Star Empire

Can't give up yet.

Yes, not yet, not yet.

The three huge rings surrounding the sovereign hub are still in operation, the cargo storage-transformation area shaped like a tuning fork is still receiving materials shipped from the Abyssal Ship, and the rail system still has transport vehicles and escorts at work. Experimenters studying memes are still waiting in front of each containment equipment, and the gunners are still waiting quietly around the fort, waiting for combat orders that may appear at any time.

The last moment is far from coming, and even if that moment comes and the empire loses, resistance and counterattack will not completely disappear!

The transport fleet is still exporting supplies to the Black Gate Fortress, the three large rings are still listening for changes in the void, marking the locations where changes occur, and the remaining four death tide pollution guidance turrets are still attacking those who want to get into the tranquility. The dead tide monster in the area.

Not lost yet.

It is true that the original intention of establishing the Black Gate Fortress has been unable to be realized.

But he hasn’t lost yet, Black Gate Fortress hasn’t lost yet, and the empire hasn’t lost yet!

Wheeler woke up from his dream and looked at his surroundings. There were no obvious changes in his surroundings. It seemed that a few more windows turned red, but that didn't matter.

He wiped his face and wiped away all the tears from his face.

On the armrest on his left hand side, there is a copy of the latest "Safe Living Procedures". Wheeler noticed that there seemed to be something unusual about the thick book. He reached out and picked it up, and a few drops of sticky liquid dripped from between the pages.

"." Wheeler didn't say anything, he opened the book directly.

*...◇《◆》, You don’t need to pay attention to this item, and you don’t need to care about this protocol, or everything you see - yes, of course, no one will care. They are too hard and dry, and nibbling on them is tiring and uninteresting.

■%◇【? ], You shouldn’t think too much, think more, think, think, think, think, why are you here? Why does Black Gate Fortress stand in the tide of death? What kind of research must be done here? This is this, this is this, this is—

Θ”#%■■◆《Λ》Fighting is allowed, but fighting is prohibited. Do not abuse your colleagues, the equipment and tools you use, or your schedule. You should fully inform those around you Pour out all your dissatisfaction and all your malice to your colleagues. Only after picking out all the faults and cleaning them up will you feel comfortable and everything around you can make progress, right? Any negotiation and explanation should be Being wiped out, they're just trying to cover up the problem, aren't they?

@◆■Θ……∮《? ? "Yes, the dead tide will pollute time, destroy the continuity of time, and isolate the original time connection between objects. That’s why you have to ring the bell, and that’s why you have to ring the bell regularly - but what’s the use of that? Who cares about those long, uninteresting hours? What? What's inside? If you lose it, you lose it. It was the fifth and last piece of dry food that fed you, the one in front? It doesn't matter whether they exist or not, maybe they don't exist at all... No, I mean, what do you care about them?

∮⊙◇《◆》%, don’t believe in the anchor. There is a lot of time here but only a very small world. You don’t doubt this, right? What can an anchor be expected to do in this situation? You don't still believe that there is something here that can help you through the anchor, do you? Pink light is warm, loves you, is full of malice, and wants to kill you. Embrace the pink light. Don't believe in the anchor. Believe in the anchor. If the anchor is thrown crookedly, it will not be fixed, but it will sink deeper. Don't believe in the anchor. You are your own anchor. Believe in reality, don't trust your friends, your friends are trustworthy, caress their five slender fingers, lie on His belly and listen to His words...

? ■Θ◆——, one trillion years? Ha, when you were willing to come here, your determination was really extraordinary——

". One trillion years? Don't say one trillion years. Even if it is one million billions or trillions of years, we have to fight when we need to fight, and we have to spend when we need to. The value of my life is not to cause trouble and trouble for the empire. Energy bricks!" Wheeler didn't pay much attention to the weird entries in the book. He simply tore out all the contaminated pages and threw the pages with blurred and twisted writing into the garbage collection point.

"In order to avoid those factors related to giant memes, the items with serial number 5 in the safe living procedures do not contain important precautions. They should not be like this at the beginning." Wheeler recalled that he could still remember it. of, previous versions.

