Chapter 128 A Nightmare

rain.

It was like the sky was cracking, with raindrops coming down mixed with mud, sand, and rocks.

Accompanied by huge thunder and subtle noises, a vast torrent rolled in, with countless shadows of all sizes rolling in it, and it was impossible to tell whether they were mountains, rocks, trees, houses, or people.

Why are you here? How can I save you?

When Lin Guantang was confused, anxious, and helpless about the scene before him, a voice sounded in his ears as if his heart was connected:

"Who can rescue them all at the moment of the outbreak? Who can foresee and ensure that nothing will go wrong? Who can free them from the suffering of this world and give them eternal freedom?"

Lin Guantang looked to the side and saw a very familiar person. His facial features seemed to be...himself.

But her hair was much longer than Lin Guantang's. The medium-length hair in the front was scattered, while the longer hair in the back was tied into a small braid and hung on her shoulders.

But, how could it be?!

Lin Guantang's mind went blank, and he couldn't believe his eyes. Then, he heard this person who looked like him say something even more incredible:

"You shouldn't exist."

Lin Guantang subconsciously retorted:

“Why shouldn’t it exist?”

But the other party did not list the reasons why he should not exist, and seemed not to hear Lin Guantang's words, and continued to talk to himself:

"You shouldn't be this lucky if you even exist."

...Lucky?

Maybe.

Lin Guantang did not deny that he had encountered many lucky things, but he also did not think...there was anything lucky about an orphan.

"False luck will make you misjudge the sufferings of this world. Come, my child."

The figure turned towards him, and black smoke wrapped around Lin Guantang's wrist.

Although they were still some distance apart, Lin Guantang felt as if he was whispering in his ear, or even... the voice seemed to ring directly in his mind:

"Don't go back. Come to me. You should experience all the misfortunes of this world. Only then can you completely break free from this burdensome shell, unbound by flesh and blood, and gain eternal freedom."

No--!

Lin Guantang subconsciously wanted to turn around and run away, but the figure stood there motionless, not chasing him, but began to grow larger.

In a flash, it became extremely huge, covering the entire world, enveloping Lin Guantang, and then tightened and shrank like a bag, completely trapping him in the dark space.

don't want--!

Lin Guantang suddenly stood up and opened his eyes. The light and dark in front of his eyes alternated, and finally returned completely to the snow-white bedding and the bright light and shadow. In his ears was the persistent beeping of the system in the terminal waking him up.

He slowly raised his head and looked to the side. The sun was shining brightly and it was already early morning again.

The light of the morning sun shines through the fresh curtains, and countless dust particles are rolling in it.

It was just a nightmare.

Lin Guantang covered his eyes with his hands, scratched the hair on his forehead, exhaled, and comforted himself.

After turning off the alarm clock, Lin Guantang got up and washed up. While brushing his teeth, he looked at himself in the mirror, but the shadow in his dream and the portrait in the photo appeared in his mind.

Lin Guantang looked at it for a long time and suddenly shuddered.

Because he discovered one thing: the person in the dream was not him, but the person in the photo.

and--

Lin Guantang finished washing up as quickly as possible, his heartbeat uncontrollably accelerating as he thought over and over again:

Also, was it really just a nightmare? Could one really come up with a long, complete sentence in a dream?

He ran downstairs, urgently needing to find someone to discuss the matter with.

When I got downstairs, Huo Shizhen had just come back from outside. He was wearing white casual clothes and a baseball cap. He was holding two white plastic bags in his hands, which were filled with steaming breakfast.

They met in the living room and looked at each other for a moment. Huo Shizhen said good morning to him and asked him to have breakfast. After that, he packed up and went back to the imperial capital.

Lin Guantang didn't even have time to say good morning. He looked at him and asked hurriedly:

"Did you have a dream after you got that photo?"

Huo Shizhen looked at him, was silent for two seconds, put the food on the table, and said in a statement tone:

"You dreamed about the person in the photo."

