When you gaze into the Void, the Void gazes back.
--Observer's Diary
Amidst the boundless, endless darkness, a formless and intangible phantom drifted.
Its existence resembled a three-dimensional "sheet of white paper," its jagged, torn edges looking as though they had been ripped from some book, crumpled into a ball, and shoved into an inkwell so viscous it was nearly solidified, completely fusing with the surrounding environment.
Within this void where even gravity and time were swallowed, there should not have existed "matter" of any form, let alone a megastructure with a nearly complete morphology that required no converged gravitational field—a plug-and-play space ready for immediate occupancy.
Yet within this torn space, such an unnatural "thing" truly existed.
Even more...
They were still alive.
Inside the torn space.
Observation Station No. A-01722.
Two vague, indistinct phantoms drifted within a pure white space, conducting the necessary communications for their daily work using their special language that required no vocalization.
"A sample from Civilization A-01722."
"Open it and take a look."
"Received."
Generally speaking, no information could be transmitted from within the Void to the outside; this place was exiled beyond the universe, resembling a cosmic recycle bin.
Yet in the face of wisdom and technology, exceptions existed to everything.
Through certain special methods, they were not only capable of transmitting limited and necessary information to the universe outside the Void, but under specific circumstances, they could even copy special samples from the vicinity of the observed subjects to analyze the form of the civilization they inhabited and the exact stage they were currently in.
For those of them entrusted with the observation mission, this was a matter of great importance.
Depending on the specific circumstances, they would grant these observed subjects a certain degree of assistance. This assistance served partly as compensation for the experiment, and partly as a necessary means to elevate the technological level of the observed primitive civilization.
As for why they bothered with such troublesome matters...
Perhaps only they themselves knew.
Returning to the matter at hand.
The sample copied this time from the observed subjects of Civilization A-01722 resembled a black rectangular brick in shape.
From its appearance, it possessed a surface as smooth as a mirror, just like a handicraft crafted from limpid colored glaze. If taken to a place like an auction, it would surely attract the attention of quite a few collectors.
In their distant memories, the shadow of such things seemed to have existed within their own civilization.
That was back when the Old Universe had not yet withered.
That was when they had not yet walked into space and still needed to build houses on the ground.
[Internal structure analysis in progress.]
[Analysis complete.]
[Hypothesis of architectural structure rejected; based on internal structure, judged to be a communication tool.]
Facing the projection floating in mid-air, one of the Void Observers issued an order to the research-assistant AI life form.
"Present the details."
[Details are being presented...]
For the observation tools of the Void Observers, analyzing a tool from a primitive civilization was merely a matter of a split second.
Soon, detailed data was presented before the two Void Observers.
[Judging clue: Nanoscale integrated circuits exist in Sample 012, with a manufacturing process of 7nm. Horizontally comparing the integrated circuits in Sample 008, the manufacturing process is improved by 3nm, energy efficiency is increased by 28%, crystal density is increased by 64%, and comprehensive performance is increased by 73%... It is inferred that Civilization A-01722 is currently in the early space age, with a communication technology level of 0.74, which is higher than the overall baseline value of 0.73.]
"It actually has 0.74?"
One of the Void Observers unexpectedly displayed a surprised emotion.
Ever since they began observing A-01722, they had successfully raised the civilization level from the primitive value of 0.72 to 0.73. Through their influence on the observed subjects, the levels of certain technologies had even been elevated to a degree infinitely approaching 1.
From this perspective, the 0.74 level itself did not seem to contain anything worthy of surprise.
Yet what was astonishing was that in recorded experiments, they had never outputted communication technology to the observed targets, nor had they enlightened that field of technology through indirect means; yet now, a communication tool with a technological level 0.02 higher than the primitive value had been observed...
I must say, this was quite unusual, to the extent that he felt it necessary to write this matter into a report and submit it to the superior research unit.
One of the Void Observers inquired.
"Chip material?"
[Confirmed to be silicon-based.]
It was actually a Silicon-Based Chip?
Contemplating for a second, that Void Observer continued to issue commands.
"Render the judgment criteria."
Quickly, a pale-blue holographic panel flickered, and the research AI promptly displayed the scoring logic in front of the two.
