My Children Swarm the Cosmos – Chapter 174

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕𝟒: 𝐖𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐇𝐚𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐒𝐨𝐰𝐧 (5)

Back then, I felt like I understood, but also didn’t.

➖Time. . .

➖Which kills everything as chaos. . .

I understand the meaning of those words now.

➖Your lives. . .

➖And even your spirits will perish to the mercilessness of time.

I understand the meaning of those words down to my bones.

Because in this universe, there was nothing as cruel or as powerful as time.

🔷🔷🔷

The 4th planet where the Chimeraz first took root.

A planet with the largest colony and colony grounds, and where Ludwig and his kindred from the human resources were.

After descending on an Organic Pipe, I saw that the colony grounds were just a skeleton with nothing left, dead and frozen like an ice planet.

Crack!

Kreion removed his heavily armored bio-armor and stepped onto the frozen ground. Gats and the Elite escort followed behind, the cold wind cutting into their flesh.

Following Ludwig’s wavelength, I arrived at the place where the colony, which ‘a little while ago’ boasted a gigantic size, was now just a skeletal graveyard.

And around the skeletal remains of the colony were the skeletons of what were presumed to be various mutant species. They were the skeletons of Chimeraz species unknown to Kreion.

➖Master. . . . . . .

“Ludwig!”

Kreion rushed towards the machine at the center of the skeleton.

A machine the size of an ordinary car, moving on four legs, stood up like a rattlesnake, with something like an inverted triangle for a head.

In the center of that head was a round camera, just like Ludwig’s single eye.

That was Ludwig’s current form.

“What happened here?!”

Kreion raised his voice, a rare occurrence.

“Who did this to you. . .?!”

“I did it. . . .”

The machine spoke. It even perfectly imitated Ludwig’s wavelength.

“It was my choice. . . .”

Afterwards, Kreion was able to receive the memories that Ludwig had experienced on this planet through wavelengths.

About 30,000 years had passed. That was the calculated time until the machine’s atomic clock stopped working, about 30,000 years.

➖I still remember it vividly. . . . It was the day when four War Harvesters became one and self-destructed. . . .

As of that day (which was less than 30 minutes for Kreion), the 4th planet and the nearby space outside the geostationary orbit were sealed off.

It is said that artificial intelligence weapons and fleets that were on the 4th planet that day saw the outside world rotating before the space was sealed off.

➖For us, 30,000 years was too. . . . too excruciatingly long. . . .

And for about 200 years, fleets of Chimeraz and Phase Assault Troops’ fleets went up into space to try to pass through the sealed space.

The spaceships that reached the end of the sealed space continued to disappear. The Chimeraz, including Ludwig, and the artificial intelligence called Overlecter on this planet, racked their brains for another 500 years to try to escape the sealed space.

3,000 more years passed, and the kindred from the human resources one by one chose to go into hibernation.

Then, about 10,000 years later, they realized that the light and heat coming in from space were gradually fading. They also realized that the planet itself was gradually losing heat.

It was entropy.

The space remained sealed, but for some reason, the energy possessed by the planet and the sealed space was disappearing somewhere.

The planet’s average temperature dropped little by little, and the minerals buried underground had been exposed for a long time. Even if nothing was being consumed, maintaining something required energy, and Ludwig and Overlecter had no choice but to drastically scale back the colony grounds and machine facilities.

➖The bones scattered near the colony’s graveyard. . . . are the remains of a mutant Cresecter herd that was created for escape. . . . They were children who used economical purple flames instead of deep red plasma. . . .

As energy became scarcer and scarcer, the act of attempting to escape itself required a hemorrhaging amount of energy consumption.

Up until then, the subordinate leaders created by Ludwig insisted that they should continuously attempt to escape, even if it meant consuming more energy, while the artificial intelligences designed by Overlecter stated that they should conserve the energy they had and wait until the sealed space was lifted.

At the time, it was just a minor conflict of opinions, but after a few thousand more years, it became the trigger for a major armed conflict.

➖Without master. . . or Lopez, there was no one to stop our meaningless fight. . . .

The war of a young civilization brings progress, but the war of an old civilization brings regression.

In the past (which was also less than 30 minutes for Kreion), the Chimeraz and the group of artificial intelligences, who were once allies, fought a war on the 4th planet.

The Chimeraz took the energy from the machines and tried to escape more aggressively, while the machines fought to conserve the energy they had.

The planet, which was dying thermodynamically, suffered the pain of war once again. Both sides were in a situation where they had reduced their forces in order to survive, and there weren’t many intact fleets or spaceships that required a lot of energy consumption.

So the war at that time became a primitive front line battle. There were some orbital bombardments and fleet battles, but it was mostly a rapid ground war to subdue each other. There were artillery attacks, but hardly any bombings, and there was recycling but no production in the war.

Colony grounds were destroyed and machine facilities were destroyed, legions were dying and armies were being annihilated.

