Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Chapter 86: The Direction is Correct

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye in the outside world.

Jiang Ning was unaware of time within his conscious space, engrossed in observation.

Since acquiring this mysterious space, he has pondered it countless times. Apart from some initial gains, he has returned disappointed every time he enters now.

The entire space is like a fog; if you don't consciously try to clear it, you'll feel disoriented every time you enter.

"Let's try classifying them!"

As if painting, Jiang Ning began to manipulate the mist, causing all the gray and off-white beads to separate to the left and right.

Next, try to recall all the people you have known in your life and peel out the beads that represent them one by one.

Jiang Ning has never counted how many people one can meet in a lifetime.

He first categorized people by the number of relatives he knew, then by the number of people from the same village, and finally by the number of people from elementary school to university, then by work colleagues, and also by the people introduced by friends.

After separating all these people, Jiang Ning roughly counted them and found that there were actually fewer than 500 people.

Having lived for 28 years, Jiang Ning knew that he knew far more people than these, but he probably only remembered a handful by name.

Without a name, even if Jiang Ning had a vague impression of someone, finding that person in this mysterious space would be like sifting through sand in a great wave.

"I wonder if it's possible to categorize by geographical location?"

After observing for a while, Jiang Ning, who had separated himself from the people he knew, suddenly had a thought.

Previously, I only categorized things by gray and off-white, and at most, I would keep checking on sleeping people, but I never thought of it this way.

"Why don't you give it a try?"

Jiang Ning kept silently reciting the name of Sanmiao Village in his mind.

After being repeated more than a dozen times, this consciousness space actually seemed to respond.

The clouds in the sky shimmered faintly, and then beads separated and gathered together, just like a small cloud.

"That really works..."

Jiang Ning was overjoyed.

With a thought, the small cloud was magnified, its gray and grayish-white colors clearly distinguished.

The gray-white beads representing wakefulness make up the vast majority, so much so that it can no longer be described as a percentage; there are actually only seven gray beads representing sleep.

Jiang Ning examined the seven beads one by one: three old people and four babies.

He recognized the three elderly people, but couldn't recall their names. However, he was certain they were from Sanmiao Village.

The four babies were completely unfamiliar to me; I suppose they were some children from the village.

Upon arriving here, Jiang Ning decided to return to the real world first and check the data collected from Sanmiao Village.

In an instant, Jiang Ning was freed from the mysterious space.

Incidentally, some scientists have suggested that Jiang Ning could call it the Consciousness Space, but Jiang Ning refused, believing that the Consciousness Space is too subjective and that describing it for too long would make him lose his sense of awe and curiosity.

As soon as Jiang Ning opened his eyes, he heard Zhang Jimin and the others whispering among themselves.

After listening carefully for a while, I finally understood that Zhang Jimin was explaining the data he had just compiled to the other members of the Huitian team.

"According to the census data, we have just compiled 99.79% of the data, and it is estimated that only more than 30,000 people were not counted by Luoshu."

"Of the more than 17 billion people surveyed, 95.65% are awake, and approximately 7395 million are asleep. Because we only collected data for two hours, which I divided into 120 segments, the specific data varies every five minutes..."

Sun Fumin, with a cigarette dangling from his lips but not smoking, clicked his tongue: "We conducted the experiment just 24 hours after the rollback. This doesn't mean that more than 16 billion people stayed up for 24 hours. Only a pitiful 5% of them slept for a while in stages."

"That's pretty much the idea!" Zhang Jimin nodded, then changed the subject, "However, that's not entirely accurate, because in the past 24 hours, some people must have slept on and off, and what we've seen is only these two hours."

Su Mian pointed to a graph and said, "Look at this upward trend. Actually, after 24 hours, the number of sleepers has been increasing, but it has never exceeded 5%. Is it possible that the proportion of people who maintain a sleep state at the same time is not high throughout the entire rollback day or even before?"

Chang Niankong nodded again. "This discovery is very important, but it still needs to be verified multiple times. Next time, let's try moving the test time forward..."

Lu Xue exclaimed in surprise, "After seeing these data, I suddenly realized that even without a major regression, human sleep problems seem to be quite serious."

Su Mian opened another data chart and continued, "In the past, a complete day was 24 hours, and everyone followed this cycle, with the most conscious time being around 20 hours. Now there has been a major regression, and each time it rolls back, the average conscious time also increases."

Sun Fumin grinned: "That's because scientists still haven't discovered the specific pattern of regression. After each rollback, humans will have about 30 hours to move forward."

Zhang Jimin rubbed his eyes, staring intently at the screen, and said seriously, "The most recent statistics from Luo Shu show an average duration of 33 hours and 21 minutes..."

Chang Niankong had been standing behind the group without saying a word. He was listening with great interest when he turned around and saw Jiang Ning staring thoughtfully at their backs.

"Team Leader Jiang, you're awake..." Chang Niankong smiled faintly.

Jiang Ning nodded, then quickly stood up and asked, "Old Zhang, does the latest statistics from Luo Shu really prove that after each major regression, the time taken to move forward has increased?"

"That's absolutely right!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Jimin turned to look at Jiang Ning, and the others also looked at Jiang Ning, wondering why he had asked this question first after regaining consciousness.

Jiang Ning remained silent for a few seconds, then spoke quickly without offering an explanation:

"Su Mian, use the household registration system to retrieve the files of all residents of Sanmiao Village."

"Lu Xue, assist Su Mian in retrieving all the video data of Luo Shu's decryption of Sanmiao Village."

"Old Zhang, could you please compile the final statistics for my hometown?"

Five minutes later, Zhang Jimin compiled a new set of special data on his computer, which contained details of everyone in Sanmiao Village.

Jiang Ning stood beside Zhang Jimin and leaned over to look.

Just one glance was enough to bring a quiet sense of relief, and I inexplicably felt a sense of it being the way it should be.

"It's done!" Jiang Ning exclaimed joyfully.

"What's done?" Sun Fumin quickly squeezed over.

Jiang Ning pointed at the screen and said, "I just checked the Sanmiao Village in the mysterious space. There were only 7 people sleeping there at the time, but the data now shows 9 people. Although there are two errors, considering the time difference, this data is reasonable."

"This means that the mysterious space inside me may really be a global human sleep monitoring room."

"This also means that our research direction may be correct!"