A colonization ship filled with hundreds of thousands of exiles is preparing to leave the port. It’s a gray-white old-model transport ship, looking clumsy and shabby among the other fierce-looking warships in the starport. However, considering that its mission won’t take it outside the Imperial District this ti, such a transport ship is enough to accomplish its mission. The conservative lowa people embarking on the road of exile have all boarded the ship. They set off on a cold morning, arrived at the starport through a teleportation gate, without disturbing the tranquility of Shadow City. At this beginning of the long journey, not many people ca to see them off, yet it’s heartwarming that among the few who did were Big Sister and Pandora.
This is probably the last thing most conservative officers expected, to have send-off guests appear before them like this.
"I don’t like this atmosphere," Big Sister stood beside , watching the traction beams connecting the transport ship and the starport shutting down one by one. Small ground service ships were leaving the engine and tuning window positions of the transport ship. She smoothed her hair, "But after thinking about it at ho, it was still worth sending them off."
Pandora watched the transport ship slowly depart from the connecting bridge of the starport with a blank expression. It was quite large, so large that in our eyes, it seed like a mountain was drifting away from the steel ground beneath our feet. The little general stood straight and upright. I wondered if she was rembering the ti when she reviewed the lowa Fleet on the command platform, watching them set out on an expedition. Now, for the last ti, sending off these veterans at the port where the exile ship sets sail. Perhaps the expressionless Pandora was also quite sentintal at heart.
The spaceship left the starport, and the ring-like drive engines lined up on the ship’s waist gradually brightened, propelling this massive steel body to rapidly shrink to a fingernail size in our view, then disappeared into outer space in a flash of blue-white light. The exiles thus bid farewell to the civilized world.
Surviving in the Stone Age is a tough challenge, but I believe most of them will make it. The transport ship will unload them onto a selected ecological planet in the Exile Universe, leaving them with only a small amount of food. Afterwards, the spaceship will not return here but will remain in orbit of the Exile Land, serving as a satellite and observation station to monitor the situation of the Exile Land. This is the entirety of level one exile; the rest is up to the exiles to figure out for themselves.
After leaving the starport, Sandora and I went to another universe: the habitation of the Fourth and Fifth Fleets. By the way, we also brought along Taville, well, Taville’s mass projection. How long has it been since I’ve seen the actual person of this glasses-wearing lady, considering we only see her mass projection busying around every ti we et?
The Exiled capital Kerudak has now completely transford into a vibrant and efficiently functioning planet. The arrival of the Fifth Fleet, although it placed great resource burdens on this exiled mixed civilization, also brought them an incredibly abundant labor force and a large amount of technical data. Moreover, with the Empire assisting in solving the exiles’ living space and basic living material dilemmas, this mixed civilization no longer has any worries and can fully speed up their revival efforts. Now they have fully developed colonies outside of their star system, establishing a stable information network and transportation network within the star system. Outside of the star system, many colonized planets supported by the Empire have already started to be viable. At least, establishing small-scaled colonial points is no problem. So of those old colonization ships of the Fifth Fleet, after ergency repairs, are still in use, while others were abandoned repair-wise. It’s said that Cocogina ordered the dismantling of those space fortresses, transferring their living, communication, and energy systems to the ground, which is quite an innovative move. And it seems to be working remarkably well. The exiles’ new ho is operating at an astonishing speed under the support of this patchwork of equipnt.
The repeated assistance of the Empire to the exiles, and the excellent diplomatic efforts of the Tree Elves, now seem to have yielded great results. We can visit the exiles’ planet as normal visitors and are even welcod to so extent. I don’t know whether this ans past grievances have been entirely resolved, but the sense of confrontation between the Empire and the exiles indeed seems to have vanished. Moreover, as ntioned before, the new generation of the exiles didn’t experience the past persecutions, and they seem more open to the new Empire than the older generation — perhaps it’s ti for to consider selecting so kids from the exiles to attend the Imperial Military Academy? Anecdotally, studying abroad seems to be indeed the most effective way of cultural export and compromise...
Our small shuttle docked directly atop the building where the Council was located, the latter knowing well in advance of guests arriving, brought along a few experts and scholars dressed like elderly folks waiting for us on the platform. Just as I got down from the shuttle, I waved my hand at the translucent woman standing up front: "Hey, sorry to keep you waiting."
It seed the Council was being led by a gentle personality today, who said at an unhurried pace with a leisurely smile: "Your way of greeting is always so endearing — I’ve already grasped the situation. You’re here to learn about the technology regarding Soul Fusion regeneration?"
It seed that the "Council" already understood the general matter, and those experts and scholars behind her also appeared to be professionals in the relevant field. I nodded and followed the "Council" inside the building. Anyway, we didn’t need to make too many pleasantries at the Council Hall. I straightforwardly raised my question: "Is there a way to generate a collective consciousness from a group of souls that have fused together and haven’t been active for hundreds of years? You could see it as a sort of special resurrection."
