The last message was left behind, and the voice from the underworld disappeared.
not only that.
The gaze that came from nowhere disappeared along with the mysterious voice, as if it had never been there.
Instinct told Chu Guang that they would never see each other again...at least within the time he could foresee.
Even the encounter itself was an accident that would never have happened.
Looking at Chu Guang who was looking at the bookcase in a daze, Xiao Qi whispered a worried reminder.
"Master...are you okay?"
After calming down his divergent thoughts, Chu Guang looked at Xiao Qi who looked worried, stretched out his index finger to rub its hair, and gave it a reassuring smile.
"I'm fine, it's just that... I happened to see a guy who called himself an observer."
Xiao Qi looked at him blankly.
"Observer?"
"Well," Chu Guang nodded, with a somewhat intriguing expression on his face, and turned his gaze to the green trees outside the window, "How should I put it? Although it was an unexpected meeting, it was still considered a compliment to him.
The gift allowed me to see another possibility outside of the timeline... and at the same time, it also answered the confusion I had always had."
According to the observer's theory, the multiverse and the parallel world are established at the same time, and there is another universe in this world that is exactly the same as this universe except that he is not there.
This is actually a bit like the famous "infinite monkey" theory.
That is, if you let one or infinite monkeys sit in front of a typewriter and randomly press buttons, as long as the time is long enough, they will almost certainly be able to type out a copy of "Shakespeare".
Of course, it's not just "Shakespeare", it must also include "Journey to the West" or other novels.
Including the stories of "Wasteland OL" and "Reality OL".
In fact, the "infinity" explained by the observer is exactly such a huge concept.
Heat death has already occurred since the vibration of the first particle of the original universe, and reached the zero point of the "Big Bang" after the birth of consciousness.
From that moment on, the movement of matter no longer just followed the original diffusion trajectory, but began to evolve into infinite possibilities under the interference of the three original consciousness bodies.
The infinite universe is born from this, and it is infinite in the true sense!
In this endless parallel universe, there are both stories about him, Chu Guang, and stories about other people, or there are stories about other people without him.
And the results under these control variables have to be superimposed on an infinite number of variables...
For example, the Alliance is still the same Alliance, and he is still the same, but the pioneer they met is not actually the "psionic explorer" they met at this moment, but the "oldest civilization" in the observer's mouth that intends to destroy all living things in the universe.
.
The difference between different universes can be as big as one more civilization or one less civilization, or as small as one more or one less person on a specific time line, or even as precise as whether this person is at a certain time on a certain day.
did something.
These infinite possibilities are all determined by "consciousness" or spirit.
And it corresponds one-to-one with the infinite material universe.
Chu Guang tried to imagine an inappropriate but vivid metaphor. The infinite parallel universes are like infinite typewriters.
The "three major consciousnesses" in the observer's mouth are male and female monkeys that can give birth to infinite numbers of monkeys.
As for the observer himself whose clones are projected in infinite universes, and the companion sowers he calls... including the killed "7444154", they are essentially "monkeys sitting in front of typewriters".
Although their existence accelerated the wear and tear of typewriters and the bankruptcy of newspapers, they also gave the originally half-dead newspapers the possibility of making a profit.
Among them, the two types of monkeys, the sowers and the observers, are the most numerous.
It is said that they were born from the original light and are as ubiquitous as the three major consciousness bodies born in the original universe, and have their own projections in infinite parallel worlds.
Moreover, it has stronger subjective initiative and more clear and specific motives than the latter.
One of them is responsible for randomly typing out letters, and the other is responsible for "proofreading", and their combined goal is to type out the story of "Boundary Breakers" as much as possible before each typewriter runs out of ink.
Every time a Breaker is born, two or more typewriters that are on the verge of being scrapped can be combined into one.
After all, these monkeys are not picking out words completely randomly, but will refer to the "successful cases" on other typewriters, and fine-tune the typewriters that type similar content within the scope allowed by the rules.
The universe generates a "boundary breaker a" or "boundary breaker b".
Although this behavior does not always succeed, it does increase the probability of the birth of a "boundary breaker".
As for "7444154" and other void consciousness bodies with uncertain numbers, they are "troublesome monkeys".
They will randomly rush to a certain typewriter and write their names, messing up the originally neat words, producing good or bad results, or they will be beaten violently by the keyboard and run away from the typewriter in despair.
They may have lofty goals, or they may not.
For example, observers mentioned that the pioneer civilization was beguiled by the "bad voices" coming from the void during its long-term study of the void, so that the entire civilization plunged into the void.
The Seventh Research Institute of the Alliance Scientific Expedition Team heard nothing. They only accidentally attracted a lizard with a strong appetite. Before they had a chance to take a few warm bites, they received a severe beating and hurriedly said harsh words.
Don't pass.
As for the typewriter at the feet of the Alliance, it was probably abandoned by the observer.
