Chapter Fourteen: Concealing Civilization with Civilization

Once upon a time, the quiet starry sky made humans arrogantly put forward the theory of the first civilization in the universe.
Even on the timescales of the universe that humans can predict, 13.8 billion years have already passed.
On such a vast timeline, coupled with the spatial range of the universe measured in light-years, it's not surprising that strange civilizations and strange events could have emerged.
After the first civilization theory, countless evidence has shown that it is nothing but an arrogant inference after Lu Yu opened the window for mankind to observe the universe.
The sacred mountain in front of us... or the civilization that created this folded space had already reached the ninth level of civilization as early as one billion years ago, perhaps they are the ones who deserve to be called the first civilization.
Continuing to climb up the mundane path along the holy mountain, you will find the surrounding scenery starting to blur. As you keep moving forward, in front of you is the boundless starry sky, with a staircase made purely of light emitting a soft and gentle glow. It is nearly a kilometer wide and constantly winding upwards, leading into the depths of the starry sky.
The scene in front is dazzling with a hint of strangeness.
Within this art-like staircase of light lies a terrifying technology. That is, the ethereal light has not only condensed into a physical form, but also possesses certain physical characteristics. It allows beings to tread on the staircase and traverse this scenery reminiscent of the starry sky, ultimately reaching the summit of the Sacred Mountain as indicated by this path.
It is not in the folded space, but it connects itself to it through space technology.
The so-called top of the sacred mountain is actually inside the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy!
It is the undisputed absolute core of the entire galaxy, around which all celestial bodies, whether planets or stars, or star clusters, or gas clouds, actually revolve. The so-called fourth cosmic velocity is based on the theoretical data specially created for it.
It is like the king of a vast empire, any powerful celestial body, whether it is another black hole or other dense celestial bodies such as neutron stars, is nothing compared to it. All matter within its gravitational range is its subjects, all submitting to it, revolving around it.
Even a stellar civilization cannot get too close to it.
Its gravity is just too powerful, and if you get too close to it, even the technology created by the Grand Unified Theory will fail because of the extreme gravity and terrifying spacetime distortion.
At this point, the steps suddenly have the starry sky as a reference. There are aging giant stars everywhere, as well as neutron stars, white dwarfs and other dense celestial bodies. Various interstellar dust clouds are also very common here.
A large interstellar dust and gas cloud with a total mass tens of times greater than the mass of the sun, if located elsewhere, under certain conditions, will form a star shining in the universe.
But its position always denies it the chance.
This mass of gas clouds is like a layer of colored mist, shrouding the giant black hole, accelerated by its terrifying gravity and continuously spiraling into it.
Extremely high speeds in sports mean intense collisions, in which they gain extremely high energy to escape the gravitational field of black holes, eventually forming spectacular jets that stretch for hundreds of light-years.
Everything here is extreme.
Even on the light level, you can feel the distortion getting closer to the black hole, and it's amazing that every step on the ladder can cover a distance equivalent to light years.
This path, which is built upon the ladder of light, is itself a stable spatial channel. It ultimately leads to a critical point close to the event horizon of the black hole, where a one-dimensional line exists in a bizarre balance at this extreme position.
It has no width, no height, in other words, it occupies no space at all, has no volume, no surface area, no mass, nothing, just a single point in the three-dimensional world, it exists in this way.
Such a state of existence is almost indistinguishable from non-existence.
But to say that it does not exist seems inappropriate. It truly lies in the line of sight of the black hole. If a civilization with space technology observes carefully for tens of thousands of years, perhaps they could sense its space-time fluctuations that almost overlap with the black hole.
This thin line is actually a world, it is a one-dimensional world, which is the limit that the ninth-level civilization with mastering space technology can achieve.
Three-dimensional space has three dimensions, namely length, width and height. The two-dimensional world has two dimensions, namely length and width, but no height. The body of space creatures is such a form of existence. The one-dimensional world only has the dimension of length.
If you want to go further, it would be zero dimension, which has already involved the technology of cosmic-level civilization.
