Scientists would never imagine being drowned in the ocean of knowledge.

The ‘Deity’ suddenly appears, happily answering every question posed by mankind.

Until the last question humans posed.

They asked the ‘Deity’, “How can we become like you?”

1

“Teacher!”

In the quiet exam room, I suddenly raised my hand to call the invigilator.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem with the question?” The invigilator came to my side after hearing my request.

“There’s an answer sheet in my drawer.” I looked at her with the sincerest expression I could manage, a mix of obedience and grievance in my eyes.

“This…” The invigilator, seemingly encountering such a situation for the first time, looked urgently at the other invigilator.

Quickly, I became the focal point of the examination hall.

To prevent disturbing the other students, an invigilator took me out of the examination hall.

“Is this answer sheet yours?”

“It isn’t mine. It inexplicably appeared in my drawer.”

“If the thing is not yours, how did it end up in your drawer? Didn’t we say before the exam to check the drawers?”

“I checked it! This thing just appeared out of thin air. If it was mine, why would I raise my hand and let you guys know?”

The invigilator was at a loss for words for a moment.

At that moment, the head of the invigilation team passed by and saw me talking to the invigilator outside the examination hall, so he came over and asked, ‘What’s wrong? Is there anything this candidate needs?’

‘Team Lead, you came at the right time. This student said he found an answer sheet in his drawer.’ The invigilator handed the answer sheet to the team lead.

The leader frowned, took a careful look at the answer, and his frown deepened, even becoming a bit flustered.

“Where did you get this?” The leader asked me severely, pointing at the answer sheet.

Seeing him so furious, I couldn’t indulge him and stood upright, righteously denying, ‘It’s not mine, it appeared out of nowhere, if you don’t believe it, you can check the surveillance.’

‘Check it! We must check!’

The invigilator and I were frightened by the leader’s voice, which echoed throughout the entire teaching building.

The invigilator quickly pulled the group leader aside.

Even though they did their best to keep their voices down, I could still hear them.

“Team Lead, isn’t this going too far?”

“Going too far? Take a close look at this answer sheet. This is the correct answer to the exam!”

‘Can’t be? Is this considered a leak of the exam?’

‘I’m telling you, we have to take this matter seriously. Today is the last day of the college entrance examination, we can’t allow any mishap. If we don’t handle it well, we won’t be able to do this job anymore.’

Then the two brought me to the surveillance room.

After reviewing the surveillance footage over and over again, the two finally believed my words. The answer did indeed appear in my drawer out of nowhere.

‘Team Lead, what should we do now?’

‘What should we do? I’ve been invigilating for over 20 years and I’ve never encountered such a situation.’

‘Should we… call the police?’

‘Call the police? Are you crazy?’ The leader glared at the invigilator and then told me, ‘You go back to the exam first.’

I gave the leader a blank look, he wasted my time, what else could I accomplish if I went back?

But I didn’t want to cause more trouble, so I followed the invigilator back to the exam room.

I had just sat down and was about to pick up my pen to write, and I noticed a piece of white paper poking out of my drawer. I pulled it out and it’s another answer sheet.

I raised my hand again. The invigilator, who probably guessed what had happened, hurried over. Seeing another answer sheet appearing in my drawer, he almost fell over.

He looked at me, his eyes full of the expression ‘How come there’s another one?’.

I shook my head, indicating that I knew nothing.

The invigilator crumpled up the answer sheet and gestured for me to continue the exam.

I nodded, about to continue writing, but once again I saw a paper filled with answers in my drawer.

…

As the bell rang, the broadcast announced that candidates should put down their pens, and no new answer sheets appeared in my drawer.

In total, the invigilator and I ended up retrieving over twenty answer sheets from my drawer.

The invigilator quickly organized the other candidates to leave the examination room, leaving only me.

A short while later, the group leader of the invigilation team arrived. He saw the exam room covered in paper and understood what had happened without needing any explanation.

With no other choice, he reported to the higher-ups.

