Yan Luo suddenly felt his throat dry, unable to speak.

After a while, he regained his senses and asked with difficulty, "The development route of technology... upper limit locked?"

Qiu Zhixue pointed to the sky and said, "Before the Lost Decade, Blue Star had many countries, but among them, two were the strongest. One was Xia Country, where we are, and the other was the United States across the ocean. Xia Country mastered controlled nuclear fusion technology and completed the first commercial controlled nuclear fusion power plant in 2035. At that time, the world situation was tense because, compared to Xia Country, which was returning to its original historical position, the United States was rapidly declining.

"And decades before then, the United States and another great power were called the two poles of the world. Both had too strong national power, did not dare to start a hot war, so they began a Cold War, initiating an arms race. Ultimately, the United States won. Decades later, the United States faced a huge challenge again, so it wanted to start a second Cold War. This time it was no longer an arms race, but a technology race.

"Xia Country was working on controlled nuclear fusion, but the United States was still far from it, so they came up with the idea of trying to contact aliens."

At this point, Qiu Zhixue's lips curled with a sarcastic smile, "I don't know what they were thinking. When Xia Country announced the construction of the first commercial controlled nuclear fusion power plant, the United States suddenly announced they were trying to contact aliens. It was a rather absurd plan with almost no chance of success, and the costs were a bottomless pit. No matter how much money they threw at it, it would not make a splash.

"Many knew that the elites in the United States were using this project to make money, so they couldn't stop. The United States was like a car out of control, with the driver unable to do anything but step on the gas pedal. Ironically, this absurd plan succeeded at the exact time when the world's first commercial controlled nuclear fusion power plant was completed.

"The United States used their spectacular 'cosmic radio' to successfully capture an alien signal. The occurrence of this miracle boosted the confidence of everyone involved in the project, and the entire United States and its allies cheered, believing it was divine providence, that it was an arrangement from above. Otherwise, how could that alien signal have appeared just as they were about to lose this Cold War?

"With renewed confidence, the Americans further funded the 'cosmic radio', and soon they captured a second alien signal. At the same time, they used mathematics to decipher the message of the first alien signal: 'Hello, others in the universe'. With the experience of deciphering the first alien signal, they soon decoded the second signal. It was not until much later that I learned what the second signal conveyed — 'Do not answer! Do not answer! Do not answer!'.

At this point, Qiu Zhixue couldn't help but take a deep breath, gritting his teeth as he spoke the following words, "Then, the Abyss descended!"

What exactly is the Abyss?

The Blue Star People did not know the answer to this question, but now, the answer seemed to appear before Yan Luo.

"Is the Abyss a weapon of aliens?" Yan Luo asked incredulously, his eyes wide open.

"No."

Qiu Zhixue shook his head, smiled miserably, and said, "It's scarier than that. The Abyss is a meme. As long as a civilization contacts another that has already encountered the Abyss, the Abyss will come. The more civilizations aware of the Abyss, the stronger it becomes. What's locking the upper limit of technological development is the weapon of the aliens. The alien civilization that launched this weapon is extremely powerful, yet they still entangle with the Abyss. Blue Star, having been able to transmit its signal and receive alien signals, had its technological development limit locked by them, preventing us from further communicating with other alien civilizations.

"This weapon is silent; we don't know when it descended. We only know that after the United States received the alien signals, mathematics, physics, chemistry, materials science, medicine... every discipline that was initially on Blue Star's technological development path encountered a bottleneck. The pure technological creations you see now were manufactured using the knowledge reserves accumulated back then.

"So later I stopped calling for the use of pure technological methods for basic science research and stopped mentioning the complete eradication of the Abyss, because for Blue Star to develop, we must rely on the Abyss. Without the Abyss, we would have nothing."

Yan Luo seemed to be suffocating, feeling as if a pair of hands had gripped his neck, making it impossible for him to breathe.

The plan he had prepared to eliminate the Abyss could not be implemented from the very first step. Now, Blue Star must rely on the Abyss, and without it, Blue Star would not continue to develop.

However, if the Abyss was allowed to develop, Blue Star would eventually be destroyed.

"Child, you should go."

Qiu Zhixue lay back in the rocking chair, gently swaying it, a smile curling his lips, "I want to return to that glorious, still hopeful era."

"Director..."

"Mr. Qiu..."

"Grandpa, grandpa please don't..."

All the voices faded away. Yan Luo did not know how he walked out of the nursing home. He stood dazedly by the roadside, indifferent to the pointing and talking from passersby.

Someone recognized him and called his name, but Yan Luo did not respond.

"What's wrong with him..."

"Is he crazy..."

"He's lost his mind, hasn't he..."

Buzzing filled his ears, making it impossible for Yan Luo to think.

"Shut up!!!"

Yan Luo suddenly roared, his face twisted as he glared around. The whispering passersby were all startled and froze in place.

His teeth were clashing, his eyes were trembling, and his fists clenched and relaxed, then clenched tightly again. Muscles moved on Yan Luo's body, like dragons writhing beneath his skin.

Seeing his fierce appearance and erratic actions, many people came to a consensus.

—Yan Luo is crazy!

Yan Luo summoned his motorcycle, got on, and accelerated straight out of the city.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it...

"—Damn it! Damn!!!"

Yan Luo shouted recklessly on the street, drawing countless eyes, but by the time they looked, the motorcycle had already sped far away.

The motorcycle raced down the street, violating traffic laws, but Yan Luo didn't care and headed straight for the checkpoint.

When he reached the checkpoint, he didn't slow the motorcycle at all, breaking the barrier and charging through.

Yan Luo drove directly into the wilderness, randomly found a group of mutated creatures, and charged in, slaughtering them with his bare hands.

While killing, he even consumed raw flesh and blood, laughing maniacally.

After wiping out this group of mutated creatures, Yan Luo abandoned his motorcycle and ran wildly through the wilderness.

BOOM!

A lightning bolt traversed the dark clouds, and moments later, torrential rain poured down onto the earth.

Soaked by the rain, Yan Luo ran and laughed, killing whatever mutated creatures he found. Regardless of whether they were of dangerous or deadly levels, whenever he encountered them, he killed, and after killing, he ate.

"Come on! Kill me!"

In a forest over a hundred kilometers from Changming City, Yan Luo encountered a City-breaking Level mutated creature.

His eyes bloodshot, he directly charged, a full-force punch hitting the giant steed. To the City-breaking Level mutated creature, it was like a tickle, causing no harm at all.

The giant horse kicked out a leg, sending Yan Luo flying nearly four hundred meters, slamming his body into the mountainside.

"Cough, cough..."

Yan Luo vomited a large amount of blood, feeling his bones shattered and internal organs all ruptured.

His world was slowly sinking into darkness, with death gradually surrounding him from all directions.

Yan Luo did not struggle, for he had nothing left to long for.

'Completely eradicating the Abyss' had become unattainable, and a Blue Star clinging on for a miserable existence wasn't something he wanted to see either, so dying before Blue Star's endgame was his best choice.

Boom—!

Suddenly, a white light descended from the sky, fiercely striking the giant horse, leaving Yan Luo stunned.

The giant horse neighed and turned to flee, but then several more white lights fell, completely annihilating the giant horse.

"Power..."

Yan Luo looked dazedly at where the giant horse was struck down, a flash of insight crossing his mind.

If a powerful alien civilization could lock the technological advancement of Blue Star, then, if he became stronger, even stronger than that alien civilization, couldn't he reverse the situation completely?

He didn't want to die anymore!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.