Chapter 741 Reality and Illusion

The glow on the horizon was gradually receding, and the last ray of golden light before the sun set down the mountain slanted into the cave where Hao Ren and Nolan were temporarily hiding, coating everything in the cave with mottled and moving pale golden light and shadow. Nolan leaned sideways on the huge tire of the mountain bike, half of his body bathed in the sunset, and half of his body hidden in the darkness. She breathed out: "When did we start talking about it... I can't remember when I first realized that something was wrong with the world. About a few thousand years ago? Or maybe earlier. The earliest scene in my memory is I went on vacation with my family in the countryside of the Southern Hemisphere, and then somehow woke up and became a warehouse keeper for a certain company... There is no point in tracing these long-standing events, since they are just messy experiences that are repeated over and over again. Sometimes I die in an accident, and after resurrecting I find that the world has completely changed. Sometimes it happens like today. Without death, the whole world suddenly changes, and in the blink of an eye I have a new identity and identity. New teammates. I don’t even know if the passage of time I feel is real - maybe it all just happened a few hours ago, and the starting point of all the worlds was a few hours ago... but that’s okay significance."

Hao Ren listened quietly. There were too many questions in his mind, but he couldn't put them in order. He simply asked whatever came to mind: "Is there any law for the reset of the world?"

"There is no pattern," Nolan shook his head. "Sometimes it resets once every few decades, and sometimes it changes within a few years. The shortest reset cycle in my memory is two years, and the longest one is nearly two years." century - I died twice during that period. When I woke up, I found that the world stage was still going on, but my identity had changed. At that time, I was surprised and naively thought that this reincarnation had finally stabilized, but the result was that the world stage was still going on, but my identity had changed. There was a reset on the afternoon of the second resurrection."

Hao Ren nodded. It seems that the world does not use Nolan's death as a reset switch. If the world is stable for too long, Nolan's reincarnation will become a resurrection with a changed identity, just like a After the game character went offline, he opened a small account and logged in elsewhere. In this way, although the girl in front of me is special, she should not be the cause and effect of this chaotic world.

"After every reset, everyone and everything in this world will gain new identities and 'settings', and interpersonal relationships, international relations, world situations, culture, religion, and even technological models will all change," Nolan said. Ren fell into thinking and thought that this person who had experienced "awakening reincarnation" for the first time was confused, so he explained casually, "I also studied the map and found that the topography of the entire world has also changed. Sometimes there are several patches on the planet. Continent, sometimes there is only one mother continent. There are also changes in plants and animals, but the changes are not too big. Those species are always randomly matched, and at most there are changes in the distribution area... But you should also say this I don’t understand, it’s your first time retaining memory, so you probably haven’t accumulated much knowledge yet.”

Nolan has experienced thousands of years of reincarnation, and the amount of knowledge she has accumulated is astonishing. Being an expert scholar in any field is probably not a problem, so it is normal for her to digress into ecology. When she was in the Gray Fox Mercenary Group, her reticence was just because she couldn't find anyone to talk to, but now it was obvious that she regarded Hao Ren as a companion.

Hao Ren shook his head: "It's okay. I also know a little about ecological issues. In short, if you say so, this world is a bit like some kind of sandbox game? Let's assume there is a director or program controlling it. Everything, it pulls some materials from a library to generate a 'world' every time?"

"Did you infer from the forms of animals and plants I just mentioned?" Nolan looked at Hao Ren with some surprise, "I didn't expect you to have a wide range of interests. You are right, I thought so too, this The world is really like a program that constantly generates maps automatically...but even if these are real, it is useless, we have no control over these.”

Hao Ren didn't hear Nolan's last words because he was thinking about some deeper issues that went beyond this worldview. He was convinced that he was currently in the dream plane, which meant that there was 100% a real world outside the planet "Droam". He thought of Heaton's diary and Ulanov's epiphany before his death. If this world Is it virtual or false...then where is its interface with the real world? Since Heaton and Ulanov can suddenly realize the illusion of the world, it means that this virtual world is not perfect, and there must be some kind of violation in it!

