Near the power room on the lower deck.

An orange-yellow holographic barrier hovers in the hallway, enclosing a large area that is isolated.

This is where the crash occurred.

A lifeboat-class civilian spacecraft smashed through the hull of the cruiser Orion, and half of the hull was inserted directly into the hull of the cruiser Orion.

Even if you look at the history of human civilization, which is not very long, this is quite an explosive accident.

What is particularly puzzling is how the dinghy managed to break through the deflection shield and through the hull hull that was almost impossible to break.

Fortunately, it was the gym in the living quarters on the lower deck that was damaged, and no one was injured because the spacecraft was about to enter the hyperspace route, which was in a state of lockdown at the time.

This is also the reason why many people ran to watch later.

The ship's safety and maintenance department immediately shut down the gas exchange system in the damaged area and isolated the damaged area in accordance with the plan in the safety manual.

Although only a modest chamber was actually damaged, the security director cordoned off the entire associated area based on the assessment report of the four engineers.

At this moment, the engineer wearing the exoskeleton is standing around the barrier, manipulating the tablet in his hand.

Seeing Luo Yi coming over, one of the engineers stepped forward and said.

"Hey, this is the controlled area, you'll have to change into a spacesuit and come in."

Luo Yi hung the respirator around his neck and showed his three documents at the same time.

"Is there a risk of secondary explosion as the modified prosthetic body in my body is resistant to low-pressure environments?"

The Engineer turned back to exchange glances with his colleague standing next to the barrier, then looked at him and replied.

"Not really, we've shut down the reactor and chemical battery of the ship that caused the accident."

"That's fine, I'm just looking outside and getting a feel for the situation." Luo Yi tapped him on the shoulder, walked through the barrier, and walked to the door of the room with the "Under Repair" sign.

The alloy door was tightly sealed, with a folded titanium reinforcement plate attached to the inside and out.

The staff member standing next to him handed him a tablet, the screen of which was connected to the camera of the repair robot.

Through the picture on the tablet, Luo Yi saw the situation in the room, and saw that the fitness equipment had been hit to a corner of the room by a huge impact, and the hull shell was hit by the spaceship and sunk inward with a radius of about 1~2 meters.

It was a tragic scene.

Luo Yi frowned.

Honestly, it's not like the damage that a lifeboat-class civilian ship can do.

"It's like there's an explosion, isn't it?" The Engineer looked at him and shrugged his shoulders and grinned, "But no, we didn't find an armor-piercing warhead on the ship. This is indeed a civilian spacecraft for scientific research purposes, and the surface of the spacecraft has an obvious oxidation environment...... From this, it can be inferred that the ship should normally work in the atmosphere."

The staff on the side also said.

"Anyway, we got the people out of the first place. The other damage could not be dealt with with by the ship's repair tools, so it had to be handed over to the construction personnel of Starport."

Luo nodded, recorded the information on the memory chip, and then continued to ask.

"The kid you saved said, 'This ship...... There's another person in the research ship, it's supposed to be a little girl, have you noticed?"

The staff standing at the door exchanged glances in confusion, and then looked at him with a strange expression.

"How is that possible?"

"At that time, the rescue team of the Eighth Department rushed directly into it, and there was only one sleeping pod in the entire ship."

"Did he break his brain?"

Luo Yi didn't speak, his index finger tapped twice on the screen, and he controlled the repair robot to move a few steps forward, aiming the camera at the cockpit that had been knocked out of shape.

What is there really

Nor did it.

While he was pondering, the engineer standing next to him suddenly spoke.

"Speaking of which, something strange happened."

Luo Yi looked at him.

"What's weird."

The engineer continued.

"Some people heard the explosion, some didn't."

Luo was stunned for a moment.

He remembered that he had heard it, so he rushed to the scene as soon as possible.

However, there are indeed people who did not hear it, such as his comrade-in-arms Xiao Yong, who only came over when he heard the alarm.

It is also strange to say that the alarm should have sounded at the first moment of the explosion, but the alarm failed, and it was manually sounded by the first department after the relevant units on the lower deck reported the damage information to the first department.

