“Xuan, want to see the stars?”
Xuan slowly opened his eyes. Zheng was standing there kneading his fingers, looking as if he wanted to hit him. However, Xuan did something strange. His eyes were actually slightly moist, and his appearance of sitting there blankly terrified Zheng and Honglu, who had come for his admission of guilt, and making the rest stand there foolishly.
“I didn’t want to hit you. Haha, I didn’t want to hit you. No, I didn’t…” Zheng was scared stupid, and began to stammer. For a time, he didn’t know what he was saying.
“I had a dream.” Xuan ignored him, only standing up and pushing his spectacles up. He silently walked out to the ship. Everyone curiously followed him, only to see this man not uttering a word, only walking to the deck and staring at the sky.
“The stars?” Xuan’s mouth muttered.
“The stars? Are you kidding? How could you see the stars in such a storm?” Zheng stood behind him, looking at the sky as well. That misty sky and never ending rain, as well as that flashing purple lighting, as if lightning dragons were roaming within. Within this Perfect Storm, not even mentioning seeing stars, just a moment of inattention may make you yourself a star in the sky.
“Zheng, team East Sea is that way.” Xuan pointed to the distant darkness.
“So, what Honglu said was true? You already deducted all this, dammit! Isn’t this situation extremely dangerous? Even if you don’t say it out loud, would it hurt to remind Honglu about it?” Zheng was enraged upon hearing this, and grabbed Xuan’s collar, pulling his head over as he shouted.
Xuan wasn’t angered, but instead looked to Honglu. “You… have you matured yet?”
Honglu froze momentarily, and was silent for a moment before nodding quietly.
“Although I don’t want to admit it, you only won by luck this time. If not for clone Zheng, how would you have obtained such useful information? You might really have ended up hoodwinked if you relied on just your probability, while I would have used my intuition to make some changes to the scheme. These changes would surely have saved team China!” Honglu said, his head lowered.
“Victory is victory, losses are losses. There are no ‘ifs’, and probability isn’t as inflexible as you think it is. It includes guesses and intuition. Since we’re the main characters, other parts can be amended if there are flaws in the probability. You have never understood this.” As before, Xuan raised his head, gazing at the skies. However, his words caused everyone to feel confused.
“No need to feel confused. I saw this while decoding the Cultivation manuals. At first, I thought the words ‘main characters’ meant someone outstanding, but as more and more was decoded, I found that the meaning of these two words was not as I imagined. It was meant literally, as a novel’s main characters…”
With a faint sigh, he said to the others, “Let’s go in to talk. This topic will probably take a long time…and what we need to do now is conserve our power, with the battle with team East Sea fast approaching.” Done talking, he ignored the rest and walked to the ship’s insides.
Everyone felt helplessly, and could only follow in his footsteps. Only Lin Juntian looked on uncomprehendingly, asking Cheng Xiao, “Is he always… er, doing things at his own pace like this?”
Cheng Xiao paused, then scratched his head. “Doing things at his own pace? No, it should be called a weirdo-like madness. He has indeed always been like this. Keep your voice low. He’ll take revenge if he hears you.”
“Errr… isn’t your voice a little too loud?”
“Cough, cough…”
Not discussing the other’s doubts and chatting, everyone followed Xuan into a cabin. As they sat down, Xuan said, “My words before weren’t said wrongly. The ‘main characters’ mentioned in the Cultivation manuals were meant literally, a novels one and only main character. It can be an individual, a group, a country or a race.”
Wangxia was the most sensitive towards this topic, and hurriedly took out his fantasy book. “Are you referring to the ‘main character’ here? The kind where they’re unkillable, where even if the world ends, they can still find another world to continue surviving in? That can’t be possible.”
“Nothing so exaggerated. Still, from the meaning of the words itself… the ‘main characters’ mentioned in Cultivation manuals are of this meaning.” Xuan nodded.
“I’ve always been wondering. Why was God’s Realm built? What purpose was it entrusted with? From what we know, it was firstly to produce new Saints or Cultivators. Now, in a time when all ancient powers are completely lost, for this batch of us and those who’ve already returned to the real world before, we can more or less increase humanity’s power. This is no matter how weak or strong we are, and even if we completely overturn society or wreck current scientific progress, just as long as humanity doesn’t become extinct. This is why God’s Realm permits slaver teams.”
