"A shadow from ancient times?" Ruan Chen couldn't find any related memories on the other timeline, but she still felt that the description was familiar and subconsciously repeated it.
Nan Jing placed a piece of food on her plate. "Eat first, we'll talk after you're full."
Ruan Chen found the meal tasteless, her eyes glued to the photograph for almost the entire time.
She finished eating in less than ten minutes, put down her bowl, and said, "Go ahead and say it."
Nan Jing was putting a piece of green vegetable into her mouth when she glanced at Ruan Chen with a helpless expression.
He originally wanted to chat with Ruan Chen while eating to make the atmosphere more relaxed, but who knew that this girl would start eating without even looking up and slurping her food without any politeness.
Nan Jing thought she was starving and thought it would be fine to let the child have a bite before talking, but who knew that Ruan Chen had already finished eating.
He'd been having a lot on his mind lately, so his appetite wasn't great. Ruan Chen said she'd finished eating, then stared longingly at Nan Jing. Nan Jing didn't even bother with the dishes; he just ate the rest of the rice in a few bites and drank a couple of mouthfuls of soup. "Let's talk in the office."
In the office, Ruan Chen held the photo in her hand—one corner of the photo was already damp with sweat from her hands.
Ruan Chen herself couldn't explain why she was so nervous.
Nan Jing pressed the remote control, and a holographic projection appeared in the center of the office, exactly the same as the photo in Ruan Chen's hand.
"This is data simulated by the Ark. The shadow you see, which is the technology screen, is actually an invisible dome. Its shape, size, and distance from Earth are all simulated by the Ark."
“The blood-like veins on it are the spiritual network of this world, and we are all involved in it. Ruan Chen, you can try to find where you are.”
Ruan Chen took a step closer, raised her hand and lightly touched the holographic projection. As her hand moved, the azure planet slightly changed direction.
Ruan Chen's pure white, almost transparent fingertips touched a particularly noticeable red dot—that red dot was truly dazzling, with thick veins spreading out from it, fading further and further away, eventually connecting with the spiritual network of the entire world, becoming unrecognizable.
Around that red dot, the other red dots were so dim that they were almost invisible.
Except for the one right next to her.
“This point of light represents your weight in this world,” Nan Jing said slowly. “Now do you realize how much influence you can have on this world and the people around you?”
Nan Jing glanced at the red dot that represented Ruan Chen and exclaimed, "Ruan Chen, look, as long as your mental power is strong enough, you can influence the mental network of the entire world."
"In other words, if you're willing, you can even make your words truly come true."
Ruan Chen had known this for a long time, but this was the first time she had seen her weight presented in such a concrete form.
"So what is the Ark? And what is the technology screen?" Ruan Chen asked.
Nan Jing answered methodically, “The Ark is a large computer independently developed by our country. You often ask me where Crescent Bay is—Crescent Bay is in the spatial gaps torn open by the Ark. Every blade of grass and every tree there is a projection of the Ark.”
“Ark…” Ruan Chen murmured the name softly, “So, human civilization has long since lost its future, is that right? You built the Ark hoping it would save humanity from suffering, just like the Ark trillions of years ago?”
It's no surprise that Ruan Chen could deduce all this from just a name.
If she couldn't guess it, she wouldn't be Ruan Chen.
"It's half right and half wrong. Human civilization has indeed almost stagnated, but a single supercomputer can't save us. Only humanity itself can save the entire civilization." Nan Jing looked at Ruan Chen with a fiery gaze.
Ruan Chen remained calm and asked, "What is technical screening?"
Nan Jing took a deep breath, looked out the window, and gazed at the vast sky.
"Humanity's mental network, Blue Star's mental network... This universe, of course, also has its own mental network. Ruan Chen, if I said this universe is conscious, would you panic?"
Ruan Chen touched his nose. "It's alright. It's a bit unbelievable, but not impossible. But the consciousness you're talking about, it shouldn't be real consciousness, right?"
“It’s the instinct of the universe, the instinct of survival of the fittest.” Nan Jing felt relaxed talking to Ruan Chen. She could always easily understand the essence of a sentence and accept everything with equanimity.
Nan Jing still remembers the immense sense of powerlessness and despair she felt when she first heard about these things.
He continued, "Survival of the fittest is the instinct of all species and the rule of all societies. The resources in the universe are finite, and countless civilizations live within it. When the universe deems a civilization worthless, it will restrict its development through technological screening. Ruan Chen, tell me, what is the ultimate fate of a planet whose civilization's development stagnates?"
"It's extinction." Ruan Chen didn't even think about it. "Technology stagnates, civilization stops progressing, more and more humans consume limited resources, and in the end, we can only all perish together."
Ruan Chen's tone was quite nonchalant, even somewhat flippant.
"Humans first sensed the existence of the technological sieve 3,500 years ago, but at that time they did not know what it was. According to written records from various countries, the pace of human civilization's development began to slow down gradually after that."
"This slowdown is not obvious over decades, and not even very noticeable over centuries, but over a thousand years, two thousand years... up to now, three thousand five hundred years, and the last three hundred years, the pace of human civilization's development has become frighteningly slow. As a result, technological gaps are getting closer and closer to us."
"The day when technological screening completely covers our planet, our civilization's development will be completely locked down, and it will officially begin to decline and eventually perish."
There was a faint glint of water in Nan Jing's eyes.
"What is our strategy?" Ruan Chen was unusually calm, completely unaffected by the somewhat desolate atmosphere in Nan Jing, as if she were detached from the situation.
Nan Jing rotated the holographic projection, and four eye-like objects were scattered across the Huaguo (China) plate in the east, west, south, and north.
"This is China's shield, which can block our spiritual network from this planet—this is the limit of our technology. We speculate that if the spiritual network cannot be sensed, the technological screen may stop approaching us, and human civilization may have hope."
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