Did the world end today?

Chapter 277 Tombstone (A long chapter of 7000 words)
After waking up on the bed in the lounge, Lin Xu took a breath and slowly sat up.

In reality, he didn't experience much during his time in the bracelet world.

But through Yu Changwen's "confession," he came to a complete understanding of Yu Changwen.

Another Me in Another World
Although their thinking is similar, it must be said that there is still a fundamental difference between Zhang Liming and himself.

He has more faith in the power of small, elite groups.

I, on the other hand, have even more faith in the power of the people.

Lin Xu got out of bed thoughtfully and wrote down the last clue in his notebook.

Zhang Liming's true aim was to collaborate with the butterfly, but he used coercive methods.

He had already realized the natural conflict between himself and the butterfly, and through an extremely ingenious "open conspiracy," he forced the butterfly into a rhythm of "correction."

After writing this sentence, Lin Xu pondered for a moment and then added a note next to it.

It's too early to say whether Zhang Liming's approach is right or wrong, but its high degree of instability makes this plan unacceptable.

To eliminate instability, we must follow the plan from the Alliance era and publicly disclose the apocalypse information to the public.

However, the effectiveness of publicly announcing the doomsday scenario remains to be seen.

So, if the doomsday information were made public, would that world really become a better place?

Qin Feng seemed very confident about this, and the source of that confidence...
Lin Xu still couldn't figure out where it came from.

After all, someone once made a judgment that was somewhat ironic, but actually quite objective.

The power of the people is trustworthy, but their wisdom is questionable.

Faced with the inevitable doomsday within 20 years, will the people of that world still be able to unleash the power the world needs?
Or will the vast majority of them completely give up hope and indulge in utter revelry for the last 20 years?

Lin Xu had previously watched many movies and read many dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels in the Western context.

In those literary and artistic works, most people are depicted as ignorant, desperate, and confused when facing the inevitable end of the world.

This image has even become quite deeply ingrained in people's minds.

But Lin Xu always felt that something was wrong.

He always felt that not everyone would become like that.

Even in a purely Western context, let alone in one's own country, the social impact of a doomsday crisis might not be that significant.
But why?

The source of this intuition is as elusive as the source of Qin Feng's confidence, so Lin Xu can only put it aside for the time being.

He glanced at his bracelet, which displayed a "2".

There are two more chances.

He briefly sent the latest intelligence he had gathered to the think tank, and after receiving a reply, he wrote down his plan to enter the world of the bracelet.

First, verify the dimensional upgrading technology.

Second, verify the results after the doomsday prophecy is revealed (key point)

The word "key" was added by the think tank—and to be fair, it is indeed very key.

If publicly announcing the apocalypse in the world of smartwatches can have positive effects, then what about in the real world?
The time when the end of the world is revealed is not far off.

Regardless of!

Take a look first and then talk!
Lin Xu walked back to the lounge and lay back down on the bed.

Then, he gently touched the bracelet.

Consciousness was quickly drained.

Then, it quickly fell again.
"Comrade Lin Xu, please put on your bulletproof vest."

A familiar voice reached his ears. Lin Xu opened his eyes and, upon seeing the person, couldn't help but blurt out:
"Qin Feng!"

Standing opposite Lin Xu, Qin Feng looked up in slight surprise, while right next to them, Jiang Xingye, who was also putting on protective equipment, suddenly turned around.

It was Lin Xu's exclamation that made her immediately realize something was wrong.

She temporarily stopped the staff who were helping her tighten the buckles of her bulletproof vest, turned to Lin Xu and asked:
"ZEROTH?"

"it's me."

Lin Xu nodded immediately, then asked:
"What time is it now?"

"November 6th, 2029! Just as you predicted last time!"

11 month 6 number.

This isn't the first time I've been here on this date.

However, the last time I entered, I was in the Lop Nur laboratory of CEPC, but this time...
It doesn't seem so?
The place I was in was an ordinary office. Judging from the layout of the office and the badges hanging on the wall, I must have been here before.
Joint command center?
Lin Xu quickly realized what was happening and then asked:
Where are we now? What are we supposed to do?

