Chapter 1 The Window

Zhou Ming opened the door and strode into his apartment, immediately looking up at the window directly opposite the door.

The eternal, unyielding gray-white mist still clung to the outside of the window, and the banging sound, like patient raindrops, struck the glass out of nowhere. Although no figures could be seen outside, the sound itself proved that a visitor was standing at the window.

The moment Zhou Ming entered the room, he clearly sensed the aura standing by the window—perhaps because of the previous "connection," the aura was particularly clear.

When someone visits here, can I directly perceive it on "the other side"?

The thought flashed through Zhou Ming's mind as he quickly walked towards the window. Almost as soon as he reached the window, Lei Nola's familiar face appeared outside, behind her the equally familiar, classic and ornate bedroom.

The Frost Queen was still patiently knocking on the glass, her slightly hollow eyes reflecting the glittering starlight. Zhou Ming immediately opened the window, greeting the only guest who would visit him here: "I'm glad to see you back."

"Please let me in..." Lei Nola paused, her eyes seeming to take a long time to focus correctly on Zhou Ming, then said in a slightly weak voice.

Zhou Ming instantly noticed that something was wrong with her, and immediately moved aside, reaching out to support the Frost Queen.

The next moment, as Lei Nola turned slightly, he finally noticed her empty left arm—not just the left arm, but also part of her shoulder, chest, and abdomen. Almost a third of her upper body had disappeared! It was as if something had neatly devoured it!

Even more bizarre, there was no blood flowing from the broken part of her body, only a layer of blurry "light membrane" covering the incomplete cuts, and, whether it was an illusion or not... Duncan felt that the "light membrane" was even slowly expanding and extending...

It was further devouring the remaining parts of the Frost Queen's body!

Seeing Lei Nola struggling to climb through the window, Zhou Ming instantly woke up from his shock and quickly stepped forward to support her intact half of her body, carefully helping her in. He felt that her body temperature was very low, like an icy ghost.

"It's been a while since we last met," Lei Nola looked up, giving the friendly "Ancient God" a smile, "After a thrilling journey, seeing your 'palace' again really gives me an incredible sense of peace..."

"Don't sigh about that now," Zhou Ming quickly interrupted, supporting her towards the living room sofa while quickly asking, "What happened to your arm?"

"Don't worry about me, my arm... is still there," Lei Nola sat down on the sofa, breathing weakly, then pressed her remaining right hand on the left shoulder—on that empty "air," "I'm holding something in my hand, it makes my body 'disappear,' but I dare not let go. If I let go, it will dissipate. I've tried many times, so I've been holding it tightly all the way... Now it seems like I've been holding it for too long."

"Holding something in your hand?" Listening to her words, Zhou Ming was slightly stunned, subconsciously looking at her empty left side of her body, "What do you have in your hand?"

"I'm going to try to hand it over to you now," Lei Nola took a deep breath, seeming to have recovered some strength. She sat up, as if raising her right hand and handing over something invisible, "I don't know what will happen to it after it falls into your hands. Maybe it will still dissipate, or maybe it will turn into something else... I have no way..."

Her mind seemed to have been affected by "something," her words becoming slurred, but she still firmly handed the thing over. Zhou Ming couldn't see it, so he could only reach out to take it. He felt himself touching the Frost Queen's cold fingers, followed by something equally cold, soft, and loose in texture. The thing fell into his palm.

Lei Nola really handed over something invisible, something that really existed but could not be observed with the eyes.

The next second, Zhou Ming noticed that Lei Nola's disappeared body began to recover quickly—her shoulders, chest, and abdomen reappeared, followed by her entire arm.

And he could still feel the cold, loose thing in his palm.

"...It's still there," Zhou Ming looked down at his palm, his tone filled with surprise, "What exactly is this...?"

He suddenly stopped, his eyes widening in shock. As he watched, something was slowly emerging from his originally empty palm. It was first a nearly transparent shadow, and then the shadow began to gain substance, turning into a mass of gray matter that looked like dust, with blurred edges.

The gray mass lay quietly in Zhou Ming's palm, its interior seeming to be undergoing incomprehensible changes at all times. Its core seemed to be wriggling and trembling, with bizarre outlines always emerging. Its edges were covered with a layer of mist that caused visual confusion, making one feel dizzy after only staring at it for a while.

