2: paradox

The lecture hall was filled with its own unique, oppressive atmosphere—a blend of book dust and youthful hormones.

Lei Wen found a seat near the back and sank deep into the hard plastic chair, feeling like a dying ember about to burn out completely.

The aftereffects of his all-night gaming session washed over him like a tide. His eyelids felt as heavy as lead, and his brain's thought processor seemed to have been throttled down to its lowest setting, barely sustaining basic life functions.

At the podium, Professor Liu had already begun today's lecture.

He was in his sixties, his hair gray, yet his spirit was vigorous. He wore a pair of old-fashioned black-framed glasses, his eyes sharp with a weariness honed by years of scientific research.

He was an authority in the field of astrophysics in the country and one of the founding members of 'Project Starlight Seeker'—China's version of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program.

"...So, when we talk about the Fermi paradox, what exactly are we talking about?" Professor Liu's voice echoed through the large hall via the microphone. "'Where is everybody?' A simple question that leads to the most profound silence in the universe."

On the massive projection screen behind him was an image of the vast spiral arms of the Milky Way, dotted with countless 'candidate' star systems that could potentially harbor life, densely packed like the sands of the Ganges.

"Let's do some simple math." Professor Liu adjusted his glasses and began calculations on the touchscreen. "According to the Drake equation, even using the most conservative, pessimistic parameters, there should be thousands of planets capable of developing intelligent civilizations in our Milky Way alone. Yet we've seen nothing, heard nothing."

His tone carried a hint of self-mockery and helplessness.

"It's been twenty-seven years since 'Project Starlight Seeker' was launched. We've used the world's largest single-aperture radio telescope to scan the sky day and night, listening to every corner around us, hoping to catch a signal that's not from nature—one that's intelligent, ordered. And the result?"

He paused, scanning the room.

"The result is, aside from the regular pulses of pulsars, the violent radiation of quasars, and the eternal, unchanging noise of the cosmic microwave background radiation... the universe is dead silent."

His words instantly quieted the previously somewhat noisy atmosphere in the hall.

The students felt the heavy sense of loss conveyed between his lines.

It was the truest portrayal of a scholar who had devoted his life to exploring the stars, facing the universe's merciless silence.

"Some say perhaps our technology isn't advanced enough. Like a colony of ants in the Amazon rainforest, they can never understand what an international flight passing overhead is. Perhaps the communication methods of advanced civilizations have transcended the electromagnetic spectrum we can comprehend, entering the realms of gravitational waves, quantum communication, or even higher dimensions."

"Others have proposed darker theories, like the 'great filter'." The image on the screen switched to a funnel model symbolizing the path of civilizational development. "This theory posits that there are one or nearly insurmountable obstacles on the long road from the origin of life to interstellar civilization. Perhaps the emergence of life itself is extremely difficult. Perhaps the appearance of intelligence requires a one-in-a-trillion coincidence. Or perhaps... every civilization self-destructs at a certain stage of development due to nuclear war, AI rebellion, or other reasons we can't even imagine."

Professor Liu's voice grew lower. "Personally, I sometimes lean pessimistically toward the latter possibility. The longer I gaze at the stars, the more I feel the loneliness and fragility of Human Civilization. Perhaps the reason we haven't heard any voices from the stars is because those voices were extinguished forever long before we learned to listen."

Lei Wen forced himself to stay awake and listen. Every theory the professor mentioned, he had experienced in *stellar universe*.

The great filter?

He had personally wiped out several primitive civilizations that didn't know their place.

Communication methods of advanced civilizations?

In the game, selecting any option, moving any unit, was done in real-time, with zero latency.

These grand concepts, which scholars spoke of as distant, filled with philosophical speculation, were to him merely a tech option in a game a few hours ago, or a single mouse click.

This intense sense of dissonance made the real world feel increasingly unreal.

Exhaustion finally overcame his will. His head lolled to the side, resting against the cold desktop as he fell into a deep sleep.

In his fading consciousness, he seemed to return to that familiar universe.

...

"...So, the biggest obstacle we currently face is distance. The speed of light, this 'absolute' law of our universe, is both a messenger of information and an insurmountable prison. Any signal, even from our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, takes over eight years for a round trip. Not to mention star systems hundreds or thousands of light-years away."

Professor Liu was deeply engrossed in his lecture when his peripheral vision caught the figure slumped over a desk, asleep in the back row.

He frowned.

He allowed students to have their own thoughts, even to question his theories, but he could not tolerate openly sleeping in this sacred classroom.

