Chapter 55

While watching the skit actors on TV, who come every year to make a familiar face, Li Pu couldn't help but think of the only New Year's Eve he spent in this room with Aunt Chenxin and Xiao Xian.

Those smiling faces and warm, unforgettable moments seemed to replay before his eyes, making a hint of loneliness flicker in the depths of the young man's eyes.

Suddenly, a ringtone interrupted his scattered thoughts.

Li Pu took out his phone from his jacket pocket—this was bought a few months ago with the reward money from the city government for his act of bravery. He opened it and saw a very familiar number.

"Hello," the young man answered in a nonchalant tone, but a hint of warmth already showed on his face.

For the first time in four years, someone was calling him during a family reunion holiday.

"Hi, it's me," Class Monitor Xia'er's gentle voice came through the microphone, asking cautiously, "What are you doing?"

"What else, watching the Spring Festival Gala," Li Pu replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh... Are you alone?" Qin Xia'er asked. She had already known that Li Pu was living alone now.

"Yeah, super free, hahaha," Li Pu deliberately laughed out loud, "Jealous, aren't you! By the way, I wish you a more explosive figure in the new year!"

"Who would be jealous!" As usual, Li Pu's words immediately set off Class Monitor Xia'er, who said in embarrassment, "And what kind of strange New Year's wish is that... Would it kill you to say something like 'Happy New Year, may you be happy and safe'?"

"Many people will wish you a happy and safe New Year in the coming days," Li Pu smiled slightly, "Isn't my kind of wish more precious?"

"I don't want to be more explosive..." Qin Xia'er was already worried about her bust size; it jiggled a lot during physical education class, and male classmates often sneakily glanced at her, even... even some male teachers occasionally did!

But with Li Pu's playful banter, all the subtle feelings she had before calling him vanished. She chatted with Li Pu as usual for quite a while, and only mentioned the main topic as they were about to hang up: "Hey... Do you have time in a few days?"

"I do have time. What, are you asking me out on a date?" the young man asked without a care.

"Of course not!" Qin Xia'er quickly explained, "It's just that some classmates have planned to go out and play in a few days. Oh right! I thought you're always alone at school, so it might be nice for you to try socializing."

"Sure, I'm pretty free anyway," Li Pu agreed after a brief consideration. They then set a time and place, and the call that had lasted nearly 15 minutes finally ended.

Apart from Class Monitor Xia'er, only his uncle, who was out of town, called to greet him briefly afterward. Li Pu lost interest in continuing to watch the Spring Festival Gala. He walked to his desk, turned on the computer, and connected to the ADSL dial-up—this was an old computer given to him by Wang Shujun to attract him to play online games, but he only used it occasionally to check the news.

He opened a webpage and logged into a website called "MeninBlack." However, this was not the official website of the popular movie "Men in Black" from a few years ago, but a forum created by enthusiasts from different countries interested in aliens, borrowing the concept from the movie.

Originally, this was a niche science fiction culture site, but due to the "Starship Crash" incident in July 1999, "alien culture" became a global sensation, and it has remained popular ever since. Many internet users interested in aliens gradually gathered on this site, including some experts in various fields, making the site's influence grow. By 2004, it had become a globally renowned, cross-border cultural site.

The main site of MeninBlack (Men in Black) is in the United States, and Li Pu logged into the Chinese sub-site established by Chinese alien culture enthusiasts. In addition to its own discussion circles, it often translates new topics and information from abroad, making it quite popular domestically.

Li Pu discovered this site a while ago. He has two registered IDs on the site: one is his original ID "Yi Wai Jun," but to do something, he registered another new ID—Shi Kong Piao Bo Zhe (Time and Space Drifter).

After logging into the Chinese sub-forum of MeninBlack with the ID "Shi Kong Piao Bo Zhe," Li Pu clicked into the discussion area and browsed some posts that interested him.

A perennial sticky thread in the main discussion area is a highlighted topic in various languages: "Welcome to the Third Planet of the Solar System." This is a tradition from the main U.S. site, expressing the hope that alien friends will come to exchange ideas.

