Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Chapter 11 Verification Capabilities

In the past few days, Jiang Ning has already given a brief summary of the changes in himself.

In fact, apart from not noticing it at all during the first five regressions, he began to pay attention to his own "changes" after experiencing the sixth regression.

When he regressed for the seventh time, he remembered having a dream in which a mysterious space appeared.

That day, he activated a purple bead in the mysterious space, and a person appeared inside the bead—or rather, a sleeping person.

That day, he was unable to regain consciousness immediately after the world went back to its previous state.

Subsequently, during the eighth world regression, Jiang Ning also dreamed of a mysterious space.

This time, he suppressed his panic and clicked on more purple beads, and discovered a very interesting phenomenon: when these purple beads were in his palm, they could shrink to the size of an ant egg, and at most they could turn into a sky full of stars.

After he opened the purple bead, he could clearly see that there were sleeping people lying inside.

Jiang Ning didn't recognize any of these people. Some had black hair and yellow skin, while others had yellow hair and white skin. Some were old, some were young, some were men, and some were women. They all slept in different positions.

After waking up from that dream, Jiang Ning was surprised to find that most of the new day after the rollback had already passed.

This led him to speculate that it might be related to the length of time he stayed in his dream.

During the Ninth World Regression, Jiang Ning decided to test this idea, and in the process, he discovered another interesting phenomenon:

At first, these purple beads were all dull and lackluster, but as I stayed in the dream for longer, some of the purple beads began to brighten.

However, Jiang Ning could no longer perceive the brightened purple bead through his consciousness.

When he woke up this time, he found that two-thirds of the new day had already passed.

Jiang Ning wasn't sure exactly how long he stayed in the dream, but real time told him that he had slept for at least 20 hours.

This convinced him that he might not be simply dreaming, but rather stepping into a mysterious space from within a dream.

Moreover, after such a long sleep, he did not feel significantly more comfortable after waking up; on the contrary, he felt even more tired.

This feeling of fatigue made Jiang Ning afraid to try to explore the changes within himself while in a conscious state.

Even though he had already discovered it, and that the mysterious space could appear if he focused on mastering it, Jiang Ning only dared to try it out each time.

Before resigning, Jiang Ning was a sleep researcher, mainly responsible for "basic and translational research" at the "Spring Sleep" Sleep Research Institute, and occasionally participated in the research and development of new sleep monitoring technology and equipment as an experience officer.

From the perspective of a sleep researcher, not only humans dream, but most animals also dream. However, the scientific community has not yet reached a unified and clear explanation for why animals dream.

In a scientific definition, sleep is a periodic, reversible, near-unconscious natural state.

Simply put, sleep is a natural state that you enter periodically, wake up from, and are almost unconscious. It is different from hibernation, anesthesia, and coma.

This difference is not only in terms of being active versus passive, but more importantly, in the underlying mechanisms.

Dreaming mainly occurs during REM sleep. Although dreaming also occurs during slow-wave deep sleep, it is mainly during the later REM sleep stage.

At this time, the brain is highly active, breathing and heart rate increase, and there is temporary limb paralysis.

This is one of the reasons why doctors can determine whether a patient is asleep, unconscious, or dead.

Similarly, an experienced sleep expert can determine a person's sleep quality simply by glancing at the sleep logs and video recordings submitted by the client.

If a person is suddenly awakened during REM sleep, there is an 80% chance they will recall their dream. Dreaming is also possible during other sleep stages, but these dreams are not vivid and are difficult to remember.

When Jiang Ning deduced that this dream, which lasted for 20 hours or even longer, was still a lucid dream, he was momentarily at a loss for how to explain it using the professional knowledge he had acquired.

Ultimately, one can only temporarily attribute all of this to individual mutations under the catastrophe of "world regression," much like in a novel where the protagonist gains a "superpower."

Jiang Ning remembers laughing at his own thoughts at the time, but his old professional habits were still there. When he stopped being depressed, he quickly came up with a way to explore.

Collecting samples and setting up control groups are the most common scientific research techniques.

Therefore, Jiang Ning first compiled statistics on these three changes and then chose to verify them again during the tenth "world regression".

After he entered the mysterious space from his dream again, this time he did not choose to stay, but chose to wake up directly.

He discovered this ability to choose when he awakens during his third dream of the mysterious space.

Upon regaining my senses, I realized that the world had indeed regressed.

It felt as if the whole world had regressed because of his awakening from his dream, a feeling that sent chills down Jiang Ning's spine.

That time, he sat in front of the TV and waited for almost an hour before he saw various news channels issue announcements immediately.

Jiang Ning originally intended to continue studying his own changes, but the establishment of the "International Time Alliance" immediately attracted all his attention, and a day passed in the blink of an eye.

Just now, Jiang Ning briefly stayed in his dream for a while before choosing to wake up.

The second sample collection allowed Jiang Ning to basically determine that as long as he did not choose to remain in the dream, he should be able to wake up immediately after the "world regression" occurred.

He doesn't have the monitoring tools to determine the exact timeframe, so it's unclear at the moment.

Upon waking up this time, Jiang Ning did not choose to wait in front of the television to listen to the news report. Instead, he picked up his phone and went downstairs.

He's going to test another idea today!

I also want to see just how amazing this "superpower" really is.

"Woof woof woof..."

To Jiang Ning's surprise, as soon as he opened the door, his neighbor's dog started barking wildly again.

Jiang Ning pursed his lips, didn't linger in the stairwell, and went downstairs through the community, where he encountered the middle-aged security guard again at the community entrance.

The two stared at each other for a moment.

The two then smiled at each other, and Jiang Ning continued walking towards the gate, while the middle-aged security guard continued packing his things to leave.

As Jiang Ning stepped out of the gate, he saw a large crowd gathered at the entrance of the residential area. An old man selling rice noodle rolls was packing a lunchbox for a primary school student, while two middle-aged women carrying shopping baskets chatted nearby. A young man stood behind them, making a phone call. On Nei'er Road, several drivers were smoking together, and shop owners on both sides were either opening or closing their doors...

This scene is familiar, just like countless mornings before: older women buying groceries, children going to school, young people going to work...

However, the old man selling rice noodle rolls looked helpless, the primary school students waiting for their lunch boxes were overjoyed to hear that it was free, the middle-aged woman buying vegetables spoke excitedly, the young man on the phone sounded fearful, the smoking drivers looked worried, the shop owners shook their heads in silence, and countless pedestrians left quickly without stopping.

"It doesn't seem to have anything special about it..."

Jiang Ning felt a pang of regret upon seeing this scene. He noticed that the biggest change was the reduction in vehicle collisions on the highway, which was also the most discussed topic among pedestrians.

"Quick, watch the live stream..."

Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted, "Minister Chen just said that starting today, we will try to let 'Luoshu' take over national traffic control..."

Upon hearing the news, the people around immediately took out their phones and quickly entered the National Emergency Center's live broadcast room.

Jiang Ning didn't take out his phone, but soon overheard from the phone of the person next to him:

"Hello everyone, I'm Chen Xiao. Regarding this global synchronized regression, my country has taken the lead in using the super AI 'Luoshu' to attempt to take over traffic..."

"As for the results? We will report back to everyone this evening after we have compiled the data... Now, let me give you a detailed introduction to the Luoshu..."