Silent Ark

Chapter 63: The First Era

"What are the Seven Deadly Sins?" Shen Qingci asked.

"That's what you call them," the being said. "We call them the 'Seven Questions'."

"What's the problem?"

"What would the world be like if consciousness retained only one instinct?"

It looked at Shen Qingci.

Those deep blue, sparkling eyes—

There were no pupils, but for the first time, Shen Qingci felt that they were focusing.

Hunger will devour everything.

Competition will tear everything apart.

Anger will burn everything.

Arrogance isolates you from everything.

Inertia will solidify everything.

Desire can dissolve everything.

Possession will crush everything.

"Seven questions, seven answers, all pointing to the same conclusion—"

"A single driving force cannot sustain a civilization."

"What about the Five Constants?" Shen Qingci asked.

That being remained silent for two seconds.

"We didn't design the Five Constant Virtues."

Shen Qingci was stunned.

"The Five Constants belong to you."

"Ours?"

"Humans grew out of themselves in the experimental environment of the seven deadly sins," that being said. "Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness—"

These five frequency bands have never appeared in the 300,000-year observational records of the First Period civilization.

"These are the spontaneously generated adversarial frequencies when you face the seven driving forces."

"To be precise, it can't be considered designed; it's more of an emergent phenomenon."

There was something in its voice that Shen Qingci couldn't define—

If a name must be given, the closest word is "respect".

"We've been conducting experiments for 300,000 years, waiting for a control group."

The results from the control group were more surprising than those from the experimental group.

Shen Ruozhi remained silent on the communicator for a long time.

Then she said, "You're saying—"

Humans were not experimental subjects.

Humans are the only variable in the experiment that surprised you.

That existence is turning in the direction of Unit-00—

It was looking at Shen Ruozhi.

Separated by armor, by fresh water, and by 4,200 meters of seawater.

"Yes," it said, "you are not the test subjects."

"You are the results of the experiment."

The chamber fell silent.

Cool blue light patterns flowed slowly across the wall.

Shen Qingci stood there, her hair being blown by the breeze in the cavity.

There is wind at a depth of 4,200 meters on the seabed.

"You call us 'Atlantis'," the being said. "That name is inaccurate."

Atlantis is a legend to you—

A sunken, failed, and divinely punished civilization.

"We didn't sink; we chose to sink."

"We have not failed; we are waiting."

"What are you waiting for?"

That being was looking at Shen Qingci.

"Wait for the experimental results to come to you."

It glanced down the steps—

The location where Unit 00 is parked.

"You've arrived."

"Three years later than expected."

"But you have come."

Shen Qingci took three seconds to process that sentence.

Wait for the experimental results to come to them on their own.

It was three years later than expected.

But you came.

"How long have you been waiting?" she asked.

From the time the gates closed until your arrival—

According to your timekeeping, that's 317,000 years.

The wind in the chamber stopped for a moment.

Shen Ruozhi's voice came through the communicator, a beat slower than usual: "How long has your civilization existed?"

"The First Age—according to your timekeeping—is 142 million years."

"One hundred and four hundred and twenty thousand years," Shen Ruozhi repeated.

Shen Qingci could tell from her tone.

That wasn't astonishment.

It is a rapid calculation.

Yao Chong stood at the edge of the chamber, his back against the wall, his eyes closed.

Shen Qingci was startled when she first saw him with his eyes closed—

His eyeballs were moving rapidly under his eyelids, as if he were dreaming, but he was completely awake.

She got used to it eventually.

What Yao Chong sees when he closes his eyes is not the same world as when he opens them.

What is he looking at now?

A grayish-white sky.

A gigantic, suspended form.

Monitoring grid.

Sovereign entity.

Viewing the sovereign entity from the seabed at a depth of 4,200 meters—

How does it differ from how it looks from the ground?

Yao Chong is uncertain.

But he noticed something: directly above the chamber, the largest suspended object was slowly turning.

Turn towards this chamber.

"For 142 million years, you chose to shut yourselves down." Shen Ruozhi's voice pulled him back to reality. "Why?"

That being did not answer immediately.

It turned toward the center of the chamber.

Cold blue light patterns spread from the wall to the ground, converging into a circle at its feet.

"You have seen the seven deadly sins."

It's not a question.

"The Seven Deadly Sins are functional modules you wrote," Shen Qingci said. "Don't you know the consequences?"

"You know the general direction when you're writing the code, but you only know the exact result after you run it."

Its voice changed.

Shen Qingci couldn't quite put her finger on what had changed—

The tone remained the same, the rhythm remained the same, but on some dimension she couldn't name, the weight of that sentence had changed.

"Each of the seven modules operates independently and can maintain the functioning of civilization."

"But the price is—"

A civilization driven by hunger will devour itself.

Civilizations that thrive on competition will tear themselves apart.

A civilization that operates on inertia will stagnate.

"Seven modules running simultaneously will devour each other."

"Four million two hundred thousand years."

We tried every combination.

There is only one conclusion—

Neither a single driving force nor a hybrid driving force can enable a civilization to operate self-consistently indefinitely.

It looked at Shen Qingci.

"So you shut yourselves off," Shen Qingci said.

"Shutting down is the last resort, and also the only rational one."

"Fold consciousness into the architecture, compile the seven modules into frequency bands and release them, allowing them to run on the new carrier—"

"Waiting for an answer we didn't expect."

Shen Ruozhi's voice came through the communicator, soft but clear:

The Five Constants.

That entity is turning in the direction of Unit-00.

"right."

"Then you waited another 300,000 years, and what you got was something you couldn't have designed yourself."

"right."

Shen Ruozhi remained silent for four seconds.

Then she said something that surprised Shen Qingci.

So your problem now is—

Can the Five Constant Virtues replace the Seven Deadly Sins as the underlying driving force of civilization?

That being did not provide an answer.

But its light-filled eye flickered.

Shen Qingci understood—

Shen Ruozhi's question hit the nail on the head.

The First Age civilization spent 4.2 million years trying every combination of the Seven Deadly Sins, and all failed.

Then he shut himself down, released the frequency of the seven deadly sins, waited for 300,000 years, and finally met the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

But can the five permanent members of the UN Security Council sustain a civilization?

they do not know.

Because they were not the creators of the Five Constant Virtues.

They do not have operational data for the five constants.

They only have 300,000 years of observational records, and 300,000 years is too short for a civilization.

"You need our data," Shen Qingci said.

That being was watching her.

"We need you to live."

The chamber fell silent again.

Cool blue light patterns flowed slowly across the ground, like breathing.

Yao Chong opened his eyes.

Shen Qingci noticed his actions.

His hand pressed against the wall of the chamber, his fingertips turning white.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a low voice.

Yao Chong did not answer immediately.

He glanced down at his hands—

Then it loosened.