**The young man adjusted his black-framed glasses, their edges fitted with a discreet button. A single press, and from his floor-to-ceiling window, he watched crimson dots ignite across Z City's skyline—a silent bloodstain on the night's canvas.**
The lights scattered indiscriminately, indifferent to wealth or district.
*"Fascinating,"* he murmured, spinning an obsidian crystal on his desk. Its polished facets mirrored his distaste, yet the cold weight anchored him. *"In past worlds, these dots might've formed new dynasties. Human destiny is being rewritten."* Once, influence required power, fame, status. Now, Z City pulsed with mass-produced implants—a silent red tide.
*New life always emerges from brutality.*
He pressed his lips to the crystal, whispering a name like a half-remembered elegy: *"Pearla."*
*"I won't watch this city die again."*
*"Atoms—just atoms. Even as they pass through your hair, their faintest tremor reveals the void within."* The unshaven man lit a cigarette, his age obscured by stubble and smoke.
Outside, the sun bled into the horizon. Dusk's glow lent the mundane an eerie warmth.
**The implant gleamed plainly on Liu Yun's wrist.**
Neither she nor Ge Tianci cherished sunsets.
He clasped her implanted hand as twilight thickened, resting his head on her shoulder. Two souls united in their dread of endings.
*"The Martian civilization attacked you?"* Liu Yun asked. Ge Tianci hummed affirmation.
*"During my hospitalization, I'd wake each afternoon to this same sunset—like a farewell. By midnight, my tether to reality would fray. Dreams are cruel, aren't they?"*
As the sun dipped, he kissed her. She hesitated.
*"I disagree. I hate sunsets too. But the stars—they speak. A sanctuary. I love that escape."* She raised a finger to her lips. *"No one else knows about the implants. Just you."* Her returning kiss caught the first moonlight on her red blouse.
*"Do you know their purpose?"*
"Smiley Face" had never answered. The omission gnawed at him.
*"They craft unique worlds for each bearer,"* Liu Yun said, her gaze piercing fate itself. *"We live in separate realms yet intersect. Perhaps we'll even share other friends."* Her tone was light, as if brushing aside cosmic weight.
Ge Tianci saw only chessboards and shattered civilizations. A chill crawled down his spine.
*"Other... friends?"* Barely a whisper.
*"Yes. Deities, higher dimensions—they'd never abandon humanity..."* Her琉璃eyes glowed.
**Dread seized him.** *Gods don't discard humans?* Could implant-bearers truly bond?
Liu Yun, oblivious, nestled against him. Her hair spilled soft as silk. Within him, something fractured audibly.
*This is her world now.* His hand fell limp, then rose to stroke her hair in silent surrender.
---
"Smiley Face," now pure energy, streaked toward Arcturus at sublight speed.
There, balloon-like civilizations drifted among nebulae.
One lobbed a gas-filled sac in playful greeting.
"Smiley Face" caught it, decelerating the orb before discarding it. In this sector of space—vast, near-empty—advanced civilizations adhered to unspoken rules: no grand gestures in shared cosmic quarters outside war.
The Orion Arm's planets and dust were relics of countless civilizations. The universe's immensity demanded mutual respect. Recklessness carried untenable costs.
Arcturans, Pleiadians, Sirius-born—all mere motes in the galactic ocean.
*"The 'Stellar Implant' subjects cling to terra firma. They loathe the void,"* pulsed the balloon-being, its bioluminescent ripples mimicking laughter.
*"They'll never leave solid ground. Neither of us bets on human civilization."*
*"That planet's chaos is… unique."* The alien's patterns stilled. *"Earth's a multidimensional hybrid. Its creatures obey three-dimensional causality—warring, scheming—yet sporadically access eighth-dimensional prowess. Such unpredictability shrouds the entire species."*
"Smiley Face" understood the unsaid. Higher dimensions viewed 3D conflicts as fleeting sparks. But Earth's nonlinear evolution—even in 0.0001-second bursts—could ripple across spacetime.
**All species fear the unknown. Survival demands it.**
*"The Implant Project proceeds unchanged."* "Smiley Face" mimicked the alien's humor, donning glasses that glowed faintly red.
The balloon-being ignored the jest. The glasses disintegrated into cosmic dust, which it swallowed.
*"Free will. That's our wager."* Its patterns flickered.
*"Agreed. But the entry fee is steep,"* "Smiley Face" replied. *"And we'll need many monkeys."