Chapter 482: The Three-Body Problem! The Secret of Civilizational Cycles! Luck!
Faced with the Emperor's attempts to dissuade him, Li Ang only shook his head. Venturing into the Three-Body universe was a risk he had to take.
It was precisely because this universe was so dangerous that the mission could easily fail. Li Ang could not trust anyone else to handle the unification task. What's more, the Three-Body universe hid a secret about the cycles of civilization.
The true final boss, the Zeroers, never actually appeared in person. They spoke only a few words at the end of time, yet decided the life and death of an entire universe, condemning tens of thousands of civilizations to annihilation.
But civilizations on the level of the Zeroers were not unique within the Three-Body setting!
At the conclusion of the saga, the Zeroers used a supermembrane broadcast to call upon all civilizations to return the matter they had stripped from the universe, so as to complete the universal restart.
This declaration served both as a warning to lower civilizations and a statement to the higher ones: if the matter from pocket universes was not returned, then everyone would be finished together.
If the Zeroers had truly been the only godlike civilization in the Three-Body universe, they could have launched a war of unification on their own and seized all the missing universal matter.
But they did not. The fundamental reason was that civilizations as powerful as the Zeroers were not alone.
A head-on clash would exact a price too great to pay.
From its eleven-dimensional pastoral era, the Three-Body universe had continually collapsed downward into three dimensions, and was now on the brink of falling all the way to zero. In that process, a considerable number of late-stage civilizations had already mastered technologies like creating pocket universes or establishing dark domains to evade cosmic disasters.
This left the native Three-Body universe riddled like a wasp's nest, with chaotic rules and hollowed-out interiors.
Li Ang's task upon arriving in this universe was to use the Aether Resonance Engine to drain all matter and trigger a premature restart of the universe—blasting open a gateway to ultimate truth!
Given the scale of the Three-Body universe, Li Ang believed the Aether Resonance Engine would definitely be able to blow out some results.
But unless it was absolutely necessary, Li Ang would not lightly activate the engine. After all, the Three-Body universe was not entirely beyond the possibility of recovery.
Better to have one more universe than one less.
"Have you decided who you want to bring into the new universe, and what preparations you'll need?"
The Emperor knew he could not alter Li Ang's decision, so he could only cooperate as much as possible, lending his strength to the completion of this daunting mission.
"What else can I do for you?" the Emperor asked again.
"I've already made arrangements. I'll take V, Morgan Blackhand, and Jack with me to the Three-Body universe. They are the peak of combat power in the real-universe plane. Bringing them will be enough."
Li Ang smiled. In the Three-Body universe, all magic and psionics would fail, making it pointless to bring along Primarchs or Jedi.
Besides, close-quarters combat with aliens was almost out of the question; the real struggle would be one of decisions and technology.
"As for the relevant technological weapons, only a few key items are necessary. The rest is just to bring along production schematics. The basic materials for megastructures or weapons will be available there."
This expedition to the Three-Body universe had to be kept absolutely streamlined. The expeditionary force could not be too large, or they risked energy shortages.
But neither could it be too small—if they couldn't even handle the Trisolarans, that would be far too embarrassing.
Most crucial of all was to bring the Aether Resonance Engine, along with a portion of the research staff. This was their only weapon against the Zeroers.
"I'll convene a high council meeting right away. At that time, I'll present a detailed briefing on the Three-Body universe and the unification plan."
Seeing that Li Ang was confident and prepared, the Emperor said no more. The two then turned the topic toward the upcoming god-making project.
…
…
The Warhammer 40K Universe!
After ascending to godhood as the God of Order and Reason, Guilliman's first act was to travel across the timelines of the universe, assisting the Megacorp's Science Nexus Department in collecting technological breakthroughs.
With but a single thought, his vision reached the distant War in Heaven. There he beheld the Necrontyr Star Gods battling the Old Ones, entire galaxies trembling and shattering from the conflict.
This unimaginably brutal yet dazzling battlefield had once drawn the gaze of the Chaos Gods themselves, but even they dared not approach too closely. The combatants of the War in Heaven already wielded technology capable of touching the Warp.
