Turns Out We're on the Same Side

"...Why would I do that?"

Lin Feng sorted through his thoughts and roughly understood the reason the Wallbreaker claimed that "he wants everyone on Earth to become quantum ghosts," but he was unsure whether his interpretation matched the Wallbreaker's, so he asked.

Yet to the Wallbreaker and everyone else, those words sounded like the Wallfacer's final struggle.

"Because you believe such a civilization cannot be destroyed by Trisolaris—what has already been destroyed cannot be destroyed a second time, and those who have already died cannot die again!"

"The same idea as your father's, only even crazier. He merely wanted to murder humanity's future space fleet and create an army that could not be killed to defend human civilization. But you..."

"Want to murder all of human civilization, intending to create a civilization that cannot be destroyed!"

Well, damn...

Lin Feng barely recovered from his stupor.

Brilliant! How had I not thought of that? This plan was absolutely brilliant!

Since it was an objective fact that humanity could not defeat Trisolaris, why did humanity have to confront them head-on?

Insects could survive humanity's extermination attempts. Was that because insects were stronger than humans?

Of course not! The insects had merely found a way to survive!

If All Humanity became impossible to kill, what could Trisolaris do when it arrived? What could the Droplet's Strong Interaction Material do, no matter how hard it was? What could Trisolaris's other weapons, which had never appeared in the original work, do no matter how powerful they were?

The way Lin Feng looked at von Neumann changed. At that moment, he thought of Yun Tianming and Zhang Beihai.

They shared one trait: under Trisolaran surveillance, they could not openly state their thoughts and could only put them into practice through hints and subjective actions.

The Wallbreaker von Neumann facing Lin Feng now seemed to be the same.

In the original work, it was indeed his wallbreaking that drove Frederick Taylor to collapse and commit suicide. Yet through that act, he had also given humanity an initial understanding of Trisolaris's strength.

Lin Feng now had a thought. Could the Wallbreakers actually be much like Zhang Beihai and Yun Tianming?

Could some people have disguised themselves as anti-humanity extremists, infiltrated ETO, and used Trisolaris's resources to find a way out for humanity?

Thinking carefully, once a Wallbreaker saw through a Wallfacer's plan, there was actually no need to specifically come out and tell the Wallfacer that he had been wallbroken, much less announce it publicly.

Because the path was fundamentally wrong. Letting it continue would only consume humanity's available war resources.

Then, considering Trisolaris's distrust of ETO in the original work, the more Lin Feng thought about it, the more he felt that some people within ETO were actually using anti-humanity extremists as cover, deceiving Trisolaris into allocating resources to help humanity seek a way out. How else could it be explained?

Thinking that people were willing to risk their lives infiltrating ETO for All Humanity, while bearing the disgrace of being called "traitors to humanity," Lin Feng could not help feeling deep respect.

I called you anti-humanity before and even wanted to use you to kill people and break their hearts. I'm truly sorry. Turns out we're on the same side...

"Mr. Taylor, I deeply admire you. You had the courage to formulate such a mad plan and carry it out with such determination. When I first learned of your plan, I was so terrified that I could not sleep all night."

Von Neumann's words now carried an entirely different meaning for Lin Feng.

I understand, I understand. That was sarcasm. You couldn't sleep because you were worried Trisolaris would notice you, right?

Don't worry. Though I, Lin Feng, am not a qualified Wallfacer and always want to slack off, I'm not the kind of pig who would screw over his own teammates. I'll help cover for you.

"I have a question," Lin Feng said.

"Please, go ahead."

Lin Feng asked, "Suppose what you said is true. Is such a plan really so bad? Quantumized people are alive. They are merely affected by probability clouds. If All Humanity becomes quantum ghosts, no one will be alone."

"Macroscopic quantum states do indeed have the drawback of spreading through space over time. The probability cloud becomes increasingly diffuse, making the quantum probability at any point in reality smaller and smaller. In the end, the probability cloud disperses evenly throughout the universe, and the probability of quantum-state human civilization appearing at any given point in space becomes nearly zero, which is equivalent to the destruction of human civilization."

"But... so what?"

"Human civilization in a quantum state is immortal, because it has already been destroyed. And as the probability cloud spreads, Earth can reach other stars and travel the universe without relying on any tools."

"As for the probability approaching zero infinitely because it spreads throughout the universe... how vast is the universe? The currently observable universe alone spans more than thirteen billion light-years. The probability cloud cannot spread faster than light, so quantumized human civilization can endure for at least more than ten billion years. That is longer-lived than the Sun, and Earth's entire history from nothing to existence has only been a little over four billion years."

"Isn't that good?" Lin Feng countered.

That was why he thought von Neumann's idea of turning human civilization into quantum ghosts was so brilliant.

Lin Feng had read the original work, so he knew what the future would bring. Even without Trisolaris, humanity would be destroyed by the Singer Civilization.

Why?

Because there were countless Singer Civilizations in the universe, and every Singer Civilization had countless Singers. Singers were like Earth's strategic nuclear submarines: hiding themselves and preparing to cleanse.

Cleanse whom? Insects and enemies. Even if they could not win and were captured, it did not matter. Singers carried no information whatsoever about their parent civilization.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before humanity was discovered by a Singer.

Could humanity defeat them, then?

Humanity could not even break Trisolaris's technological blockade. What could it use to fight the Singers?

Perhaps some would say that future humanity would develop new technologies. Lin Feng wanted to ask: would the Singer Civilization just stand still? Were humans the only ones worthy of progress?

The Trisolaran Civilization was suppressed by three stars, and every time its civilization developed, it was destroyed. The countless Singer Civilizations in the universe did not suffer such suppression.

Humanity could not compare in resources, technology, or even time spent developing.

Even in population, they were a proper interstellar civilization. With more than a dozen colony planets combined, what did the mere billions of humans on one Earth amount to? Probably not even a tiny fraction.

What could humanity use to fight the Singers? Even if All Humanity risked their lives, the Singers would not care!

Compared to Luo Ji's Dark Forest deterrence in the original work, Lin Feng felt that turning All Humanity into quantum ghosts was a better idea. At least then they would not have to worry about attacks like Dual-Vector Foils or light particles.

"Perhaps you believe that everything you are doing is saving All Humanity, but I must remind you—if Sophon is truly so useful, capable of making a civilization immortal and indestructible without drawbacks, why would the Trisolarans not do the same?"

"Your gamble is only forcing humanity into an endless abyss, not saving it."

Von Neumann's words reached Lin Feng, only to be interpreted anew by him—turning all humanity into quantum ghosts was indeed good and could ensure that human civilization would not be destroyed by Trisolaris, but the plan had drawbacks.