Chapter 0 Christmas Free Extra: The Path to Becoming a Pioneer (8500)

For the pioneer space explorer duo, all of this happened very suddenly.

Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming had just completed a difficult exploration mission and were preparing to return home for a rest when they were directly pulled over by the Central Committee through official mission channels.

Leaving aside the official Zheng Nation commission, the two were utterly confused about this mission and couldn't help but want to vent their grievances.

In fact, they had already complained to their viewers during the live mission demonstration.

It was a special mission called 【Guidance of the Pioneer】, and according to senior personnel within the space, this type of mission was a special assessment process to test the purity of 'Pioneer Value', which was related to the type of pioneer missions issued later.

Generally speaking, this type of special mission wasn't dangerous, but it was definitely very difficult.

Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming naturally didn't know what this 'Pioneer Value' nonsense was, but they figured it was similar to the exorcism power in her room and Jiu Ming's dragon cancer power.

In any case, after preparing a large number of extreme environment countermeasures, the two set off and began this 'guidance' journey.

At the beginning of the mission, they were teleported to a continent that seemed to be round and square.

The entire continent was flat, with almost no mountains, only endless plains, scattered hills, and very regular lakes and oceans in various geometric shapes.

At first, Shao Shuangyue thought that this might be some kind of special flat continent world, like a flat-Earth world—but when Jiu Ming flew high into the sky to check the specific situation of the continent, the result made the two explorers, who were neither new nor old, gape in astonishment.

Because what they were on was a 'ringworld'!

A ringworld is a man-made giant structure built around a star or other light source, encircling it to draw energy and create a terrifyingly habitable environment. It is a type of star-level super-structure.

And the 'Guidance World' they were in was such a ringworld, tens of thousands of times larger than the Earth.

Only in a purely artificial world like a ringworld would the coastline be a straight line, and the lakes would likely be perfect circles or squares.

Looking at the sun and sky from the ringworld was different from looking at the sun from a normal world, because the sun would never set, but the nano-robots in the atmosphere would automatically enter light-absorbing mode during the 'night', turning into an opaque solar film to bring darkness to the land.

Overall, the ringworld's day and night cycle and ecological conditions were still considered normal.

And Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming's mission was to lead a group of barbarians to develop 'civilization' in this ringworld.

"Good brother, isn't this free points?"

After seeing this mission, Shao Shuangyue couldn't help but complain to Jiu Ming: "Lead the barbarians to develop civilization? I'm familiar with this, teach them how to make fire, learn to build houses, build settlements, have some division of labor and language, right?"

"Indeed." Jiu Ming touched the golden Egyptian-style necklace on his chest, pondered with a frown: "But in theory, it shouldn't be that simple—guidance missions are indeed not dangerous, but they definitely shouldn't be this easy."

"Let's take a look at the situation of those primitive races."

Jiu Ming's suggestion was indeed very稳妥, and Shao Shuangyue also felt that they should see what the mission target was like... what if the difficulty of the target was here? For example, giving them a group of jellyfish, a group of trilobites as the natives to be guided.

Leading these guys to develop civilization...

That difficulty would really match the painful expression of the explorer who told them this news, as if a foreigner had chugged three cans of douzhi (fermented soybean milk) in one go.

The examination result was not bad, but definitely not good.

The race they named 'Ao' was a light-silver humanoid creature that looked somewhat similar to humans on the surface, but with translucent outer skin.

Not bad, because the mission target, the native race 'Ao' on the ringworld, was not a primitive creature like jellyfish and trilobites that didn't even have a brain or a developed nervous system—they even had a good foundation, and if their brains were fully developed, they shouldn't be worse than humans.

Not good, because this race had never tried to use their brains.

Yes, that's right, they had never, and never needed to use their brains.

Why?

The answer was also very simple.

That was because the environment of this ringworld was so good that creatures didn't need to think, explore, or put any effort in to 'live' comfortably and peacefully.

"Woo↑woo↓woo↑, what kind of ghost world is this?!"

After a period of detection, Shao Shuangyue was shocked to find that the various shrubs, grasses, and trees densely covering the plains in this world were all special modified creatures, a special kind of 'agricultural crop'!

