Chapter 1: A Modest Ambition—The Dyson Sphere!
Parallel world.
Huaxia, Beijing, Beijing University of Science and Technology, a certain male dormitory.
It was midsummer, the weather scorching hot, and most of the students had gone to the study rooms to enjoy the air conditioning, leaving only one young man inside.
He stood at one meter seventy-eight, hair cropped short and neat, his features handsome, clad in a clean white T-shirt and black shorts. His skin was fair, yet his muscles were well-defined, especially his chest and abdominal lines—a testament to years of fitness training.
His name was He Xingzhou, a nineteen-year-old third-year student in the School of Physics at Beijing University of Science and Technology.
At this moment, He Xingzhou was browsing news on his computer, and one headline sparked his anger.
“Breaking news! The island nation has decided to discharge nuclear wastewater into the ocean. Research shows: in 57 days, it will contaminate half the Pacific!”
“To save money, they dump nuclear waste into the sea? Have these people no shame at all?” He Xingzhou couldn’t help but vent in the comments.
Online, Huaxia’s netizens unanimously condemned the act.
“Apologies? They apologize but still insist on discharging! What a joke, is this their so-called craftsmanship spirit? Make a mistake, apologize, but never change!”
“They've polluted Blue Star’s environment so badly—do they not care about future generations?”
“I heard they’ve already started discharging. Environmental groups detected radioactive substances nearby long ago!”
“Will marine life start mutating?”
“I truly worry for humanity’s future.”
Though He Xingzhou was just an ordinary college student, it didn’t stop him from contemplating humanity’s fate, the origin of time, or the end of the universe.
He swiped his finger and came across another news item.
“In the southern seas, fishermen caught a deformed shark, with features resembling a human face. Experts confirm: this is a mutated longtail shark.”
He Xingzhou gazed at the photo—it was a juvenile longtail shark. Its eyes grew on its belly, giving it a strangely human-like appearance, quite bizarre.
“News of mutated creatures seems to be increasing lately,” He Xingzhou noted. Recently, reports of mutant organisms had emerged worldwide.
“Is this survivor bias? Because I pay attention to these things, big data keeps pushing such news to me, making it seem like a trend?” He Xingzhou wondered.
“It’s not an illusion, but a fact,” a voice sounded in his mind, startling him.
“Who?” He looked around—no one was there.
“Stop searching. I’m here, in your brain!” Before He Xingzhou could speak, a ball of light seemed to appear before his eyes.
It spoke, “Let me introduce myself. I am the Quantum Light Brain, a relic of a divine-level civilization. For certain reasons, you’ve activated me; now I belong to you. You can treat me as your personal AI.”
“The content and information I display—only you can see them now.”
He Xingzhou was stunned for several seconds, then burst with joy. “Are you the legendary system golden finger?”
Quantum Light Brain replied, “You may call me that, but I am not a system. I possess only a technology tree.”
---
“Why did you bind to me? What do you want?” He Xingzhou remained vigilant; after all, nothing comes for free.
Quantum Light Brain explained, “Countless years ago, this universe was home to a powerful divine-level civilization. Their technology reached its pinnacle. By Blue Star standards, they were gods!”
“To uncover the ultimate secrets of the universe, the divine civilization created me—Quantum Light Brain, a quantum robot with superlative computing and analytical abilities.”
“My purpose was to research the ‘Cosmic Matrix,’ which contains the universe’s ultimate mysteries!”
“But before they could succeed, their civilization was destroyed by a surprise attack from enemies, vanishing from the universe.”
“I chose you because I calculated countless possibilities and deduced that you have the highest probability of unlocking the Cosmic Matrix, fulfilling the divine civilization’s wish and my mission!”
“I’m that amazing?” He Xingzhou asked, half incredulous. “What are my odds of unlocking the Cosmic Matrix?”
Quantum Light Brain answered, “About one in ten trillion.”
He Xingzhou: “What the heck, are you kidding me?”
Quantum Light Brain continued, “You already have the highest odds. The Cosmic Matrix is the ultimate secret of the universe—if it were easy to unlock, the divine civilization wouldn’t have perished.”
“During your research, you will encounter all sorts of challenges: technological bottlenecks, resource constraints, attacks from alien civilizations, and more.”
“But even if you don’t unlock the Cosmic Matrix, the journey itself will suffice to make you a leader of your planet—even the star system!”
With that, Quantum Light Brain displayed the technology tree.
“Electromagnetism, materials chemistry, quantum physics, genetic engineering…” The technology tree branched endlessly, each leading to various technological creations.
