Chapter 329 Dinosaur Civilization

After hearing Shui Wa's account, a flash of shock passed through Big Tooth's eyes. Under such circumstances, the chances of humanity's civilization surviving were exceptionally slim, and the Wallfacing Project seemed to have become their only lifeline.

Through Shui Wa's description, Logic and Lin Sen must have known about the Dark Forest; humanity still had a glimmer of hope.

However, from the current situation, it was clear that Logic either hadn't managed to establish a Deterrence system, or if he had, it was ultimately broken; humanity's civilization might have already been wiped out.

Thinking of this, Big Tooth grew even angrier.

The Swallower should now be facing the Trisolaran Civilization, whose civilization level had reached 1.1 and was even not far from 1.2.

It was almost impossible to disengage now; the Swallower had to confront the Trisolarans head on.

More importantly, Big Tooth realized that if a civilization in some stellar system reached the late stages of 1.1, they had a considerable probability of mastering Curvature Propulsion Technology.

The emergence of this technology meant that the Trisolarans might be able to construct Lightspeed Spacecraft, allowing some of them to flee their current stellar system and transform the entire galaxy into a slow-moving black hole.

Such an outcome was extremely disadvantageous for the Swallowing Empire. Their generational ships would have to alter their course, a result the Swallowing Empire could not accept.

Big Tooth felt furious with Shui Wa and the others for hiding such critical information and even regretted why he hadn't read their memories.

"Cunning little bugs, treacherous little bugs, malicious little bugs… The Swallowing Empire is a truly honest civilization, laying everything out in the open, yet in the end was deceived by the sinister Earth bugs.

"You knew very well that humanity had almost no chance of surviving, yet you still wanted to use us to fight the Trisolarans and carry out your revenge plan.

"But you don't understand what this means! The universe is nothing like you imagine; even hatred is a luxury."

Hearing this, Shui Wa fell silent for a moment and then slowly began to speak, "Indeed, we have deceived you. Perhaps we just wanted to witness the final decline of human civilization.

"Revenge may seem like a luxury, but we had no choice, and we have no regrets.

"I feel that you also have been hiding something from us. Can you tell us now?

"As you said, any further concealment is meaningless now."

Big Tooth gradually calmed down. He stared at Shui Wa, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes: "I have indeed hidden something from you, but those are universal rules.

"Not telling you was only because I hoped you could die like carefree children, or become citizens of ours and establish a museum of humanity.

"Sometimes, ignorance truly is bliss, which is one of the few nostalgic feelings we have left.

"We left our home planet over sixty million years ago, enduring a long journey through space; we have long since been hardened.

"It was only upon seeing you that we felt that insignificant nostalgia.

"Behind scales colder than steel and rock, we too have a heart longing for home."

A wild thought surged in Shui Wa's mind. Eyes wide with disbelief, he stared at Big Tooth.

"Nostalgia? Over sixty million years? Home? Considering your resemblance to us and what you previously mentioned about us being special, could it be that you are…"

Big Tooth continued, "That's right, my friends, we are all children of the Sun, and Earth is our common homeland.

"Though you possessed her before us, we actually have more right to her!"

"Because we are the Dinosaur Civilization!"

"One hundred and forty million years before your humanity appeared, our ancestors were living on this beautiful planet, creating a brilliant civilization."

"The history of the Dinosaur Civilization lasted for twenty million years, but its rapid expansion was only a matter of a few thousand years."

"Our size was enormous, and our consumption of ecological resources was extremely high. The Earth's biosphere could hardly sustain the survival of dinosaur society."

"I was passionate about space adventures because I discovered Mars, which had just developed a primary ecosystem, and then we consumed it."

"However, for some unknown reason, a disaster erupted, also known as the Cretaceous disaster."

"Finally, there came a day when all the dinosaurs boarded ten colossal generation ships, sailing into the vast sea of stars."

"We had been to hundreds of stellar systems, and the ten ships gradually became one. Each time we passed a planet, the fleet would be expanded, eventually forming the current Swallowing Empire."

"For a civilization that migrates frequently, choosing the target stellar system is the most critical step. Obviously, we didn't make a good choice with this step."

Big Tooth then explained the Dark Forest to Shui Wa and the others, in the universe, whether it is discovering others or being discovered by others, it is extremely dangerous."

"Civilizations that have mastered Curvature Propulsion Technology are completely different from those that have not."

"They are also extremely sensitive to such civilizations, and even a single false alarm could turn a civilization into a low-speed black hole."

"So, communication at this moment is necessary. If humanity discovers this ship too early and the Trisolarans react excessively, allowing some to flee and turning the Solar System into a low-speed black hole, then the dinosaurs would need to choose another galaxy, which is equally risky."

In the end, with no other option, Big Tooth decided to broadcast a message to the Solar System, first to communicate with the civilization still in the Solar System."

Some might question this because, with the existence of the suspicion chain, whatever message the Dinosaur Civilization sends could be considered false, making such a broadcast meaningless."

"Actually, this is a misunderstanding of the suspicion chain."

"The reason the suspicion chain is unbreakable is based on the optimum risk choice, which might result in an extremely high cost for communication."

"But the suspicion chain isn't unbreakable; as soon as you take the first step in communication, it is essentially broken."

"What is being referred to as the first step in communication here is not the Dinosaur Civilization broadcasting to the Solar System, but Shui Wa entering the territory of the Dinosaur Empire."

"It could also be said that as soon as the Dinosaur Civilization learned about the Trisolaran Civilization from Shui Wa, the first step of breaking the suspicion chain occurred."

"The suspicion chain prevents communication between civilizations, but once there is communication, the suspicion chain is already broken."

"Another characteristic of the suspicion chain is that once communication begins, it cannot be stopped."

"After that, both sides will inevitably enter a probing stage, which is also a game-playing stage, and this is the phase where Big Tooth is broadcasting."

"On the contrary, the final decision is the outcome, and it's incredibly brief."

PS: In the original story, the Escape Fleet established four worlds, but World Three eventually became a low-speed black hole. The reason might be that they believed they had been exposed."

"There were also many incidents of false alarms during The Deterrence Era and the Broadcast Era of humanity, with each incident resulting in heavy losses."

"If the civilization in the Solar System discovers the envoy ship of the Swallower at this moment, it too might react excessively, and in the worst-case scenario, could even destroy the Solar System."