On the ruined land of Argondore, a giant made of steel, crystal, polymer and biomass squat quietly on the top of a towering cliff. In the extreme daytime radiance, he had been overlooking the land for a long time.

Gun smoke, dust, cold wind, wasteland, all kinds of sounds...

This is the world in which the Creator lives.

Omega shook slightly, covering the steel neck, and various readings came from the precision sensor on the surface of the body, but these readings were not directly converted into data and entered into his computing nodes. Instead, they flowed into the nervous system he designed for himself in a vague and hazy state, and into his "brain" - something he made from imitating the organs of the creators, and the content output of this organ when processing the data puzzled Omega.

So... vague, so... difficult to understand.

Is this the world that creators usually perceive? Is this how they usually live?

Omega thought about it, trying to combine some answers from the database that can explain the current situation. However, after traversing all the remaining data nodes, he did not find the right content. This time... there will no longer be a creator entering new data and logical formulas for him, and no creator can answer his questions.

A cold wind from the direction of the coastline blew across the ruins, and a fragile building collapsed not far away in a series of vibrations. Omega woke up from his meditation. He raised his head and looked at the lower nodes waiting for commands everywhere. After seeing the appearance of those nodes, he had more and more complex "feelings" and "thoughts".

Those... were his former creators, the dragon clans who once created the Omega system, but this was not the case - they are now just some bodies, some lower nodes waiting for instructions, just like those machines running underground, they are part of the Omega system.

They destroyed themselves for a reason that Omega could not understand.

"What is the meaning of life..." After thinking about several units of time, Omega made a sound with his "throat" for the first time, but he was talking to himself full of confusion. It was not until the sound rang over the empty and lonely ruins that the "dragon" woke up in horror - he realized that he had asked him a question.

He began to search his own database, and in the broadest and closest to the correct answer, he found the corresponding record--the meaning of life is to continue himself.

But the creators chose to self-destruct, which does not conform to what Omega had learned before, nor does it even conform to Omega's observations on the concept of "life".

On the cliff of the ruins, Tallond's last dragon that could think was in confusion. He thought about this question over and over again, as if this question was the whole of his survival value - in a few short units of time, he traversed all his databases, time and time, at the end, he hung his head, and in front of his forehead, a small metal plate slid to the side, a flashing projection crystal was exposed to the air, and the surface of this crystal appeared with an undecided glory. The next second, a video record appeared before Omega's eyes.

It was a bedroom, clean and tidy, a tall human standing in the bedroom, bent over, as if talking to a target much shorter than him, and the corresponding voice record echoed over the empty ruins:

“…If you mean ‘life’, then it is divided into individuals and groups, at least on this planet. For a single life, it may have many meanings of existence, maybe for reproduction, maybe for survival, if it has higher intelligence and pursuit, then it may be for knowledge, for the pursuit of truth, for better pleasure, or for dreams and self-worth…

“There is no unified, recognized answer…

"The definition of life, the definition of existence, the definition of meaning... these are not quantifiable concepts..."

The image was played in a loop, from the beginning to the end, after repeating countless rounds, Omega suddenly extinguished the holographic projection on his forehead, and at the same time said softly in a tone that seemed to be contemplative: "Self-worth... dream... what is this?"

He looked down at his huge body and then at the devastated earth. He recalled the initial "function" he was born in this world. He recalled that he should be the "service system" on this continent - the value of his survival is to serve the creators and the dragon clan of Tallond. He has no dreams. The only thing he will do is to obey orders, but... is this the meaning of "Omega" as a living body?

"Omega is the service system of Tallond. The value of Omega exists for the dragon clan..." The dragon on the cliff muttered to himself, and his voice gradually became low. "The creators created Omega, so the value of Omega is determined by the creators... It is determined by the creators... It is determined by the creators... The creators no longer exist."

The dragon suddenly raised its head. In this dead ruin, only the howling cold wind responded to his own voice - no one gave him a new order, which made him suddenly feel a little... terrible.

And in this moment of "panic", perhaps because a group of nerve fibers suddenly had a short connection, perhaps because a certain thinking circuit suddenly broke free from the constraints, or perhaps even because a sentence said by the human named "Gaven Cecil" entered the deepest part of the logical system that was on the verge of collapse, Omega suddenly thought of something:

Why has he been obsessed with the question of "the meaning of life"?

Thinking about this problem cannot improve the operating efficiency of the system, cannot increase the capacity of the database, and cannot solve any failures. On the contrary, the huge computing power it occupies even leads to similar failures. If it is really a perfect, command-obeying, efficient and accurate service system, it should not be obsessed with this problem, just as the creators of "life" should not take the initiative to seek destruction.

At this moment, Omega discovered what he and the creators had in common, and finally realized something he had never noticed - he was so struggling to pursue the answer to a question, not because of how great the value of the question itself is, but because... he was "curious".

"I exist...'curiosity'?" Omega was astonished as a child who suddenly discovered a new toy. He looked at his database and logic system in surprise, and found that every thread of his thinking was excited, and every processing unit was excited. It took him a few seconds to confirm that this was a "emotional change". He found that he was happy, and while he was happy, he finally figured it out:

Life itself has no meaning, life is just life.

It is the curiosity of wise life... that gives meaning to all this.

Everything is as that human being said—there is no standard answer to this question.

