Chapter 641: A Pie Five Light-Years Away

Chapter 641: A Pie in the Sky Five Light-Years Away

Luoyu continued sharing his observations from the residual memories of the Hive on the forum, while Chu Guang learned about the central Hive’s situation from Xiao Yu, who lived on the B4 level of the shelter.

Speaking of which, much credit went to Heya.

By improving the neural interface device produced by the black box, she designed a dedicated neural network data exchange interface for Xiao Yu, connecting it to the server in the B6 machine room of the shelter.

This was essentially like putting a “virtual reality headset” on it, allowing it to communicate directly with Xiao Qi using its consciousness.

One had to commend Xiao Yu—this little creature had an astonishingly high acceptance of human-made tools.

The ear microphone Heya had installed earlier was already played with to the fullest, and now, with this new toy, it was having a blast.

With Xiao Yu’s assistance, Xiao Qi reconstructed and restored the memories it had retrieved from the Hive.

This meant that not only Chu Guang, but any interested new or old player could access this ancient memory through a neural connection device…

“Unbelievable… such a beautiful planet, and it’s only five light-years away!”

Floating in an endless void, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the planet so close at hand, Heya couldn’t help but let out an admiring sigh.

A brand-new ecosystem!

A vast, living DNA sample library!

For an expert in this field of research, could there be anything more thrilling than this?

Standing beside her, Chu Guang felt the same—

Only his sentiment was entirely different from Heya’s, far less professional, and simply filled with disbelief—

This planet was alive?

And it even had its own consciousness!

From all indications, the evolutionary process of the creatures living on this planet was completely different from Earth’s.

Of course, another possibility couldn’t be ruled out: that Earth’s ecosystem was a unique anomaly in the universe, or that the evolutionary process of life on every planet was distinct.

After all, before he had crossed over, human civilization in that world had never truly left the solar system, and their understanding of worlds beyond it was built on countless conjectures and paradoxes.

The two of them were currently connected to the shelter’s server through virtual reality devices.

Actually, Yin Fang had been here just a moment ago, but that guy had once been an expedition scout for the Academy and was well-traveled. He only took a glance, found nothing of interest, and left.

Compared to an abstract memory, he was far more interested in the evolved forms the players had brought back from the city center.

Those were living fossils left behind two centuries ago!

Not to mention the ruins originally sealed underground by the mutant slime mold!

The significance of this victory for the Alliance could only be described as a geographical discovery!

He didn’t want to waste a single minute outside the lab.

Just as the two were staring intently at the planet, lost in thought, Xiao Qi’s voice came from the side.

“Master, the memory analysis is fully complete!”

Hearing Xiao Qi’s voice, Chu Guang snapped back to reality and immediately asked.

“Can we get closer? I want to take a look up there.”

“Getting closer is no problem… but if you’re thinking of landing on that planet, there’s really nothing worth seeing up there.”

Xiao Qi’s voice carried a hint of reluctance as she continued softly.

“That Hive only has a vague memory of the Gaia planet. It probably knows the general situation of that planet, but it never actually lived there… If you want to go up there, I could create some textures based on those memory fragments, but they’d likely deviate quite a bit from reality.”

After hearing Xiao Qi’s answer, Chu Guang could guess with his eyes closed that the player named Luoyu had probably already complained on the forum about the unfinished map being used as a pie in the sky.

As a player, discovering a new map meant you had to go up and take a look.

Without Xiao Qi’s help, if he went up there, he probably wouldn’t even see the “textures.”

But Chu Guang was already used to this.

Anyway, whenever these guys encountered something in the game they couldn’t explain, they’d blame it all on him—either the dog of a game designer hadn’t finished it, or the dog of a game designer was playing some grand chess game.

He usually didn’t bother to explain, and even enjoyed his cute little players misunderstanding him like this, because sometimes he himself needed to get in-game news through the forum.

Was there anything unreasonable about an unfinished game in the beta phase?

It was perfectly reasonable, okay!

“…Besides the planet itself, are there any other fragments in that Hive’s memory about Gaia?” Chu Guang continued asking.

