This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!-Chapter 203 - Neither Is Reliable (Third Update)
Chapter 203: Chapter 203: Neither Is Reliable (Third Update)
Chapter 203: Chapter 203: Neither Is Reliable (Third Update)
Chen Ke and Sam were startled, not knowing why Dr. Jiu Lin would say that.
“He is a level 9 special agent from the Administration Bureau, you know that, right…?” Chen Ke asked.
“Of course, I know. In fact, we were always acting together before this…” Dr. Jiu Lin said.
“Together…?” Sam interjected.
Dr. Jiu Lin walked to the table, operated the computer, and opened a map interface that looked to be self-developed, marked with many building names and notes.
“Yes, our institute had a research facility in Carefree City. I was conducting research inside when the incident occurred, and Ying Baiyi was also working in this city… To my knowledge, he was one of the only two level 9 special agents in Carefree City,” Dr. Jiu Lin said.
“The only two… hmm… it sounds like you ended up acting together, and you must have been with a large group of survivors,” Chen Ke said.
When Ying Baiyi found Sam, he was followed by more than a dozen survivors, and at that time, Chen Ke felt that something was off about them.
They did not seem like victims of a subway accident, but more like refugees who had been displaced for a long time.
“That’s right, Ying Baiyi and another level 9 special agent, along with a dozen or so lower-level special agents, and more than twenty investigators from various Spiritual Businesses, plus a dozen or so doctors from the institute—we were searching for any remaining people while trying to hold on and wait for rescue,” Dr. Jiu Lin said.
Needless to say, no one came to rescue them, because given the urban population density of the Western world, everyone was powerless to help each other after such an incident.
And that’s not even to mention those monsters.
Chen Ke did not know if the bird creatures would appear during the day, but based on Ying Baiyi’s warnings, they did not seem to swarm during daylight but could still be attracted by noise.
Ying Baiyi had once told Chen Ke not to try driving, which suggested he definitely must have attempted it personally.
“Where are those special agents now…?” Sam asked.
Chen Ke wanted to know as well, as the Administration Bureau had plenty of Holy Relics, Spiritual Guns, and teams of Spiritual Ability Users. In every city, they were some of the most capable fighters.
“They made tremendous sacrifices; many of them died at the hands of those monsters, and some were reduced to ash,” Dr. Jiu Lin sighed.
“What a pity, you must have had a lot of survivors at one point. When Ying Baiyi ran into us, he only had a dozen or so,” Sam shook his head.
“A dozen or so… Where are they now…?” Dr. Jiu Lin asked.
Chen Ke glanced at Sam and said, “We got separated from them, he and I had some disagreements; he was insistent on leaving the city, but I wanted to find a safe underground place.”
Dr. Jiu Lin did not respond but pinched her chin in thought for a while, as if trying to find some clue.
“He didn’t simply want to leave the city,” she muttered to herself, pacing back and forth in front of the table.
“What do you think his goal was? To seek help?” Chen Ke asked tentatively.
“No, he’s clearer about the current situation than anyone… His only goal was to leave this world…” Dr. Jiu Lin said.
Chen Ke did not speak; he had already pinpointed the crux of the issue.
It was clear that this world was beyond hope, whether it was an alternate timeline or something else entirely. In any case, all who were still alive and in the know wanted to escape from here.
Ying Baiyi had said that finding the subway Chen Ke and his party had been on was the way to escape. This was essentially the same as what Dr. Jiu Lin had said about finding the entangled singularity of space and time.
The subway had gone through a process of displacement just before the collision. That was when the entanglement occurred. After the impact, Chen Ke and the others weren’t on the original subway anymore. They were on a subway in this world.
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Would the original subway still be in this world?
Chen Ke couldn’t tell Dr. Jiu Lin what Ying Baiyi had said about the subway. After all, he had known the doctor for barely half an hour, and just like with Ying Baiyi, he couldn’t fully trust him.
And he could tell that Jiu Lin and Ying Baiyi didn’t have a good relationship.
Both of their words could only be halfway trusted because if each stuck to their story, there would be no reference point in the end.
They might lie for their own purposes, but pure lies were never as deceiving as half-truths.
If one could discern the half lies they told, the truth could be pieced together.
It sounded easy, but making such judgments was extremely difficult. It required relying on Diana’s experience and knowledge from the Administration Bureau.
“I would like to ask you about time travel, Doctor,” Chen Ke said.
Jiu Lin nodded.
“This is the year 2006, right? If you leave this world and go to… say, 2005, or 2008…” Chen Ke said.
“I understand your confusion, Chen Ke. You’re referring to the time paradox,” Jiu Lin said.
Chen Ke clapped his hands.
“I don’t know, honestly. Time travel has been interpreted in many novels and films, but none are accurate, nor can they be. No one can traverse time and space… As I’ve said, science can only falsify, not prove. Guesses that cannot be tested experimentally will always remain guesses,” Jiu Lin said.
“I’ve seen some time travel movies and novels, and there are generally two ways they deal with paradoxes. One is a lazy method where the transmigrator creates a new timeline, which is a parallel universe, and they don’t interfere with each other. The other is that there is always only one timeline, but at the end of the story, it turns out to be a loop because something the protagonist does at the end is what caused the events at the beginning…” Sam interjected.
“Pardon my bluntness, but if a time travel story or movie adopts the parallel universe concept, then it loses the meaning of time travel because you’re not changing your past or future but going to a new world. What kind of time travel is that…?” Chen Ke commented.
“I didn’t think I’d be discussing novels and movies with two strangers at the end of the world… But what I’m saying is, these works have no reference value in themselves. The scriptwriters all design the perspective centered on the protagonist,” Jiu Lin said.
“That’s an interesting viewpoint, but I didn’t understand it,” Sam said.
“What I mean is, in these time travel stories, the always-fixed point is this: if the protagonist goes back to the past or forward to the future, what effect will any action they take have on the world? Don’t you think that’s rather presumptuous?” Jiu Lin explained.
“Correct. In the face of the universe, human significance is actually not that great…” Chen Ke nodded in agreement.
“Rather than troubling oneself over such things, it’s better to think, when a person travels through time, what will they become? What impact will this universe have on them…” Jiu Lin laughed.
“That sounds terrifying. I don’t know why, but when you guys talk about it that way, time travel doesn’t seem as romantic anymore…” Sam rubbed his arms.
“Parallel universes are convenient for scriptwriters to plot their stories, while a cyclical beginning and end is an arrogant assumption centered on the protagonist. So, if someone really could travel through time and truly change something that happened in the past… what would happen then?” Chen Ke thought to himself, but he didn’t voice it out loud.
“Let’s end the topic of time travel here. I don’t mean to throw cold water, gentlemen, but although I mentioned earlier that finding the entangled singularity could take us back… as you know, I’ve said it twice now…” Jiu Lin said.
“Science can only falsify, not prove. Hypotheses that cannot be tested experimentally will always remain just hypotheses,” Chen Ke spread his hands.
“Very true,” Jiu Lin gave a thumbs-up.
