Chapter 136: Conjectures About Other Worlds, World Bubbles and String Vibrations
Second level of Suspended High Tower 132.
The rumbling of machinery echoed endlessly, and the pungent smell of oil filled the air.
The murky air was thick with dust particles, barely visible to the naked eye, illuminated by the dim light.
A silent man wearing white gloves carried a cloth bag, its contents unknown.
“Morning, Mr. Ye Xiao, want to try the new Number Six Vegetarian Paste from the cultivation base? I heard it tastes almost like the vegetables the big shots on the upper levels eat.”
A young vendor enthusiastically tried to sell his wares to the man. His stall was filled with colorful pastes, all packaged in cheap plastic.
The man stopped, looked at the pastes, and nodded slightly.
“Yes, give me some.”
The vendor was clearly familiar with this Mr. Ye Xiao. As Ye Xiao chose his pastes, the vendor chatted with him about everyday matters.
He complained about the recent increase in taxes in the Suspended High Tower, the deteriorating environment due to the overuse of the tower’s core, and the frequent searches, with another one supposedly coming soon.
Ye Xiao just listened, not commenting.
The residents of the lower three levels were all maintenance personnel and their families, whose job was to ensure the smooth operation of the Suspended High Tower. They rarely left their work areas.
Ye Xiao had been working here for two years and was familiar with the people here.
“That’s all.”
Ye Xiao chose three vegetarian pastes, put them in his bag, then wiped his slightly stained white gloves on his clothes.
“Six credits total—oh right, Mr. Ye Xiao, do you have any fabric rations left?” The vendor scratched his head sheepishly. “My girlfriend wants a new dress… but I’ve used up all my rations.”
“I have quite a bit left, take them.” Ye Xiao nodded. “I don’t use much anyway.”
“You’re a technician, with free food and accommodation, and the work uniform provided by the tower.” The vendor’s eyes showed a hint of envy. “Sigh, I wish I could be like you…”
“There are other troubles.” Ye Xiao said casually, swiping his hand on the vendor’s payment device. “Six credits, and the rations, I’ve transferred them to you.”
“Eh, Mr. Ye Xiao, that’s not what I meant. I was hoping you could use the fabric rations instead of credits…” The vendor quickly said.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s the same. I don’t use these rations anyway, consider it a gift.” Ye Xiao shook his head and, before the vendor could refuse, picked up his bag and left.
The vendor looked at his receding figure and sighed. “Mr. Ye Xiao… is such a good person.”
Ye Xiao walked silently until there were few people around.
He discreetly turned into a less noticeable area, his figure gradually disappearing into the shadows.
If anyone looked at Ye Xiao at this moment, their gaze would involuntarily shift, unable to see him.
Ye Xiao put down his bag, took off his white gloves, revealing his calloused hands, the prosthetics on his ring and index fingers particularly noticeable.
He took out the vegetarian pastes from his bag, peeled one open, and stuffed it into his mouth, then took out some mechanical tools, opened a panel on the floor of the tower, and planted some mechanical components among the dense wiring.
Finally, he restored the floor panel and cleaned up all traces.
After finishing all this, Ye Xiao stood up and sighed.
His figure gradually reappeared, returning to his ordinary technician appearance.
“Master Qualcomm… with the current state of Suspended High Tower 132, you can only delay for another month at most. Once we dock with the ground, I can escape…”
For two years, Night Owl, using the alias Ye Xiao, had been active on the lower levels, tampering with the docking facility.
Once they docked, there would definitely be problems, and then he could take advantage of the chaos to escape with the Wastelanders.
Even with Qualcomm’s great abilities, it would be impossible to find an assassin skilled in concealment in the vast wasteland.
“Knowing things you shouldn’t know is always troublesome.”
Ye Xiao’s eyes flickered, and he picked up his bag and walked back.
“Hopefully… it’s not too late.”
…
“Suspended High Tower 132 was part of the second batch of Suspended High Towers, built during the long fourth Eternal Day, along with Suspended High Tower 103.”
On the small aircraft, Ceres explained the general situation of the Suspended High Towers to Luo Xue.
Because Luo Xue wasn’t familiar with many things about the Suspended High Towers, Ceres had to act as a lecturer.
“Compared to the first batch, the second batch is more stable and also the most advanced. The third batch, numbers 200 to 300, are downgraded versions, and those above 300 are mobile war fortresses… actually, even worse than the third batch.”
“Why?”
Luo Xue was curious. The second batch was better than the first, why did the quality decline later?
“Because the tower engine cores left behind by the previous civilization were almost used up by the second batch. The third and fourth batches used damaged engine cores from the inventory, modified, their capacity only one-tenth and six percent, respectively.”
Ceres shrugged.
“After all the engine cores, even the damaged ones, were used up, we couldn’t even build inferior Suspended High Towers anymore… The Federation has been researching this, but the data accumulated over thousands of years by the previous civilization has been lost, and we have to start from scratch.”
The only achievement in current natural disaster engine research was the small aircraft they were currently on. It could only use the energy converted from natural disasters, and the key conversion process hadn’t been cracked yet.
“But those war fortresses above number 300… what are they for?” Luo Xue scratched the back of her head. “They can’t be for wars between the Suspended High Towers, can they? Or…”
“Don’t think too much. The first law of the Federation is that no High Tower wars are allowed under any circumstances. Any actions that damage the tower’s core are considered crimes against humanity, unforgivable.” Ceres’s tone turned serious. “The enemy of the Suspended High Towers… is something else.”
