Minecraft: Is this still the Minecraft I used to play?

Driven by the need to preserve themselves, those who etched the people began to develop underground near the boundary line.

They ventured deep underground to find natural caves to serve as bases and research sites.

Gradually, progress became greater and greater.

However, white crystal rock is starting to be in short supply.

Since it exists because of the Dark Moon, it is naturally only the area closer to the center.

The more underground reserves there are, the easier it is to mine and excavate.

White crystal rock is depleted; at most, it can only be stored and used a few times before its effectiveness gradually diminishes.

But the Starless Ones don't care about any of that; all they want is this land.

The sun is a burden to them, yet they cannot leave it.

This causes sunlight to encroach upon the area of ​​eternal night.

The white crystal rock etched from the entire tribe of the Etched Man is almost gone.

Those without stars cannot stay in the dark for too long.

As people began to move towards the caves that the researchers had found, the etching process continued.

To defend against foreign enemies, they moved underground.

The Etching People's tribe did not want any more casualties.

They wanted to avoid war, but the Starless Ones could not coexist peacefully with them...

The etcher abandoned the ground, taking all his belongings with him, and left.

Even the altars for pilgrimage to the Dark Moon on the surface were taken underground.

Although it's deep underground, this area may still be a place of perpetual night.

The people who were etched could still obtain some spiritual power from the altar, but they could no longer truly communicate with the Dark Moon.

They pinned their last hopes on the researchers and the remaining white crystal rock.

After all, some people succeeded.

It was an experiment in which they attempted to use their mental powers to record the physical characteristics and condition of an etched person and store all of that information in white crystal rock.

And it was kept together with the altar.

A week later, they successfully recreated the etched man, and his consciousness was fully intact.

When the etched figure being tested met its replicated self, all the etched figures were moved.

After all, this way, one can protect their loved ones and see them again in the future, and they will be exactly the same as the person in their memory.

However, once all the etched figures have moved underground, it is clearly unlikely that individual research experiments can be conducted.

The remaining white crystal rock could not support them for many more experiments.

Moreover, there were still some problems in the previous experiments.

The recreated etched figures cannot taste food.

Food is a major feature of the Dark Zone.

The food here always has a unique flavor.

And here, being able to perceive taste means that energy is being ingested.

If you can't taste it, then it means that no matter how real it looks, it's still an illusion...

They tried several more times on their own, and whether the experimenters brought their own food and fed it to people outside after the replication, or people outside fed it to the people in the replication, they were still unable to taste it.

At this point, the white crystal rock was no longer sufficient for further testing.

They had no choice but to take a gamble, and all the etchers agreed.

After all the etched beings in each city returned to their homes, they simultaneously activated the storage device beneath their respective altars.

It encompassed the entire underground city, even including the Juxing beasts lying on the cave walls.

All the previously stored energy was completely used up at this point, and they didn't know if their efforts would be successful.

But this seems to be the only way.

Those lacking stars may one day, or even the next moment, venture underground.

They need to reserve a fragment of time for themselves, hoping that in the future their descendants, or that etchers from other cities, will have the opportunity to come here.

Let them see the future, or live it all again in the future.

...

After the elder finished speaking, he let out a long sigh of relief.

After all, for them, it's only been a short time since they entered their home.

It's still somewhat unbelievable to be able to see people from the future with your own eyes.

Shi Qian nodded, and roughly understood.

However, he himself was indeed used as a guinea pig.

Thinking of the experiment results, he quickly bought a bunch of bread from the mall and distributed it to the elders and Araya.

"To ensure the rigor of your experiment, why don't we conduct a two-way test and see how the food outside tastes?"

The etched people gratefully accepted it.

They have a crop here called barley, which can be used to make a food that is somewhat similar to the bread Shi Qian gave them.

After taking their first bite, they showed the same expression as Shi Qian had back then: confusion.

Because you can't taste it...

They thought the experiment had failed, and anxiously took a second and third bite.

They finally got to taste it. This novel food was unique to them, something they had never tried before.

Compared to the "black bread" made from barley, they felt that the wheat bread brought by Shi Qian was simply heavenly.

They couldn't help but look at their companions with surprise, and they could read those words in each other's eyes.

Really delicious!

Shi Qian had been observing their reactions.

It's strange, but ever since he left the altar, he's kept the radar on, yet he hasn't detected any biological entities...

However, after these etched figures ate the bread they were given, their figures gradually appeared on the radar.

Especially by the third bite...

They completely transformed into normal biological entities, appearing exactly as they should on their own radar.

Well, actually it's not that normal.

The object flickered, the frequency of which seemed familiar, similar to the flickering frequency of the white crystal rock's light pillars...

So, is food the medium?

After the elders finished their bread, they discussed it briefly.

They started by asking Shi Qian where he came from and how he discovered them.

Shi Qian figured that since the questions to be asked would probably be limited to a few old ones, he decided not to hold back and waited for the elders to ask their questions one by one.

The text briefly describes the main world, how we arrived in this dimension, and who we encountered.

The dolphin also mentioned some of the history it spoke of, since it was about the future in this dimension, something that needed to be told to the people who were being etched.

Finally, he talked about how he found the boiling spring and how he got down there.

However, he didn't say that he was a time traveler, nor did he say that his trip was to find a portal, since his arrival here was just an accident.

However, Shi Qian didn't dare to say that he had entered by killing one of their Juxing beasts.

Please, who could say something so melodramatic?

And this happened in front of the person involved—

After hearing Shi Qian's words, the elders all fell into thought.

Clearly, this amount of information was excessive for them.

After all, it seemed that he and his people had been buried underground for their entire lives and had never come out.

When the time came, the houses were all in a terrible state, clearly indicating that no living beings had lived there for a long time...