Chapter 24 Collapsing Worldview
The location Lin Ren was in now was a bit leaning. Based on the explored area of the map, relatively the continent Lin Ren's was situated in was the largest piece of land so far. There's two other large-scale continent visible on the map and several small-scale continents around and numerous islands.
It appears that Lin Ren's current position was more towards the south direction. The map clearly showed the South Pole area, but the North Pole was not in coverage. Though due to the incomplete map of the world, Lin Ren was not sure where was the equator line.
Thus, it was unknown how big was the continent he was in, relative to the planet's surface itself.
It is currently unknown whether the continent itself was large enough to span across the equator, reaching northern hemisphere, covering a large part of the planet.
Or whether the world itself was much larger, and the current continent only covers a small area within the southern hemisphere.
But if the words of the Spirit Soul were to be used as reference, the Spirit Soul seems to claim that the ring managed to scan three quarters of the planet's surface. That's 75% of the world's total surface area.
So technically, based on the visible area shown here on the map, the northern tip of the continent should be the equator or close enough to the equator.
When his thought reached here, savoring carefully his thoughts…
Lin Ren once again became unsure of it.
He was not sure whether he should take the Spirit Soul's words as set in stone.
This was because the ring, eventually hadn't manage to scan the whole world. And the place he appears was half-way up the mountain. It was not at the outer space nor was it in the upper level of the atmosphere.
If according to normal scientific knowledge, due to gravitational force, planets should be round and spherical or ellipsoid in nature. Thus, by virtue of the ring's capability to scan a large area of the world's surface, measuring the angle of the curvature of the planet was simple.
By using the so-called Intersecting Chords Theorem, after measuring the depth of the surface's area of interest, as well as the length of area covered by the depth, anyone can measure the planet's spherical diameter. From there calculating the surface area of the whole world was simple.
Even if the planet was in ellipsoid shape, with such large area being scanned, it was easy to estimate the radius of each side of the ellipsoid.
However, who could guarantee that the planet would surely be in ellipsoid or spherical shape?
Ever since he was sent here, Lin Ren's worldview had utterly collapsed. When he was sent here in confusion, with the introduction of cultivators' existence, and the various fictional and fantasy element, his mind was no longer rigidly adhering to the scientific explanation.
What if this world was cylindrical in shape? Or what if this world was a massive tree and the surface area that had been scanned were merely a segment of the tree's branch?
Or what if this world was only a half sphere surface, floating above an endless sea where that world was a flat land? Maybe when one reached the other side of the current world following the ocean current, they would fall into the much larger and wider flat shaped world?
There's too much possibility and the wild imagination of a crushed and collapsed worldview of a teenager mind were forcing him to think through the impossible. If the truth to be told, despite his calm outer appearance Lin Ren was on the verge of panic and mental collapse.
If he was a much mature person with stable mind, he would not easily let his imagination running wild, even if his worldview were just shattered. No matter how absurd the world was, the logical thinking and rationality of the mind would slowly digest and find proper explanation.
But in Lin Ren's situation, he couldn't. He was merely an ordinary teenager with normal upbringing just several moments ago. He who had wild ambition, who had longed for exciting adventurous experience never expected that when he was finally able to embark on his own journey like his older siblings, he would be faced with such bewildered and overwhelmingly absurd truth.
Unlike his other relatives who was first given an explanation and time to digest the news, he was tricked by his family as if he was exiled here, to an unknown place.
Not only that, but he was also sent to this unmanned and dangerous place all alone without any help nor a way to contact the outside world. In fact, part of his mind's wild imagination had even doubted and proposed an absurd question: What would happen if this was an inhabited and abandoned planet? Would he be left here all alone for the rest of his lives?
While Lin Ren was still looking towards the map, and his mind gives free reign thinking of all sorts of possibilities, at this moment, he suddenly seemed to have quickly grasp of something that just flown into his mind.
He tried hard to catch this thought process.
Some thoughts he had chosen to ignore.
Some memories he had chosen to forget.
Some truth which should had been obvious long ago, but he had deliberately neglected it. When he finally caught that thought, he was finally able to calm his mind. This thought he had just caught, the more he thought about it, the surer he became.
He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm down his nerves and mind. His nerves that had been stretched became loose again and his mind became clear.
After understanding it, he became positive towards the future. As a proactive and positive guy with adventurous heart, he had always been brave and courageous. Even when he went deep into the forest in the past alone (the one his family thought he was lost), his positive and great heart was what kept him going.
So, this time, similar thing was what had happened. Though he had almost been on the verge of mental breakdown, he had now managed to pick himself up again and calm down. As Lin Ren have something to hold on, he could easily change his outlook positively.
The whole process of his mind running wild, world outlook collapsing, and he began to despair, to finally managing to pick himself up again and calm down, seems to take a long time. But in reality, it was just several moments in time.
Despite all that, his movement and facial expression did betray his intention that wanted to pretend to be calm. All the changes on him were clearly observed by the Qilin. Seeing it, the young Qilin thought that this kid was too weak. The kid was so easily to become panic at first sight when looking to an unfamiliar map.
When he was interacting with his senior Qilins together with other young Qilins, these elders often told them how vast the world was. The Lin Clan's veterans often travelled among the various planets across the star territory.
The young Qilin had even once met one of Lin Clan's veteran who was friendly enough to talk and share his experiences with the Qilin's children. The veteran was a partner of one the elder Qilin.
He was originally had come there to check on them and meet Sir Frank. At that time, many young Qilins had pestered him to tell stories of outside world. Maybe he was amused by the young children or maybe he was the type who was friendly towards others, in the end he shared his experiences while showing many maps of many places. Some of the places were much larger planets compared to the current world.
At that time, he clearly remembered the faces of all young Qilins back then. They didn't become panic nor afraid of the news but instead they showed awe and envious expression. The stories that they heard makes their blood boiling. Each of them was hoping for some day in the future, they would also become one of the travelers among the stars.
But this kid had actually panicked just from seeing a simple map of unknown world. This kid was too weak!
The Qilin's impression now towards Lin Ren became worse.
The Qilin, who was oblivious to the inner thoughts and struggle of Lin Ren, became contemptuous and disdain towards him. He was even wondering why the old fogey asked him to follow this cowardly kid.