Abyssal Wanderer

Ms. Audrey Bergman, a legendary film artist under Venus Digital Media and the newly-promoted queen of simulating films, once again woke up from a strange dream.

Back in her own reality, she blinked at the mottled traces on the ceiling.

"Jenny."

Stretching her arms and stretching her waist, she called.

"Here, Ms. Ma Wei."

The projection of the smart butler appeared beside her in an extremely dignified manner. She bowed to herself and asked respectfully:

"What do you need?"

There is another problem with the smart housekeeper's authentication system.

Hearing that strange name, Bergman thought slightly dissatisfied.

How many times has it been? Every time you obviously change your username, let the smart housekeeper call you by your own name. But within a few days, she would identify herself as someone else again.

What's going on here, isn't Vesta Intelligent Control an Olympus enterprise? How can you make such a low-level mistake when you spend a lot of money to buy high-end services?

"My name is Audrey Bergman, understand? Enter this name, and then you won't be called wrong again in the future."

Bergman said sullenly.

"I'm very sorry, the user name has been changed, Ms. Audrey Bergman, what do you need?"

With an impeccable apology on her face, the housekeeper Jenny said so.

By the way, this must be the business behavior of Vista Intelligent Controls...

Suddenly, Bergman seemed to have found the reason.

According to the news, "Vista" has also begun to enter the entertainment media market in recent years-although their purpose of doing so is to make virtual idols popular, and then launch idol-themed smart home systems. But this strategic layout does have an impact on the market of "Venus Media".

The two Olympus companies have formed a competitive relationship in the entertainment market. And as the hottest simulating star of Venus Media at present, he will naturally be targeted by the other party.

I am like a falling leaf, helpless at the forefront of the commercial war between two behemoths...

Thinking of this, Bergman could not help lamenting his tragic fate.

It never occurred to him that the other party would do such a small trick to disgust himself.

In a while, I have to talk to my agent and ask her to replace this outdated housekeeping system.

"That trainee named Jane, did you send any more harassing messages?"

Standing up and stretching his muscles, Bergman asked about another matter that he was more concerned about recently.

Jane Herder, a silly kid who just passed the trainee audition. As soon as he joined the company, he impatiently launched a pursuit offensive against himself, saying that he came to Venus and passed the one-in-a-million selection just for himself, such stupid things...

In short, she threw that kid out on the spot—as a trainee, how dare she come out to have a relationship? Aren't you afraid of breach of contract and dismissal on the spot, and the liquidated damages that will last a lifetime?

Hearing her own question, a blue stream of data flashed in Jenny's eyes, and she immediately said:

"Ms. Bergman, you did not retrieve a person named 'Jane Held' in your contacts, nor did you receive any missed calls."

"That's it...then he might send a message from someone else's account. Check your contacts and see if there is..."

Bergman continued to ask without hesitation.

For some reason, Bergman seems to have guessed that the silly boy named "Jane" is actually rich, he is the son-in-law of a big company manager, and he will do anything to pursue himself.

She seemed to know that things would probably develop like this, as if she was watching a movie that she had watched countless times.

"Miss Bergman, there are only two contacts in your contact list. Your son Liao Qi, and your mind adjuster Bai Dong."

Jenny said so.

For this answer, she directly ignored a certain name mentioned by the other party, and said thoughtfully:

"Mental adjuster, I feel that I need to fine-tune my emotions recently. Make an appointment for me with the adjuster named Bai Dong, and let her..."

"I am here."

A female voice came from the door of the room.

Bai Dong stood there, with an uncontrollable rage on her face.

Before "Bergman" could speak, she waved directly. The 3D projection of housekeeper Jenny flashed in front of her in an instant.

"Modify the title, change 'Audrey Bergman' to the legal registration status 'Ma Wei'. Lock the title, and no longer allow the client to modify it by himself."

"The instruction has been confirmed, Ms. Bai. It has been detected that your heart rate is too fast, do you need to play lyrical music?"

Facing her current new owner, the smart butler Jenny replied with great respect.

"No, you can go to do-not-disturb mode first."

