High Above

The virtual realm does not require mechanics, only aesthetics.

The 'Xenogeneic Research Institute Central Control Room' that appeared in front of Ian was the product of this idea.

It is a super giant sphere with a radius of more than 500 meters. The inner wall of the sphere is composed of millions of large and small monitoring screens, and the center of the sphere is a lonely control seat.

A broken corpse sat there quietly.

The reason why it is said to be damaged is simple... because the head of the skeleton has been removed and held in the arms of the corpse.

And this head was not just a head, but the spine below was also pulled out.

But even with such brutal and horrific injuries, this skeleton appeared very calm.

If he hadn't been holding his head in his arms, Ian would have even thought it was a peaceful old man lying on his rocking chair.

"……is it you?"

After being stunned for a moment, Ian shook his head. He carefully looked at the corpse in front of him, and then sighed and confirmed: "It is indeed. The skull was opened accurately. This is the surgical proof of the original self-stripping of the silver chip."

"As expected, it's you, senior."

"forerunner."

The past history is right in front of you, and the black-haired knight approaches step by step.

The closer he got to the control seat, the more he felt that the retrospective horizon was shaking violently.

The corpse of the person in front of him contains incredible emotions and memories.

Maybe it's because of the virtual realm? Perhaps it was because the Silver Chip finally met its original owner...or perhaps because the Forerunner himself had a psychic legacy.

At this moment, Ian felt that the retrospective horizon was extra active...and powerful.

——So, I can definitely see the scene I want to see.

——Forerunner, my predecessor. What exactly did you do at the end of your life, and the truth about the Star God's Gift...please tell me everything!

Thinking of this, the 'pioneer' who came from the earth and walked in his original appearance stretched out his hand.

He gently pressed Terra's 'Herald' shoulder.

Immediately afterwards.

Endless light flew out from their point of contact, filling the entire world.

Between the interplay of light and shadow, the young man seemed to have fallen into a dream.

However, this is the virtual world, this is the dream in the dreams of all lives in Terra——

Therefore, this time, it was not the past images that turned into intertwined dreams and entered Ian's mind...

It was Ian himself who stepped into the dream.

Stepping into that moment sixteen hundred years ago.

【I made an unforgivable mistake】

The moment he stepped into the past, Ian heard these words.

He raised his head and looked in front of him.

An old man with gray hair, wrinkles on his face and bright eyes was lying on the control chair. The old man looked up at the monitoring light screen above his head and spoke to himself or non-existent bystanders in a calm tone. : [But I don’t regret it]

[Latercomers, no matter what, please listen to my last words, listen to my confusion and apology]

This is the main control room of the Alien Research Institute from 1,600 years ago. Everything is exactly the same, and it seems that nothing has changed over time.

The only difference is the old man on the chair in the main control room. He is still alive and dying, but he still has his last breath left.

Ian walked on the transparent passage and stood quietly beside the forerunner, as if he was really listening to his last words.

[Since a long time ago, I have been thinking, can a civilization without human teachings really be considered a human civilization? 】

The old man said softly: [I have been thinking about this issue]

[Those fires...the fires sent to our planet by the Star God and the True Dragon and entrusted to us for safekeeping...they are indeed the tombstones of a civilization, but can the civilization that revives from these fires really be regarded as the original civilization? ? 】

[I feel ashamed to say it, but this is actually a very irrelevant question. These civilizations have even created and transported fire, which shows that they have no spare time to think about the 'future'... As long as the fire can be revived and rekindled The fire of civilization grows into a towering tree, so what difference does it make whether it is catalyzed by the Star God or re-incubated by us humans? 】

[Even if these alien civilizations eventually integrate into us humans, it cannot be said that their civilization has disappeared. They have just integrated into us. From then on, our continuation is their continuation]

[Obviously it is such a simple thing, but when it really happens to us humans, I feel very scared - I want to let humans exist and exist as humans]

Having said this, the Forerunner closed his eyes and lowered his head with a wry smile, as if he was laughing at himself for becoming so childish as he got older.

