this infinite world

Restart, Protagonist, Fate, Creator, and Observer...

Every word in Dr. Manhattan's words seemed to contain a huge amount of information, and this information was almost instantly stuffed into Zheng Zha's brain, making him dizzy and his thoughts a mess.

Zheng Zha felt deeply the insufficiency of his wisdom at this moment. This man had never realized so clearly as now that his thinking ability could not keep up with the development of the situation. He missed the days when someone planned everything for him and he only had to execute it... But what made Zheng Zha regretful was that neither Yang Yun nor Chu Xuan was by his side at the moment. He could not rely on anyone but himself.

"…Okay, Doctor, let's take our questions one by one."

Caressing his forehead, which was covered with white smoke due to the high-speed operation of the third-order gene lock, Zheng Zha, who had barely sorted out the general situation, exhaled and said, "First of all, our world has been restarted... and before the restart, there was actually a me who had experienced all of this."

"Including entering the main god space, meeting teammates, and fighting with destined enemies... just like what is written in the book called "Infinite Horror"? "

"Yes." Dr. Manhattan nodded: "I'm glad that you can realize this."

——But I don’t see you looking happy at all…

Zheng Zha complained in his heart. Although he knew that Dr. Manhattan could read his mind, he didn't care. Instead, he continued to ask, "Doctor, you just said that our world ended unexpectedly due to some force majeure... Now, I have a question to ask."

"How many times has the universe we live in been restarted?"

Zheng Zha asked this question completely subconsciously. To be honest, it was difficult for him to accept that before him, there were countless others who had experienced the same thing and entered the main god space.

Not to mention a real experience, just thinking about that kind of thing would drive you crazy... Even so, Zheng Zha still asked this question with the idea of ​​"I want to be a clear-headed ghost even if I die."

"Three, four, or maybe more. Because I came from outside the multiverse, I don't know what your universe looked like in the beginning."

Zheng Zha didn't know whether the answer given by Dr. Manhattan was good or bad: "What I know is that the multiverse you are in has experienced more than one restart."

“And the most recent restart was ten years ago.”

"ten years?"

Zheng Zha repeated it in disbelief. Although he knew that the "ten years" mentioned by Dr. Manhattan was completely different from the ten years he knew, he was still surprised by this extremely short time: "So the time is so short... Then, what is the reason?" "I don't know. I'm just an observer outside the stage, not the creator of this world."

For the first time, Manhattan, who seemed to Zheng Zha to be omniscient and omnipotent, frankly admitted that there were things he could not do: "There are thousands of reasons for restarting the universe, some of which sound like jokes, such as the story reaching a dead end, the long-term creation leading to great contradictions in the relevant settings of the story, the story being unable to proceed due to some objective reasons, or the creator having a new idea and using a new 'setting' to cover the old 'setting'..."

Listening to Dr. Manhattan's explanation, Zheng Zha also understood. If the world he lives in is a novel, then how the story will develop next is all decided by the "creator" outside the box. He can create extremely powerful villains at will, change the fate of everyone, slap his head and say "I have a new idea today", or forget to update because of playing games, or even directly abandon the novel...

“This is really…”

When Zheng Zha thought about the fact that the DC world to which Dr. Manhattan belonged had undergone countless reboots, parallel worlds, and even the origin stories and settings of some superheroes and super villains had undergone countless repeated revisions and changes, he had a deep understanding and a sense of sadness that he could relate to.

Under the pen of the editor, they can distort the characters' personalities at will, and blackening and death are commonplace, because they are just characters in the book, and their fate can be decided by a single word. In this box called "Infinite Horror", I wonder what the saints and cultivators who founded the main god space would think when they learned that their world and themselves were just characters in a book...

"…It makes it hard for me to even laugh."

Zheng Zha's mood was complex and deep. He sighed, feeling as if he was standing on the same line as those saints and cultivators countless years ago. In the past, humans had faced the mysteries of the universe and the truth of restarting, and perhaps experienced the same emotions. This heavy feeling weighed deeply on Zheng Zha's heart, even making it difficult for him to breathe.

This heaviness may come from the fear of the unknown; it may be because the revelation of the truth has shaken the understanding of reality and brought about deep uneasiness; or it may be an extremely heavy pressure called "responsibility"... After knowing the secrets of the universe, the pressure that may be borne on oneself, others, and the entire universe.

"So, Doctor, what role do you play in this?"

After a long silence, Zheng Zha's voice sounded again. The man exhaled a long breath, looked up at the blue giant in front of him, and the charred page in his hand: "Logically speaking, after the multiverse is restarted, nothing should be preserved. But you just said that this story was entrusted to you by 'he' to keep until now, and it will soon come to an end."

"Although I don't know why Yang Yun has gone to the world before the restart, this must be related to you..."

"Yes, I have cut out ten years from the timeline of your multiverse."

Dr. Manhattan stretched out his hand and looked at the scene in his hand. On his palm, a fragment of a page slowly floated and rotated. Although it was still turning into ashes, Yang Yun and Chi You, who were fighting in it, seemed to be completely unaffected.

"Then, this multiverse, which should have been completely destroyed ten years ago, was left with the last world." (End of this chapter)