Chapter 649 After Dusk

People of the Starry Sky - this is what humans call these mysterious beings from the depths of the stars, and in Horleta, the ancient magic emperors called them "allies in the stars." The real names of these mysterious beings are different, but due to the extremely weird language and vocabulary structure they use, it is difficult for ordinary races to accurately restore their racial names, whether through transliteration or free translation, so those who have come into contact with these mysterious beings In the end, each race chose its own customary way of calling them.

The image of the people of the starry sky is an amorphous mass of bright light, with dots of stars and lightning swimming inside. Some people believe that these creatures are formed from the most primitive and pure light in the universe, representing the purity of this world. Bright side. They possess weird technology that humans cannot understand - it may also be magic, and they can cause all kinds of miracles. Some people even believe that they have some kind of power beyond the material world, so they can affect fate, cause and effect and other ethereal things. thing. The people of the starry sky first established communication with the humans on this planet through spiritual connections. Later, they came to this planet through a strange optical phenomenon that did not conform to common sense of physics, and soon demonstrated their incredible power. of strength and great qualities.

The people of the starry sky warned the locals about the awakening of the eldest son, and informed them of a disaster beyond mortal imagination that would almost overturn the entire universe. At first the humans on this planet did not believe these warnings, but the people of the stars soon confirmed everything through a series of accurate prophecies and the tentacles of the Firstborn excavated from the depths of the earth. They help the natives here prepare for the catastrophic disaster, including plans to fight the Firstborn and special shields to protect the planet after the sun explodes - these things are all made by the hands of these strange and glorious creatures.

"That is to say, they came to this planet from the depths of the universe, gave you early warning, guided you to transform the planet into an ark, helped you push your eldest son into the sun and detonated it, and also helped you build a serious planetary shield. Things beyond your technology tree," Hao Ren frowned after hearing the records about the people of the starry sky from the Ark host, "...but it failed in the end. The people of the starry sky didn't know that the soul of the eldest son could be in the flesh. After the body dies, it continues to survive, and even has the power to destroy the entire ecosystem. So what is the outcome of those people in the starry sky?"

"They return to the light." The Ark host replied in a straight and emotionless voice, and displayed the record of the planet's last moments on a machine next to it. Hao Ren saw that the earth was shrouded in a thin layer of Under the dark red light, the distant sun was expanding at a speed visible to the naked eye and gradually falling apart. People on the surface seemed to be holding some kind of celebration ceremony, but when the sun expanded to one-third of the sky, the celebrating crowd began fell down one after another.

At this moment, several groups of strange lights sprang up from the crowd. They were like tangled and twisted lightning and jelly, with dots of bright lights inside, as large as a house. These lights twitched violently against the sky, and finally turned into huge light pillars and suddenly disappeared.

Those light groups should be the people of the starry sky. Hao Ren believed that the last light pillar was the scene when they died.

Allies among the stars - the ancients of Horleta firmly believe that these mysterious creatures from the depths of the universe can help them fight against the eldest son, and the latter does seem to have power beyond the mortal race. At least they have a way to successfully destroy the eldest son's body. . But it turned out that this level of power was still not enough, and the people of the starry sky finally died on the planet ark.

The scene was frozen at the moment when those light beams disappeared. Vivian looked at the screen thoughtfully: "These light-like races should be rushing to help everywhere in the universe. Their aerospace technology is very advanced, so they probably have the ability to catch up with the eldest son." Kill to protect yourself, but if you want to help other races... it’s not very successful.”

Hao Ren sighed and asked a few more questions to the Ark host. What happened back then finally came to light.

The original plan of the people of the starry sky and the natives of this planet was to use the sun to destroy the eldest son and leave here in an ark to find a place with suitable stars. However, on the day of the ark's setting sail ceremony, the civilization on the planet was instantly extinct. For more than 10,000 years after this, the planet quietly slept in its parent star system, as if dead. But there are still "alive" things on this planet - the machines left by humans are still waiting silently in the darkness. They have never forgotten the purpose of their creation, and have never given up on the ancient rules established ten thousand years ago. plan.

