Once Tidal Peace finally stabilized, Xi Yujin felt utterly drained as if he had been riding a giant pendulum for twenty-four hours straight.

"We have now entered the Level Transit Corridor. All passengers may move along the gravity buttons. For the sake of civilizational safety, please wear Level 2 protective suits before leaving your ship. The Navigator Colossus assumes no responsibility for accidents caused by traveling outside the gravity button paths."

The Navigator Colossus issued its announcement.

Ahead of them, the ochre planetary ship was cruising at high speed. Its engine was on the side facing forward, while its rear towed countless vessels in a fluid-like formation. Thin white lines connected each ship, which maintained fixed relative distances. By now, all ships had achieved relative stillness with the Navigator Colossus; this was the so-called Level Transit Corridor.

The journey would take quite some time, so passengers who didn't want to stay cooped up in their cabins could move around as needed.

Xi Yujin rested for a while, then prepared to unpack the prizes he'd won from the writing competitions. Ever since Gano had learned the truth about his vests, he'd been acting a bit strange, tending to his weapons nearby. He asked whether Xi Yujin wanted him to slice all the packaging open in one go, which Xi Yujin hurriedly refused.

"The whole point of opening blind boxes is opening them yourself!"

Gano nodded, seemingly understanding. Apart from tending his weapons, he watched Xi Yujin unpack everything, as if absorbing some of that joy himself.

Although Xi Yujin's own body was hard enough to tear the packaging open bare-handed, that would completely ruin the sense of ceremony. So he grabbed Little Asteroid No. 2 beside him and used its sharp edge to neatly slice along the seams.

The first package was a furniture mega-bundle from the Flying Duck Chamber of Commerce.

"A hammock! Feather lamp! Creative desk-and-chair set! Camouflaged dune-style windows!"

Tidal Peace had plenty of empty rooms but very little furniture. Even Xi Yujin and Gano's quarters only had simple beds and a single table-and-chair set. Xi Yujin decorated their room to his liking, then beautified the other functional rooms as well. At last, Tidal Peace had a hint of that futuristic sci-fi vibe.

The second package was a tech bundle from the Flying Duck Chamber of Commerce.

Inside, Xi Yujin found something that immediately caught his interest: matte mineral paint.

Once applied, it concealed a mineral's original color without damaging it, which was commonly used for smuggling resources. Xi Yujin tested it on himself, and his diamond-like gleam was perfectly concealed.

He let out a sigh of relief. Now, he wouldn't stand out so much among cosmic lifeforms.

Better yet, as long as he avoided water, he could even change his hair color when disguising himself in the future. His alias operation gained another boost.

He coated all the exposed parts of his body and painted his hair silver-white. Looking at himself in the mirror, with the mineral texture gone, he resembled his past self even more.

"Still an anime-style human, though. Gano, what do you think? I shouldn't be as... eye-catching as before, right?" Xi Yujin asked.

Gano had just come around the corner and froze when he saw Xi Yujin admiring himself in the mirror. He stared blankly, seemingly unable to speak.

After a moment, he finally looked away. "You look... even better."

Xi Yujin's eyes squinted as he smiled. Alien aesthetics really change every day.

He continued rummaging through the Flying Duck Chamber of Commerce's prizes and found one labeled as Grand Prize. He carefully opened it, and inside were duck-down jackets in various colors!

The tag read:

"These are the most authentic Flying Duck feather jackets, made from the neck down of 23,333 academically and morally outstanding ducks during their coming-of-age ceremonies. A precious luxury item comparable to physical books! Compact, lightweight, extremely resistant to cold, scratches, and radiation: the ultimate choice for outdoor adventure attire!"

The jacket's style resembled a patchwork outdoor windbreaker from Earth, but the delicate circuitry woven into it was far beyond Earth's technology. Xi Yujin tried cutting it with his own body, but it didn't tear at all. Satisfied, he put it on.

Space adventures required proper special attire!

He also found a disguise earring. Once activated with mental power, it projected a mosaic that obscured the wearer's face. From any angle, the user's true appearance was impossible to see.

