Changbai thought that they would need to drift in orbit for a year or two, or even longer, before they had a chance to return to Earth.

But the fact is that only 12 hours after the search and rescue team publicly extended an invitation to the Federation to meet, Changbai was on the porthole and saw two attack ships of the Third Fleet approaching their direction.

"Changbai, Changxing," after the two sides kept the speed in line and made contact with laser signals, they received a message from the Third Fleet, "On behalf of the Third Fleet, we are taking you home." ”

Changbai and Changxing glanced at each other.

After a full 42 hours, Landrace returned to Earth.

As the captain of the ship, Changxing will next go to many official meetings according to the requirements of the federal government, as well as the role of the spokesperson, as the first two humans to come into contact with the "alien civilization", Changbai and Changxing have become famous throughout the Federation. Changbai still remembered that Changxing had a conversation with him on the way back, when the spacecraft had entered the orbital layer that was only a few hours away from the earth, and Changbai was still thinking about how to continue his life after returning to the earth.

Changxing was talking with his head down at the time, as if he was afraid of being judged by the monitor to show the traces of his speech: "Among the two of us, there must be one who wants to be famous, Changbai, are you willing to make this famous?" ”

"Famous?" Changbai still didn't understand what Changxing meant.

"It shouldn't be hard to think of this," Changxing said, "that we were the first to be associated with the search and rescue team...... Whether our two civilizations are at war or at peace in the future, our names will be mentioned......"

Changbai understood the meaning of Changxing's words.

"If you agree, I hope the famous person is me," Changxing patted him on the shoulder at the time, "What about you, are you interested in this place?" If you have, I don't mind handing it over to you either. ”

Changbai shook his head: "The feeling of being stared at by tens of billions of people...... I don't like it. ”

"Nobody likes it," Changxing said, "everyone just needs it." There's always someone who needs to pay attention to something, there's always someone who needs to be noticed. ”

So there was a tacit agreement between Changbai and Changxing, in the "debriefing record" after returning to the earth, Changbai described the entire process of dealing with the search and rescue team as Changxing did it alone, and the work he did was just like a normal operator, obeying the captain's orders and commands.

Two hours later, Changbai returned to his home.

Changxing didn't, Changbai soon saw Changxing's "interview" with the government media on the Internet, and saw him facing the camera, talking about the differences between the search and rescue team civilization and the federation.

"The existence of this civilized form of search and rescue team has, to a large extent, provided a good example for our future development. Danger is not always brewing in the vast and deep universe...... I think there is a good chance that there will be a bright spark between the two of us......"

"They were very tall, and if it had been in the age of cold weapons, we would have undoubtedly become some kind of little domestic animals to be kept in captivity, or to be treated as some kind of pet...... But now it's the space age! In space, a tall stature is a rather troublesome thing...... But this is enough to show that the height reached by the other side in the aerospace field is indeed far beyond ours, otherwise, it should be us who take the initiative to discover them, not them who discover us. ”

Because they learned in advance that their son was coming back, Changbai's parents deliberately returned from the Third Earth for a few hours, and prepared a small welcome party for him, inviting a few of his few friends on Earth to attend.

At the party, everyone paid more attention to the process of Changbai's dealings with aliens, especially listening to Changbai talk about Wu Xiaoqing's huge size, hairless skin, and teleportation technology...... Although Changxing has said it many times on the Internet, when he mentioned it again at the party, he was still able to cause bursts of exclamation from others.

After the party, Changbai and his parents probably talked about the arrangements for the next period of time - he was going to live on the second earth for a while, which could be regarded as a relaxation.

"How long does that take?"

"Not long," Changbai said, "a year or two." ”

There was a knee-jerk of displeasure on her mother's face, but she didn't say it. The father just nodded and said to him, "Just think it out for yourself." ”

Two hours later, Changbai was in his room, temporarily disconnected from the real world and entered the virtual game world.

……

Changbai hardly knew a few friends in the first earth, but in the virtual world of the second earth, he had just gone online and received at least hundreds of messages of greetings.

"Are you alright? I thought you were really going to hang up this time. "—I was really almost hanging.

"The consul didn't give you a medal? You are all war heroes! - A hero who wants to surrender, but is not accepted by the enemy.

"Abandoned war heroes...... The government won't slap itself in the face like that. - Beware of the Speech Control Act.

Changbai picked up a few people with good relationships and replied to their messages individually, and other ordinary friends just wrote a simple open letter, similar to Weibo on the planet - and then sent it to them in groups.

After doing this, Changbai arrived at a famous attraction on the Second Earth, the Center of the Earth, as agreed with the search and rescue team and federal officials.

