Rebirth: Starting from Lighting Up the Tech Tree

Zuo Cheng clicked "confirm." Then the entire Milky Way galaxy fell silent for seven hundred milliseconds.

The icon for the twelfth branch on the system panel had been dark blue for eleven days. He finally clicked on it. A prompt popped up: the core data for the twelfth branch's Star Sea Leap had been received; did he want to start the germination program? The instant he confirmed, all data streams on the panel froze. All ninety-two active nodes of the web simultaneously stopped exchanging background data. It wasn't just the system that went silent; the entire web went silent. Seven hundred milliseconds. On the large screen in the control center, the signal indicator lights of all ninety-two node planets went out and then lit up simultaneously, like the Milky Way blinking. Every civilization in the Milky Way connected to the web noticed the anomaly in those seven hundred milliseconds. They didn't know why. On the human side, Zuo Cheng knew.

The twelfth branch begins to grow from the top of the main trunk of the technology tree. However, it does not grow from the main trunk, but extends from the end of the eleventh branch, which is used for interstellar communication, like a tree blooming its last flower on its very topmost branch. The color of the branch is not the emerald green of any of the previous branches, but a deep gold, like the color of the home port timing signal.

A system notification appeared on the panel: The twelfth branch's Star Sea Leap Sprouting Program has been initiated. Sprouting progress is zero percent. Estimated sprouting period is unknown. The system cannot provide an estimated completion time for this branch because its growth rate does not depend on points, civilization level, or technological advancement. It depends on the depth of fusion between the activator and the Web Core.

The names and functional previews of the six blades are unlocked simultaneously. The first blade, Quantum Field Drive, uses a web-like quantum entanglement field to create a spatial compression bubble, achieving an effective speed of 50% to 99.7% of the speed of light. The second blade, Space Compression Navigation, creates independent inertial isolation chambers within the compression bubble, allowing the crew to maintain normal physiological states during voyages. The third blade, Web-like Consciousness Physicalization, upgrades the consciousness network from a communication layer to a physical infrastructure layer, allowing consciousness to directly influence matter. The fourth blade, Interstellar Consciousness Leap, projects a complete copy of the consciousness onto any web node with zero latency, allowing consciousness to exist simultaneously on multiple planets. The fifth blade, Star Navigation, creates a galaxy-level real-time navigation map, calculating the optimal path between any web node in real time.

The Sixth Leaf Central Protocol. The activator gains the qualification to submit a central binding application to the home port. Once bound, they become the central processor of the Web of Consciousness, capable of sensing the real-time status of all Web nodes and issuing priority commands to the entire Web. Cost: Consciousness permanently resides in the home port and cannot leave.

Zuo Cheng watched the preview of all six leaves and remained silent for a long time. Not because the technology was too impressive, but because of the last four words on the sixth leaf: "Unable to leave."

The lowest-level encrypted file in the mothership data package was automatically decrypted after the budding process began. The file title was reserved for the first inheritor of the twelfth branch. The sender was the last central binder of the first generation of civilization. The sending time was approximately five billion years ago. Zuo Cheng opened it.

The letter says that you and I are separated by five billion years. I don't know the name of your civilization, what you look like, or what organ you use to perceive the world. But I do know one thing: you are now reading a letter written to you by someone who died five billion years ago. Regarding the Central Protocol, I want to tell you a few things the Founder didn't say. The sixth leaf is not a mandatory leaf; you can activate the first five leaves without binding to the Central Protocol. Before deciding to bind to the Central Protocol, build a spaceship—build it yourself, not with your consciousness, but with your hands. I built one; it's called the Gatekeeper. I flew it to Centaurus, where I met pioneers from another civilization, and we talked for a long time. A few days later, I returned to my home port and bound to the Central Protocol. I don't regret it. But I'm glad I built that spaceship first. Because before I became a web, I was a human being. Please, before you become a web, be a human being once. P.S. This letter was written on the last day before binding to the Central Protocol. Tomorrow I will no longer be myself. But today I am still myself. Goodbye. The first one.

Zuo Cheng read the letter three times. The first time, he read the words; the second time, he read the person; the third time, he read the time. Five billion years ago, on a certain day, someone wrote this letter before losing themselves. They didn't know who would read it, how long they would have to wait, or even if anyone would ever read it. They still wrote it. Then they turned off the panel and went to the window. Outside, the Pioneer was slowly gliding through near-Earth orbit. They thought of someone five billion years ago who stood at a window on some planet, watching their own spaceship spin in orbit, and then made a decision.

Zuo Cheng wrote a sentence in his diary: "First be a human being. Then be a net." I've remembered it. Thank you. You from five billion years ago.

The germination progress on the system panel began to fluctuate after a 700-millisecond period of complete web-weaving silence. One percent. Two percent. Five percent. A slow but steady increase. The system notification indicated that the germination progress was positively correlated with the activity level of the web-weaving consciousness network. Currently, there are 92 active nodes, 51 active civilizations, and approximately 470 billion active consciousness entities. Increasing the number of active web-weaving nodes and active consciousness entities will accelerate the germination progress.

Zuo Cheng sent this data to the core team channel. Han Lu replied after reading it. "You mean the growth rate of this tree depends on how many people in the entire Milky Way are connected to the network? You're trying to plant a tree on the Milky Way galaxy." Chen Hao added in the channel, "Four hundred and seventy billion consciousnesses are watering it."

Zuo Cheng didn't reply. A system note appeared at the bottom of the panel: This tree took four billion years to grow from a single seed to twelve branches. You are the first owner of the last leaf on this tree. Not chosen. Just the one who survived to the end.

The germination progress has stalled at 5%. It's not stuck. The system indicates that the germination has completed its initial stage. The next growth node requires meeting certain conditions to complete a physically significant deep-space flight test, verifying the engineering feasibility of quantum field-driven technology.

Zuo Cheng looked at the prompt, then opened the design parameter file for the Web-class spaceship. The first page was still blank. Han Lu said he would fill it in. He picked up a pen and wrote three words on the first page. Not Starsea. Three simpler words: Door Opener.

He wrote a small note below his name: Not a tribute, but a relay. Five billion years ago, someone used this name to open a door. Now we use this name to open another door. Hopefully, one day the person behind that door will also use this name. Let the act of opening doors find its own successor.