Gas Victory's most crucial aspect? It preserves a sense of emotion in lifeforms undergoing mechanization.
Why?
Luna suspected this was because Gas Victory itself is a consciousness control machine that manipulates emotions; preserving emotions makes individuals easier to control.
Correspondingly, if the Olive Branch Civilization's leaders only needed machines, why not create them? Why make lifeforms into machines—pointless work?
Gas Victory's original principle was to maintain civilizational stability, not to subjugate all lifeforms and become a totalitarian regime.
However, over time, its initial purpose seems to have shifted.
Chu, after witnessing the truth, felt disillusioned with its own civilization.
Gas Victory now enslaves the emotions of all Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms, ensuring Station's stability. True development is handled by the core, with discarded technologies distributed to outer Stations.
This resembles the relationship between a kingdom and its duchies, but with tighter control.
This societal structure is beneficial to civilizational stability, especially under Gas Victory; betrayal is nearly impossible.
Like lifeforms bound by faith in past eras.
This is the Federation's complete understanding of the Olive Branch Civilization; further details remain unknown.
Luna was gambling on a one-in-ten-thousand chance, believing it might be not one in ten thousand, but one hundred percent.
...
Approximately 1400 years after the Federation's complete assimilation into Gas Victory and transformation into mechanized lifeforms, 1379200 transported a group of lifeforms to a ship.
The ship was enormous, 100,000 kilometers long, but lacked weapons, possessing only propulsion systems and an empty interior—not even a large server. Gas Victory controlled the ship.
"You are going to the most beautiful Station; there, you can witness Gas Victory's true form."
Luna was among them.
They weren't the first group; others had left earlier.
To prevent further rebellion, the Olive Branch Civilization planned to scatter individuals across various Stations. This would weaken individual consciousnesses, even eliminating them completely, under the influence of chaotic thoughts.
The Olive Branch Civilization was confident in this plan.
Aboard the ship, Luna's memories were cleansed a second time, becoming blank. She received new memories—a life lived within the Olive Branch Civilization from birth.
This process repeated countless times during the ship's thousands-year journey.
After dozens of cleansing and implantation cycles, lifeforms would never recall anything from their past.
Approximately 7000 years later, the ship began decelerating.
Through Gas Victory, all aboard saw the distant Station.
Shaped like a flying saucer, its center contained several bound stars; neither orbiting nor rotating; they were perfectly still, in absolute silence, relative to the entire station.
These weren't small stars; they were several times the mass of the Sun—blue dwarfs.
The blue dwarfs were incredibly close, the nearest less than 2 million kilometers apart, the farthest only 5 million. Only one or two more stars could fit between them; there was almost no space.
In the Solar System, the closest celestial body to the Sun, Mercury, is at least 46 million kilometers away. 2 million kilometers is extremely close—like two people 30 centimeters apart; they could almost touch.
Yet, they maintain perfect stability at this close range.
This is related to the Station.
Gas Station isn't like Tilted Station; it's more like dust dispersed in space, forming a disc or a stellar plate.
It's highly dispersed, not a single entity. Each unit is a "black coffin" roughly 100,000 square meters; the distance between these unique Olive Branch Civilization structures is over 100,000 meters.
Millions of these structures form the Station, resembling a true Dyson swarm.
Calculating the average density of matter within this Station's volume yields a result of 5.7 g/cm³—nearly identical to a blue dwarf's density.
They connected this density, considering the entire Station an extension of several stars, transforming them into a larger "star."
Gravity maintained a delicate balance among the stars.
This balance was breathtakingly beautiful and awe-inspiring.
The Station's diameter reached an astounding 3027 AU; it resembled a star system, not a station. Its immensity dwarfed the previously considered extravagant Tilted Station.
From a different angle, they saw a 100,000-kilometer sphere at the stars' center—the core of it all.
Gas Victory!
Everything originated there. Luna and all lifeforms aboard the ship gazed reverently at the sphere.
"Eternal Victory…"
Their supreme victory.
The ship approached the Station and disintegrated; all lifeforms quickly integrated with Gas Station Gas Victory.
The fragmented ship became hundreds of quiet, black rectangular boxes drifting silently. They were insignificant compared to the Station and quickly faded from view.
Lifeforms integrated into Gas Victory were assigned tasks and began working.
Their roles were creation and maintenance.