She pointed to the sky and said faintly,
“Deep space behemoths, the only beings that can threaten the Suspended High Towers. Of the seven destroyed Suspended High Towers in the current civilization, five were directly destroyed by deep space behemoths. Those were earth-shattering battles.”
Luo Xue looked up at the deep space beyond the sky, but Ceres raised her hand and covered Luo Xue’s eyes.
“Don’t look,” Ceres shook her head. “Looking for too long will cause deep space phobia.”
“Everything in deep space… for the current human civilization, is still a terrifying unknown.”
Hearing Ceres’s words, Luo Xue suddenly recalled the news report she saw earlier in the docking facility. Many research organizations were using unmanned aircraft to explore deep space, but there seemed to be no results, not even the origin of the deep space behemoths had been discovered.
“Oh… Miss Ceres, do you think… there might be another world out there in deep space?” Luo Xue lowered her gaze, resting her chin on her hand.
Could the Immortal Martial World in her dreams actually be another world in deep space?
Or rather, were these different worlds connected in some way?
“The World Bubble theory?” Ceres was slightly taken aback. “Miss Guijiao, you actually support that theory?”
“Huh?”
Luo Xue looked up at Ceres, confused.
“Ah, sorry, it seems it’s just your own imagination.”
Ceres suddenly realized that the girl before her was only twelve years old, the age of boundless imagination. “But… what you said, many people have proposed similar theories.”
“Every world is enveloped by a bubble, and deep space is the gap between these bubbles, filled with strange creatures from outside the world bubbles—of course, this is just one of many theories.”
“According to you… besides this theory, are there other explanations?” Luo Xue’s interest was piqued. She really wanted to know if there was any connection between the Immortal Martial World and this world, which was related to her dreams and reality.
“Actually, the mainstream theory considered closest to the truth is string theory, which states that the entire world is made up of ‘vibrating strings.’ Different things are constructed from different ‘string vibrations,’ and things within the same world share the same frequency of ‘string vibrations’.”
Ceres seemed to know quite a bit about these theories, excitedly explaining to Luo Xue,
“In other words, there might be other worlds existing in the same location as us, but because of the different frequencies of ‘string vibrations,’ we can’t see or touch them, and we can’t interact with each other.”
“Perhaps by changing the frequency of our own ‘string vibrations,’ we can travel to other worlds.”
“What about deep space in string theory?” Luo Xue asked. “And the deep space behemoths?”
“Deep space is where there are no ‘string vibrations,’ and those incredible deep space behemoths are disrupted ‘string vibrations,’ like… noise.”
Ceres pushed up her glasses, seemingly excited to finally find someone willing to listen to her talk about these things.
“So, isn’t this theory much more complete? But it’s still just a theory. And also…”
“Hold on, hold on, let’s stop here, we can talk about this later.”
Seeing that Ceres was about to go on and on, Luo Xue coughed lightly, reminding her of their current mission.
“We’re here to investigate the issue of Suspended High Tower 132 restarting the laboratory project, right? Don’t you need to prepare?”
“Prepare what… There’s nothing to prepare. Their mayor, Qualcomm, is not someone to be trifled with. He’s a cunning and ruthless old fox.”
Ceres pouted, her expression showing her lack of interest.
“He must have already made arrangements. Besides, the Federation is turning a blind eye to this. I guess many people in the council also support restarting the laboratory.”
Luo Xue had already learned about the laboratory, including the past incident and its aftermath.
However, when she saw the photo of Lingxi, the former head of the laboratory, she felt a sense of familiarity.
This couldn’t be an illusion. For the current Luo Xue to have an impression but not be able to recall it, it could only be a memory from deep within her subconscious, from when she was very young, when the nerves responsible for memory weren’t fully developed yet.
Because of this, Luo Xue paid attention to this, hoping to get some information from Ceres.
But… compared to the mission, Ceres was more interested in discussing, or rather, sharing, these theories about the nature of the world.
Although Luo Xue was also interested, she was more concerned about Ling Ling.
Luo Xue knew that if her death was related to Ling Ling, it was probably connected to Suspended High Tower 132, perhaps even related to the laboratory incident.
Ceres seemed to notice Luo Xue’s lack of interest and slightly suppressed her excitement.
She looked at the route map on the aircraft, then pointed to a location.
“Look, Suspended High Tower 132 is right there, we’ll be there soon. It just so happens that their route is close to the docking location of Suspended High Tower 103. Otherwise, we might have to transfer to another tower.”
The small aircraft couldn’t store much energy from natural disasters. Although they had minimized its weight and size, making it usually only able to accommodate two people crammed together, its range was usually less than three days.
Traveling to Suspended High Towers beyond this three-day range was troublesome. Even if the straight-line distance only required five days of travel, due to the limited range, they had to take detours to other Suspended High Towers to dock and replenish energy.
And since all Suspended High Towers were constantly moving, they wouldn’t change their routes for the aircraft, so a five-day journey could be extended to a month.
This time, Luo Xue and Ceres only needed to spend two days crammed in the small aircraft to reach Suspended High Tower 132.
“…”
Luo Xue looked up in the direction Ceres pointed.
On the distant horizon, a shadowy tower slowly approached them, brilliant blue exhaust plumes erupting from its base, supporting the entire city as it floated five thousand meters above the ground.
Even from such a distance, seeing a Suspended High Tower in motion for the first time still filled Luo Xue with awe.
“This is…”
“A Suspended High Tower,” Ceres said softly, “the greatest legacy of the previous civilization, and a miracle that sustains human civilization.”
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