Forrest Gump gradually became bolder, and soon began high-speed calculations again, openly and without hesitation.

　　For James Carter's safety, whenever they arrived in an unfamiliar environment, he had to become thoroughly familiar with the surroundings as quickly as possible. This was Forrest Gump's duty, and the very reason for his existence.

　　“Forrest Gump.” James Carter suddenly looked up and called out softly. Though the voice was quiet, it startled Forrest Gump so much that he shuddered, and the data in his field of vision instantly vanished with a “whoosh.”

　　“Wholeheartedly at your service, fully committed to ensuring my master's safety.” Cautiously on guard against James Carter losing his temper, Forrest Gump's tone was unusually humble, or rather, ingratiating.

　　James Carter ignored Forrest Gump's carefree demeanor, his voice still downcast: “Are we... unable to go back?”

　　“Huh?” Forrest Gump didn't react for a moment.

　　“I just sorted through the remaining memories of the boy we occupied, and found not a single trace of information about the Earth Federation, or even the Milky Way. Even the star charts are completely unfamiliar. This place is very, very far from Earth!” James Carter explained, his expression growing even more dejected.

　　“……” Ever since Forrest Gump became self-aware, he had never seen the always energetic and scheming James Carter show such a sentimental side. This unprecedented situation nearly made him crash. After a long while, he finally said blankly, “Isn't that even better? James Carter, your name has been on the Galactic Alliance's wanted list for almost thirty years. We've been on the run all this time, and now we're finally free.”

　　James Carter let out another long, low sigh, as if all the melancholy of his life had gathered at this moment: “Life is truly as lonely as snow. The beauty I just won over is now gone forever.”

　　Forrest Gump continued with his “……”

　　Of course, he knew exactly who James Carter was referring to. In fact, this beauty was the very reason they had gone so mad, resorting to any means to escape!

　　The reason was simple: this beauty was the daughter of the Earth Federation's First Fleet Governor. Of course, that wasn't the key point—the key was, she was still one day away from adulthood!

　　This gave the doting Governor a perfect excuse to vent his fury. After an investigation, he was shocked to discover that the guy who had slept with his daughter was also a wanted criminal of the Galactic Alliance!

　　Unbelievable! The Governor immediately dispatched five of Earth's main battleships, relentlessly chasing James Carter from the Solar System all the way to the Alnitak Star Cluster, spanning over four hundred light-years. Not even escaping the Earth Federation's controlled star region helped James Carter.

　　In the end, with no other choice and unable to shake off his pursuers, James Carter had to use a teleporter based on the still-immature theory of spatial super-continuity for a hyperspace jump, and then... there was nothing after that.

　　Maybe, he never should have messed with that girl, though she really was beautiful—especially that charming innocence of a young woman. Many times when he was with her, James Carter felt he had tasted the sweetness of love.

　　But after roaming the galaxy for decades, what kind of woman hadn't he seen? Who would have thought he'd end up tripping over a teenage girl? The older he got, the more backward he seemed to live.

　　Damn it, this time he was really done for! Not even a chance to turn things around. What kind of godforsaken place had he been teleported to, that even his body had been swapped for free?

　　James Carter pondered his situation, and his mood gradually calmed down.

　　“Forrest Gump, tell me the details of the teleportation process—don't leave out a single detail!” James Carter focused his mind, his eyes habitually narrowing.

　　At this moment, James Carter was focused and wise, and the command he gave was irresistible to Forrest Gump. He described every step of the process without missing a thing, one complex equation after another drifting past James Carter like clouds and mist, these mathematical codes detailing everything that had happened.

　　Forrest Gump processed and evolved the data at lightning speed. He wasn't worried about James Carter keeping up with him—if James Carter couldn't do that, he wouldn't have been able to dodge the Galactic Alliance for so many years.

　　“Stop!” James Carter raised his hand, quickly pulling a few transformation formulas from the rapidly shifting “clouds and mist” before his eyes. “There's a problem here! An unknown factor that could have been ignored underwent an unpredictable, hidden mutation and started affecting the whole process. Forrest Gump, the teleporter's energy density had already reached the critical point at the time—why did you keep going?”

　　As soon as he finished, before Forrest Gump could answer, James Carter suddenly slapped his forehead in realization: “Oh, you actually experienced a data overflow. What kind of computational load could cause that?”

　　For a purely logical auxiliary intelligence like Forrest Gump, even calculating the trajectory of every grain of sand in a Martian dust storm in one second would be no problem at all—and would even be easy.

　　In fact, ever since James Carter became a galactic citizen and opened a logic region in his mind, nothing like this had ever happened.

　　But just because he hadn't experienced it himself didn't mean he hadn't heard rumors about it.

　　“Forrest Gump, could it be that our calculations touched the forbidden zone of the soul?” In this teleportation, James Carter's body hadn't come through, but his consciousness had been completely transferred. For current galactic technology, this was one of several inexplicable unknown phenomena.

　　According to legend, the forbidden zone of the soul is the domain of the gods—a chasm that mortal intelligence can never probe.

Chapter Two: Even the Body Can Break Down!