"That should be the border."
The MDT pointed at the image sent back by the monitor, and said with a hint of surprise.
Hao Ren gaped at the image outside the ship, and let out a sigh after a long while. "… It's like waking up from a dream."
The Petrachelys glided briskly through the silent and bizarre space, its speed had already slowed down to the speed of cruising within the atmosphere. The border of the world appeared around the ship, and it looked like a starry sky drawn in a child's dream: strange, simple, and straightforward.
Countless celestial bodies passed by outside the ship, small and colorful.
Hao Ren and the MDT came to the observation deck on the upper deck of the Petrachelys, and experienced the border of the virtual world for themselves. He saw groups of light orbs floating in space, and the orbs were painted with intricate patterns or halos. Stars less than a meter in diameter and gaseous planets the size of eggs were like holographic planetarium projections flying around him, moving in precise orbits, glowing, and flickering. Some marble-like planets flew towards him. They had no mass or strength, and when they came into contact with the shell of the Petrachelys, they burst into sparks and dissipated. Hao Ren reached his hand into a glaring 'star', and felt a slight heat and numbness like an electric shock. The star was disturbed, and after a shudder, it disappeared without a sound.
"This is the border of the world." The MDT stood among the stars, her golden hair reflecting the hazy starlight. "A holographic projection of the universe … and it's so small, it's like a model."
"Because we're very close to Zorm." Hao Ren looked down, and saw a faint blue dot glowing beneath the Petrachelys. That was Zorm, and it was still in sight. "At this distance, to simulate a starry sky, we only need to create a projection. As long as no one drives a ship here … no one will find out that the starry sky above them is artificial. "
"What if someone finds out?"
"The world resets every once in a while because it can't allow humans to develop technology that is too advanced. It can't even allow humans to develop technology in peace … But the simulation program of this world must follow the principle of 'reality', and the development of the world cannot be inconsistent. So the only way to prevent humans from entering space is to constantly reboot the entire map." Hao Ren thought that he had grasped the key to the problem, but there was still a crucial answer that he could not grasp. "But if you want to reboot the map, it can be done in any way. Only Nolan has the memory of reincarnation, and the other humans were refreshed without knowing it. So what's the point of the doomsday war?"
In the first few thousand years of this world, every reincarnation was a peaceful Garden World. Humans enjoyed peace and prosperity in the reincarnation, and they never found anything wrong with their world. But in the last few dozen reincarnations, the world began to move towards doomsday. Each time, it ended in the flames of war. Hao Ren felt that it was pointless. If they wanted to use a virtual world to trap the humans here, a peaceful, slow, and unprogressive world would be more suitable than a war-torn world. Then what was the point of those world wars?
"I can think of a bunch of more suitable maps with my brain. If we were rebooted to the feudal era, a map could be used for a few thousand years without worrying about humans escaping Earth." Hao Ren frowned as he shook his head. "So the purpose of this world's existence is not to trap humans. Preventing humans from discovering the secrets of space is just a protection measure … I'm guessing this is a sanctuary."
"Why don't we go further to the edge?" The MDT suggested. "There's still a path ahead, and this virtual space seems to be quite big."
"I'm worried that it will cause a data overflow." Hao Ren hesitated. "If this world is simulated by a computer program, forcing our way to the edge might cause a logical error."
The MDT pondered for a moment. "Based on my experience, such a complex system must have a disaster buffer module. If we force our way to the edge, we'll most likely be bounced back. And even if there's a data overflow, as long as we retreat in time, it should be fine. Such a powerful virtual program, surely it has a bug repair function? "
Hao Ren pondered for a moment, and finally decided to follow the MDT's suggestion. Truth be told, he was quite curious about the scene at the edge of the edge.
The Petrachelys began to accelerate again, and this time, it was even more cautious than before. Hao Ren and the MDT stayed on the observation deck, controlling the ship remotely. Beside the two of them, the little celestial bodies floating in space were getting denser, and their forms were even more bizarre. As they were quite far away from Zorm, it was difficult to observe them from ground level telescopes. So these celestial bodies were crudely made, and many of the stars were just flat maps, with the round side always facing Zorm.
Further ahead, even the galaxy turned into a flat map with a moving image floating on it.
Finally, the ship stopped without warning. There was no inertia, no vibration, it was as if someone had pressed the pause button, and the ship stopped abruptly in space. Hao Ren noticed that the front of the ship had lost its colour, like a three-dimensional model without any maps, it was an ugly grayish white, and at the end of his vision was endless darkness, without any stars or maps.
"This is the ultimate boundary of this world." The MDT observed the scene at the end of the horizon. "An undefined and unrendered region, and it looks like this' universe 'did not collapse when we reached the edge. My worries were unnecessary."
"We're here, but the controller behind this world has yet to appear." Hao Ren came to the end of the observation deck, and looked around. The 'universe' before him was split into two, one was endless darkness, the other was densely packed luminous celestial bodies, but he did not hear the voice of the creator of this virtual world. "Hey! Is anyone there?! We're here! The end of the world! Aren't you going to say something?! "
The MDT glanced at him. "Do you think anyone can hear you? There's no air outside the platform. "
"Do you think the controller of the virtual world needs to use his ears to listen to the program?"
The MDT asked another question. "Then is there really a controller in this virtual world?"
Hao Ren's eyebrows twitched. "You mean …"
"Maybe it's all automatic." The MDT shook its head. "Or maybe there was a controller before, but … wait!"
Hao Ren tensed up. "What's wrong?"
"I think I've just received a signal from the droid swarm!" The MDT clutched its forehead as it focused on listening to the voice from the information link. "It's a direct signal … very weak, and distorted … but it's a direct signal. Some of my senses seem to have recovered! "
"Recovered?" Hao Ren's eyes widened as he looked at the starry sky around him. "Is it because we're at the border?"
"Probably … probably because this place is the closest to the real world, so we can break through the firewall to contact the outside world," the MDT said quickly. "Or maybe the backend program's control in this area has weakened, and the shield is gone … Damn it, the signal is still too weak, I can't hear it clearly."
Hao Ren made a prompt decision. "Don't waste the bandwidth. Can you send out a navigation signal? Just send out a navigation signal! "
"I'll give it a try!"
"You'd better hurry up," Hao Ren said as he looked at the densest spot of the stars. He found that the celestial bodies were flashing rapidly, which was not a phenomenon he had seen before. Apparently, something unexpected was happening. "This place doesn't look right … I'm afraid the background program of this world has finally decided to do something!"
The MDT shouted. "I'm trying! I'm trying!"
As time passed, the 'stars' in the universe began to flash wildly, and there were celestial bodies disappearing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Large swathes of dark areas appeared in Hao Ren's vision. A lightning-fast thought suddenly popped into his mind: Collapse.
The world was collapsing!
"It's out!" The MDT shouted. "Although only a part of it …"
"Then let's get out of here!"
(There will be a double vote at the end of the month. Let's leave half of the votes for the end of the month. As for why I left half … it's because of the nerdy metaphysical voting system. There seems to be a limit to how many votes can be cast at the end of the month.)
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