mesbooks Chapter 10 [The One Who Gazes at the "Heaven"]
Chapter 10 [The One Who Gazes at the "Heaven"]
The year 800 of the Anthill era.
Nearly three hundred years have passed since the first nest was built by the builders.
The once empty crystalline cave has been transformed into a silent and intricate three-dimensional city.
It is composed of countless activated metal particles that can only be created by Kars, presenting a bizarre beauty that lies between the biological and the mechanical.
Every passageway and every room in the Nest City follows that aesthetic.
At the highest point of the hive, on a suspended platform, Karz floats.
As the progenitor and sole source of thought for this race, its consciousness permeates every corner of the hive.
Material development has reached the limits of this world.
A perfect resource recycling system, impeccable defenses, and a core capable of sustaining the perpetual reproduction of the race.
It detached its consciousness from the busyness of changing the world and turned to more prolonged contemplation.
Where exactly are the boundaries of the world?
Where is that extraterrestrial being that descends upon trials and blessings, even bestowing upon it divinity?
This question lingers in the newly emerging field of thought known as philosophy.
It's not because there are no similar ones, but because... there's no next target.
After years of silence, a new command was issued to every corner of the hive, covering every citizen.
"Cognitive boundaries, understanding the world." With this command issued, the entire operation of the Nest City underwent a radical transformation.
The decomposers responsible for mining the ore stopped working and began analyzing rare elements they had never encountered before.
The builders responsible for the city's construction put down the modules they were working on and began to assemble some sophisticated structures of unknown purpose.
All resources were no longer used for the expansion of the hive city, but were instead gathered at the top of the hive city.
There, a magnificent structure rises from the ground.
The entire Kaz civilization, with its almost terrifying efficiency, completed the shift from survival and construction to scientific exploration.
Decades may pass in the blink of an eye, but to the outside world they are but hours.
When Xu Ye got up from his light sleep, which was once again awakened by pain, and went to observe the ecosystem box as usual, he did not notice that something that should not have been there appeared on the top of Anthill.
It stands at the highest point of the nest city, its compound eye recognition device, which mimics biological features, aligned with the unchanging "sky" above the cave—the glass roof of the eco-box.
Katz named it "Eye of the Sky".
Its sole function is to receive and analyze any form of energy from outside this world.
The "Eye of the Sky" has been activated.
Kars completely connected his vast consciousness with it.
In an instant, its perception was magnified infinitely.
It heard it.
Silence was heard.
Time passed in silence.
One year, ten years, twenty years...
The "Eye of the Sky" remains motionless, like the most patient guardian.
until a certain day.
A chaotic signal pierced through the barriers of the world and was captured by the crystal array.
That was a change in light.
It was faint, irregular, and completely unlike any known light source in the world of Anthill.
The disordered thermal energy fluctuations made it seem as if some enormous heat source was sweeping across a distant place beyond the "sky".
Finally, there is a vibration.
A vibration with an extremely low frequency but continuous operation, which also does not belong to any known physical system in this world.
Katz's consciousness is focused on frantic calculations and analysis.
It didn't know that the faint spectral change was just sunlight filtering through the clouds and seeping in through the gaps in the curtains of the room.
The irregular heat fluctuations were from the cup of hot water he had just picked up.
The persistent vibration was the rustling sound of the autumn wind blowing through the bamboo forest outside the old house window.
But for Katz, this was irrefutable evidence.
Beyond this world, there is another world.
Just as Kaz was preparing to mobilize all computing power to analyze the source of these chaotic signals, a true "miracle" occurred.
After finishing his day's work, Xu, as usual, bent down to approach the ecosphere to check on the situation inside.
His face slowly moved closer to the glass.
From Anthill's perspective, the sky... has darkened.
A shadow so vast it defied measurement loomed over the entire Upper Forest.
The sun's light source was completely blocked.
The world was plunged into apocalyptic darkness.
Immediately afterwards, Xu also let out a breath.
Warm breath condensed into a brief, enormous white mist on the cold glass.
At that moment, the "Eye of the Sky" received a torrent of...
An incalculable heat source.
Incomprehensible changes in the form of matter.
The energy constant that constitutes the world is overturned at this moment.
The readings of all crystal arrays exceeded the limit within milliseconds, and all data streams turned into the highest level of red alert.
The "god" who descended the trials and blessings, the abstract being they had been trying to understand, now, in a concrete, vast, and incomprehensible physical form, briefly obscured their sky.
"Warning! Warning! Unknown higher-dimensional invasion!"
"Warning! Spatial structure constant disorder!"
"Warning! Unidentified form of matter!"
Throughout the entire hive, all its citizens, whether decomposers, builders, or sensers, experienced a pause of one ten-thousandth of a second.
That was the collective will, a collective "shutdown" caused by receiving information beyond its comprehension.
god……
It's not energy.
It is not a rule.
Or is it a... creature?
This thought arose like thunder in Kars's chaotic consciousness.
A primal emotion akin to "fear" spread within the group.
But Kars was, after all, the wise king born from the primordial thunderstorm.
Its core logic forcibly restarted itself on the verge of crashing, suppressing all irrational emotional fluctuations in the collective consciousness with extraordinary willpower.
Fear was forcibly transformed into the most calm analysis.
"Abolish the directive: 'Cognitive boundaries, understanding the world'."
"To issue a new, sole, and supreme agenda—"
"Understand 'God,' emulate 'God,' and deal with 'God.'"
With the establishment of the new directives, the entire character of the Katz civilization underwent a fundamental transformation.
Deep within the Nest City lies a secret area that has never been opened to the public.
Countless "Constructors" flew in silently and began to dismantle the "Eye of the Sky" at the top of the nest.
Those incredibly precious high-purity energy crystals were carefully transported here piece by piece.
They don't communicate, they only act.
A brand new project, even more magnificent than the construction of the "Eye of the Sky," was initiated and put into operation.
They need to build something based on the garbled data recorded by the "Eye of the Sky" before it was destroyed...
A miniature model of "God".
[Anthir 927: The wise King Kaz observed gods beyond the world and commanded that they should understand, emulate, and deal with them.]