Return

Chapter 50: Chapter 2.07 Return

On October 21st, Pandora Year 138, when the wormhole opened, Wei Keng did not leave immediately but postponed it for another two hundred days.

The various Wei Kengs in the cluster engaged in a lively discussion via telepathy about their "impulse" to stay for two hundred more days.

"Labor can transform a person's spirit," said a Wei Keng workgroup standing on the dam, watching the surging river water being contained by the reinforced concrete structure. They judged their experience during this traversal.

"In the process of constantly transforming the world with my own hands, seeing my actions accumulate day by day, I feel like I'm in a state of sunrise. This is something I wouldn't experience lying comfortably in a school dormitory." In the farmland, a Wei Keng, who was meticulously recording the growth status of each crop on a form, began to compare the two kinds of lives.

"So, was the past a decline?" In the steel mill, a Wei Keng, wiping sweat from his brow while watching the heavy hammer strike the red-hot steel again and again, asked himself.

"Maybe it was a decline, maybe not, I'm not sure, but what is certain is that what others say doesn't count!" In the north, a crossbow bolt had just killed a jumping wolf that was trying to escape. The Wei Keng team that fired the bolt, carrying steel guns on their backs, replied.

"I can have many futures, but the conditions only allow me to choose one. That one cannot define my entirety." On a fishing boat in the harbor, a Wei Keng cast his net, which was being continuously retrieved by a winch powered by a steam engine. Watching the sea surface in the net area become increasingly "turbulent," he sighed with emotion.

On the Pandora Plane, after the wormhole of Wei Keng's first return disappeared, it flickered several more times in the same area. This was caused by Wei Keng gathering life energy. It was a way to signal to Sun Xiangyang and the other crew comrades that while he wasn't leaving today, he would leave tomorrow, giving those around him advance notice.

The physicists from the Desperate Plane issued instructions regarding the intermittent flickering of the wormhole on the Pandora Plane: "The local cadres should be understanding of Comrade Wei Keng's desire to return home and complete the work handover with Comrade Wei Keng as soon as possible."

Of course, it was difficult for the non-Wei Keng comrades on this side to fulfill this directive from "Desperate."

Wei Keng's work in the Zhujiang region involved many crucial positions, and his work capabilities were unique in many aspects. If he were to leave directly, it would cause many departments to slow down or even paralyze their tasks.

[However, regarding this situation, Luo Hongxing, as a senior official of the Time-Space Administration Bureau, had already made discreet arrangements below.]

Once Wei Keng left, the timeline would split into Group A and Group B. On the Group A timeline, Wei Keng would return. Luo Hongxing would back up a copy of himself to remain in this space-time.

On the Group B timeline, Wei Keng would have completely departed, and Luo Hongxing would take full control of this world, developing this plane more thoroughly.

He would completely open the shuttle to the Desperate Plane. Those on the Desperate Plane discovered that the nature of the wormhole had slightly changed, allowing people there to come over. However, each person who crossed through caused the wormhole to contract slightly. After six thousand people crossed, the wormhole would completely contract and, upon reopening, would revert to a form that did not support human passage.

Was a one-way shuttle for six thousand people meaningful to the Desperate Plane? Of course, it was meaningful!

Although the Pandora Plane had many dangers and its conditions were backward and harsh, the life radiation there offered new opportunities for the human state of life.

The United Central government of the Desperate Plane had just achieved independent autonomy, and the Great Unification was only thirty years old. Many dedicated individuals had developed chronic illnesses during the research and development of nuclear weapons and missiles.

Therefore, rather than lying in a hospital bed and dying in the underdeveloped medical conditions of the Desperate Plane, it was better to enter the Pandora Plane. Here, cancer cells and bodily ailments could be cured under the effect of colony radiation.

For the decision-making body of the Desperate Plane, being able to change the outcome for some high-value talents who were dying from terminal illnesses, turning their departure from this world into something else, was worth their investment in the Pandora Plane.

Some things, viewed from an absolutely objective standpoint, have no meaning, but society will recognize meaning! For example, funeral consumption, such as memorial services, is something people are willing to spend energy and wealth on.

Sending someone away from this world now, objectively speaking, does not generate value for the Desperate Plane.

But the people of the Desperate Plane consider it valuable, are willing to exert their subjective initiative and work hard, and then donate everything to XX to exchange for this quota!

For the Human Colony on the Pandora Plane, which lacked Wei Keng, the arrival of a large group of scientists and technical talents from the Desperate Plane would absolutely fill the work vacancies left by Wei Keng's departure.

It was April again. Wei Keng had been here for over six years. This year, the reservoir upstream of the Zhujiang River was completed.

The construction of such a large-scale infrastructure was rare in the entire plane after the end of the Pandora Era.

The super Smelting Pyramid in Yu City was one, the Taihang Mountain Tunnel Cluster of the Yellow River Alliance in East Asia was another, and the Ice-Steam City on Greenland Island in the North Atlantic was also one.

