Chapter 903 I Reckon I'm Bound to Win! (5800)

Timeline · 1.0

A time traveler arrives here.

This point in time is earlier in absolute time compared to the Starborn's spacetime. In other words, their technology is lower than the Starborn's and closer to the original baseline spacetime.

So, Eve and Ming Zhengde saw that their landing point was a lush, verdant prairie.

And large swaths of mushrooms.

It was a cloudless dawn, the air still carrying a hint of cold moisture from the night. At first, neither Eve nor Ming Zhengde could find the alternate-spacetime compatriots they sought.

Until they realized that the black-green mushrooms that dotted the planet, covering the mountains and plains, were actually another form of 'human.'

Yes... Although they had no intelligence, no humanoid form in the common sense, and none of humanity's most proud civilization, nothing at all, this land only had what looked like mushrooms, but whose core contained human genetic heritage.

"This, can this even be considered humanity?!"

Eve didn't understand, but she was greatly shocked: "Even the Starborn at least have a humanoid form and human thought patterns... These mushrooms, even if they possess human genetic factors, are still just mushrooms, right!"

Of course, that was just the initial impression. Eve walked across the prairie, came to the valley, and passed through lakes and groves, seeing many such peculiar creatures that were both mushrooms and humans.

"They abandoned intelligence themselves, in exchange for absolute survivability."

By studying the internal structure of a mushroom, Eve finally understood the choice humanity made in this spacetime to resist the Twilight Net: "This peculiar mushroom can survive in any environment. When mature, it will explode, spreading its spores throughout the planet, even into the atmosphere."

"When the number of mushrooms is large enough, they will awaken a gestalt-like intelligence. The huge mushroom collective will manufacture a powerful biomas ship, using the local planet's raw materials as a supplement, and launch this ship, full of spores, into the universe, to exist on any planet."

"Mushrooms are not without intelligence... but their thinking ability, technology, and even creativity, are all sealed in their genes—they will not awaken unless there is a sufficiently safe environment and the conditions are met!"

"And the Twilight Net cannot possibly discover that these mushrooms are humans... Even if they do discover, so what? Mushrooms are all over the universe, and countless spore ships are spreading in the infinite stars, scattering their spores."

"And every spore... is a seed for the future human race, containing all human knowledge, all combat experience!"

Mushrooms stood between the verdant forests and grasslands.

They seemed ignorant, fragile, and had abandoned themselves... but human civilization lurked in these seemingly ordinary and simple mushrooms.

When the war began, when the situation was unfavorable, when the environment was suitable, and when the set conditions were met, they would all revive, becoming intelligent beings in another sense.

Eve left this planet, following the guidance of the melody to the place where the notes were loudest.

It was an even larger gas giant. Within the gas giant's violent storms and cyclones, there were almost endless hyphae. The violent gales and cyclones drove the hyphae as a whole to rotate endlessly, falling into crisis, and precisely because of this, each hypha was like a string, playing its own music.

Because the hyphae were in motion, the infinite hyphae formed a vast whole, so that the spores in this gas giant had a more obvious self-will compared to other planets.

[You...]

The collective will said: [You are human, primitive, a human who has not undergone change...]

"Yes, I am human."

Standing in the starry sky, the girl spoke to the planet: "And I am here to help you, to help you not be so humble just to survive, but to fight, to counterattack."

[Existence itself is a counterattack]

The collective will's voice was slow, but it did not refuse: [But counterattack is also a process of existence... If you really have a way, then I ask you to tell me that way...]

[Thank you very much]

Eve once again sent out light—technology from the Rebel Army and the Starborn, most of which was meaningless to the collective will... They no longer had factories, individuals, or the tools needed for human civilization.

They were already a collective will of mushrooms, and perhaps they were no longer truly human except for originating from humans.

But who cared? Anyway, Eve didn't care. After all, who could define the standard of a true human being? It was still a matter of individual interpretation.

And this was the key to opening the final lock.

