After sitting idly for a day, you decided to initiate the Dawn System.
To initiate the Dawn System, you first needed to construct a reasonable "Two Dinsions" world.
"I must enter into the Dawn System and repeatedly initiate simulations alone to deduce the initial values for the ’Two Dinsions’ world. This way, when the ’Two Dinsions’ world is genuinely inaugurated, all humanity can step into the ’most reasonable’ ’Two Dinsions’ world," you explained.
You explained to Lin Guang, your most trusted companion, what needed to be done.
"I understand, it’s like ’trial and error,’" said Lin Guang.
"Yes, I need to obtain the most suitable initial values for the ’Two Dinsions’ world," you said.
"Let’s start, I’ll be beside you," Lin Guang said, sitting down next to you.
You stored your consciousness in the Dawn System, the perception of ti magnified infinitely, and you began the simulation.
For instance, how much temperature was needed to maximize life sustenance.
Or how high the sun needed to be for the fastest plant growth.
All this you needed to experience in the virtual world, lasting years, or even decades.
After eighty-nine simulations, you exited the Dawn System. Through many simulations, you had asured the initial environntal values needed for the ’Two Dinsions’ world. Next, there were plant values, animal values, city values... You had to match them exactly with the real world.
Then, when the ’Two Dinsions’ were formally initiated, humanity could most suitably enter a new life.
"You’re back? I made so tea," Lin Guang was still sitting beside you.
"How long has it been in reality?" you asked while sipping his clear tea.
"Ten minutes," Lin Guang said.
"Mm... I’ve spent twelve years in the Dawn System," you said.
Lin Guang was silent.
He just quietly watched you, his gaze stretching like moonlight. Even a thousand words could not illuminate the weight. Five seconds later, he hugged you. The hug trembled intensely, as if it were a declaration of faith.
At that mont, you suddenly felt a sting in your nose.
You patted his back, unable to extricate yourself from his shaking.
"Okay, okay..." you whispered.
He remained silent, not leaving you, like a knight wielding a Blood Sword.
You embarked on a tireless journey.
Zone Eleven. Freedom Alliance. Tribunal. Hope City. Antofa City... You constructed many fledgling powers in this fictional world, setting their locations and buildings.
You visited every corner, asured every inch of land with your feet.
The ’Two Dinsions’ world you constructed beca more and more perfect, you believed that when the Dawn System was officially launched, humanity could sustain there for a long ti.
After two hundred seventy-eight simulations, when you exited the Dawn System, your consciousness blurred montarily, and you almost forgot who you were.
You suddenly beca vigilant.
The human soul has a lifespan, even though your body was still young.
The length of ti you had experienced had already begun to exceed your capacity—your soul started eroding, your consciousness began to blur, and wisdom began to degrade. In one simulation, you slept for several days. Sotis, you would forget how to chew your food and needed nutrient solutions for sustenance. Sotis, you would even forget how to speak or pronounce words... You were like a young man suffering from dentia.
"Who, who are you?" you stared blankly at Lin Guang after one simulation.
He paused for a mont, gripped your hand tightly, "I am Lin Guang."
You nodded your head.
A mont later, you asked, "Who am I?"
"You are Yasa Acto."
You nodded your head.
Monts later, you asked again, "Who am I?"
"You are Yasa Acto," Lin Guang repeated patiently, trying to awaken your worn mory.
"I am Yasa Acto," you laughed, your laugh naive like a foolish infant, "Why do you look so sad, smile, Lin Guang."
Monts later, you asked again:
"...Hey, who am I?"
You did not understand why Lin Guang’s gaze was so painful. Your spirit felt like it was on the brink of shattering, like a dehydrated fish.
After taking so dicine, you ca back to your senses, realizing that you had just experienced symptoms of amnesia.
You almost couldn’t extricate yourself from your own fear.
One day, you look at yourself in the mirror and find the person reflected there to be a stranger. What is it that resides in those ashen eyes of yours... what exactly is it?
Is it the haze on the battlefield?
Is it the fine black gunpowder?
Or is it the ashes of the dead that you once held in your hands, ultimately falling into your eyes?
Are these somber colors what turned your eyes a deep gray, or was this their original hue?
...
[I rember I once so loved philosophy and mysteries.]
[But now, I wouldn’t spare them a glance.]
[—Why is that?]
[My face has never aged, yet has my soul entered its twilight years?]