"Yes... this is what the interstellar age is all about..."

Personally experiencing future tech, Xi Yujin basked in a very simple kind of happiness.

He changed the mosaic into a black bar, just wide enough to cover his eyes, and admired himself in the mirror. Sure enough, he looked like an outlaw on the run!

He kept tweaking the settings. Now the black bar could display different kaomoji¹ depending on his mood. That finally got rid of the Today's Legal Report² vibe, though the anime energy had skyrocketed instead. For the sake of disguise, it couldn't be helped.

Gano was somewhat puzzled as he watched from the side, but then again, Xi Yujin was from Blue Planet, so it somewhat made sense.

With the Flying Duck Chamber of Commerce packages all opened, the results were extremely practical. The comfort level inside Tidal Peace skyrocketed.

Next, Xi Yujin opened the parcels from the Materialist Archive.

The largest item was a dual-purpose sightseeing shuttle, which was about the size of two double-decker buses. Its four walls could turn transparent, letting passengers safely enjoy views of both space and planetary surfaces.

Tidal Peace was a mining ship with no landing capability. With this sightseeing craft, Xi Yujin could not only land freely but also have short-range ground transportation.

"The Reading Society is this generous? Did something happen that I don't know about?" Xi Yujin's eyes sparkled as he touched the shuttle in disbelief. He renamed it the Oceanview and stored it in Tidal Peace's left cargo bay alongside the black box.

The Materialist Reading Society also gifted a foldable electronic library with instructions to use it in an open area.

Xi Yujin took it to the right cargo bay.

When he pressed the button, the entire bay was filled with virtual bookshelves!

"Welcome, friend of the Materialist Reading Society. We are honored to share our knowledge base with you," a voice announced. "If you prefer reading physical books, please wear the gloves to enhance the simulation level."

Xi Yujin put on the mesh gloves. When he touched the virtual shelves, the sensation was indistinguishable from real books: the slightly rough pages brushing against his fingertips, and the different printed fonts warping subtly as the pages bent.

"Wow... I can't understand any of this..."

Towering semicircular shelves surrounded him layer by layer. When he looked up, they nearly reached the ceiling. After a moment's thought, Xi Yujin brought over the spiral staircase gifted by the Flying Duck Chamber of Commerce, making the reading space more immersive.

The Materialist Reading Society was facing financial difficulties, so this was about all they could give. Some items were clearly personal contributions from members, such as a frozen seafood mega-pack, which was apparently a member's hometown specialty.

Xi Yujin looked at the seafood encased in ice, thought about those enormous coral polyps and starfish, and suddenly lost his appetite.

"What did the Flash Empire send?"

Xi Yujin opened the final package and found a mineral cutting machine!

Was this some kind of execution device from the Flash Clan?

After reading the manual, he realized it was actually a tool for producing physical books. If Xi Yujin ever planned to self-publish, he could use it for small-batch printing.

As for the rest… There were mineral cups of various types and mineral-grown plants. If you ignored the rocky texture of the lower halves, their upper portions looked no different from Earth's green plants.

Xi Yujin took a bite out of a mineral cup and arranged everything neatly. Now, Tidal Peace's left cargo bay held the black box and the Oceanview, while the right bay housed the Materialist shared library. The five floors of functional rooms were all beautifully furnished, and green plants lined the corridors.

"This... this is the kind of cosmic travel life I've always wanted," Xi Yujin said as he sprawled across a fluffy cluster of sofas, reluctant to get up.

From outside the hull came the sound of dripping water.

"Please don't worry," Gano said. "Other passengers are moving along the gravity buttons, and they are just passing by our ship."

"With Gano around, I'm completely at ease!" Xi Yujin replied. He had personally witnessed Gano hauling him out from a planet's core, after all.

Gano's expressions had become noticeably more vivid lately.

