Chapter 110: I Am the Black Hole

Xigu stood upon the surface of the water.

Before him stretched an ocean that seemed to extend endlessly into the horizon.

To an ordinary person, this would be a prison of despair—an expanse of seawater that would confine them relentlessly.

But to Xigu, this vast ocean was merely a small puddle he could cross in less than half a second.

He gazed inward, surveying his own body as if overlooking the outside world itself.

—The day had finally arrived.

Since the moment he first awakened his superhuman abilities, four thousand days had passed.

Now, his raw strength had reached approximately 1e+19 kilograms.

For comparison, the moon’s mass is 7.346e+22 kilograms, and Earth’s mass is 5.97237e+24 kilograms. This meant that Xigu’s current strength was equivalent to about one seven-thousandth of the moon’s mass, or one six-hundred-thousandth of Earth’s.

Yet, simultaneously, his body’s volume remained that of an ordinary human.

Approximately 0.07 cubic meters, or 70 liters, equivalent to 70,000 cubic centimeters.

With this foundation, a simple calculation revealed the truth.

—Each cubic centimeter of Xigu’s body now corresponded to a force of 1.4e+14 kilograms, or 1.4e+11 newtons—equivalent to 1,400 tons of force.

In terms of natural mass, Xigu’s average force-to-volume ratio gave him a density seventy times greater than neutron star matter, even surpassing that of quark star density by a slight margin.

—but a quark star is merely a transient state during the collapse of a neutron star into a black hole.

When a celestial body transitions from a neutron star to a quark star, it will continue collapsing into a black hole within a cosmically brief moment.

—So, if a human being could manifest the mass-equivalent power of quark star matter within the volume of a mere human body, then naturally, their body would possess resilience surpassing even that of quark degeneracy.

…In such a condition, toward what direction would they evolve next?

The answer was inevitable.

Xigu raised his head and fixed his gaze upon the sun, as if staring into his own reflection.

The sensation of “transcendence” that he had only ever experienced through “contact” with Yang Luo, Ito Mio, and Lin Heng now rose vividly within his heart.

“…I am collapsing, moving toward the black hole.”

In that instant, his mind was utterly immersed in the transformation within himself, experiencing that fateful, miraculous moment.

…

Tokyo, Central Police Station.

Manami Mizuhara sat in the interrogation room, her complexion slightly pale as she glanced at the array of sternly uniformed men nearby.

Just two hours prior, she had been stopped by a group of police officers on her way home from school and brought here.

Though she had mentally prepared for this moment, a flicker of anxiety still stirred within her.

“…Knock knock.”

The man sitting opposite her in the interrogation room tapped the table gently with his index finger, offering Manami a warm smile.

“Miss Manami, there’s no need to be afraid. We only wish to ask you a few questions—do you know this bookstore?”

The man held up a photograph showing the front entrance of a certain bookstore. The name above the door caused Manami to hesitate briefly before she nodded.

“…Yes, that’s the Sumire Bookstore.”

“Very good.”

The man’s smile remained gentle, but his eyes were sharp and piercing—reminiscent of a hawk or falcon.

“Now, I’d like to ask you, Miss Manami—do you know the name of the owner of this bookstore?”

Manami pursed her lips.

Her initial feeling was reluctance.

Even facing a government agency, she found herself unwilling to speak the owner’s name—the store manager’s name was…

Suddenly, Manami froze.

A look of confusion appeared in her eyes.

…Wait, what exactly was the store manager’s name?

…

…

America, Noyfer City State University.

As the only university in this small town in the western United States, Noyfer City State University was notorious for having teaching standards comparable to a New York community college, the worst twenty-year return on investment for graduates in the entire country, and a social standing that earned the local residents’ disdain.

Today, in a classroom on the side of the three-story teaching building, Kyle Rockman—who had graduated from a top 100 U.S. university twenty years ago and had since been teaching astrophysics here—looked out at fewer than ten students and wore an expression of resigned numbness as he prepared to start the day’s general education lecture.

—There was actually little to say. Despite the small number of students, each acted independently: some secretly knitting hats under their desks, others openly playing chess with neighbors, and a few wearing headphones while chuckling at IPA podcasts without a hint of concealment.

Kyle understood perfectly well. Even during regular classes, these students barely paid one or two-tenths of their attention. As for his current lecture on General Astrophysics, no matter what he said, their sole expectation was to earn a good grade by the end of the term. Even if he displayed pictures of nude women on his slides, at most two or three students might glance up.

—He knew this well.

Glancing around, Kyle had initially planned to follow the syllabus, casually discussing star magnitudes and Lagrange points.

Yet, for some reason, a wave of emotion surged within him, and a memory from his graduate research—a topic he had spent three years studying—shone brightly.

That was the happiest period of his life.

Thus, Kyle Rockman spontaneously altered his lesson plan.

Seeing the heads bowed in the room, with no eyes meeting his own, he cleared his throat and began:

“Today, we will talk about black holes.

“Black holes are a term familiar to the vast majority of people worldwide. I am sure you have all heard of them. They are focal points of both quantum mechanics and astrophysics, around which many complex and challenging formulas have been proposed by predecessors.

“Of course, today, here, we will not delve into those intricate formulas but focus on a general understanding. Yet I believe that once you grasp the nature of black holes, such knowledge will profoundly overturn and reshape your view of the cosmos—the once desolate and empty universe will appear anew.

“And first, we will discuss the relationship between black holes and information—

“In the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity, this is known as the ‘Black Hole Information Paradox.’

“Quantum mechanics demands the ‘law of conservation of information’ to hold, yet black holes swallow all matter and information falling into them, emitting only pure thermal radiation. Even light cannot escape a black hole. Thus, in a sense, we can say, ‘Black holes can never truly be seen.’

“—They are not only black holes of matter but black holes of information as well.”

(The End of This Chapter)