Chapter 495: A World Full of Bugs (5k)
At this moment, Zhao Duan, who was lying on the computer desk, opened his heavy eyelids. His vision was blurred at first, and then gradually became clear.
The first thing that came into his field of vision was the computer screen, which had entered the "screen saver" mode due to long-term inactivity.
Then, there are "sticky notes" of different colors pasted on the edge of the computer, each of which has a "reminder" written on it in neat handwriting.
This is his work habit. Because there are too many "to-do" items to remember to deal with every day, in order to avoid forgetting, he is used to posting them in the most conspicuous place.
Shifting my gaze to the side, I saw a stack of folders on the back of the computer case, next to the black keyboard. The file names were written on the light blue "spines" of the covers.
At this moment, the top was open, with a document issued by the superior printed in black and white.
Behind him, in the filing cabinet in the room, through the translucent cabinet door, the files were crowded like sardines in a can.
"Is this...my office?"
Zhao Duan felt dizzy and confused, as if he had just woken up from a hangover, and sat there in a daze.
“Ding Di——”
Outside the window, a car horn sounded in the distance. He subconsciously turned his head to look. In the dead of night in summer, a gust of wind came in through the window railings, blowing through the half-closed curtains and ruffling his hair.
"I... am not in the old building in the palace?" Zhao Duan regained his consciousness little by little, and then, he suddenly remembered everything!
The memories of Yu State are too vivid, lively and complex to be explained by "dreams".
A look of great shock and astonishment appeared on his face, and a thought flashed through his mind like lightning:
"I...did I...travel back...?!"
This guess made him almost jump up. When he stood up suddenly, his body was unstable. He staggered and put his hand on the table to support himself. He pressed the keyboard, the computer turned on, and an electronic document lit up.
It was the speech he was drafting before he "traveled through time"... At the end of the unfinished manuscript, the cursor was still flashing!
Zhao Duan raised his eyes and looked at the time in the corner of the computer screen, which showed that it had just passed midnight.
The date also corresponds.
"I didn't die suddenly? After traveling through time and space for so long, I only fell asleep for a moment here?!"
Zhao Duan couldn't believe it. He almost subconsciously pulled open the drawer and hurriedly took out a personal ID from it.
Open!
The one-inch photo with the new stamp showed his face on Earth, and the word "Zhang Hui" was printed in the name column.
Zhang Hui... This was his former name. However, it seemed a little unfamiliar now.
"Did I really travel back? But I was clearly just visualizing the mural on the fourth floor..."
Zhao Duan was in a trance. He was excited at first, but then felt disappointed. A year ago, when he was facing death, coming back was his greatest wish.
But now, he clearly has someone he cares about in that world, and he has new family and friends...
family……
Zhao Duan was suddenly stunned. He grabbed a cell phone from the table in a panic, opened the address book with a little unfamiliarity, and dialed his parents' number.
Dial...
However, the call didn't go through. There was no busy signal, the signal was full, but strangely, it just stayed on the "Call" page.
"Can't get through? That doesn't make sense..." Due to the nature of his work, his cell phone credit is sufficient.
Zhao Duan opened WeChat again, and for some unknown reason he opened the circle of friends with a small red dot, and then... the circle of friends was blank.
"Is there a problem with the network?"
Zhao Duan was stunned. He quickly opened the browser on his computer and found that he could not connect to the Internet. He turned on and off the cellular network on his mobile phone. After repeated attempts, he was shocked to find that all networks were disconnected.
"Something's wrong..."
Zhao Duan realized something was wrong later. He suddenly took a step forward, pushed the door open and ran out of the room.
The sensor lights in the corridor lit up one by one, and Zhao Duan... or "Zhang Hui", wearing a shirt, trousers and leather shoes, ran along the stairs.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the building late at night.
After a while, he arrived at the first floor and headed straight to the security office in the compound...
…
Half an hour later.
On a busy street nearby, Zhao Duan walked out of a 24-hour convenience store woodenly and sat down on the nearby road steps without any image.
He threw his cell phone and keys on the ground, tore off the film of the cigarette he had just bought, shook out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, habitually used his hand to block the wind, clicked on the lighter, and immediately began to puff out smoke.
His eyes became blurred in the smoke.
"Is this... also a mural scroll?"
He murmured.
In the past half hour, he had tried various methods and had determined that something was wrong with this world.
On the surface, everything seems to be normal. People in this city are living "normally" and can communicate verbally.
However, all networks were disconnected, but the cash register system that relied on the network was functioning normally, and he could even scan the code to pay...
On the streets, food delivery drivers were still scooting along in the wee hours of the morning, but the maps on their phones hadn't moved, and yet they were strangely oblivious to anything amiss...
In the Security Department, the acquaintances who used to greet me every day still recognize me, but after a few careful and indirect conversations, my colleagues will act as if they have forgotten something and are unable to respond correctly to certain topics.
Everything is like... a bug in this metropolis with a population of nearly ten million...
"This world, on the surface, appears to be functioning normally, but it cannot withstand scrutiny... It's like an incredibly real dream..."
Thinking back... Xu Zhenguan had previously said that the fourth mural was a strange world...