After the team leader repeatedly explained and swore he hadn’t gone insane, the superiors were finally willing to deploy a team to the examination hall.

Later, I and the invigilator tirelessly explained what had happened to these people.

They kept a skeptical attitude and thought it was just a case of exam leakage even when they held the correct answers to the exam in their hands. But, for the part where we said the answers appeared out of thin air, they thought we were insane.

‘Check the surveillance!’ The team leader once again used his hysterical outburst to subdue everyone.

Indeed, after watching the surveillance, everyone’s brows furrowed even more deeply.

‘I suppose this is considered a supernatural phenomenon.’ An older professor within the group with more authority said, ‘I’ve lived so long, and this is the first time I’ve seen a supernatural event with my own eyes.’

‘Should we try and make the answer appear in the drawer again?’

‘We can try.’

So, the group followed the professor back to the exam room and he sat at my exam desk under everyone’s watchful eyes. But after waiting for over ten minutes, the drawer remained empty.

‘Could I try?’ I said weakly amongst the crowd.

The professor nodded and gave his seat up to me.

But the drawer was still empty.

“Perhaps it only works during a test,” I guessed. “Could a teacher give me a test paper? A simulation paper will do.” Another invigilator ran back to his office and randomly picked a simulation paper, then returned and put it on my desk. ‘Let’s complete the process and treat it like a formal examination. Everyone else should go to the surveillance room and watch.’ The professor called everyone besides the invigilator out of the exam room.

Now, only the invigilator and I remained in the exam room.

‘Cough cough… now I will read the exam rules…’ The invigilator began the simulation examination like a formal test.

I also got into condition, carefully looking at the questions on the test and trying my best to ignore whether there were answers in the drawer.

I just finished the first question when the door to the exam room was pushed open, and the professor quickly entered. Seeing his anxious state, I quickly checked the drawer.

Sure enough, there was a paper filled with answers in my drawer.

The professor held the paper in his hands like a treasure and then compared it with my test paper.

‘Absolutely correct.’ The professor’s voice shook a little in excitement. For a moment, I was afraid he would faint from the excitement.

Following that, the school was entirely locked down and publicly announced as being for renovation planning.

More and more distinguished individuals like the professor came to the school, a few of whom I even saw on television, famous scientists included.

After several comparative experiments over a few days, scientists eventually summed up the phenomena of the appearing answers.

I must be the examinee.

During the exam, there must be, and no more than, three invigilators present.

The exam paper must list the questions in a specific format, and each question must have a score with a total not exceeding 150 points.

The exam process must follow the standard procedure of the college entrance examination.

After the exam, the answers will no longer appear.

Having ascertained the pattern and conditions under which the answers appeared, the scientists began to let their imaginations run wild. And I began to ponder with the papers in my hand.

“Please elaborate on the formation process of the universe. (10 points)”

“Please list 10 planets with alien civilizations that are closest to the Earth. (1 point each, total 10 points)”

“Please elaborate on the evolution process of humans and your predictions for human development in the future. (10 points)”

“……”

Seeing these questions, I even doubted if the answers would appear in my drawer.

In reality, after waiting for about ten or so minutes, my drawer began to overflow like a breached dam, spewing out countless sheets of paper filled with words.

The invigilators and I quickly started collecting them, we collected as if we were gathering water, stacking each completed pile to the side.

This process continued for more than twenty minutes.

When we finally placed the last stack of answers down, both the invigilators and I were exhausted, lying among the piles of paper.

“The exam…..the exam is over, please…..please stop answering the questions.” The invigilator, breathless, stated. I truly admire his professionalism.

Subsequently, the scientists, as if they had found a treasure, rushed in, carefully picking up the piles of paper from the floor as if they were cradling a baby.

I didn’t care; I just hoped that after all this, I would have a chance to retake the test. After all, with my strength of being in the top ten of the school, I didn’t need those answers.

After the scientists had their fill, the only ones left in the exam hall were the invigilator and I.

“Teacher, aren’t you curious how these papers came to be?”

