This Game Is Too Real

The final piece of information was left behind, the voice from the abyss faded into invisibility.

Not only that.

The gaze from an unknown source also dissipated along with that voice, as if it had never been present at all.

Instinct told Chu Guang that they would never meet again... at least within the foreseeable time.

Even this encounter itself was an unexpected event that shouldn't have happened.

Watching Chu Guang, who was staring into the bookshelf in a daze, Xiao Qi softly reminded him with concern.

"Master... are you okay?"

Gathering his dispersed thoughts, Chu Guang looked at the worried Xiao Qi, stretched out his index finger to tousle its hair, and gave it a reassuring smile.

"I'm fine, it's just that earlier... I happened to see a guy who calls himself the Observer."

Xiao Qi looked at him blankly.

"Observer?"

"Yes," Chu Guang nodded, his face showing a slightly intriguing expression, as he cast his gaze at the green cluster of trees outside the window, "How should I say it? Although it was an unforeseen meeting, it was thanks to him that I glimpsed another possibility beyond the timeline... and simultaneously answered the questions that have been puzzling me all along."

According to the Observer's theory, the multi-universe and parallel worlds coexist, and there exists another universe in this world that is identical to this one, except without him.

It's somewhat like the famous "Infinite Monkey" theorem.

That is, if we assume a monkey or infinite monkeys sitting at typewriters randomly pressing buttons, given enough time, they would almost certainly type out a work of "Shakespeare."

Of course, not just "Shakespeare," this would certainly include "Journey to the West" or other novels.

Including stories from "Wasteland OL" and "Reality OL."

And in fact, the "infinite" described by the Observer is indeed such a vast concept.

From the vibration of the first particle in the Original Universe, heat death had already begun, and reached the zero point of the "Big Bang" after the birth of consciousness entities.

From that moment, the operation of matter no longer followed its original dispersion trajectory, but rather began evolving under the interference of the three initial consciousness entities, creating infinite possibilities.

The infinite universe was thus born, and it is genuinely infinite!

In this endless parallel universe, there are stories about Chu Guang, as well as stories about other people, or perhaps stories that exclude him but include others.

And the results under these control variables still have to overlap with countless other variables...

For instance, the Alliance is still the Alliance, and he is still himself, but the pioneer they encountered was not the current "Spiritual Energy Explorer," but the "Ancient Civilization" mentioned by the Observer planning to destroy all life in this universe.

The differences between universes can be as large as having one more civilization or one less civilization, or as small as having one more person or one less person at a specific timeline segment, down to whether this person performed a certain action on a certain day.

All these endless possibilities are determined by "consciousness," or spirit.

And they correspond one-to-one with infinite material universes.

Chu Guang tried to imagine an inadequate but sufficiently vivid analogy, that infinite parallel universes are like infinite typewriters.

And the "three major consciousness entities" mentioned by the Observer are like male and female monkeys capable of producing infinite little monkeys.

As for the Observer himself, who exists in infinite universes, and his companions the Sowers... including the slain "TAG.7444154," are essentially "monkeys sitting at typewriters."

Their existence, although it accelerates the wear and tear of typewriters and the bankruptcy and closure of publishing houses, also provides the possibility of profit for originally dying ones.

Among them, the number of the Sowers and Observers is the greatest.

It is said that they were born from the Original Light and exist everywhere like the three consciousness entities from the Original Universe, projecting into countless parallel worlds.

Moreover, compared to the latter, they have a stronger subjective initiative and clearer, more specific motives.

One is responsible for randomly pressing letters, while the other is responsible for "proofreading." Together, their goal is to write the story of the "Breaker" as much as possible before ink runs out on each typewriter.

With each birth of a Breaker, two or more typewriters on the verge of scrapping can be merged into one.

After all, these monkeys don't press keys entirely randomly, but refer to "successful cases" on other typewriters, performing fine-tuning within the rules allowed to generate a "Breaker a" or "Breaker b" in a universe originally without a Breaker.

This behavior doesn't succeed every time, but it certainly increases the probability of a Breaker's birth.

As for "TAG.7444154" and other void consciousness entities with indefinite numbering, they are the "monkeys causing chaos."

They randomly leap to a typewriter to write their names, disrupting the orderly text, producing good or bad results, or instead find themselves beaten back by the keyboard, scurrying away from the typewriter.

They may have grand ambitions, or perhaps none.

For instance, the Observer mentioned that the pioneer civilization, long engaged in void research, was beguiled by a "bad voice" from the void and plunged headlong into oblivion.

Whereas the Alliance Scientific Expedition Team's Seventh Research Institute heard nothing but inadvertently attracted a ravenous Lizard, which hadn't had a chance to eat before being severely beaten and hastily left after dropping threats.

As for the typewriter under the Alliance's feet, it was probably abandoned by the Observer.

