Chapter 808: Chapter 805: About the Embers

The stars are roaring, emitting a roar that seems capable of shaking the very foundation of all things. Truth dazzles in the radiance of the stars, filling the vision and blazing upon the soul. Lei Nora feels her mind gradually melting before this roaring truth–

She is becoming a part of that truth, understanding the words of this “Thousand-Faced Starlight” before her eyes, grasping knowledge she would never have accessed otherwise. She suddenly understands the logic of how things function, while the pale purple starlight dances at the edge of her vision, breathtakingly beautiful.

She slowly looks up, gazing at the myriad eyes twinkling among the stars, murmuring to herself softly: “I understand now… those are the ashes left after the world’s collision… but ashes are not the ‘end’; they merely need reassignment and reestablishment of mapping relationships…”

Strange phrases come out of her mouth, causing a fleeting doubt in Lei Nora’s heart, but these doubts quickly pass, and she naturally grasps the meaning of her own words, then, she sees the starlight sparkle approvingly before her.

Zhou Ming looks at Lei Nora with some surprise, not expecting the Frost Queen to understand his words so precisely, but he doesn’t have the extra energy to ponder these–his attention is fully focused on the ‘ashes’ Lei Nora discovered “beyond the boundary”.

The “Everything is Information” theory by Pilot Two is correct; the “world” can be viewed as a mathematical machine that contains all data and computational rules of everything, a massive system for information storage and operation, thus the essence of the great obliteration can be seen as the conflict and serious bugs produced after forceful merging of several incompatible “systems”…

The clash of mathematical machines caused the chaotic entanglement of “information” that otherwise operated orderly in their respective worlds, turning many parameters that could normally be “called” into unrecognizable entities, and the mathematical machine itself has lost its foundation for stable operation…

This “Shelter” built by the ancient kings serves like a sandbox environment that barely maintains operation after the system plunged into chaos, this sandbox forcibly retains some of the “information’s” mapping relationships, but fundamentally, the entire sandbox is still a part of the “system crash”…

Information does not vanish into thin air; at least in the face of disasters like the great obliteration, the “information units” that constitute the world have not truly disappeared. From the perspective of the “mathematical machine”, these information units have merely lost their connection with the “world laws” (operating system), akin to…

Zhou Ming suddenly stops, raising his head in thought, and looks towards the computer in the deepest part of the room–the computer is still running, its cursor blinking as if alive, and under his gaze, the cursor suddenly moves on its own, and a line of text emerges:

“Data corrupted, formatting incomplete–world.”

Zhou Ming blinks, the text on the computer screen vanishing as if it was a hallucination.

But he has understood now–his understanding is correct.

He exhales softly, silently organizing the storm-like thoughts in his mind, but as his thoughts gradually clarify, he can’t help but frown.

He always feels that something is missing in his understanding concerning “information does not disappear”; he is somewhat unsure about this point.

Does information really not disappear? Within the realm of the “world,” this seems to hold true, but beyond the world, what is it like? In that vast and void space, which his creator civilization had briefly glimpsed–the boundless “void,” what kind of laws of the universe exist?

Racking his brains without results, a mind that has never transcended the world can never imagine the truths beyond the world. Zhou Ming frowns and slowly shakes his head, but at the same time, he also recalls a recent conversation with Pilot Two.

He thinks of that ancient AI’s fear and paranoia, remembers Pilot Two’s eternal worries and vision–to transcend the world.

He must leave a “possibility” for transcending the world to future civilizations.

Zhou Ming’s frown slowly smooths out, and a smile appears on his face after his turbulent thoughts gradually calm.

The things he cannot understand today, someone will eventually understand one day in the distant future.

Lei Nora looks nervously at the ancient being before her, feeling that the storm-like thought process of the other has once again calmed down, she musters courage and carefully speaks: “What are your plans now?”

Zhou Ming is silent for a moment, raising his right hand, silently gazing at his palm.

Starlight leaps at his fingertips, spreading across his palm, a blurry “ash” momentarily reappears in his hand, morphing into various shapes, then vanishes like an illusion.