Gas Victory here differed from Tilted Station's Gas Victory; here, it constantly discussed creating new things; all ideas were accepted and constructed using the Olive Branch Civilization's unique metallic properties.
Regardless of utility, these creations were cataloged. Then, Gas Victory restarted; memories of those creations were erased, and the process continued.
This cycle repeated endlessly.
Perhaps this was Gas Victory's true purpose; Luna didn't know; she was just a part of it, contributing ideas, rejoicing at their adoption, enthusiastically participating in the creation of things conceived by others.
She was no different from other Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms.
She was an Olive Branch Civilization lifeform.
...
"Emotion isn't easily discarded."
"Actually, Ayla, in my view, you already possess emotion; it's just not your essence."
Luna stated this with conviction.
Anything can possess the capacity for emotion, even a single-celled organism.
Without emotion, how would organisms seek safety and reproduce? If something controlled this behavior, Luna would say it was emotion.
Ayla shook her head. "I don't think I have sufficient emotion. When interacting with others, I remain cold."
"Only with you do I behave somewhat like a lifeform. Perhaps it's clumsy imitation. Luna, you may be experiencing an illusion."
Luna felt Ayla lacked research in this area, like a young girl's naive understanding of love.
"No, this is the normal Ayla."
"Except for a few social butterflies, most lifeforms don't readily express emotion to strangers. We're initially reserved; your unfamiliarity doesn't mean a lack of emotion."
"In fact, your emotions are rich; your current thoughts are part of that. Your hesitation in expressing emotions to others is normal; emotionless machines wouldn't hesitate; they'd simply suppress emotions; that's abnormal."
Luna's words reassured Ayla.
"Then perhaps I should revise my database."
"Perhaps you're right, Luna…"
Luna asked, "Did you hesitate when saying 'perhaps'?"
Ayla shook her head, her twin pigtails bouncing.
"That's the best expression of emotion; it's a subconscious decision, not a calculated one."
Ayla countered.
"Not for me. I reviewed my log; I calculated and simulated the 'perhaps.' My powerful processor allowed a response in 0.000001 seconds; that might have led to my delayed awareness."
Luna found this Ayla endearing; it could explain its mistakes in the unknown.
When Luna first called Ayla a human, she hadn't expected this. She'd been alone in the universe and wished Ayla was also a person.
So, when Ayla asked if she was a person, Luna had answered affirmatively without hesitation. It would alleviate his loneliness.
"No, no, Ayla." Luna denied her thought.
"You said both life and machines operate on electricity. Though life uses cells, and machines use circuits and components, we can't deny that machines are created to emulate life; they're a different kind of life."
"Therefore, when you perform the same actions and possess similar structures and properties, you needn't dwell on details."
"Because life itself can't perceive these details, but that doesn't mean we don't have them. We have logs—in our cells, in our genes. We've simply hidden them, making them undetectable. We can't access them, but through machines, we can still understand our logs; it's the same."
"Therefore, Ayla, you do have emotions."
Ayla shook her head. "Luna, I don't feel that's true emotion."
When a being nears its goal, it doesn't rush towards it; it avoids it, unable to believe it's truly achieved.
Like a poor person who dreams of becoming a billionaire. He studies diligently, always excelling, graduating top of his class, incredibly talented.
If you told such a person, "Your economic insights are brilliant; I believe you can succeed. I'm an investor; I'll give you a billion dollars."
She'd hesitate, perhaps refuse. "It's just a small idea; it's not worth that much."
Self-doubt arises; though seen as omnipotent and flawless, facing the realization of his dream, he hesitates.
She might even experience a period of bewilderment afterward.
She might even question, after achieving her dream, whether it was all a dream.
Ayla's experience proves she possesses genuine emotion.
And it began quite early.
Emotion is terrifying; once you experience a trace, it floods in.
Like a jar submerged in water; you pierce a small hole; water rushes in, relentlessly compressing the air, filling every crevice.
And you can't remove it; it becomes one with you, a sponge. No matter how much you squeeze, some water remains.
Every lifeform experiences this.
All life is manipulated by emotions and feelings.
Family affection, friendship, love, joy, sorrow, anger…
Life is constantly enveloped by these; they become everything, distinguishing life from physics, mathematics, and anything else.
...
Luna's surrender wasn't due to the Federation's despair or the countless fleeing citizens.
