Zero flipped back to the title page in disbelief.
Who on earth was this guy who didn't fight back at all, but instead said he wanted to save the universe? Where did this holier-than-thou saint come from? It couldn't possibly really be him, right?
After carefully checking and confirming again and again that it was indeed his own handwriting, he could only grit his teeth and keep reading.
In the fable, after the fish said goodbye to the mechanical cat, it met a gentle, obedient cat, and a loyal dog.
Because it came from the sea, it knew that this seemingly lush tree in front of it was very likely to collapse at some moment.
So the fish, wanting to return to the sea, led the cats and dogs to search together for a way that would let it go home and also save the tree.
During this time, the mechanical cat's admirers were deeply moved after learning of this, and they all wanted to join the fish's plan.
Even though the mechanical cat held malice toward the fish, the fish was broad-minded and had no intention of taking it out on them at all, allowing all of the cat's admirers to join its camp.
Zero understood the hint he had left for himself.
The mechanical cat was the Aeon of "Erudition."
The admirers were members of the Genius Society.
In some cycle, he himself had set aside past grudges and taken in all of the other party's Emanators…
Wasn't that, in a way, a display of broad-mindedness?
The corner of Zero's mouth twitched slightly.
Even if the one poaching from "Erudition" was himself… he still couldn't help but curse, how shameless.
Zero was different.
He was far more merciful than his past self.
With a sense of emotion, Zero took out his jade communicator and sent Hua a message.
[Zero: When poaching from "Erudition," at least leave it a few]
[Hua: ???]
[Hua: You already poached almost all of them before]
Zero, "..."
'What? Even in this cycle, "Erudition" couldn't keep its people? Then never mind, figures it was him.'
Without changing his expression, Zero continued typing.
[Zero: Then make sure to leave it a few next time]
He turned off the jade communicator and continued reading.
In the fable, the fish had long known that saving the tree would require an enormous price. It often wavered and hesitated, but the cats and dogs all urged it, saying, "This is a necessary sacrifice."
After the admirers joined its ranks, an idea couldn't help but arise.
With more help from cats and dogs, did that mean… it might be able to save the tree at the lowest possible cost and return to the sea?
To remove the disease on the branches, it was necessary to first destroy those homes of cats and dogs that it had never seen before, stripping them of their lives.
If this was a necessary sacrifice, then did their sacrifice have value?
The fish repeatedly ran through the possibilities, but arrived at an answer that deeply disappointed it.
The answer was, no one knew.
Farmers could estimate harvests based on past experience, and researchers could calculate probabilities through repeated experiments.
But this was an unprecedented experiment that could only be attempted once. No one knew whether it would succeed.
So, for this unknown probability, should innocent cats and dogs be sacrificed?
As time passed, the fish had already come to see the cats and dogs as its own children, and the tree as its home.
It called a halt to the experiment. The cats and dogs were confused, but still obeyed its command.
The fish left a backup plan for itself.
Soon, it died, and the cats and dogs destroyed the tree.
Zero, "???"
'What kind of nonsense is this? What exactly was the backup plan? It just died without even mentioning it?'
Wasn't this twist way too abrupt? It was worse than brainless wish-fulfillment fiction, okay? If this were posted online, readers would curse it out and give it a one-star review.
Looking at the completely unforeshadowed and extremely abrupt turn in the earlier text, Zero fell into thought.
Soon, he sorted things out.
In that cycle, his past self had faced the same problem as in his previous life, and had died without even leaving a single word for his subordinates. After that, his subordinates led the star sea toward its end.
Zero subconsciously compared the two, looks like his subordinates were pretty obedient. They hadn't even started the engines.
In a good mood, he lowered his head and kept reading.
The next plot development was just as abrupt. The fish that had died in the previous scene came back to life.
The book vaguely mentioned that the backup plan the fish had left behind took effect, but was then voluntarily abandoned by it.
What exactly happened in between? What exactly was the backup plan? No one knew.
The fish, having gone through who-knows-what, suddenly recalled what the mechanical cat had said.
It thought that it was not an exception.
But this wasn't a difficult problem for it. What it had most was patience.
If it didn't work once, then try again. One attempt would succeed eventually.
So the question became, how should it make a choice in the trolley problem, choosing the option that aligned with the interests of the majority?
The fish thought of the mechanical cat and its kind, and also understood why its past self had left that kind of backup plan.
The mechanical cat and its kin wouldn't waver in the slightest over the deaths of cats and dogs. Only by becoming an existence beyond them, discarding all humanity and emotion, would it no longer feel pain.
Only then could it make choices, and only then could it live easily and happily.
Reading this far, Zero more or less understood why he had written that line about "not being human" on the title page.
Only by becoming a true god would one not suffer over partings of life and death. Only then could one remain rational forever.
Zero thought to himself, what a pity, this time, he just wanted to be human.
He continued reading.
The fish once again left a backup plan for its future self, then turned to searching for a way to save the tree with a one-hundred-percent success rate.
It didn't want to harm the cats and dogs, so it turned its attention to the mechanical cat and its kind.
They received worship, yet couldn't provide protection, nor could they change the current situation. If the fish wanted to sacrifice them, that could be considered understandable, right?
The fish wouldn't easily conclude that something would succeed. Their sacrifice alone wasn't enough, perhaps adding the foundation of the tree itself… would be more secure.
Immediately after, the cats and dogs occupied the entire tree, crowding around the completely unaware fish and elevating it to become the tree's master. During this process, they counter-killed multiple evil forces that attempted to kill the fish.
Zero slowly typed out a question mark in his mind.
What, so this time he got promoted on the spot to marshal, and in the previous cycle he got promoted on the spot to emperor of the star sea?
And those "multiple evil forces" you mentioned, exactly which Aeons were they?
Zero took a deep breath and directly flipped to the last page, reading the afterword.
As expected, it was his handwriting.
———
[It seems you've already believed my words. After all, only you understand yourself best. Compared to information dumped on you all at once, you're more willing to trust conclusions you've inferred yourself.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered playing riddles and wasting time writing little stories about cats and dogs. I omitted some unimportant parts, so you might feel confused when reading? That it lacks logic?
Then I'll give you another hint, reality and fables are different. These things did not happen in the same cycle.
Presumably, the current you has already become a true god.
Of course, if you didn't become a god, that's fine too. Rounding up, you're the savior of countless worlds. Even if you're not very human, there's still the backup plan I left for you to add to your merit, one plus one minus one, conservation of energy.
Finally, do you want to guess what the backup plan actually is? Did I lie to myself?]
———
Zero, "..."
He stared at that final sentence.
Only he himself would have the nasty hobby of tricking himself.
This was definitely written by him, no doubt about it.