Published at 14th of April 2026 11:40 pm

Chapter 4039 The Day of the First Step

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Rui's conviction was heavy, and Julian certainly understood where he came from. Based on everything he had been told, the threats that Gaian civilization faced were not small. Rui had also chosen to divulge to him the matter of the alien virus infecting the very universe itself.

It was such an extraordinary and hopeless problem that Julian wasn't sure how to even begin to conceive of a solution to such a problem. "It won't be easy," Rui remarked, reading his mind. "But there should exist a solution if we search hard enough. That problem, however, is not as acute as the problem of the incoming threats that come to us because we, or I, rather, have drawn their attention. We must grow stronger before they arrive. Eventually, we will grow strong enough to consider higher-order matters."

Rui hadn't forgotten about the ultimate threat to the entire universe, but as he was now, he didn't even stand a chance at getting rid of such a monumental threat. Transcendence alone was never going to be enough to get rid of the alien virus that sought to infect the universalis mensis itself.

"Tomorrow, Panamic Civilization takes its first steps into the stars," Rui remarked. "There we will foster our strength and spread our civilization, increasing our probability of survival. We will keep cultivating our power, allowing us to grow stronger and stronger until we face the threats that our new friends have shared with us."

Julian was more interested in the latter than he was in more abstract matters. His brown irises lit up with intrigue. "And just what kind of beings are they? Can I communicate with them? I would love to speak with their researchers and share our understanding with the world."

"Well, their research lab just established that our planet is not a threat to the cosmos," Rui remarked. "That likely means that we will establish a more cooperative relationship, since that was one of the hurdles that had impeded us from going right through with that. If our planet were a threat, then war would basically be inevitable. With that out of the way, I'm actually planning a lot of joint initiatives. For instance, an exchange between the top researchers of our world, the immortal sages, and the scientists present within their world ship."

In the past six years, the Immortal Sage Program that Rui had created had ended up creating nearly a hundred new immortal sages in different fields across different domains. The allure of true immortality had allowed him to seize the network of specialists and geniuses that the Beggar Sage had painstakingly created, but he had gone above and beyond that, creating a new generation of generational geniuses in different fields, allowing them to achieve eternal youth.

The Panama Continent had become more developed and modernized, creating a much larger pack of highly competent and effective geniuses.

He was confident that they held enough knowledge and expertise to hold their own in some sort of scientific exchange between them and their counterparts of just one laminar world ship.

He had also planned a large number of other events to try to integrate their own civilizations. The ideal bond would be one that went beyond just words and treaties, but served as a chain that would tie the two civilizations together.

Ideally, he would have liked their two civilizations to come together to produce something that both their civilizations wanted and needed, but could only be produced together. With their high technology and the unique capabilities of their civilization, Rui was certain that there undoubtedly existed something that would allow him to make it difficult for the Laminar Civilization not to come to their aid, even if he didn't manage to give them Paths.

It was something that he would have to speak to the dwarves about, since they were most adept at this matter. It was best to come up with some sort of concrete idea before his next meeting with the Tendril of Light, now that their planet had been confirmed to be safe.

Having spoken with the Tendril of Light more in the past few weeks, he had come to understand the alien jellyfish quite well. The creature undoubtedly desired a good relationship with its counterparts. Yet, it was bound by the will of the Laminar Council that advocated for a neutral approach based on interests, for now. Thus, as long as he gave the Tendril of Light an excuse to grow closer to Gaian Civilization, the laminar alien would undoubtedly take it. He had tried experimenting with Paths in the past month, but it was not so easy to simply create paths from scratch. It was impossible without the power of the Martialverse, but even with the Martialverse, it was undoubtedly an extremely difficult task to achieve.

It was something he would have to spend more time on conscientiously; he even considered simply drowning himself in the manifold to get to the bottom of the project, but humanity was in a precarious spot and couldn't afford to see him gone for even a month. The many changes it was undergoing needed a stabilizing force keeping everything in check.

And then there was also the first step into the stars.

Tomorrow, six years' worth of effort would culminate in Panama doing its first mission to the nearest star system to Gaia, just four-point-two light-years away. Everything that the Panamic Space Organization had been working towards would finally yield fruit, and humanity would expand into the stars.

The very next day, all of human civilization put aside the many other matters they were engrossed in, choosing to pay attention to Mission Seriun-I, the name that they had given to the closest star system to Gaia, just four-point-two light years away from Sol.

In outer space, the Panamic Space Station opened a hatch, unveiling a giant fleet carrier that was larger than most mountains. It slowly extracted itself from within the depths of the space station, emerging into outer space towards a ring-like structure.

A gate.

A gate that opened them up to the rest of the cosmos.

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