Boundary Convention

Ice cliffs near slums rarely gather so many people.

For as long as recorded history has inhabited this planet, life has shunned the fringes of the ground beneath it. Ice sheets with a width of tens of millions of square hectares rise from deep altitudes, and the distance between the height of its cliffs and the sea is also measured in kilometers. No matter who it is, if it accidentally slips and falls, it can only be buried in the belly of a fish after experiencing a long period of weightlessness. The fear brought by falling from such a distance is unimaginable to living people, but this kind of Fear is only possessed by civilians.

But it is different now, this scene is very strange, the people gathered near the cliff, not only did not escape, but fought their heads, they are all pushing towards the boundary between life and death, like moths to the flame, it is really impressive feel surprised.

Fortunately, a protective fence has been urgently installed here, and the protective fence is inserted into the depths of the ice cliff like a sinker to prevent the fanatical crowd from falling into the sea. But before the protective fence was installed, danger still occurred. Those who rushed to the front stepped on the loose ice with half their feet, propped up their bodies like acrobats, and barely stood on their feet. Exhausted, unfortunately pushed into the sea by the surging crowd.

What the hell are they scrambling to see?

It was the first day of the spectacle, with deaths from unintentional falls reaching a horrific six-figure across the country. The bodies salvaged from the sea contain all kinds of creatures. It can be said that the life on the entire planet is rushing towards the middle of the sea, toward the gleaming sphere that suddenly appeared on the sea.

After two weeks, the power of the maximum ice age became more and more obvious, and the temperature dropped a few degrees, which seemed to calm people's feverish heads a little. Although the death toll continued to increase, people were no longer as hungry as hell Ghosts lined up towards the edge of the cliff to commit suicide. They set up camp near the cliff. Some small bureaucrats even brought tents from their homes. Those without money tore down the furniture at home and built simple shack. As the peak of the ice age approached, people no longer hid in bunkers for the winter as usual, but migrated en masse to the coastline, where it used to be the coldest.

Looking down from the observation deck of the Queen's bedroom, you can see a dead city, and a camp established on the edge of a circle of sea cliffs like a new colony. In just two short weeks, the operation of the entire state apparatus has almost come to a standstill. Even under the threat of force, the factories in all cities were shut down, not only the workers went on strike, but even the factory managers, the maintainers of law and order, and even some troops all headed to the coastline stationed. In the past, the Queen's Palace standing in the center of this ring-shaped continent was the only place of pilgrimage on this planet, but now, all creatures on the planet turned their backs to the Queen and worshiped towards the sea and sky.

The queen sees these things.

But at first she didn't care about these, and her worries were not because of the loss of people's respect and obedience, but because of the people's loss of reason. Compared with the stagnation of industrial production, the collapse of agriculture scares her even more. The factories of the cities shut down, as did the planned agricultural clusters on the outskirts, and in many ways worse than the factories, as pilgrims to the coastline slaughtered almost all their livestock, and they also The plant seeds that should have been kept were taken away as rations on the long journey. According to the calculations of the scientists on the planet, within two months, a full-scale famine will come.

The queen raised her head. Even if she stood on the highest point of the planet, she still had to look up to see the strange scene floating in the sky.

Is that really such a fascinating thing?

On this blue and gray planet, gold is a color that only exists in theory. Due to the distance from the stars and the thickness of the atmosphere, only cool colors and very few warm colors with low purity can be seen on this planet.

Therefore, when a touch of gold that no one had ever seen appeared in the sky, among the people who raised their heads in amazement, none of them could name this color.

At first, only the sky was soaked in this color, then the thin clouds, and then the color even spread to the sea, surging along with the waves, forming a strange wave of light, which is spectacular, even the ancient capital of the royal family The pure white glacier, which has never been invaded by other colors, is also covered with a little mystery.

