Chapter 530 The World's Malfunction 1

Xiaowan and I wandered through one area after another, with the surrounding scenery changing frequently.

If we were only going to a far place, I could lead the way with Little Bowl. However, since the location between the survivor settlement and us is uncertain, we must rely on Little Bowl to guide us. Therefore, I must follow Little Bowl's pace. We can only use normal walking.

A powerful bodyguard who can traverse 108,000 miles in a single somersault, and a leader who is physically weak but possesses a detached stance... This strange relationship makes me feel like Sun Wukong from the legend, while Xiao Wan becomes Tang Sanzang.

Although we don't have a white dragon horse, Pigsy, or Sandy by our side, demons and monsters on the road are still an essential part of the journey. If it were an ordinary post-apocalyptic survivor, reaching a specific destination amidst a journey teeming with demons would probably be no less difficult than enduring eighty-one tribulations.

I don't dislike this inefficient way of moving around on foot; it has its own kind of fun, and the ever-changing and fraught with danger makes me never get tired of it.

There seems to be a certain pattern in these changes in the scenarios.

Whether by chance or not, we seem to always end up in places where there has been human activity... or rather, places where "there used to be human activity".

Needless to say, traces of human civilization can be seen even in cities and towns, just a few steps away in the wilderness. Occasionally, moving up into the mountains, one can find overgrown steps and trails. The area where the abandoned evangelistic monastery is located is the same; at first glance, it appears to be a desolate wilderness, yet there are still human-built facilities like the abandoned evangelistic monastery. Purely undeveloped natural areas do exist, but they are rare.

From what I understand, in modern society, although the Earth's surface is largely considered "the world dominated by humans," the coverage of land by civilization is not as vast as many people imagine. Even including all cities, towns, and other built-up areas, the land coverage is only around two to three percent, which is indisputably smaller compared to natural areas. If agricultural land is included, the comparison becomes more meaningful, but even so, the total area is still far larger than that of natural areas.

This only calculates the land area; it does not include the ocean area, which covers more than 70% of the Earth's surface.

If the chaotic spacetime of the apocalypse truly transported us randomly across the planet's surface, this situation is rather perplexing. Normally, being transported to the center of the Pacific Ocean would be quite normal... no, ultimately, it's strange that the teleportation area is limited to the planet's surface.

The mantle accounts for more than 80% of the Earth's total volume and nearly 70% of its mass. So, it makes sense that random teleportation would transport us into the mantle, right?

Or is it like how some spatial ability users can't teleport targets to locations overlapping with other solid matter, that random teleportation can't bury us underground? But if this phenomenon can only teleport above the surface, why doesn't it teleport us directly to high altitudes?

Because Xiaowan seems to be much smarter than me, I would occasionally throw my questions to her on the way.

Xiao Wan hesitated for a moment, then said, "Brother Zhuang Cheng, you're definitely the kind of person who clearly has a lot of inexplicable extracurricular knowledge, but you never pay attention in class, and you even daydream about the realistic plausibility of fantasy novel settings, and as a result, you fail most of your classes during exams..."

"My grades are very good, and the university I attend, Xianshui University, is a well-known prestigious university in the city," I said earnestly.

"...not a single one of the preceding parts was negated."

Xiaowan first made a complaint, then responded to my question: "I've asked Mazao-neechan the same questions you mentioned before, and she couldn't answer them either. After hearing about the afterlife from you, I've also been trying to investigate in my own way, trying to find out if the apocalypse is really an afterlife..."

"Although we still haven't figured out whether the spacetime we're in is the 'future world,' to be honest, the more I investigate, the more I feel a sense of unease."

"First of all, there seems to be no 'newborns' in this apocalyptic era, and the phenomenon of 'growth' is also rare."

I read aloud: "'Newborn'...and 'Growth'?"

Little Bowl stopped by the roadside. We had now come to a country dirt road, and Little Bowl picked a dry berry from a small patch of almost completely withered bushes.

"The statement that there are no animals or plants in the apocalypse is too absolute. In fact, with enough luck and observation, it is still possible to barely collect these berries. This is because these plants are in the period 'just after the apocalypse,' and have not yet had time to wither and decay," Xiaowan said. "It's just that they cannot reproduce, not because the soil lacks nutrients, nor because of a lack of sunlight... it's just that they cannot reproduce for some reason."

"Humans are the same in this respect. Although some evil post-apocalyptic survivors may imprison members of the opposite sex and use them as slaves to vent their desires, such behavior can at most produce pleasure and pain, but cannot produce newborns."

