Chapter 691: Multiple Probability Composition
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. It’s not your fault. It’ll grow back in a while.” Lei Zongchao saw how surprised Meng Chao was, and he comforted him gently.
It was as he said. While he spoke, his left pinky finger grew once more, and gradually, the white bone was covered in flesh.
Meng Chao was certain that it was not cell regeneration because he did not see the blood vessels, flesh, and scabs that should appear when wounds healed by themselves.
It was as if Lei Zongchao’s pinky finger had disappeared out of the blue, then reappeared just as suddenly.
However, it looked slightly “fainter” than before. In fact, it appeared to be a little blurry.
Meng Chao blinked and focused. He still felt that Lei Zongchao’s pinky finger looked like it was surrounded by a thin layer of smoke and was about to disappear at any moment.
As for the corner of his lips, even though flesh had appeared on it again, it also gave off a semi-transparent feeling, as though it was an illusion. Meng Chao could vaguely see the teeth through the flesh.
“Master Lei, what’s going on?” Meng Chao was completely dumbfounded.
“As you can see, I’m dying.” Lei Zongchao observed his left pinky finger. No emotion could be seen on his face as he calmly said, “Perhaps, certain possible outcomes state that I am already dead. Did you see several versions of me just now? Some of them are covered in wounds, some are bleeding all over the place, some are experiencing high rates of decomposition, and some have even ended up as bones?”
Meng Chao widened his eyes and nodded vigorously.
“Those are all me in different possible situations,” Lei Zongchao explained. “You know that I have experienced countless situations where there was a high chance I would die, be it when I was exploring the ancient ruins in the past, when I was fighting against the zombies and monsters, or when I was absorbing rampaging spirit energy in order to overcome the limits of my life.
“When it comes to the law of probability, I’m already considered very lucky to be able to live until today.
“If I go through my life one more time, I wouldn’t have the confidence to replicate this luck, and it would be the same even if I repeat it one hundred times.
“Perhaps in one possible situation, I would have already died in the ancient ruins and ended up as bones. In another possible situation, I might be injured badly by zombies and monsters. Then I would be lying in bed while disfigured, struggling to live. I might have entered spirit energy deviation and turned into a deformed monster too.
“The me you see right now is in a state where I am a composite of multiple possibilities, and as I continue burning my life and use up more energy than I should, the probability of me dying will keep increasing. It’s like I have to throw a dice once every while, and once the number goes over the limit, I will really die.”
Meng Chao was absolutely befuddled, and he felt like all his years in university had been a waste because he had no idea what Lei Zongchao was saying.
“How could this be?” he could only ask stiffly.
“No one knows right now. Perhaps this is the curse of the ancient civilization.” Lei Zongchao sighed and said, “We know that Earthlings and Earth’s civilization are 3D carbon-based intelligent life forms and a 3D civilization respectively. Our greatest characteristic is that we’re fixed and unique. We are life forms who live in a linear timeline and a single s.p.a.ce. Time for us will only flow forward, and we will only appear in one single coordinate within a 3D s.p.a.ce at a given point in time.
“If we want to move from a certain coordinate in the 3D s.p.a.ce to another coordinate, we will need to spend a lot of energy and a long time to do so. Moving Dragon City and its ten million or so people from Earth to another planet on the other side of the galaxy is an impossible technology in the concept of 3D civilizations.
“But the ancient civilization is different.
“Based on the clues we’ve discovered in the ancient ruins, the ancient civilization might be a 4D civilization that has transcended time and s.p.a.ce.
“Time might be a river that flows slowly forward and will never come back, but in the eyes of the ancient civilization, it might be a long, frozen river that they can cross freely and even head upstream.
“To us, we see a boundless galaxy, but to the ancient civilization, it might be a small ball of paper that is squashed to its limits and is covered inside out with wrinkles. A thin and sharp-enough needle will be able to instantly pierce through it, and it will connect two coordinates that are billions of light-years apart.
“The ancient civilization can move about easily between different timelines and coordinates. Plus, they can exist in a few, dozens, and even hundreds of timelines and s.p.a.ces. They are composites made of multiple probabilities, and we can’t understand them. At most, we can only observe and try to experience what is going on.
“Decades ago, I explored the ancient ruins with Jin Wanhao and Jin Qianxi. One time, we accidentally entered a maze that kept changing. The tunnels in the maze changed at random, and they were filled with fatal mechanisms and traps, but that isn’t the most terrifying thing about it.
“The most terrifying thing is that even after we went through the maze for days, we never found the exit. But we noticed that some people had been tailing us quietly, and those people were always three to five meters behind us.
“At that time, all three of us were terrified.
“You must understand, at that time, we might have been young, but we had already been trained by the ancient ruins, and we gained powerful supernatural abilities from it. How could these people tail us for days without us ever noticing them?
“Also, no matter how fast we turned our bodies or heads around, we never saw our stalkers’ true faces.
“There was a faint layer of fog in the maze as well, and it’s the same as the fog that surrounds Dragon City.
