Xyrin Empire

Unlike the ordinary citizens who can only watch another version of the "Moon Exploration Documentary," we are watching the live CCAV broadcast of the moon landing scene while simultaneously viewing the complete footage of the Moon Car moving from the perspective of the lunar surface monitors and listening to the encrypted channel inside the ground station. I found myself enjoying this alien perspective of watching humans—this thing might be addictive, like voyeurism.

Lin Xue shook her head beside me and hit the nail on the head: "Voyeurism is one of the seven deadly sins of aliens, oh, Wood, you are getting less and less like an Earthling."

I smiled awkwardly, knowing the seven deadly sins Lin Xue mentioned about aliens. It's something this girl summed up with Qianqian out of boredom, including voyeurism, mucus, parasitism, streaking, crashing, cross-species love, and being killed by Americans. Voyeurism is the most powerful original sin, rooted in technological advantage, while being killed by Americans is the stupidest original sin, rooted in plot necessity...

"...Stable landing achieved, there's a huge circular mountain ahead, 'Zero' energy readings are extremely high, though interference is not obvious..."

From the monitored channel, we can clearly hear the Earth base station analyzing the information returned by the Moon Car. Now, except for that unlucky NASA Moon Car digging dirt and Visca being ready to jolt the out-of-power Russian probe, the only remaining "Dark Side of the Moon" Lunar Lander has become the focus of all humanity. In front of it lies the source of "Zero" energy, which appeared half a month ago and almost turned the world upside down (luckily suppressed by forces from both sides). The newly formed impact plains and the occasional shining glassy rocks on the circular mountain wall have made Earth's scientists thrilled. At this point, nobody questions the necessity of this reckless and even hasty action anymore, nor how to settle national conspiracies. A fact is stirring everyone's nerves: the cosmic radiative source that struck the lunar surface and brought incredible energy is right ahead.

It might rescue Earth from the energy crisis, provide humanity with inexhaustible energy, contain incredible knowledge from the depths of the universe, or even be an alien spaceship (this guess seems believable). All these potential discoveries make one's imagination wander, even though the study of "Zero" energy has been tacitly banned by all nations. But if its emission source is right in front of you, can you resist taking a peek?

"...Continuing to move forward, very smoothly. The ground is very smooth, like a beach washed over by something, with signs of melting found all around...radiating patterns, clearly a crash site..."

"The AI discovered some radiation focal points, starting automatic rock sample collection...Raise the camera a bit, I seem to see a flash ahead, passed to the left."

"I confirm, I saw a flash too, on the left. We might see something extraordinary...seems like a bit of trouble..."

"There's interference; the 'Dark Side of the Moon' entered a strong energy environment. Fortunately, we can still control it. Try to enhance the ground station signal; the 'Zero' energy enrichment is very high ahead."

"...According to the design, after losing contact with the ground station, the Moon Car will automatically determine the energy focal point, collect enough rock samples and photos, then return along the original path. But hopefully, we won't need this design...Oh, well done, the signal is stable again, though the image has some interference, communications have resumed. Still advancing towards the direction of that previous flash, the second rock sample has been collected."

The Moon exploration vehicle trudged forward with slow speed and cautious attitude through the dust-covered lunar valleys. Earth's scientists could not see this; they could only observe the surroundings through the Moon Car's perspective. But we, through the moon's own perspective, could see the complete scene, and Visca also watched the footage with interest, although she, as the moon itself, didn't need to perceive all this through monitoring equipment. Yet, she was watching intently and stopped bothering with the other two probes.

And just when the Moon Car finally slowly crossed the circular mountain's boundary and gradually moved towards the direction of the flash, something absolutely should not appear suddenly appeared on the screen.

A hint of green appeared on the moon's perspective screen, standing right in front of the Moon Car. After a short delay, another holographic image also appeared on the CCAV broadcast screen with the same green figure.

Very, very, very familiar green, small arms and legs, green dress, long hair down to shoulders, and one meter zero nine height.

At that moment, our whole family was shocked. Ding Ling, Lin Feng, and Sally, who were brought to watch the show, were shocked, and on the other side of the distant ocean, a bunch of elite people and scientists in the "Dark Side of the Moon" ground control station were also shocked, while the figure maintained a wide-eyed confrontation with the Lunar Lander, seemingly shocked as well...

The cries in the Spiritual Connection were extremely shrill, and I could almost imagine a certain Fake Lolita Priestess with a world-ending expression: though the screen showed that the "lunar lady's" expression was flat and indifferent, I was very sure that someone's real expression at this moment was like losing their father.

"Ol... Ol... Ol ol ola ala... da da da da!!" Lilina wailed in the Spiritual Connection, "I... I... I seriously messed up this time!!"

I shouted in the Spiritual Connection with grief and indignation: "You damn brat! Why the hell are you jumping around in front of the Lunar Lander!?"

