bookbashuk Chapter 282 The Three-Body Problem: Multiverse
Chapter 282 The Three-Body Problem: Multiverse
Chapter 282 The Three-Body Problem: Multiverse
Inside the Zhutian Pavilion, Xu Qing watched Bai Junlang's figure disappear into the spatial rift, and with a light flick of his fingertips, the Zhutian Token lit up again.
He initiated a new invitation immediately after the deal with Haihu was completed.
This time, the light pointed towards a civilization shrouded in despair.
Within moments, the information on the Heavenly Decree had been updated and clearly appeared before Xu Qing's eyes:
[Guest: Luo Ji]
[Affiliation: The Three-Body Problem]
[Strength: Not yet at the first rank (Mortal)]
[Items available for purchase: Lifespan, Knowledge —]
"The Three-Body World, Luo Ji —"
Xu Qing looked at the name that appeared on the panel, a look of understanding flashing in his eyes.
It's neither that nameless world nor that extraordinary universe.
Or is it a magic-free universe like "The Three-Body Problem"?
In another world, in another multiverse —
The image on the television suddenly became blurry, and the sound became hoarse and unclear. At the same time, Luo Ji felt some disturbance in his surroundings: flocks of birds flew away from the mountains, and the sound of dogs barking came from afar. He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt a slight itching on his skin.
The television image and sound became clear again after a few jitters. It was later learned that the interference was still present, and this was the anti-interference function of the global communication system coming into play, filtering out the sudden noise.
However, the news response to this incident was slow because a large amount of monitoring data needed to be collected and analyzed, and it took more than ten minutes for accurate information to be available.
The water droplet continuously emitted strong electromagnetic waves towards the sun. The intensity of the waves exceeded the sun's amplification threshold, and the frequency covered all wavebands that could be amplified by the sun.
Luo Ji burst into a maniacal laugh, laughing until he could hardly breathe. He had indeed been delusional; he should have realized all of this sooner.
Luo Ji is not important; what is important is the sun. From now on, humanity will no longer be able to send any information into the universe through the sun, which is like a super antenna.
The water droplets are there to seal off the sun.
"Haha, brother, nothing's wrong, is it? I really should have made a bet with you!" Da Shi appeared beside Luo Ji at some point; he had hailed a car to come over.
Luo Ji felt as if something had been drained from him, and he lay limply on the sand. The sand beneath him carried the lingering warmth of the sun, making him feel very comfortable.
"Yes, Da Shi, we can live a good life from now on. Right now, it's really all over."
"Brother, this is the last time I'll help you with the Wallfacer job," Shi Qiang said on the way back. "This job is bound to mess with your brain, and you've had another episode."
"I really hope that's the case," Luo Ji said. Outside, the stars that were visible yesterday had vanished again, the dark desert and night sky merging into one on the horizon, with only a stretch of road ahead illuminated by car headlights. This world was much like Luo Ji's current thoughts: everywhere was darkness, except for one place of absolute clarity.
"Actually, it's easy for you to return to normal. It should be Zhuang Yan and the child's turn to wake up by now. Everything is chaotic everywhere right now. I don't know if the waking up process is frozen. Even if it is, it won't last too long. I think the situation will stabilize soon. After all, there are still several generations to live. Didn't you say you could live a good life?" "I'll go to the hibernation immigration office tomorrow to inquire about them." Da Shi's words reminded Luo Ji, and a glimmer of light finally appeared in his gloomy heart. Perhaps, reuniting with his lover and child was his only chance to save himself.
As for humanity, there is no one left to save them.
As they approached New Life Village No. 5, Da Shi suddenly slowed down. "Something seems off," he said, looking ahead. Luo Ji saw a halo of light in that direction, illuminated by a light source below. Because the roadbed was high, the source of the light was not visible, and the halo flickered, not appearing to be the light from a residential area.
As the car turned off the highway, a spectacular and strange sight unfolded before them: the desert between New Life Village 5 and the highway had transformed into a dazzling carpet of light, shimmering densely, like a sea of fireflies.
It took Luo Ji a while to realize that this was a large crowd of people, all from the city, and what was shining was their clothes.