"...What exactly is this thing?" Zhou Ming couldn't help but mutter, then suddenly looked up at the Frost Queen beside him, "Where did you find this thing? Is it from the 'Outside the Border' you mentioned last time?"

After getting rid of that "invisible thing," Lei Nola's body and spirit obviously began to recover quickly. At this time, her face was much more normal. Hearing Zhou Ming's question, she immediately nodded gently.

"At the end of this gray-white mist, outside the 'border' I mentioned last time, this thing is everywhere... The entire 'world' over there is even made up of them," she said while recalling, "After talking with you last time, I began to be able to perceive and see them, but I still don't understand what they are. And the most incredible thing is that this thing can be 'brought' back. I brought a little back to see if you have any ideas."

Zhou Ming's brow furrowed little by little. After confirming that this thing really came from beyond the end of the world, countless thoughts and guesses seemed to emerge all at once. And with the emergence of countless ideas, he vaguely felt that...

Something in his "essence" had loosened.

His "transformation" accelerated again.

The surrounding starlight vibrated with a buzzing sound, and countless incomprehensible murmurs and whispers seemed to echo in the starlight. Lei Nola cautiously glanced around, then skillfully suppressed her mind, trying not to pay attention to the sounds echoing in the stars.

This wasn't her first time here. She wouldn't make a fuss like last time.

Ancient Gods, their thinking is probably just this kind of B movement.

Just then, Zhou Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief. He guessed what Lei Nola had brought back, and now all that remained was to verify his guess.

He raised his hand, a wisp of ghostly green flame dancing on his fingertip. He tried to consciously interfere with the flame, recalling the feeling of his own "transformation." As he watched, the ghostly green in the flame was gradually fading, and faint starlight was floating in the dancing flame.

He slowly clenched his hand, gradually immersing the cold and amorphous gray matter in starlight. He clenched his fist, and the gray mass slowly dissolved in the starlight.

Lei Nola widened her eyes, watching this scene in astonishment and curiosity.

"Do you... know what this thing is?" She couldn't help but ask curiously.

The giant filled with starlight turned his head, giving her a gentle and joyful voice—

"It's raw material."

"Raw material?" Lei Nola listened in bewilderment, obviously not understanding, "What raw material?"

"Raw material for the new world, basic information units—just as I guessed before!" Zhou Ming looked into Lei Nola's eyes. He slowly opened his hand. The gray-white mass had completely dissolved in the starlight, dissolved in his body, and he fully understood the essence of this "matter," "Information is indestructible, information only transforms. Navigator No. 2's theory is correct. Information is the cornerstone of everything—everything is an expression of information, even the Great Annihilation itself!"

Lei Nola listened in confusion, while Zhou Ming had already gotten up from the sofa. He couldn't suppress his excitement and joy at this moment, subconsciously walking around the sofa, thinking quickly while walking, and occasionally stopping suddenly to sort out his complex thoughts.

"The world is made up of information, and the essence of everything operating in the world is the expression, connection, and transformation of information," he stopped in front of Lei Nola, quickly explaining to the Frost Queen, "You can regard the entire world as an incomparably huge 'mathematical machine' that contains all the parameters and runs self-consistently, and all things in the world are the data that appears during the operation of this machine. Everything that happens in this world is the 'solution' of this mathematical machine..."

Lei Nola struggled to follow Zhou Ming's train of thought, and couldn't help but ask, "Do you mean that our world is illusory?"

"No, it's real—because we ourselves are also part of this mathematical machine, we ourselves are the result of countless pieces of information piling up," Zhou Ming quickly waved his hand, continuing, "If everything is information, then there is no 'reality' outside of information in the world, and this explains the essence of the Great Annihilation... But this part takes a long time to explain, and I believe you can figure it out yourself. The key I want to say is... information itself will not disappear. Its 'basic units' will only transform from one state to another..."

Zhou Ming suddenly stopped, thinking with all his might, and then waved his arm with extra force.

"Because the 'mathematical machine' is eternal, its operation should include all 'solutions.' The 'parameters' that constitute it will neither stop nor disappear. They are just... transformed, transformed into a state that cannot be addressed or read—for the mathematical machine, this is still part of the 'solution,' and for us creatures who rely on the mathematical machine to understand the world, this process... is called 'the end of the world.'"

(End of Chapter)