➖After fighting like that for decades, in the end, only a few hundred Chimeraz and a few dozen machines remained. . . .

Ludwig and Overlecter had no choice but to join hands again. They stopped fighting only after they could no longer fight.

Ludwig executed all the subordinate leaders fighting under him, and Overlecter deleted all the artificial intelligences under his command.

That way, they were able to survive a little longer.

However, they could no longer attempt to escape.

This was because Ludwig’s will to escape had bottomed out, and Overlecter judged that there was absolutely no way to find a way to escape on this side.

In the midst of the continuing thermodynamic death, machines and living creatures collapsed again.

➖Gnox, Addmoon, Vatory, Yiel. . . . Demitnick. . . . Their hibernation maintenance devices could no longer function, and we didn’t have the energy to wake them up even if we wanted to. . . .

They considered nuclear fusion power generation or environmentally friendly power generation methods, but such things were rather inefficient in a world that was dying thermodynamically.

Moreover, the 4th planet was a planet with no hot inner core or outer core. In the end, they had no choice but to survive by burning something to obtain energy, an old-fashioned method of combustion.

➖That’s why I. . . . . . . committed a sin. . . .

The remains of the machines became materials for generators, and the dead bodies (corpses) became fuel along with Xenotera.

That’s how they waited endlessly for their master, their administrator.

About 25,000 years later, the generator went out.

Even so, Overlecter, being a machine, was able to continue to exist by going into a small computer and using the energy from the battery, but Ludwig, a living creature, no longer had any means of supplying energy.

It was extreme starvation.

Ludwig’s brain was like a central server and hub that stored all the information of the collective consciousness and connected all wavelengths. Therefore, that organ, the brain, always required a lot of energy, but now that there was no more energy to gain, he was in a situation where he would lose the collective consciousness itself.

➖Overlecter. . . . said that he would erase himself and give me his capacity and battery, so he told me to upload myself. . . .

After all, the memories or information that Overlecter had were not particularly important to Lopez. Overlecter was a superior artificial intelligence, but there were artificial intelligences above him, and fundamentally, Overlecter was just a field commander and weapon.

On the other hand, Ludwig, who was ranked 2nd in the collective consciousness sequence, knew that what was contained in his brain was very important to the Chimeraz species.

In the Phase Assault Troops, Overlecter could be replaced at any time, but in the collective consciousness, Ludwig could never be replaced.

➖Overlecter erased himself and gave me a huge capacity. . . . Thanks to that, I was uploaded. . . . and my body and colony went into an old-fashioned generator to become fuel that produced a small amount of energy. . . .

After that, Ludwig was left alone.

Ludwig modified a computer to replace his body and created a movable body. And referring to the technical materials on Chimeraz wavelengths that Overlecter had researched during that time, he even imitated the wavelengths.

Then, after the generator went out, he waited quietly at the center of the colony’s graveyard.

That’s how he waited for another few thousand years. He waited endlessly, sometimes reminiscing about the past or organizing information, sometimes rejoicing and regretting in his delusions, and sometimes missing and resenting.

🔷🔷🔷

That’s why Ludwig became a machine.

The wavelengths that Ludwig is now emitting are wavelengths that the machine is imitating.

The memories, the consciousness, the mind that Ludwig now has exist as data.

“That’s why I. . . .”

Creak.

The rusty joints made an agonizing friction sound.

Creak. Creak.

Ludwig approached Kreion with that sound.

“Am I. . . . really master’s child. . .?”

Gats looked away, finding it hard to watch.

“Is it okay for me to keep calling you. . . ‘master’ like this. . .? Please answer me. . . .”

Kreion met Ludwig’s eyes (camera) with difficulty.

“What am I. . .?”

“You’re Ludwig.”

Even though Ludwig has now lived a longer life than Kreion, he still has to say this.

“The first leader I ever created. The only child I raised by feeding him my own blood and flesh in that basement, teaching him myself, and watching him go from a larva to a pupa to a full-fledged leader.”

The one he spent the most time with.

“The leader ranked 2nd in sequence. . . . Ludwig.”

“I’m an existence uploaded into a cold machine. . . . The real Ludwig. . . . The real Ludwig is already dead. . . .”

“You’re still Ludwig.”

“I’m a copy. . . .”

I know. I know it all too well, but

“You’re still my child.”

🔷🔷🔷

Kreion and Lopez checked each of the planets in the Hecartra star system one by one.

The 1st rocky planet was a territory ruled by a mass-produced brain leader resembling Berne, and it had become a frozen planet with only the bones of the dead colony grounds and legions remaining. Since there was no one with memories or records, it was impossible to know how much time had passed or what had happened.

The 2nd lava planet was the same as the 1st planet.

The 3rd volcanic planet was the planet ruled by Phlegeth, and perhaps because of Phlegeth’s aggressive nature, there were only traces of a large war on the surface and the remains of fleets in geostationary orbit. The traces of Teslafortress, which was said to have been with Phlegeth there, could not be found either.

