Chapter 15: The Blazing Dyson Sphere

"It seems so. I spotted traces of the Divine Guardians at the entrance to the City of Divine Blessings."

Reynard’s mechanical demon released a small drone, transmitting footage to them.

"What should we do?" the young Lance asked nervously.

Reynard didn’t respond right away but continued his reconnaissance. After a moment, he smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

"No worries. They’ve only blocked the main roads, not the smaller paths, which means they’re operating on limited information."

The others, reassured by this, also relaxed.

The six of them dismounted from their mechanical demons, each pressing a button-like object on their person. In the next instant, their mechanical demons vanished, stored within the spatial buttons each carried. This handy device, given to them by Nanyi, made it easy to store their mechanical demons. By the standards of humanity’s space technology from millennia ago, these spatial buttons were trivial devices, something Nanyi handed over without a second thought.

With their mechanical demons stored, the six moved closer to the City of Divine Blessings, using the maze of side paths to avoid encountering any Divine Guardians. Soon they slipped into the city undetected.

As his figure faded into the side streets, Reynard glanced back toward the main road. Smiling slightly, he looked at the ostentatious city guards and the four-meter-tall humanoid Divine Guardians stationed there.

"The final judgment is coming. Enjoy these last moments while you can."

A month passed quickly.

Onboard a space shuttle, Fang Xu watched as the view outside the window transformed from the endless blackness of space to a massive, all-encompassing man-made structure.

It was the Dyson Sphere.

The star within the SH100079 system, where Resource Collection Planet SH100079 was located, was 103 times the diameter of SH100079, with a mass 300,000 times greater and a volume 1.3 million times larger. And the Dyson Sphere that encased it was even larger.

As the shuttle approached the Dyson Sphere, Fang Xu couldn’t even see a curved edge like he had when departing SH100079. The Dyson Sphere was simply too immense; he could only see the shuttle hurtling toward the vast metal expanse stretching endlessly ahead.

"Looks like we’ve arrived," Fang Xu said, managing a smile that no one could see inside his power armor. But as he spoke, sharp pain flared up, contorting his smile.

In the thirty days that had passed, his cancer cells had begun to spread again. A month ago, Fang Xu could still manage his pain if he stayed in his wheelchair without moving. But now, even speaking a single sentence left him in severe pain that lingered long after.

"Mr. Fang Xu, you can speak through the power armor’s voice system by just thinking," Nanyi’s voice sounded, her concern almost visible.

"I’m not that fragile," Fang Xu replied stubbornly, grimacing through the pain.

Meanwhile, the shuttle drew closer to the Dyson Sphere’s metal surface until Fang Xu could see details on the metal plain.

This vast plain, made entirely of metal, extended endlessly. On its far side, it faced the blazing star directly, converting the star’s light and heat into energy stored within the Dyson Sphere. Over the millennia, an incalculable amount of energy had been accumulated.

At their landing site, the shuttle approached a cluster of buildings dense with structures. Compared to the endless metal plain of the Dyson Sphere, this building cluster was like a speck of dust on a soccer ball—yet it was still the size of the Eurasian continent.

This was the primary control center of the Dyson Sphere.

"Shuttle detected entering the primary control area," a voice announced. "ID verified; alert deactivated."

The shuttle slowly descended into the hangar.

Through the window, Fang Xu could see the hangar filled with various types of spaceships, even warships. Being in a vacuum meant they were better preserved than those on SH100079. More importantly, with abundant energy here, an AI system had maintained them for millennia. While some had become unusable due to the lack of replacement parts, most remained operational.

Yes, the AI here had not gone dormant.

As soon as Fang Xu stepped out of the shuttle in his power armor, the maintenance AI in the hangar detected his presence.

The information was quickly relayed, and the Dyson Sphere’s primary control AI received the message.

Before Fang Xu had taken more than a few steps, an array of robots and AI projections filled the hangar, organizing a welcoming ceremony in the blink of an eye.

"Welcome, Mr. Fang Xu," said the AI, "we have waited for you for so long."

"Thank you," Fang Xu responded with a touch of emotion as he looked at the AI lined up to welcome him.

Though these AIs lacked human creativity and couldn’t perform pioneering work, they were undoubtedly a form of intelligent life. In many ways, Fang Xu sometimes felt as if Nanyi was a real person—just a bit aloof.

Of course, there were vast differences between AIs according to their roles. These engineering-focused AIs were rigid, following protocols strictly. They rarely displayed emotions unless your clearance level exceeded the protocols.

Nanyi, on the other hand, was designed for human interaction, so her responses showed more emotion, though Fang Xu still found her somewhat cold. That was the difference even among AIs. Compared to humans, the gap was even more pronounced.

For instance, they had little concept of time. They could calculate time precisely but were unaffected by its passage, even Nanyi.

So, AI could endure solitude remarkably well. Even after ten thousand years, they still performed their duties perfectly. Fang Xu often wondered how humans in the past had designed and built such loyal AI, bound never to betray humanity. Was it purely a restriction at the code level, or was there something more? He didn’t know, but remembering that ancient humans had already started manipulating space and time, he figured it must have been a means he couldn’t yet comprehend.

In any case, it worked in his favor now. Thanks to these unwaveringly loyal AIs, Fang Xu could issue commands as a human.

After all, theoretically, with all humans gone, Fang Xu now held the highest authority.