344: Chapter 344: Earth is a giant media player

"Of course there are!"

Jiang Zhe raised his hand and clicked the mouse.

The [Displaced Spacetime] folder on the computer expanded, and two new sets of data appeared on the whiteboard.

"In modern human records, there are two more large-scale, more shocking, and jointly verified abnormal mirages by scientific expeditions and explorers from multiple countries!"

"They are not cities, nor battlefields, but entire stretches of non-existent land and sky!"

"The first case, 1906, in the Arctic waters."

Yellowed expedition logs, hand-drawn maps, and black-and-white photographic records appeared on the whiteboard.

Lines of English text and annotations were visible on them.

"During his voyage, USA polar explorer Robert Peary saw with his own eyes a vast land mass emerging on the distant horizon."

"Snow-capped mountains stretched endlessly, canyons crisscrossed, the contours were clear, and the scope was so vast that it didn't seem like an ordinary phantom!"

"He later named it [Crocker Land], recorded it in official expedition files, and at the same time, he firmly believed he had discovered an unknown continent!"

"In 1913, another scientific expedition team went specifically to search for it."

"The result was—"

"The entire area had only floating ice and deep sea; there were no islands, and certainly no mountains!"

"But the eerie thing is, the entire expedition team saw that continent with their own eyes once again."

"Incredibly clear, incredibly stable, and incredibly magnificent."

"The eerie thing is—the closer they got, the more the mirage vanished!"

Jiang Zhe's gaze swept over Academician Zhang, whose expression had changed drastically, and then swept over the shocked faces of everyone else.

"What you are all looking at is not fog, nor is it the reflection of the ice surface."

"It is a complete, three-dimensional, and long-term stable giant mirage."

"And its original source simply does not exist on Earth!"

"Subsequent scientific expeditions used sonar sounding and drilling for samples, but neither found any evidence of land existence."

"And that continent only appeared in the eyes, not on the instruments."

Following this series of statements, Academician Zhang was filled with astonishment.

This was the first time he had heard of this mirage.

As an authority in the field of geology, he knew the true landforms and distribution of the Arctic region better than anyone else.

Such a continent with no geological basis appearing out of thin air directly overturned the basic geographical common sense in his mind.

However, when he was young, he had also done geological surveys in the Arctic Circle and had once heard old captains tell similar stories; at the time, he only regarded them as polar legends, but now he realized that they might be true!

Soon, there was a chorus of gasps at the scene.

The barrage in the livestream room was flying!

"There is no continent in the Arctic at all. Is this a scene drifting over from somewhere else?" "Both expedition teams saw it; they couldn't have all hallucinated, right?" "The closer you get, the more it disappears; isn't this just a spatial projection?" "Damn, geology just got smashed!" "My scalp is tingling; so mirages really can create unknown continents!"

"..."

Without giving everyone time to react, Jiang Zhe's second case followed immediately.

"The second case, 2018, the Dubai coastline."

The image on the whiteboard was switched.

A complete, modern city was floating in the sky.

Skyscrapers stood like a forest, glass curtain walls reflected light, and the city streets in the sky were layered and distinct, as if a city in the sky spanned the horizon!

"This is the mirage of the city in the sky that went viral globally back then, but was later downplayed."

Jiang Zhe looked at the people in front of him and slowly began to speak:

"In Dubai itself, across the entire UAE, and even within hundreds of kilometers of the surrounding area, there is no urban area that corresponds to it completely."

"Meteorological agencies explained it as the distorted refraction of distant buildings, but all the building outlines, density, height, and layout cannot match any city in reality!"

"Such a dynamic and clear city in the sky lasted for nearly an hour."

"Subsequent investigations found no source, no correspondence; it was super unexplainable!"

"The local meteorological bureau refused to comment on the matter, and relevant videos on social media were also successively deleted in large numbers!"

As soon as these words were said, Academician Zhang sat up straight abruptly.

