**Chapter 1: Waking Up 18,000 Years Later**

Then, once again, it entered a state of sleep.
“Warning, warning.
“Human life signs detected.
“Executing Protocol No. 10772, immediate rescue of the human.
“Command, activate the medical bay, deploy the medical ship.
“Program unresponsive, medical bay is in sleep mode, medical ship is offline.
“Command, activate landing pod, airdrop emergency rescue unit.
“Ten, nine, eight… three, two, one.
A gate opened above the star ring, and a single-person landing pod was ejected, rapidly descending from space toward the Earth.
As Fang Xu lay asleep, his consciousness gradually awakened.
A familiar pain immediately washed over him, confirming that he was still alive.
I’m not dead? The sleep experiment was a success?
Looks like I’m lucky, but I wonder how long I’ve been asleep.
Am I being awakened because there’s now a cure for late-stage cancer?
Once again, he fell back into sleep.
“Warning, warning.
“Human life signs detected.
“Executing Protocol No. 10772, immediate rescue of the human.
“Command, activate the medical bay, deploy the medical ship.
“Program unresponsive, medical bay is in sleep mode, medical ship is offline.
“Command, activate landing pod, airdrop emergency rescue unit.
“Ten, nine, eight… three, two, one.
A gate opened above the star ring, and a single-person landing pod was ejected, rapidly descending from space toward the Earth.
As Fang Xu lay asleep, his consciousness gradually awakened.
A familiar pain immediately washed over him, confirming that he was still alive.
I’m not dead? The sleep experiment was a success?
Looks like I’m lucky, but I wonder how long I’ve been asleep.
Am I being awakened because there’s now a cure for late-stage cancer?
Filled with anticipation and unease, Fang Xu slowly opened his eyes, only to be greeted by a beautiful woman with delicate features and skin as smooth as jade.
“How are you feeling now, Mr. Fang Xu?” came a gentle yet cool voice from the woman.
“Who are you? How long have I been asleep?”
“Emergency rescue unit, code N15778, medical care-type bio-robot at your service. According to the time calculated from when you entered the cryo-chamber, you have been asleep for 18,000 years, Mr. Fang Xu.”
“You’re a robot? Wait, did you say how long I’ve been asleep? 18,000 years?” Fang Xu thought he must be dreaming or hallucinating.
“Detected elevated heart rate, please maintain emotional stability. Your physical condition is not suited for emotional fluctuations.”
After such a long sleep, Fang Xu’s muscles had atrophied. He was even carried out of the cryo-chamber by the bio-robot.
He was then temporarily placed in a wheelchair and wheeled out of the cryo-chamber.
The long corridor had a metallic feel.
As soon as Fang Xu appeared in the wheelchair, lights unfolded from beneath him, illuminating the entire corridor in soft white light.
The bio-robot pushed him along the corridor.
Doors on either side opened, revealing various robots, some with four legs, some with six, all emerging with the sound of mechanical joints.
“What are those?” Fang Xu asked in confusion.
“Mechanical guards from the laboratory; they are here to protect your safety.”
“Protect me?”
“Protecting human safety is their duty, and you are now the only human on Earth.” Soon, under the guard of the mechanical protectors, Fang Xu finally left the laboratory. It was only at this moment that he truly saw the sky 18,000 years later. The various buildings suspended in the sky seemed fixed in place, especially the massive clock that appeared to be half the size of a city.
“Earth is the cradle of human civilization, and it has long been established as an ancient culture protection zone for regulated development. Therefore, Earth retains much of its original appearance, and compared to other overly developed planets in the solar system, it may seem somewhat backward.”
The bio-robot explained to Fang Xu.
“That really redefines backwardness! So those buildings up there are fixed by magnetic levitation technology or anti-gravity technology?”
Fang Xu tried to comprehend using the high-tech methods he could think of.
“No, that’s space anchoring technology.”
“Space? Anchoring?”
Fang Xu felt this was beyond his imagination. Indeed, as someone from the 21st century, it was hard to conceive of future high technology.
“Yes, compared to magnetic levitation and anti-gravity, fixing buildings in space is the most stable method.”
“Alright, then what about that clock?”
“The database shows that it’s a factory for manufacturing time flow controllers.”
“Time flow? Controllers?”
“Yes, the time flow controllers produced by this factory were widely used in various laboratories, capable of accelerating the time flow in specific areas, allowing experiments that would usually take hundreds of years to yield results quickly.”
Just like the Time Room he remembered from a comic he had read.
“There’s a difference, but you can understand it that way.”
“Can I go inside to take a look?”
“This factory seems to be located here, but what you see is just a projection of the space. The real body of the factory exists in a separately cut-out space. My database does not record a way to enter the factory's cut-out space, so I cannot answer your question.”
“Alright, then what is that?”
At this moment, the bio-robot pushed Fang Xu’s wheelchair into a plaza.
Fang Xu pointed to a massive metallic ring that was about a hundred meters high.
“That metal ring looks like a large ring; it’s surrounded by intricate metal components that dazzle the eye.”
“That’s a star gate, built with space jump technology, allowing passage to a specific planet in the universe. The star gate here is a small star gate for interplanetary travel, while larger star gates constructed in space are used to transport large facilities and materials.”
Astonished by the level of technology in the future, Fang Xu had the bio-robot push him a bit closer to observe.
Then he noticed, scattered around the giant star gate, were small doors, each about the size of a regular door, labeled with names: Chongqing, New York, London, Tokyo, Shenzhen?
Fang Xu read out the names on the doors.
The bio-robot then explained, “These are transport doors made with space folding technology, and the names on them indicate the destinations of these doors. Generally speaking, interstellar long-distance transportation uses star gates made with space jump technology. However, for short-distance transportation within a planet, transport doors made with space folding technology suffice.”
“Moreover, the advantage of space folding technology is that once the space fold is complete, it does not require energy supply to maintain the existence of the transport door; it can be used anytime.”
“So even if you open these doors now, they can still lead to their respective destinations.”
“However, star gates made with space jump technology require a large amount of energy to initiate the jump. Long-term activation also needs energy to maintain the daily operation of the star gates.
“Thus, the transport doors connecting various cities are often referred to as walking ladders between cities.”
“So, this star gate is currently in an inactive state,” Fang Xu realized.
“Yes.”