The First Cross-World Communication

The First Cross-World Communication "Another world?" Zhou Jianmin's eyelids gave a heavy twitch. Within the system, he had always been known for his composure, but now, faced with those words, even he could not quite keep his poise. Then he suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Wen Tao. "Wen Tao, is that transmigrator named Lin Yi still on the line?" "Still there!" Wen Tao nodded at once, pointing to the call indicator in the corner of the screen. "Engineer Chen and the others have already transferred the call access to the response room's main switchboard. The other party has been very patient, too — he hasn't hung up once." Zhou Jianmin immediately reached out a hand. "Give me the communicator. I'll speak with him myself." Chen Lei quickly handed over a square communicator. "Comrade Lin Yi, hello." Zhou Jianmin glanced at the report Wen Tao had given him earlier and deliberately slowed his speech, keeping his voice as steady as possible. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Zhou Jianmin, head of the National New Domain Situation Awareness Center. You can call me Director Zhou, or Old Zhou." "We've already finished verifying your situation. All these years, stranded in a distant foreign land... you've suffered." On the other end of the line. Hearing the words "you've suffered" come through the phone. Even with seventy years of experience in the Great Zhou Immortal Dynasty, Lin Yi still could not keep his nose from stinging with the threat of tears. "D-Director Zhou, hello. This is Lin Yi. To be able to reach the home world, I... I'm truly overwhelmed." "I won't hide it from you — we're quite surprised too," Zhou Jianmin said with a gentle smile, reassuring Lin Yi. "After all, transmigration itself is already rather fantastical, let alone carrying out cross-world communication after transmigrating. So it's completely understandable for your emotions to be in turmoil — if I were in your situation, I might even handle it worse. It's only human nature." Having said this, Zhou Jianmin paused, then continued. "By the way, Comrade Lin Yi." "From the operator's report, your current situation seems... not too optimistic?" He laid extra emphasis on those last few words. If this were a routine exchange, Zhou Jianmin would surely have chatted a while longer to build rapport with Lin Yi, waiting for the right moment before broaching the subject. But the problem was... On the file Wen Tao had handed him, the words "mutual destruction" that Lin Yi had mentioned during his conversation with the operator were prominently marked. That was hardly a good phrase to hear. Zhou Jianmin could not help but read more into it. "Far more than just 'not too optimistic'..." Hearing Zhou Jianmin bring up the matter at hand, Lin Yi quickly calmed himself and sighed. "Nearly a hundred years ago, our group transmigrated to the Great Zhou Immortal Dynasty in the Tianling Realm. It's a world of truly vast territory, home to humanoid beings that look much like us." "But they didn't follow a path of technology or pure feudalism. Instead, taking a substance called spiritual energy as their medium, they developed a cultivation civilization utterly unlike the home world's." "At present, I am the Grand Elder of the Guihua Sect in Qingzhou, and the only transmigrator left alive out of the dozen or so of us. My cultivation is at mid Foundation Establishment, and I have less than half a year of lifespan remaining." "Half a day ago, two late second-rank Golden-Eyed Crimson-Scale Beasts appeared outside the mountain gate and began assaulting the array..." Lin Yi gave a brief account of the situation. In the Strategic Response Room. Zhou Jianmin's expression grew graver the more he listened, his brows knitting tightly together. "So the Guihua Sect's array is about to give out?" "That's right." Lin Yi gave a bitter laugh and glanced toward the direction where the array stood. "At most five shichen... oh no, wait — now only four and a half shichen are left, which is about nine hours." Nine hours... Zhou Jianmin instinctively glanced at the communication device. The number displayed on it read, prominently, 51:09. This was the call duration from when Lin Yi had dialed the Lindu Emergency Call Desk until now. In other words. The time Lin Yi was spending in the Tianling Realm flowed at the same rate as the home world? That was a little strange, actually. According to Lin Yi's account. In the single year that had passed in the home world, he had spent seventy years in the Tianling Realm... Then Zhou Jianmin shook his head and set the question aside for the moment. "So, Comrade Lin Yi, you're planning to sacrifice yourself to create a chance for your disciples to escape?" "Yes. My own lifespan is nearly spent anyway — I won't live much longer." A flicker of resolve crossed Lin Yi's eyes, and he spoke quickly. "In any case, Director Zhou, that's roughly the situation." "Our time is limited right now. I'll do everything I can to report all the information I hold about the Tianling Realm to the state. Consider it a small contribution I make to the motherland before I die—" "No, no, no, Comrade Lin Yi, don't rush!" Before Lin Yi could finish, Zhou Jianmin cut him off. "First, that you have this kind of awareness — I personally hold it in deep admiration, and on behalf of the state, I thank you." "Second, I believe what we should be doing right now is first trying to help you through this crisis." "As for the intelligence on the Tianling Realm, or the materials on cultivation — important as they are, their place in the queue should come after this matter." Lin Yi was momentarily stunned, and then an urgent look surfaced on his face. "But Director Zhou, this..." "'But' nothing, Comrade Lin Yi!" Zhou Jianmin still gave Lin Yi no time to explain, his attitude firm. "You and I are both Chinese compatriots. Back then, when we didn't know you had been stranded in another world, so be it — but now that we know you're facing hardship, how could the state stand by and watch you sacrifice yourself?" "Admittedly, the state has never before ventured into the field of cultivation, and cannot take to the skies or burrow into the earth through the power of the physical body alone." "But we do, after all, command a systematic body of scientific theory. No matter how far those theories still are from the final answer to all things, at least in the face of the phenomenon of transmigration, we are not primitives who can only throw stones." "I've just received word from the core leadership. The rotating experts from the think tank are about to arrive at the conference room, and we'll soon be able to hold an online conference. Whether or not we ultimately find a solution, sitting around waiting to die is simply not the style of our people." The hand with which Lin Yi gripped the communicator trembled slightly, and his throat felt a little dry. "..." In truth, he very much wanted to shoot back a question at Zhou Jianmin: Was it really necessary? Right now, those two demon beasts were about to break through the gate at any moment. If the online conference took up time and they still couldn't come up with a plan, then by that point he wouldn't even have the chance to pass on any information. Rather than spending time on a meaningless attempt. He might as well just play the role of a tool and pour out everything he knew about the Tianling Realm in one go. In any case, he was just an ordinary person — before transmigrating, and all the more so after. After muddling through most of his life in the Tianling Realm, he had never even touched the threshold of late Foundation Establishment; put into any of the novels from before his transmigration, it would without a doubt count as a "tormented protagonist" plot. Once his so-called mission... or rather, his value, had been wrung dry, all that would be left would be to watch him go off and meet mutual destruction with the demon beasts, and that would be that. Yet these words were forcibly blocked at his throat. It had nothing to do with shame or embarrassment. He was afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, he wouldn't be able to hold back his tears. So it turned out... The motherland had not forgotten him. That country he had thought long since out of reach was still willing, in his most despairing moment, to extend that hand to him. Even across the span of an entire world.