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

Chapter 460 The Young Singer (6k)

The Milky Way has four major spiral arms and five major branches. The carbon-based federation simply classifies them into four main spiral arms: "I", "II", "III", and "IV", and then uses "a certain secondary spiral arm of the first spiral arm" to specifically locate a region.

Compared to the simplified naming of the carbon-based federation, 20th-century astronomers named the entire Milky Way in a symbolic way, with the four spiral arms named from the inside out: Perseus Arm, Scutum-Centaurus Arm, Norma-Outer Arm, and Centaurus-Carapace Arm.

The five secondary spiral arms are named as follows: the 3,000-second differential spiral arm, the Norma spiral arm, the Cygnus spiral arm, the Orion spiral arm, and the Carina spiral arm. (Note 1: There is considerable debate in the astronomical community regarding the four primary and five secondary spiral arms, with various models existing. This book will use this designation for now.)
The inclusion relationship between the primary and secondary spiral arms is easily discernible from their names.

The solar system is located at the end of the Orion Arm. The Orion Arm and the first spiral arm are closely parallel. The entire Orion Arm, including most of the Orion Arm and the tail of the first spiral arm, is collectively referred to as the end of the first spiral arm.

At the end of the first spiral arm, this complex area spanning thousands of light-years, lies the main battleground between the carbon-based federation and the silicon-based empire.

However, compared to the imagery of human naming methods, the digitalization of carbon-based federation naming methods makes the naming of spiral arms by civilizations more pleasing to the ear.

They call the first spiral arm the "Resonant Arm," the second spiral arm the "Silent Arm," the third spiral arm the "Deep Melody Arm," and the fourth spiral arm the "Distant Song Arm."

The five secondary spiral arms are named Chanting Branch, Musical Branch, Trembling Branch, String Branch, and Tuning Branch.

They call themselves the Singers, standing at the end of the Orion Arm, the first spiral arm, where millions of stars are their territory. If nothing unexpected happens, the Singers will be the future masters of the Orion Arm.

The Milky Way contains 400 billion stars. The Orion Arm, a minor arm, contains 2 billion stars. Although the main territory of the Orion Arm only has a million stars, the universe is vast and desolate. The Orion civilization spans over a thousand light-years, and about 100 million stars are within its sphere of influence, almost completely enveloping the end of this arm.

The term "sphere of influence" here also has another synonym:

Scope of Cleanup

Within its sphere of influence, the Singer civilization can freely eliminate the life and death of these one hundred million star systems, and then spread to the other end of the Chanting Branch, developing into the depths of the Milky Way, becoming the sole master of this vast space.

—If the “Ringworld” doesn’t exist.

How wonderful it would be if the edge world didn't exist.

...

At the end of the branch (Orion),
This is a realm gently enveloped by spacetime itself, devoid of the clamor of stars, only the eternal melody woven by gravitational waves and the sound of background radiation rubbing like grains of sand.

A part of the consciousness of the Singer's civilization resides here.

For civilizations at this stage, star systems are no longer the necessary breeding ground for civilization. Compared to those fragile stars that are as fragile as fireflies, placing the main body of civilization in the void is the safest option.

This is a "Quiet Courtyard" that transcends the comprehension of three-dimensional senses; it is the core of the Singer's civilization—a five-dimensional space that is almost frozen and has stopped evaporating.

The young singer, its consciousness focused and fervent, had just begun to learn and sing ancient songs of understanding the world. In those lullabies-like melodies, the singer grew at a visible pace. When the song was finished, it had matured into an adult singer.

The young singer hopes to make his own contribution to the Jingting. Although it has just been born, it is already full of passion and enthusiasm for the construction of the world. It is eager to pour its passion into this mother land of civilization.

“Singer No. 152480, ‘Cleaner’ work, you can now leave Jingting.”

The young singer paused, staring at the elder in disbelief.

"I am the best singer, I am the newborn of civilization, I have lofty ambitions, I have great songs... Why did I take up the job of a cleaner?"

“There are the best singers here.” The elder was impatient, but skillfully removed the 'thoughts' that the young singer shouldn’t have.

After his ideas were taken away, the young singer became much more docile.

"You are just a cleaner. Don't overthink it. This is your workplace. Your cleaning radius is 50 light-years. Be careful and don't clean haphazardly. These are the 'rice granaries' of civilization. Every grain of rice is precious. Farmers toil under the midday sun. The universe is full of hardship. Stars are prone to insects. Every grain is precious and hard-earned. Go now."

The elder chanted a poem he had composed himself, but which Li Bai had already written, and handed a thin star map and a small paper boat to the young singer.

The young singer accepted the paper boat and the star map.

