Thousands of animals wandered in the lush grasslands and endless dense forests.
Of course, they would eventually die because of hunger.
On a cliff that hung in the clouds.
Lu Zhou looked at the fertile land tens of meters away, as well as the lush pastures and giant trees tens of meters high in the distance. He was sitting on the edge of the cliff. He looked up at the sky and couldn’t help but squint his eyes.
Everything in front of him felt like an untouched forest, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he had returned to hundreds of millions of years ago.
“Don’t tell me I traveled to Mars billions of years ago…”
The sun in the sky was small, only the size of a thumb. The light was not particularly dazzling, but it was bright enough.
The temperature was very comfortable. It didn’t feel cold at all; it even felt like a spring afternoon. He wanted to lie in the shade of the trees and take a lazy nap.
Lu Zhou speculated that the reason why such a comfortable temperature could be maintained here was mostly due to the thickness of the atmosphere and the type of soil. The thick atmosphere was like a quilt, which locked in most of the heat emitted from the sun.
A familiar voice appeared in his ear.
“Time is irreversible. This is a universal law.”
“Oh, so this is a memory?”
A blue beam of light slowly appeared beside Lu Zhou. A blue humanoid walked out of the light and sat beside him.
General Reinhardt looked at the slowly moving biome in the sky. He spoke in a calm voice with a hint of approval.
“Smart, no wonder The Observer values you so much.”
Lu Zhou smirked and said nothing.
In fact, he expected this.
Before entering the dormant cabin, he learned that General Reinhardt’s existence was a piece of memory.
Since Reinhardt could remember his name and play the role of “Reinhardt” perfectly and communicate with himself normally, then obviously this piece of memory could be rewritten.
For example, into what happened billions of years ago.
“Why did you bring me here?”
“You have no hope of waking up in decades anyway, don’t you want to find something to pass the time?”
Lu Zhou spoke with a speechless expression.
“For me, decades is just a matter of opening and closing my eyes.”
From my perspective…
That is the case.
“Technically true, but don’t you want to know what happened here?”
Lu Zhou’s eyes showed a look of interest.
“What happened here?”
General Reinhardt smiled faintly and did not answer the question immediately. He got up from the ground and patted his pants.
“Come with me.
“You’ll know soon.”
Regardless of whether Lu Zhou followed him or not, he turned around and walked down the mountain.
Lu Zhou hesitated for two seconds. Thinking that he was bored anyway, he stood up and followed General Reinhardt down the mountain.
“In your culture, the concept that is closest to the prehistoric ecology of Mars is probably the Gaia Hypothesis put forward by your scholars. The entire planet was almost in a permanent ecosystem balance.
“There was no concept of the South Pole and the North Pole. Creatures at any latitude existed in the most comfortable state. This was like a paradise. If there were no accidents, it would have stayed that way.”
Lu Zhou spoke casually.
“However, accidents happen.”
“Yeah.”
“Then what caused—”
“It’s me.”
As they were talking, the two had already arrived next to a cave.
When Lu Zhou saw the huge insect next to the cave, his eyeballs nearly popped out of the sockets.
This was the first time he saw a cockroach as tall as his knee.
The pair of fluffy tentacles about two meters in length swayed up and down, and they seemed to be hesitating about something.
“Doesn’t it look disgusting?”
“Yeah.”
“This is normal. Mammals and arthropods have natural differences in aesthetics. They value multiple legs, slender tentacles, and complex textures… I don’t want to discuss beauty with you too much. Your civilization is still too young. When you have a little more knowledge, we may discuss these things again.”
While talking, the cockroach nearby seemed to have finally made up its mind and began to explore the interior of the cave.
General Reinhardt gave Lu Zhou a “follow me” gesture, then led him into the cave.
The lighting in the cave was dim, it was almost pitch black.
Before entering, Lu Zhou was hesitant. After all, he really didn’t want to stay in the same space with such a big insect, even though he knew that all this was just a piece of ancient memory.