“The second user should be a refuge from calamity, I think. We already guessed this long ago. When humanity reaches the moment of extermination, God’s Realm shall serve as a sanctuary. This proves that the Saints and Cultivators suffered a crushing defeat when they and the box creators challenged each other. Their sole path of retreat had been this box within a box. As for whether it could resist the box creators, that’s another matter. Whatever the case, that’s the second use of God’s Realm.”
Zheng and the rest exchanged a look. Their eyes were still filled with confusion. It was no longer just incomprehension, but a certainty that Xuan had done something bad, which was related to them.
“The third use… At first, this was merely a theory of mine. Later on, I gradually grew certain of it. At this moment when I should have failed, your clone suddenly appeared in this world and also gave me a hint. So, I’m growing more and more certain, no, it’s basically confirmed that, we are the ‘main characters’!”
This time, Xuan didn’t pause. “According to the second law of thermodynamics, the disorderly state of the universe, ‘entropy’, has been increasing continuously since the start of the universe. I’ll put this in simpler terms. The universe began as a point of infinitely large mass and infinitely small volume. Since the Big Bang, the generated mass, time and space has been expanding unendingly. The disorderly state of the universe is thus continuously increasing. This disorderly chaotic state is known as ‘entropy’, and is irreversible according to the second law of thermodynamics, like how hot water cools or a compressed spring becomes uncoiled when released. Reversing this state requires external energy to be put in.”
“I found causality-type weapons in God’s Realm.” Xuan suddenly snapped his fingers, and an extremely beautiful radiance, produced by his causality-type weapon, the Lambda Driver, being used appeared at the tip of his finger.
“Causality-type weapons can also be considered a philosophical weapon as its existence overturns the theories in modern science. Although relativity and quantum theory faintly suggests the possibility of this kind of weapon, it’s just a possibility. But when this possibility becomes reality, then the theory of relativity and quantum theory will put forward a conclusion at the same time, that the future is changeable.”
Xuan looked around him. Everyone’s expression was getting more and more perplexed, with Honglu no exception. They had a look of incomprehension. Xuan frowned slightly, but he didn’t stop. Continuing as before, “Those who use causality-type weapons will be rejected by the universe. The universe’s entropy is constantly increasing, while causality-type weapons are of the opposite. Its existence makes disorder continuously have order. One point in time’s change will cause the change of countless time periods under the butterfly effect. However, the world, or time itself, has an inertia to it. It would after a period of time correct the changes made, until the entire time was reverted to normal. In the process, those possessing causality-type weapons will be rejected by the universe and time, and their characteristic will be constant ill fortune.”
“Funny, isn’t it? I don’t find it funny. Under the constant advancements of the ancient Saints and Cultivators, causality-type weapons were finally invented. This phenomenon was discovered by them at the same time, and until they confirmed the existence of the box creators, they weren’t able to avoid this rejection. I think the first reason for the extermination of the Saints and Cultivators likely had to do with the proliferation of their causality-type weapons. Secondly, it’s about the words I spoke of, ‘main characters’. Whether television shows, novels, movies, games, they would all have ‘main characters’. If you go through the whole creation, you’ll find those within that have peerless luck and opportunities. With the creation of causality-type weapons, Saints and Cultivators discovered the existence of ‘main characters’. No matter what exactly the box we’re in is, perhaps we’re just the characters in a movie, television show, game, or a novel to the box creators. This is all just as well, but what if we’re the ‘main characters’ of this box? Like the ‘main characters’ in a novel, the causality-type weapons won’t hinder us. Only then does the words ‘main character’ in the Cultivation manuals make sense. This is the third point I’ve never confirmed. This God’s Realm could be a place to manufacture ‘main characters’. I don’t know the connection between here and the real world box, but if we could become ‘main characters’ there as well… resisting the box creators won’t be just a dream.”
“So, I’ve been trying to continuously determine if we’re the ‘main characters’, or if my theory holds true. In Independence Day, Eragon, in this movie world… This time, I should have failed, but I managed to obtain that important information from clone Zheng through a fortunate coincidence. If a main character truly exists, we, team China, are the ones of this novel! Of course, it’s unknown if perhaps we’re in a movie, a television show or a game.”