The trees in this world would grow bread with a taste similar to chocolate bread, and the trees themselves tasted like beef jerky, containing life elements that could completely satisfy any needs of the local life.

The weeds here were excellent seasonings, whether roasted dry and sprinkled as powder, or soaked and boiled in soup, they could all bring a refreshing fragrance.

And the shrubs here grew almost any kind of berry—according to Jiu Ming's taste test report, there were apples, pears, durians, strawberries, and all kinds of special textures and flavors he had eaten or not eaten before.

In addition, there were giant plants in the ground that could also be directly used, seaweed in the sea, flowers on the cliffs, and all sorts of other things...

There was even a huge living food processing plant, its ecological form resembling a moving forest, which would randomly move in all directions of the land, sowing seeds of various modified plants with different flavors to ensure the stability of the overall ecosystem.

In this ringworld, all the food could be obtained at will, and you wouldn't starve to death even if you lay on the ground without moving.

Did such a world really need to use your brain to survive?

—Wisdom is not a necessity for survival.

Through the special situation of this world, Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming completely understood this principle.

The method of breeding for the Ao was that two Ao would merge together and then split into a main body containing the memories of the original two individuals, and seven or eight derivatives as 'children'. In a sense, this was similar to the breeding method of slimes. Perhaps the Ao were some kind of high-level slime.

In short, in such an overly good ecological environment, the Ao had no worries about survival, they had no need for any technological development, and because of this, they had no curiosity, no reason to have any desire to explore.

Guiding the Ao to develop civilization?

Shao Shuangyue's head was twice as big, and she even started driving her mecha in circles in the sky. Jiu Ming would rather go fishing in the sea than think about this problem.

But this was only temporary, after all, they were explorers and couldn't escape forever.

Later, according to the exploration of the two explorers, they obtained a lot of valuable information from a surface research institute site.

Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming finally learned that this ringworld was a refuge built by the super civilization 'Omor' in this guidance universe for other low-level civilizations in order to avoid the final doomsday.

The ancient super civilization 'Omor' and another ancient super civilization 'Gash' were natural enemies. One was a life form with a physical electromagnetic force, born in the corona of the sun, with electron exchange flow as the basic information structure. After arriving at the planet, the individuals of the Omor civilization could freely change their entities by manipulating metals, achieving various transformations.

The other was a gravitational life without a physical body. 'Gash' was born in the mass well of the primordial universe's supermassive stars. Later, they lived around large stars and black holes. They were accustomed to curved and bent space, and a flat four-dimensional universe was unacceptable to them. Supernovae and gamma-ray bursts would destroy their settlements, so the Gash were committed to collapsing all the stars in the universe into black holes, turning them into a stable environment suitable for their survival.

Naturally, the Omor intended to stop the other party, but because the life forms of the two sides differed too much, by the time the Omor civilization realized that the stars in the entire universe were collapsing smoothly at an inexplicable speed, and realized that the Gash civilization's technical level was not inferior to their own, it was already too late, and countless civilizations had been destroyed as a result.

Too many civilizations—the Gash may not have noticed them, the gravitational life form was very discrete and grand, with completely different thinking logic from general material life—were destroyed because the sun went out. The Omor, who called themselves the sons of the sun, decided to protect these weak 'compatriots'.

Yes, for the ancient super civilization, all life born from the sun were future compatriots of the Omor. They divided the universe, moved stellar matter, and created the 'Great Void Area', dividing the universe into upper and lower regions, preventing the expansion of the Gash.

But this was only a temporary solution. Gravitational creatures were born to transcend time and space and could move at the speed of light. The Gash's superluminal technology was also very mature, so the Omor created the 'Black Domain'.

They created many 'Singularity Layers' that could wrap entire star systems. The Singularity Layers had properties similar to the singularity of a black hole, which could completely isolate internal and external information exchange, including gravity. It was almost like a small universe in a pocket.

The galaxies and planetary systems in the Singularity Layer would not be discovered by the Gash because they could not detect the related gravitational fluctuations and would think that there was nothing there.

The Black Domain wrapped the entire 'Upper Universe', and all of this did not exist for the Gash.

