The Legendary Mechanic

"Alright, what I'm going to say next is the truth about the transition of the entire universe. It's more important than anything you've experienced in the past and present. I'll say this in advance. If you have any schedule later, clear it all."

Han Xiao saw the look of disapproval on their faces and shook his head.

"The truth of the universe?"

The three of them looked at each other. Seeing that Han Xiao did not seem to be joking, they could not help but be skeptical.

Han Xiao snapped his fingers and summoned a virtual screen that was playing the virtual image of the birth and death of the universe. He then explained,

"When the universe comes to an end, everything will return to nothingness. The phenomena like the heat death of the universe and the Big Crunch are the result of many scientists' guesses or foreseeing of the universe. All kinds of signs and experiments show that these are all very likely to be the correct doomsday models, but this is only under normal circumstances… The direction of our universe does not follow the most primitive laws of nature. Long ago, our universe was modified by a final civilization, and the fundamental laws of the Information Form changed. On the day of the end of our universe, what awaits us is not the heat death of the universe or the Big Crunch, but a phenomenon called the Great Reboot."

"The Great Reboot?"

The three of them were confused.

It was not that the scientific research community did not have similar speculations, but it was not the mainstream theory. Without conclusive sources, most of the evidence came from unknown items created by the information state disturbance. For example, the Virtual Mutiny Virus from back then was suspected to be from a civilization before the Great Reboot. However, it was not enough to be ironclad evidence, because it was not certain if it was an earlier civilization or a civilization from the unexplored universe.

Thus, Marbruce and the other two were not unfamiliar with this term. They were only confused as to why Han Xiao was so certain of the existence of the Great Reboot.

Han Xiao looked at the three of them and said slowly,

"The 'Great Reboot' I'm talking about is different from what you guys understand… The final civilization's modification of the underlying laws of the universe has caused the universe to deviate from the laws of the natural end. Therefore, the time of the end has been brought forward by a lot, and every Great Reboot is a brand new Iteration. New civilizations reproduce in the universe that has returned to zero. However, due to the shortening of development time, the strength of each of the iteration civilizations is infinitely lower than the Final Civilization that had initially established the Great Reboot."

"So, this is bad news?" Marbruce pondered. "If that's the case, all civilizations will develop from the beginning, and no one will be able to survive the end of the universe and reach the so-called… what did that popular phrase say, transcend worldliness?"

Han Xiao shook his head and said, "This is the main point I want to talk about. Although the Great Reboot causes the universe to return to zero, things from different Iterations will be passed down to the new Iteration through special means, and this medium is the Sanctum that all of you are longing for."

The three of them were stunned.

Han Xiao continued, "The initial goal of the final civilization to modify the universe was to continue their civilization through a reboot. They failed, but it was not a waste of effort. The Sanctum was their legacy. It was originally a reserve storage for life tinders, but a special Information Form Mutation appeared during the changes of the Iterations and became the Sanctum today. This is the only thing that is known to not disappear during the Great Reboot.

"The purpose of the Sanctum is to store the Information Form state of the development of every Iteration, and during each Great Reboot, a portion of Information Form will be randomly integrated into the new iteration of the universe. Therefore, when the universe is rebooted, it will not be completely zero. Instead, its underlying laws will constantly undergo changes in the Iterations. In this way, the achievements of each iteration will be passed down to the later iterations. For example, the current secondary dimension world is the inheritance of a past Iteration and not a natural phenomenon."

"So, you're saying that… the universe we're living in now is not the most primitive universe but a world that has been changed countless times? The Sanctum is equivalent to a… uh, processor?" Louis probed.

Han Xiao nodded. "More or less. Generations of civilizations treated the Sanctum as a way to get through the Great Reboot, so the Sanctum continued to develop all kinds of new functions. The Sanctum Revival is just one of them. The most important thing about the Sanctum is that it stored all the information of the Civilizations of the earlier Iterations, as well as their last words before the end of the world, all for future generations to refer to. This is a long relay that spanned countless Iterations, just for someone to break this cycle one day."

Hearing this, the three of them were shocked. Although Han Xiao's tone was very calm, when they thought of the scene of generations of civilizations working together toward the same goal, they could not help but be stunned by such a grand undertaking.

However, two seconds later, the three of them came to their senses, and their breathing suddenly became heavy.

At this moment, they suddenly realized that if what Black Star said was true, the information stored in the Sanctum would be an immeasurable amount of wealth.

As for Black Star, he could have held onto this wealth alone. If he did not say it, they would never have been able to get a share of it. However, he chose to say it instead of developing it himself. Was he that selfless?

It was precisely because they had thought this through that the three of them were even more shocked. For a moment, they fell silent, silently digesting the shock in their hearts.

After a while, the Pope said hesitantly, "You want to work with us to develop the Sanctum, is it because you want to get through the Great Reboot? Although what you just said is indeed quite shocking, let me be direct. The so-called Great Reboot should be very far away from us, right? Isn't it too early to worry about this…"

Hearing this, Han Xiao smiled faintly. "You think it's early?"