The one-dimensional world in front of us exists in extreme environments, as if conscious life forms like the Alliance are collecting sub-Planck scale particles hidden in extreme environments such as magnetic stars in order to break through to the level of the universe and civilization.
But in reality, this one-dimensional world does not engage in any intake of external material, but instead is desperately trying to control its own spatial fluctuations.
Among them, the civilization... seems more like animals desperately hiding in caves in a wilderness where fierce beasts roam. But they are already a ninth-level civilization, and there are almost no normal means in the universe that can destroy them.
But this one-dimensional world is stuck at the critical point of the black hole's event horizon, with only the passage extending from the folded space, stretching from a higher-dimensional perspective, it will be found to be straight through the one-dimensional world like a line.
而在这个一维世界里，像是以一个以世界为规模的庞大的机房。
一维世界中的内部空间几乎被各种各样的计算设备所占满了，在这里，到处都是一些像是擎天巨柱一般大型计算机设备，无数的线路在这里蔓延串联在一起。
Through the immense computing power, the information carried through these millions of data channels flows back and forth in the terminals of these computers—space bubbles.
"What? Space No. 253 was actually killed by the created creature?"
"Unbelievable..."
"Aren't we controlled weapons supposed to have spatial barriers? A four-dimensional spatial barrier? That's a technology only a galactic-level civilization can master, right?"
"What on earth is the Elder Council doing??"
These space bubbles, despite sharp criticism, can only rage impotently on a computer terminal.
They are more like being fixed in place, just like the one-dimensional world outside, unable to move an inch.
Before Lu Yu couldn't understand how a functioning advanced civilization, even if the folded space was just a zoo-like recreational area, should not be invaded by a stellar civilization and even have its space plundered and taken away.
Indeed... A normal high-level civilization should not let such things happen, their reconnaissance ship alone could probably crush the entire fleet of a stellar civilization!
But unfortunately, this snail living in the one-dimensional world of the ninth-level civilization... is really not in a normal state.
They call themselves the Wo tribe, and they reached the ninth-level civilization as early as one billion years ago.
But the Wo tribe quickly discovered two facts that were right in front of them.
First, the universe was so desolate that, as they looked out from their birth galaxies into the vast universe, there was not a single equal being with whom they could communicate.
Secondly, the super-civilization above the ninth-level civilization.
The first point is that it can be known from long-term observation of the universe, and the second point is verified by the super-creations of spiral tribes spread across the universe.
And so they began to expand their footsteps beyond the galaxy, while also embarking on the development towards a universal civilization.
Millions of light years away from the galaxy, the Vowan finally had the opportunity to encounter two other ninth-level civilizations. The technologies of the three races had reached the pinnacle of nine levels, and they were all beginning to develop towards a universal civilization.
Material located hundreds of thousands, even millions of light years away, is freely available to them, so there is no chance of interstellar conflict erupting due to resource issues.
Furthermore, as they are all on the path to advancing towards a more advanced civilization, they naturally form alliances.
With the efforts of their own race, they have been promoted to the ninth level of civilization, and there is no doubt about their scientific research capabilities
Even so, the cooperation of the three races, like a fusion, took almost tens of millions of years to get through the first level of restarters.
As the three races celebrated their groundbreaking achievements, the warnings from the rebooters quickly came knocking.
At first, these seemingly flimsy warnings meant nothing to the three races who had already glimpsed the dawn of a cosmic-level civilization.
Believe that it is just a intimidating suppression of the later comers by the first civilization.
So, they did not stop, instead, they accelerated their pace.
They plan to make breakthroughs in civilization before the arrival of the hidden cosmic-level civilization!
Then the second warning for the rebooters came - the logic lock on races!
All basic science about cosmic-level civilizations has been locked from the mental level, and from the cognitive level, the three races will never again be aware of any theory about cosmic-level civilizations.
Just like a pen right in front of your eyes, but even if you see it yourself, touch it, or even if someone reminds you, you still won't realize that there is a pen right in front of you.
