Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 208 Zhang Beihai Enters the Natural Selection Ship

The darkness of the universe was so pure that it seemed to devour all light, with only the distant sun, like a dull silver coin, suspended in the endless void.

After being sorted and assembled, the seven future reinforcement task forces from the three fleets completed their sorting and assembly. These ancient warriors from the Common Era were intentionally assigned to different warship systems.

For stability reasons, dispersing the hibernating soldiers is essential. The strong sense of unity characteristic of soldiers from the old era could have unpredictable effects on the Solar System Fleet under certain circumstances, especially since ancient Chinese soldiers are prone to forming independent organizations that shouldn't exist in this era. Therefore, dispersing the ancient soldiers can both mitigate this unpredictable impact and maximize the influence of their spirit on the soldiers of this new era.

At this moment, this darkness is not lonely, but rather filled with a repressive, ominous atmosphere of impending doom.

Zhang Beihai stood in front of the porthole of a small shuttle, his gaze passing through the porthole to the enormous vessel that floated silently in the vast shadow of Jupiter and the thin sunlight—the Natural Selection.

He was already very familiar with this star-class warship. He had seen the shadow of the 'Tang' in it more than once, even though the Tang had been completely destroyed before it was even born.

He knew all the basic data of the Natural Selection in his mind, and he even knew about the crew of the Natural Selection whom he had never met. Compared with this star-class warship that existed in countless holographic projections and film and television data, Zhang Beihai was more interested in the scenery behind the warship at this moment.

Jupiter itself is an awe-inspiring sight. This gas giant occupies most of the view from the porthole, its colorful cloud bands resembling a giant's oil painting, with orange, brown, and white stripes rolling endlessly.

The reason why the Solar System Fleet has set up its three home ports and fleet command headquarters in Jupiter's orbit is that Jupiter's atmosphere is rich in light elements such as hydrogen and helium, which are the main fuels for hydrogen fusion of space warships. Building materials and life support resources can be obtained directly within the Jupiter system. The huge space resource extraction equipment in near-Jupiter orbit reduces the cost and time of transportation from Earth.

Moreover, Earth's resources cannot withstand the endless consumption of five thousand star-class warships and ten times that number of planetary warships.

The Natural Selection warship was one of the earliest star-class warships ever built by humankind. Its hull number was 265. In the early stages of designing star-class warships, the designers were still accustomed to designing warships with a long and streamlined shape. The main body of the warship was long and powerful, with a sharp bow pointing towards the outer reaches of the solar system.

This is different from the latest Blue Space, which is a nearly flat box-like shape, resembling a milk carton. Compared to the new modular, quick-build warship, Zhang Beihai definitely prefers the streamlined design of the Natural Selection.

It gave him a... well, antique feel.

The pure white nanocomposite material on the warship's surface, and the faintly visible 'space scratches,' reminded him of the barnacle-induced corrosion on the hull of aircraft carriers. Since the Age of Exploration and even earlier, during Zheng He's voyages, human naval systems have been plagued by barnacle corrosion. Now, micrometeorites in space have become the new generation of space barnacles. Beyond its pure white shell, the warship reflected the orange-red glow of Jupiter's cloud belts.

In this profound silence, so close yet so far, Zhang Beihai's small shuttle had already approached the vicinity of the Natural Selection. At this close range, he saw the various sensor arrays and weapon ports densely covering the surface of the warship, exactly as described in the data.

Most of the weapon module ports were in a dormant state, and the sensor arrays were all operating at low power. Facing these powerful and imposing weapon ports, he could still see the design sense of the naval system in the early 21st century. This made Zhang Beihai feel a sense of disappointment. He had already heard about the withdrawal of the sophon from the solar system. Human basic scientific research was restarting, but all of this would take time.

For Zhang Beihai, the only good news was that he had systematically learned about the technological level of the Devouring Empire's fleet, which was even cruder and more fragile than that of humans. This fact brought him some comfort.

The shuttle was slowly approaching the docking port. Zhang Beihai could feel a slight vibration; it was the sound of the docking mechanism at work.

"General, docking is almost complete." The shuttle pilot's voice interrupted his thoughts.

Zhang Beihai nodded slightly, straightened his collar, and stepped towards the hatch. As the hatch opened, a slightly cool aura, unique to metal and circulating air, rushed out.

Wearing a crisp space force uniform, he used the magnetic belt around his waist to float out steadily and slowly, and landed firmly on the magnetic clasp of the warship.

More than ten uniformed crew members were already waiting for him there.

During this rather simple welcoming ceremony, he saw Dongfang Yanxu.

After his promotion, although Zhang Beihai held the rank of Major General, he was actually going to take up his post on the Natural Selection as an ordinary crew member. Therefore, very few people came to pick him up, and neither of the two deputy captains were there. However, he really did not expect that the current captain of the Natural Selection would be one of the people who received him. This was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration.

