"Ms. Ashford, there’s one more thing I need to tell you. You also have five children now."

White clouds drifted overhead. A light breeze brushed past. Clara Ashford sat on the grass with a blade of grass between her lips, her eyes full of blank confusion.

Back on 21st-century Earth, in the year 2022, she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The doctor had told her she had less than a month left. Watching her parents and her brothers break down over her, she couldn’t bear the thought of dying right in front of them. So she left in secret, went alone to the Arctic, and in that endless world of snow and ice, lay down on an iceberg and closed her eyes.

Clara had thought that was the end of her life.

What she never expected was that, three thousand years later, in the interstellar year 2862, the Interstellar Federation Academy of Sciences would bring her back with medical technology from a far more advanced age.

"Five children?" Clara repeated, staring at the staff member. The more she listened, the more absurd it sounded. She had never been married, never even been in a relationship. Forget holding a boyfriend’s hand—she hadn’t even had a boyfriend. And now she woke up from one long sleep and somehow had five kids out of nowhere?

The staff member looked guilty on the spot. After hesitating for a moment, they finally admitted it. "Yes. You do have five children now. Five years ago, people from the archaeological institute brought you back from Earth. During examination, they unexpectedly discovered that the genes in your body were still preserved extremely well, and they were still active."

"After very careful discussion, the Academy decided to extract those genes and combine them with the genes of the most outstanding young men in the Federation. The goal was to cultivate the most exceptional children possible."

As they spoke, the staff member kept a careful eye on her expression and added cautiously, "Ms. Ashford, you’re... not angry, are you? Unmutated human genes are just too important to us. And five years ago, no one thought there would ever come a day when you’d actually wake up, so..."

"But please don’t worry, Ms. Ashford. The men whose genes were paired with yours are all incredibly outstanding. Sebastian Mercer is the only grandson of the Federation’s greatest mech family. At seven years old, he independently created the first mech of his own design. Now at twenty-four, he’s already the top mech master in the Federation."

"General Dorian Calloway is the marshal’s only grandson. He was already following the marshal onto the battlefield at twelve, fighting the Zerg and earning major military achievements. He’s twenty-five now, and he’s fought in more battles than most people can count. His record is stacked."

"Mr. Nathan Everett was named a senior academician of the Federation Academy of Sciences, Agricultural Institute, when he was only twenty-one."

"And then there’s Maxwell Whitmore. He’s the Federation’s biggest film emperor. Girls all across the galaxy are obsessed with him. Tons of people would literally kill for the chance to have his child."

"Can I ask one more question?" Clara looked at the staff member and asked seriously.

The staff member nodded at once. "Of course. Anything you want to ask, just ask."

Clara got straight to the point. "Why did you use my genes to create children?"

Are my genes made of gold or what?

That valuable?

Valuable enough to be paired with that many ridiculously exceptional men?

And they really weren’t worried the kids would come out with corpse poison or something?

I mean... considering what state she had been in five years ago, she’d basically been no different from an ancient corpse.

"It's... kind of a long story," the staff member said, sounding a little careful. "To explain it properly, we have to go all the way back to more than two thousand years ago, when humanity left Earth and entered the interstellar era."

"Back then, Earth's environment had already been wrecked by pollution. People had no choice but to leave and move to other planets. That was how the interstellar age began. But the technology at the time just wasn't advanced enough. During the migration, humans couldn't fully protect themselves, and after settling in space, their genes underwent severe radiation mutation."

"Especially the children born later. A lot of them barely even looked human anymore. And the more serious the mutation, the lower the chance of survival. Some infants didn't even make it to one month old."

"And even more importantly, after over two thousand years of data tracking, one pattern became very clear: the less mutated a child is, the higher their intelligence usually is. So in today's interstellar society, a completely original, unmutated human gene sample is unimaginably precious."

As the staff member spoke, they looked at Clara Ashford again. There was a strange trace of envy in their eyes. "Before this, they took your genes without your permission. Then they privately combined them with their own and used them to cultivate children. According to Federal marriage law, since you now share children with them, they are legally required to take responsibility for you."

"Ms. Ashford, the central system should have already sent marriage notices to them by now. They're probably already on their way here. You should prepare yourself... and seriously think about who you want to be with," the staff member reminded her.

Clara Ashford: "..."

Could she choose none of them?

Getting hit out of nowhere with five kids was already insane enough. And now five men were coming too? Men she'd never even met before. Marriage? Seriously?

Even if the Federation enforced strict monogamy and she could only choose one man, that still wasn't okay. She hadn't even had a proper sweet romance yet. How was she supposed to just skip straight to marrying some random guy? Wasn't this basically arranged marriage with a futuristic skin slapped on it? It didn't matter how ridiculously outstanding they were. No meant no.

But whether she accepted it or not, half an hour later, four men arrived, each carrying a child of his own.

Sebastian Mercer, the refined and elegant S-class mecha master.

Dorian Calloway, the stern, iron-willed military general.

Nathan Everett, the quiet, restrained senior academician of the National Advanced Science Academy.

And Maxwell Whitmore, the bright, easygoing interstellar film emperor.

Four men. Four children. Two boys and two girls.

Every child looked almost like a mini copy of their father. Standing side by side, each father-child pair shared nearly identical features, the same vibe, the same presence. Add in those absurdly flawless faces on all of them, and the whole scene was basically eye candy on an illegal level.

But...

A marriage without feelings meant absolutely nothing.

Clara Ashford quickly calmed herself down. Her gaze turned steady as she looked over the line of men and children in front of her.

"Wasn't there supposed to be five?"

"Where's the other child?"

Clara Ashford quickly turned her head and asked the staff member beside her.

With all four big shots standing right there, the staffer nearly had a heart attack hearing Clara’s question. Their nerves were shot, and fear crawled straight up their spine.

For a second, they genuinely admired her. Ms. Ashford was seriously something else. Facing four top-tier men and still staying this calm, this steady, and even cool enough to keep asking where the fifth man and the fifth child were—honestly, that was insane. Respect.

"Well... Ms. Ashford, according to the Federation’s original plan, five samples of your genes were extracted and assigned to five of the most outstanding men, in order to cultivate five exceptional children. But one of those samples ran into an accident during transport and was taken by star pirates..."

"So regarding the last child and that father... please forgive us. We have no way to bring him here and make him take responsibility."

Clara stared at the staff member and asked bluntly, "You mean my last child was taken by star pirates?"

The staffer choked for a moment, clearly caught off guard, but quickly pulled themself together and explained, "To be precise, one out of the five gene samples taken from your body was stolen by star pirates, and that sample was then used by them to produce a child. That child and the child’s father are both now star pirates."

Looking at Clara, the staff member said with extra seriousness, "Ms. Ashford, star pirates are extremely dangerous, and they don’t accept the Federation’s laws. We can’t control him."

All the questions had been asked. What came next was the real issue—choosing who would take responsibility for her.

The staff member looked at Clara and asked carefully, "Ms. Ashford, according to regulations, you may choose any one of them to be your husband. Who do you want to choose?"