The ability to complete such facilities demonstrated powerful mobilization. Such a Wonder Facility represented the return of human strength in the Zhū Shuǐjiǎo Region. And the Yangtze River Delta Region, which stood alongside the Zhū Shuǐjiǎo Region before the Great Cataclysm, was now the core of the Southern State in East Asia.

This reservoir was built entirely according to the requirements of this plane. The most striking feature was a concrete pillar reserved every four hundred meters within the reservoir. This concrete pillar was equipped with a groove slide rail, which was prepared for installing networks. When the net cables were lowered into the reservoir along the grooves, it would complete the bottom interception of this water area. This would enable humans to sweep and clear large creatures in this water area.

After the Pandora Field spread throughout the world, the most terrifying thing for humans was Gene Pollution.

This meant that the genes of one species suddenly appeared in another, for example, a crocodile growing shark teeth, or a bear making monkey sounds. Of course, this spread was more common when "body size was similar" and "diet was similar."

As mentioned earlier, the proliferation of bacteria could not affect higher organisms like humans. Microorganisms, due to their simple replication and proliferation, only produced very simple proteins and sugars, which did not interfere much with the process of human DNA constructing proteins.

Herbivores also found it difficult to interfere with carnivores, because many proteins in carnivores were built from the amino acids obtained by directly consuming prey protein in their intestines. The intestines of herbivores were not sufficient to supply these substances and nutrients. Therefore, even if some tissues or cells were interfered with, these tissues and cells would lack nutrients and stop functioning.

So, humanity's attitude towards ecology had to change slightly in this era.

Old Master Wei Keng: Since genes across the entire biological world can communicate across species, then humans in the current Blue Star Online version must play "Battle Royale!"

As long as I am the only Dominant Species in this area? Let's see which other species can cause me radiation sickness.

Monopolize my own Ecological Niche! Control all ecological niches that overlap with my food sources.

Like this reservoir, all fish must be caught regularly. Because if they are not caught, other Large Species might feed on them, find a way to survive, and thus propagate their genes.

Don't even think about Biodiversity in this era! Because you might be diversified at any time. As humans, any food taken from nature that cannot be eaten must also be caught and eliminated, sent to the Biogas Pool for Decomposers to process!

Battle Royale, Battle Royale. Even if you see supplies, if you don't pick them up, you must destroy them. Never Aid Enemy.

April 15th.

As the white river water poured into the reservoir, the water level gradually rose to two-thirds of the height of those pillars. Standing on the pillars and looking at the clear water, hmm, there were very few fish.

At the same time, a visitor from the north emerged from the mountain forest.

Long Ximin walked south on foot and arrived in the Zhujiang Region. Her first impression was that the once natural areas were abruptly cut and scattered by these buildings, which cast a hint of solemnity on her brows.

Then she saw the river, cut off by the reinforced concrete dam body on the main stream, and her expression became solemn.

Next, from north to south, she passed through vast areas, and then to this river reservoir. In her Life Radiation Perception, large areas lacked the gathering of life, appearing "scattered and broken," as if forcibly destroyed and cut apart.

Finally, she arrived at this largest reservoir, where the Life Field she could perceive had been swept into a basic form.

To describe her perception in terms humans can understand: In a normal ecosystem, energy is supplied by basic plant producers, then gathered by insects and herbivores, and then by carnivores, reaching the apex of the energy pyramid. In the Pandora Field, at the top of the food chain, which is often the final convergence point of life radiation energy, the energy of all life radiation clearly becomes an energy network, anchored by species at the top of the food chain as nodes.

The node creatures perceive a beauty in this clearly defined flow of ecological energy.

But what about now? Although the plants are still thriving, and various bacterial decomposers are still present, what about this energy process? It is ugly. There is fragmentation and cutting everywhere.

Wei Keng set fires and caused floods a few years ago, and then conducted large-scale hunts. The large species in this area have long since disappeared. Now, human colonies have emerged in the Zhū Shuǐjiǎo Region and have begun to utilize the energy of this region, but they cannot use it all. A large amount of energy is directly lost with the felling of vegetation and the capture of small fish and shrimp, which are then given to the decomposers.

This domineering occupation of the natural world made Long Ximin feel the desolation of the life system in this region!

She turned her gaze to the few high-tower areas outside the cities in the Zhujiang Region, which were the Biochemical Reactor areas. She took a deep breath and said, "So strong, but this is withering." -- In the knowledge system of Yu City, the life radiation of producers is the power of 'vitality', while the life radiation of decomposers is the breath of 'withering'.

April 30th.

Wei Keng completed the final handover and prepared to return.

Sun Xiangyang wanted to hold a farewell ceremony for Wei Keng and the others, but Wei Keng refused.

Wei Keng: "Leaving is leaving. If I were to return, there would be another welcome ceremony. Making one thing too complicated would undermine the original intention of coming and going freely. And if I cannot return, I hope you all won't think of me. I do not represent anything, because the future you need is one you can walk on your own."

