The Capital now resembles a newly reborn microcosm, seemingly having returned to its former tranquility, with everything remaining the same except for fewer people.
In reality, the situation in the Capital is currently very unstable.
The entire city is shrouded in Ghost Domain, and the power that keeps everything running smoothly within it comes from the "Seven-Colored Flower."
Water supply, electricity, sunlight, fake sunrises and sunsets, obtaining food from the outside world, and removing radiation from the food were all obtained by making wishes to the "Seven-Colored Flower".
However, the "Seven-Colored Flower" is essentially a Fierce Ghost, and its Supernatural power is characterized by uncertainty, instability, and harm to the living.
The environment in the Capital maintains a fragile balance, but this balance could be broken at any time.
At this point, Fu Youhua's face showed undisguised worry. "Making wishes to the 'Seven-Colored Flower' in a relay race-like manner, constantly transferring the negative effects of the wishes, seems ingenious, but in reality, all sorts of unexpected things often happen."
"Normally, we don't make overly grand wishes, so the side effects of those wishes only manifest gradually. When the side effects accumulate to a certain level, we can use the next wish to eliminate them."
"However, in practice, the negative effects of wishes are highly random. Sometimes they can cause the person making the wish to die on the spot; other times they can completely distort the wish, resulting in no benefit at all."
"Sometimes the negative effects are very harmful, but they are also very insidious, so we can't detect them; some people will make random wishes after obtaining the Seven-Colored Flower, such as resurrecting relatives or becoming stronger..."
"Even though I have repeatedly emphasized that "seven-color flowers" cannot be used indiscriminately, there are still some people who do not believe in evil and take a chance, thinking that they are the one-in-a-million special case."
"What's worse is that the 'Seven-Colored Flower' seems to have the characteristic of unlimited growth, growing everywhere and completely out of control!"
"The number of survivors in the Capital has decreased to a certain extent. Fortunately, there are few people, and those who survived are mostly intelligent, so the status quo is barely being maintained."
I considered bringing our fellow survivors from the outside world here, but I'm not sure what kind of mess this place would become if there were too many people."
Fu Youhua's incessant complaining was like mosquitoes dancing on eardrums. Hu Jiu, reflected in the mirror, touched her chin, then suddenly pressed her face against the mirror and asked, "Are you trying so hard to play the victim to get some kind of help from me?"
Fu Youhua laughed, "You always speak so bluntly."
He did want Hu Jiu's help, though he wasn't sure how powerful Hu Jiu was now. But a small flower that Hu Jiu had casually tossed aside had such a huge impact on the survivors of the Capital.
Hu Jiu's help was like a gift from an evil god—poison disguised as honey. Beneath the surface of kindness lay twisted malice.
Even if it's a sugar-coated bullet, at least there's sugar coating, so you can still taste some sweetness, right?
The post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear war is a dead end; if one can taste some sweetness before dying, that would be wonderful.
And who knows, by some twist of fate, they might actually find a way to survive?
Even the slightest glimmer of hope is better than utter despair with no way out.
A ripple appeared in Hu Jiu's pupils reflected in the mirror, and he suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question, "Minister Fu, have you ever seen a documentary about female praying mantises devouring their mates?"
A look of confusion appeared on Fu Youhua's face.
"After the male praying mantis has its head bitten off by the female, its nerve cords still control it to twitch and complete the reproductive actions." Hu Jiu raised his hand, and an image of praying mantis mating appeared in his palm.
"Look at yourself now, don't you resemble the nerve cord controlling the headless corpse of the male praying mantis? This world has become a rotting corpse, yet you're still fighting with all your might for the continuation of humanity and civilization."
Fu Youhua retorted, "That analogy is completely inappropriate. We survivors simply want to live."
As for the future of humanity and whether civilization can continue? Sorry, at least we have to survive first before we can think about these long-term matters.
In fact, Hu Jiu didn't care about Fu Youhua's true thoughts; he was currently experiencing a jumble of strange ideas colliding in his mind.
For the real world, which has been destroyed by nuclear war, the Capital at this moment is more like a new life being born from his bones.
So, what does the real world mean to the "Ghost World"?
