Chapter 1056 The End is also the Beginning
Chapter 1056 The end is also the beginning.
β Universe, 2014, summer.
”Bang!”
The sharp gunshot echoed in his ears, suddenly awakening the boy who was unconscious due to heat stroke.
At this moment, he was in a pure white space.
However, this is not a hospital.
He subconsciously raised his index finger and touched his temple. The memory of the bullet passing through his skull was vivid, and even made him unconsciously sweat on his back. He
really didn’t want to experience that feeling again.
However, thinking that the replica far away in the α universe may have died again and again, he felt relieved.
No matter how many times the β in the parallel universe died, it happened in multiple parallel universes.
Standing here, he only needs to die once more…
At the same time, a translucent floating window appeared in front of him.
Lines of text gradually appeared on the screen.
[This system is committed to improving the level of indigenous civilization. Regarding the secrets of this system, please explore it yourself…]
It was still that familiar feeling.
Looking at the nostalgic text, a faint smile appeared on his lips, and his clear eyes were calm and steady, which was inconsistent with his age.
It was as if he was not 20 years old.
But 200 years old…
”We meet again, Observer.”
The text on the screen stopped, as if a good play was exposed and could not go on.
The existence hiding behind the screen obviously did not expect to hear its own name here.
It did not expect to see an acquaintance here.
”… It’s you? But, how is this possible… It should be 2014 now… Wait——”
For a moment, it fell into astonishment and panic, but it was only a moment.
There is no concept of time in the void.
Its projection can appear in any universe, even the universe it once gave up.
And just a moment ago, it has re-collected the information that it originally regarded as having no observation significance through traversing multiple universes.
And at this moment, it was completely shocked.
Multiple universes have branches that have never existed before.
Part of it is still the same as before. The young man in front of him got the “system” he gave as he expected, but he made different choices in the process of becoming a boundary breaker.
The other part of the universe was eroded by the fission consciousness from a certain universe, and the “404-β Shelter” that was originally impossible to exist was born on the timeline, replacing his own interference!
Looking at the astonishment coming through the screen, the man smiled lightly and teased.
”You seem surprised?”
After a long wait, the observer sighed heartily.
”Incredible… You actually opened up a future that I have never seen. I must admit that even in front of the vast number of samples I have seen, the miracles you created are rare and rare.”
After sighing heartily, it continued without stopping.
”Although I don’t want to say anything sarcastic, for you in the β universe, what you are about to do may be meaningless… According to your plan, the α universe will repeat the experiment countless times and fail countless times, and in the end, only one β universe can match it!”
”In other words, your probability of success is only one in an infinite number! Everything you do in this universe has an infinite probability of paving the way for a certain failure of the α universe! Or it is to accompany a failed experiment!”
”Spending more than ten years to do something that is likely to be meaningless… Don’t you think such a fate is too desperate for you?”
Come back.
Back to the normal timeline.
Although the observer did not say it explicitly, the man standing here did hear the persuasion behind the voice.
Indeed.
It’s not too late to turn back now. The man
standing here is not a professor, but a fission variant numbered β, who is set to be a reborn person who returns to the period when he just obtained the system with the memory and experience of the next 200 years.
He only needs to put the responsibility of the original world behind him, return to the track arranged by the observer, learn lessons and act step by step, complete the task when it is time to complete the task, and disappear when it is time to disappear…
Although the world that has already declined cannot be saved, at least the human civilization of this universe can avoid entering the wasteland era, and he can eventually become a boundary breaker.
This is not a bad ending.
But relatively speaking, Plan 404 will be scrapped.
So that is a choice he will never make.
And he has no doubt that in the infinite β universe, the self who pointed the gun at his head and finally stood here at the cost of death will definitely make the same choice.
The bullet ended not only the professor’s life, but also the possibility of countless branches!
And the observer’s reaction was just right. His guess was correct-
this guy traversed all the universes, but still couldn’t find a future where he would waver or even make a compromise decision standing here.
So it was anxious.
”…It’s meaningless if you don’t do it. If you don’t do it, you will definitely not succeed.”
”But what about the people in this world? Have you thought about the possible consequences of your interference?”
”Are you ashamed to say this to me? Have you thought about this question yourself? Isn’t the Wasteland Era the result of your failure after interference?”
The professor laughed, and the sharp question made the observer speechless for a while.
He didn’t pause, but continued to speak word by word.
”Every universe I interfered in is a universe where you chose me as a boundary breaker and interfered. My interference is just a replacement for your interference. If I fail, I will naturally erase my interference from this universe, as if you and I have never been here.”
