Chapter 374: Contact with the Mo Civilization

Three months later.

The Exploration Fleet slowly entered a profound mist of darkness, and suddenly, the fleet's sophisticated detectors captured a faint, unusual electromagnetic fluctuation within the chaotic mist.

It was like the faintest starlight in the night sky, almost merging with the vast cosmic background radiation. However, under the precise analysis of supercomputers, this faint fluctuation gradually revealed an indescribable pattern.

This was the most shocking discovery made by the Divine Vessel Civilization in nearly a year, even though no one knew what lay ahead.

Normally, faced with the unknown, the Exploration Fleet would immediately depart. The unknown often signifies danger, even potentially a deadly trap. In interstellar space, the most perilous thing is actually curiosity, and even the quest for knowledge is considered taboo.

Yet strangely, the Exploration Fleet did not choose to flee but rather resolutely continued forward, and even Chu Yan chose to steadfastly proceed.

Upon learning of this news, Lin Sen couldn't help but feel a strange ripple in his heart. It wasn't just because of the mysterious electromagnetic waves, but the conduct of the exploration fleet itself.

Like Chu Yan in the original timeline, even when facing the universe's greatest secret, he could restrain his curiosity to preserve humanity's last chance for survival.

At that time, Chu Yan might have already glimpsed the secrets to dimensional reduction in the universe and even foreseen the destruction that the Solar System was ultimately heading towards. They were humanity's last ember, where any rash pursuit of knowledge could bring unpredictable disasters.

Back then on Earth, scholars were seeking the flawed arguments of the Dark Forest, which also proved, in another way, that the Dark Forest had devoured their hearts.

Humans of that time, from the inside out, might have already undergone changes—perhaps the Dark Forest was never out in the universe, but hidden deep within the human heart.

A burden, it fosters growth as well as decay.

With understanding love comes the burden of hatred, with understanding pain comes the burden of duty.

The current Chu Yan no longer needed to carry that enormous responsibility, and humanity's spirit had not been engulfed by the "Dark Forest" shadow; everyone had the freedom to pursue love and beauty.

Lin Sen always believed his greatest achievement since arriving was not leading humanity to defeat Trisolaris, but rather dispelling the gloom of the "Dark Forest" deep within the human soul.

The key to breaking the "Dark Forest" was not hidden in the far reaches of space, but deeply buried within every individual's heart.

*

The Exploration Fleet drew ever closer to the source of the mysterious electromagnetic waves, now merely an arm's length away.

Yet, whether through visible light, radar wave scans, or even the search with dark matter detectors, no physical entity could be found within the area.

Nevertheless, the undeniable source of electromagnetic waves kept signaling some unknown presence, like a ghost in the universe, formless and traceless, yet tangibly emitting its own signals.

The Exploration Fleet could also disperse the dark mist with high-energy weapons, and anything hidden within the mist would inevitably be revealed.

But after a brief communication, the Exploration Fleet instead sent out a greeting in the four-dimensional space to the Magic Ring Civilization, a series of prime numbers made up of different quantities of dots: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13.

While an auto-decoding system could also serve as a tool for initial contact between civilizations, the language samples within the auto-decoding could expose much information about humanity, posing a potential risk for both parties making first contact.

The Exploration Fleet's purpose was merely to explore, so greeting with a series of prime numbers was the best approach. Humanity did not expect a response, and it wasn't certain whether the other party was even an intelligent entity.

Against all expectations, a response indeed materialized within the rhythm of the electromagnetic waves. What was originally chaotic and unordered now displayed a strange regularity, with temporal changes strictly following a sequence of prime number multiples: 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37.

For the Divine Vessel Civilization, this was undoubtedly a thrilling moment. They confirmed once again that they had made contact with an entirely new civilization.

This civilization was most likely benevolent, according to the deductions of cosmic sociology; a malevolent civilization would not respond, as exploration and responding are both exceedingly dangerous—commonly, no civilization would do so.

As for whether the Unknown Civilization intentionally responded and whether there are other traps and schemes behind it, one cannot say there are none, but the likelihood is almost zero.

Firstly, in the initial contact between civilizations, traps and schemes often have little significance. This requires the scheming party to have sufficient understanding of the other party to gain an advantage in the scheme.

However, in the case of first contact, both sides are completely ignorant of each other, so, in terms of schemes, they are on equal footing. Moreover, the wisdom of a civilization far exceeds that of individuals, and ordinary schemes are almost useless at the level of civilizations.

Secondly, once contact occurs, the survival of civilizations depends solely on the technological capabilities of both parties. There are no instances of the cat playing with the mouse in the universe; destruction often occurs before understanding.

The reason why so few civilizations exchange in the universe conceals a brutal truth: those civilizations that were willing to exchange have almost all perished.

However, for the Divine Vessel Civilization and this Unknown Civilization, the exchange following their initial contact had already officially begun.

They exchanged their self-translation systems, language samples, and a carefully selected set of basic knowledge.

This knowledge involved at most some information from before the Crisis Era, which was also verified by numerous experts to ensure it would not reveal too many secrets about Human Civilization.

The Exploration Fleet still elected Chu Yan as the representative to communicate with that mysterious life form.

Chu Yan began the dialogue calmly, "We are an Exploration Fleet sent by the Divine Vessel Civilization Alliance, our alliance is composed of four intelligent civilizations originating from different galaxies."

"May I ask whether you originate from this galaxy or have migrated here from another galaxy?"

In interstellar civilization exchanges, candor is the norm; matters requiring concealment can be met with direct silence since pointless lies often bring the greatest harm.

The being from the Unknown Civilization responded in a calm and profound voice, "Yes, our life originated in this galaxy.

"Our civilization doesn't have a specific name, but the frequency of the signal we call ourselves by is similar to the character 'Mo' in your civilization. More interestingly, the concept of 'Mo' in your civilization remarkably aligns with our state of existence.

"If you wish, you may call us the Mo Civilization.

"I am a Science Participant of this civilization, representing the Mo Civilization to contact you.

"In our observation and reasoning, a civilization alliance like yours must be extremely rare. You are very special, and we are filled with curiosity."

Although the Mo Civilization had not contacted other extraterrestrial civilizations, they had undoubtedly observed many Dark Forest Strikes.

Moreover, Humanity was not clear about their Civilization Rank; the mere fact that humans had failed to detect the Mo Civilization showed that the Mo Civilization was far from simple.

Chu Yan replied, "In our understanding, perhaps you are more special.

"In this galaxy, there are no rocky planets, no gaseous planets, and not even an icy small celestial body belt.

"There is only a thick layer of black fog, which is billions of times less dense than the atmosphere of our Home Planet.

"According to the standards of carbon-based life forms, those rocky planets with liquid oceans are much more likely to harbor life.

"Even within certain gaseous planets, life may arise, possibly in forms similar to 'umbrellas' floating in the atmosphere.

"The existence of any form of life necessarily relies on a substantial amount of matter.

"Yet, in this environment where the black fog's material is so sparse, obtaining the necessary material must undoubtedly be an incredibly challenging ordeal for you.

"We cannot imagine how life could have arisen in such an environment where material is so scarce?"