Guide to Galactic Dominance

Clicking on the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen brought up the system's calendar. Seeing that it was already Sunday, Bai Zhongqi couldn't help but sigh lazily and said to himself: "This Thanksgiving holiday is really short. It feels like You haven’t done anything yet and it’s about to pass.”

Twenty-five-year-old Bai Zhongqi lives in San Francisco, United States. He is an ordinary North American student studying abroad. After graduating from domestic undergraduate studies, he came to the University of San Francisco (USF) on the other side of the ocean to earn a master's degree in economics. Bai Zhongqi has a slow temper, is very lazy, and even says he has no special ambitions. Even going abroad was arranged by his family. During the summer before his junior year, his mother told him that getting a master's degree abroad would be an advantage for him to find a job back home. Bai Zhongqi, who didn't really want to enter the workplace so quickly, honestly took the TOEFL test. With GRE, we dragged two big boxes and even the pots and pans stuffed by my mother, and arrived in San Francisco.

At first glance, Bai Zhongqi seems to be a typical mama's boy, but this is not the case. Bai Zhongqi, despite his loose, gentle and kind-hearted appearance, is not a person lacking in opinions. This young man who has spent half of his twenties is so precocious that he lacks interest in real life. In his view, society is a sticky web from which no matter how hard he struggles, he cannot break out. Successful people are complacent, while those at the bottom of society are angry and mediocre. But under Bai Zhongqi's slightly indifferent eyes, there is no difference between these people. The times have never changed because of the actions of these people. The saddest thing is that I am no different from these people. Get a glorious diploma and rely on some meager connections at home to become a local civil servant, or get an iron job within the corporate staff. In my mother's opinion, this life is stable and has dignity in the eyes of others. As for what her son really wants, the mother will feel that the child is still young and does not understand their past experiences. Rather than letting him suffer for several years, it would be better to pave a decent golden road for him early.

Having said all this, what does Bai Zhongqi like?

The starry sky, the sea, everything that seems endless and full of possibilities are his favorites. When he was a child, he loved astronomy. When his classmates used 50 cents to buy crispy noodles with flashing anime character cards, he saved 10 yuan to buy so-called nebula photos at the deceptive planetarium. In middle school, Bai Zhongqi began to like the military, loved naval models, and was addicted to military games.

After going abroad, Bai Zhongqi felt more freedom. Although for many international students going abroad, it is extremely troublesome to leave the familiar set of operations and apply for a phone plan, install a wireless network, and purchase various visa documents on their own, but these are not stressful for Bai Zhongqi. . He is a very well-planned and organized person, and he is able to pull out the details and finish things properly that may seem completely clueless to others. Without his overly controlling mother, Bai Zhongqi can do a lot of things he likes.

For example, I have several naval battleships and Gundam models at home, or I squat in front of the computer to play some quite time-consuming and labor-intensive strategy games.

Unlike many of his classmates who are keen on e-sports games, Bai Zhongqi, who likes slow pace and pursues more of a sense of ownership, loves some strategy and management games. He doesn't let go of the big names of P Club, and he also has a preference for the Civilization series. He can even accumulate a lot of units by playing some RTS games, and put them there for good looks, rather than to quickly end the mission.

"I haven't written a paper during the holiday. I probably have liver cirrhosis again the day before the submission date. In short, I'm not in the mood to write that stuff now, so I might as well play games." Bai Zhongqi thought, curling his lips and scratching the areas around his mouth with his fingers. He opened his chin and immediately opened an icon that looked like a sea of ​​stars on the desktop.

This game has been Bai Zhongqi’s favorite game for some time, and it’s called “Guide to Galaxy Domination”. Speaking of which, I found this game entirely by chance. Bai Zhongqi discovered this independent game in the Star Wars game section of a not-so-famous game forum. It was offered for free download, and no one responded. Seeing that it took up a lot of hard drive space, Bai Zhongqi was a little curious and downloaded the game.

After the game was successfully downloaded and installed, Bai Zhongqi opened the game and was a little disappointed at first because the game screen was not as expected. But think about it as an independent game, there won’t be any super powerful game engine to support super graphics. But Bai Zhongqi soon became obsessed. This game has an amazing core of content under the mediocre graphics. It is an interstellar war strategy game that develops technology, governs the star field, and builds an interstellar fleet to dominate the galaxy and even the universe. The operation is very simple and intuitive, but it has an almost unlimited world view, detailed and detailed scientific and technological items, as well as disturbing and interesting emergencies. As a result, this game completely occupied almost all of Bai Zhongqi's spare time.