But in order to better hide, each planetary system would be individually shielded by a layer of Singularity Layer to prevent the civilizations inside from being detected by the Gash civilization when they peeked outside, thus exposing the existence of the Singularity Layer.

The ringworld was built by the Omor civilization to make it suitable for the alien civilizations migrating here. They protected many 'compatriots' whose home star systems had been destroyed. The ecology of the ringworld could only generate various foods suitable for them by detecting the characteristics of the races living on it.

The Ao were one of them. Their sun had already been collapsed into a black hole by the Gash seven million years ago. The surviving individuals were brought back to the ringworld by the Omor, hoping that they could redevelop civilization.

"But... 'Omor' failed."

Watching the materials left in the ecological research institute, Shao Shuangyue couldn't help but swallow, obviously shocked by such an ending.

But whether it was her or Jiu Ming, the light in their eyes was full of curiosity: "The Gash completed the 'Black Hole Engine' by constructing black hole structures, obtaining a nearly unlimited source of energy. They achieved the grand unified field theory by dissociating basic substances and could freely control the fundamental forces—this civilization began to modify the constants of the universe, making the speed of light in a small range of the universe faster, and the strength of the structural binding force lower."

"Tianzun (Celestial Lord) above..."

Jiu Ming took a breath at this moment. He was not a dropout from compulsory education, so he could still understand these concepts that the Omor people deliberately wrote very clearly and simply. The Dragon King almost sighed and said: "Because of the acceleration of the speed of light, the speed of all matter combined by electromagnetic force will slow down... the density of matter will also decrease, except for the black holes controlled by the Gash!"

"And the universe controlled by the Omor will rapidly age and collapse, and as electromagnetic life forms, their life forms will also undergo drastic changes and be difficult to survive!"

This was the end of the war—the Gash forced the Omor out of this universe by modifying the constants of the universe. The Omor were forced to leave their hometown and migrate to other universes through the 'Great Rift', a super-giant void rift running across the universe.

But the Gash was not a particularly greedy race in essence. After driving away the hostile, powerful, and dangerous Omor, these gravitational life forms hibernated in the dark, silent, cold, and bent space that was most suitable for their survival—because of the space-time distortion brought about by black holes, one of their hibernations could cause a planet to give birth to life and then be destroyed.

Like people closing their eyes in the twilight, they no longer crave anything, but just hope for the arrival of 'darkness'.

So the Gash did not deliberately look for the pocket universes wrapped in Singularity Layers, allowing these ringworlds that were once protected by the Omor to still exist.

However, without the guidance of the Omor, various problems broke out in the various races in the ringworld. In the ringworld where the Ao were located, basically all of them were destroyed except for the Ao, and even the Ao had degenerated into a race that could only eat and reproduce, and could not think about anything else.

—Guide these races who have forgotten curiosity, exploration, and the distant other side, develop civilization, leave the ringworld, and pass through the Singularity Ring.

Then, whether this race wants to challenge the Gash, or go to other universes like the Omor, are all 'unknown' things that can be 'explored'.

The true meaning of the Pioneer Space mission is thus opened to them.

【Become a Pioneer】

Or, it's just 【Adventurer】 or 【Explorer】.

There is no distinction between Pioneers, Adventurers, and Explorers. Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming are very qualified adventurers, and they are also very qualified as explorers, so the Pioneer Space has opened up this world about the Pioneer qualification evaluation for them.

"Although I understand that this is space's love for us, no matter how you think about it, it feels too weird!"

Shao Shuangyue couldn't help but complain to Jiu Ming: "Our strength hasn't even reached the Earth Immortal yet, and we're suddenly going against a group of super civilizations that can control the constants of the universe and look like they're in the 返虚道一 (Return to Emptiness and Attain Oneness) realm? Isn't this a bit too much?"

"A bit? Shuangyue-jie (older sister), this is obviously super too much, okay!"

That being said, both Jiu Ming and Shao Shuangyue knew very well that this mission had nothing to do with strength.

Rather, it was that strength was not needed.

