Chapter 5: Rejoice! The Moment of Miracle 5600
In the beginning, everything was silent.
All things were born into a world without miracles.
As organic matter was born from thunderstorms caused by volcanic eruptions, the first life appeared around deep-sea hydrothermal vents, spreading due to submarine volcanic eruptions.
In the rushing river of time, countless strange yet simple carbon-based lifeforms emerged naturally, then naturally perished... single-celled, multicellular, primitive organisms, primitive algae, various types of crustaceans, echinoderms, and even vertebrates appeared, evolving or going extinct.
Throughout this process, there was no supernatural power, no miracle. Countless ages passed in this manner.
Until one day, a primitive marine arthropod, during its long evolutionary journey, climbed onto land alongside mosses and ferns.
This creature, resembling a large isopod, appeared ordinary on the surface, seemingly unremarkable—but that was not the case. Because the ocean teemed with large predatory arthropods, small isopods were merely their prey. To avoid being hunted, isopods evolved a rather peculiar method of stacking: each side of their body had a sturdy and sensitive carapace antenna. In the ocean, these antennae could detect changes in surrounding water currents, and in critical moments, they could link with the antennae of other isopods, tightly intertwining them.
Not only that, but these antennae also possessed a fairly developed nervous system. During the intertwining process, the nerves would connect, allowing two isopods to temporarily merge into one, moving forward and backward together, appearing as a single large creature—the more isopods gathered together, the larger the stacked body became. There were even instances where isopods swarmed together, enveloping a predator within their group, suffocating it to death.
And upon reaching land, the isopods' connecting antennae did not degenerate; instead, they evolved further: their antennae became more flexible and sturdy, like two small jointed whips, capable of carrying and lifting many things. Numerous isopods linked together formed a collective that could cooperate in many ways, such as creating human-stepped ladders or human-stepped bridges, allowing companions to climb higher and travel farther.
Even some isopod groups had been connected since birth. Among them, some isopods specialized into nervous systems, degenerating their carapace and limbs, while others degenerated excess nervous systems, specializing in strength. Several isopods combined could become a larger, stronger 'combined isopod.' Those that did not evolve this trait were largely eliminated by their more powerful ecological counterparts.
It was like a macroscopic cell differentiation occurring on land—in the larval nests of isopods, scenes similar to human embryonic stem cell differentiation were unfolding: some became the brain, some became the limbs, some became the support and digestive systems, and then worker isopods assembled them to form a 'large isopod' larva.
Each individual isopod was not a sapient being, not even the 'brain isopods.' At least three brain isopods were needed to generate intelligence, and those three brain isopods required even more components to form a self-sustaining large isopod. Only when at least several dozen components were combined could a 'large isopod' with rudimentary intelligence be born.
Originally, isopods were merely creatures living on a two-dimensional plane, knowing only forward, backward, left, and right throughout their lives. But because of their developed nervous systems, the height formed by their combination quickly allowed them to understand the third dimension of 'height.' This brought a vast field of vision, which was the source of their overwhelming advantage.
What followed needed no elaboration. In the age of primitive life, large isopods that possessed intelligence, used tools and fire, and had three-dimensional spatial thinking were essentially cheating players. They effortlessly evolved neural language, created writing, and used tools to defeat other arthropods, crustaceans, and insects that had grown larger due to excess oxygen.
[Preface: The Founders quickly spread across the globe. They had a smooth journey, didn't they?]
The voice of the Eternal Lighthouse came, causing Joshua, who was watching these memories, to nod slightly.
Large isopods, or to call them by another name, 'Aggregate People,' were a species that could only be called sapient when aggregated together. Their civilization developed rapidly over millennia, from mud pits by the sea to tree hollows in forests, from mountain caves to large sheds made of grass and mud on plains, from stone tools to iron tools, from primitive tribes to larger civilizations.
The Aggregate People learned a method of mutual communication and mind-to-mind connection without neural linking: relying on writing and customs to unite everyone. Even if not born from the same nest, Aggregate People could aggregate and divide based on acquired preferences. They called this novel thing, which, though lacking physical connection, could achieve mind-to-mind unity, 'culture.' And the super-large 'Aggregate of Aggregate People' formed by this 'culture' was called a 'nation.'
The battles between nations were battles between cultures. If a culture lost, it could only rely on force to eliminate or expel the other; otherwise, some Aggregate People would break away from their original nation and join another. As cultural wars progressed, the knowledge and information held by different Aggregate People nations began to interact, bringing about large-scale technological advancements. Noticing this, Aggregate People nations no longer aimed to 'destroy' nations through 'cultural wars' but deliberately controlled the exchange of knowledge within an acceptable range.
Thus, in the first million years of the Aggregate People's existence, they began to disregard conflicts on the ground, lifting their heads to gaze at the stars in the sky.
The view stretched, and Joshua could see that this was a medium-sized world with multiple solar systems forming a small-scale gravitational balance. The planet where the Aggregate People lived was the second planet of their star system—and astonishingly, the moon of their planet was also a habitable world.
Not only that, but the third planet of this star system was also a habitable world, albeit a colder one.
