Chapter 4

The spacecraft gradually accelerated, leaving the battlefield behind in the dark expanse of space.

"Please note, spatial jump is about to begin."

Accompanied by the warning tone, the spacecraft's engine roar suddenly intensified, and the ship began to shake violently, as if it might fall apart at any moment.

He was still immersed in a strange emotion, feeling tightness in his chest, his heart beating laboriously, and accompanied by intermittent pain. Since merging with the data, he felt that his core program had become unstable, with unexpected changes happening at any time.

He closed his eyes, trying to calm down, but all he could see was the solitary fighter aircraft charging forward into the overwhelming enemy fleet.

It was only then that he realized a question: the spacecraft could easily accommodate four people, so why didn't the doctor come aboard and leave together?

In an instant, he knew it was a foolish question. The doctor must have been very clear about the spacecraft's performance and knew that before the spatial jump, they would inevitably be intercepted by the enemy. If they both tried to escape, they would certainly die.

However, he thought deeper: in the absence of the highest authority holder, the doctor's orders were irresistible. The doctor could have taken the spacecraft to escape and left him to pilot the fighter to hold off the enemy.

As a deep space warrior test subject, although he had only learned the basics of aerial combat, he had mastered them completely and perfectly. In a real battle, even if he couldn't match the doctor's king-level skills, he could still hold off the enemy fleet.

However, the doctor seemed to have never considered the second option.

At this moment, the spacecraft's engine roar reached a peak and suddenly turned into a smooth and gentle sound. The darkness ahead was no longer empty but filled with streaks of light. The front of the spacecraft began to stretch and distort, as if everything was becoming soft.

Numerous pieces of knowledge about space flashed through his mind, raising a question: how could such a small spacecraft withstand a spatial jump?!

Before he could get an answer, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

After an unknown amount of time, a series of calls gradually pulled him back from the darkness: "Spatial jump completed, target star system reached, jump deviation: zero."

Zero deviation?

He suddenly became alert. Long-distance spatial jumps usually had some deviation, unless both ends already had a stargate. But during the jump, there was no stargate.

He moved his body, and fortunately, all parts still had sensation, though his heart was beating hard, and his consciousness was not yet fully clear. This was a side effect of the spatial jump, but it was bearable.

He looked out the window and saw a planet with a dark red surface and large purple spots. Despite its beautiful appearance, he didn't know what the planet's environment was like. However, since the doctor had set this as the endpoint of the journey, it was likely a habitable planet.

At this moment, the warning tone sounded again: "Hull separation procedure initiated, separation complete. Hull self-destruction countdown."

A slight explosion, and the cockpit ejected, separating from the hull. The mini-engines attached to the cockpit immediately started, propelling it toward the planet. The separated hull began to explode silently, burning and quickly turning into debris. In the universe, it might take a long time for anyone to discover these drifting remains, or they might never be found, eventually turning into cosmic dust.

After the separation, he realized that the ejected cockpit was actually a complete escape pod. The spacecraft's hull, after the spatial jump, was already severely damaged. For such a small spacecraft to withstand the rigors of space travel was already a miracle.

But the complete destruction of the hull seemed unnecessary. The largest pieces of debris were only the size of a palm.

The escape pod gradually approached the planet, entered orbit, and began to fall toward the surface. The vibrations became increasingly severe, and the window turned a fiery red.

Seeing this, he felt reassured. The presence of an atmosphere suggested that the planet might be habitable. Regardless of the atmospheric composition, it was better than a barren world with no air.

The escape pod, like a meteor, rapidly approached the ground. After penetrating the outer atmosphere, the braking engines started to slow it down.

However, his luck seemed to be poor. A storm was raging in the planet's atmosphere, and the escape pod plunged straight into it, spinning wildly. The last of the fuel in the braking engines was quickly depleted. The escape pod, now without power, tumbled like a stone in the storm, eventually tilting and crashing to the ground.

After a dizzying spin, he finally recovered from the shock. He tried to move his body and felt no major injuries to his bones. He reached out to pull the red emergency switch.

The switch got stuck halfway.

"Warning! External air is outside the breathable range. It is not recommended to open the hatch."

He ignored the warning and forcefully pulled the switch.

With a bang, the hatch flew open and landed on the ground.

He climbed out of the escape pod and looked around. The lush vegetation indicated that this was a planet capable of sustaining life, and it was thriving.