The Gash were a super civilization that existed since the birth of the universe. They were born immortal, and had always maintained 'silent waiting' except for the war with the Omor. They basically wouldn't react to the outside world—because the time of existence of many civilizations was like a speck of dust passing in front of human eyes for them. Unless the sunlight was dazzling and reflected, and they happened to see it, they couldn't detect it at all.

In other words, this was an ultimate autistic race.

It was meaningless to fight with strength. A super civilization collective that should have reached 返虚道一 (Return to Emptiness and Attain Oneness) could basically walk sideways. The explorers of the Pioneer Space should wait a little longer, maybe a few decades.

Now, what the Pioneer Space needs is just a heart to guide civilization forward.

But the situation of the Ao is also too棘手 (thorny).

The current Ao are basically lives that are only living to live. They don't have to worry about food and drink as soon as they are born. There are no harmful germs in the ringworld, and all the larvae can grow up healthily.

But a considerable part of the larvae have forgotten the meaning of 'living'. They cannot grow up, and die in their infancy because they forget how to eat, and are recycled by the ringworld's ecological intelligence.

And the remaining part of the larvae, although they have learned to eat, there is nothing left besides that.

The Ao gnaw on the surrounding turf and leaves, or fallen fruits, every day to make a living. This is enough for them to live healthily, so even moving is not necessary. If it weren't for the need to fight for strength and priority in mating, Shao Shuangyue would have suspected that the Ao would degenerate into worm slimes.

So, how to guide?

A perfect ringworld constructed by a super civilization, an environment where you can live without thinking, a race that has forgotten what hunting is, what exploration is, what civilization and knowledge are, a star system imprisoned in the Black Domain.

The exploration duo only felt emptiness.

Curiosity is meaningless.

The starry sky is meaningless.

Survival is meaningless.

Possibility is meaningless.

Civilization is meaningless.

Continuation is also meaningless.

Whether it was the Gash who had nothing to do outside and could only hibernate and wait, or the Ao who were only living because of their genetic instincts, even eating was not out of self-will, Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming felt an unspeakable emptiness.

Therefore, they couldn't start, and couldn't 'save'.

During the mission, Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming tried many methods, such as guiding the Ao larvae to try to think, but because the first step, the 'necessity of thinking' did not exist, it was difficult to continue.

Wisdom is essentially produced by the continuous involution of intelligent life, but in an environment like the ringworld, even if humans are involved for eight lifetimes, they cannot do it. Is it really necessary to become smarter?

Food doesn't need to be lit to taste good, and it's hard to eat if it's lit. In such a ringworld, would any life really consider lighting a fire?

And the environment is also absolutely suitable, and it can't be done at all. There is no thunder, and there is no wildfire at all.

By the way, besides that, there is another difficulty.

That is, the ringworld is essentially a man-made world... In this world, except for rocks, there are no overly rich natural minerals.

A world without metal may also be able to develop civilization, but it is obviously beyond the ability of Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming.

No one would really expect them to come up with some alcohol punk, whale oil punk, or bone punk, right?

"Omor, Gash, I dayxxxxx!"

Besides making the audience laugh, the two live-streaming explorers who were mentally exhausted by this mission still had some foundation after all—since the Pioneer Space has issued a mandatory mission, it means that it believes that the two can complete it no matter what, it just depends on the method of achievement.

And sure enough, after a period of muddled days, Jiu Ming posted a help request on the Pioneer Space forum, and when he was fighting with people, he suddenly saw a message about the original Candlelight Dragon appearing everywhere.

Of course, this is not the point. Although the image described by that adventurer named Funia looks very much like Su Zhou, Su Zhou is a young man, not an old man with white hair.

Jiu Ming just suddenly remembered a passage that Su Zhou once said.

"The strong... are the wicked."

The Dragon King slowly sat up from the grassland as soft as a mattress. He closed his eyes: "Destruction, on the contrary, is creation."

"Yes... If everything's 'beautiful appearance' makes people stop in place and unable to explore forward... then destruction, on the contrary, is a blessing!"

Jiu Ming gritted his teeth and stood up. The dragonman 美少年 (beautiful youth) was surrounded by powerful water spiritual power: "As long as they are still in this overly beautiful environment... the Ao will never be able to move forward, and will always be beasts that don't even have self-will, inferior to ants!"