This was not only disrespectful to him but also a desecration of knowledge, of the stars themselves.

"That male student by the window in the back row. Yes, you." Professor Liu's voice, amplified by the microphone, precisely targeted Lei Wen.

Students nearby immediately cast gleeful glances his way. Someone gently nudged Lei Wen's arm.

"Lei Wen, wake up."

Lei Wen jolted awake, sitting bolt upright, looking ahead in confusion.

The podium lights were a bit blinding. It took him a few seconds to shake off the grogginess.

"This student, it seems you've completely mastered my lecture content, even finding it somewhat soporific," Professor Liu said, his tone laced with a barely detectable sarcasm. "In that case, you must be able to answer a few simple questions for me."

Lei Wen stood up, scratching his head somewhat awkwardly.

The eyes of the entire hall were fixed on him.

"First question," Professor Liu asked. "Assuming we actually received an extraterrestrial signal from a hundred light-years away and successfully decoded it, how long would it take for us to have one effective conversation with them?"

The question was simple yet tricky, testing the most basic understanding of the limitation imposed by the speed of light.

Lei Wen answered almost without thinking, the words tumbling out. "At least two hundred years. A hundred years for the signal to arrive, a hundred years for our reply to get back. And that's assuming both sides remain patient and neither civilization undergoes any changes during that time."

His answer was crisp, without any hesitation.

A flicker of surprise passed through Professor Liu's eyes. He nodded.

"Good. Now the second question. If this civilization's technological level far surpasses ours, how should we communicate with them to maximize the effectiveness of information transfer and demonstrate the level of our own civilization?"

This question went beyond pure physics, touching on sociology, linguistics, and other fields.

In Lei Wen's mind, the diplomatic options for first contact with an 'unknown empire' in *stellar universe* flashed instantly.

"Use mathematics and fundamental physics as a universal language," he said slowly. "For example, we could send a signal packet containing sequences of prime numbers, pi, the golden ratio, and other fundamental mathematical constants. Then attach the spectrum of a hydrogen atom and the chemical formula describing our DNA double helix. These are all pieces of information based on universal laws of the cosmos. Any technological civilization that has developed to a certain degree should be able to understand them. This serves as both communication and a subtle display of ourselves—that we have mastered science at the atomic level and understand the essence of life."

His answer was well-structured, logically sound, even more detailed and profound than the textbook standard answer.

A slight stir rippled through the classroom. Many students who had been watching the spectacle now looked at him with surprise and admiration.

The displeasure on Professor Liu's face had completely vanished, replaced by appreciation.

He had only meant to give this sleeping student a hard time, never expecting to reel in a 'big fish'.

"An excellent answer. Please sit." He motioned for Lei Wen to sit, his tone much gentler. "This student is correct. The laws of the universe are the only possible 'bible' we might share with extraterrestrial civilizations. However, even so..."

He was about to continue his lecture when the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated violently.

Normally, he would never answer a call during a lecture.

But this number had a special ringtone—a top-priority encrypted communication from the Beijing Astronomical Research Institute.

His expression changed instantly.

Professor Liu said 'sorry' to the students, immediately turned, and quickly walked to a corner of the podium to answer the call.

"It's me, Old Liu," he said, his voice low, but students in the front rows could still faintly hear.

A voice, equally aged but filled with urgency, came from the other end, slightly distorted due to signal encryption: "Old Liu! Drop everything immediately! There's a major discovery at the 'Sky Eye'!"

Professor Liu's heart sank. "What discovery? Another anomalous wobble from a pulsar? Or some speculative fast radio burst?" Years of disappointment made him instinctively skeptical.

"No! Neither!" The voice on the phone suddenly rose, brimming with unbelievable excitement and trembling. "In the direction of Boötes, coordinates XXXX, about 13 light-years from Earth... we've discovered a new star system!"

"What?" Professor Liu's hand gripping the phone tightened. "A new star? Are you insane? We've scanned that region tens of thousands of times! Every star there has a clear designation and record! How could one just appear out of thin air!"

"I'm not insane! It's absolutely true!" The other person's breathing became rapid. "Just twenty minutes ago, intense gravitational anomalies and spectral signals suddenly appeared at that location! It's like... like something just 'appeared' there! The signal is very stable. Spectral analysis shows it's a G2V-type yellow dwarf star, almost identical to our sun! And... and its gravitational signals indicate at least a dozen planets orbiting it!"

Professor Liu felt his blood freeze in an instant.

A star system appearing out of nowhere?

