Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 144: Time Movie

"Every second matters for the rescue and war ongoing in the other dimension and timeline. I can't be trapped here. I need to leave immediately," I told myself resolutely.

When I looked at the creatures around me, an idea rose in my mind.

"Bulu, can you show me the man in white again?" I asked Bulu.

Perhaps Bulu understood me, so its body turned red again. The red radiance grew so blinding that it looked like I was holding a small sun in my hands.

The surrounding creatures turned silent as they focused on the creature in my hands. The blinding radiance reached a peak before dimming, eventually returning to its original level.

"That's it?" I asked helplessly.

The man in white did not appear. I felt rather helpless that my plan had failed. Suddenly, I felt some movement behind me.

When I looked back, I saw that Nyx was pulling at my gun sling. Beside Nyx, a white shining door had appeared.

The white door was radiating a mesmerizing and gentle light. When I tried to touch the door with my hand, I was pulled into a white world.

The familiar man in white was standing before me again. I understood that I was once again pulled into Bulu's world of thoughts.

"Young man, I did not expect Clearsky to be so happy with you," said the man in white.

"Is Clearsky the monster that looks like a buffalo?" I asked.

"A buffalo is a masterpiece of mother nature. No life form is a monster. Every one of them has a purpose for existing," replied the man in white.

"There are still some living monsters around. Some life forms are unique yet do not bully other weaker life forms. Some life forms exist solely for the purpose of bullying smaller life forms. In my eyes, those are monsters," I retorted loudly.

Perhaps the man in white had not expected a mere human to be so straightforward. He blanked out slightly at my words.

"If I'm right, you must be Clearsky's master, Shajinsen," I said.

The man in white shook his head. "Shajinsen is an ancient god. The gap between us is like the gap between a speck of dust and a star. For the various living beings in the universe, he had contributed his own strength. He is a noble star creator who lived during the early period of creation."

"Star creator? What do you mean? Do you mean that these stars were created by him?" I asked as excitement bubbled within me.

"The universe has a complicated origin. Anyone would need to do what you did with Clearsky to comprehend this secret: understanding with their heart and seeing with their eyes. If I give you the answer, it will create an imbalance among the various life forms. Imbalance is the origin of all conflicts," said the man in white as he shook his head, refusing to answer my question.

"Don't worry. I am a relentless pursuer of justice," I said, insisting on getting an answer.

"Nothing is absolute in creation. Any life form will change its mind depending on the circumstances it finds itself in. Young man, you have not experienced enough difficulties in life. Therefore, you are still unable to fully understand the purpose of life in the universe," said the man in white, refusing to answer me again.

I stopped insisting so as to avoid angering this fellow like I had the previous time we had met. I changed the topic and said, "I seem to have established a harmonious relationship with the interstellar creatures as per your request. How should I leave now? I have something important to do."

"What will happen, will happen. What will come, will come. I took a look at your future. I hope you can stay true to your heart and persevere until the end," said the man in white.

I grew excited. This man had actually seen my future? A bunch of thoughts surfaced in my mind, such as my lifespan, my future wife, my wealth, and all sorts of questions I had wondered about when I was a child. I was about to ask more questions when I found myself back to reality. Once again, I was surrounded by a group of interstellar creatures.

A sense of disappointment welled in my heart. The man in white was someone who had taken a look at my future, and that was the best opportunity for me to find a solution to my issue. Why did Bulu cut the meeting short? I quickly found the answer.

The black creature suddenly roared at the sky, and the other creatures immediately started roaring. The roars reverberated all throughout the cave. After about 15 minutes, the interstellar creatures parted to reveal a path. A familiar figure appeared, walking toward me.

The newcomer was none other than the white creature that had appeared beside the man in white. With all the creatures calling for it, it had finally reappeared. The elephant-like white creature walked into the circle formed by the interstellar creatures and sent its probing mouth toward me.

Unlike the other creatures, this white creature's mouth was not as sharp as a sword. Rather, it was slightly circular and decorated with whiskers. The circular mouth started growing. Before long, it grew big enough for a human to walk in and out of it. Inside the mouth, a pure white radiance appeared.

I did not understand what was going on, so I merely watched the unfolding magic show blankly. Once again, all the creatures around me sank into silence. Every one of them was fully focused on the white creature. Suddenly, a red figure directly jumped into the white circle ahead of me.

"Shit! What is Bulu doing?" I had a bad feeling.

