Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 923: The First and Second Disasters
"In fact, after the disappointment in Centaurus, humans had already given up the idea of looking for habitable star systems... We first used the resources collected in Centaurus to create an enhanced atmosphere, and used the gravity enhancement device to firmly attach the entire enhanced atmosphere to the surface of the earth... The thick radiation cloud you see now is actually the 'remnants' of this atmosphere system.
"Then, we used the energy generated by the re-fusion reaction to create sixteen artificial satellites that can radiate light and heat to the earth's surface... or, in other words, artificial suns... In ancient myths, there were scenes of ten suns hanging in the sky at the same time. In that era, people in any position in the daytime hemisphere could see more than eight 'suns' in the sky by looking up.
"After nearly 10,000 years of hard work, we finally transformed the surface of the Earth into a state that could barely support human survival, including a strengthened atmosphere and an artificial sun. This entire system was named 'New Eden'. People gradually began to move out of the underground city and live on the surface. It took more than a thousand years for us to finally restore the surface of the Earth to its previous state... or even better.
"But the Earth's journey of drifting among the stars has not ended. One reason is that maintaining sixteen artificial suns requires a large amount of resources. If we stay in one space, the nearby resource celestial bodies will be mined sooner or later. We must wander and collect resources to meet the huge needs of the 'New Eden System'... Another reason is that we still hold a glimmer of hope. If we can really find a suitable star, perhaps..."
"So this star in this galaxy is the...'home' you found?"
"No, this 'sun' is like the artificial light source in a greenhouse... Can you understand what I mean?" The hive master sighed.
"The Alpha civilization... the Earth civilization in this time and space... is being kept in captivity by that existence?" Ke Lan didn't know how many deep breaths he had taken... Many of the guesses that he had only dared to come up with when he was daydreaming were actually confirmed one by one... This was no longer something that the word "crazy" could describe.
If possible, he would rather it was just a dream. After waking up, he found himself still lying on the single folding bed in that small residence, with the box of lemon-flavored soda that had expired for who knows how many months stuffed under the bed.
"During interstellar drift, there are many unstable factors. Among them, the biggest threat to the Earth is asteroids and meteorites. Whether these celestial bodies fall to the surface of the Earth or hit the artificial sun, they are enough to cause catastrophic consequences... In order to eliminate such risks in advance, a large number of engineering ships and mining ships were converted into warships... In addition to the newly designed and built warships, in fifty years, a super fleet with more than 100,000 warships and hundreds of millions of soldiers was established. At that time, everyone thought that Earth civilization had entered the golden age and our military strength was enough to run rampant in the interstellar... Until, until we accidentally broke into the battlefield between gods."
"The battlefield between gods." Ke Lan knew that the "great god" believed in by the Alpha civilization had been fighting with other "alien gods". However, just like in fantasy novels, the big guys were usually restricted by mysterious things like "laws" and could not fight in person. The ones who fought were basically their subordinates. As the spokespersons of the gods, those "families" became the main force in the war between gods.
"We only broke into the edge of the battlefield... That space can't even be considered a battlefield between gods... If we use the human description of war, it's just a small friction between the weakest clans of two gods." The master of the hive said, "But even so, the aftermath of the friction still destroyed the New Eden system, the entire space fleet was wiped out, countless humans died, and most of the survivors were corroded, their cognition was distorted, and their bodies mutated into monsters... We call this the 'First Disaster'."
"So, the 'disaster' mentioned by the Hive Civilization is the second time?"
The Hive Master did not directly answer Ke Lan's question, but continued to talk on his own: "It's just the aftermath... Those creatures didn't even notice that a wandering planet had entered the area where they were fighting... Maybe they noticed it, but they didn't care at all... With their technology and strength, they can just send a child to destroy the entire earth and wipe out our proud civilization from this world."
"But fortunately, they didn't do that... Otherwise, there wouldn't be any stories later." The Hive Master continued, "During the first disaster, a brutal battle broke out on Earth. The survivors who had not mutated had to turn their weapons against their 'fellow race' who had lost their human form and humanity. At the same time, they had to be on guard against possible mutations from their companions who fought side by side with them... This war was like a biochemical crisis, but the memes that spread the erosion were far more difficult to guard against than viruses. When the last erosion corpse was destroyed, the remaining human population was less than the permanent population . Human civilization was truly on the brink of extinction.
"Due to the destruction of the 'New Eden System', the surface of the earth once again became unsuitable for human survival, and the survivors had to reopen the remaining dungeons. Ninety percent of the dungeons from the Wandering Age were demolished and sealed, and only ten percent were preserved as historical sites and museums. Fortunately, the number of survivors was less than the population that the dungeons could accommodate, so the tragedy of drawing lots to decide life and death before the Braking Age did not happen again."
"The survivors restarted the dungeon. Is this the origin of the hive civilization?" Ke Lan asked.
"Yes, from now on, we officially entered the 'Ice Age'...but the first disaster did not end there."
"Those who survived were also corrupted, right?" Ke Lan instantly understood the hidden meaning in the other party's words. "After all, cognition is pollution. How could they not be affected at all after fighting against such monsters?"
