Puppeteer [Interstellar]

Darling, I am willing to do anything to protect you.

If you can't speak, I will teach you how to speak; if you don't have feelings, I will feel them for you.

Even if you are cruel and crazy, I am still willing to treat you tenderly.

It's just that at the last moment of this humble life, I regret that...it's too late to teach you to be strong.

- Preface

The time is 5991 in the Milky Way calendar. Human beings have developed the space folding and jumping technology, and have successfully rushed out of the solar system and into the vast universe. They are walking on a journey to find new colonial planets and alien life, but behind their long journey , the lonely earth is still spinning continuously.

In an unknown galaxy 2400 light-years away from the earth, a small spaceship is heading towards the earth at a slow speed. The person who drives this spaceship is a 16-year-old boy. His name is It's called Lyle Hawke.

Lyle is not good at driving a spaceship. In his opinion, a bunch of blinding instruments and control panels in the cockpit are enough to make him feel confused, but he still sits in the cockpit of the spaceship, and Relying on his almost zero piloting knowledge, he successfully started the spaceship and drove in the endless dark sea of ​​stars.

He had to because he was on the run.

The 16-year-old Lyle has the rebellious thinking that teenagers of this age have. Perhaps because of this rebellious thinking and a little sudden impulsive psychology, he ran away from home and left the huge family that blessed him. , Leaving the carefully crafted family base like a canary cage, exposing his weak and weak self to the cold-blooded and cruel society.

Lyle was born in the famous Hawk family of the alliance. This is a prominent, powerful, and almost wealthy family. The patriarch of the Hawk family, Rein, is an outstanding and brave warrior in the alliance. He is also Lyle's father, although since he was a child, Lyle can almost only see the "father" hanging in the video recordings of the alliance government's military propaganda and the family's monthly gatherings. people with names.

Lyle is an illegitimate child.

It is said that when he was a baby, a mistress of the patriarch Rein came to the door with him in his arms, threw Lyle, who was still a baby, at the gate of the Hawke family, patted his butt and left. The security guard at the gate had no choice but to carry Lyle in. After a series of paternity tests and genetic tests, it was confirmed that Lyle was indeed the son of the patriarch Rein, and he was raised in the family base.

Lyle is not Rain's only son. Above Lyle, Rain also has an eldest son named Al Hawke. He is about a few months older than Lyle, so he is Lyle. brother.

As a legitimate direct descendant of the Hawke family, Al was raised and educated as an heir since he was a child. He enjoys a reputation and a rich material life. , everyone who saw this child would praise him for his sensibility and excellence.

God still seems to think that he is not perfect, so he gave Al an amazing talent. He has genius-like learning ability and physical fitness. In the 15-year-old mental strength test stipulated by the league, he lived up to expectations and got an A+ evaluation. , determined his path to become an excellent puppet master in the future.

No one doubts his status, except Lyle.

Sometimes Lyle is like a cannon fodder villain in some novels and movies who envies and hates the protagonist, and secretly uses all kinds of tricks.

Since he was a child, he was very jealous of his elder brother Al, who was only a few months older than him. He didn't understand why no matter what he did, although the two brothers had similar grades, only Al could get praise, while he was like A transparent person is ignored by others, and everyone's eyes are focused on Al.

Of course, when he was a child, Lyle didn't understand what the word "illegitimate child" meant. He didn't realize the difference between himself and Al. When he grew up, he suddenly realized that he and Al were indeed somewhat different. .

For example, both Al and Lyle go to elementary school in the same league school, but after returning home, Al will also have a dedicated tutor to guide him, and he will be trained in various hobbies, learning etiquette and self-cultivation courses ; but Lyle didn't, and the family would just throw him in the library at the family base and keep him there until bedtime.

Or, Al can invite his little friends to some interesting places to play every weekend, expand interpersonal relationships and popularity, but Lyle is not allowed to go out anywhere, except for school, he must stay in the family base all the time inside.

There's more, Al can sit at the big dinner table at the family dinner, but Lyle has to spend his dinner time in his room; Al can call Rain's father in full view, and Lyle can't even I can't even see my father; Al has a lot of pocket money every month that he can squander at will, but Lyle can only get some lucky money during the Chinese New Year.

Even though Lyle's name is followed by Hawke's surname, no one seems to have ever seen him as a member of the Hawke family.

Lyle, who grew up in such an environment, could feel the extreme treatment and the indifference of everyone around him every moment. In such a situation, no one told him what to do, and no one pointed out what he should do. How to do it, the young and frivolous Lyle couldn't learn to endure or wait, so he tried to fight back.

