flstandardbreds Chapter 137 The Darkest Hour [Part 2]
Chapter 137 The Darkest Hour [Part 2]
An hour ago, at the Trisolarans' operational meeting.
Yun Tianming frowned slightly as he watched the Trisolarans about to strike their target with the water droplet.
"Wait a moment, I have an objection."
He spoke slowly, immediately attracting the attention of all the officials present.
“Fairy Tale Governor, please speak.”
"Fairy Tale Governor" is the Trisolaran's name for Yun Tianming.
Although people don't care much about this human governor, the future development of the Trisolaran civilization still depends on the fairy tales provided by Yun Tianming. In addition, given his status as governor, it's still possible to get him to say something.
"If you're going to destroy the underground city, then all the residents living there will be killed as well, right?" Yun Tianming asked.
“Yes, these bugs are useless anyway, so it’s good to get rid of them all.” The Trisolaran, as always, didn’t lie and said it directly.
"There's no need for that. Killing these people won't do you any good."
"Fairy Tale Governor, please watch your stance. If you only pity these insects, then there's no need for that. After we conquer Earth, these people will be executed in the same way. The only difference is whether they die sooner or later. Of course, the same goes for you. After you finish your work, we will execute you as well."
Yun Tianming: ...
Although he had been in the Trisolaran fleet for a long time, he was still not used to these guys' direct way of speaking.
"Fine, whether you kill them or not is your business. After all, the entire solar system will soon be yours... no, ours. But executing these people now will not only not benefit you, but may even be a loss."
"why?"
When all twelve officials questioned Yun Tianming at the same time, Yun Tianming felt his brain buzzing.
He could only communicate with the Trisolarans by speaking, but they could transmit what they wanted to say to him directly through brainwaves, saving him the trouble of translation.
"Haven't you always wanted to learn about deception? Human society was born from mutual deception. Do you remember the story I told you?"
"You mean the story about a child and a wolf?"
"Yes, it's the story of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf.' Deception and trust, these two contradictory things, constitute human society. Don't you find that amazing?"
"Humans learned to deceive from the very beginning. This skill is actually not conducive to the development and continuation of a race and civilization. In fact, according to your theory, when one civilization encounters another, a chain of suspicion will form, and the other will have to be destroyed. Wouldn't this same chain of suspicion exist between people and individuals? In fact, because of humanity's tendency to deceive, this chain of suspicion would be even stronger. But now humanity is still united. Doesn't this contradict your theory?"
The executives fell silent for a long time before one of them spoke.
“It’s different, the situation is different. There’s something forcing everyone to fight… No, because of the knowledge sealing principle, I can’t tell you that yet.”
Yun Tianming keenly sensed something amiss. The Trisolarans' words clearly had a hidden meaning. He could approach their future interactions from this angle to trick them into revealing what was hidden behind the scenes.
"Even if the theory is proven to be true, humanity has already been defeated. We can simply make humanity submit to us. Why do we have to kill everyone?"
Now that humanity's defeat is a fact, Yun Tianming's only task is to ensure the safety of as many lives as possible; this is the only thing he can do now.
"If humanity submits to us and willingly becomes our slave, then killing humanity now is destroying our own property, which is very unwise, isn't it?"
The science official shook his head slightly.
“Fairy Tale Governor, we understand that you want more humans to survive, but enslaving so many humans is an enormous undertaking. In our opinion, we only need to preserve one in a hundred million of the human population on Earth.”
"40 people...isn't that too few!" Yun Tianming exclaimed in surprise.
He originally thought that the Trisolarans would at least leave humanity with a population of 100 million, but it turns out they are planning to kill humanity down to only 40 people!
"This is just the first step. We will then allow these humans to reproduce back to the current population," the agricultural governor said.
"I don't understand, why kill off humanity until only a few dozen people remain, and then let them recover to a population of billions? What is the purpose of doing this?"
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. This is a cosmic rule that runs parallel to the previous theory."
"If the universe simply follows that theory, then when it comes to the relationship between individuals, civilization simply wouldn't exist, because the only possibility between individuals is destruction."
"But that theory is not the only rule for the operation of the universe. There is another rule that runs parallel to it in the universe. It is because of its existence that individuals can form civilizations."
Yun Tianming asked his next question in a flash.
"What about civilization? If there's a second rule between individuals, does a second rule also exist between civilizations?"
"It exists, but that rule requires a lot of our resources, so most civilizations chose to only implement the first rule, only a few civilizations implemented the second rule, and most chose a simpler and more direct way to only complete a part of the second rule."
"Therefore, although the second rule and the first rule seem to have very different effects in execution, they are actually based on the same principle."
Although Yun Tianming did not understand what these two cosmic rules were, he still recorded every word the other party said. There would always be someone who could understand. He just needed to record it and find an opportunity to pass on this important information.