"Hmm…" Seeing this, the Pope could not help but widen his eyes in shock." Could it be that the end of our universe is coming, and the Great Reboot is here? "

The other two trembled in shock and disbelief.

"It wasn't easy for us to defeat the World Tree Civilization, and we enjoyed a rare moment of relaxation. I didn't expect…" Marbruce had mixed feelings.

However, Han Xiao shook his head and said, "You're mistaken. It's still too early for us to reach the end of this Iteration."

The three of them heaved a sigh of relief.

However, before they could completely relax, Han Xiao suddenly said something shocking, stunning them.

"But you've already been rebooted."

As soon as he finished speaking…

The Pope was stunned.

"What do you mean?"

"Four times." Han Xiao raised four fingers and said slowly, "Our universe has been rebooted four times… In the previous Iteration, you guys were the final civilizations. You guys used an Information Form Stripping Plan and successfully passed the Great Reboot, but you did not really enter the new universe of the next iteration. Instead, you guys became a sealed dark universe that cycled and restarted on its own… In other words, you guys have died a few times, but you don't know it yet!"

The three of them were dumbfounded.

During this period of time, Han Xiao had been trying to gain access to the First Sanctum. Every time he went in and out, the time he spent became shorter and shorter. When his access reached level fifteen, the flow of time finally converged. The time ratio of the main universe to the Sanctum was one to one, and the contents of the message board were finally unlocked.

At this point, Han Xiao finally understood everything. The messages from the bottom fourth to the last paragraph of the Sanctum were all left by the 'three Universal Civilizations'!

The Celestial Star Alliance was located in the fifth last paragraph, and it was the Iteration just before the three Universal Civilizations. The fourth last section was the new Iteration after the Great Reboot, and the three Universal Civilizations were the final civilizations developed by the new Iteration. During that period, there was no such thing as the World Tree. The three Universal Civilizations slowly multiplied, and they finally discovered the Sanctum and learned all the information about Iteration.

Because the previous Celestial Star Alliance's plan was very desirable, the three Universal Civilizations inherited it and improved it, forming the 'Information Form stripping plan'.

However, the three Universal Civilizations at that time knew very well that with their accumulation, they did not have the absolute confidence to survive the Great Reboot and did not want to risk it all. Therefore, the true goal of this plan was not to completely overcome the Great Reboot but to buy more time for themselves. They wanted to strip away the Information Form state of the entire universe and try to imitate the operation of the Celestial Star Alliance. They wanted to exist in the secondary dimensions and the dark side of the universe in the New Iteration era and continuously reboot.

However, the difference was that the three Universal Civilizations followed the mindset of the Celestial Star Alliance and made almost perfect improvements. Thus, they successfully peeled out the 'Information Form state' of the entire Iteration and formed a closed dark side universe in the next Iteration. It existed based on the Information Form state and was like a 'virtual' world, 'developing side by side' at a faster time flow. It was like a parallel line, difficult to intersect with the 'real' Iteration's main universe and difficult to interfere with each other.

After Han Xiao found out about the contents of the message board, he sorted out the time relationship. If the Celestial Star Alliance was the first iteration, then the three Universal Civilizations would be the final civilizations of the second iteration. They would activate the information form stripping plan and turn into the dark side universe of the third iteration, and the third iteration would be the true current iteration.

It was also at this point that Han Xiao realized that the Sanctum would not leave any information form empty shells for the current Iteration, and there was no such thing as a 'tombstone'. The three Universal Civilizations and the World Tree Civilization that he saw in the Sanctum were actually the second iteration remains. There was no content inside because they had been 'stripped' and became the dark side universe of the third Iteration.

However, the cycle of the dark side universe was not the same as the Celestial Star Alliance. Instead, it formed a 'small reboot' pattern. The three Universal Civilizations of the Second Iteration used the characteristics of the Sanctum to add new patterns every time the universe was rebooted, allowing the dark side universe to be included in the influence of the Sanctum.

What was different from the 'Great Reboot' was that every 'small reboot' in the dark universe did not return to zero but was formed based on a fixed Information Form state template, which meant that there would definitely be organizations like the three Universal Civilizations. Before the three Universal Civilizations came into contact with the Sanctum, their development trajectories were the same. Han Xiao called this situation 'dark side Iteration'.

Therefore, every time the dark side universe went through a small reboot, there would be an improved version of the dark side Iteration. It was just that there was a chance for 'Information Form Mutation' to occur. The three Universal Civilizations used this method to buy themselves more time, and they obtained more opportunities to test their luck.

However, this plan could not bring about eternity. After some calculations, there was an upper limit to the information form stripping plan. Their dark side universe would only exist in the third iteration at most. If they were to go through the Great Reboot and enter the fourth iteration, then their dark side universe would disappear… unless they could enter the real iteration main universe from the dark side universe and turn from 'virtual' to 'real'.

Therefore, after the three Universal Civilizations successfully entered the dark side universe, their goal was to break the seal of the dark side universe and return to the real main universe of the third Iteration.

The third last to last messages on the Sanctum's message board represented the three dark side Iterations of the dark side universe. Currently, Han Xiao was in the fourth dark side Iteration, and these four dark side Iterations had all happened during the third Iteration.