More importantly, although the air composition was outside the breathable range, it still contained about 10% oxygen. For someone without deep space survival training or who had only completed basic survival skills, such an environment would be uninhabitable. If one had advanced survival training, it would be barely breathable. Of course, one would have to ignore the large amounts of sulfur and other toxic components in the air.

But as a test subject, he could breathe this air.

Taking a deep breath of the planet's air, he suddenly felt an indescribable sense of ease and a feeling that was hard to define.

Was this feeling called freedom?

Freedom was not without a price, and the price was the doctor's life.

He began to ponder why the doctor had done this. Perhaps it was just because of the name Chu Junhui?

He suddenly remembered that the doctor had given him something when they parted, which was now in his pocket. He took it out and found it was a glass plate coated with a silver layer, nothing more.

His brain circuits processed for a moment before he recognized what it was.

A mirror, an ordinary mirror.

He knew what a mirror was, but this knowledge was downloaded through a data interface, and he had never seen a real one.

Never seen a mirror? He was taken aback.

Without the routine memory data cleaning, many things gradually became clear. He realized that he had indeed never seen a mirror, meaning he had never seen his own face. He had never thought this was a problem, just as he had never doubted the reality of the world.

For some reason, the small mirror in his hand suddenly felt abnormally heavy.

He raised the mirror and finally saw himself.

In the mirror was a young, handsome face, with a stubborn and strong expression, yet somewhat childish, looking about sixteen or seventeen years old. The key was that this face was identical to the face of the young man in the implanted memories!

He suddenly felt a bit panicked, and the young man in the mirror also looked flustered, even the subtle expressions were the same as in the implanted memory data!

For a moment, he even doubted his identity, unsure whether the current will was that of the test subject or the will of the young man in the implanted memories.

Who was he, Chu Junhui, or the other way around? Or were they one and the same?

He suddenly remembered that there was a task data package in the data area that had been downloaded with the escape route. He couldn't open it at the time, but now that he had reached the destination, he should be able to open it.

He accessed Task 44 in the data storage area and touched it lightly, and it successfully unlocked.

Dr. Chu's image appeared in his field of vision. The doctor was still stern, subconsciously adjusting his collar. It seemed that he was a bit nervous and very concerned about his appearance when recording this video.

In the image, Dr. Chu was silent for a moment before speaking slowly:

"Junhui, I know you have many questions and want to ask them. Unfortunately, I cannot answer them now. Perhaps one day, you can find these answers yourself. For now, I have arranged a legal identity for you, which is in the data I gave you. After you return to the civilized world, you can go to the Moon Chanting Star in the New Zheng Kingdom to find your grandfather. After that, live according to your own ideas and wishes. No one will arrange anything for you, and no one will give you orders."

"If..." The doctor hesitated, then shook his head and said, "That's all. I am not important."

The image ended there.

That's it? He didn't expect the task to be so simple.

At this moment, a new data package appeared and began to load automatically. It contained a complete set of personal identity information, all in standard data format. Any government agency with jurisdiction could query and verify it.

As Dr. Chu's image disappeared, another program began to run, starting to clean his consciousness area. This was a deep-level cleanup, even rewriting some underlying algorithms.

He did not resist, knowing it was the doctor's final gift. Although he didn't understand what the program was doing, the doctor wouldn't harm him.

As the program ran, the mechanical and rigid aspects of his thinking gradually disappeared, and strange ideas that had never appeared before began to surface. When the cleaning program finished, he understood that from that moment on, he would think more like a real person and no longer like an AI program.

He was Chu Junhui now.

He wanted to see the doctor one more time, not for any reason, just to see him again. The doctor's image might be the only thing left of him in this world.

But when he searched his memory area, he found that all data related to the doctor and the base had disappeared, and it was a complete and thorough disappearance, leaving no trace.

"Why... why?"

He had a vague answer in his mind. Perhaps this was the doctor's way of cutting off his history as a test subject and allowing him to live as a real person.

No matter how many times he tried, he could not restore the deleted data and had to give up in despair.

At this moment, a flickering red light caught his attention. It was the indicator light of the escape pod's debris, indicating that the remaining energy was almost depleted and would soon be completely lost.

Chu Junhui then realized his situation. He was on a strange planet, barely habitable. But behind the thriving life, there were also many unknown risks. Diseases, predators, or even intelligent natives could take his life at any moment.

Now, the first thing he needed to do was to survive.