195: Chapter 195: This civilization is a microscopic world technological civilization!

"Xiaoyu, in fact, once a civilization reaches Level 3, it has already gradually transformed into the gods of our ideals."

"Their weapons and everyday creations are nothing short of miracles in our eyes."

Jiang Zhe's gaze fell upon the remote control on the table, and he picked it up. "For example, a very basic individual weapon—the Cause-Effect Sniper Rifle."

"A regular soldier in a Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization locks onto a target one kilometer away from a preset position."

"He pulls the trigger, but in the sequence we are familiar with—pulling the trigger → firing pin ignition → bullet exiting the barrel → hitting the target—this is the causal chain."

"In that civilization, this chain will be folded in the middle."

"The gun barrel remains silent; there is no roar of gunpowder exploding, no sound of air being torn apart."

"However, within the Planck time unit (the smallest unit of time) after the soldier pulls the trigger, a bullet head matching the soldier's firearm appears out of thin air at the target's temple one kilometer away. The target's wound forms out of nothing, and only after the fact of [being shot] occurs do the pain and death signals transmit through the body, causing them to collapse."

"In a Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization, the [effect] of [killing] is quietly completed."

"And then!"

"That is when the strange phenomenon begins to occur: at the soldier's position, a wisp of smoke slowly drifts from the muzzle."

"The bullet, carrying the flesh and tissue of the deceased, finally begins to fly toward the target."

Speaking of this, he narrowed his eyes slightly. "As for ballistics and crime scene investigation, none of these can be discovered—because the cause and effect are reversed."

"Police cannot trace a [cause] from a result when that cause occurs strictly later on the timeline than the result itself!"

"The sniper might fire only after the enemy is already dead; in fact, the sniper might not even fire at the same time at all."

"This soldier could even pull the trigger [cause] from the same spot seven days ago—the bullet taking seven days to hit the enemy [result]—with a 7-day interval in between. Ordinary police would only abruptly discover that a gunshot was heard here seven days ago, yet nothing was there in the past; seven days later, there is no gunshot, but a key official or businessman dies inexplicably."

The moment he finished speaking, the livestream chat erupted instantly.

"Holy crap, dying first and then firing, or even dying seven days before the shot is fired—how the heck are you supposed to defend against that?!"

"Exactly, even delayed effects aren't this ridiculous!"

"Case closed. From now on, in all those suspense murder dramas where they can't find the killer or the weapon, screenwriters can just blame it on the Level 3 civilization from our bro's Cause-Effect technological civilization setting!"

"Reported! Someone is using a causality hack. Where are the admins? Do the cosmic admins not care?"

"This isn't a gun anymore; it's an automated execution of a death warrant. It takes effect as soon as it's received!"

"Brothers, this is terrifying to think about. If there is a Level 3 technological civilization in a parallel world—no, I mean a Cause-Effect technological civilization within our bro's civilization coordinate system—if some brat brings a gun to Earth for a spin, are we... aren't we doomed sooner or later?"

"..."

At the same time, inside a police station in Gusu District.

Several police officers on duty got goosebumps all over after watching this livestream.

They couldn't help but cast their gazes toward the criminal they had just arrested for illegal firearm manufacturing. A young officer couldn't help but ask: "You're not from a Level 3 technological civilization, are you? The shot you just fired at the empty ground, there wasn't a target, right? The target won't die in a few days, will they?"

The criminal in the iron cell scratched his head. "What are you talking about? I don't understand."

At this, the officers finally breathed a sigh of relief. Another officer said sheepishly: "It's a good thing this Cause-Effect technological civilization doesn't exist in our reality."

Inside the big screen.

Xiaoyu exclaimed "Wow~" with wide eyes, subconsciously covering her forehead as if a bullet from her brother's remote control had hit her.

"Is, is this really something a technological civilization can achieve?"

"Can the order of cause and effect really be twisted like a rope? Brother, this is a bit unreasonable; it's even more inconceivable than an ordinary Level 3 civilization!"

"Yes, among Level 3 civilizations following a normal technological tree, a Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization is unique—and it is the strongest type of civilization under that technological tree." Jiang Zhe nodded affirmatively. "As long as the manipulation of microscopic cause-effect reaches the level of the populace, and it is engineered and weaponized, this Cause-Effect Sniper Rifle is just the most unpretentious, basic model in their individual weapon arsenal!"

"Things like more powerful Cause-Effect artillery shells—even firing them at Earth today, and then having Earth shatter one hundred years later—are all possible!"

As he changed the subject, the example shifted instantly. "Let's talk about daily life, for instance, the Moebius Orchard!"

"A seemingly ordinary forest. You walk over; you are allowed to pick a rosy fruit; you take a bite, and the juice is sweet."

