Chapter 995 Superposition State
Chapter 995 Superposition State
It was undoubtedly the landing craft of the Human Union, but there were no fully armed soldiers inside, only an emergency hibernation capsule.
The soldiers of the space combat team lifted the hibernation capsule out, re-stretched the isolation belt at the accident site, and sent the hibernation capsule to the nearest infirmary.
After connecting to the power supply, they activated the hatch of the hibernation capsule according to the normal procedure.
As the hatch opened, a girl in a silver-gray tights was seen lying inside.
Seeing the girl lying in the hibernation capsule, everyone around couldn’t help but hold their breath.
Her hair was almost gone, and her skin was like it had been burned by fire. Large pieces of tissue fell off the dermis, so that the expression distorted by pain was blurred. What was
even more shocking was that she seemed to have been shot in the abdomen, and the cabin was full of frozen blood.
That appearance can only be described as horrible, and it is hard to imagine the pain she had suffered before.
Standing in front of the holographic screen, Wu Mengke felt a tight pain in her heart and almost subconsciously blurted out and shouted.
”Hurry up and save her!”
She didn’t even need to give orders, the medical staff waiting on the side had already taken action.
They put a ventilator on her, quickly connected her to a life support device, and started treatment.
Cryostasis in the case of severe injuries is an extremely dangerous thing, and one could really become a corpse if one is not careful.
Fortunately, the people in the wasteland are probably used to messing around, and their vitality is as tenacious as cockroaches.
In addition, she already had the academy’s bionic prosthesis installed on her body, so she was miraculously rescued from the near-death state.
”Her symptoms are like being hit by a neutron torpedo…” Koala, who was inspecting the prosthesis, couldn’t help but smacked his tongue and whispered, “This guy can actually survive.”
A colleague from the fourth department said.
”It may be because of the deflector shield on the ship. Remember the ‘research ship’ before? That guy didn’t suffer much damage.”
The engineer standing by nodded, stroking his chin and said thoughtfully.
”It’s reasonable to assume that the young man fainted due to the electromagnetic pulse when the nuclear explosion just happened because of his higher level of prosthetics, but the radiation damage he suffered was smaller… But this girl was the opposite, she withstood the electromagnetic pulse, but was affected by neutron radiation.”
Koala said incomprehensibly.
”But why is she on another ship? And it’s a model of the People’s United Aerospace Force…”
”I don’t know,” the engineer shook his head and gestured with two fingers, “I can only assume that there are two ships, one is their own research ship, and the other is originally on the wreckage… Do you understand what I said? It is part of the ruins.”
Koala looked at him blankly, and his expression gradually became subtle.
The landing craft that was originally on the wreckage…
This feeling is like saying that their “Dawn” plan has failed…
Obviously, he is not the only one who thinks so, and many people around him fell silent.
While the engineers of the fourth department were discussing the strange prosthetics installed on the patient, the doctors of the seventh department were concerned about the patient’s condition.
”It’s so tragic… this girl.”
”Ah…”
”If it was a few seconds later, she might have died.”
The doctors and nurses on duty were whispering, and only Lin Youyou was staring at that face in a daze.
Noticing her expression, a colleague next to her cast a curious look at her.
”… Do you know her?”
Lin Youyou nodded subtly.
”Probably?”
”What do you mean by probably?”
Lin Youyou was silent for a while and then spoke.
”Someone mentioned her name to me… I have a strong intuition that she is the girl that the child mentioned.”
That was originally an agreement for 200 years, but I didn’t expect it to be realized so soon.
The colleague next to her didn’t know what she was talking about, but just looked at her in confusion.
”Who is she?”
”Jiang Xuezhou.”
After thinking for a moment, Lin Youyou nodded and confirmed her statement.
”She is Jiang Xuezhou, there is no mistake.”
He became her.
As for themselves, they were still stuck in this stagnant time – or the gap between time and space.
This is so strange…
At this moment, the person next to the treatment bed suddenly let out a slight exclamation.
”The patient is awake!”
”Wait, she’s talking!”
Hearing her colleague’s exclamation, Lin Youyou immediately interrupted her thoughts and walked quickly to the side of the treatment bed.
The girl’s breathing was very weak, and her cracked lips opened and closed slightly like a candle swaying in the wind, which made people feel distressed…
She heard her voice, as if she was calling someone’s name.
