OBS Chapter 2335
Chapter 2335
Chapter 2335
Its arrival was so... how to describe it? Reasonable? Natural?
In short, everything changed as if it were meant to be this way, as if this was the environment they had entered from the beginning, as if it had always been there. No one knew when the environment changed, or when it arrived.
It is eternity!
The manifestation of this universe is the universe itself!
Although we always talk about the five great gods of the universe, in reality, eternity is above all else! It is the beginning of everything and the end of everything; it is everything, and everything is it!
It could even be said that, apart from Galactus, the other three of the five cosmic entities are essentially just different aspects of Eternity. While they are generally regarded as brothers and sisters, their relationship is not truly ethically based; it is far more peculiar.
As mentioned before, it is one, one is the whole, and the whole is one!
The existence of Galactus was itself an accident. It was a remnant from the previous universe.
In short, every person, every molecule, and every atom in this universe exists eternally.
Therefore, it can do many, many things that seem and sound incredible.
Just like now.
It sat there quietly, watching the battle unfold before it.
But it didn't mean to disturb in the slightest.
Even if others see it, it doesn't react at all.
“That… is…” an Asgardian warrior couldn’t help but ask the person next to him.
"I don't know? How would I know? Anyway... shut up!"
The audacious Asgardians have little to fear. In fact, when a person can take even death lightly, there are very few things in this world that can truly frighten them.
The terrifying nature of someone who is unafraid of death depends on the direction of their motives. When this fearless spirit is distorted into a destructive force, its destructive power is enough to overturn social order; while when it is sublimated into a protective force, it can become the cornerstone of human civilization. This extreme mentality is a double-edged sword, capable of giving rise to martyrdom-style terrorism or nurturing heroes who sacrifice themselves for righteousness. On the negative side, when individuals regard death as the ultimate weapon against the world, they cross the moral bottom line of human society. The numerous suicide attacks in history prove that when the desire for death is combined with extreme ideologies, the lives of ordinary people will be systematically threatened. This "death worship" will deconstruct social rules, making violence a justifiable means to achieve goals. But from a positive perspective, this mentality precisely constitutes the high ground of the human spirit. Firefighters rushing into burning buildings, doctors facing epidemics, and soldiers holding their ground are guardians of civilization because they transcend the fear of death. The painters of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang spent their lives in the dark caves, and Antarctic explorers carved the limits of human endurance on the ice sheet; these actions are essentially a contempt for and reconstruction of death.
Essentially, Asgardian culture is a distortion of the worship of death.
Death worship is a primitive form of worship, a phenomenon of worshipping death and the near-death experience, similar to fertility worship and nature worship. These originate from humanity's awe of the laws of nature. As groups emerged, the objects of human worship gradually shifted from these natural phenomena to a specific person or object. While this may feel closer to real life, it is also easily exaggerated, making group behavior blind and arrogant.
