Infinite Metaverse

It's daybreak and the snow has stopped.

The sun shines on the thick snowdrifts, and a bonfire rises from the scrap metal. The subtle sound of "cracking" is mixed with the smell of volatile gasoline.

The five people sat around the campfire in silence.

"You almost killed me."

Jiang Yixia said expressionlessly.

Fu Qinghai looked embarrassed and apologized sincerely:

"sorry."

"I spent more than three thousand assimilation points in total to assimilate Dormammu's power."

Chen Xin said expressionlessly.

The implication: To save you, everything was lost.

Fu Qinghai smiled bitterly and said:

"sorry."

"Qingshan, I..."

Li Xingxian hesitated to speak.

Fu Qinghai looked sideways:

"What's wrong with you?"

Li Xingxian said confidently:

"I was scared that night too!"

Only Huxley still looked blank:

"What happened last night?"

But no one paid any attention to him.

…

What the hell is a divine seal?

This has to start with the Dead Space series.

Dead Space is a game by EA, as well as derivative novels, movies and animations. It focuses on deep space claustrophobic science fiction horror. It was once considered to be "can surpass the Resident Evil series", but it was later unfinished by EA.

The divine seal, an ancient and mysterious alien device, appeared in the dead space universe without beginning or end. It appeared on the earth together with the asteroid impact 65 million years ago, and quietly appeared in Tower Fran 2 million years ago. On the planet Tis.

Let’s first talk about the fate of alien civilization.

Two million years ago, a group of alien creatures with very advanced technology discovered the "ocean planet" Tower Frantis located in the Spiral Arm Nebula of the Milky Way. The original home planet of these alien wanderers was on the verge of death, and Tower... Frantis just provides them with a shelter.

At some point later, aliens discovered a mysterious double-helix-shaped device on the seabed of Tower Frantis. Because it was constantly broadcasting high-intensity electromagnetic signals to the surroundings, the alien civilization regarded it as As an important unlimited energy source, a large number of similar devices were soon copied and distributed across the entire planet's surface.

Soon a disaster broke out on Tower Frantis, and most of the aliens were converted into "necromorphs" by the divine seals they worshiped and began to slaughter their compatriots.

After the massacre provided enough biomass, the divine seal triggered a "convergence event" in which all living infected people and dead body fragments were attracted together by some kind of force, and the huge pressure pulled them together. The flesh and blood gathered together to form a "satellite" composed of organisms in the orbit of the planet.

That's the "blood moon".

Although their own race is on the verge of extinction, in order to prevent the divine seal from continuing to harm other intelligent races, the remaining aliens built an environmental modification device that rapidly froze the entire surface of the planet Tower Frantis, and all the gods The seal was buried under the thick ice, and the fusion process of "Blood Moon" was temporarily suspended.

"Blood Moon" is a sentient life form, which can be regarded as the ultimate form after the aggregation of "Necromorphs". At present, humans do not know the purpose of the existence of "Blood Moon", but there is a lot of evidence that they After taking shape, it will continue to search for and devour other organic life forms.

Somewhat similar to a low-end version of the Tyranids.

Let’s talk about the fate of human civilization.

The asteroid impact caused the extinction of species, but the divine seal seems to be related to the explosion of new species. In other words, perhaps it was the existence of the divine seal that accelerated the evolution of life on earth and led to the emergence of humans.

When humans on earth finally evolved into modern society, in 2214, archaeologists discovered this device on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico. The same plot: scientists discovered that it emits high-intensity electromagnetic signals to the outside world all the time, and initially inferred that it was an unlimited energy source.

As the research progressed, mass deaths of researchers occurred, leading to the outbreak of the first "necromorph craze" on Earth. However, under the influence of the halo of the male protagonist Dr. Altman (he established a spiritual link with the divine seal and reached a certain tacit understanding), the "necromorphs" produced by the divine seal were eventually quickly suppressed by the Earth Defense Force (EDF) .

Later, public research turned to secret research. Originally, the divine seal had shown great dangers, but at that time, the Earth Government (EG)'s rule over the earth was already in jeopardy. They pinned their hopes on solving the energy crisis through the divine seal. On the one hand, they also hope to use the ability of the divine seal to research weapons and maintain their dominance.

