Earth calendar, year 2096.

Fifty years have passed since the human fleet left the solar system.

In the empty universe between the solar system and the Proxima Galaxy, a large fleet composed of 1,251 starships "slowly" floats at 10% of the speed of light.

Occasionally, the rear of the starship would emit a faint glow, and then quickly dim.

That is the light produced by the intermittent operation of the Hall thruster.

Although the space between galaxies is extremely empty, there is still a sparse amount of interstellar dust and gas.

For a starship traveling at 10% of the speed of light, these extremely thin interstellar materials will still produce considerable resistance.

Therefore, on the premise of saving energy as much as possible, Zero can only control the Hall thrusters of all starships to perform irregular intermittent injections.

Just as the fleet was heading towards its destination normally, several detectors sent an alarm to the flagship [Earth].

A few seconds later, several large radio telescopes set up outside the Earth starship quietly changed their angles and focused their lenses on Proxima Centauri, a dim star in front of them.

…

【Earth】Interior.

Central Supercomputing Center.

In the dim cabin, dots of indicator lights flickered everywhere.

The hum of the cooling system filled the cabin.

A red light with warning suddenly appeared in the corner of the supercomputing center.

【Abnormal condition detected!】

[The situation is being classified...]

[Error! The current situation does not belong to the scheduled matter!]

[Warning! Warning! Level 1 abnormal situation!]

Red light instantly filled the entire supercomputing center!

[Executing wake-up procedure...]

[Awakening personnel:...]

…

A rapid siren sounded in Lu Yongchang's ears.

Perhaps because of the long period of hibernation, the alarm sounds are particularly ethereal, giving people an unreal feeling.

"Professor Lu..."

"Professor Lu, there's something wrong with Proxima Centauri!"

Under the rapid reminders again and again, Lu Yongchang's consciousness gradually returned and he slowly opened his eyes.

He took a breath subconsciously.

"Cough cough cough!"

The deep sea fluid remaining in his lungs instantly made him realize the dangers of the human world.

While coughing, he reached out and pulled off his mask.

As a tickling feeling came from his trachea, a long white tube was pulled out of his nasal cavity.

After a violent cough, Lu Yongchang finally recovered.

He endured the discomfort in his abdomen and climbed out of the hibernation cabin.

Zero's avatar stood in front of the hibernation cabin, looking at him respectfully.

"zero?"

"What time is it? Have we... arrived at our destination?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Lu Yongchang was startled by his extremely hoarse voice.

"Professor, it is currently August 11, 2096 in the Earth calendar."

"2096?" Lu Yongchang's brows frowned instantly.

According to the scheduled plan, they will arrive at their destination in the year 2146 of the Earth calendar, but now, the awakening time has been advanced fifty years!

As the time he spent awake became longer and longer, his consciousness gradually became clearer.

He noticed the red light flashing around him.

After a brief moment of daze, his expression changed drastically: "Zero, what happened?!"

Red light flashes, coupled with early wake-up...

Lu Yongchang instantly realized the reason for his awakening.

[Level 1 abnormal situation]

In Lu Yongchang's setting, he will be awakened in advance only if an abnormal situation of this level occurs.

As for what is a first-level abnormality...

It's very simple. When encountering an alien fleet, the hibernation cabin will fail on a large scale, or the fleet will lose more than 10% of its starships in a short period of time...

To sum it up, it’s just one sentence.

Only situations that may lead to the extinction of human civilization are considered first-level abnormal situations.

At this moment, countless bad thoughts flashed through Lu Yongchang's mind.

"Professor, it's the Proxima Centauri civilization." Zero said as he unfolded a holographic projection in front of Lu Yongchang.

"The latest observation results show that Proxima Centauri seems to have undergone a series of abnormal changes."

Lu Yongchang stretched out his hand to slide the projection interface and took a rough look at all the observation data.

"this……"

…

A few hours later.

【Earth】Command Center.

"Everyone, the situation is urgent, so I won't talk nonsense."

Lu Yongchang stood in front of everyone with a solemn expression and reached out to open the huge holographic projection on the side.

"Our destination, Proxima Centauri, also encountered a similar situation to us."

As he spoke, he pointed to the right side of the projection: "Here are the latest observation results about Proxima Centauri."

"The left side is the observation results from fifty years ago."

"Everyone can clearly see that within fifty years, the brightness of Proxima Centauri has dropped by a notch."

"Based on zero calculations, and at the current speed, Proxima Centauri will die out in about 120-150 years and become a black dwarf star that only exists in theory."

After the words fell, everyone's expressions changed slightly.

"How could this happen..." Fang Xu looked at the holographic image in front of him with an ugly expression, "Like us, is there an energy collection device of an advanced civilization in Proxima Centauri?"

Lu Yongchang nodded silently.

"That's how it should be."

"Actually, this is a predictable result."

As he spoke, he sighed deeply: "Since the information we send can be detected by higher civilizations, there is no reason why the Proxima Centauri civilization can escape this blow."

"This also just proves the correctness of the Dark Forest Law for us."

Fang Xu's face became increasingly ugly: "Then what should we do now?"

"Still going to Proxima Centauri?"

It was originally thought that after escaping from the solar system, humans would be greeted by a star system suitable for long-term residence and development.

But who would have thought that it was a star system that was sentenced to a reprieve!

"certainly."

After hearing Fang Xu's question, Lu Yongchang answered without hesitation.

This answer also stunned everyone present.

"Let me talk about the most fundamental reason first." Lu Yongchang shook his head with a wry smile, "We don't have enough supplies."

"Although there are still a lot of survival supplies, our fuel and replacement parts only allow us to go to the nearest star Proxima Centauri."

Everyone fell into silence.

This is also the biggest pain point of human civilization at present.

"So, we still have to compete with the Proxima Centauri people for the star that is about to go out?" Fang Xu sighed forcefully and said softly.

"good."

Feeling the heavy atmosphere in the command center, Lu Yongchang took a deep breath and clapped gently, attracting everyone's attention.
Chapter completed!