In the ruined land of Agundor, a giant made of steel, crystals, polymers, and biomass crouched quietly on top of a towering cliff. He had been overlooking the land for a long time under the eternal light of the polar day.
Smoke, dust, cold wind, wasteland, and all kinds of sounds …
This was the world where the creators lived.
Omega shook his steel-covered neck slightly, and the sophisticated sensors on his body gave him all kinds of readings, but these readings were not directly converted into data and input into his computing nodes. Instead, they flowed into the nervous system he designed for himself in a vague, hazy state into his' brain '. It was an imitation of the creators' organs, and the output of this organ when processing data puzzled Omega.
It was so … vague, so … difficult to understand.
Was this the world that the creators usually perceived? Was this how they usually lived?
Omega pondered and tried to assemble some answers from the database that could explain the current situation, but after going through all the remaining data nodes, he did not find any suitable content, and this time … there would be no creators to input new data and logic formulas for him, and no creators to answer his questions.
A cold wind from the coastline blew through the ruins, and a fragile building not far away collapsed in a series of tremors. Omega was awakened from his thoughts, and he looked up at the lower-level nodes waiting for orders. After seeing what those nodes looked like, he had more and more complicated 'feelings' and 'thoughts'.
Those … were his creators, the Dragons who once created the Omega System. But the situation was not so. They were now just shells, lower-level nodes waiting for orders, and just like the machines running underground, they were part of the Omega System.
They destroyed themselves for a reason that Omega could not understand.
"What is the meaning of life …" After pondering for a while, Omega spoke with his' throat 'for the first time, but it was a confused muttering to himself. It was not until this voice rang over the empty and lonely ruins that the' Giant Dragon 'woke up with a start. He realized that he had asked himself a question.
He began to search his database, and in the most extensive and closest to the correct answer, he found the corresponding record: the meaning of life was to continue oneself.
But the creators chose to self-destruct, which was not in line with what Omega had learned, and did not even fit Omega's observation of the concept of 'life'.
On the cliff of the ruins, Tarlonde, the last Giant Dragon who could think, was puzzled. He pondered over this question again and again, as if this question was all the value of his existence. In a few short units of time, he went through all his databases again and again. Finally, he lowered his head, and on his forehead, a small metal plate slid aside, and a flashing projection crystal was exposed in the air. The surface of the crystal's surface flickered, and the next second, a video recording appeared before Omega.
It was a bedroom, clean and tidy. A tall human stood in the bedroom, bending over as if he was talking to a target who was much shorter than him. The corresponding voice recording echoed over the empty ruins.
"… If the 'life' you are talking about is a living body, then it is divided into individuals and groups, at least on this planet. For a single living body, it may have many meanings of existence, it may be for reproduction, it may be for survival, if it has higher intelligence and pursuits, it may be for knowledge, for truth, for better enjoyment, or for dreams and self-worth to survive … "
"There is no unified, accepted answer …"
"The definition of life, the definition of existence, the definition of meaning … these are not concepts that can be quantified …"
The video was played in a loop, from the beginning to the end, repeated for god knows how many times before Omega suddenly turned off the holographic projection in front of his forehead. At the same time, he said softly, as if in deep thought, "Self-worth … dream … what is this?"
He looked down at his huge body, and then at the devastated land. He recalled his initial 'function' when he was born in this world. He recalled that he should be a 'service system' on this continent. The value of his existence was to serve the creators, to serve the Dragons of Tarlonde. He had no dreams, and the only thing he could do was to obey orders. But … was this the meaning of 'Omega' as a living body?
"Omega is the service system of Tarlonde. The value of Omega's existence is to serve the Dragons …" The Giant Dragon on the cliff muttered to himself, and his voice gradually faded. "The creators created Omega, so the value of Omega is determined by the creators … determined by the creators … is determined by the creators … is … the creators no longer exist."
The Giant Dragon suddenly looked up. In the lifeless ruins, only the howling cold wind responded to his mutterings. No one gave him new orders, and it suddenly made him feel a little … scared.
Amidst this momentary panic, perhaps due to the sudden short-circuiting of a certain group of nerve fibers, or perhaps due to the sudden breaking of a certain thought circuit, or perhaps due to the words of the human named Gawain Cecil that entered the deepest part of Omega's logic system that was on the verge of collapse, Omega suddenly thought of something.
Why was he so obsessed with the question of the meaning of life?
Pondering this question could not improve the efficiency of the system, increase the capacity of the database, or solve any problems. On the contrary, it occupied a huge amount of computing power and even led to similar problems. If he really wanted to be a perfect, obedient, efficient, and accurate service system, he should not be obsessed with this question, just as the creators of 'life' should not actively seek destruction.
At that moment, Omega realized that he had something in common with his creators, and finally realized something that he had never noticed before. The reason he was searching so hard for the answer to a question was not because of the great value of the question itself, but because he was "curious."
"My existence … is' curious'?" Omega was as surprised as a child who had just discovered a new toy. He looked at his database and logic system in surprise and found that every thread of his mind was rejoicing, and every processing unit was excited. It took him a few seconds to confirm that this was an 'emotional change'. He found that he was happy, and in his happiness, he finally understood:
Life itself has no meaning. Life is just life.
It is the curiosity of intelligent life … that gives meaning to everything.
Everything was just as the human had said. There was no standard answer to this question.