Lyle started to make trouble, he began to do some outrageous things to attract the attention of others, conflict or fight with others, damage and destroy property and equipment, bad pranks, and even provoke Al in person.

But the result can be imagined by anyone. Except for more severe confinement and supervision, indifference and neglect, ridicule and even sarcasm, Lyle got nothing, which made him look like a clown in the eyes of many people. Many people are laughing at his overreaching.

Finally, at that moment, Lyle finally realized belatedly what it meant to have an illegitimate child.

At the age of 15, Lyle also took part in the mental power test that all 15-year-old boys and girls were required to take by the league. Of course, he couldn't compare to Al, who was like the protagonist with a halo, and his mental power was completely inferior. Qualified, the tester thought he didn't have the talent to be a puppeteer, and he was eliminated.

After this test, he seemed to have no value at all in the Hawk family, and anyone could ignore his existence. One can imagine the treatment he received, and the young Lyle couldn't stand it anymore, so he The desire to leave was born, and he wanted to run away from home, leaving this tall and splendid Hawk family with infinite beauty on the surface.

He had never seen the outside world, and Lyle knew that the outside world must be full of dangers and wonderful things.

But Lyle has already made up his mind. No matter what he will face, he is unwilling to stay in the Hawke family. He is willing to break away from all ties with the Hawke family. Outside, they live a life of hunger, licking blood, and insecurity.

He wants to be free, even if the price is death.

So he left, at the age of 16, one day, while the security guards patrolling the family base were not paying attention, he went through layers of protection and the back door of the family base, taking his only saved savings and personal terminals The server brain, he just left, maybe someone found out about his escape, maybe no one found out, but who cares?

Lyle's escape was extremely smooth. After leaving home, he did not receive news that the Hawke family had sent someone out to look for it. He realized that for the Hawke family, Lyle was a dispensable guy. It's good to leave, to save money to support his mouth.

No one was sad about his departure, and no one was willing or trying to keep him, but Lyall could imagine the situation himself. He had already been so disappointed in the Hawke family, and he vowed that he would never go back again. Freedom rejoices.

It's just that Lyle is not a lucky guy...or in other words, this unlucky kid is very unlucky.

He originally wanted to leave the central galaxy where the Hawk family is located on a passenger spaceship. He wanted to go to some remote galaxies and find a more comfortable planet to start his daily life again, and he also saved a lot of money, enough for the journey. spent.

After planning for the future, Lyle determined his life route and where he was going in the future, mixed into the crowd, and boarded a flight of a certain tourist spaceship. This was his first time traveling alone, and he was full of Feeling nervous, he was submerged in a group of travelers who were going to a certain galaxy planet like him, men, women, young and old, of different races, most of them were in groups of two or three, and some were alone like him.

Interstellar travel is different from ordinary travel on planets. Passengers cannot carry any food and water except basic luggage, and luggage can also be stored in a personal space box; therefore, every passenger around Lyle is empty-handed , They lined up and boarded the spaceship one by one in an orderly manner.

The spaceship is very large, and there are several areas for passengers to rest and eat. On the spaceship, each passenger will be assigned to a deep sleep cabin. When the spaceship enters the superluminal mode for flight, the passengers must sleep in deep Inside the sleeping cabin to ensure that it will not be hurt by the bumps of the journey.

This should have been a novel, interesting and enjoyable experience for Lyle. Although he had just run away from home and was alone, he was full of curiosity who had never been in contact with the outside world. After the tourist spacecraft took off and left the central planet, Lyle lay on the edge of the spaceship window and looked back. His former home, the central planet, was getting farther and farther away from him now.

When the spaceship flew far enough, the central planet became something the size of a ping-pong ball in his sight, and Lyle left the window of the spaceship and wandered around inside the spaceship, walking around strangely. He went until he was hungry, so he went next to the ship's dining room, and as he sat in the dining room, a projection room in the dining room was broadcasting interstellar news to every passenger.

This is an era of the future, with advanced technology and avant-garde trends, even news broadcasts are three-dimensional. The news announcer appears in the center of the restaurant hall in the form of a virtual projection. The announcer wears tiny headphones, and he casually pulls out the A virtual display screen, which displays a mini three-dimensional interstellar map, and the voice of the announcer spreads to every corner of the restaurant, and his voice can be heard by passengers who are eating or walking back and forth.