Soon, a new color was precipitated from the thick milky yellow. That color was indescribably noble, exuding a texture like some kind of precious metal, and then became more luxurious and dense, but holy. This color, which people have never seen before, not only visually impacts the nerves of witnesses, but also brings treasures that these witnesses seek.

--warmth.

For life in the universe, the different living environments have created their relative adaptability. Some life cannot do without water, and some life cannot do without minerals. On this extremely cold planet, survival Only one condition is needed - body temperature.

No matter how much life evolves, there is a limit to how it can adapt to harsh natural conditions. Even people who have lived on this planet for nearly ten thousand years cannot use the power of genes to overcome the power of the maximum ice age. In a sense, this planet far away from the stars and with a thick atmosphere is cursed, and the species born on this planet, advancing step by step, and gradually thriving and prosperous, are undoubtedly bumpy. But the reward for this bravery is just a hard life. Their ancestors have guarded and opened up this land for countless months with perseverance, but what they get in return is only a limited amount of warmth every day.

Although the advancement of technology has prevented the people living on the permafrost from freezing to death, the lack of resources has made warmth a luxury that only a small number of people can enjoy all the time.

But now, along with the never-before-seen color, the never-before-seen warmth also came, as if their hundred years of perseverance had been rewarded, people got free temperature for the first time. And bathed in this golden light, most of them finally took off their thick thermal clothing outdoors for the first time in their lives, and experienced the dripping pleasure of heat taking moisture out of their bodies.

Even if the towering high-rise buildings in the city block most of the light, it cannot prevent people from recognizing all this. They dropped their work, rushed out of the city like crazy, and rushed to a place where they could get a wider view. They attacked the few traffic arteries leading to the edge of the world, and headed for the fringe area that is inaccessible.

And it's been three weeks since that day.

For three weeks now, when the central heating system has stopped for lack of manpower, the city has been covered with a thin layer of ice, except near the coastline. The queen still stands high above the bedroom, overlooking these deserted cities from the next time. This situation reminded her of the fate of the Phoenix Queens in the past, and then she thought of the "end" that the gravitational messenger said.

"No leader dies on the battlefield."

The spectacle over the planet lasted for three weeks. During this time, the queen stayed in the high tower of the bedroom, unaccompanied or visited, and her sister was also missing. The coastline is still bustling with activity, people don’t want to leave, they begin to deceive themselves, believing that this spectacle will come again, historians, artists, scholars, religious people, all kinds of people use their methods to record this event. The queen seemed to be forgotten, although loneliness had been with her since her birth.

The buildings planned with extreme pragmatism remained motionless in the cold wind, as if tens of thousands of years had passed. The sky at this moment has long since lost the embers left by the miracles burning in the sky, and the gray and boring sky has changed back to the appearance of tens of thousands of years. And what disappeared together with the miracle was the misty warmth cast from the sky. Although for the queen, the word warmth itself is ethereal, but she, who possesses the four entropy stones, has been vague about the definition of warmth and warmth from the very beginning.

At this moment, she was slightly taken aback.

The airflow in the room suddenly changed subtly, and behind her, the black mud-like alien quietly appeared in her room again.

"It's been so long, haven't you learned how to knock?"

"I'm sorry to make you laugh."

The envoy from the enemy country writhed his shapeless body, as if making a bowing gesture.

"I really don't understand what your so-called door is, so I won't knock on it. I'm really sorry."

"Um."

The queen sighed, still exposing her back in front of the enemy indifferently. This casual attitude is due to his own strong self-confidence.

"So, what are you going to do here again? I think my attitude is very clear."

"Then this time, just treat me as a private visitor. I just want to ask you some questions."

Saying this, Hei Ni squirmed forward a short distance in the direction of the Queen.

"What do you think of the phenomenon that happened in the previous week?"

"Is that what you made?"

The queen turned her head slightly, squinted at the black mud, and then turned her gaze back again.

"A rare physical phenomenon?"

"You're being serious. To me, it's just fireworks."