This was also the main reason for the gathering of people at that time.

After all, according to everyone's past experience, if the alarm doesn't go off, it means that it's not a big deal, and it's normal to want to go and see it.

What is not normal is that some people hear the explosion and some do not.

Luo Yi carefully recalled the scene at that time, there were indeed not many people in the room, only a few dozen.

Compared to the thousands of people on the lower deck, this number is indeed too small.

"Is there any pattern to this?"

"I can't tell," the engineer shook his head, "I wanted to ask you if you had any clues."

The staff on the side laughed and teased.

"Anyway, this should be the work of the five departments, the war is over, and that department should play a role."

"Didn't that guy say that, Time Traveler?"

"Haha, according to him, we need to get personal accident insurance for ourselves now."

"Personal accident insurance is okay, can the 'Alliance' pay for it?"

"Hahaha."

Apparently no one believed that the child was from the future, after all, it was an indisputable fact that they were all alive.

At that moment, the engineer suddenly opened his mouth as if he had thought of something.

"By the way, there's one more thing."

Luo Yi, who was pondering, raised his head.

"Can you finish all at once?"

"I just remembered...... the engineer looked at the adjoining rooms and pointed to the one at the end of the corner, "There was the cafeteria in the living quarters, and there were a few people in it at the time, but they didn't hear it until our people came in."

Luo Yi was stunned again.

His duty room was far away from here, and they all heard the violent explosion, but the people near the center of the explosion didn't hear anything?

"Weird, isn't it? The soundproofing isn't really very good, and more than once people have complained that the people dining there are too noisy," the engineer said jokingly, shrugging his shoulders, "maybe we should find a real priest."

"Makes sense."

Luo nodded, returned the tablet in his hand to the staff on the side, and then looked at the engineer and said seriously.

"This message is important...... I want to circle the people on the lower deck who heard the explosion and those who didn't, and then mark what they did when the explosion happened and where they were located, which might help solve the dilemma we are facing at the moment."

"Good idea," the engineer snapped his fingers, "you go and talk to the people of the Eight Divisions, it's their job."

The eighth department is the ship safety and maintenance department, which is equivalent to the security management department on the entire starship, including the security director, the peace officer, and the emergency rescue team.

Although the name of the fourth department (engineering and maintenance department) also has a maintenance in it, it is mainly responsible for technical work such as equipment maintenance and outer space operations.

The 3,000-strong starship is like a small town sailing in space, and almost everyone has a specific position.

But sometimes Luo Yi can't bear it

I want to complain, there are too many departments in them, even they have to think for a while, which thing is whose job.

But fortunately, everyone is very responsible, at most there is not enough work, but no one plays the ball.

Luo Yi took note of the information he had gathered, nodded cleanly and said.

"I'll go."

……

The Weapons and Defense Division, which is the third division, is the quasi-combat department of the USS Orion missile cruiser and the emergency response department.

Although the Eighth Division is responsible for ordinary public order incidents, the Third Department usually intervenes in such major accidents that are so serious that they cause damage to the ship's hull, threaten the lives of all officers and men on the ship, and cannot rule out the suspicion of a KB attack.

As a professional soldier, Luo Yi acted very quickly, and after inspecting the accident scene and torpedo magazine, he immediately went to the Eighth Department to exchange information, and retrieved the access control usage of each functional facility.

In this way, it is easy to determine where everyone is at that time.

The Eighth Department also showed a considerable degree of attention to the information provided by the three departments, and sent almost all the security personnel to visit and investigate all 1,600 crew members on the lower deck.

The results of the investigation surprised everyone, and only about 200 people heard the explosion, but because the alarm did not sound, most people did not take it seriously.

In the conference room of the eight departments, a three-dimensional holographic image of the lower deck of the cruiser Orion hovers over the conference table.

According to the advice of the three combatants, the area where those who heard the explosion was marked red and the area where those who did not hear the explosion was marked yellow.

