Chapter 346 Acquaintances and Agreements
The road home was bathed in the warm glow of dusk, and the streetlights simulating natural light gradually lit up on both sides of the street.
While continuing to slowly manipulate his spiritual energy in his mind, as if crawling like a snail, Jemin habitually observed this "familiar" yet strange world.
While waiting for the traffic light at an intersection, his gaze inadvertently swept across the street to a figure buying a drink from a vending machine, and he was suddenly startled.
That person... he knows him!
Strictly speaking, we don't really know each other.
I only met him once during this interdimensional expedition.
He remembered the slightly arrogant young face; he was a level four wizard, but he knew nothing else about him except that he had seen the other person's appearance when he passed through the portal.
Jemin was very sensitive to energy fluctuations. Although it was just a fleeting glance, he had some impression of the other person's soul aura and appearance.
"What's wrong?" Victor keenly noticed Jemin's sudden pause, followed his gaze, and then revealed a knowing expression. "Oh, it's him. I didn't expect to run into this guy after high school."
Jemin blinked and quickly searched through the false memories.
Sure enough, some relevant information surfaced: the young man opposite him was named "Kevin," his high school classmate, with whom he had a rather strained relationship. The reason was simple: in his final year of high school, Jemin, through some kind of "academic duel," had also seized ownership of the iron rod from the other boy, becoming the former school bully.
"Yeah, it's quite a coincidence," Jemin replied vaguely, suppressing the turmoil in his heart.
After saying goodbye to Victor at the crossroads, he walked alone toward "home," his feelings even more complicated.
With practiced ease, he pushed open the door, greeted his "parents" who were watching the news in the living room, and almost immediately scurried back to his bedroom, locking the door behind him.
He lay back on the bed, closed his eyes, cleared his mind of all distractions, and once again focused all his attention on the still, lifeless dantian.
Willpower transformed into an invisible force, continuing the tedious and arduous push that stagnant spiritual energy toward that faint sense of attraction.
Time passed in silence until it was completely dark outside the window. Only when his mother knocked on the door to call him for dinner did Jemin wearily open his eyes.
After checking his progress, a barely perceptible glint flashed deep in Jemin's eyes.
He was lucky; the results were better than expected!
Although it was still difficult, he could clearly feel that with each attempt, the efficiency of mobilizing spiritual power was slowly but steadily improving.
It seems that the "adaptive evolution" feature brought by the Body Tempering Method is still working, and it seems to be gradually adapting to the environment where its power is suppressed, and is beginning to instinctively look for breakthroughs and optimization paths.
"At this rate, even if I can't mobilize spiritual energy around the clock, I can connect to the internal space in five days at most!" With a sense of certainty and a clear sense of anticipation, Jieming's anxiety lessened considerably.
At the dinner table, seeing Jieming's undisguised fatigue, his "parents" advised him with concern not to overwork himself and to maintain a balance between work and rest in his studies.
As Jemin nodded in agreement, his thoughts drifted back to the "Kevin" he had seen during the day.
This situation is very strange.
If he was very familiar with that wizard, then it makes sense that this dimension used the template from his memory to construct a corresponding false identity.
The problem is, they only met once and didn't even exchange a single word.
Even a novice in this field knows that one of the basic principles of constructing an illusion or mental world is to minimize elements that may trigger a sense of déjà vu or logical conflict in the subject.
Typically, only two roles are used: one that is extremely familiar or one that is completely unfamiliar.
Using someone you've only met once, aren't very familiar with but have some impression of, carries a high risk. It's easy for the sudden sense of déjà vu to trigger the subconscious alertness of the person being treated.
Then, considering the real knowledge he learned in this world that completely exceeded his own existing knowledge base...
A bold and shocking conjecture suddenly appeared in Jemin's mind like a lightning bolt in the darkness!
"Could it be... that this isn't a completely 'fake' world?" Jemin shook his head, not daring to delve any deeper into the question.
It's too early to draw conclusions, as we haven't gathered enough information and clues yet.
"However, if this conjecture is true, then we need to find others to verify it..."
He needs to find enough samples to observe their condition, and even try to make contact.
After dinner, Jemin returned to his room.
He didn't immediately continue to mobilize his spiritual power. The fatigue from concentrating his mind intensely was real, and his body, which had been compressed into an ordinary person's form, needed rest.
He decided to change his mindset, partly to implement his plan to "supplement common sense".
He turned on the computer screen in the room, connected to the network of this world, and began searching for the advanced knowledge that had piqued his interest in class, especially content about physics, spacetime theory, and some basic energy models.
"Wow? This energy circuit concept... is interesting, a line of thinking I've never considered before..."
"This formula... is brilliant! It can actually simplify multidimensional calculations in this way?"
Soon, his wizarding nature took over, and Jemin became completely immersed in the ocean of knowledge, eagerly absorbing this unfamiliar yet logically rigorous information, temporarily forgetting his predicament of being in a cage.
On the way to school the next day, Jemin walked with Amy and Victor, just like the day before, except that Amy seemed a little preoccupied.
"What's wrong?" Jemin didn't really want to get involved, but considering he needed to maintain his public image, he asked anyway.
She began, "Um... my aunt's birthday is coming up soon, and I want to pick out a gift for her, but I don't know what to choose. Do you have any suggestions?"
Jemin countered, "Does she have any particular favorite things?"
Amy thought about it carefully, then her expression became somewhat subtle: "She...prefers movies."
Looking at Amy's expression, Victor asked doubtfully, "Judging from your expression, it doesn't seem like that's entirely the case?"
Amy paused for a moment, then lowered her voice somewhat shyly: "She really loves watching movies... but I once asked her why she was so fascinated by them, and she said... she just felt that watching the villains in movies, having their beliefs destroyed and being completely defeated by the heroes of justice, made her feel especially happy and... very satisfied."
Upon hearing this, Jemin's eyelids twitched violently.
This statement... just doesn't sound right.
No, strictly speaking, it should convey a sense of familiarity.
Victor didn't seem to think too much about it and suggested directly, "That's simple, just buy her a ticket to a popular movie, or a limited edition DVD or poster or something like that."
Amy seemed hesitant about the suggestion, as if she felt it wasn't taken seriously enough.
A thought struck Jemin, and he suddenly suggested, "The day after tomorrow is a day off, why don't we go shopping together? We might just find a really nice gift that catches our eye."
“Okay, okay!” Amy immediately agreed.
Victor nodded indifferently.
Seeing that the two agreed, Jemin nodded to himself.
His real idea was to explore this fake world on a larger scale, since his current range of movement was too limited.
Coincidentally, helping to buy a gift is also a good reason.
(End of this chapter)
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