Volume 3 Chapter 165 Dimensional Civilization and the Arena of Gods and Demons
In the ancient land, gravediggers are using various tools to dig the hard rocks on the ground.
The tomb passage continues until it reaches a depth of one hundred meters.
The gravedigger, holding various iron digging tools, suddenly dug up some leather-like substance with his hoe.
The experienced old gravedigger immediately raised his hand to stop the actions of the other young men.
Holding a flickering hurricane lantern in his hand , he moved closer to observe carefully and finally confirmed it.
"Found it, we found food." The old gravedigger shouted excitedly.
"Found it, found it, the tribe has a new food collection point, we have food." Immediately, all the gravediggers cheered.
In the distance, the lights of the city are dim.
The gravediggers who climbed out of the deep pit did not move towards the city.
The city is where the big guys live. They are just tribesmen in the wilderness and are not qualified to live in the city.
They followed the familiar road and walked towards the tribe in the dark.
The temperature transmitted from the earth makes this dark world not cold at all.
Relying only on a few storm lanterns, they quickly returned to the small tribe.
Soon, the entire tribe cheered.
It is not easy to collect food. In theory, there is food everywhere under the rock layers of this land.
But the rock layers are not so easy to dig. From time to time, you will encounter hard rock layers that cannot be dug. When you encounter them, you can only avoid them and dig again.
After repeated digging and disappointment, the elders and children in the tribe could only endure hunger because the remaining food had to be given priority to the gravediggers.
Only if the gravediggers have food and can conserve their energy for the next digging, will there be hope for the entire tribe.
And now, they finally found a place where they could collect food. With food, the children would not starve to death. They could even go to the city to exchange some salt and even a few more hurricane-proof lamps.
So, the people in the tribe built a bonfire in the eternal darkness, and sang and danced around it.
In the big pot on the campfire, the edible rocks that had just been collected from the ground were stewing.
The so-called edible rocks are rocks that can be eaten.
This rock is buried deep underground. Although it is extremely hard when touched by hand, it feels more like leather.
It has to be cooked in the pot for a long time before you can chew it and digest it.
If you are extremely hungry, you may swallow the food without waiting for it to be cooked, or even if it is half-cooked. In the end, what you eat will be what you poop out.
So if you want to eat edible rocks, you must be patient.
The tribesmen were very patient. They sang, danced and laughed all night long until the food rocks cooked in the pot began to emit a strange aroma. Only then did they begin to distribute the cooked food under the orders of the tribal elders.
Afterwards, everyone ate their food in small bites while listening to the elders telling those old stories.
The world is actually a huge fish, and what we eat is the meat of the fish.
Children should be obedient and not make noise.
Because the noise made by the children will wake up the huge fish.
Once the giant fish wakes up and finds us eating its flesh again, it will get angry and kill everyone.
There is also something like, our ancestors once lived in a world with huge torches in the sky. Later, because they disobeyed the gods, they were punished by the gods and left that beautiful world and came to this world of eternal darkness.
Every time at this time, there would be children asking the elders what the huge torch burning in the sky looked like.
The elder hesitated for a long time and could only talk nonsense.
Because they had never seen what it would look like with a huge torch burning in the sky.
“Well, the whole world is bright. No one needs to light a bonfire or a lamp. They can see everything around them, and there is no dark place.” The elder described it this way. This is the description he heard from the elders of that time when he was a child.
"Everywhere is bright? Is it bright when you sleep? Then you can sleep peacefully at any time."
"Yes, yes. It's comfortable to sleep in a bright place without worrying about wild animals."
The children looked at each other and started discussing.
"But how can we cook without a bonfire? Do we take the food to heaven to cook?" another child asked.
"Silly boy, you can certainly light a bonfire when you're cooking, and the torches aren't always in the sky then, they'll go out from time to time," the elder explained, smiling and rubbing the kid's head.
"It will go out again? Is there someone responsible for lighting the bonfire and now extinguishing it?" The children blinked their eyes and looked at the elder.
"Yes, maybe our ancestors were exiled here because they offended the gods who lit the bonfire." The elder thought about it, but didn't know how to explain it to the children. Since he didn't know either, he could only sigh and said.
Just then, a little child suddenly pointed to the starry sky and said in surprise.
