Task-Type Ruins! Time Currency!

"A little secret of the world!?"

Upon hearing Zhong Qingshu's words, Su Mo, who was still tidying up the clutter on the ground, suddenly raised his head.

More and more people are taking the time to study, ponder, and explore this world.

Why choose this point in time, when Earth is about to face catastrophe, to throw all of humanity into this wasteland, and why establish a series of inexplicable rules?

These questions were discussed not only daily on the World Channel, but also by Su Mo, who was extremely busy every day, even after lying in bed.

To others, the sci-fi Game Panel, the dazzling features, and the mysterious ruins where rewards and risks coexist are all conveying some profound meaning, revealing the secrets of the world.

But only Su Mo knew that beyond these common items, the system he possessed was far more mysterious and powerful! Upgrade items!

Dongfeng-17!

Analysis of the Tengu Pseudo-God!

The various wondrous functions, coupled with the abilities manifested by the different colors of light, made Su Mo far more eager than others to explore the secrets of the world.

"Yes, I know you've been to the ruins, and I think you also know that time will be different on both sides, especially when some kind of change is made to the ruins, this feeling will be even more pronounced!"

"Have you figured it out? Time!"

"Time?"

You are influenced by your social standing and the kind of people you associate with.

Facing Su Mo and looking into the eyes of the "world's number one," Zhong Qingshu slowly and deliberately began to guide Su Mo's thinking.

Su Mo pondered the seemingly ordinary word "time," from the smallest unit of time to the definition of time in all of human civilization, to the Mayans prophecies, and even to various messages he had seen intentionally or unintentionally. Su Mo slowly thought about it, while Zhong Qingshu waited patiently for him to Su Mo his thought.

"Time. What exactly is time? Who defined it, and who proved it?"

The more I pondered the word "time" and tried to visualize its meaning in my mind, the more unfamiliar the word seemed.

Time is a parameter used by humans to describe the process of material movement or the occurrence of events. The determination of time is based on the regularity of the periodic changes of matter that are "unaffected by external factors".

Furthermore, time is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities in physics, representing the perpetual motion, continuity, and sequence of change of matter.

Modern cosmological theory holds that there was no time "before" the Big Bang, and "always moving forward" means that the increment of time is always positive.

"Just a reminder, you know about relativity, right? You can try to recall it carefully!"

"Relativity?.!"

Upon hearing the term Zhong Qingshu coined, Su Mo immediately felt a headache coming on.

He studied Chinese literature at a university on Earth, and his knowledge of things like relativity was limited to books he had seen in the library; his memory of it wasn't very accurate.

"I remember"

Using a frame-based memory technique, Su Mo took out a small bottle of Psionic Water, slowly drank two sips, and while recalling the content of relativity, he connected it with what he had seen and heard in the past few days.

In his theory of relativity, Einstein proposed that time, space, and matter cannot be explained separately.

Time and space together form four-dimensional spacetime, constituting the basic structure of the universe.

Time and space are not absolute in measurement. The passage of time measured by an observer at different relative velocities or different spatiotemporal structures will be different.

General relativity predicts that the gravitational field generated by mass will cause a distorted spacetime structure.

For example, time passes more slowly at clocks near massive objects (such as black holes) than at clocks farther away from massive objects.

"Time moves much faster in the ruins than in the wasteland; in other words, time moves much slower in the wasteland than in the ruins."

"If we alter or destroy things within the ruins, it's equivalent to interfering with the Timeline. In another world, we become a real entity, and returning to the wasteland is like being re-released."

"Does that mean the wasteland is built on a black hole, or that we live inside a black hole right now, and the ruins are the escape route? Or that it's easier to tear open a wormhole inside a black hole and enter other dimensions?"

Shaking his head, Su Mo banished the increasingly whimsical thoughts typical of liberal arts students from his mind. Looking at Zhong Qingshu's knowing smile, Su Mo touched his head, slightly lost in thought.

"Given the current level of brutality in the game, all these explanations are utter nonsense."

"Moreover, the conditions for the explanation of relativity are necessary."

