3 Ancient Empire

Head… hurts…

What happened?

I felt like my head was an utter mess. There were all sorts of thoughts tangled together, making it almost impossible to find any coherent train of thought no matter how hard I tried.

This situation remained for more than ten minutes before I finally regained control over my thoughts.

Ah! That's right! I remember now! I recalled what happened before I fell into the coma. Back then, I was standing outside the gate of my school with Qianqian. A student from the school opposite mine was bullying my classmate. They were on the verge of getting into a fight. I—always one to avoid conflict—was ready to leave as soon as I could. Then, what happened?

I tried to look for bricks… oh, I scrapped that plan. I tried to use my eyes to gesture for that young man to come over. At the time, I thought that if I could give him a good beating, the world would be a perfect place.

Then…

Suddenly, everything became clear in my head. That mysterious 'overhead long-range attacking system' seemed to sound once again.

"Qianqian! Run!" I shouted, sitting up and realizing that I was not at the school gate.

"Am I in… that dream?" I found that all around me were gray, metal buildings. Once I lost consciousness, I found myself back in that same, strange place.

I rubbed my forehead and looked around. Suddenly, I realized something was amiss about my surroundings. Everything seemed… a bit too dark.

Thus, I looked up…

The next moment, I felt my heart stop beating for several seconds!

A huge metal, spherical item appeared in the sky and approached Earth. I felt like if I stretched out my hand, I would be able to reach it. The huge spherical thing covered half of the sky. It resembled a whole other planet, pressing down on Earth. I could clearly see the complicated metal structures on its surface. Some of them looked like towers, some looked like missile bunkers, and others looked like telecommunications buildings.

More structures looked like a dense forest of black cannon muzzles. Between these metal structures, there were also huge, round depressions which looked like platforms or gathering facilities. This huge steel jungle kept moving in the sky, silently instilling the fear of destruction in the people below it.

Creak-creak, crack-crack. Creak-creak, crack-crack. The low sounds kept echoing in the surroundings. I did not dare to think about whether the sounds were coming from the steel jungle in the sky or my own spine—I guessed it was the latter.

What was that? This entire scene seemed like something out of a science fiction movie!

No matter how much I was cursing on the inside, I could not change the fact that I was going to be crushed by the asteroid-looking planet. Although the planet was moving so slowly that it looked like it was still, a man's instinct would never go wrong. This huge celestial fortress was… still… descending!

In this dream, my senses were frighteningly sensitive and accurate. It felt almost realistic. Even though I was in a dream, it felt like the things that were happening in that imaginary world would affect me and the real world.

What should I do? Run? What a joke. How big was this metallic planet? I guessed that its radius was already more than a thousand kilometers! No matter how slowly this planet was descending, I would be flattened into dumpling stuffing—pure-meat dumpling stuffing—before I could even escape. What's more, I would be wrapped in a layer of nylon, with the District K Second Middle School logo printed on it.

With the task at hand, what I had to do was stay calm. Stay calm! This metallic planet was descending very slowly. It was not going to crush me anytime soon. At that moment, I had to look for a building to hide in. This building had to be strong and firm enough to withstand being crushed by the asteroid-like planet in the sky.

If I had to find a solid place like that, I might as well have run a thousand kilometers!

Wait, I felt like I was forgetting something.

That's right. Where were the other two metallic spheres? There were three metallic spheres before, but I was only seeing one now. Could they have hidden behind this metallic sphere that was the closest to the earth?

… What time was it? Why was I being caught up in these little problems? One planet was already threatening to crush me into dumpling stuffing. Even if there were two more, I would just be slightly flatter.

However, at that exact moment, there was a clarity of thought in my messed-up mind. I remembered the sound in my head when the energy column appeared outside the school gate.

No matter what it was—a supernatural vision or a superpower, it felt like I could influence the energy and whatever overhead attacking system connected to it on some level. In other words, there was a high chance that I was the one who activated the overhead attacking system. From the looks of it, the dream world and the overhead attacking system seemed to be connected in some sense. That meant that I could affect whatever I was dreaming of.

I knew that I was likely clutching at straws like a drowning man. I would never have made such a connection under normal circumstances. However, there was no other possible alternative in my head. I had to try my best to imagine myself as a well-hidden expert who was given a mission to save the world. I had to negotiate with this giant sphere and somehow get it to return to where it came from.

This was how I was thinking about it, but whether I would be able to succeed or not was a whole other question to which I did not know the answer. At a time like that, however, I could no longer see this world as nothing but a weird dream. This mysterious dream had already surpassed the category of ordinary dreams and ascended to the category of supernatural events. Only heaven knew whether I was dreaming or being swallowed into an illusory realm.

I tried my best to calm myself down and began focusing my energy on controlling the celestial fortress in the sky, which was threatening to bring destruction by crushing the earth.

This was extremely difficult because I did not know where exactly to start. All I could do was repeat the thought of wanting this huge sphere to go away again and again in my head.

Tens of minutes went by, and there was still no movement. In this silent Earth, I could only hear my own labored breathing. The huge fortress in the sky was already going to touch the earth. I could see the blurry metallic structures popping out of the ground even more clearly than before.

Just as I was about to give up, something seemed to click inside my head.

That's it!

Inside, I burst with excitement. Then, I immediately channeled my thoughts out as accurately as I could.

At last, a robotic voice sounded in my head: "Receiving external instructions… authorization confirmed… analyzing instructions… content of instructions will change the operation of the world's arbitration organs. Please confirm that you have sufficient authority… confirming again that the world's second arbitration organ, Gaia, will be changing course…"

Once the robotic voice finished speaking, the huge sphere in the sky let out a low groan. Then, it began to ascend. As it continued to let out the low groan, a ground-shaking change took place in the quiet world!

The sound that could be heard each time he left this world suddenly echoed throughout the surroundings. For the first time, it sounded joyful as it said, "Found it…"

Then, color was restored into the dull world!

The gray skies seemed to light up, quickly turning blue, as if it were putting on a new dress. The pure color looked totally out-of-place in this metallic world, but it looked more beautiful than the clearest sky I had ever seen. Green colored the once-blurry mountains from top to bottom at a rapid pace. Even from afar, it made me feel alive. Beside me, life was restored in the ice-cold metallic structures as well.

A light-blue glow began to appear outside their shells, flashing as if they were trying to draw attention to themselves. From above, it looked like fireworks being released. The huge fortress in the sky began to change color as well. Blue and white light flashed through its metallic surface, making the entire celestial fortress look even more mysterious.

In less than twenty seconds, the dull world had become filled with life and mystery. The beautiful, natural glory and surreal, futuristic scenery made this place look even more magnificent and beautiful. I stood where I was, in a daze, looking at the metallic city. I nearly forgot to breathe.

"What… exactly is this…?" I mumbled to myself.

A pleasant-sounding but emotionless voice suddenly sounded in my ear: "This is the capital planet of the empire, one of the home-stars of Xyrin Empire."

The voice gave me a fright. I immediately turned around and jumped backward. It was only then that I saw what the 'person', who appeared next to me God-knows-when, looked like.

She was a light-blue, translucent girl who was floating on the spot. Her inorganic eyes were looking in my direction.

A spirit? Or a hologram?

According to the way everything was playing out, I guessed it was the latter.

"How do you do?" I gave her a weird expression—hoping that she would be able to tell that my horribly twisted expression was an attempt at a smile. "My name is Chen Jun. Er… what do you want?"

"How are you?" The girl bowed to me and said, "I am the world's second arbitration organ, Gaia. I am glad to meet you, His Majesty, the Emperor."