Disturbing such powers would have been disastrous.
But as the God of Order and Reason, Guilliman felt no fear toward the Old Ones or the C'tan. He deliberately watched this cataclysmic war at close range, as if appreciating a magnificent science-fiction stage play.
Even as he observed the War in Heaven, Guilliman did not neglect to gather and analyze the technologies of the C'tan and Old Ones, stealing away the Necrons' painstakingly crafted ultimate weapon.
Who knew how long he lingered there, but for Guilliman time itself had long since lost all meaning—he no longer needed to worry about running out of it.
He had to admit: the Old Ones were indeed the only species in the Warhammer 40K universe that came close to true "godhood." Their mastery and utilization of higher-dimensional space far surpassed even humanity's Golden Age.
Coupled with lifespans nearing eternity, had it not been for war, they might have remained the unrivaled rulers of the universe forever.
But the Old Ones had the misfortune to encounter the C'tan, the strongest beings of the material realm. The C'tan were, strictly speaking, cosmic organisms, beings of immense power.
What made them even more dangerous was their exceptional learning ability and their own deep research into universal laws and higher-dimensional knowledge. This made them the Old Ones' most troublesome foes.
And with the Necrons—a civilization second only to the Old Ones—joining the fray, it was inevitable that the besieged Old Ones would be defeated.
What surprised Guilliman most was that the Necrons' ultimate weapon cannon was created purely by accident. They had attempted countless times, but only a single mishap led to the birth of this epic weapon.
After shattering the C'tan with it, the Necrons never managed to replicate the process. The loss of critical data consigned the weapon to history—until Guilliman picked it up.
Guilliman then continued down the river of time, watching as tribes of Chaos-worshippers began to flourish. The embryonic forms of Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Khorne, and Nurgle were already taking shape.
Of course, Guilliman could have intervened, redirecting these devout believers to worship him instead. But he did not, knowing such an effort was futile.
If he could change them, so could the other Chaos Gods. Altering loyalties back and forth amounted to nothing in the end. Why waste the effort?
Thus, not interfering with the timelines and simply observing in silence became an unspoken consensus among the gods of the Warp.
Before long, Guilliman also witnessed tribes and civilizations worshipping him—something that had never existed in the old history. His very birth had already reshaped the past.
The more Guilliman studied the histories of civilizations and species, the more astonished he became at the existence of the Universal Megacorp. Only by standing from the perspective of a god could one realize just how long and arduous the journey was from mortal to divine.
And the true deciding factor in becoming a god was not effort, nor numbers, nor power—
It was luck.
Exactly, it's just luck!
Guilliman had seen far too many tenacious species struggle up from the mud. Just when he thought this civilization would rise through sheer perseverance,
a massive meteor came crashing down from the heavens, annihilating the civilization that was on the verge of revival. Every story needed a clear line of logic, something traceable. Reality, however, required no such thing.
Civilizations that endured hardship were many, yet only humanity had made it this far. Any effort, any careful planning, meant nothing before luck.
This was something counterintuitive, counterlogical—an existence that ignored all cause and consequence. Every flash of inspiration that forged a miracle could not be separated from luck.
After finishing this time-travel journey, Guilliman took the information he had collected and handed all of it over to the staff of the Megacorp's Science Hub Department.
"Wonderful! These tech points are of great help to us. Thank you for your support of the Universal Megacorp!" David Martinez was thrilled.
A god as obedient and useful as Guilliman—of course, the more the better.
Unlike the delighted David, Guilliman betrayed no emotion. He only said calmly:
"These things are of little consequence to the Megacorp. You would have obtained these tech points eventually anyway. They can't really be called precious."
And Guilliman was not wrong.
At this stage, the Megacorp had no shortage of weapons of mass destruction—supercannons capable of wiping out entire star systems, supermassive black holes sweeping across sectors at will.
At first, the Megacorp had no ability to create or control black holes, but the rebel AI Iron Men had provided the technology, allowing the Megacorp to light up this tech node in short order.