Lin Guantang nodded, followed Huo Shizhen to the table in the living room, and told him everything that happened in his dream.

He also expressed his doubts.

Lin Guantang thought about it, but couldn't remember any news about flash floods in the empire during this period.

In District 35, where he grew up, heavy rain rarely fell throughout the year. Even the mountains were very far away from the residential area, making it impossible for such a disaster to happen.

At least he has never experienced this in his life.

So, from any perspective, there was no reason for him to suddenly dream of a flash flood.

While listening to him, Huo Shizhen took out the dishes and chopsticks from the cupboard and put the food in very smoothly.

As for Lin Guantang, because all his attention was focused on why he suddenly had this nightmare, he didn't notice what Huo Shizhen was doing. He just followed him to the sofa, sat down, and fell into deep thought with his chin in his hand.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could only sense Huo Shizhen walking back and forth, and finally he stopped in front of him, raised his chin with his hand, forcing Lin Guantang to pull himself out of his thoughts and look at Huo Shizhen in confusion.

I don't know what he's going to do.

Although his gaze was directed towards Huo Shizhen, from Huo Shizhen's perspective, it was just an instinctive reaction. Lin Guantang's gaze was still blank, indicating that his thoughts were still immersed in other things.

His long, dark eyebrows were still furrowed, and there was lingering sadness in his eyes. He looked extremely fragile.

Huo Shizhen did not feel the same distress as Lin Guantang. Instead, he was intrigued by Lin Guantang's rare sad expression - after all, he was such an alpha with no empathy and bad taste.

Lin Guantang watched helplessly as Huo Shizhen's expressionless face turned into a smile that gave him an ambiguous expression...

How to describe it? It was a smile that Lin Guantang felt was a little dangerous.

Then, without waiting for Lin Guantang to say anything, he leaned over and kissed her.

It was hard to say whether it was active or passive, but Lin Guantang fell backwards on the sofa due to the force, and his legs, which were loosely together, were forced apart. Huo Shizhen forcefully stretched out one leg and knelt on the sofa between them, covering his entire body.

So they fit closer and couldn't break free.

His mouth and tongue were blocked, and his long, curly silver hair fluttered down his face, making Lin Guantang unable to tell for a moment whether the suffocating feeling was due to the hair blocking his mouth and nose, or because his throat and tongue were blocked.

I felt my clothes being lifted up as I moved, and cold fingers running along my spine.

He didn't know how long it had been, but he was dizzy and breathless from the kiss. It took him a while to come back to his senses. He looked at Huo Shizhen angrily, accusing him of his bad behavior of being in heat so early in the morning:

"I'm talking to you seriously."

Huo Shizhen looked at his shimmering lips and responded calmly:

"Isn't a good morning kiss proper?"

Lin Guantang almost choked—

I felt that it was wrong to refute, and it was also wrong not to refute. In the end, I could only despair and attribute it to my own assumptions and mistakes.

In essence, he is a demon who deals with all kinds of violence and blood. Do you really think that he is as cold in terms of love and desire as in ordinary interpersonal relationships?

I also felt a little regretful about giving my first kiss to her. Now, it was like turning on some incredible switch.

But there is no medicine for regret in the world.

After Huo Shizhen finished speaking, he asked him to eat first and then went upstairs.

Not long after, Lin Guantang heard the sound of the shower running from upstairs.

Lin Guantang sat there for a while before deciding to go wash his face first.

After Lin Guantang washed his face, finished his meal, and cleared away the dishes, Huo Shizhen changed into a new set of black pants and a white shirt and went downstairs. He was wearing a loose black windbreaker and walked with a breeze, showing that he had already returned to normal.

Then he directly pointed out what the scene Lin Guantang dreamed of was.

"It's the memory of the man in the photo. There are small towns in the empire that disappeared in mountain torrents. Moreover, fifty or sixty years ago, technology wasn't even rudimentary. So, it's not hard to guess that the mountain village he lived in was submerged by the flood."

Lin Guantang countered:

"There doesn't seem to be any record of flash floods in the original elders' accounts."

