Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 177: A Lost Echo in the Valley

Zhou Yuan didn't stop her. The little girl's left hand lightly brushed against Zhou Yuan's face. Clearly exhausted and weak, her hands suddenly fell limp, her eyes closed—she had fainted. Zhou Yuan had almost killed this little girl just now.

Zhou Yuan continued to carry the little girl horizontally and began to walk quickly towards Xiongjing Oriental Plaza. Those around him, snapping out of their stunned silence, instinctively ducked into the shops and buildings lining the road as if they had encountered a demon upon seeing Zhou Yuan.

Six police patrol ships arrived in the sky, descended, and hovered in two rows in front of Zhou Yuan's path.

A loudspeaker on a spaceship shouted: "Put the girl down, raise your hands, and kneel down, or we will open fire."

Each of the six spaceships had two rows of long cannons extending from its bow, with each cannon pointed at Zhou Yuan.

Although Zhou Yuan had a presidential pardon, he didn't carry it with him; it was long ago sealed away in his "home" at a military base on the outskirts of the capital. Zhou Yuan had come to regard that 200-square-meter house as his home. However, he always carried a special pass issued by the president. This special pass allowed him to go anywhere under human jurisdiction on Earth, including military bases.

Zhou Yuan put the little girl down, letting her lean against him. He supported her body with his left hand to prevent her from falling, and with his right hand, he took out the special pass issued by the president from his inner pocket, shook it at the spaceship to show it to them. The six spaceships activated their scanning systems, scanned the presidential pass, and compared it with the background database to confirm its authenticity.

"Sir, your identity has been confirmed. We'll give you a ride."

A spaceship flew towards Zhou Yuan. Zhou Yuan put away the special pass and picked up the little girl again.

The spaceship arrived nearby, a policeman picked up the little girl, and Zhou Yuan boarded the spaceship.

Six spaceships flew together towards the Xiongjing Dongfang Plaza docking station. They soon arrived near Zhou Yuan's spaceship.

After thanking him, Zhou Yuan disembarked, picked up the little girl, and boarded his spaceship. The artificial intelligence piloted the spaceship, which then flew rapidly towards the military base on the outskirts of the capital.

The military base allowed Zhou Yuan and his men to return as usual.

Upon arriving home, Zhou Yuan placed the little girl on his bed and covered her with a blanket, but she remained unconscious. Zhou Yuan then cooked eight-treasure porridge. The base had originally assigned him a smart butler robot, but Zhou Yuan declined, feeling that only by taking action himself could he keep life from becoming too dull.

After finishing his work, Zhou Yuan sat down at the head of the little girl's bed, and only then did he take a closer look at her. The little girl was about fifteen or sixteen years old, rather thin, with a ponytail, an oval face, a pale complexion, and a slightly upturned nose, giving her a playful and adorable appearance.

It wasn't until 6:30 PM that the little girl slowly woke up. The first thing she saw when she woke up was Zhou Yuan's handsome face. This time, Zhou Yuan's face was real; the fake face had been torn off. When the little girl saw Zhou Yuan's true face, she seemed to tremble slightly.

"Little beauty, you're awake. This is eight-treasure porridge I made myself. You're weak and need to replenish your nutrition." After saying that, he scooped up a spoonful of porridge and prepared to feed her.

"Uncle, what's your name? I mean, in the virtual world," the little girl suddenly asked.

"Oh, Zhou Yuan," Zhou Yuan replied casually, and held the spoon to the little girl's mouth.

The little girl suddenly paused, a blush appearing on her pale face.

Zhou Yuan didn't notice anything amiss; he was simply feeding the little girl, who was eating with gusto, practically wolfing down her food.

"By the way, pretty girl, what's your name?"

"Uncle, my name is Panna."

"Panna!" Zhou Yuan's hand trembled twice, and he almost dropped the spoon.

"What's wrong? Is there a Panna in your world too?" the little girl asked curiously, her eyes wide open.

"Yes, she's a good friend of mine. Panna, where do you live? I'll take you home tomorrow."

"I have no home. I am an orphan."

"Then I'll take you to an orphanage."

"Uncle, I don't want to go back to the orphanage. The police will find out sooner or later that I killed someone."

Zhou Yuan then remembered that this little Panna had killed three "people," although these three "people" were somewhat unusual.

While Panna was asleep, Zhou Yuan carefully considered Panna's claim that her abilities had greatly increased after killing Number One, Number Three, and Number Four. After much thought, he could only attribute this phenomenon to the third law of his source world's super civilization, which is that super civilizations absorb and accommodate the abilities of other super civilizations. Although the super civilization has been replaced by five individuals in this mother world, Panna and Zhou Yuan are the five "people" who represent the wisdom and ideology of their respective source world's super civilization.

Zhou Yuan was puzzled. Pana's abilities didn't seem very strong at the moment. Either she hadn't fully utilized them, or he was too powerful.

Zhou Yuan gently shook his head. "Panna, you can stay here with me for now."

Little Panna's eyes sparkled, and she seemed very excited.

"Uncle, thank you for your help."

"What trouble is there? To be honest, I'm quite lonely in this mother world," Zhou Yuan said quietly, his gaze somewhat vacant.

Pana felt the same way and couldn't help but feel sad.

"Uncle, then I'll stay and keep you company."

“Okay.” Zhou Yuan was also very happy. He always felt that he did not belong to this mother world. Although he had a lot of contact with the operations and maintenance personnel, Maria, some scientists and officials and got along well with them, there was always something in his heart that made him feel depressed.

