Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 960 Crater Theory
"A plan that has been going on since the Alpha civilization..." The Joker suddenly paused when he said this. He looked at Soap and Noir and found that their eyes were full of doubt and curiosity. He shook his head and said, "I can't tell you more details... Cognition is pollution. This plan involves too many dangerous things. If I reveal this information to you, there is a high probability that you will be corroded... and eventually become a monster like Ronnie. Of course, if you strongly want to know the truth, I will respect your choice, but you must be prepared to bear the corresponding price."
"..." Nouval and Soap looked at each other, and neither of them continued to ask.
The Joker went on to say, "Although this erosion is irreversible, it will not be very obvious in the early stages... When the body shows symptoms of mutation, it can be considered the 'late stage'. At that time, even if all memories are erased, it will not be able to prevent the symptoms from getting worse. Speaking of which, I actually have a certain selfish desire. I hope that the degree of erosion of the two of you will always remain at a low level..."
"People with low erosion levels are considered 'high-quality supplies' to you, right?" Noir asked calmly, "If they are 'absorbed' by you, they can delay the time a little longer. Am I right?"
"That's right." The Joker did not deny it.
"After all, you still want to eat us..." Soap complained in a low voice, "After all, we still have to die... Damn it, damn it... I knew it..."
Nuval was not as frustrated as Soap. He continued to ask , "I have another question. Why did Ronnie develop to the 'late stage' so quickly after coming into contact with the survivor? Does the speed of erosion vary from person to person?"
"It depends on the person, but the degree of erosion in Roni's body is already close to the dangerous level... The survivor is not at risk of contact, and the cognitive pollution is also very minor, so you are basically not affected, but it has become the last straw that breaks the camel's back." The clown sighed very rarely, and said with some regret, "Roni's profession destined her to come into contact with a large number of eroded 'danger sources'. Previously, the heretic sect attacked the Mukach base, and a large number of soldiers were infected by the seeds of erosion. Those twisted limbs and the seemingly meaningless whispers before death can actually affect the people around them. Over time, the degree of erosion of these medical staff will reach a very dangerous level."
"Will this level of contact lead to infection..." Noir's face turned ugly. "If General Maginot really wants to gather troops to fight against these things occupying the Ark, then during the battle, the soldiers of the participating troops will inevitably be corrupted, right?"
"It's unavoidable," said the Joker.
"Then we are doomed to lose this war, right?!" Soap shouted, "Since you already knew all this, why didn't you go and tell General Maginot directly? Is there any need for us to fight this war?"
"It's not that we don't have a chance of winning, it's just that the winning chip is not in Maginot's hands."
…
Mukach Fortress, General Maginot's office.
After Ke Lan finished the last word, Makino dared to exhale cautiously. He reached out to the coffee cup on the table, but his fingers were shaking constantly, and he couldn't exert enough strength to pinch the handle of the coffee cup.
After several unsuccessful attempts, Maginot withdrew his hand, stood up with his elbows on the armrests of the chair, walked to the window with some trembling, and looked at the soldiers busy on the playground in the distance.
His back at this moment looked as if he had aged thirty years in an instant, from a wealthy middle-aged man to a bloated and fat old man in the blink of an eye.
After a long while, he walked back to the chair, sat down dejectedly, and asked, "Can you guarantee that what you said is true?"
"It's absolutely true." Ke Lan replied, "There's no need for me to lie to you about this."
"Then isn't everything I'm doing now meaningless? Even if we can take back the Ark and get rid of those who have been corrupted, we will lose this new home that we have finally found... What awaits us is endless drifting in the universe like a stray dog... The ultimate fate of human civilization is either to perish on its own in interstellar drift, or to be captured by one of those 'gods' and become insignificant nourishment for them..."
Machino opened the drawer of his desk, looked at the exquisitely crafted pistol inside, and laughed self-deprecatingly: "To be honest, I really want to shoot myself in the temple right now, so that I can be completely free... The funny thing is that I can't even muster the courage to commit suicide."
"Fatty, you're a general after all. Why do you make me feel like a loser?" The Hound stepped forward and slapped the table hard, causing the stirring spoon next to the coffee cup to jump up and hit the plate with a crisp sound. "What do you mean everything we do is meaningless... Compared to us, the situation of those Alphas is really hopeless... At least, we still have a chance to escape, right?"
"Where can we escape to?" Maginot stared at the hound and asked, "According to what Ke Lan said, our ultimate fate is nothing more than handing over the baton to a human civilization in another time and space... All the efforts we are making now seem to me like the dying struggle of a group of insects."
"There is one thing I must correct." Ke Lan said, "We don't even have the ability to pass the baton to a human civilization in another time and space. If we give up, then the Alpha civilization, the unknown human civilization that once helped them break through the difficulties of re-fusion technology, and those other human civilizations that we don't know about but have passed on the 'baton'... These beliefs and heritages that have been passed down as a civilization will be completely cut off here..."