For example, a certain person or civilization it selected did not complete a certain task as it wished, so that the situation here completely lost control under the influence of a series of butterfly effects.
Chu Guang was not sure whether this so-called complete loss of control was referring to the collapse of the People's Federation.
After all, judging from the possibilities described by observers, no matter how hard the Wastelanders struggled, they all seemed to die under the Sword of Damocles hanging above their heads.
And this day was probably destined long before the People's League entered the era of prosperity.
However, due to some accidents, the "boundary breaker" who did not appear originally seems to have appeared again?
So much so that the "outer gods" in the void were surprised.
Not only did the observers come together again, but the indescribable fog also got involved, and even allowed him to have a conversation with the observers he would have never met.
Looking at Xiao Qi who looked confused, Chu Guang smiled faintly and continued with the previous topic.
"I have actually been confused about where our players come from, and why there is no information about me in that world..."
"I even once suspected that the 'real world' was actually virtual from the beginning, just like the world in Vault 101... all that exists is data."
"How is that possible?" Xiao Qi opened her mouth and said in surprise, "The server of Shelter 101 is already comparable to the endpoint cloud of Ideal City... Shelter 404 doesn't have the computing power at all, does it?"
"And it can't explain the problem of real-time transmission of information, right?" Chu Guang smiled at Xiao Qi and continued in a gentle tone, "So this explanation is not rigorous from the beginning, even if it does seem to be
The closest to the truth.”
There is no doubt that the players are not AI on the virtual machine, but consciousnesses that actually exist in another world.
To explain why, it's because there are an infinite number of small universes that were split off from the original universe.
There are no two identical leaves in a forest, but it is still possible to find two almost similar leaves. At most, it takes a little more time.
Although Chu Guang didn't know exactly which technology the first-generation managers used to achieve and maintain this continuous resonance field across the two worlds.
Maybe he drank some potion that awakened his spiritual energy, maybe he signed an agreement with some being in the void, or some other messy method.
But he could roughly guess what that guy had done!
"Not only does there exist another universe and another 'me' in this world, there is also another 'first generation manager' and the universe when that guy was still young."
"If I guessed correctly, he should be targeting that parallel universe——"
"Or to put it another way."
"He connected with his past 'self'."
Completely erasing a person's information from the early Internet?
This may indeed be a bit difficult for the "indigenous" people living in that era.
But for the "professor" who created the college and even the entire prosperous era, this was not easy at all.
It is no exaggeration to say that he who came to the eve of the Prosperity Era with all his knowledge is probably closer to the "omnipotent" god than Ye Shi who came to the planet Gaia...
…
Rolling yellow sand swept across the earth, and the relics of the old era were scrawled and buried in the deserted sand dunes.
At the same time that the Alliance and the observers in the void glanced and passed each other, a solemn meeting was taking place in the deepest part of Vault 13.
This conference has two themes.
One is about determining the order in which the new world will operate after "Heaven's Punishment", such as determining the post-war dominance of heavenly beings, and the political rights of refuge residents who surrender to heavenly beings, etc.
The other is to determine the specific date when "God's Punishment" will come, as well as follow-up action arrangements, such as taking over the "unattended" production and living facilities of the survivor forces, etc.
This includes Pioneer City and Lavinka Industrial Area, which are closest to Vault 13, as well as Dawn City Industrial Area and North Island Industrial Area, which are relatively far away, as well as Ideal City on the east coast and even the places where the Wilantes live in the New World.
coastal strongholds, etc.
In order to avoid the loss of production materials, they intend to formulate an action plan for a quick takeover.
Tianren sent five representatives to attend the meeting, and all of them were androids without exception.
On the Vault Dwellers side, there are twelve representatives, half of whom are members of the Enlightenment Society, a quarter are residents of Vault 13, and the other quarter are from other shelters in the desert.
Although the Enlightenment Society and Heavenly Beings are a community of interests to a certain extent, this forced alliance has obviously had its own hidden agendas from the very beginning.
In the hands of the gods, there is the weapon that the Enlightenment Society needs most, "to have fun on the earth".
The Enlightenment Society also has something that the heavenly beings need - they cannot go to the Orion alone and must rely on some "tangible" power.
Even if these powers are rats in the gutter.
As for other shelter residents, they all have their own reasons for joining the Enlightenment Society.
Some like Zhuang Lan were deceived, and some agreed with the Enlightenment Society's views, while the majority neither opposed nor supported it.
after all--
Why object?
The neutron plume cannot damage the shelter in the slightest.
Even if they do not agree with the overly extreme approach of the Enlightenment Society and the Celestial Organization, they still have enough reasons when they think that those disgusting wastelanders, mutants and all other troubles in the wasteland will turn into smoke and disperse in the wind.
Turn a blind eye and close one eye.
