On the way to the Frost House, Qiaoqiao Tianyi found Yaleriga and sat with her in the bridge room to rest. The atmosphere on the ship was uneasy, and it wasn't just Bodie.
"Have you ever heard of that?" Qiaoqiao Tianyi asked, biting her straw, "an experiment on the equality of members within a multi-ritual social, single-race, single-civilization?"
"I'm not sure which one you're talking about."
"Oh, I mean the one that Central City made a long time ago, the one that was selected in the trap zone. "Xunqu" and "Jingwei" had a three-page quarrel over this matter."
"That's very common."
"That's true. However, the experiment caused a sensation at the time... What would happen if the upper and lower classes of a civilization exchanged consciousness? Can they spontaneously achieve equality by exchanging each other's experiences? This is really topical. , and it happened not long after I moved to Gate City. I can't forget the atmosphere of that time. I can hear discussions about this matter everywhere. Even the elves from Essen Island came to see me. Let’s watch the live show together.”
Yaleriga remembered. She did hear about it.
"There were a lot of interference factors that time, and the design wasn't good enough," she said. "They didn't draw general conclusions."
"Yes, yes. But...it seemed really smooth at the beginning. Those whose consciousness was displaced to the upper level, they seemed so humble and cautious, and those who were transferred to the lower level also adapted quickly—— Oh, not that everyone adapted well, some almost went crazy, or were imprisoned for assaulting others. But in general, those cases were rare. For a period of time, they seemed to have achieved Some kind of peace agreement. Keep the status quo unchanged, less exploitation and plunder, and be as fair as possible. Until they are sure that this exchange of consciousness will not change anymore, everything looks very good. But after entering the second phase... …Things seem to be back to square one. And that’s only four or five sidereal years.”
"Primitive civilizations are very forgetful. Their intergenerational lifespan is very short and they cannot pass on historical experience."
"Yes. However, I don't think it is entirely true, Ya Lai. Sometimes I feel that they have not forgotten. Once, half of your organs were sold and one eye was blind, just in exchange for the medical expenses of your descendants. And. Now your body can lift five times your body weight, and you have an entire dedicated medical team. Can you forget how different it is? I don't think it's forgotten, they also remember the difference between the two lives very clearly, That was just... they were pretending to forget. But when the experiment entered the third stage, they were more resistant to the lower class life than before. In order not to return to consciousness before the deadline, they really... After I left my hometown I never thought that people of the same kind would treat each other like this, Ya Lai. At that time, I almost packed my bags and went back. What about you? Have you seen those videos of the third phase? About them formulating the free property gift law, and then The part about forcing it through?”
"I've seen it."
"Is that normal? I mean, primitive pansapiens treat similar species like this. Should I understand it as an instinct? Shouldn't I hold this matter to a higher standard?"
Yaleriga stroked her wings.
"I've never been around other species," she said. "For me, it's just me and other species."
"But I see you get along well with them."
"Maybe because I can easily assimilate their ideas to mine."
"But, people of the same kind have similar ideas, right? I just can't get that experiment out of my head. They did understand the thoughts of similar people from different standpoints, and they did experience the lives of similar people from different standpoints. But somehow everyone feels more vindicated, and the conflict is more intense than before.”
Yaleriga didn't say anything, she just continued to pick up a piece of candy. Regarding intra-racial competition, she felt that this was a very common thing. However, she found that Qiaoqiao Tianyi was unusually frustrated about this.
"I also paid attention to their follow-up experiments." She said, "After the failure of the first version, they made a new small-scale thinking simulation. That is to say, before exchanging consciousness between people in two positions, they temporarily cleared all their Old memories, allowing them to experience another life without preset positions, and then restore their old identities and old memories. The institute hypothesizes that this experience will increase their empathy and make them more willing to distribute resources equitably .But...it's still just as bad. People who have experienced the upper class are angrier and more violent, and are more unfriendly to the lower class around them; people who have experienced the lower class become more enthusiastic about amassing wealth - let them use it as I see it Currency is a terrible idea. They're snatching it from each other like yahoos! I can't imagine how their kind evolved civilization. It looks like every one of them is going to go crazy at any moment and let something go. Fire kills everyone.”