At this time, human beings have become globally unified and have begun to gradually colonize extraterrestrial planets. They want to continue to study the divine seal, and in order to prevent the divine seal from causing serious consequences on the earth, the human base camp, the earth government thought of a way-to remove the divine seal. The replicas are placed in remote colonial outposts or mining planets, and secret research is conducted far away from the earth.

That is, desolate planets such as Proxima Centauri, Uther, Gliese 581 and Aegis VII.

Seeing this, keen people have realized that something is wrong.

The divine seal is of such a high standard that it goes against the common sense of the world and contains the beautiful fantasy of a "perpetual motion machine". Neither aliens nor earthlings can understand and crack the magical device. Why is it so easily copied?

Perhaps, "being copied" is what the Divine Seal itself desires, and it uses "infinite energy" as a temptation to attract these intelligent races to keep making copies of it.

Later, people discovered that no matter how many light years apart, the original divine seal can have some connection with the duplicate divine seal.

And this is the conspiracy of the divine seal.

Among them, "Aegis VII" is the planet where the main story in the game takes place, the place where the Ishimura incident broke out. After the "Necromorph Frenzy" occurred, the Earth government successively dispatched the search and rescue ships Kelion and O'Bannon to investigate. All lost contact.

Why is Dead Space bad?

In the finale of the last game in the series, the male and female protagonists narrowly escaped death and killed the "blood moon" on Tower Frantis. After going through all kinds of hardships, they finally returned to Earth, only to discover that there was a huge "blood moon" in the orbit of the earth. Waiting for them...

An "Alien"-esque ending.

This means that all human beings are finished.

There is no official explanation of what the divine seal is, but based on the above background information, we can roughly guess:

The divine seal is a weapon made by a certain high-dimensional being. Yes, a weapon whose purpose is similar to that of the Trisolaran sophons, a weapon used to systematically eliminate intelligent races.

Use "infinite energy" as bait to attract intelligent races to study it and copy it, and then quietly spread spiritual pollution, creating a "necromorph frenzy", and the necromorphs aggregate to form a "blood moon".

This is a super weapon for civilization level.

Not to destroy a person, but to destroy a civilization.

This kind of high-dimensional mental control is very terrifying and difficult to resist. Not only is the scope wide, but the method is also particularly secretive. It will plant specific thoughts in the minds of specific individuals. For example, the assassination of Dr. Altman by federal agents is said to have been subtly influenced by the divine seal.

It's very Cthulhu.

Friends who are familiar with the core of Ke system know that things like mental pollution are not measured by level and strength.

In the Cthulhu series, some investigators (protagonists) are not affected by the Old Ones and can remain sane when facing the ancient gods and alien gods, while others (supporting characters) just glance at the Cthulhu series. The creature went crazy on the spot.

It has nothing to do with whether the body is strong or not, or whether the mental willpower is strong or not. "Suffering people who have endured hardships", "war-torn veterans", and "genius teenagers with developed brains" will not be Affected by mental pollution...

This is all using the self-righteous thinking of low-dimensional creatures to speculate on the rules of the high-dimensional world. Why should the high-dimensional world operate according to the "experience" of low-dimensional creatures?

There is no logic, no reason.

The difference in levels is so great that it is completely incomprehensible.

This is called Cthulhu.

Seal of God is a very Cthulhu setting - original words from the production company.

Looking at the entire Dead Space series, there are only two people, Michael Altman, the male protagonist of the novel, and Isaac Clark, the male protagonist of the game, who can be highly connected to the divine seal and are completely unaffected by the divine seal.

These are all born protagonists, the chosen ones.

What is Fu Qinghai? He's just a reincarnation person.

Many people don't understand one thing: What is so great about the protagonists in these zombie horror games?

Is it because they are agile and accurate with their marksmanship? Or are they strong and have good endurance? neither. The protagonists of the Resident Evil series, Ethan, Leon, Jill... are strong in that they cannot be infected with the virus for various reasons. Some are stronger and more agile than them, but once they are infected by the virus, everything is useless.

In the same way, the protagonist of Dead Space, Isaac Clark, is known as the "first engineer in the universe", but after all, he is just a systems engineer on a mining spacecraft. He is not a professional soldier with professional training. He can kill through The reason for the zombie craze is that he is not affected by the divine seal, while other soldiers were controlled by the divine seal as soon as they landed on the spacecraft, and they were unable to use their abilities.

…

"So, the divine seal is far beyond the level we can deal with, right?"

