Chapter 1

The dashboard and buttons.

The seemingly endless array of dials and buttons.

Lu Yuan stared blankly at these dials and buttons.

It was the third month since he had arrived here.

This "might" be a massive spaceship, and through the porthole, one could see the faint stars and endless darkness outside, which remained unchanged no matter how much time passed. For Lu Yuan, a science student, it wasn't difficult to deduce some facts, such as the fact that he was not near any star system or galaxy. All the visible stars were very dim, even dimmer than those observed on a clear night on Earth, which had to be seen through the atmosphere.

The magnitude is a unit used to measure the brightness of celestial bodies, and the magnitude observed with the naked eye is called the visual magnitude. Generally, the brighter the object, the smaller the visual magnitude. The magnitude of the full moon is -12.6, the brightest star is about 1, and the faintest star visible to the naked eye is about 6. In front of him, there were no stars with a magnitude greater than 2.

The spaceship was abnormally large and... dark.

He was in a huge hall, with no light except for the indicator lights on the dashboard, and no sound. In front of the dashboard were a dozen chairs—where he had woken up from one of them—while the other chairs were empty.

He had once walked several hundred meters to the other side of the dark hall, but it was empty, with only the sound of his footsteps. He couldn't even find the opposite wall. When the faint light behind him was no longer visible, he ran back. At first, when he looked into the darkness, Lu Yuan always felt that some evil spirits or beasts would suddenly pounce out, which made him unable to sleep. But now, he hoped there was something else in the darkness, even a ghost.

What truly tormented him and kept him from sleeping was the desperate silence.

Looking at the huge dashboard in front of him, he felt like he was going crazy. Wasn't this place supposed to be a spaceship that was hundreds of years more advanced than Earth?! Why was it still using control panels from the 1970s, damn it! Where was the quantum computer?! Where was the holographic control panel?! At least give me a voice command system!

There was air and gravity here, and he could survive by eating a white, soft paste every day.

Thankfully, there was a device that was simple enough for an Earthling to understand—a tube extended into a transparent container like a tube of toothpaste, with a button on it. Each time the button was pressed, the tube would dispense about half a cup of "toothpaste," which was Lu Yuan's "daily" food. Without a way to measure time, and with the darkness and silence making time seem especially long, the exact duration was uncertain. However, within the "day," the tube would only dispense "toothpaste" once.

So, every day as the time approached, Lu Yuan would wait by the tube, pressing the milky white button repeatedly until the food came out. It wasn't because of hunger, although he had lost over ten kilograms, the hunger wasn't intense. He waited by the button because it was the only part of the entire spaceship that would "respond" to his actions. When shouting in the room only produced echoes, and walking into the darkness only led to more darkness, even the response of a button was precious.

There were fourteen indicator lights still on the dashboard, some orange, some dim yellow, and some white, which were Lu Yuan's only source of light.

There were originally fifteen, but after Lu Yuan tried operating some buttons, one of them went out, and he never dared to touch the dashboard again.

He slept, for an unknown duration. He woke up, still for an unknown duration. He shouted and screamed, smashing the chairs like a trapped beast. But he still didn't touch the buttons on the dashboard, which was his last bit of hope in the darkness.

In the first month, he memorized the order of all the buttons, and his shouting gradually turned into silence. (In reality, there was no way to measure time, and the concept of a month was self-imposed by Lu Yuan to maintain human behavior.)

In the second month, he disassembled his coat into thin threads, tied them to the chairs, and used them to explore the darkness. He walked along the walls and eventually returned to the chairs. He confirmed that it was a rectangular hall of about 400 square meters, and at the end of the hall, he found a door, a door that couldn't be opened. There was no handle, switch, or anything similar, just four gaps on the sides, leading him to guess it was a door.

He tried everything, pushing, pulling, sliding, kicking, headbutting, biting, and even slamming his body against it, but the door remained immobile, damn space technology! He couldn't even slip a thread through the gaps.

In the third month, he confirmed another thing.

The spaceship wasn't moving.

Yes, it was a derelict spaceship stranded in the vast universe.

The lack of engine noise and machine sounds could be attributed to good soundproofing.

The absence of meteors, debris, or dust passing by the window could be attributed to the vast emptiness of space.

But after recalling his meager space knowledge and marking the brighter stars on the porthole with the "toothpaste," he observed for a month, and their positions never changed.

The relative positions never changed, and the spaceship didn't even tremble, only a dead, frozen stillness.

Lu Yuan began to become silent.

He marked all the buttons with numbers using the white "toothpaste" and pressed one whenever he felt desperate.

On the third "day," he pressed button 15, and another light went out. Pressing it again didn't make it come back on. Pressing all the buttons from 1 to 15 didn't make any of the lights come back on.

On the fifth day...

...

More and more lights went out and never came back on, bringing more and more darkness and despair.

