Honestly, Bai Luan felt great sympathy for Sethlun, and immediately understood why the residents outside all looked so miserable.
Living in this environment, who could possibly smile? But how could he help them this time?
The predicament this planet faced was a genuine resource crisis.
Though it seemed unrealistic, what if this planet simply had no resources?
Judging by the pipeline structure Bai Luan scanned from the Water God Temple, this planet's technology also had some achievements.
After all, a mature pipeline system with strict grading for efficient water utilization was quite difficult to construct, especially in this environment.
It would be a pity for a civilization with such vitality to die on this desert planet.
This planet gave you life, but didn't have enough milk to sustain you. How tragic.
Compared to the human civilization on Beta Star, which ruined its own ecological environment through its actions, the civilization on this planet clearly deserved to continue existing.
Never mind... I'll just buy a planet and move all these people over, letting them work for me for generations to pay off the debt.
Maybe I could even establish a planet that follows my commands; it wouldn't cost much anyway.
Could it be more expensive than the Simulated Universe Project?
Thinking this, Bai Luan looked up at Sethlun and said,
"Tell me your problem, and I will try my best to help you solve it."
"Can it really be solved?"
"If I can't solve the problems on your planet, then there are only a few in the entire universe who can."
Sethlun was at a loss for words, unsure whether to believe the person in front of him.
Never mind... there was no hope left anyway!
Whether he was telling the truth or not, he could only grasp this unexpected hope.
As Sethlun hesitated, Bai Luan's gaze fell on the remaining four murals.
Clearly, the eight murals were divided into two parts. The first half explained the background, past, and predicament. So, the latter half should describe the civilization's attempts at self-salvation.
Sethlun noticed Bai Luan's gaze. Since he had already decided to trust Bai Luan, treating him as a last resort, there was no need to rush.
"The last four murals depict 'Unity,' 'The Mad King,' 'Resistance,' and 'The Choice,' respectively."
"Sounds like... four events?"
"Yes, 'Unity' means we completely abandoned our past tribal divisions and united as one, seeking self-salvation."
Sethlun looked at the fifth mural, which showed the silhouette of a towering man, with countless converging crowds in the background.
"Our first leader, Belnar, accomplished the feat of unification. He and the subsequent nine leaders, during the period when the springs had not yet dried up to just one, rapidly developed technology, raising our technological level to this height in the short time before resources were depleted."
Then, Bai Luan looked at the sixth mural. The color palette of this painting suddenly became dark and oppressive, filled with ominous blood red. In the center was a twisted and deranged silhouette of a king.
"The man in the painting, named Emerson, was our eleventh leader.
From the seventh leader onwards, our technology encountered a long-standing barrier that we couldn't break through.
The springs were diminishing, time was slipping away, technology stagnated, and the burden of civilization weighed heavily on every leader.
By Emerson's generation, the cruel pressure gave birth to a madman."
"What did he do to be called the Mad King by you?"
"During his reign, under the pretext of resource control, he demanded that we hand over the remains of our deceased, to be uniformly processed, and this continued for a long time.
Until we discovered... he had actually been using the bodies of our deceased loved ones for sacrilegious research. He was attempting to find a path to immortality, to completely mechanize organic life, to combat resource depletion."
Sethlun looked at the seventh mural. In the painting, a heroic female leader pointed her sword at the Mad King on the throne, with angry, surging crowds behind her.
Opposite her, the Mad King sat calmly on his throne. Below the throne stood rows of terrifying 'living corpse' legions, their bodies wrapped in dirty bandages, with cold metal structures exposed through the gaps.
"People could not accept their deceased loved ones being so desecrated, and they took up arms to resist the Mad King's tyranny. Our twelfth leader, Xylia, united these people to confront the Mad King... The obstinate Mad King had no intention of giving up, or rather, at that point, he could no longer turn back. He and his confidantes unleashed the results of those years of secret experiments—an army of living dead—and waged war against the resistance."
Speaking of this, Sethlun let out a long sigh.
