The giant corporations that started from Night City

Chapter 504: Chain of suspicion! Technological explosion! The real purpose is revealed!

"Now let's define the concepts of goodwill and badwill among civilizations. I would like to state in advance that good and bad are not rigorous concepts in science, so we will consider goodness as not actively attacking other civilizations."

"Evil is actively attacking other civilizations. This is the most basic definition of good."

"Now that you know of my existence, please make your choice. Before making this choice, please remember the cosmic axioms I mentioned earlier, as well as the distance between the cosmic environment and us."

Luo Ji was like he was hosting a script-killing game, explaining the rules and gameplay as simply and clearly as possible.

After thinking for a moment, Shi Qiang tentatively asked, "Then I choose to communicate with you?"

Luo Ji was not surprised by Shi Qiang's answer. He nodded and said, "Okay, but you must understand that doing so will expose your whereabouts, which may cause you trouble."

Seeing this, Shi Qiang quickly extinguished the cigarette in his hand, letting the weak flame fall into darkness: "So I am safe now? Choose silence."

"What if you are a civilization with malicious intent? If I do this, I'll be walking into a trap, right?"

Seeing that Shi Qiang seemed to have realized some of the rules of the Dark Forest, Luo Ji continued to explain to him:
"Yes, but even if you didn't reveal your location, since you can detect my presence, I certainly have a chance to find you."

"From the perspective of technological development, it is only a matter of time."

Shi Qiang thought about it again and responded: "Then I choose to communicate with you. You are a malicious civilization. Even if I am unlucky, you are a kind civilization. We can form a more powerful civilization."

"Theoretically, there is a 50% chance that the bet will work, which is actually quite high."

Luo Ji was very satisfied with Shi Qiang's rebuttal, so he extended the next concept: "Very good, then let's introduce a new idea - the chain of suspicion."

"Now the question is, you said you are a civilization that came with good intentions, but how can I believe whether you are good or evil?"

"What should I do if you are a malicious civilization disguised as a benevolent civilization, waiting for an opportunity to swallow up my civilization, and you are not sure whether we are good or bad."

After the words fell, Shi Qiang lowered his head and thought thoughtfully. He could understand what the other party meant. If he continued to suspect in this way, there would be no end to it.

"In this chain of suspicion game, if both civilizations are malicious, it's considered a tie. Two civilizations with good intentions can develop together. If one is good and the other is evil, the evil one will eat up the good one."

"See? If you choose the evil side, there is almost no risk of failure, but if you choose good, you have to bear the risk of being eaten."

Luo Ji's words made Shi Qiang suddenly understand something. It seems that only by choosing evil can the security of one's own civilization be preserved to the greatest extent. Compared with development, safety is of course the most urgent need.

Shi Qiang thought about it, and then continued to refute: "Then I am stronger than you. As long as you are weak and not a threat to me, I can still communicate with you."

Luo Ji smiled, as if he had already predicted that Shi Qiang would ask this question, and then he went on to introduce the next important concept - the technological explosion.

Human civilization has lasted for thousands of years, and the history of life on Earth has lasted for billions of years, but the development of modern technology has only been in the past three or four hundred years.

From the perspective of the cosmic time scale, this is not a technological development at all, but a real technological explosion.

There are many possible factors that lead to the leaps in scientific and technological development, both internal and external, but no matter what, the technological explosion that has occurred within humankind would be impossible for other civilizations to achieve.

The weak civilizations at this stage may suddenly evolve before the arrival of a powerful civilization and develop more powerful technology, becoming more powerful than the powerful civilization coming from afar.

In the past, weak civilizations longed for help from powerful civilizations, but once they grew up, who could guarantee that they would not turn into vicious wolves?

If we combine this concept with the chain of suspicion, the situation becomes even more complicated.

Therefore, even if a civilization is in the primitive tribal stage, it is still a dangerous factor to other civilizations. The best thing to do is to extinguish the fire before it breaks out!

Shi Qiang stared blankly at the cigarette butt in Luo Ji's hand that was about to burn out, and said hesitantly: "Then I can only remain silent. No matter whether you exist or not, I will pretend that I didn't see you."

As soon as he said this, Luo Ji shook his head again: "Think about it carefully, is this really the right thing to do?"

After two seconds, Shi Qiang finally let out a long sigh: "It still won't work. If you are stronger than me, and I find you, you will find me sooner or later, and I will be in danger."

"You are weaker than me, but a technological explosion may occur at any time and turn you into the first situation. So as long as I see you, I must kill you to ensure my own safety."

Luo Ji laughed. Shi Qiang's logical deduction was more flexible than that of many scientists. "Yes, this is the reason why the star 187J3X1 was destroyed. All areas suspected of having civilizations will suffer a catastrophic disaster."

Luo Ji threw the cigarette butt in his hand to the ground, and the fire went out at that moment. "What I am doing now is just normal for other advanced civilizations."

Shi Qiang suddenly felt dazed. For advanced civilizations in the universe, destroying a star system in a certain area might be as easy as extinguishing a cigarette butt.

This is absolutely necessary in order to prevent the emergence of hostile civilizations that may pose a threat to ourselves.

This is the true meaning of the spell, and it is also the universal truth that Luo Ji has been searching for.

"What a fuck..." Shi Qiang cursed in a low voice. He seemed to have immersed himself in the civilization in the dark forest and didn't dare to shout out loud anymore.

"The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is a hunter with a gun, sneaking silently in the jungle. They must ensure that they are sufficiently concealed, because what is most lacking here is hunters like them."

"If he discovers another civilization, no matter whether it is good or bad, weak or strong, the only thing he can do is to use weapons to destroy it."

"In this forest, hell is other people, a perpetual threat, and any civilization that exposes itself to the forest will be quickly wiped out."

"This is the picture of a cosmic civilization, and this is the explanation for the Fermi Paradox."

Luo Ji summarized the conversation, which made Shi Qiang growl through gritted teeth: "It's so fucking dark...!"

The cosmic deductions performed by the two in this dark wilderness have greatly stimulated the Trisolarans who were observing.

At this moment, everyone saw that the water droplet, which was still more than ten hours away from the earth, suddenly accelerated, shortening the time to less than 5 hours.

Not to mention the detectors on the Infinity-class aircraft carrier, even humans on Earth can see with their naked eyes a thin thread cutting through the dark sky and heading straight for Earth.

The rapidly flying water droplets have completely taken off their kind disguise masks, revealing the most primitive and terrifying scene. This is because the surface of the water droplets is absolutely smooth and will reflect most electromagnetic waves.

This is almost equivalent to being invisible in a space environment.

When it is traveling at a low speed or is stationary, humans cannot detect its location with the naked eye.

The fleet initially located the water droplets by using the oil film material in Neptune's rings, which was evaporated by nuclear bombs and spread out to form large patches of dust in space. The fleet then determined the location of the other party by observing the tracks left by the water droplets as they passed through the dust.

This method of locating water droplets is simple but easy to use. The reason why humans can be sure that nine more water droplets are on the way is that they can see it when the Three-Body Civilization travels through the interstellar dust belt.

Now, all the water droplets have completely exposed their positions. All ten water droplets have maxed out their engine power and are madly rushing towards the solar system.

A dazzling blue halo has appeared at the tip of the water droplet's tail. The halo is not large, but extremely dazzling. Its brightness dispels the surrounding darkness with blue light.

After expanding, the halo began to gradually weaken, and then a new halo appeared. The frequency of this change was several times faster than that during the Doomsday Battle.

This is the vacuum Valsex electric field vortex ring device of the water droplets. The nine water droplets farthest from the earth have rushed into the solar system. They are like assassins with their daggers exposed, killing humans with obvious malice.

This made the general public, who had placed their hopes on building the accelerator, suddenly nervous. Wasn't it agreed that there would be less than ten years left?

Why don’t you even give them ten days?

Is the Three-Body Civilization really so anxious to kill these poor little bugs?

Standing at the War Moon headquarters and watching all this, Leon understood that the Trisolarans had reached a dead end and this was their only chance to survive.

The gravitational wave broadcasts of the Infinity-class aircraft carrier and Luo Ji's Dark Forest Theory have driven the Trisolarans into a state of utter fear.

They can only try their best to get the water droplets to the solar system, block the sun to prevent humans from using the sun to send signals, and destroy that damn Infinity-class aircraft carrier.

The water droplet continues to accelerate and rushes straight towards the earth.

There is no reduction or direction adjustment during the entire process. In order to save time as much as possible, the water droplets fly in a perfect straight line.

If it continues to fly at this speed, once it touches the earth, it will definitely penetrate into it like a bullet through cotton, and who knows how big a disaster it will cause then.

The ultra-high temperature propulsion halo is enough to instantly vaporize the surrounding area of ​​100 meters. The crustal movement, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis caused by passing through the center of the earth are all minor problems.

However, humans soon noticed that the target of the water droplets was the Infinity-class aircraft carrier, not the Earth itself.

Paul Atreides, Infinity-class aircraft carrier, Luo Ji is the target that the Trisolarans want to destroy.

Luo Ji didn't dare to continue reminiscing about the past with Shi Qiang. Now he had been marked dead by the water droplets, and anyone who approached him would meet with misfortune.

After calling the airship of the Universal Corporation, he quickly returned to the Infinity-class aircraft carrier with the information.

In the aircraft carrier's headquarters, Luo Ji couldn't wait to ask Paul: "When are we leaving?"

In that doomsday battle, the water droplet relied on its powerful strong interaction material to undermine humanity's confidence in any warship. Even this Infinity-class aircraft carrier could not be a match for the water droplet in Luo Ji's eyes.

The only way is to run away.

However, Paul smiled and shook his head and said, "Dr. Luo Ji, please be patient. We will not leave for the time being."

After he finished speaking, Luo Ji was visibly stunned. Countless possibilities flashed through his mind, one of which was that gravitational wave broadcasting might not exist, and those words were just to deceive the Three-Body Civilization.

As long as the Trisolarans' attention is diverted to the Infinity-class aircraft carrier, humans on Earth can deploy stellar-class signal transmitters to threaten the Trisolaran civilization to stop.

But now I'm not leaving, why?

"Look at the people below. This battleship is their hope. If we leave here, it would be equivalent to abandoning them."

After saying that, Luo Ji saw the scene on Earth through the holographic screen. A large number of media were pointing their cameras at the sky, and panicked people were praying and looking in the direction of the Infinity-class aircraft carrier.

Countless people are looking forward to what countermeasures the Infinity-class aircraft carrier can take to prevent this tragedy from happening.

Luo Ji also realized that if he just left like this, even the best explanation would make these people feel desperate and lost, and human beings nowadays can't withstand a few more blows.

It would be bad enough if the proud Combined Fleet was destroyed, but if a Wallfacer also escaped, that would be true despair.

So Paul had no intention of leaving from the beginning. The real plan was all in his mind, and Luo Ji only knew part of it.

All humanity needs now is a victory.

A victory that could wash away two hundred years of humiliation and the shadow of defeat in the Doomsday Battle.

Only then did Luo Ji understand what Paul really meant. He had already prepared to go to war with the water droplets, right here on Earth!

but……

What trump cards does the global giant have that it can use to fight against Waterdrop?

Luo Ji looked at Paul's confident expression, and prayed in his heart that the other party was not just pretending to play the empty city plan. The straightforward Trisolaran was not Sima Yi.

The survival of human civilization depends on this battle.

At this moment, the water droplet has one hour left to reach the earth.

As the water droplet continued to accelerate and approach, the propulsion halo at its tail became more and more clearly visible, like a bright meteor tearing through the dark night.

And near the Earth's low-Earth orbit, the Infinity-class aircraft carrier also deployed to intercept, with several main battleship guns aimed at the flying water droplets.

The 700 Star-class warships of the Asia Fleet formed a defensive formation around the Infinity-class aircraft carrier like stars surrounding the moon. Judging from the momentum and formation, this scene was quite domineering and majestic.

However, people who have witnessed the poor performance of the Combined Fleet no longer have any expectations for such huge ships and cannons.

In the eyes of most people, the mistakes of the North American and European fleets are likely to be repeated again!

The indestructible water droplets cannot be stopped by ordinary warships.

(End of this chapter)