Chapter 1 The Truth of the Universe

"Alright, what I'm about to tell you next is about the truth of the entire universe's changes, even more important than everything you've experienced before and now. Let me say in advance, if you have any meeting schedules later, push them all back."

Han Xiao took in their unimpressed expressions, shook his head, and his tone was unquestionable.

"The truth of the universe?"

Mabrus and the others exchanged glances. Seeing that Han Xiao didn't seem to be joking, they couldn't help but feel a little skeptical.

Han Xiao snapped his fingers and summoned a virtual screen showing a virtual image of the birth and death of the universe, and began to explain:

"When the universe comes to an end, everything will return to nothingness. Heat death, the Big Crunch, and other phenomena are the endings of the universe that many scientists have guessed or foreseen. All kinds of signs and experiments show that these are likely to be correct doomsday models, but this is only under normal circumstances… But the path our universe is taking doesn't follow the most primitive natural laws. A long time ago, our universe was transformed by an ultimate civilization. The underlying laws of the information state changed. On the day our universe ends, what awaits us is not heat death or collapse, but a phenomenon called the Great Reboot."

"The Great Reboot?"

The three of them looked puzzled.

The scientific community wasn't without similar guesses, but it wasn't the mainstream view. There was no decisive evidence to support it. Most of the evidence came from some unknown objects produced by information state disturbances, such as the virtual rebellion virus back then, which was suspected to be a civilization before the Great Reboot. But it wasn't enough to be conclusive proof, because it was uncertain whether it was a civilization in an unexplored universe, or a civilization from an earlier timeline.

So Mabrus and the others weren't unfamiliar with the concept of this term, but they were quite puzzled as to why Han Xiao was so certain about the existence of the Great Reboot.

Han Xiao glanced at their expressions and said slowly:

"The Great Reboot I'm talking about is not quite the same as what you understand… The ultimate civilization's transformation of the underlying laws of the universe caused the universe to deviate from the laws of natural termination, so the time to usher in the end has been brought forward a lot, and each Great Reboot is a brand new iteration. New civilizations reproduce in the reset universe, but due to factors such as the shortened development time, the possibility of each iterative civilization's strength exceeding the ultimate civilization that initially laid the Great Reboot is infinitely reduced."

"So this is bad news?" Mabrus pondered, "In that case, all civilizations will develop from scratch. Doesn't that mean no one can survive the end of the universe and achieve the so-called… what was that popular word again, transcendence?"

Han Xiao shook his head, "That's the point I want to talk about… Although the Great Reboot resets the universe, things from different iterations will be passed on to the new iteration in a special way, and that medium is the Sanctuary that you've been thinking about."

The three of them were slightly stunned.

Han Xiao said to himself, "The initial goal of the ultimate civilization to transform the universe was to continue their civilization through the Reboot. They failed, but it wasn't a waste of effort. The Sanctuary is the legacy they left behind. It was originally a fire seed bank, but special information mutations occurred during the iteration changes, and it became the Sanctuary it is today. This is currently the only known thing that will not disappear in the Great Reboot.

"And the role of the Sanctuary is to store the information state of each iteration's development, and randomly integrate some of the information into the universe's laws of the new iteration during each Great Reboot. So the universe is not completely reset during the Great Reboot, but the underlying laws are constantly changing in each iteration, in order to pass on the achievements of each iteration to subsequent iterations. For example, the current sub-dimensional world is a legacy of a previous iteration, not a naturally occurring phenomenon."

"So you mean… the universe we live in now is not the most original universe, but a world that has been changed countless times? The Sanctuary is like a… uh, processor?" Louis asked tentatively.

Han Xiao nodded: "Almost. Generations of civilizations have regarded the Sanctuary as a breakthrough to survive the Great Reboot, so the Sanctuary has continuously mutated into various new functions, and the Sanctuary's revival is just one of them. And the most important point of the Sanctuary is that it stores all the information of all the iterative civilizations in the past, as well as their last words before the end of the world, all left for future generations to refer to. This is a long relay across countless iterations, just so that one day someone can break this cycle."

