Chapter 29 Chapter Twenty Seven

Slartibartfast's study was in chaos, like a public library that had exploded.After entering the door, the old man frowned. "It's just unfortunate," he said, "that a diode in one of the life support computers blew up. When we tried to wake up our cleaning system, they had been dead for almost 30,000 years. Who's going to clean these up? Garbage, what a headache. Well, why don't you sit down there and let me hook up the instrument for you?" He gestured for Arthur to sit on a chair that looked like it was made from the ribcage of a stegosaurus. "It's made from the ribcage of a stegosaurus," the old man explained, as he fumbled to pull wires from under the rickety pile of papers and connect them to the instrument. "Here," he said, "take these." He handed Arthur the stripped ends of several wires.

The moment Arthur took the wire, a bird flew straight in front of him. He was suspended in mid-air, completely invisible to himself.Below him is a beautiful city square lined with green trees. As far as the eye can see, there are white concrete buildings all around the square. The design style is light and transparent, but the decoration is slightly worse. mottled.It was a sunny day, with a fresh breeze blowing through the trees, and the joyful and excited crowds in the square and surrounding streets could easily give rise to the strange feeling that all the buildings were humming softly too. .Somewhere, a band is performing, brightly colored flags are fluttering in the wind, and the air is full of carnival spirit.

In the air, Arthur didn't even have a physical body, so he felt extremely alone, but before he had enough time to think about it, a voice rang through the square, drawing everyone's attention. A man standing on a colorfully decorated platform in front of what is apparently the main building of the square is addressing the crowd through a loudspeaker. "Those who wait in the shadow of deep thought!" he cried, "the glorious Llumfondel and the descendants of Manjixes, the greatest and most amusing polymath that ever lived in the universe, the long The wait is finally over!"

Loud cheers erupted from the crowd.Flags, banners and whistles wafted through the air.Narrower streets look like centipedes turned on their backs, flailing their legs wildly in the air. "For seven and a half million years, our race has waited for this great and hopeful day of revelation!" cried the leader of the carnival. "The day of the answer!" The ecstatic crowd once again? "Never again," cried the man, "will we wake up in the morning thinking, 'Who am I?What is the purpose of my life?By the laws of the universe, does it really matter if I don't get up and go to work? 'Because, this very day, we will have, once and for all, a clear and concise answer to all these questions that continue to plague us about life, the universe and everything! "

As the crowd boiled again, Arthur found himself gliding through the air, descending towards a huge, stately window on the first floor of the building behind the platform. He experienced a momentary panic as he headed straight for the window, but the panic passed after only a few seconds as he found himself passing through the solid glass without even touching it. No one in the house was aware of the unexpected visitor, which is not surprising, because he was not there in the first place.He came to realize that all of these experiences were just a recorded projection from a helmet plugged into six 70mm magnetic tracks.

The room was very close to what Slartibartfast had described.For the entire 7.5 million years it was well looked after, with regular cleanings almost every century.An operating table made of high-quality mahogany was placed by the wall, and the carpet was slightly faded, but the huge computer terminal stood on the leather table, shining faintly, as if it had just been assembled yesterday. Two men in formal attire sat respectfully in front of the terminal, waiting. "The moment is approaching us," said one of them, as Arthur was surprised to see a word suddenly appear in the thin air around his neck.The word was "runkvor" and it flashed a few times before disappearing.Before Arthur could get it all into his head, another man spoke, and the word "Fogg" appeared near his neck.

"Seventy-five thousand generations ago, our ancestors started this program," said the second. "In the long, long time since then, we will be the first to hear this computer speak." "An awesome moment, Fogg," the first man agreed.Only then did Arthur realize that he was watching a subtitled video. "We're going to hear," said Fogg, "the answers to those great questions, life..." "The universe..." said Runkwall. "And everything..." "Shh," Luen Kowal lightly gestured, "I think Deep Thought is ready to speak!"

Following a pause full of expectation, the dashboard on the front of the console slowly began to recover.The indicator light tried to flicker on and off, forming a scene of work.A soft, low hum came over the AC channel. "Good morning." Shen Si finally said. "Um... good morning, Deep Thought." Lune Kowal said nervously, "You get... um, that..." "The answer you want?" Deep Thought interrupted solemnly, "Yes, I got it." The two began to tremble with anticipation.Their long wait was not in vain after all. "Is there really an answer?" Fogg gasped.

"There really is one." Deep Thought replied affirmatively. "About everything? About those great questions—life, the universe, and everything?" "yes." These two men were trained for this moment, they spent their lives preparing for this moment, they were chosen from the day they were born to bear witness to the answer.Even so, they still found themselves panting and writhing awkwardly, like excited children. "Are you ready to hand it over to us?" Runkwall said impatiently. "I'm ready." "Now?" "Now." Deep Thought said.

They both licked their dry lips at the same time. "Though I don't think," Deep Thought added, "you'll like it." "It doesn't matter!" said Fogg. "We must know the answer! Now!" "Now?" Shen Si asked again. "Yes! Now..." "Okay then," the computer said, and fell silent again.The two became fidgety, and the tense atmosphere was almost unbearable. "You really won't like it." Deep Thought pointed out again. "tell us!" "Well then," said Deep Thought, "the answer to the great question..."

"yes!" "About life, the universe, and everything..." Deep Thought continued. "yes!" "Yes..." Shen Si said, then paused. "yes!……" "yes……" "yes!!!……?" "42." Shen Si said, with infinite majesty and calm in his tone.