Chapter 78: Cast a Wide Net

Chapter 78 Casting a Wide Net

"So it's not just our neighborhood—the entire Blue Star is offline?"

And the situation is only going to get worse.

Eventually, all advanced technology will become useless?!

Realizing this, the hands of the staff—usually steady when handling weapons and machinery—began to tremble uncontrollably.

Was Sheng Qingquan really the only one who couldn’t take it?

The foundation their predecessors built through blood, sweat, and toil had been wiped out in an instant.

It was no different from a self-made business owner who, after tirelessly growing their company and gearing up to take it public and dominate the market, suddenly finds the business bankrupt, every penny vanished. To make matters worse, they’re now deathly ill and can’t even afford medical treatment. Even if they wanted to start over, their health might not hold out long enough.

This kind of blow is unbearable for anyone.

"Old Qing, Old Qing, what's wrong?" Finally, someone collapsed under the strain.

Fortunately, those nearby reacted quickly, catching him before he hit the ground. Old Qing only fainted for a moment before regaining consciousness. Sitting on the sofa, medical staff examined him with a healing device and found no major issues—just a stress-induced episode.

Old Qing had just started to recover, but the moment he opened his eyes and saw the healing device in his colleague’s hands, he remembered that even such a convenient and effective tool would soon become useless.

The government had invested so much in this field. Not only had they successfully replicated the technology in such a short time, but according to the latest internal reports, they’d even slashed production costs to a level where the device could be rolled out nationwide.

Though still slightly expensive, ordinary citizens could afford it with some effort—about the price of a flagship phone.

The government had been planning to announce its release soon and begin widespread distribution.

Now, all that effort was wasted!

"Warning: Patient must stabilize emotions." The healing device reminded him. Seeing that his agitation hadn’t subsided—his breathing growing rapid again, his condition worsening—the device emitted a pulse of white light, shining onto Old Qing.

As if pricked by the light, Old Qing’s emotions were artificially stabilized.

After this incident, others also tried to avoid fixing on the disaster—but how could they not?

Thankfully, though Sheng Qingquan was distressed, his ironclad constitution kept him from collapsing.

With no one around to distract him, he quickly realized something.

"Hold on—something’s off here!"

What was off? Everyone’s attention immediately shifted to his words.

Was the story taking a different turn?

The Pi siblings clung to hope. *Tell us it was all a bad dream—that none of this is real.*

Though they knew it was impossible, they couldn’t help but cling to that wish. Even if such a twist would be ridiculous, they’d rather accept an outrageous plot than face the nightmare becoming reality.

"According to the story’s timeline, everything started going wrong after Pi Xinzheng was injured on assignment."

"But now, the warning signs are here, but..."

Sheng Qingquan gaped at the words on the page.

"I ran into him in the neighborhood when I went downstairs to take out the trash at noon."

"I don’t know if he’s been on any business trips recently, but he was definitely fine. At the time, he was carrying a huge box of packages, moving at a quick pace. His physical condition put to shame most people with suboptimal health. There’s no way he looked like someone who had been attacked by an unknown entity."

"And his head and face were completely unharmed."

Sheng Qingquan carefully recalled the encounter. When they met, they had just nodded and exchanged greetings without chatting.

It was just a brief moment.

Normally, he shouldn’t remember the details clearly—at most, he might recall the color of the clothes the other person was wearing. But Sheng Qingquan had a good memory, and now that he deliberately tried to recall, everything came back vividly.

"Not to mention any wounds, there wasn’t even a single red mark on his face. No swelling on his head either."

"His hair was cut short, so it was clear that there were no signs of being struck."

"Could this network outage really just be a simple issue with the base station, not the beginning of the apocalypse?"

Just as Sheng Qingquan started questioning the situation, the staff had already begun contacting others via satellite phone.

They soon got word.

"It’s a nationwide network outage."

At the same time, Sheng Qingquan used his plants to check around different areas.

People glued to their phones were gone, and complaints could be heard everywhere.

The outage clearly wasn’t limited to Baojing Community or Yunteng City.

The tiny shred of hope in his heart was extinguished.

This couldn’t possibly be just a simple network outage. Sheng Qingquan couldn’t even deceive himself into believing that.

Tianlan Star was a low-tech planet, but its network had developed to be mature and stable. There had never been such a total blackout before. Even in the face of severe natural disasters, at most, only the worst affected areas would experience temporary outages—places in better condition would remain unaffected.

"Then what’s going on?"

With this doubt in mind, Sheng Qingquan started reading more carefully as he continued with the novel.

