Chapter 1 | Ink East

Chapter 1

Only eternal darkness and wonder reigned after endless illumination.

Only they, who were currently floating in a small corner of the universe as witnesses to the explosion of the solar system and the disappearance of Earth, could clearly appreciate this sentence. However, the doctor who had created them clearly hadn’t had the time to finish testing their “human emotion” program. Even when Venus No. 2, the only one that had version 2.0 of the system installed, escaped the solar system and watched the final video that the doctor had sent out from Earth, it could only mechanically find the word “sad” from its emotion bank to display on the small screen in front of its chest.

That was it.

There was no way of blaming them for not understanding, since they were only robots.

Three robots created using the Earth’s Scientist Alliance’s technology.

The intelligence of lifeforms on Earth had reached a state that could only be described as astounding. They could accurately predict the fate of the Earth, and knew full well what would happen to the Sun. Yet, even armed with that information, even when the globe united to try and find a solution to their impending catastrophe, they were still unable to avoid it. They were unable to find a suitable planet for humans to live on, nor were they able to find a way to help fragile human beings in escaping the solar system. Meanwhile, the Sun continued to expand, and the scorching heat that followed drove humans underground, under thick layers of protection. Under these circumstances, the lifespan of humans could only helplessly decrease. From a generation of life, to ten years, then two years, and finally, one day.

Creating the Venus robots under these circumstances was purely a surprise. Some might argue it to be a kind of waste.

Wen Nuo had originally been a member of the Earth’s Scientist Alliance as well. This young lady had once shouldered humanity’s hopes. The Xeno Self-Circulation Survival project was her life’s work, the product of her entire scientific career, but she was forced to give it up because human biological mechanisms were too frail. Venus No. 1, 2, and 3 were the testing devices. In other words, they were experimental robots that were designed to run the Self-Circulation System under laboratory conditions. However, to be frank, the research data that these robots provided was near useless, since it was all based on robot tolerance limits, not human tolerance limits.

Dr. Wen took the initiative to send these robots into space after the project was terminated. She was fully aware that it was a pointless endeavor if they couldn’t find a planet that would allow their systems to self-circulate normally before the initial energy ran out. Even if the system could self-circulate, what good would it do three lifeless robots in the vast universe?

The light of the sun darkened.

The “Human Emotion” program was something that Dr. Wen had installed into the Venus robots through signal transfer after they had entered space. Venus No.2 had only just finished the update of version 2.0 when the message that the sun had completely collapsed traveled from the laboratory. The energy in the laboratory was going to be consumed, the electric lights already extinguished, and oxygen was becoming more scarce. Only the screen of the information transfer machine was still illuminated. The number on the upper left corner jumped to 5:23. It would’ve been dawn at this time several thousand years ago, but the doctor herself had never seen dawn. She could only imagine what dawn was like through past data. The sun that shone blinding light down on this Earth should have been very beautiful, right? It’s already been 42 days since the Venus robots took off. They’ve already floated around in this dark and lonely universe for 42 days. They were already in space when they started recording data. There was no light there, only endless darkness. Perhaps, they don’t even know what “light” is.

“Remember, there has to be light. The Sun is light.”

The screen blipped, showing the final message as transferred successfully. Silver hair gracefully fell onto the screen, and the old woman’s face turned purple from suffocation. The digital clock jumped to 5:31 with an electronic tick.

The world silently returned to darkness once more.

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