"We are in Nanjing now."

Jiang Xingye replied briefly:

"We were on our way to the 'Tombstone' project site, but 10 minutes ago we received reliable information that some extremists from the Wrongdoers organization might launch an attack at the project site."

"Currently, relevant security personnel are conducting a comprehensive inspection of the site. We have returned—this is the office of the Joint Intelligence Command Center. Just in case, we also need to put on our protective gear."

"clear."

At this moment, his mind was filled with questions.

Tombstone Project?

The Wrongdoers organization is composed of extremists?
What is a tombstone project?
The extremists in the Wrongdoers organization still exist, which means that the organization has not been completely eradicated.
As Lin Xu put on his bulletproof vest and expertly locked the buckle, he turned to Jiang Xingye and asked:
"So what's the situation now? How far has technology advanced in this world? Have you released any doomsday information?"

"How's the purge of the Error Correctors organization going? What about Ayana? Have you unlocked her yet?"

Lin Xu bombarded Jiang Xingye with all his questions at once, and Jiang Xingye obviously couldn't answer them all, so he said:
"I will send you the intelligence immediately."

"All the information is updated and summarized in real time. You can take a look first, and then ask me questions."

"clear."

Lin Xu nodded in response, and at that moment, he suddenly noticed that a clear AR image appeared in the glasses he was wearing.

According to his previous recollection, such a device would not appear until after 2032.

But it's only 2029 now, and the functionality of glasses is already quite advanced.

Does this mean that technological development in the world may indeed have accelerated?
He immediately perked up, and at that moment, Jiang Xingye's message had already been delivered.

What appeared before Lin Xu was an interface almost identical to the Butterfly Contingency Plan terminal from the previous "Starship Era". All the information was divided into several categories, including technological development, social development, and key intelligence.

Lin Xu first clicked on the key intelligence section, but the information there instantly made him feel disappointed.

First of all, Zhang Liming was not caught.

Although the authorities have publicly announced the impending doomsday and have largely guided public opinion, the conditions for the survival of those who seek to correct errors have not been completely eliminated. They continue to exist in a covert form, like a "secret society."

Meanwhile, the unlocking of Ayana has also stalled.

Just like last time, Zhang Liming successfully took over Ayana's body, locking down the communication channels between the world's officials and Ayana.

Despite the significant time and resources invested, progress has been extremely limited.

Lin Xu frowned deeply upon seeing this, and when he clicked on the "Technology" section, any anticipation he had felt for the appearance of the smart eyepiece vanished instantly.

No progress!
-
No, it can't be said that there has been absolutely no progress.

While significant progress has indeed been made in the study of mathematical systems where the axiom of choice fails, the so-called K value has remained locked at a relatively vague boundary due to the lack of real-world experimental and observational data.

They haven't achieved a breakthrough yet.

Although Jin Xiaochuan's progress is already astonishing compared to when he last entered the world of 2036, mathematical matters can only be distinguished by "having" or "not having".

If there is, there is, if there is not, there is not.

Progress in the intermediate state is of little significance to the world as a whole.

Lin Xu took a deep breath and continued looking at the research in the cutting-edge field of physics.

But even this little bit disappointed him.

Time crystal? Not found.

A large particle collider laboratory? It wasn't built.

Exploration of the "world after the rules have changed"? Stagnant.

Holographic duality theory? Limited progress.

One bad news after another made Lin Xu feel like he had "completely lost confidence".

So, was my choice wrong?

Releasing doomsday information to the public did indeed lead to a series of problems, to the point that humanity in the Alliance era was unable to spare the time or resources for more research work. Instead, they were trapped in these social problems, which severely slowed down the world's progress.

This seems reasonable.

But it shouldn't be.

Lin Xu took a deep breath, clinging to the last glimmer of hope, and clicked on the "Applied Technology" section.