"Shuangyue-jie (older sister)... I have an idea!"

"You mean..."

And Shao Shuangyue was obviously not stupid either. She had actually thought of similar ideas a long time ago, but because she had experienced less, she was a little soft-hearted.

And only a little soft-hearted.

It must be said here in advance—Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming are not good people, they are the purest 'Pioneer Space Explorers', the direct dependents of the strongest exploration will of the multiverse.

They are all seeds of 'Pioneers'.

"I'm going to create a great flood... to cleanse this batch of 'Ao' who have grown up and completely lost their plasticity."

Floating in the sky, overlooking a flat land, the Dragon King's eyes were only pure coldness: "Look, these worms who only know how to gnaw, some of their larvae even forget how to gnaw. In the near future, the Ao will probably lose the meaning of existence because they forget how to eat, and be completely extinct."

"Since that's the case, then let us come... Shuangyue-jie (older sister), use your mount to assist me, I'm going to completely destroy the ringworld ecology in this area, leaving only those newborn babies, and then use spiritual cards to awaken the genetic instincts left in their blood, and let them become a 'civilization' again from the original barbaric era!"

Jiu Ming didn't know if he was right.

Shao Shuangyue also didn't know if she was right.

The current Ao are indeed meat balls without wisdom, inferior to beasts. They cannot be educated at all, and don't even know if they are alive.

No, for such a 'life', besides 'life', is there really a concept of 'self'?

However, just choosing to kill them, clear them, and carry out a completely new education for their next generation... Isn't it too arrogant?

Is this correct?

The two didn't know, but they knew that if they wanted the Ao to regain the meaning of their existence as intelligent life, and regain the curiosity and desire to explore the distant starry sky, they could only destroy now.

Destroy this 'artificial Eden' created by the Omor, and banish the Ao to the original hell to experience hardships!

They are willing to bear this sin and responsibility, destroy the old Ao, and create a brand new Ao from scratch.

They succeeded.

Jiu Ming set off a great flood, destroying the ringworld ecology around the original settlement of the Ao, and stopped the self-repair of the ecological AI through the control center in the research institute. Shao Shuangyue manipulated her giant robot mount, reshaped the terrain, and released small robots to threaten the living environment of the newborn Ao, forcing them to learn to think, how to 'dodge' the hunting of robots in complex terrain environments.

Shao Shuangyue even drove her robot to the meteorite belt scattered around the ringworld, pulling mineral meteorites to砸落地面 (smash to the ground)—in addition to further aggravating the ecological instability, the various minerals contained in it were enough for them to use until the industrial age.

This process took a long time, but the Pioneer Space also helped. After finding clues and starting their own cultivation plan, the growth of the Ao began to accelerate.

Their genetic instincts began to reactivate, and they recalled the instincts of being hunted by natural enemies in ancient times and surviving in harsh environments.

Because of the threat of death, they began to desire to live.

Because of the harsh ecological environment, they began to desire to explore better environments in the distance.

Because everything now cannot satisfy their desires, life began to seek wisdom and crave better technology and knowledge.

Without emptiness, there is no existence.

Without fate, there is no pursuit of possibility.

Without everything that has never changed, there will be no action to explore the unknown.

——If life is not greedy, action will not have motivation.

When the new Ao lit torches to explore the 'dangerous cave maze' created by Shao Shuangyue, and found a long sword cast of cosmic alloy at the deepest part of the maze, everything was declared over.

The captain of the Ao exploration team raised his long sword, was crowned king, and a new civilization will, a civilization based on exploration, was thus reshaped.

Then Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming's 'Pioneer Value Evaluation Test' score was a 'd-'.

"What the hell?!"

Seeing this result, Shao Shuangyue炸毛 (exploded with anger) on the spot: "We worked hard for several years—uh, what is the acceleration rate of the Pioneer Space? Anyway, we spent so much time and effort to cultivate diligently, how is it only d-?!"

Jiu Ming didn't speak, he didn't纠结 (dwell on) the result, but纠结 (dwell on) the facts: "What the hell? We can be considered successful even with this mess? Shuangyue-jie (older sister), look, our space suffix has become Semi-Pioneer (Inferior)!"