But soon, he opened his eyes again and his expression became calm: [The Star God told us that when the construction of the 'Cradle World Ring of Silence' is completed, all the fires will be revived under their careful care - those thousands of Hundreds of civilizations, their individuals, thoughts, cultures, histories and even memories will be reshaped and resurrected in their respective divided promised lands]

[This is just like sleeping. Star God told me. The entire civilization is like a dream. They sleep in destruction, and then wake up in silence. Thousands of stars, thousands of races, and countless civilizations will be rejuvenated under the care of the cradle]

[The Star Gods told me that they will definitely do it. Because the civilizations behind those fires have either been destroyed, or they have mobilized the power of all civilizations to go to the ‘Abyss of the End’ with the Star God to engage in a battle in heaven with the Demon of the End]

[The Star God told me that we humans are lucky. We don’t have to be the firebrand, we don’t have to make choices]

[Because, when our ancient ancestors were still using stone tools to fight against monsters, we encountered the first 'fall from the sky'. Fortunately, we met the Star God and the True Dragon. They helped us prevent the disaster that could destroy the entire planet. , and then watched us step by step develop to where we are today]

【Latercomers, do you know? 】

[Our civilization is the miracle itself]

What the Forerunner said was a little confusing, but everyone could understand what he meant.

Because the entire ball control room began to change violently.

Ian watched silently as the endless phantoms intertwined before his eyes. Soon, the surrounding virtual world transformed into a vast wilderness. It was evening now, and a group of Stone Age primitives were warming themselves by the fire.

The long grass half a man's height swayed with the wind, and the air was filled with a moist and slightly chilly atmosphere. The cloudless night sky was full of stars, and millions of stars twinkled with the light of the twin moons.

This was an otherwise ordinary evening.

But, it was at this time.

The first skyfall happened.

Raising his head and watching this scene with the forerunner beside him, even Ian couldn't help but feel stunned at this moment.

The entire night sky was filled with dense meteor showers. These meteor showers came from nowhere and went to nowhere. They burned in the darkness, fell, and then extinguished... But they were not real meteors. It's an incredible omen.

A harbinger of disaster.

The primitive people were also shocked by this scene. They raised their heads in shock and looked up at the stars... Then, they saw that as countless meteors flew away and fled, in the center of the sky, the light of many stars suddenly became extremely bright, but in the After blazing, it becomes bright red, then dark red, and finally continues to fade... and fades into black.

One after another, the stars suddenly burst out and turned red, then black, until they completely merged into the night sky and ceased to exist.

Ian swallowed.

Only stars that are about to be extinguished and have extremely low temperatures will turn red or dark red...and only stars that are completely extinguished and no longer shine and heat will turn into pitch black.

That's not even a white dwarf, but a black dwarf, or even... a black hole.

Watching this scene, Ian didn't even have time to think, 'Why is this all happening at the same time? Even if countless stars are extinguished at the same time, their light shouldn't reach Terra at the same time, right? 'This... because he saw an even more terrifying scene.

As thousands of stars dimmed and turned into pitch black, a dark crack that could not be ignored quietly appeared in the endless vast sea of ​​stars.

This crack has torn apart the dazzling network of stars, and is still spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye, spreading towards the other end of the infinite universe.

And just as the crack spread, a real meteor flew towards the land of Terra.

It was a spark of fire.

It hit the planet and caused a heavy rain that covered the entire planet.

[This is the ‘Final Abyss’, which exceeds the speed of light and extinguishes the stars. It is an incredible cosmic disaster, the star god and the enemy of all civilizations]

The Forerunner's voice sounded again, and he said in a light tone that saw through everything: [This is the first 'skyfall'... and the scene where the 'Beast of a Thousand Stars' fell on our planet and transformed it]

[Latecomers, we are well protected. The civilization behind the Beast of Thousand Stars has been fighting side by side with the Star God until the last moment of destruction before throwing out the fire, and fortunately or unfortunately landed on our planet - Terra is special because of this, and is paid attention to by the Star God]

[Since then, all disasters have nothing to do with us. Our star field has been selected as the foundry of the 'Cradle World'. The fires of thousands of planets and the hopes of hundreds of civilizations have converged on this land. ——They are all the remains after destruction, the last tombstone of civilization]

[And now, it’s our turn]

Having said this, the forerunner smiled desolately: [Finally. It's our turn]

[But sadly, we don’t even have time to fight and go to the end with glory, or leave the real fire behind and wait for the cradle to wake up... We suffered a devastating blow before setting off and ushered in the second The second falling from the sky]

[Our civilization has been destroyed, and it is too late to create fire again]

[So, I created an echo]

“You should talk about the Star God and ‘Zhongyan Tianyuan’!”