Xiao Qi immediately replied.

“There are some scattered bits and pieces, mainly about Gaia and the colonists who landed on Gaia. If you’d like to know, I can organize them for you.”

Chu Guang: “Please do.”

“Hehe, no trouble at all. Serving you is my honor, Master!” A shy voice drifted lightly, and then a pale blue window appeared before Chu Guang.

This piece of information was mainly narrated from the perspective of the mutant slime mold, recounting a past event from the early contact between human civilization and “Gaia.”

Since mutant slime molds didn’t communicate through sound, the concepts stored in the Hive’s ocean of consciousness were recorded purely as biological information, with no corresponding language.

But thanks to the Alliance having Xiao Yu, a translator who had evolved a “voice function,”

With its help, Xiao Qi converted this abstract memory into a language humans could understand and comprehend.

Seeing Chu Guang absorbed in reading, Heya, floating nearby, also curiously leaned in.

Just as “Gaia” had shocked the Human Federation, after noticing the existence of humans, the omnipotent Gaia was equally stunned by these visitors from beyond the stars.

It had existed on this planet for who knows how many stellar cycles, and had ruled over it like a deity for who knows how many stellar cycles, yet this was the first time it had encountered such strange organisms.

They used fire to melt soil and rock, laid refined elements on the ground, summoned lightning from temperatures rivaling the sun, and drove everything around them to revolve around their will.

And most incredibly, these organisms were beyond its control!

This was something it couldn’t understand.

Not only could it not control them, it couldn’t even establish communication with them, and they were completely unaware of its existence, repeatedly killing the fruiting bodies it sent to make contact.

At first, it regarded these colonists as a virus brought by a “meteorite from beyond the sky,” or something similar—after all, such things happened occasionally.

So, through its own abilities, it evolved “antibodies” to eliminate these organisms.

In the beginning, its antibodies did have some effect. The visitors infected by the slime mold soon developed a series of symptoms like weakness, coughing, and lethargy.

But Chu Guang didn’t even need to guess to know that, given the technological level of the Prosperity Era, this kind of mild cold probably wasn’t even a threat.

And things developed exactly as he thought.

The colonists quickly developed vaccines through advanced medical technology and analysis of local species, and even carried out a wide-area sterilization targeting “the antibodies it had designed against humans.”

This was probably the first direct conflict between Gaia and human civilization. Both sides, without any clear understanding of what the other was, launched this unprepared war.

After discovering that virus and bacterial attacks had little effect, the enraged Gaia gradually escalated the war, attempting to trigger global disasters and evolve more aggressive fruiting bodies, trying to physically eradicate the ever-expanding colonists.

The Human Federation, of course, wasn’t about to give up this hard-won paradise over such a minor setback. They poured more and more resources into developing the colony, countering every move Gaia made with a countermeasure.

And interestingly, it was during this process that the Federation’s scholars finally discovered the existence of “Gaia”!

The series of disasters on the Gaia planet were not isolated from each other—everything was under the control of a single unified consciousness!

Biologists of the Human Federation proposed this hypothesis while comparing the DNA of alien lifeforms, and later, the discovery of the Mind Interference Device confirmed it!

From the perspective of the mutant slime mold, it was the first time humanity truly heard Its voice and established direct communication with It.

“The Mind Interference Device?!”

When Hya saw this part of the data, her face was filled with astonishment.

After a moment of contemplation, she muttered to herself again.

“The higher the intelligence of an organism, the richer the information it receives, and the weaker the interference it suffers... Hmm, so that’s how it is!”

Earlier, while studying the data from Vault 117, she had found it strange.

The original purpose of the Mind Interference Device was to replace the infrasonic fences used by colonies to drive away alien species. Yet, according to the intelligence they had gathered, the alien species in the colonies were all fruiting bodies of the slime mold.

Sharing a unified consciousness, they theoretically should not have been driven away by the Mind Interference Device.

In fact, even without the “theoretically,” there were vast expanses of slime mold fruiting bodies in Clearspring City, and the Mind Interference Device had no effect on them at all.

