After finishing her fourth meal of the day, Jiang Ling touched and woke up the "Xiao Ai" robot, which had been charging since yesterday and was attached to the wall of her room. This arm-length, capsule-shaped robot was a typical DIY creation. To facilitate its movement within her "home," Jiang Ling installed two 2N micro jet thrusters and a built-in momentum wheel particle at each end.
"Beep beep beep, welcome to Xiao Ai Intelligent Program version 5. Today is such a good day..."
"Stop the opening remarks. Clean up the room first, then go to the hydroponic cabin to help Xiaolu. Bring this over." Jiang Ling pointed to a bag of nitrogen-containing organic fertilizer on the wall.
"Received the order, speeding up!" It took Baguette two seconds to understand her abstract command, and then called up an answer added by someone unknown from the database.
Seeing the robot busy, Jiang Ling stopped paying attention to its work. She dimmed the room's lighting to a minimum, then pulled an internet device from a storage drawer and donned it around her neck like a scarf, securing herself to an empty wall. Personal computers and internet-connected devices can be made into almost any form factor these days, but for the best experience, they still require a brainwave interconnect module and a limited form factor. Headphones, scarves, helmets, and glasses are the most common shapes.
Of course, Jiang Ling prefers to use traditional bricks rather than this new type of personal terminal. She still can't get used to the feeling of a large group of people talking in her head, so she has always had some prejudice against this new thing.
In fact, this scarf belongs to Yanyan. She sometimes uses it to play virtual games in her free time.
The new generation living under the wings of the human community usually wanders between reality and virtuality. The online world is a very important part of their worldview. For minors, the Internet occupies most of their study, life and social interaction, and the real world is a more illusory place.
Jiang Ling considered herself a relatively open-minded parent, but after all, she had endured hardship as a child. So, even though she didn't overly interfere with her daughter's hobbies, she still, intentionally or unintentionally, squeezed out twice as much offline social time as her peers—a fact that quickly led to her surpassing her elders in various life skills. Over thirty years had left no scars on Jiang Ling, but her mindset had aged somewhat as her offspring grew older.
After waiting for a moment, Jiang Ling successfully connected to the inner solar system internet network and opened a holographic online game called "Cangsang Moshi." This game, a zombie apocalypse survival simulation popular among the Youbei tribe since before the war, had been popular among the original, due to its overly realistic style. Many people failed to play on their first day. Now, the publisher has adapted it, adding a lot of scams, turning it into a pay-to-win online game with extremely low praise. This was exactly what Jiang Ling wanted, because it had been recommended to her by her colleagues.
The communication bandwidth of "Home" is not bad, and the signal quality in low-Earth orbit is also very good. After about twenty seconds, the 2.4T-sized "The End of the World" was downloaded and installed, and Jiang Ling immediately entered the game.
In the blink of an eye, she arrived at a dilapidated residential building in the style of the second half of the 20th century.
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