than this kind of 'racial destiny'. To be honest, I think earthlings are a bit like prodigal sons with a solid family background—your solar system has stepping stones of such size as Mars and the Moon, and giant resource stations such as Saturn and Jupiter. Every planet around you is piled with fuel and spaceship shells, and they are all very close, almost reachable with the most primitive chemical fuel spaceships, but you are busy throwing more bombs on your own compatriots—this is very stupid, as stupid as the idiots in my hometown. Look at those Erem Elves, their fault tolerance value is even negative..."

Hao Ren looked at Izhaks in surprise. He rarely saw this great demon say such a long passage with intense emotion. This seemingly ferocious big man was usually very kind and rarely spoke much. He vaguely realized something: Hilda's story touched some sensitive point in the great demon's heart, which may be related to the latter's past.

And Izhaks apologized after noticing the strange expressions of the people around him: "I spoke too heavily, don't mind."

Vivian's mouth curled up slightly: "No... I think you said it very well, so well that it shouldn't have come from the mouth of a demon."

Izhaks spread his hands with a wry smile: "You are not the first to say that."

"After coming to another world, I thought a lot," Hilda suddenly spoke again after a long silence. "I confirmed for the first time that other races and even other worlds exist, and I also confirmed many of the conjectures of our clan scholars. During the two days on Earth, I happened to see your scientific programs and learned what your solar system is like and how far your nearest star is—I felt incredible. We had wondered if our surrounding environment was normal, but we couldn't find a reference object, so we weren't sure whether the Erem Elves had come to this point because they were too stupid or too unfortunate. Now I am relieved—perhaps we really shouldn't blame those scholars."

"Except for special cases, few intelligent races are truly stupid," the data terminal said suddenly. "As long as there is a spirit of enterprise, it is worthy of praise. Even if they go astray or are eventually trapped on their home planet, they should not be blamed, because stepping into the stars is indeed a very difficult task, and often depends on luck. Sometimes a race exhausts all their efforts and cannot find a way to get rid of gravity, not because they are not diligent enough or smart enough, but simply because they are not lucky enough."

A slight humming sound came from somewhere in the spaceship.

The virtual images around the bridge became brighter again, and a brilliant sun appeared in the corner of the screen.

"Erem has arrived," the data terminal said.