After discussions among the attendees, it was agreed that regardless of Lily's naming abilities, her idea of having Zhuom use the high-speed information network to build an interstellar thought link was quite reliable.
In fact, Hao Ren even felt that the name Lily gave wasn't bad... However, considering that Hao Ren dared to name his own daughter "Dou Dou" so brazenly, everyone agreed that his naming ability was about on par with a dog's, and the best way to deal with it was to ignore it.
Lily's idea quickly passed validation through professional data models—Nolan analyzed the bandwidth of the "information highway" currently being built by the drone swarm in the X Star Cluster, as well as the data spikes generated by Zhuom's thinking. She ultimately concluded that even with the hastily constructed information relay system of the current drone swarm, it was sufficient for Zhuom to transfer his will to this planet without affecting the normal ecological construction of Tana Gusus.
On the other hand, although a large number of the First Born's central nervous system had died on the Executor homeworld, the technological difficulty of creating an artificial nervous system was not actually that high. After solving the biggest engineering problem (namely creating an artificial brain core and programming it), having the engineering drones that had already arrived build a batch of artificial nerves on this planet was not much more difficult than having them build a bunch of simple houses. An artificial nerve was basically just a pile of physical connections—sturdy enough, fast enough, plus a conversion interface that could connect to the First Born's biological tissue, and the neural network would be complete. The artificial nerve section was the first part to be completed when building the artificial brain core on the Purgatory Star, which shows how low the construction difficulty was.
Moreover, new drone swarms were arriving in the Executor system every day in response to Hao Ren's orders. The increase in construction workers meant that this repetitive engineering work, which didn't require any technical skill, would be completed at an astonishing speed. Nolan could even build the antenna array used to detect crystal resonance signals while she was at it.
A quiet night fell on this planet—in thousands of years, there had not been many nights as quiet as this.
Today, the entire planet had not been disturbed by the flames of war, and not just today. In the past seventy-two hours, this planet had not been attacked by the Zenith's bombing forces. This was the longest "ceasefire" since the start of this long war.
Under the silent night, all things were quiet. It was a moonless and starless night. Dark clouds blocked almost all light sources in the night sky, and darkness enveloped the entire world. On the great plains covered by scorched earth and rifts, only the outpost bases built by the drone swarms illuminated the earth with bright lights.
The outpost base's protective walls had been activated, and a newly formed energy barrier separated the silver-white steel fortress from the war-scorched battlefield ruins outside. Outside was a dark and sinister wasteland, but inside was a safe and bright base. This environment gave people far from home a sense of peace and security: something not easy to come by on a distant alien planet.
Gun slipped out of her room. As a qualified cat, she maintained good living habits—namely, not sleeping at night and running around everywhere. Of course, she had another explanation, which was that Big Big Cat lacked survival skills and required her, an expert, to patrol the territory at night to ensure the safety of Big Big Cat, Silly Big Cat, and all the other cats in the house. With Dou Dou, who was dozing off, on her head, she roamed around the base with great energy, her bright cat eyes full of curiosity: this "new territory" seemed to please her quite a bit.
"I'm sleepy!" Dou Dou grabbed two tufts of hair next to Gun's ears, while firmly fixing herself on the catgirl's head, and complained, "You lied! It's not as fun to wander around at night as you said! It's better to sleep in the house!"
"That's because you don't understand. It's so interesting!" The cat girl said very seriously, while trying her best to ensure that her head didn't shake too much to prevent the fish on top from falling off. "Let's take one last lap, and then we'll go back to sleep..."
"Just one last lap, Daddy said, we have to go to bed on time at night, otherwise we won't grow taller, and we'll lose our scales..."
"I don't have scales."
"Then you'll lose your fur."
On the terrace in the corner of the base, Hao Ren and Vivian, who were outside enjoying the night breeze, happened to see the cat girl wandering around the base, as well as Dou Dou on the cat girl's head. The two couldn't help but be a little curious. Vivian poked Hao Ren's arm first: "What's Gun doing out at this hour?"
"Who knows, maybe she's going around catching mice."
Vivian's eyebrows rose: "Are there mice in this base?"
"It's not like she's catching fish—she's got one on her head," Hao Ren shrugged. "Anyway, the base's security system has passed inspection, and there are protective walls, so there's no need to worry about this cat running out. Let her mess around as she pleases. It's better than her scratching at the door in the middle of the night."
Vivian looked at Hao Ren for a while, then silently leaned over and grabbed his hand: "You seem to have something on your mind."
Hao Ren looked up at the sky covered by clouds. He knew that he couldn't hide the fact that he had something on his mind from Vivian—this "Countess," although once messed up and confused in her own life, unexpectedly had a keen intuition. Otherwise, she wouldn't have seen her flying over just a few minutes after he came out to enjoy the breeze.
"We figured out the origin of the Executors, witnessed a civilization survive and complete its self-rescue and inheritance, and also found the truth about the First Born's brain death on this planet. We even found a clue to that Crystal Star. By now, we even have a feasible plan on how to completely solve the First Born crisis on this planet."
Vivian listened quietly. She knew that Hao Ren had more to say.
Hao Ren paused for a few seconds, and sure enough, he sighed softly: "But one fact still hasn't changed: we're still stuck on this planet."
Vivian tucked her hair, which had been messed up by the wind, behind her ear: "You're blowing the cold wind on the terrace in the middle of the night because of this?"
Hao Ren raised an eyebrow: "Isn't this problem big enough?"