The 5th rocky planet was the planet ruled by Berne, and it seemed to have met a similar end as the planets ruled by other mass-produced brain leaders. Of course, it was impossible to know what had happened.

The 6th planet was a territory where a 100% lava planet and an asteroid-sized satellite made of 100% water revolved, and it was the planet that Drexus briefly ruled, but as expected, there was nothing there except the remains of fleets.

The 7th planet was Petra.

The continent, which used to be Pangea, had split up a bit and become several continents located close to each other. Fortunately, Petra seemed to have been able to survive a little longer thanks to the environmental conditioning of the Ririm&the Parahtoria.

However, even the Ririm and the Parahtoria couldn’t withstand the thermodynamic death, and only the seeds of the dead Ririm and the spores of the Parahtoria were buried underground, silently waiting to revive.

So, after pouring out a large amount of Xenotera to revive the Ririm and the Parahtoria of Petra, they didn’t remember anything as if they were newborn.

The 9th rocky planet, the 10th gas planet and 1 satellite, the 12th gas planet and 3 satellites were all frozen, with only a small number of artificial intelligence machines barely surviving, relying on small generators or ultra-deep generators.

The 13th ice & rock planet and the 14th ice dwarf planet were also similar to the planets ruled by other mass-produced brain leaders.

But the 8th planet.

On that planet, which was similar in size to Earth, there was a new civilization. Perhaps it was because relatively less time had passed compared to the other planets.

Before the 8th planet was invaded by the Ycloquasar, it was an area where artificial intelligence’s munitions factories, shipyards, and other facilities were stationed in order to continuously deploy troops for the Phase Assault Troops.

The Chimeraz there yielded the plains and resources and moved to a bio-planet like a moon in geostationary orbit, and the place of the planet was taken over by the 2nd generation artificial humans and humanoids belonging to the Arc Corporation.

“Lopez. . . . Why are there traces of civilization there?”

There was a ruin that was burning as if it had just been destroyed on only one continent. It was a ruin that occupied an area much smaller than a modern human city.

“The artificial intelligences didn’t survive, and the artificial humans gave birth to generations. . . . It seems that the nth generation artificial humans created their own civilization.”

The young bio-planet orbiting the 8th planet was outside the closed space. Thanks to that, the leaderless legions on the surface were alive and well, but they didn’t know anything either.

“There’s something. . . like living beings spread all over the planet.”

From the perspective of space, their regressed ruins looked like they had just been destroyed by an invasion of creatures like the Chimeraz. And except for those ruins, all the surface was occupied by alien life forms.

“It seems like there was a terrible world where the indiscriminate infection of biological bombs and the nth generation artificial humans fought.”

“The creatures that took over that planet aren’t my kin.”

“Wasn’t it the infected creatures created by the biological bomb?”

“No. Those things. . . . aren’t the Chimeraz.”

In any case, the biological bomb belongs to the Chimeraz, so it should be possible to connect wavelengths with Kreion.

But the wavelengths are not connecting.

“I haven’t done a genetic analysis, but my system says that those are a group of life forms derived from biological bombs. . .?”

“It seems like the infection of the biological bomb on the planet evolved over centuries and eventually became a new species, not the Chimeraz.”

“Wait, a Cresecter. . . resembling a Cresecter is rising in the atmosphere.”

“. . .?”

A single mutant Cresecter was rising from the 8th planet. At that moment, Ludwig informed him with wavelengths.

➖That’s. . . . a child born in my colony grounds. . . .

‘Why was a creature created on the 4th planet on the 8th planet?’

➖I’m not. . . . sure. But I’m sure that’s my child. . . .

It is questionable why Ludwig’s mutant Cresecter is on the 8th planet.

‘Wait in the stratosphere for a while.’

Much larger than a normal Cresecter, it waited in the stratosphere for the time being according to its master’s orders.

And Kreion joined the mutant Cresecter retrieved from Ludwig in the stratosphere, and slowly entered the surface of the 8th planet with the Asotuses.

Kreion followed the wavelengths sent by the mutant Cresecter and entered a certain point on the surface, where there was a large basin created by a meteorite crater over many years.

‘Is it saying that something fell there.’

In order to look into the basin with the eyes of the mutant Cresecter that had survived in this world for a long time, Kreion sent the mutant Cresecter down towards the basin.

➖Ah. . . . . . . Finally. . . .

➖Aaahhhh. . .!!! He’s here. . .!!!

➖Lord Creator! I’ve been waiting for you. . .!

Then, from the center of the basin, an existence calling Kreion ‘Lord Creator’ responded with wavelengths.

➖Aaahhhh!!! I’ve been waiting for you!! I’ve been waiting for this moment for thousands of years, just for you. . .!

Time.

It was chaos that brought it to Kreion from the very beginning. 

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