Do I need to show you the cleaning process again?

The elder asked.

The young singer knew that the job of a cleaner would accompany him for the rest of his life. He was a little sad, but the thoughts that shouldn't have been there had long been taken away, so he could only say dejectedly, "Please, elder, demonstrate for me one more time."

The elder nodded, and the young singer's attention was roughly dragged away by the elder and then focused on a tiny, insignificant spot on the inside of the Yinzhi Spinning Arm.

This is a stellar system known as the "Eridanus Galaxy" by its low-entropy internal structure, and the stream of observational data flows into the young singer's understanding like a gentle stream:

This civilization initially existed as a low-level civilization coexisting with the natural ecosystem. It appears to have been plundered by a wandering civilization of a higher level than itself. Then, on the verge of extinction, it experienced a technological explosion, escaping the gravitational pull of its mother planet and venturing into space, becoming a landmark Type 5B civilization. Based on its cognitive logic and thought patterns, it can be inferred that this civilization possesses neither a "hidden gene" nor a "cleaning gene."

Civilizations lacking the "cleanup gene" are good civilizations, the least harmful parasites. In the most recent time particles, this civilization acquired stellar communication signal amplification technology through an unexpected event.

Subsequently, the Pojiang civilization broadcast a stellar-scale magnetic field to its star through the magnetic field generated by the symbiotic Pojiang star.

The message contained two items:

"Beautiful and kind creatures nearby, beware of the giant lizards of space! They are devouring planets everywhere. If you receive this broadcast, please prepare immediately! Defend yourselves quickly! Stay safe!"

"If you really can't defeat the giant lizards, you can escape to the Eridanus Galaxy! We've mastered the power of nuclear fission; we can defeat those giant lizards, and we'll protect you! We must unite! We must be together forever! The Eridanus Galaxy's location in the universe is 4273, 1915, 4373. (Repeated.) Our location is 4273, 1915, 4373. (Repeated.) Our location is 4273, 1915, 4373."

The stellar broadcast had barely emitted a time particle when it was captured by a nearby Cleaner ship. Considering that this civilization's behavior was too naive and it lacked both the ability to hide and clean up, posing little threat, the nearby Cleaner ship decided to temporarily preserve this civilization to serve as a "cleaning textbook" for the young singers.

Elder: "Low-entropy entities like these pose the lowest threat level. If you encounter them, you can use a single light particle to eliminate them. This is the most resource-efficient method, do you understand?"
During the cleanup process, the principle of economy must be followed. If you encounter low-entropy bodies with blind spots, you can apply to use two-dimensional foil or wide-area ray bursts, but this must be approved by me, understand? In particular, do not use two-dimensional foil indiscriminately, as pesticides will pollute the surrounding environment.

The elder patiently and kindly guided them.

The young singer indicated he understood, and pointing to the broadcast that revealed his location, he asked疑惑地问道, "Elder, what's the meaning of the giant lizard in this stellar broadcast?"

The elder said dismissively, "It should be a nomadic civilization. This kind of civilization is the most annoying. They don't parasitize a single grain of rice, but steal resources from various rice plants along the way. Such rice weevils have 'hidden genes.' If you encounter them, you can use a large-scale heat ring to clean them up. If they are traveling at the speed of light, then inform me, and I will find a higher-level cleaner to clean up these light-speed nomadic civilizations."

The young singer nodded blankly.

It unfolded the paper boat in its hand, which was its cleanup spaceship. It contained many weapons such as light particles, two-dimensional foils, wide-area rays, and thermal rings. It could travel at the speed of light, but most of the time it would only make the paper boat travel at sub-light speed, otherwise the time dilation effect would prevent it from completing the cleanup work.

"Elder, I'm leaving."

Despite being a newcomer, the young singer is already ready to fulfill his mission.

"Wait, press the button on this glowing particle first to remove this textbook that belongs only to you. Then your cleaning job will officially begin."

The young singer nodded and pressed the button.

Fifty light-years away, the Cleaner spaceship, which uses quantum entanglement as an instantaneous communication method, received the trainee's instructions and immediately targeted the star in the Eridanus Galaxy, releasing a force field tentacle with a diameter of tens of millions of kilometers. Then, with the tip of the force field tentacle, it gently flung out a point of mass at a speed close to the speed of light.

The mass point has a speed of 99% of the speed of light. Before approaching its target, the mass point will accelerate again, increasing its speed to 99.99999999999999% of the speed of light, further expanding its relativistic kinetic energy to a level sufficient to destroy a star.

The mass point is intelligent; if the target star is too large, a 9 will be added after the decimal point of its velocity, using a very small velocity increase to complete exponential kinetic energy expansion.

