Chapter 420: Dimensional Descent

Light…

It wasn’t just about optical projections.

A more important line of thinking was…

He suddenly realized—

Beyond projections achievable in reality, this transformation from three dimensions to two dimensions with missing dimensional information.

There was also a concept from science fiction—the fantasy of three dimensions descending into two…

Yes! The Dual-Vector Foil!

This concept from the sci-fi world that shocked countless sci-fi fans!

The effect of the Dual-Vector Foil, when described simply—

It could make an entire civilization descend from three dimensions to two dimensions in an extremely short time!

This dimensional descent made the “Dual-Vector Foil” truly worthy of being called a “Dimensional Reduction Strike” tool!

However, the dimensional reduction strike of the Dual-Vector Foil operated on a different principle than simple “projections.”

The projection Jiang Ye envisioned was based on three dimensions, discarding one dimension while preserving information from the remaining two dimensions to achieve a “two-dimensional” effect.

But the dimensional reduction effect of the “Dual-Vector Foil” didn’t actually lose dimensional information.

In principle, it wasn’t simply freezing the original three-dimensional world into two dimensions like taking a photograph.

Rather, it comprehensively deconstructed the “information” of the three-dimensional world, ultimately presenting it in two-dimensional form.

This process, from three dimensions to two, wasn’t easy to understand.

But going from two dimensions to one dimension could be understood with the help of the “Hilbert curve.”

Think of the Hilbert curve as a “one-dimensional” line.

The characteristic of this curve was that it could continuously expand from the smallest unit according to specific rules.

The smallest unit was called the 1st-order Hilbert curve.

The expanded curves could be called 2nd-order, 3rd-order…

Following this pattern, when the order of the Hilbert curve became sufficiently large, approaching infinity…

Then the entire infinite-order Hilbert curve could fill an entire plane.

Thus, it achieved the transition from line to surface, that is, ascending from one dimension to two dimensions.

The principle of dimensional descent in the Dual-Vector Foil wasn’t like projection, which only took one line on a plane.

Instead, it deconstructed and stretched the entire plane using the infinite-order Hilbert curve.

This deconstruction preserved all the information on the plane.

What was ultimately obtained was an infinitely long Hilbert line stretched into a straight line.

This was a simple understanding of two dimensions descending to one dimension under the Dual-Vector Foil principle.

Similarly, the descent from three dimensions to two dimensions followed a similar pattern.

It was a deconstruction that preserved all the information of three dimensions.

What was ultimately obtained would also be an “infinitely large” plane.

Since the Hilbert curve needed to reach infinite order to fill a plane,

it wasn’t difficult to understand that no matter how small the original three-dimensional world was, the two-dimensional plane after descent would inevitably be “infinitely large.” 𝙧𝐚𝐍օ𐌱Εš

And if this infinitely large two-dimensional plane was shrunk by a factor approaching infinity…

Then what would the resulting two-dimensional plane descended from three dimensions look like?

In sci-fi movie settings, this shrunken infinitely large plane…

was exactly like the snowy screen displayed by old televisions without signals!

Dense, black-and-white dots!

It actually resembled an infinitely large mosaic image that had been shrunk countless times!

Jiang Ye had been fortunate to see some content creators’ simulations of the three-to-two dimensional descent effect caused by the Dual-Vector Foil…

Most of the effects presented were freezing the original three-dimensional world into two-dimensional images.

And most of these frozen two-dimensional images resembled Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”—the entire picture was distorted and subtly pixelated.

Some creators even speculated that the mentally disturbed Van Gogh might have used his “broken” brain to glimpse the truth of the world in advance.

Of course, more rational creators tended to believe that Liu Cixin’s fantasy referenced Van Gogh’s paintings…

Naturally, these discussions and speculations among sci-fi fans didn’t necessarily have real practical significance.

But at this moment, Jiang Ye in the Forbidden Zone couldn’t help but feel a chilling sensation!

He recalled the scenes of players being erased…

That effect of turning into light points—didn’t it resemble some kind of dimensional descent?

Then this eerie Forbidden Zone…

Didn’t it resemble a weakened version of the Dual-Vector Foil?

In this space similar to the Dual-Vector Foil, everything would inevitably experience dimensional descent!

Therefore, non-mutated players who stepped into the Forbidden Zone were almost certainly doomed!

And the death process was like a more prolonged erasure!

