Chapter 208
"Miss Firefly..." the Doctor looked at the stranger in front of him and tilted his head. "May I ask where little sister Bailu is?"
"She returned to the Xianzhou to rest," Xia Yu said earnestly. "Currently, this unit is under my control."
"Unit..." Hearing this, the Doctor's interest instantly piqued. "It seems the Bailu we met before wasn't her real self?"
"In a sense, it was her," Xia Yu nodded. "We only deployed this one unit to this star system. It's a public unit that anyone logs into when they need to."
"The Alliance's resources are tight. Honestly, Doctor, if it weren't for your existence, we wouldn't waste this precious unit by leaving it in this seemingly hopeless civilization."
"This kind of technology... is very similar to the Mind Mapping technology we researched before," the Doctor paid no mind to her words, speaking instead with great enthusiasm. "In the past, I would often use Mind Mapping to travel to primitive civilizations many light-years away, to participate in their lives and festivals..."
"What is your technology based on..."
"Stop, stop, stop," hearing this, Xia Yu quickly interrupted his words. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the last Molten Knight, Glamoth Iron Cavalry, Firefly."
"Meaning, I only know how to fight and kill. Don't ask me technical questions; I'm not a member of the Genius Society, and I have nothing to do with the Intelligentsia Guild."
"Intelligentsia Guild? Genius Society?" The Doctor immediately grew interested upon hearing this. "They sound like research institutions within your civilization?"
"To be precise, not just our civilization, but the places where the smartest batch of people in the entire Milky Way reside," Xia Yu began to bluff. "Our origins might be far more distant than you think, Doctor."
"Is that so?" The Doctor blinked, but didn't delve deeper into the topic, instead asking, "Since you're responsible for combat, could you talk to me about the missions you've undertaken?"
"The non-classified ones, I'm purely curious."
Beside them, Amiya also pricked up her ears. She couldn't understand what the Doctor and the pretty older sister in front of him were talking about earlier, but she knew that the older sister was going to tell a story next.
It couldn't be helped. Theresa and Kal'tsit were currently incredibly busy, dealing with the Kazdel issue that would occur in a few days. The entirety of Babel was mobilized, and barely any idle people could be seen.
You could say the most idle ones were right here. No one had the time to look after Amiya, so the task ultimately fell into the Doctor's hands.
And the latter clearly wanted to coax more information out of Xia Yu regarding the so-called civilization behind her.
"My last mission was on Penacony," since it had come to this, Xia Yu didn't mind shooting the breeze with him. "There, I witnessed the failure of a confused, selfless saint."
"Come, tell me in detail!" The Doctor pushed the fruit platter in front of him forward.
"The Planet of Festivities Penacony is the most shining vacation resort in the Milky Way," Xia Yu began to narrate. "Due to the Asdana star system's uniquely advantageous dense Memory Zone Meme environment, on the planet of Penacony at the center of the system, the veil between the Dreamscape and reality is unprecedentedly thin."
At this point, she looked at the Doctor's gaze under the hood, which exuded a strong thirst for knowledge, and shook her head. "Don't ask me what a Memory Zone Meme is. I told you, I'm not a scholar, nor do I care about these things."
"You just need to know that on Penacony, managed by the Family, people can enter constructed Dreamscapes after falling asleep, having fun to their heart's content."
"Every fantastical journey you can imagine can be realized there."
"How interesting," the Doctor grew even more interested.
"And my target for that mission was named Sunday," Xia Yu said slowly. "From my perspective, he was undeniably an enemy that needed to be overcome, the ultimate villain who deprived the people of the entire star system of their freedom."
"Like those great Demon Kings who destroy the world?" Hearing this, Amiya couldn't help but ask.
"A Demon King? Hmm, I suppose, a Demon King just like Theresa," Xia Yu smiled. "A supremely benevolent and kind Demon King."
"As the head of the Oak Family, one of the powers that rule Penacony, Sunday was undoubtedly a good person. He had seen too much suffering. Amiya, you might not fully understand and might think the Penacony I described is just a giant amusement park, but the Doctor should be able to figure it out."
"Any dream can be realized..." The Doctor shook his head upon hearing this. "The human heart isn't exactly a bright and honorable thing."
