Li Zhen, a researcher of folk customs, wakes from a dizzy spell to find himself in a dilapidated wooden hut on an alien planet. His mind holds only fragmented dream images: sparks from bronze forging, blueprints for ancient waterworks, and faint whispers of “civilization restoration.”
The next moment, the [Civilization Tracing System] activates: “Host, you must reconstruct the broken history of civilization on Qiyuan Star by analyzing fragments of your dreams. First mission: Find the energy core in the backyard within 24 hours, or perish alongside this dying civilization.”
A notebook filled with mysterious symbols becomes his only bridge between Earth's knowledge and the dreams of this alien world. By analyzing a dream of a blacksmith at work, he unlocks bronze-making techniques and takes in fleeing artisans. Deciphering a fragment about ancient heating, he draws on Earth's kang stove wisdom to withstand a deadly cold snap. And when he interprets a remnant of interstellar coordinates, he touches the tip of the iceberg of an alien civilization.
From searching for the energy core alone to leading a tribe in founding the “Mengqi Alliance”; from creating a universal script with oracle bone characters to combining magic and technology and ushering in the “Dream Industrial Age,” every step Li Zhen takes lies at the boundary between dream and reality.
But as the civilization index rises, he gradually realizes that the dreams guiding him may not be randomly generated. And behind the System, which seems to be protecting civilization, lies the ultimate secret left behind by Qiyuan Star's ancient civilization... When the temptation of “exploitative development” clashes with the ideal of “sharing and coexistence,” how will he find a new path for this alien civilization through the mists of dreams?