The geocentric park is a scenic spot built virtually on the second earth, and this place does not exist on the real "earth", which is purely a product of everyone's construction in the virtual world. Almost every time Changbai comes to Second Earth, he will come here to play once. Before that, when federal officials and search and rescue teams asked him where it would be better to meet in the virtual world, he subconsciously thought of this place.

To go to the center of the earth park, you usually take the subway, but Changbai still prefers to take a boat. The operation of the sightseeing boat is fully automatic, and because it needs to run underwater, it has a slender assembly line. The appearance of this ship made Changbai can't help but think of the spaceship of the search and rescue team he saw before.

Changbai was the last sightseer on their boat, and after he pressed the button to get ready, with a slight vibration, the boat began to sink from the surface of the water and towards the bottom. The noisy world suddenly became quiet.

The hull of the boat is very thin, and when Changbai puts his hand on the glass, he can even feel the coolness of the sea outside the glass. Although he knew that the cooling sensation was nothing more than an illusion of an electrical signal stimulating his brain...... But Changbai is still intoxicated by this.

The so-called geocentric park, in essence, is an undersea tunnel that runs through the entire earth. On the real Earth, the impact on the ecology is too great for the government to agree to such a large-scale project to make such a big change to the state of the planet. But in the virtual world, this vision can easily be turned into a display.

The two ends of the park are oceans, and the entire park traverses the earth, with a straight-line distance of more than 100,000 kilometers in the middle, and at the speed of a sightseeing boat, if they set off from the sea, it will take at least eight hours to reach the center of the earth - converted into real time, it will also take more than three hours.

A complete tour of the center of the earth takes at least a day, even from the metro in the mantle layer, which takes at least half a day. Prolonged and closed environments...... It is indeed very suitable as a place for communication.

This meeting with the search and rescue team was not an official meeting—at least, not an official meeting with First Earth. Strictly speaking, the search and rescue team is only invited by the consuls of the second earth, of course, in the name of the invitation, to familiarize the search and rescue team with the environment in the virtual world.

The ship began to sink faster, and Changbai could feel the gravity starting to weaken slightly. The dark blue water gradually began to become pitch black, and in this inky darkness, Changbai subconsciously thought of the starry sky. In the past three years, he and Changxing have looked at the bright dark starry sky countless times, worried about their future fate...... Now, their fate is in the shadows, connected to something else that is completely unfamiliar.

The pleasure boat soon descended to the bottom of the sea, and at this time, a large number of patterns that resembled splinters suddenly appeared on the glass of the boat—many new tourists for unknown reasons screamed in fright. But Changbai knew that these cracks were just some gimmicks to provoke the nerves of tourists - not to mention that this was not the real underwater world, even if it was, with the technical level of the Federation, there was no need to worry about this level of water pressure. Materials ...... inside small fusion engines The pressure can be thousands of times higher than the requirements of this ship.

I don't know why, Changbai immediately remembered what Changxing once said when commenting on this war, he said - this war was not a real war at the beginning, but just a gimmick used by politicians to attract the attention of the people. But the irony is that politicians find that the populace is unmoved – from the beginning to the end, the only people who care about the war are the AI who are called rebels.

After the ship entered the tunnel, there was a slight light around it. Every time they dive, they can see a sign of depth. As the number on this sign became larger and larger, Changbai felt that his weight was getting lighter and lighter. Finally, when it reached its weight of 0, the ship stopped - and then the door opened.

The other tourists all went out in wetsuits, and only Changbai remained in the cabin. But there was no difference, the water from the outside was still slowly seeping inside along the gap after the door was opened. This is already the center of the earth, and although theoretically it is the deepest time in the world, there is no water pressure here. The water that poured in was hard to see the properties of the liquid, and they were more like a large cloud bubble, slowly flying and moving in the air of the cabin, like a distorted cloud that was being blown by the wind.

Changbai looked at the time on the communicator, and silently counted the countdown in his heart. At this moment, a man walked in from outside the door. After entering the cabin, he seriously looked at Changbai, and then seemed to recognize his identity, and then walked straight over and sat down beside Changbai.

"I'm Wu Xiaoqing of the search and rescue team," the other party took the initiative to introduce himself, "We will meet before." It's much easier to talk like that now. ”

Changbai looked at the other party, thanks to the blessing of the virtual world, now his body shape looks completely no different from a normal Federation person.

Immediately after Wu Xiaoqing, another person came in, he was still wearing a more gorgeous dress, and on the chest of the dress, rows of medals were shining.

"I am the current Archon of Second Earth," the visitor took the initiative to introduce himself, "and welcome to Second Earth. ”