Chapter 96: Dark Forest (II)

Chapter 96: Dark Forest (II)

Picking up from the last chapter — Du Xiaoran, it turned out, had known all along that the virtual Future World was a mirror image formed by entangled photon pairs. That set my mind spinning.

A metaverse — a world simulated by a core supercomputer, however lifelike — was still something science could explain, no matter how convincing the illusion. But a mirror-image world was something else entirely. That was virtual truly being reality. This was technology Earth humans had absolutely no business possessing. Because pairs in quantum entanglement move in perfect sync. Every person, every event I encountered in that mirror world truly existed at the other end, in reality.

Taking a microscopic theory like that and scaling it up to the macroscopic world involved not just countless unsolved research problems but obstacles that might be flatly impossible to cross. Even if every technical hurdle had somehow been cleared, actually building it would still be an engineering project of staggering scale. And nothing of that scale had ever visibly happened in the real world.

This wasn’t something an ordinary person could wrap their head around.

Du Xiaoran finally admitted the Myriad-Dimensional Brain had told him. Which only made things stranger. The Myriad-Dimensional Brain was a silicon-based fossil — how exactly was anyone supposed to read information out of it?

I asked,

“The Myriad-Dimensional Brain? Didn’t you say you never managed to decode it?”

Du Xiaoran said,

“I never did decode it. Turns out there was nothing to decode. The Myriad-Dimensional Brain sends me dream-messages on its own. Whoever owned it before me probably got the same treatment, but people back then were too superstitious to handle something that supernatural. So either they went mad, or they died, and whoever survived unloaded it as fast as they could. Nobody ever really treated it as what it actually was — an alien. Not until it landed in Zhang Zirui’s hands.

“Zhang Zirui, being a young scientist, sent it straight to the Shadow Pavilion’s supercomputer, and that’s how everything after got started. Once I took it over, the Brain started sending me dream-messages directly. It was the Brain, too, that told me to go find you, to help you — said you could be the one to help it get back home.”

I fixed my eyes on Du Xiaoran and said,

“Something this important, and you never said a word?”

Du Xiaoran said,

“You think I’d have dared? If I’d told you straight out back then, would you have believed a word of it?”

I said,

“No.”

Du Xiaoran said,

“There you go. Some things only work once they’ve ripened on their own — that’s when two sides can actually understand each other. Say it too soon, and it doesn’t work.”

That gave me pause.

He had a point. If he’d told me all this outright at the time, I probably wouldn’t have believed him — wouldn’t have agreed to work with him either. It would have sounded like nothing but a con job, or the ramblings of someone unwell.

I said,

“So letting Pu Liuqian take the Myriad-Dimensional Brain — that was the Brain’s own idea too?”

Du Xiaoran nodded.

“Obviously. You think I’d have been able to part with it otherwise? Ten years, man. We had a bond by then. I really did make good money on the side, all thanks to what the Brain taught me. And yeah, it’s true — it shaped me deeply. Otherwise, why would I have gone through all those dangerous stunts with you? Do you know how risky that was?”

I said,

“We’ll leave the past where it is for now. What exactly is your plan for that mineral in the Dark Forest? You found the resource, fine, good for you — but look at yourself. There’s no way you can carry it away.”

Du Xiaoran said,

“I know that. So here’s what I was thinking. You come check out the deposit, help me chase off the people trying to steal it, and I’ll trust that your true body is bound to end up here eventually. When that day comes, you’ll be able to bring some back for real. This stuff doesn’t exist anywhere on Earth. It’d be worth a fortune.”

I said,

“Sure, maybe. But this resource belongs to Bixian Star and HD Star. It’s not our place to come mining here. When the time’s right, I’ll see if I can work something out with them, ask if I can bring a little back. As for what you found — think of it as a free geological survey for them. They didn’t even know they had all this buried under their own feet.”

Du Xiaoran said,

“So we’re really not going to develop it?”

I said,

“Develop it, my ass. You think you can take on HD Star? Their technology is at least a million years ahead of ours, and on top of that, this happens to be Xuanze and Hanming’s home. Sounds to me like money’s blinded you. You haven’t even seen the people, and all you see is gold.”

Du Xiaoran said,

“Who are Xuanze and Hanming, anyway?”

I said,

“The true selves behind the Myriad-Dimensional Brain and the lotus-shaped green jade disk. The two of them were lovers from HD Star. They came to Earth, one after the other, and met with disaster.”

Du Xiaoran said,

“That beautiful woman told you all this? How does every good thing land in your lap?”

I said,

“What, jealous? Feel free to go take my place.”

Du Xiaoran said,

“Can’t. The Myriad-Dimensional Brain — or whoever Xuanze and Hanming actually are — doesn’t know me from anyone.”

I said,

“Enough talk. Where’s the mineral deposit? Let’s go take a look right now.”

Du Xiaoran nodded.

I scooped up flying-squirrel-form Du Xiaoran and, following his directions, flew straight to the area near the deposit in an instant.

Sure enough, I found a cluster of interstellar beastmen in the Dark Forest, who had cleared a small patch of ground and set up a fair amount of surveying and exploration equipment. Seven or eight of them were hard at work drilling deep test holes.

To keep things hidden, though, the beastmen had also stretched a camouflage net over the clearing, colored to match the forest exactly. Anyone glancing down from high above probably wouldn’t have spotted them at all — the Dark Forest was enormous, nearly half the size of the Elite World. A patch this small, even with something slightly off about it, would be easy to miss.