Such a logical lock almost amounts to locking up the hope of a civilization breaking through to the cosmic level.
The Wo race chose to give up, but the other two races besides the Wo race never gave up. They almost seemed to be on the verge of finding a way around the logical lock by almost exhausting all possibilities, after evaporating the mass of one galaxy after another.
And then...........
And then they were wiped out in front of the Wozu people.
All the information, all the existence, all the technology, were all wiped out completely.
The WO people can only infer from those ruins and the incomplete data in the central computer that there used to be two ninth-level civilizations that were like one body.
This rude and unreasonable means directly scared the surviving WO people, this is the crushing from the level of civilization, just like a stellar civilization bringing its planet-like main battleship to the home star of a planetary civilization.
Nothing needs to be done to make a planetary civilization collapse.
The power wielded by the Rebooters is so unreasonably destructive to a Ninth-level civilization.
The Vo clan no longer dared to take a step towards the cosmic civilization, and even because their former allies collectively disappeared, the entire race had a stress response.
They transitioned from openness to closure, covering up all traces of their civilization, and even hiding the entire population at the event horizon of a black hole.
The greater the gravitational force, the greater the distortion of time.
At the critical point of the field of vision, the flow of time here has slowed to an incredibly slow level for the outside world.
It's possible that a thousand years have passed in the universe while only one second has passed here.
Civilization exists here, and locking oneself to the technology, waiting for the cosmic doomsday to destroy oneself is no different.
Another seed of a cosmic-level civilization is being violated to this extent
Well, I can only say it's another heinous act of the rebooters!
However, such self-closed and suicidal behavior will naturally provoke backlash from members of civilization as time goes by. There will always be people in a civilization who long for the stars and the sea, rather than constantly standing on the edge of the abyss.
Use civilization to cover up civilization, and use civilization to conceal civilization.
When a member of civilization shouts such a slogan, the division of the Wo tribe is doomed.
Even when it comes to the ninth level of civilization, the members' thinking has evolved to a height that is difficult for humans to understand, but when faced with irreconcilable conflicts, they still use this primitive and efficient method to solve them.
The result is naturally that the reformists have the upper hand.
But it's a strange state of winning without completely winning.
The main body of the Wo tribe is still hidden in the black hole, alerting that their rebooter may end up appearing, while opening a window in the universe and regenerating some special life forms as a cover.
These special lives generated by the ninth-level civilization will establish civilization on the so-called mother star, and this civilization... is just to cover up the traces of another civilization observing the universe.
Folding space is not a zoo, but an observation window!
These special lives must have the Wo Clan controlling their fate. When it comes to special lives like Capo, it is the position to insert into the core!
However, over billions of years, they have made no progress in basic science and have only made some progress in space application technology. The long period of isolation, the logical lock on theories involving cosmic-level civilizations, and the internal turmoil affecting the entire civilization have inevitably led to a decline in civilization.
而随着时间的推移，这样的衰退现象持续困扰着沃族，他们甚至认为这是有莫名手段的重启者们对他们发动的下一轮攻击。
The more panicked the panic-stricken, the more extreme the extremists.
The special creatures in the observation window are becoming more and more unnatural, more and more like... weapons that can directly exert power when implanted into the core of the Wu tribe.
Now, after a billion years, they had never seen the Restarters, but had been driven to this point by them.
Lu Yu's announcement to the entire universe, of course, had been received by them all, but for civilizations deeply wounded by them, could a few words alone reignite their pursuit of cosmic-level civilization?
If there really was such persistence, it would have been eradicated along with the two brothers long ago!
And the civilization would not have declined to the point where even the technology to maintain the observation window cannot be recreated.
Also not afraid of the rebooter, not even the invading stellar civilization dares to be pinched to death with one hand, fearing that they will expose their tracks in the vast universe and attract the attention of the rebooters again.
Perhaps for a civilization, decline may not start from technology; the collapse of ideas is the beginning of internal decline for a civilization.
And now... as Capo treads the steps, will he toll the death knell of civilization, or will he awaken this billion-year-old slumbering civilization?