Frankly speaking, hearing about the phenomenon of the "black trap" from Tyr made Gawain feel an indescribable pressure in his heart.
Outside of the demonic wave, there may be other threats in the world, threats big enough to cause the extinction of civilization. What was more terrifying than the demonic wave was the invisible and intangible nature of the threat. Even the sirens, who had experienced more than a dozen demonic waves and observed the world for countless years, could not figure out the nature of the threat.
This was, without a doubt, an extremely disturbing fact.
Gwen's face was solemn and gloomy. He pinched his chin and fell into deep thought without a word. Tyre waited quietly by the side until Gwen suddenly exhaled. The siren then said slowly, "Are you suddenly feeling a little desperate?"
Gwen's answer was only one word. "No."
"You don't have to force yourself. It's normal to feel a lot of pressure in such a situation." Tyre seemed to know what Hao Ren meant. He swung his tail and patted the rocks on the shore. "After all, the biggest crisis that you can imagine is the demonic wave. Now that you suddenly know that there's more than just the demonic wave, who can still be calm?"
"You're right. I do feel the pressure, but I haven't broken down, let alone despair." Gwen let out a long sigh. His expression eased a little. "The Black Trap phenomenon you mentioned … Maybe it does exist, but for me, the demonic wave is still the top priority. If I can't even survive the demonic wave, thinking about the Black Trap is just a waste of effort. I don't have to lose my fighting spirit for this illusory disaster."
Tyre quietly looked at Gwen for a moment. Suddenly, he laughed exaggeratedly. "You … You're really interesting … Haha … Why didn't I notice it before … No wonder you can get along with us sirens … You must be a very popular guy in our society."
Gwen looked at Tyre, who was laughing so hard that he almost fell into the river. He looked a little embarrassed. "Do you have to be so dramatic?"
"You're in a good mood." Tyr barely managed to stop himself from laughing. He hopped up to Gawain with his tail and looked at the latter's expression. "Are you really not afraid? Even if you really find a way to survive the demonic wave, you may have to face the challenges later. Are you really not afraid? "
"Humans are a kind of creature afraid of death, but few people will give up life because they are afraid of death. People will only try to survive because they are afraid of death," Gwen said frankly. "For us, whether it is the demonic wave or the Black Trap, they are the same things. They are both unknown, deadly, and seemingly unsolvable.... But we have made up our minds to survive the demonic wave, so we can only go on this road."
Speaking of this, Gawain raised his head and gazed at the starry night sky in a daze.
"After calming down and thinking about it, I realized that even if the Black Trap exists, it is just a problem for us to solve. From one problem to two, what is there to be afraid of?"
Tyr listened to Gawain's words and suddenly sighed again. "… If you lived in the Siren society, you would definitely be a very popular person."
"Why do you say so?"
"Sirens are also a race that is very good at comforting themselves. We are optimistic and persistent, and you are very similar to us in this aspect," Tyr said seriously. "To be honest, most sirens don't like the landers very much. In our eyes, the landers are a kind of creatures that develop very quickly but always kill themselves quickly. You lack foresight, are keen on short-term benefits, and don't value promises. But I have to admit … your kind of society full of passion and hope is also very fascinating."
For a moment, Gwen did not know how to answer. He just kept smiling and accepted Tyre's compliment.
After a moment of silence, Tyre continued, "In fact, about the Black Trap … we have done some research. Although we have not been able to figure out how it happened, nor have we observed its specific manifestation, we have a guess about it … "
Gwen blinked. "A guess?"
"The civilizations that have encountered the Black Trap have one thing in common, that is, they have developed to a very high level. At least, they can survive the Demonic Tide. Even if the civilization is suddenly destroyed before the Demonic Tide, they have enough ability to protect themselves in the following Demonic Tide. This is confirmed by our observers," Tyre explained seriously. "We think … the Black Trap may be a kind of filter. As long as the development of the civilization reaches a certain threshold, a destructive thing will be activated to destroy the civilization … You should be able to understand what I am saying, right?"
Tyre seemed to have started the conversation. He could not help but talk more and more. In the end, he suddenly remembered that Gwen was a "backward landsman," so he could not help but add the last sentence.
"Of course I can understand. The level of civilization during the Gondor period was not low," Gwen said, frowning deeply. "But the filter you mentioned … If this is true, the situation is terrible …"
As long as a civilization develops to a certain level, it will be destroyed by some external factor?
Does such a thing really exist in this world?
"We are only guessing because according to our observations, all civilizations that have developed to a certain height have been destroyed. There is an invisible threshold there, and none of the civilizations that have been destroyed have surpassed it. Therefore, we can only conclude that the 'Black Trap' is a filter."
