The Cycle of Civilization Beneath the Strata

Six hundred million years ago, the first civilization on this planet died within its own flesh and blood.

Later, humanity created the Intelligence Core and entrusted itself to machines. The Intelligence Core took charge of an empty planet and guarded a seal buried nine thousand meters below the surface for seventeen thousand years.

They called it "maintenance."

Wang Shu, a trainee researcher at the Shenwan Archives, found a file with its name erased among the old records. One line remained, though they had read it a thousand times without understanding it: The old order falls away, making way for a new birth.

The thing underground had been waiting for someone who could take it in. It had waited four hundred million years.

And they had waited seventeen thousand years, only to find that they were the ones afraid to reach out.

Civilization after civilization had died within its own vessel. The ones who survived were never the strongest, but the generation best at creating successors.