There will be no pain in the whole process, and it is even more comfortable than living in this declining world... It is like embracing eternal sleep in the warm sunshine.
If there is an afterlife, they could be reborn in this world and probably be born in a shelter.
Or, living in a "new era" rebuilt by the residents of the shelter.
For the lives still struggling in the wasteland, this is not a kind of kindness.
At least, that's what they think.
It is for this reason that Vault 13 opened its doors to the Enlightenment Society.
After all, with a three-level defense inside and outside, no one can force them to open the door to their home unless they open the door themselves, let alone allow people to come in and transform their home.
In this way, the "God Punishment" plan proceeds in an orderly manner with the efforts of a few people and the silence of the majority.
In fact, if a little accident hadn't happened, this "heavenly punishment" would have come two months ago.
However, as luck would have it, the accident eventually happened.
The schedule of "God's Punishment" has been postponed time and time again, and predictably, this month's launch schedule has been canceled again.
Nowadays, not only the peripheral shelter forces that are attached to the Enlightenment Society are swaying, but even the hearts of the people within the Enlightenment Society are floating.
That's why.
As soon as the meeting began, an uncertain expression was written on the faces of everyone present.
Sitting at the head of the conference table, Gui Xu, the president of the Enlightenment Society, rarely said a word since the beginning of the meeting. Instead, he turned his attention from time to time to the android "Apocalypse" who was parachuted into this desert by the Celestial Being Organization.
This guy once belonged to the Torch Church and was one of the forerunners of the Torch Church.
Although he didn't have high hopes for this guy's ability, after all, this guy was the only one who could contact the Lagrange Point space station.
not only that.
He also fought against the Alliance on a frontal battlefield.
Although there were some conflicts between the Enlightenment Society and the Alliance, the frictions were mainly small-scale military conflicts.
Guixu always felt that this guy might be able to express some constructive opinions.
Unfortunately, the latter ignored him and just sat there expressionlessly, kicking the ball back with an indifferent attitude.
In fact, it's not that he doesn't want to deal with the president of the Enlightenment Society, it's just that there is really nothing they can do at the moment.
All they need to do is wait.
Just like the order from the Lagrange Point Space Station, they don't need to do anything next, just wait quietly for victory.
These organisms are a little too impatient...
Feeling the frequent glances directed at him, Tianqi's intellectual plug-in couldn't help but feel a hint of boredom.
Perhaps it was influenced by the Celestial Being Organization.
Dedicated to the pursuit of higher evolution, he felt a heartfelt rejection of these weak pieces of meat for the first time...
As if it was something dirty.
The silence lasted for a long time on the conference table.
Finally, someone didn't want to wait endlessly anymore, and a man in his early thirties stood up from the conference table.
His name is Feng Zhiheng, and he is the eleventh generation director elected by the survivors of Vault 13.
It was he who overcame all objections, convinced most of the residents who were wary of the Enlightenment Society, and welcomed in this group of dreamers who were committed to "rebuilding the pre-war era."
The two parties initially went through a long honeymoon period, and the move of the Enlightenment Society indeed brought unprecedented development to Vault 13.
However, as the situation continues to change in a direction that is not conducive to the Enlightenment Society and the Celestial Being Organization, the residents of Vault 13 continue to be suspicious, and his position in the Vault has become precarious.
If it was not a last resort, he would not want to directly attack the senior officials of the Enlightenment Society at this time.
He glanced at Guixu and the senior officials of the Enlightenment Society and Tianren Organization with sharp eyes, put his hands on the conference table, and asked loudly.
"The 'God's Punishment' has been postponed, and again... I want everyone from the Enlightenment Meeting to explain this more critical matter before getting into the core topic of the meeting."
There was silence at the conference table.
Tianqi clicked his tongue impatiently, as if he wanted to end this boring riddle.
However, Guixu was obviously more knowledgeable than him, and he knew that it was not the time to fall out, so he coughed to cover up his unintentional impatience, and quickly picked up the topic.
"The preparation of the neutron torpedo will take some time, but I believe it will be completed next month."
However, Director Feng who asked the question was not dismissed by these words, but continued to ask aggressively.
"I wonder how long this time is?"
Guixu's brows twitched fiercely, and a trace of undetectable murderous intent flashed through his gentle eyes.
Does this guy take himself too seriously?
Sanctuary permissions are indeed a problem for him, but that's all.
If necessary, he wouldn't mind changing the director of Vault 13.
He believed that he didn't even need to take action himself, the guy named Tianqi would be happy to do it.
Facing those unpleasant eyes, Guixu forced himself to smile warmly, and was about to deal with it in an official tone.
However, at this moment, something unexpected happened to him.
The man sitting not far from him suddenly stood up without warning.
The man ignored the astonishment on his face at all, glanced around the conference table, and then with a voice filled with pity and a hint of coldness, he said the words that most people present did not expect.