It turned out that those colonists hadn’t used it to replace the infrasonic fences; instead, they had used it to establish diplomatic relations with Gaia?

Chu Guang said nothing, but thought of something else.

It was something Dr. Method had mentioned to him earlier in Vault 101.

During the Era of Prosperity, a radical ideological trend had been widespread in Human Federation society.

It concerned the definition of “human.”

The radicals believed that humans were social beings, and social beings were humans; the Federation should keep pace with the times. The conservatives, on the other hand, argued that humans were a unity of social and natural beings, both indispensable, and that the ancestral ways must not be changed.

The two sides had broad disagreements on a series of agendas, including the civil rights of androids, the scope of cloning technology, and socialized upbringing.

Against this unique historical backdrop, the emergence of “Gaia” had, to some extent, impacted Human Federation society.

In the past, the only hivemind societies humans had observed in Earth’s natural world were uninteresting and inefficient insects like ants and bees. But now, a nearly perfect, complete entity had been revealed before everyone’s eyes.

In the eyes of some, Its existence provided an almost perfect solution to the divide between radicals and conservatives.

That is, by studying Gaia and establishing a similar hivemind network, connecting the consciousness of every individual in society into a whole, all disagreements would be resolved.

Gaia was like that.

Before humans arrived here, there wasn’t even a concept of conflict, and naturally, no disagreements existed.

And the first to establish contact with Gaia were precisely these people.

Most of them were scholars and researchers who had voluntarily applied to migrate from the home planet to the colonies, and most were tired of the endless arguments and the meddling of the Scientific Ethics Committee.

In this fragment of memory left by the Hive Mother, It held a positive view of these humans who had willingly embraced Gaia.

In Its understanding, It did not kill for the sake of killing, but responded to the call of humanity’s “Gaia faction,” and under Gaia’s guidance, came to liberate the suffering organisms on this planet.

Of course, this was not a selfless, generous expedition; it was also for the sake of Its mother.

According to the humans who sympathized with them, if they did not solve the problem at its root, the conflict would never end.

Over billions of years of evolution, the word “plunder” had been written into the genes of most species on that planet.

“……No wonder that Hive Mother could accept the followers of the Torch Church.” Chu Guang finally squeezed out this sentence after a long silence.

Those people had been to Vault 401, taken the Mind Interference Device and related technologies, and objectively, they had acquired the tools to communicate with the slime mold Hive Mother.

And their thoughts and doctrines happened to coincide with the “Gaia faction” that the mutant slime mold sympathized with—just a little extreme toward their own kind.

But what did that matter?

To give an inappropriate example, the way that Hive Mother looked at them might very well be the same way he looked at Xiao Yu.

After so many years of fighting, finally a group of humans had emerged who could understand its demands. Perhaps the DNA that the Torch Church had obtained was all freely given to them by the Hive Mother in Clearspring City!

“Are there any other memories?” Having watched this memory to the end, Hya looked eagerly toward the direction from which Xiao Qi’s voice came.

“No, that’s all It knew.” Xiao Qi replied helplessly.

Hearing Xiao Qi’s answer, Hya’s expression carried a hint of lingering disappointment, but she did not press further.

“Unbelievable… This information has completely overturned my understanding of the mutant slime mold,” Hya said, rubbing the bridge of her nose, then suddenly turned excitedly to Chu Guang. “You know what? I have a bunch of new ideas in my head now… Never mind, I can’t explain it to you clearly. I might need to go into seclusion for a few days to study.”

Seeing the eager look on Hya’s face, Chu Guang guessed that she had probably gained some new inspiration related to her field of research from this memory.

Such specialized matters were indeed beyond his knowledge.

Without asking in detail what it was, Chu Guang cleared his throat and said,

“You can go into seclusion for as long as you like, but before that, there’s something I need to ask your opinion on.”

Hya raised an eyebrow curiously.

“What is it?”

Chu Guang tried to describe his idea.

“I want Xiao Yu to… improve the cityscape of Clearspring City.”

Actually, it was more of a brainstorm than an idea.

