Capítulo 975: Chapter 975: Naughty Kid
This is a perplexing yet fascinating conjecture: Suppose there is such a thing, it exists somewhere tangibly, yet neither you nor anyone you know has ever heard of any information related to this thing. You don’t know its appearance, don’t know its origin, don’t know its location, and don’t even know if it exists. No one has ever told you that such a thing exists somewhere in the world. At the same time, this thing will not affect you in any way, whether it be its birth, evolution, or extinction, it will not intersect with your information in any way.
So, does it truly exist for you?
When this thing disappears for some reason, does this event truly occur for you?
Such is the situation where many worlds were supposed to be discovered, but ultimately no one found these worlds. They were unknown to you from the moment of their birth, and left no trace after their destruction. You cannot find any evidence that this world ever existed, or was ever destroyed, and can only speculate from some statistical figures and experience, oh, there should have been something here, but now they are all gone—even their doomsday can only be concluded by deduction, yet it’s a conclusion that can never be proven or disproven by sight.
This is what happens during the Void Catastrophe.
“The specific timing might forever remain uncertain because you cannot determine when something that only statistically existed perished—if you identified this time point, then this thing wouldn’t have perished because you already know it exists; however, in the Void Catastrophe, none of the discovered worlds perished,” Chen Xiaoxue gently explains. “Upon realizing no undiscovered new worlds remained in the Void, my uncle sensed something was amiss. Hence, he hypothesized that the essence of the Void Catastrophe should be a grand reshuffling with immunity rules; worlds spared share a common trait, that is, they can connect with Void creatures—even just a slight connection suffices. For instance, if an Imperial Soldier had ever visited this world, then this world equates to having formed a link with Dad, even though your subjective consciousness hasn’t perceived this world, it could survive the Void Catastrophe. Meanwhile, worlds with no contact at all with Void creatures were ruthlessly erased; nonetheless, this process lacks solid evidence. After all, apart from statistical regularities, no evidence proves those worlds truly existed.”
“Subsequent events further corroborated this theory: The investigators you dispatched started finding the first unfamiliar new world after a continuous period of operation, but this new world had only just been born, its age so brief as to be negligible. Afterward, everything seemed back on track, with newly discovered worlds emerging continually, albeit at a slower pace than before the Catastrophe. These new worlds share a common characteristic: youthfulness, newly born in recent times.”
“The old generation of Ownerless Worlds was instantly cleared away, then the Void began storing new data akin to a formatted database,” Sandora gazed into my eyes. “Some worlds survived the formatting, solely because they had at least a minimal connection with Void creatures. Such occurrences, even to the Xyrin Apostle, are genuinely terrifying. Ah Jun, your understanding of the Void should be the most straightforward; do you think the Void holds this…this tendency?”
Sandora tried to find an appropriate term to describe the essence of the Void Catastrophe but, in broader terms, the Void lacks personality. Therefore, in the end, she could only use the slightly anthropomorphic term “tendency.”
“I truly cannot be certain,” I smiled wryly, rubbing my forehead, “I do have a sense of the Void, but how to put it…”
“Creatures trapped in a two-dimensional world can never understand what height means,” Sandora insightfully remarked, “No matter how we imagine, we cannot understand the sensations you feel in the state of a Void creature, you yourself cannot explain it clearly.”
“That’s exactly it.”
“Now then, all we need to know is that the Void Catastrophe is bound to happen, but no one can directly witness this process,” Sandora started piecing together bit by bit the known information. “Chen Xiaoxue—assuming your words are entirely accurate, then when did the Void Catastrophe occur?”
“An uncertain time,” Chen Xiaoxue spread her hands and leaned on the table, “Alright, let me first explain my situation, or else you might always think I traveled from the future—strictly speaking, the Chen Xiaoxue before you doesn’t actually exist; the real me is located at some point after the Void Catastrophe, but that point hasn’t started yet. In other words, what you see before you is merely an illusion piled up by Possibility, akin to an information cluster from a future moment projected to now. From your perspective, you could even assume I don’t exist: like a conjecture, please regard me as a conjecture before any concrete evidence emerges. Now, let me pause while you sort things out.”
I feel that even if she paused, I wouldn’t understand much—the situation is more complicated than having a monkey on a tree and another at the base of the tree.
Nonetheless, Lin Xue, as a Prophet, often deals with such logical issues, and this time understood: “You mean, you’re equivalent to a probe launched into the current timeline by future Chen Xiaoxue, but theoretically this probe lacks a physical form; you’re an information set.”
