Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 805 "Raw Materials"

Zhou Ming opened the door and walked quickly into his apartment. The first thing he did was to look up at the window opposite the door.

Outside the window there was still an eternal gray-white fog, and the banging sounds were hitting the glass windows like patient raindrops. Although no human figure could be seen outside, the knocking sound itself proved that a visitor was standing at the window.

The moment Zhou Mingze entered the room, he clearly sensed the presence of the person standing at the window - it seemed that because of the "connection" from last time, the presence seemed particularly clear.

When someone visits this place, it turns out that they can directly sense that they are on the "other side"?

This thought came to Zhou Ming's mind, and he quickly walked towards the window. Almost at the same time he reached the window, the familiar face of Lei Nora appeared outside the window, and behind her was the equally familiar, classical and gorgeous bedroom.

The Frost Queen was still knocking on the glass patiently, and the twinkling stars were reflected in her slightly hollow eyes. Zhou Ming immediately opened the window and greeted the only guest who would visit him here: "Glad to see you back."

"Please let me in..." Lei Nora was stunned for a moment, and it seemed that it took her eyes a long time to focus on Zhou Ming correctly. Then she spoke in a slightly weak voice.

Zhou Ming instantly realized that something was wrong with the other party, and immediately made way to the side, while reaching out to support the Frost Queen.

The next moment, as Lenora slightly turned sideways, he finally discovered her empty left arm—not just her left arm, but also part of her shoulder, chest, waist, and abdomen. Almost one-third of her upper body was gone! It was as if it had been completely swallowed up by something!
What was even more bizarre was that no blood flowed out from the broken parts of her body. There was only a layer of vague "light film" covering the broken parts. Duncan didn't know if it was an illusion... He felt that the "light film" was even slowly expanding and extending...

It is further devouring the remaining parts of the Frost Queen's body!
Seeing that Lenora was trying to climb over the window with some effort, Zhou Ming instantly came to his senses, hurried forward to support the other half of her body, and carefully brought her in - he felt that her body temperature was very low, like a cold ghost.

"We haven't seen each other for a while," Lenora raised her head and smiled at the friendly "ancient god" in front of her. "After such a thrilling journey, seeing your 'palace' again really gives me an incredible sense of relief..."

"Don't sigh about this for now," Zhou Ming quickly interrupted her, and while helping her walk to the sofa in the living room, he quickly asked, "What's wrong with your arm?"

"Don't worry about me. My arm... is still there," Lenora sat down on the sofa, panting weakly, and pressed her left shoulder with her only remaining right hand - on the empty "air", "I'm holding something in my hand, it will make my body 'disappear', but I dare not let go, as soon as I let go, it will dissipate. I've tried many times and it's always the same, so I held it tightly all the way... Now it seems that I probably held it for too long."

"Holding something in your hand?" Zhou Ming was slightly stunned after hearing the other party's words, and subconsciously looked at the other party's empty left side of his body, "What do you have in your hand?"

"I'm trying to hand it to you now," Lenora took a deep breath and seemed to have regained some strength. She sat up and seemed to be raising her right hand and handing over something invisible. "I don't know what will happen to it after it falls into your hands. Maybe it will still dissipate, or it may turn into something else... I have no way..."

Her mind seemed to have been affected by "something" and her speech became unclear, but she still handed the thing over firmly. Zhou Ming couldn't see it, so he could only raise his hand to take it - he felt himself touching the Frost Queen's cold fingers, and then something equally cold, soft and loose, and that thing fell into the palm of his hand.

Lenore was really handing over something invisible, something that existed but could not be seen with the eyes.

The next second, Zhou Ming noticed that Lei Nora's disappeared body began to recover rapidly - her shoulders, chest and abdomen reappeared, followed by her entire arm.

And he could still feel the cold, loose mass in his palm.

"...it's still there," Zhou Ming looked down at his palm, his tone full of surprise, "What on earth is this...?"

He suddenly stopped and opened his eyes wide in astonishment - as he watched, something "was" slowly emerging from his empty palm. It was first a nearly transparent shadow, and then the shadow began to have a sense of reality, turning into a ball of gray substance with blurred edges, like pinched dust.

The mass of gray matter lay quietly in Zhou Ming's palm, and incomprehensible changes seemed to be happening inside it all the time. Its core seemed to be wriggling and trembling, and there were always strange outlines emerging. Its edges seemed to be covered with a layer of visually confusing fog. Just staring at it for a while would make people feel dizzy.