"Yes. On the most joyous planet in the entire universe, Sunday witnessed people abandoning their wives and children to enter the Dreamscape, people losing their futures by lingering in the Dreamscape, and people living drunkenly and dreaming mindlessly, ignoring reality..."
"He was very kind and couldn't bear to see this, but unlike his younger sister, who had traveled across the stars for her dream to find her true path, his entire life was trapped within this small Penacony."
"So this Sunday unsurprisingly resorted to extremes, right?" The Doctor understood clearly in his heart.
"Yes, he resorted to extremes, the very extreme kind," Xia Yu revealed a strange smile on her face.
"How extreme could it be?" the Doctor asked curiously.
"He used the rituals of Harmony to attempt to resurrect an Aeon, Ena of Order," Xia Yu glanced at the Doctor and said. "Aeons, you can just understand them as a rational version of the Observer."
In reality, they were much stronger than the Observer, but it was just hard to explain to the Doctor.
"...A rational version?" The Doctor gasped sharply at this.
"How should I describe it to you," Xia Yu scratched her head. "Hmm, let's put it this way: relying on the remaining power of the deceased Order, Sunday successfully enveloped the entire Asdana star system."
"Then he dragged everyone inside into a Dreamscape. In the Dreamscape he wove, no one needed to worry about life, everyone was born happy, and everyone had the right to choose their own dreams."
"After Sunday, there would come a first, a second, and countless subsequent Sundays, days of peaceful idleness."
"As for the price, it was his own personal eternal martyrdom. The existence of the Dreamscape had to be maintained by a single awake person."
"Was it that crazy?" Hearing this, the Doctor was stunned. "But... if everything was dragged into a Dreamscape, who would fend off danger? Who would be responsible for development? Who would run society?"
"One person's eternal martyrdom? It sounds noble, but who could guarantee that he could truly remain 'eternal'? Human sanity is limited. It might be maintained for a year or two, or a century or two, but what about ten or twenty thousand years? Hundreds of thousands or millions of years?"
"When he finally couldn't hold on and the Dreamscape collapsed one day, how would those giant babies—raised for who knows how many years, spoiled by days of invincibility and complete obedience in the Dreamscape—survive in this cruel universe?"
Obviously, the Doctor—someone who had experienced the destruction of civilization and survived as the last spark—saw things from a different direction than ordinary people.
"Therefore, he was a villain, a supremely benevolent and kind Demon King who needed to be defeated," Xia Yu shook her head and sighed. "Without a doubt, he was a morally noble and good person, but being a good person... doesn't mean everything he did was right."
If the various freaks and monsters in the Star Rail universe were to erupt, what would he use to withstand them?
Not to mention anything else, just the ordeal of Iron Tomb deleting the life of the universe would be tough enough. After all, that was the result of the combined efforts of Nous's computing power and the Path of Destruction. How could Sunday, a minor Aeon whose power was limited to the Asdana star system, block it?
"So he failed, and he lost miserably. People shouted about friendship and bonds, charged up, and gave him a few solid punches. He's still sulking in isolation right now."
"Compared to this, I'm more curious about what kind of existence Aeons are," the Doctor blinked, wanting to probe for more information.
"Being able to affect the lives of an entire star system... this performance is already no worse than the Observer's."
"Perhaps what I just said gave you some misunderstanding," Xia Yu said meaningfully. "A star system? Aeons aren't such superficial things. Let's put it this way: the reason we find the Observer rampaging across your star system tricky to deal with is entirely because we simply can't find its physical existence."
"Just as you said, it is the cancer of the universe, the rule of disorder, the ultimate extreme of chaos. It doesn't even have a physical entity that can be fought. Otherwise, a top-tier Emanator like Miss Acheron alone would completely be able to go toe-to-toe with it!"
"And an Emanator is an existence granted Grace by an Aeon. When a true Aeon takes action, the entire universe dances to their tune."
"Bailu should have told you about the Scepter Computer, right?"
"Yes, yes, she did," the Doctor nodded quickly upon hearing this. "Is there any news?"
"The good news is, we found an original Scepter system," Xia Yu sighed at this point.
"And the bad news?"
