Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 278 | The Great Egg Gamble | Novela.app

How many people have played the game of "egg-clashing"? The number of participants is unlimited. Each person holds an egg in their hand, and after drawing lots, they face off in pairs. They gently tap these calcified crystallizations of animal flesh against one another; whoever’s egg cracks, loses. Setting aside what a loathsome waste of food this is, let us consider the game itself. In truth, it is a very cruel game. Everyone has only one egg. Everyone has only one chance. Before making a move, one must assess their own condition, observe others, and formulate a plan. From countless ways and degrees of exerting force, one must choose the most appropriate option. The speed cannot be too fast or too slow; the strength cannot be too great or too small. One cannot allow themselves to perish alongside the opponent through carelessness, nor can they suffer a stifling defeat before they have even exhausted their resources. In the game of egg-clashing, strength, speed, strategy, and inherent toughness are all indispensable. Once you fail, you lose everything. And the history of human civilization is composed of countless instances of egg-clashing. Gamble, and then, do not lose. Life must create countless miracles through such exhaustive efforts to forge great civilizations. In human civilization’s most recent game of egg-clashing, the players spanned over a dozen generations, with the longest-lived among them surviving from the first generation to the last. In that game, human civilization was forced to place everyone upon the scales of war. It began on the third planet of the New Solar System and ended with the construction of the first pair of Stargates. Rings that transmitted information, scepters that engraved history, weather-beaten faces, starships carrying elites... People, events, representative objects. Most people’s memories were disjointed, and history was therefore disjointed as well. Memory is inherently composed of countless nodes; the lines connecting these points are each the life of a group of people. And now, Lei Ting witnessed the truth of this history. —Why did humans, born from an A-class habitable planet, leave the entire galaxy with the impression of being "dangerous lunatics"? —Because from the very beginning, human civilization had no choice but to turn itself into an egg. Everyone was the one holding the egg, and everyone was a part of that egg. Centuries of high-speed development were not driven purely by the fear of that long war beyond the heavens. It was simply that the wise had long understood: there is a world of difference between having no sword in hand and having a sword but choosing not to use it. This long game of egg-clashing began on Earth. People sent the gene bank and supporting technical experts ahead under heavy protection, but the final fifty thousand to leave were the true elites... Yet few knew that before leaving Earth, those fifty thousand had all utilized first-generation brain-computer infusion technology. The immature technology caused massive damage to their brains. Even if they survived, it was difficult for them to ever return to their former selves. And the content of that infusion was "history." ... "Why do this?" Lei Ting asked. He looked down at the single-person medical pod before him, where a young man with long, snow-white hair lay. This was the Earth era. He recognized this person—the male form of the Principal, one of the leaders among the emissaries of that time. By all rights, given the resumes of those people, they should have been granted a peaceful end in any era of any civilization. But here, his fate was to first be infused with a massive amount of knowledge, and then to die a tragic death in the "Spirit's Depths." "We have always known that on the other side of the stars, something dangerous has locked onto us. "Even if we camouflage Earth or build a massive Dyson-like structure at the center of the solar system, our orbital path in space can still be pre-calculated." The person guiding him through this era smiled. He was an ordinary-looking old man. The hair on both sides of his scalp was shaved clean, just like the person in the medical pod, leaving behind the component scars of first-generation applicable brain-computer interface implants. "If nothing unexpected happens, in a few hundred years, we will all be dead," the old man said, seemingly undismayed. "But... you know, child? If you want to solve a problem, you must first get to the bottom of it and find its root cause..." "We found the root: it has locked onto a multi-composite culture. The starting point of that culture predates life on Earth, and throughout the developmental history of human civilization, we have inevitably become more and more similar to it... "So, we decided to see if they could be misled." The old man spoke, a trace of wistful pain appearing on his face as he looked through the glass cover of the medical pod. "To implement this plan, we had to... undergo a change, and then face death directly." He said. These fifty thousand people were the absolute elite. And precisely because they were the elite, in many instances, they would be judged as—the core subject of the civilization. "But we all know that the true subject of a civilization is never the 'elite,' but the people themselves," the old man said. "Perhaps this sounds a bit lacking in humanity: those who went ahead and the gene bank will ensure the population supply. For the next estimated three hundred years, human civilization will remain in a state where infants are produced via genetic engineering and raised by society." "I see those aren't infants, but a source of soldiers." "And craftsmen, among others," the old man said, looking somewhat melancholy. "It is estimated that after the third-generation brain-computer technology