“Probe is quite accurate, but a more precise term is ‘inevitability yet to occur’,” she chuckled and nodded, “The Void Catastrophe could begin in ten years or ten billion years. Regardless of when it happens, five years post-catastrophe I will be born, yet in the current Timeline, this is merely a ‘inevitable event’ rather than a ‘real event.’ Information decides everything; when all predetermined information is constrained properly and all interfering factors are calculated comprehensively, even unoccurred events can hold practical significance. That’s the origin of this name ‘Chen Xiaoxue’ before you this virtual projection; I’m not the real Chen Xiaoxue but, aside from this concept, everything about me is entirely equivalent to the real Chen Xiaoxue. This process is slightly lengthy to explain, so let me simplify it: The Void Catastrophe affects everything at once. You could say at that time, the entire Void’s information reaches unprecedented harmony. In such harmonious state, all intelligence forms an equation. Direct descendants of Void creatures—not just me—uncle also had his genuine descendant afterward (currently the two Little Princesses of the Divine Race were born from the sword of Father God). We, these descendants, call ourselves ‘The Void’s Answer,’ while the entire Void’s pre-catastrophe information collection is termed ‘Equation.’ My other name is ‘Eternal Existence,’ meaning, as an Answer, I exist within calculation equations of all worlds—ah, finally the word to best describe is found, Dad, Mom, before you is not truly a daughter traversed from future but a mathematically concluded Answer, equal sign linked to the original yet equivalent to two independently existing factors…”
I continued racking my brain, tentatively asking after a long while: “For example, like classic mathematics where one plus one equals two, the Void Catastrophe reset all information forming a temporarily archived ‘harmonization moment,’ within this environment the two ‘ones’ and ‘plus sign’ are determined, thus even before anyone pressed the ‘equals’ key ‘two’ is already a foregone reality despite not yet appearing—you and Lin Xue are that ‘equals’ key, and you are that ‘two’ destined even without birth?”
“Sort of like that, but let me correct: The Void Catastrophe is the ‘equals,’ you and Mom are the hand pressing the equals key,” Chen Xiaoxue smiled brightly, looking over here, “Additionally could you refrain from calling me the ‘two’? The actual Chen Xiaoxue is ‘two,’ I’m ‘equals two,’ I’m on the left side of the equation.”
Everyone: “…”
“As Dad stated, from your current time point perspective, that’s the kind of existence I am,” Chen Xiaoxue concluded, “From your timeline, I am yet to be born, but my birth exists as a definite trajectory that will occur. In a certain period of the future, the real ‘Chen Xiaoxue’ will have her life experiences, but those experiences won’t affect the timeline beside you now, simply because only at the moment of the Void Catastrophe does my life truly commence, yet before that moment in the present, you are facing merely an unrecorded calculated conclusion, just a mere Answer not the complete equation, it won’t impact the entire mathematical system—Oh dear, confusing much?”
I think at this moment everyone is confused, only Sandora can keep thinking. She looked at my cheap daughter, “So, you’re just the expected result calculated in advance by this formula, the actual calculation hasn’t started yet. Your existence is theoretical, and until the Void Cataclysm actually happens, you can’t affect anything. Everything you do will be corrected at the macro level — because your equation hasn’t been unfolded yet?”
“Exactly, so don’t expect to get the future direction or the final result from me. I don’t know, and what I know might not even happen. After all, an equation doesn’t have just one way of being written; a vertical form and a horizontal form are two historical directions, but the final answer is the same. In this respect, this half-future person of mine knows less than my mom. Whatever, let’s not discuss this topic anymore, my dad is about to fall asleep.”
Everyone: “…”
“Alright, alright, one last question:” Sister waved her hand, then smiled and looked at her, “Although theoretically there’s nothing to doubt, I still want to ask, you should at least provide more concrete evidence to prove your identity, so this can prove all your theories. Is that too much to ask?”
“I knew you’d have to ask this,” Chen Xiaoxue immediately put on a well-prepared expression, smugly looking around, “This is all top-secret information: Mother Qianqian has a small red birthmark on the left side of her chest, my biological mom occasionally bites the pillow while sleeping at night, and will bite my dad in the future. My dad has a black spot on the right side of his PP. Dingdang Ah… sister is here too? You have a habit of grabbing a thread when sleeping in my dad’s pocket to prevent yourself from falling out, because buttoning from inside is difficult, and it’s even more troublesome to get out after buttoning up. Also, my second uncle is left-handed, if you don’t believe me, ask back in the Divine Realm… huh, what kind of look is that, it’s not inappropriate for my dad to bathe his own daughter when I was little, right? I can still share this kind of information with my future self.”
Lin Xue gritted her teeth and said, “Alright, we believe—now I finally know why I feel so much like hitting someone!”
I patted Lin Xue’s shoulder comfortingly, “Children need discipline, how did this girl grow up like this?”
Upon hearing this, Miss’s face instantly turned red. Apparently, after being freed from Chen Xiaoxue’s theoretical bombardment, she finally realized again how shocking this earth-shattering news was: a daughter! A daughter who, although not yet born, is inescapably standing before her in this appearance! What concept is this for an arrogant and shy Miss? Anyway, for the always strong Lin Xue, this time she was unprecedentedly at a loss. Seeing the expression on her biological mom’s face, Chen Xiaoxue seemed to have instantly guessed what the other was thinking, and cheerfully said, “Mom, don’t be embarrassed. You and dad have such a good relationship, right? Also, you can think this is a good thing, at least it seems like you won’t have to learn how to feed me… oh right, dad, when are we going home to eat?”