This time, he finally found some comfort.

Humanity in this world is developing rapidly in the application of technology.

Nuclear fusion power generation? In just two years, a fusion power generation network covering 60% of the country has been built.

Superconducting materials? Large-scale applications: according to the document, even mobile phone batteries now use superconducting energy storage.

The development of quantum computers is also encouraging. A year ago, they achieved general-purpose computing with quantum computers. The remaining task is simply to continue to expand the energy and heat dissipation scale to improve the computing power of quantum computers.

At the same time, large-scale, intelligent, lights-out factories are developing at an unprecedented pace.

Artificial intelligence has entered a new stage, and when the two are combined, the productivity of the human world tends to increase explosively.

Now Lin Xu understood.

Humanity in this world is not without progress.

On the contrary, compared to the worlds they had entered before, after confirming that they would completely abandon the "quick victory theory," the humans here took a completely different path.

They completely abandoned the arrogance of their golden age.

They fell completely silent.

First, lay a solid foundation, and then gradually advance to more cutting-edge technologies!
Lin Xu couldn't say for sure whether this development plan was right or wrong, but the strategy itself was enough to illustrate the point.

This really is a new world!

"So... how did you do that?"

Upon hearing Lin Xu's words, Qin Feng, who was observing the "tombstone" project site through the holographic projection system, turned around.

He fully understood what Lin Xu was asking.

But his answer
It is incredibly simple.

“We didn’t do much.”

He looked at Lin Xu and continued:

“We simply released information about the apocalypse and formed the Reverse Current Project Team based on intelligence provided by ‘pollen’.”

“We provided some basic guidance through the reverse flow project team.”

"People quickly accepted the message that the end of the world was coming, and after only a very brief period of chaos, society returned to normal."

"How can this be?!"

Lin Xu asked in astonishment:

"No large-scale rebellion? No ideological shift? No outbreak of hedonism? No collapse of social structure?"

"No, nothing."

Qin Feng's answer left Lin Xu completely bewildered.

In his view, even in the most optimistic scenario, the world will inevitably experience severe growing pains after the doomsday information is revealed.

But now, it hurts.

But it can hardly be called labor pains, can it?
How exactly did they manage to do that?
Seeing Lin Xu's puzzled look, Qin Feng spoke again:
“At first, we had the same concerns as you.”

"But soon, we discovered a problem."

"When we talk about the end of the world, we always subconsciously regard the entire human society as a whole."

"The so-called 'human nature' and the so-called 'dystopian' deductions are, in essence, a kind of arrogant condescension."

"It amplifies the weaknesses of human nature while ignoring people's 'independence'."

"Independence??"

Lin Xu never imagined that, in the face of the apocalypse, someone would use the word "independence" to explain the stability of the current social environment.

He thought Qin Feng would come up with a clichéd explanation like "we must be more united as we imagine," which was at least understandable.

What is independence?
He posed his question to Qin Feng, who, while rapidly deploying security and inspection personnel on the screen, explained:

"Society is made up of individuals, and these individuals are profoundly influenced by instinct and cultural environment."

"Those who believe that doomsday messages will cause chaos are actually staunch supporters of a nihilistic philosophy."

"But do you think there is really fertile ground for nihilism in our world?"

“Our country’s cultural atmosphere naturally denies nihilism, while other countries and other civilizations do not have a high degree of acceptance of existentialism.”

"It's too complicated."

Lin Xu frankly stated:
"I don't understand such complicated philosophical theories."

"So, is there a simpler example that can explain this outcome?"

"some."

Qin Feng immediately replied:
"If you knew you were going to die in a day, what would you do?" After a brief pause, Lin Xu replied:
".go Ape."

Qin Feng then asked:
What if you knew you would die in 20 years?

In an instant, Lin Xu suddenly realized.

He understood what Qin Feng meant.

He wanted to speak, but Qin Feng had already continued.

"The end times have always existed; we never realized it before."

