Under the Red Dragon.

Chapter 398 Self-Dimensionality Reduction
The scene before its eyes made the blue quantum life form feel a long-lost surprise.

This Mars is not the Mars in the universe where the red dragon, whose level of cognition is so high that even Dr. Manhattan is surprised, lives, but the Mars in another universe.

The ability to travel across the universe is something that Dr. Manhattan naturally possesses after his ascension. It is not like the ability that Charon Gogmora mastered by studying and learning the talents of the World Tree Ovo. It is an instinctive power that Dr. Manhattan possesses.

Crossing two different universes is as easy as breathing for Dr. Manhattan, but for Cuarón it is quite complicated and requires preparation.

In the face of higher-level life forms, those lower-level life forms cannot keep secrets. The gap between high and low levels does not refer to the level of life, but the level of dimension.

Even though he could not see all the secrets of the red dragon, in Dr. Manhattan's eyes, the red dragon was just one of the stronger ants among the countless universes he had destroyed.

Dr. Manhattan, whose real name is Jonathan, is an outstanding scientist. Due to an accident in a quantum experiment, his body was destroyed and his consciousness entered another realm.

In that magical realm, Jonathan underwent a change like a higher dimension. His body was an infinite quantum body, neither pure matter nor pure energy.

His average reaction time is also quantum reaction time. He can control particles, memory reading, quantum analysis, and can replicate himself infinitely, all with their own thinking abilities.

He can decompose or combine all matter or energy composed of elementary particles, ignoring density, mass and volume. This also allows his body to be reassembled at any time and will not be harmed even if it is destroyed.

He can observe the past and the future through the trajectory of particle movement. Although the perspective of observing the future can be disturbed by the superluminal particle flow, the impact is not significant, just like a layer of gauze.

He is even so powerful that he is beyond the influence of cause and effect to a certain extent. After he becomes Doctor Manhattan, even if Jonathan, who was originally in the course of world history, dies, it will not have any impact on Doctor Manhattan.

From Dr. Manhattan's perspective, there is no such thing as matter and energy. What exists is merely a combination of piles of quantum changes and fluctuations, just like the legendary existence in ancient legends that materializes time into the long river of time, with the ability to observe fixed effects.

Dr. Manhattan can create new life through the basic combination of particles. His existence transcends time and space, exists in all timelines and all time points in the original universe, and is a collection of infinite selves.

This also allows Dr. Manhattan to control the collapse direction and probability of the quantum superposition state on all timelines, allowing things to develop towards the goal he pursues.

In Dr. Manhattan's eyes, he is an active observer of the entire universe and even countless universes. It is a state of complete overlooking.

In the original universe, Dr. Manhattan can even be called the Quantum God, the God of Quantum.

Therefore, even if Dr. Manhattan feels that the red dragon's essential cognition is far higher than its own material existence, it cannot affect him.

Therefore, Dr. Manhattan's condescending attitude is not actually arrogant, and he gradually loses the emotion of arrogance.

But he proved to be incredibly affected.

Dr. Manhattan's brain flashed with quantum sparks, and his palms gently touched the electromagnetic waves, gravitational fields, radiation tides and even simple light in the space in front of him.

These forces that have an impact on the material world of this world quickly formed an unprecedented current storm. Countless energies exploded within a millisecond, completely destroying the entire Mars in front of them.

The plasma energy flows formed after those intense energy explosions and destructions are at least tens of thousands of kilometers long. Every inch of tiny space is filled with billions of megapascals of energy, making the entire area within the vacuum range a complete mess.

The overly violent destruction finally reached a limit that could be tolerated.

Suddenly, the desolate and silent yet colorful starry sky was filled with the sound of a dragon's voice.

"I'm so sorry, I haven't seen the creations you once made, so I can't show you the perfect one. I can only show you the Mars in my memory and imagination."

The starry sky suddenly opened like a covering curtain, and a new real world appeared before Dr. Manhattan.

A huge red dragon sat high on the throne in the starry sky. He slightly opened his strong upper limbs and grinned, "What's wrong with a virtual world that is almost real?"

"The real world is too cruel. It will only make your empty inner void grow bigger and bigger. You only have traces of existence but no essence of existence. It is better for you to use the virtual world I simulated here to block the influence of the outside world and find your true self!"