"So that means you are actually implementing the second rule right now, but you think it's too wasteful of resources, so you want to make the process easier."
"Yes."
“Then we can make a deal. I can answer three questions for you, and I won’t lie to you during the process. As for whether I’m lying or not, you should have a way to test my brain. When a person is lying, it’s very difficult for their brain and heartbeat to escape detection. You should have such lie detection equipment.” Yun Tianming decided to take a gamble.
The twelve Trisolaran governors exchanged glances. To be honest, Lin Xuan had made them somewhat afraid of the word "transaction."
But the price Yun Tianming offered was simply too tempting for them to refuse.
"Okay, what do you want?"
"12 hours. I need to buy the humans in the dungeon 12 hours to escape, is that okay?"
"Okay, then the transaction will begin. We will now monitor your heart rate and brain activity. During this time, please do not lie to us."
Finally, the Trisolarans brought over an instrument and had Yun Tianming sit on it; it was probably a device similar to a lie detector.
The device has two lights, red and green, on top. When the red light is on, it means that the detection device has detected that Yun Tianming is lying. If it is green, it proves that he is telling the truth.
"The first question is, how do people view the teaching profession?"
The question seemed ordinary, but Yun Tianming knew that the Trisolarans definitely had a deeper meaning in asking it. He had to find a way to cover up the key information without deceiving them.
This was difficult because Yun Tianming had no idea what the key information was, so he could only give a tentative answer.
"Teaching is a profession that exists based on the act of education. Teachers have existed since the birth of Confucianism, and people have great respect for them."
Yun Tianming deliberately concealed two words here: people's respect for teachers comes more from the profession itself than from the teacher as a person. After all, there are good and bad teachers. Good teachers deserve respect, but bad teachers deserve contempt. Only the concept of respecting teachers has been passed down through the ages.
He didn't know if this kind of concealment would be effective, but he had to try.
The green light came on, proving that he was telling the truth, and Yun Tianming couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"My second question is, you said that teachers are an extension of Confucianism, so why has the so-called Confucian school gradually faded away, but education still exists in human society?"
The second question was still related to education, which gave Yun Tianming a rough idea of what the other party wanted to know.
"Because education is a way of transmitting knowledge."
Yun Tianming concealed even more information this time. He only mentioned one point, but there was another: education is a way for the ruling class to radiate its ideology downwards.
These two points are actually the fundamental reasons why education still exists. Yun Tianming didn't know which of these two points needed to be hidden more, so he could only take a gamble and hide the latter information.
"One last question: Why, now that humanity has the faster knowledge transfer method of the Super Dream Project, do we still rely on traditional education methods to transmit knowledge?"
"It's probably because of dependency. After all, from what I know, there are significant side effects from using that stuff for a long time."
Yun Tianming really couldn't hide anything anymore, because that was all he really knew.
The green light turned on for the third time, proving that Yun Tianming was not lying.
“Alright, we will keep our promise and give humanity 12 hours to escape,” the military governor said.
Upon hearing this, Yun Tianming breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that these guys wouldn't lie, and they would definitely do whatever they said they would do.
"I need to rest for a while."
Yun Tianming knew there was no point in staying any longer, so he made up an excuse to go and rest.
After Yun Tianming left, the group of officials began to exchange ideas.
"We still haven't gotten anything out of them," the education official said helplessly.
“Yes, this person is too difficult to get to talk,” the Science Administrator agreed.
"He may not have deceived us, but he hid crucial information."
"Let's try again. Humans are the children of that civilization. They are born with the skill of deception, and they also have the unique way of communication, like teachers. Perhaps once we figure out why that civilization designed the human species this way, we will be able to understand the second law of the universe."
The Trisolarans' questioning yielded no useful information from Yun Tianming, but they weren't in a hurry. They had plenty of time, and their most important task was to gain control of Earth.
The 12 hours passed quickly.
Upon receiving the message from Zhizi, the people in the underground city immediately began evacuating to the surface. Regardless of what the future held, they had to survive at least for now.
The precious 12 hours that Yun Tianming bought for humanity were more than enough for everyone to evacuate.
But even after arriving 12 hours later, some people still hadn't been able to leave.
These people were mainly divided into three categories. The first category consisted of those who had completely given up resistance and suffered a mental breakdown. They made up the vast majority of the group. After seeing the fleet easily destroyed by the Trisolarans, they had lost the desire to live and decided to wait for death in the dungeon.
The second type of people are speculators. After learning that the underground city could not be saved, they wanted to seize more of its wealth for themselves. They tirelessly searched the ruins of the city for valuables again and again, trying to take them to the surface, but in the end, they were left behind in the underground city forever.