Chapter 2 Awakening
【Welcome, our top player. 】
[The "Infinite Split Game" has been loaded, and the next step is to create a "game character". ]
At first, Ji Minghuan thought he had seen a ghost. Although he was conscious, he could not lift his eyelids no matter what, as if someone had taped his eyelids to the skin under his eyes.
In fact, this situation is not uncommon. Chinese people often call it "sleep paralysis."
Everyone will experience sleep paralysis once or twice in their lives. The scientific explanation is that when you just wake up from sleep, part of your brain nerves have not yet fully awakened, and the connection with the body has naturally not yet been connected, so you feel like you are being pressed down by a ghost and cannot move.
However, Ji Minghuan soon realized that he was not suffering from sleep paralysis.
It was something far more mysterious.
The first thing that slowly emerged from the darkness was a panel with a red and black background. It looked like the UI in an RPG game. At this moment, a line of words made of pixels was written in the center of the panel:
[Before the game starts, there is a question that must be confirmed to the player - "Can you tell whether you are dreaming or in reality?"]
What comes into view is a line of standard simplified Chinese. There is no sense of awkwardness when reading it, and there is not even the slightest difficulty in understanding.
Logically speaking, no matter how familiar or simple a sentence is, it takes at least one second for the brain to process its meaning.
But those words flowed into Ji Minghuan's mind as smoothly as a stream flowing into the sea, and the layout of the words and sentences seemed to be tailor-made for his reading habits.
And at this moment, four text options ABCD are floating below the panel.
From left to right, the texts inside these four options are: [A. I am in a dream], [B. I am in reality], [C. Neither a dream nor reality], and [D. This is both a dream and reality].
At this moment, Ji Minghuan suddenly recalled what his mentor had just said in the prison cell.
"Since you said you like playing games, it is very likely that your ability will appear in front of you in a form related to 'games'."
"Any form of superpower will help the person with it to understand it. As for you... since you like playing video games, your superpower is likely to appear in this form - it will make itself into a game level to test you and guide you, thus helping you to clearly understand how to use this superpower."
"So... this is my ability?"
Ji Minghuan raised his eyebrows and thought so in his heart, but he did not rush to study the problem on the panel. Instead, he tried to move his gaze and look at the darkness outside the panel.
In less than two seconds, he found that his vision was firmly locked on this corner, and he was only allowed to focus on the four "text options" in front of him.
It's okay to "lock the perspective" in a VR game, but if it's put into reality, the feeling is very weird, as if there is an invisible existence hiding behind him, pressing down on his head and shoulders, and fixing his eyeballs in a specific area in his eye sockets.
Out of desperation, Ji Minghuan retracted his attention and continued to look at the words.
But at this moment, next to the four options, Ji Minghuan suddenly saw something creepy - a thin, long object about 2 cm thick, covered with corpse-like pale skin, almost covering all the blood vessels.
This thing is...his index finger.
That's right, what came into view at this moment was undoubtedly Ji Minghuan's index finger. He confirmed this through the scratches on the joints.
In the darkness, he stared at the finger quietly.
There is nothing to be surprised about if you see your own fingers in normal situations. You are not crazy.
But the situation now is different. At this moment, there is only this one finger, standing abruptly, strangely, and lonely in the darkness, as if someone had cut off his finger and placed it alone on the chopping board.
In just a blink of an eye, Ji Minghuan discovered that he could control this "index finger" with his mind.
To be more precise, the feeling at this moment is as if one's fingers are separated from the body and become the "mouse" in the game interface.
As long as he thought about it, the index finger that had been separated from his right hand would move at high speed on the text interface in front of him like a "mouse spot".
Normal people may feel surprised and disgusted when they see their body organs become independent machines.
But who is Ji Minghuan? Being locked up in the laboratory for a month has already raised his psychological endurance threshold infinitely.
