Capítulo 612: Chapter 533: Heat Death_2

“The correct question is, why do we feel our Physical Value depleting faster.”

Li Cheng calmly said, pointing with his mechanical arm at his bottled lung, “I used to think that the fatigue of the body came from the consumption of high-pressure gas in the bottle.

But after dissection, the bottle’s function is to, and only to, power the brain. It has nothing to do with the limbs.

We feel fatigued because of the pressure differential—when there is a pressure difference between two areas, the high-pressure area will exert pressure on the neighboring low-pressure area. This pressure will push the fluid from the high-pressure area to the low-pressure area until the air pressure in both areas reaches equilibrium.

The golden leaves in the brain are so delicate that they cannot withstand too strong an airflow. Therefore, the high-pressure gas in the bottle is transported to the brain through a dual pressure reduction via the trachea and capillaries.

The existence of the metallic dome is equivalent to an enclosed iron ball. Every breath of the town’s residents turns the high-pressure gas extracted from the gas wells into low-pressure gas.

The gas gradually accumulates under the metallic dome, and the environmental pressure slowly and steadily increases.

The pressure differential reduces, while the brain pressure of the residents remains unchanged, leading to the consequence that the thought process slows down.”

Li Cheng took out a high-speed camera to capture the motion amplitude of the golden leaves, clearly showing that the swaying speed of the leaves is subtly slowing,

He said indifferently: “For the residents of this world, air is not the source of life; the pressure differential is. The pressure differential drives thinking, triggers thoughts, and extends life.

Ironically, every nod of the gas wells, every breath of the residents, every thought of the brain,

shrinks the pressure differential between the underground gas mines and the atmospheric surface, driving this world inevitably towards death.”

Mian Yue murmured to herself: “Zero Restart, so zero means the pressure differential…”

“Wait,” Claudia couldn’t help but ask: “Excluding those stone gargoyles, the technical level here is at least equivalent to the mid-20th century on Earth. Didn’t they think of saving themselves?

For example, by using machines to recompress atmospheric air, reinject high-pressure gas back into the underground gas chamber, and restore the pressure differential.”

“It’s difficult, or rather, meaningless.”

Li Cheng said: “This place has no solar energy, no fossil energy,

all energy, including hydrogen for hydrogen fuel engines, comes from the geothermal energy provided by the underground gas chamber.

In other words, if there were a machine that could compress air, its energy source would still be the underground gas chamber.

Compressing one cubic meter of air requires consuming a pressure differential larger than one cubic meter of air.”

“The second law of thermodynamics, the principle of entropy increase,”

Wanli Sealed Blade spat out the words from between his teeth, “In an irreversible thermodynamic process, the micro-increase of entropy is always greater than zero. In a natural process, the total degree of disorder of an isolated system, i.e., entropy, will not decrease.”

“Exactly.”

Li Cheng snapped his fingers, “In a closed environment, entropy only increases, never decreases.

The pressure differential can only decrease, never increase.

Therefore, the residents of this world inevitably head towards death, with their thinking speed slowing down, watching other objects move increasingly rapidly.

For example, objects falling quickly, clocks turning rapidly.

They clearly know this, so they made a choice.”

Mian Yue took a deep breath, realizing, “Shop owner Robinson mentioned the ‘Return Sect,’ saying they are keen on launching terrorist attacks on residents who refuse to stay in their rooms.

As the name implies, the doctrine of this Return Sect is probably to have all residents reduce outings, lower consumption, to slow down the shrinkage of the pressure differential.”

Wanli Sealed Blade pondered, “In the castle hall, so many corpses of town residents were laid out.

They chose to use hoses, directly connecting themselves to the castle’s gas well—as long as there’s a tiny pressure differential left between the gas well and the atmosphere, they can keep thinking until the last second.”

“Drag it, just drag it. I know I’m waiting for death, but I just want to drag it.”

