Chapter 1

Prelude:

From the "Astronomical Training" chapter of the "Huainanzi": "Five stars, eight winds, twenty-eight constellations. Five officials, six palaces, the Purple Palace, the Grand Microcosm, the Xuan Yuan, the Xian Chi, the four guardians, the Heavenly Altar."

There is also a statement by Qing dynasty scholar Wang Niansun: The Heavenly Altar is the Milky Way.

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A pleasant melody woke him from his deep sleep, "It's time to get up. Your breakfast is ready. The shuttle will arrive in 45 minutes, please don't miss your departure time."

He rolled over and looked around.

It was a spacious apartment, with soft lights gradually turning on. The bed was in one corner of the room, with an in-wall wardrobe next to it, the door of which had a square touch control area.

He reached out and touched the wardrobe door, and the silver lightweight alloy door slid open automatically, revealing rows of clothes inside.

All of the same style.

On the other side of the room was an open-plan kitchen and living room, with an automatic meal maker on the island. He walked over, hesitated for a moment over the buttons with different food icons, and finally chose 'random,' hoping for a surprise today.

The meal maker emitted a soft beep, and a minute later the curtain door opened, delivering a sandwich.

"Again this." He silently accepted his fate, picked up the sandwich, and finished it in a few bites.

To be honest, the sandwich tasted pretty good, but the biggest problem was that the taste never changed, just like the famous slogan of Forest Food Company: Quality remains constant. It turned out the taste was the same.

However, he knew that no matter what he chose, whether it was a sandwich, a hot dog, or a meat bun, the taste was always the same. Apart from the unchanging texture, the synthetic food provided sufficient nutrition and calories. A palm-sized sandwich contained more calories than an equal volume of pure fat, enough to support his activities for the morning.

He snapped his fingers, and the blackout curtains on one side of the living room opened automatically, revealing the floor-to-ceiling windows. The sun was already shining brightly outside.

The apartment was on the top floor, with a great view, allowing him to see the bay below and the mountains extending into the sea in the distance. Along the coastline was a white sandy beach, with rows of lounge chairs and umbrellas. From a high vantage point, he could see bikini-clad girls with fiery figures, some running, some sunbathing. The sea was very blue, dotted with white sails. The city's wealthy seemed to be quite industrious; it was still early, but many were already sailing out on yachts and sailboats.

An old-fashioned plane slowly flew over the bay, trailing a colorful ribbon that coalesced into large letters: Deep Space Energy.

Although the bay had a breathtaking view, seeing it every day made it just another sight.

He habitually glanced out the window, walked to the workbench, picked up his neatly packed tool bag, and checked his schedule for the day before heading to the door.

Outside the door was a long corridor, and a faint smell of burning seemed to be coming from behind a piece of equipment cover, making him feel instinctively uncomfortable. He looked at the cover, then at the time, and decided not to check it. After all, if there was a problem with the equipment, maintenance personnel would arrive within half an hour.

But would there be equipment problems in this building with its cyclic self-inspection and automatic repair and replacement capabilities for critical equipment?

The timer on his wrist began to vibrate slightly, reminding him that time was running out. He quickened his pace, took the elevator to the rooftop, and a twin-rotor shuttle helicopter was already waiting there. When he appeared, the cabin door opened automatically.

He boarded the shuttle and sat in his usual window seat.

"Please sit comfortably, the journey will take about eight minutes." The familiar soft electronic voice had been heard countless times.

"Maybe Deep Space should change the voice actor," he silently complained.

There was no pilot in the shuttle, and everything flew according to the downloaded route. The plane circled over the bay, taking in the beautiful scenery, before accelerating and heading towards the city center.

As the shuttle approached the middle of a skyscraper, the glass curtain wall in front split open, revealing an internal helipad.

He walked out of the shuttle and followed a familiar route through a winding corridor to the reception hall.

A female researcher in a silver robe was already waiting at the door. She looked at her data board and said, "You are always so punctual."

He bowed slightly in respect.

The female researcher led him into another room, and after passing through three different colored light scans, she pointed to the end of the room and said, "Go through that door; the equipment you need for today is inside."

He nodded, passed through the automatic door, and saw a pistol, an arm shield, and a rectangular, palm-sized automatic injector on the workbench.

At this moment, the automatic door closed and locked. Then a special frequency electronic voice sounded:

"Test subject 1120, please use the standard interface to receive today's experimental program."

Hearing this voice, the color in his pupils changed, appearing as a blue light composed of countless tiny digits. From this moment on, all his emotions faded, leaving only a mechanical and cold consciousness.

He reached out to the square device on the wall and pressed it in the designated area. A metal probe extended and pierced his palm, transmitting a segment of data. The experimental program for the day appeared in his field of vision.

"Today's experimental procedure:

1) Download close-quarters gun combat technique version 0.1a... Download complete.

