Interstellar Survival: Invasion

All of us started observing the exquisite drawings. The drawings seemed to be depicting the destruction of a beautiful planet. Living beings of different forms lived on the planet, and among them was a life form that greatly resembled Bulu. The passing of something resembling a black hole ruined the beautiful life on that planet. Even more inconceivable was the fact that the passing black hole had transformed into a massive palm.

"It looks like a black hole was controlled to destroy this planet," said the great sovereign.

Bulu, who was beside the great sovereign, did not make any sound. It was unnaturally silent. When the great sovereign looked at Bulu, it noticed that Bulu was deeply attracted to the drawings.

"Continue walking. Don't let the illusion pull you in," said the great sovereign.

"This is not an illusion. The drawings depict things that have truly happened. I know of the events in the drawings," said Bulu.

"You saw these before? Where? Are these events related to you?" asked the great sovereign.

"Yes. This planet is my homeland, Planet Xica. Looks like the Stargod was the one who had taken control of the planet. Perhaps the Stargod thought that our planet was no longer suited for that level of universe. Therefore, we were ripped apart from our original location and thrown into the dark space that was connected to the lower universe. For an unknown reason, the broken chunk of the planet we hid on had arrived in this universe," said Bulu.

"I've heard of your story long ago. I'm curious. Why didn't the appearance of life forms like you bring chaos to the order of this universe?" asked the great sovereign.

"I don't know. But I have a guess. Everything was arranged by the Stargod. Someone like the Stargod can easily alter the lower universes without any issues," said Bulu.

"What level of life form is that Stargod?" asked the great sovereign.

"It is akin to the God worshiped on Blue and the Godpriest worshiped by the Sacred Wing race. It represents the incarnation of the highest power, the highest-leveled controller of the universe I come from," said Bulu, admitting that the Stargod was basically the god they worshiped in its previous universe.

"Since you come from a higher universe, why are the events of your planet being depicted here? Has your mind fallen under the mental prison's control, exposing all your secrets on this wall?" asked the great sovereign.

"That's not the case. The drawings here do not come from my memories. These are the memories of someone else. This life form comes from the same planet, and it is far stronger than me," explained Bulu.

Hearing those words, I recalled that during the incident with the silver ring, Bulu once told me that Dirk came from the same grayroid it came from. It also said that Dirk was stronger. Dirk was the monster that Emperor Fille had captured and taken away from the grayroid. I did not expect to encounter the monster again after two years. 

It would seem like the encounter was probably inevitable. A clash between us had been fated to happen. At that moment, a louder scream came from the depths of the tunnel. We all shivered upon hearing the scream.

"Is the person you're talking about the one making all those sounds?" asked the great sovereign nervously.

"No. This is just a regular monster. That fellow won't scream madly like this. It is very calm and tends to hide in the dark to observe its enemies before landing the fatal attack," said Bulu, causing the great sovereign to feel even more uneasy.

"Are you done looking at these drawings? We need to keep going. My descendants are still waiting for my rescue. You aren't afraid, are you?" urged the great sovereign after calming itself.

"So long as you're not afraid, I'm more than willing to go. I'm really looking forward to meeting that fellow," said Bulu with derision. The two continued walking downward.

Meanwhile, we didn't dare to make any sound on the ship. We felt even more nervous than the two who were actually experiencing the trials. The two little fellows continued walking. After a while, the drawings on the walls started changing. Everything seemed to converge around a massive black hole before vanishing.

"This looks like the depiction of that black hole. It has swallowed everything on the planet," said the great sovereign.

"This isn't right. Dark matter does not devour. This does not look like something formed from dark matter," said Bulu doubtfully.

The drawing was too vivid, to the point it felt like an actual black hole even for us who were watching a projection. Suddenly, the great sovereign reached out to the black hole. Surprisingly, the black hole was actually an actual hole it could enter.

"I was wondering where the exit was. So there is actually a different exit here? This might be the true exit. Let's go," said the great sovereign.

"Not necessarily. This hole might lead us into another maze. If we enter blindly, we might not be able to leave anymore. I suggest we keep going downward," said Bulu.

With Bulu's suggestion, the two continued going downward. Sure enough, they found yet another black hole after a while.

"Indeed. This is a maze. We were lucky we didn't enter rashly. But since there are multiple black holes, which should we enter?" asked the great sovereign.

"Can you detect any difference between this hole and the previous one?" asked Bulu.

"The two black holes feel exactly the same to me," said the great sovereign.

"This is a mental maze. The holes we see are probably duplicates. That's why we can't detect any differences. However, one of them must be the true exit, and the true exit must be different from the other holes," said Bulu.

"But how are we supposed to find the different hole?" asked the great sovereign.

"Do you remember what I said before? The monster from the same place as me enjoys hiding in the dark to observe its prey. I believe that one of these holes is the window it uses to observe its prey. So long as we can find that hole, we will be able to find it," said Bulu.

"Since it's hidden in the darkness, how are we supposed to see it? I tried the torchlight. The light can't penetrate the hole," said the great sovereign.

"I told you. This is a mental space. To find something, we have to use our mental senses. If I can feel someone looking at me from within the hole, then the monster must be in there," said Bulu confidently.

"But that might not be dependable enough. It isn't rare for one's senses to go wrong," said the great sovereign.

Bulu raised its head to look at the great sovereign and said, "You're right. Mental sense might go wrong, but if both of us sense the same thing, then the probability of us going wrong together will be lower. Therefore, I need you to help me. If both of us sense the same thing, then we might be looking at the correct hole."

The two continued going downward. After a long while and going past several black holes, the two little fellows suddenly stopped before a black hole.

"Is this it?"

"I can feel something looking at me deep inside the hole."

"I feel the same. The feeling is very intense. That gaze is incredibly sharp. This must be the place."

"Let's go in, then."

After a short conversation, the two stepped toward the hole.

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"The wind is so strong here," complained the great sovereign. Watching the projection, we could all hear the whistling wind.

"Everything here is constructed mentally. Just ignore it," said Bulu as it continued walking forward while carefully looking around with a torchlight in hand.

After a short while, something finally changed. Deep inside the hole, numerous delicate drawings appeared. The drawings were vivid and lifelike, looking like the depicted scenes were actually happening in real time. The drawings showed scenes of daily life on Xica. The many different life forms of Xica could be seen on them, and it almost felt like we were looking at an encyclopedia of Xica.

"Looks like the life on Xica was rather interesting and fulfilling. You were much happier than us on Wisdom. On Wisdom, every life form focuses on thinking and self-reflection, to the point we neglected all martial developments. That was why we were so helpless when the empire came," said the great sovereign.

"We weren't any better off. The people of Xica were also mainly focused on the mind. Although we were rather advanced technologically, our level of technology was still near the bottom of our universe. Also, when the Stargod tossed our planet out of the universe, we were stripped of all our equipment. You can see that even in a higher-layered universe, the superior civilizations can be just as cruel to the inferior civilizations," said Bulu. It seemed unhappy with how its home universe was run.

The two continued walking. Before long, they encountered drawings of even more life forms. Without a doubt, those life forms all came from Xica. The drawings were too lifelike, as though the life forms were all alive. Even Bulu couldn't help reaching out to touch the drawings and see if they were truly mere drawings.

'These drawings are too lifelike. It almost feels like I'm looking at three-dimensional pictures,' I thought in amazement. Suddenly, I saw one of the depicted life forms blink its eyes.