Civilization does not only progress — it can also regress.

Tasmania was once connected to the Australian continent. Ten thousand years ago, sea levels rose rapidly, turning Tasmania into an isolated island, cut off from the rest of the world. When European settlers later arrived on the island, they found that the indigenous inhabitants had lost even basic tool-making skills — even the simplest ability to bind hard stone or animal bone to wood to create spears, arrows, or axes. They couldn’t do it at all!

Their level of development was, if anything, more primitive than the Paleolithic era!

Though surrounded on all sides by ocean, rich with fish, they did not know how to fish.

Even in winter they made no clothing, only smearing animal fat on their bodies for warmth.

The one and only skill they retained — perhaps the only worthwhile one — was making fire.

Yet it should be noted: the original Tasmanian people had once possessed advanced hunting and fishing techniques! Which meant that over those ten thousand years of isolation, the Tasmanians had gradually lost most of the technology and knowledge of their ancestors.

“Without external technological input, and with a population too small to sustain knowledge transmission, civilizations in certain regions underwent regression — this is the famous Tasmania Island Effect,” Tu Shenshi said, unhurriedly. “Or perhaps one could put it this way: within a society of limited scale, there likely exists an upper ceiling on civilizational development.”

“What does that have to do with the puppet world?” Bai Youwei asked, puzzled.

Tu Shenshi: “If one were to say that human civilization is a material civilization, then ours leans more toward a spiritual civilization. We have no gender, no age, no distinctions of skin color or religion — only rich spiritual consciousness, from which we construct worlds of every variety.

“Of course, our civilization also has war, has conflict — one side eliminating another, one side absorbing another. Through continuous evolution and transformation, our individual spiritual consciousnesses gradually unified… until at last, we became ‘me.’ Can you understand what I mean?”

Shen Mo frowned. “You… are the last individual of your civilization? The Tasmania Island Effect?”

“Yes.” Tu Shenshi smiled and nodded. “If every human being on Earth achieved perfect unity of thought — identical concepts, ideas, language, even modes of thinking — that would be humanity’s extinction.”

It looked out at the infinite cubes stretching in every direction and gave a quiet sigh: “The puppet world is a toy, and also a path toward civilizational revival. The rich spiritual data generated by the games can help me undergo consciousness fission — ah, you may not be able to fully understand this. The monitors you encountered are all products of consciousness fission. Though some individual consciousnesses are not yet entirely stable, each one of them is precious.”

“No wonder…” Bai Youwei murmured. “That noodle being seemed to have said you are all one, an existence that transcends human beings.”

“Yes.” Tu Shenshi smiled softly. “In the past we sought unity; now, to avert civilizational collapse, we need division — we need a sufficient number of individual spiritual entities, of sufficient strength in their ideological forms: mischievous and lively ones, perfectionistic ones, rigid and conservative ones, timid and cautious ones, volatile and chaotic ones… spiritual entities of every kind, adding vitality to our civilization.

“As long as such individuals are numerous enough and strong enough, even if the Puppet Game no longer exists in the future, the rich array of spiritual entities will propagate endlessly. When that day comes, a civilization will have truly, genuinely, been revived.”

Having said all of this, it looked once more at Bai Youwei, Shen Mo, and the others.

“You are the victors of the decisive battle, each possessing formidable will. You may choose to stay — to participate in civilizational revival — or you may choose to return to your original place, treat all of this as though it never happened, and live out the rest of your lives in peace.”

Bai Youwei was filled with disbelief. “The Puppet Game, the decisive battle, the labyrinth, the monitors… you went to all of this trouble — all of it was for the sake of reviving your own civilization?”

“Not solely that…” Tu Shenshi thought it over, then smiled and looked at Bai Youwei. “Because I… am so terribly lonely.”

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