Lin Xue’s face was almost turning purplish-red, she suddenly grabbed my arm, with strength seemingly enough to pull off a section, “Wood! Can I strangle Rebirth then?!”
Absolutely blinded by anger, the normally intelligent Miss would never say something so bold. She’s now even looking for an unnoticed corner just for a kiss with me.
Chen Xiaoxue (alright, maybe I now have the stance and qualification to directly call her Xiaoxue) made a hurt expression, “Mom, don’t be like this; you’ll get used to having such an intelligent daughter over time. See, I mostly behave, and like dad, I also know some Void knowledge, which will surely be useful for you now. More importantly, don’t you think I’m super cute? I worked hard to grow this face! When I was a kid, I’d just browse movie star photos for fun, and every morning in the mirror—hey, cute to death!”
Me: “…”
Regarding this strange little girl named Chen Xiaoxue, whom I don’t know how to classify, Sandora and I finally decided to accept it as a fait accompli, because even the most advanced scientists probably couldn’t straighten out her condition on different timelines, let alone figure out the causal relationship between her and the Void Cataclysm. I’ll just take it as if an oddly weird daughter suddenly appeared in my family, after all, I’ve already been accustomed to such things. Of course, we’ll still need to learn about the things we don’t know from her whenever we have time. Now the fleet is already on its way home, and it won’t take much time to return to Shadow Space. The only troublesome issue is how to deal with the thousands of Abyssalized Battleships that have followed along. According to Xiaoxue, they are all “presents for dad,” yet this gift feels quite troublesome to me.
There are over 300 battleships of the Eternal Level and equivalent mother ships/carriers among the Abyssalized Battleships, with five or six thousand medium main battleships like the Expedition Class. The remaining number of support battleships and special service ships totals around two thousand. As for the single-soldier fighter jets and assault ships, escort ships, and other small craft already collected in the mother ship’s Gnaku, they aren’t counted. All these combined, it’s already a sizable Group Army. Hosting such a massive group of Abyssalized ships in Shadow Space is an unprecedented matter, and accompanying this fleet are tens of thousands of Fallen Apostle soldiers and an immeasurable number of War Puppets, all billowing black smoke.
I can imagine if they landed brazenly at the Starport, the scene would be spectacular. The first unfortunate one to land might be sliced into four or five hundred pieces by Vega before Sandora and I could react, then served daily in small segments dipped in Helium-3…
We have already informed the Command Center of the events here. The officers of the Shadow Fortress have no objections to the Emperor’s decisions, but they did raise concerns over the Fallen Apostle army landing at the capital, fearing it would cause panic among others. Although there are currently a handful of Fallen Apostles within the Imperial Army, three people aren’t the same as 300 thousand. Sandora and I decided to temporarily let these Fallen Apostle fleets land in Shadow Space but station them far from the Mother Star and Shadow City. At the edge of Shadow Space near the boundary with the Void Domain, there are some planets being assembled. These massive planets can be used as Colonization Stars before they’re equipped with weapons. The “Rebel Army Fleet” of Fallen Apostles will temporarily dock there.
Chen Xiaoxue didn’t stop talking all the way, enthusiastically sharing her heroic exploits with us (which should be the exploits of the real future Chen Xiaoxue; it’s still valid since she’s in projection relation with the original), as well as addressing the concern of everyone: how she, from the future, appeared before us in a ‘projection’-like state.
“At some point in the future, I am a researcher very interested in history before the Void Cataclysm, so I worked with Chen Xiaoqian—yes, dad, that’s how adept you are at naming. That’s the daughter of you and Mother Qianqian, a year younger than me. Chen Xiaoqian and I were exploring how to go back to the time before the Cataclysm. If the Cataclysm is regarded as what happens at the equal sign of an equation, then children of other Void Creatures and us are results on the same side of that equal sign. On the other side, corresponding to us, is the equation, and due to the irreversibility of the Cataclysm, if the result directly goes beyond the equal sign, the equation will collapse. In other words, we can’t let our entity cross the point of the Void Cataclysm. My sister thinks broadly, she said that since we can’t freely swap things on both sides of an equal sign, one side can be transformed. Like ‘two plus two’ and ‘two times two’ is the same idea. Vertical and horizontal forms can get the same result, and decimal points and fractions can represent non-integers. By altering the form of the equation on one side of the equal sign, it can be reorganized from disordered data into something extremely similar outcome—however, we can’t alter the equation ourselves. Thus, one must use the hands of others, requiring a bunch of useful fools to perform a series of extremely complex operations, only then letting them dumbly ‘trigger’ me…
This should have been a shocking enough piece of news, at least Sandora’s face changed dramatically in front of this information.
So… the two future kids, just to satisfy their curiosity, have designed a huge trap, and the Fallen Apostles are just their tools. The “Void Creature Cloning Plan” which the Fallen Apostles invested heavily in was a scam from the very beginning, made merely to allow Chen Xiaoxue’s projection to appear before the Void Cataclysm had happened. (Alright, you, the first batch of people, I have revealed enough, in order to understand what happened next, please buy the book. Your support is my greatest motivation.)