matures, everyone will be implanted with knowledge packages either before birth or within a few years after." "Those children—their lives are decided just like that. Before they are even born. But we have no choice." He sighed deeply. "Sometimes I also wonder, is this us pre-setting an 'index of life's meaning' for them? Every time I think of this, I feel that it is better for life to have no meaning. Only without meaning can people create meaning for themselves." "Humanity will have a future where no one has a pre-set 'meaning'," Lei Ting said. The tall man, who appeared so striking among the early humans, leaned down to stroke the medical pod, his fingertips moving slightly. In an instant, while the external structure of the medical pod remained unchanged, the interior was completely transformed. "A gift. Open it and see," Lei Ting said. "I must go, sir. One last question: how do you feel about your inevitable sacrifice?" The old man withdrew his gaze from the medical pod and smiled at him, winking one eye that was not yet clouded. "I seem to have forgotten to mention," he said, "we all volunteered as a priority." Upon leaving the physical world again, Lei Ting fell into a moment of contemplation. He knew clearly that without the sacrifice of those people, he would not exist. It was a pity that the construction units for the Stargates had already left via other routes—yes, in that period, human civilization had not yet acquired the natural wormholes, but those making the preparations had long since departed. —If, in the ensuing history, the people succeeded in their egg-clashing every single time, those people would be the ancestors of the Stargate pioneers and those who followed. But if they failed, it didn't matter. If they executed part of the plan as agreed but received no response, their status would automatically shift to being one of the "Seeds of Civilization." Looking at it this way, the habit of human civilization—even up to the 40th century—of building space warfare platforms or weaponizing rocky planets likely had its roots planted here. —Earth was not destroyed by humans themselves, but was blown apart by an external attack right before the eyes of that final group of people. So, since the homeland was dead, and the following era was one where everyone had to learn to hold a gun at one year old... What was the big deal about driving a planet to ram into someone? Since ancient times, people understood that wars between civilizations usually ended with genocide and the erasure of all traces. So, since the enemy wanted to wipe them out completely, who had the leisure to consider humanitarianism, or engage in those "loving you even if it means betraying my country" romances found in certain novels? However, before leaving, Lei Ting learned that humans had begun considering the implementation of the "Double Name" system. Its significance was to anchor people's self-perception during the centuries of masking their history and cultural core, while slightly enhancing the internal secrecy of the race against outsiders. Knowing this, Lei Ting found it hard to describe his feelings. In the propaganda and education of the Human Federation, the Double Name system was only credited with the latter function. The former function seemed to have been operating steadily all along, and precisely because of that, it was never mentioned by anyone—it simply didn't need to be reinforced through propaganda. In the chaotic void far away, a blue light flickered. The enemy was catching up... ...But it didn't matter. The enemy did not dare leave this space to go to the future, because that would be allowing him to successfully trace back to the source and find the root of everything. Even if the future was also developing, he believed that whether he existed or not, humanity would always find a way out. ... Thereafter, Lei Ting underwent several more shuttles. During this time, at an even earlier point, he even met that old man as a youth and saved his life—now it seemed there was a reason why the man had trusted him almost without cause after verifying his identity through the documents issued by the later human civilization. But those were already established facts of the "past." Like the mottled paintings on a plaza floor, no matter how fascinating, they were stories of the bygone. He had to leave. Traveling to this point, he had a premonition: this story was about to end. But stories always end. No story develops forever, he thought. But people still exist, walking their own paths. Thus, in the mortal world, there will still—yet—inevitably— —Be more "next stories." ... The journey of retracing time—Lei Ting himself did not know how long it truly was. He simply repeated a single operation mechanically. A few times, dozens, hundreds, or thousands, tens of thousands... or were those all just a fraction? No, if he didn't know, then no one could know, and no one could tell him the answer. Until one time, he landed in a world teeming with life. Not far away, a humanoid carbon-based creature looked at him warily, holding a clump of red gel that burned with flame. *** | Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 碰鸡蛋 | Egg-clashing | A game used as a metaphor for high-stakes survival gambles in human history. | | 灵之底 | The Spirit's Depths | A metaphysical or physical location where the Principal's male form died. | | 脑机灌输技术 | Brain-computer infusion technology | A method of forcibly uploading knowledge/history into the brain. | | 双名制度 | Double Name system | A naming convention used by humans to anchor identity and maintain secrecy. | | 人联 | Human Federation | Short for the Human Union/Federation government. | | 类戴森球结构 | Dyson-like structure | A mega-structure built around a star to capture its energy or hide a system. | | 种子 | Seeds (of Civilization) | Backup groups intended to restart humanity if the main body failed. |