Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 160 The Thinker

Luo Qing held the small golden flag, feeling the surging life force within it, and stood guard at the entrance of the Altar of Truth, lost in thought.

Luo Qing didn't know much about Hawking.

Singularity Theorem (Singularity Explosion)

Black hole theory (Hawking radiation)

A boundless quantum cosmology (attempting to unify Einstein's theory of relativity and Planck's quantum theory).

These three are all research findings of Hawking in the last century.

Among them, the most influential is undoubtedly the hypothesis of the origin of the universe. The Big Bang singularity theory was proposed by Hawking and Penrose: time and space will begin from an initial singularity.

Compared to the constellation of brilliant scientists since the Crisis Era, Hawking's achievements are not particularly outstanding; in terms of research output, he might not even make it into the top 100.

But in the last century, Hawking was indeed one of the most important astronomers, although his fame was largely due to his ALS.

Hawking's true status skyrocketed after the Guzheng Project.

The surge in his stock price was not due to his research findings on the universe, but rather to two predictions he made at the end of the 20th century.

Prediction 1: Hawking's concerns about artificial intelligence and gene editing.

Ninety years later, MOOS's actions and the disastrous ecological downturn caused by gene editing have proven the correctness of this prediction.

Prediction 2: Hawking proposed the "alien threat theory," suggesting that one should not respond to extraterrestrial signals and avoid direct contact with aliens.

The occurrence of the Three-Body Crisis proved the correctness of the second prophecy.

The only pity is that Hawking's prediction came too late. Ye Wenjie had already pressed the button to restore the Trisolaran civilization 20 years before this prediction, thus changing the trajectory of human civilization.

The Three-Body Crisis arrived as expected.

But this did not shake Hawking's status in the later stages of the Crisis Era, especially with the existence of Prophecy 2.

Astronomer + ALS + prophet – these three factors combined have made Stephen Hawking far more well-known to the public than Ding Yi.

Children may not know who invented controlled nuclear fusion, but they certainly know that there was a paralyzed astronomer named Stephen Hawking.

Those dark jokes about Naked Li solving equations have been forgotten after ninety years.

Luo Qing had a principle when he intercepted martyrs to enter the altar of truth: he would not intercept celebrity scientists who were under the spotlight, nor would he ask them questions. Hawking clearly belonged to this category.

With his questions, with over 70 years of hibernation and the torment of ALS, Hawking, in his electric wheelchair, ascended the altar of truth with great difficulty, accompanied by the fluttering of a small golden flag.

"He was definitely the one who should have gone up there the most."

Many of the onlookers were thinking the same thing.

"Doctor, what is your question?"

The risk-taker repeated it again.

Perhaps realizing that it would be difficult to get Hawking to speak, the risk-taker gently waved his hand, and Hawking immediately regained his language ability, which he had lost for more than 100 years.

Hawking's somewhat stiff and monotonous voice came through with difficulty:
My question is, what is the purpose of the universe?

As the sun sank long into the night, a few scattered stars gradually appeared against the dark blue sky. Around the altar, the desert and grassland were blurred in the twilight.

After asking the question, Hawking laboriously raised his electronic pad to create an upward angle so he could see the sky. However, to his dismay, the sky was empty, and the answer he had expected did not appear.

The standard, unremarkable smile on the risk-taker's face disappeared, replaced by a deep sense of bewilderment.

“Sir?” Hawking pressed.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, the sky desolate and vast. A few wisps of thin clouds hovered above the Earth, and as time passed, the brilliant stars of the vast universe slowly emerged from the darkness. "Sir?" Hawking was a little confused, and he looked at the meditating figures below the stage for help.

Half an hour has passed.

Luo Qing frowned. He leaped into the air, but crashed into the almost invincible "energy membrane." The intense heat of hundreds of millions of degrees scorched his hair, forcing him to retreat urgently.

The Altar of Truth was shielded by a pure energy isolation membrane set up by the Threat Resolvers. This membrane consumed about 15 cubic centimeters of vacuum zero-point energy, which is an unimaginably large amount of energy, about 10 joules, almost the total amount of energy released by the sun in the past billion years.

In the minds of the risk-taker, this level of energy membrane is beyond human interference and breakthrough; any matter will be burned into plasma the moment it touches the energy membrane, not even the Wallfacer.

Unperturbed by the obstruction, Luo Qing casually flicked the small golden flag in his hand toward the Altar of Truth. The golden flag burst forth with a fierce halo the moment it pierced the altar, its dazzling brilliance almost whitening the dim night. The energy membrane, as the golden flag penetrated deeper, became undistorted, like ripples on water.

As the golden banner expanded to hundreds of meters, a dazzling sword light followed closely behind the Emperor's Banner and slashed out in an instant.

The energy membrane containing the total energy released by the sun over a billion years was easily broken by Luo Qing. He then flashed forward, grasped the restored golden flag, and entered the Altar of Truth.

All of humanity witnessed this miraculous scene: the Wallfacer broke through the invisible barrier and flew into the death altar set up by the Risk Remover.

On the altar, the Risk Resolver was still out of service and did not seem to have recovered despite the arrival of outsiders.

With the Emperor Banner on his back, the phantom images of thousands of scientists also flashed by behind him. Luo Qing walked up to Hawking, his brows furrowed.

"Mr. Hawking, what did you ask?"

"What is the purpose of the universe? That's the only question I asked."

"Strange, we've asked similar philosophical questions before, so why are you, the risk mitigater, silent now?"

“I don’t know,” Hawking replied with difficulty.

Luo Qing looked at the floating Risk Remover and asked, "Risk Remover? Are you turned off?"

At Luo Qing's call, the Risk Taker finally came to its senses. Ignoring the Wallfacer who could break through the energy membrane, it faced Hawking and said apologetically, "Doctor, you can go down now. The exit is behind you."

"Is this the answer?" Hawking asked in a monotone voice.

"I mean you can go back now."

"You do not know?"

“I don’t know.” The Risk Remover nodded, his face disappearing and replaced by an abyss as black as an ideal black body. This was the first time people had seen the Risk Remover in a state of intertwined and combined forms.

Luo Qing waved his hand, and Hawking, chair and all, was sent off from the Altar of Truth. He frowned and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

The risk remover's voice was still unsettled: "I need to temporarily disable the simulated human brain. The emotions are making me feel terrible. I'll communicate with you using this image from now on; it will make me more rational." The risk remover pointed to his face after it was filled with an ideal black body.

A black, deep, desperate face.

“What is the purpose of the universe? That’s a philosophical question. You don’t need to think about it,” Luo Qing comforted him.

Risk taker: "On the contrary, this question should have an answer."

Luo Qing was puzzled: "The universe is an objective collection that includes all space and time. It has no subjective consciousness, so naturally it has no purpose...etc." He suddenly realized something and turned to look at the risk-taker.

The risk-taker nodded: "I think the universe might have a purpose."

The risk-taker waved his hand, and the Altar of Truth instantly turned into yellow sand and vanished, while the energy membrane returned to the quantum tide.

Dr. Ding Yi had just awakened. Looking at the Altar of Truth, now transformed into flying sand warriors, he cried out in anguish, "No—!"

The 'voice' of the risk remover did not weaken at all and traveled across the entire Earth at the speed of light. All 70 billion people on Earth heard the words of the risk remover.

"Regarding Dr. Hawking, let me tell you a story, a story of a thinker."

(End of this chapter)