Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 59: Consciousness Harvesting

The fleet descended slowly, and stopped when it was almost at the treetops.

Zhou Yuan looked at the energy display system and was surprised to find that seven or eight hundred energy bands appeared around the tree trunk. These energy bands converged on the branches and leaves and were completely absorbed by the leaves.

Zhou Yuan was very curious. Weren't these leaves photosynthesizing? He immediately decided to investigate and find out.

A hundred unmanned probes traversed the tree branches. In the vast space between the branches, fire dragons flew about. Terrifyingly, on the ground, countless one-meter-long Zerg dogs roamed about.

Zhou Yuan felt as if he had entered a space game scene, but this game scene was actually an enormous magic tree.

How to quickly and effectively eliminate the fire dragons and insectoids while keeping the magic tree unharmed? Zhou Yuan pondered deeply.

Hmm, let's eliminate the fire dragons in the air first and block their reinforcements.

"Iron Guard, you will lead a hundred warships to eliminate all the fire dragons near the volcano more than a hundred kilometers away. I want to cut off the fire dragons' support channels."

"As ordered."

"Yang Suo, deploy unmanned aerial combat units to eliminate all fire dragons under the Demon Tree. Also, do not allow a single fire dragon to escape the Demon Tree's range."

"clear."

In an instant, millions of drones were deployed over a 60-kilometer radius around the center of the Demon Tree. The Demon Tree only had a 50-kilometer radius, and the drones within that radius began to descend. Thus, a fierce battle ensued between the drones and the fire dragon, which was no match for the dragon.

The drones were numerous, chasing down the fire dragons among the tree branches. One by one, the fire dragons were hit and fell to the ground, crushing a group of Zerg Zerglings. The Zerg Zerglings could only watch helplessly as the aerial battle raged, unable to provide any support to the fire dragons.

Some fire dragons escaped the range of the magic tree, only to be hunted down by drones waiting on the perimeter. After a fierce battle, none of them escaped alive.

In less than half an hour, all of the more than 10,000 fire dragons in the magic tree were wiped out.

The drone weaved through the tree branches, scanning for any remaining fire dragons. After confirming that there were no fire dragons, the drone launched an air-to-ground attack, targeting the Zerg Zerglings. These Zerglings were surprisingly resilient, possessing self-repair and rapid reproduction capabilities.

Zhou Yuan was somewhat annoyed and ordered a flying saucer to drop ten small light spheres within a 55-kilometer radius of the Demon Tree's center.

Ten small orbs of light were thrown between the branches of the magic tree. Then, these ten small orbs exploded at the same time. The light filaments interconnected in all directions, forming a huge light filament net. The light filament net covered the ground, and hundreds of millions of insectoids, including the small dogs, the mother insect, and the base, were cut into countless small pieces of ten centimeters by the light filament net. Even the larvae did not escape death.

The densely packed Zerg were annihilated by the light web. Dallas and the other six watched the lifeless scene after the light web had cut through them, as shown on the holographic screen, and couldn't help but shudder. The Zerg, which had been lively and ferocious just moments before, were now completely still, as if time had been frozen, maintaining the same posture.

After confirming that no fire dragons or insectoids were alive, Zhou Yuan, Wei Shan, Dallas, and the others transferred to a flying saucer and arrived near the trunk of the magic tree on the ground.

Nine people were walking suspended in mid-air, and the six from Dallas couldn't help but sigh in amazement.

Zhou Yuan examined the demonic tree. Its trunk was nearly a kilometer in diameter, and its branches and leaves spread out in all directions. The branches and leaves were a vibrant green, shimmering with a faint halo. The tree's roots stretched straight into the ground, and deep planetary scanning revealed that the roots seemed to be connected to the Earth's core sphere.

What exactly is this demonic tree doing? Is it absorbing souls through its leaves? Providing nourishment to the sphere? Or is it refining the so-called "qi" from ancient human legends?

Zhou Yuan couldn't help but recall his dream from last night, and suddenly remembered that the monster had said, "To eat your souls is to seize your consciousness," and "Consciousness is the master of this world," and he broke out in a cold sweat.

Seeing that Zhou Yuan was in low spirits, Wei Shan and Dallas went over to support him.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

"Shanmei, I remember my dream last night. The Demon Tree is the monster that took away my soul."

"Ah?" Everyone was surprised.

"Yang Suo?"

"exist."

"Has the Iron Guard returned to the team?"

"I rejoined the team half an hour ago."

"it is good."

"Yang Suo, we need to leave here. Teleport us."

"Yes."

Zhou Yuan, Wei Shan, and the others were instantly teleported by light to the Tian Shen Sniper Starship.

"Shanmei, please notify the fleet base near the sun on 'Spectral Star' to activate the energy shields of the Alpha warships and the 19th Fleet. The shields cannot be deactivated until I notify them."

"receive."

"Iron Guard, leave an AI-operated scientific experimental ship above this magic tree. Send a drone to observe the direction of energy absorption, cut a small section of the magic tree branch and leaves, and deliver it to the experimental ship. Activate the energy shield. Observe that branch and leaves in a top-secret isolation, ensuring that not a single trace of energy or anything else leaks out."

"clear"

"All units, let's leave here, go bask in the sun, and look at the green leaves."

"receive."

In less than ten minutes, Zhou Yuanwei and his fleet reached the vicinity of the sun and returned to the bases of the Alpha Fleet and the 19th Fleet. The two fleets had replenished their energy from the "Extraordinary Star" sun in the past two days.

All warships activated their shared smart energy shields.

The three elves and three humans from Dallas, the planet of "Spectral Abilities," looked up at the two fleets with a gaze that seemed to reach the heavens, and their astonishment and bewilderment were beyond words.

