Chapter 303
The points of light flickered once, delivering a message each time, and the information provided by these different "Ancients" was orderly and without repetition:
“Half-hyperdimensionality is our shared state with the stars. You can see a part of us; we have now become a unity of mass-energy, time, and information, existing outside the three-dimensional scale of the universe. Entering the four-dimensional universe, this is what we call half-hyperdimensionality.”
“We, along with silicon-based life, are still not fully hyperdimensional beings. Once, both our civilizations believed that after 'ascension,' we could grasp the ultimate truths of the universe. However, upon entering this state, we realized we could no longer directly interfere with the three-dimensional world, and we still cannot decipher the true meaning of 6895134.”
“Indeed, there are only two types: carbon-based life and silicon-based life. By the end of Era 00, we had personally traversed the expanding boundaries of the universe, yet we still found no evidence of other intelligent civilizations.”
“Or there is one other possibility, which is the direction we are exploring—there may exist other truly hyperdimensional lives that we cannot perceive in our current state.”
Truly hyperdimensional life...
From the multitude of responses, Ye Bai felt her understanding being refreshed time and again.
“What about the Star Network?” This question was answered by one of the Ancients:
“When you reach a state where mass-energy and time are completely unified, and mass-energy and information are semi-unified, you should be able to sense a significant part of our existence in the four-dimensional universe. The current Star Network technology, like the technology of the stars, influences the three-dimensional universe from the side of the four-dimensional universe.”
The mental universe Ye Bai had previously sensed was indeed a part of the four-dimensional universe, but it was only a part; much of it remained invisible to her.
The Ancient continued to relay information: “The Star Network is a 'switch' that activates the 'switch' of carbon-based life’s mental power in this era. If you review the history of Era 01, you will find that mental power began to emerge only after the Star Network appeared. We aimed to use the Star Network to help the carbon-based beings of Era 01 gradually achieve synchronization of mass-energy and information—what you understand as the enhancement of mental power.”
Ye Bai suddenly understood. No wonder the mental power in this world had never strayed into the path of the crude, forceful civilizations found in the myriad realms; instead, it continued to advance toward scientific application.
Before the existence of mental power, cosmic civilization had already taken its first steps toward science under the initial interference of silicon-based civilization.
The existence of mental power was a capability provided to carbon-based intelligent life by the Ancients of the four-dimensional universe. They indicated that Ye Bai's “unification of mass-energy and time” referred to temporal anomalies, while “semi-unification of mass-energy and information” referred to her current level of mental power.
“It's just that silicon-based life has a deeper understanding of 'information' than we do, and they directly provide cosmic permissions, interfering with the Star Network and setting an upper limit for the highest mental power.”
Ye Bai was aware of this; what Le Lun referred to as the 'Master' had set an A-level upper limit for mental power in this world, in addition to a limit on the soul.
“What is the upper limit of soul activity? By the way, why has my soul activity limit increased by ten thousand years?”
An Ancient replied, “The upper limit of soul activity is set for identifying stowaways, like you, by silicon-based life. Because of the universe's reboot, the 'temporal distance' between Era 00 and Era 01 is ten thousand years. Therefore, as soon as you transitioned from Era 00 to Era 01, your soul activity time inevitably increased by ten thousand years.”
Ye Bai asked, “Then how was Le Lun able to break through this limit?”
The Ancient's light flickered: “It was interference we created to protect you, because at 'this moment,' you were almost discovered.”
Ye Bai paused, feeling a bit embarrassed. The 'this moment' referred to her curious attempt to manipulate space in this area near the wormhole.
“Then why do the stars and silicon-based life support carbon-based life, giving 'interferers' to those in the chaotic star sea? Why don’t they support new silicon-based civilizations?”
In response to this question, the Ancients, who were rapidly exchanging information, showed a rare pause, as if they were reflecting.
Then a few points of light transmitted information to Ye Bai:
“We forgot; in your era, you don’t have this awareness... Because in your time, the Blue Star people had just begun to step into space, not even breaking through the planetary civilization stage.”
“Silicon-based life is not what you think it is, similar to us carbon-based beings, existing in surface and atmospheric forms.”
“It was only when our civilization approached half-hyperdimensionality that we looked back to study why we had a holistic effect on the Blue Star, and only then did we discover the existence of silicon-based life and establish communication with them.”
“Indeed, it was a discovery. Before that, they had existed around us for tens of thousands of years.”
As the information flowed in, Ye Bai, realizing something, uncontrollably fell into a shiver. When the final answer was transmitted, she reached a peak of understanding—
“Compared to the written concept of silicon-based life, the name 'Stars' actually fits them better. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen... these elements can create a human life form in less than two meters. Silicon, iron, sulfur... we use these elements to create large computing devices, and they also possess these elements, along with planets with even more complex structures. Why wouldn’t they be a more intricate life form?”
“Silicon-based life is, in our universe, the vast number of lifeless stars beyond the Blue Star…”
At that moment, memories from Ye Bai's time on the Blue Star surfaced in her mind. It was about the reports of astronauts returning from space. Almost all astronauts, when looking back at the Blue Star from the cosmos, felt an unprecedented sense of loneliness, fragility, and confusion, alongside various reflections on life.
This complex psychological experience, thought to arise from the feeling of shrinking in the face of something once grand, while viewing it from a 'god's perspective,' was collectively referred to in psychology as the overview effect.
Now, through a photograph from that memory, Ye Bai felt that indescribable emotion at this moment.
In the darkness, those distant, unknown stars, separated by an era of time, seemed to transform into pairs of eyes, gazing at her and the Blue Star before her.
**Chapter 209**
So, did humanity experience the overview effect regarding the Blue Star because they sensed the gaze of the stars and felt fear?
Ye Bai couldn’t help but ask, “Is it because of mental power that no civilization currently has an overview effect on the Blue Star?”
“No, it’s because they, like us, have become half-hyperdimensional beings. Now, the planets in the Era 01 universe are just planets. In Era 00, silicon-based life did not change after the birth of the universe; there was no birth, no death, and their number remained constant at 6895134.”
That number again...
“Then why is only the Blue Star not silicon-based life? Also, are all the uninhabited planets in the universe silicon-based life?”
“Uninhabited planets are not necessarily all silicon-based life, but silicon-based life can only exist on uninhabited planets... After all, in Era 00, only the Blue Star had intelligent life, and the Blue Star is not silicon-based life. Perhaps it has to do with its coordinates, or perhaps with the fact that carbon-based life has already been born. We have no answers to this question either.”
“The genes of Blue Star people in Era 01 have not changed at all because silicon-based civilization also noticed the Blue Star's uniqueness. The coordinates of the Blue Star had no standard answer in our era; the cosmic center point and the Blue Star coordinates are only visible after we and the silicon-based civilization have ascended.”
Hearing this answer, Ye Bai couldn’t help but shudder: “In Era 00, were the cosmic coordinates... also fixed? Were there no different values under different reference frames?”
“Yes, in the four-dimensional universe, the basic properties of all matter in three dimensions include information. The coordinate information of the Blue Star is the same as the ultimate answer: 68.951.34. When silicon-based civilization rebooted the universe and reconstructed Era 01, everything in the universe, aside from the additional carbon-based civilizations, remained the same as in Era 00, not just the Blue Star.”
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