A is in StarCraft, just disembarked from the Zerg Prince spaceship.

************

......

Gao Tian and the system passed through that chaotic area and arrived at the world outside the 21st century.

The increasingly powerful sphere was not defeated by the raging spacetime turbulence in the crevice. The system continued to grow stronger, and the light became more stable than before, firmly protecting them as they passed through that turbulent area.

The beginning was cool, then the system started to fumble around, like a blind man touching an elephant on the world wall.

Actually, it's not entirely sure what kind of world is inside each world wall; it can only rely on its senses to feel around and explore each one.

Fortunately, there aren't actually that many worlds with Earth.

The formation of Earth was also a probabilistic event. If something had gone slightly wrong 50 billion years ago, Earth would not exist in that universe.

The system found a very large area of ​​blue light that looked somewhat familiar.

He cautiously peeked inside, then pulled back out, patted Gao Tian on the shoulder, and said, "That's right, that's it."

It saw the Earth as it appeared when the heavens descended.

The planet emitted a very soft light, and the outline of a blue ocean was faintly visible inside, along with seven continents, surrounding satellites, and a network of lights representing civilization in human cities.

The Earth in the 21st century has a special character, different from both ancient times and the interstellar age; it is a stable reality.

There aren't many planets with this kind of aura, so it's easy to recognize.

It was from here that it dug out the high sky back then.

Gao Tian gazed at the blue expanse, the World Wall so close, and involuntarily reached out his hand.

That familiar blue.

He has already seen the map for planting flowers.

He instinctively wanted to pass through this barrier, to go back inside and breathe the air of his hometown again, and to feel the warmth of home.

But he immediately felt an invisible resistance preventing him from moving forward.

The world barrier is preventing him from entering.

The system said, "You can't go in; you can only look at it from afar."

Gao Tian asked in confusion, "Why?"

The system replied, "You are already dead in this timeline world. According to the time rules of the 21st century world, your life has ended. Going in again will destroy the timeline of this world."

Every dead soul must immediately leave the current world and go to another world; otherwise, if it remains in the current world, it will become an energy entity that affects the world and will cause the world to collapse.

The living and dying states of every soul are recorded on the timeline.

"Dead" and "alive" are completely contradictory and cannot coexist. There is no phenomenon on the same timeline where an individual is dead but still alive.

Time cannot be reversed, and what has already happened cannot be changed.

The world is built upon the life states of a timeline.

If a soul that has been marked as dead forcibly returns to and remains in its original world, it will disrupt the timeline, much like the appearance of reverse code in a program that is the opposite of all other code, and it begins to conflict with the underlying code.

The very existence of this error code conflicts with the rules of the world, and they cannot coexist regardless of whether it is intentional or not.

Simply put, it's like a clock with countless interlocking, precise gears, and suddenly a gear that reverses is installed.

Change is impossible, because it is a reversal. The collapse caused by this conflict will spread like a virus, distorting surrounding events, probabilities, and reality, and even affecting the fate of others.

The scope of the collapse will become larger and more severe. It would be lucky if it just stopped working. More likely, the entire instrument will collapse.

Initially, it may just be a small-scale anomaly, but it will gradually undermine the stability of the timeline, eventually leading to the collapse of the entire logic and the world line heading towards unpredictable chaos or even destruction.

The idea that the dead remain in the world is something humanity recognized as early as the beginning of civilization.

This stagnant, alienated energy entity that interferes with the world of the living has a specific, ancient name—ghost.

"...Holy crap." Gao Tian was silent for a moment. "So metaphysics and science really are interconnected. Is this what they mean by the saying that the end of science is metaphysics, and that the highbrow and the lowbrow must have something in common?"

Gao Tian was silent for a moment, then said, "Wait a minute, so now I'm... a ghost?"

"That's even more wrong. In our culture, there's an age-old belief that after death, people must leave with the Black and White Impermanence, or the Ox-Head and Horse-Face, or some kind of guide. They can't stay in the human world, otherwise they'll become wandering ghosts that harm people..."

"I followed you. And you—? Aren't you a messenger of the underworld?! Messengers of the underworld are the world consciousness of other worlds? You go to other worlds to recruit people for reincarnation?!"

"..." The system then extended its slender hand and gave an OK sign.

The heavens remained silent.

The Chinese people have had the concept since ancient times that a person will follow the underworld messengers after death. He always thought that it was just a myth created by the ancients out of their fear of the unknown about death, and that it was superstition.

But who would have thought that beneath this seemingly feudal and superstitious legend lies the consciousness of other parallel worlds?

The system said, "What's the big deal? This is the logic of how the world works. This execution mechanism has been in effect since the world was born."

It's not that they're sneaking around stealing people; rather, all the souls that die on this world's timeline are destined for other worlds.

These souls, already released from the original world, are just the beginning of their abduction of people.

