People in Terra, governing a bizarre little country

Precys' tone suddenly became pessimistic and serious:

"But in this forest lived a lumberjack, who diligently wielded his axe, and trees fell one by one before him, regardless of their vigorous branches, sweet fruits, or the color of their leaves in the sunlight. No tree knew the lumberjack's origins; the ancient trees had long since fallen silent, and no tree could stop the lumberjack from swinging his axe. Even the most intricate branches would be cleaved in two."

Civilization is ruthlessly severed, no matter how glorious or how weak it may be. Because a tree is, after all, just a tree; to the lumberjacks, whether they shake its branches or scatter its leaves, it all seems so insignificant.

This is the ultimate darkness.

In addition to the three major threats to Terra—the "Sealings," the "Demons," and the "Originium"—described by Kal'tsit, this is the greatest hardship that civilization will face.

"Can you believe it? There is such a forest, and such a lumberjack."

"Precys asked."

Ernst was unaware of the observer's existence. But he could understand Precy's metaphor.

She is narrating the reasons for the demise of ancient civilizations.

He nodded slightly, and Precys immediately smiled with satisfaction:

"Okay, let's continue."

"On this day, the lumberjack raised his axe as usual, and yet another tree fell in front of him."

Another civilization has perished. Destroyed by an enemy whose very concept of the tree was utterly incomprehensible.

Perhaps none of them can be considered enemies; at least, lumberjacks never considered trees as enemies. These three things were simply simple, repetitive, and boring work.

"But after the lumberjack turned and left, resin seeped out of the stump, gluing the broken branches together. The cleared area was once again overgrown with trees, and not only that, the transparent resin swallowed this forest that only existed in stories. Soon all you see is a beautiful piece of amber, without the trees swaying in the wind and the lumberjack's axe, without the fibers of fractals, functions, and philosophy growing in the moist soil. Now, I need you to remember what this piece of amber looks like."

Precys said softly,

"It's really beautiful."

"Everything is fixed within its body, without change or replacement. Even after thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions of years, even after traveling tens or hundreds of miles, or even light-years away, its image, its contents, and everything it contains will not change in the slightest, remaining unchanged at the moment it solidifies."

"Even the gravity of a black hole cannot tear it apart, even the demons of the warp cannot invade its core, and even a lumberjack's giant axe cannot be swung down at it."

"This is the treasure."

"This is you."

She looked at the person before her as if gazing upon a hope so distant it defied description. It was something ancient, even to her.

The oldest amber ever discovered on our home planet is 9900 million years old.

Humanity's journey from its home planet to the stars and beyond, conquering the universe to its very end and the other side of subspace, has long since exceeded that age.

Humans are forgetful creatures. If they don't deliberately try to understand, no one from the Star Age would remember that on their home planet, so far away that they might never visit it in their lifetime, there once existed a country, and in that country, there once lived a person.

Whether he traveled through time nine times or spent such a long time in the crystallization of resin, it no longer matters.

The formation of amber in nature is a miracle in itself. Why bother exploring the conditions that led to this miracle—whether it was the special environment brought about by "time travel," or whether a monkey finally gathered all the necessary conditions over an almost infinite period of time to create the complete works of Shakespeare?

It doesn't matter anymore. The span of time and the span of space are equally miraculous.

And this miracle created this piece of amber.

"A piece of naturally formed amber that is unique in the entire universe, of unknown origin and destination, which I and the prophet found by chance."

Ernst's emotions fluctuated uncontrollably; his breathing became rapid as he began to understand, to some extent, Precys's layered metaphor, which was enough to dispel the fog.

After going through a long and winding road, telling the story of a prophet, Precyth finally answered Ernst's question.

Why don't you have memories of the [treasure]?

"Because the dust was brushed away."

"We wiped it away ourselves."

"Through you, we began our experiment of creating artificial amber to isolate the loggers."

"I think you've already seen the results of this project."

"It's called [Originium]."

Chapter 637 was once the source of all Originium.

The creation of amber is a miracle of nature.

In Ernst's previous life, the earliest amber was believed to have been formed 3.2 million years ago, while the oldest amber ore discovered by human scientists is about 9900 million years old.

These are fossils formed from precious pine resin after undergoing high pressure and high heat compression in the Earth's rock layers. For amber to form in nature, various complex, demanding, and even impossible conditions must be met.

Therefore, natural amber has always been imbued with sacredness and high value. Through it, people can glimpse a corner of a distant era that is beyond the reach of generations, and answer the ultimate mystery of its "origin".

No one has ever imagined what it would look like to seal civilization inside amber.

This is an idea that would be unacceptable in ordinary times and would be extremely difficult to achieve in apocalyptic times.

But as the end times approached, humanity's courage and determination far exceeded their own imagination.

"We found you near a now-dead nebula."

"The prophet is always so enthusiastic. Just like when he piloted his spaceship and pulled me out of the dust of observing the extinction of stars, he pulled you out as well."

“We, Friston, Ed, and Lowe, had a fairly pleasant time together, one of the few happy times I can remember.”

Precys recounted the story in a gentle, detailed manner, as if he were telling a story, a story that was closely related to Ernst, but which Ernst no longer remembered.

"We only discovered your unique characteristics later. And the end is near."

"By then, too much dust had accumulated on the amber, making it difficult for us to see its true nature."

The saying "gold will always shine" is absolutely true.

Even when mired in mud, gold's value is always acknowledged; at least, the mud knows that what surrounds it is not the same as it.

Ernst's value is self-evident, which is why he is called a "treasure".

The problem is that finding treasure is a matter that requires patience.

The accumulation of silt and sand can delay the discovery of gold indefinitely, and the obscuring of dust can dim the luster of the treasure.

