After confirming that the Black Fog on the ground had dissipated, Lind finally had the leisure to carefully observe the planet beneath his feet, or rather, 550C finally provided Lind with a different perspective.
What first attracted Lind’s attention was not the familiar yet strange blue planet below him, but the white space stations surrounding it, which looked like large thumbtacks pinned above this planet—along with other space stations similar to the Heavenly Palace Command Center.
At this moment, the lights in a corridor inside the space station lit up in sequence, seemingly guiding Lind to move in that direction. Lind focused on the scenery outside as he followed the guidance of 550C, leaving the armory and walking deeper into the space station.
“As you think, those are all space stations of the same specification as this one.”
Lind immediately knew that 550C was peeking into his mind, a situation he had become somewhat accustomed to and no longer complained about. Instead, he asked, “Are those space stations also connected to the Tower of Babel?”
“That’s correct. They have varying degrees of damage. Some can still operate directly, while others, like your area, need special methods to be repaired, and some theoretically cannot be repaired at all.”
“I have not seen other continents while coming to the space station. The only one adjacent to us, the Solun Continent, also does not have buildings or legends similar to the Tower of Babel.”
At least based on Lind’s investigations and knowledge, there should only be one Tower of Babel in this world, unless other Towers of Babel were hidden behind those mists.
Just as Lind had that thought in his mind, the voice of 550C immediately echoed in his head:
“Your assumption is correct.”
550C slightly rotated the corridor Lind was in. In low-gravity mode, Lind floated gently and quickly readjusted his posture. After the corridor rotated slightly, the scenery outside shifted from the space stations next to the Heavenly Palace to the blue planet beneath Lind’s feet.
He saw that besides the M Continent he was on, there was an endless expanse of mist enveloping even the skies above the Solun Continent, while the mist in other areas was even more pronounced.
Lind approached the window for a closer look and discovered that this mist was not only a physical mist but also resembled the fog of war in an RTS game, where something prevented those in the sky from seeing the situation in other regions.
“Each region is mutually separated and does not communicate. Some are merely geographically divided like the Solun Continent, while others are completely isolated.”
With the help of the low gravity and a drone, Lind quickly arrived at the room indicated by 550C. The drone handed him a set of protective clothing, and under 550C’s control, it firmly encouraged Lind to put it on.
“This was initially designed to prevent pollution from causing chaos in this world. Humans voluntarily divided the regions to ensure that even if one area becomes polluted, the remaining humans will not be entirely wiped out.”
“Just as you observed on the M Continent, mental illness did not pollute the Solun Continent through the Sea of Consciousness. The Solun Continent is even unaware of what happened. This division is not just physical but also includes mental aspects.”
Listening to 550C’s explanation, the drone pushed Lind, now dressed in heavy protective clothing, to a door. Unlike the other automatically opening sensor doors in the space station, this door adopted the simplest handle form, as if it had no modern machinery; it looked like an ordinary door that wouldn’t be out of place at the entrance of Lind’s bedroom, standing in stark contrast to the highly technological space station.
As Lind pressed the handle and pushed the door open, an ancient atmosphere greeted him.
Lind had imagined a lot about the room that 550C invited him to, and although he thought it might be a room replete with worms and tentacles, he never imagined it would be a movie theater.
It looked just like a cinema from the early 21st century, not a large city cinema, but rather a small countryside cinema, with quite simple equipment that couldn’t be called intelligent. Lind even recalled that he had been to such a cinema when his school organized events during his childhood, with a big red banner saying “Welcome Leaders for Inspection” hanging on the screen without any sense of incongruity.
The voice of 550C came from the helmet of Lind’s protective suit, but unlike before, the synthetic voice was now quite hoarse, and the sound quality had regressed considerably.
“Citizen, please pay attention. The following segment is a pre-recorded audio. After entering the data room, please remember to close the door properly.”
After listening, Lind instinctively latched the door handle behind him and then followed the audio’s instructions to sit in the center of the cinema.
There were no IMAX giant screens or high-end projectors; Lind even saw the dust particles in the beams projected by the projector behind him.
A person dressed in heavy protective clothing, as if entering Chernobyl, sat in a place resembling a countryside cinema, listening to an audio recording of wisdom emitted by people in the super advanced era.
Even in a dream, Lind could not imagine such an absurd dream scenario, but this situation was indeed happening.
At that moment, Lind even doubted whether he was already dead, as there was a legend stating that after a person dies, they experience a cinema that reviews their entire life.
However, as the slightly shaking image on the screen began to light up, Lind understood that what was being reviewed was not his life but the “life” of human civilization as a whole.
He saw a group of astronomers continuously enlarging a cosmic photograph on the screen. There were no subtitles, but Lind could vaguely hear that this was a photo taken by the most expensive and advanced astronomical telescope of the time.
“When the first intelligent humans looked up, humankind’s yearning for the starry sky was hard to suppress.”
For some reason, Lind recalled this line, perhaps on Blue Planet, only humans would be so obsessed with the starry sky.
To be honest, even in this moment, Lind felt no psychological discomfort; if he weren’t dressed in heavy protective clothing, he would think this was just an ordinary science popularization film.
But Lind soon noticed something was off, just like the astronomers on the screen.
Although this photograph was taken by the most expensive and advanced astronomical telescope of humanity, although it could be said that this photograph encapsulated the efforts of all humanity, and although this photograph could be magnified many times, why was it still being magnified, and still being magnified continuously?
The astronomers on the screen seemed to share Lind’s question. Logically speaking, the photo should have already reached its theoretical limit of magnification, but why could it still be enlarged? The photo was being magnified over and over again, probing into the depths of the universe.
No other species is as obsessed with the starry sky as humans are, and this obsession drives these astronomers to keep magnifying this bizarre cosmic photo, magnifying… and continuing to magnify… deep into the universe, to the extent that these astronomers forgot to question why this photo could be magnified continuously; everyone wanted to explore the secrets of the starry sky.
Magnifying… and continuing to magnify, even Lind found himself unconsciously widening his eyes, wanting to see how many times this photo could be enlarged.
“Citizen, please pay attention. According to normal time, you are about to experience the first shock. Please remember that what you are seeing is all fake; you are not connecting and making eye contact with ****. Please remember that what you are seeing is all fake; you are not connecting and making eye contact with ****. Please remember that what you are seeing is all fake; you are not connecting and making eye contact with ****.”
The important thing must be repeated three times; the pre-recorded, chaotic voice of 550C echoed in Lind’s ears.
Lind instantly woke up, staring intently at the screen and watching the continually magnified photograph.
In what seemed to have been endowed with some sort of power, within the photograph of the universe being endlessly magnified, in the rift that transcended reason and perception, humanity locked eyes with Him.
