Did the world end today?

Chapter 417 Return

Chapter 417 Return
Half an hour after Zhang Liming described his dream to Lin Xu, the limiter was activated.

Wearing protective clothing, Zhang Liming autonomously stepped into the time crystal film generated by the limiter and then disappeared into the high-dimensional channel.

The whole process was exceptionally easy, even uneventful.

But at this point, his mission was far from over.

Entering the higher-dimensional channel is only the first step.

The real difficulty lies in how to get back.

Lin Xu stared intently at the reading on the screen—according to the limiter's design, when a set of information passes through the time crystal thin film, the quantum pair monitoring the change in information entropy should give a clear reading.

However, even five minutes after Zhang Liming entered the high-dimensional channel, the readings remained unchanged.

In the suffocating wait, the intelligent system issued a chilling warning.

"System overheating, system overheating."

"Protection process will begin in 5 minutes. Protection process will begin in 5 minutes."

Lin Xu turned to look at the staff member in front of the control panel, who nodded with difficulty and then said:

"Five minutes left."

Will he be able to come back?
The dream that Zhang Liming had mentioned before leaving flashed through Lin Xu's mind.

He said he had entered another world.

But he died before he could enter another world.

Will his death occur at this moment, or at some point in the future?
Countdown 3 minutes.

All staff members are prepared for an emergency power outage.

Once the power is cut off, this thin film will disappear completely.

Even if the device restarts again, the time crystal thin film caused by the limiter will not have the same physical properties or the same boundary effects.

In other words, once this "portal" is closed, even if a new portal is opened in the same location and in the same way, it will never be the same portal.

If Zhang Liming, located in a higher-dimensional space, failed to accurately locate the "timestamp" before the portal arrived, and thus failed to find the portal, then it is possible...
He would be completely lost in the higher dimensions, with no hope of survival.

Countdown 1 minutes.

The system temperature had soared to the dangerous edge, and everyone's eyes were on Lin Xu.

At this point, they have two choices.

They could risk continuing to keep the limiter running, but overheating and subsequent instability could lead to the time crystal going out of control.

At that time, a second uncontrollable high-dimensional overflow may appear on this small planet.

Alternatively, they must follow the procedure to disable the limiter.

This also means that Zhang Liming has been abandoned by them.

30 seconds.

Lin Xu decisively raised his hand and then gave the order:
"Shut down."

Without any hesitation, the on-site commander repeated his order.

"Shut down!"

"Initiate cooling process!"

As soon as the command was issued, the energy that was maintaining the limiter's operation was cut off, and a large number of low-entropy particles were injected into the center of the limiter through the emergency infusion system.

The time crystal thin film annihilates under the impact of low-entropy particles, and after a bright flash, the film disappears completely.

The entire control room was so quiet that the only sounds were the distant hum of the fans and the howling wind across the desert.

On the screen, Wang Yifan, who had been watching the whole thing, slightly changed his expression.

His student had just gotten lost in a higher dimension.

"Is there still a chance?"

Wang Yifan asked:
"Could he return to our world through other naturally formed higher-dimensional channels?"

"Or, is it possible for him to reconstruct his own information set in the real world through boundary defects?"

"Like a kind of mapping?"

"possible."

Lin Xu couldn't bear to definitively say no—but he knew that Zhang Liming's chances of survival were slim.

In higher-dimensional space, time is a plane.

This is an ironclad rule, and similarly, this ironclad rule also determines a fundamental characteristic of high-dimensional experiments.

That is, the vast majority of people who actively enter a higher-dimensional channel and then return do not stay in the higher-dimensional space.

At least from a low-dimensional perspective, they won't stay for too long.

If it weren't for the time required to cross the boundary, then strictly speaking, they should never have left.

But now, Zhang Liming is an exception.

Such an exception likely suggests some kind of unexpected event.

Seeing Lin Xu's gaze, Wang Yifan slowly nodded.

"Do a good job of information gathering."

