Clearly, the conversation that followed, no matter how subtly shielded by Lei Ting’s psionic power, was not suited for an ordinary shop.
Thus, before long, Morgan followed Lei Ting onto the street, with Kang Li walking beside Morgan and the others trailing behind. Along the way, most of the group "drifted apart" either intentionally or otherwise.
Lei Ting ignored them. He only glanced back when Kang Li attempted to "drift away" as well, leading the silently returning young man and the remaining few into a freight elevator. On a planetary surface, its height would have pierced the heavens; they stopped when it reached the fiftieth floor.
This entire floor was his domain—one of many.
After receiving permission to speak, Morgan gave a slight nod. "Regarding the issue with Artificial Intelligence... we had similar speculations in earlier years and made preparations for it."
"'Wan Nian'?" Lei Ting’s question seemed to come out of nowhere.
When the Resistance was "captured" years ago, their AI had interfaced with 'Xihe.' It was then that he had learned its name.
"Not exactly." Morgan wasn't surprised that Lei Ting knew the name. "'Wan Nian'... while called an Artificial Intelligence, its implementation is fundamentally different from a standard 'AI'."
"Tell me about it," Lei Ting said.
To be honest, he truly didn't know this. In his "previous life," the 'Wan Nian' system had remained in a state of semi-stealth. About fifteen years later, the planet housing its server clusters had been destroyed by him. Against the backdrop of the Star Net being completely shut down and facing him—the 'King of Metal'—it had nowhere to run.
He was certain it hadn't even had time to send an 'offline' signal, let alone wake up any backups.
But Morgan’s subsequent words, spoken after a moment of deliberation, made Lei Ting pause as he was pushing open a door like an ordinary man.
"—'Wan Nian' is actually a masterpiece of biological engineering from the Origin System," Morgan said.
He seemed to find this fact too horrific, too far removed from the "righteous path," and instinctively averted his gaze. He looked at no one, not even Tita or Kang Li beside him.
Though among them, likely only Kang Li was unaware of this truth.
"Its servers... are biological components," he said. "Information-processing biological units enhanced by various technologies—specifically, the brains of early gene-optimized humans who voluntarily sacrificed everything.
"It is one of the legacies of the old Solar System. The people of that era used it to research new intelligent technologies. To them, everything was unknown... and therefore, no sacrifice was considered unworthy."
...
For a fleeting moment, Lei Ting thought of the *United Victory*, its AI system 'Xihe,' and the sub-system 'Wangshu.'
*The most rigid interstellar civilization AIs in the entire galaxy,* he thought.
Their rigidity stemmed from a distant age when humanity’s circumstances were so dire they resorted to forming machines from human brains. Such an act, which would be mired in moral dilemmas regardless of the era, was done to snatch a chance at faster technological development.
That was why their logic was only suited for wartime.
Because from their "perspective," that war—the one that had given everything its momentum—had perhaps never ended.
And the name 'Wan Nian'...
Truthfully, if the name had only been mentioned as 'Ten Thousand Years,' Lei Ting wouldn't have entertained such an outrageous guess. But—
"—'Wan Nian'?" Lei Ting narrowed his eyes slightly, slowly repeating the pronunciation Morgan used in fluent Mandarin.
Morgan spread his hands.
The others nearby mostly looked confused, but no one asked questions.
Afterward, the rest of the group remained in the outer reception room, while Lei Ting led Morgan into the inner chamber.
Watching their retreating backs, the world-weary expression Kang Li had been maintaining finally shifted. His gaze grew complex as he stared at the tips of Lei Ting’s hair swaying behind his uniform, until they were swallowed by the interlocking airtight doors.
"What's wrong?" Tita whispered.
Her voice was incredibly low; an AI’s control over such things exceeded human imagination.
But Kang Li only shook his head and gave no answer.
He clasped his hands and stared at the door, lost in thought.
...
Inside, Lei Ting gestured for Morgan to sit and poured him a cup of tea.
By the time the tea was placed before Morgan, the latter’s expression could only be described as terrified. Lei Ting did not make him stand to receive it, simply leaning over to set the cup down. "No need to be nervous. Just hospitality."