“Ths stalkers hid in the fog and persistently kept a distance of three to five meters away from us. When we advanced, they retreated, when we retreated, they advanced. It was as if they were shadows that were separated from us but still connected to us.
“In the end, Jin Qianxi cracked the core mechanism in the maze, and we finally located the stalkers. We also launched the fiercest attacks on them immediately.
“I beat up one of the stalkers and threw him in a trap. However, when the stalker was devoured by the metal fangs in the trap, I finally saw the stalker’s face with the help of the dark light. It was me!
“I still don’t understand what happened to this day.
“Perhaps our bodies split into two, four, eight, sixteen, and multiple possibilities whenever we reached a fork in the maze of the ancient ruins.
“In some possible situation, we successfully figured out the mechanisms in the maze and fled to safety.
“But in another possibility, we fell into traps and were crushed to death.
“The third possibility is that we curled up into b.a.l.l.s in the maze and starved to death. Then, we rotted away and turned into bones.
“When we left the maze, all those possibilities of us dying, living, or being trapped in states of neither dying nor living gathered together and stacked on this body.”
Lei Zongchao used his blurry left pinky finger to point at his body, which was now marked by the X-shaped eye.
His words caused a storm to rage in Meng Chao’s heart.
It did not mean that Meng Chao completely understood what Lei Zongchao had said.
However, he discovered that this theory could perfectly explain Dragon City’s transmigration and why he had returned to the past.
Meng Chao thought, ‘Could my return to the past just be a part of all possible outcomes, and I jumped from one possibility to another?
‘Just what is the ancient civilization’s true nature?’
“There’s no need for you to be too bothered by this.”
When Lei Zongchao saw the contemplative and even enthralled expression on Meng Chao’s face, he waved his hand and said, “Right now, we’re still far from reaching the levels of the ancient civilization. Trying to search for the so-called ‘truth’ and ‘answer’ is like asking an elementary school student to solve university questions. You will only be led astray. You’ll spend too much time, resources, and energy on it, and it won’t be of much significance in solving the current problems we face in reality.
“With regard to my injuries, you can simply understand it as me being poisoned by a chronic poison while I was exploring the ancient ruins. The stronger I am, the stronger the poison is. After acc.u.mulating for decades, the poison has finally entered my lungs, bones, and brain. It’s time that I return the debt I owe.
“That’s why I can only stay curled up in the room made of Black Stars and soak in gene concentrate filled with spirit energy and nutritional substances. With this method, I can somewhat control my vitality magnetic field and retain the last shreds of my life.”
Meng Chao thought. ‘A’Ji is right.’
Lei Zongchao’s injuries were indeed worse than Jin Wanhao’s.
In fact, it was not a matter of him being injured badly. Instead, in certain possibilities, he was already dead.
Jin Wanhao’s hidden injuries had been solved by him regaining his youth.
Conversely, even if Lei Zongchao’s cells were all renewed, they might still not stop the probability of him dying from increasing endlessly.
That was indeed what had happened in his previous life.
The legendary Battle G.o.d had died during the final moments of the Monster War.
This year, Meng Chao might have to work even harder if he wanted to change Lei Zongchao’s fate.
With that thought in mind, Meng Chao became even more puzzled. “Master Lei, if that’s the case, why…?”
‘Why did you still risk having the probability of your death largely increase and activating your vitality magnetic field at maximum force by insisting on cleansing my marrows and filling me with spirit energy?’
“You don’t have to find it strange, Meng Chao. I actually noticed your presence a long time ago, and it’s far earlier than you imagined.”
As he saw Meng Chao’s confusion, Lei Zongchao smiled and said, “When you taught your high school cla.s.smates the modified Reckless Bull Force and helped Yan Hengbo develop Ripple Force V2, I knew that another amazing rising star had appeared in Dragon City.”
Meng Chao felt surprised but also embarra.s.sed.
Nonetheless, the moment he thought about it, it made sense. Who was Lei Zongchao? The legendary Battle G.o.d. Even if his maximum fighting strength could no longer compare to his peak, his judgment had grown better. Naturally, he could tell just what kind of terrifying potential was hidden in the future versions of Reckless Bull Force and Ripple Force.
However, Meng Chao’s trick of creating the Old Fire Relayer should not be able to deceive him, considering Lei Zongchao’s level of judgment.
It was hard for Meng Chao to explain how he had come upon the two future martial arts just by saying that he was talented.
Meng Chao felt a little troubled, but Lei Zongchao waved his hand and did not bother about the details. “The most important reason why I’m able to live until now despite the countless death possibilities piling on me is that I don’t stick my nose where it doesn’t belong!
“I don’t care how you came upon your power, I only care whether you will use your power to do more things for Dragon City, your comrades, and our civilization.
“By the looks of it now, you’ve done a good job over the past few years. The new martial arts storm you stirred has created a brand new path for Dragon Citizens, be it the upgraded versions of Reckless Bull Force and Ripple Force, or the new fighting model created by the Ultimate Style.
“That alone is enough for me to do my best to help you, don’t you think so?”