"It's beautiful, thank you."

"You're over the top, I just think the colors on this planet are too monotonous, and I want to come up with something new to please you."

"But you didn't please me, on the contrary, you please my subjects."

"Ahahahaha."

"Let me tell you a story."

"Stories? I like stories."

The messenger said, and took out the old notebook and pen from his writhing body.

"I want to write this down as a memory of this world."

"It might be the last story you'll ever hear."

As the queen said, she straightened her body leaning on the railing, turned around, and faced the messenger, exuding a strange majesty. When her eyes fell on the messenger, the messenger felt uncomfortable. The liquid that stopped moving became dull.

"Do you know how many generations my family has?"

"I've done my homework on this. According to your history, there must be sixteen generations."

"Yes, sixteen generations, sixteen queens, since birth, a four-entropy stone will be formed in the body of our family. This is the source of our power. Each four-entropy stone has different abilities. Four-entropy stone It will not grow, it will not die, it will always exist in our body, unless we give it up ourselves."

"I see."

"Among my ancestors, the fifth and eleventh queens have done some earth-shattering feats, such as the continent under their feet. Do you really think that the only continent on this planet is formed naturally?"

"Could it be that one of your ancestors did it?"

"The masterpiece of the fifth queen. She reshaped all the land plates of the entire galaxy according to her own ideals, and organized the original irregular land into what it is now, with glaciers on one side, sea water on the other, and a ring-shaped continent in the middle."

"That must have caused quite a few natural disasters."

The emissary interrupted, but the queen paid no attention.

"And the eleventh queen, who abandoned the previous principle of not interfering with the world with four entropy stones, ended the chaotic division of the galaxy, unified all things, and distributed power equally to every citizen. Then these people's unreasonable Being barbaric makes her heart chill, so she purifies the world with god-like anger, and at such a low temperature, the flames she releases have burned the land for twenty Phoenix periods, and the glaciers and seawater have been burned dry."

"It's so long, it's really scary."

"So don't do unnecessary tricks, our social structure is different from what you think."

"I think I understand what you mean. You are very great and terrifying. I have been here for a long time, but I don't know your ability. Presumably you should be the most powerful queen among all generations."

"No need to compliment, I just want you to know one thing, the reason why the queen is the queen is not because of the love of the subjects, but because they are in charge of the life and death of all things."

The queen's voice was resounding, echoing in the silent high sky.

The envoy remained silent, and the churning liquid on his body also fell silent, and slowly flowed to the ground. He couldn't even maintain his barely visible human figure, and turned into a pool of mud like melting snow. .

"I'm so disappointed."

The envoy, whose form could no longer be seen, said so, and then repeated it again.

"I'm so disappointed."

Gradually, it disintegrated into a pool and separated out from the cracks in the floor of the room, becoming less and less, and his voice gradually became silent.

"I thought you were different from the kings of other worlds, but it seems that they are not too different. Before long, you will be disintegrated together with your civilization."

As the messenger spoke, his voice and body gradually disappeared into the room.

"Your Highness, please don't forget that our gods come from another dimension. They don't hate life, let alone destroy the universe you and I live in. They just hate civilization."

It's like this again, leaving this sentence, its breath completely disappeared in the room.

The queen frowned, feeling that his words contained more profound meaning than last time.

She walked into the room, turned around, and then walked back to the terrace, with questions written between her frown. Was this just something to confuse her? Or just a false move?

Rubbing her chin, she returned to the terrace again, propped her body on the railing, and stared blankly at the deserted city.

And at this moment, suddenly, she noticed that in the distance, the sea shrouded in the darkness of night suddenly revealed a spot of light, and this spot of light followed the waves ups and downs, like a swaying firefly in the distance , and then another point, the waves without any warning centered on these points of light, emitting bright light, just like spreading countless searchlights on the bottom of the sea, and then lighting them up together, turning the ocean into a A huge golden gemstone.