"We've experienced bigger crises than this. Now, we're just temporarily trapped on a planet," Vivian's tone was very relaxed. "At least everyone is fine, and the ship is repaired. Now, we've even built a base. It's not a problem to live here for a long time. I don't think there's anything to worry about."
Hao Ren knew that Vivian was saying this more to reassure him. He sighed: "But the reality of the divine power blockade won't change. Didn't we test it this afternoon? We tried to fly to the edge of the planetary system, but we encountered a divine power reaction again less than two light-years out. If Nolan hadn't run fast, it would have been another major breakdown. This shows that the divine power storm blocking the X Star Cluster hasn't stopped at all."
"Didn't the drone swarm come over smoothly? They weren't attacked, which means that the blockade of this star system has a pattern. There must be a way to break through, we just haven't found it yet."
Hao Ren smiled: "That's something to be gratified about."
"Actually, I know that you're blowing the cold wind in the middle of the night because all of us are trapped here with you," Vivian looked into Hao Ren's eyes. "I understand you. You wouldn't feel down just because you temporarily encountered a difficulty. Maybe you would have a few years ago, but after experiencing that ten thousand years of backtracking, your willpower won't be any worse than other long-lived species."
Hao Ren looked at Vivian helplessly: "Why are you so smart?"
"I didn't live these ten thousand years in vain," Vivian said casually, not forgetting to poke fun at Lily. "Actually, you don't have to worry. You probably think this is your mistake, but how can adventures always go smoothly? If we really wanted stability, would we have followed you out?"
"I know, but..."
"No 'buts'," Vivian pinched Hao Ren's arm. "Do you think any of the people who run around with you are easy to deal with? We've seen a lot of big battles. And we all volunteered to follow you on adventures. You found the Nangong siblings' parents, helped Izhaks and Elizabeth find their daughter and father, and that big dog. As long as you feed a husky, she can immediately reach a consensus with you. And Dou Dou, it's better for her to come out with you than to be left alone at home. I don't need to say more—we're partners. As a long-lived species who rarely has a partner, how can we leave each other?"
Hao Ren was indeed a little annoyed and frustrated for the reasons Vivian said. After hearing this persuasion, he naturally felt a lot more relaxed. He admitted that Vivian's words made a lot of sense, but he still pointed to the cat girl in the open space not far away, who was exploring everywhere with a sleepy little mermaid on her head: "Then that makes her the most pitiful. She doesn't have any great ambitions and only thinks about eating small dried fish and sleeping all day. She's confused and has to explore alien planets with me. It's really thanks to her that she can still be happy every day."
"You said it yourself, she's still happy every day—that means she doesn't think there's anything wrong with the present," Vivian couldn't help but smile. "Her mind is still based on being a cat, so she won't realize how the changes in the environment outside her living area will affect her. All this guy ever asks for is a warm nest and enough to eat. In her mind, the whole world is probably just a hundred meters around you. If this hundred meters hasn't changed, the whole world hasn't changed."
Hao Ren could agree with everything else, but when he heard Vivian's last rather idealized sigh, he couldn't help but open his mouth: "You think too highly of her. Cats are known for being wild and untamed. Gun is still a stray cat who switched to being a house cat. You don't know how outrageously willful she can be. She couldn't speak before, but now she has the ability to speak. Just thinking about it gives me a headache..."
As he was sighing, Gun had already tiptoed over without him knowing. The cat girl climbed onto the platform with particular agility, holding Dou Dou on her head with one hand, and looked curiously at Hao Ren: "Big Big Cat, what are you talking about?"
Hao Ren was startled by the sudden voice, then lowered his head to look at the silly cat, and suddenly became very curious: "By the way, why do you have to put Dou Dou on your head?"
This can be said to be the ultimate mystery that has puzzled everyone the most since Gun transformed into a human: no one knows when she developed this habit, but whenever this guy is with Dou Dou, she stubbornly puts the other party on her head. Although Dou Dou herself is quite happy about this, the cat girl's thought process is really a bit incomprehensible.
After hearing Hao Ren's question, Gun herself was stunned for a moment, then tilted her head slightly and thought for a moment (in the process, she didn't forget to steady Dou Dou, who was sleeping on top of her head), and replied happily, "Because cubs should be on top of their heads when they are little!"
Hao Ren was stunned by the silly cat's nonsensical words. It wasn't until nearly a minute later that he suddenly recalled some scenes that he had almost forgotten—
That was a few years ago, when Gun was very, very small. The shivering kitten suddenly broke into his home on a rainy night. It took him many days to restore the kitten's health, and the kitten developed a strange habit, which was to like to climb on his shoulders or head to rest—when he was in a good mood, Hao Ren would not stop the little guy, and out of fun, he would even take the initiative to let the kitten do so.
A twenty-something unemployed young man running around at home with a cat on his head. Just thinking about it makes him feel like he was really sick back then, but that was really just for fun.
However, as the kitten gradually grew up, he never let this guy climb on him again—because she was really too heavy later...
Now, of course, it's even more impossible for him to let her do this.
The cat girl looked at Hao Ren and waited for a long time without getting a reply, and finally became impatient, reaching out her paw and patting Hao Ren's arm: "So what were you saying just now, Big Big Cat, meow!"
"Nothing, just praising you."
So the cat girl became satisfied: "Oh!"
Then she went back to the barracks with Dou Dou on her head.
"See, I told you," Vivian looked at Gun's happy departure and couldn't help but turn her head to look at Hao Ren with a smile. "Worrying for nothing."
Hao Ren looked up at the dark alien sky. The dark clouds were dissipating, and the moon with the textured surface gradually poked out its head, casting soft light on the earth.