The overlord of the gods is interrogating the alien female spy.

　As for the Qilin... it was like a fish caught in a whirlpool, falling into the turbulent flow of time and space.

　Volume 1: We'll see you tomorrow.

　Chapter One: Super Scale. The Body of Steel

　[...Data loading]

　[Current Status: Mechanical? Life Form & Humanoid]

　[Search interim goal: The true birth celebration... Data retrieval... Data retrieval... Incomplete.]

　[Target Description: The sky is a drum, and the earth is ready to accept its madness. Seize it.]

　[Search capability...Sunshine...Status normal: Broadcasting corresponding rewards...Daytime Forge]

　[Capability Summary: Forging is a set of principles concerning transformation, skill, fire, destruction, shaping, and power. It is associated with technology, industry, and forging.]

　The information vanished in an instant, and then, as he regained his senses, he found his vision being overtaken by a clearer UI panel.

　"Latest progress on CD-0. Civilization time is... 22:34..."

　"The newly discovered ore No. 114 releases enough energy to replace cold condensation. It is superior to any other mineral known in the Federation of Civilizations that can be used as an energy source. It's a pity that only 5.14 grams were harvested. But it's enough to temporarily fill the empty stomach of the engine."

　"The new outer shell is made of civilian-grade plastic-steel alloy, which is the material used in starships. I used the last bit of my student loan and subsidies on this. It will definitely hold up, it definitely will."

　"Regarding AI... I'm confident... um."

　My first AI project… well… I'm still better at linguistics. My achievements in materials science, computational technology, and particle physics are far less significant than my main field.”

　"Please, get moving... Without CD-0... I..."

　The electronic eye captured images of the surrounding environment.

　A girl with short brown hair and grape-like eyes was fiddling with his 'head'. Her eyes were bloodshot and surrounded by dark circles, indicating that she hadn't rested in a long time.

　Seemingly noticing his change, the girl's eyes shone with an unusually bright light, and she became even more excited. However, coupled with her heavily made-up face, suggesting she had stayed up all night, one couldn't help but wonder if she might suddenly die from over-excitement at any moment.

　"Isn't there a set startup script...? Forget it if you want... Can you see me? CD-0?"

　Who is CD-0? Oh, it's me.

　A data list flashed before Chen Lingxu's eyes, detailing the identity of the girl in front of him.

　“Pries…tess…”

　A classic mechanical sound emanated from the sound module, and the girl who heard it nodded vigorously.

　"That's right, who am I?"

　"You are... Precyth."

　Chen Lingxu fell silent, just like the girl before him.

　Unlike the girl who doubted her talent in the field of computing technology, Chen Lingxu fell into deep thought because of the image of the person in front of her and her current state.

　How did he turn into a robot the moment he opened his eyes? And the owner of this robot is still Priscilla. Will he be instantly killed?

　"Hasn't the self-logic calculation upgrade been completed? If that's the case, and the signal is unstable and I can't receive commands, I'll be doomed. I shouldn't have been tempted by cheap prices and given up on high-end products... but two million credits... that's a third of my ship... I simply can't afford it..."

　Hearing what seemed like a normal question-and-answer response, Precys rubbed his head, which was still feeling dizzy.

　Although the civilization she inhabits has a high level of technological development, it is not yet advanced enough for its citizens to create advanced digital life forms and support ships that can traverse stars.

　But this was already a desperate gamble for Precys.

　She was a linguist, recently graduated with a doctorate from a university in a star sector under the Civilization Federation. During this time, she used student loans, a stipend from her advisor, and money earned from creating short, soothing audio clips about cosmic sleep to purchase a typical single-person shuttle. Equipped with several intelligent robots possessing basic AI logic, she embarked on her planned voyage to capture the sounds of the universe—just like every ambitious young person of this era.

　However, due to a lack of initial funding, many components that support space travel were not purchased, making her small, dilapidated ship unable to cope with all possible crises.

　Just like now.

　To escape space pirates, her spaceship crash-landed on the nearest icy planet, a rocky world covered by a thick layer of ice. The extremely low temperatures and sparse atmosphere made it difficult for life to survive on its surface.

