"As you just saw in the documentary, our once powerful red neighbor to the north did not fall on a certain world line, and the Cold War did not end with the disintegration of a superpower as you are familiar with, in that timeline, in 2027 AD, the Cold War finally became a Hot War, but because of the progress of both sides in anti-nuclear technology, the investment of nuclear weapons in World War III did not bring about the nuclear winter that the world has been afraid of during the Cold War. But that doesn't mean humanity lacks the means to self-destruct. ”

"As the production of thermonuclear weapons required huge industrial facilities, and these facilities were gradually destroyed by 'priority care' in wars around the world, nuclear weapons stockpiles were quickly emptied, and subsequent production could not keep up, so countries remembered the biological and chemical weapons that were widely criticized in World War I, and the super-drug-resistant bacteria and viruses that were artificially bred and dropped began to wreak havoc on the world, taking away a large number of people and dying for a while. Corpses all over the place" At this point, the strange man's expression was a little sad.

"But at the same time, a wide variety of broad-spectrum vaccines and antibiotics were developed from the lab and quickly put into production, saving batch after batch of civilians and soldiers. In the contradictory attack and defense of pathogens and medical technology, people have been suffering for more than ten years in the pain of being able to survive temporarily but someone around them to die at any time. ”

"The long and painful war has worn out the war enthusiasm of all, anti-war sentiment has spread across the globe, and in the year 2045 AD, the brutal war is over, the surviving humanity unites, embraces peace, reflects on war, national boundaries are erased, and the Third World War is remembered by humanity as a tragic lesson."

"Although the population is less than one in ten compared to the pre-war period, medical technology and biotechnology have been greatly developed during the war, and human beings have stepped into the interstellar age using the bioenergy technology built on this basis, come into contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, and begin to use time and space itself. The subspace storage device I just showed you and the time machine I used to travel to you are two ways to use time and space," the strange man paused, picked up his cup and drank.

"A real magnificent history," Gou raised his eyebrows, "but it seems that the human civilization of that world does not need me to preserve." ”

The strange man put down the glass of water and said, "If history has not been changed, I really don't need to come to you, but the problem is that the world where you and I live, history has been changed. ”

The man paused, then continued, "Generally speaking, the use of time and space by intelligent civilizations needs to be supervised by the Space-Time Authority under the Joint Conference of Intelligent Civilizations of the Galaxy. However, the first scientists on earth to build a time machine were saddened by the cruelty of World War III, so they traveled back to 1981, and after ten years of deployment, they finally caused the disintegration of the red superpower in 1991, blocking the possibility of the outbreak of World War III. ”

"Sounds like a good thing," Gou Ke took over, "but still hasn't explained why you've come to me." ”

"The problem is that war is the best catalyst for the development of science and technology, and without the urgent need for medical and biotechnology caused by war, the new world line will not be able to invest far less in scientific research than the original world line. In its place, information and automation technologies are booming. "In the year 2046, a meteorite shower that is inconspicuous in the Old World Line will also occur on the New World Line. The extraterrestrial virus carried by the meteorite was insignificant to the Old World Line, and it was not difficult to deal with it, so the meteor shower only existed in an inconspicuous corner of the Astronomical Observatory's observation record in the Old World Line. ”

"But humanity in the New World Line hasn't experienced a large-scale virus war, so they can't deal with the alien virus on the meteorite?" Hearing this, Gou Cao, who is as smart as Gou, naturally knows what is going on.

"That's right," the strange man nodded, confirming Gou's speculation, "The virus carried by the meteorite is highly contagious but has a long incubation period, and by 2052 it has infected the whole world. And in 2053, there will be the first death."

"In 2052, isn't that now?!" Hearing this, the amount is too harsh and can't be calm. If a person comes up and tells himself that he is a man of the future, then Gou Cao will be a psychopath, but this man has come up with something far more advanced than contemporary technology, and if a person vaguely allegorizes the disaster a hundred years later, then Gou Cao will think that he is just a magic stick, but this man clearly explains the event and the time is in the near future. In this way, this man's words have some credibility. Subconsciously, he began to accept the identity of the strange man as a future person, so when the man said this, he couldn't help but believe it a little.

"Yes, you're infected, too." The strange man said, "But don't worry, the virus is not 100% deadly, after the full-scale outbreak of the alien virus, only about 60% of people die, and you are one of the people who are immune to the lethal trait of the virus." But what is terrible is not the lethality rate itself, but the fact that infection with the virus will only cause brain death, while the normal operation of other functional organs has even been strengthened to varying degrees. , which is also known as zombieization. This phenomenon eventually led to the demise of human civilization. “

In other words, there is still a world line, which is the complete demise of human civilization. And you're from a world where human civilization has been preserved, right? Because of the existence of future people, Gou Cao thought that human beings had survived at first, but it didn't. So I want to know how the human beings in this world line survived, after all, if what he said is true, then this point is related to whether he can survive the next disaster.

"No, it's different," the strange man said, "Even in my time, the level of space-time technology mastered by human beings is still limited, and it cannot guide the worldline to converge, and under such technological conditions, a result can only be produced by a specific process evolution.

"So even if you travel back in time and change history, then you will only create a new world line and you will not be able to let this change affect your own world line, which means that those scientists entered a new world line when they began to plan the collapse of the superpower in 1981, and the Third World War is still on the same timeline as they were before.

"But the Temporal Authority has the ability to restrain the worldline, and they can make different historical processes eventually lead to the same result, in which case traveling back in time and changing history can directly affect the current worldline. They have intervened in the history of humanity since 2052 and have allowed humanity to survive and develop to the same extent as human civilizations of the same period in the Old World Line. In other words, under their interference, there is a world line, "human civilization has suffered a lot but still survives", and the result is once again produced in the new world line through different processes, "Speaking of this, the strange man pointed at Gou Cao", and you are one of the nodes of their intervention. ”

"So, you provided me with this instrument because of the Temporal Authority's assignment?" Gou Ke finally understood what this man was going to say.

"That's right," the strange man smiled, "I don't have any other requirements for you, I just need you to survive in your own way, we have secretly provided a lot of help to the humans of this era in other places, just to improve the survival rate of the human race as a whole, so as to ensure that human civilization is finally preserved"

"If I go and announce the arrival of the disaster to the outside world now and let them prepare in advance, wouldn't the survival rate of mankind be even higher?"

"It's useless," the strange man replied, "you're just going to be taken crazy, and if you show them a printer or subspace storage device, you're going to be forced to turn it in, which will reduce your own survival rate."

"Understood," Gou replied. Dealing with criminal suspects from all walks of life all year round, Gou is not a virgin.

"Good", the strange man nodded, and pulled a suitcase out of his crotch, "So, it's time to give this thing to you." ”