In previous versions, these entries would have been filled with interesting jokes or insignificant stories. But now, many of these entries are filled with gibberish and strange words.

But how do mega-memes form these seemingly confusing, but overall still clearly instructive statements? Wheeler frowned at the thought.

It is possible that these passages were directly broken and reassembled after the giant meme corrupted the original information, or it is possible that the warriors devoured by it were transformed into its minions. As for what kind of situation it is, Wheeler doesn't know. Without verification, such things can only be guessed.

No matter what the outcome is, it will increase the risk in the future.

Through the observation system of the core area, Wheeler has confirmed that the waste bin containing the contaminated pages has left the Dead Tide Quiet Zone. Outside that invisible barrier, the powerful death tide pollution will quickly decompose the box, and all the waste materials in the box. Watching the ripples at the edge of the quiet zone gradually return to calm, Wheeler's fists clenched subconsciously.

Those tainted paragraphs already have a certain degree of logic, and have quite a powerful ability to confuse. This suggests that the Megameme is likely to have some level of understanding of the Empire's information system. The deeper the Meme understands the Empire, the faster he will erode the Empire, and the more the Empire's weaknesses will be exposed to him.

One must be wary of this.

Wheeler planned to write a debriefing report, a debriefing report that could explain as much as possible about the current situation without using a template.

But there are dangers in writing such reports, something Wheeler was all too familiar with. As the emperor who leads a region that focuses on meme research, he certainly knows the laws of meme spread. Any kind of explicit documentation, any kind of explicit implication has the potential to attract the attention of a giant meme.

In order to minimize the appeal of this report in the "eyes" of giant memes, I must write this report as fragmented and obscure as possible. Moreover, this report should be as “allowing readers to figure out the answers to the riddles themselves” as much as possible, without saying or writing anything.

All in all, the purpose of this report is to:

"How can you call this a hint? Are you clear enough in what you express?"

"No, I didn't write anything, I didn't say anything. Whatever you made up in your head, it's all in your head and has nothing to do with me."

As a regional ruler who specializes in meme propagation and information interaction, this is a familiar path for Wheeler.

As for whether this would lead to the loss of readers and the eventual release of the information, he was not worried.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't worry about no one reading his story - there are many kinds of intelligent life in this world, and there will always be some individuals who will be interested in those that contain a lot of information but are obscure and mysterious. interested in the story.

And now that it is under abnormal circumstances, there is no need to worry. This story, which was originally written as a report, is not for everyone to read casually. This report has a specific first reader, a person with whom he has a silent understanding - he likes stories, can read and analyze stories, and he can understand the clues and mysteries he has hidden, no matter how deep they are buried. Can be found. At the same time, he also has sufficient authority level to have access to this obscure work report.

——Narrative singularity.

"It's a little itchy."

Kriz sniffed his nose, thinking to himself that someone must be talking about him again. Although I don’t know what the causal relationship is between an itchy nose and someone thinking about me, judging from the stories I captured, people seem to have accepted this for hundreds of billions of years. Since everyone is enjoying it, I naturally accept this setting.

"Chairman Kriz, we have passed the last predetermined target. Will the fleet return?" A voice sounded in Kriz's mind. Just these words made Kriz think of a meticulous and self-defeating person. A person, along with a lot of big and small things related to that person.

Without going through the imperial system's identification, Kriz thought of his Guards Fleet Commander, and the countless details related to him that could be written down for daily use.

".Return, but the scheduled route needs to be modified. The offset of the 47th, 48th, and 49th preset coordinate points will be increased by 37%. We need to avoid the void channel control area."

"clear."

"." After cutting off the communication, Kriz turned his attention back to his work.

A vast world map spread out in front of him, with countless branches of the world scattered throughout the void. They are like clusters of fluff swaying gently in the breeze, with the ends of their countless veins floating slightly in the void. They are to the void as the Milky Way is to the universe. It's just that compared to the Milky Way, the branches of the world are much larger in scale and complexity.

A series of highlighted beacons appear in the figure, marking the fleet's path. Kriz noticed that three points were changing their positions. Under their pull, a section in the middle of the route avoided a large hole that looked very abrupt on the map.