The pale blue hologram was almost filled with red and yellow, and the sinuous red was like a long dragon spreading on the inside of the hull, but unfortunately there was no obvious pattern.

Interestingly, however, there is no such thing as someone in the same area hearing the explosion and someone not.

In other words, there is no third possibility between red and yellow.

"Looks like the problem is space." Looking at the map covered in markers, Luo Yi said in thought, "I think we should focus on inspecting these rooms marked red."

The head of security of the Eighth Department stood nearby, a subtle expression written on his unshaven face.

He seemed to think of something, but he thought it was too much, but eventually he coughed and said.

"Do you know what came to mind?"

A pair of eyes gathered around the conference table looked at him, and Luo Yi asked for everyone present.

"What?"

The head of security said immediately.

"Schrödinger's cat."

There was a whisper at the table, and this statement was agreed by some people.

Looking at Luo Yi, who was silent, the security director continued in an uncertain tone.

"Aren't we stuck in a hyperspace passage now? It just so happened that something strange happened again...... Do you think we're going to be trapped in something like quantum space?"

Not liking this ambiguous statement, Luo Yi asked seriously.

"What is quantum space? What is the exact definition?"

The security director was speechless for a moment, rubbing his index finger against the stubble, and said with a wry smile.

"I'm actually guessing, and I'm not a physics ...... I studied logistics management."

The security officer standing next to him whistled and teased.

"Looks like we don't have a professional counterpart on the ship."

"Isn't that one from the fifth department a professional counterpart?"

"Right, but useless."

Unexpectedly, there were also persecutions of Dr. Wu here, Luo Yi made a helpless expression.

"I'm going to ask him what he thinks in a moment...... About the quantum space you mentioned."

The head of security coughed in embarrassment.

"That's my current name...... Anyway it's something like that, you ask

Just ask."

Jokes are jokes.

That guy is a top student after all.

He actually believes in Dr. Wu's professional knowledge and diploma.

After the meeting.

Luo Yi rushed to the fifth department non-stop, only to find that Dr. Wu was not here, and there was only one intern on duty with him, and after some inquiry, he learned that the guy had gone to drink again.

There is too little work in the research and technology department, it belongs to a marginal department that is completely useless, and most of the people who work here are loose and lazy.

In desperation, Luo Yi could only contact his friends in the eighth department, and finally found this drunk guy in a bar at the corner of the middle deck.

Looking at Dr. Wu lying on the bar, Luo Yi sighed and walked to sit next to him, and then looked at the bionics robot bartender in front of him.

"Two glasses of lemonade."

"Is it ice or room temperature?"

"A glass of ice at room temperature."

"Yes sir."

The bionic robot replied in a gentle voice, and it didn't take long for two more glasses of water with lemon slices on the table.

Pushing the hot cup in front of Dr. Wu, Luo took a sip of the cup with the ice cubes floating on it.

From 8 a.m. in the morning to now he got off work, he was busy for ten hours without a single bite of food.

However, this is not entirely due to busyness, but also partly due to lack of appetite.

Looking at Wu Xinghuan, who reached out to touch the cup, he said in a casual tone.

"Is it appropriate to drink during working hours?"

"It doesn't matter......

Wu Xinghuan grabbed the cup and took a sip, and found that there was no smell of wine, it was still hot, so he frowned.

Looking at this guy's bad attitude, Luo Yi raised his eyebrows.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter? Didn't you discover new physics, and say we're going to miss you...... That bottle of wine in your hand?"

Hearing this, Wu Xinghuan laughed self-deprecatingly, shook the lemonade in his hand, and cast a confused gaze on the wine cabinet in front of him.

"It doesn't matter anymore...... No one will remember us, I didn't find new physics, and the old edifice didn't collapse, it was even more solid. We're still in our cage, nothing more than the hamster that happened to stop on the roller."

This guy was obviously drunk, and Luo Yi didn't understand what he was saying at all, only that he seemed to deny his previous conclusions.

"So...... Now you think that guy isn't a time traveler anymore?"

