If there is anything in common between the current world and the world we traveled to in the past, it is probably the "Blue Planet".
It's just that in the world they traveled to, the people of the Galactic Empire experienced the Age of Great Annihilation, and their homes became wastelands. They eventually chose to completely abandon their home planet "Blue Star", and then endured the difficult Age of Great Migration before finally ushering in the Age of Great Explosion. They found their home, settled in Sikkim, and formally established the Galactic Empire.
The original home planet, Blue Star, was abandoned and long ago forgotten in the dust of history. Only the historical records that have been preserved occasionally mention it.
This planet, far away from the star region of the Galactic Empire, has long been forgotten by most people, except for some ancient humans.
But the world he lives in is different. Humans have lived on the Blue Planet from the beginning to the end. This planet has existed for too long, and its development has been tortuous and full of ups and downs, with many hardships and tribulations, which cannot even be fully recorded in history textbooks.
Ruan Shiqing had never paid special attention to the history of Blue Star before, and only had some vague memories of its development process from textbooks. But now, after searching, he discovered something that surprised him.
Three thousand years ago, the Blue Planet suffered a devastating blow—a nuclear war.
At that time, the Blue Star was divided into different countries and races. Because of their interests, there were often frictions between them. This was originally very normal. Even the current Blue Star Alliance is not a monolithic entity and there are still contradictions. But the bad thing is that several major countries have mastered nuclear weapons with extremely strong lethality.
After an unprecedented economic crisis, some major countries started foreign wars in order to divert domestic conflicts. Other countries naturally could not sit idly by and began to resist.
The Eighth World War broke out completely, and the nuclear weapons that had been suppressed and no country dared to use rashly were finally used in the war on a large scale.
By then, the technology was already quite mature, and nuclear weapons were already capable of achieving precise strikes over a wide area and minimizing environmental pollution.
But even so, the impact of a nuclear war is still irreversible. A large-scale nuclear war would cause a large amount of dust on the ground to rise into the atmosphere, blocking the sun and causing a "nuclear winter"[Note 1]; not to mention the explosion of nuclear weapons, which would also bring serious radiation.
Due to the lack of sunlight, the temperature dropped sharply, and a large number of plants died due to lack of sunlight, while wild animals starved to death due to lack of food. The ecology was severely damaged, the food chain completely collapsed, and only humans survived with the help of technology [Note 2].
But this is not the worst case scenario.
During the war between the two countries, the nuclear bomb launched by country A accidentally destroyed a hidden nuclear base of country B.
This secret nuclear base was quite large, with more than a dozen large nuclear reactors. It was originally a secret weapon of Country B, but before it could be fully utilized, it was accidentally blown up by Country A.
Country B is an island country surrounded by the sea. After the nuclear base was destroyed, continuous explosions caused fires and released a large amount of high-energy radioactive substances into the atmosphere [Note 3]. In addition, a large amount of radioactive substances flowed into the ocean through groundwater and quickly spread to other sea areas with the ocean currents, causing extremely serious marine pollution.
In this world war, the number of people who died directly from the war was only tens of millions, but the number of people who died directly or indirectly from nuclear radiation, nuclear pollution and "nuclear winter" was as high as more than three billion.
In the five years after the war, the ecological environment deteriorated severely, a large number of animals and plants became extinct, extreme climate intensified, and the population of Blue Star was finally reduced to less than one billion.
The once vibrant Blue Planet became a wasteland after this war.
The extremely cold climate made the ground no longer suitable for human habitation, so they abandoned their buildings on the ground and chose to live underground where the temperature is better insulated.
After experiencing war, humans finally put aside their nationality and race and began to try to unite and rebuild their homes. This was the prototype of the Blue Star Alliance.
These surviving ancestors did not abandon their homes. Instead, they learned from their mistakes, gave up all their prejudices, gathered all their strength, and began to rebuild this wasteland.
Until today, three thousand years later, there is no longer any distinction between countries in the world, only the Blue Star Alliance and its jurisdictions. Although conflicts and frictions still exist in each jurisdiction, with the lessons learned from the past, no one dares to rashly provoke a war.
Perhaps due to the shadow left by the nuclear war, after the reconstruction of the Blue Star Alliance, researchers gave up nuclear energy research and turned to antimatter energy, which is safer and more environmentally friendly. This is also the reason why antimatter energy is popular on Blue Star today, while nuclear energy is declining.
Ruan Shiqing read through the entire development history of Blue Star carefully, and something was about to come out of his mind.
He thought of the abandoned planet he had seen in his underwater dream, where plants withered, animals rotted everywhere, the sky was leaden grey, and there was no sunlight. There was also an abandoned nuclear power plant vaguely visible in the distance.
All this is so similar to the past of Blue Star. However, the humans in the dream eventually failed to defend their homeland. They abandoned the devastated wasteland and took spaceships away from their homeland to find their new homeland. However, the ancestors of Blue Star survived thousands of years, washed away the sins they had committed, and built their new homeland on the old wasteland.
It's like two leaves growing out of a branch. They come from the same source, but they diverge at different nodes and become two completely different leaves.
Ruan Shiqing felt that he had vaguely grasped a clue.
But the current information is too limited, and he cannot fully grasp this elusive feeling. He needs more information and clues to support his guess.
After thinking about it, he applied for a half-hour sick leave through the internal system of the institute, then took his laptop and went to the library in the city center.