Kriz knew that the Black Gate Order Field was hidden in the core of the big hole.

The fleet jumped in the void.

During this process, Kriz did not let his ship sit idle. Under his command, the blueprint was determined after thousands of selections, and the specially customized "Qingming Holy Seat" was added to the hull, which slightly changed the flow of information inside the hull, sending more extraordinary power to the thick and wide On the outer ring.

There, there are twenty top-notch void survey radars that are fully activated and are following Kryz's will. They continuously scan the active hotspots distributed in the branches of the world in sectors, and the latest information in the outer suburbs of the empire is revealed. The story is included in the database.

"The situation is not very good." As the ship switched to automatic mode, Kriz began to use his energy to analyze the stories extracted by the fleet during this voyage. In recent times, two developing trends and one major event have disturbed him.

Starting about 100 billion years ago, the empire began to quietly popularize various ornaments related to the factor five, such as pentagons, deformed palms, various pentagrams, etc. One hundred billion years later, the trend of using such ornaments and trying to make these patterns no longer limited to ornaments has only increased.

At first, people would just pin a five-pointed star on their clothes or draw such a pattern somewhere on their body. But as time goes by, more and more things follow these patterns - street scenes, buildings, city layouts, the shape of the corona thrown by the main star, constellations, galaxies. More and more things begin to follow this weird pattern. Five-radial symmetry.

During this recent tour, he even discovered that at the end of some worlds, someone began to secretly modify the arrangement of the worlds, making the worlds look like pentagrams in the void.

These events were marked on the void map of the Empire, and large areas throughout the Empire had been contaminated by such marks. It even seemed to Kriz that if he started trying to outline the area covered by these marks, he would probably end up with a pentagon and a pentagram inscribed in the pentagon.

We can't go any further. Narrative Singularity shook his head, trying to get rid of these thoughts as much as possible.

At present, the empire's network can still relatively comprehensively monitor the empire and provide citizens with the services they need. The entire empire has not experienced a serious situation of "out of control" in the true sense. This gave Kriz a little comfort.

But just after this comfort, there are new worries - how many people are only affected, and how many people have been completely penetrated and rotten inside? If all of this broke out at a certain point in time, how serious an impact might they have? Can the empire's current accurate plan effectively deal with these situations? Are the empire’s considerations comprehensive? How much compensation can the currently prepared parts provide when loopholes that the empire has not yet considered are blown up?

This time, no one dares to give a final conclusion on what kind of enemy the empire will face, what kind of severe situation it will face, how useful or even useless the preparations made by the empire will be.

".well."

Kriz knew that the meme was responsible for these effects. In such a long time, the giant malicious metameme has been much closer to the world of order. Through this, it can release more influences, allowing the lives of the empire to be subtly polluted and eroded

However, no matter how critical the current situation is, I cannot warn everyone, and it is difficult to verify and implement these problems - in fact, no one can warn everyone, whether it is a warning or how it is implemented. , whether to check the problem or not. These actions are equivalent to advertising the fact that giant memes exist to everyone.

When one does not know the existence of giant memes, the unknown is the best barrier to blocking the spread of information. Once this barrier is broken, as long as one additional person knows the existence of giant memes, that layer of unknowns will be established. The curtain will be torn apart in an instant, and giant memes will infect intelligent life forms throughout the empire. Such consequences are unacceptable.

Kriz remembered some shots from the "animations" shot by mortals for entertainment: If the character in the animation walks to a dangling place because he didn't pay attention to his feet, don't worry, as long as no one reminds him, as long as he doesn't look down. , he can ignore the rules and maintain a suspended state. If someone told him to pay attention to his feet at this time, he would instantly fall into the abyss at his feet.

It's ridiculous to look at or think about it. However, most of the current imperial beings are like this group of animated characters who are already walking in the air but don't know that there is nothing under their feet to support them.

Kriz can't remind them to pay attention to their steps. No one can remind them to pay attention to their steps now.

At the same time, in the face of the serious dissatisfaction and anger of the majority of life in the empire against some emperors, no one, including Kryze, could come forward to explain the countless "whys" questioned by the people.

