Zhang Qi stood before the window. Outside, the city lay like an unfurled painting, light coursing silently through it.
Though the truth was cruel, Earth civilization and the Trisolaran Civilization truly could not coexist.
That was also why the Trisolaran Civilization had been the first to discover the laws of the Dark Forest—
This was the core theory proposed in the original work.
Simply put, under the extreme conditions imposed by the struggle for survival, the chain of suspicion meant that any civilization choosing to strike first would gain an absolute advantage.
The most typical example was the two spaceships confronting each other in the darkness: Blue Space and Natural Selection.
In that absolute vacuum, with the ticking countdown to resource depletion, the crew had been forced to make a choice.
Because they possessed weapons capable of destroying the other side, the side that struck first held an absolute advantage—
The Trisolarans understood this rule earlier than humanity did.
Their civilization had been burned away like weeds beneath the pull of three stars, only to emerge once more from the ashes.
Thus, unlike humans, who were bound by their own morality, the Trisolarans would not hesitate in the slightest when pressing that button, nor would they feel the slightest guilt afterward.
That was why, in the original work, despite the deterrence that had allowed the Trisolarans and humanity to communicate for decades—and despite the emergence among humanity of a movement sympathetic to Trisolaris—they still chose to launch a direct attack the instant Cheng Xin took over as Swordholder.
Zhang Qi withdrew his gaze, then shook his head.
This was the fundamental reason the universe had become a Dark Forest.
So long as there were one or two civilizations like Trisolaris, that forest would be dark enough.
A hunter entered the