My Two-Dimensional World

Lu Zhiyu decided to analyze it using the theory of the three axioms of the universe. Time, space, and mass were collectively known as the three elements of the universe, abbreviated as time, space, and mass respectively.

Moreover, time, space, and mass were inextricably linked. In terms of their connotations, they were three absolute concepts that were both independent and interconnected. The Space-Time Relational Principle and the Mass-Space Relational Principle stated that U=U(T) and M=M(U): what space experienced was time, and what was filled by mass was space. In other words, "time and space vary with mass."

Mass was the primordial element among the three. Without mass, there could be no space; without space, there could be no time. Lu Zhiyu guessed that this painting was an entrance to a two-dimensional world. There was no mass inside it, so stable space had not formed, nor did so-called time exist.

Looking at the painting before him, Lu Zhiyu was suddenly struck by an incredible feeling, as though he had opened the door to a new world. If I inject a large amount of mass into the two-dimensional space within the Painting Space, could it encourage the formation of a stable two-dimensional world? A world with time and space, capable of accommodating two-dimensional life?

At that thought, Lu Zhiyu's heart surged with excitement, and he immediately began making plans. He could try connecting a pipe to the Painting Space and pour soil and all sorts of things into it. Just then, the doorbell rang downstairs. Lu Zhiyu looked down and saw that his delivery had arrived.

"Lu Zhiyu? Please sign for it!" The delivery guy was friendly and polite.

He unpacked the parcel and found the camera he had ordered earlier. After connecting it to his computer, Lu Zhiyu inserted the camera into the Painting Space. He had always wanted to directly observe what was inside the Painting Space rather than infer its internal conditions from changes in the painting.

The instant the camera entered the Painting Space, the computer screen plunged into darkness. Lu Zhiyu's heart skipped a beat, though he had expected it. First, there was no light in a two-dimensional space, so naturally nothing could be seen. Second, it seemed unlikely that a signal could be transmitted out from a two-dimensional world. Still, it was rather incredible. Lu Zhiyu had only wanted to give it a try.

He clicked the mouse and turned on the camera's light. At once, the image unexpectedly lit up. Lu Zhiyu's mouth fell open as he controlled the camera, rotating it left and right.

"It actually lit up!"

The image sent back was also extremely strange. It should have been footage captured by the camera, yet what he saw was a flat, side-on observation diagram. Even the camera itself was displayed. What kind of angle was this?

There was nothing in the image, only an expanse of pitch-black darkness and a straight line of white light. It looked like a side-scrolling 2D animation, or perhaps a cartoon sketch. But when the light flashed, Lu Zhiyu saw a shadow dart past.

"What was that?"

Lu Zhiyu immediately turned the camera around and discovered that he had not been mistaken. A peculiar mark had appeared on the screen: a sideways 8. Lu Zhiyu knew the symbol represented infinity, though he often saw it in the capital as well, where it could also stand for smog.

Lu Zhiyu was certain he had not seen wrong, nor was it an issue of angle. It was meant to be sideways. The symbol was in the very center of the Painting Space. He adjusted the camera through several angles, but could only see it from the front, never its back, top, or bottom.

Lu Zhiyu found the situation inside the Painting Space unbelievably bizarre. He had concluded it was a two-dimensional world, but from the camera's perspective, it did not quite resemble a viewpoint possible in two dimensions. Yet it was definitely not three-dimensional either.

But Lu Zhiyu had never entered a two-dimensional world before, so he had no idea what two-dimensional space was actually like. He pulled the camera back out and saw that the section which had vanished into the Painting Space was continuously repairing and reappearing in the three-dimensional world, as though it were being reassembled.

Lu Zhiyu had seen this scene many times and was no longer surprised. After pondering for a long while, he made a decision and directly reached his hand inside. He wanted to pull out that sideways 8 and see what it really was!

Though he had tried many times, this was the first time Lu Zhiyu had put his own hand inside. It took courage. If he could not pull it back out, he would be in deep trouble. The sensation was extremely peculiar. Lu Zhiyu felt as though his sense of touch had been blocked, yet he could still feel that his hand existed. His entire hand became weightless, light as a sheet of paper.

"Got it!"

Delighted, Lu Zhiyu immediately grabbed the thing and pulled it out. The moment he took it out, he looked at his hand, but saw nothing. "What's going on? Where did it go?"

Lu Zhiyu examined his hand over and over, then immediately spotted a silver ∞. It seemed to regard his flesh as nonexistent, constantly slipping through his skin and across its surface. Like a fish swimming upstream, it kept crawling along Lu Zhiyu's arm.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Lu Zhiyu was terrified. He kept slapping, grabbing, and rubbing at it, but could not touch the thing at all. He could only watch as it crawled up his arm. Lu Zhiyu rushed into his room and picked up a mirror, only to see that it had already burrowed into his neck, crawled onto his face, and then shot straight into his brain.

"Boom!"

Lu Zhiyu felt as though something had exploded inside his mind, and he instantly lost consciousness.

Lu Zhiyu felt as though he had witnessed the Big Bang. He also felt countless streams of information drilling into his mind, but his brain did not have enough capacity. As the information passed through, it continuously leaked away, until only a tiny crucial portion remained branded deep in his mind.

When Lu Zhiyu climbed up from the floor, night had already fallen. He felt that he had long become calm in the face of life and death, but having such a strange thing burrow into his body still frightened him greatly. On second thought, though, no matter how terrifying it was, it was no worse than cancer cells. At most, he would die. Lu Zhiyu calmed down.

The thing that had entered his mind should have been the control authority for that painting—the ownership and control center of that two-dimensional world. It should have contained a great deal of detailed information. Lu Zhiyu could sense that it was undoubtedly a vast instruction manual, long and tedious as the Capital Library. But his brain currently could not store so much information, so he only understood a few basic methods of operation. Everything else had been lost.

These included methods for opening and entering the entrance to the two-dimensional space, as well as setting the rule parameters within that two-dimensional space.