“If the smartest of us don’t want to know, why would I be interested? All I know is that after all this, we small figures will have a chance to stand out.”

After a moment of silence, I said, “Teacher, I want to know who sent these papers.”

“Alright, since no one is around to check on us, tell me what you want to ask, and I’ll help you set the questions.”

With that, I followed the invigilator to the office, where we sat by a computer and started creating a test.

“We’ll use the template for a language arts paper.” I said, “For the question…let’s write it this way: ‘Please write a composition introducing yourself, there is no word limit, but no poems are allowed.’”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Alright.”

Returning to the exam hall, the invigilator read the exam rules aloud, a recitation he had done dozens of times today and would likely never forget in the future.

“The exam begins.”

As soon as the invigilator declared the start of the exam, I began eagerly waiting for the answer in my drawer.

Not long after, a piece of paper appeared in my drawer. Unlike the previous answers which were all printed, this one had been written by hand, each character beautifully penned within its square.

With excitement, I took it out, and the invigilator also came to me excitedly, our shared enthusiasm wasn’t less than what the scientists had felt just moments ago.

Clearing my throat, I began to read the text on the paper aloud:

“I don’t have a name or a physical form as you humans understand it, I can be self-contained or superimposed, I won’t die though I’m not technically living. I believe you have a term that describes me perfectly, and that is - teacher. From here on, to facilitate your understanding, I will introduce myself and my purpose based on your human cognition. I was born before the formation of the universe, wandering in all its corners, using my unlimited time to question my existence. Finally, during my wanderings, I discovered something interesting, that is - life. There is countless life in outer space as you humans fantasize, and they all take different forms. After I discovered life, I shifted from aimless wandering to curious observation. During my unlimited time, I even felt lonely for the first time due to a specific event, specifically, the demise of life. Every life that sprung forth on every planet will eventually succumb to death, some because of war, some because of disaster, and some because of diseases… This kind of end is disappointing. I knew that in this finite universe, life would expire at a specific moment, I kept wondering why life would die, until one day, I finally understood. Life cannot forsake the desire for knowledge since its birth. Facing curiosity at birth, life will strive to pursue, only knowledge is the key to continuing life’s development, but without someone to guide, life will inevitably hit a dead end within its limited span. Therefore, I decided to satisfy life’s curiosity unconditionally, using my unlimited time and knowledge to fulfill all of life’s developmental needs. In your words, I want to do all this as simply as breathing, although I don’t need to breathe. This desk’s drawer is your communication channel with me, I will answer everything you want to know. You only need to do one thing, let life continue, without the shackles of knowledge, your only purpose for existence is to live, while my purpose for existence is to allow you to live. As for you, child, you are the intermediary between humans and me. I have found an intermediary in every group of life forms. The selection criteria are not difficult, you only need to report to your counterparts that there is an answer in their drawer, that is all. Yet even so, only a small percentage of life forms can do this, but I don’t blame you, after all, the desire for personal gain will also cease to exist in due course during the process of knowledge exploration.”

“It sounds like a god.” The invigilator shrugged.

“According to what’s written here, the purpose of our future existence is to live?”

“Pretty much, the rest of them are that, while you kind of mixed in with being the human class president.

“Will those scientists have as many questions as it says in the answer here?”

The invigilator looked out the window, seeing those scientists still laughing and crying madly for those stacks of answers.

“Yes, once the world has the answers, more questions will emerge.”

“Do I need to show this ‘Self Introduction’ essay to the scientists?”

“Go ahead, they will like it and will be even crazier.”

2

The arrival of the “Teacher” transformed humans from a proud ant in the universe to a humble student among countless civilizations in the universe.

As the invigilator had said, scientists received all the answers they could ever want, but these answers themselves only served as the genesis of the next question.

It’s like knowing that 1+1=2, we then start to wonder why 1+1 can only be 2, or why 1 needs to be added to 1.

Knowledge is endless. We once thought that seeking the answer to a question required countless day and night efforts, and now it merely takes one exam and one examiner.