"No! It's relative!"

Like self-denial, when Su Mo overturned all his previous inferences and started to think about the problem again, he suddenly stopped at the word "relative"! A year can show the Qiu Lai, a hundred years can show birth, aging, sickness and death, a thousand years can show the change of dynasties, and ten thousand years can show the shifting of stars.

At this moment, after being reminded by Zhong Qingshu, Su Mo immediately realized why the wasteland always emphasized the point of "time".

The cyclical nature of disasters is governed by strict timeframes.

The opening and closing of the ruins are subject to strict time rules.

And "Yes, you guessed right."

"We are still in three-dimensional space, within four-dimensional spacetime, but strangely, it's the game that has placed us here."

"It doesn't seem to have grasped the time dimension in the fourth dimension."

"Didn't you notice? Once we enter the ruins, our Game Panel gets locked. What does that mean?"

After saying that, Zhong Qingshu took out a manual and Su Mo clearly saw a whole row of English letters on it.

With the translation provided by the Game Panel, these letters were automatically machine-translated into Chinese characters a second later, allowing Su Mo to understand their meaning.

"The Crusader Expedition Handbook?"

Taking the notebook from Zhong Qingshu, Su Mo, filled with doubt, began to quickly flip through it and read its contents.

One minute, two minutes, a full five minutes— Su Mo, who had remained calm the whole time, could no longer contain the shock on his face.

If the contents of this arrogant handwriting and crazy diary are true, then according to the inferences stated in the diary, Ma Gu is in the top 1% of people, and the owner of this diary is in the top 0.01%!

His records show that he has survived a total of 69 calamities. Even without a detailed description of what those calamities were, Su Mo could still vaguely sense the terrifying power of his strength through this number.

The owner of the notebook was extremely unbalanced in his studies, and could definitely be considered a mad scientist. And because it was just a research notebook, there wasn't much information to be gleaned from it.

But what's truly shocking is the content of these studies!

The world the mad scientist was researching was neither the world we live in now, nor how to get back to Earth.

His research target was none other than the "Land of Salvation" that the kobolds and lion-men, these alien races, had been searching for.

Why are so many alien races coming to the wasteland?

What is the purpose of the game?

What is the purpose of the alien race?

On the first page of the journal, these three obvious questions set the tone for the entire journal.

Then, in a lengthy discussion spanning dozens of pages, the owner of the journal conducted numerous experiments. Skipping over these steps, Su Mo found only a summarizing conclusion on the last page:

Stop them! What are they looking for! This sentence is machine-translated and sounds slightly awkward in Chinese.

But from the messy handwriting that was completely different from before, Su Mo could also see just how shocked and incomprehensible the mad scientist who came to this conclusion was.

Seeing that Su Mo was still deep in thought and guessing, Zhong Qingshu had obviously already made detailed guesses. She was not impatient and waited patiently for Su Mo to continue to ponder the contents of the journal.

"So, you've found what the alien races are looking for?"

Upon hearing Su Mo's question, Zhong Qingshu thought for a moment and said uncertainly:

"That's not entirely true, but the ruins near our shelter do resemble the description in this journal."

"Furthermore, many people on the World Channel have entered these ruins, and they call them:"

"Task-Type Ruins!"

After saying this, Zhong Qingshu paused, as if she had thought of something terrifying, and rubbed her hands together with a slight sense of lingering fear.

"I know you've always been curious about why I'm better than them, right?"

"Actually, I've entered this ruin once before, and I even completed the first round of the mission. The mission reward was..."

"This!"

After saying that, Zhong Qingshu gently twirled her two fingers, and a phantom chip appeared in her hand and was handed over.

When the chip was handed over, its attributes emerged due to Zhong Qingshu's active release.

[Elementary Boxing Skill (Untradeable)]

[Description]: By choosing to use the chip, you can automatically acquire the equivalent of six months of Elementary Boxing Skill within 72 hours (Note: This will not improve your physical fitness).

Current Status: Deprecated (Already in use)

"Holy crap? There's such a cheating method?"