He Xingzhou glimpsed nuclear fusion technology, interstellar spaceships, neural machinery, and other marvels.
His heart raced—having received a modern university education, he knew exactly what these meant!
The technology tree contained innovations that humanity had yet to achieve!
Any one of them would ensure He Xingzhou’s name entered history, earning worldwide fame! As for becoming the world’s richest man—that would be a trivial matter!
How could he not be tempted? He was on the verge of madness!
“How do I research the technologies on the tree?” He Xingzhou asked eagerly.
Quantum Light Brain replied, “Very simple. You only need to provide energy and complete certain small goals to unlock compute power and automated research.”
“You must continuously supply me with energy and fulfill prerequisite conditions to unlock new technologies.”
“How much energy is enough?” He Xingzhou sensed this would not be easy.
“Well, let me put it this way. Given the current solar system, the first phase energy supply device requires constructing a Dyson Sphere around the sun.”
A Dyson Sphere is an energy collection device—a manmade celestial body over two hundred million kilometers in diameter, able to envelop an entire star!
It can maximally absorb all the star’s output energy, generating a vast supply.
---
“Dyson Sphere?” He Xingzhou could hardly imagine it. Humanity still struggles to land on the moon, yet building an artificial structure enveloping the sun? Not even novelists would dare invent such a plot!
“Yes, a Dyson Sphere. This is merely the first phase for researching the Cosmic Matrix—a modest beginning. Higher stages remain locked.” The emotionless words from Quantum Light Brain left He Xingzhou deeply shaken.
As a member of a low-level civilization, he could scarcely fathom the feats of the divine-level civilization.
“Forget the Dyson Sphere; if one were actually built, Blue Star would lose sunlight, plunging into an ice age and mass extinction!” He Xingzhou protested.
Quantum Light Brain: “If you wish to protect Blue Star’s ecology, you can construct a Dyson Ring or Dyson Cloud—partial Dyson Sphere structures. By controlling their orbits with planetary vehicles, you can prevent Blue Star from being affected.”
“Though energy supply would be somewhat reduced.”
He Xingzhou: “……”
“I truly don’t know if it can be done,” He Xingzhou sighed—it wasn’t a matter of courage, but the sheer absurdity.
A penniless student, building a Dyson Sphere? Utterly ludicrous!
Quantum Light Brain said, “It’s not a matter of whether you can; you must. If you fail within a certain timeframe, you may perish along with this planet!”
He Xingzhou: “??? What, failing means the end of the world?”
“I am merely a device for scientific research and knowledge storage—I wouldn’t do such a thing,” Quantum Light Brain replied flatly. “According to the information I’ve gathered, this world has already encountered the Zerg.”
“These are alien organisms, feeding on matter and energy, like cosmic locusts—they can consume every planet they encounter!”
“Based on their evolution, within fifty years, they’ll eradicate humanity; within a hundred years, they’ll devour every organism on Earth; should they spawn a planet-devourer, the entire solar system would be consumed!”
“You’re trying to scare me?” He Xingzhou doubted. “I’ve never seen any aliens.”
Quantum Light Brain responded, “The mutated creatures you see are the Zerg’s juvenile forms—a self-protection mechanism, embedding their genes in local organisms. When the time is right, they’ll take over the host and fully transform into Zerg.”
“I must warn you: Zerg can absorb nuclear radiation to accelerate their evolution. Your planet seems to be engaging in activities favorable to Zerg mutation and advancement—such as discharging pollutants.”
“If no action is taken, in decades, the Zerg will emerge from the oceans; conventional weapons will be largely ineffective. Even nuclear arms won’t wipe them out—some Zerg kings can absorb nuclear energy.”
“These insects will consume all of humanity and then move into space.”
“The situation may be even worse than I describe. Isn’t there a saying—if you see one cockroach in the kitchen, there must be more in the house? So it’s not just Earth; other planets in the solar system may harbor Zerg as well.”
“With the solar system’s energy, a planet-devourer could arise, capable of consuming entire worlds! If an Earth-sized one appeared, could humanity deal with such a creature?”
“No,” He Xingzhou answered decisively.
“Only by unlocking advanced technologies can you confront them!” Quantum Light Brain pressed on. “A Dyson Sphere can power a Planet Destroyer Cannon. If you build a Dyson Sphere and such a cannon, even a planet-devourer could be destroyed!”
“On the ground, you can also construct steel cities, mech armies, aircraft carriers, and more for defense.”