The Rebel Army's 'mechanical armament' and 'primordial body,' and the Starborn's 'mind resonance' technology, were among the few technologies that could be used by the 'mushrooms'—and this was the last step to leverage the birth of a miracle.

Soon after the light sank into the depths of the gas giant, a dark green glow lit up.

A grand movement began to resound in the vacuum, a wave of the soul, a song of the Great Way. Infinite hyphae, spores, and even all the mushroom humans in the entire universe were connected by this melody that transcended time and space. In that endlessly spreading ripple, a vast mental ripple was born.

Then, two incredible primordial bodies were cultivated.

[Existence] and [Continuation]

Existence is for continuation, and continuation is for existence.

In other words, existence is reasonable, and I think it is reasonable so it can exist.

As long as 'I reckon,' then it can be reasonable.

In this incredible, reality-warping, psychic ripple, even the physical rules of reality would be distorted as a result.

Eve watched all these changes in surprise—she saw two dark green primordial bodies, far larger than any primordial body she had ever seen, materialize. And as the primordial bodies took shape, instantly, all the mushroom humans in the entire universe underwent subtle mutations.

They regained the appearance of primitive humans, with limbs and heads, able to use tools, and re-manifested all the tools and technologies in their genes—even if the tools were not precise enough for the time being, they could be directly supplemented with mental power.

As long as the mushroom people felt that the tools in their hands could indeed achieve the corresponding effect, then until they felt otherwise, the tools in their hands could be comparable to high-precision processing facilities.

[We want to live, we have to take down the Twilight Net]

This was what the [Existence] primordial body said. He was always violent and cunning.

[I reckon we can take down the Twilight Net, we're so smart]

This was what the [Continuation] primordial body said. He was always cunning and violent.

And with their call, all the mushroom people reckoned they could win.

So, the war began.

Strange battleships, made of who-knows-what biomass, garbage, rocks, trees, or simply the wreckage of ancient warships, were constructed in the psychic ripples of the melody. The craftsmanship of ancient villagers processed the mysteries of nuclear fusion and even antimatter engines. This might be very outrageous, but it seemed reasonable after thinking about it.

It was difficult to describe Eve's feelings at this moment. She felt that all of this was very unreasonable, but things had already happened, had already existed, and she could only accept it.

"Other spacetimes are really amazing."

The girl watched the dark green and even ink-green spaceships all over the sky, driving the massive melody battleships, fighting fiercely with the Twilight Net—the Twilight Net obviously did not expect so many mushrooms to pop out of nowhere, and their power did indeed have the upper hand, so that a large number of mushroom warships were destroyed in an instant.

But it was meaningless, because the number of mushrooms was endless. Any planet could be infected and invaded by mushroom spores, and their technology was surprisingly not bad, even quite good.

After all, they had the backing of technology from two spacetimes. As the mushroom people reckoned they could also use these alternate-spacetime technologies, they used them all.

[Obviously] Ming Zhengde couldn't help but recall the Heavenly Demons in his own world—did the two sides seem to have some similarities?

But in the end, he shook his head and sighed: [In any case, this world no longer needs us to stay]

"That's right."

The power of the two primordial bodies, Existence and Continuation, was far more powerful than Eve imagined. They moved stars and built time machines for the time travelers once again.

[I reckon this will be useful]

And in the end, the two primordial bodies, the unified will of all the mushroom people, sent their light: [This is definitely powerful!]

The emerald green light was received. The mushroom people and the Twilight Net's endless war continued, while Eve and Ming Zhengde once again embarked on a journey, stepping into the event horizon.

——The timeline changes——

The time travelers traveled through many, many spacetimes, and those stories were hard to recount one by one.

The girl and her teacher had arrived in a world where humans, in order to fight against machines, had also transformed themselves into machines. The Human Alliance Protocol fought the Twilight Net, and they fought so fiercely that it was impossible to tell who was the real villain.

In some worlds, humans were forced to wander the starry sky, leaving only a few generation ships, sailing in the endless universe through wormholes and hyperspace lanes, seeking a chance to break the situation, or forgetting the reason for the voyage.

In the endless spacetime, there were endless destinies, endless stories, endless possibilities.

