Chapter 412 Speculation on the Form of Singer Civilization

Of course, every rational person also understands the risks involved here, not to mention whether these Guardians are truly loyal.

Even if they are sincerely loyal, bringing these Guardians along could very likely become a Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Divine Vessel Civilization. The coordinates of Divine Vessel might also constantly be exposed in the eyes of the Guardians' Mother Civilization.

After all, the technological means possessed by a High-Level Civilization are hard for the current Divine Vessel Civilization to imagine.

Such a Guardian Civilization that rules over a vast and boundless territory undoubtedly has strict methods to monitor its lower-tier warships and civilization members, as they also need to prevent cases of defection.

Just like the human body today, which is fitted with many Smartmachines and extremely tiny nanorobots, they bring us endless conveniences in our lives, but actually, they also serve a partial surveillance function.

Although the wreckage of some Guardian Battleships had been salvaged before, there was never an intention to take them away, but merely a plan to quickly analyze some of the technologies in these wrecks and then discard them.

Because, even taking away any piece of the insignificant wreckage could potentially become a clue for the Guardian Mother Civilization to track us.

Divine Vessel might be able to give up its greed for the technology of the Guardian Battleships, but it faces a tough choice when it comes to the Guardians who are willing to submit.

Lin Sen also understood that this might be the biggest choice Divine Vessel Civilization had faced to date. He slowly stood up, his voice steady and powerful:

"Every civilization, in the course of their history, will face countless choices, each choice potentially a key to determining the direction of their destiny.

"But to choose is not to gamble recklessly, it is a reflection of a civilization's utmost wisdom. The words of the Guardians might also be a test of our wisdom.

"Perhaps what we need to do is not to make a choice, for when you are ready to make a choice, you may already be caught in the whirlpool of fate.

"In the face of a choice, we must remember one thing, what do we need?

"It's not important how to choose, what is crucial is how to take the initiative to make a choice.

"After we filter out all the superficial information about the Guardians, what do we need?

"This is their test, and equally, we must test them.

"This is the message I propose to send them, just one sentence."

"Have you already started draining the water from the pond?"

Those present understood that this was Lin Sen's probe toward the Guardians, though they weren't clear on how this probe worked, they believed that Lin Sen had become Divine Vessel Civilization's instinct.

Especially the Trisolarans, upon hearing Lin Sen's words, suddenly had a sense of enlightenment.

During the war with Humanity ten thousand years ago, the Trisolarans always thought they had made the wrong choice at a critical juncture. Now it seems that all this was deliberately orchestrated by Lin Sen to corner Trisolaris into making these choices, where in fact, there was no right choice at all.

*

The last battleship received this message and also went through a discussion.

Just one sentence, both to prevent the leakage of more information and to test the Guardians.

From this sentence, one can see that Divine Vessel Civilization had discovered that this region of space was being dimensionally reduced, and they wondered whether the orchestrators behind this were the Guardians.

At the same time, Divine Vessel Civilization wanted to understand the power distribution beneath this expanse of stars.

The Guardians weren't clear how much Divine Vessel Civilization knew about the power structure in this region of space. At this moment, the risk of lying was great, so they could only choose to be truthful:

"We are not actually Fishermen; we too are trapped within this pond, and we have not yet reached the shore.

Although we have the ability to drain the water from the pond, doing so would be more detrimental to us.

This pond is but a short segment along the lengthy body of the Orion Arm, and upon this Arm, there already exists a more powerful presence; they have become the 'fish that have reached the shore.'

They have moved beyond what we can comprehend, and we surmise they have become a 'Curiosity-driven' civilization. They have a particular obsession with music, hence we refer to them as the Singer Civilization.

At this moment, the Singer Civilization is embroiled in a protracted war with the fringe worlds of the Perseus constellation, with the conflict raging for over fifty thousand years. They are now in a crisis, all of which are secrets openly known on the seeds.

Regarding 'water draining,' they used to exercise some restraint, but now they no longer need to be cautious, and perhaps in the not-too-distant future, we won't have to stand guard here anymore."

Atop the Tower of Meaning, survival is paramount.

But we also want to live for ourselves, even if just for a moment.]

*

Receiving this message, Lin Sen formed a basic conclusion in his heart: the guardian of this battleship had not concealed anything, even informing him of the Singer's existence on the periphery.

The information revealed by the guardian included some things Lin Sen already knew, and others he could reasonably infer; so far, Lin Sen found no inconsistencies.