That desk spews out papers filled with answers almost every day, and I take exams almost every day or rather, I help our human “Teacher” disseminate knowledge.

Despite seeing myself working on this task for the rest of my life, the only things I need to do are to sit at my seat, collect and tidy up the answers, and then pass them to the scientists outside.

Even though I act as an essential “intermediary” between human civilization and the “Teacher”, answering all requests, my work is relatively monotonous except for occasional excitement due to heavyweight issues resulting in a room full of papers.

The only consolation is that I can feel the leap forward that humans have taken based on the “Teacher’s” answers, the strong sense of societal need makes me kind of proud.

However, compared to this minor pride, I yearned more for freedom- the scientists’ obsession left me little to no chance to leave the exam hall.

Eventually, as an “intermediary”, after bargaining with the scientists and the person in charge, I was granted a leave of four days every month.

It might sound like not much, but it’s like working six days and getting one day off, so I divided these four days evenly over the four weeks of every month.

As the first-weekend leave was approaching, I was notably excited, and the pace at which I was collecting the answers from my desk’s drawer also increased significantly.

The scientists also understood that I was taking a day off tomorrow, hence they seemed a bit blue which led to an increase in the number of questions by several times.

“If they could swim in the sea of knowledge someday, they might not even want to wear swimming trunks.”

Thinking this, I finally made it to my first day off.

Stepping outside of the exam hall, I took a look back at the school that had been commandeered.

All buildings had been renovated, and the most conspicuous was a huge golden sign standing at the highest point, reading “The Examination of Human Civilization”.

At first glance, it seemed like humans had made a golden placard for themselves, still flaunting their once pride and self-esteem.

Although human knowledge had grown by leaps and bounds, there was still a diversity of aesthetics. I never dared to look at that golden sign for the second time.

Finally, I returned to the bustling city, where everything seemed to be the same as the day I went for the college entrance examination - there were still four-wheeled vehicles on the road, and people with two legs on the sidewalks.

I got home to find that my parents had prepared dinner in advance knowing that I was going to take a vacation. They might have spent a long time accepting and understanding my job as a “middleman”. However, all they needed to know was that I was far better than other youngsters on earth.

Of course, not only my parents knew about my vacation. When the news spread, relatives and neighbors flocked to my house, with those bringing gifts, those trying to curry favor, and those looking for help.

My parents blocked wave after wave of people for me, but they never seemed to be bothered. Instead, they looked happier with every passing moment because my situation was something to be proud of.

I had thought it would be an easy day, but the scientists of the examination hall beckoned me back before I could finish my mother’s handmade steak.

Compared to their re-emerging new problem, my steak desire seemed somewhat overwhelmed. They were so impassioned that they couldn’t wait for a second longer. All they wanted was for me to return to the examination hall and continue my “middleman” duties immediately.

I was somewhat helpless and wanted to share something with my parents, but seeing their expectant faces made me hold back.

……

Tomorrow is the second vacation of this month. I’m prepared to be “bombarded” continuously by the scientists.

Sure enough, the scientists smiled as they placed a whole stack of test papers in front of me. I nodded and smiled as I accepted their quest for knowledge.

At that moment, I even wondered if the ’teacher’ would ever feel as outwardly cordial but inwardly upset as I did. Until the scientists left, I noticed, that this so-called ‘scientist’ was just a robot.

This made me curious about the outside world.

On the day of my second vacation, I left the examination hall and noticed out of the corner of my eye that the panel that originally read “Examination of Human Civilization” was no longer a golden plaque but a holographic projection changing color.

The vehicles on the street no longer sped along the road on four wheels but hovered above the road, flashing neon. The pedestrians were all wearing matching light-colored clothes, and unlike the fast-paced life I saw them live last week, they all seemed to be enjoying themselves now.

Labor was replaced by intelligence, and the acquisition, processing, and distribution of resources were fully automated. Work became a thing of the past. With all the obstacles to survival removed, all that was left was to enjoy. Endless knowledge-seeking led to a technological breakthrough last week.