Dr. Manhattan paused slightly, then stretched out his hand and wiped the red dragon in front of him into basic particles, annihilating all space into the purest particle state.

In the face of absolute violence, this new world reached its carrying limit and broke apart like pieces of broken mirror, revealing another real world behind it.

A huge celestial body lay across the starry sky. The artifact on the verge of breaking was having all its power drained away by a huge magic circle. The King of the Frost Giants held his head high with tears of blood in his eyes.

The figure of Dr. Manhattan was reflected in every pair of eyes of the kings in the huge magic circle, and the crown of the seven deadly sins flowed with spiritual light on the ten long horns of the red dragon.

Cuarón raised his head, grinned and said, "Jonathan, you are already dead. You became Dr. Manhattan, which is only a trace of your existence in this world."

"You are gradually losing your humanity, your emotions, and all your feelings about the world based on material existence, including your views and attachments."

"You are losing your true self. You are not limiting yourself to the form and cognition of a quantum observer, nor do you possess the ability of a quantum observer. Instead, you are being assimilated by the form of a quantum observer, thus losing the true essence of your own existence!"

This time, Dr. Manhattan stopped and began to think.

He left the original universe and created his own Earth, not only because he saw through human nature and became increasingly indifferent.

It's not just because he knows everything about the universe like a mirror. All kinds of life and matter are just piles of elementary particles to him. Such a world makes him bored and makes him feel that everything is just dust to him.

It is not just about seeing everything that happened in the past and the future at all times, over and over again endlessly, without any freshness or curiosity, without any unknown surprises or human's need and desire for external things.

It was also because of the influence of his own existence that the humanity in his heart gradually disappeared. He was originally just an ordinary person, a relatively outstanding scientist.

Now he can't even tell whether his own consciousness is his original self, or the thinking body of the quantum observer named Dr. Manhattan that continues Jonathan's worldview consciousness.

At least Dr. Manhattan admitted that the phenomenon of losing oneself that the red dragon in front of him talked about had already happened to him.

But not long after, Dr. Manhattan raised his hand and completely erased the red dragon and the matter in the vacuum in front of him, just like using an eraser to erase the ink marks on drawing paper.

But just like a clip from a movie played repeatedly, in the gap between the destruction of the world, a new world was reborn before Dr. Manhattan's eyes.

This time the world was more real and detailed than before. Dr. Manhattan could even see countless steels on the celestial continent rising up to form thick metal pillars. These metal pillars revolved around the eight iron thrones, and the connection network between them was constructed by thick blue lightning. When the huge electric current passed through these iron thrones, the whole continent trembled slightly in the starry sky.

All the microscopic and macroscopic forces such as magnetic fields and gravitational fields around the entire celestial world are forcibly integrated by the fields formed by these huge steel frames, and twisted into a unified force with an almost idealistic power. It has an unparalleled amplifying power, which can amplify the power of the kings sitting on the steel thrones thousands of times.

The original power of these kings was already the pinnacle of the mortal world, and by amplifying their power thousands of times, they leveraged the power of the universe, and used the power of the universe's rules to form a four-ounce force that could move a thousand pounds, forming the dreamland that was enough to trap Dr. Manhattan in the claws of the red dragon.

It's like these monsters borrowed money from banks with their own strong capital, and then used the loans from the banks to leverage higher leverage to influence Dr. Manhattan, the cosmic Tusla.

“Living beings are not cognitive subjects that passively reflect the universe, but rather they are topological nodes of the universe’s self-manifestation, with their intentional webs recursively entangled with the folds of the universe’s reality.”

Caron, who was sitting on the throne, opened his upper limbs again, grinned and said, "The relationship between the subject and the universe is not the confrontation of dualism, nor the swallowing of idealism, but a symbiotic oscillation relationship similar to the particle and vacuum fluctuation in quantum field theory."

"The existence in the world should be called the existence of the world. My intentional projection is not an illusion covering the entity of my own essential existence, but a transformation mechanism of the universe that is generated by the reality itself."

Caron looked at Dr. Manhattan, who frowned again and said nothing, "What I mean is that you are the God of quantum, but that doesn't mean you are the real God. The vision of the real world will not be limited and fixed because of the quantum effect."