Thinking about the Forbidden Zone’s peculiarities through this “dimensional descent” concept similar to the Dual-Vector Foil principle…

Then some phenomena of the Forbidden Zone could have alternative explanations!

First was the principle of the Forbidden Zone’s expansion.

When Xiao Bai used the Black Snake to encircle the enclosed space, Jiang Ye learned the most basic principle of Forbidden Zone expansion—

When players step in, the Forbidden Zone expands.

Therefore, “players” who step into the Forbidden Zone, while undergoing “dimensional descent,” are used to fill the Forbidden Zone.

That’s why the Forbidden Zone expands!

It was like a small world where all information had been dimensionally descended into this “Forbidden Zone” form.

When “players” as foreign creatures invaded, they too underwent dimensional descent through the Forbidden Zone’s Dual-Vector Foil-like principle.

And the information after dimensional descent was also preserved within the “Forbidden Zone.”

Thus, the Forbidden Zone with increased information achieved expansion!

Therefore, what Jiang Ye and all players could see of the Forbidden Zone might be the dimensionally descended state storing the information of an entire world!

Combining this with the destruction and birth of the Doomsday Apartment…

And Jiang Ye’s previous speculation about the relationship between the apartment’s destruction and birth and the Forbidden Zone’s expansion…

He couldn’t help but suspect—

Perhaps the entire Forbidden Zone stored all the information of the Doomsday Apartment!

The so-called “destruction” was simply all the information about this world being stored in the “Forbidden Zone” under the dimensional descent effect!

And the so-called “birth” was the “Forbidden Zone” storing an entire world’s information undergoing some peculiar dimensional ascension effect.

All the world information was released from the Forbidden Zone…

Reconstructing a new world!

Assuming all this was true…

Then there was another question—

Why later, even without large numbers of players undergoing “dimensional descent,” was the Forbidden Zone still continuously expanding?

Perhaps large numbers of creatures were being teleported to the Forbidden Zone without Jiang Ye’s knowledge?

Or perhaps there were other situations filling the Forbidden Zone with information?

Like the Formation Master and other seniors using other methods?

Or perhaps…

The mutated Jiang Ye who heard the bell was undergoing dimensional descent and being used to fill the Forbidden Zone’s information?

Beyond this, Jiang Ye also thought about the escape methods sci-fi fans speculated about when facing the dimensional reduction strike of the Dual-Vector Foil.

There were two common survival directions—

The first was to escape at light speed or faster-than-light speed.

The second was to survive in the dimensionally reduced world in a special form.

Corresponding to this second concept was exactly the “yin realm people” form in the Forbidden Zone.

In this form, players wouldn’t undergo dimensional descent.

Or perhaps, “yin realm people” were themselves a means for players to actively reduce dimensions.

Passive dimensional descent meant certain death for players.

But active dimensional reduction methods might allow survival as dimensionally reduced beings.

So…

Perhaps these “yin realm people” in the black ice domain, as well as the shadow phantom and Mist Monster unaffected in the Forbidden Zone…

Were themselves dimensionally reduced beings.

Or perhaps, they were beings that couldn’t be dimensionally reduced.

That’s why they could survive in the Forbidden Zone.

Then what about Jiang Ye?

Previously, Jiang Ye in his non-yin realm person state also didn’t undergo dimensional descent in the Forbidden Zone…

This might be related to the “X” on Jiang Ye’s body.

Just like the Formation Master’s Array Disk that feared no radiation, perhaps there was also a transdimensional X!

While repeatedly pondering and speculating in his mind, Jiang Ye looked at Wu Wang who also appeared dazed and suddenly spoke:

“Try to see if you can still leave this chess grid?”

However, Wu Wang didn’t test it directly but instead replied to him:

“I… all my abilities seem to have disappeared!”

His voice was extremely low, even trembling slightly.

After all, losing one’s strength wasn’t a good thing.

If not for his Vow to show loyalty to the Guiwen boss, he wouldn’t even dare to reveal this.

However, Jiang Ye’s calm and casual words easily reassured him:

“Don’t panic, my abilities are gone too. If I’m not mistaken, everyone in this state cannot use talents, Guiwen patterns, and other abilities.”

“So, I’m asking you to try crossing the chess grid boundary to go see other chess grid spaces.”

Hearing this, Wu Wang relaxed and immediately took action.

When he became an “ordinary person” and jogged, he felt quite unaccustomed to it.

