Chapter 285: Life and Death

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

At the center of this suspected Al control terminal facility was a lifeform’s brain that had not yet died.

It was kept in a damaged nutrition cabin, relying on almost useless life cycle equipment to maintain its remaining life.

The surrounding lighting equipment emitted a faint light because of the brain’s reactivity. It was hard to imagine how it could still maintain its vitality in this vacuum environment.

Li Wenyuan did not expect to find life here. Not only that, but this brain seemed to be able to sense the external situation to a certain extent. It was actually able to discover that an outsider had come here under such circumstances.

However, when the Ascendant civilization built this place, they definitely didn’t expect others to come here. Or rather, they didn’t study artificial intelligence technology that deeply. There was no means of communication with this brain.

“Is this a sort of brain in a vat? To actually be in such a place…”

Li Wenyuan had this thought when he saw the brain that was being kept.

The brain in a vat was a theoretical experiment that existed in a hypothesis. The original meaning was “Will a brain that is immersed in a vat, receiving artificial directional stimulation, and instilled with false memories realize that it is in a vat?”

It discussed the philosophical question of what was reality, which had been widely speculated in the Milky Way.

There were many crazy scientists who tried to perform the brain in a vat experiment in the real universe. The Observer lost empire had used a large number of native civilizations to experiment.

However, the brain in a vat in front of Li Wenyuan was not a brain in a vat in this sense, because it clearly knew what its state was like.

It was literally a brain in a tank.

There was no doubt that this was left behind by the Ascendant civilization. Combined with the appearance of the Al control terminal, an answer was obvious in Li Wenyuan’s heart.

“What a direct artificial intelligence… What artificial intelligence could be more intelligent than humans?”

A weak psionic signal was wandering in the space, as if it wanted to talk to Li Wenyuan.

It was hard to imagine that a life with only a brain could still borrow psionic power, but it did it.

It was a pity that the psionic signal it was emitting was so weak that it was difficult to read its contents, perhaps because the consciousness in the brain was already on the brink of death.

Li Wenyuan was also convinced that the brain in the vat was extremely fragile. It was impossible to refill the protective fluid. A slight physical stimulation might directly lead to the death of the brain.

However, seeing that it was still resonating with psionic power, Li Wenyuan slowly released the psionic power that he had extracted from the universe into this space, gradually increasing the concentration of psionic power here.

The effect was extraordinary. The psionic signals produced by the tank’s brain visibly increased, soon forming waves that could be clearly distinguished.

After reading it, the first sentence was a huge string of numbers:

[ 280361925153782 ]

At first, Li Wenyuan thought it was some kind of key, but the number at the end changed to 3, then quickly changed to 4, 5…He immediately understood that he was counting.

According to the frequency, the number was roughly maintained at the level of one change per second. In terms of time units, this string of numbers was equivalent to about nine million years.

The loneliness of the soul came from the brain in the vat. The number had gone from zero to nearly 300 trillion. The time that had passed was suffocating.

Li Wenyuan knew that this was probably the method used by the brain to stabilize its consciousness. Through the memory of a fixed frequency, it would not be lost in the long loneliness.

However, in a world where there was no entertainment, no excitement, no rest, and even no activity, it was terrifying to think about maintaining consciousness for nine million years.

It would take less than a week for a person to go crazy by being confined in a space with nothing, let alone such a long time.

Even psionics who focused on training their spiritual world were no different from ordinary people after nearly ten million years.

Li Wenyuan even suspected that the brain in the vat could still maintain the most basic communication ability.

The psionic waves were perhaps just the remnants of its spontaneous behavior. The tank brain had long been driven mad by the long passage of time, reduced to a counting machine.

However, after thinking for a while, he began to induce psionic waves in an attempt to communicate with the tank brain with the same frequency.

In order to wake up the stagnant consciousness in this brain again, Li Wenyuan began to use words related to Ascendant as a stimulus. After repeatedly mentioning ascension, the brain finally changed a little.

The number that was still changing suddenly stopped, as if the consciousness within it was gradually recovering.

There was a long silence.

After countless days and nights where the stars alternated, the tank brain finally broke free from its long silence. The psionic signal was no longer a string of large numbers, but words with meaning:

[ He… Hello? ]

[ Hello. ]

It seemed that it had been a long time since it had talked to other life forms. After Li Wenyuan responded with a psionic signal, it took a long time for the tank brain to organize the following words.

[ Can… Increase it a little more…The concentration of psionic here? ]

Li Wenyuan did not hesitate to fill the space with more psionic.

Bathed in the psionic environment, the tank’s brain seemed to be more spirited, and the psionic signals were no longer intermittent.

[ You failed. ]

The brain seemed to be both doubtful and certain, as if it had already realized what was happening in the galaxy. However, he continued,

[ My name and my history have long been forgotten by the river of time. Now I only remember my duty. ]

[ I’m the one who initiated the last program of this ascension engine. I’m the straggler responsible for pressing the ascension switch. ]

[ This plan that will allow the entire galaxy to ascension cannot tolerate any mistakes. There must be a trustworthy psionic master to carry out the final step. ]

[ And I’ve already made up my mind. For this reason, I’ve even embarked on this path that is hovering on the edge of taboo. I will use my brain to completely control this ascension engine. ]

[ Now… Can you please tell me how the outside world is? ]

He could not feel any emotion from the psionic waves in his brain. The long time had made him forget what emotions felt like.

Li Wenyuan also realized that the brain was shrinking, as if he was planning to use this last moment to pass on their story.

He could try to replicate the brain’s thinking mode and let it continue to live as a digitized consciousness.

But for such a straggler who had endured a long period of loneliness but still insisted on staying here to witness the end of their civilization, was it really a good thing?