Chapter 137 Resettlement

Hao Ren and the others waited outside for a long time until a blob of amorphous arcane energy floated out of the hall and beckoned them in.

Inside the hall, the giant was sitting cross-legged next to the crystal spire, still in the same posture as before when he had been talking with the First Born. All the holographic projections on the crystal spire were frozen, and the air was filled with a silent atmosphere. Hao Ren came up to the giant, doing his best to offer a reassuring smile, "Finished talking?"

The giant nodded silently, and the First Born's voice echoed through the hall, "Why..."

Nangong Sanba casually chimed in, "What 'why'?"

"Why did they have to kill Mother..." The First Born's voice was filled with confusion. "Mother was so good to everyone, she loved everything in this world... Why did they have to kill Mother?"

"For some, it doesn't matter who's good to them," Izhaks said in a deep voice. "When their demands exceed what they deserve, mortal races do unreasonable things. Stupidity is a great sin, and unfortunately, there are too many sinners like that."

The First Born fell silent again, this time for even longer, making everyone feel awkward. Hao Ren could only take the initiative to break the silence, "Ahem... so, do you have any plans for the future?"

"Yes, I do," the First Born finally spoke, though his voice still sounded a little weak. "Mother is just sleeping, right?"

"According to the information we have, the Creator Goddess's power is still operating in the universe, and her will occasionally responds to the calls of her followers, so it's very likely she's just sleeping," Hao Ren said, stroking his chin. "Also, from what I understand, none of the direct witnesses of that war actually saw the Goddess fall. All they observed was the explosion of the Founding Star, after which the entire battlefield was exiled to a place called the Dark Domain. In other words, there's no evidence to prove that the Goddess actually died in that battle. So, there's a high probability that she's still alive."

"You'll help me find Mother, right?"

Vivian smiled. "Not only will we help you, but it's also our own goal."

"Then I'll wait for Mother to return," the First Born replied. "Until then, if there's anything I can do, I'll help you."

Lily looked up at the crystal spire and, after holding it in for a long time, couldn't help but ask, "Hey, after hearing about what happened back then... are you feeling resentful? If you're feeling upset about anything, you can say it here. We're all from another universe, so we don't have much to do with the Second Born here. You can discuss anything you're unhappy about with us, don't keep it bottled up inside."

The giant silently lowered his head and glanced at them, clearly not entirely agreeing with Lily's statement that she "doesn't have much to do with the Second Born" from a bloodline perspective, but in the end, he didn't say anything.

The First Born's voice sounded very calm, "I'm very angry, very sad, but Mother said not to be like my other brothers and sisters. I want to listen to her. And Mulu also said that all the rebels are already dead in the Heavenly Punishment, so there's nothing to pursue."

"Mulu?" Nangong Sanba asked subconsciously.

The giant's rumbling voice came from above, "My name."

"Oh, oh! I was wondering why I felt like I'd forgotten something—I forgot to ask your name last time we talked," Hao Ren said, patting his head while swaying in the strong wind. "Please don't speak directly at people, the wind's too strong. Also, now that we know the giant's name, what should we call this one? We can't just keep calling you 'First Born,' that sounds weird."

He said the second half of his sentence to the crystal spire: with the First Born's being only a soul, this facility had become its default interaction interface.

"Me? We don't have names. We all live alone in the universe, unlike the giants. We don't have a society, so we don't need names," the First Born's voice was a little troubled.

"Um, didn't the Zolm give you a name?"

"They gave me many titles, but none of them were names."

Hao Ren understood after thinking for a moment. For a creature that was the only one of its kind on an entire planet, a name wasn't very useful. It was the only one on Zolm, so it didn't matter whether humans called it the Root of Origin, the World Tree, the Ancient God, or even just "He." The First Born usually didn't have any other beings of its kind to compare itself to, so it had a very weak concept of names. As for how the Goddess and the Guardian Giants usually contacted these "ecological administrators" scattered throughout the universe, they probably used a combination of mental connection and codebooks.