The light of the ocean illuminated the camps of the pilgrims along the coast, and then awakened the pilgrims from their sleep. For a time, various voices of the people mixed together, moving cries, terrified screams, enthusiastic Cheers, and wonder mixed with all sorts of things.

After a two-week absence, the miracle awakened the drowsy people in the cold wind and drove them crazy. At first glance, it seemed as if they had been attacked by something. The border that is thousands of miles apart spreads to the queen's bedroom.

But this time, the queen felt the so-called temperature.

Indeed, she does not have a clear concept of warmth, because of the power of the four entropy clan, she cannot perceive the cold that ordinary people experience.

But the sea really released a huge warmth, and this warmth even melted the thin ice covering the deserted city thousands of miles away.

What surprised her even more was that after the chaos of human voices ended, these rhythms gradually unified and synthesized a "long live". People shouted this word that should have cheered for her, but turned their backs to her. And to her amazement, her chamber seemed to shake with these cries, she had never known these mortals could do such a thing.

As she said before, she doesn't care about the actions of her subjects in her heart. In the society of Phoenix civilization, the queen's family and other beings are originally two kinds of creatures, and there is a clear boundary between them. It's just that she doesn't know whether this is a temptation by the visitor or another attempt. Will this be the trump card of gravitational civilization? It's a little childish, and what does it mean by "decomposition" in its mouth.

That night, the Queen announced that the planet had entered the highest state of emergency, and all armed forces began to assemble, and asked the press officer to release a report that the "light sphere" would cause harmful radiation to life. She ordered the public to stay away from the 'ball of light' immediately, and those who disobeyed the above orders would be punished on the spot. In order to shock the public, the queen immediately arrested 30,000 people and imprisoned them on the huge terrace in front of the palace. She wanted to execute them in public.

On the day of the execution, there were dark clouds and the sky was overcast like a crying child. Tiny raindrops began to fall. In this civilization, raining is a rare natural phenomenon. A certain corrosive substance unique to the planet fell from the sky. , most creatures will be burned by it and endanger their lives, so rain has been regarded as a bad omen since ancient times. Although it is still only a drizzle, the dull roar above the clouds seems to indicate what will happen next. There was a chilling atmosphere in the square, and all the ministers from the kingdom showed up with rain gear. At this time, the queen was standing on a high platform in the square without wearing any rain gear. She liked this rare weather. When the raindrops fell on her skin, she could feel refreshed and comfortable. Feeling, although this feeling is just a psychological effect for her, in fact, her body will not feel anything about it.

When the queen stood in the middle of the execution ground, the tiny microphones around her opened an invisible barrier to prevent the humble nature from desecrating the queen's hair, skin and crown. Those waiting to be executed shoulder to shoulder and ankle to touch Ankle, just around the huge terrace of the palace, forming a circle around her. She twisted her snow-white neck, and her shiny silver hair swayed like a splashing cloud, passing through the eyes of the death row prisoners who were nearly a hundred meters away from her.

She had to keep in mind what these people looked like, because these people didn't die for their crimes, it was just bad luck, and in the final analysis, these people were nothing more than victims of politics.

There were a total of 30,000 death row inmates at the scene, and they were all calm, at least they seemed to be calm. They wore restraint uniforms and covered their heads, and they looked like some kind of dolls that hadn't been processed in the future. She remained motionless and died generously, but in fact, the queen could feel the terrified expression under the hood. Some people had even gone into shock because of fear, and the incontinence was a mess underneath. Some people were twitching their muscles desperately to move, but Their lower limbs have long been stuck in thin ice, unable to move.

Covering the faces of condemned prisoners is a tradition of the Phoenix civilization long ago. This is to avoid unnecessary psychological burden on the executioner. It is said that it was a rule formulated by a certain queen when she killed her arrogant and domineering family members. This former queen personally executed the death penalty of her family members, including her own sister.

