5. Tower of Life

"Eternity..."

Lin Xian pondered the word carefully for a moment, then shook his head slightly and said, "It sounds impressive, but I haven't felt the effect of never regressing yet."

"It can only be effective in reality, as you will understand in the future." The grand voice of the Light of Civilization resounded: "This kind of conceptual psychic energy is extremely rare among the psychic powers I have recorded."

Without much thought, Lin Xian immediately asked, "Am I qualified to be an investigator?"

Even if you manage to get through the first floor of the Tower of Babel, you might not be able to return to reality. If you can't return to reality, you're not qualified to become an investigator.

Even though the probability of not being able to revert is very low, it still exists.

"Of course you can," said the Light of Civilization.

Lin Xian breathed a slight sigh of relief and then said, "Speaking of which, I still don't know... how the investigators returned to reality? Didn't humanity abandon the physical body a hundred years ago?"

He still remembers the experience of uploading his consciousness a hundred years ago—

Eight billion people worldwide have been given a device that looks like headphones. Once worn, a cold metal needle will pierce their brain, and their consciousness will be extracted.

The two billion people who won the lottery will be granted citizenship of Earth and will be able to live in the virtual world, while the six billion people who did not win the lottery will have their consciousness sealed in a database.

The physical bodies of eight billion people are all brain dead, their corpses left in the real world.

Modern technology doesn't have the ability to preserve the bodies of eight billion people; a hundred years later, the corpses would surely have long since decomposed.

How can I return to reality if I don't even have a body?

"Your past physical bodies were destroyed by the fog of doomsday, so of course you are not returning to your original physical bodies."

The Light of Civilization explained, "To be precise, the consciousness of all of you investigators seems to have traveled through time and landed in the bodies of the surviving humans on Earth."

"Surviving humans?" Lin Xian was taken aback. "Wasn't it said that the apocalyptic fog that arose on Earth would destroy all life? Even the Earth's crust couldn't stop it, so where did the survivors come from?"

There weren't many people who supported the Digital Life Project back then. Many people only uploaded their consciousness after realizing that the apocalypse was indeed unavoidable.

Among them were some Earth citizens who uploaded their consciousness relatively late and tried other methods to resist the apocalypse, whether it was hiding in a fully enclosed defense base, hiding in the world's deepest underground fortifications, or even a space station outside the atmosphere...

It's no use hiding anywhere.

How could there be survivors in such an indiscriminate and destructive apocalypse?

"It's very simple."

The Light of Civilization, however, offered an unexpected answer: "The surviving humans in the current real world are actually clones of past Earthlings and their descendants."

"A clone?" Lin Xian exclaimed in surprise, "Where did this clone come from?"

The Light of Civilization replied, "Blue Star and Earth are like the inside and outside of a mirror. There are 380 Towers to Heaven on Blue Star in the virtual world, and there are 380 'Towers of Life' on Earth in the real world."

"After humanity went extinct a century ago, the Tower of Life emerged, retrieved the genetic data of humans on Earth, and gradually bred clones, which eventually formed the surviving human population on Earth today."

The Light of Civilization said, "However, the number of clones being bred so far is still very small. Each Tower of Life takes about two hours to bred one clone."

"The Tower of Life?"

Lin suddenly realized.

There are 380 Towers to Heaven on Earth, and there are 380 Towers of Life on Earth.

He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Then where did the Tower of Life come from?"

"You don't have permission to know," the Light of Civilization replied without any emotional fluctuation.

Lin Xian shook his head helplessly and said, "So, the investigator going to reality is actually his consciousness descending into a clone in reality?"

"To be precise—it descended upon the investigator's own clone, and only clones with a genetic similarity of 99.98% or higher can perfectly carry its consciousness," the Light of Civilization corrected.

Lin Xian suddenly realized, thought for a moment, and said, "Then there needs to be a clone to descend, right?"

"There are currently three possibilities regarding the investigator's arrival in reality."

The Light of Civilization explained in detail:

"First, if the Tower of Life has already conceived a clone of the investigator, then remotely and synchronously project consciousness, allowing the investigator to descend into a physical body in reality."

"Second, if the Tower of Life has not yet conceived a clone of the investigator, it will give priority to conceiving a clone, which can then descend two hours later and emerge from the Tower of Life in reality."

"Third, if the Tower of Life has already created a clone of the investigator, but the clone has died, the investigator will be unable to descend into reality."

After hearing these three situations, Lin Xian finally understood... why some people could pass through the Tower of Babel but could not descend into reality.

The real-world clone is dead; there is no vessel to hold its consciousness, so it cannot descend to earth!

"After a clone dies, won't the Tower of Life create another clone?" Lin Xian couldn't help but ask.

"Every life has only one chance to live."

The Light of Civilization said, "These are the fundamental rules of the Tower of Life, and they cannot be violated unless one has obtained supreme authority."

Lin Xian pondered for a while, then suddenly asked, "You just said that all the surviving humans on Earth today are clones and their descendants? Does that mean... clones have self-awareness?"

"Of course," said the Light of Civilization. "However, once the investigator's consciousness descends, the self-awareness of his clone will also be replaced and dissipate."

Lin Xian was slightly taken aback, and couldn't help but mutter, "Isn't this possession? It's like traveling to another world and possessing another version of yourself?"

The light of civilization floats in the air, still shining upon everything like the eternal sun, its magnificent sound echoing between heaven and earth:

"Judging from your fluctuations in consciousness, your moral compass seems to consider this a violation of human nature?"

"Yes..." Lin Xian sighed and said, "If I had known I was a clone, I wouldn't have wanted to be possessed by the so-called original consciousness."

The Light of Civilization said indifferently, "This concerns the survival of civilization, not morality; only the outcome matters."

"The survival of civilization?" Lin Xian was taken aback.

"Human, do you really believe that the virtual world of Blue Star can grant Earth's civilization immortality?" the Light of Civilization retorted.

Lin Xian paused for a moment, then said, "I'm afraid they'll all go mad before they even achieve immortality."

"This is just a dilemma at the socio-psychological level," said the Light of Civilization. "But in fact, the real-world counterpart of the virtual world, Blue Star, or rather the server host, is also suffering from the impact of the apocalypse's source. One day, the entire virtual world will collapse."

Lin Xian exclaimed in surprise, "Collapse?"

The Light of Civilization didn't say much, only that, "At your level, you shouldn't know these secrets, but because your awakened psychic energy is indeed powerful, and you may have the opportunity to go further in the future, I'm telling you these secrets."

Lin Xian paused for a moment, then nodded slightly and said, "I understand. So, what special privileges do I have? For example, will you directly grant me B-level access?"