Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 801

[Chapter 782: Residue and Inertia]

The fine sand in the hourglass continued to flow downward, as if it could continue for a long time. Duncan held the hourglass carefully in his hand and talked with the ancient “god”.

The gods are rotting – this is not the first time he has heard this sentence. The Popes of the Four Gods once said this to him, and they also said that the rotten breath of the gods has gradually penetrated into the world and is preparing for the end of the world. Let’s eat up this world together.

But this was the first time he heard these words from one of the “gods”, and he realized that the current situation was the result of them delaying the process as much as possible.

“This hastily built shelter has so many flaws… everything is temporary, the curtain, the ‘sun’, the cornerstone of the archipelago, and ourselves – before the first long night begins. , we have actually already ushered in our own end.

In the “spiritual world” composed of monotonous black, white and gray tones, the ancient Queen Leviathan whispered, this terrifying giant beast has a gentle voice, that The voice was like a dream floating in deep water, slowly telling Duncan everything about the past – “It took us a long time to realize our ‘death’, and then it took a long time for Bartok to change from our kind.” Find out what happened in the state of “death without rest”.

“We are the “inertia of the old world

” I. The inertia of the old world?” Duncan frowned immediately, with some speculation in his mind.

“You should already know what destroyed our world, and those many, many worlds – then you should also know that the Great Annihilation did not completely destroy everything in those worlds. There is always some ‘residue’ from the process of world impact.

“But the residues are residues because they are no longer whole. When the dust peels off the boulders, it is just that

.

Sand instead of boulders, and the same is true for us – the impact of annihilation forever changed our nature. Strictly speaking, from that day on, we also became part of those hot “ashes”. But unlike the ashes, We retain our ‘self’.

“We know that we were one – this knowledge allows us to rise again from the ashes, and even reshape some of the remaining ashes into what we ‘remember’. .

“At first, this made us think that we had the opportunity to reshape the entire world and restore all the ashes. But it didn’t take long for us to realize the limits of this ‘reshaping’ and also realize our own continuous Weakness….

“We are not really alive, we are just the remaining obsessions in the corpses. The ‘knowledge’ of ourselves and the ‘memory’ of the old world are the only reasons why we can continue to move, and this ‘Cognition’ and ‘memory’…are constantly worn down by the passage of time.

“Bartók, the one who knows the most about ‘death’ among us, called this phenomenon ‘the inertia of the old world,’ arguing that we survive not because of self-will or individual strength, but because ‘the world does not want to Die’ and survive. The old world was destroyed in the Great Annihilation, but the fact that they once existed turned into the “inertia” after the end of the world, and became the various residues that still exist after the Great Annihilation – became us.”

“To self The “cognition” and the “memory of the old world”… Duncan held the hourglass with one hand and rubbed his chin with the other hand, thinking thoughtfully, “So, this is the basis for the birth of ‘Shelter’?”

“Yes,” the gentle voice said to him, “We used our own memory and cognition to reshape the original ‘foundation’ from the ashes. This is why there are many references to the Great Annihilation left in the world. There are specious ‘records’, but we have never been able to find any ‘evidence’ that can truly prove the Great Annihilation, because there was no ‘evidence’ from the beginning, and even the entire Infinite Sea was picked up from the ashes by us. It is formed by the accumulation of residues…

“But even those residues will continue to decline due to the wear and tear of our ‘cognition’ and ‘memory’. This is where the ‘life limit’ in the original design of the shelter

comes from .

Duncan listened attentively to Gemona’s story, sometimes falling into thinking, and then speaking to himself in the midst of thinking: “‘Inertia’ will eventually fade… So eventually the survey team will inevitably encounter that limit. “, no matter how perfectly they fulfilled their mission, the end of the world was already doomed as early as the day the world was born…

He suddenly recalled what “Kett” told him:

“Continue the shelter. It’s meaningless…

“Yes, it is meaningless to continue the sanctuary,” Queen Leviathan repeated softly, “but this sentence has a higher level of explanation – to continue to ‘delay’ that scene The apocalypse is meaningless.

Duncan’s eyes changed slightly. He raised his head and looked at the pale body lying on the edge of the pool. He saw that the body was gradually raised, and the eyes slowly opened from its surface.

