Chapter 59

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Chapter 59: Same Dimension Time Point

The three of them exclaimed in unison, “The next same dimension is ten years later? Really?”

The pitch of their voices startled the dozing lynx, causing it to open its eyes and lazily glance at them, its expression showing a hint of annoyance from being awakened.

Ying Zhao had previously visited Ti Ran’s multiverse laboratory and saw her team calculating the alignment patterns of their two time periods, but since the time span was long and calculations were extensive, they hadn’t yet produced definite results.

Ying Zhao’s vague estimate for the same dimension time was around fifty years, but without sufficient data to support it or any verification, it was not accurate, so she hadn’t mentioned it to Luo Yu or Zhu Huai.

Ji Shu smiled. “It’s true; this result was just obtained. The reason Ti Ran arrived late today is because after finishing with the exploration team this morning, she rushed to the laboratory to check the results. She left a message for me, but then this meeting started, so she didn’t have time to tell you.”

After saying that, she waved to Ti Ran, who was standing by the shallow pool watching the fish. Seeing this, Ti Ran put down the fish food and gracefully walked over.

“Calm your friend down. I’m a bit hesitant to approach,” Ti Ran said as she sat down on the steps behind Luo Yu and the others, smiling at the dozing lynx. She couldn’t help but remind Ji Shu.

There were lynxes in the redwood forest where Ti Ran lived, but the lynxes there had bad tempers. The winter before last, they had even eaten a big horned deer that often came to visit her, which had made her quite sad for a while. Therefore, she had always kept a respectful distance from them and rarely approached.

Ji Shu was aware of this. “My friend here isn’t from your redwood forest; please don’t blame a good cat.” She said this with a laugh and then mentioned that they were just discussing the same dimension time and wanted to confirm it with Ti Ran.

“Oh yes, I came today thinking to tell you about it, but the shocking content of the meeting made me completely forget,” Ti Ran said, lightly tapping her head. She then brought up a multiverse model and calculation process from her wristband and projected it between them.

The model was a smaller, multiverse version of the giant cosmic model they had seen in the exhibition hall of the time travel center. Ying Zhao examined the nearby calculation process and conclusions carefully, mentally confirming it as identical.

Luo Yu and Zhu Huai looked at the long string of deductions, unable to make much sense of it. They simply watched the model and then turned to Ying Zhao, waiting for her conclusion.

After a while, Ying Zhao nodded. “That’s right. By removing the redundant layers of the matrix, it really shows ten years.”

Luo Yu and Zhu Huai exchanged surprised glances, realizing that this meant Luo Yu wouldn’t have to take a desperate gamble on this journey back. If that world truly was hopeless, as long as she could hold on for ten years, she could bring her family back here.

This was undoubtedly excellent news. Luo Yu sighed with relief at the newfound escape route. Zhu Huai said, “Great, great, great,” then lowered her head to play with the lynx cub that had just awoken, seemingly contemplating future plans, while Ying Zhao began to consult Ti Ran in detail about the formulas used throughout the entire deduction process.

They sat there for a while when Wanhua ran over from the shallow pool, peeking at Zhu Huai’s lap where the lynx cub was resting. She then cautiously shook hands with the lynx lying beside Ji Shu.

As the sun tilted further westward, the lynx had rested enough, getting up to stretch and lazily wander toward the edge of the rock with the cubs that Luo Yu, Zhu Huai, and the others had brought back. Only then did everyone rise and gather in the open space in the center of the platform to discuss their next plans.

Ji Shu’s sharing in the office today still had many details to confirm. The exploration team’s recent visit to the two cyclical time periods, in addition to the returned footage, also needed further analysis to validate whether Ji Shu’s theories held true.

They divided the subsequent research tasks, including calculating the start and end points of historical time periods and cyclical time points, as well as analyzing the social structures of those two time periods. The most crucial of all was the ecological species composition analysis, which included the specific situations of initial humans and secondary beings at the end of those two time periods, needing to be verified one by one.

After discussing the arrangements, they noticed it was getting late, agreed on the time for the next meeting, and then left the rocky summit of the jungle in groups, heading back to their respective residences.

As before, Ao Ci flew home with Wanhua on the same aircraft, but unexpectedly, midway through, they received a message from Ao Ci’s granddaughter at the Biological Research Station. She turned to Wanhua and asked if she was tired, saying she needed to detour to the research station. If Wanhua felt exhausted, she could arrange for a different aircraft to take her home to rest.

Wanhua’s spirits were high. “I’m not tired!” Then she asked what had happened at the Biological Research Station, if perhaps a new injured animal had arrived.

Ao Ci gently shook her head, glancing into the distance. “It’s the Test Subject from thirty thousand years later; its condition isn’t great.”

“Then I’ll accompany you to take a look and then bring my sister back home.”

They flew southeast against the beautiful evening glow for about fifteen minutes before the aircraft gently landed outside the Biological Research Station’s main entrance.

As Ao Ci and Wanhua disembarked, Ao Ci’s granddaughter hurried out to meet them. Ao Ci smiled, hugged her shoulders, and said she had worked hard, then casually asked as they walked inside, “What is 015 causing trouble about this time?”

015 had been lying in the observation room lately. Since he got injured last time, the research station hadn’t provided treatment but only maintained basic life signs to ensure regular sampling of living genes.

The broken bone tortured 015 to the point of unbearable pain. A couple of days ago, he even rejected the nutritional supplement feed, claiming he would starve himself. He added that if the research station didn’t provide him with treatment, he would starve to death, making it impossible for them to use him for experiments.

The observation room’s monitoring system ignored this feeble threat. When it saw he refused, it stopped the feeding and instead began intravenous nutritional supplement delivery, followed by gene extraction.