Could it be a similar relationship?
This time, Hu Jiu was unusually unemotional and didn't set traps to harm the survivors in the Capital. He was more interested in seeing how this strange ecosystem would eventually develop.
Of course, Hu Jiu didn't offer any further help; he wasn't that kind of person.
Despite being rejected, Fu Youhua wasn't too disappointed. He simply urged Hu Jiu gently, implying. "If you have something to say, say it quickly. If not, you can get it done."
Hu Jiu waved his hand. "I'm fine, I just came to take a look."
Let's see if any of you are dead.
"Maybe I'll come back to visit my old friends again sometime in the future."
Who knows, I might remember later and come back to trick you guys again.
Fu Youhua smiled on the outside, but inwardly he was cursing and earnestly praying that this plague god would never return.
After leaving the Capital, Hu Jiu's goal was very clear.
He wanders everywhere, plundering Fierce Ghost.
Even a small mosquito is still meat; he doesn't mind it and will collect it whenever he comes across it.
During this time, the Brain in a Vat would occasionally bother him.
The green fluorescent arrows in mid-air looked like they were doing a passionate seaweed dance, bouncing around annoyingly.
Hu Jiu completely ignored the other party and disregarded the presence of the green fluorescent arrow.
But the Brain in a Vat was clearly determined to see Hu Jiu, and to that end, it even went so far as to initiate Rollback and restart time.
To describe Hu Jiu's feelings about the time Rollback, it's simply that he felt absolutely nothing.
It was an ordinary morning when Hu Jiu passed by a school that was still relatively well-preserved, where a few survivors clung to life.
At a certain moment, the hour, minute, and second hands of a clock suddenly change direction.
The angle of the light, the location and number of survivors in the school, all changed accordingly.
Time rewinds to 15 hours ago.
Hu Jiu possesses an Hourglass called "Entropy," which prevents him from being affected by Rollbacks.
He didn't perceive any sense of time reversal; the so-called Rollback was more like an overwrite.
Just like in a game, you can overwrite your current progress with a past save file, and it's done in an instant.
The green fluorescent arrows danced merrily before Hu Jiu's eyes, as if inviting him.
Hu Jiu frowned. "What's this guy trying to do? Is he threatening me with Rollback?"
The green fluorescent arrow that was flashing before his eyes suddenly transformed into the shape of a brain and explained to Hu Jiu telepathically:
"This isn't a threat; I just want to show you the limit of what I can do right now."
Hu Jiu looked warily at the illusory projection of the Brain in a Vat: "Limit? What limit?"
Brain in a Vat: "I can reboot, returning time to its absolute limit. Right now, I can only rewind time to 15 hours ago, and that timeframe is constantly shrinking."
"What does that have to do with me?" Hu Jiu retorted.
The Brain in a Vat fell silent for a moment, then unconsciously raised its voice. "Aren't you curious? Don't you want my ability to restart time? You just asked me about it before."
Hu Jiu shrugged. "You said it yourself, it was 'before,' I'm not interested now. Don't expect to threaten me with Rollback. At worst, I'll just run off to the 'Ghost World' to wander."
The Brain in a Vat said, "If you're going on a journey, can you take me with you? Don't worry, I won't hold you back; in fact, I can help you a lot."
Hu Jiu shook his head. "I'm used to being alone, and you can already talk to me from such a distance, so you should have already broken free from your constraints, right? You can gradually regain your freedom on your own, why do you have to cling to me?"
The Brain in a Vat hurriedly said, "Without the Time Management Bureau continuously reinforcing the seal, I can indeed slowly break free, but the situation is urgent now, there's no time, I don't want to die with this world."
Hu Jiu's eyes lit up. "What do you mean? Could it be that this world is about to be completely destroyed!"
"Hey, hey, hey, why are you so excited?!" The Brain in a Vat was speechless for a moment, then said definitively, "This world is indeed about to perish."
Hu Jiu then asked in confusion, "Why would the world be destroyed?"
"Nuclear bombs only destroy human civilization and order; the world's environment simply becomes worse. What, then, could cause the entire world to perish?"
The Brain in a Vat replied, "That's a long story."
