Embers Ad Infinitum

Liu Chuan stared at Shang Jianyao for a while and said:

"No one lives inside, but there are often slight movements."

"No one has gone in to explore, and no one died in it?" Shang Jianyao asked.

Liu Chuan replied:

"I don't know if anyone has been in the 'New World' before I entered it. But after I entered, many friends reminded me not to try to explore places that are obviously weird."

What he means simplified is:

In his impression, no one had entered that courtyard, so naturally no one died in it.

Shang Jianyao looked disappointed:

"Then why were you so nervous and scared just now?"

Liu Chuan didn't want to explain anymore and repeated what he said before:

"You can go back to where you live. I will inform you before taking official action."

"Okay." Shang Jianyao didn't force it, he waved his hand casually and said, "See you later."

After he left the cafe, he walked all the way to the outer area of ​​the "New World" and once again came to the gray courtyard.

After staring at the building submerged in darkness for several seconds, Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and left palm and said:

"Last time I climbed over the wall to get in. This time I'm going through the main entrance to see if there are any changes!"

The vicious Shang Jianyao immediately mocked his reckless colleague:

"It was okay last time, but something happened this time. Does this count as a change?"

"Forget it!" The reckless Shang Jianyao was not ambiguous at all, "Anyway, there is Xiao Chong's tiger skin, so what are you afraid of?"

The vicious Shang Jianyao felt aggrieved, but he couldn't stop it.

Now he just wants to split up and stay away from this brainless guy.

Shang Jianyao pushed open the wooden door of the courtyard and walked in step by step.

The two lanterns hanging at the door of the main room lit up, reflecting red light.

"Why two lamps? Is there anyone else here?" The honest Shang Jian Yao asked if he had any questions.

The reckless Shang Jianyao replied nonchalantly:

"What's so weird about this?"

“These two lanterns are matching products and belong to the same group of lights.

"There used to be a lamp in the cafe that was made up of many small lamps. Didn't it glow at the same time every time it was lit?"

While talking, he walked into the main hall and came all the way to the outside of the side room where Lin Sui's photos were displayed.

Shang Jianyao didn't rush in. He turned his body sideways and put his ear to the door.

He was often reckless, but sometimes very patient. In this way, he remained in this position and listened for a full seven or eight minutes.

Finally, a low sobbing sound came from the side room, which seemed not to be there at all.

This time, Shang Jianyao did not push the door directly in to check what happened like before. Instead, he stayed outside and asked through the door panel:

"What are you crying for?"

The sobs suddenly stopped.

Shang Jianyao asked again:

"Are you sad? It will make you feel better if you tell me."

There was silence in the wing, and the sobs just now seemed to be just an illusion.

Zen Master Pudu whispered the name of the Buddha:

"Namo Anuttarasamyaksambodhi, donor, do you need help?"

No one responded to him, and it looked like only dead things were inside.

Shang Jianyao thought for a while, sighed, and chanted:

"Who is crying somewhere in the world right now,

"Crying in the world for no reason,

"Cry me.

"..." (Note 1)

This is a Red River poem that he learned from old world entertainment materials when he was in Gerstburg. He is always looking for novelty and novelty and is always ready to perform a recitation. This situation is very suitable for this situation.

However, no one appreciated his literary talent.

Shang Jianyao was disappointed:

“Isn’t it okay to take the literary route?

"This building is a courtyard with a gray earth style, and Lin Sui is also a gray earth person, so he has to recite gray earth poetry?"

Shang Jianyao started to think about it and recalled suitable ancient poems and lyrics.

At this moment, the whimpering sound sounded again.

Immediately afterwards, a vague female voice said with strong pain:

"Many times, eternal life means eternal pain..."

Shang Jianyao's eyes lit up at first, and then he blurted out:

"These words are too strict! They are not in line with normal people's expression habits when they are depressed or even sad!

"Most people will definitely only say 'eternal life means eternal pain' and will not add the qualifying phrase 'many times'. Although this is more reasonable and closer to real logic, who would consider this aspect when they are sad? ?

"Are you studying science and engineering?"

There was silence in the wing, no one responded.

Shang Jianyao waited for a while and gradually started to panic:

"Please speak!

"I finally waited for you to speak!"

The sound of wind in the wing disappeared, and the sobbing and painful female voices gave people a feeling that had never appeared before.