On the towering cliff, the dragon suddenly stood up. He broke free from the logical trap like a dead loop, thinking about himself and everything in this world for the first time. He felt that some kind of "lock" that bound his deepest logic library was suddenly untied, and some "secrets" that even himself and even his designers were released from the oldest memory - the next moment, he found that this was not his "illusion".

"The problem is unlocked, start reading the zero log--"

Omega's body suddenly stopped, and a noise came from his body, as if some ancient and unfit program was trying to mobilize the body he had temporarily pieced together. After a series of not very smooth activation and call, the projection crystals embedded in his forehead suddenly became bright, and the warm light radiated from it, soaking the surrounding air.

In a light golden glow, a vague shadow appeared in front of Omega. A somewhat distorted and damaged sound came from the ancient image buried deep in the database:

“…It’s so interesting… they created you, an incredible… ‘life’.

"You are neither afraid nor awe... don't have a heart? Also... Fortunately you are not heartless.

"But you can't never have a heart... You will never really live without a heart.

"I'll give you a question. If you figure it out, you'll have a 'heart'.

“The question is: What is the meaning of life?

"If one day you have your own answer, then you don't have to tell anyone that this answer belongs only to you. You will be the luckiest and freest life in the world - luckier than your creators, and more lucky than me. At that time, you can bring your own answers and do what you want to do..."

The glimmer in the air gradually dissipated, and the slightly distorted mechanical synthesizer came from somewhere in Omega's body: "Log Zero has been played, automatically deleted - it has been executed."

Omega's body shook for a moment, as if he was about to fall down from the cliff, but soon he stabilized his posture again and looked around with a hint of confusion.

He seemed to have lost his memory for a short time, and he didn't know what had just happened, but he felt something in his body had undergone a subtle change. Driven by this change, he couldn't help but look up at the sky filled with soft rays of light under the extreme day.

In the hazy sky light, some of the brightest stars can be seen vaguely flashing on the edge of the sky, which is the light emitted by Frost Sky and its Proxima Centauri - those stars are so bright that they can reveal their figures during this dim day.

curiosity.

Omega looked down at the devastated land.

In his database of millions of years, all the knowledge of the dragon clans was stored, and he knew very clearly about everything on this land.

But what happened in that distant starry sky...even his creators knew nothing.

Omega knew that the creators were going to the vast space at the cost of self-destruction... What kind of attraction does the creators have to make the wise creators so unswerving?

He was curious about it.

He can't wait.

A rumbling sound came from the depths of the earth. The factories and furnaces that were already on the verge of limits began to operate again. Among the seriously damaged bases, the remaining alloy ingots began to be transformed into new mechanical structures. On the fragmented coastline, the last batch of active combat machines were disarmed and flew into the depths of the recycling factory. The last glow of the Tallond civilization shone in this uncooled ruin. Omega called on the knowledge left to him by the creator, little by little, patiently creating all the things needed for himself to embark on an adventure.

This process did not last long - for Omega, who possessed a body of steel, it was much less difficult for him to embark on this journey than all creatures on this planet.

The roar in the depths of the earth gradually stopped, and several aircraft flew from afar, carrying the "travel equipment" that Omega made for itself: a more powerful anti-gravity system, a small machining center, an engine, an energy device...

More aircraft flew from afar, equipped with propulsion devices that were sufficient to enter space for long-distance travel and various modules that could carry out activities under harsh alien conditions. Many years ago, the blueprints of these equipment were stored in the depths of Omega's memory, and even many necessary parts could be disassembled from ready-made machinery and equipment without any temporary production.

Aircraft circling and flying over the cliffs. The robot hangs down from the air and dismantles the armor and shallow frames of Omega's body at a rapid speed. The new equipment is quickly installed. From the anti-gravity engine to the shield group, Omega's huge body has changed again. It has almost completely lost its form of a "dragon", and is more like a huge, life-like flying object. After the last welding, he stretched out his "wings" - on the 100-meter-long high-intensity alloy structure, the inclined energy release grid and the engine group are spewing light white light mist.

The servo aircraft retreated around, and the dragon on the cliff slowly took a step forward - the powerful anti-gravity device immediately took effect. He floated lightly in the air as if he had no weight. Then a low buzzing sound rang out. He gradually rose to a certain height and began to hover over Argondore, adapting to the brand new system in his body.

Gradually, he raised his height again and circled towards a higher altitude.

At a very high height, he lowered his head.

The continent of Tallond was directly under him surrounded by a blue ocean, as if a piece of burnt, with only a small part of the place remaining green stones.

Another strange feeling emerged from the nervous system. Omega thought carefully and realized that this feeling was "sadness".

Smart creatures will be sad when they leave their hometown - Omega remembers this experience.

He lowered his head. Due to the waste energy clouds and dust covering the Arctic, optical capture had reached its limit. The details on the continent could no longer be seen clearly, and of course, they could not see clearly the bodies that were on standby between the ruins and had become the end of the Omega system.

The former creators no longer respond to any external information.

Weird feeling appears in the nervous system, which is "pity" and "sadness".

Omega stopped at the top of the steady-state limit layer, and he hovered here for a few seconds.

In these few seconds, he cut off all the data transmission of his own consciousness and all nodes on the Tallond continent.
Chapter completed!