Hu Jiu: "Then get to the point."
Brain in a Vat: "..."
Brain in a Vat: "It all started the day I gained access to a time Rollback."
"At that time, I didn't understand why I had acquired this magical ability, but from that moment on, I knew that my life would no longer be ordinary."
"I'm like the protagonist in a novel or comic book, using Rollback to get all sorts of information in advance, taking exams, buying lottery tickets, and speculating in stocks, making a fortune. That's already what ordinary people consider a winner in life."
"It wasn't until I got involved in a Supernatural event that I realized I might not be the only one in the world with supernatural powers."
"During that Supernatural event, I had to Rollback more than ten times to barely escape. At that time, I had no idea that Fierce Ghost could be contained, so all I could do was run..."
Hu Jiu suddenly raised her hand to interrupt him, "Can you get to the point? I have absolutely no interest in your personal growth experience."
The Brain in a Vat was slightly dissatisfied; those were its youthful years, and yet it was being disliked!
Instead of expressing his dissatisfaction verbally, he skipped the preamble and spoke about the essence of his abilities:
"My ability is to reset time back to a specific point in the past. I can activate this ability at will, without any conditions or restrictions, whenever I want."
"But this ability has its limitations; the limit of the time I can reset the Rollback is constantly moving backward."
"At first, I could go back to 8 PM the night before the college entrance exam, but I couldn't go back to any earlier in time."
"At the time, I had just acquired this ability, and the novelty hadn't worn off yet. It also happened to coincide with the most important exam of my life, so I repeatedly activated my ability to test it."
"As a result, after one Rollback, I suddenly couldn't go back to the day before the college entrance exam anymore; I could only go back to the morning of the exam itself. This change didn't happen gradually; it was abrupt, like a cliff, and the extreme Rollback point suddenly shifted backward."
At this point, the voice of the Brain in a Vat paused for a moment before continuing nonchalantly:
"I didn't reduce the frequency of using Rollbacks because of this, nor did I take it too seriously."
"I didn't feel any drain when I initiated the Rollback. I hadn't considered that at first, but later I realized that Rollback might come at a price, although I wouldn't pay it myself. But I didn't know what that price was at the time."
"Later, I gradually learned about things like the Supernatural, Fierce Ghosts, and Ghost Tamers. I guessed that my ability to Rollback most likely came from a ghost, a very terrifying and powerful ghost."
"However, this ghost's effect is too unique. I never have to worry about it reviving. Even if it does show signs of revival, I can Rollback to a point before it revives and find a solution in advance."
"Back then, Supernatural events were rare. I personally witnessed the change in attitudes towards Supernatural events in various countries, from being full of confidence that they could study and conquer them, to only being able to use human lives to barely deal with Supernatural events and whitewash the situation. The interval in between was not too long."
"The Supernatural outbreak happened very suddenly, and various countries established the rudiments of institutions specifically for handling Supernatural events."
"Actually, I have considered resetting time to before the Supernatural outbreak, so that everyone lives in a safe period of time, in an infinite loop."
"But I soon discovered that things weren't as simple as I had thought..."
"I've discovered a 'bias'."
"I always thought that after each Rollback, the world would be perfectly reset, exactly the same as before. Only I was unique, remembering everything from before the Rollback."
"But gradually, I encountered many different things. Some of these differences occurred naturally, like a person at a crossroads who can choose any path to reach their destination. Each time Rollback, I might make a different choice; these are completely random events."
"There are also some inexplicable deviations that I can't understand at all, such as someone suddenly disappearing as if they never existed and no one remembers them;
For example, a ghost that never existed before the Rollback suddenly appears in a certain location, causing terrifying Supernatural events.
"Later, I also encountered 'reborn individuals' who retained their memories from before the Rollback, those who controlled Time-Type Fierce Ghost, and Ghost Tamers who were unaffected by the Rollback."
"I gradually realized that the world is a giant mountain of crap code, seemingly chaotic and illogical, yet it runs perfectly."
"For some reason, this world was inherently flawed. Every time I Rollback, the cost was borne by this world; certain things were consumed, greatly accelerating the collapse of the 'mountain of excrement'..."