You said you were going to make games, how did you become the richest man without doing anything?

Free Lands Calendar, Day Twenty-Three (Post-System Era, Year 1)

[I] Castall Rings

After the jump was completed, Dawn-1 arrived at its target star system.

In the distance, a planet surrounded by three orbital bands slowly rotates. Its celestial structure is stable, and its surface bears numerous traces of civilization.

However, the system scan results are abnormal:
[Civilization Status: Narrating Conflict]

[Three contradictory histories of civilizations have been detected]

[Narrative Type: Truth Coexistence]

[Risk Level: S]

"One planet, three histories?" Leon frowned. "How is that possible?"

“It’s not a historical conflict,” Annabelle explained, “it’s the coexistence of ‘narrative structures’.”

“Every civilization tells the story of the world in its own language—and it is accepted by the world.”

Sherlock stared ahead.

"This is not just a conflict."

"This is the truth of coexistence."

[II] Triple Narrative

After Dawn-1 entered low-Earth orbit, the communication system began receiving three different "welcome signals".

The first type comes from the **“Talon Era Civilization”:**

"Welcome to the Land of Talon, may the Tower of Wisdom protect you."

"We record everything; history cannot be changed."

The second type comes from the **"Glass Cycle Group"**:

"You have entered the dimension of perception, and our time is cyclical."

"Everything that has happened is happening now."

The third type comes from the **"empty talkers**:

"We never existed."

"You remember us because we gave you memories."

The three language formats are completely different.

The three time logics contradict each other.

All three civilizations called "Castal" their home.

Sherlock sighed softly:
"This is a 'narrative multi-core planet'."

"What we are trying to transcribe is not a civilization."

"Instead—there are three mutually exclusive modes of existence."

[III] Surface Contact

Shuguang-1 dispatched three exploration teams.

Leon led the first group to the "Talon Era District". Annabelle led the second group to the "Glas Cycle District". Sherlock and Fou formed the third group and headed to the "Void Whisper Ruins".

Each group carries a "human language" recording module.

Objective: To collect samples of civilization narratives from each other and attempt to connect them.

1. Talon Era District - Records are Truth
Leon stepped into the city filled with towers.

The residents here wear uniform runic robes, and each person carries a "narrative tablet" to record their daily words and deeds.

“History is not memory,” a Talon scholar told Leon.

"History is a set of rules, a set of sentences, and a recognized written record."

"Who you are depends not on what you do, but on what you write."

Leon tried to ask questions.

"What if I give a different version?"

The other person shook his head.

"Then it's not you."

In the Talonian Age, language is the sole proof of identity.

They do not acknowledge the existence of the “unwritten”.

2. Grass Cycle Zone: Time is Language
Annabelle steps into a city that is constantly rebuilding itself.

Buildings grow repeatedly, and streets constantly change direction.

The residents here speak a mumbled language, and every word is distorted in tense:

"I will be your welcoming host."

“You were once my friends in the future.”

"This conversation may have ended the moment we first met."

Annabelle tried to record it and found that the word order kept changing.

“How do you verify the facts?” she asked.

An old man smiled:
"We are not sure."

"We are just—keeping telling the story."

"Stories exist because someone is telling them."

In the Grass cycle, language is not a fixed narrative, but a manifestation of the flow of time.

3. The Void Ruins: The Voice of the Forsaken
Sherlock and Fou wandered to a ruin.

There's no one here.

No sound.

Only collapsed stone tablets remained, covered with scraped-off inscriptions.

"This is... a civilization that has been erased?" Fufu crouched down to examine it.

Sherlock closed his eyes, and suddenly heard a faint whisper in his ear:
"We never existed."

"We were once memories."

"But they refuse to acknowledge us."

"And so we became—empty words."

They have not disappeared from history.

Instead, it was "removed from the language".

In the remnants of empty language, language is the right to exist.

To be forgotten is to have never existed.

[IV] Narrative Conflict

The three teams returned to Shuguang-1.

The "Human Language" module is experiencing abnormal vibrations:
[Warning: Triple Narrative Conflict]

[Current State: Defined as Instability]

[Suggestion: Choose a civilization narrative as "humanity's reconstruction of Castall"]

Sherlock remained silent.

Choosing one narrative means negating the other two.