Zhou Yuan quickly ran to the study and accessed the base's internal network. After connecting to the network, Zhou Yuan requested various items from the base's logistics department, such as a bed, clothes, daily necessities, and a computer for the little girl, which was equivalent to adding another person to the family.

The base's logistics were efficient; in less than half an hour, they delivered all the necessary supplies for the little girl, including a bed, blankets, and clothes.

Zhou Yuan cleaned up another large room that was used for storing miscellaneous items, placed a bed and other small furniture there, and then decorated this room in a style that a lively girl would generally like.

When Panna was helped into the newly decorated room by Zhou Yuan, her eyes lit up. It was clear that Zhou Yuan had carefully decorated the room; it was beautiful and had a warm, playful style that she liked.

"Uncle, I never knew you were such a multi-talented person."

"A genius? Heh, he just lived longer in the source world. If we're talking about geniuses, my good friend in this mother world, Operations and Maintenance, that's the real genius."

"Operations and maintenance?"

"Yes, he just had a baby boy the day before yesterday. Tomorrow is Sunday, and we've arranged to go to his house to see him."

"Oh, uncle, I want to go too. Can you take me with you?" Little Panna blinked her eyes expectantly as she spoke.

"Okay. Let's go to the mall tomorrow morning and buy some things for the little one."

"Great! Great!" Panna clapped her hands and cheered, kicking her legs on the bed.

"Little beauty, you should get some rest. I still have some things to take care of."

"Okay." It was clear that Xiao Panna was very happy and very obedient, as if she had completely thrown away the fierceness she had shown when chasing Zhou Yuan at noon. Zhou Yuan could clearly feel that Xiao Panna was like a different person. Could "rebirth after death" really change a person? Zhou Yuan shook his head, not wanting to waste his brain thinking about this question anymore. He had to think about his own problems.

Zhou Yuan's problem was how to escape this mother world. The most crucial factor in escaping this mother world was the speed of travel. Zhou Yuan calculated that even if he destroyed a star to create an artificial wormhole for pseudo-"faster-than-light travel," it would still take more than ten million years to traverse the entire universe. In the past ten years, besides helping humanity on Earth improve its technology, Zhou Yuan had devoted a significant portion of his energy to exploring the possibility of hyperspace travel within this mother world.

Zhou Yuan watched as Pan Na fell asleep, then quietly left, went into the study, turned on a computer, and began another hyperspace travel simulation. This simulation had been going on for almost six years. Another computer was continuously simulating this mother world.

Zhou Yuan's two supercomputers were only running program simulations, which were theoretical simulations and did not consume a lot of resources, unlike the MATRIX virtual universe that the operations and maintenance team was responsible for, which was an experimental simulation.

In this mother world, Zhou Yuan has to find the answers to most questions personally, unlike in the source world where he has many compatriots and extraordinary technology. Compared to the Earth Empire in the source world, the technology in this mother world is developing rather slowly.

The next morning, Zhou Yuan got up early to make breakfast and set it on the table.

Xiao Panna had also gotten up and was washing up in the bathroom. A clear and melodious singing voice came from inside the bathroom, which brought Zhou Yuan to the Origin World Ability Star. The only sound in the empty valley was Wei Shan's clear and melodious singing voice.

Zhou Yuan's eyes were a little moist.

She must have smelled the aroma of breakfast when Xiao Panna stopped singing, quickly opened the door, rushed out of the bathroom, and headed straight for the dining table.

When Zhou Yuan saw Panna, he noticed that her face was no longer pale, but her height seemed to have increased overnight, growing by almost three centimeters. Panna was already tall for her age.

"Good morning, Uncle." Panna was in a good mood, a playful smile on her face.

"Good morning, little beauty, hurry up and eat."

Before Zhou Yuan could finish speaking, Xiao Panna rushed to the chair and began to wolf down her food.

"Eat slowly, don't choke!" Zhou Yuan shouted, but soon he chuckled to himself, realizing he had become quite fussy.

"Uncle, don't worry. No one can kill me except you. This food is delicious." Little Panna muttered and chattered, looking like a glutton. But Panna was obedient, straightened her posture, picked up her knife and fork, and slowly and gracefully cut the beef.

Panna changed her clothes today; they were light purple, and bathed in the golden morning sunlight streaming through the window, she looked like a blooming purple tulip.

Zhou Yuan seemed stunned for a moment, then sat down next to Pan Na and started eating in silence.

"Uncle, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking about what to buy for the little darling of the operations family later. By the way, Panna, I spent a lot of time last night and finally finished what I've been working on for the past three years. I'm giving it to you today as a gift."

“Three years? Uncle, you’re so kind.” Panna got up from her chair, stretched her neck, quickly kissed Zhou Yuan on the cheek, and then quickly returned to her original position.

Zhou Yuan smiled, took a metal sphere from his pocket, and pressed the top of it. The sphere emitted a pale blue halo, while the metal itself was translucent gold. Zhou Yuan withdrew his hand, and the translucent gold sphere floated in the air. Soon, the pale blue halo spun, and various colors of light shot out from the sphere. These lights intertwined and overlapped, extending outwards to the walls, forming a curtain. Fine spots began to appear in some areas of the curtain, one spot slowly growing larger, like a fireball—it was a star! Then the entire hall was filled with these spots, like stars. As if a camera zoomed in, these stars magnified, and each star was actually a galaxy. This hall contained roughly the entire size of a supercluster of galaxies.

Panna stared in disbelief at the scene before her. It was as if the two of them had returned to the Source World.