“The major ‘raw material’ issue is resolved, but the nature of the raw materials isn’t quite what I expected,” he muses aloud, “These are ‘cooled ashes’; they have completely lost their connection with the world’s ‘fundamental system’ and have ceased to evolve, unlike the situation with the Four Spirits and the Endless Sea… I can’t reshape these ashes through a gentle ‘Recompilation’, you just saw, even if the ashes reshape, as soon as my ‘maintenance’ disappears, they too vanish, these ‘cooled ashes’ clearly lack self-sustaining properties…

“Perhaps a ‘ground zero’ is needed? We must first massively rebuild these ‘materials’ mapping relationships and endow them with ‘prime mover’…”

He talks this way, not caring whether the “Frost Queen” in front of him understands him–he just assumes her majesty the queen mysteriously grasps a lot of things, and thinks of her as “highly perceptive.”

Lei Nora had gotten used to it, efficiently passing a SAN check and understanding the situation.

“Do you need to detonate the entire Endless Sea?” she asked with widened eyes in surprise, “Wouldn’t that be…”

She understood, but not quite correctly.

“No, no, no, the ‘origin point’ I mentioned isn’t about actually blowing up anything specific, but rather a conceptual ‘information explosion,'” Zhou Ming quickly waved his hand to correct her understanding, and then added thoughtfully, “It may also involve the release of a tremendous amount of energy, but that has nothing to do with detonating the Endless Sea…”

Although in this process, the Endless Sea would definitely be gone–this was something Zhou Ming didn’t say out loud.

Lei Nora remained curious, but this time she didn’t continue to question whether the Endless Sea should be detonated. Instead, after a brief contemplation, she shifted the subject: “Do you know where this ‘origin point’ is?”

“I have some vague ideas,” Zhou Ming touched his chin, speaking cautiously, then waved his hand, “But you don’t need to worry about these right now, my current focus is still on the ‘ashes’ beyond the boundary.”

Lei Nora’s expression turned serious immediately.

“Homeloss is navigating towards the end of the world,” Zhou Ming pondered slightly before slowly speaking, “After this voyage ends, I must personally ascertain the circumstances beyond the boundary. Regarding the ‘ashes’ you mentioned, I have to see them with my own eyes.”

Lei Nora reacted immediately: “Do you need me to do anything?”

“My essence cannot leave this place… not yet,” Zhou Ming looked at her earnestly, “so when the time comes, I’ll need you to guide Homeloss to that field of ashes.”

Upon hearing this, Lei Nora appeared puzzled and seemed slightly lost: “How… should I do that?”

“Theoretically, this process doesn’t really need your involvement–what really matters is that ‘cabin’ of yours,” Zhou Ming said while pointing out the window, “just park your ‘cabin’ at the edge of the mist, Alice should be able to find it.”

“My cabin?” Lei Nora was stunned for a moment, but quickly understood, “You mean… its connection with Alice’s Mansion?”

Zhou Ming nodded slightly.

The “room” that Lei Nora took from Alice’s Mansion was essentially the escape pod of New Hope, and since it was an escape pod, it certainly should have features like positioning and emergency signals. He had already seen the message “Illegal release of escape pod” deep within Alice’s Mansion, and theoretically, as the mother ship, Alice’s Mansion (New Hope) should be able to relocate the position of the escape pod.

As long as the mother ship can locate the escape pod, then Alice, who is steering Homeloss, should be able to find Lei Nora’s actual position at the frontier.

This is the best method Zhou Ming could think of to reach the “lands beyond” — after all, in this world of crumbling order and disordered space-time at the edge of the world, similar positioning and navigation methods are essential to arrive at the destination, and Homeloss is no exception.

Of course, one must also consider the possibility of the escape pod’s positioning function being damaged, the mother ship Alice’s Mansion failing to locate, or the connection between the two being distorted or interfered by the special environment of the frontier–before Lei Nora departs, it is necessary to leave some backup methods.

Under Lei Nora’s curious gaze, Zhou Ming raised his right hand, holding a tuft of starlight-soaked pale green flame quietly burning in his hand.

“Take this, it’s a more powerful flame than the one I previously left with you,” Zhou Ming said, “If Alice cannot find that ‘cabin’ when the time comes, I’ll try to use the flame to construct a pathway–but this is just a contingency plan, as the power transmitted by the flame is limited. If possible, it’s still best to let Homeloss reach that place.”

Watching the quietly dancing flames before her, Lei Nora obviously hesitated a bit.

The flame was so bright, filled with starlight, nearly blinding in this dim chaotic space, and she could feel the immense power surging within the flame, a power that made her somewhat afraid.

She had never felt such fear even when she decided to dive into the Frost Deep Sea.

But after a brief hesitation, the queen nodded gently.

She reached out towards the flame: “I will take it–with me, beyond the boundary, I will wait for you and your Homeloss.”