"The above is the birth of Xiling Apostle. ◎◎" Ancestor Anseth breathed out. Saying so many things at once seemed to make him a little dry. After all, he is a mortal, and he always has to deal with certain details.
Subject to one's own physical condition.
The original body was originally only a weapon designed to fight against the abyss. This did not exceed Sandora and I's expectations at all. In fact, in the core memory of Xiling Apostle, there are also vague impressions related to it.
The first mission of the apostles: to fight against the abyss, this is almost as deeply engraved in the core of their thinking as the racial instinct. The life form of the Xiling apostles themselves also proves this: their various talents and ways of thinking are all serving the war.
, it can be said that this is a species that is precisely customized for war, so I am not surprised at all as to the purpose for which the original body was ultimately designed.
It's just that this was originally a mechanical soldier used to fight against the abyss, but in the end it became the successor of the civilization that replaced the old Xiling people - a lot of things must have happened back then. Ansers mentioned the civilization in an understatement.
A decision, but anyone with a discerning eye can see at a glance how astonishing this decision is. It requires not only far-sightedness, but also the entire race's awareness of the dark end.
Can you imagine the circumstances under which people on earth would create an artificial human that is more powerful than existing humans, and then hand over human civilization to their own creations with the awareness that all mankind will leave the stage of civilization together?
The people of Xiling did such a thing back then.
"This decision is indeed difficult." Ansers certainly knew what the expressions on my and Sandora's faces were, and he nodded calmly, "The new government is under a lot of pressure, and so are the people. Everyone knows that this is necessary
Yes, but no one is willing to accept this fact. It is easy to understand: we are also human beings. We are afraid of death, fear of being forgotten, and fear of losing everything we have worked so hard to create. No one can calmly give up the civilizational achievements of his entire race.
, say a few high-sounding words and then exit gracefully - no one can do this, not even the sages. We created the Primarchs, and their performance was better than expected: efficient, brave. Powerful, tough, innate
They have the ability to connect spiritually and perfect themselves at an astonishing speed, but when they think about these new species taking over the Xiling civilization, we, the creators, must step aside... To be honest, many people have ambivalence."
"There was no other choice at that time?" I couldn't imagine how difficult it was to be in exile, so I asked this question.
"What you said was also said by many people back then," Ansers smiled silently, "'Is there no better choice?' 'Can't we coexist with the original body?' 'The old humanity must die, there is no alternative.
?' - This question has been raised repeatedly for a long time. The less determined factions in the new government were almost shaken, but it was this wavering that made the determined faction more convinced of one thing: mortals have many shortcomings and it is difficult to abandon them.
Emotions. The current controversy just proves that the old humans with weak will must step aside, otherwise the Xiling civilization will never be able to defeat the Abyss."
"Let me give you an example," Ansers saw me thinking and suddenly laughed. "This is a real thing that happened when the original body was about to be successfully developed. It almost caused the Xiling civilization to flee.
Complete collapse on the road——"
In fact, after escaping from our home world, we have been under the constant threat of the abyss. No one knows what is going on, but the power of the abyss is raging over a large area, and the fleet cannot stop. We continue to encounter people destroyed by the abyss.
The wreckage of the world, in hundreds of years, we have never broken out of the polluted area of the abyss."
"It may be that a large-scale abyss gate caused resonance in the surrounding world, or that pollution broke out in several universes at the same time." Sandora explained to me during the spiritual connection, "With the ancestral technology of the year, sailing in the void should
It’s very slow.”
"In this dangerous situation, the fleet has been nearly destroyed several times," Ansers continued, "It's ironic that we declared revenge, but back then, we even tried our best to escape. The most dangerous thing
Once, the 14th ship of the Ark Fleet was involved in the debris of a collapsing universe..."
"Is it contaminated by the abyss?" Sandora asked softly.
The little doll finally stopped running around. She came over and grabbed my arm. The little girl felt bored when listening to the history of her home planet, but now, she seemed to be attracted by the new story.
"Yes, due to severe pollution, the most active abyss pollution event, ship No. 14 almost instantly became a poisonous nest. Half of the population turned into monsters in the blink of an eye, and the remaining half faced a difficult decision:" An
Seth showed a bitter expression, "You are so advanced, you must know that one of the ways of abyss pollution is to spread through information exchange: if the abyss is active enough, it can spread through any form of information exchange, whether it is sound, text
, pictures, eyes and gestures, as long as it is communicated with another individual, it is possible to spread, and these communications naturally include distress signals."
Of course I know about this pollution method. In fact, Sandora's high-level mental plague was a skill that only appeared after she was transformed by the abyss. It relied on the super diffusibility of the abyss.
