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Chapter 832: Eastern Han, Luoyang (1)
To be fair, the Destroyer Celestial's words were not without reason.
A programmer, whose job is to patch the complex program of the Multiverse, ends up being threatened and possibly even controlled by something from within that very program?
What an absurd notion. No programmer could tolerate it.
Generally speaking, programmers hate bugs more than anything. They have to expend energy to fix them, then cautiously take one step while looking three steps ahead, guarding against the possibility of more bugs inexplicably appearing because one was fixed.
And now, Tony, this unprecedented native Singular God produced by the Multiverse, was, in a sense, a bug. Fortunately, in this regard, the Speed Force Wall would be more proactive than the Celestials.
But the Allspark, an inanimate object, was the most troublesome "bug" the Celestials had to face directly.
A bug that exists within the program, yet can in turn control and modify the programmer—it was something no one could tolerate. This had nothing to do with temperament.
The existence of the Allspark was simply a great humiliation to the Celestials.
Therefore, the Destroyer Celestial's rage and his declaration encouraging war were, in essence, perfectly reasonable. He wasn't acting solely for his own safety, but more to protect the Celestials, this greatest collective of programmers. Perhaps some curiosity and greed for the Allspark were mixed in, but that wasn't important. The key was to go to war.
Whoever controlled the Allspark would, in a sense, control the Celestials. If the Destroyer Celestial could seize and use the Allspark, he would become the uncrowned king of the Celestials. It was likely that even the Grand Judge would have to be wary of him.
The other Celestials fell silent for a moment.
The Sleeping Celestial turned his head to look at Nezarr the Calculator. This Celestial, whose entire body shimmered with a faint blue crystalline luster, was best at collecting information, performing extremely complex calculations, and then reporting the tens of thousands of most likely outcomes to the Grand Judge.
Nezarr the Calculator's role was somewhat similar to that of an intelligence officer and a prophetic sorcerer.
"Calculate," said the Sleeping Celestial.
The Calculator tapped his own head and fiddled for a moment before saying, "I cannot detect Tony's backup plans. He is very cautious. If we can't find a way to discover his contingencies, our chances of winning are extremely low. This is because he is, in a sense, immortal, but for us, every death is a permanent loss. Our strength will only continue to weaken, not grow stronger."
The Experimenter was somewhat agitated and said coldly, "A Singular God isn't invincible. If he revives, we'll just kill him again. We can use our absolute power to suppress him for billions of eons. The Celestials have never lost before. Neither the First Firmament back then nor the Five Great Creator Gods today could make us bow our heads."
"That's why Eternity's attitude toward us is so strange. He'd love for the New Gods to kill a few more of us," Gamiel the Manipulator, who was Devron the Experimenter's older brother, bluntly retorted to his younger sibling.
The Experimenter grew flustered and immediately started arguing with the Manipulator. These two brothers had always been like this; arguing was their constant theme.
The Destroyer Celestial called out directly to the Grand Judge, but no one responded. The Grand Judge, for some unknown reason, did not participate in the decision among these nine Celestials.
Just as they were arguing over whether to go to war or to exercise restraint, the Goddess gave them a disappointed look. Her glittering golden body vanished on the spot, its whereabouts unknown.
...
Prime Universe, Earth, China, Luoyang.
The Goddess shrank to the size of an ordinary person and walked through this ancient city. The three electronic eyes on her face constantly scanned the entirety of the city, but in the end, they still revealed a deep disappointment.
"This place... it wasn't like this..."
The Goddess said in a low voice.
Skyscrapers were everywhere, buildings of reinforced concrete covered the land, and as far as the eye could see, various outdated metal contraptions clumsily ran back and forth...
Nearly two thousand years ago, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, this city was nothing like this. Everything had changed.
Even though the Goddess could easily see through the timeline, crossing two thousand years to observe the Luoyang of that era, she did not do so. It was meaningless. What would be the point of looking? It would only increase the nostalgia and resentment in her heart.
Moreover, the timeline of the Prime Universe was powerfully suppressed by the New God. She could only look, not change it. If she did, everything would collapse.
The Goddess stood quietly on the street. The crowd of people hurrying past simply ignored her, as if she didn't exist at all.
Within her three red eyes, a red light suddenly glowed. It scanned the capital city of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and in the next second, the entirety of Luoyang changed.
All traces of modernity were forcibly erased by an unknown power. Simple and ancient buildings of wood and stone rose from the ground, and one by one, small houses filled with an ancient aura lined up neatly on both sides of the road.
