42 Silk Road 02
The person on the bed suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Zhu Heng quietly, his eyes shining brightly.
As Helandao finished speaking, the whole room fell into a strange state.
It was like a void, turning into an opaque space that could not be described in words, without color or light, and the original earth model also disappeared.
Zhu Heng suddenly realized he could see nothing. In the endless void, he tried to turn his gaze, looking towards where he imagined the window was, hoping to catch a glimmer of light that would give him peace of mind.
But this strange space seemed to have swallowed up the boundaries of his vision, and he couldn't even see Helan Dao.
Just as Zhu Heng was about to speak, a warm finger was placed between his lips. A faint fragrance lingered in his nose. He heard Helan Dao's voice coming from behind him and penetrating into his heart.
"Shh." He Landao's fingers moved from his lips to his chin, and he turned Zhu Heng's face so that his gaze was fixed straight ahead.
Zhu Heng barely felt Helan Dao's presence, but his heart inexplicably felt numb. He followed Helan Dao's guidance and looked towards the center of the darkness. He was suddenly stunned.
In this void world where the boundaries are difficult to discern with the naked eye, a small spot lights up.
The small spot in Zhu Heng's field of vision grew bigger and bigger, with brilliant colors. The spot continued to grow, swallowing up the place where Zhu Heng was standing, and turned into a complete world.
Gradually, light was able to travel through space, and the universe outside the light spot gradually darkened.
"About 18 billion years ago, the universe exploded, and a microscopic point of light expanded infinitely, forming the world we live in now." He Landao explained softly in Zhu Heng's ear.
Then, in this brilliant universe shimmering with strangely colored light, one or two stars appeared.
"15 billion years ago, the first quasar appeared in the universe." Yan Shanting
More and more stars gradually gathered together to form an entire galaxy.
"Then, 13 billion years ago, the first galaxies appeared," He Landao said. "Five to ten billion years after the first galaxies appeared, the solar system was born in the universe—"
The magnificent and vast universe was reflected in Zhu Heng's eyes, with countless stars flashing with various colors of light. He passed through the nebula in front of him and looked at the densely packed galaxies. Among the billions of planets, he captured a tiny red, hot planet hidden among the countless stars.
Helan said: "So there is life."
As soon as Helan Dao finished speaking, the entire simulated universe instantly began to spin. The almost invisible red planet was magnified and became the same half-human-high model of the Earth a few minutes ago, hovering in front of Zhu Heng.
He lowered his head slightly to look at the earth, and saw with his naked eyes that the surface was slowly covered by water, changing from a fiery red to an endless deep blue. Algae life and a trilobite appeared in the sea water.
Next, he saw that the earth's crust had undergone drastic changes, the ocean rose and became land, and in an instant, everything changed. From then on, marine algae evolved into terrestrial plants, trilobites evolved into fish, and then multiplied and developed into amphibians.
Some reptiles appeared in Zhu Heng's vision. They were spread across the water, land, and air on the earth. Humans called them dinosaurs.
"How magical." Helan Dao's low voice sounded, then he stretched out his hand, put two fingers together and raised them to his ear, and gently hooked them downwards.
The evolution of life on the Earth model seemed to be accelerated. Zhu Heng watched the dinosaurs become extinct and humans begin to dominate the Earth. They fought against the heavens and against their own people. For the first time, they learned to use fire, tools, build cities, and even write...
He watched as humans gradually moved from ignorance to civilization and became the sole masters of the Earth.
However, the progress of civilization is always accompanied by arrogant wars. In just tens of thousands of years, humans have mastered nuclear power. Friction and fighting between countries have become more frequent. A war is about to break out. Mushroom clouds bloom all over the earth, and humanity is almost wiped out.
"It took humans tens of thousands of years to reach this point. Technological advancements allowed them to easily control the entire Earth's energy, but in the end, they were destroyed by their own foolishness," Helan Dao explained. "This is a Level 1 cosmic civilization."
Zhu Heng remained silent about this.
The model of the earth in front of him gradually shrank, and what appeared before him was a complete solar system.
Helandao added, "But fortunately, the survivors preserved the flame of civilization. They rebuilt a new human society on the ruins. In this process, humans learned how to control and utilize the energy of the entire star system, no longer confined to a single Earth."
Zhu Heng took over Helan Dao's words: "This is the second-level cosmic civilization."
——The era in which he lived.
A huge spherical mesh-structured halo called a Dyson sphere surrounded the star in front of Zhu Heng. The energy on the star was continuously plundered by humans. The earth, which was originally destroyed in the nuclear war, gradually recovered its vitality. Humans returned to their homes and lived freely in the entire solar system, traveling freely on interstellar transportation.
At this time, the solar system model shrank again and integrated into the broader galaxy civilization.
Those originally astonishingly large Dyson spheres placed in it are nothing more than small energy balls, like gas stations in the universe, becoming ordinary and nothing special.