But soon, he reached the adjacent chess grid.

And as he crossed the chess grid space boundary…

Jiang Ye saw—

The world of another chess grid space instantly unfolded before his eyes!

It was as if the boundary that originally separated the two spaces disappeared at that moment!

When Wu Wang looked back, he saw this scene and looked astonished.

After some thought, Jiang Ye had his other clones begin crossing chess grid spaces.

Opening up the originally enclosed spaces one by one.

The various Jiang Ye clones seemed to be exploring something from these opened spaces.

However, they found nothing.

Meanwhile, the Zhou Qiming clone remaining in the Hanging Moon Chess Grid continued to focus intently on Lin Jing.

Lin Jing’s attention remained fixed on the Array Disk in his hand.

Yes, even in this “yin realm person” state, he could still manipulate the Array Disk.

It seemed as if the Array Disk had also become a yin realm product.

The other six people also focused on manipulating their Array Disks.

It appeared they didn’t know about the changes happening to themselves or the entire black ice domain.

They continued operating like this for a while…

Suddenly, as Lin Jing expressionlessly pressed his thumb into the central hole of the Array Disk,

Jiang Ye heard an extremely faint “click” sound, as if some mechanism had been activated.

At the same moment…

His field of vision instantly changed!

It was a dynamic transformation!

It looked as if everything before him was rotating and distorting in a peculiar manner!

When everything rapidly distorted to its extreme…

The natural scenery originally in the chess grid instantly collapsed, completely transforming into the same black-and-white snowy appearance as the Forbidden Zone environment!

In an instant, the entire black ice domain world seemed to completely merge with the Forbidden Zone!

However, these people in the “yin realm” state didn’t experience the slow Lightburn effect like Xu Gou and the others had before.

They simply appeared frightened and bewildered.

And in the snowy field of vision, they could still see each other as yin realm people.

However, the Array Disks in their hands had all disappeared.

And in this sudden, unexpected transformation…

Everyone was shocked, their attention distracted by the environmental changes.

Only Jiang Ye, who had maintained maximum vigilance watching Lin Jing, forced himself to ignore the surrounding changes and thus keenly detected—

Just as the Array Disk in Lin Jing’s hand also transformed into black-and-white dots in this collapse…

Lin Jing, transformed into a yin realm person state, inexplicably made a fist-clenching motion.

This action wasn’t particularly abrupt either.

But their fist-clenching was basically catching empty air due to the suddenness.

Yet Lin Jing’s fist-clenching seemed somewhat tense.

As if, in that moment, he had grabbed something!

Jiang Ye frowned but had no time to react before his attention was drawn to another unusual phenomenon—

In this completely “Forbidden Zone-ized” chess grid space, the original “Hanging Moon” didn’t collapse and whiten…

Instead, it seemed to lose some kind of support and suddenly fell from the sky!

The moon in the sky was falling!

This scene was truly horrifying…

For a moment, all the shocked and horrified players present turned their attention to the falling “moon”!

Visually, this “moon” seemed to be falling from an extremely distant space.

Yet strangely, during its rapid descent, it didn’t grow larger!

It appeared the same size when seen from afar as when it finally fell…

However, as it fell rapidly, the players present gradually saw that this originally pristine “moon” actually contained large dark shadows!

As it fell, the dark shadows became increasingly clear…

Eventually becoming completely recognizable—

It was a humanoid figure!

It looked exactly like a baby curled up in the womb!

Until someone exclaimed: “Wang Lingling??”

Jiang Ye’s gaze was initially fixed on the falling full moon.

However, he only saw the figure within it.

But never saw… the Three Life Stone Staff!

So, while everyone’s attention was on the falling moon,

Jiang Ye directly said to Lin Jing: “Let me see your hand?”

However, Lin Jing, who had been quite cooperative before, remained silent for a moment before replying:

“It seems we’ve all become ordinary people who can’t use abilities now.”

He appeared to be merely stating a fact.

But the subtext was clear—

He was refusing the request from Jiang Ye, who was also an “ordinary person.”

And Lin Jing’s voice indeed alerted the others.

For a moment, everyone present had varied expressions.

Especially the BCDE four cross-regional “strong players” who had come from the nearby four chess grids…

Their gazes toward Jiang Ye now were unpredictable.

Particularly the punk who had been “tormented” by Jiang Ye before…

The way he looked at Jiang Ye now was murderous!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep