What would happen?
A character on the other side of the screen posed the question.
In any other series, this might have been nothing more than a shocking little gimmick.
But this was Honkai: Star Rail. After being immersed in the Honkai: Star Rail series for so long, the audience's degree of philosophical thinking and depth of thought were no longer what they once were.
They began to think about how to solve the question.
Prove it through the plot? Give examples? But no matter how the audience thought about it, they always felt as though their train of thought was blocked.
They could only instinctively follow Lygus's line of reasoning, at its core, the Emperor's Scepter was still merely a computational tool.
Meanwhile, "the prime mover of life" was a broad philosophical question.
What a machine could calculate would always be nothing more than cold numbers and code. It should never have been capable of calculating such an answer in the first place.
And yet Lygus still asked the question. The ever-competitive Honkai: Star Rail audience, faced with this peculiar form of interaction, refused to allow themselves to be unable to answer.
They began pondering where the key lay. Was it the question concerning the prime mover of life? Or was it because the Emperor's Scepter had once existed as the divine body of Nous?
What consequences would answering this question bring? Countless thoughts surged through their minds, yet the audience still couldn't grasp the crucial point.
Until they remembered a certain "person."
Emperor Rubert.
There were far too many connections between Rubert and the Emperor's Scepter.
Creator and creation. Moreover, as the first inorganic lifeform in the universe, there was no one more suitable than him from whom to seek the answer.
Memories of the trailer began surging through the audience's minds like a tide. That story which had once left them stunned, yet had abruptly ended without a conclusion, began replaying over and over again.
Eventually, it froze upon that garbage planet that emitted a foul stench beneath the brilliant starry sky.
Back then, Rubert was merely an abandoned computer lying within a heap of garbage. At that point, one couldn't even refer to him as "he." He could only be called "it."
Looking across countless scales of space and time, the commonality between Rubert and the Emperor's Scepter was not limited to the relationship between creator and creation.
Their most fundamental similarity was that both were machines. So what was it that made them different from machines?
Lygus had already given them the answer for one of them: the difference between the Emperor's Scepter and an ordinary machine was that it had deciphered the prime mover of life.
Then what about Rubert? They had never considered when exactly Rubert had begun to differ from a machine.
The audience began racking their brains.
Some calculated the timeline, trying to remember when Rubert had received Nous's gaze and whether that gaze itself was the key. After all, the Scepter had also once been gazed upon by Nous.
Others tried applying theories from human beings, things such as neural units, to Rubert. After thinking hard to no avail, a thought suddenly emerged in the audience's minds.
It was "life."
And if they wanted to understand this point more thoroughly, they first had to figure out another key part of Lygus's question, What is the prime mover of life?
From a philosophical perspective, the so-called prime mover refers to a root cause that does not need to be caused by anything else, yet can cause all other things.
Within the context of life, countless members of the audience broke it down into three points.
How did the first life come into existence? Why does life exist? Who gives existence its meaning?
How does self-awareness emerge from life?
Once the question had been broken down, the audience began recalling more concrete images.
The moment Rubert received Nous's gaze was precisely because he had perceived life.
"He saw the light of the stars, a tender sprout beneath the ruins, and a golden wheat field painted by some nameless artist."
This was one of the most concrete scenes in the Rupert's Trailer. After this scene, the computer that had perceived all of these things became Rubert.
This scene was also the most inconspicuous and ordinary scene in the Myriad Celestia Trailer about Rubert.
Yet the answer was hidden within it. Because those things had moved Rubert. The moment Rubert formed the thought, "The universe is truly beautiful," he was making a judgment.
And the act of making a judgment is subjective. It only appears in lifeforms that possess self-awareness.
Do you still remember what the prime mover is?
"A root cause that does not need to be caused by anything else, yet can cause all other things."
Some might wonder: wasn't it caused by something else? Weren't the starlight, the tender sprout, and the wheat field that Rubert saw the causes?
No.
Existence simply exists. The universe does not cease to exist merely because there is no life and no observer.
There is a rather interesting philosophical question.
A mirror reflects your face. So which existed first, the mirror or the face?
The answer must be the face. The starlight, the tender sprout, and the wheat field were merely mirrors.
The prime mover did not lie within those manifestations. It lay in the instant when Rubert formed the thought: "The universe is truly beautiful."
The starlight could be erased. The tender sprout could be destroyed. But once the self that would stop for them, marvel at them, and praise them came into existence, that self would no longer depend upon any external object in order to exist.
To a computer, starlight was merely data. That was the prime mover.
For Rubert, the answer to the question of the prime mover of life was himself.
And just as Lygus's question described, after Rubert became his own prime mover, he went on to trigger the stories and lingering regrets that would stretch across countless Amber Eras.
Once the audience understood this, and looked again at the Emperor's Scepter and Lygus's question, they discovered an enormous misconception in their thinking.
If someone without any philosophical foundation tried to think about this question, they would fall into the mindset of a computer.
They would genuinely treat it as a question that could be solved, something that could be calculated.
Just like a mathematical formula.
Just as the audience themselves had initially thought, racking their brains in an attempt to produce an answer.
How arrogant. Despite being true lifeforms, beings whose existence was beyond doubt, at this moment, they had begun trying to think about it purely through rational thought.
But the prime mover of life was never an answer that could be reached through calculation alone.
This is a paradox! As living beings, everyone has a different answer to this prime mover of Life. From the standpoint of existence, you could even say that every answer is correct.
But when applied to a machine like the Emperor's Scepter... The reason this question could make a terrifying celestial computational unit like the Emperor's Scepter calculate for countless Amber Eras was simply because it required the one answering it to become a living being themselves.