Due to the fact of the starship crash, alien culture is no longer a mere science fiction topic but a real issue facing all Earthlings—why did the aliens crash to Earth? Are there any survivors? Have the major powers involved in the salvage operation obtained alien technology?

On the internet, especially on U.S. websites, almost all netizens believe that the U.S. government has obtained alien corpses, or even living aliens, but has not disclosed this information, keeping them in places like Area 51. This has led to a large number of journalists and alien culture enthusiasts exploring the area, and some even attempting to venture into the restricted waters where the crash occurred.

Many people have announced finding clues to aliens, but none of these claims have been substantiated. The enthusiasm for alien culture has grown, and science fiction writers and Hollywood film producers have joined in. Last year, eight alien-themed movies were in pre-production, and this year there are even more.

Chinese netizens are not to be outdone. The internal information about the crash site in Haizhou Bay is strictly controlled, but some unverified rumors still leak out.

For example, it is rumored that there are several incomplete alien corpses in the wreckage of the starship in Haizhou Bay. This unverified information has already attracted a group of foreign intelligence agents to the Chinese "MeninBlack" forum to gather intelligence.

Li Pu himself is also very curious about the progress of the government's research on alien heritage, as well as the Americans, who are known to be overly enthusiastic about "alien heritage" from the government to the public.

But every country on Earth—especially the powerful ones—understands that whoever can decipher more alien heritage has a greater chance of becoming the future world leader and establishing an unprecedented superpower.

Even the final empire that will lead human civilization into the universe.

Thus, with the mindset of being "chosen" and "saviors," the U.S. government has used this argument to push for a unilateral diplomatic strategy, fully promoting its leadership in the development of alien heritage on the international stage. In fact, apart from the starship wreckage in Haizhou Bay, China, the U.S. has already controlled the development of alien heritage in South Korea and Japan, especially in South Korea, where the technical capabilities are relatively weak, and they can only assist the U.S. in development, not even knowing the specific progress, which is quite humiliating.

The EU can only sigh at the distant Pacific, while Russia is trying to get involved from the direction of Sakhalin Island. In this situation, China, which has the other "starship heritage" but has not yet joined, is under tremendous pressure.

Internationally, the situation is stormy and turbulent. Although the enthusiasm of the Chinese public for this matter is not as high as that of Americans, it is still significant, given that they have their own "alien heritage" with unknown development progress.

In the main discussion area, there are many military enthusiasts fantasizing about alien weapons, and some are interested in alien culture. Even female fans have written web novels like "You Who Came from the Stars," which are quite popular.

Li Pu flipped through some old threads and saw a hot thread with dozens of pages of replies, posted by a user with the ID "Liu Cixin." The title is "An Idea, Not Necessarily Correct: Should We Unreservedly Contact Alien Civilizations?" He clicked in with interest and found that the post was of high quality, presenting a sociological hypothesis about the "Dark Forest Law" by the user "Liu Cixin."

The main idea is that there are two basic principles in the universe: one is "survival is the primary need of civilization," and the other is "civilizations grow and expand exponentially after reaching a certain level, but the total resources in the universe remain constant." From these two principles, a series of logically compelling speculations are derived: our entire universe is a cruel and resource-limited dark forest, where each civilization is a hunter with a gun, stealthily moving through the forest. The forest is full of other hunters like them. If they discover other life forms, they can only do one thing: shoot and eliminate them. In this forest, others are hell, an eternal threat, and any life form that exposes itself will be quickly eliminated. This is the picture of the universe's civilizations, which has sparked a lot of debate among forum users.

"The theory is quite good, and I remember the 'Elementary Encyclopedia of the Universe' also mentioned similar situations..." Li Pu chuckled to himself in front of the computer, "But from what I know, the alien civilizations are even more unscrupulous than you think..."

He really wanted to describe the glorious deeds of the first tycoon in the Sloan Great Wall, the "Ether Lord" Shar-Sago, in this thread. After some consideration, Li Pu resisted the temptation.

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