But he found no answers.

Not until he came across the novel’s explanation of the unknown entity’s origin.

"So this thing is called the Roaming Gem."

"Just like some fish have migratory habits, this gem has a similar behavior."

"The Roaming Gem is a specialty of a certain small world. That world is resource-scarce, but the races living there gobble up resources at a high rate. So they actively prey on other worlds."

"They abandon drained worlds and move on to new ones. Once the new world’s resources are nearly exhausted, they move on again."

"They keep jumping between worlds like this. Though their population is small, they’re a notorious invading race."

"Many small worlds have already been left in ruins by them."

"Once resource-rich worlds are turned into barren wastelands when they move on."

This can't stand!

Sheng Qingquan suddenly realized the intentions of that race.

Although in the past, when clean energy was scarce and couldn’t be widely used, every time he saw the polluted land and water sources caused by factories, he felt that if humans kept this up, the planet Tianlanxing would eventually be ruined.

Even when he went out for leisure and saw litter strewn across scenic areas, or walked down the street and noticed the thick dust coating the leaves of roadside trees, or cars roaring past him—

Especially every time he gagged on car exhaust, Sheng Qingquan genuinely believed that humans would eventually face nature’s backlash and suffer the consequences.

But that didn’t mean Sheng Qingquan could accept Tianlanxing actually being destroyed, especially in this manner.

Yes, humans had it coming, but in recent decades, authorities had also recognized the problem and were making efforts to change.

They understood that lush mountains and clean rivers outweighed riches.

Even though many places seemed eager but ineffective, and the results weren’t ideal, progress was finally being made. The improvement was visible—this was no longer a looming threat. The recent marine pollution control efforts were proof.

Just as Tianlanxing was on the path to becoming better and better, this had to come crashing down?

Thinking of the beautiful and bountiful Tianlanxing ending up like a tree devoured by termites—its leaves yellowing and falling, its bark peeling, its trunk riddled with winding tunnels, hollowed out and lifeless before collapsing—

Sheng Qingquan’s rage ignited in him.

“Isn’t this just colonization?!” Pi Xinzheng recoiled in horror.

Of course, it was colonization.

“Once Tianlanxing, this mighty tree, is hollowed out and dead, the withered tree will either fall naturally or be hauled off for kindling. In the end, nothing will remain.”

“If the tree is gone, what will happen to the birds that nested on it and depended on it for survival?”

Humans were like these birds. If lucky, they might find another tree to call home. If unlucky, death would be a mercy.

“Enslaved, whipped—just think of the slaves in ancient times. Centuries later, we’ll be repeating their nightmare.”

“Hell no! Our ancestors worked hard to build the nation and develop society, not for us to return to suffering,” Pi Xinrong fumed as she stood up, her appetite vanished.

Especially as a woman, she could imagine that if colonization happened, women’s fates would only be worse.

Even if the races were different.

In fact, sometimes, precisely because the races were different, human women would suffer even more due to the invaders’ warped curiosity.

“The Roaming Gem is something that race throws out to scout when they’ve drained a world’s resources dry.”

“It searches for other worlds, investigates new worlds, and scouts for suitability. If most conditions are met and only a few minor aspects don’t align, the Roaming Gem will then reshape that world.”

“If the reshaping succeeds, the gem records the location and returns to its master, guiding them to seize it.”

“If the reshaping fails, the gem continues searching for another world until it finds a suitable one or exhausts its energy.”

“So, this gem is essentially a detector and modifier they deploy.”

Reading this, it all clicked for Sheng Qingquan.

All the questions he couldn’t figure out before now made perfect sense.

“If they’re looking for a suitable, habitable place, wouldn’t they send out multiple detectors when possible?”

“Especially since it was mentioned earlier that the Roaming Gem is a specialty product. Even if rare, specialties aren’t one-offs.”

"Moreover, for this race, these gems are incredibly useful—they simply can't do without them. Without these gems, how could they possibly target new worlds in the future?"

"Anyone with even a bit of foresight in this race would strive to cultivate more of these gems."

Hearing this, how could the others not understand?

As long as the gems aren’t too scarce.

Then, without knowing where suitable small worlds might be, of course they’d send out as many of these detectors and modifiers as they can.

"The wider the net, the better the catch."

"What if too many fish are caught at once? That’s a good thing! The more fish you haul in, the easier it is to pick the fattest for dinner, and save the rest for later."

"So, is it possible—just possible—that Tianlanxing hit the jackpot, and more than one detector landed here?"