He has a good memory, and disasters like flash floods are not trivial matters, so it is difficult to forget what he has written about.

Huo Shizhen laughed when he heard this, with a hint of contempt:

"If you don't even dare to keep a single photo, fearing it might be found, how can you expect me to write down the specific events and have people follow the clues to find the past?"

After returning to normal, it seemed that his ruthless and sharp tongue also came back.

But even though what he said was unpleasant, it wasn't completely unreasonable.

Although Lin Guantang thought about it, he still found it incredible:

"Dreaming about someone's past memories because of a photo sounds like a paranormal event."

Huo Shizhen said:

"You don't understand the evolution of the system well enough."

Lin Guantang had reason to suspect that he was mocking his own narrow knowledge - after all, being sharp-tongued was part of his normal personality.

But an hour later, Lin Guantang changed his mind and believed that Huo Shizhen was just stating a fact.

That means after everything has been packed up and nothing is left out, the next step is to find a car to return to the capital.

However, when Lin Guantang followed Huo Shizhen to an empty square, he saw a black and white, oval-shaped object that looked like an egg parked in the square.

Lin Guantang thought it was a decorative building in the square, but Huo Shizhen walked towards the black and white egg and took the elevator to go inside.

The space inside was more spacious than expected. Various buttons and flashing lights, including the various line images displayed on several screens, made Lin Guantang feel the high-end mystery of a countryman entering the city, and he felt like he was dreaming of his first time entering the imperial capital.

I just always feel like something is missing.

Lin Guantang looked around and only saw the screen and various buttons, and did not see anything like a "steering wheel".

So how do you steer?

While Lin Guantang was confused, Huo Shizhen skillfully helped him fasten his seat belt and told him the functions of the various buttons on it.

It was because he mentioned in his words how to deal with various problems that might arise during the flight that Lin Guantang realized that this thing was not a new type of land transportation, but an aircraft.

And it has not yet been officially put into public use, and has only been tested by professionals.

In other words, Lin Guantang was the first ordinary person to experience this kind of aircraft.

It's such an honor—

Isn’t this right!

Who would take their partner to experience such a dangerous activity that has not been tested by the public?

Lin Guantang wanted to relieve the worries and difficulties of the people of the empire, but he didn't think of including testing the safety of new products.

Lin Guantang was full of thoughts and thought a lot, and finally asked a simple question that was the most basic and important:

"Do you have a license?"

Huo Shizhen looked at him quietly, then said in a low voice:

"No, so the entire process is controlled by the system."

Lin Guantang:?

How dare you take me flying without a license—ah!

Before Lin Guantang could finish his sentence, the aircraft started up automatically. With an instinctive exclamation from Lin Guantang, the aircraft soared into the sky like a scallion pulled up from dry land.

Airplanes are a common means of transportation, so it is normal to see private planes.

Deformed private jets are also within the scope of understanding.

But an unmanned private aircraft was still beyond Lin Guantang's ability to explain.

Lin Guantang gripped the seat belt tightly with both hands, still looking in disbelief at the various flashing buttons in front of him and the ground getting farther and farther away outside the glass window.

Although the aircraft will move forward at a constant speed after reaching a certain altitude, if you don't look out the window, it is actually no different from land.

But Lin Guantang could neither control himself from looking out the window nor convince himself that he was on land.

At this point, it doesn't matter whether Huo Shizhen has a pilot's license or not. What matters is whether the system is reliable.

Intellectually, Lin Guantang was well aware of He Xi's power, and did not think that Huo Shizhen wanted to die and drag him to death with him, but his instinct for survival still made him unable to help but imagine all kinds of "accidents" happening.

A considerable number of people still feel that unmanned driving on land poses a safety hazard, let alone flying in the sky, as they always feel that the probability of accidents is quite high.

So he said worriedly:

"What if there's an accident?"

Huo Shizhen was calm and composed. When he heard Lin Guantang's words, he said casually:

"Then you will have no choice but to be my lifelong lover and die on the same day as mine."

