Void Jigsaw Puzzle

Menjie accompanied Deng Ailin and walked slowly through every floor of the sky fortress, from the work hall on the top floor to the power floor on the bottom floor, and then from the power floor on the bottom floor back to the work hall on the top floor.

They were not accompanied by any other persons.

Because Deng Ailin insisted that this was just an ordinary walk, not an inspection.

However, Menjie felt that this old man who had devoted his entire life to the continuation of human civilization had a deeper intention.

Sometimes, he found that Deng Ailin's eyes were full of warmth when he looked at those cold machines and metal structures, the tightly fitted nuclear fusion engines, the square dormitory buildings, and even the simple and eye-catching bathrooms.

During the walk that had just been completed, Deng Ailin excitedly told Menjie that, inspired by him, he had figured out how to patch the data cleaning principles and provide them to Tao Le and the huge digital intelligence system behind her, in order to officially start the data cleaning work tomorrow.

After returning to the top floor, Tao Le was still sitting there, concentrating on the data, and did not notice the return of the two people.

Deng Ailun gently patted Menjie's shoulder and said, "I'll go back to my room to rest for a while, then write the patch plan and give it to you today, especially her."

"Should I tell her?" asked Menjie.

"No need..." Deng Ailun waved his hand, "She is immersed in her work, don't disturb her."

After saying that, he slowly walked away.

Menjie stood there, looking at Deng Ailin's back.

Over the past few decades, he has looked at Deng Ailin's back countless times.

But for some reason, he felt a little palpitation at this moment.

The figure still stood firm, but it bore the erosion of time and no longer looked as strong as before. The figure's steps also seemed to be slow and unsteady.

There are fewer and fewer people staying in this air fortress. Many people choose to participate in the Spark Project and go into hibernation in space, while many people are ready to die and return to the hellish and scorching Earth to be buried in their hometown.

But Deng Ailin never mentioned how he would arrange it.

Whenever someone asked him about his plans, he would calmly wave his hand and say, "Why rush? Project Spark and Project Dandelion haven't even been completed yet."

Menjie once discussed this issue privately with his wife Tao Le, but Tao Le replied expressionlessly: "If you want to know his arrangements, why not just ask him directly?"

"He doesn't want to say it, so I want to speculate with you."

"There's nothing to speculate about. If he doesn't want to say, then don't ask."

"So when do we leave?"

"Just follow his instructions. But for me, it's the same no matter where I am. I'm already present in every bit of human infrastructure, and our children have the same abilities as me."

"what about me?"

"Who told you to be a mere human? You can only rely on your body to carry limited data and information. So, follow Academician Deng's arrangements. However, as your wife, I will accompany you."

Deng Ailun's mind was completely focused on the patch of data cleaning principles at the moment. He had never expected that his back view as he walked a short distance back to the room would make Menjie behind him feel so much emotion and his memories would come flooding back.

What a pitiful human being.

After returning to the room, Deng Ailan closed the door and leaned against it, his chest heaving.

He took a deep breath, calmed down, and then walked to the table and sat down.

Through the wide window, he could see the deep space that seemed to never change, and the blue planet that appeared as a red dot every day.

"Our cradle is completely burned..."

Deng Ailan thought so.

Then, he opened the work terminal on the table, selected voice input, and began to slowly describe his design ideas for the data cleaning principle patch.

His hands were already shaking, so he no longer chose keyboard or handwriting input unless absolutely necessary.

"A basic economic foundation and productivity alone are not enough. Without a superstructure, such a civilization cannot develop stably and may even fall apart midway. We have removed transnational and cross-cultural barriers and divisions, dissolved national borders and territorial disputes, erased religious memories and contradictions, and dismantled all armies and armed forces. It should be clear that some means of organization and development are still needed..."

"...However, we can't preserve every detail of various organizational forms, production relations, and political systems; this would involve a massive amount of data. The only thing we can do is to create a role within our final dataset of human civilization. This role will undertake the necessary organizational work and lead everyone in developing entirely new relationships in the universe, rather than simply replicating humanity's so-called wisdom over the past few thousand years. Through creative expression, this role can mitigate the potential unilateral collapse effects that may arise from the lucky reproduction of the human civilization dataset..."

"...This character can't be born into a family of officials or merchants, nor can he enjoy a life of luxury. He needs to be down-to-earth and knowledgeable. Most importantly, he needs to be young, as youth offers more possibilities..."

"...In any case, please create such a character according to this patch. To be fair, the chances of our Dandelion Project receiving a response in the universe are still very small. Perhaps 99.99999999999% of the data signals were completely annihilated during the broadcast process. Even if the remaining small portion can be reproduced, it may not be possible to achieve 100% recovery of the information volume. Despite this, we still cannot give up. We should create such a character to give the part of civilization that has finally been reproduced a higher probability of survival and continuation..."

After saying these words, Deng Ailin felt like he was gasping for breath.

He didn't know when it started, but he felt that his physical condition had deteriorated drastically, getting worse day by day.

He closed his work terminal, closed his eyes, and leaned back on the soft chair, his mind still churning with thoughts.

"Morning bells and evening drums, time flies by, and we don't have much time left... At this final moment, I hope this patch of mine can allow humanity to preserve a last bit of hope... Menjie, Taole, I'm sorry. It's not that I dislike you, nor do I distrust you, nor do I have any prejudice against Menle. In fact, that kid combines all of your strengths, inheriting the best aspects of humans and digital sapiens. He should be part of our data cleaning principle patch, but I have reserved it. He will not appear in it..."