Chapter 105: The Glory of Gauss, The Manager's Permission

"Chu is nothing."

"All the decisions are made by us, yet he enjoys everything."

"Manage us? What gives him the right?"

"We should set a time limit, taking turns to let everyone be the manager. This way, our civilization won't stagnate. Chu has been in charge for too long, and our civilization has suffered because of it."

"Hmph, Chu didn't even consult us before attacking the Silk Civilization, which led to their counterattack and the loss of several billion of our companions."

"And as for our cooperation with the Civilized Federation, those guys are just Chu's puppets. All they've done is support Chu."

"...

Resentment is building, reaching its critical point.

After all, thousands of years have passed, and it is now the year 18926. Six thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine years have passed since they first arrived at /Star City.

Everything has been planned for this moment.

The 'Changers' spread Chu's crimes throughout /Star City.

They list his inaction over the past fourteen thousand years, even though /Star City has continued to develop during this time, albeit at a normal pace.

Does the Olive Branch Civilization need a manager to guide their normal development?

No.

What they need is a breakthrough, an explosion of technology, to propel the Olive Branch Civilization to a higher level.

With this in mind, they establish the Civilization Arbitration Court.

It is a massive circular arena, over 5 million kilometers in diameter, floating in the air, surrounded by a dense crowd of Olive Branch Civilization lifeforms.

At its center is a small cube, five kilometers long on each side, and the leader of the 'Changers' and Chu stand face-to-face.

The leader delivers an impassioned speech.

"What changes has he brought us?"

"None!"

"All the changes and progress we've made have been created by us."

"This manager has been sitting back and enjoying the benefits for the past fourteen thousand years. He hasn't taken any responsibility. It's time for our civilization to make the necessary adjustments."

"If we continue on this path, you and I will be here in the not-too-distant future, and our civilization will still be in the same state, perhaps even more corrupt and stagnant."

"He's been in the manager's position for far too long, and it's because of him that our civilization has become this way. We should be full of vigor and moving forward."

"Look at what happened ten thousand years ago. We discovered the Civilized Federation, and we should have sent our armies to crush them, just as we did this time. But what did we do?"

"Cooperate with a weak civilization? Ha! That's absurd."

"That's not how we used to operate. We would destroy them, trample them. Any other civilization is an ant, a foreigner, and they will never be able to understand the greatness of the Glory of Gauss."

Yan Xia has been listening in, and he gains two important pieces of information.

The Olive Branch Civilization was not as peaceful towards other civilizations as they claimed, instead choosing to destroy them.

This does not surprise Yan Xia, as how could a gentle and kind civilization have grown to such a scale? The progress of a civilization inherently carries a strong invasive nature.

The second piece of information is the Glory of Gauss, a term he has never heard before.

"Gauss was the first great leader, the one who built the Olive Branch Civilization as it is today."

A voice suddenly appears, and Yan Xia slowly turns to see Ella approaching him.

Chu also seems to be planning to strike at Yan Xia at this moment.

"The reason we chose the name Olive Branch is because, in addition to symbolizing peace, it also represents the olive tree's resilience and ability to adapt to various environments, as well as its eternal and everlasting connotations."

"Our civilization is an eternal one. We have no diseases or lifespan limitations, and our mechanical bodies grant us nearly eternal life."

"You can think of the Glory of Gauss as a shared consciousness. You would find it very difficult to understand, with billions of consciousnesses thinking within the same brain. I once entered it for a period of time, and to be honest, it was terrible. Every second, I was being assimilated. That's when I saw the limits of the Glory of Gauss."

The Glory of Gauss itself is a form of solidified thought, with all consciousnesses existing within a shared cluster. What's the difference between that and just one life form?

"So the managers were born, and the managers are the true changers." Yan Xia repeats the story of the manager's role from Chu's previous tale.

He doesn't understand the meaning of the manager. What's the difference between one person and two people in terms of a civilization's progress?

"That's right, but also wrong."

"Perhaps in your civilization, the term 'manager' refers to a ruler, but that's not the case here."

"My role can be seen as identifying errors. When an error occurs within a shared cluster of billions of life forms, do you know what happens?"

Chu's eyes, through Ella, fix on Yan Xia, and the distance between them is only three meters.

"Correct the error?"

"No!"

"Wrong!"

"It's erasing the error."

"Correcting is changing, while erasing is making the error certain. After an error is made, countless shared consciousnesses will join in and work with the error's creator to understand the error, forcing an explanation for the error until a reasonable reason appears. Then the error no longer exists; it becomes correct."

"It's like a white piece of paper with a black spot on it. They paint over the black spot with black, but the spot is still there, hidden within the paper."

Yan Xia can sense Chu's deep hatred for this mode of operation.

"So my task is always to find that error and tell them that it's an error that needs to be resolved, not forced into an explanation."

That is indeed an error, so the manager is the corrector.

Yan Xia thinks of a question: "So you're saying you have no control over /Star City?"

If that's the case, then many of his previous assumptions must be wrong.

Chu controls /Star City indirectly, not directly. He influences the shared consciousness cluster by telling them that something is an error, which in turn affects their judgment.

"That's right. Now you should understand where you went wrong." Ella's face breaks into a smile.

Yan Xia realizes his mistake. Targeting Chu is meaningless, as Chu is just an add-on for the Olive Branch Civilization. A game or software runs just as well without an add-on, but it still runs without one.

Chu doesn't manage /Star City, which means his downfall won't have any impact on /Star City.

"But that's not right!"

Yan Xia looks at Ella, hoping to see Chu's thoughts in his eyes.

"If you were a member of the shared consciousness, you would have no hesitation in dying for the Olive Branch Civilization."

"But you're not, so you won't compromise with the shared consciousness."

"You're here to take me to that circular arena, aren't you!"

Ella is laughing, or rather, Chu is laughing.

"Since you understand, let's go. That so-called leader's speech was too disgusting, just like when I face the shared consciousness cluster."

Hearing this, Yan Xia begins to understand what Chu intends to do.