After saying this, he looked at Lin Guantang and said:

"Why, you're not happy about something as romantic as suicide for love?"

Who would be happy about this kind of thing?

Lin Guantang really wanted to beg him:

"Can't you be more serious and say something that makes me feel safer?"

Huo Shizhen didn't think he was not serious in any way, but if he wanted some sense of security, he could satisfy this requirement:

"Ground transportation tracks are already redundant. Developing an aerial corridor is only a matter of time. Now that the system has been rolled out across the empire, it's only natural that the opening of an aerial corridor should be put on the agenda."

As he spoke, Huo Shizhen pulled out a document and passed it directly to the screen in front of Lin Guantang for him to review. It was an official document:

"Starting in September, the Imperial City will officially introduce aircraft. All you need to do is set the starting and landing points, and the rest will be controlled by the system..."

The lengthy document came with a draft map showing all the aircraft take-off and landing points across the empire, the only difference being that some had already been built while others were still being planned.

But it is enough to show that the empire is really going to usher in the era of air transportation.

This idea had been revealed online a long time ago, and even relevant documents had been released, but Lin Guantang, like most people, still thought it was just an imaginary plan. He never expected... it was already right in front of him.

While Lin Guantang was looking through the documents, the connection became even more distant.

It’s not just the aerial flight you’re experiencing now, it also includes the previously laid out daily intelligent planning, and the public sale of the simulated world...all are brand new products born out of the system.

That is visible to the naked eye. When the system covers the entire empire, all new technological products supported by the system will come in droves.

Just like opening a new world box, the empire will enter a new era, and the system is the key to open this box containing a new era and a new world.

Based on what Huo Shizhen said, Lin Guantang had already guessed that the system version might have long surpassed the capabilities required to support the plan.

But the reason why this key has not been used to open the door to the new world is perhaps simply because no one knows whether the new technological world based on the system is good or bad.

In the end - evolution or destruction.

Could the three words behind the photo be referring to this incident?

Lin Guantang watched the scene passing by quickly outside the window, but he couldn't confirm his guess.

The aircraft flew low over the tall buildings, and one could even hear the shouts of the crowd below, "Look at the spaceship!" "Aliens!"...

I'm afraid it will soon be on the hot search list - this is another reason why Huo Shizhen wants to take him on a flying vehicle.

After attracting enough attention and questions, officials will officially announce that the airway has been successfully built and will soon be available to the public for all-day use.

As you can imagine, this is going to trigger a new round of heated discussion.

That was already in the imperial capital, first passing through the rapidly constructed new district—

In his memory, it was still a place of dilapidated buildings, but in just a few months, it had become as beautiful as a new science and technology museum. In just a few glances, Lin Guantang could see various robots or other intelligent machines running inside that did not require human intervention.

Then pass through the bustling streets.

What comes to you is a huge poster of the simulated world.

Looking directly at these large-scale exterior wall advertisements is surprisingly more shocking than standing on the ground and looking up at them from a distance.

Standing on the ground and looking up at the huge advertisements on the walls, the distance is so far that even if you look up, you can still see the entire picture. So even if you feel that the screen is big enough, it is just a brief sigh.

But the distance was close enough that I could only see a very small part, and I couldn't reach the end even if I ran forward. It was as if I was facing a huge circular world, and I couldn't escape the coverage of this world.

I thought I had escaped, but then I saw the same scene again.

Lin Guantang couldn't help but think of the dream that was overwhelming him and there was no escape.

He looked at the dazzling light and shadow outside the window and muttered to himself:

"Is the simulated world so popular?"

It certainly wasn't that he had fallen into a cyclical nightmare of a simulated world.

Instead, posters of the simulated world are displayed one after another, spanning countless high-rise buildings. The electronic screens and posters are intertwined and connected, as if a continuous street is attached to the wall.

Lin Guantang watched the posters on the wall flying past him one after another, and then he realized with some strangeness that this street seemed to be dominated by the simulated world.

