Wasteland Development Diary

Chapter 79: Journey in the Time Maze


The Night God covered the malfunctioning organ onto the body.

Under the influence of the four-dimensional organ, the Gem Eyes continuously shifted, sometimes turning completely white, other times flowing with luminous colors.

Zhou Yi worried, "Won't this mess up your body?"

"Nothing will happen."

The Night God remained calm, "Even though it's a connected device of Time Flow Device and Time Reverse Device, it's still a fragment of an organ, incapable of truly reaching the past and future timelines. It's actually safer than that previous broken Time Flow Device."

"It can only hop back and forth in the past and future like a roly-poly, unable to stabilize its state. It's deficient and deformed."

"As long as it's removed, my body returns to its previous state."

Zhou Yi felt relieved, "That's good."

He asked again, "However, even a damaged Time Flow Device can perform localized acceleration, like on Pan Tree, adventure vine, Cave People... I wonder if it could accelerate evolution for more complex life, like sand rats?"

"Don't do that."

The Night God said seriously, "You mustn't forget. These are highly depleted organs, their functionality is extremely incomplete."

"The structure of Cave People is simple, they're not afraid of mass deaths, they live under the environment of the Purple Sun and are accustomed to the strong external stimuli of evolutionary transformation."

"The adventure vine and Pan Tree have been modified by the Heavenly People to withstand the high-energy ecology over on Jupiter, and their stable plant forms have strong pressure resistance and endurance."

"But real Earth Life absolutely cannot withstand it; ordinary life would perish instantly. The essence of time is movement, and if the movement rate increases 4500 times, then the internal organs and various other organs would instantly overload and burst just from their movements."

"Think about it."

"This is about over-accelerating life. Even if a Skywalker Level being could barely hold on inside, there would be no benefits, only rapid life consumption and aging."

"Not to mention these depleted, broken organs could malfunction and cease working at any time."

Her words made Zhou Yi fall into thought.

Indeed.

The organ remnants of the Time Master have very limited suitable targets and carry unpredictable risks.

It's already fortunate to enable the Cave People to evolve and rapidly cultivate life forms like the Jupiter Pan Tree.

Zhou Yi looked again at the Night God, "Have you separated your material body and self-consciousness now? Only letting the body be affected by the connected organ? Can this be done?"

"Of course it can, otherwise I wouldn't joke with my own body."

The Night God observed the body under the four-dimensional organ.

"But I have to tell you some bad news."

"Now, in the state of the body, there are indeed no limits, but I also can't use the body. It continuously leaps on the timeline and has disconnected from me."

"..."

Zhou Yi was resigned.

That means it's still useless.

This attempt was officially a failure.

Two days later.

A piece of good news came from Turing.

"Chairman, we tested that connected four-dimensional organ. The experimental results show that its state indeed constantly jumps and changes, unable to stabilize. However, we discovered that it can be combined with the electronic double-slit experiment."

"Simply put, it allows the Consciousness of old humans to be refracted, focused, and projected into the four-dimensional organ through our existing double-slit equipment."

"This creates an internal observation source!"

"Although we can't directly observe the interior from outside, with a Consciousness inside, they can read all kinds of changes within. Of course, those who enter will also continually jump between time states."

Zhou Yi knew Mechanical Life wouldn't aimlessly pursue something, so he immediately asked, "Did you find the application value of this deformed organ?"

"Yes."

Turing said, "Chairman, we request that the Green Gemstone be placed into the connected four-dimensional organ for coverage."

"This way, in theory, we can restore the internal glass man and through the Consciousness of old humans, see what they have gone through."

Zhou Yi's brow relaxed.

This is a good perspective.

"However, is there any danger for the Consciousness of old humans?"

"Rest assured, the connected organ itself only leaps through time and can't really stabilize its state. So even if continually in a superposition state between death and life inside, once it leaves the four-dimensional organ's coverage, it will return to its original point before leaving."

"But traveling in the temporal turbulence is unprecedent, which might cause panic and be hard to endure."

Turing explained, "Currently, with the bottled man technology, we have successfully brought out two old human Consciousness one after another. But their acceptance is not as good as Xu Yuhang and Kobayashi Hina, so the most suitable test subjects remain Xu Yuhang and Kobayashi Hina. It's uncertain whether they can overcome psychological barriers and are willing to try."