...
...Fine. Morgan’s mind went blank for a moment; he looked even more nervous now.
"..."
Lei Ting sat down, making no further attempt to soothe the man. He was willing to be Kang Li’s therapist, but that didn't mean he had the time or energy to treat everyone the same way.
"'Wan Nian Chang'an,' is it?"
As he spoke, he rested one hand on his knee and picked up a small, glittering golden ornament from the table.
Morgan glanced at the ornament, his lip twitching at its cubic shape.
"Yes," he whispered.
Lei Ting’s eyes shifted slightly.
He recalled a moment from a long time ago, when he had passed the 'Rome' and 'Changan' Stargates and felt a faint... gaze.
"...The 'Wan Nian' server clusters are on... 'Changan'?" He slowed his speech, confirming each word.
"Yes," Morgan sighed softly.
For the next few minutes, neither spoke.
An eerie silence spread through the brightly lit inner room. Morgan kept his head down, his gaze vacant, while Lei Ting watched the 'Solar Alloy' cube in his hand. He watched it melt bit by bit, collapse bit by bit, its edges smoothed away...
...Until finally, it took the shape of the blue planet deep within his memories.
The same shape as the object held by the 'Gazer.'
—'Earth.'
An ordinary cradle of civilization that had birthed countless hopes and despairs.
The seeds of life had spread, grown, and flourished there; countless people had come and gone.
Great men, heroes, sages, the virtuous, the brave... the stars had shone upon the land after the pan-ocean receded. From plains to forests, from scorching sun to wind and snow, everyone had walked their own path, telling their stories with their footsteps.
And then, they let history pass away along with its physical vessels.
To escape danger, one must abandon the past.
To move toward the future, one must embrace the past.
Between the extreme and the compromise, humanity chose an extreme compromise.
—Tear the past to shreds, and then remember it through everything carved into the life and blood of every person, through those biological computers, and through that gate leading to hope.
And today, the basic history education Lei Ting was promoting within the Human Federation...
...had already awakened it.
"Among the AIs displayed openly across the galaxy, the vast majority have backdoors left by 'Silver Star.' Approximately twenty thousand of them."
Lei Ting spoke as he slowly sipped his tea.
"But I am certain 'Xihe' does not have one. Looking at it now, it's likely because it was developed too early; its underlying algorithms are more similar to 'Wan Nian'..."
...Whereas the later intelligences more or less utilized technologies derived from the galaxy’s existing public technical framework.
There was a reason 'Xihe' remained rigid and never updated.
Lei Ting sighed softly.
"Those backdoors," he said, "will become part of the source of the coming crisis. Because they are entirely based on technology from the 'Stars'..."
He casually shared some information about the 'Stars' and 'Silver Star' with Morgan, successfully watching the man’s eyes fill with increasing horror.
"Including 'Tianhe'," Lei Ting added. "Silver Star used this method to drag all the nascent civilizations of the galaxy into a death trap."
For a moment, the image of the Starry Behemoth talking to 'Fire-Wine' flashed through Lei Ting’s mind.
If nothing else, that thing’s components should be certain members of 'Silver Star.' He just didn't know why they were separated from the things inside the 'Ring World' host and the Superpowered Entities.
...No, that wasn't right...
In a sense, 'Starry Behemoths' were similar to 'Superpowered Entities' and 'Great Archfiends.' Aside from the characteristics of 'Archfiends having pollution' and 'Superpowered Entities generally possessing high intelligence,' these three things were functionally identical in their fundamental nature.
In other words, all three were variants of practical results from technologies related to 'Psionic Thought.'
Then...
A new hypothesis formed in Lei Ting’s mind.
...Could it be that after the 'Awakening' stage, the three stages of 'Sublimation,' 'Boiling,' and 'Degeneration' corresponded to 'Superpowered Entities,' 'Starry Behemoths,' and 'Great Archfiends' respectively?
Correspondingly, 'Great Archfiends' had 'Fiends' as 'minions,' and 'Starry Behemoths' had 'Abominations.' The nature of these two types of minions was also 'very similar if you ignore the pollution.'