Seeing that his threats had no effect, 015 got furious, causing his blood to rush to his head, and he fainted for two full days. When he woke up today, he used the little strength he had left to pull out the nutritional supply tube from his body.

“Looks like he’s bent on dying,” Ao Ci said as she entered the Biological Research Station and listened to her granddaughter recount today’s events.

Afterward, she instructed the Serving Robot to take Wanhua to get something to eat, then accompany her to the nearby feathered creature care room so Wanhua could check on the great owl she had helped to treat a few days ago. The injury on the owl’s leg had healed completely, and it was to be released tomorrow, which Wanhua had been anticipating.

Once these arrangements were made, Ao Ci led her granddaughter to the observation room where 015 was located.

This observation room was situated on the underground second level of the Biological Research Station. As they exited the elevator, they could feel the chill coming from the end of the corridor, the coldest level in the research station that also housed the freezing rooms for preserving animal corpses and experimental samples.

As Ao Ci and her granddaughter walked inside, their rhythmic footsteps echoed in the corridor. Initially dazed, 015 suddenly opened his eyes upon hearing this faint sound and saw two figures appearing outside the observation window.

Having been in the observation room for days, 015 had only seen the lifeless robotic arms of the monitoring system and hadn’t encountered real people for many days. But now, finally seeing living beings staring at him from outside, instead of feeling joy, 015 felt increased anger and an inexplicable panic.

Ao Ci looked at 015, whose body was fixed to the observation bed, almost reduced to just bones. He strained to turn his head, glaring at her with resentment, mumbling something under his breath.

"What is it saying?" Ao Ci asked.

"It’s an ancient saying from Luo Yu’s time period: ‘A soldier can be killed, but not humiliated,’" her granddaughter replied.

"Hmph," Ao Ci scoffed. "Does it think it still has dignity? Are the secondary beings from thirty thousand years later all this self-righteous?"

"Grandma, in its current condition, it probably won’t last much longer on intravenous nutritional supplements. If this continues, they won’t be able to extract genes anymore. Should we think of another way?" Her granddaughter expressed her concerns.

"No need," Ao Ci waved her hand dismissively. "The current samples are enough. The experimental conclusions are all set. It’s no longer useful; since it wishes to die so much, I’ll grant its wish."

"Should I arrange a painless euthanasia for it?"

Ao Ci shot 015 a cold glare. "No need to waste euthanasia agents. Doesn’t it want to starve itself? Among all the ways to die, it chose the most painful one. We’ll do as it wishes."

Lying in the observation room, 015 saw the figures outside leave and then noticed that the monitoring system above didn’t, as usual, try to provide him with nutritional supplements to maintain his life signs after he pulled out the supply tube. He genuinely began to fear.

His previous actions were based on the belief that he still had research value to these people. He decided to gamble his life for better treatment, but now he realized that they had given up on him entirely.

Endless fear washed over him like a tide, spreading through his mouth and nose. The dizziness from malnutrition assaulted his brain in waves. He wanted to scream, but his throat couldn’t produce a sound. Using the last bit of strength he had, he raised his hand, but only grasped at emptiness.

"015 Test Subject observation room, life support system has been shut down."

A cold mechanical female voice came from above. As soon as the words finished, all the lights in the observation room turned off in an instant, plunging 015 into complete darkness amidst despair.

Black is the base color of the universe, distant, profound, and boundless. Yet not all blacks are the same; some can be dispelled by lights, while others can swallow all light.

When sailing through the universe, one must remain fully vigilant against the extreme darkness because such scenes represent a massive gravitational field lurking in the deep void.

"Beep, fifth simulation ended."

A report came from the control room of the simulator. Soon, the darkness enveloping the Shan Hai Jing gradually receded, and the air began to fill back in slowly as the time capsule gently descended onto the flight platform.

"Nice, it’s getting more stable," Luo Yu heard Zhu Huai’s rare compliment over the cockpit intercom and smiled slightly, lifting her hand to remove her goggles.

When she opened the hatch and stepped out, she indeed saw Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao waiting for her below the flight platform.

After returning from Ji Shu’s gene medical research institute today, the three of them still had time and decided to do another Return Simulation on the simulator.

Yesterday, while piloting the Ponsuo Tribe’s time capsule to the two discontinuity points, the experience aided her own return flight significantly. Although the piloting logic of the time capsules on both sides was completely different, the long stretches of time tunnels had very similar environments. Therefore, when she returned to the Shan Hai Jing for her Return Simulation, she felt much more adept at handling the gravitational field fluctuations.

The three of them went to the control room to review today’s simulation report when the simulation system popped up a rest notification. They finished today’s simulation, got up, left the hangar, and headed towards the cave villa.

In the past couple of days, they had visited many places and heard numerous theories that challenged their understanding. Although they felt a bit fatigued physically, their spirits remained high, chatting animatedly about the content they had heard at Ji Shu’s.

Upon returning to Cave Villa No. 3, they sat in the lounge and enjoyed a drink. Luo Yu stood up and said she was going to take a shower, wishing them both "good night" before heading to her room.

After sitting for a while, Ying Zhao also felt a bit tired. As she got up to return to her room, she noticed Zhu Huai still sitting on the soft cushions, fiddling with a panel, seemingly engrossed in whatever she was watching.

Ying Zhao leaned over to take a look and saw that it was some of the historical broadcasts they had retrieved earlier, along with the misplayed footage from that incident. Just as she was about to ask Zhu Huai why she was watching this, she saw Zhu Huai tap the panel screen and say seriously, "A world like this should not be repeated in another ten thousand years."

Ying Zhao looked at Zhu Huai for a moment after hearing that, and in the soft light of the lounge, she nodded, "You’re right."