After starting the Garden of the Dead, we did not return to Shadow City immediately, but stayed in Keruda for a while to learn about the current development of the exile fleet from the "Parliament". I have to say that due to various busy affairs one after another, we don't pay enough attention to this new world, and we don't even know when they built the current colonial planets, which is somewhat inappropriate.
"Nearly half of the population still lives in spaceships and planetary fortresses." In the middle of the parliament building, there is a semicircular platform protruding from the outer wall of the building. From this platform, we overlook the alien city below. Listen " The Parliament” described their recent development. “On the one hand, the current ecological environment is not stable enough to shut down the fleet’s ecosystem rashly. The progress of star construction is still very fast. This universe is indeed rich in resources, and the distribution, form, and quantity of various types of planets are a bit inconceivable... There is also a complete star map of the universe prepared in advance and The list of world parameters, these conditions are simply too favorable. On most of the colonial planets, we only need to carry out a little ecological transformation, and then move down the industrial facilities on the spacecraft and modify them to live in people. Those who are willing to come to the surface of the planet to live citizens are very satisfied with the environment - it is the first time in their lives that they have the experience of breathing under the open sky, and everyone feels very fresh."
"As long as you are satisfied," Sandora smiled, "This is the first time I have seen a universe with an instruction manual. Is it incredible?"
"... Yes, I was taken aback at the time," the expression on the face of the "Council" became weird, "We thought we just took over a living place, but we didn't expect to accidentally find out a set of universe instruction manuals, and even have… "
"There are also quality inspection reports issued by three authoritative temples and product nameplates that consumers can trust." I couldn't help but twitch the corners of my mouth when I mentioned the "Universal Instruction Manual." "It is said that you also found the time stamp of the factory in the cosmic background radiation... "
"Hmm... ah." The thinking aggregate next to him agreed subtly. His eyes stared into the distance in a daze.
Along the direction of her line of sight is the city center of Kerudak. In this city that is almost entirely composed of Toberu-style "tower ball" buildings, there is one tallest building that is completely different. Located on a high ground in the center of the city is an octahedron monument. The monument is thousands of meters high, and many things are inscribed on each surface with brilliant protoss characters. From top to bottom are the trademark, factory name, factory address, factory serial number, inspector serial number, the consumer trustworthy product honor mark, and the steel seal indicating the circulation license, and the inside of this monument is full of the above sad contents. There is a small crystal tower (not visible from the outside). There is an instruction manual with an information volume of several petabytes stored in the Crystal Tower. This manual, marked as "abbreviated version", lists all the fixed parameters of the entire universe in detail, as well as the data of all galaxies in a frozen state, and at the end Expressing our sincere thanks to the six sponsors…
At the beginning, we didn't know that this thing existed, or after delivering this universe to the exile fleet, the latter discovered that the operation of this world was very abnormal: all celestial bodies were in a frozen state, and after the fleet entered space, It was found that the basic parameters of the surrounding environment could not be determined. There is a kind of light of unknown origin permeating the universe (actually, it is holy light, and they later learned that this holy light is similar to preservatives and the like). They did not report this situation to the empire at the time, but went to check it themselves. The result was the discovery of this gigantic monument in the central region of the universe.
When the monument was first discovered, it was very large, and the longest axis even reached millions of kilometers. The commanders of the exile fleet were shocked by this huge thing, which did not look like a normal celestial body at first glance, and finally notified us, Since this world was created by the Protoss, I decided to ask the Protoss five-person team to take a look at the situation. Later, according to the judgment of the authoritative person Bingtis, she thought that to use this universe normally, you first need to turn on the small green button on the top of the monument. Press down.
An ordinary soldier of the Exile Fleet that has been recorded in history was responsible for pressing that button, and all the celestial bodies in this universe began to operate normally—as if the paused video screen suddenly resumed playing, the permeating space in the universe, as a fresh-keeping The holy light of the agent also began to dissipate and merge into the background radiation, and the monument with a length of millions of kilometers became an abbreviated version with a length of several kilometers, and then Bingtis found the instruction manual of this universe from the monument and delivered it to the "Parliament "On hand.
This is the little "interlude" that takes place before the exile fleet builds their new home.
To be honest, I really didn't expect that some of the worlds made by the Protoss actually have instructions and start buttons!