Hearing this, the three of them showed surprised expressions. Although Han Xiao's tone was very calm, they couldn't help but be secretly lost in the magnificence of this great undertaking when they thought of generations of civilizations relaying for the same goal.

But after two seconds, the three of them came back to their senses, and their breathing suddenly became heavy for a moment.

At this moment, they suddenly realized that if what Black Star said was true, then the data of each iteration civilization stored in the Sanctuary was an immeasurable terrifying wealth.

And Black Star alone controlled this wealth. If he didn't say it, they wouldn't be able to get their hands on it at all. But instead of developing it himself, he chose to tell them. Was he really so selfless?

Because they understood this point, the three of them were even more shocked at the moment, and fell silent for a while, silently digesting the shock in their hearts.

After a while, the leader of the EsGods hesitated and tentatively said, "You want to cooperate with us to develop the Sanctuary. Is it because you want to survive the Great Reboot? Although what you just said is indeed quite amazing, allow me to say one thing, the so-called Great Reboot should still be a long way off from us, right? Is it too early to worry about this now…"

Hearing this, Han Xiao revealed a smile that was not a smile, "You think it's early?"

"Well…" Seeing this, the leader of the EsGods couldn't help but widen his eyes and said in shock, "Could it be that our universe has reached its end, and the Great Reboot is coming?"

The other two trembled, their expressions shocked and unbelievable.

"We finally defeated the World Tree Civilization and enjoyed a rare moment of relaxation. I didn't expect…" Mabrus had mixed feelings.

However, Han Xiao shook his head, "You misunderstood. Our current iteration is still far from the end."

The three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

But before they could completely relax, Han Xiao suddenly said something shocking, causing the three of them to freeze.

"But you've already been rebooted."

As soon as he finished speaking…

The leader of the EsGods' body trembled, his face full of astonishment.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Four times." Han Xiao held up four fingers and said slowly, "Our universe has been rebooted a full four times… In the previous iteration, you were the ultimate civilization. You launched a plan called the Information State Stripping Plan and successfully survived the Great Reboot, but you didn't really enter the new universe of the next iteration. Instead, you became a closed dark side universe, self-circulating, self-rebooting… In other words, you are all people who have died several times, but you just don't know it yet!"

The three of them were dumbfounded, so shocked that they didn't know what to do for a while.

Han Xiao had been brushing the authority of the First Sanctuary during this period, going in and out. Each time, the amount of time it took became shorter and shorter, until the authority reached level fifteen. Only then did the time flow finally tend to the same, and the time ratio between the main universe and the Sanctuary became one to one. Only then was all the content of the message board unlocked.

At this point, Han Xiao gradually understood everything. The messages from the fourth to last to the last section of the Sanctuary were actually all left by this iteration of the "Three Great Civilizations"!

The Star Cluster Alliance was located in the fifth to last section, and it was actually the previous iteration of the Three Great Civilizations. The fourth to last section was the new iteration after the Great Reboot. The Three Great Civilizations were the ultimate civilization that developed in the new iteration. During that period, there was no such thing as the "World Tree". The Three Great Civilizations slowly reproduced and eventually successfully discovered the Sanctuary and learned about all the information about the iteration.

Because the plan of the Star Cluster Alliance in the previous iteration was very commendable, the Three Great Civilizations inherited it and improved it, forming the "Information State Stripping Plan."

However, the Three Great Civilizations at that time were very clear that with their accumulation, they didn't have absolute certainty to survive the Great Reboot and didn't want to put all their eggs in one basket. Therefore, the real goal of this plan was not to completely overcome the Great Reboot, but to buy themselves more time—stripping the information state of the entire universe, trying to imitate the operation of the Star Cluster Alliance, and existing in the new iteration in the form of a sub-dimension and a dark side universe, constantly circulating and rebooting.