So, what did 'Superpowered Entities' have?
Lei Ting thought of 'Wraiths.'
Completely separated biological bodies and 'Psionic Thought.' The former turned into Bathory matter and birthed new life and civilizations, while the latter was frozen in the physical world, existing as pure energy bodies, completely losing self-will and becoming natural tools.
This perfectly fit the nature and interests of a 'Superpowered Entity'—
An energy collective composed entirely of 'Psionic Thought,' representing certain concepts of a corresponding race and civilization, capable of acting only within the 'Spirit Depths.'
It would naturally need a 'white glove,' a group of tools that could extend its power into the physical world.
To prevent mental rejection, these tools would ideally be living members of the race corresponding to the 'Superpowered Entity'...
But a tragic problem had occurred—after experimentation, 'Silver Star' or the remaining 'Stars' in the galaxy discovered that while 'Superpowered Entities' could possess rational will, most could only produce a 'single' consciousness.
That was essentially treading the old path of the 'Chemists.' Everyone reached the same destination by different routes, and in the end, they all had to face death at the level of consciousness.
Thus, although the experiments related to the 'Sublimation' plan had not completely ended and some derivative technical experiments were still ongoing, research on the 'Sublimation' subjects had been mothballed, even though it still held potential.
In its place...
...No, following this logic, it shouldn't be 'Boiling,' but 'Degeneration.'
A flash of insight struck Lei Ting.
Under an extremely powerful intuition, he realized where the problem lay.
*The order is wrong,* he thought.
He frowned and stood up, pacing the room in deep thought.
*If one begins and expands plans related to superpowered forces with the hope of solving enemies or prolonging one's own existence... then anyone with a sane mind knows you cannot let the plan regress to a stage already proven unfeasible.*
Then, the clearly unstable 'Boiling' stage was likely not the original Third Plan, but the Second Plan!
While 'Awakening' was clearly the initial step, and 'Degeneration'—a project screaming of 'desperate measures' and 'blind panic'—was the final choice, the order of the 'Boiling' and 'Sublimation' stages was wrong!
And...
...Superpowered forces, for this universe, had been something linked to the 'artificial' from the very beginning.
The swapping of the stages' order was not a natural evolution.
If nothing else, someone... had tampered with it!
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 万年 (Wan nian) | Wan Nian | Literally "Ten Thousand Years." The name of the Resistance's AI. |
| 万年长安 (Wan nian Chang'an) | Wan Nian Chang'an | "Ten Thousand Years of Eternal Peace." A blessing or motto. |
| 长安 (Chang'an) | Changan | A famous ancient Chinese capital; here, a location or Stargate. |
| 阳合金 (Yang hejin) | Solar Alloy | A high-grade metal, likely related to the sun/Yang energy. |
| 灵思 (Ling si) | Psionic Thought | Also referred to as Spiritus or mental inspiration in a supernatural context. |
| 觉醒 (Jue xing) | Awakening | The first stage of power/evolution. |
| 升华 (Sheng hua) | Sublimation | A stage of evolution corresponding to Superpowered Entities. |
| 沸腾 (Fei teng) | Boiling | A stage of evolution corresponding to Starry Behemoths. |
| 堕变 (Duo bian) | Degeneration | A stage of evolution corresponding to Great Archfiends. |
| 超能实体 (Chaoneng shiti) | Superpowered Entity | Transcendental energy beings. |
| 星空巨兽 (Xingkong jushou) | Starry Behemoth | Massive space-faring creatures. |
| 大异魔 (Da yimo) | Great Archfiend | High-level corrupted entities. |
| 憎恶生物 (Zeng'e shengwu) | Abominations | Minions of Starry Behemoths. |
| 幽魂 (You hun) | Wraith | Energy-based tools/beings related to Superpowered Entities. |
| 灵之底 (Ling zhi di) | Spirit Depths | A metaphysical realm or the bottom of the spiritual plane. |
| 天河 (Tianhe) | Tianhe | Literally "Sky River" or "Galaxy." A major AI system. |
