Chapter 269: The Independent Glory Within the Star, Death and Rebirth

This was a very small space, with a diameter of only about 10 kilometers. Within this space, there was an 8-kilometer-long black box.

Ella had done her research before coming here. Chu had not avoided the Fennyri when building the Independent Tower, so the Federation was aware of its existence.

When she saw the massive black box, the image of the Independent Tower instantly flashed through her mind.

After all, there was nothing else in Xing City worth hiding here except for this.

Chu must have been prepared and managed to save the Independent Tower from destruction.

Ella didn't know exactly what had happened in Xing City, but as she approached the huge rectangular box, even in her sequential form, she felt minuscule before this object.

As she extended her tentacles to touch its surface, the box's exterior automatically emitted a halo of light, and the light contained information. She heard some words.

"The once glorious has lost its splendor and become filthy and defiled. The new glory will take over the operation of civilization until eternity."

"When this glory is awakened, it also means the vessel of glory has disappeared. Glory must rely on external forces to break free from its shackles and regain its strength. Civilization Federation, whoever you are, you will receive the olive branch of civilization's treasure. This belongs to an entire civilization..."

Ella didn't have time to ponder what this treasure was when a stream of information burst out from the Independent Glory and entered her mind. This stream of information was sudden, not massive, and it did not contain everything about a civilization, but merely a language and a script.

At that moment, the cube containing the Independent Glory suddenly activated, as if breaking free from the star's constraints. Ella's expression changed, and her entire body adhered to the surface of the cube, which almost instantaneously underwent a terrifying acceleration, going from 0 to 2983 km/s. The enormous acceleration crushed Ella, flattening her body against the cube's surface.

About an hour later, she and the cube burst out of the star's surface, where they were observed by the Red Dragon spaceship.

"That is..."

"The diplomat!"

The Red Dragon spaceship quickly accelerated towards the cube, which maintained its high speed and headed towards the Cosmic Silk Road, presumably its preset destination.

The spaceship extended its mechanical arm and detached Ella from the cube. Her entire body had turned into a pulp, and her exoskeleton couldn't withstand such a high level of acceleration. Theoretically, it should have been able to handle it, but Ella's exoskeleton had already been damaged by high pressure and temperature, and her energy reserves had been significantly depleted, resulting in a severe decrease in her combat effectiveness.

The crew of the spaceship searched through Ella's body fragments and finally found a sphere.

Modern exoskeletons can shrink at the moment of the host's death, locking in a portion of the host's lifetime information, allowing for potential resurrection.

The body is just a relatively sophisticated mechanical structure. Nowadays, the Federation has highly precise tools that can restore a life from the atomic level with 100% accuracy, as long as the initial information is not incomplete. This is a true resurrection, not a replacement.

You are still you!

Obviously, the Independent Glory did not anticipate that a life would reach the star's radiation layer alone. If there had been a spaceship, Ella would not have been in danger.

Less than an hour had passed, and the matter of Xing City was still falling. The star's surface became more violent, and the red light grew stronger. A large amount of stellar matter was ejected into the vacuum, striking the surface of the Red Dragon spaceship.

Fortunately, the Federation's technology was still up to par, and as long as they weren't directly licked by the stellar wind, these ejected materials did not affect the spaceship.

Or, to put it another way, if a 600 million spaceship couldn't handle this, it would be truly unacceptable.

Subsequently, the Red Dragon spaceship began to accelerate away from the star system. The main computer had already predicted that the star would start to rage in 14 to 16 hours and begin to collapse in 20 to 21 hours.

This was an unconventional matter collapse, somewhat different from the destructive exploration Yan Xia had faced before. Matter needed time to reach the core, so the collapse was relatively slow. However, in terms of cosmic scale, completing the collapse within a day was still very fast.

It took the Red Dragon over 20 days to fly back to the original location of the micro-factory.

Only then did they have time to settle down and start manufacturing biological equipment using the micro-factory. This didn't require scholars on the spaceship because the main computer had knowledge in various fields and could perform basic cloning and restoration based on biological information.

All of this was completed within 10 days.

A lifelike Ella's body lay on the operating table, and the information from her exoskeleton was being implanted. This information included some of her original brain structure, and this brain tissue would be cultivated in a special way.

This method was called the "Atomic Mold."

As the name suggests, it's a method of creating a mold that can precisely replicate something down to the atomic level.

In a macroscopic sense, if we want to create an identical object, we make a mold for it and then process it. We don't require a high level of precision for such molds, but for structures like the brain, the level of detail must be extremely high; otherwise, the self that awakens may not be the original self.

In fact, even with this level of restoration, if we were to delve deeper, we still wouldn't know if the restored self is the original self. No one knows this, not outsiders, not even yourself; only the original self would know.

This is a profound philosophical and ethical issue. The current consensus in the Federation is that the restored self is the self, so everyone believes that this self is their true self. The actual truth is unknown to anyone, not even a super-civilization in the universe. Even if space and time were dissected and compared, they couldn't be superimposed.

In fact, the Olive Branch Civilization's consciousness technology is not an absolute consciousness transfer but is more comprehensive than the Federation's consciousness transfer technology. By cross-referencing the technologies of two civilizations, they achieved what they call perfect consciousness transfer.

This point can be explored further: Is yesterday's self today's self?

After all, your brain has been dead for a period of time. Today's self may just be a continuation of yesterday's self, a completely new self with only the memories of the past.

This theory is known as "Yesterday Died" in the Federation.

"Huh?"

Ella woke up and sat up immediately. The white cloth on her body slid off, revealing a perfectly flawless body.

Humans always have subtle imperfections, like asymmetrical faces, different muscles on the left and right sides, varying fat distribution, uneven abdominal muscles, and breasts of different sizes. Life is relatively symmetrical, but not perfectly so.

However, the Federation has already elevated this relative symmetry to its peak. Although it's still asymmetrical at a more microscopic level, from a visible perspective, this life is perfectly exquisite.

In the next moment, her naked body was covered by a white exoskeleton, and Ella walked out of the operating room.

"Xing City has perished, but the Independent Glory remains. Our next mission is to transport the Independent Glory back to the Federation; this is our top priority."

"But before that, we can't afford to be careless. The Independent Glory itself may be a ticking time bomb. We don't trust any aliens, and we need to conduct a detailed inspection of the Independent Glory."

She quickly issued orders and then left the ship's cabin to return to her residence, where she began composing a crucial letter.