After asking Bingtis, I finally figured out what's going on: Isn't this universe given to Monina when she bought furniture? Therefore, although it is a sad second-hand product, it is also a circulating product produced by the official temple of the God Realm. Naturally, it is different from those worlds without licenses and licenses, with an uncertain lifespan and no guarantee of quality. It has a product manual and a full set of quality certification documents. . And because the world itself is something that will evolve with the passage of time, after they are used as commodities or gifts, they must be "stagnant" processed. The processing method is to suspend the entire world, and the user will open it after the buyer receives the goods. This can effectively prevent the depreciation of the world, which has been unsalable for tens of billions of years, because it exceeds the shelf life (is there really such a thing as hard?). As for the opening method, there is a small green button in the center of the universe—of course, there are some models that need to enter a set of activation codes. The other world managed by Dingdang is activated with activation codes, but it is said that things with activation codes are very easy If it is pirated, it is safer to use the small green button: this is called physical encryption.
The above is Bingtis' explanation to us.
That day Monina was busy planning how to furnish her new furniture. She forgot to tell us these things...
Looking at the towering white monument in the city center, the few of us showed neat and heartfelt smirks: "Hehe, hehehe..." Facing these meaningless eggs that the gods have studied in their infinite lives Painful thing, we have long since seen it as a surprise. Of course, it may take a long time for the "Parliament" to adapt to the universe in which it lives, where trademarks and barcodes are hidden even in the background radiation.
"Before this, we have never been in contact with the Star Region Protoss you are talking about," the "Parliament" suddenly spoke after a short silence. "The belief in gods is a long-standing thing in our memory. After jumping out of their own universe and discovering that there are countless worlds in the void, many races will give up the religions and gods that appeared in the process of their civilization, but Unexpectedly, there really is a race called 'Gods'. They create and manage countless worlds."
"We checked the information and found that the exile fleets all come from the most remote area in the void. That is a place where the star domain gods have not set foot. So it is normal for you not to know them." Sandora said casually, and then looked at the city In the distance, I suddenly became surprised, "What's going on? The buildings are leaving their bases?"
I immediately looked in the direction of Sandora's finger, and found a spectacular scene in the distance: hundreds of Torberuta sphere buildings were trembling slightly, and the swollen spheres at the top of them and the slender connecting towers below were being disconnected one by one. Then those huge spheres (that is, the main body of the building) began to slowly rise into the air. The lower half of their shells disappeared at some point, revealing a complex structure that shone with green light. As these spheres gradually rose to high altitudes, new, thinner connection towers slowly protruded from the protruding green cores. It's as if a living seed is gradually growing roots. There was a low and regular roar from a distance, like countless 10,000-ton giant ships honking their whistles and setting sail. Afterwards, those inflated giant spheres began to fly towards the east.
"There... and there, it's everywhere!" My sister's tone was full of surprise, pointing back and forth in every direction, there are countless "tower ball buildings" on the outskirts of the city that are undergoing the same change: separated from the base, and then The giant ball at the top slowly floats in all directions. They were so huge and so numerous that it seemed as if the whole city had turned into dandelions and was being blown away by the wind. This scene made me unable to help but associate it with the shape of these buildings: like spores blowing in the wind.
"Today is the day of proliferation, the city has grown big enough to spread."
The "Parliament" rang out with joy behind us, and I heard the word again: Diffusion. Jin mentioned this word in front of everyone before, but I didn't have time to ask him what it meant, but now, everyone saw the spectacular scene of "diffusion" with their own eyes, and instantly understood what it meant.
"The Tobelu Zerg increase their cities in this way," the "Council" explained to us after there were no new tower ball buildings rising into the sky in sight, "All these buildings can Replicated, and continued to grow, although they are made of metal, they seem to be alive. This is why we finally chose to use the technology of the Toberu Zerg to build the first colony - in fact, the surface construction technology and Ecologically livable technology, the Ossa people are more advanced than the Tobelu Zerg, but the construction efficiency of Ossa technology is far inferior to these living towers, and what we need most now is construction efficiency. In a few months, so many colonial stars have been reformed (of course, the exile fleet now has more than one colony star in Kerudak, in fact, they have already migrated extensively in several nearby star systems), Toberu's technology It worked a lot."
"Parliament" also told us some of her visions for the future: when the ecological problems are solved and citizens no longer need to be crowded in old and aging spaceships, she will start to gradually restore the civilization of each member of the Fourth Fleet, according to With the preserved materials, she wants to rebuild those cities, restore the culture of the year, and tell the history of their ancestors to newborns. The recovery she expected to see was not as simple as relocating to live under the open sky, she wanted to see the cities she remembered reappearing on the horizon.
Even if the project may take hundreds of years.
