Due to the accident that happened to David, he had trouble sleeping as he tossed and turned in bed the day before. Just as he was about to finally fall asleep while in a daze, he was jolted awake by the identity bracelet on his wrist.
The robot butler entered at this very moment to notify him that Jessica was waiting for him at the door.
According to the butler's reminder, David realized that it was time for the pre-arranged agreement between him and Jessica to participate in the book signing of a new book titled "War and Love" by the famous author Burgess.
He initially wanted to cancel the book-signing appointment he had settled on with Jessica, but after hearing the robot butler mention that the destination was a paper bookstore, he immediately decided to turn up.
The things he didn't know about this world and the lost memories of the body he was in, made him desperate to gather more information. However, he didn't even know how he could look up information in this world. The paper bookstore was his best option.
Along the journey with Jessica, he had also realized that Jessica didn't treat him like a close friend. As he remained silent the entire time, her attitude towards him got worse.
After David expressed his agreement, he took a few quick steps to catch up with Jessica. Walking beside her, he observed everything around him.
The cars that were hovering close above the ground, the city that was entirely covered in stone, and even the houses that were built like fortresses without windows in the bizarre world made him feel extremely unsafe.
The bookstore they were going to wasn't far, so they chose to go there on foot. After walking for about three kilometers, David saw groups of people standing in front of the bookstore, just around the corner of the street where he lived.
Feeling a little worried and uneasy, David turned around and looked behind him, only to see that there was nothing at all. However, in reality, there was actually a peculiar, translucent shadow hiding.
That was something that he had noticed when he had awakened in that basement. When he first discovered the translucent shadow, he was nearly frightened to death.
After conducting numerous experiments, he discovered that the strange translucent shadow was completely tailing him and was able to move at his command.
Although the only ability that the translucent shadow had revealed was staying hidden with stealth, it relieved the loneliness he felt when he first arrived in this world.
Previously, David had long tested and discovered that Jessica could not spot the hiding translucent shadow at all, but with nearly a hundred people in front of him, he was still a little worried that someone might spot it.
"We're late. It looks like we're going to have to spend a long time queuing up!" Jessica exclaimed with some dissatisfaction.
She got up at seven in the morning for the sake of the book signing event. It was not even eight o'clock yet. They were in the midst of a winter break, and she would usually sleep in until at least nine in the morning.
David smiled and remained silent. He was not concerned about the book-signing at all. He just wanted to enter the bookstore and find some books he would be interested in.
"Don't crowd around the bookstore in groups. Today's book signing event will only commence in an hour's time, and Mr. Burgess won't be here for a while, so please queue up to wait!" the staff in the bookstore exclaimed loudly, trying to maintain the order.
"Jessica, I'm going inside to read some books. I won't accompany you any longer!" David said to Jessica.
"Go ahead, go ahead!" Jessica waved her hand. She had now found a few acquaintances and no longer needed David's company. Although those people were not considered friends, she preferred their company to the boring David.
David had a feeling that Jessica was treating him like he was a spare tire. It seemed that his predecessor should have been an admirer of Jessica. That was the reason Jessica treated him that way.
However, that had nothing to do with him anymore. He moved away from the unruly queue and entered the bookstore.
Although there were e-books, which were more convenient, their existence didn't affect the sale of paper books. That was evident by the sheer size of the bookstore.
The staff of the bookstore glanced at him and ignored him after realizing he was not trying to cut in line.
There were more than 10 large digital posters in the bookstore. Most of them were displaying promotional posters for "War and Love".
The effects of the soundproof glass walls of the bookstore were excellent—at least, the sounds of nearly a hundred people outside couldn't be heard inside the bookstore. As such, it made the bookstore seem extremely quiet, which was exactly the best environment to read a book.
David walked past shelves of books which were divided into genres like philosophy, politics, law, military, economics, culture, education, sports, language, art, history, geography, and so on. That made it easier for the readers to select books according to their preferences.
David proceeded towards the bookshelves that contained books of the History genre and found a book about the history of the Star Federation. He then grabbed it and took a seat at the side before beginning to read it.