"...What on earth is this?" Zhou Ming finally couldn't help but mutter in a low voice, and then suddenly raised his head to look at the Frost Queen beside him, "Where did you find this thing? Is it the 'outside the border' you mentioned last time?"

After getting rid of the "invisible thing", Lei Nora's body and mind began to recover quickly. Her complexion was much more normal at this time. Hearing Zhou Ming's question, she immediately nodded slightly.

"At the end of this gray fog, outside the 'border' I mentioned last time, these things are everywhere... the entire 'world' over there is even made up of them," she said as she recalled. "After my last conversation with you, I began to sense and see them, but I still don't understand what they are. The most incredible thing is that I can 'bring' these things back. I brought some back to see if you have any ideas."

Zhou Ming's brows knitted up a little bit. After confirming that this thing really came from outside the end of the world, countless thoughts and guesses suddenly popped up. Along with the emergence of countless thoughts, he even vaguely felt...

Something in my "essence" has become loose.

His "transformation" accelerated again.

The starlight around her was rumbling and trembling, and countless incomprehensible buzzing whispers seemed to echo in the starlight. Lenora looked around cautiously, then suppressed her mind as she was used to, trying her best not to pay attention to the sounds echoing among the stars.

This wasn't her first time in this place, and she wasn't going to make a fuss like she did last time.

As for the ancient gods, it’s probably just a bunch of bullshit when you think about it.

At this moment, Zhou Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief. He guessed what Lenora brought back. Now all that was left was to verify his guess.

He raised his hand, a faint green flame dancing on his fingertips. He tried to consciously interfere with the flame, recalling the feeling of his own "transformation" - as he watched, the faint green in the flame was gradually fading, and faint starlight appeared in the dancing flames.

He slowly clenched his hands, using the starlight to gradually submerge the cold, shapeless gray substance. He clenched his fists, and the gray mass slowly melted in the starlight.

Lenora stared with wide eyes, watching the scene in astonishment and curiosity.

"Do you... know what this is?" she couldn't help but ask curiously.

The giant filled with starlight turned his head and spoke to her in a gentle and joyful voice:

“It’s raw material.”

"Raw materials?" Lenora listened in astonishment, obviously not understanding. "What raw materials?"

"The raw materials of the new world, the basic information unit - just as I guessed before!" Zhou Ming looked into Lenora's eyes. He slowly opened his hands. The gray mass had completely melted in the starlight and melted into his body. He completely understood the essence of this mass of "matter". "Information is immortal. Information can only be transformed. The theory of Navigator No. 2 is correct. Information is the cornerstone of everything - everything is a representation of information, even the Great Annihilation itself!"

Lei Nora listened in confusion, while Zhou Ming had already stood up from the sofa. He could hardly suppress his excitement and joy at this moment, and subconsciously walked around the sofa in circles, thinking quickly as he walked, and occasionally stopped suddenly to sort out his complicated thoughts.

"The world is made up of information. The essence of everything in the world is the expression of information and the process of mutual connection and transformation," he stopped in front of Lenora and explained quickly to the Frost Queen, "You can regard the entire world as an extremely large 'mathematical machine' that contains all parameters and runs self-consistently. All things in the world are data generated by the operation of this machine. All events that happen in this world are the 'solutions' of this mathematical machine..."

Lei Nora followed Zhou Ming's thoughts with difficulty. At this time, she couldn't help but ask: "You mean, our world is illusory?"

"No, it is real - because we ourselves are also part of this mathematical machine, and we ourselves are the result of the accumulation of countless information," Zhou Ming waved his hand quickly and continued, "If everything is information, then there is no 'reality' outside of information in the world, and this explains the essence of the Great Annihilation... But this part will take a long time to explain, I believe you can figure it out yourself, the key point I want to say is... Information itself will not disappear, its 'basic unit' will only change from one state to another..."

Zhou Ming suddenly stopped, thinking as hard as he could, and then waved his arms extra vigorously.

"Because the 'mathematical machine' has existed forever, its operation should include all 'solutions'. The 'parameters' that constitute it will neither stop nor disappear. They are just... transformed into a state that cannot be addressed or read. For the mathematical machine, this is still part of the 'solution', but for those of us who rely on mathematical machines to understand the world, this process... is called 'the end of the world'."

(End of this chapter)