"Isn't it important?" Wu Xinghuan shook his head, picked up the cup and took a sip.

Luo Yi frowned and stared at his eyes seriously.

"Listen, you're the only one on the ship who has the hope of helping us understand what's going on, and we need to know what's going on with us. I don't know what the problem you encountered in your research, but I hope that at least for now, you can cheer up!"

This sentence seemed to have some effect, and Wu Xinghuan looked up at him, his eyes staring at him directly.

"Let's make a hypothesis."

Luo Yi looked at him and motioned for him to continue.

Wu Xinghuan put the cup on the table, deducted two seeds from the lemon slices and threw them in.

Looking at the sinking lemon seeds, he said slowly.

"There's a video game with lots of people in it...... Let's say there are 10 billion of them."

Luo Yi frowned.

"And then?"

Wu Xinghuan continued.

"Our eyes have limits, and of course there are lenses, so let's say this lens can only see 100 million people, and our game console supports 100 million people on the same screen."

Without waiting for Luo Yi to ask, he said non-stop.

"So the question is, what about the 9.9 billion people off camera? Where did they go?"

was stunned by this question, Luo Yi was stunned

After a while, he replied with a strange expression.

"Off camera, of course."

"Clever!" Wu Xinghuan gave a thumbs up and grinned, "It's a pity that I only saw the surface...... The truth is, they are all quantum beings."

"You know they exist, and the host assumes that they do, and even the names of each and every one of them are recorded, but they don't actually generate them directly in our program, do they? Or rather, they're stored in the cache, and they're only generated in real time when we move the camera over, and they're visible to us."

"It was in this way that people in the old era made games at a low cost, as long as they limited the perspective to a certain range, and cleverly used the graphics to load, they only needed a few stickers to make a planet."

"I can probably understand what you mean," Luo Yi said with a frown, "but what does this have to do with the situation we are facing now?"

Wu Xinghuan didn't answer directly, but knocked over the cup on the bar.

Looking at Luo Yi, who had a stunned expression, he said slowly.

"Now there is an explosion outside the camera, and it does happen, and you can even see the number of casualties, you can see the aftermath of the explosion, and you can see the aftermath...... But did the explosion really happen?"

"Do you need to ask?" Luo Yi looked at him puzzled, "You said it yourself, there was indeed an explosion there."

"I'm the host, I'm the narrator, and the explosion is what I told you." Wu Xinghuan stared into his eyes and said with a smile, "But what you should know is that before you move the camera over, the special effects of the explosion, the screams of the people, and what someone saw and did before they died, didn't actually generate them on my program?"

"Maybe when the explosion happened, some guy was pointing his middle finger at you outside of the game, and I bet you'd be amazed when you saw it, because one of the NPCs not only woke up to self-consciousness but also broke the fourth wall...... But you don't have a chance to see it, because when you move the camera over, you won't even be able to find his body."

Luo looked at him stunned, vaguely as if he had understood something.

"Horizon," Wu Xinghuan slowly spat out a word from his mouth, and continued, "We call the space-time interface where an event happens to be observed, the 'horizon', and in this exaggerated example, the edge of your lens is what I call the horizon."

"And for us sitting here, we are just outside the 'horizon' in the hyperspace waterway. Including the astray imp, we were all put into a black box that the outside world could not penetrate. Our end is a fact of fact for him, and his end is irrelevant to us, because no matter what he tells us and what happens in the future, we are already dead in his timeline."

When he said this, Wu Xinghuan smiled self-deprecatingly again.

"The universe is much more cruel than we think, isn't it? According to this theory, whatever we do at this moment is meaningless, even if we carve words on the wall and write about our legendary experiences, what should be erased will be erased."

"Perhaps we've met time-travelers countless times in history...... There was only one exception, and they were like the NPC I said was standing off-camera and gesturing the middle finger at the player, and no one knew that he broke the fourth wall. When God who overlooks us comes to his senses, he has been completely erased. And the reason is exactly what we see...... Because we haven't heard of this traverser at all."

Luo Yi couldn't help but hold his breath, and said slowly after a long time.

