199: Chapter 199: The Ultimate Goal of a Civilization is Transcendence

"Super-causality?"

Xiao Yu repeated the word over and over, feeling it was even more subversive than the civilization levels!

"Correct, Super-causality. To understand this, we must first return to one of the most fundamental observational facts of our universe."

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly and sat up straight. "I told you before, scientists have detected that the universe has no curvature; it is macroscopically flat and is expanding at an accelerating rate."

"What does this accelerated expansion mean? It means that no matter which direction we take in the universe, theoretically, we will never touch the boundary. Instead, we will find that the space between us and our starting point is being pulled apart even faster."

"It's like the surface of a balloon without boundaries, constantly inflating itself."

As he spoke, his gaze gradually deepened: "From a philosophical perspective, this expansion is like an invisible ultimate cage of causality."

"It ensures that all events and all causal chains within our universe are closed within this constantly expanding spacetime, unable to transcend."

"To truly escape the constraints of a single universe's law of causality, a civilization must do—not run faster or grow larger on the surface of this balloon, but find a way to jump out of the balloon itself."

Xiao Yu and countless viewers held their breath, vaguely finding the endgame of today's first Observer!

"The Level 5 Lanmin Civilization has achieved exactly that!"

"They have moved from a single arrow of time and a single causal network to [beyond] them!"

"If we imagine our universe as a bubble in a vast ocean, then there are countless other universe bubbles, large and small, with potentially vastly different physical rules—this is one of the pictures of the Multiverse!"

"The Level 5 Causal Technology Civilization has successfully jumped out of the single universe bubble that birthed them and entered the ocean or foam clusters of the Multiverse."

"Their perspective is no longer limited to the history and future within a single universe, but they can simultaneously observe, maintain, and even coordinate the causal ecology between multiple universe bubbles."

"For example, if one universe bubble gets too close to another, a Level 5 Causal Technology Civilization will find a way to ensure these two universes no longer collide!"

"A Level 5 Causal Technology Civilization—they are no longer characters in time (Levels 0-3), nor are they civilizations that can modify story segments (Level 4). Instead, they are [Manipulators] who can simultaneously read, compare, and ensure that countless Multiverses do not collectively annihilate due to internal logic collapse or external accidents. This is a Level 5 Civilization—Super-causal Multiverse Maintainers!"

Following this series of words, a dense swarm of bullet comments appeared in the livestream.

"Jump, jump out of the universe? This isn't sci-fi anymore; it's fantasy, right?"

"Multiverse Manipulators?"

"The birth and death of our entire universe might just need regular maintenance in their eyes. I'm totally stunned!"

"So Super-causality means surpassing the internal laws of causality of the universe and standing at a God's-eye view of all causality?"

"No wonder they're called Lanmin. So the 'Lan' stands for 'browsing'. They truly are looking down upon all living beings!"

Xiao Yu's beautiful eyes sparkled as she listened. "Brother, a Level 5 Civilization jumping out of a single universe into the Multiverse, observing and maintaining all universes simultaneously... that feels too mystical!"

"There's nothing mystical about it; it's the inevitable path of a causal technology civilization deduced based on scientific technology." Jiang Zhe said calmly, "Because a Level 5 Civilization is a super-causal civilization."

"You can understand it like this: Levels 0 to 4 civilizations, regardless of their capabilities, are still beings trapped within a giant cosmic scroll—from the perspective of the speed of light, in the eyes of light, the universe is a flat scroll."

"Even the Level 4 Oumin are just characters who have obtained an eraser and a brush, capable of modifying small details of the scene around them—they are still constrained by the texture of the canvas (spacetime structure), the properties of the paint (physical constants), and the logic of the painting: sequence (the law of causality)."

"But the Level 5 Lanmin are civilizations that have leaped out of this scroll entirely, suspended outside of it. They might no longer have physical bodies, or they might exist in some other form."

"They can see the full picture of the entire scroll—every detail, every branch line that could have happened but wasn't drawn, and the juxtaposition and connection of all events on the scroll."

"Their perspective is that of the viewer, maintainer, and archivist outside the scroll."

"What they care about is the stability of the entire painting and the differences between various universes!"

As Jiang Zhe spoke, not only Xiao Yu but even the teachers and experts who were trying hard to keep up felt a mental disconnect and shock.

Inside the Kyoto Family Quarters, several professors looked at each other in silence for a long time.

Professor Wang Shouren shook his head repeatedly. "The previous parts could still be explained with quantum technology, but from here on, it transcends the scope of what normal people can understand."

"As a Level 0.5 Causal Technology Civilization, we simply cannot imagine that kind of thing, or as Xiaoyu's brother said, things we haven't seen or smelled; we can only rely on deduction!"

In the principal's office, Old Yu, the physics teacher, stared intently at the screen and finally sighed with emotion:

"From editing physical law parameters to jumping off the stage where physical laws exist... the gap in between is countless orders of magnitude larger than the gap between Newtonian mechanics and Quantum Mechanics."

"As a Level 0.5 Causal Technology Civilization, we can no longer keep up."

"This is less of a scientific prediction and more of a super-civilization of Quantum Mechanics deduced after Quantum Mechanics... but... it's so tempting, so logical!"

Inside the Huaqing University dormitory building.

Ouyang Baili, Professor Wu, Li Mo, Professor Guan, and others were trying their best to keep up.

Professor Wu shook his head repeatedly, unable to accept it. "Even though J is him, I have to say, from this point on, it's starting to become nonsense!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the other physics students raised their hands in agreement.

Ouyang Baili said thoughtfully, "As a Level 0.5 civilization, we have always maintained a heart for outward exploration. Why explore? Because we need to develop technology. Why develop technology? For a better life and more convenience. As intelligent beings, we possess greed; we don't just want one thing, we want everything, and we believe we can have everything!"

"So we hope to traverse the Solar System to find new resources, we hope to traverse the Milky Way to witness more intelligent civilizations, we hope to reach the depths of the universe to see what humanity has never seen..."

At this point, he took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on Professor Wu. "In ten thousand years, if humanity is still on Earth, the humans then will basically have everything we want now; but what will they want?"

After he spoke, Professor Wu was instantly speechless.

Yes, what we want, our low-level civilization will pursue.

But for the Earth civilization ten thousand years from now, if humanity is still around, what will they want? Could it be the same as what we want?

Won't they pursue something grander and more distant?

After a long time, Professor Wu took a sharp breath. "So, transcendence is the ultimate goal of a human civilization—no, an intelligent civilization?"

Ouyang Baili nodded gently. "Yes, the pursuit of knowledge is the only logic and driving force for human action—our Newton was curious about why the apple fell... Einstein was curious about why the speed of light is constant, the pioneers of Quantum Mechanics were curious about why causality can be reversed and why the Observer effect determines an objective fact... When people of the future have sufficient technology, their pursuit of knowledge will still exist. They will be curious: [Can the expansion of the universe be surpassed?]. As long as that idea is born, the corresponding technology will inevitably appear in the future!"

"So, transcendence is the only standard pursued by us humans!"

After he finished, there was dead silence in the dormitory as everyone sank into the flavor of those two words.

Just as everyone was lost in thought, Jiang Zhe spoke directly:

"What lies above the Level 5 Lanmin, the Super-causal Multiverse Maintainers?"

"A Level 6 Civilization can be called the [Creators]."