"The magical part is—the moment you bite into this fruit, the moment you complete the [effect] of tasting it, a small, green fruit will slowly appear at the spot on the branch where you picked it, and then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, it will grow in reverse along the timeline."

"The fruit's color gradually shifts from green to a plump red. Finally, at the moment you complete the causal loop of the action of picking and tasting, it will happen to [grow back] into the perfectly ripe state of the one you originally picked!"

"The total energy and matter of the orchard neither increase nor decrease in a perfect, end-to-end closed loop; it circulates infinitely!"

As he finished speaking, Xiaoyu's beautiful eyes lit up, as if she had seen an orchard that would never run out of fruit!

"In that case, wouldn't that mean having an endless, inexhaustible supply of fresh fruit? Isn't this... a perpetual motion machine?"

"A perpetual motion machine?" Jiang Zhe shook his head slightly. "It only looks like a perpetual motion machine; in reality, it isn't. A perpetual motion machine is a product that cannot exist under any technological civilization in reality."

Regarding this, Xiaoyu didn't dwell on it too much.

"Brother, are there any more?"

"Of course, there is also the All-Things Retrospection Mirror!"

"This is not a time machine; it doesn't directly peer into the past, but rather detects it directly."

"For example, the origin of human ancestors, a topic debated endlessly by paleontologists and anthropologists—where did they originate? Did they evolve in multiple places simultaneously, or were they even created by aliens?"

"In a Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization, just by using this mirror, you only need to collect enough biological samples from modern humans and input the information into the mirror. The mirror won't play a documentary for you; it will directly give you a set of primitive spatiotemporal locations with the highest probability derived from rigorous causal calculation."

"Or for another example, take soil from underground on Mars, Venus, or even an extraterrestrial planet, and input it into the mirror—the mirror will tell you directly what existed here so-and-so many years ago."

"For a Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization, detecting the primitive cause of a stone, a patch of dried mud, or even an entire planet is easy."

"There are almost no unsolved mysteries in the world; Xiaoyu, you should have realized by now that this Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization is basically already in the ranks of the [omniscient]!"

Xiaoyu frowned, "That is to say, a Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization already knows everything we don't know, and it's even possible they know who the very first observer in the universe was?"

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly. "Correct, omniscient, but definitely not omnipotent!"

In the livestream chat, a massive amount of comments flooded out.

"Omniscient? Then wouldn't they have known where aliens are a long time ago?"

"To the person above, according to our bro's Level 3 Cause-Effect technological civilization, they just know it, but they can't do anything about it; it's like me knowing the winning lottery numbers but not having bought a ticket!"

"So, they know the ultimate answer to the universe, but they can't change it. That feels even more frustrating!"

"..."

At this moment, inside a dormitory building at Huaqing University.

Ouyang Baili said with a fiery gaze, "Old Wu, Li Mo, did you notice?"

"His deduction of this Cause-Effect technological tree, although extremely advanced and arguably even science fiction fantasy, has internal logic that is surprisingly self-consistent!"

"It even appears more elegant at a theoretical level and possesses more disruptive potential than the normal technological trees we usually envision, which simply pursue macroscopic energy and speed!"

Professor Wu recovered from his shock and shook his head, "What do you mean?"

Ouyang Baili took a deep, excited breath. "Our traditional imagination of civilization levels, for example, is based on the scale of energy usage, but the core of his causal level system is the depth of information manipulation and the degree of interference with physical laws."

"Cause-Effect technology can be said to be a new type of technological tree with Quantum Mechanics at its core, discarding macroscopic Theory of Relativity!"

"The foundation of Cause-Effect technology: for example, the non-locality of Quantum Mechanics, the observer effect, the breaking of time symmetry, cutting in, and rewriting the macroscopic."

"After all, one micro + countless micros = one macro!"

"Its core is precisely to destroy a micro-entity found everywhere, and ultimately, that technology uses a point to break through the surface, completely overturning and rewriting the macroscopic!"

Speaking of this, Ouyang Baili narrowed his eyes. "Theoretically speaking, this Cause-Effect technology can truly be realized, but the prerequisite is that the whole world must treat Quantum Mechanics as its bible; in this way, we wouldn't need superluminal speeds at all, and it would be even more thorough than simply possessing more energy!"

"This Jiang Zhe isn't spouting nonsense; he is conceiving another technological tree with the microscopic as its center!!!"

"If this had appeared several hundred years earlier..."

"My God!"

Once he reached this point, Ouyang Baili's eyes widened; he himself was stunned by this idea.

His words left Professor Wu, Li Mo, Guan Jingming, and the rest of the physics students in silence, followed by increasingly intense discussion.

The Cause-Effect technological civilization depicted by Jiang Zhe is entirely technology of the microscopic world!!!