But the difference was that the Three Great Civilizations followed the ideas of the Star Cluster Alliance and made almost perfect improvements while standing on the shoulders of giants. So they successfully stripped the "information state" of the entire iteration and formed a closed dark side universe in the next iteration, existing based on the information state, like a "virtual" world, "developing in parallel" at a faster time flow… just like parallel lines, it was difficult to intersect with the "real" iterative main universe and difficult to interfere with each other.

After learning all the content of the message board, Han Xiao sorted out the time relationship—assuming that the Star Cluster Alliance was iteration number one, then the Three Great Civilizations were the ultimate civilization of iteration number two, which launched the Information State Stripping Plan and transformed into the dark side universe of iteration number three. And iteration number three was the current real iteration.

…It was here that Han Xiao learned that the Sanctuary actually didn't reserve an information state shell for the current iteration, and there was no such thing as a "tombstone." The empty shell light spheres of the Three Great Civilizations and the World Tree Civilization that he saw in the Sanctuary were actually relics of iteration number two. The reason why there was no content inside was because they had been "stripped" out and became the dark side universe of iteration number three.

But the cycle of the dark side universe was not as static as the Star Cluster Alliance. Instead, it formed a "small reboot" operation law. The Three Great Civilizations of iteration number two used the characteristic of the Sanctuary adding new laws during each "universe reboot" to incorporate the cyclical reboot of the dark side universe into the influence range of the Sanctuary.

The difference from the "Great Reboot" was that each "small reboot" of the dark side universe was not a reset, but was formed based on the established information state template. In other words, forces such as the "Three Great Civilizations" would inevitably appear. Before the Three Great Civilizations came into contact with the Sanctuary, the development trajectory was basically the same… Han Xiao called this situation "dark side iteration."

Therefore, every time the dark side universe was rebooted, the improvement results of the previous dark side iteration would be added, except that "information mutation" might occur… The Three Great Civilizations used this method to buy themselves time and obtain more trial and error opportunities.

But this plan couldn't bring eternity. After calculation, the Information State Stripping Plan had a limit. Their dark side universe could exist at most in iteration number three. If the Great Reboot occurred again and entered iteration number four, then their dark side universe would disappear… unless they could enter the real iterative main universe from the dark side universe and change from "virtual" to "real."

Therefore, after successfully entering the dark side universe, the goal of the Three Great Civilizations became to break the closure of the dark side universe and return to the real main universe of iteration number three.

—The messages from the third to last to the last section of the Sanctuary message board represented the three dark side iterations of the dark side universe. Currently, Han Xiao was in the fourth dark side iteration, and these four dark side iterations all occurred within the period of iteration number three.

Because of the Sanctuary's characteristic of not being affected by iterations, the Three Great Civilizations used the Sanctuary message board to record the experience of each trial and error, so that the "selves" of the next dark side iteration could improve their route according to the previous experience, and also create some key devices to improve the situation of the next dark side iteration… And this was the origin of the World Tree.

During the second dark side iteration (second to last message), the Three Great Civilizations added an information materialization device, but information mutation occurred during the third dark side iteration. It changed from a mechanical device to a living World Tree and went berserk… This was the experience of Han Xiao when he was a player in his previous life.

In the end, the Three Great Civilizations of the third dark side iteration still opened the Sanctuary and understood everything. So they left the control valve of the information materialization device, which produced information mutation in the current fourth dark side iteration, inherited the essential relationship of restraint, but the form of expression mutated and became the World Tree's nemesis, the Axis Serpent.

On the other hand, in the second dark side iteration, the Three Great Civilizations used the information materialization device that had not yet mutated and ultimately failed. They discovered that the reason was the lack of a bridge of "real state." Han Xiao also figured out the concept of the so-called "real state." It actually referred to the information carrier existing in the iterative real universe.

