Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 684 Time Traveler

Zhou Yi asked, "What should I call you now?"

Just call me D.

Mr. D's face is a rectangular display fixed to a metal skull, displaying a waveform spectrum analysis diagram—that is, a visualization of audio signals, which is found on the screens of many audio devices.

How did Mr. Zhou come into contact with time?

After raising the question, D interrupted himself again: "Let me tell you about my own situation first."

"Within the Knights of Mount Tai, everyone is exploring in different directions."

"I study time."

"There are many strange phenomena in the realm of time, and ancient humans have already accumulated a lot of discoveries. For example, the twin paradox, the Haffiel-Keating experiment in 1971, showed a 59-nanosecond deviation after an airplane carrying an atomic clock flew."

"If an astronaut travels at near the speed of light for one year and returns to Earth, they might find that 10 years have passed on Earth. This shows that the faster the speed, the slower time seems to pass."

The waveform of D fluctuates slowly: "There is also gravitational time dilation. According to observations and inferences, one hour near the event boundary of a black hole is equivalent to thousands of years on Earth. Satellite clocks are 45 microseconds faster than the Earth's surface every day due to the weaker gravity of the Earth."

"There is also the delayed-choice experiment, in which the behavior of a photon in determining whether it is a particle or a wave can be influenced by the experimenter's subsequent actions, that is, the future can change the past observation results... This was proposed by Wheeler in 1978 and confirmed by the quantum erasure experiment in 2011."

"On a cosmic scale, there are even more time anomalies."

“Continuous observation of unstable quantum systems, such as radioactive atoms, can ‘freeze’ their decay process. In other words, time seems to stand still.”

"In the 1989 Old Human Experiment, they used lasers to frequently observe beryllium ions, extending their excited-state lifetime by 100 times."

"General relativity predicts that the spacetime curvature at the center of a black hole is infinite, and the time and space dimensions are interchanged. In the future, it will become real and can be entered from a 'direction'."

He went on to discuss many existing cases in one go.

D said, "These phenomena indicate at least three things."

Synchronized subtitles and a tree-like explanatory diagram appeared on its face.

"First, time is not absolute, but rather an emergent property of the complex relationships in the universe."

"Secondly, the observer effect and time interact, and the 'present' at the quantum level can change the 'past'."

"Thirdly, there is the uniqueness of life, and there is a gap between the time perceived by organisms and physical time."

Apart from the second point, Zhou Yi has personal experience with the other two.

Especially the third point, which is what the Golden Tree mentioned, is the difference between real time and perceived time.

D said in a deep voice, "Time seems to be so unpredictable, changing with many circumstances, that it's hard to call it an objective standard."

"Later I discovered that there are huge regional time differences in the mantle region, and these differences become larger and larger as you go deeper underground."

"I consulted mean solar time and time estimators, and from them I came to a counterintuitive conclusion. Time may not be an energy law like gravity or temperature, but a special kind of substance."

"It's just that this kind of substance cannot be seen or touched, but it also has its own basic unit. The old humans had an ancient timekeeping tool called an hourglass, which is somewhat similar to real time."

"Time in every spatial region, whether it is the body of an ant, a house, or a piece of land, is distributed like an hourglass. They are special particles of matter. The old humans had a theory about time crystals, which is highly similar to this."

"That inference states that a time crystal is a quantum structure that is 'perpetually moving' in the time dimension. Just like ordinary crystals have atoms arranged in a repeating pattern in space, time crystals also exhibit periodic changes in time."

"Imagine a time crystal as a quantum clock that ticks automatically every fixed time. Even without winding it, its hands will tick every fixed time interval. These crystals are the more microscopic basic units of time, and their manifestation on the matter side... only they cannot be directly observed."

“Hourglasses are evenly distributed throughout the world, and the time crystals inside them are constantly in spontaneous motion, with states cycling. Just as 0, representing low voltage, and 1, representing high voltage, constitute the basic physical structure of electromechanical life, the hourglasses formed by time also contain crystals representing different states. These are life’s 0 and 1 in time.”

"I know this is a bit tedious and complicated, but please allow me to elaborate a bit more, because this theoretical part is essential and relates to the final conclusion..."

At this point, D observed Zhou Yi's expression.

Seeing that he wasn't impatient, it continued, "I traced my way back to the first super-giant bony fish that left Earth."

"After the bone fish took flight, time was consistently 7 minutes slower on an uninhabited island it passed by than in other places around it."

"The time surveyor recorded all of this."