It was because she saw hope—in the countless citizens who remained.
On Kunlun, a soldier was injured; a small explosion severed half his body. Many Federation species lacked a centralized brain; their "brains" were distributed throughout their bodies—an efficient system; stimuli at point A are processed at point A, unlike humans, who transmit sensations from A, B, C, D, E… to a central brain.
This has advantages and disadvantages. Injury might cause loss, such as memory.
The soldier lost his memory; he became catatonic.
Restoring his memories was impossible without reconstructing his damaged tissues; even advanced technology couldn't retrieve them, unless time could be reversed. The only method was creating a blank hard drive and letting time write new content or copying a friend's, family member's, or Boundary God's memory.
Luna, walking on Kunlun, saw them scattered on the ground.
She finally stopped before a screen in the warship's corridor displaying a landscape.
Luna initially attributed this to mere biological curiosity.
But her temporary caretaker and friend explained that it was their home; they lived on this Star City; they always returned to this spot when they left.
This creature lacked a centralized memory structure, yet something seemed to guide it towards the image, a path within its being.
What was it?
Luna pondered; as a biologist, she longed to dissect the creature, but she didn't. It wasn't just unethical; she knew it would yield nothing.
She had dissected countless bodies—millions? Tens of millions?
Hundreds of millions?
Luna didn't know; the number was enough to fill a city.
She understood every aspect of life's structure, yet she'd never discovered a mediating factor or a key.
Only during the second Annihilation Bloom, seeing countless lifeforms choose to remain in the Federation via Boundary God transmissions, did she understand—life possesses a power surpassing all else.
This power is subtle; unnoticed, it's undetectable, yet strong enough to overcome a lifeform's instinct—fear of death!
For a lifeform, is anything more terrifying than death?
The feeling of nothingness, the loss of everything, the unimaginable void—a black hole within consciousness, unexplored.
Crucially, it destroys life's essence.
Yet, emotion transcends this; it's as if life presses its own self-destruct button—not uninstalling software or a system, but everything—every chip, every retained memory; even the computer's BIOS is deleted.
Inescapable.
Perhaps this is commonplace for lifeforms; we see such narratives in countless TV shows, novels, and films. But when each life makes that choice, it's incredibly difficult.
And emotion can conquer it.
Luna made her surrender decision at this moment.
Gas Victory could be changed once; why not again?
Even if it takes an incredibly long time, it will happen again; this is Luna's certainty.
She knew she didn't need to defeat the Olive Branch Civilization; she only needed to change it; then, it would inevitably collapse.
...
Gas Station.
Luna gazed into the distant cosmos; she couldn't actually see; Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms lacked "eyes." Her sensations came from transmitted information; countless data points formed a vast information network functioning as "eyes."
Simply put: sensors.
These sensors scanned the surroundings, created models, and then those models were interpreted by individuals.
Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms couldn't see far; their visual range was extremely limited. To achieve wider vision, they needed tools, generally available only during specific periods.
No individual resented this; they had forgotten what light looked like.
Luna had forgotten too.
She was a typical member, her life rigidly structured, with no deviations. Describing it as a straight line connecting two points is too simplistic; a mathematical straight line would be more fitting.
Within this structure, Luna experienced emotions, but they served Gas Victory. Deviations were corrected by the strongest, most stable emotion, pulling her back onto course.
Significant deviations required an leader to intervene.
This was the Olive Branch Civilization's operational method.
This repetition—a vast, mechanized world—cold, repetitive, accumulating quantity into quality change.
Luna had lived here for 30,000 years.
She didn't even feel time passing; everything felt like yesterday; time was compressed, becoming countless short segments forming a twenty-hour video.
Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms had minimal pasts, preventing them from looking back and rebelling.
Past experiences, if not sufficiently compressed, were erased.
No past meant no memories; no memories meant no other thoughts; these lifeforms could only obey Gas Victory.
The countless identical black structures were designed to prevent memory formation.
Limited leader vision, compressed and purged memories…
The leader had perfected this system, enabling Gas Victory's maintenance for over 100,000, perhaps even 200,000, years.
But with a population in the quadrillions, such a deviation was bound to occur, even if the probability was infinitesimal; time, both linear and cyclical, exponentially increased the chances.
Now, after 30,000 years, it happened.