"Then we'll call you Zolm," Hao Ren thought for a moment. "We'll name you after the planet you used to live on, as a memento."

"Okay." The First Born agreed readily.

After confirming that the matter of the Goddess's fall had been smoothly handed over, Hao Ren began to worry about the sixteen billion souls in the space station's mainframe and the Zolm ecological database (that is, the virtual world parameters), "Then let's talk about the database. The Dream Ark blueprint library has been rescued, what are your plans for the future? What will happen to the souls in those arks?"

The First Born thought for a moment, "According to my original plan, I was going to use the Source Blood to reshape the ecosystem, but now even my body has been burned away, so it will probably be difficult to return to the real world. So, I should only be able to continue creating virtual worlds after this. But my younger siblings' souls... the limiter lock is broken, so they will wake up after this. It might be a little difficult to get them to accept the current situation."

Hao Ren heard a new term, "Limiter lock?"

Under the First Born's explanation, he understood what the so-called "limiter lock" and "wake up" meant. The former referred to nothing other than the mechanical parts on the planet Zolm, which were important reasons why the Zolm people were asleep in the dream!

The souls of mortals were delicate and fragile, and their lifespan was the biggest problem. Races with naturally short lifespans couldn't rashly seek longevity; they needed to undergo complex training and soul strengthening to allow their minds to withstand the extreme extension of life—this was also one of the techniques used by the Xi Ling God System to promote and transform their dependents—however, the Zolm people had no experience in this area, let alone time to research this technology. The first problem they faced after entering the Dream Ark was not death, but survival: what would happen if humans with a lifespan of only a hundred years suddenly became immortal?

They would become tired, lose themselves, gradually go mad and disregard the entire world, and even more seriously: after enjoying an overly long and stable life in the virtual paradise, they would completely adapt to this place, to the point of forgetting the feeling of the real world. "Sleeping in sweet dreams" was a beautiful temptation, but also the true beginning of racial extinction. The Zolm people had foreseen this a long time ago, so they had set up a safety measure on top of the Dream Ark, which was the "limiter."

"Their memories were frozen in the tenth year after entering the dream world, which was the period when all of humanity was at its best in terms of morale, mentality, and action, and then their souls began to reincarnate without memory, each reincarnation lasting from a few years to a few decades, to ensure the activity of the soul," the First Born explained patiently. "If a dream lasted too long, history would be distorted, and the events on the 'planet' would accumulate too much data, so the stage needed to be reset every so often. They designed all of this, they were very smart!"

"So that's the truth of reincarnation..." Nangong Sanba stared wide-eyed, marveling even more at this grand plan. "So, when the real 'awakening' comes, their memories will return to the state they were in ten thousand years ago, shortly after entering the dream? That would make their mental state better... but wouldn't the events and accumulated experiences of these ten thousand years be gone? It would be a pity to forget everything."

"They won't be forgotten, they will be stored as harmless memories, because these accumulated experiences are also useful and can be used to rebuild society in the future. Their brains have a large capacity and can remember a lot of things. After returning to the real world, they will still remember the things in reincarnation, but they will be harmlessly encoded. These memories will be like watching photos and movies, there will be many, but they won't affect the psychology."

"Erasing the feeling of 'personal experience' but retaining the knowledge... so everyone will be polymaths after returning to the real world, but because the knowledge is not accumulated each time, they should not be as good as Nolan," Hao Ren muttered to himself. "But now that the limiter is gone, they will wake up in the virtual world and then live endlessly."

"So can you help me make another limiter?" the First Born asked. "You seem to have very high technology, you should be able to make it."

Hao Ren laughed after hearing this, "Compared to this... don't you plan to return to the real world?"

The First Born didn't react for a moment, and the giant Mulu also cast a curious gaze in this direction.

"After the ecological disaster, many planets have been reshaped, and there are fertile wastelands everywhere in this universe," Hao Ren opened another set of holographic projections, showing the scenery of Tanagrus. "How about this planet? Use it to welcome your new era."