It was a perplexing yet fascinating conjecture. Suppose there was such a thing, and it existed somewhere, but you and everyone you knew had never known anything about it. You did not know what it looked like, where it came from, or even if it existed. No one had even told you that such a thing existed somewhere in the world. At the same time, such a thing would not affect you in any way. Whether it was its birth, evolution, or death, it would not produce any information about it.
So, did such a thing really exist to you?
When something like that disappears for some reason, does it really happen to you?
Such was the situation. Many worlds should have been discovered, but in the end, no one had found them. They were unknown from birth, and not a single trace was left after they perished. No matter how you tried, you could not find any evidence that a world had existed or been destroyed, and you could only guess from some statistics and experience. Oh, there should have been something here, but now they were all gone — even the apocalypse could only be concluded by extrapolation, and it was a conclusion that could never be proven or falsified by sight.
This was what happened when the Void Cataclysm happened.
"I'm afraid the exact time will never be confirmed, because you can't be sure when something that only existed in statistics died. If you can determine the time, the thing will not die because you already know of its existence, and in the Void Cataclysm, none of the discovered worlds perished," Xiaoxue explained. "When he realized that there were no more undiscovered worlds in the Void, my second uncle felt that something was wrong, and guessed that the nature of the Void Cataclysm was a shuffle of rules with exemptions. The exempted worlds had one thing in common, and that was that they could connect with Void creatures. Just a little bit of it would suffice. For example, if an Empire soldier had been to this world, then that world would have formed a connection with you, dad. Even if your subjective consciousness did not understand the world, it would still survive the Void Cataclysm. As for those worlds that did not have any connection with Void creatures, they were mercilessly removed, but there was no concrete proof of this process. After all, aside from statistics, there was no evidence to prove that those worlds really existed."
"What happened afterward further supported this inference: after the three scouts that you sent out worked for a period of time, they began to discover the first unfamiliar new world, but this new world was just born, and its age was so short that it was negligible. After that, everything seemed to be back on track, and new worlds were constantly discovered, but of course, the speed was not as fast as before the Cataclysm, and those new worlds had one thing in common, and that was their youth: they were all born recently."
"The older generation of ownerless worlds were instantly wiped clean, and then the Void began to store new data like a reformatted database." Sandora looked me in the eye. "Some worlds could survive the reformatting, and the reason was that they had a slight connection with Void creatures. This kind of thing, even to the Xi Ling apostles, was a little scary. Ah Jun, your understanding of the Void should be the most direct. Do you think that the Void would have this … this tendency? "
Sandora tried to find a suitable word to describe the nature of the Void Cataclysm, but in a broad sense, the Void did not have a personality, so in the end, she could only use the slightly anthropomorphic word 'tendency'.
"I'm really not sure," I smiled bitterly and rubbed my forehead. "I do have a sense of the Void, but how should I put it …"
"Creatures that are trapped in a two-dimensional world will never understand the meaning of height," Sandora said incisively. "No matter how much we try to imagine, we will never understand how your body feels when you are in the state of a Void creature. You can't even explain it clearly yourself."
"That's what it is."
"Alright, now all we need to know is that the Void Cataclysm will definitely happen, but no one will be able to witness the process directly." Sandora began to gather the known information bit by bit. "Chen Xiaoxue — now that your words are true, when will the Void Cataclysm occur?"
"An uncertain time," Chen Xiaoxue spread her hands on the table. "Alright, let me first explain what is going on, or else you will always think that I am from the future. Strictly speaking, the Chen Xiaoxue in front of you does not actually exist. The real me is at a point in time after the Void Cataclysm, but that point in time has not yet begun. In other words, what you see in front of you is just an illusion formed by the accumulation of possibilities, similar to a cluster of information projected from a certain point in the future to the present. From your point of view, you can even pretend that I do not exist: it is like a conjecture, before you have concrete evidence, please treat me as a conjecture. Now I will pause for a moment, and you can sort it out. "
I felt that even if she had paused, I would not understand much — it was much more complicated than riding a monkey on a tree and a monkey under a tree.
However, as a prophet, Lin Xue often dealt with such logical problems, and she understood it now. "In other words, you are equivalent to the probe that the future Chen Xiaoxue has projected to the present, but the probe does not have a physical body, and you are a cluster of information."