”At that time, their fate will be in their own hands, and there will be no outsider to be responsible for them. I think this may not be a bad result for the humans in this world.”
The observer was still unwilling to give up and was still trying to make a final effort.
”Even if it means that there is an infinite probability that your efforts in this universe will be in vain?”
Looking at the observer who was trying hard to persuade him, the man smiled faintly.
He knew.
The observer was not really concerned about him or humans, just like he was not concerned about the bacteria on a leaf, let alone whether the latter’s efforts would be in vain. What
this guy really cared about was the boundary breaker who stitched the universe.
He was worried that he would ruin its good deeds.
This kind of thing could indeed happen, and it could even be said to be inevitable.
Once he replaced its interference, it would completely lose control of the situation. Even if it could still find other consciousnesses to exert influence, it would be a matter of other universes or long after its own death.
The observer’s interference had boundaries. Unless under special circumstances, it was almost impossible to establish connections with two independent consciousnesses in the same universe.
Each of its interferences corresponded to a new universe, and this was determined at the moment of the explosion of the original universe.
It was precisely for this reason that it would persevere in persuading him and trying to make him change his mind.
But –
what did that have to do with him?
Compared with the heat death after billions of years, he cared more about the world he once lived in, where everyone he knew lived. If they could not continue, his existence would be meaningless.
He is different from those guys floating in the void. He is a real person living in that world, not some illusory projection!
He will not pat his butt and leave after messing up everything, saying “It’s all your fault for not executing it well”!
”Since you have seen the shot I fired, you should have guessed how I would answer you. Why do you ask such a stupid question?”
”Before coming here, I was ready to die.”
”This game will start with my death, and my end will become a new beginning-”
”Give up, I won’t look back, and there is no way out!”
The pure white space began to collapse, and the boundless boundary gradually turned into the wall of the ward.
All the noise fell silent at this moment.
It’s gone.
Probably won’t come back again.
But it’s hard to say, its fickleness is not once or twice.
He thinks it doesn’t need to be so desperate. Since it is an ending he has never seen, it is still worth looking forward to the future.
Besides, his own plan 404 may inspire it to save other universes.
The man sat up from the bed with curtains hanging on it, and pulled out the needle on the back of his hand as if
nothing had happened. Under the strange gaze of the nurse in front of the bed, he stood up, dressed and left the ward. The acquaintance who came to pick him up saw that he was no longer in danger, and was surprised to say hello to him, but he met a pair of strange eyes and was stunned for a while.
I still remember that strange face, but after two hundred years, he could no longer match that face with the name in his memory, so he just nodded politely and passed by.
It is now 2014.
There are only 7 years to 2021.
In these 7 years, he has to complete the preparation of Shelter 404-β and all preparations for the game launch in this old world that has not yet entered the prosperous era.
There are still a lot of things to do.
There is no time to delay…
…
…
Alpha universe.
Shelter 404, the administrator’s office on the B5 floor, the picture on the screen is frozen at the last gunshot.
”Bang!”
Chu Guang, who was standing at the door of the room, suddenly woke up after hearing the deafening sound and walked quickly to the side of the chair.
A rusty revolver was placed on the chair, and a bullet shell was lying next to it.
As for the remaining blood, it had long turned into dust.
The AI in this shelter recovered the professor’s body and formatted itself afterwards.
And now its number is 777…
Chu Guang stared at the pistol blankly, and finally filled in the last piece of the puzzle.
He understood everything.
Everything about Project 404 and this shelter.
About his origin.
And the origin of the players.
More than that.
The details that he had temporarily put in the corner of his memory due to insufficient clues also gradually became clear as the last piece of the puzzle was filled in.
Including where the original residents of this shelter went, including how the helmet came into the hands of the players.
Just as he guessed, he himself was the first generation manager, and he came back 777 times in 200 years!
Sometimes it was ten or eight years apart.
Sometimes he would be resurrected dozens or even hundreds of times in a year!
And the original rules of the game were what he had perfected and summarized through his reincarnations…
Chu Guang raised his head and looked at the screen in front of him.
”Do you have to die?”
As if he had guessed that he would ask this, the professor standing on the screen smiled faintly and said in a gentle voice.
”Even if I hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have lived to this day, unless I froze myself into an ice stick… but that doesn’t really make any sense, does it? I don’t have many old friends left, and my youngest students are almost gone. The only digital life that I can’t let go of… I’m destined not to be able to stay with it forever.”