”Ye Shi…”
”It’s… so cold here…”
…
So cold –
when his consciousness sank into the abyss, Ye Shi had only this feeling in his heart.
The biting cold seemed to penetrate his five senses and penetrate his soul through his skin and hair.
He subconsciously wanted to curl up, but he couldn’t move.
This feeling was like diving into the Arctic Ocean, and then being grabbed by the throat by an invisible hand, pulling straight from the sea surface to the deepest part of the seabed.
But just when he was about to touch the seabed, the world seemed to be turned upside down.
The tip of his nose did not touch the seabed, but drilled out from another sea surface on the other side of the planet.
”Buzz–”
accompanied by a surging noise, his lost five senses returned in an instant.
Success… or not?
Ye Shi sat up almost reflexively, but his forehead was engraved on the door of the hibernation capsule.
This action triggered the safety mechanism of the hibernation capsule, or perhaps the safety mechanism had been passively triggered long ago.
The yellow signal light flashed with words similar to an alarm, accompanied by a “hiss” sound of air leakage, and the tightly closed metal hatch slowly opened.
”Cough”
Ye Shi felt unprecedented weakness, his whole body was top-heavy, and his back was still resting in the ice cave.
But he still grabbed the edge of the hatch with all his strength, and floated out from the ice pile with a flip.
Yes, he floated out.
There is no gravity here.
Even more than that, the space outside is colder than the hibernation chamber, but perhaps because of the thin air, the perceived temperature is not that low.
Ye Shi was happy.
Without gravity, at least he has left the timeline of two hundred years ago.
But soon his face changed, and the thin air made him feel suffocated.
”Day–”
Ye Shi cursed, and in a hurry, he suddenly had an idea. He moved his index finger to the back of his neck and tapped twice, starting the internal circulation mode of the artificial lung.
He rarely used this mode when he was on the surface, so much so that he almost forgot that he had this function.
After starting this mode, the lungs will close the air outlet and assist other digestive and metabolic organs to use electrical energy, catalysts and water produced by respiration to achieve photosynthesis and generate glucose and oxygen.
Although in theory, this cycle can continue as long as there is electrical energy input, there is actually a loss of quality in actual operation.
After all, the “cyborg” with a large number of bionic prostheses is not a real bionic man. He cannot really survive outside the earth’s ecological environment.
This function is probably only enough for him to stay in outer space for 24 hours, or even less.
But –
this time should be enough.
According to the agreement, the crew of the Orion will soon come here to join them.
After calming down, Ye Shi observed the situation around him. The twisted steel and deformed cockpit were undoubtedly Jiang Xuezhou’s research ship.
However, what made his heartstrings involuntarily tense was that Xiao Jiang was the only one who could not be seen here.
”Strange…”
Where is the person?
He clearly heard her voice!
And just a second before waking up!
Not only did he hear it, the white frost printed on the glass was clearly her breath!
An ominous premonition gradually crawled over Ye Shi’s body. He searched around the ruins for a long time, and even tore off the twisted alloy door and got into the crew cabin behind the cockpit, but he didn’t see a single figure.
She seemed to have disappeared out of thin air.
As time went by, the ominous premonition gradually turned into a creepy feeling.
A possibility suddenly appeared in his mind—
she was still in there!
In that “rift in time and space”!
But how could this be possible? !
Wasn’t he the only one who went in? !
Ye Shi’s face was changing between astonishment and disbelief, and even a hint of anger.
Just a few minutes ago, someone had promised him that he would come to save him, but nothing happened.
Either they failed.
Or they completely forgot about themselves.
Or they couldn’t hold back their impulses and tried to interfere with the universe within their horizon, but they were drowned in the long river of time.
In short, the plan went wrong…
The reinforcements didn’t come!
Or they were originally in completely different parallel worlds, and their encounter in the hyperspace channel was just an accidental brush.
He didn’t change his future, nor theirs.
Instead, because of a group of people’s self-righteousness, a monster called “Tianren” was created in a parallel world.
”Damn…”
Ye Shi punched the wall hard, but was hit by the reverse impact force and hit the other half, and almost couldn’t stop in this not-so-spacious cockpit.
However, it was this collision that made Ye Shi realize that he had to calm down.
Don’t panic at this time.
The more you are in a dilemma, the more you should stay calm.
He held on to the wall to stabilize his body and first adjusted his heart rate, trying to keep himself calm.
Then he tried to go offline.
