After he finished speaking, he sighed and no longer paid attention to other people's questions, his thoughts drifting to a more distant place.

What lies beyond the universe? This is a question worth pondering. Within the universe, the laws of physics constantly shift, and the specter of destruction hangs over all living things. Staying here means certain death, but does leaving guarantee life?

Ever since a global catastrophe in 2052, triggering a devastating nuclear war, human civilization has been on a relentless march of expansion—first to Mars, the Moon, and the asteroid belt, then to Saturn, Jupiter, and other celestial bodies in the solar system, ultimately breaking out of the solar system and venturing into deep space, where we find the companionship of the stars. This entire process hasn't even been a purposeful, planned, top-down effort; it's the spontaneous migration and expansion of ordinary people, much like our ancestors who once roamed Earth's wilderness. The original heroes simply put up a signpost, warning them of a path.

People are so ignorant and fearless. The uncontrollability of human beings has fully proved that rationality cannot be expanded to the whole, and blind obedience is the eternal attribute of civilization.

It is very normal to not be able to see the future clearly. In fact, most people cannot even see the present clearly. Even the so-called successful people who have achieved success in a certain field, once they leave their expertise, they are no different from ordinary people.

Therefore, as the most feared person among the community's top brass, Qin Huang remained terrified—and his fear was not without reason. In his view, human civilization was like a blind man hiding in a prison on fire. Even if they truly had the ability to break through the fifth wall and find the exit, there was no guarantee that the vast ocean lay beyond. Moreover, a blind man could not see the danger, which was indeed present, and even the risk warnings had been handed to them long ago.

So, is the choice of "revealing the information that anyone who breaks the wall can get out" a mistake?

Qin Huang couldn't answer.

He didn't even know whether the "Deep Space Exploration Plan" he submitted to the Community on behalf of the Countermeasures Bureau had been adopted, or what stage the Spark Plan had reached. Fear had already crushed his self-confidence, forcing him to step down from his high position. Now he just happened to be able to make some contribution.

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"Attention all units, the three flavors have entered the furnace. Please pay attention to the operation of the steel atomic gas circulation system."

"This is Zheng, the person in charge of the Retractable Vacuum Drive Unit 2, codenamed Danlu, requesting to be informed of the inspection items."

"Authorization verification passed..."

"Notice, the Iron Atom computing host has been connected and is operating normally, the shipboard artificial intelligence has been connected and is operating normally, and the shipboard power supply system has been connected and is operating normally."

"Notice: Remote verification of the exoskeleton structure shows no abnormalities for the first and second responsible persons, and the third responsible person's neck is not locked. Remote verification of the life monitoring module shows no abnormalities. Remote verification of the communication module shows no abnormalities. Remote verification of the data core shows no abnormalities."

"Announcement: The first wall mirror protection system has been initialized. The space-time drilling system has been initialized. The scientific recording system has been initialized. The emergency escape system has been initialized."

"Synchronize task timing."

"The soul-enriching agent is finally injected into the fuse and it opens."

"Deep Space Laser Interferometer Array Activated."

"Metatopological Phase Space Probe Calibration."

As quantum information rippled through the vacuum of the universe, the three of them formed a right triangle at the center of the "alchemy furnace" and looked at each other calmly.

[Nameless person, listen to me.] Zheng crossed her hands over her abdomen, graceful and dignified. [Snake will be the first to strike later. Her strength is well suited to pushing away the heaviest part, but without Xun, her duration won't be long. I'll take over. You'd better recall your previous training now.]

"Don't worry, trust me." Jiang Ling replied immediately, then looked at the silent drum on the other side. "You too."

"Central to Sanwei, please activate the exoskeleton life cycle module immediately. The alchemy furnace is about to be emptied of gas."

"Got it." ×3

"Attention all units! The estimated success rate of this test is less than 0.2%. Sectors 4 to 17 at the rear of the mothership may be impacted by explosion fragments due to test failure. If the monitoring craft's route is too risky, please refrain from risking data collection," the command center said. "Disaster emergency rescue authorities must prioritize the safety of citizens in the mothership's living quarters." It paused. "Third person in charge, please protect others around you until the search and rescue team arrives."

"I know, I protect first-class people." Jiang Ling replied.

"Announcement, please ask the third responsible person to switch to the third channel."

Jiang Ling did as she was told.

"Jiang Ling, we have a request." The third channel was quickly connected, and then Li Wenjia's voice came. "I know you don't believe it, but Unit 1 is actually halfway successful. They are still alive. So once the test is successful, I hope you can help find the survivors. The data analysis results show that they are not far away."

Jiang Ling frowned: "Is Lao Ning here too? You should know that I'm a directionally challenged person. It's so hard for me to find someone!"

"Relax, your Lin Yi is designed for this."

Jiang Ling's attention swept to the right side of his vision, and Lin Yi's figure immediately shrank into a ball.

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"Survival is not a goal; it's simply the instinct of human civilization. I've died once, so I understand this very well.

"In fact, when Wen Jia pulled me out of the ruins on the surface, I realized that while individuals may have a purpose and strive for it, this doesn't exist at the level of civilization, at least not in our civilization. An old friend of mine once discussed sociology with me, and he believed that the uncontrollable nature of the human population made holistic research extremely difficult, but generalizing from a single instance was still absolutely one-sided.

"I've wondered before what would happen if civilizations found their purpose. By now, comrades probably all know that they disappear. Once a civilization finds its purpose, no matter what it is, the meaning of its existence in the universe disappears—disappearing in endless wars, disappearing in endless journeys, disappearing in gravitational singularities like black holes... That's right, so we never encounter another civilization, and even if we do, it's always too late to say hello.

"I know people online often boast about how lucky human civilization is, saying that the few supercivilizations we've encountered are all friendly, including those that spontaneously emerged on Earth. Perhaps they're right. But I still want to say that we don't know when they will find their purpose. The purpose of a civilization is contagious. Maintaining a certain distance is safer and more appropriate for us. After all, distance creates beauty."