"It already has an owner," Xia Yu shook her head. "Running inside it is a lethal program set by the Destruction Aeon Nanook targeting the Erudition Aeon Nous: Lord Ravager Iron Tomb."
"Once it finishes incubating and is truly born, it can use its connection with Nous to convert all life within the known range into data and then delete it with a single keystroke."
"Of course, you don't need to worry. Your star system is outside the Subspace Barrier, dead far away from the true Milky Way. There's a high probability it won't affect you."
"And what is the Subspace Barrier?" the Doctor asked curiously.
"It's a wall," Xia Yu explained. "Built by the Preservation Aeon Qlipoth, a wall measured in light-years. Its purpose is to isolate the freaks and monsters of the universe, like this Observer thing of yours here, outside the wall."
"Of course, extra-barrier exploration missions like ours are actually quite unpopular with the Preservation factions."
"Then why does an expert like you still have the time to come to our place?" the Doctor continued to ask. "Didn't you say the trouble caused by that computer would destroy the universe?"
"Expert?" Hearing this, Xia Yu shook her head. "I am strong, but not strong enough. In that kind of war, anyone below an Emanator who participates is pure cannon fodder. Two generals of the Xianzhou Alliance, the corporation's Emanator, and many big shots have all gone over. Add Miss Acheron to that, and what use would there be in me going?"
"Besides, isn't it just deleting the universe?" Xia Yu smiled and said. "If one Path goes crazy, there are always other Paths to catch the bottom. It's not the first time the universe has encountered a massive crisis of destruction. Hasn't it gotten through them all step by step?"
"As expected, the universe is vast," the Doctor remained silent for two seconds upon hearing this, and then said with profound meaning. "I originally thought that humanity of the past had developed to be powerful enough. I didn't expect that there is always someone better, and a wider world out there~~~"
"You don't believe me?" Xia Yu tilted her head and looked at him.
"I'll wait for you to bring out the planetary computer to make me believe," the Doctor said with a grin. "After all, those things you mentioned... I've never heard of them in the past."
"Then you'll have a lot of waiting to do," Xia Yu shook her head at this. "The one Scepter we finally managed to find turned out to be a super huge bomb inside... Tsk, the other Scepters essentially already have owners."
"I have one more question," the Doctor continued asking. "As you said, that Subspace Barrier can block things like the Observer. Then can't we just directly transfer the civilization inside the Subspace Barrier?"
Yes, he wanted to run away!
Is that Observer thing something people can fight? It's something that doesn't reason with you at all. Wouldn't it be better to just pack up the whole family and go seek refuge with the big shots?
The premise was that these big shots truly existed, and weren't just made up by these people in front of him to bluff him.
If they could really take people and run, then would the affairs of Terra and Prehistory even be considered issues anymore? Even if Priestess woke up, he could confidently argue with her that the Originium Project is just garbage!
She wouldn't dare refute him in the slightest!
"Are you sure?" Hearing this, Xia Yu's expression turned a bit bizarre.
"Why not? Of course I'm sure," the corners of the Doctor's mouth curled up slightly.
"You better think it through. Outside the Subspace Barrier, you're only facing one Observer," Xia Yu smiled faintly and said. "If you go inside, you'll be facing the rampaging Denizens of Abundance, the crazed Destruction legion, scattered branches of The Swarm, as well as all sorts of Path lunatics, and Aeons who occasionally pull massive stunts on you..."
"Let me put it this way: my former motherland, the Glamoth Empire, spanned twenty thousand light-years. That's not small, right?"
"But it was still destroyed by a small branch of The Swarm. And The Swarm came from the Swarm Disaster. When that disaster was at its peak, more than half the universe was eaten clean by those bugs... And this is just one of the disasters in the universe's history."
"...Are you sure the Subspace Barrier you mentioned is meant to keep threats outside, and not a high wall built to lock you all inside?"
Hearing this, the Doctor subconsciously asked.
Just who exactly are the freaks and monsters you were talking about! Why does it sound like the disasters over on your end are no less worse than the Observer?
"..." Hearing this, Xia Yu was left speechless.
Mainly, she also didn't know what it was like outside the Subspace Barrier in the Star Rail universe, but it shouldn't be that bad... After all, civilizations existed outside as well.
Perhaps the Doctor was actually right?
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T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
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