"But...... How did we get in?"

Just because of hyperspace voyages?

But since the outbreak of this war, there have been countless hyperspace voyages, and I have never heard of a starship encountering such a ......

Wait a minute.

It's not necessarily that they haven't encountered it.

A drop of cold sweat slowly swept across Luo Yi's forehead and dripped on the bar counter of the bar.

Maybe someone has met it, but no one knows.

It's as if no one knows what the world is like after death, whether it is reincarnation or going to a place called heaven.

There is only one message they leave to the outside world, or "within the horizon".

That is the undisputed death.

"How did you get in?" Haha, only God knows how we got in."

Wu Xinghuan laughed out loud, looked at Luo Yi, who seemed to be enlightened, and said slowly, "This kind of thing doesn't matter at all, maybe a big explosion killed us all in an instant, but we don't know it......

When he said this, he burped, stared drunkenly into Luo Yi's eyes, and said word by word.

"So why do I say you're doing something meaningless? Because that guy is telling the truth! We may have ...... No, not possibly, definitely!"

"We're dead!"

"And you and I sitting here...... It's just a ghost."

There was silence at the bar.

Only the bionic robot skillfully wipes the cup and makes a chirping sound.

Luo Yi looked at Wu Xinghuan in a daze, stared at that face for a long time, and finally looked at the robot bartender.

「…… Two cups of the 'Fountain of Life'."

The android bartender said in a gentle voice.

"I don't recommend that you drink alcohol while on duty, especially strong cocktails."

"But you gave it all to him." Luo Yi pointed to Wu Xinghuan, who was sitting next to him.

A look of distress appeared on the android bartender's face.

"But this gentleman said that he was from the five departments, and you all said that the five departments didn't have to work......

Luo Yi's eyebrows twitched, but he still said without changing his face.

"I gave him what I wanted."

This statement seems to be accepted by the android bartender, and two glasses of crystal clear spirits are quickly placed on the bar.

Luo Yi pushed one of the cups in front of Dr. Wu, and then sprinkled a few grains of salt into his own cup.

"Everything you're saying is just your reasoning, and I can speculate that we're actually on different timelines...... It's like that parallel universe theory."

Wu Xinghuan shrugged.

"You don't know what the parallel universe theory is, and if you do, you should know, it's no different from what I said. The fate of this part of our plane is predestined, almost predestined—"

"I think there's a difference. The difference is that I'm still breathing, I'm still having a heartbeat, at least I'm alive now." Luo stared intently into his eyes and continued word by word, "The living should do the things of the living, and as for the afterlife, leave it to the other living people to think."

"But I have to apologize for my prejudice, it's not like you didn't do anything, you even did more than any of us."

In front of Dr. Wu, who looked surprised, Luo Yi drank the liquor in his glass and stood up with his hands on the table.

"There's still something I can do, and it may seem meaningless to you, but I don't want to give up."

Just as he was about to leave, a monotonous applause suddenly came from the door of the bar.

Including the androids standing behind the bar, the three of them looked at the door, only to see their captain standing there.

"Hello, Mr. Captain." The android behind the bar smiled and said hello.

As for Wu Xinghuan, he awkwardly hid the wine glass behind him, and then slid off the bar stool.

Because just behind the captain, there was his cousin Wu Mengke.

He could already feel the sharp eyes staring at his drunken self.

"Well said."

Zhao Tianhe put down his clapping hands, nodded to the android bartender, and then looked at the two standing in front of the bar with a smile.

"This is the battle of people

The attitude that a soldier should have, never give up until the last minute."

"You've won the award...... Luo Yi, who gave a military salute, said solemnly.

Zhao Tianhe simply returned a military salute, then looked at a guy who couldn't stand up straight because he was drunk, and continued with a smile.

"Dr. Wu, I've noticed that you used almost the word when you mentioned 'our fate is predestined.'"

"That's the ......" Dodging Wu Mengke's sharp eyes, Wu Xinghuan touched the bridge of his nose and said embarrassedly.