Leon frowned: "We must choose a truth, otherwise the record cannot be generated."

Annabelle whispered:

"No...maybe what we need to do is not to choose the truth."

"Instead—acknowledging coexistence."

Fufu suddenly stood up:

"We can no longer rewrite civilization using the methods of the systems era."

"We are not here to judge who has a more justifiable existence."

"We are here to witness how they can coexist."

Sherlock looked up at the planets with their three intertwined orbits outside the window.

He wrote in "The Language of Man":

Starfield Topography Records: Castall Ring
Definition: A world that allows multiple truths to coexist.
Tracing method: narration and textual elements coexist

Note: Human civilization acknowledges the "multilingual structural reality" of this world, without deletion or integration. We choose to: preserve conflict and respect contradictions.

system hint:

[Topology structure generated successfully]

[Narrative Level: Multi-faceted Resonance]

[Civilization Level: Advanced - Branching Civilizations Exist]

Shuguang-1 slowly departed from its orbit.

Sherlock gazed at the planet and whispered:

"We no longer seek an answer."

"We strive for the possibility that every answer can be heard."

Star chart number: U-RL0
Coordinates: Starfield 77-Σ/Time Perturbation Boundary
Status: Unnamed
When Dawn 1 jumped to this region of the star system, the sight before it was breathtaking.

—A star, a satellite, an endless black sea of ​​planets, silent, symmetrical, windless, and soundless.

System scan results:

[No language structure]

No signal

[No encoding]

No memory trace

“That’s impossible.” Annabelle frowned. “Even the most primitive civilizations would leave some kind of trace in the atmosphere.”

"But it's not here."

"It's like...something that has never been observed before."

Fufu gazed at the central planet and whispered:

"It is not that it has no language."

"It is—rejecting language."

Leon gripped his weapon tightly: "Is this some kind of defense mechanism?"

Sherlock did not answer immediately.

His gaze fell on the "Human Language" module.

That blank page seemed to say to them:

"Don't write about me."

[Part Two] First Login

Shuguang-1 dispatched a landing team.

Everything was normal upon landing, but when the ship's recorder attempted to record the terrain, climate, and marine life, the system displayed an unprecedented warning:
[Content Rollback]

The recorded content has been removed at the linguistic level.

Unable to generate tracing entries

Annabelle attempted to document plant samples using images.

Ten minutes later, the image turned black.

Retrieve again—blank.

Fufu attempted to scan the surface consciousness using mental connections.

—Broken chain.

She even began to forget what she had scanned.

“This isn’t technical interference,” she said softly. “It’s…some kind of observational interference.”

"It erases itself as soon as you try to 'describe' it."

Standing on the black rock, Sherlock's mind raced with a terrifying conclusion:

"This world has the ability to self-cleanse."

"It does not allow any external language to define it."

It is not silence.

"It is a reverse narrative."

[Part Three] The Second Attempt: Language Confrontation
To further confirm this, Fufu used "anti-narrative scribalism"—a scribal technique learned in the Castar ring—to write descriptions using vague linguistic structures in order to avoid direct definitions.

Example: "It looks like a tree, or it could be a still wind."

The result was still a failure.

The "Human Language" module has been emptied again:
[Rollback Level: Root Structure]

Even vague language is rejected.

Leon suggested, "Perhaps we could try painting, dance, or nonverbal expression?"

Annabelle tried to use her body language to express "we are here".

Three minutes later, the video disappeared.

—It wasn't damaged, but rather "never left behind".

They finally understood.

This planet possesses an extreme mode of existence:

It disappears as soon as you try to express it.

[IV] Consciousness Contact

At night, Sherlock walked out of the camp alone and stood on the seemingly empty black plain.

He doesn't speak.

Without writing.

Don't think.

Just—quietly "here".

Suddenly, he sensed a faint fluctuation of consciousness.

That's not language.

It's not a sound.

It is not an image.

It was a kind of "sense of presence" that he had never felt before.

It's like someone saying to you, "You've arrived," without any intermediary.

He responded in his mind:

I'm not here to define you.

"I'm just here to—understand whether you understand me or not."

There was no response from consciousness.

But he knew that was the response.

He returned to the ship and said to everyone:
"We are evacuating."

