Crimes
The troublemaker might not want to cause any more trouble, but trouble just comes knocking on their door.
Kong Xiang sat in the back row, wondering if he should change classrooms.
Do you want me to massage it for you?
Li Zhi smiled and looked at the person beside him: "Your light screen seems to be just waiting for confirmation."
Kong Xiang came to his senses and realized that his actions had preceded his thoughts. A dozen large Chinese characters appeared on the screen in front of him: "Switch to the {Human Body Thinking Research Course} classroom?"
He gave Li Zhi an awkward smile, then quickly pressed cancel.
"I ordered the wrong thing, what a coincidence."
After pressing the button, he still felt a bit of liver pain. Even though he was a seasoned veteran in his past life, he still felt invisible pressure when facing a queen who wasn't fully formed. So he turned his face away and decided to pretend to study to numb himself.
Even though he couldn't see Li Zhi's face, he could imagine the mocking expression on the other's face.
When we first met, she seemed like a naive young girl. Why did her character change so quickly? This is different from the villains that other people encounter when they travel back in time.
Kong Xiang felt that if he continued to think about it, his own self-image would change.
He exhaled slowly a few times, quickly calmed down, and immersed himself in the sea of learning.
Only learning will never betray you.
This lesson focuses on the stability of the virtual world. Just like in the previous competition, where over a thousand students created conceptual settings and even bugs to disrupt the world, the biggest problem with current virtual reality technology isn't construction, but stability—constantly requiring patches, updates, and fixes. Of course, construction is fundamental; without a solid foundation, stability is impossible.
Before stabilizing the situation, it is also crucial to quickly and accurately identify the problem.
"Before we officially begin our course, I'd like to ask you all to take a short quiz," Professor Liu said, looking at the students below. "The quiz is right on your screens. You have ten minutes. Now, begin answering the questions."
Kong Xiang clicked on the quiz, the so-called small test, but what came out was big data. He felt a huge amount of data immediately flood his mind, and the data gradually began to reorganize, forming a big world.
Please identify ten erroneous data points in this world.
As soon as the notification tone ended, Kong Xiang quickly found four particularly conspicuous errors.
He then spent another three minutes reviewing the area twice and finally found nine locations. However, he failed to find the last one after two overall observations, which was extremely unusual for him.
This is the skill he will use to survive in the future, and he still has that confidence.
While he was deep in thought, Li Zhi beside him had already finished answering. Seeing Kong Xiang's slightly probing gaze, he nodded and smiled at him in a friendly manner.
Looking at her smile, Kong Xiang vaguely recalled her future self, after personally executing a traitorous confidant, with that radiant smile gradually blooming on her blood-stained face.
He suddenly realized something.
The tenth erroneous data point is precisely the manager of this world.
Kong Xiang quickly finished answering the question.
Ten minutes passed quickly, and many people sighed in frustration the moment the notification sound rang.
"Time's up." Professor Liu unfolded the holographic projection on the podium and pointed to the top, saying, "These are your results. Out of two hundred people, only seventeen people completed it. Among them, the fastest time was taken by our new student, Li Zhi, a seventh-grade student majoring in Neuron Data at Laurel College."
He turned his head and looked into the eyes of the students below.
"Total time: three minutes and fifteen seconds."
The students below didn't look resentful or numb; rather, they looked deeply annoyed.
Professor Liu tapped the screen and looked at them seriously.
"I know why you're all sighing and lamenting. Of the 183 students who didn't find all the spots, 100% found nine. And for the last spot, what surprised me most was that 70% of the students realized the problem. But why did only 17 people finish it in the end?"
The students who had been feeling frustrated softened their expressions and listened attentively to the professor's explanation.
“Because you are uncertain, you begin to doubt yourself,” Professor Liu said. “Actually, everyone is used to this kind of psychological tactic, but why do you easily lose your way when it comes to yourself? Because from the beginning, you did not see yourselves as the most important part of this world. You accepted the existence of the ‘manager’ and valued the ‘manager’ more than the truth, which led to your final regret.”
Kong Xiang held his head and listened quietly to Professor Liu's ideological education.
As Professor Liu said, it is actually a very simple thing for them to be able to think of the root of the problem, but thinking and doing are two different things. In the end, some people who are unwilling to write down the answer doubt themselves and will not choose to take a gamble without absolute certainty; while others still have a fear. This fear makes them see themselves as outsiders and absolutely not touch the so-called "other world" regulations.
If we look beyond the surface to see the essence, this is a microcosm of the future society.
So he said that although he knew the Queen's regime was abnormal, as long as the country was still progressing and the resistance/organization had not yet fully taken shape, his life was still passable, and there was nothing worth changing about that kind of life.
“You don’t seem very interested,” Li Zhi said, looking ahead, but addressing him directly.