After Bai Dong finished speaking, he took a deep breath, then turned to look at the middle-aged woman.

Looking at her, Bai Dong kept persuading himself in his heart.

I am a professionally trained professional who knows the pathogenesis of "identity-anchored split syndrome" and understands the clinical manifestations of this kind of cyber psychosis-I should not treat a patient or a victim like this. Such strict requirements.

More importantly, in the process of treatment, one should not bring any personal emotions—this is the professional ethics that a mind adjuster should have.

She understands this, but...

"After tonight, your son may not come back alive."

She couldn't help saying that.

Ten minutes ago, she received some news from the frontline...some news that even the most optimistic people could not be more optimistic after hearing it.

"So you still want to use the completely fictitious actress identity fabricated by the company according to the algorithm... instead of the identity of Liao Qi's mother to witness all this? I know this is too much... But, wake up."

Anyway, he didn't have any talent to be a mind adjuster, so Bai Dong simply said what he wanted to say in one breath.

As for this, Liao Qi's mother, Ma Wei, just turned her head to her with some doubts—as if she didn't understand what she was saying at all.

Then, she frowned, and said the name very slowly, as if she was forced to recall something reluctantly.

"The Liao Qi you're talking about... who is it?"

Bai Dong sighed.

"He is your son, a hero."

She stepped forward and held Liao Qi's mother's callused hand.

"Tonight, he will fight for the liberation of the various underground levels in the Nord resettlement area... I know that Auntie, you were disappointed in him in the past, because he did not follow your arrangement, no To choose a path that most people take.

"But the more difficult path he chose by himself is definitely something you should be proud of... So, at least today, please remember your own true identity?"

When Bai Dong spoke, he even felt a little trembling.

But for her heartfelt words, Ma Wei responded with only one sentence besides a blank expression:

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

That's it...

Even with the expected answer, sadness and helplessness still filled Bai Dong's heart.

Cyber ​​mental illness is something so easy to cure.

If I can really restore a patient with "identity-anchored split syndrome" to normal through these few words from my heart... Even if it is temporarily restored to normal, then the profession of mind adjustment teacher has no value in existence .

A cyberpsychopath awakened by love and memories... It's not that such a miracle has never happened, but since they are all called miracles, it is enough to show how rare this kind of thing is.

If this is a world where miracles can be summoned at will, then this world shouldn't be what it is today.

"sorry……"

Not knowing to whom this apology was addressed, Bai Dong tightly shook Ms. Ma Wei's hand, sighed and lowered his head.

Bukeliuqi and the others do stupid things that have no hope of success, and why do I follow them to do stupid things with the same probability of success?

"I was stupid."

Bai Dong said this with another sigh, as if she hoped that these words would bring her much relief.

Then, she felt someone touching her head like an elder.

Bai Dong quickly raised her head - the way Ms. Ma Wei looked at her at this moment no longer looked like the beautiful female star she imitated because of her long-term immersion in simian movies. She was more than 20 years younger than her.

But more like a mother who is about the same age as me.

Bai Dong held his breath for a moment, anxiously waiting for the other party's next words.

"What's the name of the little assistant who invited me to shoot "Falcon Man" yesterday?"

"Bergman" asked.

What she was referring to was last night when Liao Qi came back here.

Last night, after Liao Qi left, she asked herself once. At that time, I said the name "Liao Qi", but the other party, as usual, did not express much after hearing this name.

What about today?

Bai Dong opened his mouth slightly, intending to answer again. But he didn't want "Bergman" to let go of his hand, walked into his room, opened the closet, and began to search for something in the deepest part.

"Although I still won't take on superhero movies until I win the 'Muse Award'. But since the invitation is the classic ip of "Falcon Man", I have something here that I hope to give to the previous little one." Assistant, can you pass it on for me?"

"Bergman" said, and took out a metal box from the deepest part of the cabinet.

"this."

she said so.

"What's in it?"

Bai Dong looked at the metal box that was placed in the deepest part of the cabinet but was wiped spotless, and asked curiously.

Ma Wei smiled, and then she said:

"this is……"

Bai Dong failed to hear the answer.