Earlier, while lurking on the forum, he had noticed Professor Yang urging Luo Yu to send the millions of cheap descendants he had just picked up to the assembly line to farm money.

To be honest, this wild move was something Chu Guang hadn’t expected, and even Luo Yu, who was being urged, thought it was unrealistic.

After all, if it could really be done, it wouldn’t just ruin the game experience for other players—it would even ruin the game experience for NPCs.

It was better for this cheat to remain in the hands of the collective.

“Improve the cityscape?” Hya was stunned after hearing this, looking at Chu Guang with confusion. “How… could that be improved?”

Chu Guang patiently explained,

“Currently, Clearspring City is a ruin. If millions of slime mold fruiting bodies could also participate in the reconstruction, a project that would otherwise take a hundred years might be shortened to just a few years.”

His requirements were not high.

Even just restoring some parts of Clearspring City to a livable standard would greatly benefit the Alliance.

Moreover, letting Xiao Yu produce visible social contributions could also reduce the concerns of wastelanders who didn’t understand it.

Seeing Hya silent for a long time, Chu Guang added,

“Of course, this is just an immature idea…”

“Hmm… it’s not a matter of maturity. The idea actually sounds good, but there’s one problem,” Hya paused, her expression subtle as she continued.

“According to our research, the hivemind consciousness isn’t as omnipotent as it seems. To a large extent, its control is manifested at the macro level. Take Xiya, for example—her micro-management ability is somewhat stronger than her mother’s. But even so, when her fruiting bodies number in the thousands or tens of thousands, it’s hard for her to specifically control the actions of each individual fruiting body.”

“That’s why she tried the assimilation model, allowing the assimilated fruiting bodies to retain some self-awareness, able to refine specific actions based on vague commands. The general view at the institute is that this is an ability the mutant slime mold evolved by learning from human society.”

She paused, then continued,

“As for Xiao Yu, its degree of control over the fruiting bodies in Clearspring City is actually weaker than that of the Hive Mother it devoured. First, it transmits information through the medium of sound. Although sound travels farther and faster than spores, the information entropy is definitely reduced. After passing through the two media of sound and spores, when the information reaches each fruiting body, it’s hard to say whether those fruiting bodies can understand those complex commands.”

“In other words, if it tells the gnawers to gnaw on people, they’ll definitely understand. But if it wants them to move something from one place to another, that would really test Xiao Yu’s command skills.”

After hearing Hya’s explanation, Chu Guang felt a slight regret.

“I see…”

Seeing the look of regret on Chu Guang's face, Heya couldn't help adding a remark from behind.

"This is just my speculation, and my speculation is not necessarily correct. Besides, you shouldn't be asking me about this; you should communicate directly with Xiaoyu. That creature is a born biologist; its very existence is an incredible miracle to us, a singularity isolated outside the horizon of our inherent cognition."

Saying this, she made a joke.

"To make a vivid but inappropriate analogy, we who study the mysteries of nature are like magicians, needing fine wands and obscure incantations to perform our spells."

"But it is different."

"It itself is magic!"

...

Shelter B6 Floor.

Standing in a pale red ocean, Xiaoyu let out a soft, lingering sigh.

The pale red spore coat rolled like waves, spreading in circles, eventually merging with the pitch-black chassis standing like a reef in the server room.

It seemed that slime molds also had their own troubles.

Taking off the virtual reality glasses from his head, Chu Guang, sitting at the entrance of the server room, placed the glasses on the head of a robot shaped like a wastepaper basket.

Sensing its sorrow, Chu Guang did not immediately speak of his own matters but asked in a gentle tone.

"What are you thinking about?"

The calm thoughts traveled along the pale red tentacles to the carbon-based semiconductor inside the chassis, where Xiaoqi parsed them into human language.

"I couldn't convince Xiya."

This creature could actually speak.

But the information entropy of human language was too low; it preferred to express itself in its own way, since Xiaoqi would translate for it anyway.

Chu Guang thought for a moment and then spoke.

