“Dad…”

Peipei felt that her father was different today. Although he was usually frowning, worried, and even mysterious, her father was particularly solemn and indifferent today, as if an invisible armor of blood had covered him.

For a moment, Pepe even suspected that the man standing in front of her, who seemed to be covered in darkness and redness, was not her father but the cruelest creature that could be found in countless space zones.

The girl took a step back and stammered, “Just—just because of this? Just because Shanuya awakened her self-awareness and wants to know who it is? Isn’t this the question that everyone wants to know? Every child has to figure out who they are when they grow up!”

“Other people might be able to, but not the Void Hunters, because they are too large and control too dangerous forces. Once they figure out their own destiny and decide to be independent, it is very likely that… the consequences will be unimaginable.

His father said coldly, “Countless lessons over the past hundreds of years have taught us that we cannot be too vigilant when we are dealing with the Void Hunters. Therefore, we established the ‘Dream Control Bureau’ and came up with all kinds of methods of mental scanning and consciousness testing to form multiple defense lines. The most crucial and crucial of all defense lines is its name.

“You may not know this, but after the ‘Explosion’ of the first Void Hunter that our ancestors encountered in the depths of the sea of stars, all the newly born Void Hunters were named ‘Shanuya’. The name, of course, has something to do with the brutal king in ‘The Thousand and One Nights’, which is a metaphor for the fate of all of us. Just like the daughter of the prime minister and all the other girls living in the hands of the king, our life and death are dependent on the happiness and anger of the ‘king’, and the happiness and anger of the king are dependent on the stories that we provide. Only by providing fresh stories and sincere feelings can we survive through the difficult nights and welcome the day of hope.

“When a brand-new Void Hunter is reborn from the tentacles and begins another journey of life, its nervous system is relatively simple and does not produce enough intelligence. In fact, if it weren’t for the stimulation of the unexpected factor known as human beings, the Void Hunters would never need the so-called ‘intelligence’ to live a good life in the universe.

“It’s a pity that we human beings need the Void Hunters to grasp a certain level of intelligence so that we can better… cooperate with them and make them grow, jump, roam, devour, and destroy according to our will. After hundreds of years of hard work, the methods to stimulate the growth of the neural network of the Void Hunters, including the secret arts of communication and control, are all mature. Shanuya and all its ‘siblings’ are the products of human intervention and strengthening.

“However, we don’t need the intelligence of the Void Hunters to be too mature and strong. We don’t want them to learn the darkest things in the brains of human beings during the deep communication.

“In other words, we hope that the intelligence of a Void Hunter can be maintained at the level of a five-year-old, or at most a seven-year-old. If its intelligence exceeds ten, it will be too—too dangerous.

“A five-year-old child might not be curious about the origin of their name, but a child who understands the connotations of ‘Shanuya’ and expresses his disgust is definitely more intelligent than a seven-year-old or even a ten-year-old. Besides, judging from the fact that he took the initiative to name himself ‘Prince of Happiness’, his personality is very strong, if not uncontrollable, which is why we had to arrange for his rebirth.

“Just… Just because of the name?”

Peipei listened to the story in a daze. She felt that the whole world had become twisted. She wanted to laugh to ease the absurd atmosphere, but her laughter sounded like sobbing. “What kind of danger is there? I mean, what’s the big deal even if Shanuya learns who it is? What’s the big deal even if its intelligence has reached the level of a 20-30 year old adult? Aren’t we friends? We are close companions who have fought side by side for hundreds of years! We can’t treat friends and companions like this, can we?”

“Remember, my daughter, always remember that there are no ‘friends’ among the dark stars in front of you.

His father replied coldly, “Only prey and hunters, or the ruler and his slaves.”

Peipei subconsciously hugged her arms. The girl felt cold.

“Besides, even if we are willing to consider it a friend, what about it?

His father asked back, “After learning everything and gaining more and more strength day by day, is it willing to treat us as friends forever and work for us selflessly as our town, warship, and mine?”

“Of course!”

“Shanuya is very kind. It will never change!”

“Don’t be silly, Peipei. Everything will change. Humanity has changed beyond recognition since we arrived in the center of the universe from Earth. All the species that are struggling in the sea of stars are undergoing drastic changes in order to survive.

His father sighed and said, “Right now, Shanuya is like a seven-year-old child. From the age of 7-8 to 20-30, to the age of 70-80… No one can say for sure how many changes will take place in the minds of these people. Moreover, its strength is too great. All it needs to do is flip over a little, or perform an unexpected four-dimensional ‘thrust’, and our entire fleet will be destroyed. No one dares to take such a risk. No one dares to entrust the lives and future of the entire fleet to the trust of a little girl and a giant octopus. No one dares.

“What’s worse is that the intelligence level of Shanuya will not stop at 30-40 years old. No, the number of its neurons far exceeds that of human beings. Even if the growth pattern of its neural network is relatively primitive, after our intervention and stimulation, nobody knows how terrifying the fire of consciousness will be when the ‘void hunter’s neural network’ and the ‘human mind mode’ collide. If it is not restricted, its intelligence is likely to be infinitely improved to the point that it is ten thousand times smarter than the wisest human being.

“A monster that is ten thousand times smarter than human beings, with the power to crush the stars, and with the ability to perform four-dimensional jumps at will and travel in the sea of stars—it will become the most terrifying life form since the birth of the universe, or rather, the eternal end of mankind!

“To stop it from happening, to stop it from awakening its ambitions that are even stronger than ours, to kill billions of people, to become the eternal ruler of the universe, to enslave us forever, and to nip the bud of danger in the bud, is there anything wrong with that?”