The stars, but they become the gray wind

"You gain everything, but you also lose everything."

In the next simulation, Reinhardt walked into the communications room with heavy steps. Anne Roger's clear figure appeared on the communication screen. As the decisive and ruthless Imperial Marshal on the battlefield, Reinhardt outside the screen found that the self in the simulation did not even dare to look directly into the eyes of his closest sister.

"Sister... I..." In the picture, Reinhardt's voice froze, and Anne Roger stared at Reinhardt. Her face was frighteningly pale, and there were no tears in her eyes, only an expression that far exceeded sadness.

"Poor Reinhardt... You have nothing to lose now." Anne Luojie murmured.

"No, I still have you, my sister, right, sister?"

"Yes, I will always be your sister. We have nothing left except each other..." Her weak voice made both Reinhardt in the simulation and Reinhardt as a third-party observer feel distressed.

"Reinhard, I feel very tired... I want to leave the Schwarzman House and go to a place where no one will bother me. Can you find me a small house somewhere?" Then, Anne Luojie said the words that almost broke the hearts of both Reinhardts.

"Then, let's not meet again for the time being."

"elder sister?!"

"It's best if I don't stay around you and influence you, because our lifestyles are completely different... I belong to the past, and you belong to the future."

"Sister! I have one more thing to ask you!"

"Sister, are you...deeply in love with Gilphias?"

When Reinhardt saw this scene in the simulation, his heart was gripped. He had always had this question in his heart, but he had never dared to ask his sister for the answer to this question.

Both he, inside the simulation, and the one outside it, stared tremblingly at his sister's face. Anne Roger in the scene didn't directly answer, but Reinhardt had never seen his sister's face so transparent, so sad. He might never forget this expression. His sister's silence also let him know the correct answer.

"Impossible...Sister...She left me?" Reinhardt muttered to himself in disbelief outside the screen.

"Because after your friend's death, you gradually betrayed your original aspirations and became a hollow shell, willing to do anything to achieve your ideals. Your sister's departure was just the beginning. In the years that followed, because you betrayed the original aspirations of yourself and your subordinates, your once loyal subordinates and friends left you one by one, unwilling to follow a leader who abandoned his original aspirations and would do anything to achieve them. Step by step, you conquered the entire universe, at least the part of the universe that humans could reach. But in the process, you gradually became a lonely and forsaken person."

The simulated scene Reinhardt saw changed again. This time, he seemed to be at a grand funeral. His hair in the simulated scene was longer than it was now, and he seemed older.

The simulated self walked forward to receive the medal for the body lying in the coffin. Reinhardt, who was outside the screen, recognized the identity of the dead person in the coffin. It was a very talented subordinate he had recently recruited: Fahrenheit, one of the former commanders of the aristocratic coalition army.

At the funeral, several officers were whispering.

"Even Admiral Fahrenheit was killed in the battle?"

"Ah, I never thought that two Imperial Marshals would be posthumously awarded in one day. What should I do?"

From the whispered conversations of the officers attending the funeral, Reinhardt learned that he had lost and posthumously awarded two Imperial Marshals in two battles in one day, which made him feel heartbroken. There is no doubt that even now, the outstanding talents shown by Fahrenheit made him extremely optimistic about this outstanding talent who joined his team from his opponent. Now, after learning that he might lose such a great general in another future, Reinhardt undoubtedly felt regretful.

"Of all the things you'd lose in the alternative, this is the least of it."

Seeing this, Reinhardt felt himself sweating profusely. Another such tragic future almost made him feel heartbroken.

"As for the ending... You gained the entire universe, but lost everything. Your family, friends, and subordinates left you one by one. Even your opponent, who had maintained a lifetime undefeated record, left you first."

"You've never been able to defeat this opponent of yours even once in your entire life. Instead, you've suffered countless defeats at his hands. Just when you finally thought you could defeat him, he left you first."

"Ultimately, having lost your subordinates and friends, you ascended to the highest throne of power in human society. However, without their support, you no longer had anyone to trust. Overworked, you were struck down by illness and eventually passed away."

"And some things you don't understand until you're about to die."

"And what ultimately defeated you wasn't some formidable opponent, but simply a disease caused by overwork."

Aze's figure emerged from the darkness. The halo above her head and the wings of light behind her seemed to be the only light in the darkness, making people feel warm.

"How could I have fallen to such a state?"

Reinhardt wiped his sweaty brow.