It's fine to be restless, but how could that crazy girl not know to turn invisible! Where did her usual enthusiasm for sneaky backstabbing go? Why are you being so blatant at a time like this!

Just as Lilina and I were exclaiming at each other, the ground station channel we were monitoring finally transmitted a delayed shout from a few seconds ago, uttered by an English-speaking old man whose voice was unusually high-pitched for his age: "God!! What has appeared on the screen!"

"A little girl, there's a little girl appearing on the moon, standing right in front of our moon car... I'm not joking! She's just standing there, less than five meters from the lens!"

The listening channel was instantly buzzing with various chaotic shouts and loud commands that made my ears itch. I quickly switched to the internal channel with Lilina, and began my iron-fisted reprimand: "You crazy girl, what kind of mess have you caused!"

In the footage, Lilina kept a blank expression while standing face to face with the moon car, neither making a move, but within the spiritual connection, the voice of that fake Lolita carried a tone on the verge of tears: "Boss, this was really a mistake, a mistake; I just wanted to take a distant look at the Lunar Lander on the moon, but I ended up teleporting directly here!"

"It would have been nice if you looked at the surroundings when teleporting," I exchanged a helpless glance with Sandora, "now it's too late to interfere with any signals."

"Who knew something so coincidental would happen," Lilina's voice came through, sounding aggrieved, "everyone makes mistakes, you know. The drop point was supposed to be far from the Lunar Lander, but I forgot that this thing moves..."

While Lilina and I were muttering, the chaos in the listening channel finally began to subside, and the person in charge of commanding this operation, faced with such an unprecedented situation, thought of the first thing to do, which was to verify the authenticity of the footage transmitted back from the moon.

Unfortunately, the footage was real, and the more it was verified, the more genuine it became. The moon car indeed captured an incomparably clear image of a little girl on the lunar surface, further confirmed by the landing spaceship of another probe flying over the moon.

"Listen, now stay calm, do not allow any movement from the moon car if 'she' truly exists; do not do anything to disturb 'her'," the ground station's operations commander spoke rapidly, "Has the authenticity of this image been confirmed? I know, confirm it again!"

"One hundred percent genuine and existent."

"Alright, wait for a moment. Before the other side takes any action, the moon car absolutely cannot move... Has the external broadcast been cut off?"

Upon hearing this, those of us who were eavesdropping exchanged a tacit smile, glancing at the TV airing Brain Platinum commercials: The supposed live broadcast seen by the common folk was not the real-time footage from the moon, but rather a processed video delayed by five minutes; after all, there's no telling what secretive things the moon car might discover on the moon, things impossible for the general public to see.

Thanks to this five-minute delay, only those controlling the moon car actions, along with scientists and officials from various countries, actually saw the humanoid figure on the moon.

At this point, we were urgently discussing how to provide Lilina with a post-incident cleanup plan for her slip-up.

The situation could escalate or diminish; if Sandora's view prevails, leaving it unaddressed means Lilina could simply vanish, leaving humans with an eternal mystery without an answer. Science is full of inexplicable phenomena, a sudden appearance of a human figure on the lunar surface is indeed terrifying but destined to be known by only a few, having little impact on the whole of human society, at most becoming gossip news in many years when a loose-lipped former government insider leaks it, much like countless alien autopsy experiments.

But those who know the truth might not rest easy. How much fruitless research effort will humans expend on the brief "moon surface silhouette" seen in those few seconds today? This is almost an immediately conceivable result.

"Ah Jun, maybe I have a suggestion for you..."

While Pandora and Visca were discussing whether to drop a bomb at the "Dark Side of the Moon" command center on Earth for total eradication or burn information storage devices worldwide for a proof-free solution, Qianqian suddenly tugged on my sleeve, speaking with eager anticipation.

Everyone fell silent on the spot.

I held Qianqian's hand with tears in my eyes and gave her a big hug amidst her baffled expression, "Be good, finish writing your book 'Time History' when you have the chance, don't get involved in this matter."

Qianqian pouted and nodded, and we wiped the cold sweat off our foreheads.

"Forget it, let's play along," Sandora saw the need for a resolution, even someone like Qianqian couldn't help but want to intervene, so she reluctantly shook her head and contacted Lilina, who was confused in front of the Lunar Lander, "The human lunar lander's signal is conveniently disrupted, the people at the ground station can't see things clearly on the screen, take this opportunity to disguise yourself as a..."

Sandora briefly explained her idea, and the clever Lilina instantly understood, sending us all a smiley emoji through the Spiritual Connection.

Meanwhile, through the Empire's ubiquitous surveillance systems, images from the "Dark Side of the Moon" planning center somewhere in Europe were transmitted to us.

In this huge command center, ground operators were nervously adjusting the images transmitted from the lunar lander, since entering the interior of the impact crater, the lander had faced strong energy interference. These interferences did not interrupt the Earth-Moon connection but made the images returned by the latter somewhat blurry, thanks to this blur, Lilina's image appeared on the command center's big screen as if covered with a mosaic and interference lines.

