Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

A person's consciousness is a life activity, but as long as that life activity has its own cognitive system, then that life's cognition can be exploited.

There exists the possibility of being controlled by other life forms. Even Noldrei himself couldn't escape this limitation.

In the future era, humanity could only hopelessly and endlessly expand its own cognitive systems, to an extent unimaginable in this era.

For example, in the famous science fiction work The Three-Body Problem, the Sophons, with their atomic-level control, could theoretically read human minds by monitoring their brain's electrical signals. There would be no need to worry about humans lying.

The Trisolarans' demise was somewhat undeserved. In the end, it was the result of too few human experiments and an insufficient understanding of the human body's structure.

One misstep led to fatal consequences. This was the ultimate fate of focusing on ideology instead of biological science.

This wasn't just Noldrei's idle musing while reading; other readers had raised similar questions. Noldrei had even defended the author, citing the limitations of the author's time.

And he still got flamed for it. As His Majesty the Emperor, he was getting flamed online. Imagine what the ordinary folks were going through.

"For instance, now that we're in the Sea of Quanta, we're still using our five senses and other sensory organs to perceive our surroundings. But in reality, are we any different from a fetus floating in amniotic fluid in its mother's womb?"

"There's no difference. In the Sea of Quanta, a person's subconscious and conscious mind become jumbled. The interplay between them creates the illusion of being immersed in the deep sea. But we all know that in this place... there is no physical space. So where does our current sense of space come from?"

Noldrei's question touched upon physics and was intertwined with so-called "brane theory."

Bronya understood the concept, but she hadn't experienced it much firsthand.

She recalled the butterfly she saw during the X-10 experiment. Bronya felt it was related, but she didn't know how to confirm it.

"What you're saying sounds a bit like a Fourier transform... but Bronya can't quite distinguish these things."

Bronya's mind was in a whirl. She could clearly feel that Noldrei was playing with something very new, but she didn't know how this ability was being used.

Noldrei nodded. "That's right, it's just as you think. We all know that the human brain has the ability to filter useful information from complex data. In other words, the complexity of the information we can process determines whether we can descend our will into another being. The smarter a person is, the more perceptive they are, the better they can distinguish the information I send out."

Kiana paused for a moment. "Doesn't that mean the smarter people in the parallel world are the unluckiest?"

Durandal kindly reminded her, "Sister, you're overthinking it. He wouldn't give them such an easily distinguishable signal. So, whether they're smart or foolish, they'll all receive information they can understand. It's just that some might have to go through a few more mental hoops to get it."

Noldrei nodded in agreement. "That's right, that's exactly what I mean!"

He waved his hand, clearing a space. "Everyone, stand back. I'm about to unleash my power!"

Bronya couldn't see how he was unleashing his power, but she soon found out what kind of trouble she was in.

A vague and strange scene, or rather, a visual and auditory experience, automatically appeared in her mind.

Little Bronya didn't understand. What was this 'thing'? It felt like a brainwave, but it also didn't.

It was like a memory that had always existed in her mind.

In a silent void, amidst the cosmic dust, a bizarre creature was born in a place where life, in theory, shouldn't exist.

These creatures seemed to be alive, yet also not. Under the illumination of a bright light, the inorganic matter in the universe began to decompose and transform. Stone, metal, and various atomic-level substances changed and shone.

Anything hit by the light would decompose instantly. This wasn't decomposition in the way people usually understand it. Instead, the matter was reconfigured and reassembled into 'living' beings. These beings, like machines, then quickly turned around and devoured the matter itself, creating the next level of life forms from it.

Layer upon layer, they constructed and built, like a food chain from top to bottom, like waves transforming the entire mass of matter into fragmented life forms.

And this process took only a very short time.

'This is a threat! This has to be a threat! How can such a destructive method exist?'

Bronya had expected Noldrei to create a scene like "two people fighting to the edge of the universe, erasing the very fabric of reality."

But she never would have expected something like this.

Life creates life, and life creates more life, an endless cycle of descendants, as if to turn all matter in the universe into tangible, willed, living beings.

The various bizarre and outlandish life forms gave Bronya a considerable shock.

It felt like watching a swarm of locusts devour all the crops—a true depiction of the harsh struggle for survival between life and life.

Imagine, two Herrschers are fighting, and suddenly one of them can make every cell in your body have its own thoughts. How desperate would that be?

That was how Bronya felt right now. Then, human life suddenly appeared in the scene.

What followed were all the Honkai disasters people understood—Honkai Beasts, and so on—until the true Herrschers finally appeared.

Cool, colorful clothes, various hair colors, magical and diverse eyes—all the characteristics a Herrscher should have were clearly displayed.

Then, the scene showed these Herrschers being offered to the "light."

Those who tried to resist giving them up, or even protect the Herrschers, were killed on the spot. Those who offered them were granted long life, great power, and made even more awesome.

Durandal watched the scenes in her mind intently and nodded. "It's a bit like a propaganda ad for buying black slaves. It feels like he's treating the other humans in the parallel world like tribal chiefs."

After Durandal put it that way, Kiana was also a little speechless. It did seem like that. She even thought that if Noldrei descended into another world, the Herrschers of that world might even help humanity protect their home.

After all, this looked very much like a promotional video for an eldritch god coming to plunder humanity's treasures.