Chapter 133

Above the celestial screen, the pair of eyes burning in the darkness showed no wavering.

Rainwater splashed into his eye sockets, and he didn't even blink.

"I am Wallfacer Luo Ji, and I am now speaking to the Trisolaran World."

"His words, through that tiny device on his chest, were captured by a Sophon, crossed four light‑years of void, and were transmitted in real time to the lifeless main control room of the Trisolaran First Fleet."

"The thing on my wrist is a life‑sign detector."

"It connects via a transmitter to the 'Cradle' system."

"You've surely heard of Wallfacer Leidiayazi from two centuries ago, so you must know what the Cradle system is."

"Luo Ji's narration was utterly calm, without a ripple, as if he were reading a eulogy that had nothing to do with him."

"The signal from this detector, through the Cradle system's link, can reach the 3614 nuclear warheads deployed by the Snow Project in solar orbit."

"The signal is emitted once per second, keeping these nuclear warheads in a non‑launch state."

"If I die, the Cradle system's hold signal will vanish, and all the nuclear warheads will detonate."

"The oil‑film substance carried by the warheads will form 3614 clumps of interstellar dust encircling the Sun upon detonation."

"From a distance, beneath the veil of those dust clouds, the Sun will flicker in visible light and other high‑frequency bands."

"All the nuclear warheads on the Sun are arranged by me; they can make the Sun's flicker transmit three simple images."

"Just like the three images I sent out two centuries ago."

"In the celestial screen's image, Luo Ji's speech paused slightly, as if giving the enemy four light‑years away time to digest."

"Then he dropped the real bomb."

"But unlike before, this time what is transmitted is the relative position of the Trisolaran World and the thirty surrounding stars."

"The instant his words fell, the celestial screen began a rapid demonstration. As the 3614 nuclear warheads detonated in a specific sequence and position, the shockwaves from the explosions pushed the oil‑film material, unfurling huge, irregular 'curtains' across the Sun's surface."

"These 'curtains', illuminated by sunlight, reflected a distinct pattern of light and dark."

The camera zoomed out rapidly, pulling out to the solar system, then to the galactic arm of the Milky Way.

From the distant reaches of the universe, the star named the Sun was flickering at a strange frequency.

Each flicker was a set of coordinates.

The coordinates of the Three-Body star system!

Above the firmament, brilliant golden subtitles burst forth line by line!

【The true intention of the snowfield project——】

【Using the Sun as a light source, the oil film as a canvas, and nuclear bombs as brushes!】

【At the moment Luo Ji's heart stopped beating, broadcast the coordinates of the Three-Body civilization to the entire universe, forming an absolute deterrence of the Dark Forest!】

The myriad realms chat group, collectively petrified.

Time seemed to freeze for three seconds.

Then——

Sai Bo Tan planet.

Wei Zhen Tian sprang up violently from the iron throne, his massive metal body slamming into the control panel ahead, sending sparks flying.

His electronic voice reached the highest decibel ever recorded on Sai Bo Tan,

It was a roar mixed with madness, fury, and extreme release, nearly tearing apart the base's sound system!

【Sai Bo Tan—Wei Zhen Tian】: Ahhhhhhh!!!

【Sai Bo Tan—Wei Zhen Tian】: I told you!!! I fucking told you!!!

【Sai Bo Tan—Wei Zhen Tian】: @Fire Shadow world—Uchiha Sasuke!! You blind carbon-based waste!! Come look!! Open your Sharingan and see clearly!!

Wei Zhen Tian paced madly around the base, his red optical sensors flashing at the edge of overload, he was practically howling at the entirety of the myriad realms.

【Sai Bo Tan—Wei Zhen Tian】: He never gave up! From start to finish!

From that damned snow mountain manor, to hibernation, to losing the status of wallfacer.

To being discarded by the whole world like trash, to digging his own grave before the tombstone—all part of the game!

【Sai Bo Tan—Wei Zhen Tian】: He turned his life into a detonator! If he died, the Three-Body would be finished! If he lived, the Three-Body would have to obey!

【Sai Bo Tan—Wei Zhen Tian】: This is the true wallfacer! This is cosmic-level strategic deception!

He deceived the Three-Body people, he deceived all of humanity, he deceived all civilizations of the myriad realms, including you, this self-important carbon-based fool!

I, Wei Zhen Tian, am the one who's right!!

Fire Shadow world.

Uchiha Sasuke stood on the broken statue in the Valley of the End.

The night wind fluttered his cloak, but his whole body froze.

His Sharingan, which perceives all things, locked firmly onto that line of golden subtitles on the firmament, locked onto that mad yet brilliant hologram of the cosmic project.

An ordinary human lacking chakra, ninjutsu, or any supernatural power, used tens of thousands of nuclear bombs as brushes, a star as canvas, and finally turned his own heartbeat into the trigger to destroy an advanced civilization.

Sasuke's lips twitched.

He did not reply immediately.

The hilt of the Grass-Cutting sword creaked in his grip.

On the myriad realms public screen, only Wei Zhen Tian's frenzied barrage madly flooded the screen.