This wasn't science fiction anymore; this was mythology.

It completely overturned the view of the universe he had built over a lifetime, based on observation and physical laws.

"Impossible... absolutely impossible!" he hissed into the phone. "Is it equipment malfunction? Or interference from the gravitational lensing effect of some unknown celestial body?"

"All equipment self-checks are normal! We've already used observatories in Yunnan, Xinjiang, even Chile for cross-verification, plus our country's space telescope! Everyone saw the same result! That star system, it just... appeared! Old Liu, you have to come immediately! The National Academy of Sciences has activated the highest-level emergency protocol! We need you!"

The call ended.

Professor Liu stood frozen by the podium, not moving for a full half minute.

His mind was blank, the words from the phone call echoing in his ears.

Thirteen light-years away... a star system extremely similar to the Solar System... appearing out of thin air...

He had sought, explored, and been disappointed his entire life.

He had just been on this podium, lecturing young students about the dead silence of the universe and human loneliness.

And now, a single phone call had shattered the beliefs of a lifetime.

He slowly turned to face the hundreds of students in the hall.

His face was pale, his lips trembling slightly. His eyes were filled with unprecedented shock, bewilderment, and a hint of... excitement.

"Students," his voice was hoarse, "today's lecture... is ending early. I have... an urgent matter to attend to."

With that, he didn't even have time to gather his lecture notes. He grabbed his phone and stumbled out of the classroom in hurried steps, leaving behind a room full of students exchanging bewildered looks.

...

Lei Wen walked out of the lecture hall amidst the chattering crowd.

Professor Liu's phone call and his subsequent distraught reaction made everyone sense something unusual.

"What happened? Something with Professor Liu's family?"

"Doesn't seem like it. I think I heard him mention something about 'Sky Eye', 'observatory'..."

"Could it be they discovered aliens? Haha, that would be the news story of the century!"

Students around him chattered with guesses, mostly in a joking tone.

No one truly believed that in those few short minutes, human history might have been completely rewritten.

Lei Wen didn't join the discussion. He just felt tired, his mind a jumbled mess—the professor's Loss of composure, the exchange in class, and the lingering sleepiness all intertwined.

He walked onto the tree-lined path outside the teaching building. The afternoon sun filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows.

A gentle breeze blew, clearing his muddled head a little.

And in that instant, the brief, hazy dream from the classroom, like a night sky illuminated by lightning, suddenly became crystal clear.

He saw...

A group of beings.

They had slender builds, pale skin, with smooth golden hair and long, pointed ears.

They wore well-tailored, faintly shimmering silver-white uniforms, their expressions serious and focused.

They resembled the elves of myth and legend.

They stood in a room filled with futuristic technology, like the bridge of a command ship or some high-level conference room.

Outside the massive floor-to-ceiling windows was the deep cosmos and a star emitting a soft glow.

At the center of this group of 'elves' was a large circular conference table. The table's surface displayed a radiant, flowing holographic Star Map.

That Star Map...

Lei Wen's footsteps halted abruptly.

He clearly remembered that at the center of that Star Map was a yellow star.

Around it orbited eight planets. The third one was a beautiful planet covered in blue and white patterns.

Beside the Star Map was an annotation in script he couldn't understand yet felt strangely familiar.

And on the faces of those 'elves', he saw a complex expression—a mix of panic and confusion, ultimately replaced by a fanaticism born of finding hope.

Lei Wen shuddered.

He recognized them.

Those 'elves'... weren't they the 'Faleim People' he had personally created?

That high-tech room... wasn't it the interaction background 'Central Council chamber' he had chosen in the game?

And that holographic Star Map was undoubtedly the one he knew all too well—

The Solar System.

"No... impossible..." Lei Wen muttered to himself. He shook his head vigorously, trying to dislodge the absurd thought.

It was just a dream.

A perfectly normal hallucination born from an all-night gaming session, where day's thoughts became night's dreams.

But why was that dream so vivid?

The expressions on the Faleim People's faces, the serious atmosphere of their discussion, and that incredibly precise Star Map of the Solar System were all deeply etched into his mind.

A Unexplained chill crept up his spine.

He looked up at the azure sky.

The sunlight was still warm. The world was still normal.

But in his heart, an uncontrollable, crazy guess began to form.

Professor Liu's emergency call from the Beijing Astronomical Observatory...

And the 'Faleim People' he had just dreamed of—lost in a strangeness universe, finally turning their gaze toward the Solar System...

Could there be... some connection between these two things?