Chapter 909: The Music Direction Level 8 Civilization |
At this moment, Xiao Yu actually had a strange feeling. It was just like a story Xiao Yu had heard when he was young: a person, trapped in the boundless darkness of the night, could not escape no matter what. No matter how far he walked forward, he eventually discovered that he was still circling in the same place. And just when he was terrified and despairing, a strange singing voice drifted through the darkness…
Such a bizarre scene had now been recreated in the universe in another form.
This was a place less than one light year away from the most violent energy-releasing celestial body in the universe. Even the most advanced fleet of a Level 6 Civilization could not survive here, which meant that anything capable of coming here and remaining at ease had to possess at least Level 7 Civilization technology. Then, at the moment when Xiao Yu was trapped here and unable to leave, what was this singing fellow doing here? To say it had merely passed by by chance, Xiao Yu would not believe it even if he were beaten to death.
Most importantly, what exactly was this fellow?
That message resembling song continued to be received by Xiao Yu, “Strange youth, strange youth, I want to know why everything upheld in this world is reversed when it comes to you…”
Xiao Yu saw no tangible existence ahead other than those natural celestial bodies that had traveled all the way from the companion galaxy. There were no spaceships, no probes, nothing at all. Yet Xiao Yu could be certain that the source of the information was there, and that this message, seemingly like song, was coming from there.
“Passing civilization, greetings. We are a Level 7 Civilization of the space direction. During our exploration around this quasar, we became trapped here for unknown reasons. If possible, we request your assistance.” After calming himself slightly, Xiao Yu sent out this message.
That song-like message stopped abruptly. A moment later, a new message was transmitted back. Within this message, there still seemed to be a flavor like singing, but there was no longer any tone. For some reason, Xiao Yu sensed a feeling of friendliness and goodwill from this message.
“Xiao Yu, we know your name,” the unknown existence said. The information was like music. As Xiao Yu received this message, a soothing feeling began to ripple through his mind. “We did not happen to pass here by chance. We came here specifically to rescue you.”
But… how did they know his name? How did they know of his existence? They had even said they had not passed by here by chance, but had specifically come to rescue him… So where had they learned this information? Why did they want to rescue him? What relationship did they have with him?
Xiao Yu’s emotions stirred slightly. Because Xiao Yu felt that perhaps the immense fog that had always concealed itself behind him would, with the arrival of this strange existence, lift slightly at one corner and allow him to glimpse a little of these mysteries.
But a long life in darkness had taught Xiao Yu that nothing could be trusted easily. Naturally, Xiao Yu had no reason to completely trust this strange fellow the moment they met. Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Xiao Yu asked, “What kind of existence are you? What relationship do you have with me, and how did you know I was trapped here?”
“According to classification, we are a civilization of the music direction. As for level… level no longer has meaning for us. Mm, if we insist on assigning one, since we have not joined the side of the Rebel Alliance, then we should be a Level 8 Civilization. We no longer have a physical form. We exist purely in the form of information within this universe, tirelessly performing our supreme understanding of music in this dark universe, spreading all beautiful things…” the unknown existence slowly continued. In the information, there was still that wonderful melody, as if it were the most beautiful music possible. “We accepted the Spokesperson’s commission to come here and rescue you, because the Spokesperson sensed that the Rebel Alliance had already taken action against you. With despicable and unspeakable motives, they trapped you here…”
This message contained many things. The so-called music direction Level 8 Civilization, the so-called Spokesperson, and so on, were all things Xiao Yu had never heard of. Yet here, what most attracted Xiao Yu was not the title of Spokesperson, but the name music civilization.
After Xiao Yu became a Level 7 Civilization and learned of the classification of Level 7 Civilizations, especially after learning that there were even interest-based civilizations such as the Architectural Civilization and microscopic civilization, he had also once wondered whether a civilization of the music direction might exist in the universe. But this idea only flashed through his mind for an instant before Xiao Yu rejected it.
The reason was simple. The essence of music was sound, and sound was transmitted by vibration. During humanity’s long process of evolution, people recorded the pleasant sounds that occasionally appeared in nature, such as the sound of wind blowing through leaves, thunder crossing the sky, insect chirping, bird calls, and so on. Then, through continuous exploration, they reproduced these sounds by means such as striking and blowing, and on this basis continuously developed them until they eventually formed what humans understood as music.
But… perhaps in this universe, some civilizations did not rely on vibration at all to transmit information? In other words, for such civilizations, there was no basis for the existence of music. And most of the space in the universe was vacuum, where sound could not propagate. By probability alone, the chance of an advanced civilization of the music direction appearing in the universe was extremely tiny.
That was why Xiao Yu had rejected the possibility of advanced music direction civilizations existing. But at this moment, upon meeting this being who called itself a music direction Level 8 Civilization, Xiao Yu suddenly understood, and realized that his previous thinking had been wrong.
The essence of music was pleasant sound, but the meaning of music was ‘feeling.’ What an advanced civilization of the music direction pursued and explored was not means such as vibration or sound, but rather going beyond the means and directly pursuing the goal, namely feeling.
Simply put, when a human intelligent being listened to a song and felt inspired and stirred, then in this example, ‘listening to a song’ was the means, while ‘feeling inspired and stirred’ was the goal. Then if through other means, such as directly influencing brain waves, or transmitting information through other methods, one could likewise make this human intelligent being feel inspired and stirred, could those other methods also count as music?
Perhaps that would not count as music in the strictest sense, but it would still achieve the same goal as music. This was the meaning spoken by this advanced music direction civilization. They were constantly pursuing various methods of transmitting feeling. Just as they themselves had said, ‘tirelessly performing our supreme understanding of music in this dark universe, spreading all beautiful things.’ For this kind of civilization, the name music civilization was indeed the most fitting.
Just like now, in the information they transmitted to Xiao Yu, there was abundant friendliness, kindness, and encouragement, and Xiao Yu truly felt these emotions.
“The vastness and wonder of the universe really are beyond the limits of all imagination. In this universe, there actually exists such a type of civilization…” Xiao Yu murmured to himself, feeling that his understanding of the universe had once again been overturned and remade.
Only after understanding the form and basis of existence of this music civilization did Xiao Yu have the mind to think about the other questions. At this moment, Xiao Yu immediately focused on other pieces of information.
“Who is the Spokesperson? Why is the Rebel Alliance taking action against me? You have come to rescue me? For what reason?” In an instant, countless questions surged into Xiao Yu’s mind again.
There was an even deeper question in Xiao Yu’s mind. When previously analyzing the situation of the universe, Xiao Yu had already suspected whether, in addition to the Guardian of the Way and the rebels, there might also exist some unknown third-party force. And now it seemed that if what this music civilization was saying was true, then the Spokesperson they spoke of was very likely the third-party force Xiao Yu had inferred.
In other words, this Spokesperson was very likely Chen Mo, or the force to which Chen Mo belonged. If that were the case, then everything could be perfectly explained, including who among the Guardian of the Way and the Rebel Alliance was benevolent, and who had always been opposing him…
“The Guardian of the Way carried out the Completion Plan, and so you were born. The Rebel Alliance also made many moves in order to obstruct the Completion Plan… Although the universe itself has no consciousness, on the level of rules and causality in the unseen, it sensed all of this, and thus gave birth to the Spokesperson to participate in this plan… Everything is chaotic and tangled, unspeakable, unspeakable. Because the three forces, as well as ancient existences like our music civilization, are all participating in this plan and mutually restraining one another, there is neither any existence that can step forward to directly help you, nor any existence that can directly step forward to destroy you… In the end, what stage you develop to depends on yourself…”