Chapter 1 Virtual Link

The spiritual space formed by the virtual link was teeming with people. Specters of censors from all over the worlds shuttled endlessly through this chaotic space. Many were here to review countless civilization data from the entire macrocosm. Hao Ren was one of them.

The Ark civilization's database spread out in his mind, a vast ocean of information rushing towards him.

Having experienced browsing the Tanagus database, Hao Ren was already familiar with such high-bandwidth virtual connections. He was no longer as shocked as he was during his first connection. He remained focused, slowly browsing through the things that best represented a civilization in that vast sea of information—history, art, law, religion, and social models. Any civilization leaving behind a "doomsday database" would carefully classify these things and place them in the easiest-to-read sections, just as plants leave seeds and animals leave offspring. "Leaving their information behind" was the instinct of all living things.

Watching a civilization start from ignorance, step into space through fire, steel, war, and peace, and then disappear like fireworks in the night sky was not a pleasant experience. Hao Ren quickly finished browsing the historical section and began to focus on the logs from before the Ark civilization's demise.

The people who left these logs had clearly realized that their civilization was on the verge of collapse, so they meticulously recorded everything that happened during those final days, especially the anomalies—the shaking of the earth, the changes in the starry sky, the climate, magnetic fields, the sun, and everything else was recorded in great detail. Like a dying victim in a murder case, they tried to leave as many clues about the murderer as possible, perhaps so that if everything was truly beyond saving, someone could help them find out the truth of the "murder." Many of these clues were actually not very useful, because the race that left the logs had limited civilization level. Their understanding of the First Born was still very superficial, and they didn't know what clues were most useful, but Hao Ren still saw something that caught his attention. It was a diary left by a scientist, specifically for future generations.

"...Reorganized the astronomical records before the arrival of the Starry Sky People and found observation data about the red supernova 'Iton'. This mysterious celestial body is one of the most puzzling phenomena for our race. It hangs in the emptiest position in the sky, always maintaining the same brightness, and any observation of it cannot determine the distance to this star. Its characteristics do not meet the standards of a star, and a planet should not be so bright... Before the arrival of the Starry Sky People, 'Iton' had an unknown outburst. On that day, it became the brightest star in the night sky, and then it completely disappeared into the universe... No technical means can confirm the cause of Iton's outburst and disappearance... This information may be of great value and should be retained..."

"Red nova..." Hao Ren couldn't help but temporarily withdraw from the link. "There's a record of that star here too."

The data terminal's voice sounded in his mind: "Did you find a record of the red nova when you were on Aioi?"

"Aioi's ancient equipment was destroyed by the tsunami, and Nasaton was just a colony ship. The database on it is incomplete, and there's no information about the red nova," Hao Ren shook his head. "But I have good reason to believe that those sirens also saw the red nova back then—whether they saw it explode is uncertain."

"This star seems to be visible from any corner of the Dream Plane universe, and it's equally bright no matter where you look," the data terminal's voice was very serious. "This doesn't conform to the rules of optics. If that's the case, perhaps even if we find a fourth observation point, we won't be able to confirm the location of the red nova—it doesn't conform to the laws of observation, so we can't determine the distance. It could be located anywhere in the universe."

Hao Ren had also thought about these things, but he had no other choice: "Let's try it after we find the fourth observation point. If we really can't find it, there's nothing we can do. Anyway, the incident with the Goddess of Creation must be related to the explosion of this star... Maybe it exploded along with it."

Hao Ren put these things aside for the time being and continued to immerse himself in browsing the database. This time, he began to focus on finding information about the Starry Sky People, and there was a lot of this information in the database.

In the Ark natives' descriptions, the Starry Sky People not only had wonderful life forms, but also had special ways of thinking and communicating. They could not speak, so they communicated with others through a form of telepathy—but accepting this telepathy required special talent. The Ark natives did not seem to be very good at this, so they found it very difficult to understand some of the more difficult words mentioned by the Starry Sky People.

Some scribes who were specifically responsible for talking to the Starry Sky People were called "Spirit Speakers". Every conversation they had with the Starry Sky People was recorded in the database. A Spirit Speaker named "Freeman" seemed to be a telepathy expert. He left the most and clearest conversation records. Hao Ren found these records. They were like conversation record books:

[Freeman: "...So how did you cross such a long distance to get here?"

Starry Sky People: "(A series of complex thoughts, possibly some technical explanation, but incomprehensible)... All things in the universe are connected like this, and we use this connection to jump, just like data is transferred in your computer system, but faster."

Freeman: "...Sorry, I can't understand these things, but I'll record them truthfully. Is the 'cataclysm' you mentioned happening everywhere in the universe? Is it a common phenomenon?"

Starry Sky People: "(Seems to have more obvious emotional fluctuations) It shouldn't have happened, but a shameful (unidentifiable thought) led to this disaster. Now it has spread throughout the universe, and even we can't predict how it will develop. We can only minimize its harm as much as possible."

Freeman: "Is it a man-made disaster?"

Starry Sky People: "(Emotional fluctuations) Man-made, the root of this universe has been touched, severely damaged by a group of incomprehensible creatures... (Incomprehensible thoughts) But it's impossible to explain it to you, you can't understand."

Freeman: "What is the root of the universe?"

Starry Sky People: "Ninety percent of the life in this universe originates from Him (completely incomprehensible thoughts)... It's impossible to explain it to you. We are deeply affected by this root, which makes it impossible for us to describe His form of existence to ordinary races. In your cognition, He should be similar to a god."

After that, there were some messy conversation records. Finally, Freeman asked: "Did someone attack that 'god' to cause the disaster?"

Starry Sky People: "They killed Him."]

Hao Ren completely withdrew from the database, with a shocked expression.

"Someone killed the Goddess of Creation?" Hao Ren felt unbelievable. "And it seems like a group of mortals did it?!"

"That's what the Starry Sky People said," the data terminal's voice also had obvious fluctuations. "This unit believes they wouldn't make up these things out of thin air."

"This information... is unexpected." Hao Ren was stunned for a long time before finally accepting the fact. He never expected that the Ark database would hide such an amazing truth—whether it was the truth or not, it was at least an amazing clue. At this time, he suddenly remembered the Dragon Queen Galazriel's warning: Don't ignore the small clues around you, because you never know when good luck will give you a big surprise!

However, the records in the database ended there. The communication between the Spirit Speaker and the Starry Sky People was not smooth, and in the face of the approaching doomsday, they did not pay too much attention to the origin of the universe and religious issues. They were more concerned with asking about the technical details of the Ark. Hao Ren repeatedly browsed those conversation books many times, but did not find any detailed records describing this "mortals killing a god" event. Either no one asked, or the Starry Sky People tried to answer, but no Spirit Speaker could understand.

"What a damn language barrier..." Hao Ren felt a pain in the ass. "Why didn't the Starry Sky People research interstellar foreign languages with such great skills..."

"It seems that we can only find them to find out the truth of what happened back then," the data terminal also regretted. "This unit always feels like there's something fishy about this..."

Hao Ren sighed: "Nonsense, even the god is dead, can the conspiracy be small?"

After repeatedly searching the data without success, Hao Ren exited the virtual link, and then summarized this connection into a report and handed it over to Raven 12345.

Raven 12345 attached great importance to this information, but there would be no new instructions in the short term. The next thing... Hao Ren still had to investigate slowly himself.