Chapter 1567： Arrive at the border (1/2)
In the boundless gray-white desert, the vast and chaotic sky shrouded the four fields, the majestic throne of Lady Ye stood in the center of the kingdom of God like a mountain in the center of the world. To the distant voice, "Would you be surprised?"
"Not all living beings can choose to walk a hard and lonely road after confirming the existence of the gods. There are very few mortals who refuse to bow their heads in front of the god's throne..." The distant voice said casually, as if in the past For many years, Ms. Ye can hear this voice, but can never perceive where it comes from, it is a great consciousness that directly casts traces in his cognition, "After all, if you can do it in a relaxed environment Now that you can get everything you want, why pay a higher price to chase the ethereal future?”
"...Aren't you angry?" Ms. Ye hesitated for a while, but asked the question, "You are willing to find a way to help, but mortals refuse to bow to you...As a true god, you..."
"The real gods are just some more advanced civilization, some more powerful individuals, I reminded you of this at the beginning," the voice said with a smile, "and as for 'angry'... why do I Are you angry? Because they won't crawl on the ground? Because 'there are mortals who refuse the grace of God'?"
Lady Ye didn't speak, He seemed to be lost in thought, and the voice said quietly after a moment's pause: "I just said that there are very few mortals who refuse to bow their heads in front of the throne - since there are very few, it means that there are still some such groups. Yes. They knew the existence of the gods, but they still chose to walk alone. They came into contact with the fortress of the gods at the end of their voyage, but they still passed by with their heads held high. At the same time, more civilizations chose our shelter and chose In order to join the family's sequence, but for us... it doesn't make any difference.
"Those who are sheltered, we take care of them carefully, those who do not want to bow their heads, we treat each other politely, we welcome our people, and we accept friends, because in the end, we all sail in the same void, and such a vast void... It can contain everything.
"We call this philosophy 'guaranteeing the diversity of civilizations'."
Madam Ye finally raised her head from her contemplation, and he asked thoughtfully: "You once said that the 'Void' is an endlessly vast place, and the 'universe' like the one I live in is as vast as sand and dust. Numerous, in so many universes, and countless civilizations prosper or perish every minute and every second, at that time I always wanted to ask... Is it that all worlds are so... difficult to survive?"
That voice was silent for a long time this time. It seems that even gods outside the space-time order need to carefully consider the vocabulary to answer this question. What about hardship? For civilizations at different stages of development, is there a standard for hardship?
"For the primitive tribes in the cave, a blizzard in the cold winter is a disaster for the family. For the ancient kingdom, which has just established itself in the farming era, a few months of late rain can overturn the entire kingdom, and a prosperous kingdom can be overturned. The industrial awakening civilization can be free from these disasters on the earth, but a meteorite is still a disaster - the magic tide can destroy a primary stage of the parent star civilization, but as you said, for the sailor , home-use mind-calibration patches are even disposable, and stocked in every vending machine.
"On a mortal planet I once lived in, there was a periodic catastrophe, that planet would fall into a state of extremely low temperature called the 'Ice Age' at regular intervals, and the long cold winter would wipe out nine on the planet. life, and during the two glaciations there was only a very short 'warm summer', in which the warm summer was short to almost a breath relative to the entire planetary climate cycle, civilizations proliferated again and again, they rose , subsided, rose again, subsided again... And until the day when they finally had no fear of the glaciers, they never received the slightest help from the gods.
"Today, the civilization that has grown on this planet has prospered. Driven by a certain culture that they claim to be 'the homeland is inseparable', they even transformed their home planet into a distant aircraft carrier and named it For 'Steel Terra', as the first civilization in the galaxy to break out of the barrier of light speed, they and their 'Iron Terra' are still sailing in the long starry sky.
"But even so, they still have the possibility of dying at any time - the runaway neutron star debris and the turbulent gravitational discontinuity on the long voyage may be the next 'blizzard' they will face, and they may collapse in these blizzards. Down, like their cave-dwelling ancestors from ancient times, may also return from the storm stronger and more stalwart, ready to face the next catastrophe.
"My child, if that's what you're asking, then I'll tell you the answer—yes, life is so hard, childhood, and adulthood, life is fragile and ill-fated that any natural phenomenon in a particular Periods and specific forms of ethnic groups can become catastrophic in front of them, and even those ethnic groups that have been sheltered by us have moments of overturning in disasters - but it will be a bigger natural disaster, so terrible that even the gods will fall. "
The voice stopped, and Lady Ye remained silent on the throne for a long time. After a few minutes, He finally broke the silence: "So, all roads are covered with thorns."
"Yes, and that's the crux of the matter: Is a civilization still brave enough to take the next step, knowing that all worlds, all roads are littered with thorns—compared to the blizzard that roars outside the cave, in the The 'next step' that is still decided to take in the face of the blizzard is the greatest courage of a civilization, and it is also the greatest difficulty they will face.
"Compared with this 'step', all other options are secondary."
Ms. Ye was suddenly a little curious: "So...is there a civilization that chooses not to take that step? I mean, after it has developed to a certain level, it suddenly realizes that there are still dangers beyond the planet, and realizes that no matter how powerful the force is, it cannot be To ensure long-term survival, you will encounter difficulties in the process of development, so you choose to retract that step, is there really such a thing?"
The distant deity was silent for two seconds, then replied softly: "Yes, and many, even in various stages - some will crouch to die in the primitive city-state, some will die in a drunken dream in the age of empires, and some will be anesthetized by nerve medicine. Going down to the end, most of them have died silently before they have really seen what the world they live in looks like, and it is difficult to leave even a trace."
Madam Ye opened her eyes slightly: "Then how do you treat such a group..."
"They have the right to choose their own path, and every civilization has the right to choose their own path. It's just that when they start to pray at the end of the day with remorse... We will not give any response, after all, we are also very busy."
"...I understand," Madam Ye finally exhaled softly, He seemed to relax a lot, and his eyes were clearer than before, then he thought for a while, and asked another question, "You said, the sailors really Can you successfully reach the end of the recognizable universe?"
"I'm not sure," said the voice calmly, "since the Battle of the Spiral Rift dragged hundreds of worlds into the zeroth quadrant, the gods' observations of these universes have been greatly disturbed, and now the zeroth quadrant has become a A solidly existing area, and we have yet to find a way to recreate the channel in this quadrant.
"Perhaps as the Prophet and the God of Omen said, the only way to rebuild the waterway in the zeroth quadrant is to break the situation from the inside out, a civilization that has successfully survived in the ruins, a civilization that is willing to give up the opportunity to escape and choose to be a pioneer This group will naturally have the talent of navigating in the zeroth quadrant. They may be the 'Navigator' in your mouth, or they may be the successor after the Navigator, it may be Loren, it may be Noy, More likely a pioneering civilization in some other universe near you, who knows?"
Ms. Ye pondered for a while, and said somewhat uncertainly: "Then if one day, the Loren civilization becomes the 'pioneer' who successfully reached the end of the recognizable universe, but instead of continuing to go out, it stopped. , and even turned back and prayed to God, what would you...or your friend, what would you do?"
"We will accept—they have reached their promised land, they will be rewarded," said the voice indifferently, "every beings have the right to make choices, and it is not contemptible to ask God for help after doing all they can. On the contrary, it is normal to refuse to pray. In the final analysis, it is just that not every world needs to be saved by gods, and not every civilization has only the option of 'bending to God'. It's just..."