Chapter 285

"Yes, an extremely crazy and audacious plan,"

"They didn't realize that their world had fallen into the Sea of Quantum, but through research, they astutely discovered that there are creatures in the Sea of Quantum that can invade the World Bubble," said Suo with emotion.

"So they planned to lure these creatures into the past timeline to change what had already happened."

"How can this be done?"

For a moment, even Ai Yue felt that his imagination was somewhat lacking. "Even if quantum beings can indeed invade past time, they cannot enter at will if no one opens the 'door'. However, the people inside the World Bubble cannot open the 'door' that exists in the past."

"I couldn't believe it either, but judging from the results, they really did it."

Suo shook his head. "However, this tactic of using one tiger to devour another will not bring salvation, but will only hasten the end of the world."

Ai Yue closed his eyes, as if he could already see that scene—a World Bubble without an anchor point, whose timeline had already lost the ability to continue normally. If an external force intervened at this time, the entire timeline would be tangled up due to such fluctuations.

It's like a rubber band; if you stretch it and then let go, the rubber band will instantly shrink into a ball.

However, to achieve this, personal effort is probably not enough; sufficient opportunity and coincidence are also needed. But those things have long been lost in the passage of time and are probably irretrievable.

"In conclusion, let's assume this premise is valid for now."

Ai Yue decided to ignore the details and focus on the important point. "So what exactly is this 'manipulating history' you're talking about?"

"It's very simple. I'm very curious about the state of this World Bubble. Although it has lost its original value, I still want to see if it can be restored to normal."

"So after I analyzed the situation of this World Bubble, I used my own power to penetrate into it," Suo explained.

"You're planning to... straighten out the timeline?"

Ai Yue thought for a moment, and finally said this, "But this is probably not something you can do with your own strength, is it?"

"Yes, if we simply look at the timeline, let alone me back then, even I now would probably find it difficult to shake."

Suo nodded. "But in the process, I discovered something—the underlying rules are indeed difficult to shake, but they also serve the entire world."

"If approaching it from the perspective of rules doesn't work, then what about intervening directly in the real world?"

Ai Yue was momentarily dazed, feeling as if he had been overlooking something very superficial all along.

"I forcibly awakened those who had merged with the chaotic timeline, then implanted the madman's cognition into their consciousness and fabricated a normal history."

Suo didn't notice Ai Yue's strange behavior and said to herself, "In an instant, everyone realized that they were in a chaotic timeline."

"Such intense stimulation made them unable to tolerate their current chaotic life any longer, and they had the idea of returning to normalcy—it was from this point on that the timeline became less unshakable and even began to change itself."

"The methods of interfering with the underlying rules are not limited to power; events in reality can also affect the operation of the rules."

Ai Yue murmured, "This is how I changed the future... but why didn't I notice it all this time?"

"Perhaps it's because things aren't actually that simple?"

"Suppose that the person who possesses this power is not me, but that lucid madman, even if he could do the same thing, he probably wouldn't be able to change the state of the timeline," said Suo.

"Because he is part of this World Bubble, such correction requires the intervention of an observer."

Ai Yue's eyes brightened, and a plan quietly took shape in his mind. "So, did you finally restore the timeline to normal?"

"No, it's only recovered to about half."

Suo shook his head. "Then the entire World Bubble collapsed completely because it was too broken and weak."

At this point, Suo looked at Ai Yue seriously. "My Lord, this matter may be of some help to you, but you should also know that the World Bubble is not the same as the real number world. The method of shaking the underlying rules by interfering with the will of all beings in the World Bubble is probably difficult to use in the real number world, so please be careful."

"You've done such sloppy work, and you still have the nerve to tell me to be careful?"

Ai Yue glanced at her sideways, disdainful of Suo's overly crude methods. "Don't even mention the real world. The same method probably wouldn't work on a larger World Bubble. This time it was purely a stroke of luck, okay?"

"However, it is indeed very inspiring."

At this point, Ai Yue changed the subject, "So, your vacation has been doubled, go and have fun."

Ai Yue stood up, his figure gradually disappearing into the air. "And I should also start making preparations."

Only after Ai Yue's figure had completely disappeared did Suo lightly stand up, casually patting non-existent dust off her knees.

"Although it's supposed to be a vacation, where should we go? The real world?"

