Time:
Countdown to Gemini Sector - 29 Days Location: Military Prisoner Transport Ship (Hades Formation) · Cell 7
The metal door slid open slowly, a slice of cold Light cutting diagonally into the Darkness of the cell.
Yuri Volkov
stepped inside. As a veteran with over ten years of service and the ship's chaplain, he was no stranger to prison cells. But this time, a strange sensation made him hesitate.
Karl von Reiss
Yuri was about to ask why Karl had chosen to meet in a cell. Karl’s voice spoke first, low and ethereal:
"Yuri, the Old Testament says the earth was without form, and void; and Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."
The air seemed to freeze instantly.
"Since God is omniscient and omnipotent... why didn't He make the entire universe exist only in light?"
Yuri froze, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. He was a devout believer; of course, he knew the scripture. It was his favorite passage to preach—Genesis, Day One. God used one day to bring Light to the chaotic void and the dark abyss; God's law separated Light from Darkness.
But how could an Almighty God not know the cold, fear, and destruction brought by Darkness? Why then did God need Darkness to exist instead of erasing it entirely?
Wait... Yuri's mental inertia instantly switched him into Engineer Mode
Just as Yuri was rapidly calculating the collapse model of a hyperactive universe in his mind, Karl's voice became softer, carrying a bone-chilling seductiveness:
"If you admit that the universe must retain 'darkness', then you admit—Order requires a cooling end.
"So God needs the Reaper."
Karl turned around and smiled at Yuri. "Only when Death exists does God's existence have meaning. And only when God and Death exist simultaneously can the Structure of this universe show divergence
Karl paused, his gaze landing on the crucifix on Yuri's chest.
"God and Death are like twins. Yuri, don't you have two daughters? Think about it. If one were missing, how would the other feel?"
At this moment, Karl was no longer the young Colonel. He looked more like a priest than Yuri himself, waiting for a believer's epiphany.
Yuri's heart trembled violently. Every time he went home and saw the intimate warmth between his two daughters, that sense of blood connection was the pillar of his life. He remembered once seeing the sisters asleep, each sucking on the other's toes. That scene had moved him to tears. That was the purest attachment.
Karl's voice rang out again: "Light brings hope and chaos, while Darkness brings Death and order. God used His way to bring the beginning of life to the entire universe. And we need to help the Divine stabilize the changes brought by their meeting."
"Karl..." Yuri's voice trembled. "What do you want to do?"
"Do you want to know the answer?" Karl’s lips curled into a mysterious arc. "Then we will meet here again tomorrow."
With that, Karl walked out of the cell, leaving Yuri standing alone in the Darkness.
Yuri sat slowly on the edge of the bed, Karl's words echoing in his mind: He asked himself repeatedly, but found no answer.
Time:
Countdown to Gemini Sector - 28 Days Location:
When Yuri walked into Cell 7, Karl was sitting where he had sat yesterday. On the table in front of him lay something new: A silver spinning top, rotating slowly.
Yuri walked to the table and sat opposite Karl. Karl watched the spinning top intently, and Yuri remained silent. The slight of the spinning top echoed in the small space. Its tip danced on a grid drawn on the table, as if testing some kind of order.
When the top stopped spinning, it landed precisely in the center of one of the squares.
Karl stared at that spot and whispered, "Yuri, pick up the top."
Yuri obeyed, picking up the top and placing it in his palm. "Yuri, look at the top of your palm. Close your eyes, and then... spin it and throw it out. Open your eyes. What do you see?"
Yuri did as told. Two seconds later, he opened his eyes. The top traced a perfect arc in the air, landed on the grid, trembled, wandered, and finally stopped.
"On the second day, God said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'" Karl finally spoke. "Look, you just used a little force to push a static top into chaos... but within chaos, it sought order on its own, and finally stopped here." Karl pointed to the position on the grid.
"To the top, you defined the concepts of 'Heaven' and 'Earth'. You gave it new life."
"I... I gave it new life?" Yuri asked, full of confusion.
"Yes." Karl stepped closer. "Think with your engineering mind. When the top is static, its internal Structure doesn't change. But once it moves relying on its external force, to itself, it is 'alive'. If this external force lasts long enough, what will form?"
Yuri looked up and caught a glimpse of the shining stars through the porthole above Karl's head. "It will form... stars, right? Karl?" Yuri asked in disbelief.
"Yes, Yuri. You are not wrong." Karl's voice seemed to come from the distant cosmos. "Think carefully about everything that just happened."
Yuri closed his eyes, recalled the event, and threw the top again. "I created a small world?" Yuri subconsciously wanted to add: But the words stuck in his throat—because for that split second, he truly felt that "something was waiting for it to stop."