2) Inject low-light vision enhancer.

3) Enter the combat room and test the close-quarters gun combat technique.

4) After the test, enter room 3 for an intelligence personality test."

As the data download completed, his consciousness naturally gained all the data for the electromagnetic-driven pistol, the alloy arm shield, and hundreds of different stances and combat techniques when the gun and shield were combined.

He picked up the automatic injector from the table, aimed it at his forearm, and pressed the switch. With a soft click, the needle pierced his arm, and the injection was complete. He felt a slight soreness, and after a moment, his vision began to change, making the room seem brighter.

Following the procedure, he picked up the pistol, attached the arm shield, and walked into the adjacent combat testing hall. The hall was spacious, and as he entered, the lights began to dim, leaving only four dim red lights in the corners of the ceiling.

In the vast hall, the few small lights only illuminated a meter around themselves, leaving the center almost pitch black.

But his vision adjusted to the light changes, and he could see everything in the hall, though the details were slightly blurry.

"Transmitting visual data... Transmission complete. Combat test item one, basic attack, preparing to start, three, two, one!"

Suddenly, several dark doors appeared on the walls, and more than a dozen small drones flew out, instantly casting multiple red laser dots on his head.

The moment the aiming lasers landed on his head, he suddenly slid to the side, shaking off all the laser locks. His right hand, holding the gun, moved in a blur, and the gun muzzle spat out a faint blue flame, the electromagnetic explosions merging into one.

The drones in the air were hit one by one, catching fire and burning. The surviving drones began to maneuver frantically, but none could escape the lock, and they were all blown up one by one.

"Test item one successful, preparing for test item two."

A cigar-shaped large cleaning drone flew in, opened its belly, and sucked up all the debris on the ground before flying out.

"Test item two, basic defense."

Another automatic turret extended from the wall, casting an aiming laser on him. The turret then spat out a stream of fire, firing at a low rate of three shots per second.

This was an old-style turret using conventional ammunition, and the firing rate was deliberately slowed.

The moment the turret locked onto him, he took a standard retreat step from the close-quarters gun combat technique, moving back three meters and just avoiding the turret's lock, making the bullets miss. Although it was an old turret, the aiming program was an advanced version. After the first miss, the turret began to dynamically change its strategy, no longer focusing on his head and chest, but sometimes aiming at his limbs, even predicting his movements and preemptively blocking his space.

After dodging the first wave of attacks, he no longer simply dodged. The turret's firing rate increased, and more turrets appeared.

In his field of vision, the turret's firing paths were displayed as straight lines, and his consciousness automatically presented several close-quarters combat stances, either dodging or blocking.

He moved several times, dodging most of the shots, and used the arm shield to block the ones he couldn't avoid. The bullets sparked on the arm shield, quickly pitting it. However, the combat technique was indeed extraordinary, and he handled the relentless attack from multiple turrets with ease.

But as the turret's firing rate increased again, he finally had a moment of being overwhelmed. In a critical moment, he blocked two bullets aimed at his chest, then grunted and was hit in the thigh.

"Test item two complete, evaluation: excellent."

As the synthetic voice announced the result, all the turrets stopped firing and retracted into the walls. Another drone flew into the hall, hovering over his thigh wound. Three thin mechanical arms, like steel wires, extended into the wound, extracted the bullet, and sprayed medical gel.

He moved his leg, and it was already free to move.

A door at the end of the hall opened, and the synthetic voice prompted, "Please proceed to room 3 for an intelligence personality test."

"Intelligence personality?" A faint question suddenly appeared in his cold emotions.

The synthetic voice's pitch suddenly rose and became urgent: "Detected abnormal data fluctuations outside the program! Warning, detected abnormal data fluctuations outside the program!"

He was suddenly startled, sensing a danger. He instinctively suppressed all emotional fluctuations, returning to a mechanical and cold state.

Several fully armed soldiers rushed out from a hidden door, surrounding him, followed by several researchers who hurried over. The female researcher who had brought him in looked at him carefully, slowly approached, and reached out to touch his eyes.

He remained motionless, with red danger warnings constantly popping up in his field of vision.

The female researcher widened his eyes and carefully examined his pupils, then turned back and said, "The data is normal, it was a false alarm. The alarm is lifted, the experiment continues."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and the armed soldiers filed out, disappearing into the hidden door.

A nearby researcher whispered, "Should we stop and check again?"

"There's no need, we're already 15% behind schedule."

The male researcher shrugged and said, "It's your call."

He continued forward and entered room 3.

This was a room with a white and light blue theme, containing only a chair. In front of the chair was a blank wall.

He walked over and naturally sat down in the chair, placing his hands on the armrests in a perfectly upright posture.

The room lights dimmed, and the wall in front changed color, becoming a full-screen display. A short sentence appeared on the screen, with only three large characters.

Who are you?

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