The announcer first ordered some important events that happened on various planets one by one, and then played the topic of galaxy changes in the universe, and then began to talk about the battle front, the alliance army and the Zerg battle. All kinds of good news, along with his news broadcast, the virtual screen next to him showed a variety of different pictures.

In the end, the newscaster suddenly seemed to have received some news, and his handsome face couldn't help frowning, but he still said in an elegant and steady voice, "Now we have a special piece of news."

The announcer said, "The person in charge of the research and development base of the 'Golem' on the central planet has just announced that a group of interstellar pirates named 'Red Bird Group' stole a 'Golem' that is still under development inside the research and development base." , this group of criminals is driving a K7850 combat spaceship, heading towards the star field in the direction of the original earth. The government has sent a team to hunt them down, and invite the private spaceships driven by ordinary people on this route to do business with the passenger spaceships along the way. Dodge to avoid being affected by the flames of war."

"This is really bad luck." Just after this news was broadcast, two passers-by sitting at the table next to Lyle chatted with each other. They were two middle-aged men, and their voices were just enough to make the sitting Lyle on the side heard it clearly.

The two passers-by sitting next to Lyle, after one of them lamented the unfavorable time, the other went on to sigh, "Yes, the spaceship we are sitting on...isn't this route on the original earth's route? I don't know Will we meet that red bird pirate..."

Another person retorted, "Probably not. The group of pirates is probably still being hunted by the Alliance Army. The news has been broadcast in advance to let the public avoid it, so the captain should first find a planet to make an emergency landing and wait for the limelight to pass."

During their conversation, there seemed to be a little interest, and the topic changed from the flight route to the interstellar pirates of the 'Red Bird Group'.

Lyle was basically locked in the base of the Hawke family since he was a child, except when he was able to go out when he was going to school. He was locked in his small room. He was not allowed to go out or engage in any extracurricular activities. He can't even access the Internet, at most he can only go to the library of the family base. The only network that his personal terminal can log in to is the family's internal LAN, which is usually used when the patriarch holds meetings or conducts family activities.

Under such conditions, Lyle basically knows nothing about the outside world, but he is not an idiot. He can learn a little about the outside world by consulting books or listening to some real-time news in school. Second, about the interstellar pirates, Lyle is also well-informed. It is said that most of them are criminal gangs composed of terrorists, criminals, and black household refugees who oppose the alliance government. They obtain arms through underground transactions, burn, kill, and loot. Is the enemy of the people.

It seems that these hateful enemies of the people will cause a big incident in the alliance every once in a while, causing discussions and disputes among the people.But this time, the group of pirates obviously did something big. They even went to the puppet R&D base and stole a puppet from it.

Oh, when it comes to puppet, you have to mention the puppeteer.

Every year, the Union government conducts a so-called "spiritual power test" on those teenagers who have just turned 15 years old. This test is the only indicator for screening puppet masters; The level of mental power of the person is basically at the D level or even the E level, and there will not be too many changes in his life.

But when everyone is 15 years old or even younger, perhaps because of the growing period, there will occasionally be some top-notch individuals with extremely active mental power. As long as the basic mental power of these children exceeds the minimum index of C-level, they will be To prove that they have the talent for spiritual growth, the alliance government used this kind of mental power test to gather these gifted children together and send them to a place called the Puppeteer Training Base.

They will receive unified training and cultivation in that training base. As long as their grades meet the standards, each of them will be assigned an "exclusive golem" tailored for them. They will control the golem and gradually become human beings. One of the most powerful fighters, they will gain fame and wealth, life and treatment that ordinary humans cannot enjoy.

Lyle, who was eliminated in the mental power test, is doomed to not have the talent to become a puppet master. In fact, he doesn't care about it. There are too many children without the talent of a puppet master. In the test, the number of gifted children screened out every year is almost one-handed, and the probability is too low, so Lyle was not hopeful from the beginning.

The news about the interstellar pirates only briefly caused some topics among the passengers, but it was obvious that none of them took it to heart.After Lyall had dinner in the dining room, the spacecraft began to broadcast again, saying that the spacecraft was about to travel faster than light, prompting passengers to return to their deep sleep cabins for deep sleep.

Lyle returned to the sleeping cabin of the spaceship according to the broadcast. The sleeping cabin here is a huge white egg arranged neatly one by one. Open the shell of the egg, and then lie in it. The shell is closed, the lights are off, and everyone is in an instant. Into a deep sleep.

What people don't know is that when they woke up and climbed out of the sleeping cabin, what they faced was a group of interstellar pirates with guns, uniforms and hideous faces.