During the 10,000 years that the planet has been sleeping, the Ark host has maintained minimal operation and scanned the life response of the entire planet over and over again - it continues to search for survivors on the planet under the guidance of established procedures, even if only one person survives Down the line, the significance of Ark’s existence will continue.

If it were a human being, he would have given up, but these machines, from the day they were created, did not know what giving up meant.

Vivian figured everything out: "Did the Nangong couple restart the Ark's sailing agreement?"

The Ark host confirmed her suspicion.

"So those TVs, newspapers, advertisements, names of people and places in the city...all human society are actually simulated by you?"

The Ark host’s answer was only one sentence: “The creator’s civilization cannot be cut off.”

Hao Ren felt that there seemed to be some problems with this host's understanding of "civilization", but he didn't know whether he had the position to correct this "problem" several times when he opened his mouth. The machine in front of it is just using its own mechanized logic to complete its mission. It may not really understand what civilization is, nor what exactly the creators want to preserve. It is an abstraction that carries human will. , things that are difficult for AI to understand, the Ark host does not understand these.

But it still stubbornly carries out the instructions given ten thousand years ago - in the machine's own way.

"So you don't let the people in the city leave," Hao Ren sighed, "But you also know that we are not your creators - it doesn't make much sense for you to take us away."

The Ark host was silent for a long time, and finally repeated in an emotionless voice: "The creator's civilization cannot be cut off."

"Then what is your next plan?" Vivian asked, "You let us come here, which proves that you are also hesitating. You understand that you cannot continue to maintain this deadlock. This is an illusion and is completely unfounded. A play of meaning.”

Hao Ren also looked intently at the giant computer in the center of the hall. Although he couldn't see any emotional factors in the opponent's steel body, he vaguely felt that the AI ​​was also confused like humans. There was some kind of part in its body that was not part of the program, which was prompting it to seek change.

After another long silence, the Ark host asked a question: "Where are you from?"

"You have antennas on the surface, right? Point them towards space. There is a silver-white spacecraft there," Hao Ren said while connecting with the data terminal in his mind, "Terminal, for this planet Broadcast and tell it about the Space-Time Administration."

The lights on the surface of the Ark host were flashing, and they were listening quietly to the broadcast from space, while Hao Ren and Vivian were waiting patiently beside them. A few minutes later, a human sigh came from the host: "I understand."

Half an hour later, Hao Ren led everyone back to the Giant Turtle Platform in space.

He only brought back two things from the Planet Ark.

One of them is a square black metal box, about half a person tall. It is a library, which contains most of the information about the Ark civilization. The Ark host tried its best to understand what "civilization" meant. Finally, it created this database and hoped that someone would take it to a distant place. Just like most civilizations - when facing the end, Ark chose to leave its own message. This is the only way to commemorate its creator.

The other thing was a transparent jar over a foot high, which contained some gray-green substance. This was the second thing that the Ark host wanted Hao Ren to take away: they were moss scraped from the condensation pipe.

Samples of life on this planet.

The Ark host explained this: "Some scholars among the creators have deduced the failure of the entire plan, so they conceived some backup plans: If humans cannot be saved, some animals will be saved; if animals cannot be saved, some plants will be saved. If nothing can be saved, just save some cells. Please take these away, let them survive and spread, and my mission will be completed."

The Giant Turtle Yantai slowly left the orbit of the planet Ark in a blue light package, and the gray-white wandering planet gradually became farther and farther away from the field of vision.

In the sanctuary of Planet Ark, the lights are dimming one by one, the day is over, and after dusk, another civilization falls into darkness. The unmanned car slowly stopped on the roadside, and the robots also stopped working and began to turn off the power one by one. On the advertising screen of the roadside building, a middle-aged man in uniform with gray hair looked at The empty city said its last good night to the world: "Citizens, the shelter will be closed soon, thank you all, goodbye."

When the last light in space was blocked by the warp space, everyone turned their attention away from the holographic image. "Gun" curiously looked at the black metal box Hao Ren brought back, then went up and nodded with his head: "It's so heavy."

Hao Ren sighed: "Yes, it's quite heavy."