After listening to Fu Qinghai's explanation of the origin of the divine seal, Chen Xinlu asked seriously.

Fu Qinghai nodded: "Yes."

"Then what do we do now?"

Jiang Yixia asked.

Fu Qinghai sighed and said:

"It's my fault that I encountered the divine seal. I was careless. The perfect human deliberately left a hidden clue for me to follow, and then I was led to the divine seal."

Fu Qinghai thought he was a hunter, but he didn't expect that he was the prey that walked into the trap.

"The top priority now is to find a way to find a perfect artificial satellite for human beings in space orbit. I can't stand the feeling of being monitored by the enemy all the time, including the traps laid this time. The time and place are just right."

Fu Qinghai said.

Due to the influence of orbit and climate conditions, artificial satellites cannot monitor the planet in all directions at all times, but an occasional glance is enough to bother Fu Qinghai, after all, he can't see other people.

Fu Qinghai returned to the tank and saw the words and symbols he had written in blood on the bulkhead.

"Integration... sublimation... becoming one..."

Fu Qinghai had a gloomy face and wiped away the crooked dried blood stains with a towel moistened with snow water.

Just like E-Mold and Black God Faith, Plaka Parasite and Illuminati Cult, a horror game without religious elements is not a good horror game. In the Dead Space series, the proportion of religious elements is also not small.

The Divine Seal is subtly brainwashing the surrounding intelligent creatures all the time. The "Unification Church" hidden among humans is the product of this brainwashing. They believe that Dr. Altman's death is a conspiracy of the Earth government. Only becoming a part of the "Blood Moon" is the ultimate destination for human sublimation.

This is a cult that encourages suicide and martyrdom.

Fu Qinghai has always hated religion the most.

He actually accidentally said it.

…

Fu Qinghai no longer approached the valley where the divine seal was hidden, but continued to search along the surrounding area.

Fu Qinghai's search efficiency is very high. He only needs to fly in the air and scan the scenery in front of him, and Qingming will automatically analyze and compare it to determine whether it is worthy of further exploration.

It took less than a week for him to discover something unusual somewhere. Near a small glacial lake covered with snow, Qing Ming said: The thickness of the snow on the shore varies, and there are traces of large objects being dragged. This is a detail that ordinary people will never notice or discover.

Fu Qinghai looked carefully and checked his surroundings.

Are there any other traps?

The thermal imaging view showed no signs of life.

Fu Qinghai turned off the reactor of the flight pack, fell freely from high altitude, and smashed into the thick ice.

"Snapped!"

The ice breaks and the water surges.

A series of bubbles rose, and the Space Marine slowly sank.

"Hululu..."

The muffled sound of water rang in my ears.

A searchlight lit up on Fu Qinghai's chest. The white light was cylindrical, penetrating the turbid water and illuminating the dim bottom of the lake.

A huge creature lay quietly at the bottom of the lake.

Fu Qinghai sank to the bottom of the lake, stepping on the loose mud with his magnetic shoes. The turbofan of the flight pack rotated, rolling up strings of fine bubbles, pushing him forward. Fu Qinghai came to the side of the mechanical creation, stretched out his hand to brush The brown-green algae attached to it opened.

The Supremacy shuttle.

A line of English appeared on the shell.

Fu Qinghai understood, turned around and floated towards the water.

…

"Rumble..."

The tank drove towards the lake and slowly stopped.

Fu Qinghai unlocked the lock connected to the armored vehicle, tied a thick steel cable to it, carried a large bundle of steel cables into the icy lake, and let the bitterly cold lake water cover him.

Mere underwater operations could not be troubled by the all-weather fully enclosed power armor. Fu Qinghai tied steel cables to various positions of the shuttle, returned to the shore and drove the tank to drag hard, and pulled out the shuttle that had sunk at the bottom of the lake little by little. water surface.

On the white snow-covered land, the aircraft that had been deliberately hidden under the water finally revealed its full appearance.

In its overall structure, this shuttle looks like a space shuttle. There are short wing-like structures protruding on the left and right sides of the fuselage. There are attitude control nozzles below the protrusions.

There is a searchlight at the nose of the aircraft and a twin-mounted cannon on the back. Three engines are installed on the rear half of the shuttle's fuselage to provide ample power for the aircraft. The fuel filling port is located in the rear half of the fuselage. back.

"It has been soaked in the lake for so long, can this thing still start normally?"