[Covers a 0.1-watt to 100-watt full-scenario computing architecture; compared to contemporary communication tools, significantly improves AI computing power per unit of power consumption +0.01]
[Adopts a special NPU architecture, which can serve as a cloud computing terminal to provide cloud computing support for external devices such as autonomous driving vehicles and smart wearables within the atmospheric environment of the early space age +0.05]
[Relatively advanced design philosophy +0.05]
I see...
After finishing the contents of the report, the Void Observer showed an understanding emotion.
In that case, it actually makes sense.
Taking planetary-level comprehensive informational coverage as the baseline of level 1, the attempt they made in the field of cloud computing could already be called a pretty good start.
"As expected of the seed we chose, Civilization A-01722 has surprised us once again."
"It's still too early to draw conclusions."
"This isn't drawing a conclusion, just a hypothesis."
"That does make sense then."
The two Void Observers seemed to fall into thought simultaneously.
This communication was synchronized under a special force field, and a massive stream of information was shared between them.
"Very interesting. They created an architecture codenamed Da Vinci, connecting the NPU, CPU, and GPU into a matrix, which greatly improved the computing power of the entire system."
"The use?"
"Their civilization has something called games, which can bring joy to individuals of the civilization and a limited degree of prosperity to the civilization as a whole. And compared to other equipment of the same type, its series of hardware and software technological combination punches—Kirin 810, GPU Turbo 3.0, Kirin Gaming+—make playing games faster, the graphics smoother, and bring more fun."
"Enviable... How long has it been since we lost the emotion of joy."
"Don't know, probably lost it along with 'envy'."
After about five minutes, one of the observers "spoke" and said.
"Proposal: send a Hall Thruster containing Carbon-Based Integrated Circuit technology as remuneration for communication and experiments."
"Agreed."
Having received the instructions of the two, the research AI life form immediately executed the command.
"I think it's good."
"Agreed. I believe the observed subject of A-01722 will be able to use it properly."
Both researchers cast undisputed votes of approval, and the research AI life form had already recorded it in the archives.
If no accident occurs.
When the time is ripe, it will use special technological methods to actively project it into the world where the observed subject is located... just as it has done countless times before.
The experimental report has been submitted to the superior unit.
The experiment at the current stage has come to a temporary close.
The rest is to archive the replica in the form of information, preserve it in the database like a cultural relic, and then return the mass borrowed from the void to prepare for the next round of experiments.
Examining that black "brick", one of the consciousness entities existing in the phantom suddenly revealed a trace of an emotion that had long been distant and unfamiliar to them, and "spoke" to ask.
"Does it have a name?"
Catching this strange and faint emotional fluctuation, the other observer paused slightly and replied.
"It probably does... But in this void, does a thing like a name have any meaning?"
"No, just satisfying my curiosity."
Curiosity...
That really was a distant concept.
Probably on that timeline when the New Universe had not yet been born and the Old Universe had not yet perished, these so-called curiosities had already withered away along with the fire of their civilization.
Even though their thinking still hadn't stopped...
Perhaps touched.
The consciousness entity wrapped in the phantom did not say any words, but simply turned to face the instrument behind it.
Under the traction of a certain force that was still too mysterious for Earth Civilization, the space and time on the instrument began to distort, and the neatly arranged parts began to recombine along the trajectory of their disassembly, once again constituting that complete black brick.
Floating slowly to the side of that black square brick, a cyan-black tentacle split from the phantom and tapped gently on the screen.
Like a fingertip lightly touching the surface of a lake.
Rings of pale-blue light particles swept across the pitch-black and clear mirror surface like expanding ripples.
Endowed with energy, it began to boot up, and a line of white characters on a blue background was presented on the screen.
"What does it say on it?"
The observer who endowed it with energy was silent for a moment, and under the action of a force field that was still too mysterious for Earth Civilization, the inert gas soaking around the two observers suddenly emitted a tremor with a frequency between 100Hz and 10000Hz.
This was a very primitive way of communication.
However, it was quite popular among primitive civilizations below level three that had not yet shed low-level tastes.
"Honor 9X..."
"In the language of civilization A-01722, it's probably pronounced like this."
After waiting for dozens of seconds and the phone's main interface appeared, the observer casually clicked an icon on the touch screen, revealing scenery inside a pure white space; he began to realize this might be the phone's camera function.
Curiously clicking an icon in the bottom right corner, a tiny lens actually rose up, and the image on the screen surprisingly showed his own face.
"Start testing"
[Details are being rendered...]
"48 megapixels, 1/2-inch ultra-large sensor, ISO sensitivity 102,400..."