With just a blink of curiosity, he accepted this series of settings, and then treated this familiar yet unfamiliar index finger as a new and strange toy he had never seen before, moving it up and down, left and right, and finally even tried to break his "index finger mouse" with his mind.
As things went against his wishes, Ji Minghuan put away his playful mood and turned to look at the text problem on the panel.
[Can you tell whether you are dreaming or in reality? ]
"Ask me if I am dreaming?" he thought.
Even at this point, Ji Minghuan couldn't tell whether he was dreaming or not.
Because if this was a dream, then the sensation at this moment was too realistic; more importantly, the series of thought chains in my mind were very clear, and there were no logical gaps or logical jumps at all. Even if I wrote the entire thinking process on the blackboard, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to find any problems.
But objectively speaking, it is difficult for a dreamer to realize the fact that he is dreaming. Maybe he is also in the state of "being in the fog and not knowing the fog, and being in a dream and not knowing the dream".
The "logical chain is complete" that he perceives is not complete, it's just that he cannot detect the part that jumps or breaks.
"Forget it... choose the long one among three short ones."
Ji Minghuan had a blank expression on his face. He showed the thinking and courage of an elementary school student when answering multiple-choice questions. He moved his index finger directly to the fourth option and clicked it without hesitation.
The next second, the text on the panel is refreshed.
[The player chose option D: "This is both a dream and reality." ]
【Congratulations, your answer is correct. 】
[As a reward for answering correctly, the player has received an "initial skill point" (after creating the first game character in the real world, you can use the skill point to develop the "character skill tree")]
If Ji Minghuan still had a head, it would most likely be tilted at this moment, and quite a large degree of tilt. Unfortunately, in this dark space, the only thing that kept him company was his severed index finger.
The text on the panel refreshed quietly.
[Do you want to start creating your first "game character"? (You can also choose to start the game character creation phase after collecting more world view information - knowing more information, the initial strength of the generated game character is likely to increase accordingly.]
Two small text options appear below, namely [Yes] and [No].
"No matter what happens, at least it's interesting."
A month-long imprisonment had put Ji Minghuan's brain in an extremely lethargic and numb state. He felt suffocated from head to toe. And at this point, the appearance of this kind of fun was like a great source of stimulation dancing in front of his eyes.
I simply treated this as an interesting "lucid dream" in my mind and enjoyed it with my body and mind.
Ji Minghuan "dragged" his index finger as if controlling a mouse and moved it to the options interface.
Then I pressed the first option - [Yes].
The text in the frame changed, and more dense text popped out, as dense as baby spiders emerging from the ovaries, almost filling up his entire pupil. Ji Minghuan's eyelids didn't even twitch, he watched this scene silently, feeling somewhat fortunate that he didn't have trypophobia.
[Next, you will be allowed to create a "game character" in the real world. Once created, you will be allowed to freely control the character's actions according to your own ideas - no matter where your body is, whenever you fall asleep, your consciousness can be transferred to the created game character. ]
[When you are awake, that is, outside of dreaming, the game character will formulate a set of "logical inference standards" based on your previous role-playing behavior, and then automatically adapt to the environment according to this set of standards until you take over control of the character next time.]
[Of course, if you want to control the game character when you are awake, you can change it in the game settings. (Please note - doing so can easily cause "schizophrenia" or even "split personality" symptoms: because the collision, friction and conflict between multiple perspectives and multiple senses in the mind at the same time are absolutely unbearable for ordinary people, which will put a huge burden on your mind. Once overloaded, the consequences will be unimaginable, and it is very likely that the game character will enter a "runaway state")]
[Then please choose one of the following two "identity records". It will be your first game character and will appear in the theater called "real world".]
"Why do I remember that 'make a debut' is a derogatory term... I haven't even started playing, but I already have the villain's script in my hands?" Ji Minghuan raised his eyebrows and thought to himself.
Putting aside the meaningless thoughts, he continued to read.