There was no one else in the paper bookstore except him, and those who were present at this time of the day were only there for the book signing event of the new book "War and Love" that was written by the famous author Burgess.
Besides, the event would be taking place at the entrance of the bookstore. As a result, it was rather quiet.
He flipped through the book called "The History of the Star Federation" and saw a quote on the title page.
"Live or perish, the world is on the edge of a cliff!" — Danton, Grand Marshal of the Federation.
Pondering over the meaning of the quote, David flipped through the content page of "The History of the Star Federation". He then saw the history of the world that was tumultuous and full of bloodshed.
In the year of 10116 of the Ephemeris, a violent space turbulence occurred outside the 16th spiral galaxy on the edge of the Star Federation.
The turbulence triggered an unknown shift in space, overlapping the corners of the two universes—the Star Federation and the Great Divine Universe.
The Star Federation Universe and the Great Divine Universe overlapped at Planet No. 82 of the 16th spiral galaxy. Before the two universes overlapped, Planet No. 82 of the 16th spiral galaxy was just a common resource planet that was not famous.
The environment there was extremely harsh, and humans would not be able to survive.
However, after the two universes overlapped, there were miraculous changes in Planet No. 82. The level of oxygen and other gases in the atmosphere changed, and it became a habitable planet capable of supporting human life.
At the same time, a large amount of Kryptonite ore was found underneath the surface of Planet No. 82.
Kryptonite ore was the main energy of the Star Federation, and it was the reason that the Star Federation could roam around the universe and dominate the entire Star Federation Universe.
However, Kryptonite was also the basic energy source of the Great Divine Universe. When the two universes overlapped, the two parties who were about to start negotiating, discovered Kryptonite ore on Planet No. 82 of the 16th spiral galaxy.
For nearly a hundred years, starting from Year 10116 to 10200, the two universes launched a war on Planet No. 82 of the 16th spiral galaxy for the survival of each of their species.
That battle was only mentioned briefly in "The History of the Star Federation". In that hundred years, Planet No. 82 of the 16th spiral galaxy was renamed as Battlestar. One can imagine how brutal that war was.
In the autumn of the year 10200, giant bugs appeared in the unstable space above Battlestar, which landed out of nowhere.
Next, there were countless bugs of different varieties, which had heights ranging from the average human height to tens of meters tall, that burst out of the body of the giant bugs. They then maniacally attacked everything in sight.
The battle dynamics changed in the year 10200. Neither the Star Federation nor the Great Divine Universe was able to resist those powerful bugs alone.
The two parties discovered the bugs could grow by devouring all kinds of substances, including human corpses, the debris of wrecked battleships of the Star Federation, buildings on the ground, and so on. Everything they could see was food for them.
Kryptonite ores, in particular, spurred them on, and every time the bugs took over a Kryptonite mine, there would be a spike in their population.
In Year 10202, the Star Federation signed an alliance pact with the Great Divine Universe, and since then, the two universes jointly put up a line of defense against the invasion of the bugs on Battlestar.
The bugs could not communicate but were extremely predatory and aggressive.
In the following 10 thousand years, Battlestar became a strong line of defense between the two universes. Countless Star Federation warriors fought alongside the warriors of the Great Divine World.
Of course, the bugs had also affected the neighboring planets of the two universes in various ways. Although the two universes continued to intercept the bugs, some of them still managed to pass through the line of defense and enter the neighboring planets.
Since the bugs were unable to enter other planets in a large scale manner, they were hindered from outnumbering the human race. Besides, the Star Federation and Great Divine World launched concentrated exterminations of the bugs in the neighboring planets. Consequently, there were no large clusters of bugs.
However, that did not mean the threat posed by the bugs was eradicated on those planets. The larvae of the bugs were extremely difficult to locate, and some could even hide deep underground while preventing scanning devices from detecting them.
In due time, those larvae could grow into various forms based on their environment and begin attacking the lifeforms and beings on the planet.
This endless battle had been a mind-boggling problem for the Star Federation. As more battleships were built by the Star Federation, there were more defenses being put up in the universe to ensure that planets that were farther away from the Star Federation were not affected by the bugs.