"As long as the No. 14 ship asks for help from other ships, the pollution may spread instantly." Sandora said in a deep voice. This is the most fatal situation for ordinary civilization. The Xiling Apostle builds a firewall in the spiritual network and
The own psionic energy environment is highly resistant to this kind of pollution, but for the mortal races that use conventional communication systems, they hardly know how to set up filters in the bands of their communicators and radios (this is just an example)
The barrier of the abyss: This barrier involves information operation technology and high-level nether energy control technology, which is much higher than the technological level of our ancestors back then.
And even though Xiling Apostle had measures in place to protect the network, the old empire was still destroyed by pollution that far exceeded the strength of the firewall: the danger of this kind of pollution is evident.
Ansers continued in a low voice: "The situation at that time was extremely dangerous. During the subsequent investigation, we realized that our race was once again on the verge of total annihilation. The power of the abyss on the fourteenth ship could spread to the entire fleet at any time.
You must know that it is not only the captain who issues a distress signal that will lead to the spread of pollution - there is no need for a captain or a signal station. As long as there is a citizen on the No. 14 ship, using the personal communicator in his hand, he can give himself a little help.
If relatives and friends on other ships send a farewell message, there is a chance that the entire fleet will be infected!"
I instantly broke out in a cold sweat: Yes, there is no need for a request for help signal issued by the captain. When the abyss is infected, it will not pick out any "high-end channels". It is pervasive, and even the lowest communication channel is enough to constitute an infection vector.
.I believe that the Xiling people at that time still retained a civilian communication network. It was definitely not difficult for ordinary civilians to call relatives and friends on other spacecrafts.
Even if Captain Fourteen has the authority to lock all the communication channels of the entire ship, what if he doesn't have time to do so? What if he is a second late and a civilian has already called his family?
What if——the captain himself panics?
"Whether it's out of fear, panic, desire to survive, or any other human nature. It's so easy for one of the millions of civilians to say goodbye to their relatives and friends," Anseth clenched his fists and knuckled
Turning white, "Ship Fourteen is a huge ship with a population of nearly ten million. At that time, there were 4.23 million people who were able to communicate with other Arks. Before the captain ordered to blow up the communication tower of the ship, four
One hundred and twenty-three untimed bombs will destroy the entire civilization - fortunately, Captain Fourteen is a decisive and ruthless person, and he almost doesn't think about it. Before someone objects, or a weak party calls for help from other ships,
He used his ultimate authority to blow up the entire ship in an instant."
After Ansers' story was finished, I found that my palms were covered in cold sweat. Even Shandora next to me looked relieved: Back in the day, if the captain at that time had reacted a second slower, or he was soft-hearted.
Then, with a little bit of luck, nothing would happen to the Xiling Empire later!
"If we go back to that scene again," Ansers looked into my eyes, "if we leave the fate of the entire race to 4.23 million people, they will be afraid of death, afraid of pain, lose their minds, and will cry and urinate.
Mortals, or leave it to a group of rational creatures who can shut down all emotions at critical moments and self-destruct collectively without hesitation, what would you choose?"
"If we want to linger, find a stable world for the rest of our lives, and then flee again when the abyss comes, then we can naturally choose the former - as long as we run fast enough, it will be no problem, but if we want revenge, we want to be like a warrior
To fight those things openly and to the death, we must choose the latter: let the mortals retreat and not hinder the original body in the slightest. By then, even if the ones fighting the abyss are no longer us outdated Xiling people, we will
At least I have made room for my children in my own way, and as a parent, at least I am not a waste."
Ansers mentioned the three words "holding back", three heavy and harsh words, but after fully understanding the thrilling years of exile, I can only admit: these three words are the only ones that apply.
Fighting against the abyss requires more than just mortal courage. The Xiling ancestors, who live with revenge as the premise, fully understand that to defeat a ruthless enemy, they must be more ruthless than it - at least until they can't master the overpowering
Before the technical strength of sex, starting with willpower was the only way they could think of.
"So we regarded the original body as the successor of civilization and taught them all the knowledge we could teach them. Then the exile fleet was divided into two parts," Anseth's tone became more relaxed when he said this, "We are
There was also some development during the escape: by collecting materials from the wreckage of the world we encountered by chance, we created a batch of new spaceships, which were more advanced, faster, and equipped with experimental precision navigation equipment. We gave these spaceships to
The original body, let them find a path that is completely opposite to the current course of the exile fleet, go all the way, and never look back. From that day on, the Xiling apostles have replaced the old humans. Not a single old human being remains on the original body's spaceship.
, because any mortal may become a weakness broken by the abyss, the exile fleet continued to move forward on the original route, hoping to find a stable world that would not be found by the abyss to try to rebuild civilization, but... later
You can guess what happened. You discovered the wreckage of the Ark, and the fleet failed to escape the pursuit of the abyss in the end. Moreover, the reason for the destruction of the fleet was indeed the weakness of mortals: the panic of the people and the wrong decision of the leader led to the complete destruction of the fleet, at least in our case.
When the spacecraft disintegrated, there was no echo in the communication channel, so there probably were no other survivors."