It's not just one street, it's not just the imperial capital, promotional posters about the simulated world are everywhere in the entire empire.

Due to certain precautions, although Lin Guantang still holds the title of spokesperson for the simulated world, he actually hasn't paid much attention to the development of the simulated game. Even the various handover tasks are handled by the system and professional teams.

At this time, I was intrigued by the posters all over the streets, and I remembered to look for some relevant data.

Then I was shocked.

"Nearly 30 districts have deployed nearly 100,000 public experience pods, and private purchases have exceeded tens of thousands. In just a few months, tens of millions of people have already experienced it..."

"It's arguably the most popular and cutting-edge smart product of the year, and nearly a hundred co-branded products have seen significant performance increases..."

"A groundbreaking miracle! A creation worthy of the gods!"

"Both the commercial value and the additional products far exceed expectations and are unpredictable..."

"The simulated world will become a product that changes the times..."

Lin Guantang was dazzled by the countless compliments and found it unbelievable.

Because the game cabin looked very valuable, Lin Guantang thought that simulation games were just games for the rich or tools for internet celebrities to gain popularity, and it was difficult for ordinary people to purchase the hardware equipment and truly experience this product.

Unexpectedly, the officials of the simulated world actually invested heavily in placing game cabins in public areas.

It's not just in places like Internet cafes, there are also experience stores purchased specifically for the simulated world. You only need to rent and experience it according to the paid invitation, and you don't have to worry about purchasing a game cabin.

A very simple and efficient solution.

Therefore, it has won great popularity among game players.

It's not just people who already love various electronic games who are attracted.

The simulation game offers many rich experiences, such as farming, building, and even just taking a walk and daydreaming, with countless landscapes to accompany you.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the scope of people who register to experience the simulated world is such that it covers all professions and hobbies, and it is not an exaggeration to say that people from all over the empire can register to experience the simulated world.

It is only a matter of time before it becomes a game that everyone can participate in.

At the same time, various opponents claim that the simulated world is too addictive. Parents accuse their children of being too addicted to it and not attending school, and bosses accuse their employees of being too addicted and not working.

The volume of the voice is not small, but the comments are all one-sided on the side of the simulated world——

If your children are addicted to it, it's your fault as parents for not supervising them properly. If your children have poor self-control, how can you blame the simulation world for being too good?

As for the boss accusing employees of not going to work, it has caused a lot of ridicule: employees are not selling themselves to your company, they can do whatever they want, what right do you, as a boss, have to control?

There are also some curious people who come out to share their experiences, saying that they can earn more money by working in the simulated world than in the real world.

…

In fact, complaints like this have always existed, and they are not directed at the simulated world.

Most people still complain about treating the simulated world as an online game, so all criticisms are made regardless of this stance, at least that’s how public opinion is controlled.

It is precisely because of this that people do not take such accusations and accusations seriously.

As the spokesperson, Lin Guantang has no right to make any accusations.

In some ways, many people have even become addicted to simulation games because of his endorsement.

"I really feel... guilty for misleading young people."

Lin Guantang felt guilty, but not because he was tempting people to indulge in the simulated world and neglect their studies or work, but because...

He worries that simulation games are taking away not time, but something more precious.

It was just like the dream he had without any warning.

If dreams can be controlled at will, if memories can be grafted at will, if consciousness can be controlled at will, then isn't that another form of apocalypse?

Unfortunately, at this stage, even if he really expressed his concerns, they would probably be regarded as crazy nonsense.

It will first lead to a round of accusations against oneself——

If it's really bad, then why do you endorse it?

If there really are hidden dangers, then is the Imperial system that is connected to it for supervision just a decoration?

Lin Guantang sighed and decided to calm himself down and not think too much. Since the system had forcibly intervened at the very beginning, there was at least a guarantee.

Although no one knows whether this reassuring guarantee is also part of the unknown person's plan to make people relax their vigilance.

In short, until the simulated world reveals any flaws, we can only take one step at a time.