Kevin walked forward, guided by the data terminal, like a bumpkin entering a city. He scanned his surroundings with his eyes, though he managed to avoid any more unsophisticated behavior. They left the teleportation platform and arrived at the silver-white columns at the other end of the hall. Kevin then noticed that each column was preceded by a circle of floating crystal panels, emitting a blue-white light. As he approached one of them, the panels grew brighter, and a melodious chime, like wind chimes, filled his mind. "Focus on the panel," the data terminal prompted. "Because many races lack limbs, the general equipment here supports telepathy."
Kevin no longer cared about the underlying principles of the gadgets here, but simply followed their instructions. He had just focused his attention on the crystal panel closest to him when he heard the wind chimes in his mind suddenly rise in pitch, as if signaling a command. Then, the column in front of him brightened, a distorted screen of light flickered around it, and a tall, young woman appeared before him.
She was a very beautiful woman, with fair skin and a tall, though somewhat thin, frame. She wore a light green dress, though the style was a bit odd, and the material looked like some kind of smooth leather. "Hello," the young woman said, bowing politely. "I'm Station Ten's guide. Are you the Inquisitor?"
Kevin was a little stunned. "Uh... yes. By the way, why do you look so Earthling?"
Kevin knew he was being rude the moment he said this, because the data terminal was bumping his elbow hard, but he was genuinely curious. Ever since he'd heard that Kuiper Station was run by aliens, he'd imagined a bunch of little green men scampering around in the spaceship. He hadn't expected the first person he'd met here to be a pretty, almost human-looking woman. It didn't fit his image of aliens. Where were the little green men?
"I'm from the Mosa-Mobico civilization," the young woman said, unfazed, introducing herself with a professional smile. "We're indeed very similar to the humans of this star system, but... more than half of intelligent life is like this, right?"
The data terminal then hurriedly explained a common sense question in Kevin's mind: "Don't you notice that Commander Raven looks quite human? I tell you, this is the result of information disturbance. Because the first great being to appear in the void had this appearance, countless universes that were born afterward were affected by this information disturbance, and more than half of all intelligent life evolved into humanoid or humanoid forms. This is how the saying in many legends that 'human form imitates the gods' comes from. Think about werewolves, vampires, sirens, and so on. Even demons have all four limbs and five senses, don't they? That's it."
Kevin felt like he had heard a very mysterious term: "Information disturbance? Explain it to me."
"You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you," the data terminal said in a boastful tone, but then continued to explain. "In short, it's an extension of the Grand Unified Theory of Information." In the theory of information unification, everything in the world is viewed as a collection of information. There's no boundary between so-called "matter" and "energy," nor between the abstract and the concrete. Information constructs everything through description. Mass, temperature, density, hardness, color, and other information piled together form an object. From a molecule to the entire universe, it's all a moving hologram. This is information unification. Based on this foundation, a sufficiently powerful source of information interference can have surreal effects on the entire universe, even affecting countless universes simultaneously. Imagine a strong magnet placed in a magnetic field. After the oldest gods in the void chose their appearance, more than half of the worlds were affected, ultimately leading to the rampant spread of the human template... Are you dizzy? It's okay if you're dizzy. Now let's get back to business.
Kevin nodded blankly, thinking to himself that he shouldn't dwell on this issue. Aliens can look however they want. Just consider it a case of not paying for membership when God created them, and the free skins aren't enough... "Can we take you to the transfer ship now?" The guide patiently watched Kevin's daze before reminding him, "We've received orders from our superiors. Your assigned ship is on standby at Connection Port 4."
"Oh, oh," Kevin snapped out of his trance and nodded quickly. "Let's go, let's go."
The guide smiled. She made a strange gesture in the air beside him, and Kevin suddenly felt a surge of weightlessness. Then, the scene before him shook and distorted violently, as if on a faulty screen. He found himself leaving the transfer hall and entering a long, wide corridor. "How amazing..." Nangong Wuyue exclaimed exaggeratedly. "Does moving around here rely on teleportation?"
"No. Teleportation is only used for inter-area movement," the guide explained. "Kuiper Station is a discrete space station, built along the asteroid belt and divided into several sections. There was originally a large asteroid here, but it disintegrated for unknown reasons. The remaining fragments are very densely packed together, perfect for use as reference points. We've divided the station into several sections, each built on a few large fragments, connected by guide beams or connecting walls. I'll open the side chord shield and you'll see. This is the external connecting corridor, where you can see 60% of the station."
