“What can he do, really? He’s just running around aimlessly in Lúzhōu City, following his teacher to do some research. He got lucky this year and made a bit of money, but even his house was bought with a loan—he owes the bank a ton.” Brian Carter’s parents were extremely low-key, afraid that the fact their son had made a lot of money would be exposed.

……

Back in Lúzhōu City.

Brian Carter rented a new place again, this time a standalone villa in the Zǐpéng Mountain Villa District, with a rent of twelve thousand a month. He didn’t know if he’d make it back alive tomorrow, so there was no need to care about the price—comfort was all that mattered. If he really did come back, then he’d be waiting to strike it rich.

October 1st, National Day.

Brian Carter was extremely excited as soon as he got up, and just thinking about the upcoming crossing made him unable to contain his excitement. It had been six months since he got the Mind Armor on April 12th, and now it was the moment of transformation in his life. Not only had he recovered from the blow of a breakup, but he had also revitalized himself.

Every day was fulfilling and steady.

He was full of hope for the future.

“Hey, Ben, long time no see…”

“I’m doing well, don’t worry about me.”

“Old Smith, where the hell have you been? Haven’t heard a word from you.”

“Mr. Bacon, how’s the courier business? I heard you’re making big money.”

“I’m just busy, planning to do some research, maybe start a business or something…”

“Mr. Cooper… nothing much, just calling to check in. It’s National Day, after all, and I was thinking about how I regret not listening to you and studying hard back then.”

“Mr. Parker, nothing new at the factory, right? Mm, I’ll be a few days late coming back.”

He called up his old friends, chatted for a bit, and counted it as a farewell they didn’t even know about. When he flipped to the last page and saw his ex-girlfriend’s number still in his contacts, Brian Carter couldn’t help but laugh at himself. In this busy half year, he hadn’t even gotten around to deleting her number.

Then, he decisively chose to delete it. Love and romance—how could they compare to exploring a new world?

With the Mind Armor, who needs a girlfriend!

“Tomorrow, I’ll cross over!”

That night.

He tossed and turned in bed, not sure if he was daydreaming or lost in a chaotic dream. He felt like he had become a world-famous scientist and entrepreneur, his chest covered in Nobel medals, surrounded by bodyguards and beautiful women, with camera flashes constantly going off around him.

His high-tech materials empire kept expanding, all sorts of black technologies were being developed, and space warships filled the skies. He was leading humanity into the interstellar age, advancing toward the entire universe.

He was colonizing alien worlds, crushing alien natives.

And he, Brian Carter, was immortal, becoming the living god of humanity, followed by all his fellow humans as their prophet, guide, and sword-bearer. He would lead human civilization forward, utterly crushing the Three-Body Fleet. When faced with the Singer civilization’s two-dimensional foil, he would counter with a reverse two-dimensional foil and flatten the Singer civilization.

Just as he was dreaming of a three-hundred-round battle with the Eradicator, his alarm suddenly rang—it was already 7:30 the next morning.

He lingered in the aftertaste of the dream for a moment.

Got up and washed.

Enjoyed a delicious breakfast, then put on his nano armor and picked up a submachine gun with a custom-designed skin.

Silently, he activated the new world coordinates hidden within the Mind Armor. In the next instant, he felt as if his consciousness was passing through layers of mist, transcending the constraints of time and space, arriving at a special location. Then, he saw himself standing at the junction of two distant times and spaces.

Behind him was the Earth world, the bedroom of the villa he had rented.

Ahead was a vast, primeval forest, with rolling mountains in the distance stretching as far as the eye could see. At his feet, a caterpillar crawled over the dead leaves, its body adorned with mysterious, colorful patterns. But none of this was what attracted Brian Carter’s attention. What drew him in was the color of the forest.

Blue!

------------

Chapter 7: Bomb Caterpillar

“A blue forest!”

There was no doubt this completely overturned Brian Carter’s expectations. The idea of green plants had been deeply ingrained for so long—it seemed like photosynthesis should always be done with chlorophyll.

But shock aside, Brian Carter quickly accepted it. If the new world didn’t have chlorophyll and used “phycocyanin” instead, that wasn’t impossible.

But when he looked up at the sky, he was shocked again. There were actually two suns in the sky—the one on the left was a bit smaller, the one on the right a bit larger. This was clearly a binary star “solar system.”

“At least it’s not three suns, or I’d have to wonder if I’d crossed into the Three-Body world.”

Two suns in the sky, blue mountains in the distance, blue forest in front of him, gray-black dead leaves on the ground, and a colorful caterpillar crawling along.

After making sure there was no danger, Brian Carter took a deep breath and stepped into this new world.

One step away, yet billions of light-years apart. When he, wrapped in the Mind Armor, crossed the dimensional boundary and arrived in the new world, all his senses—sight, smell, taste, touch—rushed in at once. The blue forest was filled with the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects.

He didn’t rush to wander around the blue forest. Instead, he crouched down, picked up the colorful caterpillar crawling on the dead leaves, and wanted to see what differences there were between the creatures of this new world and those of Earth.