Did the world end today?

Chapter 409 The Hollow World

Chapter 409 The Hollow World
Lin Xu took out his notebook as he entered the lounge.

He still maintains the habit of recording his plans on paper, and now, the latest page of his notebook is densely filled with his plans.

[Using boundary defects to complete boundary analysis]

[Conduct a small-scale upgrade test]

[Exercising influence over the real world by exploiting boundary flaws (with caution)]

[Complete the limiter array setup]

[Investigate the true characteristics of the defect and determine its relationship with the characteristics of butterflies.]

Establish standard disaster recovery plans to prepare for the era of crisis.

[Investigate the sequence of events and possible scenarios of the disaster caused by the higher-dimensional overflow]

In the last line, Lin Xu drew a heavy circle.

This is the most urgent task he needs to complete this time.

Lin Xu sat back on the sofa and gently touched the bracelet.

Consciousness was quickly drained, and then it quickly fell away.
When Lin Xu opened his eyes again, he was back on that grassland.

Jiang Xingye stood in front of him, and before he could speak, Jiang Xingye raised his hand.

The next second, a picture of disaster unfolded before Lin Xu.

Hurricanes, thunderstorms, extreme cold.
Lin Xu stared in astonishment at everything displayed on the screen, then asked:

"You already know what I'm going to ask?"

"I got it."

Jiang Xingye nodded, then replied:

"When I realized you were starting to face the problem of higher-dimensional overflow, I kept thinking that our reasoning seemed to be missing an important part."

"That is, whether in the 'puzzle world' or the 'message in a bottle world,' humanity has suffered heavy casualties."

“Initially, we thought it was an inevitable result of the misuse of boundaries.”

"But after comparing and analyzing the information from the two worlds, I discovered that the disaster may not have come solely from negligence."

"In fact, disaster was almost inevitable."

"As the world is cut into pieces of a puzzle, different disasters begin to wreak havoc within those pieces."

"Therefore, each human being inside the puzzle is forced to face their own disaster alone."

"Some puzzle pieces can be skipped, some cannot."

"This is why the number of people who actually ascend to higher dimensions is so small compared to the total population there."

"It's not just because of adaptability."

"This is a two-round selection process - the first round comes from three-dimensional disasters, and the second round is the selection of high-dimensional adaptability."

"After two rounds of screening, the amount of information that can be retained is negligible."

"understood."

Lin Xu nodded slowly.

This is indeed an overlooked detail—before this point, their only concern was the issue of high-dimensional adaptability.

They held their heads too high and looked too far ahead, ignoring the three-dimensional catastrophe that was right before their eyes, which, compared to the "higher-dimensional catastrophe," might be insignificant, yet was enough to wipe out humanity.

Fortunately, it's not too late for everything.

The disaster caused by the high-dimensional overflow has not yet erupted on a large scale, and the limiter array has not yet been fully completed.

Most disasters can be avoided if preparations are made in advance.

Thinking of this, Lin Xu spoke up:
"Give me the specific disaster type, its sequence of occurrence, its correlation, and relevant information on solutions."

"I need the most comprehensive and effective response to contain the potential impact of the disaster on my world."

"no problem."

Jiang Xingye nodded in reply:

"I will set up a transmission channel for you directly, and when you leave, you will receive all the information I have."

"but."

At this point, Jiang Xingye hesitated slightly.

Looking at her expression, Lin Xu asked in confusion:
"but what?"

"However, even the world that stood on the shoulders of giants was not able to completely solve the disasters caused by the overflow of higher dimensions."

Lin Xu immediately frowned.

The world standing on the shoulders of giants
Clearly, that was the world that evolved from the last "spell" I cast.

Logically speaking, the spell contained a considerable amount of information; in fact, Jiang Xingye believed that the spell exceeded the information entropy limit even before it was cast.

Such an extraordinary spell, which comes at the cost of the instability of a higher-dimensional world, couldn't even save that world from the low-dimensional disasters caused by the overflow of higher dimensions?

This strength.
It shouldn't be exceeding the limit to this extent, right?
Lin Xu looked at Jiang Xingye, who continued to wave his hand, and the scene in front of Lin Xu changed accordingly.

“The worlds that received this spell all have almost the same developmental history.”

"They knew about the existence of higher-dimensional overflows in advance, so they began to actively create higher-dimensional overflows."

"Of all these worlds, only 20% have successfully created higher-dimensional overflows using higher-dimensional channels, while all the other worlds have been kept out of the gates to higher-dimensional worlds for various reasons."

"However, even with the creation of higher-dimensional overflows, the mission of these worlds is still not complete."

"As we have learned, the emergence of higher-dimensional overflows also signifies the birth of disasters."

"Furthermore, based on the experience of these worlds, the disasters brought about by the overflow of higher dimensions are 'gradual'."

"The longer it goes on, the greater the disaster will be."

"and many more."

Lin Xu raised his hand to interrupt Jiang Xingye.

Gradual?
Theoretically speaking, the scope of higher-dimensional overflows will indeed continue to expand, which is a phenomenon that I have observed and confirmed in the Destiny Stone world.

but.
What does the gradual escalation of the disaster signify?
Does the same disaster become more destructive when it repeats itself?
After a slight pause, he asked:
"You mean the scale of the disaster will increase as the scope of the higher-dimensional spillover expands?"

"Not really."

Jiang Xingye shook his head.

"There is no strict linear correlation between the two. No matter how large the scope of the high-dimensional spillover expands, the scale of the disaster it brings is only related to the degree of abnormality of the fundamental forces."

"The word 'degree' is not accurate. To be precise, it is a kind of probability cloud."

"Can you understand this concept?"

"absolutely okay."