At this moment, even Earth Ian's indifferent temper couldn't help but speak, and said angrily: "I have known that you have echoes for a long time. Don't act like everyone knows about Star God and Zhongyan Tianyuan - tsk, this part It is estimated that only the core inheritors of big forces will know that my status is still a little behind!"

Although the Forerunner seems to be narrating to others all the time, he is still an image of the past in the final analysis, so no matter how anxious Ian is, the old man still quietly talks about the things he thinks are important.

[A latecomer, at first I thought that the most important thing in civilization is people. Civilization without people is not civilization at all]

[Compared with preserving the gene pool and technology, it is better to preserve human thoughts and memories... Although these thoughts and memories are just echoes and not really our souls, the echoes of our memories and thinking patterns are definitely better than losing civilization and Intellectual humans are more like humans]

[They can continue our plans after my death, after our death, and maintain the existence of civilization until our civilization once again takes root and sprouts under the teachings of humans]

【But, I was wrong. I made an unforgivable mistake]

[I knew the echo would be distorted, but I didn’t expect it to be distorted so quickly]

The Forerunner did not have any regrets in his words at this moment, he just spoke calmly. As he said at the beginning, he did not regret making this mistake: [My original purpose was just to create an echo of myself and my many disciples. To ensure that after the disaster of falling from the sky, the knowledge about our civilization will not be misunderstood...]

[Their thinking model can correctly understand the meaning of classics and various materials, ensuring that my future descendants can become human beings, instead of being specious, inheriting our human body and technology, but losing civilization, and will celebrate Etiquette is regarded as a ritual of duel, and our festival is misinterpreted as a curse]

[My echo will exist longer than me. He will teach those new era humans who come out of the shelter, so that our wisdom and technology will not be lost, so that future geniuses can get the best education, so that I The hard work will not be lost]

[They will become the new ‘Humans of Terra’ – and my echo will become the Watcher of Terran Civilization. That’s what I hope]

[However, when I created the echo, I discovered that my echo was far more extreme than me]

【yes. Without the brain and the limitations of the already weakened body, I will not be affected by hormones, nor will I be impulsive because of a bad state. There is no desire to interfere with the echoes of me and my disciples]

[This group of the most extreme technical scholars reached a consensus as soon as they were born... They have only one purpose, and that is to create 'human fire' as quickly as possible, leave Terra, which is destined to be destroyed, and go to the outside world to find New home]

[As for the survivors on Terra, the remaining residents of the shelter who are still struggling, they don’t want to waste any resources on rescue - as long as the fire is completed, it doesn’t matter whether these Terrans die now. Anyway, in the future, in After the fire is revived, a new human civilization will be born]

[And the past will be forgotten]

【This is an error. I shouldn't have made them. The Star God clearly told me that fire only needs and can only carry the blood and information of civilization. Fire should not carry souls, not even echoes]

[They are destined to alienate, become extreme, crazy... They will quickly transform into another brand-new life, and even 'civilization'... completely no longer resemble human beings]

[So I blocked them. I blocked the echoes' access, I blocked their access to the virtual realm, their access to the virtual realm's information library, and their access to the collective electronic memory of humanity]

[I banned their permission to continue to create fire - because the fire created by Echo can never be human fire, but human Echo, a kind of completely different from human beings, with human technology and memory, but Definitely not human 'life']

At this point, the Forerunner's words stopped abruptly.

He slowly turned his head and looked in the direction of Ian: [But, latecomers]

The old man was not looking at Ian, but looking in the direction of the entrance to the main control room. He smiled calmly and said: [I don’t regret it]

[Because I just figured it out - things like human beings are not important at all]

[We are just dust in the universe, we are just passers-by in nothingness... Latecomers, you may not understand, or you may want to refute me, but this is the fact]

[The difference between ‘Terra humans’ and ‘Echo humans’? That doesn't matter at all. Sublimators have distorted their own life forms. As the founder of the way of sublimation, why should I force future humans to be humans? 】

[Why do we, the beings formed by the agglomeration of dust in the stars, get entangled in the shape of the scattered dust? This is a bit too ridiculous]

[In the final analysis, who can say that echo humans cannot be humans? 】

[So at the end, I left my echoes a chance]

[As long as after my death, my echo can cooperate with other intelligent life, open the entrance to subspace, and reach the place where my body is, then what if I let them leave as fire on behalf of mankind? 】

[This proves that they have both means, strength and real wisdom]

【That's enough】

At this moment, the Forerunner closed his eyes. He slowly raised his hands and pressed them on both sides of his head.