　The local atmosphere is mainly composed of hydrogen, helium, methane, and other gases. The methane and other gases give this planet a beautiful blue hue in space. However, this blue is usually a symbol of lifelessness.

　She glanced at the outdoor temperature display on the control panel; it had already changed to -218 degrees Celsius. Even worse, in ten civilization-times, a storm with a range of nearly two thousand kilometers per civilization-time would sweep across the area where her spaceship had been forced to land, expected to last six civilization-days.

　Fortunately, the deflector shields recharged during the emergency landing, preventing her spaceship from being torn to shreds by planetary gravity and atmospheric friction as it passed through the atmosphere. Now, she must find a way to repair the shattered hull and escape the storm within ten civilization-times.

　However, the temperature on this planet was extremely low, and unfortunately, she landed on the far side of the planet during her crash landing. There was no starlight here, and it was even darker than the background of the universe.

　With blindness, low temperatures, strong winds, and intense radiation, going out in a spacesuit would be suicide.

　If she can't afford to use the consciousness beacon, then if she dies, she's truly dead.

　Of the four robots she bought cheaply, two were destroyed by an ice storm with speeds reaching 600 kilometers per hour as soon as they were deployed, due to a storm that disrupted communication. So, she rummaged through her belongings, dismantled the remaining two, and then used all her remaining capital to create CD-0, which carried all her hopes.

　In the end… all her desperate efforts resulted in the creation of a robot with rudimentary AI logic. Perhaps it could withstand the impact of an external storm, but could it independently complete repairs when disconnected?

　"You seem down, Precyth."

　Chen Lingxu accepted his current state. He had probably traveled through time again, and this time the timeline was extremely far-fetched. For some unknown reason, he had awakened in the form of a robot.

　But Chen Lingxu knew that he was definitely not a robot made by Precys. The reason was simple: what awakened him was not the chip of this mechanical body, but the heart that resembled Originium—that is, the robot's energy core.

　Once the energy core is officially activated, energy is extracted and transferred from burning Originium-like minerals.

　After exploring various parts of the machine's body, Chen Lingxu discovered his true nature.

　His body was integrated into his soul; his powerful, almost indelible soul was hidden within this body of steel.

　You need to rest.

　"A rest...maybe..."

　Prisus slumped in his pilot's seat, and through the spaceship's searchlights, he could vaguely see the icy winds crashing past the window. These powerful winds had smoothed the planet's surface almost like a mirror, rapidly eroding and dismantling any protruding parts of mountains and ice sheets, leaving nothing to shield them from the onslaught.

　The control panel showed that the deflector shield's status was steadily decreasing, and she would be scattered in the storm and become part of the planet once the shield failed and the ship's hull was completely destroyed.

　"...CD-0. If you were about to die, what would you do?"

　Precys did not expect it to provide an answer.

　How can a robot with simple AI logic understand the meaning of death? Perhaps the only possible conclusion is to replace the chip with a new body.

　If it were her, what would she do?

　"I think……"

　Chen Lingxu connected to the spaceship's logs via a chip and understood just how critical the situation was.

　He couldn't help but wonder how Precys had escaped the storm if he hadn't appeared.

　But before all that, he should answer the question from the girl who already seemed to have lost all hope in life.

　"I should give myself a name."

　The CD-0 that Precy mentions is an abbreviation for Cosmic Dust Zero. It's the name she gave to her work.

　But Chen Lingxu didn't need such a code name, just as he rejected AMA-10 from the very beginning.

　"A name? Isn't CD-0 good enough?"

　Hearing her voice, Chen Lingxu picked up the repair tools. It was a can of nano-repair agent, costing 500,000 credits per can, but it was worth it; one can of this stuff could restore the severely damaged hull of the shuttle to its original condition.

　The information records show that Precys bought three cans in total. One can disappeared in the storm along with the two robots at the beginning, and the other can was used as his spray paint to coat his metal surface.

　Now, this is the last hope for Precyth's survival.

　"Perhaps there should be a better, more suitable name. A name I like."

　A noise came from behind, and Precys's attention was drawn to it.

　Her robot is installing repair tools into its body slots.

　She didn't give any orders... Was this its own behavior?

