Several thousand people in total emerged from the War Armors. As Pan Jianguo surveyed the crowd, he could vaguely make out some familiar faces; they all seemed to be titans of the physics world.
Apparently, many had chosen to reveal their true faces. Perhaps this was due to their inherent nature as researchers; this group of people craved the truth of the world and the Truth of the Cosmos more than anything.
But even if they saw someone they knew, no one had time for pleasantries. Everyone was rushing into the building before them.
What truly shocked them wasn’t some World Beast, nor was it the Beast Ancestor as massive as an asteroid.
It was the Space Wormhole, a full hundred kilometers in diameter!
Such a massive Space Wormhole—how could its energy be kept stable? How was a connection established between two spatial coordinate systems? And how was it even created?
For the current state of human physics, all of this was practically the equivalent of the Bible.
The technology and information involved were very likely related to spatial folding and spatial wrinkling techniques—which existed only in theory—and maybe even the legendary, so-called theory of High-dimensional Space!
At humanity’s current level of science and technology, achieving this would take hundreds, even thousands of years. They, as physicists, certainly had no hope of seeing it in their lifetimes.
Because of this, many of them understood that this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one they had to seize!
At this thought, Pan Jianguo’s breathing grew rapid again. By now, they had followed the flow of people into the building.
Only after entering did they realize the interior was structured exactly like a laboratory.
It was just that the place looked like it hadn’t been visited in a long time; a thick layer of dust covered the floors and tables. Yet, powered by some unknown energy source, some of the experimental equipment still seemed to be running.
The first laboratory that appeared before them seemed to be a biological lab, fully equipped with all sorts of culturing equipment. There were also quite a few experimental samples inside.
From the appearance of the samples, many could already vaguely guess that they included the Stone Statue Virus and some kind of zombie virus.
Just as everyone was looking confused, a holographic image suddenly appeared in the space.
A humanoid figure with a blurry, indistinct face appeared and began to operate the experimental equipment, performing various calibrations and manufacturing processes.
The process was sped up tens, even hundreds of times. Amidst a flurry of afterimages, strange creatures could be seen being created one after another, squirming in various biological culture chambers.
Finally, the image froze on a creature the size of a finger. It looked like a silkworm, but its entire body was covered in dense, tiny tentacles and appendages.
The tiny creature first stretched its body, then immediately launched an attack on the creator’s figure, only to be blocked by the culture chamber’s transparent lid.
The creator didn’t seem to mind. They casually picked up a small piece of meteorite and tossed it into the culture chamber.
The newborn tentacled creature immediately pounced on the meteorite and began to open a spiral mouthpart, like that of a lamprey, hugging the meteorite and gnawing on it!
The image froze there, and in an instant, everyone present understood what that tiny creature was.
It was a juvenile World Beast!
The World Beast was actually artificially cultivated in this laboratory!
Who could have done this? And why?
Humans?
Aliens?
What was the connection between the developer of the True Apocalypse Game and all of this?
As these questions filled their minds, the surrounding holographic image changed again. This time, it transformed into what looked like a physics laboratory, complete with a ring of miniature particle accelerators and a model of a microstructure.
"Is this... a brand-new metallic element?!" Someone cried out in shock, sparking a wave of whispers among the crowd.
After carefully examining the data and strings of formulas that appeared alongside it, Pan Jianguo discovered in astonishment that this substance could store immense energy, far surpassing any material currently known to humanity!
A textual explanation poured down beside it, and everyone quickly understood that this substance was actually extracted from the body of a World Beast!
Then, the surrounding scene changed once more. This time, a model of a machine resembling a particle accelerator appeared, along with a star. The machine was drawing energy from the star, emitting an invisible Energy Beam to open a Space Wormhole in the void!
All sorts of data and formulas cascaded down around them, clearly annotating the scene.
Seeing the data, the information, and the scene of the wormhole opening, everyone present felt so excited they could barely breathe.
This data and information was precisely what was needed to open a Space Wormhole, and that machine was the Wormhole Generator!
"This is it! This is it!"
"My God, this... what kind of technology is this? Could it really be extraterrestrial life?"
"No, this technology might be from the future. According to Dirac’s theories, a wormhole isn’t just a Space Wormhole; it can also be a time wormhole! The developer most likely used wormhole technology to return to the present from the future and issue a warning to human civilization!"
"So you’re saying the time paradox doesn’t exist, and that the temporal branching theory is the correct one?"
"Or maybe the parallel cosmos theory? Hahaha, God, I would die for the Truth! But please, let me see the Truth first!"
The crowd of physicists, now as excited as a bunch of children, began to frantically discuss the possibilities of it all.