"Grandpa Elder, look over there, it looks like a star is flying by."
"Silly boy, that's called a shooting star."
"Meteor? What is that?"
"It's a kind of flying star. I heard that when we were in that world with torches burning in the sky, meteors were quite common. I don't know why, after we moved to the body of a giant fish, meteors are rarely seen, and they seem to be getting farther and farther away from the stars in the sky."
The elder was puzzled.
While the elders were puzzled, there was a place in the sky that the tribesmen could not see.
It is also a place that the big shots in the city cannot see.
A space jump channel was formed, and the Skylark jumped out from it.
Lin Xu, who was in the cockpit, saw a huge creature floating in the space. It was as big as a planet and had a round ball-like shape, like a goldfish.
The creature was covered with hard rocks all over its body. It looked like meteorites from the universe were constantly hitting its body, forming a layer of rock shell that completely covered the creature's body surface.
Lin Xu could only vaguely judge from some exposed parts of the giant goldfish that it was a huge goldfish with a deep red body.
"Is this a fish?" Nanzhu curiously leaned on the porthole and looked at the strange creature.
"Is he dead?" Lu Yao also leaned on the porthole to look at it.
"The giant creature ahead has no signs of life." Zhen Xing reported the test results.
"It seems that he is really dead. How long has he been dead?" Lu Yao asked immediately.
"The autopsy report has not yet been generated and requires close-up testing," Zhenxing replied.
"Wait, why does there seem to be a light on this fish?" Nanzhu saw with his sharp eyes that there was a faint but real light on one side of the spherical fish body, near the spine.
It looks like just a little light in the universe, but in fact it should be at least as bright as the light of a big city to be observed in the universe.
"The detection data shows that there is still intelligent life living on the surface of the giant organism ahead." Zhen Xing replied.
"Intelligent life? Do they regard this fish as their home planet?" Lu Yao looked incredulous. Since she followed Lin Xu to wander the universe, she has become knowledgeable, but she has never seen this before.
"Let's go and take a look." Lin Xu also became curious.
So the Skylark began to accelerate towards the surface of the giant goldfish in front.
As the distance got closer, this goldfish, which was as big as a planet, felt more and more oppressive.
Lin Xu suddenly remembered a picture he had seen online in the 21st century.
The picture on the Internet shows a huge fish approaching the earth from the universe, and the earth looks small like a piece of food in the fish's mouth.
Some ask how long it will take for humans to revolt against the fish.
Someone answered below, it doesn’t matter, I will do it.
Now look at the red goldfish in front of you. It has a bit of the charm of the fish in the picture on the Internet.
But this one is dead, and not that huge, just about the size of the Earth.
Soon, the Skylark entered the thin atmosphere formed on the surface of the red goldfish over a long period of time.
When the distance was close enough, I could no longer see the entirety of the giant goldfish, and the sense of oppression did not seem so strong. It was as if I was landing on just an ordinary planet.
"Is there even an atmosphere? How long has this goldfish been dead?" Nanzhu sighed.
"The autopsy report came back, and the time of death was ten thousand years ago." Zhenxing replied.
"Ten thousand years ago? Isn't that the time when humans came here?" Lu Yao said after a moment of surprise.
"Ten thousand years ago, this fish should not be the work of humans." Lin Xu asked.
"Genetic sample analysis is not made by humans." Zhenxing replied.
"So, is it the work of that dimensionality-reducing civilization?" Lin Xu continued to ask.
"Insufficient information to confirm." Zhenxing replied.
Soon, the Skylark arrived at the place where the lights were just seen in space.
As the distance got closer, I could finally see clearly this big city built on the body of a fish.
The whole city is brightly lit with flashing neon lights, and around the city you can even see industrial areas spewing out black smoke.
"It's a big industrial city, but its development is a bit distorted." Lin Xu stood in front of the porthole, looking at the city with sufficient electricity below, and then looking at the entire dark land in the distance.
On the surface of this fish body that is the size of a planet, in such a vast area, Lin Xu and others have only seen such a big city at present, and the rest of the place is completely dark.
According to the report sent back by Zhenxing, there were people living in that pitch-black darkness, but the living environment was completely different from that in the city.
"Are they the native race here?" Lu Yao looked at the city below in confusion.