With black hole technology, the Megacorp could now mass-produce Birch Worlds.
The first Birch World had already been officially put into use.
At Li Ang's direction, this Birch World was formally renamed [Birch No. 1—Battle Through the Heavens], designed specifically to seed espers and Force warriors, cultivating them into a full-fledged xuanhuan-style continent world.
These people would have their original memories stripped away, replaced with new memories written in by the Matrix. Inside Birch No. 1, they would take on the roles of disciples from the sects of Battle Through the Heavens, naturally evolving and developing an entirely new psionic system.
And there would be many more such transformation projects. For example, Birch No. 2 had already been designated as (Shrouding the Heavens. In the future, there would also be (Ever Night), (Tao's Strange Immortality), and other specific worlds set one by one.
This was the kind of evolutionary leap brought by a single new technology. Ten thousand standardized cannons could never compare to the significance of one brand-new atomic bomb in warfare.
The Megacorp today could truly be called godlike—stronger than the Forerunners of the Halo universe, more terrifying than the Old Ones of Warhammer.
The [Neurophysics] of the Forerunner Databanks had long since been thoroughly combed through by the Science Hub. The Grand Unified Theory was already complete. The Megacorp's exploitation of the cosmos and exploration of the unknown was about to reach its ceiling.
What the Megacorp now lacked was, in truth, a power capable of breaking the fourth wall!
Otherwise, decline after prosperity was the destined ending, the inescapable path. The cyclical law of history was an eternal curse upon every civilization and species.
Guilliman's rationality drew only a dry smile from David. He too understood these truths, but having something was still better than having nothing.
The people of the Science Hub loved nothing more than collecting all sorts of technologies. Those brilliant minds from across countless civilizations harbored an unending thirst for the unknown.
Even an ordinary but novel little gadget was enough to make them delighted for half a day.
The meaning of the word new was itself a great spiritual treasure to every researcher.
"I stayed in the Warp for a long time. Humanity is truly fortunate—to achieve godhood without sacrificing itself as the price."
"The Aeldari once drew equally close to a god-tier civilization. They even had the potential to become the next cosmic overlords after the Old Ones. But the birth of Slaanesh reduced them from rulers of the galaxy to insignificant leftovers."
Guilliman spoke from the heart, sharing with David Martinez his reflections on humanity.
Luck—an almost deliberately arranged kind of luck. Hardships, but never fatal. Struggles, but always the strength to rise again.
Despair, yet always someone able to turn the tide. As if heaven itself were secretly orchestrating it all.
"What you say, I can't deny. But I also can't fully agree. Who wants to accept that all the results of their hard work boil down to nothing but luck? Don't you think?"
David shrugged. He had clawed his way up from a grunt soldier. He knew how much suffering he had endured along the way. If that was called luck, why should he have wasted half his life?
Wouldn't it have been better to just wait around for his lucky day to strike it rich?
"One day, you'll understand the meaning of those words."
Guilliman offered no argument. He had just come out of the Warp. He was far too lonely and only wanted to speak his mind. That he received no response was within his expectations.
David did not remain long in the Warhammer 40K universe. After receiving and cataloguing the looted tech points, he immediately returned to Ideal City.
Li Ang's orders had already arrived in the inboxes of every senior executive. They now needed to rush back to Night City for a meeting.
...
Ideal City, Universal Base Headquarters!
After centuries of development and refinement, this planet—once Earth, now Ideal City—had been pushed to its absolute limits. Every inch of space carried a unique function and purpose.
And as the core zone ruling over multiple heavens and universes, the Universal Base alone now took up one-third of Ideal City's entire territory.
Employees of the Megacorp from all manner of civilizations moved in order, walking or flying, busily at work.
At this moment, representatives of the various alien civilizations and the Megacorp's executives had gathered in the headquarters' council hall, listening in silence to Li Ang's latest series of personnel adjustments.
Everyone present knew full well—every time Li Ang made such a complex reshuffling of personnel, it meant that a massive integration campaign was about to begin.
And today, naturally, was no exception.
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