And now, the queen has also made a rule that any large-scale execution on the planet must be carried out by her personally. This is a decision she made after deliberation. Her sister asked why, and the answer was 'I don't like wasting time'. The figure of 30,000 was calculated by the scientists in the kingdom. The execution of people can be a sufficient deterrent without affecting social production. There is only one goal in her cold heart now, and that is to quickly restore the order of the country and prepare to resist the invaders.

People on the edge of the terrace were all looking at her. Among them were blood relatives, friends, and lovers of the executioners. The queen could clearly feel the eyes of the crowd.

Or hostility, or sadness, or unrealistic fantasies. They were angry and saddened by this behavior, and some people prayed in their hearts, hoping that the queen would show mercy in the end. As a civilization devastated by nature, the Phoenix civilization has always been known for its optimism after disasters, and optimism is also considered their most important quality. But among the countless gazes, there is no pair of eyes with optimism.

Even the envoy from the enemy country seemed surprised by the queen's hard-heartedness, and stood blankly on the special seat the queen had prepared for him, quietly observing all this in a hidden corner. Although the queen cannot judge the mood of the messenger at the moment from the facial expression of the primate, it is presumably not gloating.

The queen took one last look at the prisoners who were about to be executed. Carry in mind the horror of their dying countenance. She will remember these innocent and unfortunate people in other ways in the future.

The time has come.

Although thick cumulonimbus clouds obscured the sun, the execution bells heralded the arrival of death.

The queen took a deep breath and let it out heavily. She stretched out her right hand straight, and soon a shiny black rectangle appeared on her palm. This strange cube was engraved with the ancient inscriptions of the Phoenix civilization. , only the queen knew the meaning, these inscriptions began to flash according to a certain pattern, and the light became more and more dazzling.

Immediately afterwards, the black rectangle began to rotate at a high speed, and the light dimmed accordingly. It rotated faster and faster, and finally it could not even be seen that it was a rectangle, as if forming a small black hole, like an abyss.

It was the first time for the people present to see the queen exerting such power, so they all held their breath and concentrated, not daring to breathe a sigh of relief. People's sights were drawn by the black abyss. The abyss in the queen's palm erupted with terrifying power, and at the same time, there was a thunderous sound, which even overwhelmed the thunderbolts falling from the sky at the same time, just like when a nuclear weapon exploded. Like the generated pulse, the shock wave emitted by the rectangle spread out centered on the queen's palm.

The raindrops were spread out by the impact and flew towards the ministers like arrows, causing them to fall down one after another. They used their rain gear as a cover to protect themselves from being burned.

When everyone turned their attention to the execution ground again, the shock wave slowly disappeared. People looked there carefully through the armor. The rotating black rectangle had been put back into the body by the queen. After a short period of calm, there was a huge roar The sound came from there.

The space around the Queen visibly distorted, and the ground beneath her feet began to crack. The frenzied airflow also scattered her hair, the magnetic field around the high platform began to fluctuate, and the queen's whole posture became more and more unstable, sometimes disappearing, making people elusive, like a dazzling aurora, and then forming a bright star. of light ball. Everyone was stunned by this scene. It was the first time they saw the queen using the power of the four entropy stones, and the black mud in the corner floated up from the chair excitedly.

In the distorted space, the horizon of the black hole gradually appeared, and the gravel surrounding the queen stayed in midair, and everyone present felt a gravitational force that would tear everyone apart. After a heat wave, the characteristics of the horizon were erased, and the gravitational force gradually returned to normal. The stagnant gravel continued to move at high speed, and the queen in the center of the photosphere began to become real. The aurora spread out and turned into wings of light, forming a huge plasma life body, suspended in the air. For the queen at this time, time is already a concept, and space is the ocean she can travel through at will.