"Hundreds of years after Belnar's unification, this planet was once again stained red with the blood of its own people... Three outstanding leaders successively died on the battlefield.
Finally, our fifteenth leader, who was my father, defeated the Mad King..."
Sethlun looked at Bai Luan, his eyes filled with complex emotions.
"Do you know? When my father finally stood before Emerson, what kind of twisted body did he see?"
His voice carried a hint of sorrowful choking.
"It was no longer human in form... Machinery and flesh were forcibly pieced together in a mad way. Emerson... his first experiment... was himself.
Father told me that before he cut off that mad head, Emerson's eyes held no fear or resentment, only an empty stare at him, and with his last breath, he asked..."
Sethlun paused, as if personally experiencing the despair of that moment:
"'Do we have any other way? Do you know? Tell me... please?'"
Sethlun recalled his father's expression when recounting Emerson's last words, filled with sympathy and pity for a companion driven to madness.
He looked up at the last mural.
"The final choice. After that civil war, our already dwindling time and resources became even worse.
We could no longer try multiple approaches as in the past; we had to concentrate our last strength, choose one path, and go all the way.
Either we pour everything into trying to fly into space, escaping this desert tomb, or we go down, advancing deeper underground to search for the possibly existing groundwater... We had to race against time, praying that the speed of technological breakthroughs could outpace the speed at which the springs completely dried up.
Ultimately... by a narrow margin of three votes, we chose to advance underground."
Sethlun's father worked his entire life for this, but never achieved results.
"Mr. Bai Luan, do you know what 'underground exploration vehicle driver' means here?"
Sethlun's voice became hollow and numb.
"It is... a death profession with an 80-90% mortality rate. Out of ten people who go down, often only one or two are lucky enough to return... But in my father's generation, the people who applied to become drivers... formed long queues."
Before his eyes, those tragic scenes seemed to appear:
"Some were trapped forever in the cold, dark depths of the earth's crust due to broken drills, slowly suffocating.
Some, upon learning that the remaining fuel was insufficient to support their return... resolutely shut down all non-essential systems, using the last of their energy for propulsion, rushing into deeper, more unknown abysses, marking out paths of death for those who came after with their lives... But we made such a brutal, such a huge sacrifice... and what we got in return, besides more cold rock samples and an ever-lengthening list of martyrs..."
His voice broke.
"...was no... not a single drop of water..."
Emerson's last words had become his father's lingering regret, and ultimately, his father died of melancholy, passing his position to Sethlun.
"Belnar's hopes, Emerson's madness, Xylia's sacrifice, my father's regret—all of this, everything, has fallen upon me."
Sethlun looked at Bai Luan, trying hard to force a strong smile, but it ultimately turned into a bitter smile uglier than crying.
"Half a month ago... my only son, our most outstanding driver... driving the most advanced drilling machine, broke all previous exploration depth records... and then, he lost contact.
Ten days ago, my most trusted team of scholars gave me the final, definitive report... the springs can only last for one more year at most.
I know... these are all despair-inducing news, enough to crush anyone.
But I... my position, does not allow me to show any hint of giving up... I must hold on, I must... If even I give up..."
His voice grew softer and softer, eventually becoming almost inaudible.
As a leader, he had long been deprived of the right to give up; he had to lead his people to find a way to survive.
But... was there really a way?
Faced with such a desperate situation, Sethlun had no choice but to block information.
Sethlun looked at Bai Luan.
Those blue eyes, which once tried to maintain a leader's dignity, now held only the hollowness and numbness of being crushed by immense pain and pressure, staring directly at Bai Luan, brimming with tears he desperately held back, swirling fragilely in his eye sockets.
"All of this... it's too painful... it's really too painful..."
He needed to rest.
"Let go of these for now, and rest."
Bai Luan reached out and gently placed his hand on Sethlun's shoulder, which bore the weight of a civilization.
"Everything will be alright."
Sethlun's eyes welled up, and he finally couldn't hold back his tears, which fell down:
"We... really... just... want to live..."