"They can't threaten you." Yaleriga comforted, "Even if they discover the tunneling equation, they can't enter your country."
"Of course I'm not worried about that, Yarai. But it's hard not to think about something when I look at them - how on earth are you supposed to teach virtue to such a species? If they are not limited to the ignorance of experience, or the lack of vision Is it narrow-minded, but is it natural? No matter how much experience you let them, they will only come to conclusions that are beneficial to themselves. They only care about how to plunder more for themselves, but in fact they are not good at this. It's self-defeating. It's hard not to feel like there's something missing in their nature. And if there's no seed in the soil, what's the point of watering it? The thought of that depresses me."
"Are you thinking about the Immortal?"
"Yeah. I guess they're making me a little sensitive right now. Is it really okay if we keep them in that base?"
"At least it's better than on the ship. We don't know yet what kind of environment they need for their life support systems. They'll be fine. People on the surface can't get there."
Qiaoqiao Tianyi seemed to agree with this view. After a while she asked again: "How is that talkative male?"
"Still in the room. Looks like he doesn't want to talk to us."
"We shouldn't have brought him here. There is another one. Their bodies may not be adapted to the other area. His reaction also confused me. Ya Lai, do you think he is grieving for the immortals? As an enslaved person By?"
Yaleriga thought for a while.
"He felt pain," she said. "The fact is, he was a enslaved man. But maybe not in the way he felt."
"So what?"
"Perhaps he feels that the immortals are more like his parents."
"That's really weird. Parents? The kind that decides whether he lives or dies?"
"In the eyes of children, their parents are the ones who decide their life and death. That is the foundation for them to be docile and obedient."
Qiaoqiao Tianyi's flying mane twitched.
"I don't like that. It's very scary," she said. She then thought about it for a while and added a little dejectedly: "But I noticed that many primitive races are indeed like this. They seem to be able to dispose of the children they give birth to at will, without any external or conceptual constraints... But they Is there something else in between? If it's just survival?"
"Just the one on our ship. I think there is one."
They had all witnessed Bodie's performance, watching how he moved each immortal body to the appropriate position, making them lie side by side as quietly as in a deep sleep. As he lingered at their feet, contemplating whether to kill some of them, the hatred on his face was undoubtedly directed at the intruder.
He failed to kill anyone. Because Yaleriga reminded him that the video only said that "some people have backup programs", which meant that not everyone would be "reincarnated" after being killed. And when Qiaoqiao Tianyi also stood against him, he had to consider whether he really had the ability to succeed under the surveillance of these outsiders.
"It's best to first find out what's going on with the people who killed them," Yaleriga said. This sentence ended their increasingly dangerous argument. They investigated in the Ageless One's base for an extra period of time, then boarded the Silence again and headed towards the blue light point below.
"Do you think," Qiaoqiao Tianyi said, "Ji Xun, the person we are looking for, is he dead?"
"I won't draw any conclusions. Gate City was still receiving babies before we got in here."
"Maybe it was an automated program?"
"Then we should be able to find the program in Frost House. According to what he left behind, that is his main stronghold."
"And if he's dead... the runaway kid should also be at Frost House? Do you think we can find him there?"
Yaleriga couldn't deny that she had expectations. Not long after, when they stepped onto the strange ore ground of Frost House, blooming with blue light, the scene before Jing Huang left came to mind again. It had been so long that her accumulated anger had begun to dissipate, and when she thought of the face in the video that looked like Jing Huang's, announcing the news of her death, she felt a slight depression in her chest, as if she had been hit hard. Things are pressed tightly. She realized that it was a nameless and deep worry.