Then, everything is clear.
"I didn't travel back. I'm still in Dayu, but my consciousness entered the fourth mural... And this painting is actually the world in my memory. I am here with my original identity, and even the time is the same as the time I traveled through..."
Zhao Duan puffed out smoke with a slightly unfamiliar look, like a 35-year-old unemployed office worker, sitting on the curb and looking up at the sky with severe light pollution.
"So... could it be that the fourth painting's ability is to construct a world based on my own cognition? Similar to when the 'Bewitched Master' invaded my memory? This would explain why it's a modern city..."
"...But Zhenbao also said that she had entered a strange world... There's no reason for Zhenbao to construct a new world..."
"unless……"
Zhao Duan's eyes suddenly turned inward, his brows furrowed.
"Could it be that the fourth mural actually depicts such a city? So, what I saw on the mural from outside, like countless stars scattered across it, is exactly the night view of a metropolis as seen from above this world?"
This guess is shocking... but... it is not impossible!
"I can travel through time, so why can't Dayu and Earth have some connection? But how did Old Xu leave behind this scroll six hundred years ago?"
"Is it possible that Old Xu is also a senior time traveler... He can't be that cliché, right?"
Zhao Duan thought it was absurd.
"No...it doesn't make sense. If Old Xu was also a time traveler, then it doesn't make sense that after six hundred years, he wouldn't have left any trace of his time travel. Even if he was a rough guy, he could at least leave behind a poem like 'Ploughing the Fields at Noon'."
However, after traveling for more than a year, he had never found any trace of his "fellow countryman" in the Emperor Taizu of Yu State in the world of Yu State.
"Was it erased? Hidden for some reason? Or is my guess wrong? Is Old Xu an indigenous person?"
"Old Zhang said that Old Xu rose to prominence after entering the Mubei Forest and finding an opportunity. But there weren't just one person who entered that forest in history... If he was a native and accidentally developed some connection with Earth, why did he become the only one who left behind this painting?"
"The key is, how does all this relate to me?"
A mural left over from six hundred years ago recorded the city he had passed through on that day.
This is simply bizarre and difficult to explain.
"Furthermore, even when I first practiced the Martial God inheritance, I already showed something special... It's as if Old Xu knew that six hundred years later, I would come into contact with these stone tablets..."
The more Zhao Duan thought about it, the more horrified he became. He felt that everything was filled with mystery, as if the history of six hundred years ago was shrouded in mystery.
He suddenly had a strong urge to enter the "Big Dream Scroll", follow Pei Niannu, and find Old Xu from that year to ask him for the truth!
This seems to be the only two ways to solve the doubts in my heart. Another one is to go to Mubei Forest to explore, but it is too far away.
Unconsciously, the cigarette in his hand burned out. He felt a pain from the burn and came to his senses. He smiled bitterly and said:
"Here, my body is just that of an ordinary person again."
After rubbing his face vigorously, Zhao Duan cheered himself up and decided to cheer up and take advantage of this entry to try to do some more exploration.
As for the disappointment of discovering that this was not Earth... it was quickly dispelled.
He had long given up hope of returning, and now that it had been proven to be a fantasy, he wasn't too disappointed.
"I don't know how big this place is. I wonder if I can drive back home... Well, considering the distance, I'm afraid it's a risk."
"Although the network is down, since even the text in the folder is still there, are the books in the library still there?"
Zhao Duan muttered to himself, planning to hail a late-night taxi or something… However, just as he reached out and took a step to try to stop a car, he felt dizzy.
…
The old building has four floors.
Zhao Duan opened his eyes suddenly and saw a lonely stone wall standing in front of him.
In the quaint house, candlelight was bright. The empress, like a fairy in white, stood beside him. Seeing him wake up, her eyes were filled with expectation:
"Did it work? Have you ever seen that world?"
Coming back? Because my current cultivation level isn't enough to stay in this picture for too long? Zhao Duan was stunned, then felt a headache and a drained spirit, as if he hadn't slept for three days and three nights, leaving him feeling extremely tired.
"I... vaguely overlook a strange... city."
Zhao Duan pinched his eyebrows, urging the green lotus in his sea of consciousness to sway and restore his energy.
After hesitating for a moment, he stammered and tried.
He did not say that the visualization failed, but gave an ambiguous answer, mainly as a test.
Xu Zhenguan's eyes lit up, he leaned forward and asked hurriedly:
"What city? Is it a strange city with pillars that are countless times taller than the tallest buildings in the capital, with no visible lights but bright pillars? And carriages with lights on, running very fast on the road, without horses?"
"..." Zhao Duan's heart sank, and he said:
"It seems so. But when I tried to see it clearly, I failed. Your Majesty, what is that?"
The naive empress was completely defenseless and took the initiative to reveal key information. It was obvious that this "Human World" did indeed depict the cities on Earth.
Rather than some illusion directed at others.
Xu Zhenguan, however, did not show much surprise. Instead, he paced around the room excitedly.
"You are indeed special. You see the same world as me. Unlike Eunuch Hai, even at his peak, who was a half-step celestial being, looking at this picture, all he can barely see is an ancient city from ancient times."
