Chapter 1 A Tremendous Announcement

The elves of the Erem Kingdom hadn't seen such a strange announcement in a long time. They were familiar with emergency mobilization orders issued due to various disasters, but they hadn't seen the words "good news" following such an order in thousands of years. This sudden, strange message perplexed the ten billion elves. Some of the more astute among them faintly guessed what was happening, and an obscure excitement permeated Erem society, spreading to every elf over time. Even more perceptive citizens noticed something else: the royal district was sealed off, and in the past few hours, those in charge of material distribution and personnel management on every floating island had been summoned to the Isle of the Rising Sun. This had never happened during previous disaster mobilizations.

Undoubtedly, a monumental event was about to occur.

Apart from those elves who had to go to their critical posts for overtime, more and more returned home, began to inventory their personal belongings according to the announcement, and contacted their friends and relatives. They then waited in front of any media terminal that could receive royal broadcasts for further news. All media terminals—including those rarely used street displays that only lit up when important information was announced—were now broadcasting the same waiting screen. It was extremely simple, showing only a countdown. Erem society was quite serious about "time." Every meeting had a fixed time limit, and all participants, including members of the royal family, had to speak and make decisions within that limit. After the countdown ended, regardless of whether the meeting had achieved results, the progress of the meeting at the last moment had to be announced to the public. This was their unique way of doing things. The countdown was for the ongoing meeting of the entire council of elders, and at the moment it reached zero, Hilda would personally announce a certain result.

Finally, the countdown reached its end. A wave flashed across the announcement screen, and Hilda's figure appeared before all the Erem elves.

"People of Erem, I am your queen. I believe you have received the preliminary announcement a few hours ago and have conveyed the message to everyone as required. I hope that every Erem elf is now waiting in front of an information screen as requested, because I am about to announce an extremely important message that concerns each and every one of us," Hilda declared solemnly. "We are about to go to a new home, a new world rich in resources."

Hilda paused, seemingly sensing the intense commotion and shock from the total of ten billion elves from every floating island city. She gave the people time to react before continuing, "The space-time accelerator experiment was not a complete failure. It at least successfully sent one person to a distant new world—that person is me. Everyone should know about the explosion a month ago and my disappearance during this time. Now I will announce..."

Throughout the Erem island chain, Hilda's calm and dignified voice echoed on every floating island that was still operating and inhabited. All the noises under each dome quieted down at this moment. Flying cars in the sky stopped on the nearest tower tops. Engineering machinery working everywhere creaked to a halt. Some elves with confused and shocked expressions walked out of their homes. They listened to the queen's voice echoing throughout the dome and looked around in a daze. Many saw neighbors with the same expression. These elves couldn't believe the news they saw on the information screens at home was real, so they came out to verify the facts—and they saw the same image on every giant display screen on the street, and heard the same voice everywhere.

This was an overwhelming fact.

Hilda's "Queen's Announcement" didn't have much of an overbearing aura, nor did it contain any convoluted official jargon. She was a ruler who stood with her people, so at this time, she was speaking in a very calm tone, telling her people about her experiences over the past month as if she were telling a story.

"...I was sent to a bountiful new world and met some creatures with noble souls and great power. I received help from some of them and, with the help of their advanced technology, returned here to bring you an exciting message..."

More and more elves came out of their homes and gathered in the streets and alleys to listen to this incredible story, as if only in this way could they confirm that what they were hearing was true. The same scene played out on the Isle of the Rising Sun, but more elves chose to gather in a wide open space outside the royal district. This city hadn't yet recovered from the previous disaster, and had only barely returned to normal. Outside the royal district were empty spaces that had just been cleared. Some collapsed buildings had been removed, and now these empty spaces were crowded with elves. The crowd gathered in an unusual silence and whispered about what was happening.

"...The Erem civilization has been granted permission to live on a brand new, resource-rich planet. The owners of this planet have generously lent us the entire planet until we can use our own technology to find other new homes. The council of elders and the Royal Council have just reached a consensus that the great migration of the entire Erem race will begin in three days. At that time, a transport fleet from a high-level civilization will come to pick us up. My people, please rest assured about this great migration. It is absolutely safe and reliable, and it is our entire race's last chance. Next, each domed city will announce independent material and personnel registration plans. The entire migration process will be carried out in batches and will continue until the last elf safely arrives at the new home."

After the announcement ended, Hilda left the remaining matters to her son and the highly respected elves of the council of elders. This highly efficient society began to operate at full power to prepare for the upcoming great migration.

There was still much to do. The first announcement had only mobilized the residents to a minimal extent. Next was the government's work: to inventory and integrate the resources of the entire Erem Kingdom, to select and classify various materials according to the situations that might be faced after the great migration, and to form a series of temporary working groups from now on to deal with the various problems that would be faced during the migration. Of course, there were still some temporary situations that needed to be resolved: calming down the people who were at a loss in the face of the sudden news, making everyone believe that everything was real, and getting the heads of various departments, who were no better than ordinary people and equally confused, to get into the state and start working as soon as possible. These were the most important things at the moment.

Of course, the Erem Kingdom also had to establish a team to negotiate with alien civilizations—the group of long-haul drivers that 883 was about to bring would be the first official and formal contact with alien civilizations in the history of the Erem elves, and these elves took this matter quite seriously.

Although Hao Ren still felt that they were just a bunch of black cab drivers...

After Hilda returned to the royal spire, she soon appeared in front of Hao Ren, who was quite embarrassed: "I heard your speech—I feel kind of bad, what with the noble soul and all..."

Vivian poked Hao Ren in the lower back from behind: "Stop showing off. You were almost grinning like a husky just now."

Hilda smiled, "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Exaggerating your description a bit during the announcement can increase the public's confidence. I know what I said was a bit of an exaggeration, so don't take it seriously."

The smile on Hao Ren's face instantly froze into a pile of mosaics. He felt that communicating with this straightforward queen was simply killing him...

"Next, we just wait for the big move in three days," Hao Ren said, rubbing his face to restore his expression. "I sent the moving precautions to your council of elders and the Royal Council, right? That was personally compiled by the goddess, and it's all experience from old races."

"Of course, we can see the value of that document at a glance," Hilda nodded with a smile. "Vim almost regards it as a divine revelation—well, it really is a divine revelation. In short, we are now organizing a materials inventory committee and a medical reserve team, and we are ensuring that each batch of people has enough medical staff and material dispatchers during the migration. In addition, we will also prepare life support systems."

"Yes, yes, the last point is very important. Although the environment of Bean Sprout Star is very good, you may still not be able to adapt to the situation there, especially alien diseases. This thing has taught many rash races a lesson."

"Don't worry, Erem elves have very magical medical techniques. Even without equipment assistance, we have very powerful life magic," Hilda said proudly with a smile. "We are only very confident in this."

"Take it easy," the data terminal muttered next to him. "Many races with more advanced technology than you excitedly set foot on alien land, and they also made thorough preparations, including dozens or hundreds of inspection and quarantine procedures—but in the end, there are still more and more guys who are taught how to be human by alien cold viruses every year."

Hilda's expression became serious: "Please rest assured, I will take this issue seriously."

Hao Ren nodded, but before he could speak, he was interrupted by someone rushing in: Vim ran in.

"Mother," the young regent said urgently, "The Land of Bliss organization and some dissenting groups are indeed making moves!"