Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 513 - 483 denominator is zero

Chapter 513: 483 denominator is zero

Though life-for-life exchanges in battle are rare, they are considered a classic tactic. When pushed to the brink of desperation, using a self-destructive strategy with the resolve of preferring death over dishonor is understandable. Even the most timid of cowards may burst with an impressive willpower when faced with certain death.

But Huang Quan had not been pushed to a life-and-death crisis. On the contrary, he was always in a position where he could retreat entirely whenever he wished. Just as he said at the beginning, if I were to give up the battle and turn to flee, it would be extremely difficult for him to catch up and kill me; and if he made the same decision, it would be equally difficult for me to kill him.

Therefore, even if he couldn’t win this fight, there was no need to sacrifice his life. Unless in his view, killing me here was more important than his own survival. For someone like the long-lived Impermanence, this was absurd to the extreme.

To pursue my own desires, I could also forsake the peaceful days of living in harmony with the heavens and the earth and plunge into situations where danger lurks at every moment. Yet even I would not do anything based on the premise of suicide.

What exactly is he after?

Now I have no time to ponder further, having to exert all my effort to escape the encroaching black sphere. However, the yellow-black array surrounding me unleashed an immensely powerful binding force, entrapping me as if sealed. I tried to use Flame Transmission, but it malfunctioned, unable to activate; attempts to use space-ignoring steps were also futile, as if impenetrable walls barred my exit.

In my perception, the ever-expanding black sphere behind me seemed to be a "door."

Although viewing a spherical object as a "door" sounds perplexing, I could determine that once engulfed by that black sphere, I would be transported elsewhere. This made me think of black holes, which in some sci-fi stories are regarded as bridges to other universes.

As for where that black sphere connects to, I have no way of knowing, only feeling my intuition screaming warnings.

Being swallowed and transported over there would be akin to death, or perhaps even more despairing than death itself.

The terror breaking from my soul, surpassing death, squeezed out an even greater strength from me. Though all of my potential had been realized into my current power, I still managed to push further, exerting one hundred and twenty percent of my ability.

Just as the black sphere was about to touch me, I broke through the binding force of the yellow-black array, about to charge out of its range.

Yet even this struggle turned out to be futile.

The grave soil forming the yellow-black array suddenly transformed into the shape of Huang Quan, who, seeming to erupt with the last strength of his life, crashed into me, thrusting me into the black sphere behind.

My vision was instantaneously submerged in a black liquid, with Huang Quan entering the darkness alongside me.

The battle between Huang Quan and me reached its conclusion here.

Simultaneously, I sensed a change in mana fluctuations far away. The tangled conflict between Liu Shuying and the Taoyuan Village Master seemed to also reach its final act. Their mana fluctuations were extinguished like blown-out candles, vanishing simultaneously.

-

Darkness, darkness, darkness——

I was surrounded by an omnipresent darkness.

The so-called darkness is not a color. In a strict sense, colors are reflections of light, while darkness is the absence of light. In other words, the essence of darkness is "nothingness." I am now embraced by "nothingness."

Normally, even plunged into darkness, I should still be able to perceive the space and time I was in. However, upon entering the black sphere, I seemed to be transported out of thin air into a void devoid of both space and time. Here, there truly is nothing, and nothing happens.

In the past, I learned from books that the birth of the universe originated from a great explosion, with time and space emerging from there. Before the big bang, the universe was merely a point, referred to as the "singularity." Many who learn of this likely have questions, where did this singularity come from, and what happened before its birth?

No one can answer these questions, and they are regarded as "meaningless questions." Because time is a measure of the change in events, "time" before time’s creation cannot be described. Just as there is no entity corresponding to the number "zero" in the real world, attempting to answer is simply a waste of time, a breach of logic.

And at this moment, I am within this logically defying darkness.

Huang Quan also entered with me; I turned to glance at him. Though looking in that direction revealed only darkness, I felt he was right there.

In this place, the action of "turning one’s head" is meaningless. It’s an action premised on being in some space, and here even the concept of "direction" doesn’t exist. I couldn’t feel my body, my soul, nor my superpower or flames, even my consciousness was ambiguous, as if only a sliver of True Spirit remained.

"What is this place?" I asked.

Though I couldn’t feel my mouth, and the concept of "sound" didn’t exist here, I wasn’t sure if I had spoken, I still felt I had asked.

And a response came from beside me. Though unsure if it was his reply or my own hallucination, I still felt I heard a reply.

"This is ’nothingness’," Huang Quan said.

It’s said that a person’s self is shaped through interactions with others. One must rely on those external to oneself to establish self. Thus, if I feel this response isn’t from another person but an echo within, then my self would dissolve in this darkness. At least, that’s how I felt.

"’Nothingness’?" I questioned.

"In simple terms, it’s the territory outside the world," Huang Quan said. "I’ve exiled you beyond the world. Here, there is no time, no space, no life, and no death.

"You will spend a timeless time here. Neither a moment, nor eternity, but nothing."

In a mathematical fraction, with the numerator unchanged, the smaller the denominator, the larger the number. One-third is larger than one-fourth, one-half is larger than one-third... If the denominator is set as "infinitesimal," the result of the fraction becomes "infinite."

Even "infinitesimal" isn’t truly zero, but infinitely close to zero. So if the denominator reaches zero, can a number larger than "infinite" be attained?

But zero cannot be a denominator. Just as seeking an entity in reality to correlate with zero is meaningless, a fraction with zero as a denominator violates basic mathematical logic.

And now I am banished to a place even mathematics cannot describe, destined to face a time more drawn out than eternity, where even death dies, a meaningless "time."

Though knowing there’s no need to ask, I still inquired, "Is there a way to return?"

"Return?" he seemed to chuckle.

Then he said, "Here, there is neither past nor future, neither front nor back, neither coming nor going...

"No direction, no distance, no motion, no stillness...

"You cannot return, because you are stuck in ’nothingness’. Here, you can do nothing.

"But ’you’ need not ’despair’. You ask why, because here, neither hope nor despair exists...

"Neither you nor I..."

After speaking, his voice, along with his presence, faded away, never to sound again.

He died.

Though here there is neither life nor death, how else to express his disappearance other than "death"?

It was normal for him to die; I had already obliterated over ninety percent of his soul, and coming here without allowing for material or soul existence, he vanished like a bubble in seawater. The one who spoke with me was likely his last remnant soul, which now couldn’t hold on any longer.

Let alone a remnant soul, probably not even a complete Impermanence could survive in this void, it’s only someone like me, barely able to exist in True Spirit form, who could persist.

No... In truth, I too cannot.

Though I can’t gauge how long I’ve been in this void, I will eventually be eradicated if this continues. Because fundamentally, I haven’t truly self-verified my True Spirit. Temporarily abandoning body and soul might be okay, but over time, my sense of self will genuinely thin out and vanish.

This seems to be the first time I clearly sensed the limit of this state.

Moreover, having lost the recognition of others, my self has lost the reference frame for establishing itself, seemingly thinning out more quickly. Gradually, I began to doubt if my exchange with Huang Quan even happened; it was all my delusion, internal echoes, self-talk born from whimsy.

I must maintain my self through thought. Without anything here worth observing and analyzing, I can only reminisce about the past. Yet without the brain and soul as means of memory preservation, recalling clearly becomes difficult for the usually photographic me.

The past is like transient smoke, much like watching the scenery on the shore while lurking underwater, everything is a blurry flash, gradually losing color.