[V] The Final Decision
Bridge conference room.

Leon frowned at Sherlock: "Are you sure? We haven't rewritten this world yet."

“It’s not that we can’t do it,” Annabelle looked up, “it’s that it doesn’t want to.”

“If we insist on copying it, we will become invaders.”

Fufu added softly:

"The world teaches us one last lesson—some things don't need to be written down."

Sherlock smiled and nodded.

"We came to interstellar space not to make a name for ourselves."

"It was for the sake of meeting."

He wrote in "The Language of Man":

Interstellar Topography Record - Ur-0

Definition: An entity that does not allow itself to be defined.
Tracing method: None
Note: We visited this place, leaving no trace and taking no words with us.

We respect the right not to be narrated.

Record status: Blank, permanently retained

system hint:

[Special rubbing completed]

[Narrative Level: Unnarrable]

[System semantic annotation: Humanity has reached a level of civilizational maturity where it can "abandon recording"]

Shuguang-1 sets sail, departing from Ur-0.

No tracks were left at the stern.

It's like—they never visited.

[VI] The Question of the Era

On the return journey, Fufu asked a question on the ship:
"What do you think would happen if we chose to stop being written about one day?"

Sherlock gazed at the starry sky and slowly replied:
"On that day, we will no longer be civilization."

Rather—silence itself.

He paused, then added softly:
"But before that, we must learn to respect every way of being."

"Including: silence."

After leaving Ur-0, Dawn 1 traveled in the boundary star system.

Just when everyone thought they could take a short break, the communications officer reported:
"The bridge received a signal from an unknown source."

"It is not a mechanical language, nor does it conform to the semantic structure of the system."

"It is speculated to be a pre-linguistic structure of humans, namely, 'fragments of original expression'."

Sherlock raised an eyebrow.

"The Primordial Era? Are you sure?"

Annabelle said in a deep voice:
"It is not our current language, not the language of arbitration, nor the logic of the narrator."

Fufu looked up and added:

"It's like...the shadow of language."

"It is an intention that existed before we even spoke."

The system cannot decode.

Human language cannot be recorded.

But everyone who hears it has the same feeling:

"go home."

Part Two: Earth's Call

Three hours later, the star chart changed.

The original return path began to deviate, the star map reconstructed itself, and a new path was created.

Destination: Earth.

But this is a hidden version.

It's not the Earth they left on.

Rather, it was—"the Earth before language".

system hint:

[Civilization Spore Core - Primordial Layer Detected]

[Status: Awake]

【To travel: Y/N】

Sherlock did not hesitate.

He pressed: Y.

"We want to go home. Back to the time when we didn't have a language."

Part Three: The Primordial Earth: The Shell of Civilization
The leap was successful.

The Earth before my eyes was not as blue as I remembered.

It is encased in a grayish-white "memory shell," like a sealed egg.

The surface has no cities, no mountains, no rivers, and no oceans.

But each shipboard scan reveals a different "Earth version".

—A planet where generations overlap, time is out of place, and civilizations overlap.

Annabelle said softly:
"This is not the Earth we have returned to."

"This is—ourself in Earth's memory."

As Shuguang-1 entered near-Earth orbit, a massive "primordial structure" rose from the Earth's crust.

It has no language.

There are no totems.

No symbol.

It was just a constantly rotating stone spiral, as if its very existence was telling them:

"Language is not my everything."

“I am your home before you speak.”

Sherlock muttered to himself:
"We're back."

[IV] Original Structure: Consciousness Awakening
The landing team sensed an unprecedented field within the original structure—

It's not gravity.

It's not a magnetic field.

Rather, it is "intent density".

They seemed to sense:

The first impulse of humankind to grasp a stone. The first question posed when gazing at the starry sky. The first time reaching out to touch the warmth of another.

There is not a single word here.

But everyone "knows".

They "know" those moments that existed.

It wasn't because someone told it.

It's because they are human beings.

Fufu knelt before the stone wall, trembling as she spoke:
"This is not a language."

"This is our very existence."

"We thought language created civilization, but actually..."

"Civilization began before language."

Sherlock closed his eyes, immersing himself in that echo of consciousness.

He heard a silent weeping.

Love without words.

A prayer without grammar. (End of Chapter)