"New Antioch?" Phaethon looked up from behind the newspaper, "No, you can't go - I was going to say that I didn't advise you to go, but I think it's better to say it directly." You can't go. ”

"Why?"

"Because just below the Manhattan Metropolis in Antioch, there's an [Otearoa]."

"Ortea what?"

[Otearoa, Rome's ultimate weapon.] Otearalova is a Maori language, which literally translates to Mianbaiyun Township. It's a bit of a mischievous name, but it's a very apt name. But out of respect for this ultimate weapon, we generally call it Nyx, or 'Bomb N'. 】

"What's that? Nuclear bomb? ”

[It's not.] It's completely the other way around - as soon as you step on it, it will burst out a lump of spores, have you ever seen it? If a nuclear bomb can blow up a mushroom cloud, Otearova is a giant horse. 】

"So. What exactly is Otearova? ”

[I'll tell you a story.] When our anthropologists went on a Maori tribal expedition, they asked the local chieftain: Why don't you go out of the tribe and into the city? The chief's answer was: Because, we want to live in Otearoa. 】

"What do you mean?"

[The anthropologist asks the same question: What exactly is Otearoa.] The chief told him a story: the leopard and the shrike bird. 】

The little shrike lamented to his father why the shrike hid in the trees as soon as the lions and leopards appeared. Father said that this is how the bird lives. The little shrike retorted: "But ostriches are birds, and if lions and leopards attack ostriches, they will kick them to death." ”

"But you're not an ostrich." The father replied.

"But I'm a bird, and an ostrich is an ostrich, and I'm going to learn to kick away lions and leopards like ostriches."

So the little shrike practiced for a week, kicking insects and branches. A week later, the little shrike met the leopard.

"I'm a smart bird! I learned to kick like an ostrich. If you get any closer, I'll kick you to death!" ”

The leopard opened its mouth and swallowed the little shrike that kicked the leg: "This stupid bird wants to be another animal." If it flies away like any other bird, my old leopard will starve today. If it wants to be something it will never be, it has to fill my belly. ”

That's what the Maori chieftains said to the Roman anthropologists. Then the anthropologists of the Romans asked two questions: first, the shrike, I don't know, are there lions, leopards, and ostriches here? Second, what does the story mean. 】

"What did Chief Eh say?" Shang Luo asked.

[First, I heard this story. There are big ships docked with stories, so we know what's going on in the world. We know that once you go back, there will be Roman fleets to colonize. So the meaning of the story is: everything in Oteyoruwa has its own rules. You intruders want to break the peace of the land of the white clouds, and we are going to eat you! Anthropologists were then eaten by the Maori. When we arrived at the scene, all we had left was this notebook. 】

“.” Shang Luo covered his forehead, "I almost forgot, the Maori who came up with the name Mianbaiyun Township are cannibals."

[So our interpretation of this here is: Maori know everything.] In fact, through all kinds of cargoes, they are at least aware of the big events in the outside world. But they choose to maintain their eternal way of life, and deliberately resist the intervention of outsiders by means of cannibalism. Coupled with the fact that the Maori are very poor, there are no boring adventurers who run to the Maori to cause trouble. This closed eternity, which ensured that the Maori had been undisturbed in pre-modern society – that is, Otearoa. Otearoa is the Māori name for the world in which they live. 】

"I see"

"That's the way it is, I don't have anything more to add." Faetong on the side looked at him, "So, you should know what this Stretching Baiyun Township is." Then, you should be able to guess what the bomb called "Otearova" is used for. ”

"Hmm." Shang Luo nodded, "Since time is the enemy of eternity, then as long as new experiences are shielded through some way and time is stagnant, eternity will naturally be established." So, [Otearova] is a memetic bomb that can establish absolute closure? ”

"Come on. Let me add. Phaethon gave the word to Apollonia.

[The speculation is basically correct.] 'Otearoa', as a weapon of doom, is a kind of memetic bomb. It is said to be a bomb, but it requires a complex process to activate, and when it explodes, it does not produce the shock wave of a normal bomb, and even something will not be detected in the explosion range. But once activated, the time in the explosion zone will fall irrepressibly into the Möbius loop. There is no past, no future, only one cycle after another. 】

"And it's going to keep falling." "The cycle may be longer at first, and eventually it will stabilize at about 24 hours a day and night, and then slowly drain away like a late until the beginning and the end, 0 and ∞, all fit together." ”

“？？？？？？” Shang Luo was stunned, "What are you doing this for?" ”

[Let me ask you one more question: If Rome falls, what will happen to the archangel of Hagia Sophia? 】

"I'm going to talk to him? At least for now. ”

[That was when you were there now, and you can deal with it now.] The Romans didn't know you existed—and there were many more, unstoppable scourges. So in order to solve all the mysteries once and for all after the fall of the Roman Empire and not cause trouble to Aurora, we made 999 Ortearoa pieces inspired by the Maori story, scattered around the world, ready to detonate all the important targets in the entire Western Hemisphere at once. For example, if we detonate Otearoa in Hagia Sophia, we can fix Antena's present moment as a semi-eternal dream. 】

"So. How strong is this isolation, isolation from the outside world? ”

[Strong enough that even the slightest observation can only be done once a year - just as the key and the lock cylinder match each other, the 'Great Dream of Otearova' will only loosen when the stars on the celestial planet turn to the position when they were 'locked'.] 】

"And." "Considering the precession caused by the precession of the Earth's axis, the Earth's stars will change slightly in a cycle of 26,000. In other words, the true perfect agreement is not once a year, but once every 26,000 years, which means that the 'decisive correction' may not be possible to be made a second time on the scale of human history. Because if a [Otearois] is detonated today, it may not be until the history of human civilization enters the 30th millennium to completely eliminate its impact. ”

(End of chapter)

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