"In those dimensions, all cross-dimensional connections will be severed, and civilizations will have to survive on their own resources."
"And the darkness will last a long time-thousands of years at the shortest, tens of thousands at the longest."
"Many civilizations will perish during the dark era. Only the strongest and luckiest will endure."
Lin Ye's expression grew grave. "Will the superconsciousness network be affected?"
"Definitely," Guanlan said. "If the connected dimensions fall into darkness, the participants in those dimensions will lose contact with the network."
"That will weaken the entire network."
"What's worse..." It paused. "According to our predictions, our dimensional branch is also within the dark era's reach."
"In other words, we may be sealed off too."
The news sent the entire network into a panic.
Many participants began discussing whether they should prepare in advance and stockpile resources. Some even proposed temporarily disbanding the network and returning to isolation.
But Niu's voice rang out, calm and firm.
"Panic won't solve anything," it said. "We need to understand the nature of the dark era before we can find a way to deal with it."
"Guanlan, does your Observer Civilization have detailed records of the dark era?"
Guanlan pulled up ancient archives. "Yes, but the records are extremely inconsistent, because every dark era manifests differently."
"The only thing they have in common is that all affected dimensions undergo a 'rule reset.'"
"A rule reset?" Lin Ye immediately picked up on the key term. "What does that mean?"
"It means that dimension's fundamental rules are forcibly changed," Guanlan said. "For example, the laws of physics might suddenly stop working, causality might be thrown into disarray, and even the flow of time might reverse."
"In that chaos, existing civilizations will collapse. Only those capable of adapting to the new rules will survive."