【No. 1 Role Record】
【Name: Gu Wenyu】
【Gender: Male】
Age: 17
[Race: Yellow race]
[Category: Superhuman (One of the three major superhuman races, each superhuman has his or her own unique superpower, and the manifestation of the superpower is closely related to his or her growth experience)]
[Basic attributes: Strength: C-level; Speed: C-level; Spirit: C-level]
[Initial rating: C]
[Background: You live in the capital of China and are a high school student born and raised in Lijing. But one night, you suddenly awakened your special powers and gained the ability to generate and control "dark restraints". It was also from this day that you gradually discovered that your family, who you have been with for more than ten years, seemed to be hiding some unknown secrets...]
[There are three "growth lines" for the game characters to choose from: Line 1: Hero; Line 2: Villain; Line 3: Gray character.]
[Note: Once you choose one of the main growth lines, the result will be irreversible, so please choose carefully.]
Ji Minghuan scanned the lines of text on the file and muttered softly, "A superpower, the ability to control the restraints, it sounds a bit strange. Speaking of which, Li Kyoto is here... Isn't this my hometown?"
To be more precise, Lijing is the city where the orphanage where he grew up is located. Until he was abducted to the laboratory, he had never left the orphanage even once, and he didn't even go to school like some of the smart kids in the orphanage.
He used his index finger to drag the text panel downwards and looked at the second character profile.
【Role No. 2 Record】
【Name: Andre】
【Gender: Male】
Age: 16
【Ethnicity: Caucasian】
[Category: Anecdote Envoy (One of the three extraordinary races, able to obtain "Anecdote Fragments" in the Anecdote Secret Realms around the world, and use the various fragment powers in the "Anecdote Atlas" to fight)]
[Basic attributes: Strength: D level; Speed: D level; Spirit: C level]
[Initial evaluation: D++]
[Background: You live in the capital of Denmark. You have been longing for interesting stories from all over the world since you were a child, and you have an indelible passion for extraordinary adventures. And one morning, you suddenly received an invitation letter from the "Whale Box Garden", and since then, you have opened the door to the world of strange stories. 】
[There are two "growth lines" for this game character to choose from: Line 1: Anecdote Sentinel; Line 2: Evil anecdote envoy. ]
"I don't understand... but he seems very powerful. Since the character category introduction says there are three major superhuman races, does that mean that in addition to 'psychics' and 'strange news users', there is a third type of superhuman in the real world? What is it?"
Ji Minghuan was somewhat curious about this, but did not waste much time deciding between the two character profiles.
Because the welfare home where he lived since he was a child is located in China's capital - "Lijing", and the "Gu Wenyu" in the No. 1 character file happened to be a native of Lijing, so the moment he saw the name of the city, he had made a decision in his mind.
If this dream was really generated by his supernatural power and had some relevance to reality, then choosing file number one would at least make it easier for him to go to the welfare home where he was previously, to investigate, and find out what organization had captured him and taken him to this laboratory.
The police may not know what happened, but based on Ji Minghuan's understanding of the director, unless the director is dead, he will definitely know that two children are missing from the orphanage for no reason, and he may even know where they were taken.
[You have selected character profile number one - "Superpower Gu Wenyu". Please choose one of the following three character growth routes: A, hero; B, villain; C, gray character. ]
After taking a quick look at the three options, Ji Minghuan chose C.
The reason is simple: he doesn't want to be a hero or a villain, he just wants to know who those people are who have captured him for research, and how he can get his real body out of this fucked-up laboratory.
As a gray figure who walks between the black and white worlds, he naturally has more opportunities to obtain relevant information.
[The character's growth route No. 3, "Gray Character", has been selected, and a unique character development system has been generated. 】
[Please wait a moment. Your No. 1 game character "Gu Wenyu" is being generated in the real world, and his existence is being made "reasonable"...]
[Soon to land in Lijing, China...The final countdown will begin shortly. 】
【3……】
【2……】
【1……】
The moment the number in his pupil turned to 0, Ji Minghuan's vision was engulfed by the sudden light.
(End of this chapter)
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