"A gift?"
Wenren Sheng mulled over those two words.
Of course, he knew the concept of the Old Ones. The short story "Call of Cthulhu" described the existence of this species.
Their greatest trait was that they contained endless cosmic truths. Once mortals glimpsed their true forms, they would go mad or die because they could not contain or comprehend that knowledge.
Another trait was that they were a kind of monster created from an atheistic and materialist perspective.
They did not exist in traditional superstition. What they presented was a kind of cosmic horror.
The contrast between the immense and the minuscule could instill a fear of enormous things.
But the vast disparity in one's grasp of knowledge and truth could inspire genuine fear even more.
The knowledge and truths humanity had explored were only scattered fragments. One day, when people pieced them together, they would discover the truth of the universe—and fall into true terror.
The notion that "the truth of the universe brings fear" had in fact been explored in many sci-fi novels.
For example, in "Three-Body," those scientists who committed suicide at the beginning had discovered a tiny piece of scientific truth. They believed that human physics was merely the remnant of a higher civilization, and that all research was meaningless.
They believed humanity was like a flock of penned-up turkeys. The feeding patterns they had discovered would only work for a short time. Once their masters wanted to eat turkey, those patterns would fail.
In the end, they committed suicide because of that meaninglessness.
By contrast, the ignorant could instead enjoy fleeting but certain happiness.
This was also the warning the creator of Cthulhu wanted to convey—do not explore certain things too deeply. When exploring nature, maintain reverence. Do not be arrogant. Do not believe