Chen Chen suddenly thought of another possibility upon seeing the black pa.s.sage opening again.

What were the chances that the four horror films that came with the USB drive had also been opened in this manner by the USB drive? Perhaps in the process of constructing real “pa.s.sage” from the movies, they also became undeletable?

This was just an idea that suddenly sprung to Chen Chen. Although he had no verifiable claim to back it up, he just had a strange hunch that this was it.

After having the previous experience, this time, Chen Chen got a cloned soldier to bring several disposable sealed sample bags and a camera, and entered the pa.s.sage without any other preventative measures.

After all, having already determined that no microorganisms were present in the world on the other end, there was no need for extra measures like protective suits. Besides, entering and exiting the pa.s.sage consumed a certain amount of energy. Losing the protective suit weighing up to ten kilograms was equivalent to saving millions of kilowatt-hour of electricity.

This time, Chen Chen did not have the soldier take a quick exit. Instead, he ordered him to inspect the ongoings on the other end of the pa.s.sage.

The cloned soldier was to collect all sorts of samples in the movie world and also traversed a radius of ten kilometers while collecting footage of everything he saw.

The soldier was to remain in the pa.s.sage world for an entire day before returning to reality.

One day later, the cloned soldier returned in one piece.

In addition, he came back with a backpack full of samples. There were soil samples, crystal samples, concrete samples of buildings, and such.

These samples were all taken away to be tested. The returning cloned soldier was also subsequently disinfected following standard protocol.

Meanwhile, Chen Chen took a look at the footage taken by the cloned soldier inside the pa.s.sage after transferring it into the computer.

Under the control of the G.o.d chip, the cloned soldier walked around in a spiral shape, gradually expanding outward as he went on. He maintained this pattern until he had traversed a ten kilometers radius.

Over the entire day, Chen Chen barely caught even a glimpse of a plantation in the recorded footage. Also, there was no sign of water sources. It was as if the world was barren of water. Even the soil had lost all of its nutrients. All that remained was a world consisted of inorganic substances…

Simply put, all substances needed for sustaining life had simply vanished entirely.

In addition, the cloned soldier entered the ruins of Was.h.i.+ngton and did not spot any signs of life. On top of there being no signs of a living person, there were no dead bodies either, not even dried up remains.

It was also deduced that most of the buildings had collapsed a long time ago. There was no way to tell what caused them to collapse due to the amount of time that had pa.s.sed. Some of them appeared to have collapsed on their own while others seemed to have been crushed by something enormous…

This only served to further solidify Chen Chen's speculation.

The laboratory report was produced very soon after that.

The results were the same as what Chen Chen had suspected. The soil samples did not contain any microorganisms and their moisture was also pitifully low. The land had lost almost all of its nutrients, leaving a sad desert behind.

The air in that world was extremely dry but its oxygen content was higher than that of Earth in real life. To be exact, approximately five percent higher.

A similar a.n.a.lysis was performed on the crystal fragments as well. As expected, their material composition was that of a spinel, only the radiation they contained had been released long ago. Thus, they were unable to grant human superpowers.

“There's almost no water in the air and soil, and the soil has lost its nutrients, making it impossible for even microorganisms to survive…”

Chen Chen deducted. “X, do you know what this means?”

“What does it mean?” Little X asked curiously.

Chen Chen answered with a serious tone, “Was.h.i.+ngton is located at 38°91′ North lat.i.tude and 77°01′ West longitude. It has a temperate continental climate, 10.16% of its terrain is occupied by water. Three rivers flow through the city, namely the Potomac River, the Anacostia River, and the Rock Creek River.

“Not only that. Just thirty kilometers to the East of Was.h.i.+ngton was the Atlantic Ocean. How was it possible that there's not even a trace of humidity in the surrounding air?”

Chen Chen thought for a while and finally suggested, “Unless, even the Atlantic Ocean had dried up.

“I think I get it.”

Even Little X sounded a little surprised. “What Sir G.o.dfather is trying to say is that all of the water and nutrients in the world connected to the pa.s.sage has been sucked dry by some substance?”

“Yes, this is the only plausible explanation I can think of.”

Chen Chen nodded. “The data extracted from the air reflects the same theory as well. The air in the pa.s.sage world contains 5 percent higher oxygen content. Doesn't this align with the trait of plants that absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen?

“When you factor in the field of crystalline fragments, the answer is revealed – an alien plant that can produce crystalline has completely drained the Earth.

“According to the series plot, didn't the alien plant die in the sequel?”

Little X asked quizzingly, “If the world connected to the pa.s.sage is the world of Chronicle, how can this sort of paradox exist?”

“This has to do with the theory of parallel universe.”

Chen Chen thought for a moment before further explained, “In the experiment of 'Schrodinger's Cat', a cat that's both dead and alive remains in a quantum superposition state. It's only when you open the box that the wave function state of the cat collapses and it falls into a true fixed state.

“To put this in terms of a parallel universe, there's no such thing as a wave function state collapse. That's because when conducting this experiment, the universe is already split into two. In one of the universes, the cat is already dead while in the other universe, the cat is still alive…

“If the formula of the wave function system prior to opening the box is; (You don't know if the cat is alive > x1/√2

Dead cat > x

Atomic decay > +

Living cat x

No atomic decay), then after opening the box, the system is thus influenced by your interaction with the box and becomes: 1/√2 You know the cat is dead > x

Dead cat > x

Atomic decay +

You know the cat is alive > x

Living Cat > x

No atomic decay >)

“This means that parallel universes represent unlimited possibilities.”

Chen Chen explained, “One of the series of paradox – the 'Grandfather Paradox' which is spoken of in Multiverse Wheel refers to the so-called parallel universe —

“There are many dimensions to a universe. A multiverse is composed of countless parallel universes while a parallel universe refers to a divergence from the original universe. It's an alternate universe that closely resembles the original universe but has distinct similarities. It's just like how the universe of the movie I created and the universe the pa.s.sage leads to share similar histories, but due to certain factors, there's a growing distinction between the two which leads to the formation of two completely separate worlds.

“This is only one of the many reasons.”

Chen Chen further elaborated, “Of course, the movie already states that the plant was dead. However, does anyone have proof that other alien plants don't exist in the universe?

“Don't forget, the alien plants were able to communicate telepathically. Perhaps the arrival of the first plant into Earth attracted another plant that was able to consume planets…”