Shang Jianyao jumped up and down and said:

"I apologize to you, I shouldn't have made a fuss.

"Please, how can you forgive me?

"If you don't speak anymore, I will kneel here and not get up!"

He slowly used lines from some old world entertainment materials, looking like he was enjoying himself.

Unfortunately, there was no further response from the wing.

…………

After entering the "Soul Corridor", Jiang Baimian adapted for a while before preparing to go deep into the small city and explore the area around the tower.

She obtained a spiritual shield from Shang Jianyao, chose daytime instead of night, and once again dived into the "new world" of reality.

Although she was extremely familiar with this journey, the increasing cost still caused her to get lost several times.

The consequences of getting lost seem to have become more serious. She has directly bumped into a bunch of "unintentional people" these few times, making her efforts to hide human consciousness and rely on military exoskeleton devices to sneak around were almost in vain.

Fortunately, those "unintentional people" ignored her and just cooperated with each other to do their own things.

"The Mirror World!"

Jiang Baimian sensed them in advance and used the ability of "Mirror World".

She found that this capability might be more appropriately called a "virtual machine."

It can extract environmental elements and build a virtual world that is exactly the same as the current one. Those "unintentional people" live in it, and every move must be filtered by Jiang Baimian before it can be mapped to reality, and the same is true for the feedback from reality.

In this way, Jiang Baimian only needs to exclude himself when "building" that virtual world, and those "unintentional people" will not know that such a person is passing by him.

The "mirror world" ability involves a large amount of information collection and filtering. Even if there are many instinctive operations, it also has very high requirements on the computing power of the human brain. After Jiang Baimian chose this ability, he felt that the corresponding functions of the brain were improved. A certain improvement.

In addition, she has the help of the auxiliary chip in the biological prosthetic arm. The authenticity and integrity of the "mirror world" she builds will not be much worse than that of the awakened people who explore the depths of the "soul corridor". It only depends on the coverage and the number of people affected. There are major deficiencies.

Relying on the "mirror world", the unmanned Jiang Baimian finally reached the end of each in-depth trip safely.

This is only about twenty meters away from the light on the outermost edge of the tower.

Jiang Baimian took a breath and walked slowly towards the tower.

After walking for a while and arriving at the place where she would have had signs of "unintentional illness", Jiang Baimian felt that everything was normal and there was no throbbing pain in her head.

"Sure enough, after the level increases, the resistance to consciousness extraction becomes obviously stronger..." Jiang Baimian sighed silently.

She then used her ability to interfere with electromagnetic fields to build a weak barrier around her.

She was imitating the mental shield provided by Shang Jianyao, but due to the lack of control over her own consciousness, she could only imitate the mental shield provided by Shang Jianyao, which was better than nothing.

After a few steps, Jiang Baimian came to the critical line where those "unintentional people" disappeared.

She was ready to use the "mirror world" before cautiously moving forward.

Almost instantly, Jiang Baimian felt that the barrier around him became in pieces, as if he had passed through a thick curtain of water.

A change occurred in front of her eyes, and two buildings, one large and one small, appeared there.

The big one has thick towers and gray-white buildings. Judging from Jiang Baimian's knowledge, this should be a nuclear power plant.

The small one is about one kilometer away from the nuclear power plant. It has a unique shape, like a solidified vortex with a watery blue color. It is not too high, only about twenty or thirty meters, and the overall development trend is horizontal. The curtain wall of the facade does not shine particularly well in the sun, which is not consistent with the current weather conditions.

Countless "unintentional people" haunt the nuclear power plant, and only a few are near the small building.

This is very similar to the scene Jiang Baimian expected.

"Even the sunlight enters through the refraction of the illusion..." Jiang Baimian nodded thoughtfully.

She was clear that the next target should be the small building rather than the nuclear power plant.

Because there were thousands of "unintentional people" in this area, which exceeded the number of targets that Jiang Baimian could currently influence, she did not approach the small building immediately. Instead, she continued to hide her human consciousness and found a nearby cover to hide.

Note 1: Quoted from "Heavy Moments", Rilke.

PS: Ask for double monthly tickets at the beginning of the month~

PS2: The previous chapter mainly wanted to express the feeling of turning seemingly useless conversations into useful information through layer-by-layer processing. Since every conversation has something to be processed, ellipses cannot be used. to replace. Since many friends think it is unfair, this chapter will be free and compensated for everyone.