"Growth is the same... In the past, I suspected that the reason I could not grow up no matter how much time passed was because Asaha would occasionally use the power of return to reset my hunger level, which would also reset my physical growth progress... But after careful investigation, I found that the phenomenon of 'not being able to grow up' is actually very common in the post-apocalyptic era."

"Children will always be children, and young people will always be young people. We have never heard of an elderly person dying simply because of old age..."

"Of course, before that, the elderly living in this era basically did not have the opportunity to die peacefully in their old age, and it is also a fact that there is a huge lack of statistical samples in this regard."

I remembered sandalwood and wandering spirits.

Although the wandering spirit claimed to have lived through a very long time in the post-apocalyptic era, his appearance was not significantly older than Sandalwood's; only his demeanor had become much more weathered. Even with rougher skin and more scars on his face, as long as he washed his face and shaved, I could still recognize him as Sandalwood in an instant.

"However, unlike the absence of newborns, the cessation of growth is not absolute," Xiao Wan added. "I've heard that occasionally, teenagers in their rapid growth phase experience physical growth, but their growth seems unrelated to the passage of time."

"Some people grow up overnight, while others, despite feeling like many years have passed, only show slight growth... It's as if their growth doesn't follow their own timeline, but rather another time system."

Her words seemed suggestive, and I immediately made a connection: "Suppose they are amnesiacs who traveled here from the modern world, then their growth and changes could be calculated based on their dormant bodies in the modern world... Because their bodies in the modern world grew up, their changes in the apocalypse are based on a mysterious interconnected phenomenon?"

"Perhaps," Xiao Wan said cautiously.

"The earliest case of a patient with amnesia was four years ago... If this hypothesis is correct, even if someone shows signs of growth, the extent of that growth wouldn't exceed four years," I speculated.

"Well... it's hard to say," Xiao Wan said after thinking for a moment. "Although many cases are similar to what Brother Zhuang Cheng said, there are also some different cases. According to my investigation, it seems that there are also children around my age who have gradually grown into adults..."

This is beyond my previous assumptions. Perhaps I made a mistake somewhere? If I insist on accepting this case according to my original assumptions, I can only assume that the other party is a precocious individual in the modern world.

Then, I asked curiously, "I've wanted to ask this for a while... how exactly do you gather intelligence? With your appearance and the fact that you're currently wanted by the Gospel House, let alone gathering intelligence, even just asking other survivors for information must be an extremely difficult and dangerous task, right?"

In particular, Xiaowan even collected birth rate data and growth case data of the post-apocalyptic survivor group.

She absolutely could not have drawn those conclusions without collecting a substantial sample size. I also don't believe she made those offhand statements based on "statistics around her," which would go against her cautious nature, and ultimately, she doesn't have many people around her to consult.

"How I investigated... I'll keep that a secret for now," Xiao Wan said. "Don't worry, once we get to that survivor settlement, we'll show it to Brother Zhuang Cheng very soon."

I asked, still bothered, "Can't you say it now?"

"No, you can't," Xiao Wan smiled. "Actually, it's not that you can't say it now, but I want to whet Zhuang Cheng's appetite."

As she spoke, she gave me a cute wink with her single eye and said with a smile, "Brother Zhuang Cheng likes it this way even more, right?"

I certainly can't deny that.

"Returning to the initial topic, although we cannot yet ascertain whether this apocalyptic era is indeed the future of the world Zhuang Cheng lives in, I believe that a massive error has occurred in our world. This is a conclusion I've drawn based on my own observations using the principles of celestial phenomena," Xiao Wan said seriously. "I don't know if my expression is correct... Our world is like an incredibly large and complex machine, and in its operation, it has accumulated too many malfunctions..."

"No... it's not such a gentle thing. This machine was broken by an unimaginable external force, and all the errors stemmed from that. And all the strange things likely originated from those errors as well."

"Therefore, the more serious the accumulated errors in the world, the greater the number of oddities."

Is the source of this strange phenomenon a malfunction or error in the world's operation?

Did I hear some incredible information?

Judging from Xiaowan's tone, she wasn't just describing the time and space of the apocalyptic era, but also incorporating my past modern world into the description.

I quickly swallowed my surprise and doubt, then asked, "The 'external force' you're talking about... do you mean this apocalypse?"

Xiao Wan glanced at the empty night sky, then shook her head.

(End of this chapter)