Ruan Chen's fingers flew across the keyboard, his eyes were cold and his killing intent was palpable as he typed in the chat box.
Human civilization is not the first civilization you have parasitized; you only arrived here a little over a thousand years ago.
Where were you before? I guess on another planet, in another civilization, doing the exact same things they did to us, waiting for them to perish before moving on to the next one.
[But what is your purpose? If you've already virtualized consciousness, and are still merely parasitically clinging to life, then that's utterly meaningless.]
I think you're searching for civilizations capable of breaking the technological barrier, but you don't really want them to break it, because if they discover your parasite existence one day, your fate won't be good.
So while you spy on other civilizations and steal their wisdom, you also eliminate the geniuses within those civilizations.
In the far past, you, like all civilizations, existed in physical form, since matter is the foundation of the evolution of intelligence.
[You too have discovered the technological sieve, which you cannot break. You have foreseen your own fate, but your way of resisting is through collective slumber, which minimizes the consumption of resources.]
Before you went into eternal sleep, you uploaded your consciousness via virtual signals, thus becoming ghosts of the universe.
After Ruan Chen finished typing the last line, the other end fell into a long silence.
nobody: [Unbelievable, almost entirely correct. So what do you think we can do to break through the technological barrier? But Ruan Chen, I'd love for you to join us, to become one of us, to transform your consciousness into a virtual signal like ours, all-knowing and omnipresent. The physical body, this heavy and resource-wasting thing, can just be thrown away.]
The intangible being opposite Ruan Chen suddenly changed its tone.
His words were devoid of any modifiers, but as Ruan Chen looked at them, he could sense the disdain and arrogance of one civilization towards another.
Ruan Chen wanted to retort immediately, but she just took a deep breath. She knew she had to maintain this superficial peace and this state of mutual exploitation with the other party.
Ruan Chen thought for a moment and replied, "[How is Feng Shuang doing now? Are you enjoying your time together? I wonder if she's satisfied with this life without a physical connection?]"
After the incident, the municipal police quickly located Feng Shuang with Ruan Chen's guidance, but strangely, she seemed to have vanished into thin air. She entered that underground parking garage and never appeared again.
The answer is self-evident.
An invisible hand erased her traces.
A month later, the city bureau announced that a body had been found on the riverbank in the suburbs of Jingzhou City. The body had been reduced to skeletons and DNA testing confirmed that it was Feng Shuang, who had gone missing not long ago.
The students at No. 1 Middle School were still sighing for a long time. The once prosperous Feng family had been destroyed almost overnight, leaving only Feng Shuang's mother alive.
After a moment of silence, the dialog box popped up with three words: "[Very satisfied.]"
Ruan Chen scoffed.
It would be a miracle if you were satisfied.
Given Feng Shuang's personality, if she were truly satisfied with her current life, she would have already let Ruan Chen know about her existence.
So, in the past, humans knew far too little about you. You have genders, emotions, and even love... It's just that you forgot these things during your long years of losing your physical form, truly forgetting that you were once intelligent beings, and treating yourselves as mere symbols...
Ruan Chen's fingers paused on the keyboard for a moment, trembled, and she swallowed back the sentence, "It would be better to die quickly."
"Alright, let's not talk about your stuff anymore," Ruan Chen quickly composed herself. "At the very least, we must successfully launch this satellite; it's our first step out of the galaxy."
nobody: [Take me to the North District when you have time. The Elven race might have some methods; they're a bit strange.]
Ruan Chen reached out and turned off the main unit. He said to Su Jin, "Let's negotiate with the Fu Group. The third launch will be delayed. Wait for my notification, and I'll try to find a way to solve the technical problems."
"I'll arrange a meeting and communicate with the technical staff at Fu's. Is there anything else I need to do?" Su Jin agreed to Ruan Chen's request without even thinking about how Ruan Chen would solve the technical problem.
Ruan Chen thought for a moment and asked, "Are you aware that the Fu family has several laboratories on the island in the north?"
"I know. Their group has several servers stored on that island. Mr. Fu checks them every now and then, so they must store very important data."
Ruan Chen knew that the so-called checking the server was just an excuse; Fu Jianzhi went to the island in the north because of the protective shield.
“I have to go, but I don’t want Fu Jianzhi to know.”
Su Jin readily agreed, "I'll arrange it. My men have a freight business in the north. When are you going?"
"The sooner the better."
Ruan Chen greeted the specially appointed professor, ignoring Ruan Yunhan who was being left out by him and Su Jin, and went straight downstairs, mentally planning to find time next week to pick up the car with Ye Huanhuan.
Ruan Chen was too lazy to drive and didn't want to worry about maintenance and refueling. Ye Huanhuan said that Ruan Chen didn't need to worry about these things, as it was more convenient for her to drive herself when she was traveling.
Ruan Chen was squatting on the curb waiting for the car she had called when two phone calls came in, one after the other.
One is Tao Ran, and the other is Fu Jianzhi.
After Ruan Luo became a sensation and won the Best Actor award, Tao Ran basically went into semi-retirement, spending his days working as a waiter at Ye Zi'an's place, except he was wearing a cartoon mask instead.
Without a second thought, Ruan Chen answered Tao Ran's call, and Fu Jianzhi's communication was automatically cut off.
"Ruan Chen, do you have time to come to Qingye right now? It seems that your uncle is being watched by Fu Chengyu's people. Qingye is short-handed today. Your uncle has a new venue opening today, and he has transferred all his people there to warm up the crowd. Fu Chengyu must have arranged this at the right time." Tao Ran explained Ye Zian's situation in one sentence.
Ruan Chen glanced at the ride-hailing app; the car she had called was still a kilometer away. At that moment, she finally realized how important it was for her to be a driver.
"What's wrong with Fu Chengyu? Wasn't the gambling debt resolved in a compliant manner? Why is he acting so crazy now?"
Tao Ran said anxiously, "I don't know what happened before, but in the past week, Fu Chengyu has been placing bets in various underground casinos in Jingzhou, playing everything from horse racing and boxing to baccarat."
"He came to Qingye tonight to gamble on boxing. After losing a few rounds, I noticed he wasn't in good shape, so I told my men to keep an eye on him. Turns out, this kid was actually calling for backup!"
How much did he lose?
"It's not much, just three to five million... I mean, for someone with his net worth, it shouldn't be much, right?"
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