The result of this attempt was the same as before.
The offline function was like it was pulled off the remote control, and he couldn’t go offline.
In this way, he was still in the “copy”…
Ye Shi was relieved to realize this.
He has discovered it.
When in the copy, the flow of time in reality is slowed down, or in other words, his time is accelerated.
A very simple logic can prove it.
He stayed on the Orion missile cruiser for two full weeks. If the time in the game and in reality is really a 1:1 flow rate, even if Jiujiu really left his brother alone, he would be dead in reality.
There is only one explanation.
The copy he is in is different from the flow of time in the real world!
Not only that.
This difference in the speed of time is not just a distinction between fast and slow, but an insertion of a “time that does not exist on this timeline” on his timeline.
It is precisely because of this that he has clearly passed several days in the copy, but in reality, not much has passed, even only one or two hours.
Only such a short time has passed in the real world, and the same is true for the game world outside the copy.
He doesn’t know how this is technically achieved.
Maybe it is through some kind of psychological suggestion, maybe it is through computing power simulation…
But in short, this can explain why he can always hear the same four sentences over and over again.
As for why Jiang Xuezhou is not here, there is only one explanation left –
she has also entered the copy!
But why can’t she and the crew on the ship observe her existence even though she has entered the copy –
no, not necessarily unobservable!
There is just a time difference!
Even the time she arrived is very likely the time he left.
And this is why they can’t observe each other.
A trace of enlightenment gradually flooded into Ye Shi’s mind.
Everything that was originally vague gradually became clear with his analysis, and threaded the broken puzzle pieces in his mind.
The starship hovering in synchronous orbit fired neutron torpedoes at their research ship.
Although the deflector shield of the research ship took some of the damage, he was not unconscious because of neutron radiation, but because the electromagnetic pulse generated by the nuclear explosion caused the bionic device to overload.
The smaller the device, the more susceptible it is to being affected, especially since he was covered from head to toe and even on his skin. His
memory began to break down.
When he passed out, Jiang Xuezhou, who was relatively less affected by the electromagnetic pulse, dragged him into the hibernation chamber.
The main damage she suffered should be neutron radiation.
However, due to the deflector shield, her injury should not be fatal.
There was of course more than one hibernation chamber on the research ship, but she did not lie in it herself.
After all, their enemies were not offline, and they had no reinforcements. If both of them lay in it, it would mean waiting to die!
She had only one choice –
that is to continue fighting!
While she was still awake.
Ye Shi put himself in the other’s shoes. Lying in front of him was Xiao Jiang who was in a coma.
”…If it were me, I would definitely not stay there and wait to die. I would definitely try every means to save her.”
But how to save her?
His brain was working very fast, like an overclocked computer, simulating countless possibilities in an instant.
Although his intelligence attribute has never been low, he has been playing games for so long, but this is the first time that he has used all his brain cells to think about things that perception players never have to think about…
”My advantage is perception, and I will probably consider an ambush… Her advantage is programming and understanding of machinery and ruins… She can only think of ways from the environment itself.”
She is an expert in artificial intelligence.
She has almost genius-like programming skills, and she has served in the Beacon Squad, and has a lot of experience in exploring the ruins of the Human Alliance era.
Then…
there is only one thing she can do.
That is to use offense as defense and compete with the “Heavenly Man” who has landed on this starship for control of this starship!
In this way, the fake “Luo Yi” on the spaceship at this moment can’t take care of himself.
That guy can only chase her at all costs!
Thinking of the girl who is afraid of the dark and cold doing so many things for him, Ye Shi suddenly felt a little sour in his nose, and couldn’t help but clench his fists against the wall.
”Damn it, if I can’t pass this instance… I’ll delete my account and start over…”
Everything became clear.
And the clues that were not clear yet were only the last few pieces of the puzzle.
Including why I still couldn’t log off, including the fact that the reinforcements that were supposed to arrive the moment I woke up did not show up unexpectedly, etc.
Although the whole process might be more tortuous and bizarre than I imagined, it was generally not difficult to guess.
During the time I was asleep, she should have taken control of the starship, or at least control of some areas and equipment.
For example, the core warp engine…
In the worst and most extreme case, the last resort she could use was nothing more than one –
that is to exhaust the last bit of energy that could be used for the starship to jump, open the hyperspace channel to jump to another galaxy, and completely exile this starship with the ability to destroy the world outside the solar system.
