A long while later, Lei Ting’s primary consciousness returned to his body.
Thinking of the key information he had obtained, his brow furrowed slightly.
Currently, the "Star" civilization had yet to make a direct appearance anywhere, but the Ringworld remained under the control of that invisible force.
At the same time, various situations on the Ringworld were indeed being brought under control rapidly. However, its sheer scale was simply too vast. Against the backdrop of inherent chaos and the sudden disconnection of the Star Net, there were still regions whose intelligence status remained unknown to this day.
"But there are rumors that the Consortium discovered remnants of a previously unseen ancient civilization somewhere," Angye had said. "Legend has it they are the remains of the civilization that built the Ringworld. I was discovered while still trying to dig for specifics."
Lei Ting nodded. "You have more to report."
It wasn't even a question. Angye sighed.
"Yes... it’s like this: in my third month here, I found Yan Miao." Angye lowered his head slightly. "Something seems to have gone wrong with that Comist sub-strain assimilated by Orion thought. She is being hunted by another sub-strain..."
As Angye spoke, he reached up, lifted his eyepatch, and pried open his eyelid.
The sunken socket was densely packed with tiny, white, brittle fungal stalks. Their surface caps were fused together, forming irregular, concentric patterns that resembled two dizzying kaleidoscopes.
"I was caught in the crossfire of their battle," Angye said softly, meeting Lei Ting’s gaze. "And this was the price of survival."
"...Of course," he smiled. "They didn't have it easy either."
...
Ringworld, near the source of the Sagittarius-Carina Arm.
A massive fissure spanned nearly half the Ringworld, crossing the "fiefdoms" of thousands of civilizations. It radiated a brilliant molten gold and emitted terrifyingly high temperatures, looking like a sharp, fine line—or perhaps the mark of some horrific weapon that had failed to fully sever an iron ring.
That... had appeared not long ago.
Meaning, for the Orion people, it had been less than a year.
Currently, an army was stationed nearby. Several individuals were discussing something with their commander. "...Wait, are you certain this is a mark left by a single breath from a 'black winged dragon'?"
"Yes." The commander nodded. He was one of the officers who, long ago, had witnessed the "Sun Star" and the "Emperor's Blade" deal with the "Lord of the Seas." "Actually, it has cooled down quite a bit. Based on the initial conditions, if we stood here—" he gestured to the distance between himself and that bottomless abyss of light, "—the rising heat would have scorched our faces off."
"Was it... something like a 'thermal ray'?"
"No," the commander said. "That reddish energy cluster itself had no temperature. Everything you see is simply because it was too fast, yet not fast enough. It destroyed everything too quickly, yet not so quickly that the affected matter could skip the 'accumulation and release of thermal energy' phase to enter a more immediate state of annihilation."
"In short, it was a sudden disaster that affected countless worlds and innocent people, and the culprit is still at large," the commander said. "My apologies for showing you such a pathetic sight."
"No," the leader of the group shook his head. "There is nothing here to laugh about. We should feel sorrow for this tragedy."
With that, he led a moment of silence, only looking up again after dozens of breaths.
"What do the Dragons think of this?" he asked.
"Most of them couldn't care less. A small portion was nervous for a few days... because they mistakenly thought their privileges were about to be revoked." The commander gave a bitter smile.
"I see." The leader nodded, his red-and-green prosthetic eyes gleaming clearly under the light. "It is indeed no easy feat to make a long-lived race, naturally powerful for generations, empathize with such things."
The commander fell silent.
"Don't be nervous; that was just a personal remark." Morgan, who had somehow escaped the surveillance of the Humanity Union to appear here, smiled. "It has nothing to do with the 'Consortium,' nor does it have anything to do with 'Gaia'."
The commander’s expression remained unchanged, but he felt a secret sense of relief.
"Well, we must head back now." Morgan turned away, shaking his head. "Alignment meetings, communication meetings, exchange meetings, progress meetings, regular meetings, briefing meetings, organizational meetings... humans always have a hundred meetings to attend. If it’s not today, it’s tomorrow. None of them leave any time for idle chatter...
"...It was a pleasure meeting you. Until next time." He nodded with a smile.
After he led his people away, the commander continued to watch his tall, dignified back. He always felt that the man didn't seem like a soldier, nor did he seem like a politician.
Compared to those two types of people, he was more like an ordinary man who, with a simple turn, would vanish into a bustling crowd.
A moment later, an adjutant leaned in and bumped his shoulder. "Hey, Commander, did you fall in love with him?"
