The world-devouring dragon

2088.

"A two-hundred-year journey of suffering, the road to revival of an ancient country..."

On that day, a well-known VR media said so in the three-dimensional news.

On that day, something that many people had expected happened happened. The "Third World War" that lasted for more than 20 years came to an end. With the end of the battle on the last Atlantic island, the two The wars between small countries are over, and so are the Three World Wars.

After entering the millennium, the changes in the world structure exceeded everyone's expectations. A huge Eastern country rose rapidly. Over the past few decades, this ancient country gradually took away all the resources that belonged to the world's most powerful country. Glory.

The country with the world’s largest GDP, the first manned landing on Mars, and the largest penetration rate of artificial intelligence...

Despite many obstacles, this country's rise exceeded everyone's expectations at the turn of the millennium. Until the outbreak of the "Third World War", this country's total GDP was already 1.2 times that of the world's most powerful country. It had a strong impact on the dominant position of the world's most powerful country in all aspects, so the three wars broke out.

But unlike the imagination of any military strategist in the past, the form of this world war is different from what everyone imagined. The behemoths separated by thousands of miles and at opposite ends of the earth did not directly engage in flesh-and-blood confrontation, but calmly and cautiously used the many weapons in their hands. Proxy states are at war with each other invisibly.

On the islands of the Atlantic Ocean, on the Gobi Desert of Africa, on the deserts of the Middle East, in the cities of Europe, in the jungles of Southeast Asia, on the ice of the Arctic and Antarctic...in every corner and every corner of the world. Any war in a region is more or less followed by the shadow of two behemoths. The invisible tacit understanding between the two behemoths has involved most countries in the world in the flames of war.

It's like two chess players controlling the chess pieces in their hands, calmly pushing the chess pieces in their hands, fighting each other, but there is an invisible tacit understanding.

The casualties of this "Third World War" are not as high as those of the previous two world wars, but the scale and spatial scale involved are far greater than those of the previous two world wars. In the end, during the long war that lasted for twenty-three years, the situation of ebb and flow gradually became apparent, the direction of victory and defeat became clear, and the war gradually came to an end.

On an Atlantic island, soldiers from two small countries shook hands to make peace, and two big countries also shook hands to make peace.

America, which is isolated outside the World Island, is no longer able to control the situation on the World Island. The former world's most powerful country silently retreats to the American mainland, licking its wounds, while that ancient country once again stands on top of the world.

Fifty stars dimmed, but the brilliance of those five stars spread to the whole world.

"...Human beings should not be trapped on this small planet. As humans of this era, we should have the determination and confidence to open up a new world for our descendants..."

In that United Nations meeting, with all the nations of the world watching, diplomats from ancient countries gave New Year's speeches.

…

After the New Year's speech, the calm diplomat walked backstage. On the surface, the ceremony was over, but there is still a more difficult battle waiting for all mankind.

"Chen, I haven't seen you for many years."

Looking at the middle-aged diplomat, the thin young man who had been waiting on the chair stood up, smiled and bowed slightly. He wears a pair of old-fashioned gold-rimmed glasses on his smiling eyes, just like him and the organization behind him, old and conservative.

"Mr. Roman, I kept you waiting."

The diplomat nodded to him.

"It's a matter of concern to all mankind, so there's no harm in waiting a little longer."

The thin young man shook his head.

Neither of them is accustomed to talking nonsense. On such urgent matters, they want to be dealt with quickly. Therefore, from the beginning, the argument between the two parties went straight to the topic.

"...Our country attaches great importance to your request for our country's assistance, but after careful discussion, our country believes that it is not necessary to focus all its energy on space exploration..."

The diplomat surnamed Chen said frankly.

For this regime that has just taken over the world, the world is far from stable enough. The huge unemployment caused by artificial intelligence can precipitate World War III and destroy this unstable country.

The application of artificial intelligence has changed the operating model of the world, and this ancient country has benefited a lot from it. Although the organization represented by the thin young man and the things he requested are very important and related to the destiny of mankind, on this occasion, Many senior officials in the ancient country still prefer to sort out domestic and foreign affairs first, rather than urgently carry out space exploration.