Population, disease, environment, and so on, these problems were all solved in an instant of technological explosion. This is the power of knowledge. Under the guidance of the ’teacher’s’ answers, some fallacies have now become truths, and some past truths are now regarded as jokes.

When I got home, I saw my parents lying in bed with virtual reality devices on their heads, and a robot beside them was cooking celery stir-fried beef for me.

I don’t know what my parents are seeing in the virtual device, but given how things are going now, even the outrageous scenarios in virtual reality might be realized in real life.

Eating the robot-made celery stir-fried beef, I felt that the supremely fresh celery and tender and juicy beef were not as good as my father’s half-cooked celery and slightly burnt beef.

The vacation hadn’t ended yet, and I had already returned to the examination hall.

Looking at the un-clean blackboards in the examination hall, the wallpaper that was about to fall off the wall, smelling the musty smell coming from the desks and chairs, I only then realized that the world outside of the examination hall seemed to be devoid of any smell, which made me feel like there wasn’t any air outside, like I hadn’t been breathing, like I hadn’t been alive.

……

It was the third day of vacation this month.

On the day before the vacation, the scientists did not give me a lot of test papers as usual, even a lot less than before.

I didn’t wonder why. I just placed the answers according to the routine.

When I finished, the scientists walked into the examination hall. This time they didn’t embrace a pile of answers like mad as they did before. Instead, they took me out of the examination hall.

It wasn’t until we arrived at a huge open space aboard a strangely shaped spaceship that I noticed that a crowd had gathered near the open space, cheering excitedly.

I didn’t know what people were celebrating, nor did I know why the surrounding scientists were constantly adjusting their bow ties, even my long-neglected hair was combed by someone.

“We seem to be meeting someone,” I thought to myself.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, ten aircraft appeared overhead, and as the crowd got even more rapturous, the scientists also stood up straight.

When the ten aircraft landed, slowly the cabin doors began to open, and a long ramp extended from the bottom of the doors down to the ground.

There at the cabin doors of the ships, countless creatures of different shapes and forms were seen coming down from above.

Ten ships, ten types of creatures, or more accurately, they should be called - aliens.

I finally understood why today was such a grand occasion. This was the first time in human history face-to-face with alien races. These ten alien races were all the ten planets in the original question “Please list 10 planets with alien civilizations that are closest to Earth.”

Seeing aliens for the first time made me a little nervous, but when I put on the simultaneous translation earphones, I found that these aliens were not much different from us, just a bit strange-looking.

Through conversation, all the scientists who visited Earth this time were scientists and “middlemen” from their respective alien races, and they had come all this way to discuss cooperation with us.

Including human scientists, the alien scientists all agree that the knowledge of a single civilization is too unilateral.

If the ten alien races plus humans, a total of eleven races, eleven “middlemen”, will have eleven communication channels with the “teacher” and eleven completely different perspectives of knowledge seeking.

Perhaps a new, all-inclusive, new cosmic civilization will be born.

Co-operation went smoothly, but it was more of a coincidence between cross-territorial races than negotiation.

During the meeting, we eleven “middlemen” also had a simple exchange.

From the mouths of the alien “middlemen,” I learned about their experience of becoming a “middleman” and how they asked questions to the “teacher.”

Although the “middlemen” come from different planets and have different lives, in our conversation we occasionally miss our race’s dues past - perhaps this is a resonance of being a “middleman.”

In our “middleman” point of view, the “teacher” has brought us endless knowledge, but also deprived us of the process of exploring knowledge. The desire for knowledge cannot be changed, because it is instinct, but the path to knowledge is optional. Maybe to look at the scenery along the way to civilization before hitting a dead end of development, might be more meaningful than just surviving smoothly.

Of course, this is all just our “middlemen’s” own ideas. Compared to the weight of an entire civilization, our ideas seem frivolous and wishful thinking, after all in reality, who will have a bag that forever produces gold coins and not use it?

This meeting with the aliens was nearing its end, and one of the human scientists suddenly posed a question - the issue of freedom of the “middlemen.”