"You created a coordinate system. You defined 'Up' as the Unknown, and 'Down' as Home. You became its Scale." Karl took Yuri's hand and drew a circle in his palm.
"This world was born because of you. To the top, if it had consciousness, then you are the Creator.
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Yuri's Adam's apple moved. The image of the "Almighty Creator" he had heard about in Sunday school since childhood, for the first time, had a possible replacement. A crack, silently, slowly, and irreversibly opened in the foundation of his inner faith.
Time:
Countdown to Gemini Sector - 27 Days Location:
Yuri stood outside Cell 7. His hand rested on the metal door, trembling slightly. His legs felt like they were stuck in deep mud, unable to move easily. For two nights, he had suffered complete insomnia. He could no longer see clearly what this man, younger than himself, was thinking.
He had seen Death, terror, and riots, but what he feared was the breaking of unknown logic. He resisted entering this cell, resisting listening to those words that seemed seductive and magical. But at this moment, a voice seemed to whisper in his mind:
Yuri took a deep breath and pressed the switch. The door opened.
When he stood at the doorway and looked in, his gaze immediately locked onto a metal sphere on the table, and he couldn't look away. Karl seemed unaware of his arrival, simply toying with the sphere.
Yuri watched as Karl bent a finger joint and pushed. The metal sphere began to roll across the table. But a bizarre scene unfolded. The sphere didn't move in a straight line. After rolling about ten centimeters, it suddenly paused as if grabbed by something, turned a visibly sharp corner on its own, continued rolling, and finally stopped in the center of the table. Throughout the process, the sphere emitted a continuous high-frequency .
Yuri frowned:
Then, Karl put the ball back and pushed it gently again. The sphere rolled along the exact same trajectory—not a millimeter off, the angle of the turn identical.
The third time, Karl moved the starting position about 10 centimeters closer to the edge. As the sphere rolled near the edge, it slowed down, turned, moved along the edge for a distance, and then stopped.
Only then did Karl look up and say to Yuri, "You're here. Please sit."
At this moment, Yuri's mind was filled only with the rolling trajectory of the sphere. He couldn't think of anything else; he even forgot the rhythm of his breathing. Karl pushed the ball to Yuri. "Try it."
The metal sphere felt cold. Yuri rubbed his fingers over the surface. It wasn't a perfect sphere; there were some slightly raised star-shaped ridges, almost invisible to the naked eye. Yuri felt a little more settled. So it was just a trick using ridges to create illusions. He felt a wave of disappointment and a bit of embarrassment—as an engineering professional, he was almost fooled by a layman.
Yuri casually placed the ball on the table and pushed. The sphere traced a new trajectory, deflected at an angle mid-way, rolled some distance, and stopped. Finally, it stopped near the desk lamp.
The lamp turned on. Just as Yuri was feeling disappointed, under the illumination of the lamp, the center of the sphere suddenly erupted with a blinding golden glow. A rainbow column of cyan, green, and purple Light projected from the center, while the steel surface displayed a four-fold symmetrical rainbow ring—blue, green, purple gradients. Karl spun the ball casually, and the ring patterns rotated like refracted Light and shadow.
Just then. The desk lamp and the cell's ceiling light went out simultaneously.
Yuri stood up instinctively, knocking his stool over with a dull thud. He drew his gun rapidly, muzzle pointed down at an angle, and growled low, "Major Von Reiss, what are you trying to do to me?"
Just as he was about to interrogate him, the air around the steel ball in the Darkness began to distort, creating visible heat waves. Then, that point of golden Light suddenly expanded violently in the dark, then contracted into a single spark within seconds... Three minutes later, only this point remained in the center of the sphere, as if mocking his cowardice in the dark.
The lights came back on.
Karl's voice was gentle: "Don't be nervous, Yuri. I just wanted to show you—some miracles do exist.
Yuri's throat felt scorched by fire. He sat down slowly, unbuttoning his top collar button. He remembered the whispering voice at the door:
And now, he truly saw it.
Time:
Countdown to Gemini Sector - 26 Days Location:
"Karl," Yuri looked straight at him, voice low and tight. "The things you've said to me these past few days... the so-called miracles you showed me... does it mean—you want me to do something?"
Karl didn't answer immediately. He uncorked a bottle of red wine, slow and deliberate. The liquid fell into the glass with a soft, clear sound. He lifted the glass to his nose, paused for a second, and took a small sip.
"Stardust Wine," he said. "The first sip is sweet. The second sip starts to taste bitter. Most people only remember the first sip."
