Chapter 29: The Imagination Resource Theory, The First Victory

Just as humans would use a 100-million-ton hydrogen bomb to destroy a city, the bomb would explode, but not even a speck of dust from the city's buildings would be disturbed.

This scene was transmitted to Proxima Centauri b once again after the same 168 minutes.

Silence descended.

Despite the impassioned speech of the higher-level civilization still echoing in their minds, the entire universe fell quiet.

At this moment, no living being could think that the speech of the higher-level civilization might just be a recorded video. They shed their calmness and became terrified.

Countless beings rushed to places where resources were concentrated and started frantically hoarding supplies.

Doomsday!

This was a sign of the impending apocalypse.

In their information network, their kind began to spread fear among each other.

This didn't even require Ella's intervention. Higher-level civilizations would naturally possess higher intelligence, and higher intelligence would inevitably lead to greater complexity.

This complexity gave birth to various unique life forms with different thoughts. Some feared and hid, some sought to vent their fears, and others craved comfort from others...

Was this not similar to the Zerg's collective consciousness in *Starcraft*?

The probability of this was 0.047%.

Collective consciousness lacked one crucial element—the rich and diverse imagination of individuals.

Imagination was an extremely precious resource, especially in higher civilizations. This was the reason why Yan Xia chose to conquer the Hundred-Eyed Race instead of destroying them, even though he already had Ella, a highly intelligent individual.

Ella's computational power was not infinite. She could simulate a trillion scenarios, but the Hundred-Eyed Race, with its hundreds of millions of lives, could provide over a hundred million similar yet distinct scenarios.

As long as there didn't exist a life, machine, or other entity with infinite computational power or intelligence, the imagination of living beings would be an extremely valuable resource.

Civilizations that possessed this resource would find it easier to develop into higher civilizations compared to those that didn't.

Yan Xia's Babel Tower plan took advantage of this very fact.

Just as in the myth, God separated humans through language.

Yan Xia was now using the diverse thoughts of individuals to separate and control a civilization.

Amidst the spread of terrifying information, many beings simultaneously noticed that the account that had originally released the information about the tower's arrival had posted another message. Within an instant of its release, the views surpassed 100 million and continued to grow at a rate of 10 million per second.

"The tower is not a weapon to destroy civilizations, but a passport for civilizations."

"Just as there is malice in civilizations, there is also goodwill, and this goodwill is not selflessness but cooperation."

"Instead of destruction, fusion is preferable. Civilizations may plunder the imagination of intelligent beings as a resource. Every highly intelligent life form is a rare resource."

"Based on this standard, the universe may not be a dark forest but a stable federal civilization composed of numerous civilizations."

"Only civilizations with a passport can offer their imagination to be used by other civilizations in the federation..."

Line after line of text, each one a breathtaking conjecture about the universe.

No being could deny the powerful logic behind these theories, just as Yan Xia couldn't deny the Dark Forest theory. Unless one personally observed the true landscape of the universe's civilizations, any refutation would seem feeble in the face of these theories.

And these theories needed only one thing to support them.

That was for the Babel Tower not to launch an attack!

A non-aggressive entity would naturally not be a civilization with malicious intent, thus elevating the "Imagination Resource Theory."

"This is a civilizational conspiracy!"

A message appeared in the minds of all the Proxima Centauri beings.

It came from the higher-ups.

Because it wouldn't make sense otherwise. A prophecy had just predicted the tower, and then it asked all beings to accept this civilization.

Even if it were just a random prophecy, the higher-ups had to say this.

They still couldn't fathom the malice of the tower civilization. As the passive party, they couldn't take the initiative to show goodwill, as that would put their civilization at a disadvantage.

This was fatal. In a war, a single wrong decision could lead to the defeat of an army.

And in the battlefield of civilizations, even more subtle mistakes could cause civilizations to wither.

"Why not give it a try?"

"Yes, why not?"

"Maybe we can send a soldier to take a look."

The lower levels of the civilization would ignore such risks. After all, they could only see darkness ahead, and both paths were shrouded in mist. So, they would choose the safer route.

These words would be conveyed, but the higher-ups had their own decisions to make. This was why they were the higher-ups—they needed to make more rational and less emotional judgments.

A large fleet began to mobilize.

They braced themselves for a major battle.

A total of 700 battleships remained where the spherical battleship had initially stopped, lined up in a row.

The battleships began firing at the Babel Tower without restraint, unleashing their ammunition.

Countless energy beams struck the tower's magnetic shield.

Matter was being consumed at a terrifying rate.

On the other side, hidden behind an asteroid, Yan Xia watched the gradually decreasing numbers on the screen.

"In one day, the energy has decreased by 18.7%, which is stronger than your initial prediction of the firepower."

Ella had predicted it would last for a week, which meant a daily decrease of 14.28% to sustain it for that period. But the firepower of the Proxima Centauri civilization was 23.64% higher than her prediction.

"Not bad. After all, we can't fully control the number of weapons and energy levels of this civilization."

"This is an acceptable margin of error."

Ella's estimate was quite close.

But it was just an estimate, nothing more.

No one could guarantee that the civilization wouldn't attack for six days. If that happened, the Babel Tower would run out of energy and have to rely on its shell to withstand the matter-energy.

Yan Xia remained calm.

"We can't keep bombarding them for that long."

"It would be a massive drain on our resources. The internal voices will gradually gain the upper hand. The higher-ups of this civilization are not machines but living beings, and living beings will waver and hesitate."

Yan Xia had already prepared to leave if he couldn't conquer them.

If he couldn't conquer them, he would retreat and seek another star system.

This was not unacceptable to him at this point; it was just a loss of over 300 years.

He waited, his eyes never leaving the screen, the cabin silent.

The second day...

The third day...

Time ticked by.

Finally, on the sixth day, the firepower decreased by 10%.

A smile finally appeared on Yan Xia's face.

"Dark matter is a very difficult substance to collect. The dark matter reserves of the other civilization may not be as abundant as we imagined."

"Of course, it could also be internal conflicts that made them back down."

"Regardless, I've won the first round of this gamble."

"The second round begins!"