This cleanup spacecraft is currently 35 light-years away from the Eridanus Galaxy. In 35 years, the light particles will approach 1/8 the relativistic kinetic energy of the Eridanus star, penetrate the star, completely destroy the Eridanus civilization, and complete the cleanup.

After pressing the button, the young singer stared at the beautiful particle of light that drew a line in the flat three-dimensional universe, seemingly mesmerized.

The satisfaction of successfully cleaning brought a smile to the young singer's face.

"I killed the pests that were stealing the rice," the young singer said.

"You've graduated." The elder was very satisfied. "Goodbye, elder." The moment the young singer left the quiet courtyard, a more vast and serene consciousness, like a star's core, enveloped him, forcing him to stop in his tracks.

The visitor was the Grand Elder.

Compared to the elders, the existence of the Grand Elder is like a condensed history of the universe, with even the fluctuations of his thoughts carrying the weight of time.

"It must have lived for tens of millions of years," the young singer said enviously.

"Elder," the former elder said respectfully.

The elder ignored it and instead spoke to the young singer who was about to embark on a long journey:
"There is no need to rush, young chanters, young elders, I have some words to give you."

The Grand Elder's thoughts were as gentle as gravity. "The situation is different now than before. Not long ago, an unprecedentedly powerful civilization carved out a path of star death along the border of the Singer Civilization. The number of stars destroyed along the way was more than all the stars under the Singer Civilization combined. In fact, the path was so long that we could not even see the end. It probably has already exceeded the Yinzhi Arm and run through the entire Kuangyin Main Arm."

However, we are unclear about their objectives. Therefore, the cleanup must be carried out with extreme caution, lest we anger this vast, unknown entity. Furthermore, the war on the edge worlds is becoming increasingly intense. Therefore, young bard, the corner you are cleaning is not merely a speck of dust in the vast ocean of stars. Before deciding the fate of that speck, your vision must encompass the entire ocean to prevent shortsightedness from backfiring.

The young singer's consciousness listened attentively, while the elder's consciousness prostrated himself on the ground.

Thanks to the simultaneous transmission of memories, the young singer knew what war the elder was referring to. If the singer civilization was located at the end of the singing branch, then the edge world was the sparse space outside the end, outside the range of any spiral arm, belonging to the "inter-arm gap".

The Singer civilization at the end of the Singing Branch is waging a silent and brutal war against the edge world of the gap between the outer arms of the Singing Branch.

"The invasion of the edge worlds stems from their long-standing desire for resources in the gaps between the arms. They dare not target the main arm, so they set their sights on the Chanting Branch Arm, only to encounter us. They attempt to destroy the beautiful Singer civilization, recklessly using dimensional reduction weapons and warp weapons, unaware that this is accelerating the end of all intelligent beings. The Singer civilization's resistance is a defense of the universe, which is why I have repeatedly taught other Chanters to reduce the frequency of using the two-dimensional foil."

The young singers firmly believe in this. Cleansing the low-entropy body and fighting against the marginal world are sacred duties that continue within all singers themselves.

The elder respectfully chanted: "Your wisdom is boundless, your worries transcend space. The great Singer civilization will surely win this Black Forest War and bring the Singer back into the embrace of the Singers."

Unexpectedly, the Grand Elder rejected the Elder's praise.

"No, the edge world has gained the battlefield advantage, and Yinzhi's territory is being lost bit by bit. So far, we have lost at least 300,000 main sequence stars. The enemy's civilization level is higher than ours. If this continues... fleeing to the vast two-dimensional universe or hiding in a microcosm is inevitable."

Upon hearing this, the elder was startled.

This was the first time it had learned of such a 'secret' battle situation... The mother civilization was actually at a disadvantage, and in a war between civilizations, once a civilization is at a disadvantage, it almost certainly means certain annihilation, unless a technological explosion happens by chance, but the higher the civilization's level, the less likely a technological explosion is to occur... My God, how could this be?
As if realizing the harmfulness of his thoughts, the elder quickly deleted them.

However, the elder's next thought carried a solemnity he had never felt before.

The elder said to the young singer beside him:
"But young bard, remember this: no matter how fierce our war with the Edge World may be, never give up on clearing away the nascent low-entropy entities. It is a great task. We may suffer setbacks on the front lines, but we have already seen that deeper starry sky and the true ruler beneath it. His Majesty the Eternal Song is already considering more possibilities."

The young singer was impulsive and direct; he hadn't yet learned how to properly delete thoughts he shouldn't have, and instead boldly expressed them.