The old man said calmly: [Latercomers. Whether you are my echo, the echo of others, or a new civilization established by us Terran humans after the skyfall, or a visitor from other alien civilizations]

[Even... Star God? If you come back, then it will be a good ending]

[As long as you can touch this spiritual phantom I set up, and there are intelligent beings arriving here, it is enough to explain one thing]

[Our human existence...does have meaning]

Ian opened his mouth. He originally wanted to say something, but he was soon shocked by the Forerunner's next actions.

Right before his eyes, the white-haired old man used his arms to pull out his head and spine!

There was no blood, no sight of cruelty, just the squirming of muscles and bones.

As the sublimator of the civilization of the previous era, the Forerunner may not have the power to destroy the world, but he has indeed honed his body and soul to the highest peak.

Using the soul to control the body, the Forerunner took off his own head. The old man gently cut open the flesh and skull around his head, and then took out his brain from his head.

[I divided the gift given to me by the Star God into three parts]

A hazy psychic voice sounded, with the same tone as the original old man: [Representing my belief, the ‘Glory of the Star’ given to future humans]

At this moment, the silver starlight was extracted from the old man's brain and spinal cord... and then condensed into an extremely thin, yet extremely complex 'chip' that contained the entire starry sky!

[Representing my physical body, I will stay here and hand it over to those who come after me as the ‘body of light’]

The Forerunner's headless body pressed his hand on his chest, and a blazing white light lit up, and a 'gem' condensed below the collarbone and in the middle of the chest.

[And the last one, which represents the soul, will be given to me and my disciples Echoes’ ‘Soul of Source’]

A faltering white-gold phantom walked out of the old man's body. It was an extremely pure soul. Ian had never seen such a bright and pure soul. Even the fourth energy level definitely did not shine so brightly.

The dim psychic voice laughed, then sighed: [I created the echo. I created without authorization, and then I was disappointed because the results of my creation were not as I expected - I even made the mistake of declaring that my creation was a failure without authorization]

[But it was actually my fault, so I want to apologize. Since Echo has no soul, then I will give my soul to them - no matter what, they are indeed human beings and a possibility of human beings]

【What a pity. Obviously I learned a lesson that can be applied to the next time, but I never have the chance again】

The Forerunner held his head and lay on the main control seat.

[Later...can you tell me? 】

He asked softly: [Does everything I do for humanity...have...meaning? 】

Everything disappeared.

Countless phantoms shattered, and Ian stood in place. The world kept changing, flashing through thousands of different scenes and characters, but in the end, it condensed into the 'now' thousands of years later.

Xenogeneic Research Institute, central control room.

On the control seat, the mangled body sat peacefully.

Perhaps because of Ian's previous touch, the head originally held by the corpse lowered its head slightly, so one could see that there was a blazing white gem on the chest of the corpse.

At this moment, the silver chip...or in other words, the 'Glory of the Star', it was telling Ian with a slight tremor that it was another part of the 'Gift of the Star God'.

It has been there, waiting for thousands of years.

The black-haired young man was silent for a long time, and then smiled.

"...Isn't this very meaningful?"

He stretched out his hand and grabbed the blazing white gem in the corpse's chest - at this moment, the forerunner's corpse shattered into pieces, turning into endless virtual realm spiritual energy fragments and disappearing, leaving only the gem with blazing temperature still in his palm.

Feeling the scorching temperature still overflowing after this long time, Ian lowered his eyes. He answered the forerunner's question across the years: "I have seen your lessons. I have inherited your legacy."

"Humanity still exists, relying on your way of sublimation. Although there are some mistakes, it still exists quite prosperously. And, because of the brilliance of the star you left behind, there is still a glimmer of hope in this world."

Bowing to the empty chair, Ian replied seriously: "This is inheritance. The greatest meaning."

"Then……"

He said, and the black-haired young man stepped forward.

In place of the Forerunner's disappeared body, Ian sat on the main control seat.

The second herald of Terra stared at the complicated screen of light in front of her with a smile: "Everything that follows."

"It's up to me."