As she muttered to herself, she looked at the city walls that were faintly visible in the distance. "I really shouldn't add any more burden to those people on Earth. I'll just wander around here for a bit."

With that thought in mind, Suo then headed towards the city in the distance.

"Perfect timing, I'll also go and see how those people I rescued are doing."

In the central hall of the Star of Light, as a white light shone, Ai Yue's figure returned once again.

However, he didn't rush to do any preparations. Instead, he sat down and began to summarize the current situation.

First of all, the Post-Civilization situation is in complete chaos. Although it may not start to collapse from this point in time, the timeline has probably been shattered into pieces during the thousands of years that the Post-Civilization existed. To preserve the entire Post-Civilization, the timeline must be pieced back together.

However, if we want to piece together the timeline, we must give it a "source". If the current Post-Civilization timeline is like a riverbed left after a river has dried up, then as long as we find a new water source, it will soon become a river again.

In other words, if the origin of the Post-Civilization was a gift left by the Pre-Civilization, then Ai Yue must replace the starting point of this timeline with a new "origin".

It may not sound difficult, but the real challenge isn't even finding the "origin" from somewhere.

Since the Pre-Civilization riverbed was overlaid on the Post-Civilization riverbed, if Ai Yue wanted to preserve the Post-Civilization riverbed, the first thing he needed to do was to move the entire riverbed to another location.

But putting aside how to move this thing, where is Ai Yue going to find a place for the Post-Civilization to live?

Ai Yue leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed, seemingly resting, but in reality he had already opened the system's technology tree interface and started looking for any projects that could be of help.

But he soon opened his eyes and let out a long sigh.

There are projects that can be put to use, in fact, quite the opposite—but none of them can be completed in a short period of time.

Those projects either require extremely high levels of technology, or rather, quite complex pre-requisite technologies, and some are even directly labeled as "special projects," requiring activation of a lottery system for a chance to win.

However, since the advent of gene transcription technology, Ai Yue has never encountered any material that could activate the lottery system, so he didn't even have the chance to try his luck with Pardofelis.

Moreover, the simulation speed for special projects is slower than that for general projects, and it is probably impossible to rely on them when faced with urgent problems.

The only saving grace is that Ai Yue still has a trump card that can't really be considered a trump card.

He looked at the project that the system was currently analyzing.

"Timeline Solidifier".

As the name suggests, this is an instrument developed based on the power of the Cocoon of Finality, capable of "fixing" the state of a timeline so that it will not change. Although using this instrument cannot solve the problem of the collapse of the Post-Civilization timeline, it can temporarily stop its deterioration and buy Ai Yue more time to find a solution.

In other words, leave the problem to your future self.

However, Ai Yue would not use this device unless he was truly at his wit's end. After all, timeline solidification is not truly complete stillness, and Ai Yue could not guarantee that people existing in the Post-Civilization timeline would not be affected by it.

Not to mention, the consumption of the Timeline Solidifier is also quite staggering. To activate such a device, all of Ai Yue's plans would be disrupted.

Thinking of this, Ai Yue couldn't help but sigh again, but for some reason, a sense of relief arose within him.

Fortunately, this breakdown didn't happen in some unknown corner. Fortunately, Kiana's arrival gave him a chance to change everything. And fortunately, he now at least has the ability to face problems.

In any case, let's solve the most basic problem first.

As Ai Yue pondered, he stood up, intending to go to the laboratory to check on Elysia's condition, but at that moment he suddenly sensed something and turned to look at the other side of the central hall.

Not far away, a dog's head was peeking in from the wall, looking around furtively. Its cat ears were twitching. Who else could it be but Pardofelis?

"Brother Yue, are you all alone now?"

Seeing that Ai Yue was the only one in the hall, Pardofelis couldn't wait to squeeze through the wall and rush into Ai Yue's arms. "Oh, now Brother Yue is all mine again!"

Ai Yue used Pardofelis's leaping motion to sit back down in his chair. Hearing Pardofelis's cheerful voice, his mood eased considerably. "You rascal, why didn't you stay and help me when I was being interrogated by the three parties?"

"Oh dear, we don't have that kind of ability,"

Pardofelis nestled comfortably in Ai Yue's arms and said without any hesitation, "Staying here might just be a hindrance, so of course I don't want to cause you any trouble, Brother Yue."