"Get lost." The commander didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He took one last look at Morgan’s back and turned, saying, "'Gaia'... have you heard that name before?"
"Not until they arrived here," the adjutant shook his head, following the commander as they walked further away. "They said they were a newborn civilization from the fringes of the Orion Arm, with a primary bloodline originating from the same source as the Orion people. But to be honest, I don't quite believe it..."
...
Angye bowed his head respectfully.
"...That’s roughly how it is," he said. "The enemy released a massive amount of spores. The parasitized organisms were beyond saving, so I granted them release. As for those caught in the crossfire..."
"Existing there was their original sin," Angye said softly. "All sentient beings are guilty, and the guilty must be punished..."
"Do you follow some religion?" Lei Ting asked.
"No, I believe in the character of sentient beings." Angye lowered his head. "I believe that among them, the good aren't necessarily good enough, but the bad are definitely bad enough."
Lei Ting tilted his head. "Have you expelled yourself from the category of sentient beings? Do you think you're not sentient enough, or not a being enough?"
"..." Angye was stunned by the question. He had never expected the person before him to say something so irreverent. "...Huh?"
He looked completely dazed.
"It's nothing," Lei Ting said calmly. "You said you notified 'Yan Miao'?"
"Yes, but her hiding place is very far from here," Angye said. "A part of her parasitized me to provide the strength needed for my life, but she has disconnected from this portion of the stalks and cannot speak to you through them. And I can only barely send out some fragments of information through it..."
"Wait," Lei Ting frowned slightly. "Who can receive this kind of information radiation?"
"Within a certain range, all 'Comists' linked to the 'Mat' network," Angye said. "Now, those fungal people have completely split into two factions. The 'Mycelium' faction has tendencies toward Abyssal transformation and seems to harbor a grander goal. Whereas the 'Mat' faction’s goal... is to stop them."
Inexplicably, Lei Ting thought of a classic joke.
Question: What traits do villains in literary works usually have?
Answer: A grand ambition, powerful initiative and combat strength, threatening their enemies whether in a group or alone, approaching their ideal no matter what, indomitable, and full of wisdom.
Question: What about the protagonists?
Answer: Almost all their actions are aimed at stopping the former.
"..."
Lei Ting turned his head. Across layers of obstructions, he looked toward the Galactic Core sector of the Milky Way, now shrouded by the Ringworld.
He actually knew about this period.
In the "last time," the process of this struggle had been complex and chaotic.
Yan Miao and her "Mat" network had only a few thousand sub-strains that could not truly reproduce new "Comists," but the "Mycelium" network had tens of millions of sub-strains directly connected to the new "Original Strain."
More terrifyingly, the sub-strains of the Mat network generally possessed individual consciousness, while the sub-strains of the Mycelium network were gradually awakening a Gestalt consciousness that truly belonged to the "Comist."
They served the Original Strain, and the Original Strain served an even higher existence. All energy and knowledge were fully interconnected. Boundless power manifested in the starry sky through fragile hyphae. Intense signals radiated into the space that had lost the Star Net’s masking noise, momentarily leaving only one voice among the stars—a booming echo, a long-drawn syllable.
From that day forward, all long-distance communication that the myriad races of the galaxy had just begun to restore fell silent.
This was the origin of the title "Silent Kingdom" for "Bayer Comist"—when It spoke, the deep space fell into a deathly hush.
At the same time, a massive existence outside the galaxy accelerated its pace, devouring every celestial body it passed.
Until four hundred years later, when all matters were settled and Lei Ting was in a poor state, he saw in the light reaching out from the deep space during one of his awakenings that the distant stars were being extinguished one by one, at an extraordinary speed...
A shadow, whose total size exceeded a quarter of the Milky Way, swept over and drowned out all light from a certain direction.
Because It was already... "within arm's reach" of this galaxy.
*Fungi are always full of primitive wisdom.*
Lei Ting sighed in his heart.
*Bayer Comist—does this name really only refer to those weak and powerless fungal people within the Milky Way?*
No, of course not.
The true owner of this name was a massive existence that transcended the boundaries of megalophobia, an entity whose form and operation were beyond the imagination of ordinary people.
Even if its movements were slightly clumsy compared to its gargantuan body, it knew how to spread its roots and fill the entire mountain pass with its perception.
And then, pluck a fruit and place it into its digestive organ...
...Regardless of whether it carried a contagious, deadly poison.
***