”Instead of letting it wait for the pain that is bound to come, it’s better to arrange a decent ending for it while I’m still awake. So don’t feel sorry or sad for me. This may not be the best arrangement for me.”
”As for my death, that’s also part of the plan. If I don’t send the memory of pulling the trigger to the β universe, the ‘fission reaction’ I described will not happen. Even if the observer doesn’t intervene, and the voice from the void doesn’t confuse the other me, the other me will not carry out my plan, and not even once.”
”Why? I haven’t heard that the connection of the morphogenetic field is mediated by death–”
Chu Guang asked this question subconsciously, but just halfway through, the answer suddenly appeared in his mind.
Indeed.
Death is not the premise of the morphogenetic field, but it is the premise of Plan 404.
The reason was obvious –
looking at Chu Guang, whose face showed a look of realization, the professor on the screen smiled faintly and continued in a matter-of-fact tone.
”It seems that you have realized that some things can only be done once or countless times. How can you expect others to do something that you can’t do yourself? You have repeated countless experiments, while the β fission variant faces a probability of one in an infinite number. If he executes the plan, he will face an infinite number of bad endings. If he doesn’t execute it, the one in an infinite number of molecules will not exist, and you are even less likely to be standing here now.”
”It’s amazing, isn’t it? This is the morphogenetic field. Resonance is not expressed with words, but reflected in actions. It must be that you do the same thing at the same time. If I don’t pull the trigger, the other me will either not receive the information I convey to him, or even if I receive it, I will definitely not ‘pull the trigger’.”
Chu Guang nodded slowly.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, a similar thing happened on the Orion missile cruiser.
At that time, he learned the whole story from the player’s post, and now it seems that it should be a similar principle.
The only difference is that the information transmission across time was completed under extreme coincidence, which is different from the carefully designed layout of Plan 404.
”So the 20 years I spent in reality… were actually faked?”
”Not entirely. Your interpersonal relationships are real. You did have interactions with those netizens you were familiar with. Not only did you know each other for several years, but you also played many games together. As for your identity background, the companies you worked for, and the houses you rented, there are indeed traces of fakery. After all, we can’t really create a clone in the β universe and watch him go to school and grow up like a normal person… This is not allowed in terms of time.”
”In fact, in the first few reincarnations, you started as me. As for deleting my memory and becoming ‘Chu Guang’ in the end, it was also a decision you made in one of your early reincarnations.”
When he said this, the professor standing on the screen smiled and said in a joking tone.
”Didn’t you notice? You actually don’t have the contact information of those colleagues and landlords… Especially the latter, they didn’t even think of asking you for rent.”
Chu Guang said with a bitter smile.
”I thought they deleted me because they felt unlucky.”
After all this time, these people didn’t exist at all, or they didn’t exist in the β universe he was matching at the moment.
It’s no wonder that the major institutions and organizations in that world couldn’t find him at all.
His information wasn’t even erased with any high technology, but it wasn’t there at all.
If they could find his information, it can only be said that someone ate the funding for themselves.
Looking at Chu Guang, who was in a complicated mood, the professor standing on the screen smiled like an old father.
That smile was exactly the same as his, just like the smile he showed when he watched the alliance rising from the ruins like the morning sun –
just like looking at his own child.
Even though the illusory image was blurry, Chu Guang, standing in front of the screen, still felt like he was looking in the mirror.
”… Actually, you don’t need to feel confused. Just like my assistant said, your existence is not only made up of your memories, but also other people’s memories of you. Except for those who don’t exist, the experiences of you and everyone you have ever met in your life are extremely real.”
”Although I was worried a long time ago that you would not be able to carry out Plan 404 as you went further and further away, the result was just the opposite… It was you who were completely different from me that created the miracle that I couldn’t create.”
”And I am also very pleased that you can make such a decision and let go of the things I can’t let go of. From the moment you call yourself Chu Guang, you are no longer me, but my continuation.”
”Of course, as you said, you want to control your own destiny. And now, I also plan to give you the right to choose.”
As he spoke, the shadow disappeared from the screen in the office, and was replaced by an open folder. There were
files with unknown formats and mosaic icons stored in them according to the numbers 0 to 776.
Chu Guang knew what it was without asking.
There is no doubt that what was stored there was the memory of his 776 restarts over the past 200 years!
As for the file numbered 0,
it is from 200 years ago… and all the way to the old era before the prosperous era. It belongs to the memory of the “professor” who once created the prosperous era!