Lu Yuan couldn't remember how long it had been since he last spoke. The ability to speak was starting to leave him, and when he opened his mouth, only meaningless sounds came out.

...

This was the last light, and the last button.

The button was yellow, oval-shaped, and looked special.

Lu Yuan knew it was an illusion; before this, there were many buttons he thought were special.

"This square button is special, it must have a special meaning... This red button is special, maybe it will open something..."

He always hinted to himself, always trying to open the door.

Unfortunately, nothing happened except for the gradually dimming lights.

Pressing the button, the light went out.

He waited for a long time, but nothing happened.

He pressed all the buttons again, in reverse order, and in a random pattern...

Nothing! Nothing! Nothing happened! No lights came back on.

It was pitch black.

Lu Yuan felt around, picked up his knife—a sharp piece of chair—and walked towards the door, feeling the wall.

It was less than 300 meters, a distance he had traversed many times, and even in complete darkness, it couldn't stop him.

He walked more and more determinedly.

If the door didn't open, he hoped to die there.

The sound of blood dripping from his wrist onto the floor made Lu Yuan feel a sense of pleasure. He spread his arms to let the wounds bleed more freely. It was the only different sound in a long time. Dizziness from blood loss began to dominate his mind, and he leaned against the wall to keep from falling. Although he knew the wounds would soon clot, he didn't have the courage to cut himself a third time.

Lu Yuan staggered towards the door. There would be no rescue, no blood transfusion, and he would finally be able to end his life. So he hoped to die leaning against the door. If someone opened the door in the distant future, he hoped to scare them. This was his last wish, and he smiled to himself, adjusting his posture to make a pouncing motion, leaning against the door.

"How can I make sure my skeleton doesn't fall over?" Lu Yuan supported himself on the door, letting the blood flow down the gaps, and began to ponder this profound question. He didn't notice the door suddenly opening, a gap appearing in the middle, and the door sliding to the sides like an elevator. Lu Yuan, nearly unconscious from blood loss, fell forward as he had expected.

In the moment before he fainted, Lu Yuan thought he heard a scream, and he sank into the darkness, content not to wake up.

**********************

If everything had gone according to Lu Yuan's wishes, he wouldn't have ended up here. So, without a doubt, he unwillingly woke up. In a smaller room, he lay on the floor, with nothing but the four gaps in the wall nearby. No, the larger room at least had chairs to sit on and throw, and buttons to practice with.

He sat up and saw that his wrist was wrapped in a white substance, healing the wound, which looked like the "toothpaste" he ate every day. If there was anything that made him happy, it was the light. Yes, there were no lamps, but the walls, ceiling, and floor were all milky white and translucent, emitting a soft glow that was not blinding but illuminated everything clearly. In such all-encompassing light, there were no shadows.

After a while, he remembered the scream before he fainted and called out, "Come out! I saw you!"

"Ah, how could that be?" A neutral voice exclaimed in surprise, coming from all directions. The wall in front of Lu Yuan became more transparent, and a figure made of light appeared, about 1.75 meters tall, with no discernible gender.

"Who are you?" Lu Yuan suppressed his joy, sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to appear relaxed. He was afraid of scaring the "alien" away again. At this point, even if it looked like a human, or even an alien, Lu Yuan would keep it and not easily kill it. He could now clearly distinguish between loneliness and fear.

"I... I... I am the Main God." The light figure seemed to rarely communicate, stumbling over several pronouns before completing the sentence.

"Main God? A big light ball that arranges for the survivors to experience terrifying worlds, making them stronger and evolving, helping and killing each other to survive?" Lu Yuan, a computer professional, was familiar with such concepts from novels. He suddenly thought of something and asked, "Was I summoned by you? What was I in my original world? Missing? Why did you summon me? To be honest, I think I'm pretty good, but I have some self-awareness. With my unexercised body and 200 pounds, wouldn't I just be sent to my death in the Main God's space?"

"I... I am not a big light ball!" The light figure angrily retorted.

"I am the Main God, and you are my summoner. Your previous life is over, and you don't need to ask more. The answers will come in time..."

"Wait... Main God, can we not speak so formally? Your way of speaking is too... archaic, and I can't understand it. Can we use a more common language, one that an Earthling evolved from apes can understand?"

"Um, okay. As my first summoner, some privileges are allowed," the light figure seemed to relax and quickly agreed to Lu Yuan's request. Lu Yuan thought he heard the sound of a heavy book closing, but it was probably an illusion.

"Thank you, thank you. Please, Main God, answer my previous question. Wait, you said first summoner? So..."

"Yes, I am a new Main God, and you are my lifelong servant."

"Let's talk about servitude later. Was it you who kept me in the dark room for months?! Even if it was a test, it was too much! I want to know why!"

"Well, I just didn't know how to open the door..."

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