...
"Teacher, can we give up? Take on a voyage," Tretiya says one day, her lips painted red like a fla, pleading with you to leave.
"I’m sorry," you say, "I can’t. I must lead humanity into the ’Two Dinsions.’"
Upon hearing this, Tretiya can only sigh.
She gives you a bronze pocket watch, adorned with a gold chain.
In the simulation, when you feel blurred about ti, you use it to keep track. It’s your anchor, reminding you who you are and that there is soone nad Tretiya waiting for you.
You have already pushed the research of chanics, biochemistry, and artificial intelligence to the pinnacle. People start to revere you as a true deity.
But it’s still not enough.
You know, your "Two Dinsions" world is not perfect yet, you must continue the simulation, fixing every flaw.
When you are about to give up, your companions begin to keep you company.
"Let us join the simulation with you," they say. "If you forget how to eat, I will feed you. If you forget how to speak, I will teach you to talk. If you get Alzheir’s, we will care for you as we would a child. If you forget who we are... we will make ourselves known to you again."
"You didn’t have to bear the agony of an entire civilization. Yasa Acto. You are human, not a god."
Qi hands you candy, Tretiya gives you a hug, Beili Sier brews you so dicine, Lin Guang gifts you a flute lody, Xi gives you a locket, and Rong Yuan swears to protect humanity for a lifeti.
You smile audibly.
You enjoy hearing others say you are not a god.
"I want to do sothing for them."
"Even if it’s just a little bit."
It’s the 244th day of the war, starting from the two hundred ninety-third simulation, every ti you enter the Dawn System, a companion joins you.
You and this companion traverse the barren "Two Dinsions" world, accomplishing the tasks of that simulation.
But in the end,
it turns out they give up before you do.
The lengthy span is enough to drive them mad.
The first to go mad is Tretiya. She’s like an old lady with Alzheir’s, yet with a still-young face...
You preserve her brain and upload it into the Dawn System. Hoping she can be reborn after the "Two Dinsions" officially launches.
The second to give up is Qi.
According to his last wishes, you personally kill him. Qi did not want to live on as a program in the future "Two Dinsions," and you respect that.
Before dying, he gifts you his carefully stored jar of candies, asking you to take one every day, not to forget to be happy.
You promise him.
You just can’t bring yourself to feel happy.
(5/9)
...
After the two of them die, Beili Sier becos your companion.
In the prolonged simulation, Beili Sier starts to talk in his sleep, dream, and experience hallucinations.
"It’s so cold... Acto," Beili Sier clings to you. "Am I dreaming again? Please don’t die, okay..."
Your vision begins to waver, and you open your mouth wanting to salvage sothing.
Human hearts can only hold so much despair, like a sponge fully saturated with water, unable to absorb even a drop more even if the entire ocean flowed over it.
His expression almost made it seem like he was about to cry. You really wanted them to stop accompanying you and just continue to lead the war in reality. But they refused. They didn’t want you to be alone in the Dawn System, repeatedly simulating scenarios, especially since you were already showing symptoms of dentia.
Your death was certain, as activating the Dawn System required your life.
It was hard for you to imagine the madness that would ensue once you died. Thus, you buried many administrator accounts in the "Two Dinsions" world, replicating your knowledge and body, ensuring that a continuous stream of "Acto" would appear in the future.
"Beili Sier, even if I am no longer around, you must survive," you said with a trembling gaze.
"No, I’ll wait for you," Beili Sier whispered. "If one day you disappear, I will find a safe place and wait forever... until you appear before ."
"Don’t be like this," you said.
By chance, you walked into a valley, a valley brimming with vibrant spring beauty. The white-haired youth stood amidst the flowers, smiling at you with a smile that was naive yet cruel:
"Yasa, what do you think of this valley?"
If one day you disappeared.
"I will wait for you in this valley, forever and ever..."
"You must rember this, rember there’s soone nad Beili Sier here waiting for your return..."
You didn’t speak.
You just silently smiled at him, turned around, and bit your lip until it bled.
...
"I don’t know who else will leave ."
"If people have to extend life through the departure of companions, I would rather bear it alone. If only I am hurt, I won’t feel sad anymore."
"Otherwise, I always feel as if my heart is clenching sothing, oppressive enough to drive insane."
"Too much tragedy has occurred here; I thought having enough people around would prevent loneliness."
