Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Of course, Ruo Manni wasn’t naive enough to believe everything Aoi Dan said without question. After receiving the suggestion, she privately looked into the second-generation gene enhancement serum.

However, as an orphan with limited information channels, all Ruo Manni could find were superficial details. When Aoi Dan spoke about the miraculous effects of the second-generation serum, she conveniently omitted the fact that it had only completed animal testing and lacked data from human clinical trials, and that it hadn’t officially hit the market yet.

At that moment, a small quantity of the second-generation gene serum was circulating in the black market. Promoted by interested parties, it was claimed that many warriors had experienced excellent results from using it, with word-of-mouth elevating its status to almost mythical. This was the extent of the information Ruo Manni could uncover.

Meanwhile, Aoi Dan, having been reborn, knew the hidden dangers involved. In two months, the now-legendary second-generation gene enhancement serum would begin to be revealed as having terrifying side effects.

While users of the second-generation serum indeed experienced a significantly higher increase in physical potential—more than ten percentage points above the first generation—there were dire consequences. Unlike the first-generation users, who only suffered weakened physiques for a year or two due to side effects and could gradually recover, those who failed with the second-generation serum faced a 50% chance of death and a 40% chance of completely destroying their meridians and losing all cultivation abilities.

This led to a storm in the gene serum market, resulting in the research institute that developed the second-generation serum being taken to the interstellar court.

At this time, the terrifying side effects of the second-generation gene enhancement serum had not yet been exposed, allowing Aoi Dan to exploit the situation. Under the guise of looking out for Ruo Manni, she urged her to purchase the serum from the black market.

Aoi Dan benefited from this scheme, pocketing a thousand credit points in the process.

Although Lin Kexin, the bystander, couldn’t recall whether the second-generation gene enhancement serum was mentioned in the book, she knew Aoi Dan was the first villainess and always suspected that Aoi Dan was approaching Ruo Manni with ulterior motives. Lin Kexin found Aoi Dan’s motivation to bring up the serum very suspicious; she couldn’t believe Aoi Dan was genuinely concerned for Ruo Manni.

However, Lin Kexin was merely a soul trapped in a jade pendant, unable to “communicate” with Ruo Manni. Despite her anxiety, she couldn’t “stop” Ruo Manni from believing Aoi Dan’s words and stepping into her trap.

The consequence of Ruo Manni trusting Aoi Dan would be her soul leaving her body due to the brutal effects of the second-generation serum, while Lin Kexin would be passively forced to take over her identity.

Thus, Ruo Manni’s death should be attributed to Aoi Dan’s malice, not to Lin Kexin’s reincarnation harming anyone. While Lin Kexin felt sorrow over Ruo Manni’s death, she didn’t feel guilty.

However, she wasn’t particularly happy about being reborn as a human again. According to the story’s timeline, Ruo Manni could only live for a year at most. Even if Lin Kexin changed the original character’s fate, an even harsher future awaited them in the coming years, which was hardly a cause for celebration.

This novel is not centered on themes of romance, but rather tells a tragic tale of interstellar humanity on the brink of extinction, finally gaining the power to fight back heroically in a desperate situation.

In this process, nearly eighty percent of humanity was lost, totaling about eight billion people.

Set in the interstellar era, the story features the Gus Empire and the Vera Federation as the two strongest ruling powers in the Gumera Star Domain, embodying the classic rivalry where “two tigers cannot coexist.”

For centuries, while there had been no large-scale wars between the Gus Empire and the Vera Federation, small conflicts were inevitable. Over the years, as ordinary soldiers faced death, resentment and hostility naturally grew between the populations of the two factions.

Fortunately, these long-standing grievances ceased to matter when an external enemy appeared. Although discord remained, the two powers ultimately united to confront the alien threat from the Yunkai, working together to find a way for humanity in the Gumera Star Domain to survive.

According to the story, two years ago, the Gus Empire’s military “accidentally” captured an alien warship, uncovering a shocking secret.

It was revealed that for the past twenty years, the Yunkai aliens had been secretly capturing humans from the Gumera Star Domain, aiming to identify their weaknesses and dismantle their armed forces in order to invade the Gumera Star Domain.

The reason behind this was that in the Yunkai Star Domain, a supernova explosion was expected within a century, which would destroy all planets in that region, making life impossible. Therefore, the Yunkai had to relocate to another star domain to survive.

After over fifty years of exploration, the Yunkai exploration teams deemed the Gumera Star Domain a suitable place for their survival.

By the time the Gus Empire learned this information, it was already too late. The Yunkai had received the explorers’ signals long before, and intelligent beings from the entire Yunkai Star Domain had set off toward the Gumera Star Domain ten years ago.

The higher-ups of the Gus Empire almost unanimously agreed that different life forms attempting to seize human territory could never be resolved peacefully, as it pertained to the survival of the race.

Due to their limited understanding of the Yunkai Star Domain and incomplete information, Gus Empire scientists estimated that the Yunkai alien advance forces would arrive in the Gumera Star Domain in twelve years, while the main immigration fleet would arrive in thirteen or fourteen years.

However, in the novel, the Yunkai actually arrived in eleven years, catching the Gumera Star Domain off guard.

In this context, even if Lin Kexin could be reborn as a human, it wouldn’t matter. For the people of the Gumera Star Domain, a war threatening the lives and futures of all humanity was imminent; there was no possibility of remaining unaffected. Even if she could escape the imminent disaster next year, what about nine years later? If she couldn’t evade it, what was the point of her rebirth? Would it be worse than her previous death?

It’s important to note that after interrogating the captured Yunkai aliens and studying their spacecraft, the military and various scientists of the Gus Empire came to a very unfavorable conclusion for humanity: the technology of the Yunkai civilization was at least one level above that of the Gumera Star Domain.