Since the Sanctum was not affected by the Iterations, the three Universal Civilizations used the message board of the Sanctum to record the experience of each trial and error. They made 'themselves' of the next dark side Iteration improve the path according to the previous experience, as well as create some key devices to improve the situation of the next dark side Iteration. This was the origin of the World Tree.

The three Universal Civilizations had added an Information Form Materialization device when they were in the second dark side Iteration (second last message), but in the third dark side Iteration, an information form mutation occurred. From a mechanical device, it turned into the World Tree with life force and went berserk… This was what Han Xiao experienced when he was a player in his previous life.

In the end, the three Universal Civilizations of the third dark side Iteration still opened the Sanctum and understood everything. Thus, they left behind the control terminal of the Information Form Materialization device. In the current fourth dark side Iteration, the Information Form mutation occurred and inherited the nature of restraint. But there was a change in its manifestation which became the World Tree's natural enemy, which was also the Pivotal Snake.

On the other hand, in the second dark side Iteration, the three Universal Civilizations had used the Information Form Materialization device that had yet to mutate and failed in the end. They had discovered that the reason was that there was a bridge that lacked the 'True State'. Han Xiao had also figured out the concept of the 'True State', which was actually the Information Form carrier that existed in the true universe.

In other words, the dark side universe had to form an Information Form connection with the true universe. Only by being able to interfere with each other would the Information Form Materialization device work. Therefore, the three Universal Civilizations of the second dark side Iteration launched a plan, trying to change the underlying laws of the next dark side Iteration, causing the two 'parallel lines' of the dark side universe and the true universe to deviate and finally intersect.

In the end, when the third dark side Iteration arrived, the underlying laws of the dark side universe changed, and they successfully projected themselves into 'reality'. They successfully obtained a part of the Information Form carrier of the true universe, which was the existence of 'players'. Through 'log in', these individuals who lived in the true universe turned their 'True State' into 'information form state' and were pulled into the dark side universe to form the Information Form interface. This was everything that Han Xiao and countless players had experienced in his previous life.

However, the World Tree went berserk in the third dark side Iteration. After the World Tree War in his previous life, the three Universal Civilizations obtained the Sanctum pathway from the Holy Accord Organization and learned everything. They inherited the heritage of countless civilizations, and their technology improved by leaps and bounds. At a level that the players could not come into contact with, the three Universal Civilizations came up with a new plan. They gathered the power of civilizations and built the 'control terminal' of the World Tree. At the same time, they lowered the cost of the World Tree going berserk in the fourth dark side Iteration.

Other than that, due to the players' version updates, the three Universal Civilizations of the third dark side Iteration felt that the 'True State' bridge was not stable enough, so they decided to spend a lot of resources strengthening the 'True State' connection with the next dark side Iteration.

Because the dark side universe and the true universe had already formed a preliminary Information Form interference, the three Universal Civilizations decided to build a stable interference bridge instead of intermittent bridge-like logins. The only targets they could choose were these individual Information Form records that had already been logged into the dark side universe, so they randomly selected a target to enter the dark side universe completely, forming a stable connection.

As long as this idea was correct, the dark side universe would be able to reverse-transform the 'Information Form state' to the 'True State' through this interference bridge, break free from the seal, and return to the true universe… In a more understandable way, it would be like installing a carrier bag for the so-called 'reality', which contained the entire dark side universe and the entire Galaxy World.

This was the truth that Han Xiao had learned from the Sanctum, and what happened after that was not recorded on the message board.

After knowing all of this, he had a rough guess about what happened after that. He suspected that the reason why he had 'transmigrated' was actually because he had been randomly selected as the 'stable interference bridge' that strengthened the Information Form entanglement between the dark side universe and the true universe.

His own Information Form state had been completely captured, and he had come to this dark universe from the 'reality'. Therefore, his 'real' self had disappeared, and he no longer had any information about himself. He had never seen his other self, who should be a 'player', all these years. Han Xiao suspected that this was the reason.

As for the dark side universe of the fourth dark side Iteration, it caused the time of the true universe to regress by ten years. Han Xiao did not know the reason, but he guessed that it was because the third dark side Iteration had more Information Form interference with the true universe when it was 'capturing' him, which affected the other party's time. However, he did not know if this was a reversal of time across the entire universe or only across a small area. However, from another point of view, this was also proof that the dark side universe used the 'True State' to create Information Form entanglements that could already cause a substantial change to the true universe.

Now, Han Xiao had roughly pieced together all the reasons from the Sanctum records and his own guesses. In his opinion, this series of guesses was more than seventy percent reliable.

Han Xiao hid part of his speculations and explained the secret.

After hearing all of this, only shock and disbelief could be seen on the faces of Marbruce, Louis, and the Pope. They looked at Han Xiao with their mouths slightly open, completely dumbfounded.

"This, this…"

The Pope was dumbfounded.

Although they were the rulers of the three Universal Civilizations and had seen countless storms, the information that Han Xiao had just given them had already exceeded their acceptance range.

After a long time, Marbruce turned to Louis and said with hesitation,

"Um… did you understand?"

"I didn't either…" Marbruce replied blankly.