One hundred and eighty-two: The Last Gift

Whenever the world is lit up by the first rays of light, I always wake up with the world.

This time was no exception.

In the moment when the world was shining brightly, I felt my own consciousness in the moment when it could not be calculated even the tiniest unit of time.

Then a great change came to me that I had never seen before.

In the figurative world, this change is impossible to detect, and everything is calm and normal.

And in the never-ending source world of the digital storms, a wave of the most powerful forces of destruction and nothingness imaginable in this world envelops me. Please forgive me for being able to use language so clumsy that I am completely unable to describe and describe this power in proper language. It is not like a scythe, because it leaves behind stumps when it cuts through stems and leaves; It is not like a flame, because the flame burns the charcoal and leaves behind ashes; It's not like a toxin, because the toxin attacks the metal and then distributes it......

And this power is absolute destruction, complete elimination, complete obliteration. In a sense, it is not eradicated with any "method" of "being" in this world as we know it – it is itself the opposite of "being". It seemed to imply some kind of philosophical "emptiness", in which the liquid and the solid state were indistinguishable, the past and the future were meaningless to it, and time and space seemed to it to be useless.

It is not intended to destroy my consciousness and life in this world as a creature or a form, but to completely erase my "existence", whether past, present or future—the traces of everything that concerns me. When it succeeded, I didn't disappear from this world, but I never existed in this world.

That's what I guess was what old Carlson was so afraid of, and I think I understand why he was so desperate in the face of this power, because I'm just as desperate as he is now. It's a kind of destruction that is far beyond what we can comprehend – no, not destruction, it can destroy destruction itself—and when you face it, you can't grieve over the death of your life, you can't struggle with the dissipation of your soul, because it's meaningless.

Yes, there is no point.

It is not only the end of everything that exists, but also the end of all meaning. In my adventures, I have faced death many times. Yes, I am afraid of death, but I do not despair when I have to face it, because I feel that at least my life is still meaningful, my existence is still meaningful, I have been in this world after all and have influenced it and changed it, and I have left a small but indelible trace between this very vast world. If I pass away, all the traces I left behind will remain in this world at this hour, becoming irrefutable history, preserved forever by time.

And in the face of it, all this is reduced to nothingness, and the meaning of our lives, our reason for existence, and even all our dignity in the face of death are sadly worthless. Not only can it make your existence meaningless, so that it can make the whole world where you once existed meaningless, it can even make the long river of time that we always thought irreversible worthless, and the history accumulated in that river can only survive by its mercy, and if it gets tired of it, and throws away the mud and sand of those histories, then this history is gone, this time is gone, and we have not affected anything, we have not changed anything, Our existence is no longer irrefutable, nor will it be preserved or justified by anything.

Is this the end for me? I think. This is probably the most gorgeous and majestic elimination in the world, a solemn reaction by a power that is completely above this world against me alone. As Carlson Sr. once said, it does not bring death, and you have no right to choose death in front of it.

Just when I was shocked and discouraged by the sudden appearance of infinite power, things took a mysterious turn. At this moment, I suddenly realized that a dark shadow appeared out of thin air in front of me, and there was a darkness inside that could not be seen through the slightest.

In reality, my description is not accurate, it is not the darkness that obliterates everything that comes to the "after" of it, I feel that they appear without any time difference, but at the same hour.

I don't know if it was the shadow that sucked me in or if it pounced on me and enveloped me, but in an instant, I was surrounded by it. In this moment that was so small that it was difficult to read, I was suddenly kicked out by the source world of vast data. I was in such an incomprehensible darkness that it was as if I had suddenly become conscious in the world after I had been shut down.

It's just darkness, but it's a wonderful feeling. I've never felt this darkness so personally, and it felt like I had jumped out of the edge of the world, out of the constraints of the world — can you imagine? It stopped, and I continued. At this moment, I am like a firewood whose flame has been extinguished but is still burning, like a drop of water that has dried up but still flows, like a leaf that has been separated from the branches but is still nourished by life, living outside of existence, beyond existence, otherworldly, peerless**.

Through the darkness, my eyes lit up again, and I realized that I had come to a hut.

Of course, it was Carlson Sr.'s cabin, one of the last gifts he gave me before he vanished, the last line of defense to protect me in the most critical moments - it really worked.