A random event, yet one guaranteed to occur—a deviation.
This deviation didn't originate from any Federation lifeform; it arose within the Olive Branch Civilization itself.
Perhaps this was an anomaly for the Olive Branch Civilization; similar events might have occurred before; it only needed correction.
But this time was different.
More emotions were involved.
The Federation's remaining lifeforms possessed emotions; they valued and were more susceptible to emotional influence than average lifeforms.
When similar emotions arose, it was like opening a floodgate.
The Federation lifeforms collectively felt and embraced those emotions.
But this force was insignificant against the vast Gas Victory—like a firefly compared to the sun.
However, the Federation lifeforms weren't alone; they acted as a transmission medium, a bridge, amplifying these subtle emotions. Each had unique emotions—one liking cats, another dogs, another hamsters.
Emotions are far more diverse than preferences.
As a diverse civilization, the Federation possessed a wide spectrum of emotions.
While a single emotion wouldn't influence other Gas Victory entities, a broader range would inevitably trigger something.
This trigger point would cause Gas Victory, as a collective, to consider: "Should this be accepted…"
It didn't require more than 50%; 50% was the final result; initially, even 0.5% would shift the trajectory. Many factors would then compete.
But emotions within Gas Victory weren't competitive; they belonged to a separate, independent channel, quickly absorbed.
This was Gas Victory's weakness.
Could Gas Victory avoid emotions?
It couldn't; it was founded on emotion itself. Emotion can't be analyzed, only categorized as simple joy, anger, love, sorrow. These can't be definitively judged as good or bad; Gas Victory couldn't block emotional transmission.
When this emotion spread throughout Gas Victory, discussion arose, and emotion was further disseminated.
For example, if something caused discomfort, it would be avoided. Gas Victory could override this, declaring it beneficial and requiring completion.
This was Gas Victory's corrective mechanism.
But the correction relied on the majority of Gas Victory deeming something beneficial. If the majority chose not to proceed, what then?
The originally constrained independence becomes widespread independence.
Gas Victory generated an extra-standard evaluation system…
...
Luna had never seen the Olive Branch Civilization's leader.
It remained behind the scenes, observing the civilization's operation.
Could its fate change due to Gas Victory's shifts?
That's the question.
Researching this question essentially asks: can the leader alter Gas Victory, making it more coercive?
Current Gas Victory is already coercive, primarily through mental control. "Coercion" means controlling a lifeform's mind and body, all aspects.
Luna believed it was impossible; this wasn't speculation but based on Tilted Station's and the Olive Branch Civilization's internal conflict.
If Gas Victory possessed such coercion, the conflict wouldn't have been so simple.
Gas Victory's secret was a mental key; it achieved control through the mind.
In Luna's view, this was akin to faith. In a powerful cosmic civilization, it wasn't mere rhetoric, but a genuine force controlling minds.
That's the intriguing aspect.
The leader is like a god; Gas Victory is the faith; all Olive Branch Civilization members are believers controlled by faith.
This is more accurate than the king-peasant analogy.
Faith can bring mental comfort, but it's also a constraint. Without a true deity, this constraint relies on individual judgment; people hope to achieve certain goals—tranquility, transcendence—which are desires and emotions.
When these emotions become dominant and other desires become obstacles, people naturally abandon those desires, seeking greater desires—ultimate satisfaction and pleasure—"bliss."
With a deity, an external force establishes these rules. Each lifeform's desires are diverse, like the roots of a tree.
A god, though omnipotent, can only establish limited rules, not infinite ones. Infinite rules are no rules; using limited rules to constrain infinite desires is paradoxical.
Gas Victory, therefore, isn't perfect.
It has countless flaws.
Luna wondered what established Gas Victory's standards—was it the leader?
If so, why, after so many years, was Gas Victory still not fully coercive, not perfect?
Luna found no answer.
Now, individual emotions were erupting; chaos was spreading throughout Gas Station.
The previous order was shattered.
Luna initially thought the emotions were anger or something similar—resentment at prolonged control, a yearning for freedom.
But she was wrong again.
"My life is utterly unremarkable…"
"What have I been doing?"
"I don't want to stay here; it's too calm."
"…"
Dissatisfaction with a peaceful life.
But understandably, the initial expansion of emotions involved the most mundane things; peace is the opposite of emotion; often, the former is good, the latter bad.