"The Yunadeans create consciousness symbiosis through Racial Talent," the Council pointed to herself, "We are born in a distributed pyramid-structured network. Well, this network is quite different from your integrated solar system where everyone can be a node for a spiritual connection. When we have physical form, we divide into small groups, each led by its own spiritual leader, who can extend their spiritual power to others, using the leader as a ’server,’ while other tribesn can exchange spiritual power with each other. This ans we have nurous pyramidal spiritual networks, which are included in an even higher pyramid structured by higher-tier spiritual leaders. We live within this network, inseparable, having no concept of personal interests, but everything for the collective, like a bee swarm, thus we are predisposed to develop a consciousness community."
"A network composed of nurous servers and basic client elents," Sandora nodded professionally, "It’s quite different from our spiritual connection. We don’t need soone to act as a server, nor do we need subnet and main net layers connecting like that as it reduces efficiency. However, for a common race, your way of establishing spiritual connections does seem to lower the difficulty slightly, decreasing the demands on the individual by spreading the complexity of processing onto the network architecture."
"Now back to the topic you raised about those Human Brain Arrays..." The Council’s body flickered, and her facial expression and details suddenly changed, seemingly switching personalities, "Let see what they are like. Racial Talent is not the sole criteria for whether fusion and consciousness regeneration can succeed. I need to assess their condition first."
While opening my personal space, I curiously looked at the Council: "Why did you suddenly switch personalities?"
"Oh, that personality is severely hemophobic," the Council replied naturally, "Hearing the term Human Brain Array sounds so bloody I knew my twenty-sixth personality wouldn’t handle it."
...What, so consciousness collectives can be used like this?!
"This is that type of Human Brain Array mainfra." I took out a makeshift mainfra from my personal space, which I brought along this ti, as it’s proper to at least provide a sample when asking the Council for help. A giant tallic sphere with a diater of over ten ters was placed before the crowd, beneath which was a faintly glowing base. The base had intricate Demon Runes and well-arranged Crystal Arrays, part of a specially designed soul maintenance system created by Orelia after removing the Human Brain Array mainfras from those Royal Starships. Barrian clearly did not anticipate the situation where these would be dissembled when designing the Human Brain Array mainfra, so their soul maintenance systems were one-ti use. Once removed, without the stabilization provided by this base, the entire array of brains inside the sphere would perish within thirty minutes, scattering to oblivion.
"The exterior looks quite normal..." The Council stepped forward to cautiously tap the base of the over ten-ter-high tallic sphere—since the base alone was two and a half ters high, she couldn’t reach the top—"Your starship mainfras are shaped like this?"
"Yes, for compatibility reasons, the Rebel Army completely replicated the interface and hull of the Imperial standard shipboard mainfras," I located the control crystal panel on the base that Orelia had once pointed out and chose to open the mainfra’s outer shell, "The upcoming scene is a bit intense—brace yourself."
"Sss—" A faint depressurizing sound emanated from the surface of the towering tallic sphere. A slightly traceable white gas was released from the shell seams, followed by a low buzzing sound from the base beneath, as the Soul Stabilizing Array increased output power to protect those souls devoid of their original protective barriers from the external environnt. Subsequently, the tallic sphere’s shell retracted upwards like peels of an orange, revealing the orderly polyhedral structure inside, as well as the arrays embedded within these polyhedrons.
"At the core of this device, there’s a red Soul Crystal binding thousands of Dead Souls," I turned to the Council, "You should be able to sense them, with your current life form."
The Council stared dumbfounded at the nearly worldview-challenging Human Brain Matrix, her face notably unpleasant. I chid in, "I was also shocked initially and didn’t expect a normal wisdom race to lapse into collective insanity to such an extent, but they just... well, your complexion doesn’t look good, are you okay?"
The Council shifted their gaze, the details on their face changed once again, and the aura around them transford: they had switched to another personality. She looked at with embarrassnt, "Uh... sorry, personality number fourteen had trypophobia and was just switched out. Now I’m number eighteen, so... there should be no problem."
: "..." Aren’t we here to do serious work for the salvation of all? Can you be reliable?
Of course, that was just sothing I mulled over in my mind a couple of tis and ultimately didn’t dare to say out loud.
Personality number eighteen of the Council seed to be a tough and insensitive character; she wasn’t fazed by blood nor did she have any phobias. She was now communicating with the trapped souls in the human brain array: As she stretched out her arms, they began to dissolve into scattered glimrs from the elbows, as if her hands had vanished. These light particles ford a mist, gradually drifting into the mainfra. The soul crystal at the core of the human brain array must have resonated with the Council, because I saw an abnormal internal reading displayed on the control crystal board of the base, although this anomaly did not pose any threat to the mainfra.
"Orelia partially activated these souls, freeing them from a suppressed state they’ve been in for hundreds of years, but because all the souls are mingled together, they haven’t presented a singular voice to communicate with," I comnted, observing the constantly changing expressions on the Council’s face, referencing sothing the Angel Kite had ntioned, "A tangled ss—Orelia described it that way."