“Remember? The end of the world brought about by the Great Annihilation has not ended. It has been proceeding slowly in the lowest logic of all things. The conflict of rules and the encroachment of chaos are just its appearance. In essence, it is ‘inertia’ ‘ The confrontation with the ‘Doomsday’ As long as our ‘inertia’ still exists, as long as the shelter still exists, the Great Annihilation will never stop. It will continue until everything in the world is crushed into powder. , then… the end of the world will be considered over. The pale limbs drooped slightly, but

the

eyes that seemed to be full of humanity and intelligence also drooped.

It is precisely because the ‘world’ refuses to die that the end of the world refuses to stop. It is precisely because we still exist that the Great Annihilation continues to this day, and even to this moment… it is still hanging over the heads of all living beings. .

“Hang high in the sky for a lifetime…Duncan reacted instantly, “You mean the creation of the world?!”

That crack is how it appears in the eyes of the observer. It is essentially a ‘result’ , is a ‘collapse fact’ that leads all possibilities of all worlds… ‘Focus’

– it is the ‘end’ of the Infinite Sea.

Gemona’s voice stopped, but Duncan remained silent for a long time. After a long time, he spoke softly as if talking to himself: “So, on the day when this ‘world’ was born, its ‘ending’ ‘ Just hanging high above my head.

After a while, he looked into Gemona’s “eyes” again and broke the silence: “So, no matter what plan is finally adopted, we must first solve the ‘never-ending doomsday’ and find a way to destroy the Great Annihilation first. The only way to end the Great Annihilation is…

He paused for a moment, but Gemona’s soft voice said the answer for him: “Let the end of the world be ‘completed’.

The temple fell silent, as dead as the universe.

After a long time, Duncan breathed softly: “This shouldn’t be the ‘conclusion’ you want to tell me in the end. There are other things that you haven’t told me yet.

“Yes, there are other things – let the world There are many ways to “complete” the end of the world, but it is within the scope of our cognition and ability. The annihilation of all things is the final result of all paths, but as I said, this is only within the scope of our cognition and ability. Conclusion…

The pale limb drooped down again, and then a hazy shadow suddenly appeared in front of it – a girl wearing a long skirt and a veil. She stood in front of the pool and looked deeply towards Duncan. Bend down.

Many, many years ago, she learned to use this form to talk to her “land friends”, and she would only appear in this form on very solemn occasions.

“Fire Usurper, you are not within the scope of our knowledge and ability. Strictly speaking, you are not even within the scope of the Great Annihilation – even though you are the first among us to arrive, even though you have been sleeping in the first ashes. …But you are not a ‘residue’.

“We cannot understand what you are, but Pilot 2’s calculations show that you are the only ‘healthy’ individual among us – perhaps, you can find a way to survive. When that ‘end’ happens, protect those shadows of the old world.

Duncan didn’t speak, he just frowned tightly, his expression tighter than ever.

Then, he suddenly thought of something – the “collections” that appeared in his room!

He heard the voice of “The Girl from the Sea of Tranquility” continuing to ring in his ears:

…observation and cognition, memory and information, these It seems to be the cornerstone of the world’s existence. Pilot 2 once told me that it comes from a brilliant and advanced civilization. Its creators have almost touched the basic laws of the operation of the universe before the end of the world. And at the top of that civilization , in the most profound research, some scholars once put forward a conjecture.

“This conjecture is the most impressive part of Pilot 2’s memory bank –

“Information is everything, and everything is the expression of information. “

Information is everything…everything is the expression of information…Duncan repeated this sentence subconsciously. In a daze, he seemed to hear a “roar” coming from deep within himself, as if he suddenly understood Many things, the scene in front of him was shaking, and there were scattered starlight filling the edge of his vision, and then these illusions gradually dissipated – the voice of “The Girl from the Sea of Tranquility” came to his ears, the voice was hazy, as if suddenly separated from the world. There was a thick curtain:

Pilot 2 is still thinking about this sentence to this day. Its creators seem to have touched the threshold of truth, but they only had time to throw out this conjecture, and with us ‘residues’ With the resources it has learned and the existing conditions in the shelter, Pilot 2 believes that it may never be able to transform this conjecture into usable theories and means, but your… has made it aware of it. one thing.

“Perhaps there was a civilization, a civilization more advanced than the creators of Pilot 2, that had crossed that threshold.”