For example, the person or civilization chosen by it failed to carry out a task as desired, causing a myriad of butterfly effects that led to complete loss of control here.

Chu Guang was unsure if the supposed complete loss of control referred to the collapse of the United Human.

After all, looking at the possibilities described by the Observer, no matter how the Waste Land Wanderers struggled, they eventually seem to perish under the Sword of Damocles hanging overhead.

And this day may have been predetermined long before the United Human entered the Prosperity Epoch.

However, due to some accident, the previously absent "Breaker" seems to have reappeared?

Leading to the surprise of the "Outer Gods" in the void.

Not only did the Observer gather around again, but that indescribable mist also joined in, even causing him to have a conversation with the Observer he shouldn't have met.

Seeing Xiao Qi's face filled with confusion, Chu Guang smiled faintly and continued the previous topic.

"I've actually been puzzled all along about where our players come from and why that world has no information on me whatsoever..."

"I've even occasionally suspected that the 'Real World' was virtual from the beginning, like the world within Shelter 101... existing only as data."

"How could such a thing be possible?" Xiao Qi opened its mouth in surprise, "The server of Shelter 101 is already comparable to the endpoint cloud of Ideal City... Shelter No. 404 doesn't have that computational ability, right?"

"And it doesn't explain the real-time transmission of information, doesn't it?" Chu Guang smiled at Xiao Qi and continued gently, "So such an explanation is flawed from the beginning, even though it appears to be closest to the truth."

Undoubtedly, the players are not AI on a virtual machine but consciousness entities existing in a real another world.

As for why, because the small universe split from the Original Universe actually has infinite ones.

You can't find two identical leaves in a forest, but finding two almost similar leaves is still achievable, perhaps with a little more effort.

Although Chu Guang didn't know exactly which technology the First Generation Manager used to achieve and maintain this interworld continuous resonance field.

Perhaps drinking some Spiritual Energy Awakening potion, or signing an agreement with some existent presence in the void, or some other convoluted method.

But he could roughly guess what the guy did!

"In this world, there exists another universe and another 'me,' as well as another 'First Generation Manager' and the universe when that guy was young."

"If I'm not mistaken, he was targeting that parallel universe——"

"Or put another way."

"He connected to his 'past self'."

Completely erasing a person's information from the early internet?

This might indeed be tricky for "natives" living in that era.

But for the "Professor" who created the Academy and the entire Prosperity Epoch, this was incredibly easy.

It's no exaggeration to say, descending with all his knowledge on the eve of the Prosperity Epoch, he might be closer to "omnipotent" than Night Ten, who descends on Gaia Planet...

...

Rolling yellow sands sweep across the Earth, relics of the old era are buried carelessly within the untrodden dunes.

At the same time as the Alliance and the Observer in the void glanced at each other and passed by, a solemn meeting was underway in the deepest part of Shelter No. 13.

This meeting has two themes.

One is about deciding on the "Judgment Day" and the order in which the new world will operate, such as determining the post-war dominance of the celestial beings and the political rights of the Residents of the refuge who have submitted to them.

The other is to determine the specific date when the "Judgment Day" will arrive, as well as subsequent action plans, such as taking over the production and living facilities of the unattended Survivor Forces.

This includes Pioneer City closest to No.13 Shelter, the Lavanka Industrial Zone, and relatively distant areas like the Dawn city industrial zone and North Island Industrial Zone, as well as Ideal City on the East Coast and even the Vellante's coastal strongholds in the New Continent.

To avoid the loss of the means of production, they plan to develop a rapid takeover action plan.

The celestial beings sent five representatives to the meeting, all without exception are bionic people.

Meanwhile, there are as many as twelve representatives from the Residents of the refuge, half of whom are members of the Enlightenment Society, a quarter from the No.13 Shelter, and another quarter from other shelters in the Great Desert.

Although the Enlightenment Society and the celestial beings form a sort of interest community, this forced union was evidently fraught with ulterior motives and lacked sincerity from the beginning.

The celestial beings held the weapon most needed by the Enlightenment Society, which could play the elimination game on Earth.

And the Enlightenment Society also had something the celestial beings needed—they couldn't go to the Hunter alone and had to rely on some "tangible" Strength.

Even if that Strength came from gutter rats.

As for the other Residents of the refuge, they had various reasons for joining the Enlightenment Society.

Some were misled like Zhuang Lan, some agreed with the views of the Enlightenment Society, and most took a neutral stance, neither opposing nor supporting.

After all—

Why oppose?

The Neutron torpedoes could not even scratch the shelter.

Even if they disagreed with the extreme actions of the Enlightenment Society and the celestial beings, considering that all those disgusting Waste Land Wanderer, Mutants, and other troubles on the Wasteland would turn to smoke and dissipate, they had enough reason to turn a blind eye.