Shao Shuangyue took a closer look and immediately炸毛 (exploded with anger) even more: "Huh? What does this semi mean, what does this inferior mean?! What kind of third-rate upgrade system is this?! Could it be that there is also a Semi-Peak Great Perfection Pioneer (Superior) or something?!"

"I don't want to be this Pioneer, okay!"

Angry as they were, the duo still had a good idea of the situation.

Amidst the laughter of the live audience, the two sat down and seriously discussed it, and finally determined a fact.

The Gash were very likely眷族 (related to) of Twilight, and the appearance of the Ao was obviously also affected by Twilight.

Although it may only be a negligible influence, maybe their becoming like this is an inevitable fate, but no matter what, the taste of the Guidance Universe is too strong. One can察觉 (notice) something wrong as soon as one recalls it.

And the reason why the Pioneer Space let them come to this world, in essence, was to hope that the two of them could become Pioneers and guide the Ao to脱离 (break away from) Twilight.

It hoped that Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming could lead a group of ignorant and ignorant intelligent races without curiosity or desire to walk the path it expected—to make the entire Ao race exist as the same as Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming.

The means are not important, it doesn't matter to destroy the old civilization and create a new civilization. The 'Pioneer' has no good or evil, its love is too broad, it gives too much to the distant, so that all stagnant existences need to be fatally questioned before hoping to be loved.

'What qualifications do you have to bear the love of the Pioneer?'

If you don't want to accept it, just continue to stagnate in place. The Pioneer will not conduct examinations, but will not guide either.

But if you want to accept it, either奮起 (rise up), or you have to accept questioning.

"The oldest Ao civilization once swore to the 'distant horizon' when they entered the ringworld that they would one day break through the cage and go to the other side of the ringworld and the Singularity Layer, return to their hometown universe, take revenge on the Gash, or go to other universes like the Omor."

"This oath was铭记 (remembered) by the Pioneer, but three million years later, the Ao forgot. The memory of their race was locked in the genetic key, and it was difficult to open it again."

"As眷属 (dependents) of the Pioneer, we came to the Guidance Universe this time to make the Ao recall their former original intention and fulfill their oath... but we essentially reshaped a brand new race, and also used very恶劣 (bad) coercive means, so it's not surprising that the score is low."

Reading the mission summary here, Shao Shuangyue couldn't help but sigh: "If Jiu Ming's method of拟道 (simulating the Dao) was explored more seriously, you should be able to find the genetic key of the Ao, right? And if I was a little more serious, I might be able to scan it out."

"We are still a little unqualified in terms of窮究 (thoroughly investigating) all the unknown and exploring the unknown."

With such self-doubt, Shao Shuangyue and Jiu Ming returned to the Earth universe, preparing to relax at home.

As a result, who knew that as soon as the two returned to Earth, they received a message from the Central Committee to enter cyberspace for a meeting as quickly as possible.

"What mission... we are really tired, can't we rest for a while?"

Jiu Ming protested in a low voice, his cheeks puffed up, he touched his stomach and complained: "At least let me eat something!"

"Eh, what?! Wait!"

But Shao Shuangyue's eyes lit up: "Does that mean we can go to the Earth Fleet on the edge of the Milky Way and meet Zhou-ge (brother Zhou)?"

"In addition to that, we can also see many unknown cosmic races, dependents of ancient尊主 (venerable lord)?!"

【Yes.】 Dao Sheng (Dao Saint) replied in a steady tone: 【And we guess that the degree of world distortion brought about by our mission is enough to trigger the Pioneer Space to simultaneously release missions—you should have received them now.】

"Wow?! There are also Pioneer Space missions!" Even Jiu Ming was attracted: "Destroying a ship of the Twilight Fleet can get exploration points? Destroying the flagship can get a lot of development authority?!"

Immediately, the two semi-pioneers (inferior) made joyful pioneer sounds in unison.

"Hooray!"

Christmas free extra! Merry Christmas everyone, there may be updates tonight!

Remember to leave your monthly votes for my double reward~ and remember to give Su Zhou a heart!