The captain was a woman with a beautiful face, clear eyes, and a slender figure typical of a new generation of spacefarers. The general's stars on her epaulets shone softly in the white light, making it hard for Zhang Beihai not to notice her immediately. "Senior, hello, I am Dongfang Yanxu, captain of the 'Natural Selection'." Dongfang Yanxu saluted Zhang Beihai.

“Hello, Captain Dongfang,” Zhang Beihai returned the greeting, “Thank you for your hospitality. I think I may need to trouble you in the days to come, as I am not familiar with this place.”

A hint of playfulness flickered in Dongfang Yanxu's eyes: "It's what a junior should do. You might not believe it, but I've often heard my great-grandmother mention you. You should still remember her, right?"

Zhang Beihai was slightly taken aback.

Dongfang Mingxi?

...

The headquarters of the Old Star Anchor Society is located in the surface city of New York. Not far from the headquarters is an underground elevator leading to the New York City underground. This organization, which was founded two years ago and whose core base is composed of people from the Common Era and their supporters, has a unique mission: to solidify the cultural and survival foundation of the Common Era people, prevent them from being abandoned by the tides of the times, and emphasize a sense of historical belonging. Of course, this public mission is only on the surface for the United Government. In reality, the Old Star Anchor Society has a complete platform and is no different in nature from a 21st-century political party. It is an important political force among the Common Era people today. In the past two years, the Old Star Anchor Society has launched several large-scale anti-hedonism (note: the ideology of living for the moment, whose main behavior is represented by public dissolute behavior) social movements, which have made it famous and attracted countless followers. It has now become one of the political forces in the United Government's parliament, existing in the form of a small participating party.

"Director," Cheng Xin said, carrying a stack of paper documents as she entered. "These are all things I found at the museum, like newspapers and other materials from our time. That wretched museum curator insisted they were precious historical documents and asked for a very high price, but I had a huge argument with him and ended up buying them all back at half price... Although the Low Intensity Depression only lasted a very short time, a lot of our era's documents were still destroyed. I'm not sure if we can find more documents from the Common Era in New York."

As Cheng Xin spoke, she placed the one-ton stack of paper documents heavily on Wade's desk. She had a good physique and good luck; her cultivation level was the Innate Realm, and her physique was excellent. Catching bullets with her bare hands was not a problem for her.

Wade raised an eyebrow: "Very good, that's enough. We mainly collect data from the Golden Age, from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Crisis Era. There's no need to collect data from 30 years after the Crisis Era; MOSS has backups of all of that."

"Then, Director? So, shall we continue making revolution?" Cheng Xin asked.

“No one’s dying, so what kind of revolution is this? It’s just playing house.” Wade shook his head. “Propaganda alone is meaningless. Breast-producing factories and socialized child-rearing inevitably lead to a decline in responsibility, and that’s where the root of the social problems lies. In today’s society, more than half of humanity is still born from traditional human families, so conservatives are in the majority, and we can have some supporters. Once the birth rate of traditional families continues to decrease… then the situation will be completely reversed.”

"What should we do? I really hate their habit of throwing im-party all the time." Cheng Xin shrank back in fear, as if she were afraid of being in that situation herself.

“This highlights the necessity of brothels.” Wade shook his head. “A society cannot exist without toilets, otherwise humans would defecate everywhere… People today are no different from apes from hundreds of thousands of years ago, and their rationality has even regressed due to the abundance of material resources. Instead of continuing to engage in useless struggles over policy and public opinion here, we should properly conceive of the underlying nature of postwar human civilization. I have some ideas in this regard.”

Cheng Xin, your current task is to take over my responsibility for uniting and guiding the hibernating people of the Common Era. People in this era are too impetuous; they cannot withstand the slightest setback or failure. I have been thinking about how humanity should conduct itself if it loses the war against the dinosaurs or the war against the Trisolaran fleet.
A civilization that lacks resilience is doomed to fail; Luo Qing, the Wallfacer, has spoiled humanity too much.

I must leave humanity a contingency plan, a safety net, and the strength of the Common Era is crucial. Currently, the Old Star Anchor Society has absorbed many people from the Fleet International, especially to reinforce future Space Force members; this is a good start. After I'm gone, you must maintain this.”

"And what about you, Director?" Cheng Xin asked.

"I will stand on the opposite side of you."

"My opposite?" Cheng Xin asked, puzzled.

"To correct a wrong, one must go to extremes. To paraphrase your country's Lu Xun, I want to open a window to the world. Only in this way will they accept the door you have opened to the world."

"This sounds like... there might be bloodshed. Can we not do it?" Cheng Xin asked hesitantly.

"No, I have limited time. Either everyone rushes to the interstellar age, or everyone goes up a tree to eat bananas. There is no other option. Someone has to be the catfish."

(End of this chapter)