Suddenly, her wings of light drew back and turned into a streak of white light, rushing towards the crowd in an instant, and the countless strong lights left behind turned into flashing white lines. Prisoners on the first ladder were the first to bear the brunt. The huge impact destroyed their perception system. The appearance of the queen gradually appeared in the light beam, but the light wings flickering in mid-air were still reflected in the eyes of the prisoners.

Before the prisoner had time to react, his black hair began to turn white and fall off quickly, his youthful face began to loosen, the contours of his thick muscles became blurred, the muscles of his heart stopped working, and the bacteria in his abdominal cavity began to devour every cell. , the swollen chest cavity was filled with corpse fluid, their eyes were covered with cloudy liquid, and gradually collapsed, and the skin on the body surface began to be oxidized and decomposed in the twisted space around the queen. Li, rapidly aging, turned into a pool of bones.

Immediately afterwards, the queen flew up and down, like a white ghost seeking death. Before the wings of light reflected in the eyes of the second group of prisoners were retracted, the queen had already dropped the bones and flew towards the third group of prisoners. She flew to batch after batch of prisoners, and everywhere she went, they were all wiped out.

The light bar surrounds the entire execution ground, and the swinging sound of the second hand resounds throughout the execution ground. After only 3.26732 seconds, the Queen passed 30,000 prisoners and returned to her original position. The queen was out of the "time-free" state, and a wave of heat blew the stench in the air high into the sky.

Those 30,000 people still knelt on the terrace upright as they did a few seconds ago, forming a circle around the Queen. However, on their bodies, there was no longer the uncomfortable restraint uniforms, nor any vital signs, hair, flesh and blood, everything was gone, only bones were left, and then they were blown by the wind and fell to the ground one after another. Mixed up.

The rain is getting heavier.

The loud sound of rain covered up the howls and cries that burst out suddenly after a brief silence, and perhaps there were accusations and curses mixed in.

This was expected. Although the outburst of resentment from the crowd did shake the Queen a little, she soon regained her composure. How can mortals shake their minds?

Anyone would feel sad when their loved ones are wiped out in just a few seconds, and simply erased from the world. This efficient way of killing makes their lives seem even smaller. Perhaps for the relatives of the deceased, it is more acceptable to shoot one by one.

The queen raised her head and looked towards the hidden seat she had prepared for the messenger, now that there was no trace of the black mud. he left. But the queen wanted it to politely watch the last second of the execution, so that her message would get through - get off my planet, or end up like them.

In fact, the black mud did not go far, it just walked around the palace, and then returned to the execution ground, it saw the queen sitting on the corpse mountain, looking a little tired, it didn't know what the queen was thinking, but it looked a bit Embarrassed.

The black mud drilled out of the ground and floated to the foot of the corpse mountain. Its heart began to be filled with more and more doubts. Not long ago, the queen told it how great and wise its kingdom is. Could it be its own judgment on civilization? There is a deviation, or the Queen is exaggerating.

The black mud looked at the queen, and kept silent, only occasionally making a sound of "um, um". It thought to itself, this may be the most powerful creature it has ever met, even some high-level energy bodies on the edge of the universe cannot On a par with the Queen, in the three-dimensional universe, there is no individual life that can control the increase in entropy. Some star-level mechanical life forms can do it, but that is almost a population, but this power should be attributed to four The Entropy Stone, or the Queen? What would happen if it had this stone, Hei Ni couldn't figure it out.

It wants this stone, but it doesn't want to become like the queen. It has dealt with countless tyrants in the universe. They want to expand their territories, and even want to enter a higher-dimensional universe, but the queen is different. , the black mud can’t see the queen clearly, it doesn’t know what the queen is guarding, it’s hard to defeat such an opponent by political means, the spectacle not long ago was a temptation, but it ended up attracting a massacre from the queen, she is really too powerful , and the subjects are so weak, she is the god of this barren land, and can eliminate any creature that violates her, it is obviously wrong to use a coup to crush this civilization.

Because there is no civilization here, only the Queen.