Did the world end today?

Chapter 377 Topological Defects
"October 16, 2016. A new classmate joined our class today. He seems a little different from us, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I just feel like he's a bit too serious."

"Are high school students in other cities like this? He seems like an adult."

"October 27, 2016. Qin Shizhong's pen broke. He didn't want my pen and spent two class periods fixing it himself. It's strange. His clothes aren't cheap, so why couldn't he buy a new pen?"

"October 28, 2016. Qin Shizhong had some bruises on his face. He said he fell, but I don't think so. It's strange, it's like he has some kind of secret."

"November 1, 2016. He has injuries on his hands. He doesn't exercise every day, so why does he have so many wounds?"

"December 1, 2016. He finally spoke to me today. It seems like I'm the first girl he's ever spoken to? Before this, he'd only ever talked to boys. He seems a bit withdrawn."

"December 15, 2016. I finally know why he did this. His parents are terrifying."

"January 1, 2017. The first day of the new year, the day is new, but everything seems old. I gave him a lot of ideas, but none of them worked."

"January 3, 2017. I finally met his parents. They are truly terrifying people. If I lived in a family like that, I probably wouldn't have survived."

"Are we friends? He probably will never dare to admit that we are friends."

"In other people's eyes, we are just ordinary classmates, the kind who wouldn't even say an extra word to each other."

"Well, this is good too. At least he won't get beaten up because of me anymore."

"It's strange, in this day and age, there are still people who get beaten up? Why is that?"

"Now I finally understand why his parents treated him this way. Maybe it's because he always had some strange ideas in his head."

"What do you mean by the end of the world, death, and the future? So, are his parents trying to control him, or are they afraid of him?"

"I don't understand, maybe this is just his way of rebelling? He wants to pretend he's crazy so that his parents won't dare to control him anymore."

"Or has he really gone mad?"

He's always alone, and he's spending more and more time alone.

"I want to spend time with him, but I don't have the chance."

"His parents also started acting increasingly strangely."

“He always told me that he was about to succeed, that he was about to get rid of all this.”

"But he makes me feel...terrified."

“I’m a little afraid to get close to him anymore; he’s not the person I used to know.”

“His story is becoming more and more real, and every time he tells me about it, I feel terrified.”

"But I also feel sorry for him. High school students this age are all prone to daydreaming, right? But his daydreams are quite different from ours."

"I want to change the world, but he seems to want to destroy it."

"He really hates this world."

"Does he hate the world, or does he hate his family?"

He said he wanted to change the world into the way he wanted it to be. But how exactly would he do that?

"I feel like I should stay away from him, but I also feel a little unable to leave him."

"Reluctant to part with it."

"If it weren't for those crazy things, he would really be a very good person."

"If I leave him too, won't he really go crazy?"

"We've graduated. We might never see each other again."

"This diary is very long, and it's written in fits and starts."

Looking back now, I feel so stupid.

"I shouldn't have spent so much time on him. If I had focused on my studies, I might have gotten into a better school."

"He must have succeeded. When I met his parents this time, I felt that they had become completely different."

"He must be very happy, right? Now, their positions have been completely reversed."

"PUA? It can no longer be considered PUA."

"He wouldn't do this to me, would he?"

"It's so hot today, and the cicadas are chirping so loudly."

"We've already filled out our college applications, but we can't go to the same city anymore."

He said he would come back to find me.

"I don't know whether I should wait for him, but it seems that waiting for him has become a habit."

“Every time, I have to wait such a long time to get even the slightest response.”

"I don't know if it's worth it or not."

"I saw him again; he's back to take his driving test."

“He told me that the end of the world is real.” “I thought he had changed for the better, and he hadn’t mentioned it for a long time, but why did he suddenly come back?”

"He seemed very excited. He said that his world was full of mud, but he had a way to wash all the mud away."

"But how is that possible? Human memories can't be erased, can they?"

"The rift between us is getting wider and wider."

"I suddenly feel a little nostalgic for the time when we first met."

"Maybe if I did a little more, he would become a better person."

"I couldn't pull him out."

"I don't know why, but he suddenly said goodbye to me."

“He said he would come back, and then I would get to know him again.”

"I suddenly felt a sense of relief."

"But... will we really get to know each other again someday?"

"He said he wanted to put the puzzle together, but what exactly is a puzzle?"

After reading through the entire book, Jiang Xingye let out a heavy sigh.

"I probably understand."

She spoke:
"This is a completely distorted personality. After entering the higher-dimensional channel, his personality distortion was severely amplified."

"What he hates is not the world, but himself in the world."

"Therefore, he is trying to use various methods to erase his traces."

"Using so-called boundaries and high-dimensional channels are all for this one purpose."

"Especially with Zhang Ziyi—he exposed too much of his dark side, so he absolutely cannot see Zhang Ziyi before achieving his goal."

Just as he said, that was his only thought.

"It's quite sad, but also quite pitiful."

After he finished speaking, Lin Xu nodded at first, but then shook his head.

"There's nothing to pity about."

"It should be said that it is absurd."

"Such a person happens to possess the most core secret of this higher-dimensional world."

"Don't you think it's ridiculous just to think about it?"

"That's not the case either."

Jiang Xingye shrugged.

"Not everyone is like us, both pragmatic and rational."

"People always have their own desires, just like Qin Shizhong and Zhou Yue."

"They weren't chosen; it's just that a higher-dimensional portal happened to fall into their laps."

"Too."

The plane had already begun its descent, and Lin Xu put away his notebook.

Then, he spoke:
"But that's okay."

"At least, we've gotten what we wanted."

"I finally understand what it means about boundaries, puzzle pieces, and defects."

"What do you mean?"

Jiang Xingye's eyes lit up instantly.

"He didn't seem to mention any specific information about the border, did he? It seems like he didn't even know it himself?"

Whether he knows or not is not important.

Lin Xu waved his hand.

"But he gave a general description of the 'decoding' process."

"Create fragments, assemble them into a puzzle, and form a complete world."

"This is a reverse decoding scheme."

"When a particular topological defect exists, if we can reverse the low-dimensional effects caused by the defect, we can obtain a complete description of the boundary CFT with relatively low resource consumption."

"This is a high-dimensional adaptive problem. The true ultimate solution!"

(End of this chapter)