Ansers finally finished telling these long histories, and there was a long silence in the lounge. Even the doll girl who was always moving around calmed down in a sensible way. She nestled on my lap and held my arms, turning around.
Turning around and looking at Anseth without blinking, I gently rubbed her hair: "You have erased a lot of information about the creator from the memory of the original body, right?"
"Yes," Anseth smiled and nodded, "I participated in proposing this resolution and won the support of most people, because everyone knows that although the original body's feelings are indifferent, they will always develop complete emotions.
Module, if they have too much information about the creator in their memory, I am worried that they will look back to their 'parents' prematurely. At that time, we were not sure yet what the critical point of switching between the perceptual and rational modules was, so
This risk can only be mitigated by erasing information about their creators."
"So we can't remember what our creator looks like for so many years." Sandora said softly, as if talking to herself, "Being able to make such a decision is extremely brave according to the standards of the Xiling Apostle.
ah."
"But the bravery of mortals is always temporary. Do you know how many people impulsively want to turn around and chase the direction where the original bodies left when the fleet is about to be destroyed? Do you want those children to protect you?" Anseth revealed.
A rather meaningful smile, "There are many brave warriors among those people. If they face other enemies, they will never be weak. However, the abyss happens to affect people's minds, and the willpower of mortals will be softened by the abyss easily, and then
Insanity."
Sandora and I stopped talking.
"Tell me about the abyss that broke out in your home world at that time," Sandora licked her lips and asked a question that many people were concerned about. "According to your description, it was a very large-scale outbreak. Even in my
In my memory, I rarely encounter this kind of abyssal disaster that spreads across many worlds. Did it first appear in the form of a 'door'? How big was the scale at that time?"
"Gate?" Ansers obviously did not have the knowledge of the current Xiling Apostle. In his time, there probably was no clear concept of the Gate of the Abyss. "Is this what you said later? Probably so. I remember that its scale exceeded
Five light-years across, it happens to span the colonial star system No. 46, dividing the sun and the colony into two..."
"What?!" Anseth was interrupted by Sandora's exclamation before he finished speaking, "How big do you think the Gate of the Abyss is!?"
"...Five light years," Anseth was surprised, "Is there a problem?"
"The Gate of the Abyss cannot be so big," Sandora almost jumped up: It is not easy for Her Majesty the Queen to show such an appearance. I remember that the last time she was so panicked was when I suggested her to go on a diet.
"Its nature causes the larger the Abyss Gate to collapse, the faster it will self-collapse. There is a critical point. The Abyss Gate below the critical point will self-destruct after the world is destroyed. The Abyss above the critical point
The gate of the abyss will collapse on its own before it pollutes the world, and the self-destruction lifespan of the gate of the abyss will decrease exponentially as its scale expands. A gate of the abyss that is five light years old..."
"It may have collapsed upon itself as soon as it appeared," I can easily understand these conceptual things now. "It may have taken away a large chunk of the universe before it collapsed, but for such a large abyss gate, it would be too late.
What harm will occur?”
Shandora bit her lip: "Not only is it too late to cause harm, theoretically it is impossible for the Gate of the Abyss to reach this level, and it is not mathematically valid. The method that causes ultra-large-scale pollution is not a very large 'gate', but
Several abyss gates are superimposed on top of each other, at least there are examples of the latter. Wait, Anseth, you just said that this abyss gate split the star and the colonial planet into two? "
"Ah, yes, it is like a huge scar that cuts through the universe, directly penetrating and tearing apart Colony No. 46."
I realized something was wrong with this situation.
Gate of the Abyss - I have seen that thing before. It cannot "cut" any target. This is determined by its geometric shape. The Gate of the Abyss looks like an absolute flat circle, no matter which angle you look at it from.
It, it is a flat circle, so how should a circle with a diameter of five light years cut through a star system?
In the eyes of the observer, it will swallow up the star system like a black hole, because it will never create a "narrow wound" in the eyes of the observer.
"Let me confirm, is the shape of the abyss gate a circular hole?" Sandora asked, looking into Anseth's eyes.
"The entrance to the cave? No, it is a rift, very neat, like a squinted eye, a huge eye that spans five light years." Anseth drew a line with his hand, "closed at both ends.
, the widest part in the middle is 0.3 light-years, vertically cutting everything in its path, and the celestial objects around that eye become the first things to be polluted."
Sandora and I looked at each other in shock.
"That's not the gate of the abyss!" Sandora said to me during the spiritual connection, "That's an abyss phenomenon that has never been seen before!"
"Is there any problem?" Anseth finally realized that the situation might be a bit complicated and immediately asked curiously.
"No, ancestor, please rest first." Shandora didn't care about the other party's title at this time, and used the "dead person's name" that made Anseth particularly awkward. Then she pulled me up
Hands ready to leave, "We need to find experts to study it. The information you provided is very useful."
"Oh, as long as it's useful," Ansers nodded hesitantly and waved goodbye to us, "As long as it's useful... you can go and do your work."