The mosaic wasn't severe enough, still allowing people to clearly see her face and figure, but it was sufficient for Lilina to use the image's blur to transform her body, gradually changing from solid to a semi-transparent phantom.

This transformation wasn't obvious, and we used intrusion methods to alter all of the moon exploration plan's video material details, so when people looked back, they'd find that the green figure on the moon was always just a non-physical projection.

Around the appearance of this little girl on the lunar surface, many experts began tense emergency meetings without any conference tables or formal speeches, this sudden discussion revolved around one central issue: the little girl who appeared a minute ago in front of the lunar lander, was confirmed as a real image on the lunar surface and hasn't taken any action yet, what does she signify?

Some speculated it might be a technical failure, some thought it was an alien visitor, some said it was a mystic phenomenon of the Universe hypnotizing Earthlings, others brought up mysticism and religion, and someone suggested it was a Korean... Intense debate went on for a few minutes until the situation on the moon started changing abruptly.

Since earlier, none of the ground control staff in the command hall dared to move the lunar lander even a bit, they were very cautious, afraid of any unnecessary movement causing misunderstanding with "Moon Surface Creatures," over a hundred pairs of eyes were focused on the largest screen when the unexpected happened: the little girl on the moon suddenly smiled gently at the camera.

The ripple effect was immense, leading to a small uproar among the hall's staff, but being seasoned professionals, apart from their shock at seeing a living human on the moon earlier, they remained calm this time, experts didn't bother to continue analyzing whether the little girl's appearance was God's joke or the gift of truth, instead, they attempted to communicate with Lilina on the lunar surface.

The smile hinted at multiple meanings, but the most clear and direct one was: the other party can actively convey information.

Thus, communication was possible.

Upon hearing the experts' conclusion, Lilina sent me a puzzled and amused emoji.

Ground control operators started trying to use the lunar lander as a medium to communicate with the girl on the moon, but this was a difficult task since it was only a probe robot, no matter how brilliant the designer, they wouldn't have foresight to equip such a probe robot with a chat box, anyone who would do such frivolous things might as well write novels, so the control staff tried making the cumbersome lunar lander perform friendly gestures, and had to be extra cautious to avoid any semblance of hostility, they made the lunar lander wobble in place, bob its camera up and down, draw circles on the ground with its mechanical arm, it all appeared increasingly bizarre, Lilina kept up a sweet smile for ten seconds while in the Spiritual Connection she was fuming at us, "Boss! I desperately want to launch this stupid thing into space!"

She only dared to rant like that, after watching the comedic display for a while, feeling she was treated like an idiot, Lilina suppressed her anger well, using her usual sweet facade when fooling believers, she lightly shook her head at the lunar lander, and airily turned to walk in another direction.

Light as a shadow—as people realized, the figure in front of the lunar lander was non-physical, she was semi-transparent and seemed merely a projection.

"What's 'she' doing?" Someone posed this question but quickly reacted, "Follow her!"

As expected, the lunar lander hesitated only a moment before starting up, lumbering behind Lilina.

Already in a semi-transparent state, Lilina walked slowly, accommodating the human lunar lander's speed, which annoyed her immensely given her limited patience, but as the one who caused the trouble today, she had to unconditionally act mysterious and sweet like a "Guide," while throwing tantrums within the Spiritual Connection.

"Boss, this stupid thing is so slow..."

"Boss, can I kick it from behind?"

"Boss, I want to eat a chocolate cupcake."

"Boss, I'm begging you, let me blast this thing away!"

Sandora had already shared her thoughts with me, so I was working with Sandora to jointly guide Lilina's actions:

"Stop fussing, just keep walking."

"Slow your pace more, try to appear graceful... I know you're only 1.09 meters tall, who said someone 1.09 meters can't be graceful, need Mercury Lamp to teach you!?"

"Dummy, don't overdo the semi-transparent effect, or it'll be too contrasting with before!"

"...The lunar lander wasn't filming under your skirt, misbehave and no dinner when you return!"

Those human experts could never imagine such a dialogue was what decided the entire event's direction at this historic moment.

Finally, Lilina guided the lunar lander to the protruding glass-like monolith, through the lunar lander's perspective, the ground-based experts watched in awe as this challenge to scientific norms, the "Moon Surface Creature," gave them one last smile then slipped behind the monolith, disappearing.

"Disappeared... the target disappeared... she seems to have merged into the stone, her traces vanished."

The experts in the command hall became bewildered, and then, their attention shifted to another thing.

That was the enormous crystal-like stone block right in front of them.

The Ghost Energy reaction was unprecedentedly strong—for Earthlings.

(Okay, there was a small bug when uploading this Chapter, if you're seeing this sentence, this is the revised Chapter, it's just a minor issue, won't affect reading.) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to vote for it on Qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation.)