As the car slowly approached the crowd, Luo Ji noticed people ahead raising their hands to shield their eyes from the glare of the headlights. Shi Qiang turned off his lights, leaving them facing a bizarrely illuminated wall of people. "They seem to be waiting for someone," Da Shi said, glancing at Luo Ji with a look that instantly made Luo Ji tense. The car stopped, and Shi Qiang said again, "Don't move here, I'll get out and check." He jumped out of the car and walked towards the crowd. Against the backdrop of the luminous wall of people, Shi Qiang's burly figure became a black silhouette. Luo Ji watched him walk to the front of the crowd, seem to exchange a few brief words with the people, and then quickly turn back.
"He was indeed waiting for you. Let's go," Shi Qiang said, holding onto the car door. Looking at Luo Ji's expression, he reassured him, "Don't worry, it'll be alright."
Luo Ji got out of the car and walked towards the crowd. Although he was already familiar with the information clothing of modern people, he still felt like an outsider in this desolate desert. When he got close enough to see the expressions of those people, his heart suddenly started racing.
Upon waking from hibernation, the first thing he knew was that people in each era have their own expressions. When traveling across time to distant eras, these differences become very obvious, making it easy to distinguish between modern people and those who have recently awakened from hibernation.
But the expressions on the faces of the people Luo Ji was seeing were neither modern nor 21st-century. He didn't know which time or space these expressions came from. Fear almost made him stop, but his trust in Da Shi propelled him forward mechanically. As the distance between him and the crowd shortened further, he finally stopped, because he could see the images on their clothes.
Their clothes were covered with images of Luo Ji, including still photos and moving images.
After becoming a Wallfacer, Luo Ji rarely appeared in the media, so there is very little video footage left behind. However, these images are now displayed in their entirety on the clothes of different people. He even saw photos of himself before becoming a Wallfacer on several of these people.
If people's clothes are all connected to the internet, then his images should already be circulating all over the world. He also noticed that these images are in their original state, without the artistic distortions that modern people like, indicating that they have just appeared online.
Seeing Luo Ji stop, the crowd moved toward him. When they were two or three meters away from him, the people in the front row tried their best to stop the advance of the crowd behind them, and then knelt down. The people behind them also knelt down one after another. The glowing crowd sank down like waves receding from the beach.
"Lord, save us!" Luo Ji heard someone say, and his words caused a buzzing resonance.
"Our God, save the world!"
"Great advocate, uphold justice in the universe!"
"Angels of Justice, save humanity!"
Two men walked toward Luo Ji. One of them was not wearing clothes that glowed, but Luo Ji recognized him as Hines. The other was a soldier whose epaulets and medals were glowing.
Hines solemnly said to Luo Ji, "Dr. Luo Ji, I have just been appointed as your liaison for the United Nations Wallfacer Program Committee, and I am hereby instructed to inform you that the Wallfacer Program has been reinstated, and you have been designated as the sole Wallfacer."
The soldier said, "I am Ben Jonathan, Special Envoy of the Fleet Joint Council. We met when you first woke up, and I was also instructed to inform you that the Asian Fleet, the European Fleet, and the North American Fleet all endorse the re-enacted Wallfacer Charter and recognize your status as a Wallfacer."
Hines pointed to the crowd kneeling in the desert and said, "In the eyes of the public, you now have two identities: to believers in God, you are His angel of justice; to atheists, you are the spokesperson for the galactic super-civilization of justice."
Then there was silence, and all eyes were on Luo Ji. He thought for a long time and could only come up with one possibility.
"Did the spell work?" he asked tentatively.
Hines and Jonathan both nodded, and Hines said, "Star 187j31 has been destroyed."
Luo Ji opened his mouth, not yet having processed this sudden news, when a pale blue transparent panel suddenly appeared out of thin air, hovering in front of him, the text on it so clear it was almost blinding:
[Zhutiange invites you to become a customer. Would you like to enter and browse the products?]
Luo Ji's pupils suddenly contracted, and he abruptly took half a step back, staring intently at the panel, his heart pounding—his first thought was: "Zhi Zi?"
This is not impossible.
This is not the first time the Trisolarans have used sophons to interfere with human technology and create psychological panic. They even projected a false countdown in front of scientists in an attempt to destroy their will.
Now that the fleet has been destroyed and human morale is low, is the Sophon trying to completely undermine his belief as the "Last Wallfacer" by creating this thing?
Or is he simply being toyed with?
"Is this another one of your tricks?" Luo Ji gritted his teeth, his voice filled with suppressed anger. "Are you toying with me?"