Zhou Yi said, "I'll go talk to them."

He walked to the detection screen set up by Gem Cells.

On the screen, Xu Yuhang was playing a shooting game on the TV and Kobayashi Hina was trying on various clothes in the wardrobe.

Although the restoration of the Old Human World still requires some time.

However, these old human Consciousness, who were the first to be rescued, are already living in a state almost indistinguishable from normal.

Though unable to leave the house temporarily, the residence has been upgraded by the Night God to a spacious villa with all kinds of furniture.

Zhou Yi said through the microphone, "You two, there's something I need to discuss with you."

Only then did Xu Yuhang and Hina turn their heads.

After listening to the details of the experiment.

Hina immediately agreed happily, "Sure, it sounds interesting! A journey through the Time Maze, it's not an experience you get every day."

Xu Yuhang said, "I'm willing to go too. But can I make a suggestion?"

"Please, go ahead."

"Could we have a door and a window installed, and knock before entering? It feels like we're being watched clearly at all times, like surveillance cameras are everywhere... it's a bit creepy, reminds me of my homeroom teacher..."

Zhou Yi said that it wasn't a problem.

This was a reasonable request.

Previously, the observation of the little man in the bottle was for experimental data. Now that projection interference is completed, and we've entered the carrier space built by the Gem Cells, constant observation here is no longer necessary.

"Then I have no problems."

Xu Yuhang stated.

Once the discussion was settled, the entire experiment was quickly prepared.

The gemstone apparatus had a new optical double-slit pipe installed, connected through the pipe to the other side. Over there, the Green Gemstone was covered by a four-dimensional organ, its fiber fragments floating like dust in sunlight, continuously making irregular movements.

Through the double slit, the Consciousnesses of two Old Humans were projected into the Green Gemstone.

The duration for the first stage of the experiment was set to 2 minutes.

Zhou Yi could only see what seemed like an invisible hand inside the Green Gemstone, drawing the fibers of the glass man, only to erase them later.

The two Old Humans turned into a black and white double helix structure, repeatedly perishing and rebirthing inside.

Second by second passed.

Ding.

The experiment time was up.

The equipment was dismantled.

Turing announced, "Projection complete."

Zhou Yi turned his gaze to the previous gemstone apparatus.

Inside, the figures of Xu Yuhang and Kobayashi Hina reappeared.

However, their states were different at this moment.

Kobayashi Hina enthusiastically said something, seemingly very satisfied with the entire journey, appearing in high spirits.

Xu Yuhang, on the other hand, looked pale and seemed a bit overly startled.

Zhou Yi asked them, "Was everything smooth?"

"Very smooth."

Hina answered energetically, "The Time Maze is very interesting. I was quite scared at first because the feeling of death is awful, too real, like I could disappear at any moment."

"But I quickly revived. Constant dying and rebirthing, sometimes becoming a baby, sometimes an old lady, it felt like I was filming a movie, very thrilling, very fun."

This Japanese girl, who had dropped out and wandered the streets early on, maintained her usual playful attitude towards life.

Xu Yuhang's voice was noticeably weak, "A bit terrifying..."

He licked his lips, "I felt like I was dying constantly, numb to death. It was like being watched over by an expert, and the feeling of death was so real I wasn't sure if I was still alive."

Zhou Yi comforted him, "Thanks for your hard work, it's indeed a highly challenging task. But from our monitoring equipment, neither of you sustained any harm, so please rest assured."

"Did you witness the changes in the glass man?"

"Yes."

Hina said, "Sometimes he would come to life, his body becoming whole, but still made of lines, unlike us. In the living state, he would use those lines to form peculiar shapes... it felt like he was touching, shaking hands with others of his kind."

"But when the purple light appeared on him, he would break apart entirely, quickly dying, looking extremely terrified and pained."

Zhou Yi's heart stirred.

The purple light's fatal characteristic on the glass man was verified once more.

Xu Yuhang hesitated for quite a while.

"I talked to him, but..."

"He seemed unsurprised by my appearance."

"He asked, are you from the future? I said yes."

"Then he asked another strange question, he said, has the Sun been modified?"

Zhou Yi's gaze sharpened.

The Heavenly People were not only collecting energy from the Sun but also modifying this celestial body with the Ring Solar Wall.

Is the modification aimed at eliminating the purple light inside?

Or something else entirely?

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