"." Kriz shook his head, the problem didn't end there.

If the trend that the speed of development of patterns related to five is accelerating can be summarized as "unstoppable", then the trend that some imperial emperors are suffering increasingly sharp attacks may be summarized as "cannot be comforted".

"The ideological trend against Istana, the rotating emperor of the 44th District, and Hopkins, the rotating emperor of the 44th District, is becoming more acute."

If His Majesty Wheeler in the 18th District is an annoying person in the eyes of the empire and the people, and the empire's institutions and departments, cadres and people mainly feel bored towards him, then this person in the 44th District The two majesties are two cold-blooded killers in the eyes of the empire and the people. The main feelings of the empire's institutions and departments, cadres and people towards him are that they want them to step down, and even want to kill them.

There is no other reason - their research is not accepted by the life of the Empire and the official laws of the Empire.

As a giant who is proficient in the field of consciousness, the research on consciousness in the 44th District has been at the forefront of the empire for a long time. However, since the two emperors began to decide to constantly sacrifice the lives of the people of the empire to obtain what they want. After the necessary research results, the 44th Day District began to deteriorate.

Because of the actions of these two emperors, a large number of people changed the area codes in their identification codes and no longer belonged to the 44th area. At the same time, they continued to publicize the actions of the two emperors throughout the empire, which triggered several loud protests against them.

While ordinary people were filled with dissatisfaction and resentment, a large number of experts and scholars at the middle and upper levels of the empire's authority also raised very sharp questions about their research methods. These scholars believed that the two emperors had no regard for their subjects. His behavior was more like inflicting malicious torture on the subjects than conducting an experiment.

Only individuals who are aware of megamemes can understand why they do what they do.

For the same reasons as before, giant malicious meta-memes cannot be made public, and the two emperors have the same result as before - just like no one can forcefully prevent the increasing proliferation of five-related images. , and no one could forcibly stop the opposition, condemnation and curses that came to them.

"Alas" thinking of this, Kriz shook his head.

The two previous trends can be described as two-act skits that left Kriz speechless.

However, what happened next sounded the alarm in Kriz's heart that "war is coming":

Not long ago, Star Emperor Vidovir and Star Emperor Vesrivan issued an emperor's order to modify the sword pattern in the Empire's national emblem, and the name was to "follow popular suggestions and modify the incongruous sword pattern." "

This thing sounds normal, after all, this kind of thing has happened more than once or twice. In the past dozen or so billions of years, the people of the empire have had many extensive discussions about the style of the sword in the national emblem, and every day a lot of modification suggestions are gathered to the empire's management.

After the voice is loud enough and the conditions are suitable enough, the managers of the empire will actually adjust the appearance of the sword. There is nothing to say about the imperial administrators modifying the national emblem pattern in accordance with public preferences and real-time situations.

But Kriz knew a hidden secret: the shape of the sword in the empire's national emblem was related to the empire's future war trends.

No matter how the shape of the sword in the imperial emblem changes, it will follow an undisclosed rule: the sword body and hilt will inevitably show a "sense of coordination" or "a sense of disharmony" relative to the sword.

This feeling is binary and cannot be ambiguous.

If the shape of the sword seems uncoordinated, it means that the attitude of the empire will be relatively relaxed in the future. The empire will not launch too many wars, and it will not appear too strong or aggressive in all aspects. sex.

If the shape of the sword looks coordinated, it means that the attitude of the empire will be very tough in the future. The empire may launch a large-scale war. The empire will become stronger and show powerful attacks. sex.

For scholars who are proficient in symbolism and people who know the hidden meanings, this change of pattern is a major event without any suspense.

Not long ago, the sword in the Empire's national emblem looked incongruous. The sword's blade and hilt looked like the hilt of a one-handed sword matched with the blade of a two-handed sword.

This combination is intended to reflect that "weapons do not fit in the hand", and weapons that do not fit in the hand are not suitable for attacking others.

And if the swords in the national emblem look very coordinated, it means that the empire needs weapons that are handy.

This further means

War is coming.

When changing the national emblem pattern this time, the empire replaced it with the most coordinated long sword.