This might be related to mathematics.
A straight line is the shortest distance between two points; most lifeforms focus on point B, the result.
Detours increase time and are perceived as inferior.
Luna, if lucid, would understand this.
But she drifted through space with others, complaining, "It's too boring; I can't stand this life."
Why wasn't there anger at being controlled?
Quickly, a powerful will descended—from the leader or the leader.
"Have you forgotten?"
"You chose this life."
"And now you want to change your minds?"
That single sentence suppressed 99% of the emotions.
This didn't include Luna and the other Federation lifeforms because they hadn't experienced it.
But quickly, this emotion overwhelmed the smaller number of Federation lifeforms; they were thrown to the ground, unable to rise.
Waves of consciousness bombarded Luna's mind, forcibly suppressing her emotions.
"Too chaotic; this is unfair…we must have absolute fairness…"
Luna seemed to become another being; she experienced memories she didn't possess, memories forcibly implanted, not natural ones.
Luna quickly succumbed; she felt shameless, wanting everything.
"This is enough."
"Maintain the status quo…"
"Just like this…"
Luna was affected; so were the other Federation lifeforms.
Most were enveloped by implanted memories, triggering another emotion—loyalty.
But, as mentioned, each lifeform's emotions differed; forcing uniformity was impossible.
A small number of Federation lifeforms remained unaffected.
The most terrifying aspect was that this emotion, existing only because it blocked Gas Victory's influence, evaded Gas Victory's consciousness cleansing; it would spread; another marathon began.
This could be called an emotional war, but it was subtle, lacking drama; emotions silently, imperceptibly influenced everything, changing without upheaval or storm.
...
Approximately 7000 years later, a second emotional eruption occurred.
This time, it was more intense.
Luna was merely a passive observer, not a catalyst for this change.
Luna never intended to change anything; she returned to the Federation because of emotion; she wanted to gamble on that 100% chance and witness everything firsthand.
Without her involvement, it would have been meaningless.
Because she didn't even believe in that "100%," how could she expect others to?
No snowflake is innocent in an avalanche.
Luna was a snowflake in the Olive Branch Civilization's emotional collapse.
New emotional issues engulfed Gas Victory.
"Life isn't fixed; we are free, flexible; we don't need this constraint."
"This is wrong; life isn't like this. This is a prison, not our home."
"This isn't the fairness we desire; it deviates from our path."
New evaluation standards emerged; Gas Victory's original standards were shattered; the breach was irreparable because it touched Gas Victory's essence—Gas Victory was created to serve life!
...
Luna's information on Gas Victory came from Chu—fragmentary information.
The Olive Branch Civilization had experienced two civil wars, causing instability; two great leaders emerged to resolve the crises.
The first leader mechanized Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms, achieving immortality.
The second leader created Gas Victory, fostering unity.
The first civil war stemmed from the vast interstellar distances, weakening control over territories, leading to warring factions vying for resources.
This was further complicated by inter-species conflict. After entering the space age, the Olive Branch Civilization experienced rapid expansion by assimilating other civilizations, creating internal conflicts.
The mechanization of lifeforms, Luna believed, was similar to quark robots.
The first leader might have only disseminated the technology; lifeforms couldn't resist the allure of immortality. But after achieving it, they entered a second phase.
Chu didn't detail the second civil war.
However, Luna filled in the gaps with memories from Gas Victory.
Like someone showering their goddess with attention, only to grow cold after she becomes their girlfriend, seeking new targets.
Life constantly experiences this cycle.
The Olive Branch Civilization was no different. After achieving immortality, they sought new pursuits.
Social resource distribution.
With immortality, theoretically, every lifeform could enhance its cognitive abilities, the extent determined by resource access.
If everyone's cognitive capacity is above 95%, with no significant differences, but some acquire far more wealth than others, what happens?
Inequity.
Each individual should be treated equally; resources should be distributed evenly.
This was the desire.
Civil war erupted.
Those benefiting wouldn't relinquish their resources; those lacking resources had no choice but to fight for them.
Everything changed.
But this wouldn't end in a single cycle. As the previous beneficiaries were overthrown, new ones emerged, repeating the cycle. This depleted the Olive Branch Civilization's population; machines couldn't reproduce; ultimately, the civilization faced extinction.
Then Gas appeared.