And in these stories, the time traveler's positioning was 'deus ex machina.'

——They brought the losers a chance to reverse everything.

——They brought the weak a means to gradually become stronger.

——They brought those in a stalemate a moment to break the deadlock.

——They brought the lost a direction to re-guide them.

They were gods, sages, elves and prophets who brought holy swords to the brave, and diviners who provided opportunities for the confused and lost to embark on the right path. They gave guidance, explained the secrets of heaven, guided the future, and changed the world.

They were the ones who descended to break the deadlock and reverse fate after a story fell into a deadlock.

They were the beam of light that suddenly lit up on a dark stage when everything was about to fall into the end and nothingness.

This was [Deus ex Machina]—an unexpected, sudden, and far-fetched rescue character, means, or event.

Eve and Ming Zhengde were such existences.

But, was this really deus ex machina?

Was their existence, their actions, not a reasonable part of some larger story, destiny, or even cause and effect, without cause and effect?

Where was their appearance forced, unexpected, sudden, and far-fetched?

The travelers continued to sail.

As the timeline gradually approached 1, Eve could sometimes even see herself and Alan in other spacetimes.

Sometimes, Alan did not die, and the two faced the Twilight Net together, resisting that desperate future.

Sometimes, Alan did not succeed in saving her. Although she survived, Eve died, and she had to find another way to save the world.

And sometimes, both of them died, but besides Eve and Alan, there were others who stepped forward to lead humanity against the darkness of despair.

And Eve appeared in front of everyone, giving the seeds of change and innovation again and again.

And after experiencing too much help, Eve couldn't help but feel a little lost.

"Do we really need to save everyone, Teacher?"

She would ask in confusion: "Some spacetimes are obviously bound to lose. Even if they barely maintain it, it may just be a lingering existence... Will spending a long time helping them delay some people we could have saved, preventing them from winning?"

[Of course we have to save them, every time we have to save them]

And Ming Zhengde answered without hesitation: [Resistance is important every time, it has nothing to do with quantity, because once you give up because it is 'difficult and long,' then one day, you, who have opened this mouth, will give up more people for other reasons]

[What's more, in an infinite world, we who are not infinite cannot save everyone anyway. Since that is the case, it is better to save everything we can see]

Saying this, the Emperor's spirit did not hesitate in the slightest, and still stated his beliefs with incomparable fervor: [Eve... you must understand]

[Infinite parallel spacetimes, infinite timelines, you must admit that everyone, the humans in every parallel spacetime, are people, are humans, and then go to save and help... This infinite infinity will turn into the power that supports you and believes in you]

[This is perfection, the road to infinity]

Thinking of this, Eve was still crossing time, gradually approaching her original timeline, the one where Alan traveled through time and saved her from being killed by the Twilight Net.

"Although that's what I say, everything I do can only be said to guarantee my own psychological peace."

The girl moved forward in the chaotic spacetime. She couldn't help but think: "Even if I help other spacetimes... so what?"

"Besides self-satisfaction, it always feels very meaningless."

And at this time.

Suddenly, standing in the chaotic spacetime that no one knew.

The girl suddenly felt something. She turned her head in shock and looked behind her.

There, a giant composed of light roared past.

It was a Starborn. He didn't notice Eve. This Starborn seemed to be conducting some kind of experiment, a time travel experiment similar to hers, so he didn't notice the girl hidden at the edge of the event horizon.

That was also a time traveler. After an unknown amount of time, the Starborn or Star Gods had found a way to cross time using their own methods, becoming time travelers like Eve.

[Even if this experiment fails, we must leave enough information for our compatriots]

He murmured to himself, and then took a step, walking towards a more distant time in a burst of dark blue light.

This was a fellow traveler.

Not only him.

As Eve looked around in surprise, in this chaos beyond time and space, there also appeared mushroom people, mechanical people, ordinary humans, and all kinds of human subspecies.

Some succeeded, some failed, some entered a black hole singularity after a while due to data errors, but were saved by time travelers from other spacetimes, who gave them the correct data to return.

