Chapter 349: Great Filter

Chapter 349 The Great Filter

On the other side, within the "tomb."

Lin Yu gazed silently at the scene before him, as if it floated in the void, a teasing smile curling on his lips.

The man beside him, Lin Xi, remained expressionless, yet Lin Yu could plainly sense that his so‑called “algorithm” was already simulating “unpleasant” emotions.

Lin Yu couldn’t help but find it somewhat amusing.

“So, just as I told you at the beginning,”

“you absolutely should not oppose those Huaxia troops.”

“They are professional soldiers, professional warriors, and, in a sense, they were born for battle.”

“How could such a force possibly be so easily defeated?”

“Moreover, your methods of attack are rather… primitive.”

“Not to mention the Huaxia army— even the Mechanical Cult, if truly mobilized, could likely crush you, right?”

As the words fell, Lin Xi slowly shook his head.

“No.”

“Every defensive measure, device, and weapon in this city has been meticulously calculated.”

“In our projections, no faction on this wasteland can breach the outer monsters’ defenses to enter the city.”

“Even if one were to slip in by some special means, it could not threaten us.”

“Our means of attack are not… primitive.”

“They are restrained.”

“We were never an outward‑expanding power, we—”

“You do not create information; you merely use it. Right?”

Lin Yu said with a teasing tone:

“You consider yourselves non‑expansive, yet you wield monsters to sow slaughter and bloodshed across this world.”

“If this is your so‑called law of survival, then I will steadfastly side with the Huaxia army.”

“At least they truly wish for everyone to live on.”

Having spoken, Lin Xi shook his head once more.

“Wrong.”

“They merely enable you to survive for a while.”

“As I told you, until the problem of that ‘monster’ is solved, humanity can never cross that boundary.”

“It is a… barrier.”

“Or rather, it is a Great Filter.”

“What is a Great Filter?”

Lin Yu asked curiously.

“It is a concept.”

Lin Xi did not pause, continuing his explanation:

“The world we inhabit is but a small village—just as you see it.”

“Yet beyond this village, there ought to be many other similar villages.”

“Logically, each village should establish trade routes, exchange goods, and support one another in continued development, right?”

“Right.”

Lin Yu nodded.

“And then?”

“Then.”

Lin Xi sighed.

“Then we discovered that no village at our stage existed nearby—indeed, there seemed to be no village at all.”

“Do you know what that means?”

“It means either we are unique, or those once‑prosperous villages have already been annihilated.”

“Like the ‘mountain city’ you saw in the story.”

“The stronger a civilization, the less it can breach that barrier; only the weak have a chance to endure.”

“That is the Great Filter.”

“It is like a net that catches the big fish while letting the small ones slip away.”

“Understood.”

Lin Yu reclined onto the ground, the grass brushing his cheek with a startlingly real sensation.

“So, to slip through the net’s holes, you chose self‑castration?”

“Do you truly believe that strategy is right?”

“Why don’t you try to tear that net apart?”

Lin Xi smiled.

“If you were a fish, would you think of tearing the net?”

“I would.”

Lin Yu answered without hesitation:

“And I am certain the Huaxia troops think just as I do.”

With those words spoken, Lin Xi fell into a prolonged silence.

A gentle breeze brushed by, and Lin Yu, after a long while, felt a fleeting pleasure; at that moment, Lin Xi suddenly waved his hand.

Instantly, the surroundings of the two men shifted dramatically.

They found themselves seated amid a sea of stars.

Lin Yu sprang to his feet, his eyes tinged with alarm.

He looked bewildered at the ground beneath him, where a massive sphere of blue and green swirled.

“You’ve never viewed your world from this perspective, have you?” Lin Xi gently patted his shoulder, soothingly:

“Don’t be nervous; there’s nothing to fear.”

“This is Earth.”

“The very planet from which we all were born.”

“As you can see, it is a colossal star.”

“And the humans who dwell upon the surface of this star are as infinitesimal as specks of dust.”

“Now, let me pose a question to you.”

“If one wished to annihilate this planet, what means should be employed?”

“Speak boldly, unshackled by restraint.”

Lin Yu fell silent for a heartbeat, then tentatively pointed toward a gray‑white sphere at his side.

“That’s the Moon, isn’t it?”

“Use the Moon to strike the Earth?”

Upon hearing his answer, Lin Xi laughed.

“That is indeed a very intuitive answer.”

“Precisely—if the Moon were to collide with Earth, the world we inhabit would be erased in an instant.”

“Yet in truth, we need not resort to such convoluted, such ‘grand’ operations.”

As she spoke, Lin Xi waved her hand lightly, then continued:

“Behold, this Earth is a construct I generated and simulated with data.”

“That means, whenever I wish, I may alter its data at will.”

“Suppose I now make a slight adjustment to the parameters concerning… force.”

“Let us set the electromagnetic force to zero.”

As the words fell, the world before Lin Yu changed in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, the “Earth” before him disintegrated into ash.

It transformed into a boundless cloud of stardust.

“This—”

Lin Yu stared, mouth agape.

“It is merely an exaggerated demonstration.”

Lin Xi explained:

“If electromagnetic force truly vanished, the world’s transformation would be far more complex.”

“I show you this scene so that you may grasp, in a concrete way, the point I intend to make.”

“Very well, let us start from the beginning.”

As the words faded, the Earth instantly restored itself.

Then Lin Xi spoke again:

“Now, let us design the adjustment to be a little smaller.”

“Assume we slightly lower the speed at which light propagates across the Earth; let us see what transpires.”

“Let us set the temporal scale to ten seconds, shall we?”

The simulation commenced at once.

Lin Yu watched in astonishment as a translucent, dazzling membrane sprang up around the periphery of the “Earth.”

The membrane materialized in an instant, then vanished just as swiftly.

Yet when it disappeared, the entire world was riddled with countless wounds.

“Why is this happening??”

Lin Yu asked in disbelief.

“It is simple.”

Lin Xi replied:

“Light is like a river, rushing toward the planet at breakneck speed.”

“But if we were to erect a ‘dam’ around the Earth’s outskirts, what would occur?”

“The obstructed flow would unleash a tremendous surge of energy, an energy the dam cannot contain.”

“It would pour unreservedly onto the Earth, flooding the world we inhabit.”

“Do you think anyone could survive under such circumstances?”

“No.”

Lin Yu exhaled a long breath, then asked:

“Then why did you make me witness these things?”

Lin Xi fell silent for a moment, then answered:

“What I wish to tell you is that the so‑called great cataclysms that befall our world are much like what you have just seen.”

“Yet we do not know who altered the ‘data,’ nor which datum was altered.”

“All we know is that we are finished.”

“So, in this situation, do you still think we can break free from that fishing net?”

Lin Yu said nothing.

After a long while, he finally spoke:

“We can.”

“Because we are fish.”

“Fish always retain a chance to slip out of a net.”

“Because—”

“It is merely a net, is it not?”

(End of chapter)