"Unlikely. If it is a native race that has developed to this level of electrification, it is impossible that there is only one city like this. Such a deformed form of civilization looks like a colony no matter how you look at it. But, colonizing on the corpse of a fish? And there is no sign of the existence of a colonial spacecraft." Lin Xu shook his head and said.
"Did something happen to them and they are trapped here?" Nanzhu thought for a while and said.
"If it is really a colony, they should be from the galaxy we are targeting this time. Maybe they know something about that dimensionality reduction civilization." Lu Yao tilted his head and thought for a while before saying.
"That's right, so this is a good opportunity to learn about that dimensionality reduction civilization in advance." Nanzhu also nodded in agreement.
After a moment, the Skylark continued to hover above the city with its optical camouflage turned on, and no one in the entire city could detect the Skylark's existence.
At the same time, a large number of autonomous mechanical aggregates spread throughout the world without the knowledge of the people in the city. They began to drill holes downwards, collecting tissues and organs from the giant red goldfish for more detailed analysis.
Lin Xu is now worried that if this red goldfish is really the work of a dimensionality reduction civilization, then they must have created more than one.
Maybe the river system ahead is like a real big river, full of these red goldfish.
Maybe there is an even bigger fish, a giant that can actually swallow the Earth like a mouthful of fish food.
After all, it was once a high-dimensional civilization. Even if it has been reduced in dimension now, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. Lin Xu will not underestimate the other party's civilization at all.
Walking on the bustling streets, Nanzhu looked at everything around him with curiosity.
But what made her most curious was that there was no concept of day and night here. What time did the people here go to bed?
"The lights here are on 24 hours a day, right?" Nanzhu suddenly said while looking at the street lights beside him.
"Yes, there is no sun to illuminate them here, so the lights are their only source of light." Lin Xu nodded.
"How do those people living in the wild survive?" Nanzhu was incredulous.
"I can only say that life can always create miracles." Lin Xu was also deeply moved.
"But how do they maintain the temperature here without sunlight? They can't have the floor heating on 24 hours a day, right? Although it is indeed quite warm underground." Lu Yao said, stomping on the ground.
"It's the geothermal heat of the planet. No, it's the residual heat from the fish's body. They can't afford this fuel for floor heating, and it can't sustain a planet either." Lin Xu shook his head and said.
"The residual heat of a fish's corpse can last for ten thousand years." Lu Yao said with emotion.
"Yes, and according to Zhenxing's report, the staple food of the people on their planet is fish corpses. There is no sunlight on this planet, and there are very few plant species that can grow. They rely on digging down to eat the meat of this fish that has been dead for ten thousand years." Lin Xu looked at the latest report sent by Zhenxing and could only sigh that life is indeed diverse.
"A fish that died ten thousand years ago, this is not zombie meat, it must be stone meat." Nanzhu felt extremely disgusted just by thinking about it.
"The locals call this kind of food edible rock, which means rocks that can be eaten after being dug out." Lin Xu continued.
Discussing how people survive on this planet, no, on the corpse of this fish.
Suddenly, bursts of shouting were heard on the street ahead.
A large crowd was attracted by the sound and went over to watch, followed by waves of cheers.
Lin Xu and the others looked at each other curiously, then went over to watch.
Unexpectedly, as soon as I walked over, several people dressed as students stuffed a handful of small flags into my hands.
Lin Xu looked at the words written on the flag, this time it was not Chinese.
Lin Xu guessed that it might be a language related to that race with reduced dimensions, or it might be the native language of this civilization.
However, Zhenxing has already collected and analyzed the text and language of this civilization, and transmitted it to Lin Xu's brain through nanorobots, so Lin Xu can now understand the text.
What is written above means, translated, "We want light, not darkness."
"Return to the Gods and Demons Arena and fight for civilization."
"Our civilization should not be destroyed like this."
At the same time, someone was giving a loud speech on a platform not far away.
"My fellow countrymen, we have been running away for too long. It is time to return to the Gods and Demons Arena and take back our honor ."
"Our civilization has gotten away with this for too long. We can't keep getting away with it."
"When we first came here, we still had the technology to navigate the universe, but now, we can't even launch a satellite."
"Without sunlight, without the sun, we are like a group of trapped animals, struggling to survive here. We must return to the Milky Way and be under the light of the stars again. This is the only way to save civilization."