"Probe is quite accurate, but a more accurate term is' inevitability that has yet to happen '." The other party grinned and nodded. "The Void Cataclysm could start in ten years, or a billion years. Regardless of when it happens, I will be born five years after the Cataclysm, but in the current timeline, it is merely an' inevitability 'and not a' real event '. Information determines everything, and when all established information is restricted and all interference factors are accounted for, even if it has yet to happen, it can have actual meaning. This is the origin of the virtual projection named 'Chen Xiaoxue'. I am not the real Chen Xiaoxue, but apart from this concept, everything about me is equivalent to the real Chen Xiaoxue. This process is a little long to explain, so I will put it simply: the Void Cataclysm affected everything at the same time, and it could be said that at that point in time, all information in the Void became harmonious like never before, and in this state of harmony, all information formed a formula, and I was not the only direct descendant of the Void Creatures. Second Uncle also had his own direct descendants after that (the current two Protoss princesses were born from God Father's sword), and we descendants called ourselves the 'Answers of the Void', and the collection of all information in the Void before the Cataclysm is called the 'Formula'. My other name is the 'Ancient Being', which means that as an answer, I exist in the calculation formulas of all worlds — ah, I finally thought of the most suitable word to describe it. Dad, Mom, what you see now is not a real daughter who transmigrated from the future, but a mathematical conclusion that has already been calculated, one that maintains an equal sign to the main body, but is equivalent to two independent factors … "
I continued to rack my brain, and after a long time, I asked tentatively, "For example, in a classical mathematical environment, one plus one equals two, and the Void Cataclysm resets all information to form a 'coordinated instant' where all information is temporarily archived. In this environment, two 'ones' and a 'plus sign' are confirmed, so even if no one has pressed the 'equal sign' button, the 'two' is already an established fact, even if it has not appeared yet — Lin Xue and I are the 'equal sign' button, and you are the 'two' that is predestined even if you have not been born?"
"Something like that, but I have to correct it: the Void Cataclysm is the 'equal sign', and you and my mom are the hands that pressed the 'wait' button," Chen Xiaoxue said with a smile as she looked at us. "Also, can you not say that I am the 'two'? The real Chen Xiaoxue is the 'two', and I am the 'equal to two', and I am on the left side of the formula. "
Everyone: "…"
"Just like what Dad said, if you understand it from the current point of time, I am such an existence," Chen Xiaoxue concluded. "At this point in time, I have not been born yet, but my birth is already a trend that will definitely happen. At some point in the future, the real 'Chen Xiaoxue' will have her own life experience, but that life experience will not affect the timeline around you now, because it is only at the moment of the Void Cataclysm that my life truly begins, and before that moment, what you see before you is just a calculation that has not been written on paper, an answer and not a complete formula, and would not have any effect on the entire mathematical system. Aiya, are you confused? "
I felt that everyone was confused at that moment, except for Sandora, who could still think. She looked at my cheap daughter. "In other words, you are just an expected answer that the formula calculates ahead of time, and the real calculation has yet to begin. Your existence is based on theory, and until the Void Cataclysm, you cannot affect anything, and everything you do will be corrected on a macro level — because your formula has yet to be developed?"
"That's right, so don't expect me to tell you the future direction or the final result. I don't know, and what I know might not necessarily happen. After all, there is more than one way to write an algorithm. Vertical and horizontal are two different historical directions, but the final answer is the same. In this aspect, I don't know as much as my mother, even though I'm half a person from the future. Anyway, let's not talk about this topic, my dad is about to fall asleep. "
Everyone: "…"
"Alright, alright, one last question." My sister waved her hand, and then smiled at her. "Although there is nothing suspicious in theory, I still want to ask. You have to produce more concrete evidence to prove your identity, so that you can prove all the theories you mentioned. That's not too much, is it?"
"I knew you would definitely ask about that." Xiaoxue immediately showed an expression as if she had expected it, and looked around proudly. "This is all top-secret information: Shallow Shallow's mother has a red birthmark on the left side of her chest, my biological mother sometimes bites the pillow when she sleeps at night, and in the future, she will also bite my dad, and there is a black dot on my dad's right PP. Jingle ah … sister is here too? When you sleep in my dad's pocket, you have a habit of holding onto a thread to prevent it from falling out, because it is difficult to button it up from the inside, and it is even more troublesome to get it out after the button is fastened. Also, my second uncle is left-handed, if you don't believe me, you can go back to the God Realm and ask … Err, what's with your eyes? When my dad was young, it was not too much for him to bathe his daughter, right? I can still share this bit of information with my future self. "
Lin Xue clenched her teeth and said, "Alright, we believe you — — Now I finally know why I want to beat someone up so much!"
I patted Lin Xue's shoulder to appease her, "Children need to be disciplined, how did this girl grow up to be like this?"
When the missy heard this, her face instantly turned red. Obviously, after being freed from the bombardment of Chen Xiaoxue's theories, she finally realized how exciting this earth-shattering news was: A daughter! Although she had not been born yet, her daughter who would definitely be like this in the future, was standing right in front of her, alive and well! What kind of concept was this for the proud and shy missy? In any case, Lin Xue, who had always been incomparably strong, was at a loss for the first time ever. Seeing the expression on her biological mother's face, Chen Xiaoxue seemed to have guessed what the other party was thinking, she giggled and said, "Mom, don't be embarrassed, your relationship with dad is so good, and you can feel that this is a good thing, at least for now, it seems that you don't have to learn how to breast-feed me … Oh right, dad, when are we going home for dinner?"