Opening up a new world is an inspiring slogan and the ultimate goal set by this ancient country. But when looking at the stars in the sky, you should also be careful not to fall into the pit.

Roman listened quietly. He had already expected the difficulty of the negotiations on this trip. He gently pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose and shook his head.

"Chen, I understand your thinking and my country's thinking, but I have some new information that I hope to share with you."

As he moved his eyes, an illusory projection appeared in front of several people, listing a lot of data and reports, as well as three-dimensional images of space.

The diplomat looked at the data above carefully, and it was not clear what he was thinking on his calm face.

"Forty-two light years away, a star disappeared? Why haven't we gotten the information yet?"

Looking away from the virtual projection, the diplomat asked calmly.

"This is news ten minutes ago, and it was monitored by our artificial intelligence. You don't pay enough attention to this aspect, so no news has been sent to you yet, but in a few hours, you should be able to get the news."

The thin young man explained.

As he spoke, he was inexplicably silent for a moment, and then said.

"Chen, my grandfather, old Roman, often told me before he passed away to be afraid. I didn't understand it at the time, but I seem to understand it now."

"Eighty-four years ago, that is, in the 124 Incident in 2004, Manhattan, New York, suffered an explosion. Of course, this is just an outside statement. In fact, a beam of light shot out from... the pupil of that being, and the beam of light slit the It destroyed the Atlantic Ocean, evaporated the sea water, and knocked a big hole out of Saturn. Eighty-four years later, we thought everything ended with the death of that existence, but the facts proved that this was not the case."

"That beam of light is still moving forward. In that cold and dead universe, there is a ray of light that is moving forward endlessly. The huge star that is forty-two light years away from us has been wiped out in front of it, and this, We didn’t realize it until today, eighty-four years later…”

Speaking, Roman shook his head.

In the face of this great power that can easily wipe out stars, the human beings who still stick to this tiny planet are really insignificant. And this light that could easily wipe out an entire star was just a beam of light that escaped from the eyes of that being eighty-four years ago.

"Chen, it has not disappeared. It is still looking at us. That beam of light is its contempt and ridicule for us. This planet has nurtured us, but we should not stay on this stone forever. We must escape. Otherwise we will never have a chance to escape in the future.”

Roman looked at the diplomat in front of him with a heavy face.

In front of his gaze, the diplomat thought, and finally said seriously.

"Mr. Roman, I will report all this to my country."

…

The diplomat had left, Roman sat back on the chair, and after a while, he suddenly spoke.

"Kelly, do you know why grandpa founded a separate monastery within the organization?"

Forty years ago, the old Roman, who was nearly ninety years old, secretly founded a monastic order within the Freemasonry. The formal structure of this monastic order was similar to that of the former Sion Monastery, and it adhered to the same principles. creed.

Beside him, Kelly said nothing.

He is the silent guardian who does not need to speak, just a stone statue when Roman wants to talk to himself.

Roman didn't care about Kelly's silence and just murmured.

"Thinking about it now, my grandfather must have hoped that I could enter the Priory, but I refused because I found it boring... The Priory, the last guardian? Apparently the Freemasons annexed the Priory Yes, but it seems to be fused by the monastery inexplicably. Grandpa, what on earth were you thinking at the beginning."

There was silence for a long time, and unconsciously it became dark outside the window.

Roman looked at the stars in the night sky and suddenly said.

"Kelly, one of the stars has disappeared."

Beside him, Kelly said nothing and remained silent.

Beside the window, the man with a gloomy face looked at the night sky, wondering what he was thinking in his heart.

…

On the chessboard in the Crystal Sky, the monster with thousands of heads and thousands of legs struggled hard, trying to break free from the chessboard.

Six hundred years ago, the monster with countless heads was now constantly reducing the number of its heads. The largest head has been formed, and perhaps the time when all the heads will be reunited is not far away.

The thousand-headed monster stared at the planet, as if seeing the giant sleeping inside the planet.

"Roar……"

Thousand-headed monsters roared on the chessboard.

Wary, fearful, but also with a fighting spirit.