Lin Xu answered without hesitation, and Jiang Xingye seemed to realize that his question was a bit redundant.

Indeed, how could a "butterfly" that has reached this point not even know what a probability cloud means?
She coughed lightly and continued:

"Therefore, it is precisely because of this probability cloud distribution that we cannot intuitively perceive the expansion of the disaster scale after the scale of the high-dimensional spillover expands."

"But this does not mean that disasters always remain at the same level."

"Because the scope of influence of high-dimensional spillover is a probability circle."

"As the area of a circle expands, the probability cloud it can contain also increases."

This has led to one consequence.

"Overlapping".

Before Jiang Xingye could finish speaking, Lin Xu interrupted him.

"That's right, overlapping."

Jiang Xingye let out a heavy sigh.

"In fact, it's not just about overlapping, but also about alternation and continuation."

"After a disaster caused by a probability cloud ends, another probability cloud may instantly emerge."

"Such 'continuation' will lead to repeated disasters in the same area until that area is completely destroyed."

Upon hearing Jiang Xingye's words, Lin Xu asked:
"Has such a thing actually happened?" "I mean, the probability of two probability clouds overlapping is frighteningly low, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Jiang Xingye replied:

"The probability of this is indeed very low, but the point is, it's not that it doesn't exist."

"Let's go back to the original topic—of the 20% of worlds that survived, the vast majority were completely destroyed in the catastrophe brought about by the overflow of higher dimensions."

"But of course, a part of the world still survived."

"This part of the world accounts for no more than 1% of the original total number of worlds. The reason why they were able to survive is either that they anticipated the crisis before the high-dimensional overflow was generated and adopted a more conservative and safer experimental plan, or that they mobilized a large amount of resources to contain the further spread of the disaster in the early stage of its generation."

"Either."

"It means that we withstood the disaster and used extremely limited resources to limit its scope to a very dangerous balance line."

"And in the last of these scenarios, there have been repeated instances of 'mega-disasters' caused by overlapping probabilistic clouds."

"From the information I have, one of these worlds has even been 'hollowed out'."

"Empty out?"

Lin Xu asked, puzzled:

What does "hollowing out" mean?

"literal meaning."

Jiang Xingye replied:

"First, the disorder of the fundamental forces leads to a decrease in the binding energy between atoms, and the atomic nuclei decay through the quantum tunneling effect."

"A large amount of matter is directly converted into energy, or delocalized into a vacuum state."

"A tiny cavity begins to form in the Earth's crust."

"When it was first formed, no one noticed it—of course, with the technology available to humans at the time, it would have been impossible to find a small hole, perhaps less than 10 centimeters in diameter, deep in the earth's crust."

"However, in corners unnoticed by humans, this void is constantly evolving."

"After the initial cavity is formed, the surrounding material collapses due to pressure imbalance, further expanding the cavity."

"At the same time, due to the continued existence of the probability cloud, the fundamental force disorder is constantly suppressing the self-repair of the void."

"In fact, even if there is only one instance, even if gravity returns to normal, the collapse of the cavity is likely to send a massive amount of matter into the chaotic zone, completely suppressing the process of the cavity expanding."

But no.

"As a result, this void developed to the point where it was completely out of control."

"Along with this cavity, thousands of cylindrical voids penetrated the Earth's crust, which is tens of kilometers long."

"When one of the gaps finally pierced the ground, humanity finally found the cause of the frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other geological disasters."

"But by then, it was too late to eliminate the void."

"The only thing they can do is to slow down the development of the hollow as much as possible."

"Then, before the void completely engulfs the world, they leave the planet they originally inhabited."

As soon as Jiang Xingye finished speaking, Lin Xu's heart sank.

Geological disaster
Is it possible that a void has already formed in the world I live in?

No, probably not.

The reason why the "void world" failed to discover the void in advance is that most of their resources were allocated to the direct study of the higher-dimensional overflow.

They haven't actually entered higher-dimensional spaces frequently, so they can't examine their world from a "higher-dimensional perspective."

But the world of Destiny Stones is different.

If the void has already been created, then Qin Shizhong, Yu Shiliang, Ayana, or anyone else should have already seen it.

Lin Xu breathed a slight sigh of relief, and only in the instant he came to his senses did he realize how tragic the things that "empty world" had done were.

"It must have been tough for them to survive, right?"

"It's not easy."

Jiang Xingye replied:

"The path of technological development in that world is very extreme. They don't have as many applied technologies as you or other worlds."

"Unlike you, who can acquire high-dimensional technology in advance and achieve leapfrog development."

"Their methods of dealing with disasters are quite rudimentary."

"But the disaster itself is quite severe."

"Geological structures collapsed, climate changed drastically, the geomagnetic field weakened, the Earth's rotation changed, and even the distance between the Earth and the Moon changed subtly due to changes in gravity."

"You should know what devastating consequences a slight change in the Earth-Moon distance would have for the entire planet, right?"

"I know."

Lin Xu nodded slowly, while Jiang Xingye continued:
"In short, this world carried such a heavy burden and finally completed the analysis of the higher-dimensional overflow."

"Of course, what they can do is still not a complete analysis."

"But at least, their understanding of higher-dimensional overflows has surpassed all the worlds we know."

"At the same time, they also gained a more comprehensive understanding of 'defects'."

"They realized that the defect was man-made."

"and many more!"

Lin Xu interrupted Jiang Xingye once again.

"When you say 'man-made,' are you referring to something created by them, or something created in the previous cycle?"

"The previous cycle."

Jiang Xingye answered without hesitation:
"That's right, they're making great progress, even as fast as you are."

"Very impressive."

Lin Xu sighed sincerely, and Jiang Xingye continued:

"Not only that, they also confirmed one thing."