Deep Space Wandering Fleet

The autonomous electric vehicle was speeding down the road, and Zhang Yuanping calmed his mind.

By the 23rd century, it was an era that placed great emphasis on intelligence, but the attribute of "appearance" still held importance in social interactions. People who looked good had certain advantages in their personal development, regardless of gender.

Zhang Yuan felt... he looked good. It shouldn't be narcissism, because his relatives and friends all said so, and the fact that he had a decent romantic history from a young age indirectly proved it.

As for why there were no women around him, it was because he aspired to be an astronaut since childhood, so he consciously suppressed that part of his desires.

"There were plenty of girls chasing after me..."

With less than a month of vacation left, such a short time was at most just mutual attraction driven by hormones. It was impossible to form a connection on a spiritual level.

Of course, finding a girl for physiological exchanges wasn't difficult. If it was agreed beforehand to just have fun, there would still be a lot of "modern women" willing to have a story with "astronauts," which could be a source of bragging with companions in the future...

In this open era, few people cared if their future marriage partner was a virgin.

However, Zhang Yuan did not like random hookups.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated.

He tapped open his phone, and it was a spam message.

Since he never bothered to organize, there was a large number of unread red dots on it.

[Four of your phone contacts on "Possibly" set you as a "secret crush." Since you have not registered, we specially notify you via text message... Download address...]

Soft advertisement, so annoying, even in the 23rd century these things couldn't be eradicated.

"Forget it, forget it."

He wasn't some seasoned player in the love field, so since he couldn't be emotionless, there was no need to add emotional burdens before leaving.

After skipping over this memo, Zhang Yuan felt much more comfortable.

The autonomous vehicle was moving steadily on the road, and the vehicles on the road were very orderly, almost all moving at the same speed with no queue jumping or cutting in line of any unruly behavior.

In terms of driving vehicles, artificial intelligence had much higher reliability than humans, and manual driving in non-emergency situations had already become illegal.

Zhang Yuan was not a rich second-generation, and this autonomous vehicle wasn't his own; it was just a ride-share taxi on the roadside, anyway, readily available and no different from having his own car.

The in-car screen was playing a space history documentary.

"...we have come this far, stepping over mud and hurdles, exploration and development have always been the main theme of the era..."

He watched the documentary with interest.

It had to be said, the progress of modern technology had been much slower than people of the old era had imagined.

In 1969, when Americans first landed on the Moon, many scientists optimistically believed humans could colonize the Moon by the year 2000; by 2020, humans would occupy the Solar System and become a true interstellar civilization.

Humans would find the legendary aliens, would have collisions and friction with alien civilizations, would experience strong artificial intelligence developing self-awareness and rebelling against humans...

In the end, it was a pity.

The entire 21st century, nothing happened.

There were no Brain chips, no strong artificial intelligence leading to the singularity, and no Eternal Life Technology.

Virtual Imaging Technology remained expensive; AR glasses attempting to replace mobile phones were popular for a while, then eliminated for inconvenience; battery capacity never met demand; room temperature superconducting materials were never invented...

Not to mention things from science fiction novels like curvature engines, wormholes, Time Travel, and anti-gravity.

In a comfortable life, humans seemed to have reached the limit of the entire civilization. Progress in Information Science gave people the illusion that science was still developing vigorously, numbing human nerves.

Unfortunately, some critical technologies had not broken through for a long time.

Finally, at the end of the 21st century, the exhaustion of oil caused a terrible global energy crisis.

Two consecutive world wars caused human society to regress by a century!

The entire 22nd century was bleak, later referred to by people as... the "Gray Era!"

The male voice in the documentary, with a magnetic voice, said: "Fortunately, everything has gotten through, we've explored the unknown and found a new direction..."

"Controlled Nuclear Fusion!"

"...the successful ignition of the Artificial Sun, accompanied by the booming development of Space Industry, Space Botany, and Nanomaterials Science, brought human civilization into the golden stage once more!"

"In the latter half of the 23rd century, we will enter an unprecedented—Interstellar Colonization Era!"

The documentary was inspiring and had a bit of exaggeration, enough to fool some ordinary citizens.

Zhang Yuan shook his head and chuckled.

Fusion energy indeed brought endless energy, changing the living situation of humanity, but it did not mean that all humanity could achieve a greatly affluent life because of it.

For the reason that oil wasn't just a source of energy, it was also an important industrial raw material.

To give a few simple examples: without fertilizers and pesticides, human grain production directly reduced by half.

Where do fertilizers and pesticides come from? Certainly from oil-derived products.

Without acrylic, polyester, nylon, or vinylon, clothing prices soared, and the vast majority of people couldn't afford clothes, having to live naked.

Where do these chemical fiber products come from? The answer is oil-derived products.

Without petroleum solvents, chemical raw materials, lubricants, and other oil-derived products, over 90% of industrial factories would directly shut down.

"Oil is the lifeline of industry," this phrase had no falsehood.

Even though fusion energy was inexhaustible and limitless, it still had extraction costs, electricity transmission costs, and power station maintenance costs. Using industrial means to forcibly synthesize organics from inorganics with electricity remained too costly, much more than extracting oil in the old era.

Up until now, many poor small countries' people still couldn't eat their fill, precisely due to the lack of oil substitutes.

Fortunately, the booming development of Space Botany was slowly healing humanity's "oil dependence syndrome."

Many industrial raw materials, such as polymer fibers, ethylene, benzene, Methane, and so on, found substitutes from Space Mutant Plants, and these plants could be grown on a large scale on the ground.

Just like the high call from a small country's president: "Praise Space Botany, finally letting us escape the survival crisis! Praise!"

...

An hour later, the autonomous vehicle passed through the agricultural zone and the industrial zone, entering the urban area.

"Distinguished guest, you have reached your designated destination. This service time was 1 hour and 2 minutes, total charge 43 coins..."

A gentle electronic prompt sounded, Zhang Yuan paid and got out of the car, returning to his home.

"Home is still comfortable."

He first took a cold shower, then turned on the computer, logged onto the notary public website, and enthusiastically clicked the "Property Donation" button on the webpage.

After thinking carefully, he uploaded his home's property certificate.

A line of information popped up on the webpage: "2236-9 Beiping Street, Donghua City, room area 163.3 square meters, estimated value of 2.865 million federal coins."

Donating the house to the social welfare institution!

Zhang Yuan took a deep breath, felt a bit reluctant, experiencing a sense of being the legendary godly rich, the kind who casually rewarded to show off...

"If it's donated, then it's donated, bro is just that noble!"

Actually, it wasn't that he was of high moral character.

Zhang Yuan had no old people above him, no children below him, and since he had decided to leave Earth, could his Earthly property be brought onto the spaceship?

...

(ps: Updates every night at eight o'clock.)