"Oh, right, it's time to update." Xi Yujin remembered that he still had several ongoing novels. But when he opened his optical computer, he found he couldn't connect to the Pangshi Galaxy's StarNet. After some investigation, he learned that Navigator Colossuses were unobservable during high-speed travel. In other words, they were offline.

And so, the most common excuse for missed updates among novelists in this universe was: "I'm about to make a Great Leap."

And some authors, once they leaped, never landed again. Readers affectionately referred to such permanently missing authors as black holes*.

He just wanted to be a meteor spirit, not earn the title of black hole author!

Once he's online, he will definitely update. He would stockpile chapters right now!

But hoarding drafts was painfully boring, so he decided to see what fun things the Navigator Colossus had to offer first.

Every Navigator Colossus carried a black box. During the journey, passengers could chat through this local network.

The local network was bustling, with a wide variety of languages represented. Fortunately, Gano was omnipotent when it came to translation. Xi Yujin asked whether Gano had ever ridden a Navigator Colossus before. Gano replied that this was his first time as well. After leaving Zerg territory, he'd come straight through a wormhole to the edge of the universe. He didn't have much travel experience either.

They were both beginners at cosmic tourism.

"In that case, keeping a travel journal is practically mandatory..." Xi Yujin fantasized about their two-person journey. "Writing A Blue Planet Human's Guide to Hitchhiking Across the Universe wouldn't be bad either."

Gano felt that Xi Yujin's curiosity was endlessly lively. Though he didn't always understand it, their time traveling together left an impression a hundred times deeper than his days among the Zerg ever had.

They browsed the ship's intranet together.

There were recruitment boards, trading boards, and temporary chatrooms.

The temporary chatroom's interface resembled a massive penguin colony³. To maintain order during the journey and prevent hostile species from running into one another, the chatroom displayed screenshots of the official websites of all species participating in the trip.

Blue Planet was prominently listed.

The system wasn't entirely rigorous, though; at the very least, you couldn't see the Zerg race at all.

Xi Yujin hadn't reported Gano when buying his ticket. By now, he had realized that both the Intelligent Machines and the Zerg were unusual species in the universe and needed to be treated with caution.

As Xi Yujin browsed through the flashy, over-designed pages of other civilizations, he couldn't help but feel that Blue Planet's official site was painfully minimalistic...

He would encounter even more troublesome species in the future, so he needed to make up for every possible weakness.

After comparing them, he discovered a fatal flaw in Blue Planet's website: it had no friendly diplomatic partners!

This was like a links page. You could have superficial, plastic friendships, but you couldn't have none. In this universe, no civilization existed in isolation.

Originally, Xi Yujin wanted to establish friendly relations with the Flash Empire, but after getting unmasked in the underground palace, that was no longer possible...

"Gano, it's time for me to fulfill my duties as the Blue Planet's diplomat," Xi Yujin said as he activated his disguise earring. "I'm going to the Peace Hall to find targets for book diplomacy."

"I will accompany you," Gano replied as he raised one hand in a formal salute. He knew his Zerg identity wasn't suitable for public appearances, so he wrapped his floating armor in cloth and put on a thick scarf and hood. The two of them now looked like ordinary humans, followed by what resembled a ghost draped in a bedsheet.

The passageways formed by the gravity buttons were as nerve-racking as tightropes. When Xi Yujin stepped onto the outer hull of the next ship, he awkwardly waved at the passengers inside, gesturing that he was just passing through. They raised their cups and laughed in response.

They slowly made their way to the Peace Hall.

When the hall doors opened, two bipedal species entered, followed by a floating ghost, probably their pet. The beings inside glanced at them briefly, then looked away.

The hall was very quiet. The occupants rarely spoke, merely observing. This was, after all, a venue for official, species-level negotiations. Some were simply there on duty, while others had their own agendas.

One common form of interstellar diplomacy was book diplomacy.

In this arrangement, novelists from both species would write books for the other side to promote mutual understanding. Every civilization's central government maintained such diplomatic writers. However, because of their official status, they couldn't write freely and were limited to assigned topics. As a result, few novelists were willing to take the job. Over time, cultural diplomacy became more about form than substance, and no species truly expected much from these diplomatic novels.