"Population!" Hao Ren suddenly raised his head and looked at Nolan, "Has the population changed every time the world is reset?"

Nolan was a little confused: "Population? Does this matter?"

"Heaton once said that this world is fake, and Ulanov said something similar before he died," Hao Ren explained, "If the world is fake, then do you think the people in the world are real?" What?"

Nolan's eyes widened slightly: "Do you suspect that other humans in the world are NPCs?"

"No, I think they are all true," Hao Ren waved his hand, "That's why I asked you about the population. According to your situation, you will be resurrected after death, which shows that there is no such thing in the 'mechanism' of this world. With the 'caching' function, every real human being will immediately appear in another part of the world with a new identity after death. So if all the people in this world really exist, then the population should not change each time the world is reset. As the world develops, human beings are born, old, sick and die, and the total population will not change. But if the total population of the world is different every time it is reset, it means that at least some humans are NPCs, and the real number of humans should depend on the importance of the world. Set the minimum population value at a certain time in the cycle."

Nolan looked at Hao Ren in surprise: "Is this really your first time experiencing a 'reset'?"

"Why do you ask this suddenly?"

"You have considered these questions very deeply, and you have obviously considered them in a very calm and thoughtful manner." Nolan looked at Hao Ren with doubt in his eyes, "I have never thought about it so deeply in my first few reincarnations. Then Sometimes I just want to live a little longer - but you seem to think it doesn't matter at all."

There was still half a sentence left in her mind: This analytical attitude was like that of an outsider.

Hao Ren had cold sweat on his forehead and thought to himself that this girl's senses were really frighteningly sharp. He smiled dryly and diverted Nolan's attention: "Ahem, it doesn't matter. Just think that I am born with a big nerve. If it doesn't work, you can continue to think that I am crazy..."

Nolan: "...I have never thought about the population issue you mentioned, but your idea is very novel and very reasonable. I have not paid special attention to this population issue, but I have occasionally seen several population surveys before. According to reports, I think the population of this world should not change much in each reset cycle... maybe it is completely equal. After all, the world is very big and there are many humans. The census can never be accurate. As long as this A slight change in the 'program' behind the world can prevent humans from realizing that the world's population remains constant."

At the end of the sentence, she twitched the corner of her mouth and revealed a sarcastic smile: "And this world only lasts for a few years and decades at a time. There is not enough time for people to discover any abnormalities."

Hao Ren frowned: "So the humans in this world should all be real... just thrown into a constantly refreshing sandbox stage?"

At this time, he really felt like his outlook on life had collapsed. He realized that his previous exploration and wandering in this world for a long time had no meaning at all. The truth of this world was hidden under a layer of bizarre bubbles. The so-called nanomachine swarm, The Northland Ring Tower and World War turned out to be just a stage play. Thinking of this, he laughed at himself: "Tsk tsk... I was still passionately trying to figure out whether the out-of-control nanomachine swarm sixty-five years ago was the key to the problem. But after working on it for a long time, let alone the key, it wasn't even the problem - "That didn't happen at all..."

"No," Nolan suddenly interrupted him, "I'm afraid there is something really fishy about this incident."

Hao Ren: "Huh?"

"In recent resets, the world has shown similar trends," Nolan said with a serious face. "No matter what the world setting is at the beginning, it will eventually evolve into a global war, a situation where weapons are out of control, A round of doomsday. Last time, the nanomachine swarm went out of control, and the last time, the global nuclear bomb went out of control, and before that, the satellite weapons were tampered with by AI... The scripts are slightly different, but the final process is almost exactly the same - the entire world is going to perish. "

(There were strong winds and hailstorms here yesterday afternoon, and the power was out in the community and surrounding areas. It has not been restored yet... This chapter was uploaded using a laptop + mobile phone hotspot. The last bit of power in the power bank has been exhausted. If it doesn’t happen tomorrow, If it recovers... then it’s really hopeless.)