Chapter 317 – Meeting
The young police officer set down the food tray and glanced at Tu Ran, who was lying on the bed and clearly looking unwell. “We have doctors here. Do you need me to call them in?”
Tu Ran shook her head, propping herself up on the bed. “No, thank you.” After scanning the food on the tray, she picked up the glass of milk and drank it quickly. “I don’t want the rest. Please take it back.”
The young officer stepped forward, picked up the tray, and left the room. Tu Ran got out of bed, slid into her slippers, and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.
The officer quietly closed the door behind them as they left.
At eight o’clock, the meeting began.
The setup was identical to the day before—the same seating arrangement and even the placement of the cups on the table was exactly the same.
The only difference was a new main character.
Tu Ran leaned back in her chair, her arms resting naturally on the armrests. Her gaze swept over the people in the meeting room before settling on a few individuals in suits seated opposite her.
“A lot has happened in the past six months,” she began. “A few hours of discussion won’t cover it all, and we don’t have much time left. I think we should focus on the key points.”
When asked to recount every detail of what had occurred over the past six months, Tu Ran voiced her objection.
“Alright then, share what you consider to be the key points,” said one of the suited men directly across from her, adjusting his glasses.
“Technology,” Tu Ran leaned forward, her hands clasped and resting on the table, “and superpowers. Which one should we prioritize?”
The people around the table fell silent, pondering her question.
Tu Ran allowed them time to think before continuing in a steady voice, “I’ve been to two worlds with human civilizations—the Federation and the Haenden Star System. You should have some understanding of the Federation: a cyber society, technologically advanced, with stark social polarization. Seventy percent of the wealth is controlled by the financial oligarchs, who make up only 0.01% of the total population.”
“Invasion of other worlds was their proposal,” Tu Ran stated. “Their aggressive expansion is driven by the escalating social conflicts within the Federation. The societal framework is on the brink of collapse, with rebellions breaking out everywhere. They need this expansion to divert the attention of ordinary people.”
She paused, her sharp gaze sweeping to a few individuals seated at the far end of the conference table. Narrowing her eyes, she added, “Perhaps you are unaware, but the Federation’s proposal to conquer Blue Star was approved twenty days ago and is now officially underway.”
The conference room erupted into chaos. Those who had been drowsy moments ago were jolted awake as if doused with cold water. The previously relaxed atmosphere evaporated.
“How did they discover our existence?”
“How much do they know about us?”
“What exactly is their plan?”
Tu Ran was quite satisfied with their reactions. Now was the time to feel the urgency; without some pressure, these people might have dozed off during the meeting.
Leaning back in her chair, she said, “Many from our world have unknowingly entered the Federation. As I mentioned yesterday, the Federation has only two fixed gates. Anyone arriving from another world must pass through one of those gates. Strangers with unfamiliar attire and faces are immediately subjected to memory extraction. As a result, every detail of our world has been laid bare to the Federation’s oligarchs.”
She reached out and tapped the glass on the table, causing ripples to form in the water.
Guo Changming, seated nearby, thought she wanted a drink. He took the glass from in front of her and handed it to the female officer behind him, who returned with a glass of water at a suitable temperature.
Tu Ran glanced at it but did not touch it. “Our world holds immense appeal for the Federation. Our land is vast, our natural environment remains largely intact, and our technological development hasn’t yet reached a level that would deter them. Compared to the world of Classic of Mountains and Seas, overrun with alien species, our world seems far easier to conquer.”
Tu Ran picked up the glass of water, took a small sip, and set it back down. “The intruders who appeared here the day before yesterday afternoon were the Federation’s first step in their attack against us.”
The man in glasses across the table glanced at his freshly written notes and posed a question. “As you mentioned earlier, the gates open randomly to any world. How could the Federation be certain that the gate they used led to our world?”
“They couldn’t be certain, nor did they need to be,” Tu Ran explained carefully. “The oligarchs of the Federation are insatiably greedy. Their invasions target the entire universe, not just us. Our existence hasn’t made them abandon their ambitions for other worlds. For them, every entry through a gate is like opening a blind box. No matter what they find, it’s a prize they won’t pass up.”
The room fell into a heavy silence before someone finally asked, “Were those sent to other worlds volunteers?”
Another person raised a similar question. “Randomly venturing into an unfamiliar world, and with an invasive purpose at that—how could the natives of those worlds let them off so easily? Wouldn’t they just be throwing their lives away?”
It was like the group of unknown, armed men in black who had appeared the day before yesterday. They refused to surrender and were all executed on the spot.
Tu Ran recalled the contract that every Federation pioneer signed. “The Federation has a population of ten billion. Compared to lives, money is scarcer. Plenty of people are willing to risk their lives for wealth. Moreover, not everyone sent out is guaranteed to die. Some will survive. For instance, are you absolutely certain that you found every intruder from the other world the day before yesterday?”
Her question was met with silence. Everyone present knew they couldn’t be sure they had eliminated all of the interdimensional intruders.
No one knew exactly when the gates to Blue Star had started opening, nor how many creatures from other worlds had passed through in that time. It wasn’t until the day before yesterday that formal measures were taken. The period in between had provided ample opportunity for some to go into hiding.
A stifling tension filled the conference room.
“Everyone, there’s no need to be so pessimistic,” said a female officer who had been silent until now. She stood up, her voice carrying a motivating strength. “The technological world may seem formidable, but the randomness of the gates severely limits their capabilities. They can’t mobilize an army to launch an invasion; they can only rely on luck to occasionally send a few individuals into our world. No matter how advanced their equipment is, a lone individual is a manageable threat.”
Her words resonated with some of the attendees, sparking a subtle sense of agreement.
It was undeniable—this was a fact.
However, this fact rested on a fragile foundation: that the gates would continue to function randomly, that only humans from the Federation would enter, and that the process of cosmic fusion would remain at its current stage.
But would the gates always operate randomly? Would the cosmic fusion truly stop here? Tu Ran shook her head.
The trend of cosmic fusion was becoming increasingly evident. It had started with the Federation and the Threshold, but later expanded to include Blue Star, the Haenden Star System, and even the Beast Master World that Xiang Sheng had visited. More and more worlds were being drawn in, and the gates were appearing with growing frequency.
Tu Ran had a strong and unsettling premonition: one day, the “gates” would evolve. They would no longer flicker into existence sporadically—they would open wide, becoming true portals that seamlessly connected all worlds.