These existences were spreading on the timeline.

And the source of all this was Eve.

Eve left behind the technology of the time machine, and this technology was blooming and bearing fruit in many eras. As she went forward, there were more and more time travelers in the spacetimes she had traveled through, and these time travelers also followed Eve's approach, sharing their technology with more spacetimes.

So, on the infinite forking and flowing river of time, Eve's color was spreading.

——The eternal notes were playing——

"It's not just us..."

At first, Eve's tone was surprised, but then, it was relief and joy: "Yes, it's not just us..."

[Of course] Ming Zhengde nodded calmly: [This kind of thing... can never be just us]

[Because what is right can never be alone]

——Above the firmament——

The faceless starry sky, the ethereal God King, could also clearly perceive that his 'expression' was unsightly at this moment.

It was a spacetime-transcending perception, a sense of fear, incomprehension, disbelief, and clenched teeth of persistence.

He realized that the trend he had originally set was being changed, an incomprehensible force was twisting the direction of the river, and opening up a new tributary.

"Are you still resisting? Starry Sky."

In response, the divine bird rotating with five-colored light only spread its wings. He did not, and did not bother to, launch an attack at this moment: "Listen, you have no reason to be at odds with us now... Why bother to forcefully arrive at a future with a meager probability for a cause and effect that has no origin?"

[It is you who do not understand]

And the Starry Sky God King roared: [You don't understand at all... Yes, the Starry Sky God King is destined to be born, not limited to a single possibility... But for me, this is the only one!]

[I am the Starry Sky God King born to 'resist the invasion of the Candle Sun.' If I give up, then it is not me! How could you, an existence living in a world with only one time flow, understand this paradox of time and cause and effect!]

"...Is that so?"

Hearing the Starry Sky God King's reason, the Candle Sun's original mocking expression also slightly subsided. He couldn't help but sigh: "That's why time travel is prohibited by great existences... This kind of existence that can change the future of all 'non-time travelers' without paying any price, and can divide all beings into two classes... If possible, it really shouldn't exist."

But then, the Candle Sun's tone changed, and he said disdainfully: "But so what? Starry Sky, you manipulate time and cause and effect, twisting the future of others, then I can naturally twist and manipulate yours—but don't worry, I won't take action myself, because 'Heaven' belongs to 'Heaven,' and 'Mortal World' belongs to 'Mortal World.'"

"The battle of Dao-integration experts will be decided by us, and everything in the mortal world will be solved by the beings of the mortal world."

Su Zhou's tone was full of matter-of-fact confidence.

[Why do you believe in all living beings so much?]

Even though he was at odds with the Candle Sun and suppressed by him, the Starry Sky God King still found it difficult to understand the other party's logic: [They are weak, slow, changeable, and easily incited and fooled... They are actually so ignorant. If it weren't for your enlightenment, they would be destined to be ruled by us gods for generations]

[Why do you believe that such mortals can achieve final victory without your guidance?]

Saying this, the Starry Sky God King's chaotic light mist body lit up with bright starlight, a manifestation of his power being raised to the limit: [Even now, your apostles have not yet encountered the real power under my command... Haha, time travelers, have they never thought that even they can reverse time and space, would I ignore these and not maintain key spacetime nodes?]

[The closer they get to the baseline spacetime, the closer they get to the truth... and the closer they get to despair]

"Stupid."

And Su Zhou's evaluation was extremely simple: "You and I are both sentient beings. If I don't trust sentient beings, wouldn't I be saying that I don't even trust myself?"

"What's more, the despair and truth you speak of..."

Calmly narrating, the divine bird looked down at spacetime, he looked at the vast, playing notes, couldn't help but smile: "It's nothing more than the so-called 'time guardians,' 'laws of causality,' 'Möbius strip,' and 'suppressing force'... At most, it's just the 'deus ex machina' you've prepared long ago."

Smiling, Su Zhou always firmly believed.

He firmly believed: "I reckon."

"Facing that kind of weak and verbose thing, like a snotty rubber mud."

"My apostles are bound to win."