When the Aggregate People looked up at the stars and observed the moon with curiosity, they were shocked to discover that the moon above them was almost the same kind of world as their own land. There were mountains, water, and even... other Aggregate People.
This discovery greatly shocked the Aggregate People civilization at the time. By then, they had a clear biological and historical perspective and were not backward in astronomy. They knew well the distances between planets and understood that it was impossible for nearly identical lifeforms to appear in completely different ecosystems—even habitable worlds could not be reached by ancient Aggregate People through mere accident.
[Narrative: Unlike many civilizations today, the Founders had not encountered any supernatural power at that time. There were no superfluous fantasies in their thoughts; 'imagination' was bound by various conditions.]
Thus, this point undoubtedly astonished all Aggregate People nations. They united into a massive United Nations, preparing to collaborate, using any method to go to the moon and see for themselves.
Strong action capability was the fine tradition of the Aggregate People. Besides vigorously developing aerospace technology, they also began to search for any possibility on their planet—a 'miracle' that could allow Aggregate People to travel to other celestial bodies.
"They must have found something."
Joshua murmured softly, thoughtfully observing the peculiar Aggregate People society, then chuckled lightly: "Even in a world without miracles, there is the first miracle... The world born from the First Flame itself is a great miracle."
"The question is, what exactly did they discover?"
[Admiration: Yes, you are absolutely correct. It is almost identical to what the Founders said when they reviewed history.]
[Emotion: They discovered a god, Radcliffe. The Founders discovered a dead god.]
It was a dormant volcano, also the largest mountain on the Aggregate People's planet. It stood about twenty-four thousand meters high, and the ancient volcanic cone formed a vast plain. The Aggregate People's space base was built there, but because the mountain was too massive and dangerous, no Aggregate People had ever attempted to enter the high-altitude regions above ten thousand meters.
While exploring the high-altitude regions of this massive mountain range, later named 'Sky God,' an Aggregate People exploration team discovered an extremely peculiar phenomenon at the mountain's center: their nervous systems could sense each other without linking. Some places even lacked gravity, with small hills floating in the sky, and strange flashing phenomena could be seen. According to the exploration team's report, extremely unusual, non-conventional phenomena occurred within this mountain range. The laws of physics seemed to have lost their effect there, or rather, they worked in a different way. Some team members claimed to have seen the corpse of a massive creature buried within the volcanic body.
It was an immensely huge rock giant, or rather, a rock giant insect. Its back formed the main body of the entire 'Sky God' mountain range, and its sixteen limbs were the foundation of the entire plateau. Based on detection, it was born at the dawn of the planet, the creator of all volcanic phenomena on the celestial body. Primordial life was born from the violent winds and thunderstorms of its breath, and the land was raised by it.
But it was dead—died from power exhaustion. As a 'divine lifeform' born from the power of the First Flame, breathing in unison with the world, the Volcano Insect was born from the planet's crustal movements and died when those movements stabilized. Though it was the world's first and most powerful primordial god, it was not immortal, but naturally perished after completing its mission.
The god's remains were rapidly assimilating with the planet. According to estimates, after a few million years, geological surveys would no longer be able to observe the god's existence, only seeing it as primitive rock. If not for the Aggregate People's intelligence and civilization developing at an astonishingly fast pace, it was unlikely that any normal lifeform could have found the god's remains within the relevant time frame.
But the Aggregate People found it—and they also discovered that it was the residual power of this god's remains that had transported other Aggregate People to other planets.
Divine power connected all life-bearing worlds within this star system. At the center of the Sky God Mountain Range's body, they found a natural divine portal leading to the moon and another habitable world, where other, less technologically advanced but related Aggregate People tribes lived.
Then, the era of the supernatural began.
[Praise: At that time, the Founders did not dwell too much on 'why,' because for them, it was merely a natural phenomenon like the water cycle or ocean currents. But soon, one hundred and thirty-seven years later, someone finally began researching 'primordial divine power' and successfully obtained some of its characteristics.]
From analyzing and structuring divine power, then attempting to learn 'why,' the Aggregate People used the immense god's remains to study the divine power left behind by the First Flame. Many Aggregate People obtained divine power by separating parts of the god's remains, becoming supernatural individuals. Some Aggregate People nations even delved deeply into divine power research, using it to bless themselves, accelerating the evolution of their entire nation.
This was an era of prosperity—everything seemed so wonderful. Through in-depth research on the Sky God and colonization of the other two habitable worlds, the Aggregate People's civilization progressed rapidly.
Then came the calamity known as the 'Great Divine Punishment.'
First, some individuals who held divine power suddenly died, becoming vegetative, never to awaken. Then, groups, societies, and even nations that researched divine power—large numbers of individuals and collectives that valued divine power—lost their self-awareness one after another, becoming lifeless flesh that knew nothing, not even instinct. More than half of the sapient individuals on the Aggregate People's home planet perished overnight, instantly terrifying all remaining Aggregate People nations while also instilling great fear of divine power.
This was called the Great Divine Punishment for stealing divine power. Countless Aggregate People panicked, holding numerous rituals, hoping the god would not blame them for their blasphemy.