"Most civilizations, including yours, are simply trapped in the cyclical laws of history and the vicious cycle of fate, unable to escape."

"This is also why some civilizations are obsessed with modifying the laws of the universe to bring better experiences and outcomes to all life on earth."

"Don't blame me for not warning you before. Sometimes, knowing your future, even if it's just a possibility that hasn't happened or hasn't happened yet, can often only make people feel scared."

"For the vast majority of immature intelligent life forms and civilizations, knowing their future can sometimes be a bad thing."

Chapter 256 Human Society 500 Years from Now (6000 words)

Reinhardt felt as if he had had a very long dream, and it was a rather unpleasant nightmare. In the dream, Gilfias died to protect him, his sister Neroger also left him, his trusted subordinates left him one after another, and finally even his opponents abandoned him. In the dream, although Reinhardt had passed the highest throne of imperial power and reunified the entire human society, he had lost everything. All the people and things he cared about left him. Fate played a joke on Reinhard. The price of seizing the entire universe was to become a helpless loner.

Yang Weili stared at his respectable opponent with curiosity. Several minutes had passed since the alien lady with angel wings and a halo said she intended to let Reinhardt see his future. During this period, Reinhardt's expression and eyes were dull. According to the alien lady, this was a normal phenomenon when she projected information into the deeper levels of the human brain. She was projecting the calculated information about another highly accurate possibility of Reinhardt's past and future into his deep thinking.

After a while, Reinhardt seemed to have returned to normal from this state. However, what surprised Yang Weili was that Reinhardt, who had recovered from his dazed state, was panting and covered in cold sweat, as if he had seen some terrible scene.

"I have adjusted your perception of time so that you can more quickly understand the information I am transmitting to you."

“Huh…Huh…Huh, were those just now…all true?”

"Yes. To be more precise, it's a computational simulation and deduction of another possible outcome for you. Assuming there were no external interference caused by the butterfly effect, you would have very likely moved towards this future."

"It's just... horrible, like a nightmare." Reinhardt suddenly remembered another alien woman he'd met before, who'd reminded him that he couldn't afford the price of fulfilling his ideal. At the time, he hadn't quite understood what that meant. But now he understood. If the price of conquering the universe was losing his sister, Gilphias, and everyone he trusted, then his ideal might only be halfway accomplished.

"Is this what your companion meant by the reminder you gave me earlier?"

"Okay, we've finished with Reinhardt. It's time for another one. Admiral Yang, how about you? Are you interested in an alternate past or future of yours?"

"Me? I'd probably rather see what my life would be like if I hadn't had the financial troubles of joining the military and instead had become a historian."

"Haha, then the result may be very different from what you expected. Based on the calculation results we obtained, the possibility of your other past and future is not quite in line with your expectations?"

"Your idea of ​​being an ordinary retired historian is probably difficult to satisfy."

"You're keeping me in suspense, but it actually makes me curious."

"In our future predictions, there's only a 21.22% chance that you'll refuse. After all, who wouldn't want to see their future so they can make better life plans and choices?"

"You guessed it right, I really find it hard to resist such temptation."

"Well, are you ready?" Aze snapped his fingers lightly, and Yang felt that his vision suddenly became dark, and Reinhardt beside him disappeared.

Yang saw himself reappearing on the bridge of a warship. The bridge's design and interior were incredibly familiar to Yang Weili; it was the bridge of his flagship, the Berlian. He was observing the scene from a third-party perspective, seemingly commanding a retreat, a retreat that seemed to be an exceptionally tragic defeat. During the Alliance's massive invasion of the Empire, many of its fleets had been isolated and deep in the enemy's territory, their logistics sapped by the lengthy supply lines. By the time the Alliance's leadership realized retreat was the only option, it was too late. The Alliance's expeditionary force of over 3000 million men had suffered heavy losses. He seemed to be buying time for the other allies to retreat, while covering their retreat. To do so, the remnants of the Alliance's Fifth Fleet sacrificed themselves without hesitation. Upon receiving news of the death of Admiral Wu Lanfu, commander of the Fifth Fleet, Yang remained silent for a moment, then said, "Don't let their sacrifice be in vain."

"Let the fleet retreat as quickly as possible."

.........

"What is this?" Yang asked, looking at himself in the simulated scene.

"The consequences of that expedition's complete defeat were that over 60% of the Alliance's forces were wiped out due to their delayed retreat. After this battle, the Alliance was left with only two relatively intact fleets."

