He showed no surprise. In his past combat career, his flagship had crashed more than once—what kind of starting environment hadn’t he seen? By comparison, this underground cavern was actually quite ideal: concealed, safe, nothing more to ask for.

He looked back—and was instantly stunned.

Behind him, there was neither the sleek, aesthetically pleasing hibernation pod he expected, nor the well-protected equipment bay capable of withstanding all kinds of extreme environments. All that remained was a box covered in dirt and moss; if you didn’t look closely, you wouldn’t even realize it was made of metal.

If the lid were closed, the whole thing would look like a boulder that had lain dormant in the cave for who knows how many years.

It took him a long while to recover. He turned his gaze to another square stone beside the pod. He lunged over, using all his strength to scrape away the dirt on the surface. Sure enough, a patch of metal was revealed underneath, but the once-tough alloy was now so corroded it was unrecognizable.

After much effort clearing the dirt from the equipment bay’s lid, he opened it—and was stunned once again.

The equipment bay was half-filled with water. Beneath the murky surface, the gear on the special racks was no longer distinguishable, their original shapes lost. Only the dragon tooth and a sword were still somewhat recognizable, but the scabbard and blade had fused together, and the sword tip protruded in jagged, uneven teeth.

Even after countless life-and-death battles, he still found it hard to comprehend what he was seeing.

“What… what on earth is going on?”

Suddenly, he rushed to the pod and shouted in a deep voice, “What time is it now?”

The female voice was silent for a moment, as if calculating, or perhaps clearing a malfunction. After a pause, it replied, “Imperial Calendar Year 10754, July 7th, 19:06:45.”

A thunderclap went off in his mind, and he heard nothing else. Imperial Calendar Year 10,754! He remembered clearly that when he took on the mission and set out, the Empire had just been founded for six hundred years.

Ten thousand years had passed!

Chapter One: Ten Thousand Years Is Too Long

Ten thousand years!

No wonder the so-called millennia-enduring alloy had become what it was now, and even the Empire’s latest “quasi-perpetual motion” energy supply, which harvested planetary gravity, was on the verge of exhaustion. Under the erosion of time, nothing is eternal.

If not for some unknown reason, his personal pod had decayed far less than the other equipment, he might never have had the chance to wake up—he would have long since become a puddle of pus in a metal tomb.

He steadied himself and asked, “Confirm current location.”

“The current world data does not match known system data, unable to determine… please… replenish… energy…” The system’s voice grew fainter and fainter, until it disappeared completely. The last bit of energy in the main power unit could not withstand the system’s heavy activity and was finally depleted at this moment. His only intact piece of equipment was now gone.

He frowned slightly, pondering the last sentence.

The current world data does not match the system data? What did that mean? Did it mean he had ended up outside the Empire’s controlled star domains, or was he in an unexplored region not even marked on the galactic map?

The urgent task was still to determine where he actually was.

He checked the pod and equipment box again, but after such a long passage of time, he couldn’t find anything useful. Even the superalloy used to make the dragon tooth and the barrel of the Lightnight gun had completely turned to mud and dregs.

The only thing intact was his uniform. This artificial fabric called “Liuguang,” protected by the personal pod, had survived the grinding of the ages along with his body.

He gave up searching for equipment and began to carefully move his body. Only after making sure every joint could function normally did he walk toward the faint light in the distance.

Having just awakened from ten thousand years of slumber, his body was in an extremely weakened state. At this moment, even a rebel grunt with only the most basic augmentation could take him out.

If it were a veteran who had undergone first-level augmentation, or even a squad leader with second-level augmentation, he probably wouldn’t even have a chance to escape.

He slowly approached the faint light and saw a steeply sloped passage ahead, slanting upward, with a bit of daylight filtering in at the entrance. He tried grabbing the vines on the passage wall and climbed up a bit. Sensing the vines were sturdy enough to bear his weight, he prepared to continue upward.

Just then, a flash of silver caught his eye. He turned and saw, embedded in the sleeve of his uniform, a shield-shaped silver badge, its surface etched with abstract patterns in special runes.

This was the insignia of the Dragon Cavalry Squad. They were not just simple emblems—each badge sealed an energy shield, the last line of defense in a critical moment.

As the Dragon Cavalry Captain, his badge was even more special, forged from quantum heavy silver, and the energy within was enough to withstand a direct hit from a warship’s secondary cannon.

At this moment, the badge’s color had changed from black-gray to silver, clearly showing that after ten thousand years, the stored energy had long since dissipated. But this badge was special to him—each evolution was a testament to his military achievements.

He thought for a moment, tore off the Dragon Cavalry badge, and kept it close to his body. Then he removed all the insignia on his person that could identify him as part of the Empire, buried them in a crevice in the cave wall, and only then began to climb toward the passage entrance.