"Yes, a tangled ss," the Council’s body returned to its original form, she nodded, "When the souls of ordinary beings are fused together, this is what happens. They are not accustod to spiritual fusion, and can only conflict with each other, mories entangled, thoughts chaotic, eventually becoming a noisy and confused mass of consciousness. None of the consciousnesses can be strong enough to remain independent in such an environnt. But there’s good news: this can be resolved. They have been in this chaotic fusion for hundreds of years, and now they are almost unified, their internal conflicts reduced to a manageable level, and... I have discovered so consciousnesses have taken dominance; they should serve as the core thoughts after resurrection."
"Dominated?" Sandora raised an eyebrow, "I can probably guess what’s going on."
"I don’t know what you’ve guessed, but from what I’ve observed, these souls were stripped at different tis. The oldest souls have distinct anger and a wealth of logical mories, whereas the newer, younger souls appear increasingly bewildered and confused, with mory more and more sparse, and almost no clear self-concept. This is a very anomalous phenonon; logically, the independent consciousness of stripped souls should weaken over ti, with the oldest souls being the most feeble, and the latest souls clearer, but within that noisy tumult, the younger voices are whispering, and only the oldest voices are roaring... ah, I’m sure my explanation makes little sense to you, but that’s basically the situation."
I nodded: "I know what’s happening: The oldest souls are the fallen soldiers who once resisted the invaders. The rebels were unable to suppress the anger of these soldiers, so the extracted souls remained furious, while the newer souls are from slaves oppressed for hundreds of years, brainwashed by the lowa generation after generation, each generation more docile than the last."
"Is that so? In that case, these oldest souls are quite the tough fighters," the Council showed an approving expression, "Using these resilient minds as the primary consciousness, guiding the other scattered souls’ mories to beco secondary personalities, and then using the Nade’s technology to revive them should work — we know very well how to protect fragile individual minds, much better than you."
"That’s the reason I asked for your help." I smiled at the Council, relieved to have found a solution to a sowhat troubleso issue, brightening my mood. The Council, unable to resist, looked at with curiosity, "May I ask, why does the Empire want to revive this collective consciousness?"
"Uh, is that question important?"
"Not really, I’m just a bit curious. You should know, mortal souls have many weaknesses: inefficient, fragile, constantly bound by emotions. Therefore, even with the Nade’s thod to revive these souls in an aggregated form, they would only beco sowhat strong spiritual bodies by mortal standards, but for you, such spiritual bodies could probably be mass-produced in the thousands at a much lower cost. Isn’t it a waste to put so much effort into reviving these souls?"
"Perhaps..." I understood the Council’s puzzlent, "The Empire never wastes its efforts, but to rectify its mistakes, we are willing to pay so price. I know an Imperial Soldier nad Ola, who, due to one mistake, willingly gave up half of her own and her soldiers’ personalities, permanently— the plight of these trapped remnant souls is also sowhat related to the hidden pitfalls the Empire sowed back then, so to the extent possible, the New Empire will rectify those mistakes one by one."
The Council’s expression subtly changed, and I noticed her aura transford once again. This ti, this ageless being who had dealt with the Empire for tens of thousands of years nodded lightly towards Sandora and : "In the na of the Yunadeans, I salute you. It seems the Xyrin Apostle, despite being proud, does not shy away from acknowledging their mistakes. With such effort, things will get better."
I smiled at her, casually asking, "Uh... did you switch personalities again just now?"
The Council nodded: "Yes, to use a term I recently saw on the Imperial Data Network, personality number eighteen is a bit tsundere. She was too embarrassed to say those words. Allow to introduce myself, I’m number one hundred thirty-six."
: "..."
Why did I never notice this bizarre side of the Council beforehand? Maybe it’s because we weren’t familiar previously, so she always used official language, so I never realized she switched personalities every five minutes?
"Ahem, so for the ti being, this sample mainfra will remain with you, along with the technical information on how to sustain the souls and brains in the mainfra located in the database of the console," I cleared my throat to alleviate the awkwardness while gently pushing Taville (Mass Projection), the one who had been silently researching the Tobelu-style Ghost Energy Device with curiosity behind , forward, "This is my Chief Researcher; I’ve arranged for her to assist you. Moreover, as previously agreed, she hopes to learn how you aggregate these souls. In exchange, we will provide you with the key technology of Ghost Energy’s second cycle."
These were matters already discussed with the Council through the dedicated network channel before coming here, so neither the Council nor the group of scientists behind her showed any objection. Taville’s mass projection would temporarily remain here as a technical exchange talent: the coffin enthusiast had been eagerly anticipating this opportunity. She gazed earnestly at the Council’s semi-transparent figure, her first words carrying the trademark of her mad scientist persona: "Nice to et you—I’m very interested in your life form as well. If possible, I hope you will cooperate with more of my research, and I will also provide you with more technical information, subject to the Emperor’s permission..."
The welcoming smile on the Council’s face hadn’t had ti to fade before it suddenly stiffened, her tone particularly horrified: "Wait... wait! This isn’t part of the..."
Before she could finish her stunned statent, her aura changed once more and she smiled awkwardly at Sandora and : "Apologies, one hundred thirty-six has a mild persecution complex—I’m number seventy-six..."
Sandora and I: "..." (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian) to cast recomndation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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