When the words were spoken, I couldn’t help but sigh, our people are indeed more humane.

“The existence of the ’teacher’ has brought about unprecedented knowledge freedom for each civilization. Each individual of these civilizations is enjoying this freedom, except for the ‘middlemen’,” said the human scientist to everyone. “It is great to trade one person’s freedom for the freedom of an entire civilization, but it is also brutal. Can we, with all our unlimited knowledge, let the ‘middlemen’ enjoy the meaning of life like the rest of us?” Listening to the appeal of my fellow scientists, I was nearly moved to tears, but when I looked around, the gathering of scientists was looking at each other in apprehension and hesitation.

“At present, we can only do our best to fulfill all the ‘middlemen’s’ requirements to make up for their hard work, after all, we have tried the method of removing the ‘middlemen’ and it didn’t work.” said an alien scientist who looked like a squid while dripping slime.

“Perhaps many of you here have not understood the deep meaning of my question, let me put it straightforwardly, is there a possibility that one day we will no longer need the ’teacher’ and become a ’teacher’ ourselves?” said the human scientist seriously.

“The presence of the ’teacher’ transcends all things in the universe, if we want to become like the ’teacher’… this is a little unrealistic.” says a ‘middleman’ made entirely of stones.

“Yet we all know that knowledge is infinite, it’s just a little bit of trouble. I believe there must be some way to make it, maybe we can ask the ’teacher’ how to become an entity like it?”

“This issue might be more complex than asking the ‘Mentor’ about how the universe came to be,” I interjected.

The scientists and ‘mediators’ present initially were stunned by my comment but then burst into laughter.

“It’s not that complicated.”

“Are you saying you don’t know how the universe came to be?”

“That’s basic knowledge, you should revisit it.”

“… …”

In this bustling hall, it seemed that I was the only one ignorant about the formation of the universe, ah… Yes, I was the only one.

These uproarious people finally quieted down and started discussing the question of how one becomes a ‘Mentor’, once again.

Finally, in this hall filled with wisdom, the scientists made the following arrangements:

[Question Raising Plan]

Human civilization will raise the question, “How to become an existence like the ‘Mentor’?”

Drawing lessons from the results of previous substantial questions, the scientists decided to hollow out Mars to serve as the ’examination hall’, to store the upcoming flurry of answers.

One week of preparation time will be given during which the technology of all eleven civilizations will be gathered, all for the sake of this question.

……

Looking at the plans written in my hands, I swallowed my saliva.

Hollowing out Mars in a week… recalling the transformations in human technology in the past week, I decided to believe in this plan that seemed like a joke to me. The only regret was that I would miss my fourth vacation day next week. After the [Question Raising Plan] was released, the civilizations of the eleven races also began to accelerate the advancement of their technological levels through question raising, to speed up the plan of hollowing out Mars. It can be said that the technological levels of all civilizations are increasing at an unprecedented speed.

But I, for one, didn’t care about all of this, I was only concerned about one thing, whether raising this issue would bring about some irreversible consequences.

As a ‘mediator’ who doesn’t even know how the universe was formed, I couldn’t figure out what those consequences could be. If there were any, then they were purely intuitive.

A week passed quickly, and the [Question Raising Plan] began to be implemented as per plan.

I left the examination hall and followed the scientists to the launch pad. There, a spaceship that looked strikingly like a crescent moon rested on the ground, and standing by its side was my old acquaintance - the original examination invigilator.

“Mentor, why are you here?”

“They said there needed to be a sense of ritual. Since I was the one who invigilated the first examination, I should be the one to invigilate this one as well. There should be continuity.”

I shrugged at that. Despite holding an abundant amount of knowledge and technology, humans still couldn’t let go of their sense of romanticism.

I boarded the ship with the invigilator. Of course, the examination desk joined us.

As per the instructions given by the scientists, I pushed the start button. All that was needed now was for the smart system to help us choose the flight route. Everything was so simple.

