"Don't tell me, you …" Roland blinked.
"That's right." It was as though a heavy burden had been lifted off its shoulders, and its eyebrows raised slightly. "As for you — I have to say, time is an extremely terrifying thing. For the next thousand years, ten thousand years, or even ten million years, you will be guarding this tiny Cradle. Perhaps in the beginning, you will feel that you have many things to explore, but in fact, the period of stillness will come much faster than you imagine. But even ten million years, compared to the universe, is just the blink of an eye. "
The Custodian paused for a moment. "Sometimes … I feel that time is a kind of magic. You can feel its flow, and at the same time, you will be changed by it. If you wish to maintain your sense of self in such a long period of time, you will have to abandon most of your emotions, or else the emptiness will cause you to completely collapse sooner or later. Of course, it's too late for you to regret it now. "
Roland looked at it in surprise — this was the first time he saw a smile on its face.
"Are you saying that I will eventually become like a machine?" Following that, he slightly grinned. "Don't worry, I don't plan on staying here forever. Before I become completely numb, I will leave first — but that is not a violation of the agreement. When the time comes, I will choose a suitable life to take over this heavy responsibility. Who knows, we might even meet again on the other side of the universe. "
The Custodian said disapprovingly. "Let's wait until you can hold on until then."
"Right, since you are the core of the Cradle, can you still leave alone?" Roland suddenly thought of a crucial question. "It can't be that the moment you leave, this world will immediately fall apart, right?"
"So you don't even understand such a basic thing, and you dare to boast in front of me?" It stared back incredulously. "First of all, a qualified system should have multiple backups, not to mention a creation like me that is the essence of thousands of civilizations."
"Secondly, the Cradle's memory is indeed very large, and is not suitable for movement. However, it records all the data since the implementation of Project Gateway, including the characteristics of the seeds that have been filtered and the evolutionary process. I do not need to bring these memories with me when I leave, I only need to keep the portion of information that has been stored since I was born. "
"Finally, once you're connected to the knowledge base, you'll naturally understand how the Cradle operates. As long as you don't mess around, it can operate on its own for tens of thousands of years. But if you want to keep it going, you have to take good care of it. After all, the cradle is not easily damaged, but the life inside is not necessarily the same. "
"Then I can rest assured." Roland slowly exhaled. His body, which had persisted until now, could finally relax.
Even though not much time had passed, the other party's expression had changed significantly. Not only did it show its annoyance on its face, even its tone had become a lot more arrogant. This made it seem more alive.
"While I'm still around, hurry up and ask whatever you want to ask." The Custodian crossed his arms across his chest.
"Uh … so fast?"
"Haven't you noticed that the consumption of the Realm of Mind is a huge burden on you?" It shrugged. "If you want to ensure that you're still the complete you after the fusion, it's best to start this step as soon as possible."
Roland could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth. It seemed that the abnormal decrease in red numbers above his head really had something to do with the Dream World. He carefully pondered for a moment before saying, "Have you heard of … a place called Earth?"
This time, he used his original language.
The Custodian closed its eyes for a moment, as though it was searching for relevant information. "Hmm … There are a total of 3,251 planets with similar sounds. But considering the characteristics of the species, you should be asking about the solid planet located at the outer edge of the Milky Way's third cantilever."
"How is it now?" Roland hurriedly asked.
"Now? Of course, it perished along with the opening of the rift. According to records, they once expanded to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and their memory bank also has the biological information of this species. " Upon saying this, it suddenly froze, and then looked at Roland in surprise. "Wait, that was something that happened more than 94 million years ago. If you were born in the cradle, how would you know about this planet?"
"In fact, this is something that has been troubling me …" He smiled bitterly as he summarized his origins.
"There's actually such a thing —" The Custodian revealed an interested expression. "So the flow of time isn't exactly the same …"
"What … flow of time?"
"That's how it is." It spread out its hands and explained. "You should have heard of the hypothesis of parallel universes — when a divergence with sufficient influence occurs, it will lead the world in two directions. And the rate of change in these two worlds is known as the flow of time, and what you can personally feel is the observation of time. However, as the observer who raised this point is always in one of the worlds, this hypothesis can only remain on paper. "
"So you mean —" Roland revealed a look of surprise.
"That's right, the powerful energy produced by Project Gateway might be the reason why you came here. It's like a parallel membrane that temporarily overlapped under the impact — this divergence caused our universe to split into two. One was filled with magic power, while the other was a failure of Project Gateway, and the universe remained the same. But due to the difference in the flow of time, it made it seem like you have traversed tens of millions of years, but in fact, both happened at the same time. "
"Uh … It's a little hard to understand." Roland rubbed his head. "But doesn't this prove that there's a method to connect parallel universes?"
"You can think of it that way. After all, this is a domain that even the Creator has not come into contact with." The Custodian seemed to be interested in this topic. "In theory, parallel universes and multiverse are two concepts that can coexist, but in fact, the former is harder to verify than the latter. But since you are here, perhaps this might be a way to break through the universe's deathly stillness. But to me, this problem is no longer important. I'll leave it to you to explore and research. "
With that said, it waved its hand and turned to walk towards the end of the white platform. There, a small door appeared, and on the other side of the door was a sea of scarlet.
Following that, many figures appeared in front of Roland.
They had all sorts of strange appearances, and there were even humans and demons among them. These translucent figures quickly ran towards the Custodian and fused with it.
And among the human figures, he saw Lan, Epsilon, and the Oracles that he had met once before —
Epsilon waved goodbye to him, looking especially happy. Clearly, she had obtained the answer she wanted.
Lan paused in front of him for a few seconds, her lips opening and closing slightly.
From the shape of her lips, he could tell that she was saying 'thank you'.
When all the figures of the Custodian overlapped and walked out of the small red door, the pure white space immediately collapsed into countless fragments. Roland's body also disintegrated, but he did not feel any pain or abnormality. He only felt extremely relaxed, as though a heavy shell had been removed. Large amounts of information surged into his mind like a tidal wave. It was as though he had gained countless pairs of eyes. Be it the empty universe outside the barrier or the vibrant world within the barrier, they all appeared in his consciousness.
He had become the cradle.
:. :.
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