"But in reality, every person's death is an apocalypse."

"For some, the end of the world will come in 40 years; for others, it will come within 20 years."

"Of course, there are others whose doomsday will come in just a few years."

"But have you seen this world thrown into chaos because of such a random apocalypse?"

The answer is obvious.

No.

Therefore, when people learn that the end of the world will come in 20 years, the shock they experience is not much greater than when they know they will die in 40 years.

Qin Feng, sitting opposite him, let out a soft breath.

"That's why we say that the so-called 'doomsday collapse theory' is nothing but a kind of arrogant condescension."

"Because this kind of argument treats people as cold symbols and society as a cold 'system'."

"But in reality, that was twenty years."

"For individuals, those are more than 7000 days and nights they have to go through."

Do you really think that many people would choose to waste those 7000 days and nights?

“Our cultural foundation would never allow such a thing to happen.”

"Do your best and leave the rest to fate."

"Doing good deeds without asking for reward."

"Knowing that there is nothing one can do about it, one should accept it as fate."

"If I have done my best but still could not achieve it, I can have no regrets."

"Our civilization has never been bound by religion, nor do we need to place our hopes on the afterlife."

"Everything we do is simply to be true to ourselves."

"This is our true nature."

"So actually, we should have made it public a long time ago."

At this point, a smile suddenly appeared on Qin Feng's face.

"To be honest, while we may not be born on the same day, month, and year, we can certainly die on the same day, month, and year. For some people, this is even a kind of romance."

romantic?

maybe.

Lin Xu did not press the matter further.

Because now, he already has the answer to the most important question.

At this moment, the holographic projection switched to a scene showing security personnel inspecting the "tombstone" project site.

Lin Xu then asked:
So what exactly is the tombstone project?

The "tombstone project" is...

Before Qin Feng could finish speaking, gunshots suddenly erupted on the screen.

"Bang bang bang bang -"

The rapid gunfire tore through the entire square. Through the holographic screen, Lin Xu saw that the police officers and rapid response teams, who had already been deployed, quickly moved forward.

They have locked onto their target.

"Are you sure it's an error corrector?"

Lin Xu asked, slightly nervously:

Why did they sabotage this project?

"determine."

Qin Feng didn't answer immediately, but instead quickly gave instructions into the earpiece:

"Groups one and two, quickly carry out the cleanup; group three, lock onto the enemy's starting position."

"They don't have many weapons; they probably only have a small amount of explosives."

"Avoid large-scale conflicts as much as possible, ensure on-site safety, and safeguard the integrity of facilities."

"understand!"

"Roger that!"

A reply rang out in the office, and Lin Xu saw that the combat personnel, who had received the intelligence in advance, reacted in the fastest and most professional way.

The "extremists" who appeared out of nowhere were located within a minute. A desperate corrector tried to detonate the explosives he was holding, but when the incapacitating weapon was pointed at him, he could no longer do even the simplest action of "pressing the detonation button".

Soon, combat personnel in bomb suits swarmed him, pinned him to the ground, and the explosives in his hands were removed in a very short time.

The search area then expanded further and began to spread in a specific direction.

"Enemy departure position spotted."

"Prepare to break in."

"locking."

"Clean up!"

Gunshots rang out again.

After a moment, the screen fell silent again.

"ended."

Qin Feng breathed a long sigh of relief.

"This isn't the first time; these people are getting more and more into these underhanded tactics."

"I estimate that they will create even more trouble in the next two days, when the project is officially launched and made public."

Upon hearing Qin Feng's words, Lin Xu couldn't help but frown.

"Is this project very important?"

"What technology is it related to? Why didn't I see it in the documentation?"

"It's in the document."

Qin Feng replied:
"But it's not in the technology category, it's in the social category."

As he spoke, Qin Feng cut off a portion of the live footage and transferred the image from his computer to the holographic screen.

"This is the facility for the Tombstone Project."

Lin Xu looked at the screen.