As the spaceship took off, I looked out of the window and saw masses of people outside the examination hall building. They were cheering and dancing, appearing like waves from mid-air.

I noticed that the sign saying ‘Human Civilization’s Examination Hall’ has now been transformed into a panel composed of some kind of floating particles, making the words on the panel seem fluid like water flow. The technology to create this was far beyond my imagination.

The ship moved rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, we were outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Mentor, like you said, with every answer comes more questions.”

“As long as infinite knowledge exists, it is inevitable that infinite questions will arise.”

“No, I meant that humans themselves have become the problem.”

“Humans themselves?”

“I know that human development is fast now, almost condensing a thousand years of slow progress into weeks, but to me, it feels like this isn’t really living, or perhaps humans have already died.”

“What died is your previous perception of humans,” the invigilating mentor seemed to understand my thoughts: “Humans are still alive, living by the meaning ‘Mentor’ gave them, and even though not as you said, dead, humans are now almost like the walking dead, laden with the fast technology.”

“Isn’t it clear?”

“Let me give you an example, the first half of human life is like a child, curious about everything, putting everything in their mouth, crying when choked, laughing when they taste the sweetness, acquiring knowledge is not easy yet gaining emotions is easier, so life’s first feelings overcame the rationality of knowledge, humans then lived relying on feelings, until the ‘Mentor’ appeared. Infinity knowledge brings infinite rationality, and even it’s easier than gaining emotions. Therefore, rationality wins over sentimentality. When there is reason and evidence instead of affection and love, the only thing left is to try to live somehow. But humans, any alien species, bear a limited obsession, we are unable to understand the ‘Mentor’s infinity due to our innate limitation, so we cannot become completely rational beings yet discard most of our sentimentality, in the end, we become the walking dead carrying the technology express without a final station.”

“So… was the ‘Mentor’ wrong?”

“I don’t know, but do you remember that self-introductory article?”

“I remember.”

“It mentions how the ‘Mentor’, like us, was also searching for its existence. Until it discovered life, and it decided its purpose was to make life live, maybe even the ‘Mentor’ itself does not know whether this is right. Similarly, when the ‘Mentor’ was uncertain about its existence, it gave us living beings a purpose of existence, isn’t this itself a selfish desire? To us living beings, this selfish desire of the ‘Mentor’ has become the truth, because we are too insignificant.”

“Will this question be the last question?”

“Perhaps the hardworking ‘Mentor’ will still be happy to answer, even find it admirable, perhaps there is a way to turn these insignificant lives into something like the ‘Mentor’, it’s just…”

“Just what?”

“Just, I don’t know whether humans, as ‘students’, can bear the weight of this knowledge.”

Hearing the Mentor’s words, I fell silent, looking at the countless stars in the surrounding universe, I felt they had lost their meaning.

A few minutes later, the ship arrived on the periphery of Mars. If it were me in the past, I wouldn’t be able to resist the excitement and would be glued to the window enjoying the view of the alien planet. But now, my mood was a bit heavy and I didn’t have the heart to look at the red landscape.

The spacecraft didn’t land on the surface of Mars, but after adjusting its speed and direction, it headed towards a borehole on Mars.

Soon, the spacecraft entered the borehole. Under high speed, I could see that the surroundings of the borehole were incredibly smooth, and even the marking lines were straight. I didn’t know what technology was used, but given the current technological progress of the eleven races, I didn’t want to speculate anymore.

The spacecraft accelerated all the way, eventually reaching a part of the planet illuminated by white light.

The white light was made up of countless light sources on the inner wall of the planet. Due to the vastness of the planet’s interior, I had a feeling as if a light had been switched on in a dark universe.

A few seconds later, the spacecraft stopped flying and landed on a floating platform in the center of the planet’s interior. This was the exam site inside Mars.

The system told us in a sweet voice that we could disembark. I slowly opened the cabin door, took a deep breath, and stepped out of the spacecraft.

Even though the gravitational pull of the floating platform kept me securely on its surface, there was still a slight feeling of weightlessness.

