This Is Not Scientific

"No... no, no matter how I derived it, it was wrong! Why did negative matter exist? This wasn't scientific!"

One of the Collectors exploring the Hui civilization ruins fell into deep distress over the discovery of negative matter. It tried to understand negative matter, but the more it thought about it, the more wrong it felt.

After thinking deeply, the Collector discovered that negative matter seemed to have no reason to exist. Logically, it made no sense.

"Science is merely a tool for understanding the universe, not an answer that affirms everything..." Not all Collectors liked to obsess over dead ends. Another Collector gave a simple response, then refocused on the task at hand. "Help me find a few more devices of similar models so I can compare them."

"Oh, wait a moment. I'll look..." The task came first. The Collector that had been obsessing froze for a moment, then began turning its attention to the task as well.

However, that did not mean it had stopped caring about negative matter. Multitasking was not difficult for Collectors, and it reserved part of its attention to think about negative matter.

"I know the definition of science. I understand perfectly well that science is a method, and that our thoughts cannot affect things that objectively exist. But negative matter simply cannot be explained."

"Think about it. A negative-mass point spontaneously generated a spacetime repulsion field. Negative-mass particles could only exist as the smallest units, and within that spacetime repulsion field, the closer one got to the source, the faster time passed. This applied to everything, including the negative-mass particle itself."

"We all know that nothing is eternal. Even the universe itself has a lifespan. Particles decay once they reach the end of their lifespan, yet because a negative-mass particle sits at the