In other words, the dark side universe must form an information connection with the iterative real universe so that they could interfere with each other before the information materialization device could work. So the Three Great Civilizations of the second dark side iteration launched a plan to try to change the underlying laws of the next dark side iteration, so that the angle of the two "parallel lines" of the dark side universe and the iterative real universe would shift and eventually intersect.

As a result, when they came to the third dark side iteration, the underlying laws of the dark side universe changed, and it successfully projected itself into "reality." It successfully obtained a part of the information carrier of the iterative real universe, which was the existence of "players"—through the "login" method, allowing this group of individuals living in the iterative real universe to transform their own "real state" into an "information state," pull it into the dark side universe, form information entanglement, and serve as an information interface… This was everything that countless players experienced in Han Xiao's previous life.

However, the third dark side iteration had the World Tree berserk event. After the World Tree War in his previous life, the Three Great Civilizations obtained the Sanctuary route from the Holy Accord Organization, learned everything, and inherited the heritage of countless civilizations, and their technology advanced by leaps and bounds. At a level that players couldn't reach, the Three Great Civilizations formulated a new plan, gathered the power of civilizations, and created the "control valve" of the World Tree, and incidentally reduced the processing cost of the World Tree's berserk in the fourth dark side iteration.

In addition, due to the player version update, the Three Great Civilizations of the third dark side iteration believed that this form of "real state" bridge was not stable enough, so they decided to spend a huge amount of resources to strengthen the "real state" connection in the next dark side iteration.

Because the dark side universe and the iterative real universe had already formed a preliminary information interference, the Three Great Civilizations decided to build a stable interference bridge, instead of being intermittent like a login. And the only objects they could choose were these information individual records that had already logged into the dark side universe. So they randomly extracted objects from them to completely enter the dark side universe and form a stable connection.

As long as this idea was correct, the dark side universe could be reversely transformed through this interference bridge, transformed from the "information state" to the "real state," break away from the closure, and return to the iterative real universe… To put it in an easier-to-understand way, it was like installing a loading package on the so-called "reality." The content inside contained the entire dark side universe and the entire Star Sea world.

This was the real situation that Han Xiao knew from the Sanctuary, and there were no records of what happened later on the Sanctuary message board.

After learning all this, he had a rough guess about what would happen next. He strongly suspected that the reason why he was "reborn" was essentially that he was the randomly selected object and became the "stable interference bridge" that strengthened the information entanglement between the dark side universe and the iterative real universe.

His own information state was completely captured, and he came to this dark side universe from "reality." So the "self" in "reality" disappeared, and there was no more information about himself… He had never seen the other "self" who should have been a "player" for so many years. Han Xiao strongly suspected that this was the reason.

And the fourth dark side iteration of the dark side universe caused the time of the iterative real universe to go back ten years. There was no related record or explanation on the message board. Han Xiao didn't know the reason yet, but he guessed that this was because the information interference between the third dark side iteration and the iterative real universe deepened when he was "captured," so it affected the time of the other party. But he didn't know whether this was a time reversal of the entire universe or a small-scale change… But from another perspective, this was also proof that the idea of the dark side universe using "real state" to generate information entanglement was correct. It could already produce substantial changes to the iterative real universe.

Now, Han Xiao roughly pieced together all the causes and consequences through the Sanctuary records and his own guesses. In his opinion, the reliability of this series of guesses reached more than 70%.

Han Xiao concealed part of the guessed content and explained these secrets.

After listening to all this, Mabrus, Louis, and the leader of the EsGods were only left with shock and disbelief on their faces. They looked at Han Xiao blankly, their mouths slightly open, and were completely dumbfounded.

"Th-This…"

The leader of the EsGods was stunned.

Although they were the heads of the Three Great Civilizations and had seen countless storms, the information that Han Xiao had said at this time had exceeded their range of acceptance, and their brains were short-circuited.

After a long time, the leader of the EsGods turned to look at Mabrus and said hesitantly:

"Um… did you understand?"

"Wait for me to sort it out…" Mabrus replied blankly.