Precys has already told us what this dust is.

These are his memories from when he was a "treasure".

Ernst didn't know why, but he was now more curious about how Precys had brushed away the dust.

Precys sensed Ernst's curiosity. So, she gave a response that made Ernst's heart skip a beat:

"We'll kill you."

"Of course, you are immortal. The so-called killing is merely brushing away the dust clinging to your soul—everything you experienced in our civilization, good or bad. That's why your memories of your 'past life' are so clear, and you can even remember the content of those speeches. Because the dust called memory is brushed away with the disappearance of life."

Ernst fell silent.

He really wanted to ask, "Can't we just not die?"

And what's more, you must have chopped me up in my past life, so how can you still have the nerve to talk to me so calmly and happily play a question-and-answer game with me?

Is this some kind of end-of-life care? It seems like that riddle-solving person outside threw me in here just to see you, hoping to get another cut from my price on Pinduoduo?

But he soon realized a problem.

What Precys said was not entirely unexpected; he had indeed seen his own figure in connection with the artificial amber called "Originium."

That outfit, that expression, and that helpless, resigned attitude.

Ernst took several deep breaths before he could barely regain his composure, and tentatively asked:

"So, my situation at the time was..."

Precys gave Ernst the answer he expected: "You were just like us back then."

He was not a demi-human; he had no ears or tail. He looked like a human at the time.

Why is he like this now?

After some struggle, he revealed his own guess, which he was reluctant to admit.

"Did I tell you to do this?"

Precyth nodded.

Ernst let out a long sigh.

I felt that I had once been glorious and great.

Amber, as it is known, does not enclose a soul. Whether according to Precys or Ernst's own understanding of amber, what is sealed in amber should be a physical object.

The answer is then obvious. In some unknown pre-civilization era, when he was rescued by the prophet and Precyth, he was still considered a human being.

So why has he become a snow leopard and been reincarnated for over 20 years? Where did his original body go?

Not long ago, the legendary Sarkaz master Neve's Mind Shock spell gave Ernst an untimely answer.

In a void, he saw himself within the Originium.

His attire was very formal, even overly formal, which was not in line with his status. His expression and attitude were also strange. At the time, he felt that such a tired and desperate look was not something a cheerful and optimistic person like himself could do.

Looking back now, it all seems to have a reasonable explanation.

Even if he wasn't afraid of the lumberjack swinging his axe at him, the annihilation of the human civilization he lived in was a very real possibility. His friends, his career, the sense of belonging he had finally found in some distant place after being separated from the past for hundreds of millions of years, would all vanish into thin air.

Now, someone has told him that because of your existence as natural amber, they might be able to study you and create artificial amber, establishing a protected area to avoid logging. Would you be willing to do that?

Why wouldn't you want to?

He won't die. It's just a matter of starting a new game.

Human civilization at that time already possessed this technology. Whether it was the Prophet or Prissis, they could freely change their bodies (this is true; in the game, Kal'tsit repeatedly broke the fourth wall, implying that the Doctor could sever his link with Terra at any time; the reason why the bodies of previous civilizations were weak might also be because their bodies could be easily replaced). Creating a new one for oneself and then equipping it after revival wouldn't be difficult.

The only slightly troublesome part might be having to replay the storyline and get to know the characters again.

Under normal circumstances, Ernst would never have made that choice. But this was in the face of the apocalypse.

Don't test humanity in desperate situations.

Ernst was even somewhat pleased, because at least what he had been tested about was not the despicable and selfish "What does it matter to me if you die?" but rather "At worst, I'll spend a resurrection coin, and we can all live together!"

But thinking about it, it makes sense. Because that's who he is; he is himself.

People act based on their own logic. Making that choice precisely proves one thing:

He remained consistent.

If it were now, and you told him that if he could take a nap, he wouldn't mind if it guaranteed that his attachments to Terra would be spared destruction, including those of Sherag, Enya, Ensiodes, Ensia, Vina, Horhaiya, Hinterlea, and so on.

It's not about being willing to sacrifice, but about daring to sacrifice. The former is about making trouble where there is none and enduring hardship where there is none, while the latter is about having the courage to do so.

This was the education he received from childhood. It was like his predecessors blowing up bunkers and blocking machine guns. Compared to the pain and sacrifices they suffered, he felt no pain at all.

And this education, too, is frozen in amber, frozen in his heart.

You can question whether Ernst's theoretical foundation is adequate, or whether he was too pragmatic and mixed up with feudal aristocrats and capitalists.

But you can't question the red education someone who can get into the system received.

That was his cultural foundation as a genuine Chinese person.

"Just as you expected."

Precys nodded slightly.

"After the Originium Project was formally proposed, we began to try to complete the research on artificial amber through you."

"But this process is too long. In the initial design, Originium could only handle one-way access. We encountered one bottleneck after another, and the information we needed from you was also increasing."

Finally, you offered to let us take all the necessary information at once.

What constitutes all the necessary information?

Ernst couldn't help but think of an answer, and he quickly came to one.

It is his shell, in other words, his body when he "first traveled through time".

The shell that could withstand the relentless felling of "trees" by the "loggers" and preserve the information belonging to Ernst inside.

They intend to use this shell to develop artificial amber, Originium, and fill the internalized universe, the sea of ​​information, of Originium with the information of all human civilization. It's like building an ark using a meticulously crafted model airplane.

This raises a problem.

Without its shell, does Ernst still possess the stable, unaffected, and unbreakable "King of Chopping" trait, which even lumberjacks can't cut down?

Nobody knows, not even Ernst himself.

In other words, he genuinely felt he might die. But he still agreed and was prepared to face death.