Chapter 1

The instrument panel and buttons.

An endless array of instruments and buttons.

Lu Yuan stared blankly at these instrument panels and buttons.

This was his third month since he had arrived here.

This "might" be a massive spaceship, 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 the stars observed on a clear night on Earth, which had to be seen through the atmosphere.

Magnitude is a unit used to measure the brightness of celestial bodies, and the magnitude observed with the naked eye is called visual magnitude. Generally, the brighter the target, the smaller the visual magnitude. The full moon has a magnitude of -12.6, the brightest star usually has a magnitude of 1, and the faintest star visible to the naked eye has a magnitude of 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 instrument panel, and no sound. In front of the instrument panel were about a dozen chairs—where he had woken up—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 he could no longer see the faint light behind him, he ran back. At first, when he looked into the darkness, Lu Yuan always felt that some kind of monster might suddenly jump 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 panel 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 using a control panel from the 1970s, damn it! Where was the quantum computer?! Where was the holographic control panel?! At least give me some voice commands!

There was air and gravity, and besides shouting, he could survive by eating a white paste.

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

So, when it was almost time, 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 about ten kilograms, but the hunger wasn't intense. He waited by the button because it was the only part of the entire spaceship that responded 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 panel, some orange, some yellow, and some white, which was his 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 panel again.

He slept, not knowing for how long. He woke up, still not knowing for how long. He shouted and smashed chairs, like a trapped beast. But he never touched the buttons on the instrument panel again; they were 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 just a self-imposed way for Lu Yuan to maintain human behavior.)

In the second month, he disassembled his coat into thin threads, tied them to the chairs, and explored 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. 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 a gap about a meter high and half a meter wide, leading him to guess it was a door.

He tried everything, but no matter how he pushed, pulled, slid, kicked, headbutted, bit, or rammed, the door remained immobile, damn space technology! He couldn't even slip a thread through the gap.

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 the absence of machine sounds could be attributed to good soundproofing.

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

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

Their relative positions never changed, and the spaceship never trembled, only a dead, frozen stillness.

Lu Yuan began to become silent.

He used the white "toothpaste" to mark numbers on all the buttons, pressing one each time 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. He pressed all the buttons from 1 to 15, but the light didn't come back on.

On the fifth day...

...

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

Lu Yuan couldn't remember how long it had been since he last spoke; the instinct for language was leaving him, and he could only make meaningless sounds when he opened his mouth.

...

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 that door.

Unfortunately, nothing happened except for the lights gradually going out.

He pressed the button, and 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! 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.

A distance of less than three hundred meters, which he had traversed countless times, even in complete darkness, could not stop him.

He walked more and more determinedly.

If, if that 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 on his sides bleed more freely. This was the only different sound in a long time. The dizziness from blood loss began to dominate his mind, and he struggled to stay upright by the wall, though 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, knowing there would be no rescue or blood transfusion, and he would finally be able to end his life. He hoped to die lying on the door. If someone opened it in the distant future, he wanted to scare them. This was his last wish, and he smiled to himself, adjusting his posture to make a pouncing motion, lying on the door.

"How can I make sure the skeleton doesn't fall apart?" Lu Yuan supported himself on the door, letting the blood flow down the gap, 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, pounced 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 smash, and buttons to play with.

He sat up and saw that his wrist was wrapped in a white substance that had healed 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 lights, 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 this all-encompassing light, there were no shadows.

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

"How is that possible?" a neutral voice said 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, relaxed his body, and sat cross-legged on the floor, asking casually. He was afraid of scaring the "alien" away again. At this point, even if it looked like a "person," or even an alien, Lu Yuan would keep it and not easily kill it. He now knew very clearly which was more terrifying: aliens or loneliness.

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

"Overlord? The big light ball that arranges for the reincarnated to experience terrifying worlds, making them stronger and evolving, helping and killing each other to survive?" Lu Yuan, a computer professional, often read novels, and was familiar with the concept of infinite loops. 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 Overlord's space?"

"I... I am not some big light ball!" the light figure angrily rebutted.

"I am the Overlord, and you are my summoner. Your previous life is over, no need to ask more, the answers will come in time..."

"Wait... Overlord, can we not speak so formally? Your way of speaking is too... archaic, I can't understand it. Can we use a more common language, something 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, Overlord, answer my previous question. Wait, you said first summoner? So..."

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

"Let's talk about servitude later. Was it you who kept me in that dark room for months?! Even if it was a test, that's too much! I'll risk my life to get some answers!"

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