"But I think you may encounter many problems in your work, and even resistance from citizens of the Fourth Fleet." Standing on the second highest viewing platform in the city. Sandora looked at the bare connecting towers on the horizon, and made her own evaluation of the idea of the "Parliament", "Many people probably won't understand your idea, as far as I know, the Fourth Fleet is now 9% More than ten citizens are from the new generation, and some are even mixed races that were newly created during the exile of the Fourth Fleet. After tens of thousands of years, how many people from the first group of people who set sail can survive now? Do you think it is now Will these newborn citizens who have almost nothing to do with the original know what the home planet is? What's more, for those races that have been extinct in exile. How do you restore them?"
Sandora pointed out the most important point in one sentence: The member races of the Fourth Fleet have changed in exile for tens of thousands of years. Members merged with other races, and some races were newly born in the middle of exile, and the races produced in the end can even be called spaceship civilizations. They have lived in closed and old metal cabins since the first generation middle. Stories about planets and blue skies mean nothing to them. Even now, this part of the spaceship race remains in their antiquated cabins. Part of the reason is that the living conditions of the colonial star are not up to standard. Another part of the reason is that they simply cannot imagine leaving the ship. What it's like to live on a stone ball floating in space: They find it shaky.
Given the status quo of the members of the Fourth Fleet, the idea of the "Parliament" is really wishful thinking.
"You are one of the only crew members who have survived since the fleet set sail. I understand your feelings, but to be honest, it is better to let things take their course and let the survivors of the Fourth Fleet choose their own path. They have redeveloped their own brand new civilization. As for the history... just keep it in mind. It is always worthless to be too persistent." Sandora looked into the eyes of the "Parliament", her voice was a little low.
The "Parliament" was a little dazed. For a while, she couldn't think of why a Xiling emperor would show such a sad expression, but she thought of what happened in the Xiling Empire. His expression changed instantly.
"I... understand this truth, you are right, but I just can't let it go," the "Council" said in a low voice with a gloomy expression, "Almost all the old friends who set sail together are gone, I always feel that I should Do something for them... When being hunted down by the fallen apostles, those races that were unfortunately left behind would always send back their civilization database as soon as possible. Later, we even counted the civilization history of all races in the entire fleet, and established No matter who dies, I hope this giant library can stay forever... "
"There is something like this in the capital of the new empire, but the more important building is the Totem Square commemorating the new history. Rather than obsessing over rebuilding the ruins of the past, we think it is more meaningful to commemorate the soldiers who died in order to open up a new history "Sandora said, "The Xiling Apostles are a race that will not look back. If you want to move forward in the cruel void, you'd better learn not to look back. Of course, it is still important to remember history, and... if If you don't mind, I'd like to combine your 'Great Vault' with our various memorial repositories—replicas, of course."
"Merge the giant database of the Fourth Fleet and the database of the Empire?" The "Parliament" suddenly widened its eyes in shock.
"There is a famous saying in the empire: black history is also history," Sandora said, while glancing at me, "Chen Jun, in May of the third year of the new empire, in the capital star. Therefore, we are willing to look directly at any history, even if It was the most disgraceful moment."
Me: "..." Did I finally get shot by Sandora's weird hobby
"Okay, I will discuss this matter with other senior officials," the "Council" regained his composure and nodded, "It may take some time to decide. You know, this matter is not good for the current Fourth Fleet. There's going to be too much real impact, but the symbolism is huge."
Due to the need to check the network components located on this side at all times, we left Bubbles with us when we left the exile world and promised to come and see her as soon as possible. However, the latter doesn't seem to have any objections. It is estimated that for her, as long as she can play games online at any time, the world is beautiful enough. The "Parliament" promised to take good care of the "important minister" of the empire, but I can only reluctantly promise that this "important minister" will not cause trouble in a short period of time, and suggest that the "Parliament" feed Bubble three times a day in the morning, noon and evening— Otherwise, that dead house girl would definitely not take care of herself.
And after we returned to Shadow City, we were not idle, and immediately found a large group of experts, and began to study a short piece of information we copied from the "Parliament"—it was received by the Fourth Fleet at that time, from the Fifth Fleet signal for help.
Although Toberu's scientists failed to analyze too many valuable things from these severely distorted signals, I think that with the ability of Xiling scientists, they should be able to fix it more clearly, at least...
We need to find out who is after the Fifth Fleet.
In the distress message that lasted only a few tens of seconds, there appeared a word of extreme concern: empire, and among those exile fleets, the word "empire" only referred to the Xiling Empire. But judging by the context of the entire message, it felt as though the Fifth Fleet hadn't been under imperial attack, and that was the biggest mystery.
And another mystery is—in the deepest part of the void that even the empire cannot touch, how did the Fifth Fleet send such a weak message? RQ