Silence lasted a full ten seconds.

Then, Sasuke slowly, word by word, typed a line on the public screen.

【Fire Shadow world—Uchiha Sasuke】: ……I admit it.

【Fire Shadow world—Uchiha Sasuke】: He, is a hero.

After sending that line, he seemed to have exhausted all his strength. But that damned pride still made him add a sentence.

【Naruto World—Uchiha Sasuke】: However, the sky curtain has not ended yet. Whether the Trisolaran civilization still has countermeasures remains unknown, or perhaps this Wallfacer's deterrence is not even taken seriously by the Trisolarans.

Land of Light, Universal Defense Force Headquarters.

Ultra Father and the Ultra Brothers collectively fell into silence.

Taro's eye sockets reddened: "He... he bore everything alone."

"The whole world abandoned him, yet he still fights for all humanity."

Saiwen slowly lowered the ice axe in his hand.

He watched Luo Ji's image on the sky curtain—the young man lying in the mud pit, without even a decent piece of clothing on his body, his chest flickering with the faint light of a heartbeat monitor.

Saiwen's voice was unusually low: "He forged a sword pointed at the enemy with his own death."

Xikali pushed up the conceptual mirror on his nose bridge: "From a tactical standpoint, this is textbook-level 'mutually assured destruction' strategy. But from a human perspective..."

He didn't finish.

Ultra Father continued speaking for him, his words filled with utmost reverence for tiny life.

"From a human perspective, this is the greatest thing an ordinary person can do."

On the sky curtain, in the pitch-black rainy night, cold rain pattered.

Luo Ji lay in the grave he had dug himself, silently counting down the time in his heart.

Thirty.

Twenty-nine.

Twenty-eight.

……

Each second felt as long as a century, the icy muddy water taking away his last body heat.

Even Luo Ji himself, to the end, was unclear how many seconds remained.

When he opened his eyes again, his field of vision reflected the sophon's frightened response.

In the air, that point of sophon light flickered wildly, condensing into three bloody red characters.

"Stop!!!"

"Stop!!!"

"Stop!!!"

Seeing the sophon so panicked, Luo Ji gasped heavily, muddy water flooding his mouth, yet he tasted a hint of sweetness.

He guessed right.

"I, can we discuss terms?"

The sophon quickly gave a reply, the speed of text switching so fast that afterimages appeared.

"Put down your gun first, then we can negotiate properly."

Luo Ji refused; his answer was just one word: "No."

The sophon yielded, the text becoming humble.

"State your demands."

Luo Ji said word by word: "Now, let the droplet—or probe—stop transmitting radio waves toward the sun."

The sophon replied instantly: "Already done as you said."

Luo Ji himself was stunned: "That fast?"

"I have a second demand: turn the nine droplets advancing toward the solar system around."

The sophon still replied instantly: "Already done as you said."

Luo Ji: "The final condition: the Trisolaran fleet may not cross the Oort Cloud!"

Sophon: "The fleet will begin to turn ten minutes after reaching Earth, and after about thirty minutes of turning, humanity's space observation system will be able to see the trajectory."

Luo Ji nodded, finally letting out a breath of relief.

And the sophon continued to display subtitles: "Please put down your gun!"

Luo Ji explained: "There will be no problem; my device is far more advanced than Rediaz's, and as long as I stay alive, there will be no issue."

On the sky curtain, golden subtitles appeared.

【Trisolaran First Fleet urgently convened a supreme council. Under Luo Ji's deterrence, the Trisolaran civilization was forced to accept a ceasefire.】

【The droplet withdrew from the solar blockade orbit.】

【The Trisolaran fleet halted its advance.】

【Human civilization, at the last moment, gained a chance to breathe.】

The myriad-worlds audience saw this, a sense of relief after the catastrophe spreading through all chat channels.

Galactic Peoples Union, Grand Marshal Sidney slowly sat back in his chair, closed his eyes.

She typed a line on the public screen:

【Galactic Peoples Union—Grand Marshal Sidney】: Wallfacer Luo Ji. I, Sidney, formally apologize to you. I once called you a parasite, a degenerate, a weevil. Now I understand, you are braver than any soldier I have ever seen. You guarded humanity's bottom line with your own life. I pay tribute to you.

Super Beast Armor World,

Huo Lin Fei had already become so excited that he jumped up from his seat.

"So cool, so cool, so cool! He turned his own heartbeat into the apocalypse switch!!!"

Miao Tiao Jun clung to a whole box of chips, tears and snot streaming: "I'll never say he's a loser again, waa waa waa..."

Tian Yu stood by the porthole, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth: "One person's heartbeat guarded the entire civilization. That is the true hero."

Armored Warrior World.

Bei Miao sat on the sofa, the water shadow stone in his hand slipping onto the carpet, and he didn't bother to pick it up.

He looked at Luo Ji's image on the sky curtain, his expression extremely complex.

There was shock, there was unwillingness, there was a certain kind of pain of having one's self-esteem shattered.

He had previously declared with conviction, "Such trash isn't even qualified to be cannon fodder," and "If I were to take over, I would build an absolute defensive iron wall."