　"CD-0...what name do you want?"

　Chen Lingxu stepped out of the cockpit hatch, passed through the somewhat cramped living area filled with all sorts of small pieces of space junk, and stopped in front of the last hatch.

　Precys was standing there with him, waiting for his answer.

　“Prismus. You can call me… Ruins.”

　Chapter Two: A Real Man Should Pilot a Spaceship

　“East of the Bohai Sea, for countless miles, lies a great chasm, a bottomless valley, called Guixu.”

　The so-called "return to the void" is the end of things, the end of everything in the world.

　Chen Lingxu pressed the button, and the closing hatch separated him from Precys. The next moment, the cold air rushing in through the last open hatch caused frost to instantly cover the glass windows.

　“Prismus. I suggest you listen to the song of this planet while you wait.”

　Chen Lingxu carried the jar of nano-repair device and walked into the icy, rocky wind behind him, which could easily tear a person to shreds.

　But he stood firmly in the wind, unmoved by the howling gale. At the same time, he didn't forget to reconnect the spaceship's communication system, comforting the girl who was clinging to the door, looking at him and waiting for him to save her life.

　"The planet's...singing?"

　Precys was still thinking about the 'little poem' that his CD-0 had just recited.

　She hadn't heard of it... that CD-0 wrote it himself? And why... did it come up with such an idea?

　Precys didn't know it, but she knew she had succeeded, her first creation... a truly digital life capable of self-thinking.

　While it would take doctors and professors in science and technology at the university a long time to create a digital life form, she created this unique CD-0 using only two simple AI logic robot chips and some self-edited code.

　A small sense of satisfaction rose in her heart.

　Perhaps she really can escape this place, taking her little cosmic robot with her.

　“That’s right. Standing in this storm, I heard the song of this planet. Wild, cold…soaring…”

　Chen Lingxu used his levitation divine power to resist the storm, which was already traveling at speeds of over a thousand kilometers per hour, and this power was still increasing.

　Behemoths or Tikkaz... none of the enemies he had ever faced were worthy of comparison.

　To be an enemy of nature, an enemy of the planet?

　A sense of satisfaction welled up from his soul.

　He then removed the nano-repair device and looked at the shuttle in front of him, which was on the verge of falling apart.

　"..."

　Precys sat in the pilot's seat, picked up a special pair of headphones, hesitated for a moment, and then adjusted the frequency of the spaceship's 'audio capture' module.

　It was connected to its own CD-0.

　The moment the sound entered his ears, Precys, who was already extremely exhausted, almost had his heart stop beating.

　It was a sound quite different from the sounds of the universe observed on the quiet surface of the earth.

　Fine, sand-like ice crystals and rock fragments surged wildly across this land, carried by the fierce wind.

　But if you listen carefully...

　This storm is like a desperate, strained song.

　The ice crystals and rock fragments that were broken up by the gale are like the beat of a song.

　On the data panel, the shuttle's hull integrity is rapidly improving, and it is expected to be fully repaired within two civilization periods.

　The deflector shield's energy was insufficient, only covering ten centimeters of space within the shuttle itself, but that was enough for Chen Lingxu to spray an entire can of nano-repair agent onto it.

　The levitation power protected his mechanical body from being torn apart by the gale, allowing him more time to experience the concert hosted by the planet itself.

　Such scenes are not found in Terra.

　"Prismus, we can..."

　When Chen Lingxu returned, the girl had already fallen asleep in the driver's seat.

　"Being able to fall asleep to this sound... that's something only a normal person could do."

　Chen Lingxu removed her hovering headphones, looked around at the surroundings, and then picked her up and placed her on her small bed.

　She suddenly relaxed from her tense state and fell into a deep sleep.

　"Phew. It's my turn to play."

　Who hasn't dreamed of one day traveling through the universe in a spaceship when they were young?

　Rather than reigning supreme in the animal kingdom, Chen Lingxu would much rather have piloted that ark to explore the universe.

　Therefore, after Kal'tsit said she could help his empire ascend into space, he no longer cared about the grudges and grievances of the Tikkaz. And any trash that stood in his way to space would be thrown into the trash can.