"Some people say that if you want to bathe in the sun, you must participate in the God and Demon Arena. But so what? If this is the rule of God, if this is the price of bathing in the sun, we are willing to pay it. It is better than rotting here bit by bit."
As the person on the podium spoke, applause broke out from below without him saying a word.
At the end, the cheers were deafening.
Yes, they've had enough here.
Enough of this eternally dark sky.
They also want to see with their own eyes the blue sky, flowers and trees that they have only seen in movies and TV shows.
That is all that can only be enjoyed by basking in the sunshine.
They are going to return to the arena of gods and demons.
Even if civilization is destroyed, it is better than continuing to survive like this.
However, before the person on the podium could finish his speech, teams of military and police officers came running over from a distance.
The students immediately gathered together and tried to block the armed men so that the speaker could escape.
Unfortunately, facing the oncoming sticks, not only the speaker did not escape, but all the students were also arrested one by one after being beaten up.
Amid the noise and chaos, the crowd had already run away and disappeared.
Lin Xu, with Miss Qiu, Mu Xiyue, Nanzhu and Lu Yao, stood on the roadside, eating melons and watching the excitement.
The people coming and going passed by these people several times, but they seemed not to see them and simply ignored their existence.
It was the nanorobots that affected their sensory judgment and caused them to ignore a few people.
Until the military police took away all the arrested people, only a mess was left on the street.
"Gods and Demons Arena? The price of basking in the sun?" Lin Xu muttered the words he had just heard, his eyes thoughtful.
"Does it cost anything to bask in the sun? Can't we just find a galaxy with stars?" Nanzhu asked puzzled.
"They say this is God's rule. Could it be the rule set by that dimensionality-reducing civilization?" Lu Yao guessed.
"The only one who can be called a god in this galaxy is that dimensionality reduction civilization! But what exactly is the Arena of Gods and Demons?" Nanzhu was still confused.
"Okay, stop guessing. Since even the students know about it, it shouldn't be difficult to investigate." Lin Xu reminded.
"That's right, but who should we ask? Wait, I think I found it." Nanzhu pointed to the picture being played on the big screen in front.
Lin Xu and Lu Yao were also watching the scene.
What was displayed on the screen was a scene from a movie.
It seemed like a movie shot long ago when this civilization was still bathed in sunlight.
In the movie, two different races were fighting fiercely on a large piece of land.
Those two races looked like they came from two planets with completely different environments.
One race resembles an upright arthropod covered in a shell, while the other is clearly based on the civilization itself.
And the most important thing is that above the stage where the two races are fighting, against the backdrop of the starry sky, there is a huge, living red goldfish as the background.
The goldfish stared with two eyes as big as planets, and its terrifying pressure made people feel as if they were there even through the screen.
It was as if it was going to swallow up the two races fighting below in one gulp in the next moment.
Finally, this civilization won the battle, and the race represented by the arthropods was defeated.
Afterwards, the gods who had been watching the battle in the sky bestowed their blessings on the victor.
The gods were pleased with their performance.
The movie ends here.
The movie should be just fiction, but many of the things it conveyed made Lin Xu frown.
"This god must be the civilization that has reduced its dimension." Nanzhu said affirmatively, with an unhappy tone in his voice.
"They really treat the civilization of the low-dimensional universe as toys, right?" Lu Yao also felt very unhappy.
“They may have forgotten that they are now members of the low-dimensional universe and have been so high and mighty for too long.” Arcs of electricity flashed between Mu Xiyue’s fingers, and it felt like she was about to attack Lingxiao Palace in the next moment.
"What is their purpose in doing this? After falling from a higher dimension, don't they want to return to it? Are they committing self-degradation by doing these things?" Lin Xu asked puzzledly.
"Who knows, maybe it's simply because the gap was too big, and he couldn't recover and became useless?" Nanzhu thought about it and felt incredible.
"Forget it, let's not think about it. It seems that this civilization may also know that it is now living on a fish. I just don't know what the top leaders of this civilization think. Let's go and ask ." Lin Xu decided.
Since you want to investigate everything in this world and learn more about the dimensionality reduction civilization, why not just go and ask the higher-ups directly? That would be much simpler and more convenient!