Death is a problem that all living things on Earth must face. Perhaps the first person to realize this phenomenon felt the same resentment as Sun Wukong in *Journey to the West*, witnessing the deaths of many old monkeys on Flower Fruit Mountain. They tried to do something to prolong or prevent this process, but ultimately, they were powerless. Humans easily feel fear and awe towards the unknown and things that possess immense power. In a period of widespread ignorance, perhaps a more sensitive ancestor, seeing the death of a companion and feeling the impermanence and its impact on their daily lives, reflected on and developed a sense of awe towards death. The closer one lives to nature itself, the more one discovers things that are beyond one's control yet deeply affected by it; this is how many primitive forms of worship originated. When this direct experience is concealed or weakened, it becomes difficult for people to feel that sense of awe. Distance creates beauty, but also illusion. The development of human groups has given humans more confidence in living in nature; the threats they face have decreased, not disappeared. Human satisfaction is strange; sometimes, being given even a small right to survival allows us to relinquish many important things. When someone builds a habitable cave or cabin, many people submit to them, hoping to acquire the same skills and escape the threat of death. When someone discovers how to make fire to fight off wild animals and cook food, many again submit to that person, again seeking better ways to escape death… As human technology reaches a certain level, the vast resources needed to maintain these death-avoidance techniques become paramount. Perhaps driven by individual anxieties, selfishness fueled by death, or simply an overwhelming individualistic consciousness, resource-grabbing wars inevitably erupt and escalate. Many also submit to those who play a crucial role in these conflicts. This is because humans have more opportunities to breathe in nature and possess a certain ability to modify the environment. However, modifying nature is impossible; humans are forever part of nature, unable to truly escape it. Climate change and celestial shifts all impact human social life. While recognizing great figures can contribute to cohesion, exaggerating this recognition into superstition, without considering nature itself, is a dangerous thing. Everything in nature can be observed and perceived; the increase or decrease of things can be clearly felt. However, when people become blind, they develop illusions, believing that many things appear out of thin air and can be mass-produced indefinitely. They think they are on a pedestal of unlimited resources and treat the world as they are, losing their rationality. This change not only harms contemporary groups but also plunders future generations, because without reverence, the "measure" of action is lost. The peak of one period is almost always followed by the decline of the next; "one effort, then decline, then exhaustion." Depletion is something that this world cannot avoid. Biological death is just one manifestation of this.
Asgard is clearly an overstatement.
However, other people's cultures have remained the same for so many years, so it's not appropriate for outsiders to comment.
But this did indeed endow Asgard with many unique qualities, such as great courage. As mentioned earlier, even death couldn't frighten them, so what else could they fear? (Asgardians are truly fearless. For example, in the movie, when Hela descended upon Asgard and unleashed a massacre, so many people saw how fierce Hela was, yet they still rushed towards her without hesitation, displaying incredible bravery, and then they all died...)
But when faced with eternity, they were filled with fear.
This is extremely rare among Asgardians, especially when it comes to the entire group. Individual Asgardians may have some timid individuals due to their differences, but when Asgardians form a collective, they are truly fearless.
Why are the Asgardians so few in number?
One reason is the birth rate... but in reality, that's definitely not the only reason. After all, Asgardians have advanced technology and long lifespans, so even if their population growth is slow, it shouldn't be less than ten million people now... You know, any civilization in the universe that can travel between stars has at least tens of billions of people, Asgard is just incredibly strange.
One of the most important reasons.
They die too easily... not that they are fragile.
It's not that they're in a bad mood, but rather that they're prone to getting carried away.
For example, in wars against foreign powers, these guys are completely fearless of sacrifice, charging forward with boundless energy. Especially in several major wars, such as the war against the Dark Elves—that war was incredibly large; the Dark Elves were wiped out, but the Asgardians didn't fare much better. Once these people get carried away, they truly fight to the death!
They won't do anything like a strategic shift!
The best way to fight Asgard is to charge in and engage them, because they won't retreat, and once you're engaged, they won't be able to teleport even if they wanted to.
In short, Asgardians are naturally very brave.
Yet, when faced with eternity, they unusually felt fear.
It's a kind of timidity that comes from both physical and psychological perspectives!
It's like a mouse encountering a cat.
I remember when I was a child, grain, especially corn, was piled up in the yard after the harvest, to be sold when prices were better in winter. But this practice undoubtedly provided food for the mice. At first, the mice would only quietly nibble at the corn kernels at night and carry them to their burrows. Over time, they became bolder, daring to steal corn in the yard during the day, completely oblivious to their surroundings. Nighttime was the main battlefield for the cat-and-mouse war, but we could hardly see it. However, the daytime encounters between cats and mice were also quite exciting, since there were already too many mice when the cat came to my house. I guess the mice wanted to do the opposite, reducing their outings at night when the cat was most active, and taking advantage of the daytime to go fishing. But fishing was risky. I often saw mice cornered by the cat, looking utterly helpless. Of course, the most common scene was the cat carrying a mouse, which was very docile. I think the cat was probably demonstrating its power to the other mice hiding in the corners. But catching a mouse is a different story for humans. I once chased and swatted at it frantically with a large broom, and the mouse even dared to jump up and try to bite me. Finally, exhausted, it was knocked to the ground. When I grabbed it by the tail and lifted it up, it kept turning around and even doing sit-ups, squeaking and trying to bite me. Logically, I'm much bigger than a cat, so why does a cat react so differently when it's carrying a mouse compared to when I'm dragging it?