A light drizzle fell from the sky, and the air was filled with the scent of fragrant grass and young leaves.
On the streets, citizens with hurried expressions galloped past on horses of varying quality along the wide road. The frequent sound of clopping hooves heralded the city's prosperity.
The citizens were eager to get to their respective departments to clock in for work. Small, thin nags and tall, handsome Akhal-Teke horses, each carrying their masters, galloped past, kicking up clouds of dust and attracting the gazes of the citizens on the roadside.
"Look, another fine steed!" someone pointed, a look of longing on their face.
At this moment, a large cart filled with goods, pulled by a team of more than ten fine horses, passed slowly down the street, leaving a trail of horse manure on the ground and causing extremely severe urban and atmospheric pollution.
A man in an official uniform, holding a long sabre, blocked the large cart in the middle of the street. He licked his lips cruelly and gave a wicked smirk. "Me, city management. Hand over the money!"
No one found the sudden change in their surroundings strange. It seemed as if everything was perfectly natural, that this was simply how their era was.
"This is how it should be..." The Goddess strolled along the smooth road, carefully examining all that was familiar yet strange, her expression unreadable.
That toy named Zhang Heng once told her that even if she was a Creator, she could not wantonly slaughter creations that possessed independent thought.
Although the Goddess, as a Level Eight Celestial, scoffed at such a notion, she still did it. After all, it was just a matter of a single thought.
The more she recreated reality to reminisce, the more the complex hatred in her heart boiled like a tsunami, intensifying her malice.
"They all deserve to die..."
The Goddess muttered, and a subtle fluctuation emanated from her golden body.
"No matter who you are, cease resistance! You have been surrounded by S.P.E.A.R.!"
A ring-shaped Helicarrier descended above the ancient city of Luoyang. Everyone in S.P.E.A.R. stared in horror at the scene below.
"Holy crap, since when did Luoyang City have such a huge and luxurious imperial palace? How come I didn't know... Ah, my eyes! Let's just loot this palace first, then we won't have to worry about funding for the next ten years... What do you think, Bumblebee?"
Sabretooth's eyes went wide, staring intently at the magnificent, golden palace complex below, his eyes nearly blinded by the brilliance.
(end of chapter)
To be fair, the Destroyer Celestial's words were not without reason.
A programmer, whose job is to patch the complex program of the Multiverse, ends up being threatened and possibly even controlled by something from within that very program?
What an absurd notion. No programmer could tolerate it.
Generally speaking, programmers hate bugs more than anything. They have to expend energy to fix them, then cautiously take one step while looking three steps ahead, guarding against the possibility of more bugs inexplicably appearing because one was fixed.
And now, Tony, this unprecedented native Singular God produced by the Multiverse, was, in a sense, a bug. Fortunately, in this regard, the Speed Force Wall would be more proactive than the Celestials.
But the Allspark, an inanimate object, was the most troublesome "bug" the Celestials had to face directly.
A bug that exists within the program, yet can in turn control and modify the programmer—it was something no one could tolerate. This had nothing to do with temperament.
The existence of the Allspark was simply a great humiliation to the Celestials.
Therefore, the Destroyer Celestial's rage and his declaration encouraging war were, in essence, perfectly reasonable. He wasn't acting solely for his own safety, but more to protect the Celestials, this greatest collective of programmers. Perhaps some curiosity and greed for the Allspark were mixed in, but that wasn't important. The key was to go to war.
Whoever controlled the Allspark would, in a sense, control the Celestials. If the Destroyer Celestial could seize and use the Allspark, he would become the uncrowned king of the Celestials. It was likely that even the Grand Judge would have to be wary of him.
The other Celestials fell silent for a moment.
The Sleeping Celestial turned his head to look at Nezarr the Calculator. This Celestial, whose entire body shimmered with a faint blue crystalline luster, was best at collecting information, performing extremely complex calculations, and then reporting the tens of thousands of most likely outcomes to the Grand Judge.
Nezarr the Calculator's role was somewhat similar to that of an intelligence officer and a prophetic sorcerer.
"Calculate," said the Sleeping Celestial.
The Calculator tapped his own head and fiddled for a moment before saying, "I cannot detect Tony's backup plans. He is very cautious. If we can't find a way to discover his contingencies, our chances of winning are extremely low. This is because he is, in a sense, immortal, but for us, every death is a permanent loss. Our strength will only continue to weaken, not grow stronger."