"Have you calculated this' threshold '?" Gwen suddenly stared into Tyre's eyes and asked in a very serious tone. "Does it have any iconic 'point'? For example, a breakthrough in a key technology, or humans have set foot in a key field? "
"Unfortunately, we can't sum it up. On the one hand, we miss the Black Trap every time. We can only see the remnants after the destruction. There is no way to infer what the civilization on the land was doing before the Black Trap broke out. On the other hand, every demonic wave resets the magic environment. The technological route taken by each civilization is very different. There is no comparison at all." Tyre shook his head. "We can only give a rough standard now, and that is, only the civilization that can at least survive the demonic wave is' qualified 'to be destroyed by the Black Trap."
Gwen frowned and pondered. Suddenly, he thought of a key question. "… Did those destroyed civilizations surpass yours?"
"… No." Tyre knew what Gwen wanted to say. She answered frankly. "We sirens are a civilization that has almost been destroyed once, but our remaining technological strength is still superior to those on the land, and we … did not encounter the Black Trap."
Their technological strength was higher than the civilization on the land, they had existed longer than the civilization on the land, they had survived more than one season in the demonic wave, and the sirens, who were active in the sun … did not encounter the Black Trap.
All this was within Gwen's expectation, and this fact was also the reason why Gwen doubted Tyre's' Black Trap Filter 'hypothesis.
It was not necessarily technological progress that triggered the Black Trap. Perhaps the civilization on the land had accidentally triggered it in other aspects. Of course, there could also be other reasons, such as the special life form of the sirens that allowed them to avoid the Black Trap. Or … the Black Trap only occurred on land?
Gwen told Tyre his thoughts, but she immediately denied it. "Not only on land, there was a civilization that had developed a very powerful ocean-going navigation technology. Their autonomous offshore platforms and seawater extraction plants had even been on the edge of our territorial waters and built semi-permanent residential domes in the sea. But they all suddenly died. A month ago, they were still talking to us about the development of the undersea heat source. A month later, we sent a representative to find the entire dome was abandoned and full of corpses …"
Gwen frowned. "You didn't find out the reason at that time?"
"Nope. When the representative found out, their dome had been abandoned for half a month, and a lot of evidence had disappeared. But we found that their dome shield was closed from the inside. They should have turned off the shield by themselves and then drowned. "
Gwen was stunned for a long time, and could only say one word. "Strange …"
"Yes … It's very strange," Tyr said slowly. Then he suddenly seemed to remember something. "By the way, speaking of which … the destruction of one civilization seemed to be different from the others … Their destruction was related to an ancient race."
"Ancient race?"
"Dragon." Tyre said a word that surprised Gwen. "That civilization was destroyed in a war involving the Giant Dragon. That was a long, long time ago. At that time, a land empire suddenly rose. They developed very quickly and quickly ruled the entire land. They also had some contact with us, but before we had time to understand them, the war suddenly broke out.
"One side of the war was the empire on the continent, and the other side was the dragons. Nowadays, dragons rarely appear on the continent. You all treat them as legendary creatures, but in the ancient war, dragons almost covered the sky and covered the earth as they flew from the north. At that time, they didn't seem like a hidden race at all. They actually participated in that war …" "That's right.
"We still don't know who started the war, but the reason for the outbreak of the war seems to have something to do with faith, because the Giant Dragon destroyed a lot of the land empire's shrines and facilities in the early days of the war. It was a targeted attack.
"That war was very fierce. The strength of the two sides was almost equal. Many of the Giant Dragon died. Our observers could not even get too close to the war zone because they were in a killing frenzy. As long as it was not their own people, they would attack.
"The war lasted for ten years. Such a long duration was also different from the usual 'Black Trap' phenomenon. Other civilizations that were destroyed by the Black Trap disappeared very quickly. In the end, the Giant Dragon won a pyrrhic victory, and the land empire was reduced to ashes.
"According to the sporadic information brought back by our observers, the land empire at that time called the year when the war broke out 'The Year of the Tide', so they also called the war 'The Battle of the Tide'."
"The Battle of the Tide …" Gwen listened to this magnificent story from ancient times, but he always felt that it was unreal. This story was too far away from today's era, but now it was being told by Tyre. It was inevitable that there would be serious contradictions, but he believed that Tyre would not make up such a story for fun. "Indeed, it is different from the 'Black Trap' you described before."
"Yes, it lasted for a long time, the reason is clear, and we have also observed it. So we have never been sure whether the 'Battle of the Tide' was a 'Black Trap phenomenon' or not. But one thing is certain — if the Battle of the Tide is related to the Black Trap, then the Giant Dragon must know something."
Gwen could not help but smile bitterly. "Are you asking me to ask the Giant Dragon for information?"
"What if there is a chance?" Tyre wagged his tail. "And I'm just giving you an idea. Anyway, I'm not the one coming up with the idea."
Gwen was speechless.
At this moment, he really wanted to slap this fish to death on the shore ….
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