At the beginning of the game, Bai Zhongqi set the difficulty level to the lowest, named his dynasty "Iridium United Empire", chose a golden three-way lightning emblem as a symbol, and began to explore the universe in the game. Due to his good luck, the star system where the Iridium United Empire was located and the surrounding areas had abundant resources, as well as opponents that were neither too strong nor too weak. The United Empire developed quickly.

After playing the game for half a year, the Iridium United Empire established by Bai Zhongqi in the game has occupied 171 star systems, has 205 administrative planets, a huge fleet that is second to none in the galaxy, and extremely proud technological strength. . This game only showed its charm at this time. Even with so many planets and units, the game still runs relatively fast, and Bai Zhongqi can still find interesting things in the game from time to time, including the exploration of outer space, which is novel and interesting. cosmic civilization, as well as some events that occurred within the empire.

The patient Bai Zhongqi just kept playing like this. There are hundreds of billions of stars in the vast Milky Way. Maybe Bai Zhongqi will never be able to completely dominate the Milky Way like the name of this game in his life. However, Bai Zhongqi is very curious and wants to know when he will I will get tired of playing this game.

After defeating the Snail Star civilization, the Iridium people have no rivals in this star domain. Bai Zhongqi, who is a farmer, continues to expand the territory of the United Empire and establish Iridium colonies on each livable planet. He sent out a large number of exploration fleets to search for new star systems with colonial or development value. This is also an activity that makes him very excited, because no one knows what kind of places these exploration fleets will go to, what kind of civilization they will encounter, and what kind of stories will happen.

Even though the exploration operation has been carried out hundreds of times, surprises keep appearing, which makes Bai Zhongqi can't help but hope that the next surprise will be bigger.

"Ding, Head of State, I regret to report to you that the R19 exploration fleet sent by the empire lost contact with the home planet after passing through an unfamiliar wormhole. We pay tribute to the loyal and brave soldiers and pioneers of the empire."

Bai Zhongqi was a little surprised when he saw this system prompt. He opened the fleet panel, and sure enough, there was one missing from the exploration fleet formation. Of course, this was only an insignificant part of the huge interstellar fleet of the Iridium United Empire, although it included a capital ship built with the empire's latest technology. , but for Bai Zhongqi, even capital ships are simple consumables. In the previous war with the Snail Star, the Iridium United Empire lost a total of more than 300 capital ships in 200 planetary years, and even lost a Titan ship. Of course, Snail Star suffered even greater losses. The entire civilization was destroyed, more than two thousand capital ships were destroyed, and hundreds more eventually became the trophies of Iridium Star, and most of them were eventually demolished.

Being sunk by enemy ships, encountering cosmic astronomical disasters, and even being robbed by interstellar pirates, Bai Zhongqi has seen all these things, but he has never seen the situation where he suddenly lost contact with his home planet. You must know that as early as the early stage of the Snail War, Bai Zhongqi has pointed out the technology tree of quantum communication to the United Empire. A large amount of information and intelligence are transmitted in the universe in a quantum entangled state. No matter how many light years apart, the information sender and receiver are When information is transmitted synchronously, there is no problem of time delay or failure to communicate. It is precisely because of this technology that the Iridium United Empire has been able to more firmly rule hundreds of star systems and tens of thousands of colonies of different names and conditions.

Bai Zhongqi inquired curiously, but he had no clue. No subsequent events were triggered, and Bai Zhongqi gradually lost interest.

At this time, the doorbell of Bai Zhongqi's house rang.

Bai Zhongqi frowned, his heart unswerving. As a very homely person, I don't like strangers coming to my door. The loud sound of the doorbell will startle Bai Zhongqi who is focused on playing games or writing papers. In this neighborhood, the guy who usually rings the doorbell is either a church preacher from the Salvation Army who preaches "God and Science", a politician who asks you to vote for him during the election, or a salesman selling random stuff.

Of course, it might also be the courier guy.

Bai Zhongqi jumped out of his swivel chair, walked to the living room and opened the door. The moment he opened the door, Bai Zhongqi regretted that he was dressed too sloppily. Bai Zhongqi himself is not considered thin, and belongs to the slightly fat category. Although he does not have a big belly, and his body is broad and well-proportioned, his whole person looks soft. His short, medium-length hair was too casual, with no hair style to speak of. He was wearing a somewhat old, large T-shirt, with some traces of stains on his stomach that could not be washed away, and a pair of large shorts with a Batman pattern that were also somewhat large. , on the feet is a pair of flip-flops... (covering face

If it weren't for Bai Zhongqi's relatively fair skin and fairly delicate facial features, there would be nothing praiseworthy about this person's appearance.