Kong Xiang propped his chin on his hand and said calmly, "Because I've seen countless cases like this."
After his rebirth, he kept trying to do things different from before: watching games, joining a fictitious department, and attending Li Zhi's first class after transferring schools. These were all things he had never done before. However, he found that these changes seemed to have little effect on him, and in the end, it might still end with a huge explosion throughout the city.
And the shouts that were drowned out by the loud noise seem to include those of Professor Liu.
Kong Xiang composed himself, straightened his posture, and began inputting some report data related to stabilizing the virtual world.
In any case, I can't escape the report at this point, so it's better to finish the assignment first.
"By the way," Li Zhi interrupted his sudden focus on the report, asking with apparent interest, "I heard your school has a virtual world design department?"
The conversation is going so awkwardly, Your Majesty! This isn't your style at all!
Kong Xiang looked at her and nodded.
It would be better if he didn't reveal that he was one of them, not to hide it from the Queen, but to see how she would continue this awkward conversation.
Li Zhi looked at him: "Then could you please take the new student on a tour?"
There's absolutely no room for negotiation here!
Kong Xiang nodded, reluctantly agreeing.
He had begun to doubt the so-called absolute power... Could it just be Li Zhi's innate aura? In the future, she might not be so elegant in her insults, but rather more direct, despicable, shameless, and ruthless. However... given her cunning nature, it might also be a way to deceive the ministers.
With a sigh, he plunged back into the classroom, where reports and lectures were interspersed.
Two hours later, Kong Xiang led Li Zhi to the small, nominal department building that had suddenly transformed into a Chinese-style pavilion.
"Xiao Xu, tell the minister to come down and greet the guests."
Kong Xiang slumped onto a sandalwood chair, closing his eyes to rest.
He'd cause a ruckus at night and then fight for two hours during the day, leaving him utterly exhausted.
Xu Zhizhou was still adjusting the data for the wooden furniture when he saw that Kong Xiang had brought people. Without hesitation, he ran upstairs and pulled Shen Bai, who was engrossed in the carving, downstairs.
"Hey Xiao Xu, you can't be so hasty in doing things. Look at you..." Shen Bai was still holding the carving knife in his hand. He ran downstairs in a few steps with trepidation, and then saw Li Zhi standing at the door.
"Wow, Lao Kong, you're really efficient!" Shen Bai patted the slumped Kong Xiang on the shoulder, gave him a thumbs up, and then walked towards Li Zhi with a big smile.
"Li, I'm sure Kong Xiang has already introduced this place to you. Would you be interested in joining our virtual world design department?" Shen Bai said briefly. Anyway, Kong Xiang had definitely done his ideological work. He was in a hurry to go upstairs to carve the decorations.
"Give me the form to fill out." Li Zhi nodded and smiled, "I've long heard of the First Academy's nominal department."
"You're too kind. We're only good at comparing data, nothing else."
Shen Bai feigned humility, claiming he was of no use whatsoever. He quickly transmitted the data and ran back upstairs, leaving the others to deal with the situation.
The first floor fell into an inexplicable silence; some were sleeping, some were filling out forms, and some were adjusting data.
Kong Xiang initially feigned collapse, but the silent atmosphere, coupled with the occasional soft sounds made by Xu Zhizhou while adjusting the data, led to the ending where Zhou Gong invited him to travel to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
When he opened his eyes again, the world of antique wooden furniture had disappeared from his surroundings, replaced by the familiar furnishings of his own room.
He clearly remembered that he had just been in a virtual building and might have fallen asleep, but Kong Xiang was a person who had been reborn and no longer cared much about the truth or falsehood of the parallel universe theory, so whether it was a dream or reality, it was possible.
Kong Xiang decided to treat it as a dream for the time being, because he discovered that the sky outside the window had turned blood red, and his data analysis was completely useless.
In Kongxiang's memory, there was only one day when the sky was stained blood red by the gases from the bombing.
Queen's Coronation Day.
He left the room and stood in the empty corridor, listening to the continuous loud noises outside—alarms, bombings, and shouts of resistance—all intertwined like a grand symphony.
Kong Xiang walked a few steps forward and stopped at the door of Zi Cheyu's room.
If he remembered correctly, Ziche Yu left his family half a year after entering the First Academy. At that time, he had not joined the fictitious department, so he did not introduce his cousin to Xu Zhizhou, Shen Bai and others, and naturally there was no misunderstanding in his family's hall.
From this perspective, he actually accomplished quite a lot. Perhaps by triggering a butterfly effect, he could refute his earlier conjecture in class that the future world would remain unchanged.
However, one thing will not change, and that is his opinion.
He opened Zicheyu's room, and all the furniture in the room was covered with plain-colored cloth. Even though the room was clean, he still felt a wave of dust wash over him.
After Kong Xiang opened the door, he remained still.
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