But what he saw was something that definitely didn't look like a tombstone.

That's more like a...
Miniaturized quantum bit generator?

"What exactly is this?"

He asked, puzzled:

"This looks like some kind of quantum bit generator?"

"That's right!"

Jiang Xingye chimed in from the side:
"This is a basic quantum bit computer—or more accurately, a quantum bit encoder."

"It can encode information that humans can understand into entangled quantum pairs."

"Then, we will send these quantum pairs through high-dimensional channels to higher-dimensional spaces."

"These are human tombstones."

"Human tombstones?"

Lin Xu asked, puzzled:

"What exactly is this doing? I don't understand the point at all."

"Scientifically speaking, it makes no sense."

Jiang Xingye looked directly into Lin Xu's eyes and said solemnly:
"But it is of great significance to the world."

"We spent more than half a year collecting information that almost everyone wants to leave behind for the world."

"We will send all this information to the high-dimensional channel."

"This is a symbolic act."

"It's as if we're leaving a will for the world."

"understood."

Lin Xu nodded thoughtfully.

In his view, perhaps this is a need for public opinion propaganda?
At this moment, Qin Feng had already opened the contents of the countless "last wills" as instructed by Jiang Xingye.

But contrary to Lin Xu's expectations, the contents of these "suicide notes" were...
It wasn't taken that seriously.

On the contrary, it seems ordinary.

"I was born in June 1995 and will most likely die in April 2045, exactly 50 years old. Nothing much to say, I've lived enough."

"The revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades must continue to strive. Comrades in another world, it is up to you."

"I'm still alive for now, but the cancer has spread. I've heard that a cure will be available soon, and I plan to live for another 16 years."

"The sun, moon, mountains, and rivers will live on forever! The land of China will live on forever!"

"The end of the world is coming, but I'm about to give birth, so I have 16 years left. Luckily, there's still time for her to see the world."

"They said there will be a main world that gives out resurrection tickets, right? Can you give us a definite answer on when they'll be given out?"

"After the apocalypse restarts, will we be able to eradicate heresy like sweet tofu pudding? I wish."

"If higher-dimensional beings can see our information, I need to tell you something: our world is already doomed, and you're also doomed, but it's okay, some powerful beings are already preparing to rescue us."

Lin Xu read through each item for a full five minutes.

He finally became certain that the people of this world had not given up.
-
Perhaps it cannot be said that they did not give up; in fact, they have given up a lot.

They are not giving up.

The world is like a jar falling from mid-air, about to be shattered.

But the people here are trying to make the most of the last bit of time before the can hits the ground, to make it a little stronger.

This is good.

"But why would those who correct mistakes want to sabotage this project?"

Lin Xu looked at Jiang Xingye, and Jiang Xingye replied:
"Because, after this project, our world will be completely transformed."

"When everyone accepts their fate, our path is already locked."

"This world will have sixteen brilliant and glorious years. The people of this world will never again attempt the insane plan led by the error correctors, which is destined to leave the whole world devastated."

"Therefore, they will certainly try their best to stop this plan."

"But there's very little they can do anymore."

indeed.

Lin Xu could clearly sense that the influence of the Error Correctors on the world was weakening.

This organization may not be so easy to completely eradicate, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to stop the "general trend".

Did Zhang Liming anticipate this?

Did he foresee that he would ultimately be defeated not by the "butterfly," but by the world itself?

Not important anymore.

Because the world has already chosen its own path.

Lin Xu took a deep breath.

Then he said to Qin Feng:
"I will bring back as much information as possible from here."

"I'm not sure when I'll come back next time, but I'm sure it will be a better world."

"of course."

Qin Feng smiled slightly.

His gaze once again fell upon the "tombstone" on the screen.

Then he began to speak:
"Actually, we were already dead when this project was established."

"We will die in 2029."

"But our bodies will not disappear for another 16 years."

"For the remaining 16 years, we will burn this remains to ashes!"

(End of this chapter)