"You really are..."

Ai Yue shook his head helplessly, but his hands were still attacking Pardofelis's weaknesses with a very tricky touch. "So what are you doing back here now?"

"Hey, Brother Yue, stop touching me like that!"

Pardofelis squirmed as Ai Yue tickled her. "Because, because I saw you looked very, very distressed... so I wanted to comfort you!"

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Pardofelis clamped Ai Yue's hands between her legs, which finally made him behave.

"At least you have some conscience."

Ai Yue stopped bothering her and simply held Pardofelis in his arms, saying, "I do feel a little better now."

Pardofelis truly possessed a magical power; as long as Ai Yue could unconsciously relax.

"Then, then Brother Yue, you can touch me more."

Pardofelis hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, then said in a tone of forced reluctance, "But be gentle!"

"The way you're talking makes it sound like you've made a huge sacrifice."

Ai Yue chuckled and patted the cat ears on the girl's head. "That's perfect. Thank you, Pardo."

Is that really enough?

Pardofelis looked up and said seriously, "Although I don't understand anything, Brother Yue, it might help a lot if you tell me what's bothering you... But since I don't understand anything, I can only be a listener, so don't expect me to be of any help."

"There's really no need for that,"

Ai Yue smiled and shook his head, "Wouldn't that cause you distress too?"

"How could that be? Brother Yue, don't you know me?"

Pardofelis said smugly, "Even if I'm troubled, I can forget about it after a good night's sleep. It won't affect me at all!"

"I'm suddenly a little envious of you..."

Ai Yue was speechless for a moment, then smiled and shook his head, "Alright, then I'll tell you about it."

Of course, although he wanted to confide his troubles, Ai Yue did not intend to use any professional terminology when facing Pardofelis. He simply used the metaphor of the river to give her a general understanding.

After all, he was worried that if he spoke too professionally, Pardofelis might fall asleep before even finishing half of what he said.

"I see, that does sound complicated."

Upon learning of Ai Yue's current predicament, Pardofelis also frowned. "Moving a river completely to another place... isn't it really unnecessary to go through all that trouble?"

"Oh?"

Ai Yue looked at Pardofelis with an encouraging gaze, "Tell me your thoughts?"

He hadn't expected Pardofelis to offer any valuable advice, but since she had an idea, he naturally wanted to support her.

"Uh, this is just my personal opinion, it might not be correct?"

Pardofelis scratched her head. "I think, Brother Yue, you always overthink things. Actually, rivers and waterways aren't that important, are they? As long as the fish are okay, isn't that enough?"

Ai Yue's expression immediately froze.

"Whether it's keeping the riverbed unchanged or providing new water sources, the essence is to ensure the survival of the fish or something else in it, right?"

Pardofelis didn't notice Ai Yue's reaction and continued, "In that case, the fish should be the focus."

At this point, Pardofelis glanced cautiously at Ai Yue, only to notice that his expression was a little off. She immediately shrank back and said, "Uh, Brother Yue? If I'm wrong, please don't take it to heart, okay?"

Pardofelis thought that something she said had angered the other party, but to her surprise, Ai Yue shook his head. "No, Pardo, you are right, this sentence is very helpful to me."

Yes, whether it's a river representing a timeline or a riverbed representing a predetermined historical trajectory, they are merely external conditions to ensure that the people within them can live normally.

In other words, the concept of "Post-Civilization" is not a whole, but a system that can be broken down and has primary and secondary relationships.

If that's the case, why insist on diverting the river? Wouldn't it be simpler to just catch the fish and release them into another intact river?

Although it was just a change in perspective, as the problem was simplified, Ai Yue's thinking suddenly became much broader.

If we don't blindly pursue a complete transplant of the timeline, then at least in some parts, it will be much easier.

"Really? Really?"

Perhaps not expecting Ai Yue to affirm her words, Pardofelis paused for a moment before suddenly perking up her ears, "Brother Yue, you're not just trying to comfort me, are you?"

"Why should I comfort you?"

Ai Yue flicked her forehead lightly without any politeness, "You talk as if you've ever been polite to me."

There was never anything superficial between them.

"So that means I was really helpful?"

Pardofelis covered her forehead, then a bright smile appeared on her face again. "Then, shouldn't you reward me?"

"Sure,"