Xi Yujin's goal was precisely to use book diplomacy to add diplomatic partners for Blue Planet. He needed something light and superficial: exchanging polite greetings during holidays would be enough. Ideally, the other side should have decent character, so he wouldn't get dragged into their messes.

He had already researched which species had lower thresholds for book diplomacy in the temporary chatroom. Now he was here to try his luck. Gano had upgraded from bodyguard to simultaneous interpreter.

The first species he approached looked like the ghosts from Pac-Man.

As soon as it understood his purpose, it poured out its grievances. "We desperately need book diplomacy! We've even tried importing such works, but hardly any species is willing to write this kind of content!"

Xi Yujin's spirits lifted. "We Blue Planet humans have many diplomatic talents. Perhaps we could provide official novelists skilled in this area."

"How fortunate for Blue Planet," the ghost said. "As everyone knows, our species has four genders. Three exist only during the newborn stage, and one is the adult gender. Our reproduction has always worked like this: three different-gendered newborns merge during reproduction, and in the end, the three consciousnesses and bodies fuse into a single adult. But recently, even our most talented newborns have become increasingly unwilling to merge. Their self-awareness is too strong. We're at a complete loss!"⁴

Xi Yujin found this oddly familiar as he listened. "What a rare reproductive system..."

"So we're hoping for something that stimulates the soul, encourages reproductive responses, and, well, contains the kind of content other species consider essential for maturity. More positions, more tropes," the ghost said earnestly.

Xi Yujin fell silent for a moment.

"Our diplomatic talents... only know how to write about slimes going squelch-squelch."

"...How unfortunate," the ghost replied.

Xi Yujin fled at top speed, then pondered as he leaned against a wall: his next vest should definitely be a different gender. Otherwise, what if aliens assumed Blue Planet's gender system worked in some bizarre way? This universe was far too confusing.

The second species he approached looked like an aged child.

"Our ancestors loved making stone tablets," it said. "During the Civilization Contact period, we placed tablets in a 1:4:9 ratio across various star systems to enlighten emerging species' minds. Once their technology was advanced enough to discover the tablets, we would go and colonize, oh, I mean, conduct civilization contact with them. Hey, don't leave yet!"⁵

It grabbed Xi Yujin, who was about to leave.

"That was our ancestors! From the Isolated Planet period to Civilization Contact, wasn't that kind of thing common? What we want are hacker-themed diplomatic novels. One of our tablets actually caught a virus back then..."

Xi Yujin declined the diplomatic proposal. Publicly discussing one's colonial history clearly didn't align with Blue Planet values. Then he couldn't help but wonder: was he really transmigrated into a new universe, or did he transmigrate into a book?

The third species was extremely tiny, so small that it was invisible. Xi Yujin could only communicate with them via a walkie-talkie.

"Our species has three suns. Luckily, we were small enough, and we could survive through dehydration. The kind of novels we want are fairy tales. Our entire species loves them. It'd be best if they included some anti-scam content. We just fell victim to a telecom fraud from four hundred light-years away... Huh? Where did it go?"⁶

"That race is very dangerous," Xi Yujin said and tossed the walkie-talkie the moment he heard the first sentence. He turned to Gano. "Why isn't there a single normal species willing to do diplomacy with Blue Planet?"

Gano consulted the book diplomacy list. "The next species may have a higher success rate. Records show that they are extremely friendly, but their diplomatic partner count is only in the single digits. There may be something unusual about them."

Xi Yujin approached the fourth species eligible for book diplomacy.

It stood over ten meters tall, resembling a lump of mud sprouting numerous listless tentacles, looking as if it had just crawled out of a swamp. After Xi Yujin greeted it politely, the creature spoke slowly:

"Book diplomacy? We are very willing, but... could you please move to our visual side for this conversation?"

Xi Yujin walked halfway around the muddy mass.

"That is our respiratory side."

He walked another half circle.

"That is our vomiting side."