He handed the glass to Yuri. Yuri took a sip. After the fruity aroma came a throat-stinging bitterness, finally turning into a burning spice in his stomach.
"You didn't sleep last night," Karl said. "You were in the lab."
Yuri's eyes were bloodshot. "That metal sphere," he lowered his voice. "I analyzed it at the atomic level. Cubic Structure, perfectly closed. There is a gold atom in the center, seemingly locked in a stable gravitational node, pulling eight endpoints."
He stopped, Adam's apple bobbing.
"With current human technology, it's impossible." Yuri looked up, eyes feverish. "This wasn't made by a machine, was it?"
Karl walked to the corner of the cell, looking up at the cold white ceiling light. "Yuri," he said. "You have a happy family. Two daughters, a wife who plays piano. Your life... is complete."
Yuri answered immediately, "Because I work hard, follow the rules, and fear God."
"Good." Karl turned around. "Then, there are at least ten million people who work as hard as you. They live in damp, dark places where they never see the sun." He took a step forward. "Tell me, is that what they deserve?"
Yuri frowned. "God is fair. If you don't work hard, you won't get rewards; but working hard doesn't guarantee success either."
Karl nodded slightly. "There is no problem with your logic. Let me ask you another question." He leaned closer to Yuri, his voice dropping very low. "Those people standing at the top of the pyramid, deciding your transfers, promotions, even your life and death—are they more devout than you?
Yuri opened his mouth, then closed it. "Smarter?" Karl continued. "Harder working?"
Yuri's throat tightened. He couldn't find the answer.
"So the question isn't whether you prayed," Karl said. "It's—where you stood when you prayed.
Yuri looked up sharply.
"You think prayer is a sentence, a posture." Karl's voice was like a spell. "But in my view, prayer is more like a Position
Karl raised his hand, gesturing in the air. "Like sound. If you shout in a valley, the echo is deafening; if you shout in a dense forest, the sound is absorbed layer by layer. The sound didn't change; the Structure
Yuri's breathing became rapid. "So..." he whispered. "Some people's prayers get answered, and some don't?"
"Not answered." Karl corrected him. "Resonance.
Yuri clenched his fists. "What about the Reaper?"
Karl smiled. It was a light, short smile. "The Reaper did nothing." He leaned down, close to Yuri's ear. "He doesn't reduce obstacles." "It's just that when you step closer to That Sidethe obstacles never existed.
Yuri's face went pale. "Then I... what have I been doing all these years?"
Karl's voice was almost a whisper. "Choosing." "You chose to obey." "You chose to execute." "You chose to send those people into passages you knew had no return."
He paused. "You weren't forced, Yuri." "You just, step by step, put yourself in a place where prayer is no longer needed.
Yuri spoke subconsciously, voice hoarse, his final resistance: "I... just followed orders... it wasn't my decision."
Karl didn't respond immediately, just watching him with a cold smile. Yuri's body trembled slightly. "Think about the souls that died by your hands," Karl said. "Not as sins." "But as DirectionThat Side
He straightened up, tone calm again. "You are just starting to realize it now."
Time:
Countdown to Gemini Sector - 22 Days Location:
When Yuri came to the cell on the last day, the crucifix that never left his chest was gone.
"My Lord," Yuri's voice was exceptionally low, carrying a sacrificial resolve. "What can I do for you?"
"I want to show you the final miracle." Karl's finger gently tapped a button on an oval metal sphere.
In the void, an incredibly beautiful woman appeared. Long black hair scattered over her shoulders, and golden stripes faintly flashed on her forehead. "Brother, look—Gold and Dust obey my summons." The woman's voice shouted excitedly.
Yuri only saw in the image: the woman closed her eyes, fingers pointing at the table. Metal fragments and granules mixed with gold dust gathered into a pyramid shape on the table. Yuri's eyes widened slowly.
In his pupils, those metal particles and gold dust were constantly combining, scattering, recombining. Scenes like lightning flashed from within. Space began to collapse; the powder melted and folded in the Light, as if not smelting, but being unified into one.
Minutes later, the pile of metal powder disappeared. On the table, a metal sphere appeared. Sunlight hit the sphere, and the whole body displayed rainbow colors with a golden tint.
Yuri finally knew the origin of the metal sphere he held in his hand. He stared blankly at it all, as if watching the miracle of the five loaves and two fish replayed in reality.
Long after, he suddenly realized that the road "to God" was never in the church, but in Cell 7 of this prison ship. He stood up slowly, walked to Karl, knelt on one knee, and bowed his head:
"Master, this world is yours." "You do not belong to me. You just stood in the position you were meant to stand." A hand rested on Yuri's shoulder.
(End of Chapter 123)
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