He said in a heavy tone:

"Even if he can't come back, this is the first time we've sent someone into a higher dimension using a limiter."

"All the data generated during the process is a valuable asset to us."

"We cannot let it slip away easily."

"clear."

Lin Xu gave a brief answer.

He then walked toward the door of the control room.

The gate opened automatically, and after passing through two isolation doors, he finally reached the outdoors.

The wind, carrying sand and dust, blows in your face, but thanks to the massive facilities and a series of environmental improvement projects, the wind here is no longer as sharp as it used to be, capable of slicing a person's neck.

He walked forward against the wind, with security personnel following one by one to protect him, leading him onto the shuttle bus and driving towards the main equipment of the limiter.

Everyone knew what he was going to do.

When the car stopped in front of the limiter's "experimental chamber," low-entropy dust that had not been completely consumed was still scattered on the ground around the chamber.

As if covered by starlight, the ground shimmered with a faint silver light.

Stepping on it produced a metallic scraping sound underfoot.

The experimental chamber door opened, revealing it to be completely empty.

"Be careful."

Qin Feng grabbed Lin Xu's arm and then said:
"There are still remnants of ionizing radiation inside."

Lin Xu heeded the advice and stopped outside the door.

He took a deep breath and said in a low voice:
"If he can't come back now, there's a high probability he'll never come back."

"But this matter..."

"Very counterintuitive."

"Theoretically speaking, he should be one of the people most familiar with high-dimensional channels. Even if he has no experience with high dimensions in this world, he will adapt quickly after entering a high-dimensional channel."

"This is one of the characteristics of information sets."

But he never came back.

"I'm wondering, is it that he didn't come back, or that he...didn't want to come back?"

"Perhaps he discovered something more worthwhile to stay in a higher dimension?"

"who knows?"

Qin Feng pulled Lin Xu back a step.

"But for us, this experiment is over."

"Since he couldn't give us effective feedback, we need to think of another way, right?"

"Yes."

Lin Xu closed his eyes slightly.

"but"

"If he doesn't come back"

What, then, is the meaning of continuing to take risks?

When Zhang Liming descended to a lower three-dimensional world through that irregular "entrance," what he saw was not the Earth he was familiar with.

A long staircase was spreading out in front of him.

As he stepped down from the platform, the lights on the steps gradually came on.

At that moment, he thought he had arrived in the future.
-
And this is indeed the case.

Above his head, in a giant, passive virtual screen, two numbers indicating the time were jumping.

2039 12 Month 6 Day.

June 30, 1908. Zhang Liming looked at the two dates with slight confusion, and subconsciously reached out to touch the screen.

But just then, a clear and decisive command suddenly rang in his ears.

"Hello, please stay where you are."

Zhang Liming was stunned for a moment.

He tried to find the source of the sound, and the next second, the door at the end of the stairs suddenly opened.
-
The door seemed to appear out of thin air from the wall, and the overwhelming sense of "fantasy" left Zhang Liming somewhat at a loss.

But when security personnel dressed in tactical gear and wearing the familiar national flag on their shoulders appeared in front of him, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately.

This place is at least a base built by a civilization I am familiar with.

Not some alien or higher-dimensional civilization's nest.

Zhang Liming obediently raised his hand, and the other person quickly stepped forward, supporting or rather controlling his arm, and led him away from the steps.

After leaving through the main gate, Zhang Liming found himself directly outdoors.

Above him was a clear, starry sky free of any light pollution, and beneath his feet was a pristine, natural meadow.

With the assistance of security personnel, he removed the helmet from his protective suit.

He had assumed that letting his guard down would elicit equal goodwill, but to his surprise, when his face was revealed to the crowd, everyone's reaction was...
Like an enemy.

"Zhang Liming".

The voice sounded again.

Zhang Liming nodded in confusion, then asked in return:

Where am I?

His tone was full of doubt, and this doubt seemed to have plunged the owner of the voice into confusion as well.