Due to how close the white creature was, Bulu instantly vanished into the white light before I could do anything. I grew anxious. I couldn't allow anything to happen to Bulu. Thus, I threw all caution to the wind and jumped into the white light as well.

A second figure also followed me into the white light. When I looked back, I saw that Nyx had followed me. The moment I entered the white world, I saw Bulu on the ground. My heart calmed somewhat. The circular opening closed once we were all in the white world. Then, the white around us slowly faded, gradually revealing the scene of the starry universe.

"This is beautiful," I couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

Numerous stars and star systems were constantly moving at a rapid speed all around me. Countless scenes and phenomena that I had heard about and had never heard of before appeared around me. Black holes, gamma-ray bursts, red giants, meteorites, comets, planetary collisions, and so on appeared before me. One scene after another appeared, and not a single scene was a full repeat of a previous scene.

"Is this a time tunnel, and are these the changes the universe has undergone during the past 10 billion years?" I wondered in excitement.

The scenes moved rapidly while I leaned against the transparent wall around me and took in everything greedily. This was a precious recording of the passage of time since creation. Everything was being played before me like a movie.

Gradually, I discovered that I was only looking at a corner of the universe. Even so, I was exposed to a rather complete catalog of the phenomena and events that could appear in the universe.

'If I can bring this information back, the team will earn a large amount of merit. This is most definitely the biggest discovery in the history of the league,' I thought. The more I thought about it, the smugger I felt.

While I was immersed in feeling good about myself and greedily taking in the scenes before me, the transparent walls turned white again. Before us, a black wall appeared.

"Looks like we have arrived. Just like that, we have traveled through 10 billion years. I wonder where this would lead us." I wondered as I looked at the dark wall.

At this point, Bulu had recovered to its usual condition. I lifted it and placed it into the backpack. Then, I turned on my communicator and tried to contact Spacetime. However, apart from some static, I got nothing. Abruptly, an immense regret assaulted me.

I started beating my own head sorrowfully. Beside me, Nyx was completely confused. I had just remembered that I had kept my camera off during the entire journey. I had failed to preserve a single phenomenon I had witnessed.

"Li Canyue, you're a pig. How can you forget that you had turned off everything?" I scolded myself.

Nyx continued to look at me in confusion. Eventually, it decided to ignore me and walk through the dark wall. There was no cure for regret, so it was pointless to keep beating myself. I thus followed Nyx out of the time tunnel. The moment I walked out, the dark wall vanished, severing the connection to that mystical space.

I couldn't afford to waste more time wallowing in regret, so I calmed down and started studying my surroundings. I found that we had arrived in a dry cave. We seemed to be at the top of the cave systemwhen I looked down, I could see a winding tunnel leading deeper underground.

'This must be somewhere above Milk City. Heavens, please don't let me encounter any other monsters,' I thought to myself.

Holding my gun in my hand, I turned on my shield and started traversing the tunnel. The tunnel was not too complicated to travel. After less than 10 minutes, I heard people speaking and moving ahead of me.

Hearing the familiar sound of civilization, I grew excited. After so many difficulties, my search had finally borne fruit. I had discovered Milk City. At that thought, I sped up. After walking around a large boulder, numerous lightbulbs appeared before me like a sea of blinking stars.

'City in a cave, I finally found you!' I thought in joy.

After encountering so many mishaps during my journey here, I had become rather paranoid. As a precaution, I carefully advanced. Before long, I arrived at a watchtower at the edge of the city. Two Akko soldiers were standing guard near it.

While I was still thinking of a way to introduce myself, one of them noticed Nyx, who was much larger than me. He instantly jumped nervously. The two soldiers immediately aimed their guns forward, so I quickly jumped out to prevent them from harming Nyx.

"Hold! We are friendly! Hold!" I shouted with both my hands raised.

"Who are you? Why have you appeared with an interstellar creature? These creatures are very ferocious. How are you controlling it?" questioned a young soldier.

"Soldier, my name is Li Canyue, a friend of your prince, Arude. Can you take me to him? This is urgent," I requested.

"Li Canyue? You're the warrior who had destroyed the shell-breaker at Goldsteel City?" asked the young soldier in astonishment.

"Exactly. That is me," I said.

"Team Leader, he's Li Canyue, one of the warriors involved in the defense of Goldsteel. He is requesting to meet the prince," reported the young soldier to an older soldier.

"Someone capable of taming an interstellar creature is definitely not an ordinary person. Take him to the prince. I'll stay here," said the team leader.

The young soldier became visibly excited upon receiving the order. He immediately led us toward the brightly lit city.