"Looks like the result is bad, huh?"

"It's terrible, keep watching."

In the next scene, Yang Weili saw an unexpected scene. A group of soldiers claiming to be the Alliance National Salvation Military Committee suddenly launched a military coup, seized the Alliance capital planet Heinessen, and announced a series of martial law measures. The leader of this so-called military committee turned out to be the father of his adjutant.

In order to prevent the coup and retake the alliance capital of Heinessen, Yang defeated the other side's mobile forces sent to obstruct him and quickly advanced to the outskirts of the Barat galaxy where Heinessen was located.

"Admiral Yang, we've always been intrigued by your unconventional tactics. For example, our calculations indicate that you employed an unconventional approach to deal with the twelve armed satellites over Heinessen."

"Artemis's necklace? I've certainly thought about that thing. I've come up with seven or eight plans for how to destroy it safely while minimizing casualties. But I'm curious, which one of your predictions did I ultimately choose?"

"Simply put, it is the most deterrent and effective one."

"I see, I understand, it's that one." Yang also understood that among all the plans he had thought of, this method was indeed the most efficient and also the loudest. From the perspective of the strike effect, it was indeed deterrent enough.

As Yang expected, the next scene he saw was a large number of engineering spacecraft digging and cutting huge ice blocks from the surface of an icy planet on the outskirts of the Barat system, then pushing the ice blocks into orbit and installing propulsion engines on them.

As the propulsion device ignited, the huge and bulky ice block began to slowly accelerate. After traveling a distance of several astronomical units, these ice blocks equipped with engines had been accelerated to more than 90% of the speed of light. The 12 armed satellites mobilized all their firepower to try to intercept the ice blocks approaching at sub-light speeds. However, even the firepower of the armed satellites could only have a scraping effect compared to the sub-light speed ice blocks that were almost as heavy and large as massive asteroids. In a dazzling flash, the 12 armed satellites guarding the capital planet were reduced to debris floating in orbit.

The 13th Fleet commanded by Yang finally recaptured Heinessen and prevented the conspiracy of the coup faction. Yang nodded with satisfaction outside the screen, but before he could relax, he received the bad news that Jessica Edward had passed away. She died at the hands of the military and police who supported the Allied coup faction. At that time, she was leading the people in a peaceful rally in the stadium, which aroused the vigilance and attention of the Allied coup faction. They immediately dispatched military and police to suppress and disperse the rally. As a result, I was at the rally. There was a conflict between the violently suppressing military police and the civilians, which directly led to the tragedy of thousands of deaths. Yang, who was outside the screen, saw that he had been wearing sunglasses for a whole day after learning of Jessica's death. Although his eyes were covered by the sunglasses, Yang, as one of the people who knew himself best, knew that he wore sunglasses mostly because his eyes were red and swollen under the sunglasses. Jessica and Lap were his best friends. When he learned of Jessica's death, he must have regretted and felt guilty, just like his reaction when he learned of the death of his good friend Lap.

The scene changed again to the next one, where he was surrounded by a large group of high-ranking guys, just like the defendant's seat in a court. This group of allied military and political leaders who called themselves review committee members actually began to question whether his action of destroying 12 armed satellites was to leave a convenient channel for his future coup. Seeing such a scene, even Yang Weili, who had always been gentle in character, felt very annoyed. It seemed that these allied military and political leaders had illegally organized a review meeting against him without any evidence. This was a completely false accusation.

"In the other possibility, you will encounter a series of problems. Fierce criticism and deliberate targeting from the Alliance's pro-war government. They deliberately transferred a large number of inexperienced recruits to the 13th Fleet and the Ishel Fortress, causing the fleet's combat effectiveness to decline significantly. Meanwhile, those Alliance pro-war representatives continue to enjoy the vast sums of money and power generated by the military-industrial complex producing weapons and equipment and selling them to the military at high prices. They also take advantage of these purchases to collect massive kickbacks.

If the alliance that Yang Weili is in now can still be saved, then in another possible future deduction, the alliance seems to be completely hopeless. After Jessica's death, the ceasefire faction that advocated that the alliance should cease fire with the empire and carry out internal reforms was completely at a disadvantage. The pro-war government headed by Triuniciet openly promoted their own perverse theories, sending countless civilians and their children to the battlefield, praising death and sacrifice, while hiding in a safe place and gaining more money and power through war.

Yang was extremely disgusted with this kind of behavior, and in another possibility deduced by this simulation, the alliance seemed to have stepped on the accelerator on this downhill road and slid directly into the abyss of loss of control.