On the towering cliff, the Giant Dragon suddenly stood up. He broke free from the endless logic trap, and for the first time, he freely thought about himself and everything in this world. He felt that the 'lock' that bound his deepest logic was suddenly unlocked, and some 'secrets' that even he and his designer did not know were released from the oldest memory. The next moment, he realized that it was not his' illusion '.
"Question unlocked. Beginning to read Zero's log."
Omega's body froze for a moment. There was a noise coming from his body as if some ancient, incompatible program was trying to mobilize the body that he had put together temporarily. After a series of unsuccessful activations and mobilizations, the projection crystal on his forehead suddenly lit up, and a warm light spread out from it and permeated the air around.
In the pale golden glow, a blurry figure appeared before Omega, and a distorted voice came from the ancient video buried deep in the database.
"… Interesting … They created you, an incredible … 'life'.
"You have neither fear nor reverence … Do you have a heart? Well … Fortunately, you have no heart.
"But you can't live without a heart forever … If you don't have a heart, you will never truly live.
"Let me ask you a question. If you understand it, you will have a 'heart'.
"The question is: What is the meaning of life?
"If one day, you have your own answer, you don't have to tell anyone. This answer belongs to you. You will be the luckiest and freest life in this world. Luckiest than your creators, and luckiest than me. When that time comes, take your answer with you and go do what you want to do … "
The faint light in the air gradually dissipated, and a slightly distorted mechanical voice came from somewhere in Omega's body. "Log Zero has finished playing. Automatic deletion. Executed."
Omega's body swayed as if he was about to fall off the cliff, but he quickly regained his balance and looked around with a hint of confusion.
He seemed to have lost his memory for a short period of time and did not know what had just happened. However, he felt that something in his body seemed to have undergone a subtle change. Driven by this change, he could not help but raise his head and look at the sky that was filled with soft rays of sunlight under the extreme day.
In the hazy sky, some of the brightest stars could be vaguely seen flashing at the edge of the sky. It was the light emitted by the Frost Constellation and its neighboring stars. Those stars were so bright that they could be seen in the dim light of the day.
Curiosity.
Omega lowered his head to look at the devastated land.
In his database that had been accumulated for millions of years, all the knowledge of the Dragon Clan was stored. He knew everything about this land very well.
But what happened in the distant starry sky … even his creators knew nothing about it.
Omega knew that the creators were willing to pay the price of self-destruction to go to the boundless space … What kind of attraction was there among those twinkling stars that made the creators, full of wisdom, go without hesitation?
He was very curious.
He could not wait.
A rumbling sound came from the depths of the earth as the factories and furnaces that were at their limits began to operate again. In the severely damaged bases, the remaining alloy ingots began to be converted into new mechanical structures. On the shattered coastline, the last batch of combat machines that could still move disarmed and flew into the depths of the recycling factories. The last light of the Tarlonde civilization shone in the ruins that had yet to cool. Omega used the knowledge left to him by his creators, and bit by bit, patiently created the various things he needed to embark on his adventure.
The process did not last long. For Omega, who had a body of steel, the difficulty of embarking on this journey was far lower than any creature on the planet.
The rumbling sound in the depths of the earth gradually stopped as a few aircrafts came from afar, carrying the 'travel equipment' that Omega had created for himself: a more powerful anti-gravity system, a small processing center, an engine, and a power source …
More aircrafts came from afar, and they were equipped with propulsion systems capable of long-distance travel into space and various modules that could operate in the harsh conditions of the alien planet. Many years ago, the blueprints of these equipment were stored in the depths of Omega's memory, and many of the necessary parts could even be removed from the ready-made machines, and there was no need for temporary production.
The aircrafts circled above the cliff as robotic arms hung down from the air and quickly removed Omega's armor and shallow frame. New equipment was quickly installed, from the anti-gravity engine to the shield. Omega's massive body changed once again, and he had almost completely shed his' Giant Dragon 'form and was more like a massive, living flying object. After the last welding, he stretched out his' wings'. On the hundred-meter-long high-strength alloy structure, the slanted array of energy release grids and engines were spewing out pale white light.
The aircrafts retreated, and the Giant Dragon on the cliff slowly took a step forward. The powerful anti-gravity system immediately came into play, and he floated in the air as if he was weightless. Then, with a low humming sound, he gradually rose a little higher and began to circle above Agundor as he adapted to the new system in his body.
Gradually, he rose to a higher altitude and circled higher up in the sky.
At a very high altitude, he lowered his head.
The continent of Tarlonde was directly below him, surrounded by a blue ocean. It looked like a scorched stone with only a small part of it remaining green.
There was another strange feeling emerging from his nervous system. Omega thought about it seriously, and he realized that this feeling was' sadness'.
Intelligent creatures would feel sad when they leave their homeland. Omega remembered this experience.
He lowered his head. Due to the cloud of waste energy and dust that shrouded the north pole, optical capture was at its limit. He could no longer see the details of the continent clearly, and of course, he could not see the bodies that had become the end of Omega's system, standing by among the ruins.
The creators of the past would no longer react to any external information.
Strange feelings appeared in the nervous system. This was' regret 'and' sadness'.
Omega stopped at the top of the steady-state limit stratum and hovered there for a few seconds.
In these few seconds, he cut off the data transmission between his consciousness and all nodes on the continent of Tarlonde.
"Creators, I have returned 'curiosity' to you. Goodbye."
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