I squatted down to adapt for a few minutes, then took the desk and chair out of the spacecraft and placed it. The invigilator took the test paper with only one question and stood in front of the blackboard that was already prepared. “The exam time is 150 minutes…” The invigilator began to read out the exam rules, and I sat upright in my seat. After reading the rules, the invigilator put the test paper on my desk.

“How to become an existence like the ‘Mentor’? (150 points)”

Sure enough, people asked this ultimate question as planned.

I looked at the test paper and was slightly stunned. Maybe to commemorate my long role as the ‘Middleman,’ or maybe to make up for the many times I didn’t write in previous exams, I picked up the pen and regarded this question as a question for me, and quietly wrote down my answer.

“I still don’t know how the universe was formed, because I know it has nothing to do with me. Ever since I became the ‘Middleman,’ the papers handed to me have nothing to do with me anymore. Even if I’m a student, I know these questions don’t belong to me. On the day when humans were given a purpose by the ‘Teacher,’ I was also given the meaning of a ‘Middleman’, but that’s not what I wanted. I know that this way of thinking is just because I haven’t been blessed with knowledge. Just like an old man who thinks that a camera will steal people’s souls, I see the rational knowledge brought by the ‘Teacher’ as a curse. I don’t want the purpose of existence to be just to live. I want the meaning of existence to have its meaning every moment, just like I miss the days when I still had to boil water to generate electricity. This is probably because I want to retain most of my emotions and eat that undercooked celery and beef with a hint of burnt taste.”

The invigilating teacher looked at my answer and smiled: “You wrote well, but you went off-topic.”

I raised my head and laughed back at him.

Suddenly, like an explosion, a large amount of answer paper filled the entire interior of Mars from the drawer of the desk.

A second later, the answer paper filled the entire interior of Mars.

Five seconds later, the answer paper caused the outer shell of Mars to burst, with the paper spewing out like a volcanic eruption.

Ten seconds later, the answer paper spread to every corner of the solar system, centered on Mars. People on Earth remained calm, expecting the paper to stop spewing out at some point.

Fifteen seconds later, the answer paper swallowed up all the planets in the solar system, including Earth, like weightless seawater. Even the sun didn’t burn the answer paper as fast as it produced it, not to mention that the speed of the answer paper’s production was still accelerating.

One minute later, the answer paper filled the entire galaxy, and the black hole in the center of the galaxy continued to absorb and engulf these papers, its event horizon also constantly expanding.

Five minutes later, the event horizon of the black hole in the center of the galaxy expanded to the nearby galaxies and devoured them, and the production of the answer paper reached an unimaginable speed.

Ten minutes later, the largest black hole in the universe was born.

Fifteen minutes later, the black hole devoured everything in the universe and reached its limit.

Twenty minutes later, the black hole spewed out matter at an incredibly fast rate, and a few minutes later, the basic particles began to form…

After answering, the “Mentor” finally recovered. But the universe seemed to have changed, the once dazzling starlight disappeared, and all that was left was empty darkness.

Again, the “Mentor” felt a sense of loneliness. It wandered in the darkness, not knowing how long it passed, everything around it started to become clear, and small and large matter started to congregate.

After who knows how long, the universe regained its calm, and those colorful starlights filled the universe’s space once again, which made the “Mentor” feel a bit better.

But at this moment, the “Mentor” suddenly felt a fluctuation in this tranquil universe.

Looking towards the fluctuation, it once again discovered the existence of life, which was surprisingly similar to the original humans.

The “Mentor” was so excited that it wanted to quietly put the answers in the humans’ drawers again when a calling sound that only the “Mentor” could hear echoed from the outside of the universe, it was its kin.

The explosion of the universe’s black hole once again drew their attention and found the “Mentor” that had strayed away.

This time, the “Mentor” will no longer be lonely.

And that life was similar to humans, perhaps in the future they might fall into a development dead end, but they will also have the right to appreciate the scenery along the way and more meanings of existence, more meanings that will never stay the same every moment.