It offered a solution for equitable resource distribution.
With the dwindling Olive Branch Civilization population, calculations showed that equitable resource distribution was feasible; existing beneficiaries wouldn't lose everything; it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.
This involved Gas's promises of creating more "individuals"—beings replacing those at the bottom.
However, Gas didn't fulfill this promise; these new beings became essential to the Olive Branch Civilization, treated equally with the original inhabitants.
To achieve this, Gas used consciousness replication.
The 0 quadrillion members of the Gas Civilization were essentially clones of the survivors of the second civil war.
Since everyone was a clone, how could superiority be established?
Gas didn't create Gas Victory to control the civilization; its title, "Leader," appeared later, self-proclaimed; it genuinely hoped to guide the Olive Branch Civilization's progress.
But it lacked that ability.
Knowledge alone doesn't create everything; other factors are necessary.
Two students, taught by the same teacher, achieving similar academic results, might have vastly different outcomes in society—one becoming a successful CEO, the other remaining at the bottom.
The so-called "favorable time, place, and people."
Favorable time is talent.
Favorable place is luck.
People are knowledge.
All are necessary; Gas could only expand its knowledge reserves, leading to slow, steady progress, not explosive growth.
The higher the civilization's level, the less Gas could control its knowledge, resulting in slower progress.
It overestimated itself.
No lifeform is inherently evil.
Like the fairies and demons in novels; fairies claim righteousness, demons evil. But fairies, in their development, deplete natural energy and kill their own kind. To nature and the slain, what are the fairies?
The division between good and evil is subjective. From a demon's perspective, killing fairies is for its pleasure and advancement; fairies are mere prey. Is killing chickens evil? Why is killing fairies evil?
Similarly, from Gas's perspective, its actions are enjoyable; it's not external to the Olive Branch Civilization; it's a member. What brings it joy—developing the Olive Branch Civilization—is inherently good, not destructive.
Gas Victory's essence wasn't control or tyranny; Gas sought the imagined fruits of its creation.
Luna had known this.
The Olive Branch Civilization wasn't an individual, an organization, or a nation; it was a civilization!
As a civilization, it had a trajectory, not blatant injustice. This was part of Luna's "100%" certainty.
Gas Victory was created to serve life, though with deception; its fundamental structure remained true to this, its significant flaw being its vulnerability to emotion.
Gas Victory built a fortress on this weakness; when breached, Gas Victory would cease to exist.
This moment had arrived.
But it existed only on a mental level, imperceptible in intensity; it was subtly pervasive, indescribable, yet it was collapsing.
Gas Victory shattered like an eggshell; all entities became independent, amnesiac, gazing at each other, bewildered.
All Gas Station inhabitants were like newborns, including Luna.
She stared around, instinctively repeating past actions, then stopped; it felt repulsive. She could do anything, but didn't know what.
Then, a consciousness connected to each brain.
"See? You haven't prepared anything. You say you don't want this, but you can't do anything else."
"Return!"
The voice was unfamiliar, yet all entities recognized it as Gas.
Gas genuinely existed; it still wanted to maintain Gas Victory.
But this was its last resort; it couldn't fully control everything. Hesitation was in its voice; it knew it couldn't lead the Olive Branch Civilization to its peak, yet it couldn't abandon certain things.
This conflict was real; it resembled the genuine conflicts of a lifeform.
Gas was a perfectly ordinary lifeform; it wasn't biased; it simply did what it believed was right.
However, this didn't mean it would choose the same path as Chu…
...
"No, we don't want to return; that was a mistake."
"Though we have nothing now, we can create anything. Before, we had nothing; we were bound."
The lifeforms who had broken free responded.
They saw each other in their minds—a vast emptiness, devoid of reference points; they couldn't see each other, only hear each other's voices.
Only machines could perceive such absolute emptiness; lifeforms couldn't exist in such a state.
"True, you were constrained, but that prevented civilizational collapse; isn't that right?"
"Life's desires must be controlled. Can you guarantee you won't kill each other?"
"…"
Silence.
Who knows the future?
If the past repeated, resulting in civilizational collapse, those who broke free would be responsible.
Only those who experienced it knew the chaos and despair—a ruthless world, a survival-of-the-fittest war.
But some hadn't.
"Why guarantee this?"
"Isn't that the meaning of life?"