"I rushed to the island as soon as possible and stayed there for two months using the extension phone. I discovered that the cause was in the seabed beneath the island. There was a semi-human taxi there that kept circling the island."

"A strange membrane formed inside the taxi, sealing off all external observation. Approaching it, one could clearly feel their internal clock starting to malfunction..."

D recalled, "Getting into the car was easier than I thought. There were no obstacles. I waved to stop, opened the door, and got in. It was that simple."

"When I came to my senses again, I found myself back in my body."

Zhou Yi asked, "So your extension phone died inside the car?"

"Ah."

D nodded: "So I sent out a backup extension, but the second extension also shut down automatically. However, this time, because of the external recorder, we can see that the extension didn't come out after entering the taxi. Later, I damaged the taxi's wheels and motor, finally forcing it to stop."

"After investigating the accident scene, I disassembled its metal casing and found the inner membrane. This is the record of the scene at that time."

It projects a video onto the wall.

The image shows a semi-transparent, oval-shaped membrane inside a pile of metal car bodies. It is wrapped around something and looks bulging.

This thing has a strange, indistinct sense of being inside or out. It exhibits four-dimensional characteristics similar to a clockwork mechanism.

After being separated, it visibly shrank, and robots—all extensions of D—were squeezed out from inside.

Eventually, it shrank to a single point.

The scene around this point was severely distorted, seemingly due to excessive gravitational pull and radiant energy.

Zhou Yi stroked his chin: "Is this a collapse of time and life?"

"No, Mr. Zhou."

D explained from the side, "This is what it actually looks like. It was originally there to cover the package, so it expands the space it covers. Based on my series of tests, it can basically be considered a miniature black hole."

Zhou Yi responded with an "oh".

Transmutators are biological black holes.

As four-dimensional beings, each of them is a transmutator, which is normal.

"It will absorb a large amount of light and energy, which is what we commonly call a cosmic vacuum cleaner. However, because it is too small, it may disappear at any time."

"It's visibly dissipating. Although I don't know why, I have a bold guess: perhaps there's only one way to keep it running..."

D continued speaking.

On screen, a brand-new electromechanical life support unit rushes towards a miniature black hole.

The two merged instantly upon contact, transforming into a dynamic form of four-dimensional fish twisting and nesting.

"That's it."

"It is essential to ensure that there is a package inside—this package or carrier must not only be material, but also possess life."

D's speech gradually quickened: "It was a semi-enlightened being before. But after I shut down the semi-enlightened being, it lost its life characteristics, which is also a characteristic of electromechanical life. It can be manually shut down and enter a state of death."

"Only a life in motion can inspire or connect with it."

Zhou Yi's gaze sharpened: "Is this just like the giant bone fish?"

"That's right!"

D's voice was also filled with joy, and he even hummed a song in his body: "I think this is also the way that the giant bone fish broke through the spatial limitations back then, connecting itself to time creatures and placing itself in the dimension of time."

"Therefore, distance and space can no longer limit it." "At least for that period of time, it moved in a way that resembled that of a higher-dimensional life form."

Zhou Yi had many questions.

He first shared his information about clockwork and clockwork.

The Golden Tree understands the rules of the universe, but due to its innate superior strength, it cannot comprehend ordinary life and has no experience in this area.

Since D has been studied for many years, let's have more discussions; maybe we can generate new ideas and sparks.

"This this!"

"This is insane...this world..."

D's face was trembling wildly, and even his head started to smoke, it looked like his CPU had overheated.

Zhou Yi said with some concern, "Don't worry, are you alright? Take it easy, there's enough time to slowly calculate and integrate the information."

"Thank you for your concern, I'm fine. It's just that this information is so astonishing, the amount of information is so vast, that combined with my existing experience and attempts, many things seem to have an answer, and this answer is so simple and consistent."

"The existence of time-traveling beings is enough to explain all this inconsistency!"

“They are life forms in four dimensions, but when they are reduced to the three-dimensional space we inhabit, they become beings who cannot have any initiative in experiencing things.”

"Only by connecting with local life forms can one briefly utilize the characteristics of four-dimensional time..."

"Let me interrupt for a moment."

Zhou Yi raised his palm and said, "Why is the clockwork device I saw different from the time-traveling creature in this video?"

"Because there is more than one type of time-traveling creature inside the taxi."

D explained, “Mr. Zhou, it consists of two parts, which are what you call the clockwise and counterclockwise mechanism. This is a conclusion I reached after a long period of exploration, and the information you provided also proves this point.”