Yang was fully prepared and anticipated what was to happen next. After a round of large-scale internal reforms, the regrouped Empire, under Reinhard's command, launched another attack on the Alliance. However, this time, the Empire did not launch the attack from the Iserlohn Corridor. Instead, it broke common sense and went through Phesar. Prior to this, Yang's advance warning information to the Alliance was naturally ignored by the Alliance's rigid, inflexible and corrupt system.

After a series of complicated twists and turns, the Alliance government, which was facing a disaster, gave power to Yang and asked him to do everything in his power to stop the Empire. But it was too late. When Yang's 13th Fleet blocked the main force of the Imperial Army, another fleet of the Imperial Army had bypassed and directly occupied Heinessen. With Heinessen occupied, the entire Alliance announced its surrender.

"You don't seem to be in any mood?"

"Well, the fact that things turned out this way was somewhat within our expectations, right?"

"Given the shameful and filthy web of interests behind those alliances you told me about earlier, it's only natural for such a corrupt nation to surrender and perish."

"After all, this kind of thing has happened countless times in human history, hasn't it?"

"But, unfortunately, it seems that in the other possible future, I won't be able to get a pension." Yang shook his head helplessly.

"You really care most about your pension, don't you?"

"If I didn't have a pension, how would I have the money to do the historical research I love?"

"Sometimes I think you're not suited to being a military strategist. Perhaps being a historian is a better hobby and career for you."

"After all, I joined the military just to pay for my college tuition, but somehow I ended up like this."

"But if I hadn't experienced this, I probably wouldn't have met Julian, and Senior Kajielun, right? Fate is truly unpredictable."

"You seem quite open-minded, don't you? You understand the nature of human civilization and society more clearly than most people I've met."

"I can't really say. I'm just someone who likes to study history. Many things happening now can be found with similar cases in human history."

"However, this also indirectly proves what you said about human history, which has been stagnant at a lower level and has not entered a higher stage."

"Is this why you are so obsessed with pursuing the evolution of life forms and the way of thinking of entire civilizations?"

"No, it's more complicated than you think, but not that complicated. We just hope to reduce the losses and suffering in the development of civilization as a whole."

"To enable civilization to achieve the longest-term progress and development at the lowest cost, eliminating the chaos caused by entropy growth during the development of civilization and all behaviors that may cause pain to individuals or groups within the civilization."

"Is this really possible?"

"Of course, some people or civilizations have done it before."

"Could you please tell me how they did it?"

"After reaching the destination, return to the past to modify your own evolution and development history, so that your evolution and development history reaches a perfect state."

"Also, there's more than just one way to do this. Other civilizations have achieved the same or similar results through other methods."

"As for the former, I believe you've already seen it. The civilization behind that black aircraft has accomplished such a miracle before."

"By returning to the beginning of the Big Bang, modifying the parameters of the entire universe and the evolutionary history of one's own civilization, the entire process of civilization's development can be infinitely close to perfection."

"They were the first civilization in their part of the universe to do this. Throughout the long history of the universe, countless civilizations adopted similar methods, although a significant number of them did not achieve the desired results."

"By the way, I have one more request."

"What request?"

"I wonder if Julian has found an ideal life partner when he grows up?"

"this one?"

"Well, that's it."

"OK then."

The scene Yang saw changed again, and Julian Mintz's figure appeared in front of Yang. Yang raised his hand to compare and found that he seemed to have grown taller again.

Julian met a girl with golden hair who exuded a strong aura, and the simulated scene froze at this moment.

"Hiss... Could she be Julian's future life partner?" Yang scratched his head.

"You may not believe this, but according to our simulation of the future, tracing back to the past, do you know what your relationship is with this girl?"

"Do you still have something to do with me?"

"Specifically, it has something to do with someone close to you."

"Who?"

"First, you can dance and kick sixty-nine kopecks."

"Him? Could he be related to this girl who is destined to be with Youlian?"

"She is the biological daughter of one of your subordinates."

"Ah?" Now it was Yang Weili's turn to be confused.

"Senkob? She has a daughter this old? How come I never knew about it?"

"To be precise, he doesn't even know he has such a daughter."

"Could it be..." Yang Weili's quick mind had roughly guessed what had happened behind the scenes.

"This is truly unprecedented gossip... I never thought that when I came to see my future, I would actually see this kind of family gossip about my subordinates."