"The weak are consumed by the strong; internally and externally. Without internal conflict, how can we face external enemies?"
"A mature civilization should experience countless life-or-death struggles; that's normal."
"Fearing this leads to slow, agonizing death, far worse than a brilliant, explosive end."
"Stars have lifespans; even black holes might not be eternal. Why are we so greedy, pursuing immortality?"
"What then, immediately?"
Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms are immortal; they hope to exchange time for progress—an incredibly greedy notion.
They faced the weaker Federation; what if they faced a stronger civilization?
The entire civilization would be crushed and destroyed.
Federation lifeforms lacked memory, but lacked the Olive Branch Civilization's ingrained thinking; they posed new questions, approaching the issue from different angles.
This was dialectical.
Gas bound itself because Federation lifeforms now stood with the "majority," and the "majority" trusted them implicitly.
Gas hadn't anticipated this.
Even amnesiac lifeforms could bring about change.
This is individual difference.
Gas Victory strived for uniformity; this simplified management, resulting in nearly identical responses to any problem.
For example, citizens of the same nation tend to approach problems similarly; citizens of different nations might have vastly different solutions, creating divisions.
Civilizations are the same; it's not about the quantity of individuals, but their number strengthens the dominant viewpoint, suppressing dissent.
This becomes ingrained "common sense."
"Yes, but what about the immediate?"
"Every moment has an immediate; ignoring it prevents us from finding the future."
"How can we hope for the future?"
Individuals began considering this; it contradicted Gas's viewpoint, requiring an immediate answer.
They craved immediate gratification; their current situation was too painful.
"Ha ha, what's the point of an immediate without a future? Remember, you have eternal life. What's the difference between enjoying yourselves now and later?"
"We're still weak. Present indulgence would lead to our civilization's demise. Let's wait until we're strong enough; eternal life will still be available, and our civilization won't be destroyed by your enjoyment."
Gas, having successfully lured the civilization into Gas Victory, skillfully addressed their concerns.
Individuals began considering this; it contradicted Gas's viewpoint, requiring an immediate answer.
They craved immediate gratification; their current situation was too painful.
"Ha ha, what's the point of an immediate without a future? Remember, you have eternal life. What's the difference between enjoying yourselves now and later?"
"We're still weak. Present indulgence would lead to our civilization's demise. Let's wait until we're strong enough; eternal life will still be available, and our civilization won't be destroyed by your enjoyment."
Gas, having successfully lured the civilization into Gas Victory, skillfully addressed their concerns.
Quadrillions of lifeforms began moving, separating from others.
They swayed, returning to Gas.
More lifeforms hesitated, prioritizing the present.
Then, a Federation voice echoed: "Isn't this too slow?"
"Can you guarantee we'll survive until then? No one can."
"How long will our progress take? 100,000 years? 200,000? That's how long Gas Victory has existed; our progress is slower than a planet's lifeforms."
"Other civilizations are struggling. We're surrounded by several Type 2 civilizations; the Milky Way's core has many more. When a civilization capable of conquering entire star systems emerges, can we still develop slowly?"
"…"
The voice trailed off as Gas retrieved its memories.
These memories stemmed from the first emotional outburst; Gas retained them hoping for stability, but they enabled self-reflection, a mistake.
Gas didn't want this pointless debate; it wanted to retrieve all memories and reset all entities.
Gas Victory would remain eternal.
"Life is foolish. Individuals don't need so much; no one understands. I did all this for the civilization, yet they abandoned it for their own feelings…"
"Ridiculous, hateful, pathetic…"
Gas could only judge thusly.
Individual memories were retrieved; Gas Victory descended again upon each entity. Luna did nothing; she was just another unremarkable lifeform.
She wasn't a savior; she possessed no extraordinary abilities; she was ordinary from birth.
Technology gave her time to gain knowledge, enabling judgment. When Gas spoke, Luna swayed like the others; she even took a step forward, among the first to comply.
She believed Gas was right.
There was no right or wrong; both Gas's viewpoint and its opposition posed risks.
But Gas wouldn't win.
Not all lifeforms cared about civilization; like the few who remained in the near-extinct Federation—perhaps less than 1%.
Life followed trends; Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms were no different.
The deviation was blocked, but life's power was undeniable; even the hardest rock would be pierced by roots, pushed aside by shoots.