Perhaps by figuring out the connection between the two worlds, he could find a way to go back.
The city library is managed by a service robot and is open 20 hours a day. Ruan Shiqing booked a room in a hotel near the library. Except for eating and sleeping, he spent the rest of his time in the library looking up information.
Three months passed since then. Ruan Shiqing lost five kilograms and found some useful information to support his guess, but when he returned, he still had no clue.
Ruan Shiqing rubbed his temple tiredly, sighed, and told himself not to rush.
After putting away his laptop, he planned to go out for some fresh air and clear his mind. During this period of time, he was eager to find a way to go back and had been pushing himself very hard, but as a result, his thinking was shackled and he did not make any breakthroughs.
Coming out of the quiet library, the noisy and lively sounds outside rushed into his ears. Ruan Shiqing took a deep breath and felt truly grounded.
During the past three months, he always felt like he had fallen from one dream into another.
The whole person feels unreal.
This feeling was even stronger when he stepped into the busy street and saw the stalls set up on the roadside.
Looking at the familiar grey cloak and the familiar face, he stopped in doubt, his eyes fixed on the other party.
The stall owner in a cloak was doing business. After collecting the customer's money, he met Ruan Shiqing's gaze with a smile. He did not show any surprise, as if the two of them had still met at the underground market on planet B3024. He greeted him warmly and clearly: "I bought some good stuff. Would you like to take a look, Mr. Ruan?"
Too shocked to calm down.
Ruan Shiqing walked to the stall and looked at the things on the stall. They were all old gadgets. "Who are you? Why are you here?"
"I recently got an antique key called 'Time'. The name comes from 'Heaven and earth are the inns of all things; time is the passer-by of hundreds of generations'[Note 4]. Would you like to take a look at it, Mr. Ruan?" He avoided answering and pointed to a black and gray key on the stall.
The key was different from an ordinary key, half the size of a palm, but not ornate. It was black and gray, with only the handle curved into a complicated pattern, and the key bar below did not have any serrations or protrusions that a normal key would have, and looked like some kind of decoration.
In this stall filled with strange and bizarre antiques, this key looks too ordinary and mundane.
But Ruan Shiqing did not dare to despise it, not only because of its name "Time" and its origin, but also because... the things that this vendor had sold to him before were never ordinary.
From the earliest 09, to the dragon eggs that later hatched little dragons, and a bag of dragon crystals, they are all like this.
Ever since the little dragon cub ate the dragon crystal and got into trouble, he had tried to find this stall, but the man seemed to have evaporated from the face of the earth, leaving no trace.
In addition, various problems occurred later, and the search for the person was left unresolved.
But they didn't expect that they would meet again in such a place and occasion. After a brief thought, Ruan Shiqing didn't ask any more questions, but asked the price skillfully: "I want it, how much is it?"
"Since you are a regular customer, I will give you a discount. 20% off for one piece, 40% off for two pieces." He pointed to a crystal ball on the stall and said, "If you buy this crystal ball together, you can get a 40% discount. The total is only 5,000 yuan."
An old decorative key and a crystal ball that can be found everywhere still cost five thousand even at a 40% discount.
If this had happened in the past, Ruan Shiqing would have turned around and left, but now he paid without blinking: "I want it."
The stall owner made a deal and smiled even more enthusiastically: "You will never lose out on this deal!"
Ruan Shiqing played with the thing in his hand for a while, but couldn't help asking again: "How did you get through—"
"Hey!" Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Tan Xiao raising his hand. He pointed at what Ruan Shiqing was holding and smiled meaningfully: "I have already given you the answer."
After saying that, he packed up his stall, waved his hand without looking back, and walked away unsteadily.
Ruan Shiqing wanted to chase after him, but after following him for a few steps, he found that Tan Yu had disappeared into the crowd like a fish in water. He stood on the busy street, looking at the key and crystal ball in his hand, frowned and thought for a moment, then turned back to the hotel.
After returning to the hotel room, Ruan Shiqing placed the key and the crystal ball together and studied them for a while, but found nothing special.
But the origin of that stall was a mystery. It suddenly appeared in this world and specifically sold these two things to him. Ruan Shiqing felt that the other party would definitely not just want to deceive him for fun.
Although it is not clear whether the other party is an enemy or a friend for the time being, if the other party can really help him go back, even if he is an enemy, he will go all the way.
And he had a strange intuition that these two things could help him get back.
I just can't find the key.
Ruan Shiqing tried various methods until the early morning, but the key was still the same key, and the crystal ball was still the same crystal ball, without any changes.
It was all in vain for all his efforts. He was mentally exhausted and anxious.
Over the past three months, he had been telling himself to stay calm and not to be anxious, but when the time came and hope was right in front of him, he couldn't find it, and finally he couldn't suppress his anxious emotions.
He held the key tightly in his hand and was about to throw it away angrily.
But just before throwing it, his fingers clenched hesitantly. After a long stalemate, he sighed, relaxed his tense body, and lay down in the armchair with the key in his hand.
That night, Ruan Shiqing held the key in his hand, lay on the table, and fell asleep feeling anxious and tired.
So he didn't know that after he fell asleep, the mental energy that overflowed due to the ups and downs of emotions was absorbed by the key in his palm, and gradually a hazy gray light enveloped him completely...