The Creatures That We Are-Chapter 1092: Orphans of the World

The others were catching up quickly. Chatters erupted and quickly died down.

“Dr. Jia had deduced much of the truth before,” Baili Yi said. “The Gluttonous Snake struck the Heavenly Way with Zero Probability, and the Heavenly Way had been resisting. The Mist World is the constantly evolving battlefield.”

“I’m not sure how the Heavenly Way did it, but the results are clear: the Heavenly Way managed to preserve the most important thing in Their territory—cause and effect. Thus, the Mist is forced to slowly devour the good world following chronological order. That’s the only reason that the good world didn’t become a novel destroyed by a shredder, and humans didn’t get completely lost in a chaotic time and space.”

“However, the Gluttonous Snake didn’t let the Heavenly Way have Its way entirely, either. The Heavenly Way is unable to keep the whole earthworm intact. Instead, it got cut by the Gluttonous Snake and regrown into seven earthworms, reaching a precarious balance.”

“The earliest round was the longest, and the subsequent rounds became shorter and shorter.”

“Now I should bring up my mentor. He called himself the Time Trespasser. With Painter, he managed to secret himself from the fifth round to the sixth round, where he met me.”

Baili Yi could see many hands. He quickly said, “I know you’re curious about my Talent. I’ll get to it later.”

They lowered their hands.

“According to my mentor’s speculation, Zero Probability began at least ten thousand years ago. The first round might have lasted a few thousand years, and the Mist claimed only a small area. The ratio between monsters and humans was flipped compared to your round. Back then, there was only one monster out of ten thousand humans.”

“I should note that the fact 199 awakeners emerged among 400 humans in your round doesn't mean half the humans from ten thousand years ago were awakeners. Awakeners and elite monsters have always been the rare minority. With a much larger population, though, there would have been many more awakeners.”

“Going into the second round, the Mist came to claim a bigger territory, and the total population decreased. The world’s lifespan, too. The ratio of humans and monsters would be 1000 to 1.”

“Based on the pattern, the ratio between humans and monsters would be 100 to 1 for the third round.”

“The fourth round, 1 to 1.”

“The fifth round, namely my mentor’s original round, the Heavenly Way’s power had already seen a great decrease, and the Mist had claimed a major part of the world. The round lasted about seven hundred years. Humans became the minority with a ratio of 1 human to 100 monsters.”

“The sixth round, my round, lasted around 300 years with a ratio of 1 human to 1000 monsters.”

“And you, the last round, would last around a hundred years with only about 400 humans. The ratio of humans and monsters is 1 to 10000.”

“Every round has a starting and an ending point. At the end of each round, the world rebooted and restarted. The next round began.”

“Consider the world a computer, and humans the data. Two programs on the computer are in conflict. It reboots every time a round is won.”

“After each reboot, more storage would go to the victor. Then the two programs fight again, determining a victor and allocating the spoils. Unfortunately, the Heavenly Way kept losing the fight and thus losing the storage, with less and less space for data.”

“Easy to understand for a pleb,” War Tiger said, taking a drag of his cigarette.

“I have a question,” Qing Ling spoke up coolly. “Where did humans come from?”

“Oh, right!” War Tiger slapped his forehead. “I’ve been wondering about that. Where did we come from? Did the Heavenly Way create us out of nothing?”

“You’ve fallen into the same pattern.” Baili Yi smiled patiently. “I’ll emphasize again: the creatures of the world already exist. Human civilization would have continued to develop.”

“I, for example, was born into a fisherman family a few hundred years ago, and you would’ve been born in different families of this era.”

“If the world hadn’t been hit with Zero Probability, all humans of all eras would’ve existed, not just us.”

“Unfortunately, the Heavenly Way has been losing, and fewer and fewer things could be retained. In your round, the Heavenly Way is only able to maintain a few hundred humans on about a dozen isolated islands. Who and what should’ve existed, including your family and friends, no longer exist.”

“You didn’t know about Zero Probability, so you felt like you popped out of nowhere after awakening. However, that wasn’t the case. You have always existed at this time and this location, only those who should’ve existed here and now with you are gone.”

“So it’s not that we’ve suddenly appeared, but the others have suddenly vanished,” Vermilion Bird quietly said.

Baili Yi nodded. “Yes.”

“So,” Qing Ling remembered what an old friend had said, “We’ve become orphans of the world.”

Silence descended. Everyone tried to digest and come to terms with the fact.

“Brother Baili, do you mean that...” Old Seven took off his baseball cap and rubbed his hair, licking his lips, “Originally, I should’ve been born from a mother, growing into an adult and starting a family—”

“Well, not necessarily.” Crimson Bee snickered.

“Fuck off!” Old Seven threw his cap at Crimson Bee’s face. “Stop interrupting me!”

“I popped into this world an infant raised by two wanderers, but that doesn’t mean I came into existence out of nowhere. It only means that the past of me growing up in my mother’s belly was no longer part of the present world.”

“It’s like an animation with the beginning cut out. The audience hasn’t seen the beginning with the studio’s logo, but it doesn’t mean that the animation just came into being out of nowhere.”

“Good analogy,” Baili Yi said with a nod.

“Good for you, Old Seven!” Crimson Bee tossed the baseball cap back to him. “I take it back. You will certainly marry a wife.”

Old Seven put on his baseball cap proudly. “Ha, I shocked myself with how good I am when I get serious!”

Baili Yi chuckled. “In some way, we’re all lucky ones, chosen by the Heavenly Way for the few quotas to live a life.”

“Of course, the quotas come with a price. The Heavenly Way gave us a mission—find a solution to reverse Zero Probability. Make it so that the good apple is still good, and humans, the nutrients that should be there, still exist.”

“If...” Vermilion Bird hesitated.

“Ask,” Baili Yi said.

Vermilion Bird said through clenched teeth, “If the original world is a good apple, humans the nutrients, the Mist the bad apple, then monsters...what are monsters?”

White Dew scoffed. “And what am I?”

Everyone turned to Gao Yang. What was the Divine Scion then?

Baili Yi said calmly, “You have an answer already, don’t you, Vermilion Bird?”

She didn’t say anything, but her expression was loud enough.

“Oh God!” Hong Xiaoxiao exclaimed before quickly covering her mouth.

The others, too, had realized the absurd yet most reasonable answer.

Finally, Gao Yang spelled it out for everyone. “Monsters are the good and bad flesh of the apple, the humans who exist yet not exist.”

“So, so the ones we killed...weren’t monsters, but our fellow humans?” Veggie's eyes reddened as she gripped her hand tightly.

“It’s the humans who exist yet not exst,” Baili Yi emphasized.

When the others didn’t say anything, he continued, “Of course, those are only my speculation. And my mentor and I believe that the two aren’t simply equated. A monster isn’t one human in the dual states.

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“What do you mean?” War Tiger frowned.

“Monsters may be the products of the collective emotions, rationality, desires, perceptions, and consciousness of the humans who exist and not exist.”

“As an analogy, the relationship isn’t one between an uncooked rice grain and a cooked rice grain, but countless rice grains and countless food made of rice.”

“You’re good at making analogies, Brother Baili.” War Tiger took a drag of his cigarette, the burden on him lifting. He had killed so many monsters up to this point that he lost count.

Vermilion Bird sighed in relief.

“Then White Dew and Captain...” Chen Ying turned to Gao Yang with concern, laced with a hint of fear. “What are they?”