Chen Xinlu looked at the algae all over the shell and the silt sliding from the engine nozzle, and couldn't help but asked with some concern.

After all, this is not a land vehicle. It is meant to carry people to outer space. Whether it can be started is one thing. If something goes wrong during the flight, it is no joke.

Fu Qinghai untied the steel cable and put on an industrial backpack.

I thought: I’m afraid you don’t know who I am.

The White Scars Chapter, chief technical sergeant, and only master forger, Nayan Khan Aoyama is the one!

Are there any things I can't fix?

…

After a series of operations such as drainage, cleaning, drying, rust removal, welding, riveting, reassembly...

Fu Qinghai sat in the driver's seat of the shuttle, pressed the start button of the control system, and waited patiently.

"Ding!"

The screen lights up.

"Welcome to the Sovereign Colony Alliance spacecraft control system."

"Authentication started..."

An electronic female voice sounded.

The shuttle's system started normally.

It is actually the Alliance of Sovereign Colonies, not the United Astronautics Group (USG) and the Harmony Mining Corporation (CEC).

"Qing Ming, crack it."

Fu Qinghai said lightly.

A universal plug extends from the end of the mechanical tentacle of the manufactured backpack and is inserted into the data interface under the operation panel.

Soon, the screen flickered again, and Fu Qinghai's avatar appeared on it.

"Welcome, Engineer Qingshan."

An electronic female voice sounded.

"Please enter the control command."

"Open the logbook."

Fu Qinghai ordered.

The screen in front of me keeps switching between images.

When the latest voyage record appeared at the top of the screen, Fu Qinghai finished browsing the few lines of simple text, his eyes slightly dull:

"Ishi... Ishimura?"

"Voyage log: July 21, 2508, departure point: Ishimura planet-breaking mining ship, destination: Earth's surface, coordinates 276-16-836."

Because it is an assimilated item, the time in the voyage log is not for reference, but the departure point and destination... are highly questionable.

This is the latest voyage record of the Hegemony shuttle. I have the impression that since the Ishimura was put into service, it has been mining diligently in remote star areas and has never returned to Earth. How could it have Earth as its destination?

That means that the "Earth" here may not be the "Earth" in the Dead Space universe.

Could it be that……

Fu Qinghai's breathing quickened.

Slowly he raised his head and looked at the sky.

…

As Chen Xinlu, three people and Huxley watched, the shuttle's tail nozzle spurted out yellow flames, the fuselage shook violently, and the turbulent airflow blew the flying snow flakes. The Hegemony shuttle slowly left the ground. Lift off.

Twenty minutes later.

The earth has turned into a hazy blue ball of water.

In front of Fu Qinghai, a huge iron-gray ship was parked quietly on the track.

"Wow……"

Fu Qinghai's eyes shone slightly.

Until the moment he saw the Shicun, Fu Qinghai knew that he had saved more than 30,000 assimilation points and didn't use them. After all, he didn't make a mistake and it was worth it.

Just for now!

…

The Dead Space universe has two technologies that Fu Qinghai is particularly concerned about - gravity manipulation and planetary disintegration.

The technical principle of planetary fragmentation is actually based on gravity control. This is a method that can tear mineral-rich planets or small celestial bodies into small pieces using a powerful artificial gravity field and drag them into space, and then crush, refine, and process them. Efficient mining technology for other processes.

The Ishimura is a ship based on this unique technology. It is the first and largest planetary cracking-class mining ship under CEC. The name of the Ishimura comes from Dr. Hideo Ishimura, the inventor of the "Shock Point Engine" technology, which is equivalent to the inventor of the "warp navigation" technology in the Dead Space universe.

Fu Qinghai looked at the spaceship from a distance.

Although it is far from slender, it can still be regarded as a "skinny" ship in appearance. This impression mainly comes from the large number of ribs arranged symmetrically on both sides of the front and middle hull. If you also count the four long and four short cantilevers with gravity cables at the ends that extend from the bottom of the ship's hull, the overall look becomes even more bizarre and cold.

Each planet-breaking mining ship is a "fishbone spaceship" with this unique shape, but their size is not as large as the Ishimura - it is already comparable to the destroyers of the Human Empire.

"Connect, target: Ishimura."

Fu Qinghai said.

At the same time, he held the weapon in his hand tightly.

The Ishimura was also a spacecraft that carried the Red Seal and the zombie craze that broke out.

…………