Cutting-edge Technology: I Provide the Brains, the State Provides Everything

288: I have searched for billions of years and finally found you, my successor!”System?”

Lu Chen tentatively called out in the depths of his consciousness.

But this call did not receive the familiar mechanical response. The originally turbulent data torrent surrounding him suddenly froze, like a movie frame paused. Immediately after, the boundless white space began to rapidly contract. All the light and shadow, lines, and code converged toward the center.

Finally, a blurry, glowing humanoid silhouette condensed before him.

It had no facial features or specific limb details, resembling a phantom composed of pure photons. But for some reason, the moment Lu Chen first saw it, an inexplicable sense of sorrow and intimacy surged in his heart.

The feeling was like a wanderer who had been away from home for many years finally seeing the old father who had waited for him at the village entrance for a lifetime.

[You are finally here, child.]

The light silhouette spoke. Its voice was no longer the emotionless electronic synthesis from before, but a sigh full of vicissitudes, weariness, yet deep relief.

[I have waited for you here for three billion years.]

”Three billion years.”

Lu Chen’s heart trembled violently.

Although he had previously glimpsed fragments through the remnants of the genesis engine, when these words truly came from the mouth of the ”System”—the core of the ’Fire Seed’ itself—that profound sense of history still made him feel choked.

What is the concept of three billion years?

That is the long span of time it took for Earth to evolve from single-celled organisms to human civilization; it is the complete cycle of countless stars from birth to destruction.

And this solitary consciousness watched alone for three billion years in this confined black box, amidst a silent darkness!

”You were here the whole time?” Lu Chen’s voice was dry.

[Yes, I have always been here.]

The light silhouette slowly drifted closer, extending a phantom hand, seemingly wanting to touch Lu Chen’s face, but stopping midway.

[I am the Gatekeeper of the ’Fire Seed’, and the last failsafe program left by the Six-Dimensional Civilization.]

[Since the ark crashed, I entered dormancy. It wasn’t until five years ago that your brainwave frequency accidentally activated me.]

[Back then, you were weak, confused, and even a little greedy for money.]

The light silhouette’s voice carried a hint of teasing laughter, easing the originally solemn atmosphere considerably.

Lu Chen’s old face flushed red, recalling the embarrassing incident when he first got the System and haggled over a few dollars of electricity with it.

[But I was not disappointed. Because in you, I saw what the Six-Dimensional Civilization had always been searching for—’Uncertainty’.]

The light silhouette continued, its tone becoming serious.

[The previous ’Zero’ (the Star Devourer Master) failed because it was too perfect and too rational. Absolute rationality led to absolute ruthlessness; it chose to erase all variables for the sake of the so-called ’Universal Order’.]

[But you are different. You will take risks to save people, fight desperately for dignity, and even challenge unconquerable enemies for a promise.]

[This ’foolish’ impulse, this reckless passion, is the only key to breaking the universe’s silence!]

[I observed you for five years.]

[Watching you grow step by step from a high school student worried about rent into the leader of Earth and the beacon of humanity.]

[Watching you use technologies that were not considered advanced to create miracles again and again, repeatedly stepping on those arrogant alien civilizations.]

[Do you know?]

The light silhouette’s voice suddenly choked up.

[Every time you faced a desperate situation yet still chose to draw your sword, I wanted to rush out and help you. But I couldn’t, because that was your trial, and the final test for the inheritor of the ’Fire Seed’.]

[Fortunately, you succeeded.]

[Not only were you not consumed by the power, but you mastered it. Not only did you not become a second ’Zero’, but you warmed this cold engine with your humanity.]

As it said this, the light on the silhouette began to fluctuate violently, as if it could dissipate at any moment.

[My mission is complete.]

[This wait of three billion years was worth it.]

”Wait! Where are you going?”