He subconsciously reached out, trying to brush away the "false projection," but his fingertips actually touched the cold touch of the panel. It wasn't an illusion; it was something real!
"How is this possible?!" Luo Ji's eyes widened instantly, and the anger and vigilance on his face were instantly replaced by unbelievable shock.
The moment Luo Ji's fingertips touched the cool surface of the panel, he felt the light and shadow in front of him suddenly distort.
The kneeling crowd, the glowing fabric, and the desert night wind vanished instantly, replaced by a completely different world.
He staggered a couple of steps before regaining his balance. His feet touched the warm, smooth ground, but the cool touch seeped through the soles of his shoes. It felt more substantial and weighty than the alloy floors of the future world, which made him, who was used to technological creations, feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Looking up, an antique pavilion unfolds before your eyes, its carved beams and painted rafters adorned with mysterious cloud patterns, and its wooden pillars gleaming with the patina of time.
This feeling is wonderful.
Luo Ji had been in hibernation for a century and lived in the future world for a long time, but the eaves, wooden frame, and even the faint sandalwood fragrance in the air of this pavilion in front of him felt inexplicably familiar to him, as if he had stepped out of a document.
But what truly shook him was the row of display shelves on both sides of the attic.
The shelves were filled with things he had only ever seen in old-fashioned novels.
There was a bronze cauldron the size of a palm, with incomprehensible runes engraved on its surface.
There were also jade bottles containing crystal-clear pills, labeled "Planetary Pill" and "Creation Pill," with simplified Chinese characters that were no longer commonly used.
These things were clearly the "magic weapons" that authors had imagined while he was casually browsing online novels before he went into hibernation.
How could "elixirs" actually be displayed here?
Luo Ji subconsciously raised his hand to hold onto the wooden frame beside him, and only when his fingertips touched the cool wood grain did he realize that it was not a hallucination created by Zhi Zi.
He walked slowly over, his gaze sweeping over a display shelf. The shelves were only the size of basketballs, and the items inside ranged in size from warehouses to planets or even galaxies, as if they could hold the entire world.
This is something the Trisolaran civilization could never have created.
"A god-like civilization?"
A thought suddenly popped into Luo Ji's head, and his heart began to race.
The ability to instantly transport him from the desert to this place, and to create objects that transcend dimensional cognition, is something only a legendary "god-level civilization" could accomplish.
But soon, he frowned again.
How could a god-level civilization do such things? Those magical treasures and elixirs are clearly just the wild imaginations of old-fashioned online novel authors.
Could it be that a god-like civilization studied Earth in those online novels? Or is it that the worlds in those novels actually exist?
Doubts welled up in Luo Ji's mind like a tide, and his gaze involuntarily drifted toward the main seat deep inside the attic.
There sat a figure dressed in a plain white robe, the light seemingly flowing softly around him, obscuring his features, yet exuding a serene composure that seemed to have endured millennia, causing Luo Ji to unconsciously clench his fist, his palms sweating.
Is this the owner of this attic? The one who issued the "invitation"?
"Welcome to the Pavilion of All Heavens, Mr. Luo Ji."
Just as his thoughts were in turmoil, a calm voice came from the direction of the counter, breaking the silence of the attic.
"I am Xu Qing, the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Pavilion. Here, as long as you pay the price, you can exchange for anything."
As he spoke, Xu Qing poured the information into Luo Ji's mind.
"You only need to pay a price to save the Earth and allow civilization to survive, preventing its destruction."
Knowing everything and feeling the inexplicable events made Luo Ji feel somewhat dazed.
First, the solar fleet was destroyed a dozen hours ago, and then the droplets blocked the sun, making him a Wallfacer once again.
But none of that matters. He had actually entered this wondrous place that connects to other parallel universes and parallel multiverses.
Can the worlds in fictional works really become reality?!
However, by paying the price, one can obtain various mysterious items and powers from various fictional works.
But—what price can I pay?
Luo Ji didn't know.
"Your universe." Xu Qing seemed to see through his thoughts and suddenly spoke.
"What?" Luo Ji was stunned, not understanding what he meant.
"You were just wondering what price you could pay," Xu Qing said with a smile. "The answer is your universe."
"You only need to agree now, and I can enter your universe. And you, and Earth, will be spared without any other sacrifices. All it takes is your nod, and the crisis of Earth's civilization being destroyed will be averted."
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