The glow on the horizon was fading. Before the sun went down, the last ray of golden light swept into the cave where Hao Ren and Nolan were temporarily hiding. Everything in the cave was covered in a mottled golden light. Nolan leaned sideways on the huge tire of the mountain bike. Half of her body was bathed in the sunset, and the other half was hidden in the darkness. She exhaled and said, "When did it start? I can't remember when I first realized that something was wrong with the world. Maybe a few thousand years ago? Or maybe even earlier. The earliest scene in my memory was a vacation with my family in a village in the southern hemisphere. Then, somehow, when I woke up, I became a warehouse keeper in a company … There was no point in looking back at these things that happened so long ago. Anyway, it was a messy experience that kept repeating itself. Sometimes I die in an accident, and when I resurrect, I find that the world has completely changed. Sometimes, like today, I don't die, but the whole world suddenly changes. In the blink of an eye, I have a new identity and new teammates. I don't even know if the passage of time is real. Maybe all this happened just a few hours ago, and all the starting points of the world were a few hours ago. But it doesn't make sense. "
Hao Ren listened quietly. There were too many questions in his mind, but he could not sort them out. So, he simply asked whatever came to mind. "Is there any pattern to the world's reset?" "There is no pattern."
"There's no pattern," Nolan shook her head. "Sometimes it resets every few decades, and sometimes it changes within a few years. The shortest reset cycle I remember was two years, and the longest one was nearly two centuries. I died twice during that period, and when I woke up, I found that the world stage was still going on, but my identity had changed. I was very surprised at that time, and naively thought that this reincarnation had finally stabilized, but on the afternoon of my second resurrection, I encountered a reset."
Hao Ren nodded. It seemed that Nolan's death was not the trigger for the world to restart. If the world stabilized for too long, Nolan's reincarnation would become a resurrection with a different identity. It was just like a game character who logged off and logged in with a smurf account somewhere else. In that case, although the girl in front of him was special, she should not be the cause of this chaotic world.
"After each reset, all the people and things in this world will get a new identity and 'setting'. Interpersonal relationships, international relations, world situation, culture, religion, and even technological models will change," Nolan saw that Hao Ren was lost in thought and thought that this person who had experienced the 'sober reincarnation' for the first time was confused, so she casually explained, "I've also studied the map and found that the topography of the entire world has changed. Sometimes there are several continents on a planet, and sometimes there is only one mother continent. There are also changes in plants and animals, but the extent of the changes is not too big. It's always those species that are randomly matched. At most, there are some changes in the distribution area … But you probably don't understand this. This is the first time you've retained your memories, so you probably haven't accumulated too much knowledge. "
Nolan had experienced thousands of years of reincarnation, and the amount of knowledge she had accumulated was amazing. It would not be a problem for her to be an expert scholar in any field, so it was normal for her to stray from the topic of ecology. When she was in the Grey Fox mercenary corps, she was reticent because she could not find someone to talk to. But now, it was clear that she regarded Hao Ren as a companion.
Hao Ren shook his head and said, "It's okay, I also know a little about ecology. Anyway, according to what you said, this world is a bit like some kind of sandbox game? Let's assume that there is a director or program controlling everything, and every time it mobilizes some materials from a material library to generate a 'world'? "
"You inferred it from the animal and plant forms that I just mentioned?" Nolan looked at Hao Ren with some surprise. "I didn't expect you to have such a wide range of knowledge. You're right, I thought so too. This world is really like a program that constantly automatically generates maps … But even if it's true, it's useless, we can't control it. "
Hao Ren did not hear Nolan's last sentence because he was thinking about something deeper and out of this worldview. He was convinced that he was now in the Plane of Dreams, which meant that there was a real world outside the planet Zorm. He thought of Khiton's diary and Ulyanov's epiphany before his death. If this world was virtual or false, then where was the interface between it and the real world? Since Khiton and Ulyanov could suddenly realize that the world was false, it meant that this virtual world was not perfect. There must be something wrong with it!
"Population!" Hao Ren suddenly looked up at Nolan. "Does the population change every time the world is reset?"
Nolan was a little confused. "Population? What does it matter? "
"Khiton once said that this world is false, and Ulyanov said something similar before his death," Hao Ren explained. "If the world is false, then do you think the people in the world are real?"
Nolan's eyes widened slightly. "You suspect that the other humans in the world are NPCs?"
"No, I think they are all real," Hao Ren waved his hand. "That's why I'm asking you about the population. According to your situation, you will be resurrected after death, which means that there is no 'cache' function in the 'mechanism' of this world. Every real human will immediately appear in other parts of the world with a new identity after death. So if everyone in this world is real, then the population should not change every time the world is reset. As the world develops, human beings grow old and die, and the total population will not change. But if the total population of the world is different every time the world is reset, it means that at least some humans are NPCs, and the number of real humans should depend on a certain minimum population in the world's reset cycle. "
Nolan looked at Hao Ren in surprise. "Is this really your first time experiencing 'reset'?"
"Why do you suddenly ask this?"
"You have thought about these questions very deeply, and it is obvious that you have considered it very calmly and thoughtfully." Nolan looked at Hao Ren suspiciously. "I did not think so deeply in the first few reincarnations. At that time, I just wanted to live a little longer. But you look like you don't care about it at all."
She did not say a word in her heart: Hao Ren's analytical attitude was like an outsider.
Cold sweat oozed from Hao Ren's forehead, and he thought that the girl's senses were really sharp. He laughed dryly to divert Nolan's attention. "Ahem, it doesn't matter. Just think of it as me being born with thick nerves. If it doesn't work, you can continue to think that I am crazy … "
Nolan: "… I have not really thought about the population problem you mentioned, but your idea is very novel and very reasonable. I have not specifically paid attention to this population problem, but I have occasionally seen several population surveys before. I think the population of this world should not change much in each reset cycle. Maybe it is exactly the same. After all, the world is very big, and there are many humans. The population census will never be accurate. As long as the 'program' behind this world slightly tampers with it, humans will not be aware of the constant situation of the world's population. "
In the end, she smiled sarcastically. "And each time, this world will only last for a few years or a few decades. There is not enough time for people to find out anything unusual."
Hao Ren frowned. "So the human beings in this world should be real, but thrown into a constantly refreshed sandbox stage?"
He felt like his worldview was collapsing. He realized that his exploration and wandering in this world were meaningless. The truth of this world was hidden under a layer of bizarre bubbles. The so-called Nanomachine Swarm, Northern Ring Tower, and the world war were just a stage play. Thinking of this, he laughed at himself. "Tsk tsk … I was eager to figure out if the Nanomachine Swarm going out of control sixty-five years ago was the key to the problem. It turned out that it was not even a problem. It never happened at all …"
"No," Nolan suddenly interrupted him. "I'm afraid there is something fishy about this incident."
"Huh?" Hao Ren was stunned.
"In the last few resets, the world has shown a similar trend," Nolan said with a serious face. "No matter what the setting of the world is at the beginning, it will eventually evolve into a global war, a weapon out of control, and a round of doomsday. The last time was the Nanomachine Swarm going out of control, and the last time was the global nuclear bomb going out of control, and before that, the satellite weapon was tampered with by AI. The script is slightly different, but the final process is almost the same — the whole world is going to die. "
(There was a strong wind and hail yesterday afternoon. The power outage in the residential area and the surrounding area has not been restored yet. This chapter was uploaded using a laptop and mobile hotspot. The last bit of battery in the charger is exhausted. If it is not restored by tomorrow, there is no way out.)
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