Love Code at the End of the World

If I hadn’t traveled to another planet, I probably never would have believed that planets had been made by more advanced aliens.

I looked at him, saying, “You’ve been living in Cang Yu. You should know that I keep my promises. I will stop at nothing to send you back to Deity Universe, but you have to promise me that after you return…” I said through gritted teeth, “...you’ll never come out again!”

He was shocked. He slowly lowered his head, pouting. ”Don’t worry… I wouldn’t want to come out again even if you let me. The outside world is too scary…”

“You-!” I nearly lost it again. I took another deep breath, holding back my anger. He found the outside world terrifying?! He was just a kid, and yet he could simply destroy a planet. How powerful would adults from his Deity Universe be?

They sowed space with planets and reaped them as cosmic energy. They sounded like cultivating immortals in a supreme realm that would consume stars.

Loki kept quiet, watching and listening to our conversation off to the side. His friends remained silent too. The mood became solemn.

I tried to stay calm, asking the kid, “What’s your name?”

“Ula,” he replied softly.

“Why can’t we return?” I tried to ask as gently as I could.

“Insufficient energy…” he muttered.

“It turns out that there’s insufficient energy!” My brother suddenly became excited. He looked at Ula, saying, “We can charge it if there’s insufficient energy. How do we charge it? Can Earth’s power sources work?!” We’d seen a glimmer of hope again.

“Yeah! Can you charge it?!” His friends were excited too, working together to come up with a plan.

“Are you crazy?! This is a spaceship. Do you think this is a toy model at home? Charge it?! I bet this would at least require nuclear energy."

“Nuclear energy definitely wouldn’t work. If nuclear energy could support interplanetary travel, the Earth would have invented spaceships long ago. I think it might require neutrino energy.”

“How does neutrino energy work? Earth has yet to figure out a way to store neutrino energy. It would take so much effort for a one-time operation...”

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. I raised my hand, urging them, “Everyone, quiet.” Everyone went silent, looking at me anxiously.

“Sis?” Loki called, looking at me confusedly.

“I recalled something...” I immediately turned to look at Ula, asking, “Ula, you mentioned that blue crystal energy could turn any energy into cosmic energy. Am I right?”

“Mm. It is living energy. So, it can absorb other energy and turn it into cosmic energy,” Ula nodded, hugging his knees.

“A universal energy converter! It does exist! It’s awesome! We only need to convert nuclear energy into usable energy then!” Loki exclaimed excitedly.

“Yeah, you’ll just have to convert it!”

“That’s a good one! That’s great! You can leave then!”

“Loki, do you have to come back to Earth then? Let’s meet up before you leave!”

Loki chuckled and looked at them, saying, “Sure. Let’s play one last song.” He and his friends were just as at ease as those famous warriors from ancient times.

But I felt that something wasn’t right. The cosmic rails had emitted damaging radiation when they fell toward Kansa Star.

I looked at Ula and asked, “Would it cause any damage to charge the cosmic rails?”

Ula curled up, nodding. He replied, “Mmhmm... although it wouldn’t be like Kansa Star, the surrounding five hundred kilometer radius would be irradiated...”

“What?! Five hundred kilometers?! Doesn’t that mean an explosion?!” Loki’s brothers exclaimed in shock.

“Isn’t, isn’t that useless then? The Earth has to sacrifice itself to send Loki and his family back?!”

“Shut up. Be quiet...”

Ula stole a glance at me, asking, “Are you still... going back? It would take longer... if we were to charge using dead planets... We normally harvest them over a few centuries... There should be some in the galaxy, but... I am not sure where... It would take quite a while... to find one...”

“No! There’s a place with a lot of nuclear energy!” Loki suddenly cheered. Everyone looked at him, and he slowly lifted his hand to point toward the light behind the horizon. He said, “It’s the Sun!”

“That’s right! The sun is exploding constantly! There’s a lot of nuclear energy there!”

“You do live up to your reputation as a top student in a physics college...”

“Sis! We can charge using the sun!” Loki looked at me, in high spirits. Then, he turned to Ula, asking anxiously, “Ula, can we? Can we?!”

Ula blinked, answering, “We can’t just use stars to charge up as we wish.”

I asked, “Why?! There are no living creatures on the sun!”

“It’s because the sun will become a dead star after its energy is taken. It can no longer produce light and heat. The surrounding environment will be destroyed. In other words, it simply means destroying planets too!” Ula replied loudly. My brother looked as if he’d gotten hit hard on the head. He’d proposed the most workable plan, but Ula had shattered it into pieces in an instant.

Comparatively, I was calm, because I had experienced countless hopeless situations on Kansa Star, and yet had suddenly been given hope again. One had to be calm in a hopeless situation.

“If it’s just to return to Kansa Star, we shouldn’t have to consume the entire sun...” Ula spoke again. I was thrilled. As expected, there was always hope.

My brother looked at him strangely, remarking, “You aliens have to take long pauses in speech too?!”

Ula walked out from behind the simulated blue crystal. He placed his hands on the glass, asking, “What do you mean by a long pause?” He and my brother stared into each other’s eyes.

I looked at Ula happily, asking, “So why don't you have to destroy the sun to return to Kansa Star?”

Ula nodded, explaining, “Kansa Star and the Earth are merely located in different galaxies, but not different universes. It seems like a long distance to you, but it only takes a short while for the cosmic rail. So, it wouldn’t use much energy. The machine is still half charged, but it isn’t enough. So, we only need to take part of the energy from the sun. It won’t cause too much of an effect on Earth...”

My brother looked at me happily, saying, “Sis, we can go back then!” He held my hand excitedly and looked at Ula, asking, “What are we waiting for, then?!”

“Hold on,” I said, holding his arm. I turned to look at Ula, asking for reassurance, “Are you sure that it won’t cause any harm?”

Ula blinked, answering, “A star is always burning and constantly leaks energy. It is also like a living object. It emits huge bursts of energy when there’s too much inside, like a human sneezing. Your brother is from Earth. He should know that there are such things as solar storms. They can severely affect Earth. If it caused an explosion, the effect would be catastrophbic...”

The phenomenon that Ula described had been mentioned by scientists in my time. People had panicked about solar storms back then too.