"You don't have to feel sad for her. She chose her own destiny, following her mother to the very end of the path beneath her feet. There is no perfection in this world; you have done well enough."

"Ee-oo."

Xiaoyu murmured softly, its mood seeming to improve a little.

As the first human it saw after awakening, Chu Guang was like a father and mother to it, and it always trusted his words.

At first, it didn't understand this feeling, but after meeting Xiya and that mother nest, it came to somewhat grasp that so-called sense of inheritance.

Just as Xiya had inherited the will of her mother.

Its worldview was basically formed within the society of the Alliance, and its self-perception differed from humans only in shape; in other respects, it was almost no different from people.

After all, shape was the least important thing for a being that possessed countless fruiting bodies yet only a single self.

This was exactly the opposite of humans, who were adept at drawing boundaries with their own kind using "visual affinity."

After a moment of silence, Xiaoyu suddenly asked a strange question.

"Am I human?"

Chu Guang thought it over and answered truthfully.

"Objectively speaking, obviously not."

Hearing this, Xiaoyu's mood fell slightly, but it quickly rallied and continued asking.

"How can I become human?"

Sensing the earnestness and innocence in the question, Chu Guang couldn't help but smile and said in a gentle tone.

"You don't need to become human. You are you. You should be able to feel that we have never excluded you."

"Ee-oo!"

Seeming very satisfied with this answer, Xiaoyu's voice carried a hint of joy. It extended a tentacle from the pale red ocean, reaching toward Chu Guang's shoulder to rub against his face.

This was one of its ways of expressing friendliness.

It had learned it from a creature named Niko.

Xiaoqi, sitting on Chu Guang's shoulder, recoiled to the side in resistance and let out a dissatisfied protest.

"Ew! Don't get that slimy stuff on me! My head will rust!"

The figurine that Pai had given Chu Guang was its favorite among all its avatars.

Although recently that fellow Yibosi had offered a doll that was also to its liking and life-sized, that doll had its own AI core like Hanshuang and Rishi, and it didn't really want to use it—it felt weird.

"Ee-oo..."

Xiaoyu let out a plaintive cry, dodging Xiaoqi and moving to Chu Guang's other shoulder.

The relationship between the two little ones had always been quite good.

After all, Xiaoqi often acted as Chu Guang's mouthpiece, and when Luoyu went offline, it was usually Xiaoqi who kept Xiaoyu company.

Watching Xiaoqi jump onto the wastepaper basket, Chu Guang laughed heartily. He didn't mind Xiaoyu's affectionate rubbing, since his power armor didn't need to be cleaned by himself anyway.

Chu Guang was relatively open-minded when it came to new things.

After all, from a practical standpoint, if simply copying the methods of the Human Union could solve the problem, he wouldn't be needed to clean up this mess.

Besides, looking at it from another angle, if his wild idea could actually be realized, Xiaoyu would be a planetary-scale environmental modification artifact!

In the future, if they encountered a planet that was "just a bit short of the habitable yellow line" and filled with carbon dioxide or other harmful gases, they could simply drop Xiaoyu down to take a bite before establishing a colony.

Interstellar communication shouldn't be more difficult than interstellar travel.

It wouldn't even need to communicate through spores like its ancestor "Gaia"; with the help of human civilization's technology, just opening a mic would suffice.

In terms of cost, this would certainly be much more economical than conventional "atmospheric terraforming projects."

And its footprints would follow the Alliance's fleet and its ambition to explore new worlds, stepping onto a vaster realm that its ancestors never imagined.

This was nothing less than a win-win!

Of course, exploring new worlds was still too distant for the Alliance at present; the current Old World still had a mountain of troubles waiting for him to handle.

Seeing Xiaoyu in good spirits, Chu Guang smiled and put forward his idea.

"I'd like to ask you for a favor."

"Ee-oo!"

Xiaoyu excitedly nodded its extended tentacle and agreed without even asking what it was.

Chu Guang made a joke.

"Aren't you going to ask what it is?"

The pale red spore coat filling the server room swayed gently like waterweed, as straightforward as a lake whose bottom could be seen at a glance.

"I trust you!"