The Experimenter was somewhat agitated and said coldly, "A Singular God isn't invincible. If he revives, we'll just kill him again. We can use our absolute power to suppress him for billions of eons. The Celestials have never lost before. Neither the First Firmament back then nor the Five Great Creator Gods today could make us bow our heads."
"That's why Eternity's attitude toward us is so strange. He'd love for the New Gods to kill a few more of us," Gamiel the Manipulator, who was Devron the Experimenter's older brother, bluntly retorted to his younger sibling.
The Experimenter grew flustered and immediately started arguing with the Manipulator. These two brothers had always been like this; arguing was their constant theme.
The Destroyer Celestial called out directly to the Grand Judge, but no one responded. The Grand Judge, for some unknown reason, did not participate in the decision among these nine Celestials.
Just as they were arguing over whether to go to war or to exercise restraint, the Goddess gave them a disappointed look. Her glittering golden body vanished on the spot, its whereabouts unknown.
...
Prime Universe, Earth, China, Luoyang.
The Goddess shrank to the size of an ordinary person and walked through this ancient city. The three electronic eyes on her face constantly scanned the entirety of the city, but in the end, they still revealed a deep disappointment.
"This place... it wasn't like this..."
The Goddess said in a low voice.
Skyscrapers were everywhere, buildings of reinforced concrete covered the land, and as far as the eye could see, various outdated metal contraptions clumsily ran back and forth...
Nearly two thousand years ago, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, this city was nothing like this. Everything had changed.
Even though the Goddess could easily see through the timeline, crossing two thousand years to observe the Luoyang of that era, she did not do so. It was meaningless. What would be the point of looking? It would only increase the nostalgia and resentment in her heart.
Moreover, the timeline of the Prime Universe was powerfully suppressed by the New God. She could only look, not change it. If she did, everything would collapse.
The Goddess stood quietly on the street. The crowd of people hurrying past simply ignored her, as if she didn't exist at all.
Within her three red eyes, a red light suddenly glowed. It scanned the capital city of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and in the next second, the entirety of Luoyang changed.
All traces of modernity were forcibly erased by an unknown power. Simple and ancient buildings of wood and stone rose from the ground, and one by one, small houses filled with an ancient aura lined up neatly on both sides of the road.
A light drizzle fell from the sky, and the air was filled with the scent of fragrant grass and young leaves.
On the streets, citizens with hurried expressions galloped past on horses of varying quality along the wide road. The frequent sound of clopping hooves heralded the city's prosperity.
The citizens were eager to get to their respective departments to clock in for work. Small, thin nags and tall, handsome Akhal-Teke horses, each carrying their masters, galloped past, kicking up clouds of dust and attracting the gazes of the citizens on the roadside.
"Look, another fine steed!" someone pointed, a look of longing on their face.
At this moment, a large cart filled with goods, pulled by a team of more than ten fine horses, passed slowly down the street, leaving a trail of horse manure on the ground and causing extremely severe urban and atmospheric pollution.
A man in an official uniform, holding a long sabre, blocked the large cart in the middle of the street. He licked his lips cruelly and gave a wicked smirk. "Me, city management. Hand over the money!"
No one found the sudden change in their surroundings strange. It seemed as if everything was perfectly natural, that this was simply how their era was.
"This is how it should be..." The Goddess strolled along the smooth road, carefully examining all that was familiar yet strange, her expression unreadable.
That toy named Zhang Heng once told her that even if she was a Creator, she could not wantonly slaughter creations that possessed independent thought.
Although the Goddess, as a Level Eight Celestial, scoffed at such a notion, she still did it. After all, it was just a matter of a single thought.
The more she recreated reality to reminisce, the more the complex hatred in her heart boiled like a tsunami, intensifying her malice.
"They all deserve to die..."
The Goddess muttered, and a subtle fluctuation emanated from her golden body.
"No matter who you are, cease resistance! You have been surrounded by S.P.E.A.R.!"
A ring-shaped Helicarrier descended above the ancient city of Luoyang. Everyone in S.P.E.A.R. stared in horror at the scene below.
"Holy crap, since when did Luoyang City have such a huge and luxurious imperial palace? How come I didn't know... Ah, my eyes! Let's just loot this palace first, then we won't have to worry about funding for the next ten years... What do you think, Bumblebee?"
Sabretooth's eyes went wide, staring intently at the magnificent, golden palace complex below, his eyes nearly blinded by the brilliance.
(end of chapter)