"Elder, please forgive my bluntness, but is the true ruler of the starry sky that you speak of the civilization that pierced through the entire Kuangyin Arm and killed billions of stars?"

The Grand Elder remained silent for a moment before giving his answer.

"Yes."

Before the elder could stop the young singer, the singer blurted out, "What is the name of this great civilization that rules the Milky Way?"

An ancient and vast term, carried by the Grand Elder's will, struck the core consciousness of both the young singer and the Junior Elder like a supernova explosion.
"It's called—Carbon-Based Federation."

This word seemed to carry some kind of information seal; just hearing it made the singer and the elder feel a vast aura.

The elders also noticed that the Grand Elder's mood seemed different today, and boldly asked:

"Elder, you mentioned that His Majesty of the Eternal Song is already considering more possibilities. Is this related to this civilization called the Carbon-Based Federation?"

Grand Elder: "It's related."

Elder: "Are they really that powerful?"

The Grand Elder: "They are the Milky Way itself. Their territory spans the four spiral arms, and their tentacles extend to every dimensional fold. The Yinzhi we are in, the gap between the arms occupied by the edge world, may just be two adjacent courtyards on their huge map, where insects occasionally fight."

"Then aren't we also among those they're going to eliminate?" the elder said fearfully.

The Grand Elder remained calm:
"No, they are not trying to kill civilizations. At least in their so-called 'Announcement of the Supreme Command of the Galactic Carbon-Based Federation on the Construction of Starless Isolation Zones,' there is no indication of launching a Dark Forest attack against the Singer Civilization. His Majesty the Eternal Song even deduced the other party's anti-Dark Forest Law attitude from that announcement."

"How is this possible?" the elder exclaimed in shock.

How could any civilization act against the Dark Forest Theory? This is the most fundamental and widespread behavior in the universe.

Just as big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimp, the Dark Forest Law is part of the social ecology. What kind of monster would a civilization grow against this social ecology?

"I don't know about that, but His Majesty the Eternal Song did see another possibility in this announcement."

After the elder finished explaining, he turned his attention back to the young singer.
For the first time, the young singer's consciousness felt a tremor called "insignificance." Its mother world, capable of arbitrarily reducing dimensions and destroying star systems, capable of waging a tug-of-war with the edge worlds for thousands of light-years, and even claiming to be the future master of the singing branch, yet in the Grand Elder's description, all their actions seemed to occur under the tacit approval or even disregard of some grander being.

"What...what form do they take? What is their purpose?" the young singer couldn't help but ask.

The Grand Elder: "This is not a question you should ask, nor is it a question I should answer."

The elder deleted the young singer's idea, and also deleted his own.

The Grand Elder said, “The work of cleaning up the low-entropy bodies still needs to be done, but during the cleaning process, we must be careful not to get too close to that star’s death road. If any abnormal phenomena are encountered during the cleaning process, they should be reported immediately.”

Young singer: "I've got it."

The Grand Elder said, “I have also instructed the other chanters in charge of the cleanup that you may encounter cleanup crews from other civilizations during your voyage. If you can spot them first, then clean them up as well.”

Young singer: "Yes."

The Grand Elder said, “Whether it’s the war between the Mother World and the Edge World, or your cleanup, as long as you don’t cross the Carbon-Based Federation’s unknown bottom line, they won’t interfere. So this is different from the past. Do not clean up indiscriminately and attract their attention. Only clean up coordinates that are sincere. His Majesty the Eternal Song will try to initiate anonymous communication with the Carbon-Based Federation to find out their attitude. During this period, keep a low profile.”

A long silence fell over the quiet courtyard, broken only by the hissing of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

The elder has left, leaving only the young singer and the elder at the scene.

The young singer looked at the elder, as if to say: What is the meaning of my work?
“The meaning lies in existence itself, young singer.” The elder’s response returned to its usual composure, erasing any thoughts the young singer should not have.

The young singer's consciousness was redirected back to that distant star field, where the Eridanus Galaxy was facing its countdown to destruction. For some reason, the young singer seemed to see the future of the mother world.

It was startled and promptly deleted its thought.

This is the first time since its inception that it has learned to delete its own thoughts.

"You've grown up." The elder said with great satisfaction.

"Thank you, Elder. I will find meaning in my work, and I will find my own songs."

Subsequently, the authorization command transcended space and was inherited by the newly born young singer. The young singer stepped into the crystal-clear paper boat, which rippled through space and slowly sailed out of the quiet courtyard. Then, by using the fourth and fifth spatial dimensions, it quickly glided towards the workstation with a radius of 50 light-years.

"I will try my best to clean up all the low-entropy bodies."

The young singer looked up at the starry sky, his resolve unwavering.

(End of this chapter)