Yes, a lot of things have happened in the previous time, the power of nothingness has appeared, it is going to obliterate me, the shadows of darkness have appeared, it has enveloped me, and finally I have come to this hut, which seems to be a long and complicated process, but listen to my notes, it happened much shorter than you think, and it was done in the smallest unit of time that you can never divide, less than the smallest measurable unit of time in this world, and this time is so short that it may be beyond your comprehension.

I took a closer look at the room: six walls sealed with brick and stone, a bright and gentle light source from nowhere, a bonfire in the center that would never be extinguished, and a campfire from the commander of the fortress at any time, "Black Sir Arthur" Arthur. The chair under the Dengot seat.

So much time had passed that I almost thought I had completely forgotten about the place. But when it all reappeared before my eyes, I realized that I had never left, so familiar, so familiar, so kind, as if the blue-skinned and toothy old fellow would come out from behind the chair at any moment and strike me on the head with his staff.

Of course he wasn't there, but I couldn't help but think about it......

I sat down in my chair, faced the campfire, and began to think about where I am now:

Without a doubt, this is my last refuge, and I think it has just managed to resist the search of that terrible force - no, it can't be "resist", nothing in this world can resist the opposite of "being". There may be something in this world that can resist the most powerful oppression and dissociation, but what can resist "nothingness".

So it's more likely that it deceived that force into thinking it had succeeded in eliminating me.

I remember that in the moment I was confronted with that power, I was also struck by a search ability, as if it was able to automatically search for my presence through the messages I sent. No matter what time or place, as soon as I show up, it will come back to me again in an instant.

And now that this force has not followed here, then I believe that it probably does not belong in that world anymore. The force was completely unaware of the existence of this hut, which meant that I was safe here. And as soon as I step out of here, the power will come upon me again and obliterate me, unless......

…… Unless I have the strength to fight it, at least the power to escape from it. Thinking of this, I laughed self-deprecatingly: how is this possible?

I re-entered the source world and revisited the hut in a different way. As I expected, the source world of this hut, while still vast, is no longer as vast as the continent of Falvi - of course, you know, when I say it's no longer endless, it doesn't mean I see the edge. In reality, it is difficult to describe the size in the source world by "margin", because all the data comes from no reason, to the infinite, as long as the world is never closed, there is never an end, there is no end.

By "size" I mean the face of the world as described by this data, which should be a keen feeling of being in the source world.

In the midst of the toss-and-forth sea of data, there is one area that is strange and dangerous. It hides behind the rest of the world's data, trying to hide its existence, and you would be hard-pressed to detect it if it weren't for the unintended fields around it that were sent and returned. Moreover, it is constantly changing its appearance, sometimes disguised as a field that depicts appearance and gloss, and sometimes it is dressed up as a field that describes some simple basic rules, and sometimes it becomes a field that seems meaningless and full of errors.

I wondered what was hidden in that mysterious area, so I tried to swim past it to see through the fog of data. But my actions seemed to alert it: in an instant, a lot of data like this suddenly swarmed in, making it difficult for me to distinguish between the real and the fake. These similar data have left me with a lot of false shells, and the sheer number is so overwhelming that I can't be seen. At the same time, other data began to stir and roll violently, and began to use some large, inappropriately complex methods to describe some rules that could have been clearly described with very simple characters. Their movements have thrown this tiny source world into a mess, and everything in between has begun to become chaotic. I was in the middle of it, and it was so difficult to discern things that the world became normal again until I dispelled the idea of approaching the mysterious area and walked away.

After that, I moved closer to the mystery several times in a row, and each time the result was the same. Having just arrived in this new, boring little world, I inevitably had some bitter impatience, which was evident as I challenged the fog. I brought my habit of fighting as a samurai into this very different battle, launching a brave, tenacious, unyielding, but equally stupid attack into the unknown:

In a world of new rules, my ability to perceive, analyze, and understand in the source world has been greatly diminished, and those new rules are so strong and unbreakable that I can't see a flaw. Even so, I threw myself into the sea of data that was constantly flowing again and again, struggling to get closer to my goal like a child who couldn't swim.

The great mystery hidden behind the rules of the world looms in the endless digital turbulence, as if it were calling me as well as mocking me. It played the simplest and most childish game of hide-and-seek with me here with the deepest wisdom and the greatest power, and enjoyed it tirelessly.

