Chapter 11 Apprentice of the Future

　　Ding! The elevator doors opened. The teenager took a deep breath, adjusted his nervous mood, and stepped out. He looked around—Loong Eye Conference Room was empty. The mysterious big shot hadn't arrived yet, so he casually found a place to sit down...

　　Gu Moxun's mind was filled with random thoughts. He didn't know how much time had passed until a strand of golden sunlight filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows and fell at the teenager's feet. He instinctively looked out the window.

　　The golden sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows was warm and pure, completely different from the sunlight Gu Moxun had seen on Mars!

　　The teenager had grown up on Mars. In his memory, the intense sunlight there was like a poisonous sun baking the Mars through the tall glass isolation shields of Mars' sky—a culprit that occasionally (from time to time) whipped up Martian sandstorms, bringing an inexplicable sense of oppression...

　　But neither was anything like the sun he saw today! So bright and amiable, so warm and comfortable! Gu Moxun couldn't help but walk toward the floor-to-ceiling window and gaze into the distance...

　　At first glance, the teenager was deeply captivated by the scene before him. Not far beyond the Loong Eye was a huge planet intertwined with azure blue and grass green.

　　The planet seemed so close yet worlds apart!

　　Snow-white mist lingered faintly over its surface, where blue oceans covered most of the mother planet, and the green forests on land were said to be teemed with life! He had never seen a planet so vibrant, nor could he have imagined that one day he would be so close to humanity's ancestral home...

　　It seemed so close and he could even touch it!

　　In the distance, the first light of the sun was slowly rising...

　　The dawn cast the beautiful planet in a crystal-clear glow, making it all the more radiant. The sunlight enveloped the teenager's thin figure, stretching a long shadow behind him...

　　An indescribable warmth coursed through his body, as the golden light poured into his heart, calming his unease. Like a guiding lamp, it dispelled the confusion in his mind and pointed the way forward...

　　The teenager's furrowed brows gradually relaxed, and his bright star-like eyes shimmered even more brilliantly in the sunlight. The vibrant planet outside the window was none other than Earth, which was known as the mother star that had once carried human civilization and nurtured billions of humans. It was also the planet with poetic and picturesque scenery that elders had always affectionately described to him no matter where he was ever since his childhood!!!

　　In their descriptions, the mountains were towering and majestic, the rivers winding and twisting! Flowers, plants, and trees vied for beauty, wild animals moved in groups, beautiful birds soared through the blue sky and white clouds, and countless fish swam in the rippling blue waters of lakes and seas...

　　But these had only been verbal descriptions. He had never looked so directly at his mother planet from such a close distance as today. In the entire Alliance, only in Dragon Head Fort could a person observe the mother planet at such a proximity...

　　A hundred years ago, due to the rampant apocalyptic virus, large numbers of humans lost their lives to the virus and became bloodthirsty zombie monsters!

　　The mother planet turned into a battlefield of purgatory. The surviving humans, while evading the tide of tens of thousands of zombies, fought against the evil forces that had caused the disaster, rendering those surviving lives hanging by a thread!

　　Just as the lyrics of The Last Battle Song wrote: When the country falls, where can home be? When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact. Humanity had reached a critical juncture of survival or extinction! At the moment when human civilization was in peril, the Chosen One—Chu Mufan—emerged! He gathered all possible forces in the apocalypse to form the Last Legion. Holding onto their final hope and forming the last line of defense, they engaged in a extremely fierce and world-shaking battle against the evil forces on Dragon Head Fort, which had not yet entered space.

　　After paying a heavy price, the Last Legion finally achieved victory—a triumph for the survivors, a victory brought by the great savior!

　　After the war, the remaining humans flew to Earth's outer space aboard Dragon Head Fort and began building a new human civilization. In space, the Chosen One Chu Mufan deployed an antidote that required a century to purify. While this antidote eradicated the apocalyptic virus on Earth, it also carried severe side effects for living humans. All survivors could only wait a hundred years for nature to neutralize the antidote, hoping one day to set foot on Earth again.

　　Now, ninety-five years had passed. Only five years remained until the mother planet completed its self-purification, and humanity could finally return home...

　　The thought of witnessing Earth's beauty made the teenager all wound up. He couldn't help but stretch out his right hand, tenderly touching the outline of the mother planet beyond the glass.

　　Though the thick glass and vast distance separated him, they could not block the teenager's feelings for his homeland. At that moment, his hand seemed to still sense a trace of warmth from humanity's ancient home.

　　At this moment, if one looked into Dragon Head Fort from outside the window, at the "dragon's eye," the golden dawn would filter through the massive floor-to-ceiling glass, bathing the teenager's white military uniform in light. His right hand gently pressed against the glass as he gazed affectionately at the dazzling planet ahead.

　　His thick, sword-like eyebrows furrowed slightly, and his deep eyes held a trace of faint sorrow and an unnamable yearning. Against the dawn, his fair skin, combined with his straight nose bridge, made his handsome features truly striking.

　　Yet at this moment, the teenager was completely unaware of the elderly man standing just a few meters behind him, leaning on a wooden cane carved with dragon patterns and watching him intently...

　　The old man appeared to be in his advanced years, with frost-white silver hair sticking up in all directions. His broad forehead was lined with wrinkles like tree rings, bearing witness to the vicissitudes of his life. Beneath the unruly white hair, a pair of silver-rimmed gold-wire reading glasses rested on his nose. His square face was ruddy, giving him an air of vitality and health despite his age. He looked identical to the AI Gu Moxun had seen in the fifth-generation individual battle armor—only more real.

　　Through his glasses, the old man's sharp, piercing eyes scanned the teenager up and down, as if studying an uncut jade stone full of potential.

　　After a moment, the old man took a slow step forward. Though the movement seemed unhurried, he sidled several meters horizontally, appearing soundlessly behind the teenager. He asked softly, "Is Earth beautiful?" His voice was identical to the AI from before.

　　"Mm. It's the most beautiful planet I've ever seen. It's also humanity's hometown." Having grown accustomed to the AI's voice in the mecha, the teenager replied without hesitation.

　　“Wanna go back?”

　　"Even in my dreams. I've always heard elders and others talk about our mother planet—about its towering mountains and flowing rivers, its vast lands with vast fields of crops, flowers, and trees. They say the soil has a unique fragrance, and all kinds of magical creatures live on land, in the oceans, and in the sky... I..."