“Every unsolvable dilemma you encounter is essentially tailored to your own weaknesses. If you have no weaknesses, the dilemma will no longer be a dilemma for you.”

This time, Dr. Manhattan did not try to use his absolute power to destroy the hateful creature in front of him. His body instantly disintegrated and reassembled in another world.

But what appeared in front of Manhattan was still the hideous dragon face that was so hateful that Manhattan felt disgusted.

"How long has it been since you last had a dream, Dr. Jonathan?"

The ancestral dragon fangs flashed and laughed: "Dreams have more than one layer, there can be a second layer, a third layer, a fourth layer, or even countless layers."

"The quantum worldview and the wisdom of 'no form' intersect with each other. The quantum state of existence and non-existence is similar to the ultimate reality of Eastern philosophy, which is neither existence nor non-existence. Therefore, if your heart changes, your destiny will change, and the world will change accordingly."

But Dr. Manhattan did not listen to the red dragon, and his body collapsed in an instant.

In just a short moment, Dr. Manhattan's body disintegrated and reassembled tens of thousands of times, transferring the universe in quantum form again and again. The speed was getting faster and faster, so fast that even the thoughts of a living being could not reach the process of Dr. Manhattan's disintegration and reassembly.

After countless reorganizations, it seemed that even the red dragon and the soul consciousness of those strange creatures could not keep up with the doctor's pace and were under tremendous pressure, reaching the limit.

Finally, the entire virtual world transformed from a dream finally collapsed, as if a door had opened in the dream, and behind Manhattan's reconstructed body was the darkness of nothingness.

It was still the familiar starry sky. The monsters sitting high on the throne had tears of blood in their eyes. The entire sky was on the verge of collapse, and the magic artifacts that performed magic rituals were shattered into pieces.

When power opens the door, all arrogance will bow down.

On the throne, Kalon Gogmora unfolded the seven-headed, ten-horned true body, the divine form, which was his future divine essence.

"Welcome to the real world. It sucks, but I think you're going to like it!"

The pupils on each dragon's skull shed tears of blood, but there was not the slightest sense of misery. Instead, they were like decorations, embellishing the horror and hideousness of this red dragon.

Dr. Manhattan carefully observed everything in the world. He finally said, "You are a miracle life, but you talk too much. I am a little annoyed. Maybe we can have a good talk."

"This world is just one of the countless universes I observe. I can give up on it, but I want to hear your opinion on the nature of the self."

"If you can help me regain my former self, we'll have a deal!"

"It's up to you to find yourself again, Dr. Jonathan," Caron said slowly, "but I can play a small role as a catalyst!"

……

In the starry sky of the universe, a blue figure quietly hangs above the huge celestial body, as if looking down at this vast steel continent.

"Gogmora, you are too crazy. You dare to reject the request of such a being. But I like it."

The voice of the multi-armed giant Morges sounded. The face of the multi-armed giant was dyed red by the overflowing blood and tears, but he still raised his head and looked at Dr. Manhattan who was in his dream.

"I just want to verify my guess,"

A huge red dragon was now perched on the throne, and its true body rose and fell like a towering mountain.

"I just want to see if the power obtained out of thin air like this can really lead to the level of eternal enlightenment, where thinking and power will never decline."

"But now I know that although he is countless times stronger than us, he still cannot touch the edge of that level. After all, he was just an ordinary person."

"He did not become such a high-level creature because he possessed such power and wisdom, but he possessed such power and wisdom after becoming such a high-level creature."

“Therefore, it is difficult for him to break free from his natural limitations. He confines himself to the vision of this form of life, or what can be called the obstacle of knowledge and view.”

Cuarón slowly raised his head and looked at Dr. Manhattan who was trapped in the last layer of dreams. He said lightly: "We are like trees. The more we yearn for the light and air above, the more our roots must go down, into the depths of the soil and darkness."

"How can our transformation from the inside out be smaller than this kind of life?"

"But if I hadn't used my arrogance to influence Jonathan in the first place, I wouldn't have been able to use my words to guide Manhattan to use Jonathan's thinking to achieve self-information dimensionality reduction, thus trapping him in the dream we created."

"How can you be sure he will believe you?"

"I told him the truth. I didn't lie to him. But the truth can also serve as a lie!"

"It turns out that such an existence still has its merits!"

(End of this chapter)