Chapter 435: Conversation with the Returner
The voice of the Returner also rose in Lin Sen's mind, seemingly devoid of any emotion:
"Hello, Lin Sen.
We are the Returners, perhaps you have already heard of us.
We are not a singular civilization, we are a group of civilizations with a common belief.
Please forgive us for our offense in drawing you here, we are deeply sorry, and we sincerely invite you to join us.
We have been committed to the cosmic return movement, calling for the mass 'built-up within our small universes' to be returned to the Big Universe.
Just as the scale you now stand upon, every decision of every civilization carries an immeasurable weight.
Every civilization, no matter how brilliant, must take up the responsibility of maintaining the overall balance of the universe.
The return of the universe requires the collective responsibility of all civilizations!"
(The original text mentions that the Returners are not a singular civilization, but a group of civilizations, and many had already known about them before the final cosmic broadcast.)
Lin Sen seemed to be reviewing the entire journey of human civilization:
"Every civilization almost inevitably embarks on such a path.
"They originate and grow on their home planet, which is their Ivory Tower, their Cradle.
"If they do not leave the home planet, they will become a gigantic infant civilization, eventually heading towards destruction.
"If they leave the home planet, they will face the deepest darkness of the universe. For civilizations on the home planet, this fear is akin to the fear of the unknown in society felt by children in school on Earth, which is also a sign of immaturity.
"Every civilization is climbing the ladder of responsibility,
"With responsibility, they grow.
"With responsibility, they leave their home planet.
"With responsibility, they face the Dark Forest.
"Until they realize the Dark Forest isn't so terrifying, what's truly scary is always 'fear' itself.
"The pinnacle of responsibility is survival; for survival, civilizations must learn to adapt to the laws of the Dark Forest, learn to survive in the harsh environment.
"Then, they will merge with the Dark Forest and become part of the Cosmic Dark Forest.
"And the highest point of responsibility is on Judgment Day, to bear this responsibility.
Every civilization no matter how brilliant, must bear their ultimate responsibility."
Lin Sen's words also directly aligned with the ideology of the Returners.
The voice of the Returner resonated again, deep and resolute:
"This too is our consensus.
At the final moments of the universe, all the 'responsibilities' for survival lose their meaning, as the significance of civilization has bound itself with the fate of the universe.
We do not know if our actions will yield the expected result, but no matter what, we have existed, and we thus bear responsibility!
We all need to let go of our past responsibilities and undertake new ones.
Just like your civilization, you have always upheld your beliefs, never shrinking back even when facing an unknown future.
Such beliefs have always enabled your civilization to be reborn from adversity, and this universe may also be facing a similar fate.
The ingenuity of nature sometimes exceeds imagination, in those numerous small universes created by countless civilizations, there must be a considerable part that will not respond to the call of the return movement.
Therefore, at least several million tons, possibly even trillions of tons of mass will ultimately be taken from the Big Universe.
If the Big Universe can overlook this error, then it is more likely to preserve the seeds of civilizations. The mass taken from the Big Universe would be incalculable, and the return movement will inevitably fail.
If the Big Universe really would change from closed to open due to a missing atom's mass, then there will always be some civilizations that will leave behind some memorial monoliths, and the return movement will inevitably fail.
We cannot give an answer, nor do we need to give an answer, all we can do is persist, persevere, and there will always be a reward."
Facing the words of the Returner, Lin Sen fell silent, as no Divine-level Civilization is simple; they often possess qualities far superior to human civilizations.
Lin Sen raised his head and sighed to the Returner:
"Every civilization climbs the ladder of responsibility. To civilization, responsibility might be growth or perhaps just self-gratification.
"What are we civilizations to the universe?
"During the Earth era, I heard people compare civilization to a virus. If we consider galaxies as the 'cells' of the universe, they reproduce just as wildly, and they destroy the 'cells' they live in, one after another, until they have demolished all of their own living space.
"Now, this cosmic body is facing death, and we 'viruses' of civilization are now discussing how to save it?
"If the universe could reset, it must have reset many times before. Does it really need us?
"In this process, what is our significance, and what is the significance of the universe?"
Returner: "We have encountered countless civilizations, and they too have had similar doubts.
Perhaps to the universe, we are indeed 'viruses,' and the fate of the universe is not something we can intervene in.
But really, how important are meaning and answers to us?
No one knows how this universe will end, even at our level, this universe remains unknowable.
Being within the universe, I cannot fully comprehend it.
Most of the problems in this world are similar to Trisolaris's Chaos problems, where we can only endlessly approach the answer but never reach it.
We've always walked our path without seeking answers, and often the answers reason offers are not necessarily correct in the end.
All we can do might only be to share what we know, though we are not sure whether the information from the previous universe is true.
But if we were to speak of our meaning, perhaps it's the belief in that information."
Lin Sen was moved at this moment: "Is there really a previous universe? Have you really picked up the drifting memory bodies left by a previous universe?"
Returner: "Yes, we have picked up drifting memory bodies left by a previous universe.
Due to the universe's reset, less than one in a billion of the previous universe's memory bodies could transmit to this universe. It's a miracle among miracles that we could obtain them—it's the greatest enlightenment given to us by the previous universe.
The information we acquired is very limited. We can only conjecture the state of that universe from between the lines.
In that universe, the fine-structure constant was very small, the gravitational constant was almost zero, and the collapse of stars did not occur. The entire universe was a quark soup.
In this quark soup, random combinations and reactions gave birth to the initial quark state life forms. These life forms, made up of quarks and gluons, could freely move and interact within the quark soup.
They roamed the endless quark soup, growing and reproducing by consuming surrounding particles and energy.
Sharing knowledge became an important way for quark life to obtain joy, and it also made their tribes stronger. As knowledge accumulated, the intelligence and civilization level of quark life rapidly increased.
This universe was much smaller than our current universe, with a more concentrated mass. These life forms filled the entire universe's quark soup in less than a billion years.
The rapid reproduction and evolution of quark life led to a large consumption of particles and energy in the quark soup.
That universe had no Dark Forest. When all civilizations gathered together, competition for resources was inevitable.
Ultimately they were still destroyed in an extreme cosmic-level conflict, and this universe existed for a very short time, lasting less than a billion years.
In our universe, at the dawn of creation, it went through a period of extreme inflation, which dispersed the matter throughout.
This dispersion made it difficult for different civilizations to communicate, and the Dark Forest seemed more like the universe's will. Many of the universe's settings appear to obstruct interactions between civilizations.
This inevitably leads us to question their connections."
Lin Sen: "This is very similar to the dynastic cycle rate in Earth's history, where the rise and fall of dynasties are like the changing of seasons, each dynasty trying hard to avoid repeating the previous dynasty's mistakes, yet inadvertently sowing the seeds for its own destruction.
"Like the Han dynasty, which learned from the collapse of the Qin dynasty and implemented Huang-Lao's strategy, allowing the people to rest, with lighter labor and taxes. However, the lenient policies also led to problems like local strongmen carving out their own territories and the dominance of eunuchs and relatives by marriage, which were the catalysts for its demise.
"Like the Tang dynasty, which implemented the Equal-field system to avoid the downfall of the Sui dynasty, ensuring that the peasants had stable land. However, the worsening of land consolidation also triggered widespread peasant uprisings, ultimately leading to its demise in warfare.
"We once eagerly hoped for a universe without the Dark Forest, and it turns out the previous universe was just that.
"Yet a universe without the Dark Forest may be crueller than we thought.
"How did that previous universe reset?"