Xi Yujin hesitated. "But... you look the same from all 360 degrees to me."

"What?" The mud creature's tentacles quivered. "You didn't experience any hallucinations? What a formidable mental power! My respected friend, please take three steps to your left, each equal to your shoulder width. That is our visual side."

At last, Xi Yujin finally saw the creature's front. Several tentacles were noticeably longer; when they flipped over, countless large eyes rolled into view.

Xi Yujin smiled as politely as he could manage.

"Please, have a seat, our honored guest," the mud creature said, dragging over two chairs with its tentacles. The armrests it touched were immediately corroded away, which explained why it rarely moved. Its voice was aged and deeply affectionate.

"Please forgive my impropriety. You see, our species has long suffered from mental chaos, which has prompted continuous evolution. Though the chaos has lessened somewhat, our written language now exacerbates mental disorders in other species. As things stand today, merely being seen by us can induce severe hallucinations, nausea, and fear in others."

Xi Yujin felt perfectly fine, then he glanced at Gano.

Gano gently shook his head. "My species does not experience mental chaos."

The Zergs really were something else.

Then again, Gano's response to a great deal of writing was simply no feeling.

"May I be honest about our circumstances and sincerely pursue book diplomacy with you?" the mud creature asked, raising a tentacle. "Please rest assured, our race is pacifists. War is in the past. What we need now is peace."

"Of course," Xi Yujin replied. "Blue Planet welcomes friendly relations with peaceful species and is committed to jointly safeguarding interstellar peace. Please tell me your requirements for diplomatic books."

"Well... It's a bit embarrassing..."

The mud creature rubbed several front tentacles together as a row of large eyes blinked furiously. Xi Yujin's smile grew even warmer.

"What we want is a diplomatic book written from the perspective of other species observing us. A species' evolution should be recorded in history. Even if we are frightening, we wish to document those negative traits as well. But any species that experiences hallucinations refuses to write books with us..."

This species matched Xi Yujin's requirements perfectly. He didn't want to miss the opportunity and launched into his pitch. "Our Blue Planet diplomatic department has many talented individuals, including..." He hadn't thought of a name yet. "...an official novelist team represented by Yujin."

"But you see us as normal," the mud creature said shyly. "Wouldn't that put you in a difficult position?"

"Not at all," Xi Yujin said, doing his best to sell it. "Fear of the unknown is universal among living beings. I trust our novelists' abilities to build a bridge of friendship through books."

"That's wonderful!" the mud creature exclaimed. "Do you have any requirements for the diplomatic novels?"

Xi Yujin froze for a moment.

There was something profoundly surreal about the prospect of another civilization writing books for his own.

Slowly, he said, "We hope that the novels will preferably relate to the Civilization Contact period."

In the Universal Chronicle, the Isolated Planet period referred to the developmental history of single-planet civilizations. When a species achieved a technological breakthrough and made contact with intelligent life from another star system, it entered the Civilization Contact phase.

That phase had another name: Violent Colonization.

According to widely accepted cosmic history, there were roughly five eras: Isolated Planet, Civilization Contact / Violent Colonization, the Dune Universe⁷, followed by the Hyperspace War, and finally the Peaceful Interstellar Age.

Xi Yujin thought that, since he'd never gotten to see Earth interacting with aliens, and even if he had, it probably wouldn’t have been pleasant anyway. Thus, reading about it in history books during the interstellar age should be fine.

He formally exchanged book diplomacy requests with the mud creature.

After establishing provisional diplomatic relations, the first major task was determining official translated names for both parties. The mud creature's proposed translated name was "The Wandering Blue Planet," while Xi Yujin proposed "Ctulrt,"⁸ which was both a phonetic rendering and an alias of a certain Great Old One, since the species really did resemble one.* After explaining the origins of their respective names, both sides were very satisfied.

When Xi Yujin reached the section for appointing diplomatic personnel, he paused, unable to come up with a new pen name.

Gano watched from the side, wondering if Yujinno was about to split off a new personality on the spot.