Chapter 284: Survival at Sea, Day 15 (4) Believe in the Power of Belief…
That night, Yu Miaomiao sat in the sentry post, staring at the night sky in a daze.
"Sister Meow Meow" Lulu saw Meow Meow's figure motionless under the lonely lamp from a long distance away.
It seemed that Meowth had been a little silent since returning from the expedition. Apart from shooting down some suicide turtles, he hadn't taken any other action. It wasn't Lulu's turn to change shifts yet, but out of concern, she came here early.
Yu Miaomiao came back to her senses, looked at the time, and asked curiously, "There's still about ten minutes before the shift change, right? What's wrong? Is there something wrong with Xiaoguai?"
Yu Miaomiao confirmed the news today, but Yingying didn't say anything to her. Could something else have happened?
"Xiaoguai is being well taken care of by Yingying." Lulu hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Sister Miaomiao, did you encounter any problems in the expedition area?"
"I haven't found a way to conquer the Gill Hall in the expedition area. All I know is the same as what Nana told us before, so I haven't shared any new information with everyone. Did you just go to the Crystal Palace?"
Yu Miaomiao's eyes did not leave the water. Even though it was not raining, new monsters would still emerge from the sea from time to time. She always held the biological sensor in her hand.
Lulu stood at the foot of this not very high sentry post. She couldn't see Yu Miaomiao's expression clearly. She only knew that Yu Miaomiao spent her time killing monsters and looking at the sky. Could it be that she learned some information about the sky during her meeting with Tingting today?
In theory, Sister Miaomiao would share any new information immediately, but the strange thing today was that she hadn't released any new information so far. Lulu was still struggling with whether to ask directly when she heard Yu Miaomiao ask, "Lulu, there's no perpetual motion machine in the world, right? Any balance will be disrupted."
This inexplicable remark left Lulu a bit bewildered. She had no idea what had happened to the person above her, but she still followed her heart and answered, "I don't know what's happened to Sister Miaomiao. As far as I know, perpetual motion machines don't exist. I don't know what balance Sister Miaomiao means. I don't think there's absolute balance. The so-called balance should be the checks and balances of many factors. Things always increase while others decrease. But the more absolute a single balance is, the more likely it is to be disrupted by a tiny point."
Lulu didn't expect that she would say such mysterious things, but what does this have to do with the stars in the sky?
Yu Miaomiao sighed deeply, and after confirming that there were no monsters nearby, she said quietly, "I learned a lot from Tingting, but I never told you because it might involve Api. I didn't know how to tell you."
Maybe I should explain it clearly to Lulu before she asks.
Lulu had a vague guess that it was related to Api, but why did she know about Api from a stranger, Tingting?
The surrounding environment was very quiet, with only the voices of two people. Most people in the base were exploring the area.
Yu Miaomiao: "Tingting told me that each of us survivors is actually sealed in a small cabin, connected by some wires. Those who are alive in this apocalyptic world will move around in the cabin, while those who are shown as offline will lie quietly in that cabin, with no idea whether they are dead or alive."
Lulu asked in disbelief, "Sister Miaomiao, you mean that Tingting saw Api lying in that small cabin, but she didn't know his life situation, right?"
Turning around, Lulu felt something was wrong again. "But what does this have to do with the perpetual motion machine and balance you mentioned, Sister Miaomiao?"
Yu Miaomiao recalled Tingting's slightly sad expression and repeated her words, "The door Tingting entered is actually a mirror image of someone else's consciousness. Tingting entered the consciousness of Awei, who was already offline. It contains not only fragments of Awei's past memories, but also the apocalyptic scenes from Awei's perspective."
Lulu was surprised and asked, "You just said that Wei was offline, but why can Tingting see the world as Wei sees it?"
"Because the entire apocalypse is a virtual world, if the offline bodies are not completely dead, their eyes may not be able to see, but the stars in the sky will serve as image input ports, inputting information into their minds. So, what Tingting sees is the range that can be illuminated by a certain star hanging in the sky. Oh, and Lulu, you're here at a good time to keep an eye on the sea. I'll make Xiaoguai something to eat."
Since Lulu is here, Yu Miaomiao decided to start cooking some food. She just received a message from Yingying saying that Xiaoguai’s food is almost gone.
Lulu: “Okay.”
As she spoke, Yu Miaomiao had already climbed down from the sentry post. She took out the outdoor stove and put a pile of shrimp and cooking pot into it.
There are three cards to draw today, all related to food, some are marine food and some are land food. The only things left are basic food. Yu Miaomiao chose marine food without much thought.
In addition to getting a lot of shrimp meat, you also get an extra recipe for making marine food.
Ever since Xiaoguai grew bigger, his appetite has been astonishing. However, after Xiaoguai ate marine food, his underwater breath-holding time increased dramatically, with the longest time being one hour. Yu Miaomiao even suspected that if it continued to evolve, it would be able to breathe directly in the water.