What followed was a meaningless era of panic... Over these hundreds of years, the Aggregate People abandoned research on divine power. They no longer used the portals in the Sky God Mountain for colonization but began developing spaceships... But the severed connections lasted too long. Colonies on different planets rebelled one after another. Chaotic wars continued for hundreds of years, until, to win the war, one side once again activated divine power.
[Confusion: The Founders did not tell us this history. They were vague about it and considered it a disgrace. But the Triple Veil guessed it. The Triple Veil did not tell them.]
Joshua smiled faintly, unconcerned. The warrior's humanoid projection stood in the virtual universe, gazing at the entire star system. He knew that this was likely the beginning of the Founders' creation of psionic energy and souls.
Hundreds of years were enough for a race to forget fear. With the reactivation of divine power, research on it was brought back to the forefront—and again, there were instances of divine power individuals suddenly becoming vegetative. The Aggregate People's Central Science Academy even artificially created such an individual through human experimentation. They meticulously observed the entire process of the divine power individual losing their self-will and finally discovered the truth of the divine punishment.
As a quasi-stellar entity's primordial god, the Volcano Insect's divine power contained every detail of the planet's crustal movements from that era. In other words, every bit of divine power was a massive information repository. If used simply, it was fine. But if an individual had exceptional talent or held divine power for too long, the countless pieces of information within the divine power would leak out, completely overwhelming the self-will of any sapient individual, or even an entire nation of Aggregate People, turning them into lifeless flesh.
The more deeply they thought, the more the Aggregate People realized that carbon-based brains and ganglia had limits. To surpass those limits... they had to stop being human!
[Delight: That was the reason for the birth of the Triple Veil's predecessor. Thank the Founders for their exceptional wisdom.]
The emergence and birth of computers and artificial intelligence were not surprising, as it was merely using mechanical parts to simulate the thinking process of Aggregate People. Soon, intelligent robots with high-performance processors and massive storage devices appeared. Although the first divine power decompression failed, the robots performed far better than the Aggregate People themselves, and the losses were minimal—just burned-out processors.
By experimenting with divine power decompression on intelligent robots, the Aggregate People gradually became very advanced in related mechanical fields. Their experiments moved toward success. Finally, with the ninth-generation high-performance processor, a robot withstood the decompressed divine power information for the first time—it became the first individual to hold 'blank divine power.'
A processor that completely surpassed the brain, could fully replace it, and could withstand divine power, was undoubtedly sought after by the Aggregate People. They wanted to modify themselves, to transfer their consciousness into steel bodies and processors—but a philosophical problem stumped them.
Was an Aggregate Person who transferred their self-awareness into a machine still the original Aggregate Person? Was it a completely identical but not-the-same algorithm, or was it the Aggregate Person themselves?
Was this a suicide euphemistically called 'new life in death,' or a painless 'rebirth'?
The Aggregate People's method of solving this philosophical problem was simple.
Since it was impossible to determine whether the 'self' was a collection of impulse feedback generated by neural microcurrents in the brain, or the entire life individual itself; since it was impossible to determine whether a self gradually replaced bit by bit was still the original self—then create a 'thing' independent of the body that could carry consciousness!
"Soul."
Joshua's humanoid projection exhaled, revealing a smile. "The first soul."
[Agreement: Yes. To ensure that while entering mechanical bodies and holding controllable divine power, they could still confirm that they were themselves, the Founders began preparing to create the first soul.]
If a natural, mortal body was a natural mortal, then an artificial mechanical body and an artificial soul were the first step toward life's evolution into a post-natural divine being.
Perhaps it could be not a mechanical body, but a specialized carbon-based body. But cells themselves are also extremely intricate carbon-based machines. The Aggregate People were not so pretentious as to think carbon was better than steel, or that flesh was better than machinery, or that naturally born blood-and-flesh mechanical structures were necessarily more refined than artificial ones. They believed in their own wisdom and technology and acted persistently.
So, how could one transcend natural mortality to become a post-natural divine being?
What was needed was 'imagination' and 'thought.'
[Miracle Confirmation: After three thousand four hundred years of unified research by the entire civilization, with several great scientists voluntarily abandoning their bodies, possibly through 'suicide,' to enter mechanical bodies, master divine power, and personally experience and collect data; with a uniquely brilliant genius inheriting the wisdom and technology of all pioneers, breaking through the final 'ethereal existence' barrier, the 'miracle' was born.]
It could be seen that, accompanied by a flash of silver-blue light, a silver-blue, nearly solid projection appeared behind an Aggregate Person. It was not divine power, but another peculiar, entirely different artificial substance, or rather, artificial power. This projection could manifest independently or exist alone, undoubtedly carrying the entire self-will of the Aggregate Person, and would not dissipate due to mechanical transfer!
It could be maintained by flesh, or by mechanical current. These energy sources were not important at all. The soul was not such a fragile thing. What truly supported the soul's existence was 'imagination' and 'thought'!
[Cheer: Rejoice! The individual who inherited all hope, capable of controlling divine power, possessing a soul, a mechanical intelligent being, knowing all knowledge and information, surpassing mortal species, whose name is 'Founder'—this is the moment of birth!]