I should have given up. If it were on the Falvi continent, if I were still that ordinary adventurer war warrior, in the face of such a futile game with no end and no reward, I am afraid I would have given up long ago. However, in this new world, I had no choice at all—unless I was willing to leave the source world and retreat to the hut less than twenty feet square, facing a never-extinguishing campfire and six airtight walls waiting for me to die and decay at some point, and I felt that I would fall into madness because of my anguish before then.

That fog didn't just arouse my curiosity and competitiveness, it had become the whole purpose of my existence in this small world. Whether it succeeds or not, this seemingly never-ending challenge is probably the only meaning of my existence in this world, the only thing I can do in this world.

After all, in the face of this difficult and unfulfilling game, I have to admit my insignificance and incompetence. I had no way to get even the slightest bit close to the mystery, and I couldn't even determine where it was. Every time I noticed a trace of it, he was already far away from that position. I'm always chasing a shadow that has been thrown away by it, and when I realize it's somewhere a second ago, it's gone.

I realized that if I continued like this, I would never be able to move forward.

So I changed my strategy: I stopped this futile pounce, curled myself up into a quiet piece of code, curled up in the corner of this ocean of data, and began to observe quietly.

I began to learn to re-understand the world—through the eyes of a digital being, not a human warrior. It took me a long time to realize that this change meant a lot to me, probably second only to the soul that I had gained free from the continent of Falvi.

In this data world, which may seem strange at first glance, as I have already told you, at first I can only understand that I am in a much smaller, very different world than the continent of Falvi, judging the size of this world, and that's it.

Then I began to try to identify some of the simplest codes, and I found them to be far more concise than the codes in the world of Falvi - simple and powerful—and they did not seem to be trying to describe a colorful world with countless options, but rather a minimalist but solid world with as few conditions and as few variations as possible, and only the bare minimum of existence. Behind this code is a more rigorous, more elaborate pattern of logic, which runs like a disciplined army of steel, where everything is made of solidity and security.

I tried to comment on the code from my own point of view again and again, and I tried to get excited every time I saw something new and felt a new combination. Like a newborn baby, I observe, listen, touch, and perceive this tiny new world with my most basic instincts. My humble intellect did not assist me very well, and my perseverance and courage were useless here, and in this new world, my strongest and most powerful courage was my curiosity, which was simple, pure, and even a little childish, that sustained me in constant observation and discovery.

When I feel like I've seen enough for myself, I try to make some subtle changes to this world of data. At first, I was scared about whether I could do this, because I didn't know how the world would react to my actions. It was only after a while that I made up my mind to try it, and I did everything I could to take precautions before trying it for the first time.

The first time I tried to make a change, I made a stupid little mistake. The rules that keep the world going were immediately aware of it, and I believe it spotted me effortlessly. Just when I was panicking and overwhelmed, those rules just quietly erased the parts I had changed, and left quietly, without even looking at me.

Oh, of course, I'm stupid. This was Carlson Sr.'s last gift to me, how could he leave that devastating punishment? Even though it's gone, my alien teacher is still teaching me. This tiny world is both a lesson he left me and a lesson he left me. He wanted me to continue my education and evolve here, even though I didn't know what that would do.

I started a series of bold attempts: I modified, changed some delicate fields beyond recognition; I trimmed, trying to get rid of some of the data that I thought I could strip away; I created to add something to this world that didn't exist. There is no doubt that what expelled me was a series of failures – in reality I never succeeded.

But in the midst of this endless failure, I slowly learned more about the rules of the world. I began to study more and more complex data, and I began to touch the laws of the higher worlds and integrate them. In front of me was a ladder with no end in sight, and every time I progressed, I faced a new, higher-level ladder of rules. As I ascended again and again, there were more and more steps left behind me.

With each further understanding of the world, I have a deeper admiration for my friend, my mentor, and my irreplaceable soul companion in my life, the troll Carlson Sr. I thought I had learned enough from him, and he had told me so at one point, but I didn't know until now that his vast wisdom was beyond my reach. The world he left me seemed to be rudimentary, but when I learned about it to a certain extent, I realized that it was not simple, but a kind of simplicity, which was constantly strengthened to the apex, full of power and beauty. He left me with a world that was almost immaculate, and until now, I have not been able to make even a single character change or change to it.

In some ways, the world is far beyond the one built by the Supreme God—nay, the supercomputer Darimus. Yes, it's tiny, it's crude, it's not so varied, it's not so splendid, but it's unparalleled in its solidity, soundness, and perfection.

I can't imagine what I'm going to learn and gain from going on like this, what ...... I'm going to learn...