"The clockwise and counterclockwise timers need to be connected to form a complete time unit in order to enter other time cycles and play a role. This is like a lever that needs a long rod and a fulcrum below; without either one, it cannot function as a tool."

"What's inside the taxi is the result of connecting the clockwise and counterclockwise devices. It's just that the semi-enlightened entity can't actually use it because it's in a state of instinct-driven behavior."

"I call it the Time Traveler."

This name.

Zhou Yi was somewhat surprised: "It can change time?"

"It's possible in certain areas."

D said with considerable pride, "The Time Traveler can be used once it is installed inside a host life form. It has two uses."

"The first is what I mentioned before: at crucial moments, it can enter time, thus becoming unobservable, unselectable, and untouchable, just like time itself. With this, I escaped the pursuit of the 404 City investigators several times."

"The second one is an advanced version of this basic one."

The Tarzan Knight paused for a moment.

"Using the time traveler, you can go back to the past."

Although Zhou Yi had a vague suspicion in his mind, the sound coming from D's speaker still shocked him.

"However, the current achievable limit is only 60 seconds."

D continued, "Using a time machine, it's possible to go back 60 seconds, which is the current limit. However, it's not the limit of this technology, but rather the limitation imposed by objective conditions."

"Wait a moment."

"Let me ask an important question first."

Zhou Yi interrupted, "Going back 60 seconds means returning to the previous space? Or returning to the previous timeline?"

"Back to the space 60 seconds ago."

D said, "It's a partial change of one's time position, moving oneself 60 seconds earlier. To completely return to the previous timeline, it would be possible to reduce the dimensionality from four-dimensional space to three-dimensional estimation, which is impossible in our current space."

Even so, it's still quite amazing.

According to its description, as long as it is equipped with a time traveler, it can perform this 60-second time travel.

Similar to Ekko's time-space fracture in League of Legends.

D stated frankly, "This technology also carries risks."

"The first use will cause the body to be greatly compressed and damaged by space, with an extremely high damage rate. If one has not reached the level of a light core body, perhaps only electromechanical life forms can withstand it, because we have extensions and are not afraid of pain and death."

"The biggest challenge is the time limit, which gradually decreases. The first use is the most effective, reaching 60 seconds, but the movement time will be reduced to about 40 seconds after subsequent uses."

"It itself will wear out?" Zhou Yi immediately realized.

"Yes, and the wear and tear is huge. It will fail after about 3 uses, and the time traveler will be on the verge of collapse."

D said, "I did several tests and found that the results were all the same, which confirmed this inference."

"How many time travelers did you find?"

Zhou Yi was quite surprised: "Is something like this so easy to find?"

“They are located in the mantle, making them very difficult to find through normal means, and their strength is also astonishing. I only found this one group, and it is most likely that they were dropped or brought out along the way by the giant bony fish when they left the mantle.”

D explained, "For the time traveler to be reused, it must be brought back to the four-dimensional space hole. After entering there, it will be repaired and used again after a period of time. It's like a fish that has swum to a dry area; it needs to return to its accustomed aquatic environment to regain its vitality."

"Through this process of trial and error, I accumulated this experience."

Zhou Yi thought to himself, "Holy crap!"

It's a gameplay mechanic that cleverly exploits bugs in space and time.

Why didn't I think of that?
"However, the 60-second limit remains, and it is impossible to break through this cycle."

D sighed: "The only way is to increase the number of time units. That is, to connect more time teleporters to extend the cycle. This is the only method I can think of, so I would like to ask you to lend a hand and work together to dig underground and develop more time teleporters."

“Underground excavation and development require a large and continuous investment in equipment, which is calculated in the tens of millions of light-years. In this world, only Mr. Zhou is willing to do this kind of thing and has such strong financial resources.”

Zhou Yi thought to himself, "So that's how it is."

"If you are willing to invest in this, I am willing to share the time traveler with you."

Zhou Yi extended his hand: "Deal."

The other party was overjoyed and shook hands with him.

"That's great! With your support, the time traveler has the potential to advance even further."

immediately.

D said in a tone different from before, "Since you are willing to invest, I will tell you the biggest secret I have discovered."

"To live with time-traveling beings and use them to move time, it's not possible to do it through normal means."

"The key is the music."

Zhou Yi wondered if he had misheard: "Music?"

"Yes. They love music!"

D said mysteriously, "This is my exclusive discovery, and it's thanks to music that I was able to drive the time traveler. Otherwise, it would be impossible to move and merge them..."

(End of this chapter)