Bai Zhongqi would not care about his own image if he were facing any courier boy or Democratic Party candidate. But in front of him is his goddess, the school girl who lives next door, the girl he has been secretly in love with for a year.

Bai Zhongqi felt ashamed of himself for no reason. Even though the school girl in front of him was dressed very homely, she could not hide her beauty. She is about 1.68 meters tall, neither tall nor short, but her body proportions are unusually good. In addition, she is wearing a pair of relatively short sports shorts, and her two straight long legs are dangling in front of her eyes. It was also a T-shirt that seemed a little too big. The school girl wore it very decently, and even looked a little lazy in it. The loose clothes became slightly tighter on the chest, revealing an indescribable curve. It was difficult for Bai Zhongqi not to notice it. . And the pretty face of the school girl made Bai Zhongqi, a boy who was already quite old and had some love experience, couldn't help but feel his heart beat faster.

He has an oval face that is both angry and happy, and his eyes are not particularly big. The natural round eyes are round and almond-shaped, shining brightly. When he smiles, he completes the crescent moon, which makes people drunk. She has a straight nose, with a bridge that is neither high nor low, and looks very soft. The slightly crimson lips without lip gloss are bright and charming. The skin is white, tender and delicate, and it seems that even the pores are not visible. Unlike those glamorous Internet celebrity faces, everything is so natural and friendly, without any trace of carving, and so clean that people just want to hold it carefully in their hands, as if they are precious porcelain, afraid of being bumped.

At this time, the school girl was wearing anti-scalding gloves on both hands and holding a large baking pan. She looked cute and greeted Bai Zhongqi with a smile.

"Senior, haha, as expected, I didn't go out to play during the holidays. It just so happens that I baked a lot of cookies. I definitely can't finish them all by myself, so I asked senior to help me eat some." She opened her mouth with a crisp and delicate voice, and only heard the sound It was as if she could feel her voice laughing.

What kind of girl is more attractive than a good-looking girl?

The answer is a very virtuous and good-looking girl who also likes baking.

Bai Zhongqi reached out to take it with some embarrassment, and the school girl shouted: "It's hot, don't hold it, I'll take it in for you."

Bai Zhongqi was slightly embarrassed. He turned aside to let the schoolgirl in from the door, and his nose smelled a gust of fragrant wind.

The school girl carefully placed the baking pan on the electric stove because the surface was not afraid of being hot. Then he took off his gloves and casually glanced at the living room of Bai Zhongqi's house. With crescent moon eyes, he smiled and said, "Senior, your house is really clean. It doesn't look like a boy's house."

Even if Bai Zhongqi is very clever at this moment, he is only half as clever in front of the girl he likes. He doesn't know how to talk to her at all, so he can only say: "Ah, I will clean it when it's dirty."

Then.

Nothing happened anymore. Bai Zhongqi couldn't continue talking. The school girl was not a particularly talkative girl. The two of them had an awkward moment for about four or five seconds. Then the school girl said, "Senior, eat while it's hot. I'll go back." ”

"Hey, okay, thank you, Kathy." Bai Zhongqi thanked him. It is more common for international students to call each other by English names than Chinese names. The school girl's name is Han Jiaxue, her English name is Katherine, and her nickname is Kathy.

The school girl walked out of the door with a smile. Bai Zhongqi sent her out, still quite dull. The two of them were exactly next door, on the second floor of a low-rise apartment. Because the terraces were connected, they could not see each other when they looked up.

Seeing his schoolmate entering his apartment, Bai Zhongqi immediately felt regretful. He has liked Han Jiaxue for more than a day or two, but he lacks the courage to ask this girl out every time. In his opinion, Han Jiaxue has good looks and a good figure, and even has a good family background. She can use some luxury goods that are not particularly expensive. On the contrary, she is an ordinary boy from an ordinary middle-class family, not very tall or handsome. , No matter how you think about it, Han Jiaxue should not be able to like you.

Bai Zhongqi looked at the steaming biscuits, shook his head, and thought to himself: "After all, I just like people to be good-looking. Saying that she has a gentle personality, a good temper, and can cook is just an excuse. That's it." Girls are not ones that I can catch up with, so I’d better stop humiliating myself.

Thinking about these somewhat distressing things, he reached out and grabbed a warm biscuit, stuffed it into his mouth, and his mood became even worse.

Because the biscuits are delicious and the schoolgirl’s skills are really good. There is really nothing more heartbreaking than the thought that I will never get such a good girl.