"You don't know where you are?"

Should I know?

Zhang Liming was increasingly confused. After a brief pause, without waiting for a reply, he quickly explained his situation.

"Clearly, the world you live in is not the original world I belong to."

“I come from a world called the Destiny Stone World, where I participated in a limiter experiment.”

"After passing through the limiter to enter the higher-dimensional channel, I completed the detection mission for a certain special physical entity."

"But due to the complexity of this particular physical existence, I lost the opportunity to return."

"I finally landed here—I chose a passage similar to the one I came through."

"But given the current situation..."

"Clearly, the world you live in is also a world that has developed limiter technology, right?"

"That you"

"and many more!"

The voice interrupted Zhang Liming's words, and the owner of the voice appeared in front of Zhang Liming.

"Bai Mo!"

"You are not Zhang Liming!"

The two spoke at the same time, both falling into a state of near-frozen shock.

"Where is this?!"

"You come from the main world??"

Their voices overlapped once more, and Zhang Liming excitedly took a few steps forward and said:

"Let me speak first!"

"Do you know if the butterfly in the main perspective has ever been here?"

Bai Mo's facial muscles twitched violently from the intense emotional turmoil. She desperately suppressed her emotions and then said:

"The butterflies have come."

But the problem is...

"You traveled through time in physical form?!"

Zhang Liming was startled.

He suddenly realized which world he was in.

A butterfly came by.

Humans have entered the universe beyond Earth, and even beyond the Milky Way.

The limiter has been manufactured and is available to some extent.

这是
A world in the era of alliances?!

2039.
According to Lin Xu's previous description, this world will eventually be destroyed in 2044.

The cause of the destruction was the disturbance of information entropy, which led to the complete collapse of the already fragile world.

What if one's arrival is realized in material form?
Wouldn't that disrupt the balance of the world prematurely?!
At that moment, he felt an unprecedented terror.

But at the same time, he also had a sudden realization that the answer was within reach.

defect
My own analysis of that string of numbers led me here.

But the reason this path was able to be traversed was...
Perhaps it's not just because of the nature of the defect itself.

How much time do we have left?

Zhang Liming asked impatiently:

How much time does this world have left?

"Are the times you've marked absolute times? I mean, is 2039 an absolute time?"

"It is absolute time."

Bai Mo was clearly aware of Zhang Liming's intentions.

When will the balance be broken?

"2044."

"That's good. If the final outcome happens in 2044, then the disturbance you caused should not be enough to cause destruction for the time being."

"That's right, but the problem is that such disturbances will inevitably lead to instability in the end, and that's the root of everything."

Yes. Our world is finished.

Their conversation was filled with cryptic and ambiguous messages, and only the two people involved knew that they were exchanging information with maximum efficiency.

In less than two minutes, an absolutely rational person and a top scientist had fully understood the situation.

In fact, this situation is not complicated.

Zhang Liming arrived in the world of the Alliance Era in material form through a certain "defect" characteristic, reaching the crucial moment when the first limiter experiment was conducted in this world.

When the truth came to light, Zhang Liming felt an unprecedented sense of absurdity.

He had heard Lin Xu talk about everything about the other world countless times, and he had also studied the reports Lin Xu submitted countless times.

But when such a thing happened to him, he felt a huge sense of "unreality".

Did I really time travel?
Moreover, will my time travel bring about inevitable destruction?

Seeing the undisguised solemnity in Bai Mo's eyes, he immediately understood the immense pressure Lin Xu endured each time he traveled through time.

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Liming began to speak:
"You must report the situation immediately."

"I have an important message to deliver. If it's in time, you'll receive my message when the next butterfly arrives."

"By that time."

"Do not."

Bai Mo slowly shook his head.

"That's too late."

"The process of destruction has already begun. With your arrival, we have already entered another timeline."

"Butterflies will never come to this world again."

"He'll never receive the message you want to send; we're locked down, we are."