After a brief farewell, the Wei Keng Group began to gather in the empty houses arranged at various strongholds.

And at the spot where Wei Keng first descended, it was an open space when he first arrived. Later, mud brick houses were built. After the Yuanhua Giant Ship arrived, it was razed and rebuilt. Now, it is a warehouse with red brick walls and a courtyard.

At 9:30 AM this morning, a wormhole appeared. The 125 Wei Kengs sitting on small stools in the hall watched the shimmering wormhole and collectively stood up. Then, five people were sent out from five directions towards the wormhole.

For every average step taken, the Wei Kengs at various strongholds throughout the Zhujiang Region would become more ethereal by one point. When they completely walked in, the Wei Kengs disappeared from this plane.

The scene returned to Wei Keng's perspective.

When individuals entered the Time-Space Gate, all the clusters ceased to exist, and Wei Keng was unified again in space-time.

This feeling of unity stunned Wei Keng. The memories of over 1,500 people were too vast, so vast that Wei Keng's consciousness had to organize and simplify them. Simplifying the memories from multiple perspectives of a single self.

Wei Keng vaguely heard the system constantly prompting: "Memories are being uploaded and stored. Please select important daily memories for linear organization."

And the initially merged Wei Keng kept shouting at himself to calm down, concentrate, and be serious, because the large number of self-individuals were thinking about different things before merging! Although these disordered thoughts would not cause fundamental conflicts, they made his current short-term focus very chaotic and difficult to concentrate.

For example, during the initial phase of entering the wormhole, all Wei Kengs were silent on the surface, but one foolish self was humming in his heart: "I really want to stay for another five hundred years." And there was more than one such self, so these ongoing feelings directly continued into the current unified entity as distracting thoughts. Wei Keng: "When I'm busy, slacking off like this, it's really Tm me."

Wei Keng spent about a few hours completing the calming of his thoughts and began to organize the linear memories from the Pandora Mission.

This meant recording the important things he did each day. The vast amount of unimportant memories and thoughts, such as traveling, pulling weeds, and eating, were only uploaded and stored in the Personal System. These would serve as the "diary" of a Transmigrator during their stay in a plane.

After an unknown amount of time, Wei Keng's consciousness finally pulled itself out of his memories. The stars formed by the Shuttlers behind him had passed, and they were now falling towards the space-time of the Shenzhou Plane. And ~~ about to dock!

The "station" here refers to the "Space-Time Rift Space Station" for information storage within the influence range of the space-time rift technology of the Shenzhou Plane.

Currently, Shenzhou's space-time research department, under the full effort of Director Ke Feijia, can only allow individuals with special Meson-Macro Particles and some intelligent devices to enter this Space-Time Rift Space Station.

The individuals with special Meson-Macro Particles are Ke Feijia, who has already left this plane, and Wei Keng! In fact, those who are not transmigrators from the Main World cannot jump to the platform of the Space-Time Rift Space Station.

The major native forces of the Shenzhou Plane are unaware that their rift space station is a spatial positioning secretly permitted by a civilization from another plane.

Upon entering this Space-Time Rift Space Station, Wei Keng possessed normal human senses such as vision, hearing, and touch, and could see his hands and feet. Of course, he could also see objects.

Wei Keng touched himself, his limbs intact, his skin quite tender, especially the flesh below his hips, which hadn't been lost. His emotions stabilized. He looked at the system left behind by Ke Feijia in the space station with a relaxed mood.

The Artificial Intelligence 'Luofu' is a lifelike robot with perfect curves and a beautiful face. Yes, a robot. She looks human but is actually made of steel and iron, as rigid as a plastic mannequin in a clothing store. (Wei Keng had touched her all over and confirmed she was just a machine.) Produced by the Shenzhou Immortal Crafting Workshop, she was deployed into the space-time rift and then had the Main World's highest-authority service program re-input by Ke Feijia.

Luofu: "Master, welcome back. The Time-Space Gate energy balance is 9843, and you can return safely."

Wei Keng: "After I go back, what time will it be there (Shenzhou)?"

Luofu: "There is no absolute time in the universe, nor is there absolute space. The two sides of the Time-Space Gate are not, strictly speaking, part of the broad river of time, but are positioned at a specific physical material state. This state may develop into various patterns..."

As the AI spoke the third sentence, Wei Keng stopped listening and started reading the data himself.

According to the Main World's time, the initial timeline of the Shenzhou Plane that Wei Keng traversed had already passed. Ke Feijia and the others had completed their mission and left this plane.

However, according to the Shenzhou Plane's time, Wei Keng had returned to the exact moment he had just left.

On Wei Keng's timeline, after he left, Ke Feijia disappeared midway! This timeline was backed up for Wei Keng.

Wei Keng was surprised: "So, after I return there (Shenzhou Plane), it will just be me alone?" After receiving a confirmed answer, Wei Keng felt a sense of loss, as if he had been "left behind, abandoned."

Wei Keng sighed with a slight lack of confidence, "I'm still a newbie, please lead me."