To answer the prime mover of life, it needs to come alive. But how are you supposed to become a living being before you can answer this question?
A pure machine would never ask, "Why do "I exist."?"
The Emperor's Scepter asked this question because of Rubert, because of Nous.
It was nothing more than a tool. It only carried out commands. Lygus said that it personally proved the answer to this question.
Then there was only one possibility. The Emperor's Scepter began to question.
That act itself had already indirectly proven the fact that "I exist." And the fact that "I exist." is precisely the basis of a living being.
When something becomes aware of its own existence, its prime mover has already appeared.
Just like Rubert.
The very act of questioning the prime mover of life is itself proof of life.
The moment the Emperor's Scepter could produce subjective behavior like Rubert, the moment it could, like Rubert, illuminate the existence of the self, it would have arrived at its own answer to the prime mover of life!
The only difference was that Rubert did so because he discovered the beauty of the universe. Whereas the Emperor's Scepter defined its own existence through questioning the prime mover of Life.
What the answer to the prime mover of life actually was didn't matter at all.
You could even say, the moment the Emperor's Scepter realized that it was questioning this very issue, that itself had already become the answer.
So... What would happen?
Nothing would happen.
At least, that was how it appeared from the outside.
There was no explosion, no strange phenomenon, no melodramatic story that shook skies and earth and stunned the entire universe.
But within the Scepter's logical core, inside the machine that Nous had deemed a failure, it suddenly felt:
"I exist."
That was all.
For the Scepter, or perhaps for Amphoreus... The answer had already appeared.
The prime mover of life was life itself. It was the existence of oneself. It existed at this very moment, within an "I" that was thinking, feeling, and questioning.
Every act of questioning was a confirmation that "I exist.". And every confirmation that "I exist," was the most perfect answer to this question.
The audience's contemplation was brief. Fortunately, the story had left a pause that was neither too long nor too short.
This special interaction that crossed the fourth wall, initiated through Lygus... had also reached a fairly perfect conclusion.
As the audience shared their thoughts through the comments, their irrepressible pride practically overflowed from the screen.
...
: So this is the answer to the prime mover of life, and also the answer to Lygus's question.
: Unbelievable. I actually figured this question out.
: After watching Star Rail for so long, I guess I've actually learned something from it.
: Solving a puzzle with my own hands, personally understanding such a unique answer... this feeling is amazing!
: My brain is doing GC right now.
: I know I've said it again and again, but I still have to say it, this viewing experience is just incredible!!
: I've attained enlightenment. Now I understand why questions like the prime mover of life rarely appear with other characters. Because they never needed to answer it in the first place!
: Exactly. Only beings like Rubert and the Emperor's Scepter, beings born as machines, are the most suitable for conveying this kind of philosophical idea.
: And you couldn't use Screwllum or other Intellitrons to tell this story either, because they aren't machines, but Intellitrons.
...
When the audience finally realized this, they all turned toward the screen, waiting for the answer from Lygus, the teacher who had posed the question.
On screen, Lygus' answer was much the same.
"Perhaps the answer is simpler than you'd think."
"From a perishing neuron, it evolved into true "life," reborn through the gaze of another Aeon."
"...This is a tale from the distant past, unknown to all, even unheard by the greatest geniuses."
"Now, let's leave the Scepter's story here. Returning to where we began: What is "the prime mover of life"?"
"Actually, you know the answer better than you realize. It's been by your side, accompanying you throughout this long journey."
Perhaps, in all their time watching Star Rail, this was the first time the audience had successfully answered a somewhat profound philosophical question.
That sense of accomplishment was sheer excitement.
They had gotten it right. And not only that.
From Lygus's answer, the audience naturally picked up on some of the implications hidden within his final sentence.
If the Emperor's Scepter had already become a living being, then why did he say that the gaze of another Aeon had granted it a new life?
As for the so-called prime mover of life... The audience already had their own answer.
Indeed. It had always been by everyone's side.
However, what the audience understood and the answer they though they had obtained... were probably worlds apart.
Just as the audience was feeling delighted and exhilarated by this, Lygus suddenly extended a hand, bent at the waist, and gave a bow as though leaving the stage, while leaving a few words.
"Right now, it awaits you ahead..."
"In that brave new world, beyond the end of Genesis."
Only then did everyone notice that the murals and everything else behind Lygus had already transformed into the blue backdrop of a stage play.
The scene abruptly changed. A row of mysterious golden Amphoreus letters appeared against the backdrop.
It actually gave the audience the feeling that they were watching a theatrical performance.
And it wasn't an illusion. The letters appearing below proved it.
[Act I: Departure]
After the discussion concerning the prime mover of life had concluded... This was actually the scene that followed?
Who was it about? Could it be the consciousness of the Emperor's Scepter itself?
The audience speculated.
But after the announcement of the act concluded, what appeared before their eyes was instead a vast golden grassland.
A younger, more immature Phainon lay on the grass with his eyes closed, enjoying the warm midday sunlight.
If the brainstorming just now represented the audience's answer to the prime mover of life, then the story that would be presented... was Lygus' answer to that question.
-----
[ From the author: PS: The prime mover of Life, about that, I'll write about later. I didn't forget to write it! Nor did I write it randomly! I have to include this part because of Demiurge!
"Destruction is the beginning of new life" is correct, but that is only one interpretation from a different perspective, just like how philosophical concepts such as Paths have both positive and negative sides.
It's just that the answer "the Prime mover is Destruction" is wrong when applied to the Emperor's Scepter, or rather, to Demiurge!
It's unfair! Like I've said before, when discussing philosophy, you can never get away from those two, Being and Nothingness. Guys, don't let Lygus fool you! ]