Ch62.1 – Ruins
The Milky Way and its spiral arms
Translated by: DMlations/Zryuu
Edited by: Amelea, FistFullOfDollars and Juurensha
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“Zhou Sheng!” Yu Hao thought aloud, “There’s something shining! Is that you?”
Within this dark galaxy, Yu Hao found the sole source of light. He flew towards the luminous object that mingled with some debris in the distance. It was slower than all of the other debris and drifted along leisurely.
“Not Zhou Sheng?” Yu Hao said, “What is this?”
It was the only object that emitted light within this dark world, and was at least 4 metres tall and 3 metres wide. It was an ancient Mayan wood carving that looked a bit like a cultural relic; the wood carving’s left eye happened to be glowing.
“Is this someone’s totem?” Yu Hao continued, “Doesn’t seem like it though, forget it, I should continue looking for them, I’ll just leave it alone.”
“I’m finding that if I blurt out whatever comes to mind, it makes me sound like a retard.” Yu Hao said to himself, “But do I……usually act like a retard anyway? What should I do?! Zhou Sheng where are you? Please be okay……”
“There’s something down there?” Yu Hao started to getting accustomed to this area and all the various echoes produced from his brain. At a place a great distance away that appeared to be the center of this space, he saw a gigantic vortex that seemed just like a black hole. Upon approaching it, Yu Hao discovered that everything from all around it was being sucked into its nexus.
“That thing looks so dangerous.” Yu Hao said instinctively, “I’d better not get close to it. Could this be the subconscious? Whose subconscious is it? Don’t tell me Zhou Sheng got sucked inside it?! Oh my god! What should I do??”
“Subconscious.” Yu Hao’s two daggers suddenly rang out, “The Alpha frequency band of the life spectrum, blueshift of the consciousness impression wave, an energy subset formed after a weak transition.”
“What’s going on! My weapon can speak?” Yu Hao said, “How is that possible? Are you a man or a woman? Why can’t I tell from your voice? It’s a ghost! Are you talking? Weapon! It was obviously talking just now! Ai my reasoning is a complete mess right now, I need to seriously study logic next semester.”
Yu Hao raised his daggers and merged them back into a staff, before dismantling it again and asking, “Are you talking?”
“Subconscious, subconscious, sub-sub-sub-subconscious……sub, sub……”
“Hahaha this is so dumb.” Yu Hao said, “It’s like a calculator’s ze-ze-zero, zero……”
“No no, where’s Zhou Sheng? I’m about to turn schizophrenic……where the hell are you?!” Yu Hao flew over a vast area, but he couldn’t find Zhou Sheng.
“Wait a minute, is this a clue for finding him? I need to calm down first. Is this an AI? That would answer me if I prompt it with keywords?” Yu Hao thought aloud, “But what kind of keywords would get it to speak? And what are the principles behind this anyway? Oh yeah, even if I can’t find keywords to activate it, I can use it to explain the meaning of the words within! That’s what we were taught during our Literature Retrieval class, I’m so smart I really am a genius! Life spectrum?”
“Life spectrum, the cosmic spectrum formed naturally in a lifeform.”
“Blueshift?”
No response.
“Sion blueshift? Impression blueshift?”
“Impression blueshift, the process of a surface impression transforming into a deep impression.”
“Weak transition?”
“Weak transition, a change in frequency bands.”
“Consciousness wave?”
“Consciousness wave, one type of life’s waveforms, it has the following four characteristics……”
“What does that mean? The more I listen the more confused I get!” Yu Hao didn’t want to hear anymore and said, “Stop! Stop! What the hell are you? Zhou Sheng! Hurry and find Zhou Sheng! Can you tell me exactly where Zhou Sheng is? This stream of consciousness is seriously too chaotic, is there a switch to turn off the function that makes me say whatever I’m thinking aaahhhh!! It derails my train of thought too much!! Wait! That’s not right! Saying whatever I’m thinking, my consciousness would turn into a voice in the subconscious? Then……whose consciousness is in this weapon? Is it my consciousness? That’s not right, how could my consciousness contain someone else’s consciousness? An existence that communicates with me through my consciousness…there’s only one possibility — you’re the Golden Crow Wheel’s consciousness?! You’re the Golden Crow Wheel!”
While working through his chaotic logic that was in complete disarray, Yu Hao was actually able to miraculously understand this strange and illogical situation and get to the heart of the matter!
“It’s no wonder information about the consciousness that’s directly conveyed from the Golden Crow Wheel isn’t presented in the form of language or images — an exchange purely between consciousness becomes vocalised in this strange space!” Yu Hao talked to himself as he searched for Zhou Sheng, “If that’s the case, then would it be more productive to just ask the Golden Crow Wheel questions?”