Zhu Heng's gaze fell on Helan Dao, and he heard him explain, "This is millions of years from now. Humanity has mastered all the energy from billions of stars throughout the galaxy. Intergalactic travel has become a reality. Sometimes, even a simple interstellar human being can easily destroy an Earth civilization, just like our ancient ancestors crushing an ant. This is the world I live in—a Level 3 cosmic civilization."
"By the third-level cosmic civilization era, humans can already travel through time and space?" Zhu Heng suddenly asked.
Helanda glanced at him and said, "Although we have indeed found evidence of the existence of hyperspace travel, I regret to tell you that we cannot exceed the speed of light."
He Landao's answer reminded Zhu Heng of a passage he had heard in a human history course: Albert Einstein, an ancient ancestor of mankind, once said, "Nature presents us only with the lion's tail. Even though the lion's bulk prevents it from immediately revealing itself, he does not doubt the existence of the lion with this tail."
The lion's tail is the most advanced technology that humans can master; and the lion itself is an unknown territory that humans have not yet explored.
"Since you can't travel through time and space, how did you get from the third-level cosmic civilization to the first and second levels?" Zhu Heng asked.
"That's the second thing I want to tell you tonight—"
Helan Dao's tone became serious for once, and Zhu Heng felt a little uncomfortable.
"All of us are now living in this system called 'General History of the Universe' in the form of a memory." Helan Dao spoke word by word, saying something that sounded incredible.
"Then you...?" Zhu Heng frowned.
He Landao extended his index finger and pointed at the solar acupoint. "This is my memory. In a Level 3 cosmic civilization, we achieve immortality by permanently storing and freezing human memories. The same is true for you. For a Level 3 cosmic civilization capable of crushing a planetary civilization with a single foot, pulling the memories and consciousness of a Level 1 or 2 cosmic civilization into the system is a piece of cake."
At this point, Helan Dao paused and said, "As for why a system like 'Universe History' came into being, it's because... human civilization is about to die out."
Zhu Heng frowned: "What do you mean?"
"What this means is that Dayu's flood control has become Gun's, there was no such person as Confucius in history, the Hundred Schools of Thought did not exist, and Qin Shihuang failed to truly unify the world..." Helan Dao said, "As you can see, human history has been tampered with."
“What are the consequences of being tampered with?”
"From the point where history moves towards another possibility, the universe will extend another parallel line of time and space, leading to another completely different ending," said Helandao.
"The original history of mankind..."
"If the time and space line in which human history develops normally is called the mother universe, then the new parallel time and space derived from the tampering of history can be called the child universe."
Zhu Heng didn't interrupt He Landao, listening to him continue. "If the sub-universe continues to exist as a parallel spacetime, it wouldn't really matter. However, once the sub-universe intersects or overlaps with the mother universe, it will replace it, and the mother universe will cease to exist."
"Unfortunately, each daughter universe has shown a tendency to replace the mother universe," He Landao said. "So, the 'Universal History' system was created. It simulates and replicates the progress of human civilization, finding data fragments of the mother universe's true civilization—what the system calls civilization fragments—in order to repair the tampered human civilization in the mother universe."
"Can what you've done really restore the human civilization of the Mother Universe?"
Helan Dao looked directly into Zhu Heng's eyes and said, "Yes."
Zhu Heng raised his eyebrows when he heard this. His intuition told him that Helan Dao had concealed the truth from him.
Perhaps sensing something was amiss with Zhu Heng's expression, He Landao explained, "Don't worry, this won't harm you in reality. The system has copied all of your memories and consciousness, allowing you to enter this world as spirits. In principle, when a person dies in the system, they wake up in their respective real worlds, forgetting everything that happened there and returning to their normal lives. But you're different. Perhaps it's because your spiritual power is so strong, but every time you die, you're able to be resurrected directly in the system. That's why I want you to join the archaeological team."
Before Zhu Heng could speak, He Landao asked him directly: "Now you can tell me the answer, do you want to join?"
Zhu Heng stared at Helan Dao, seemingly considering, or examining him. Helan Dao's gaze met Zhu Heng's with an open gaze. The two stared at each other in silence for a long moment, and then Zhu Heng slowly nodded: "You can give it a try."
"Okay." He Landao snapped his fingers, and the universe disappeared. The room they were in instantly returned to normal. "Rest. There will be a new mission tomorrow morning."
After saying that, he fell onto the bed without any courtesy and fell asleep right after touching the pillow. By the time Zhu Heng realized what was happening and rushed over to chase him away, Helan Dao was already fast asleep.
Zhu Heng had no choice but to make a bed on the floor, carrying his quilt and mattress. He lay there, watching the moon outside the window turn into a bright white. Tonight was so quiet, what would happen tomorrow?
He gradually felt sleepy.
In the moonlight, the person on the bed suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Zhu Heng quietly, with a bright light in his eyes.
【Author’s words】
I drank a lot of coffee and stayed up until 4am to finally finish coding this chapter. I will try to adjust my work state as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding. Bow~
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or provided nutrient solution between 2022-08-05 04:09:42 and 2022-08-08 03:44:59~
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Passer 20 bottles; Light as a Feather 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