”…These are the memories you have actually experienced, which happened before you woke up from the door of this shelter. You may have vaguely glimpsed some fragments in your dreams, but those are just noises from parallel worlds, not complete memories.”
”After all, the morphogenetic field does not only appear when we need it, but occasionally it will flash past us in the form of déjà vu.”
Thinking of the wild experiences he had seen in his dreams, Chu Guang made a helpless expression.
”That was really an unforgettable experience. I can’t forget it even if I’m dead.”
”Indeed…it’s really heartbreaking to watch, but they are indeed things that happened.”
The professor smiled and said in a very light voice.
”Now I give you the right to choose, and this will be the final divergence point of your destiny.”
”You can choose to remember everything in the past and become the person you want to be, even including becoming me, the ‘professor’ who pioneered the prosperous era… You can be me, and I can be Chu Guang, and we will become one.”
”Or, you can also regard it as the memory of ‘another person’ and only keep the current memory. I am still me, the professor born in the old era. And you are still you, the Chu Guang who awakened in the 211th year of the Wasteland Era, the ‘manager’ who led the survivors to create a new era.”
The room was silent for a long time.
Chu Guang was silent longer this time than before.
However, this choice itself was not difficult.
”Well… Although the former sounds more attractive, I still choose the latter.”
No matter how much he knows about the inside story of “perfect life form” and “Project 404”, one thing will not change at all-
he is Chu Guang.
There is no doubt about this.
”Really? I also think you will choose this… Haha, that’s great.”
The professor who reappeared on the screen seemed to be relieved, but he was obviously not so sure.
Chu Guang couldn’t help but wonder if he would make a different choice in another parallel world, inherit the professor’s memory, and become an omniscient and omnipotent “philosopher king” with a new identity, and lead human civilization to create dozens of thousands of years of prosperity in the Milky Way.
But that is another world.
He didn’t want to imagine the possibility that did not exist.
Whether it is ending the Wasteland Era or forming an alliance, it has nothing to do with Project 404.
He has always followed his own heart, and he will continue to be himself in the future.
”Can I keep these things?” Chu Guang looked at the things in the folder as if he was looking at an ancient artifact.
The professor said with a hearty smile on his face.
”Of course, they are important historical documents… Although I don’t recommend you to insert it into your head, I don’t recommend you to delete it. However, in order to avoid the interference of the void on our world line, I suggest that you should make some appropriate deletions to the content.”
Chu Guang said with a smile.
”For example, delete the system part, right?”
”Yes, although you and I know that observers cannot transmit non-existent information out of thin air, others don’t know. I don’t want others to misunderstand science as fate or the gift of the void… In that case, they will fall into the trap of nihilism. You don’t want that, do you?”
When he said this, the professor suddenly seemed to remember something and smiled embarrassedly.
”Oh, right, there are some personal matters… Never mind, I’ll take care of the things in folder 0, and you can decide on folders 1 to 776. Those things have nothing to do with me.”
Looking at the embarrassed expression, Chu Guang smiled knowingly and expressed his understanding. Of
course he would take those things into consideration.
After all, managers also poop, and you can’t put the footage of him taking a big poop in the museum. Even
if some things are to be made public, it’s best to bury them in the ground for a while.
”No problem, in fact, I plan to do so even if you don’t say it. As for the files numbered 1 to 776, I’ll leave it to Xiaoqi to sort them out. And after the sorting is completed, I will set a 100-year confidentiality period for the information, and will lift the ban after the confidentiality period is over.”
The professor breathed a sigh of relief, with a vague smile on his face.
”You decide. My time is over. I’ll leave the rest to you. By the way, is its name Xiaoqi? What a nice name.”
”It thinks so, too,” Chu Guang said with a faint smile. “As expected, this is probably the best name I’ve ever given it.”
”Haha, really? You have to treat it well. It’s the child of my most capable assistant.”
The blurred face was filled with a relieved smile.
Although Chu Guang wanted to talk to him, the time to say goodbye seemed to have come.
It wasn’t the professor himself who stayed here, but just an echo recorded 200 years ago.
Its only purpose in staying here was to hand over the last key to itself after everything was over, and to end the mission it had been carrying.
The real professor had already died 200 years ago in the previous video…
”I promise you.”
Chu Guang nodded solemnly, watching the ethereal echo gradually fade away and merge into the invisible nothingness…
——
(Thanks to the book friend “衣上佚” for the leader’s reward!!!)
(End of this chapter)