"That's right. Almost all of those who returned to the underground city, the first generation of residents of the hive city, were eroded, but the erosion progressed slowly. No obvious mutations had occurred by the end of the war... But as these people continued to recall fragments of the war, coupled with nightmares, hallucinations, and PTSD, the degree of erosion among them continued to exceed the critical value... The demise of human civilization seemed to be a foregone conclusion, and fewer and fewer people could stay awake for a long time... In the fourth year of the Ice Age, the survivors had to make a difficult decision."
"What decision?"
"All survivors committed suicide, leaving only the selected fertilized eggs. The fully automatic breeding equipment will take care of these fertilized eggs and embryos, and implant the history and knowledge of human civilization into the babies' brains... Let these newborns take on the responsibility of continuing the fire. As for the information related to the disaster, it is all sealed up as top secret. Only the controller of each hive city, that is, people like me, are qualified to know." The owner of the hive city said, "Many people think that the owner of the hive city is like an emperor, but in fact, the body and consciousness are under constant surveillance. Once the degree of erosion exceeds the threshold, I will be immediately wiped out and replaced by a new 'newcomer' from the breeding equipment. According to the records, I should be the 1,400th controller of this hive city. When the replacement is most frequent, I can even be replaced several times a day... Some individuals have even been over-eroded when the memory is implanted."
"It seems that being a hive controller is a high-risk job... just like being a symbiote." Ke Lan said, "So it seems understandable that the undead crew would guard this information so closely... but they don't seem to have such an elimination mechanism. Apart from Chiron, I suspect that many other members have already exceeded the dangerous threshold of erosion, but they chose to conceal it..."
"Except for me and the controllers of other hive cities, the residents of other hive cities have no idea what happened in the last era. They even think that humans have lived underground since the beginning..."
"Then why do you still want to send an exploration team to the surface? Aren't you afraid that they will bring the 'forbidden knowledge' back to the hive?" Ke Lan asked.
"We entered the underground city in such a hurry that a lot of supplies and equipment were left on the surface. If we only rely on the supplies stored in the hive, we won't be able to hold on for that long. Just like the relic hunters on the Ark, we also need to send people to retrieve the legacy of the last era..."
"Can't we use robots? Wouldn't they be more efficient than humans?"
"In the early days of the Ice Age, we did send robots to the ground to carry supplies, but as the population of the Hive City gradually increased, the managers found that the cost of people was far lower than that of robots... because the AI of robots would also be eroded, and even some programs without intelligence could develop intelligence under erosion. As a large number of robots searching for supplies never returned, subsequent exploration reports even mentioned the discovery of large mechanical monsters on the surface... The eroded corpses will die after their souls and bodies are completely absorbed by that existence, but the mechanical monsters born from erosion have no souls. Like Neto, they will not be absorbed or destroyed by that existence. They will continue to wander on the ground, hunting all creatures that have not been eroded.
With the help of the self-repair program written into the chip, they will constantly search for energy and materials in the ruins of the previous era, repair themselves and transform themselves... The more robots are sent out, the more immortal mechanical monsters there will be on the ground, and the difficulty of subsequent exploration will increase exponentially, so in the middle of the Ice Age, all human exploration has been switched. The exploration team sent to the surface is also completely forbidden to carry intelligent electronic devices... Even all the electronic devices in the bottom nest have been removed, in order to prevent the mechanical monsters on the surface from invading the nest through these electronic devices. "
"So that's how it is... Then how did the second disaster happen?"
"The first disaster was caused by people witnessing a war between the gods' followers. The second disaster was caused by a follower of a god in the universe where Earth is located being completely wiped out by the follower of a hostile alien god. That god needed to find a new follower, and at that time, its sights just happened to pass by Earth, a drifting planet with life."
"So the humans of the Hive Civilization were chosen by that existence to be its own followers and became the Alphas?" Ke Lan asked.
"It's not that easy to become a member of that existence's clan..." The Hive Master chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Human civilization is far from qualified... That existence only left a thought on Earth and no longer cared about it... This thought is like nuclear radiation, but compared to nuclear radiation that only affects the body, its impact on consciousness and cognition is more critical..."
Ke Lan took a deep breath and said, "This should be... considered free-range development. Just throw some catalyst on the earth. If humans can become a sufficiently powerful civilization under the catalytic effect, they will be absorbed into the clan of that existence; if the clan is exterminated, it will be regarded as nothing happened. After all, there are many civilizations more powerful than ours in the universe; and if we are stuck in the middle..."
"It will be absorbed by that being as nutrients." The Hive Master continued with Ke Lan's words, "Although the souls and bodies of the entire human civilization are nothing to that being, it is still better than nothing... I don't know how many civilizations that being devoured to have such a powerful force."
"Did the Alphas succeed in their evolution or fail?" Ke Lan asked again, "Based on their technological level... they should not be as good as those of the Families, right?"
"Not only are they not as good as them, they are far behind." The master of the hive sighed again, "Many hives were destroyed in the second disaster, and only a few people in the hives survived. Over the long years, they gradually became like the Alpha people... but they are still far from being the followers of that being... According to the calculations of scholars of the Alpha civilization, the probability of them successfully evolving into a followers is zero... not possibly zero, but almost zero, but, exactly zero... The final destination of the entire civilization is to become the nourishment of that being and be devoured. Moreover, even if a miracle happens and they successfully become a followers, they will only go from being nourishment to cannon fodder in the war between gods... In wars of that level, followers are exterminated every moment... A weak follower can't even survive a war."