Du Xiaoran pointed toward a small building nearby and said,

“That’s their office. All the data and records from their survey work are in there. We should grab that first, then wreck their equipment and files so they can’t pick up where they left off.”

I said,

“That’ll only slow them down. Give it time, and they’ll be back. This isn’t really our problem to solve—we can’t manage it. But I can pass word to Xuanze and Hanming’s families and let HD Star handle it.”

Du Xiaoran said, clearly reluctant to let it go,

“So that’s it, then? We’re really not mining it?”

I said,

“Earth humans and HD Star aren’t even remotely on the same level. If HD Star decided to wipe out the entire planet tomorrow, all we could do is stand there and watch. You think you can fight back against that? And here you are, still fretting over someone else’s family fortune. Think about it. If we use what you found to show goodwill from Earth and trade that for peace, you’ll have already earned yourself real credit. I’m going to meet Xuanze and Hanming’s families and return their remains and consciousness bodies to them. That’s me protecting Earth’s people too, understand? Otherwise, if they come to take it by force, what exactly would you do to stop them?”

Du Xiaoran looked at me and said,

“Why do I suddenly feel like you’ve turned noble? Is this that whole ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ thing?”

I said,

“Don’t go putting a halo on me. Honestly, I keep wondering if this — this one thing — might be the entire reason I was born.”

Du Xiaoran immediately gave me a thumbs up.

“That’s what they call the Chosen One.”

I said,

“Cut it out. Who wouldn’t rather live a quiet, peaceful life? Honestly, I miss the plain, carefree days back in Liutan Town more than any of this. Anyway, we can hash all this out later. For now, you stay put and keep watch. I’ll handle this myself.”

With that, I turned invisible and shot toward the beastmen’s survey site.

The black-armored beastmen kept working while muttering among themselves, wondering whether that flying squirrel might give away their operation.

One of them, clearly some kind of officer, said,

“Still no word from Zhuyan and the others? If they don’t check in soon, they may really be in trouble. Report it to the interstellar base right away — tell them the HD Star people may have already found us.”

I didn’t bother with any of that. In an instant, I drove my force of consciousness into the seas of consciousness of all dozen-plus beastmen and herded them together in one spot. Only then did I head toward the small building.

Seeing how effortlessly I’d taken care of them, Du Xiaoran flew over too.

We stepped inside, and to my surprise, two more beastmen were huddled there, trembling with fear.

Using force of consciousness, I asked,

“Where are you from? And how did you find out about the deposit here?”

The two terrified beastmen were probably females—no, women.

One of them said,

“We’re from Tengshe Star. Back during the last interstellar war between Tengshe Star and HD Star, we were stationed on Bixian Star. One of our geological team members discovered the secret of this planet’s minerals. We’ve been secretly planning around it for years since. We only ever sent tiny survey teams, just enough to search without drawing HD Star’s attention.”

I said, sternly,

“And then what — once the survey results came in, Tengshe Star would send in troops to invade and plunder? Tengshe Star and HD Star would go to war again, and people on both sides would die in droves. Is that really what you want to see happen?”

The two female beastmen lowered their heads and said nothing.

I walked over to the records and flipped through them.

I had to give Tengshe Star’s survey team credit — they were thorough professionals. The classification, sample data, depth readings, and quality assessments were all meticulously recorded and analyzed.

The samples and parameter records alone filled ten large crates.

I had Du Xiaoran keep an eye on the two beastmen and told them to pack up every last piece of data and every sample immediately. I stepped outside myself, swept my palm through the air, and smashed every piece of survey equipment to pieces.

Then, with a thought, I pulled a good number of the surrounding trees over — the larger ones especially — to block the area from view. Only then did I head back inside.

This time, I did not drain the force of consciousness from the two beastmen. Once I saw they’d finished packing everything up, I said,

“Take all your data and come with me. I won’t take your lives. But if you don’t behave, then I can’t promise what will happen.”

Neither of them dared resist. They’d already seen, through the window, how easily I could take a beastman’s life with the smallest gesture. They knew exactly what kind of being they were dealing with. So they packed up every last piece of material without a word of protest.

I swept both the beastmen and their materials straight into the Qiankun Pouch.

Then I destroyed the small building along with their communication equipment, and covered the whole area with forest vines until there was nothing left to suggest anyone had ever been there.

Watching me finish, Du Xiaoran said,

“Your force of consciousness is basically defying nature at this point. I doubt even the Shadow Pavilion would be your match now. So — that Qiankun Pouch I gave you, useful, right? Without it, no matter how capable you were, you wouldn’t have had an easy time hauling these guys off.”

I said,

“Fine, you’re amazing—you get top credit for this one. But no matter how good your Qiankun Pouch is, I still can’t carry any of this back to the real Earth. Otherwise I’d bring some of the mineral back right now. So you need to figure out a way to build a version that works in the real world too. However good the virtual world is, it’s still just something that lives inside consciousness. Reality is what actually matters. Come on — you’re coming with me to meet Xuanze and Hanming’s families too. You’re basically half a successor to the Myriad-Dimensional Brain, after all. Looks like they’re almost here.”

My avatar had already sensed that Xuanze’s and Hanming’s families were about to arrive.

With that, I brought Du Xiaoran with me, leapt into the sky, and flew straight for Silver Pearl’s Crystal Palace.