Though he did not know the specific meaning of "seed," combining the hints from the original work, Lin Sen tried to piece together its general outline.

In the original work's description, the seed is akin to a high-dimensional intelligence platform that connects all individual civilizations, and the seed's core can even engulf all information scattered through space. Civilizational entities can access information and pleasure within the seed, and they also assume certain responsibilities there.

Through the guardian's words, it seemed that the seed might not be exclusive to the Singers. Once civilization reaches a certain level, it can tap into information scattered through space, even that from high-dimensional space.

Within such a civilizational hierarchy, it might be difficult for higher civilizations to hide their existence.

The social structure of these advanced cosmic civilizations perhaps isn't simply the Dark Forest model, or it could be called an advanced Dark Forest form.

In the eyes of humanity, the guardians are like the Grim Reaper, but to the guardians, the Singer civilization is also like the Grim Reaper, yet every civilization's understanding of war and survival is consistent.

The Singers are higher than the guardians. Although the Singers would also like to clear them out, due to the restrictions of light speed and even with the use of two-dimensional foil weapons, complete eradication is not possible.

Thus, a delicate balance formed between the Singer and the guardians.

For a civilization as high-ranked as the Singers, there are no longer civilizational boundaries—they aren't in a hierarchical relationship with the guardians. Their societal structure is also difficult to imagine; as the guardians said, they have become an "interest-based" civilization.

The war between the Singers and the peripheral civilizations might not just be a collision of civilizational boundaries but could also be a clash of "interest" trajectories.

Of course, "interests" here are not as simple as we might imagine. The Singers enjoy music, and the essence of music is the information of spatial frequencies; it is the resonance of thought and emotion.

Perhaps, the Singers have found the key to breaking free from the shackles of the high-dimensional world through "music," and have even transformed themselves into two-dimensional beings.

For them, as long as the "seed" remains in high-dimensional space, their thoughts and consciousness can be preserved even if their bodies descend to two dimensions.

The battleground of the war between the Singers and the peripheral civilizations might have transcended the macro-universe and could involve battlefields across different dimensions.

In the original timeline, the massive use of two-dimensional foil by the Singers might not have been just for civilizational cleansing but possibly for expanding their living space in the two-dimensional world.

The assertion about the Magic Ring might not be accurate—it's not that "there is no Dark Forest between different dimensions," it could be that high dimensions pose no Dark Forest threat to lower dimensions, and lower dimensions pose no threat to higher dimensions.

Like ordinary civilizations avoiding Hines Strikes by transforming their galaxies into low-light-speed black holes, civilizational natures are naturally freed from the Dark Forest.

And for high-level civilizations like the Singers, perhaps only by entering two dimensions can safety be declared, thereby escaping the Dark Forest.

This universe's civilizations might always be caught in a vicious cycle, as for various reasons, all civilizations fall into the Dark Forest.

Civilizations caught in the Dark Forest haven't been able to break through themselves but instead use methods like reducing light speed, lowering dimensions... to evade the Dark Forest.

This also makes the chance for civilizations to break free from themselves and the Dark Forest increasingly slim!

PS: I personally believe that the Singers might not have come near the Solar System; they probably launched the two-dimensional foil from a distant place, and even the foil that destroyed the Solar System in the original work might not necessarily have been sent by the Singers.

During this period, the two-dimensional foil was being used recklessly, not because of anything unique about the Solar System.

The advanced civilization forms described in the original work do not have a hierarchy of strength. If you are strong, there is always someone stronger; if you are weak, there is always someone weaker. This also explains why the Singers, capable of two-dimensionalizing themselves, used the two-dimensional foil against humanity.

But this is always somewhat incomprehensible. The biggest issue should be the ease of technological explosions described in the original work, as if a weak civilization could become a high-level civilization in a short amount of time.

I don't personally find this very convincing, and the author has also given other interpretations to the original work's reversible laws. So, in this book, I've added routes for advancing civilization ranks, with each level's progression being extremely difficult, akin to some great filter theories, and I've introduced many other civilizations, which has not pleased many readers.

This is also the author's speculation about such high-level civilizations like the Singers. In the setting of the early part of this book, thinking is a projection of the high-dimensional consciousness, and it is the same here. The Singers lower their dimensions, but their consciousness body (also called the seed) is still preserved in high dimensions.

The seed route should be a high-dimensional term, possibly understood as a route where high-dimensional consciousnesses are more concentrated. I wonder if readers can accept this explanation.