Lin Xue's face was almost purplish red, she suddenly grabbed my arm with great strength, as if she was going to pull it out, "Blockhead! When that time comes, I will strangle you to death, okay?! "
This was definitely anger in her heart, a normal missy wouldn't be able to say such bold words, she was currently looking for an empty corner to kiss me.
Chen Xiaoxue (Okay, maybe now I have the right to call her Xiaoxue) pretended to be hurt, "Mom, don't be like this, actually after spending so much time with you, you will get used to having such a smart daughter. You see, most of the time I am very obedient, and like dad, I also have some knowledge about the void, it will definitely be useful now, of course, more importantly, don't you think I am very cute, I spent a lot of effort to grow this face, when I was bored, I would look for pictures of movie stars, every morning when I look in the mirror — — Ah, so cute!"
I was speechless.
Regarding Chen Xiaoxue, this strange little girl that we didn't know how to classify, in the end, Sandora and I unanimously decided to acquiesce to this fait accompli, because I was afraid that even the most advanced scientist wouldn't be able to sort out this girl's state in different timelines, let alone understand the cause and effect relationship between her and the Void Cataclysm. I just treated it as if I suddenly had a strange daughter in my family, anyway, I was already used to such things. Of course, when there was time in the future, I would still have to understand the things that I didn't know from her. Now that the fleet had embarked on its journey home, it wouldn't take much time to return to the Shadow Realm. The only troublesome problem was how to deal with the thousands of abyssified warships that followed. In Xiaoxue's words, they were all "gifts for Daddy", and now this gift was a hot potato.
There were more than three hundred abyssified warships, Eternal-class and equivalent Motherships/Aircraft Carriers. There were five or six thousand Expeditionary and other medium-sized main warships, and the remaining support warships and special service ships numbered about two thousand. As for the single-soldier fighters, assault ships, frigates and other small spaceships that had been gathered in the Mothership's garage, they weren't counted. These warships added up to a sizable army. It was unprecedented for such a large number of abyssified warships to dock in the Shadow Realm. Along with this fleet, there were also hundreds of thousands of fallen apostle warriors and countless war puppets: all of them were emitting black smoke.
I felt that if they were to land in the spaceport, the scene would be spectacular. The first unlucky bastard to land might be cut into four or five hundred pieces by Vega before Sandora and I could react. Then, a small piece would be dipped in helium-3 and eaten every day …
We had already informed the headquarters of what had happened here. The officers of the Shadow Fortress certainly wouldn't have any objections to the Emperor's decision, but they also raised the issue of the impropriety of letting the fallen apostle army land in the capital. This would cause panic among the others. Although there were two or three fallen apostles in the Imperial Army, three people and three hundred thousand people were not the same concept. In the end, Sandora and I temporarily decided to let the fallen apostle fleet land in the Shadow Realm. However, they would station them far away from the Mother Planet and the Shadow City. There were some planetary fortresses that were being assembled at the edge of the Shadow Realm near the boundary of the Void Realm. These huge planets could be used as colonial planets before they were loaded with weapons. The 'rebel army' of the fallen apostles would temporarily dock there.
Chen Xiaoxue didn't stop talking along the way. She was enthusiastically telling us about her heroic experiences (actually, it should be the heroic experiences of the real Chen Xiaoxue in the future. However, she was just a projection of the real Chen Xiaoxue, so it wasn't wrong to say that), as well as the question that everyone was concerned about: How did she appear in front of us in a 'projection' state from the future?
"At some point in the future, I was a researcher, and I was particularly interested in the history before the Void Cataclysm. So, Chen Xiaoqian and I — That's right, Dad, you're really good at coming up with names. That's the daughter of you and Mother Shallow Shallow. She's one year younger than me. Chen Xiaoqian and I were researching on how to return to the time before the Cataclysm. If the Cataclysm is the equal part of a formula, then the children of the other Void Creatures and I are the results on one side of the equal sign. The other side of the equal sign corresponds to the formula. Due to the irreversibility of the Cataclysm, if the results were to run directly on the opposite side of the equal sign, the formula would collapse. In other words, we couldn't allow our true bodies to pass through the node of the Void Cataclysm. She said that since we couldn't simply swap the two sides of the equal sign, then we could just change one side. Just like how 'two plus two' and 'two times two' are the same concept, vertical and horizontal can produce the same result, decimal points and fractions can be used to represent non-integers, and by changing the shape of the formula on one side of the equal sign, we could turn a bunch of scattered data into something that resembled an answer. However, we couldn't adjust the formula ourselves, so we had to borrow someone else's hand. We needed a bunch of useful idiots to carry out a series of complicated operations, and only then could they foolishly 'lure' me out … "
That was a shocking piece of news. At least, Sandora's expression changed dramatically when she heard it.
In other words, the two children of the future, just to satisfy their own curiosity, had designed a huge trap. The Fallen Apostles were just their tools, and the 'Void Creature Duplication Project' that the Fallen Apostles had invested so much in was a scam from the start. It was just to allow Chen Xiaoxue's projection to be born before the Void Cataclysm!
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