Li Cheng shrugged and continued: “The speed of our Physical Value consumption hasn’t changed, it’s just that thinking has continued to slow, leading to a sensory perception that makes us feel more and more tired.

Back to the main topic, this operating table is fully equipped, capable of observing the back of the head of the person lying on it, and with a mechanical arm opening the skull.

Considering that the entire procedure can be completed independently, the designer of the operating table initially intended to dissect himself.

He succeeded, becoming the first to discover the operational principles of the mechanical residents’ brains, as well as the ultimate secret of this world.

Knowing that the world itself is heading towards a thermal death end, what choice would he make?

Besides despair and suicide, it would certainly be to move the operating table to City Hall, to make the discovery public, hoping for brainstorming and finding a way to break the deadlock.

But from the emergence of the Return Sect and the outcome of the town residents,

all hopes of breaking the deadlock failed.

The inventor of the operating table, the Astronaut Will, still couldn’t save everyone, including his sister and his friend Robinson.”

Mian Yue couldn’t help but ask: “What about the fusion engine? Theoretically, a nuclear fusion engine, provided with sufficient raw materials, is close to inexhaustible energy.

If it’s true what the jump rope girl said that the stone gargoyles are Astronaut Will’s invention, he could have used this technology to restore the pressure differential, at the very least postponing the thermal death to millions of years later.”

“Will indeed invented nuclear fusion technology, but not at this time, in this place. It was long after he left his hometown.”

Li Cheng said: “There’s truth and falsehood in the Land of Beautiful Dreams; the church priest being parasitized by the mechanical python is most likely false.

But Will wearing a spacesuit, using an ice axe to strike the metallic dome, is most likely true—

In his last moments, when all residents were brain-dead, Will, all alone, continued to dig the tunnel.

He had long since lost hope, merely digging numbly, yet the tunnel eventually opened.

The moment the metallic dome was pierced, the pressure differential within and outside abruptly increased, with air streaming endlessly into the dome, all the brain-dead residents’ brains started functioning again.

However, the golden leaves that had undergone Zero Restart could no longer carry any effective information.

As the sole survivor, Will left the metallic dome and wandered on the killing field, becoming a player by serendipitous chance, continuously growing stronger, Level 10, Level 20, Level 40.

However, the regret and pain from back then were so intense that they still couldn’t be relieved after countless years.

He chose to go to the Land of Beautiful Dreams at the end of his life, trying to make up for his regrets.”

Level 40, the word evoked memories for everyone, Claudia exclaimed: “Star Ring Ancient Battlefield!

The Headless Reindeer mentioned on the Green Train that tens of thousands of years ago, a Transcendent equivalent to human Level 40 fought an interstellar-level war with his opponent in that place. They tore space, melted rock layers, and hurled land into space.

That Level 40 Transcendent was Will.”

“To be precise, Will was once that Transcendent.”

Li Cheng corrected, “The Alpha Python inhabits the Star Ring Ancient Battlefield, once fought against Michael, sharing the same origin as the stone gargoyles.

From this information, it’s not hard to speculate that the Alpha Python and Astronaut Will are two sides of the same Level 40 entity.

The former inherited the Extraordinary Physique, and the latter inherited thought and personality.

That’s why Alpha is so adamant about holding onto the astronaut,

that’s why it could follow the astronaut into the same dream.”

Li Cheng controlled the medical mechanical hand, reinstalling the skull he had dismantled in front of a mirror, calmly said: “The task name of Zero Restart, the Zero part has been answered, only Restart remains.”

He jumped off the operating table; Mian Yue instinctively took out that ice axe, asking: “What are you going to do?”

Li Cheng said indifferently: “Find Will and, together with him, pierce the dome.”

“…Your gas bottle doesn’t have much left.”

Wanli Sealed Blade was silent for a moment, his gaze becoming sharp, “Take this.”

He took out the mission item, the Four-dimensional Square Box, and handed it to Li Cheng along with his own left side bottled lung.