A powerful world can seize more lives and thus become stronger, while a weak world can seize fewer lives and thus may become weaker.

The world is constantly dying and being reborn.

However, it also depends on the quality of the people you manage to recruit.

Well, luck can't save you from bad luck, but spending money can change your fate. The more people try to get it, the higher the probability of getting an SSR.

It was very weak back then, and it gave up on itself. While other worlds were recruiting people, it only took Gao Tian.

A single pull resulted in a miracle—a gold SSR on the first try! Amazing! [Thumbs up]

We've gone a bit off-topic, let's get back to it.

In short, souls that have died are not allowed to return to their original world.

Unless the world has collapsed, such as the cataclysmic Earth where all the dead were trapped and no longer had the power to guide souls, it will continue to operate, allowing souls that have been confirmed dead to leave in time and preventing them from being trapped in the original timeline that has been destroyed.

It is terrible for a soul to remain in a world that has already been destroyed; it can only perish along with the dying world.

Those dead souls cannot escape; they consume their soul power in this dead world, influencing each other and further accelerating the world's decay, forming a vicious cycle until their soul power and world consciousness are completely extinguished.

That would be the real hell on earth. Once the rules of the world break down, the world will fall into an unimaginable and ultimate tragedy.

Death is not scary, but if the soul's power is completely exhausted, then it is truly gone.

All life in the world is a child of the world consciousness, and no world consciousness wants to see its children become like that.

If the world's consciousness has even a shred of power, it will fight to the death to send these souls out.

Just like that cataclysmic Earth that, in order to free all the fragments of its soul, even went so far as to merge itself into the consciousness of the higher heavens.

......

Gao Tian remained silent for a while.

He had been in a fairly relaxed mood, but upon hearing this, his mood suddenly turned heavy.

That's not a hypothesis; there really is such an Earth.

That's not an if statement, not the beginning, not the process, but a result.

There really is such an Earth.

Gao Tian's consciousness no longer tried to move forward.

He stood quietly outside the world wall, looking at the blue planet inside.

Our ball is really good.

He could see the familiar outline of the continent, feel the alternation of day and night, the bustling traffic, the myriad aspects of life, and the atmosphere of home.

Even if he can only stand outside the world now, silently watching it, and can never go back, he still thinks the ball is great.

At least the 21st century is peaceful, without any major events that threaten the survival of humanity. Everything else is trivial. This is already a good life for President Qi and Brother Gao Xing, and they will definitely like this period.

The time for parting has come.

Gao Tian turned to look at the two small spheres containing the souls of President Qi and Brother Gao Xing, which were enveloped in the system's light.

The light they emit is soft and pure, without a trace of gloom, representing the pure souls of good people.

The saying "good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell" is not just a casual remark, but a real decision made by the world's consciousness.

Once a person's soul is extracted, the color of that soul is revealed—black, white, gray—and the world's consciousness will decide what kind of future it will give you.

President Qi and Brother Gao Xing are almost pure white; no matter which world's consciousness it is, they will not be treated unfairly.

They are all currently asleep, and even if they were released to Earth, they might not be reincarnated anywhere, but the system will retain their memories, and they will naturally find each other.

Gao Tian gently hugged the two small balls that represented President Qi and Brother Gao Xing.

The small ball emitted a warm light.

Gao Tian bid them farewell in his heart, adding a simple blessing.

Mr. Qi, Brother Gao Xing, have a safe journey and wish you a happy new life together.

Good people should be rewarded.

Guided by the world's consciousness, the two small orbs of light broke free from the embrace of the heavens and flew towards the vast blue light ahead.

Gao Tian watched as President Qi and Brother Gao Xing's two small orbs of light rose into the sky, like two North Stars.

The walls of the 21st-century world did not impede the two small orbs of light as they approached; instead, they opened an invisible door, accepting the two souls who met the conditions for rebirth.

The two small orbs of light merged seamlessly into the vast blue light.

They entered it, like two drops of water merging into the vast ocean.

But they were not swallowed up. The world's consciousness separated two rays of guiding light to protect them, guiding them smoothly along a specific and mysterious trajectory toward their destination.

Gao Tian watched them enter the World Wall and drift towards the Earth in the 21st century.

Upon approaching Earth, as if guided by something, it accelerated instantly, transforming into two thin streaks of light that plunged headlong into the blue planet below.

If nothing unexpected happens, they will be reborn and have a new life in this world... without interstellar wars, without the Zerg, without painful social systems, and without heavy, endless responsibilities.

The Earth in the 21st century possesses a tranquility and gentleness unlike any other timeline Earth.

They will be reborn here, reliving a journey of about a hundred years, perhaps ordinary, perhaps extraordinary, but they will all be far removed from the heaviness and pain of the past.

The system is willing to help them, and the Earth in the 21st century is also willing to help them.

Sometimes, the cold rules of the universe aren't always so heartless.