However, seeing how General Reinhardt walked inside casually, he finally clenched his teeth and followed after overcoming the discomfort in his heart.
The two of them and the cockroach walked into the cave, covering about one or two hundred meters.
The cockroach that was walking in front suddenly felt danger, and the wings attached to its back made a dangerous buzzing sound.
“What is it doing?”
“Hunting.”
“Hunting?”
“Yes, in the early days of civilization, or before they formed a civilization, these cockroaches mainly feed on the cubs of a reptilian creature in the cave. This creature is special, and its larvae also have the ability to reproduce. You will see that these cockroaches have wisely domesticated them into livestock as a source of protein.”
“Like an ant’s aphids?”
“Clever.”
While talking, a long-legged spider, who had fangs inlaid on its face and a height of one meter, roared and approached them aggressively.
Lu Zhou took a step back subconsciously as the fur on the spider made his scalp numb.
The creeping and trembling cockroach in front of him suddenly moved.
The wings on its carapace suddenly blasted, and the cockroach shot forward like a bullet.
This hunting method of shooting out like a cannonball really shocked Lu Zhou.
He thought that this creature only hid in the gutter, gnawing on rotten food, with no offensive ability at all. He did not expect the cockroach on Mars had such a brutal hunting ability!
The spider didn’t seem to expect the “little guy” in front of it to be so ferocious. It was caught off guard and rolled to the side.
The two insects fell into a close hand-to-hand fight and fought together. Relying on its small size, the cockroach was lucky enough to hang on the spider’s belly and ate off half of the spider’s face.
The winner was decided.
After spazzing for a while, the spider curled up into a ball and laid on the ground lifelessly.
The cockroach roared excitedly and cut off the spider’s fangs. It tied them to the top of its head and quickly rushed into the lair behind the cave.
Inside the lair, a large pile of larvae squirmed on the ground.
Obviously, they didn’t know that they were in danger…
“The ability to kill adult Martian spiders is respected in the Martian Civilization. Under normal circumstances, those Martian spiders usually hunt giant insects over two meters tall. These Martians cannot defend themselves.”
Lu Zhou said with an ugly expression, “I’m thinking… We better not call them Martians.”
Reinhardt smiled faintly and said, “Why, didn’t you give them this name?”
Lu Zhou: “…”
“In fact, it doesn’t matter. The name is just a symbol. Besides, the little guy in front of you will learn to walk upright, make tools, and even develop a civilization that is many times more prosperous than Earth… Look at it, it seems to have found a treasure.”
The cockroach was collecting the larvae when it suddenly stopped its movements.
The larvae seemed to realize that this thing was not their own mother, and they began to feel uneasy.
The cockroach vibrated the tentacles above its head and climbed near the side of a stone wall.
The stone wall was firmly embedded in the rocks.
There were rows of weird marks on the mirror-like stone monument.
Although Lu Zhou didn’t understand what these signs meant, he felt that there was a kind of breathtaking attraction in the symbols.
“Curiosity is the beginning of everything. You can’t imagine what kind of waves set off in my heart when I found this ugly little guy stopping in front of this stone monument.”
“This is…” There was a sense of disbelief in his eyes. Lu Zhou’s pupils contracted slightly as he whispered, “The words of the Calan empire?”
“Yeah.”
General Reinhardt nodded.
“These words were carved out to commemorate something when I first came to this planet… or this universe.”
While the two were talking, the cockroach curiously tapped the lines of strange words with its tentacles.
Judging from its actions, this little guy seemed to want to move this thing away, but after some effort, it finally gave up on this unrealistic idea.
It stared at the stone monument for a long time. It rubbed its forelimbs on the ground, seemingly imitating the symbols on the stone monument.
The cockroach standing in front of the stone tablet did not realize that its curiosity changed the fate of a race.
It also completely changed the future of a planet…