The whole process would be painless, even more comfortable than living in this decaying world...like embracing eternal sleep in the warm sunlight.

If there is reincarnation, they may be reborn in the shelter.

Or perhaps live in the "New Era" rebuilt by the Residents of the refuge.

To those struggling to survive on the Wasteland, this is not without a certain mercy.

At least, that's how they saw it.

It was for this reason that No.13 Shelter opened its doors to the Enlightenment Society.

After all, those three-layered defenses, outside and inside, no one could force them to open their gates, much less let anyone come in and transform their home unless they opened them themselves.

Thus, the "Judgment Day" plan proceeded smoothly, under the active efforts of a few and the silence of the majority.

If it weren't for a small unexpected event, this "Judgment Day" should have arrived two months ago.

However, unfortunately, that unexpected event happened.

The timetable for "Judgment Day" was postponed again and again, and it was foreseeable that this month's launch schedule would also be canceled.

Now, not only were the peripheral shelter forces dependent on the Enlightenment Society voicing wavering opinions, but even internally, there was unease.

That's why.

As soon as the meeting began, every participant bore a clouded expression.

Gui Xu, the president of the Enlightenment Society, sat at the head of the table, uncharacteristically silent from the start of the meeting, occasionally glancing at the bionic "Apocalypse" who the celestial beings had airdropped into this desert.

This guy used to belong to the Torch Church and was one of its Pioneers.

Although he didn't have much hope for this guy's abilities, at least he was the only one who could contact the Lagrange Point Space Station.

Furthermore,

He had faced off against the Alliance on the Battlefield.

Although there were some conflicts between the Enlightenment Society and the Alliance, they mostly involved small-scale military skirmishes.

Gui Xu had a feeling that this guy might have some constructive comments.

Unfortunately, the latter ignored him, sitting there expressionlessly, kicking the ball back with an indifferent attitude.

Actually, it wasn't that he didn't want to acknowledge the president of the Enlightenment Society, there was just nothing more they could do at the moment.

They merely had to wait.

Just like the orders from the Lagrange Point Space Station, they needed to do nothing next and just wait quietly for victory.

These organisms were just too impatient...

Feeling the frequent gazes, a faint sense of annoyance arose in Apocalypse's intellectual plugin.

Perhaps it was due to the influence of the celestial beings organization.

Devoted to pursuing higher evolution, he found himself averse to these feeble flesh entities for the first time...

As if they were something dirty.

Silence reigned at the conference table for a long time.

Finally, someone no longer wanted to wait endlessly, a man in his thirties stood up from the table.

His name was Feng Zhiheng, the eleventh generation director elected by the survivors of No.13 Shelter.

He was the one who had convinced the majority of Residents who had doubts about the Enlightenment Society, bringing in this group of dreamers devoted to "reconstructing the pre-war era."

A long honeymoon period followed their initial partnership, and the migration of the Enlightenment Society indeed ushered unparalleled development for No.13 Shelter.

However, as the situation shifted away from favoring the Enlightenment Society and the celestial beings organization, suspicions among the Residents grew, and his status within the shelter became increasingly precarious.

It was out of sheer necessity that he did not want to confront the high-ranking members of the Enlightenment Society at this moment.

With sharp eyes, he scanned Gui Xu and the senior leaders of the Enlightenment Society and the celestial beings organization, planting his hands on the table and firmly inquiring.

"The 'Judgment Day' has been delayed, and once again...I want an explanation from the members of the Enlightenment Society before we move on to the main agenda of the meeting regarding this crucial matter."

Silence filled the table.

Apocalypse clicked his tongue impatiently, seemingly wanting to end this tedious charade.

But Gui Xu, evidently more tactful, aware that it was not the right moment to turn grim, cleared his throat to cover Apocalypse's unintentional impatience and swiftly took over the conversation.

"The neutron torpedoes preparation still needs some time, I believe it will be completed by next month."

However, Director Feng, who had initiated the inquiry, was not to be dismissed with such a vague reply and pressed further aggressively.

"I want to know how long that time will be?"

Gui Xu's eyebrows twitched fiercely, a barely noticeable hint of killing intent flashed within his gentle gaze.

Was this guy taking himself too seriously?

The shelter's authority was indeed a trouble for him, but that's all there was to it.

If necessary, he did not mind replacing the director for No.13 Shelter.

He believed, without himself having to act, that Apocalypse would be more than happy to oblige.

Facing the unpleasant gaze, Gui Xu forced a warm smile, ready to brush over it bureaucratically.

But just then, something unexpected occurred.

The man sitting not far from him suddenly stood up without warning.

The man, ignoring the astonishment on Gui Xu's face, glanced around the table, and with a voice tinged with pity and a bit of coldness, spoke words that caught most present off guard.

"No need to wait."

"Judgment Day isn't coming."