George (Commander of the Alpha Fleet), Taser (Commander of the 19th Fleet), Zhou Yuan, Wei Shan, Dallas, and others began to watch the experiments being conducted on the scientific experimental ship.

When the drone chopped off a small branch from the magic tree, the tree seemed to tremble slightly. The drone collected the branch and flew towards the science research vessel above the magic tree. Once inside the vessel, its energy shield activated.

The robot delivers the branch to the quantum resonance scanning system, which then places a metal cover on the system and begins scanning.

Zhou Yuan and his colleagues were astonished to discover that each leaf contained numerous extremely fine microchannels, much like the brain's cerebrospinal fluid, within which energy flowed. The super artificial intelligence computer began reading the quantum information carried by this energy, and after complex decryption, the holographic display screen received a threatening message.

"Ignorant humans of Earth, you await your destruction!"

George, Taser, Zhou Yuan, Wei Shan, and the others looked at each other in bewilderment.

Zhou Yuan reacted instantly and signaled everyone to calm down. They would communicate with the unknown entity via quantum top-secret communication, using the scientific experimental ship's super artificial intelligence computer as a medium.

"You shameless monster! You tampered with things while we were sleeping and almost killed me!"

"Haha, it's a pity I didn't manage to take your soul. You two aren't even from the 'Special Ability Planet'. It took me a long time to kill you."

"Then I'm really glad."

"Killing people and instructing them to kill each other are all easy things for me."

"So you can absorb more souls? Continuously seize the consciousness of all the dead beings on this planet?"

"You're quite smart, kid."

The Dallas team was completely stunned.

"Those six launch towers, are they to notify your master to come and harvest consciousness?"

"Strange, how did you know? It's a pity I didn't absorb your intelligent consciousness."

"What exactly does your master intend to do by harvesting consciousness?"

There was a moment of silence on the other end, and we also quieted down, waiting for a reply, but there was still no response after three or four minutes.

"Do you think silence will solve everything?"

"What else do you want?"

"I'm going to destroy those six launch towers, and even that sphere in the Earth's core."

"Haha, you weak and ignorant humans of Earth, you are about to face a great calamity. When you plucked this branch, a distress signal was already being sent through the transmission tower."

Zhou Yuan looked at George and Taser, who shook their heads, indicating that they had not detected the distress signal. Zhou Yuan's heart sank.

"is it?"

"My master is about to arrive here. Your three Earths are also about to be destroyed!"

This statement made several Earthlings very nervous. Could it be that the location information of the three Earths had really been obtained by this unknown monster? Perhaps the monster was trying to intimidate them, or perhaps it was, after all, Zhou Yuan's consciousness had been touched by the monster in his dream.

Zhou Yuan's mind raced, and a second later he shouted to the two commanders, "George, hurry up and destroy those six launch towers. Taser, immediately move the 'Special Star' sun so that it is aligned with the position where the launch tower just emitted the signal."

"clear."

The Sniper Starship was activated, and in less than a second, six massive launch towers on the "Pseudo-Star" ocean were destroyed.

"What have you done?" the unknown monster roared. "Destroying the launch tower is useless. The distress signal has already been sent out. Haha, prepare to die, humans of Earth!"

There was no response from Earth's inhabitants.

The 19th Fleet used a massive portal to instantly move the "Extraordinary Star" sun by an arc, aligning it with the launch tower's location from seven minutes prior.

The elves and humans on the "Special Ability Star" were terrified to discover that the sun, which had just seemed to be setting, was rising again from the west! Everyone was horrified.

"You actually moved the sun?!" The unknown monster seemed to reveal fear.

“Fine, send your signal to the sun!” Zhou Yuan replied resentfully.

"Hey, monster, I'm curious, how do you, a branch or leaf that's already separated from the organization, know what's happening outside?"

"Haha, ignorant humans."

"Telepathy? Shared consciousness?" Zhou Yuan asked indirectly.

The monster did not answer.

"Artificial intelligence, prepare a completely physically isolated supercomputer. Extract the consciousness from the branches and leaves, and upload it to this completely physically isolated supercomputer!"

"Yes, Master!"

Therefore, the artificial intelligence on the scientific research ship carried out a process similar to the transplantation and storage of human brain consciousness on this tree branch.

"Ah!" The monster seemed to let out a final, painful cry. Then silence.

Subsequently, Earth's scientists conducted in-depth analysis and layered interpretation of the consciousness information stored in the supercomputer, discovering that this consciousness information was very complex. It contained a mixture of the consciousnesses of three humans, one elf, one fire dragon, and an unknown monster.

They also conducted in-depth research on the branches and leaves of the magic tree, especially the micro-channels.

Based on these two studies, scientists from the Earth Empire proposed a completely new theory—the quantum theory of consciousness.

Based on the quantum theory of consciousness, imperial scientists proposed that the human soul is contained within quantum microtubule structures in brain cells. After death, the microtubules themselves lose their quantum state, but the quantum soul information they contain remains intact; the human quantum soul is released from the deceased body and returns to the universe.

Near-death experiences in humans are caused by microtube quantum gravity effects, also known as "microtube quantum target reduction tuning," suggesting that the human soul is not merely an interaction of brain nerve cells.

Based on this theory, the Earth Empire began to believe that the brains of humans and other higher animals are complex quantum computers. Amidst the debate over idealism and materialism, the Earth Empire began to rethink its understanding of the universe.

The obvious question is: where does the quantum information of the "soul" come from? Does this universe possess consciousness?

In any case, the Earth Empire Academy of Sciences has established a "Consciousness Quantum Research Institute" specifically for this purpose, hoping to use the research on "soul" or "consciousness" to bring the dead back to life in a relatively short period of time! As for the long-term research goal, it is to clarify the origin of consciousness and whether the universe has consciousness.