Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 2001: The Cosmic Web

A spaceship moved silently through the vast darkness between Meghilars and Crownus, carrying Ning through a region of space where even galaxies felt distant from one another.

There was nothing nearby that would have caught the attention of an ordinary person. No planets, no stars large enough to stand out, and no colorful nebulae stretching across the darkness. For most people, the view outside would have looked almost completely empty.

For Ning, it was better.

He sat near one of the windows and stared into the distance, allowing his True Vision to see into a world that no ordinary eyes could see.

When he did, the emptiness changed.

"Oh."

Ning leaned forward slightly.

The cosmic web stretched across the universe before him.

Galaxies existed in vast groups, connected through enormous structures that reached farther than any normal person could properly imagine. Some regions were incredibly dense, filled with galaxies clustered relatively close together, while others were almost entirely empty. From this perspective, those concentrations connected with one another until they resembled strands forming an impossibly large web.

It was beautiful.

Ning had seen planets from space. He had watched stars being born and destroyed. He had traveled between galaxies and crossed distances that civilizations could spend their entire existence trying to understand.

Even so, there were still sights that managed to make him stop and look.

The scale was perhaps the strangest part.

Each tiny concentration he perceived contained more stars than most people could count in their lifetime, and yet from here, they were simply another piece of a much larger structure.

Ning watched for a while before a thought entered his mind.

"System," he said. "Why doesn’t something like this form a Will? This is a recognizable structure spread across an enormous region of the universe. Constellations can form Wills because enough intelligent beings perceive the stars as something that exists together, right?"

At least conceptually, it was similar.

The cosmic web was far more physically connected than most Constellations ever were.

Yet as far as Ning knew, there was no Cosmic Web Will drifting somewhere in the universe.

<There is an important difference.>

<Intelligent beings are capable of directly perceiving planets, Constellations, and even galaxies. The cosmic web cannot normally be perceived by an individual intelligent being.>

Ning raised an eyebrow.

"So it doesn’t exist because it’s too big for anyone to see?"

<And too faint.>

Ning wasn’t entirely convinced.

"But people know the cosmic web exists, don’t they?"

<Knowledge alone doesn’t guarantee enough perception. Especially since the larger the Celestial object, the more perception it requires.>

"Ah!"

That made sense to him now.

Civilizations advanced enough to study the universe could map galaxies and determine the existence of larger structures. They could calculate how matter was distributed and create models showing the web itself.

But practically nobody looked into the sky and thought of the cosmic web as something immediately present before them.

It was an abstraction.

Something understood through data rather than something experienced.

"But the universe is perceived because even if people can’t see it, they can perceive it in their thoughts. It is an abstract concept for most, but they do understand that the world outside is vast."

<That is accurate. Their concept of the universe may be incorrect. Their assumed size may be incorrect. Their understanding of what exists beyond their world may also be incorrect. However, the concept itself remains present. The universe is perceived as the total space in which their existence occurs.>

That made Ning understand what the System meant.

Someone living on a primitive planet could believe the universe ended shortly beyond the stars visible in their night sky. Another civilization might understand galaxies but have no knowledge of anything farther away. A sufficiently advanced civilization could map enormous portions of space while still misunderstanding the true scale of everything around them.

Their understanding changed.

Their perception of being inside a universe did not.

"So it doesn’t matter that they can’t comprehend the whole thing," Ning said.

<Correct.>

"What matters is that the universe itself is always part of how they perceive existence."

<Correct.>

Ning nodded slowly.

That answered something he had wondered about more than once.

There was still another small issue, though.

"What about a Sun?" Ning asked. "People clearly perceive it. In some civilizations, the Sun is one of the most important things they know. They build religions around it. They give it names, stories, personalities, sometimes even sacrifices."

"But a Sun can’t form a Will."

<Because it does not fulfill the three requirements to form a Will.>

Ning narrowed his eyes in thought.

"A Sun should have more than enough energy. It has plenty of perception, even if it is from the people on a planet. And... oh. It does not have an Origin," Ning realized.

<Correct.>

A planet could possess an Origin. A Constellation was a collective, so it could possess such a planet. As for Galaxies and Universes, they had White Holes that acted as one.

A Star didn’t.

"Then what happens to all that perception?"

<Distance prevents intelligent beings from meaningfully separating most stellar perception from the planetary environment through which that perception occurs.>

Ning stared ahead for a few seconds.

Then he understood.

"Ah."

From the perspective of a person standing on a planet, the Sun was something in the sky. Its warmth reached the planet. Its light created day. Its movement defined time. Seasons, agriculture, weather, religions, calendars, and countless other parts of civilization developed around the consequences of that star.

But the people experiencing those things were still standing on their planet.

Even when their thoughts were directed toward the Sun, their experiences of it were rooted in the world beneath them.

"So the perception ends up strengthening the planet’s Will instead," Ning said.

<In most cases, yes.>

Ning smiled slightly.

"That’s convenient for the planet."

That was almost funny.

Ning looked outside once more.

The cosmic web remained visible as long as he focused properly, countless galaxies forming strands across distances so enormous that even his mind needed a moment to properly appreciate them.

Ning leaned back in his seat and sighed.

"Alright, I’ve put it off long enough. What System should we help Crownus make?"