"Fatty, this is not hard to understand... According to what you said, people only live for a few decades, and after death, everything has nothing to do with you, so what's the meaning of life?" The hound's tone softened a little, "Although I'm not married and have no children... but every time I see the children of my old subordinates, I feel like I'm seeing my own children. They represent the future and hope of mankind. The reason why I became a relic hunter after retiring and worked so hard to make money is to give them a better education and living conditions. In a small sense, I think the wishes that their parents and I have not been able to achieve in this lifetime can be realized by them; in a big sense, they are the continuation of the fire of human civilization... When we die and our bodies are thrown into the incinerator and burned to ashes, they become us, passed down from generation to generation, and continue to do what we have done, do what we once wanted to do but couldn't do, and even do things that we can't even think of."
The hound licked his dry lips, drank the coffee in his hand, and continued: "To be honest, I don't like to preach to others, and I hate it most when others preach to me... But if you insist on asking me what the meaning of civilization is and what the meaning of life is, then I can only tell you that this is the meaning."
Makino raised his head, looked at the hound in disbelief, and murmured, "Nick... Nick, do you really think so?"
The hound, who had always hated others, especially Maginot, calling him by his real name, surprisingly did not resist this time. He nodded very solemnly and said, "Even if we can only be an insignificant baton in this long relay, we must at least do better than the Alpha civilization... Otherwise, it would be too embarrassing."
Makino took a deep breath, then exhaled forcefully, then turned to look at Ke Lan: "I understand... Then what should we do next?"
"Continue to gather the troops." Ke Lan replied, "Your original plan is fine, but our main goal is not to recapture the Ark, but to eliminate those who have been severely corrupted... Their existence will expose our civilization to that existence too early, and may even trigger a new round of 'disaster'... Once all humans are branded, we will have no chance at all."
"What happens after we take back the Ark and eliminate the invaders?" Maginot asked.
"Gather supplies and survivors, and build a new home in the folded space inside the Yaguna Kator. At the same time, collect and digest as much of the legacy left by the Alpha civilization as possible... Once we have digested most of the legacy, we will board the Yaguna Kator to escape from Alpha."
"This will probably take a long time... Digesting the legacy left behind by the Alpha civilization is probably not something that can be accomplished in one generation." Maginot frowned.
Since the Ark discovered Alpha in 840 of the New Era, countless human scientists have devoted themselves to this cause. It has been more than a hundred years now, but during this century, the part of the "legacy" digested by humans has only accounted for a very small proportion - not to mention those things and technologies that are still buried deep in various ruins and have not been excavated, just the technologies that have been discovered by the ruins hunters, of which less than one-tenth can be used.
Moreover, it is just application, not a thorough analysis... The Ark Civilization is still unable to understand the principles of many Alpha Civilization technologies. For example, the energy crystals and Nino alloys can be found everywhere. These two things have been completely integrated into the daily life of the Ark Civilization, but to this day, the "technical black box" contained therein has not been opened.
"As long as we can decipher the Alpha language, this process can be greatly accelerated." Ke Lan said, "In my plan, this process will take about three to four hundred years... For individual humans, this is a very long time, but for the entire civilization, this period of time is not long."
"Do we really only have three or four hundred years left?" asked Maginot.
"As long as we can completely eliminate the invaders and ensure that the 'disaster' does not break out again during this period of time, I think we have much more than three or four hundred years left." Ke Lan said in an affirmative tone.
For that being, there are as many primitive civilizations like human civilization in its control area as there are stars in the sky. It is impossible for it to pay attention to every weak civilization that is heading towards extinction or transforming into a clan. The probability of its sight staying on the same planet again and again is extremely small.
Even if there is, the interval between them is probably extremely long, so long that even the word "eternal" cannot describe it.
Maginot had seen a saying called "Bomb Crater Theory" in a military textbook. It said that when veterans encountered enemy artillery fire on the battlefield and could not find a reliable shelter, they would often choose to lie in the bomb craters left by previous rounds of bombardment. Because the probability of two shells hitting the same point is very low, and the bomb craters can help soldiers avoid flying metal fragments and shock waves, so in this case, the bombed craters became the safest place on the battlefield.
The Earth, or rather, Alpha Centauri, is such a crater.
…
Yaguna Kotor, the first block of the ecoregion.
Layton and Ivan left the infirmary and walked around the base for a few times. Finally, at Layton's suggestion, they entered here through the transmission channel.
"So, the development of this first block is pretty good, right?" Standing in front of the outpost, Layton said to Ivan as if showing off, "After you went to the Gray Mist Forest, the people we left behind began to step up the development of this area. We first drove the 'indigenous creatures' here to the edge, and separated them from our activity area with walls and trenches. Then we started to build a variety of bases and strongholds... To be honest, it feels like the Ark had just landed on Alpha a few decades ago, and people were building a network of transfer stations step by step in the wilderness."
"You speak as if you have experienced that era." Ivan rolled his eyes at Layton and complained, "You weren't even born in that era."
"Ah, I wasn't born there, but there are many documentaries about that era, and there are also many real video materials... Tsk, let's not talk about that for now, how about I take you in to have a look?"
"Okay." Ivan nodded.
The two walked into the gate of the base, and the first thing that caught their eyes was a vast expanse of farmland.
"According to agricultural experts, the soil here is not only suitable for growing plants on Earth, but also has very fertile nutrients... At that time, I was a little puzzled as to why the Alphas would leave such a place. Now I think they must have prepared it specifically for us."