"I seem to be just a heavy shadow, bearing an indescribable sense of unwillingness."
"Every mont, deep to the core."
"If everywhere is a cage, what’s the point of escaping?"
"...No."
"I don’t want this."
...
While continuously simulating, you were also leading the war in the real world.
On the 257th day of the war, in the center of the desert, you trembled as you raised the sword in your hand, calling on people to avenge the fallen.
"— Please continue fighting!"
"— Please fight for the deceased of Tretiya, Moon, and Qi, for the life and glory of humanity!"
The way people looked at you was not with fanaticism, but more like admiration. It’s as if they hoped to connect themselves to so divine realm just by looking at you.
All creatures’ shackles were pressing down on your legs, and you walked a long path, bleeding with these bindings.
You had to endure the sequelae of soul aging while making the most resolute and precise war decisions.
And the accumulated long suffering eventually turned into one statent —
"— Please follow and survive."
Indestructible, as if declaring war on fate.
You repeated this call, your face congested from the continual rallying, turning beet red.
"— Please follow and survive!"
But before long.
They turned into tombstones before you.
...
"Sotis, I wish to die in battle."
"But the looks from the people tell — no, you do not have the right to die. They would even build fortifications with their lives to block any possibility of my demise."
"Their expectations, becoming a deep-rooted curse."
"I fight desperately on, only to end up a body riddled with holes, but if I don’t fight, even that riddled body would no longer exist."
...
Day 261 of the war.
You gradually turned into a machine.
Sotis, tears would slide down your cheeks unknowingly. You often felt sad and angry, yet you didn’t know what you were mourning. It was as if it was rely a physiological response composed of hormones, not an emotion within your brain. Voices in your mind continuously erupted in lantations.
[Once more.]
[Once more.]
[Once more...]
Lin Guang always sat beside you, accompanying you through the simulations.
After a simulation, you breathed heavily, almost passing out.
"Can’t you think of yourself for once? You have beco the balance itself, one side is the world, the other is you. In a hundred, a thousand asures, will there be one ti when you tip the balance in your own favor?" Lin Guang looked at you:
"You always... neglect yourself, ignore yourself, hurt yourself, sacrifice yourself..."
But you simply smiled and didn’t agree to his plea.
"No need to persuade anymore, this is the one-thousand-and-second simulation. I succeeded," you told him.
Lin Guang was briefly stunned.
He had never thought you would succeed.
But you really did it.
It was like watching in slow motion—you saw the excitent flickering in Lin Guang’s eyes, saw your companions joyfully rushing towards you. You saw... perfect "Two Dinsions" data being collected by you, just waiting for you to formally lead all humanity into it.
Just waiting for you...to pour your own life into it.
You finally constructed the most perfect initial "Two Dinsions" world—you nad it "Kaius Tower."
In the era of Catastrophe, it represented a legend.
—Legend has it, there was a bird nad "Caius" that rose at dusk and fell at dawn. Hovering above the sky, forever accompanying the first gleam of morning light.
—Legend has it, it wouldn’t die, wouldn’t touch the ground, forever flying in the air, embodying hope.
You hoped... that this bird, a symbol of hope and peace, could bring humanity a new dawn.
As you gradually detached from the Dawn System, you finally felt peace.
On the horizon, the sunrise ascended.
...
"Pioneer Immortality, Eternal Dawn."
...
You watched the distant sunrise and gently smiled.
"I wish to use my abilities to bring you a future."
...
...
"My face is no longer smiling, my voice has beco icy, not even the piano could bring back the softness in my nature."
"How long has it been since I hugged soone, touched soone’s hand? I actually have no recollection of what 36.7 degrees feels like. I have long since beco sothing I could not imagine."
"Thus, I have always despised deifying a person, which is equivalent to depriving a person of their sensibility, stripping away their soft outer shell, depriving them of their social and loving abilities, and elevating them to a cold divine throne, tamorphosed into a steel symbol adorned with flowers."
"I take pride in being human. To , Gods are an abhorrent race."
"But this deeply flawed world needs a god."
"Yet everyone needs to beco a god."
...
You watched the glowing Dawn System with a tender gaze.
Your smile was light and slow, yet the smile seed like a sigh from nowhere, with emotions swelling and trembling.
"Thus, I am Yasa Acto."
"—I self-deprecatingly beco a God."
White birds circled around you.
Like a grand shamanistic ritual.
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