Suddenly, the summons came again, and something seemed to repeatedly broadcast radio signals that targeted Yu Hao.
Yu Hao flew towards the origin of the signal. He remembered how he had initially obtained “information” from the Golden Crow Wheel. It was just like using the “search” on a supercomputer — every time he entered a keyword, its content would surface in his mind.
“But what are the guiding principles for this?” Yu Hao flew high and low, and suddenly noticed something strange. The place he was located in was a gigantic spiral arm!
All of the 2D or 3D fragments had converged into a majestic stream that was currently heading towards the black hole at the core of this world. In the distance, there were similarly several other spiral arms made of fragments.
Yu Hao said to himself again, “Seems like this is the only thing here. They should be nearby. Golden Crow Wheel, are you an AI or human? I think you’re an AI, can I call you Xiao Gold?”
This time, his weapon didn’t shine or make a sound. Yu Hao approached the vortex and noticed another spiral arm. When he arrived at the vicinity of the black hole, he could sort of see it clearly — the black hole located at the centre was spinning with six spiral arms. A large amalgamation of bizarre things gathered at the ends of the suspended arms and converged into a stream that poured into the black hole on a grand scale.
“Are those things being forgotten?” Yu Hao approached the black hole and suddenly saw something flash at the center. The signal became clearer!
“Zhou Sheng!” Yu Hao flew towards the black hole.
“Warning.” His daggers suddenly shone, “Corrector, warning, Danger Reminder for Transition Destination. Danger Level: Very Low. Please take note of the opening of the interference barrier.”
Yu Hao, “What? Xiao Gold, what did you call me? Corrector?”
“Corrector: the only position in the binary star system that can form a resonance link with the Overseer. During the operation of the consciousness wave acquisition repeater, assist the Overseer and correct all possibilities of……”
Yu Hao suddenly found Zhou Sheng’s jingubang!
The jingubang tumbled around in the black hole and revolved along with countless other fragments. It slowly approached the center of the black hole vortex, yet it didn’t sink and was constantly sending out signals to Yu Hao!
So it came from that! Without a moment’s hesitation, Yu Hao flew into the vortex and grabbed the jingubang.
“Zhou Sheng!” Yu Hao shouted, “Where are you?”
As soon as he left the spiral arm, the voice disappeared. Yu Hao kept feeling that the Golden Crow Wheel had presented him with some strange information, but he couldn’t think about that right now. After he grabbed the jingubang, he wanted to fly up higher to observe the black hole in the middle of the vortex. But the memory fragments surrounding him multiplied, piled onto him, and directly pushed him in!
So cold! As soon as Yu Hao entered the black hole, he immediately felt like his entire body was frozen stiff!
And what the hell is this?? Yu Hao thought, and within an instant, the phenomenon of his consciousness being voiced was no more! That’s great! Then I won’t confuse myself anymore. But the cold here was beyond his imagination — the chill was completely different from the coldness in reality, or even that of Shi Ni’s dream.
It was a kind of calmness that came from the conscious world — its stillness was unparalleled, and Yu Hao’s consciousness was constantly dissipating in all directions. This dark area seemed to be unremittingly drawing out his consciousness, and Yu Hao instantly understood! This wasn’t a sense of coldness, but a loss of energy!
It was just like how the body’s heat constantly disperses in cold winters, and you can’t retain it even if you wanted to. Yu Hao was about to lose his ability to fly as he kept falling. He tried to make his body emit a stronger light, as if he was burning his soul for heat, but this environment began to absorb his energy even more rapidly!
“No……I’m about to fall in!” Yu Hao said, “What should I do? What’s the barrier?”
He pushed all the strength in his body to its maximum intensity, just like how Zhou Sheng would always shout ‘give me strength’. Before anyone could register it, when his mental energy reached a certain threshold, it formed a spherical protective barrier around Yu Hao’s body with a “buzz”!
Yu Hao, “???”
The barrier that was several meters in diameter shone with a faint, silver-white luster. The light would occasionally revolve around the surface in an arc, and the loss of energy stopped. This is the barrier?
Yu Hao spread his wings and turned into a celestial body in the sky that emitted silver light, seeming just like the moon.
This is great, Yu Hao realised that he no longer experienced any interference. The light outside his barrier illuminated the entire world within an instant, and filled the heavens and the earth with silver-white moonlight.
The earth was full of strangely shaped memory fragments, like a massive, boundless wasteland. Things still soundlessly fell from the sky like silent rain. The scene reminded Yu Hao of the legendary marine snow.
In the deep sea, white snow fell incessantly, until it came to rest at the bottom of the sea.