He had spent his life deeply engaged in geological exploration and paleo-environmental research, and had seen countless geological wonders and unsolved ruins, but he had never seen such a scene that defied reality!

Researcher Zhou's face turned pale. "This... could it involve dimensions?"

James Thompson looked at the two Hans professors beside him. "If it's true, then this already exceeds the scope of atmospheric optics and is completely an anomaly at the spatial level."

Hans Wolfgang said in a deep voice: "There is no corresponding prototype in reality; only spacetime overlap can explain it."

Another Professor Hans Mueller nodded in agreement: "Cases from many places around the world are highly consistent and are by no means coincidences; but 99% of mirages are indeed refractions of distant cities; yet among these countless cases, there is always one super unexplainable case that appears!"

The other professors in the audience whispered to each other, their expressions excited yet filled with disbelief.

Some said it was dimensions, others said it was a highly complex mirage.

But no one could provide an answer that convinced everyone!

After a long while, Researcher Zhou took a deep breath and asked: "Mr. Jiang, what exactly is going on here? Is there a possible answer?"

After hearing the question, Jiang Zhe began to answer:

"If the original object being refracted does not exist in physical space, then where does it exist?"

He held up two fingers.

"There are two possibilities!"

"First: Time displacement."

"What the atmosphere is refracting is not a distant city or object, but objects from other times."

"The palace that appeared over Qingdao in 1942 might have been an image of a building from a past era—but not one from Qingdao itself, but rather some destroyed palace from another place, whose image remained in spacetime and was read by specific meteorological conditions."

"And this involves a frontier issue that humanity currently cannot solve and has no discipline exploring."

"[Can Earth really preserve images of history?]"

When he finished speaking, the eyes of the experts in the living room lit up.

This was the first time they had heard this concept; it made Ouyang Baili, Lao Wu, and Lin Chen's eyes shine.

Lin Chen's pupils constricted, and then he said with a look of novelty:

"This seems like it could be a research point!"

"Mr. Jiang Zhe's words have stirred my yearning for Earth science."

"If the Earth really can preserve historical images, then some of the mirages we see now are not refractions of distant scenery, but replays of a certain moment in the past."

"Just like a videotape; a videotape can save past images and sounds to be played back by a television or computer."

"And for Earth, perhaps it also has this mechanism, where specific meteorological conditions become the play button."

"This is no longer meteorology, but a brand new branch of geophysics!"

Ouyang Baili, Lao Wu, and Hans Wolfgang, the three of them were all physics professors.

After hearing this, they looked at each other and all showed expressions of sudden realization.

Ouyang Baili said with a look of surprise: "If this hypothesis holds, it means that spacetime itself has a recording function."

"Not human records, but the structure of space itself is recording."

"This is more subversive than Quantum Delayed Choice; because that was still at the quantum level, while what little Jiang said has already entered the macroscopic classical level!"

Lao Wu nodded and added: "The key is verifiability!"

"If we can find a certain mirage appearing repeatedly at the same location under the same meteorological conditions, showing the same historical scene, then it is no longer a guess, but empirical evidence; just like the 1906 case."

Hans Wolfgang thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled, "He is worthy of being the person whom even the Fu Nation Royal Knight wants to invite. He is truly himself. In our physics community, you wouldn't see anyone dare to say such a concept in decades."

Another Hans professor on the side said: "Earth is a giant player? A very novel concept. I am an engineer, perhaps I can help you when I have time."

"Good brother!"

The two looked at each other and tacitly bumped fists.

At this moment, the friends in the livestream room also exploded on the spot.

"Earth preserving historical images, this is the first time I've heard this statement!"

"That is to say, what we see might be scenes from thousands of years ago?"

"Holy crap, this concept is too new; my brain can't keep up!"

"If this is true, then history and archaeology will both have to be rewritten."

"Don't rush, there is still a second possibility!"

"..."

Seeing that he had ignited the hearts of some scholars, Jiang Zhe smiled slightly, "Second: Dimensional overlap!"