Now what?

Luo Ji doesn't need an iron wall.

He himself is the iron wall.

Bei Miao remained silent for a long time, stood up, and walked to the window.

"I was wrong."

He said softly.

This is one of the rare moments Bei Miao admits his judgment was mistaken.

Cybertron.

Optimus Prime shut down all the tactical terminals before him. He no longer needed to analyze any data.

Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jazz, and all the Autobots present said nothing.

Bumblebee's radio automatically skipped through several channels, finally stopping on a low cello piece.

Optimus Prime stood there, his blue optical sensors fixed on the last lingering frame on the sky.

Luo Ji lay in the mud pit, the heart monitor on his chest flashing a faint green light.

He spoke.

"I have seen many kinds of warriors."

"The Cybertronian civil war has lasted four million stellar cycles."

"I have seen people who died for freedom, people who fought for hatred, and people who would destroy their homes for power."

His gaze did not waver.

"But I have never seen a warrior like this."

"He has no armor, no AllSpark, and nothing beyond the limits of his species."

"His weapon is a heart."

"As long as the heart beats, civilization lives."

"When the heart stops, the enemy is buried with him."

Optimus Prime turned around, facing all the Autobots present.

"If one day I need to protect Cybertron in the same way, I hope I have his courage."

Ironhide slapped his own cannon barrel, his voice gruff:

"From now on, whoever says carbon-based life is weak, I'll be the first to object."

【Cybertron—Megatron】: Luo Ji. I, Megatron, have lived four million stellar cycles, conquered seventeen planets, destroyed three civilizations. But if you stand before me, I will not fire upon you.

【Cybertron—Megatron】: Not because I can't beat you. Because it's not worth it. An opponent who dares to stake his own life as a wager, if you kill him, you still won't win.

Dragon Ball world, King Kai's planet.

Goku sat cross-legged, having been on the grass for a long time. He kept that confused expression until King Kai brought over a pot of tea.

"Goku, what are you thinking about?"

"Lord Kai." Goku raised his head, "I've always thought that protecting others just requires getting stronger."

"Hmm."

"Train, get stronger, defeat the enemy, and everyone will be safe."

"Hmm."

"But Luo Ji isn't like that." Goku's brows knotted, "He can't defeat any enemy. His body might not even withstand one of my punches."

"But he has done what I cannot do."

King Kai's hand hovered in midair.

Goku rarely says such things.

"When I fought Frieza, I could become a Super Saiyan. When I fought Cell, Gohan took over. When I fought Buu, there was fusion."

He lowered his head, looking at his palms.

"But Luo Ji has nothing. No Dragon Balls, no Senzu beans, no Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

"He is just one person, standing there."

Goku clenched his fists, then relaxed them.

"Lord Kai, if I were in his position, scolded by the whole world, thrown away as trash, with my wife and children taken away——"

"I would probably go find a mountain and train alone."

"But he didn't leave."

Goku stood up, gazing at the part of the night sky that had already darkened.

"This person is more formidable than a Super Saiyan."

Piccolo stood a few steps away, arms crossed. He did not rebut.

In fact, he even gave a slight nod.

One Piece world, the Thousand Sunny.

Robin opened a new page of her notebook and wrote five words on it:

"Light in the darkness."

Zoro leaned against the mast, three swords resting across his knees. He did not join the discussion, only saying one sentence.

"This man has conqueror's haki."

The Wandering Earth universe, the Navigator International Space Station.

After Liu Peiqiang finished watching all the footage, he stood by the observation window for a long time.

Moss's voice sounded from behind: 'Mr. Liu Peiqiang, your heart rate has increased by eighteen percent.'

"Shut up."

Moss fell silent.

Liu Peiqiang reached out and pressed his hand against the cold glass. Outside the window, the blue Earth turned slowly.

"One heart, guarding one planet." He muttered to himself.

"Enough."

Trisolaran Universe,

Inside Earth Manor.

At that moment, Luo Ji and Shi Qiang watched the frantic operation of their 'future selves' on the skyscreen, and both were stunned like wooden chickens.

The cigarette in Shi Qiang's mouth fell onto his shirt for the third time, and this time he didn't even feel the burn.

"Old brother..." Shi Qiang's throat dry, "Your future... you turned your own heartbeat into a nuclear switch?"

Luo Ji looked at the version of himself lying in the mud pit on the skyscreen, and he was completely drained: "... I also didn't know that."

In the center of the living room, the Sophon light point belonging to them was flashing wildly.

The text sent by the Trisolaran Chancellor via the Sophon kept refreshing in midair, panicked and flustered.

Finally, all the text disappeared, leaving a single trembling line of characters:

【Mr. Luo Ji……can we……talk?】

The image on the skyscreen gradually dimmed in the scene where Luo Ji and the Trisolaran Chancellor faced each other across four light-years.

Golden dark-patterned characters rose from the bottom of the screen, slowly and solemnly spreading across the cosmic starry background:

【Wallfacer Luo Ji, with the beat of a heart, earned humanity the right to negotiate with the Trisolaran civilization.】

【But this is only the intermission of the story.】

……