A violent explosion sounded from the side wall, and the thing that caused the explosion broke in faster than the sound.

Something huge broke in.

Roaring, air waves...

Black Red……

Alarms, screams...

A series of images shattered in Bai Dong's mind, like something crudely produced by a clumsy impressionist painter for his livelihood.

After struggling for a long time, she realized that she was blown to the load-bearing wall of the living room by the air wave. The back of her head hit the concrete wall hard, and when she fell down, there was a long trail of blood trailing - at this moment, she didn't have any strength to try to change what was happening at this moment.

Bai Dong wanted to send a warning to the outside world through the brain-computer interface, or ask for help...but she soon discovered that it was as if she had been infected by some kind of virus, and all the background programs running on the interface were completely offline and invalid.

Not only the brain-computer interface, but even her biological brain... Even concentrating became extremely difficult.

In a trance, she saw several three-meter-high black-armored giants walking back and forth among the ruins of the room. Where the facial features should be on their faces, there are eight blood-red lights that are lit.

Overheard their... conversation between them.

"This is the home of Liao Qi? Ye Qian suspected that he hacked into Tartarus?"

"Hey, I thought I could find hacking tools, or dark web technology products... it turned out to be something like this?"

"Who is this girl? Liao Qi's mother? But she's already dead, so it's useless to take her as a hostage, right?"

"What's in the box she's holding in her hand? Damn, the bones are all glued on."

(sound of box opening)

"Tch, it's nothing, it's just a pile of garbage... It's a waste of time."

"Shut up, Aconitum-9, record all the scenes here in 3D and increase the resolution. Ms. Christie only said that we can't take the initiative to attack Icarus members, but if they take the initiative to attack us, Even at the board, she had nothing to say."

"The one in the living room is still alive, what should we do?"

"That guy is an official member of Icarus. Check her vital signs. If there is nothing wrong, we will go to the next one... The information provided by the resettlement area government is too bad."

"Let's go."

…………

After listening to Bai Dong's narration, Liao Qi stood in the same spot, silent as if dead.

Booker wanted to say something several times, but in the end he couldn't say anything.

After a long time, Liao Qi asked in a hoarse voice:

"What's in that box, can you show me?"

Bai Dong didn't answer, but the communication screen followed her limping perspective into the room.

On the desk, an extruded and deformed metal box was quietly placed in the middle.

And in the box is a limited crystal toy figure that was once broken, but was carefully glued back together, but was finally broken again.

Liao Qi closed his eyes, but the scenes turned uncontrollably in his mind.

Falconman, a superhero born in the slums, fights wits and courage with evil and greedy capitalists.

When he was a child, Liao Qi dreamed of growing up to be a brave and witty superhero like Falconman-to fight against those evil companies and take back what originally belonged to the people.

For some reason, some details that he had long forgotten came to mind at this moment.

It was on the afternoon of his tenth birthday. When his father bought this toy, he was clearly in pain, but he still had a stiff smile pretending to be generous.

And the mother was still nagging and complaining at first, why a broken toy costs so much money. But after seeing his happy and uneasy expression, he still smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. Then in the future, after my little Qi makes a lot of money, she must treat her parents well."

The strange thing is that there are only leaden domes and poor-quality artificial lights in the resettlement area. But the scene in Liao Qi's memory was sunny. Under the clear blue sky, golden sunlight gently sprinkled on the shoulders of the family of three.

Then look at the place where the toy was glued back. Liao Qi seemed to have seen the scene where his mother was alone in the study after he ran away from home, carefully gluing the broken toy back bit by bit.

It's like a ritual—it seems that as long as she sticks the toy back, her son will come back obediently and go to the company obediently.

It's as if their family can live a happy and decent life after this.

Liao Qi took a deep breath and raised his face.

"Booker..."

he said.

"Um……"

"Did you know? My mandala is a toy that shattered all over the floor."

Liao Qi said so.

"There's nothing I can do."

Booker spoke directly.

Liao Qi turned to look at Booker.

"Deep 4 remake of the Icarus Path, a day-by-day procedure.

"I need you to help me install this."