Zhao Tianhe said with a smile.

"So there's a way to change that, right?"

Wu Xinghuan was stunned.

Before he could speak, the captain paused for a moment and continued.

"For example...... Keep the established future unchanged and only change the unknown."

Wu Xinghuan said with a wry smile.

"But how can this ......?"

Zhao Tianhe looked at him and said.

"The Twins are sister ships of the Orion, and we are the same blueprint."

Wu Xinghuan looked at the captain with a strange expression.

"What do you mean......"

Zhao Tianhe said logically and clearly.

"The ship that hit us is not capable of interstellar cruise, and we reasonably suspect that the accident occurred near Earth...... At least there is something that a working engine can reach."

Wu Xinghuan hurriedly glanced at Luo Yi, who was standing next to him, and saw that the latter nodded, so he whispered.

"It seems...... That's right."

Didn't care about his small movements, Zhao Tianhe continued.

"And we are in a hyperspace shipping channel, and according to what I know, there should be no end sum in the classical space sense, only the end and ...... in the concept of time Am I right?"

"Not exactly, but that's pretty much what it means, we can't calculate the distance from two massive objects...... Wait, what do you mean—" Halfway through speaking, Wu Xinghuan's eyes suddenly widened, and he looked at the captain in astonishment.

Zhao Tianhe stared at him and said his hypothesis.

"Is it possible that this self-proclaimed time traveler who boarded the Orion doesn't really know if he's on the Orion or the Twins?"

Luo Yi asked with a frown.

"But the Twins haven't already returned—"

Zhao Tianhe raised his hand to interrupt him.

"They were sunk, and we sank them."

The air inside the bar was eerily quiet.

Luo Yi and Wu Xinghuan were stunned in place, and then the former subconsciously looked at Wu Mengke, who was standing behind Zhao Tianhe, the second-in-command of the starship, Ms. Administrator.

There was no expression on that face, and there was no trace of surprise.

It can be seen that the captain is not.

Luo Yi's Adam's apple moved, staring at Zhao Tianhe in disbelief, the chief he once respected extremely much.

「…… Why?"

Zhao Tianhe looked at the young soldier, sighed slowly, and said in a complicated voice.

"Because...... We had to do it."

"You...... Kill someone......" Wu Xinghuan looked at his cousin in a daze, and squeezed out the last half of the sentence from his trembling lips, "...... Three thousand?"

His eyes were fixed on her, but this time she looked away, not at her brother.

Zhao Tianhe coughed lightly, breaking the stiffness that permeated the air.

"We have to stop the Aerospace Forces from committing crimes, as for the specific process...... It's all recorded on a black box, and when I get back to the Lagrange station, I'll accept arrest and explain my actions to a court-martial. Besides, it's my decision alone, and none of you have anything to do with it."

"Anyway, the water behind this 'accident' is deep, and I don't want to disgrace my glory, but we have to

Choose. If we don't do it, not only will we die, but many people will die, including many survivors who have survived these three years......

Luo Yi looked at the captain in a daze, and couldn't accept this scribbled statement in his heart.

The Twin was the Orion's sister ship, and the personnel of the two sides often rotated, and there were quite a few people he knew on that ship.

But now his most respected superiors told him...... Those guys are dead.

And they killed it.

Or is it unbeknownst to the vast majority of people......

Wu Xinghuan took a deep breath and tried to pull himself out of this bad news.

He did see some life—

In a voice that no one could hear, his mouth was shattered.

"There are two cats in the box...... Only one has died, and the other is uncertain."

"We saw the man who opened the box, but the man who opened the box saw only a dead cat...... As long as they die, we live."

Luo couldn't hear what he was talking about, and he didn't have the heart to listen.

Looking at this lost young man, Zhao Tianhe's slightly vicissitudes of life had a trace of tiredness on his face that had never been revealed, and he slowly spoke.

"I'll explain the Twins and the order from the Lagrange Station later, so let's talk about how to solve the problem at hand."

……

(Thanks to the leader of "Aurora_" for the reward!! ）