Lulu looked at Yu Miaomiao's busy figure, but still couldn't guess what the original question had to do with what Tingting saw. It was like Miaomiao had stuffed all the ingredients into the cooking pot before she heard what she said next.
"Tingting said she's still unsure why Ah Wei's mind contains images of the present day after the apocalypse. However, she learned from Ah Wei's fragmented memories that the actions of every survivor in the apocalypse affect the lives of those who are offline. In other words, we must constantly engage in fierce battles with monsters in the apocalypse to provide a steady supply of life energy to those who are lying quietly. The daily monster swarms, weather, and combat situations in the expedition area are all closely related to this energy. Once this balance is broken, the energy supply disappears, and the offline survivors will truly die."
Yu Miaomiao said this with her head down. She guessed that the countless stars in the sky, that is, countless observing "eyes", were only used to collect the survival trajectory of each survivor and then provide it to the intelligent group for analysis. There were very few people who could enter that mirror space, so there were not many opportunities to feel directly observed.
Lulu slowly climbed up. Fortunately, the weather was calm, giving her the opportunity to have a quiet conversation with Miaomiao. However, if no monsters appeared, the battle stopped, and there was no energy generated, then Api would be in danger. Thinking of this, she began to understand why Miaomiao asked so, and said: "Sister Miaomiao, have you found a machine or device that can fight continuously and kill monsters forever without relying on external support?"
Yu Miaomiao shook her head. "No, I just remembered the waterproof generator and waterproof buoyant tug we used when we first communicated with Dr. Ji. These two items can be used together. The generator can provide electricity to the tug, and the tug can be quickly towed to provide kinetic energy to the generator, effectively reducing energy loss and energy use. However, since we have been staying in the same place, I don't know if using these two devices in a certain ratio can achieve zero loss or extremely low loss to run continuously. But Dr. Ji should have been conducting this experiment."
"How could there be a perpetual motion machine... Even if two objects can convert energy between them while in use, we're out at sea, so there's bound to be energy loss..." Lulu wasn't very good at physics, but common sense told her it was impossible. Only then did she come up with a hypothesis. "But we're in the sea of the subconscious, which doesn't necessarily exist. So, in this virtual world of consciousness, is it really possible?"
"Yeah, that's what I guessed too. But even if it can be realized, it won't be able to provide life energy to so many offline people." When Yu Miaomiao came back, she was recalling the details of these days.
Why can Dr. Ji conduct experiments here without being disturbed by the system or watched by observers? It is because he is using this simulated space to conduct experiments. Naturally, he can be fearless and does not even need the hard-earned card of restoring world order, because it does not matter to him. This is just his experimental field.
As for why Dr. Ji waited so long before appearing in the apocalypse, whether it was because he arrived too late or because he had been secretly conducting experiments without any progress, Yu Miaomiao had no idea.
Lulu seemed to have suddenly thought of something and asked excitedly, "If Dr. Ji is the mastermind behind this, can we just kill him and go back?"
"Let's assume the information Ah Wei left behind is correct, and the culprit happens to be Dr. Ji. He was initially on the beta server and then moved to other servers. But killing him doesn't mean this apocalypse will end and we can go back." Yu Miaomiao continued, "Also, Dr. Ji's team didn't stop me from getting that special card, so he's probably not the mastermind. If we go to great lengths to kill him, not only will we alert the enemy, but we might also lose a lot of information."
Lulu said dejectedly, "If Awei is offline, Tingting probably won't help us anymore. After all, she cares about Awei so much. She definitely wouldn't want to cut off Awei's life energy supply."
Before Miaomiao could continue, Lulu said in even greater despair, "We can't go back... Because if we leave, there'll be no one to kill monsters, and then Api might really... die. There's no point in struggling to get the Restoring World Order card."
"On the contrary, if we take all the cards, we can directly destroy the system. Apei will naturally not be trapped in that small cabin, and all of us can be free." Yu Miaomiao's tone was very firm. She took out a pot of steaming shrimp and octopus eggs, and continued to put in new ingredients. The aroma spread from all around.
Lulu slapped her head, thinking to herself that she was stupid. Why did she only think along the clues given by the system? Since she would think this way, it meant that the system had probably analyzed it this way a long time ago. "No wonder the system allowed the backdoor left by Wei. It was deliberately designed to let Tingting in and see this information, so that she would not look for a way back and stay in the apocalypse peacefully. Is it just what I thought just now?"
Yu Miaomiao: "That's right. Artificial intelligence can only use cold logic to deduce our actions. The ostrich people in the Dark Oasis were like this, and the same is true of the operating rules of this apocalypse. But it doesn't take into account the power of our human free will. Tingting and I have discussed this. Only by obtaining all the Order Cards and finding the root cause of completely destroying this system can all problems be solved."
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