As the guide spoke, she gently touched the wall of the adjacent corridor. A very slight tremor spread from beneath everyone's feet, and the alloy wall on one side of the corridor slowly lowered. Kevin noticed that as the wall lowered, a very thin transparent barrier appeared over the opening left by the wall. This transparent barrier was clearly not solid, but rather some kind of energy shield. But before that, Kevin noticed something else: "Wait, you two are communicating without any problems?"
Kevin pointed at Nangong Wuyue and the guide, a look of astonishment on his face.
He was certain the guide wasn't speaking Earth's language, and Nangong Wuyue had just arrived at his house and apparently hadn't had time to install the translation plugin. Yet, the two of them were communicating seamlessly. Kevin only just realized how incredible this was.
"Do you think Commander Raven had been visiting her in dreams for half a month straight just because he was too chatty?" the data terminal snorted. "Because this siren was so slow, Commander Raven simply took advantage of the dream to complete her transformation. To the goddess, it's nothing."
"Wow!" Nangong Wuyue clutched her head in shock. "Transformation? Did you install some weird thing in my head?!"
Kevin was a little stunned. He knew Raven 12345 was prone to messing around, but he hadn't expected him to be so careless. It was clear that Earthling logic couldn't keep up with the goddess's imagination!
Of course, what he wanted to say more than that was: If there was such a convenient method, then why was he lying in the coffin in the first place?! "Don't worry, don't worry. It's not a bad thing," Kevin said, seeing Nangong Wuyue's face almost on the verge of tears. "I'm just giving you a lifetime foreign language cheat. Others want it but don't have it yet. You're much luckier than us. We've all taken turns lying in coffins for something as rubbish as this, you know?"
Nangong Wuyue: "?"
At this moment, a broadcast came from nowhere, interrupting Kevin and the siren girl's conversation: "Attention, corridor side chord shutters are open, corridor side chord shutters are open. Visitors with children please hold their children tightly. Visitors with heart problems please take your medication. Visitors with agoraphobia please turn your back to the viewfinder. Thank you for your cooperation. This site is a small business and we will not accept negative reviews."
Kevin: "..."
"The stationmaster is a very interesting guy," the guide girl smiled awkwardly. "He likes to tinker with the space station mainframe."
Kevin didn't answer, for he was completely stunned by the scene outside the viewfinder:
Outside, the vast expanse of space drifted, seemingly disassembled, in the darkness. As the guide had explained, the station was built atop a cluster of meteorite "pedestals." Numerous grayish-white asteroid fragments, as massive as small mountains, were densely distributed throughout the area. Silver-white or silver-gray alloy structures could be seen on nearly every fragment, and few two looked alike, as they were custom-built to the scale of their respective "pedestals." Those asteroid fragments might have drifted off into the depths of space on their own trajectories, but now they were held together by bright connecting beams or massive alloy barriers, forming a loose structure.
Like a shattered mountain range floating in space, this was Kuiper Station, and it was even larger than Kevin had imagined. "The starship landing area is behind us, protected by an alloy shield. It can't be seen from here," the guide touched the viewfinder, and the side panels slowly closed again. "Let's hurry over now, we're about to take off."
Kev knew there would be plenty of opportunities to broaden his horizons, so he pulled Nangong Wuyue, who was leaning against the viewfinder, a little reluctant to leave, and followed the guide. After twisting and turning in the connecting corridors for a long time, they finally arrived at the starship landing area, the fourth connecting port.
"Holy crap..."
Although he had already made up his mind not to make a fuss, Kevin couldn't help but exclaim once he entered the fourth connecting port.
This place is so... so... so big!
The entire connecting port was a vast, roughly rectangular, empty area, its length, width, and height so vast that they were difficult to discern with the naked eye. Constructed of a solid, silvery-white alloy, one end housed various massive equipment, connecting gates, and a personnel platform. The other side was surprisingly open to space, offering a view of the incredibly bright stars beyond. However, Kevin observed closely and discovered that this open side was also protected by a transparent barrier. He almost feared he would be sucked out.
Amidst this indescribably vast and empty space, a massive, light blue spaceship awaited them.
Below the spaceship, numerous figures bustling about could be seen. Kevin breathed a sigh of relief: "Huh! Finally, I see the little green men."