Because the fear of cats is written into the DNA of mice. Even a tiny kitten, barely bigger than a mouse, will still frighten the mouse!
Fear is an important mechanism for self-protection in organisms, helping them avoid potential dangers and playing a vital role in the survival of species.
From a formation perspective, fear can be divided into innate fears and learned fears (also known as conditioned fears). Rats, as small mammals, are prey for many carnivores, and their fear of cats, snakes, and rats is an example of innate fear. Rats that can recognize cats and actively choose to avoid them likely have a higher survival rate. Thus, this fear of predators has gradually been encoded into their genes, becoming an instinctive reaction in rats. Humans have five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. However, terrestrial vertebrates generally possess a sixth sense: the sensory system that perceives pheromones.
A cat's saliva, paw pads, and even shed fur all carry a "death warning scent." The moment a mouse smells these odors, its inherited fear genes are immediately activated, and its mind is filled with only one thought: "Oh no! The rat-eating monster our ancestors spoke of is here!" Scientists have conducted experiments where researchers smeared a drop of cat urine in the corner of a mouse's cage. The previously lively mouse suddenly froze in place, its pupils dilated, its heart rate accelerated, and it even ignored its favorite cheese. Why could this drop of less than 0.1 milliliters of liquid instantly render a mouse immobile? Scientists' microscopes revealed the answer—the cat's scent molecules have evolved into a precise "psychological weapon," directly targeting the mouse's vital points. And this "psychological weapon" mainly contains "three major terrorists."
First, there's the MUP protein, a "death warrant" in urine. Cat urine is rich in major urinary proteins, which are among the oldest pheromone carriers in mammals. A 2000 study in *Science* found a specific fear trigger: after mice smelled cat MUP, the expression of the c-Fos gene (a fear marker) in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus surged by 300%. Dosage determines life or death: even diluted to one part per million, cat urine can still induce a rigid response in mice (data from *Chemical Ecology*, 2015). Molecular mechanism: The MUP protein binds to V2R receptors in the vomeronasal organ of mice, directly activating the amygdala, the brain's fear center, forming a conditioned reflex of "smell equals danger." In other words, just a sip of cat urine is enough to control a mouse's innate fear. Secondly, there's the "declaration of war" in saliva. Felinine, a sulfur-containing amino acid unique to cat saliva, oxidizes in the air to produce a pungent, sulfur-like odor. A 2010 study published in Nature Communications confirmed that cat saliva has a genetic deterrent effect on mice, mainly in the following three aspects: cross-species deterrence: spraying synthetic Felinine on the activity area of experimental mice reduced their exploratory behavior by 82% and their food intake by 57%.
Master of behavioral manipulation: Mice exposed to Felinine actively avoid open areas and choose small, enclosed spaces (survival strategy index increased by 2.3 times).
Evolutionary tactic: These scent molecules can also mark territory, creating a spatial fear memory in mice that tells them "there's a cat here," an effect that lasts up to 72 hours. In other words, even if the cat hasn't urinated, the saliva from a sneeze is enough to make a mouse tremble.
Thirdly, there are sebum pheromones: the "fear GPS" of fur. Squalene and sebaceous acid secreted by cat skin constitute a unique odor fingerprint. As early as 2018, an experiment in *Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience* investigated the ability of cat fur to control mice. The study found that mice had 91% fewer contacts with areas rubbed by cats. Furthermore, if the mother cat was exposed to cat fur during pregnancy, the offspring mice, even those who had never seen a cat, would show hypervigilance towards similar odors.
The situation is similar for the Asgardians now!
This is an instinct that runs deep in your soul!
They were afraid of what was in front of them!