Curious, Su Mo took the chip and exclaimed in surprise as he looked at this "mission reward" that seemed like cheating.

If this thing could be mass-produced and given to every human being, wouldn't that lead to a massive leap in the nation's military strength? Even more extravagantly, if these chips contained alien abilities, wouldn't that mean humans could also possess so-called "magic"? "Yes, and besides this, some people have also obtained very strange abilities in other mission ruins."

"However, it seems that the best reward is different for each ruin. Among the ruins I discovered, the best reward is..."

"Time Currency!"

"Time Currency can not only offset the time we spend entering and leaving the ruins, but it can also generate a series of incredible abilities!"

"By paying with currency, saplings on the ground can grow into towering trees in the blink of an eye."

"With this currency, even if you Heavenly Palace in the ruins, entering and exiting three times, you can ignore the loss of time flow."

"Paying with currency might even enable the 'immortality' of mythical tales!"

Zhong Qingshu was like a clever little fox; instead of directly inviting him into the mission ruins, she subtly probed for his presence.

First, he prompted Su Mo to think about time, then he guided him, and finally, when Su Mo realized what the aliens were looking for and that it was very important, he offered his own "bargaining chip".

To this invitation, Su Mo could only say, "Well done!"

The quest ruins are like a delicacy containing poison.

Even knowing the potential risks, Su Mo remained confident thanks to the system's assistance and his own ever-growing strength.

"When the quest ruins appear, I'll call you, and we'll go in together. Even if we don't get the Time Currency, we can still get other good stuff. You get 70% and I'll get 30%, okay?"

"No problem, it's a deal!"

Exploring the ruins is undoubtedly fraught with risks, and Su Mo will definitely be the main fighter.

However, Zhong Qingshu's intelligence also played a crucial role, and coupled with the pure "revolutionary friendship" between the two, Su Mo made the decision almost without hesitation.

Having accomplished the most important thing, Zhong Qingshu tilted her head and thought for a moment, then seemed to have thought of something funny and laughed brightly, "Then I'm leaving?"

"Go away, go away, there's no way I can keep you here anyway!"

After speaking, listening to Su Mo's faint voice-over, Zhong Qingshu raised her small face, gave him a flirtatious glare, and turned to walk towards the already tidied-up squad.

In the wasteland, everyone is equal.

Everyone has their own destiny and opportunities, and ordinary people can also have the chance to rise to the top overnight because of opportunities.

Su Mo was among the luckiest people, and Zhong Qingshu also had considerable good fortune in finding this notebook.

"I invited her to rescue people, and she invited me to explore the ruins. It's really true."

"One thing leads to another, fate is truly unpredictable!"

Watching Zhong Qingshu's departing figure from afar, even her dull hair seemed to sway gracefully in her beautiful and unrestrained joy amidst Zhong Qingshu smiling face.

"Brother Su, we're heading back now! If you need anything, just send us a message!"

After finishing tidying up, Chen Shen stood next to the handmade cart, made a megaphone shape with his hands, and shouted. The others also raised their hands and waved.

"Be careful, go ahead!"

He waved his hand and watched as the excited crowd pushed the cart away, laughing and joking, until it disappeared into the distance. Then, Oreo cleverly popped out and darted into the ruins to dig around.

"Let's go, Oreo, everyone's taken everything. There's nothing good for you to dig up!"

With one foot already in the ranks of gods, Oreo still lacks any "self-awareness" and has already turned himself into a Chinese Rural Dog.

Hearing Su Mo's words, Oreo pouted, came out, wagged its tail, and looked unhappy.

"Come on, come on, don't be sad. I'll prepare a big meal for you when we get home, and we'll celebrate!"

Squatting down, Su Mo gave Oreo's dog head a good rub, absorbing a wave of Oreo's true "protagonist" luck, then stood up and walked forward.

Under the rising sun, the shadows of a person and a dog stretched endlessly, seemingly lonely figures, but this time, they were "no longer" lonely! Haha, you didn't expect that, did you? I updated!