"Outside, look outside!"
Someone shouted, and everyone immediately surged toward the windows to look out.
In the space that had been empty just moments ago, a slowly rotating Wormhole Generator had now appeared, projecting a beam of blue light directly into the center of the Space Wormhole.
It was as if the developer of the True Apocalypse Game, worried they wouldn’t understand from the holographic model, had conjured up a real one for them!
Just then, massive lines of text appeared in the void. Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian, French, and so on—dozens of the world’s major languages, all asking a few questions:
Can the further evolution of a Space Wormhole within a single Cosmos reconstruct linear temporal nodes? Can a lower dimension be unfolded to enter a High-dimensional Space? Can one enter a Cosmos of pure elementary particles generated by parallel forces?
Upon seeing these questions, everyone present looked as if they’d been struck by lightning. Many of them, however, had their eyes light up, looks of sudden, profound enlightenment on their faces.
These three questions weren’t just questions; they also revealed the extent of the game developer’s understanding of the real world.
In other words, the very fact that the developer posed these three questions meant that several of humanity’s long-standing conjectures were in fact real.
The first question proved that time travel is real!
The second question proved that the distinction between high and low dimensions truly exists, and that humanity might be able to break through into a High-dimensional Space!
The third question proved that the parallel cosmos hypothesis based on quantum physics is also true! Parallel Cosmoses really do exist!
Before the crowd could recover from their shock, the words in the void changed again:
"I will provide you with a complete simulated experimental environment, as well as sufficient technical data. You may directly request any equipment or resources you need. For now, let’s start with this small metal sphere."
As the words appeared, the surrounding scene changed. The laboratory on the meteorite expanded dozens of times in an instant, and each person found themselves in an individual lab, fully stocked with all kinds of equipment.
And before each of them was a small metal sphere, emitting a faint blue glow.
It was a Quantum Force Field Core, post-full-state simulation!
The data they had just seen contained information about the Quantum Force Field Core. The moment he saw the metal sphere, Pan Jianguo’s breathing grew rapid once more. He reached out, grabbed the silvery orb, and immediately immersed himself in research.
All the physicists in the Meteorite Laboratory were now uncontrollably excited, and they began to frantically study the materials provided by the developer.
Experiments!
They needed to run a massive number of experiments!
This precious data and information was the Truth they would pursue for the rest of their lives!
In the cloud space of the game system, the consciousnesses of Shen Feng and Jingwei were gradually withdrawing.
’Everything that needed to be done is done. The rest is up to the ingenuity of these human scientists.’
’To solve the problems of fundamental physics, Jingwei and I wouldn’t be much help on our own. Only by uniting all of human civilization’s top physicists and borrowing the collective wisdom of the entire human race is there a glimmer of hope.’
「In a small courtyard in the suburbs of Hua Country’s Tai City.」
Shen Feng and Jingwei’s consciousnesses returned to their bodies, and they slowly opened their eyes.
"Hahaha, Xiaofeng, you’re too sly. You didn’t promise them any benefits at all, just showed them some data on the Quantum Force Field Core and Space Wormholes, and it was enough to make them start researching for you, forgetting to eat or sleep. Tsk tsk, human nature is truly hard to fathom," Jingwei remarked.
Shen Feng chuckled and said:
"According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, human needs are divided into five levels, from lowest to highest: physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization. The most difficult need to satisfy is the highest one, self-actualization. What I did was actually very simple. I fulfilled their need for self-actualization. That’s far more effective than any threat or bribe."
"Those physicists got the best treatment, didn’t they? They didn’t suffer at all and were sent directly to a Virtual Space to do research. The difference between people is just too great..." Jingwei sighed, then asked:
"What about the other members of the Salvation Army? Are we just going to let them keep suffering in the Water World Apocalypse mission? Without the Gray Tide for support, I don’t think they’ll ever be able to complete the mission."
While these physicists had entered True Apocalypse Game 1.0 and gone straight into spectator mode, the other Salvation Army Warriors were fighting across the whole map. Most of them were still battling hordes of World Beasts as common soldiers, and there was no telling how many times they had died.
Shen Feng nodded. "Let them be tempered a while longer. It’ll keep them from thinking the World Beasts are easy to deal with and growing arrogant."
With that, Shen Feng stood up, changed his clothes, and took out his Quantum Backpack to start packing.
"Where are you off to now? Need me to book you a plane ticket?" Jingwei asked, even though she had already guessed Shen Feng’s plan.
"I’m going to the Space Wormhole at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to have a little chat with this world’s Beast Ancestor." Shen Feng grinned. "What do you think about setting up a Beast Gold Ranch?"