In order to prevent her from opening the hyperspace channel, “Luo Yi” may have launched and detonated a neutron torpedo at close range again, or simply detonated it directly on the launch pad.
This is the most likely thing to happen.
That guy is probably a bionic man, and it is very likely that he was made by the Gemini.
It is for this reason that the guy can use this strategic-level weapon unscrupulously. But
this is not the point.
The point is that the neutron torpedo detonated in the hyperspace channel turned the abandoned Orion cruiser into a new “black box”, and it is a “black box” belonging to the 215th year of the Wasteland Era – the timeline when the Wasteland Era is about to end and enter a new era.
The explosion of the neutron bomb and the hyperspace jump cannot occur at the same time, because there is no concept of time in the hyperspace channel, and the former will prevent the latter from happening.
Therefore, there must be a sequence for the occurrence of the two, even if the explosion of the neutron bomb is certain.
It is for this reason that the two situations of the neutron bomb exploding at the entrance of the hyperspace channel and exploding at the exit form a superposition state in quantum mechanics. And the ones who
become superposition states are not only the crew members of the Orion more than 200 years ago, but also include himself, Jiang Xuezhou, and a bionic man with the same name and surname as Luo.
The intersection of the two timelines did not occur when the research ship collided with the Orion, nor when the first neutron torpedo exploded, but when he was dormant – the moment when the starship entered the “hyperspace channel” beyond the horizon!
At this moment, Jiang Xuezhou fell into a superposition state of life and death for some reason.
And because the dormant cabin formed a “Faraday cage”, he was not only lucky enough not to be affected by the second “strategic-level EMP strike”, but even woke up unexpectedly because of the impact of EMP on the external circuit of the dormant cabin.
The moment he woke up and the moment she closed her eyes together constituted the starting point of their intersection with another timeline, and the moment she woke up or died was the end point of the timeline intersection!
Ye Shi’s understanding of physics is actually only at the undergraduate level, and his understanding of high-energy objects is limited to Yang’s double-slit interference experiment.
Perhaps Professor Kuangfeng can give a more scientific explanation, but these things are not important at the moment!
In this second black box, he is no longer an observer, but the cat itself in a superposition state.
Regardless of whether the friendly forces two hundred years ago still remember that distant appointment, or whether they were destined to be unable to keep the appointment from the beginning, the so-called deception of the observer was just their wishful thinking from beginning to end… He had to do what only he could do at this moment.
There was no concept of time here, and no one could save her!
Except himself!
Grasping the edge of the hatch, Ye Shiyi kicked open the twisted and deformed cockpit hatch, and floated into a dark room with the flying door panel.
He didn’t have to hide his existence anymore.
It would be better to let the imposter who called himself “Luo Yi” come to find him!
The broken steel made a creaking sound, which came from his right hand holding the door frame.
At the same time, he turned on the flashlight and quickly confirmed the situation around him.
This is the cafeteria on the lower deck.
He remembered it very clearly, and even remembered that his last meal was potato beef here… Although the potato beef was not in his stomach at the moment, it was left in the “space-time crack” that did not exist in the main timeline.
But the miracle is that these memories have been preserved, and even the taste buds on the tip of the tongue still have a faint aftertaste.
The familiar tableware and chairs are floating in a corner of the room. There is no flickering light here, only pitch-black darkness, and the scene is as chaotic as a car accident scene.
All the familiar people are gone, whether it is the crew members who eat or the bionic chefs who cook, and… that is also a matter of course.
Looking at the corridor outside the cafeteria that is like a black well, Ye Shi clenched his teeth, took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting his five senses sink into the deep darkness and spread outward along the hands tightly clenched on the door frame.
The five senses that spread outward are like a dense spider web, and any slight movement cannot escape the capture of his synapses.
Whether it is the slight collision of garbage and the wall, or the rustling friction, or the wind that is so thin that it is almost imperceptible…
that is definitely not a natural movement.
Ye Shi’s eyes opened suddenly.
Although he could not see the man’s face through the ruins, he could clearly sense which corridor the man was walking in.
There was no doubt that familiar yet strange feeling –
it was the “accident scene” that he had never been allowed to enter!
The man with the jetpack was pressing the button of the jetpack two short and one long, floating in the gravity-free corridor like a ghost, slowly approaching the gym that was surrounded by isolation belts in a parallel world.
”…I see you!”
(End of this chapter)
