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"Huh?"
Gao Yang suddenly opened his eyes.
He found himself standing on a rooftop.
The world in front of him felt very unfamiliar.
He looked down.
He stared at his hands, his face full of disbelief:
"How am I... Wasn’t I dead?"
"I resurrected you."
From behind.
A very familiar voice ca.
Gao Yang turned his head:
"Lin Xian!"
Seeing his best friend standing behind him, hands in his pockets; Gao Yang was overjoyed and launched into a at Bomb Impact:
"Whoa! Is this really happening!?"
"I vaguely rember that an explosion happened while we were digging ice in Antarctica, then I knew nothing until I opened my eyes here!"
"Hey, hey, hey! What is going on, are you ssing with ?"
As he said this, Gao Yang turned his head to look at the shiny Hafnium alloy trash can nearby.
The trash can nad VV was spinning around idly, but the small screen on its head displayed the current date and ti:
September 3, 2624, 14:51
"No way!"
Gao Yang was dumbfounded:
"It’s freaking September 2624!"
"Then, what about the World-Ending White Light? Since it’s this date now, doesn’t it an the problem has been solved?"
"And I went with Jask to Antarctica; that was in 2504. How on earth did you bring back to life now?"
Lin Xian looked at the flustered Gao Yang and smiled slightly:
"Actually, both questions have the sa answer—"
"[The universal constant, 42.]"
Gao Yang looked completely bewildered:
"You figured out the universal constant? What exactly is 42?"
Lin Xian shook his head:
"Even if I tell you, you won’t understand, it’s not that easy to explain; even if I directly gave you the answer, without experiencing higher dinsions and ti travel yourself, you wouldn’t get it."
"That’s also why Chen Heping in The Second Dreamland couldn’t ultimately comprehend 42. He was just A Step Away, but he was destined to never grasp it."
"So... Gao Yang, don’t bother yourself with your second-hand brain."
Gao Yang imdiately jumped up:
"Who do you think can’t understand? Stop pretending with your brother! Co on, co on, I have a ton of questions to ask you!"
"Forget about whether I can understand or not, just explain it clearly, can’t you? Explain it in a way that soone with a college diploma can understand!"
"Alright then."
Lin Xian and Gao Yang, such close brothers, of course, wouldn’t hold back:
"Gao Yang, let ask you, what is the smallest scale in the universe."
"The atom." Gao Yang answered without hesitation, confidently.
"..."
Lin Xian looked at him speechlessly:
"That’s middle school knowledge, any high school student should be able to say electrons, protons, neutrons, atomic nuclei, or sothing like that, right?"
"Ah, just tell the answer directly!"
Gao Yang waved his hand:
"Just give the answer!"
"The Planck length."
Lin Xian explained:
"In physics, the Planck length is defined as the smallest scale in the universe, the shortest distance that cannot be further divided."
"But in reality, this is just a human understanding, the human limit, but not the universe’s limit."
"From a macroscopic perspective, the definition of the Planck length isn’t incorrect, but if you look from a microscopic perspective, from a higher-dinsional view, the Planck length is far from being the smallest scale, far from it."
He raised his right hand.
Held up between the two of them:
"Look, such as this air in front of us, it seems empty to you, but to ..."
Whoosh.
With a blink, Lin Xian’s dark eyes suddenly turned azure, emanating a blue glow like shattered stars:
"But to , it’s dense, countless, layer upon layer of 42. 42 is the smallest unit in the microscopic realm and the higher-dinsional view, the smallest scale, the basic component of everything."
"As long as you can see 42, then you can see everything macro and micro, including space, ti, history, future, even..."
"[World lines]."
Gao Yang stared at Lin Xian as if looking at a wizard, and after a long pause, uttered a:
"Huh?"
He scratched his head, waving above Lin Xian’s hand:
"You’re saying there are many invisible 42s here?"
"It’s just that you can’t see them."
"Then how can I see them?" Gao Yang asked.
"You must understand first, then you can see, and then you can grasp."
Lin Xian blinked his azure eyes, patiently explaining:
"It’s not just what’s in front of you, everything around , the sky, the earth, the starry river, the universe... all filled with these tiniest 42s, connecting into [strings], weaving into [lines], intersecting like a loom, chaotic yet orderly, vast yet delicate."
"I know it sounds mysterious, but it’s true, many things you have to understand first before you can see them, before you can understand them."
"For example... before humans understood astronomy, even if they looked up at the stars every night, they didn’t know what they were, and couldn’t imagine that each small star was a star many tis bigger than the sun."
"Another example... mathematics, physics, chemistry, all these things have existed in every corner since Earth was born, but before humans understood these sciences, all the answers were right by their side, yet they still couldn’t discover them."
"So, do you understand now? [Many truths, even if they’re right by your side all the ti, close at hand; if you don’t understand the principles, you just can’t see them.]"
"I have to say, by sheer coincidence, Douglas Adams was actually right... The truth of the universe and space-ti really is 42."
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