What? Only Zhenbao and I can see the modern city? The royal children and the worshippers of all dynasties can't see it?
Zhao Duan was stunned again.
Xu Zhenguan, however, was so delighted that he didn't notice his abnormality, or perhaps he understood it as a normal reaction to witnessing the mysterious city, and said:
"It seems that either one must be of royal blood, or the painting has changed in the past hundred years and is different from the past... The fact that you can't penetrate the depths now probably means your cultivation is not good enough. There's no rush for this matter.
As for what the world inside is like, I don’t know either... I had already successfully visualized it with the help of dragon energy and was able to enter it, but the time I stayed there was very short each time.
Moreover, that world is extremely strange. Its language and writing are completely different from those of Dayu, and are unheard of.
My cultivation vanished within it, and over the past two years, I've only just barely grasped some of its language and writing, as well as a few of the rules of that world... I haven't been able to delve deeply...
Unfortunately, the dynasty is in rebellion right now, and I have no time to explore and explore the method of ascending to the human immortal... You are not yet at the level to enter it.
Otherwise, I can take you to familiarize yourself with and tour that strange world, and explain to you the many strange things in it..."
At this moment, Xu Zhenguan was like a proud child who wanted to share his treasure with his friend...
An expression that said, "It's a pity you can't go in now, otherwise you would definitely be scared."
Zhao Duan pursed his lips and dared not say a word. He thought to himself that it was fortunate that you had not explored this world too deeply and had not yet come into contact with "ancient poetry" and "history", otherwise the secret of my plagiarism would have been exposed...
It's socially dead...
Well, it seems that if the Eight Princes Rebellion ends and Xu Zhenguan has enough energy, he will sooner or later find traces of Zhao Duan's copying in the murals...
But Zhao Duan felt that when that happened, Zhenbao would be the one to be frightened... Good fellow, you are an alien demon, yet you have the audacity to say that you would take a native like me to tour the Earth...
However, he finally swallowed the countless complaints in his heart.
Right now, he wasn't ready to expose himself, even though the two of them were already in a relationship. However, the time traveler's secret was too big, so he had to keep it a secret for as long as possible...
Anyway, Zhenbao won't be able to find out in a short time...
"In that case, I look forward to that day." Zhao Duan said seriously, and then reacted: "Your Majesty said, can you take me in for a tour? Can two people enter the same visualization picture?"
This has never happened before.
"This fourth scroll is quite special. All the monks enter the same scroll, but I have never tried it before," Xu Zhenguan explained, smiling and winking.
"Then it's a deal. But you must keep your mouth shut about what you saw today. Don't reveal it to anyone else."
"Of course." Zhao Duan nodded and took a deep look at the stone wall. "I will never mention this to outsiders."
The king and his ministers reached an agreement, and tonight's painting viewing should come to an end.
"You look so listless. It must be due to continuous visualization. Go back and rest." Xu Zhenguan looked at Zhao Duan who seemed weak.
Zhao Duan heard this and quickly pulled himself together: "I am full of energy and would like to serve you in the palace."
Tut—Even though Xu Zhenguan was used to this guy's shamelessness and rhetoric, and had experienced three days and three nights of continuous artillery fire together, his cheeks still flushed and his face turned stern:
"Stop talking nonsense. I've already reached the celestial realm, and you're still thinking about sex? Do you want to lower your cultivation level, which you worked so hard to improve?"
Zhao Duan's face fell. The dire situation he had anticipated had become reality. There was now a gap between their cultivation levels, which meant that if they practiced dual cultivation, Zhao Duan would become useless...
"I have a bold idea. If my king and I don't practice dual cultivation, but simply do that..." He thought calmly for a moment and made a suggestion.
Xu Zhenguan seemed to be smiling, his eyes fixed on his lower abdomen:
"Can you suppress the dragon soul?"
Zhao Duan suddenly became depressed: "I can't hold it back."
During the three days in Baihua Village, he discovered that once he had sex, the dragon soul would automatically absorb and expel it for cultivation, starting a dual cultivation process that could not be stopped at all.
Xu Zhenguan said with a stern face: "Even I cannot suppress it. Even though I am already a celestial being, the Dragon Soul has some kind of bloodline suppression on the Martial God inheritance."
Zhao Duan was dejected. Although he was mentally prepared, he could not hide his disappointment when he faced this cruel reality.
Doesn't that mean that if I want to touch it again, I can only wait until I reach the level of a celestial being? Well, if I use something else...
While he was thinking dirty thoughts, Xu Zhen looked at his depressed expression, and her brows softened. After hesitating for a moment, she suddenly said:
"I have already ordered people to prepare gifts and send them to your home in the next two days to propose marriage."
"Ah?" Zhao Duan, who had been looking downcast, suddenly straightened up: "Propose marriage?"
Under the light, the rosy-faced empress maintained her regal demeanor, turned her head away, avoided his eyes, raised her neck, and tried hard to put on the tone of a domineering female boss:
"Since you are the Emperor's husband, I should send someone to propose marriage. However, the situation is critical now, so it is not appropriate to proceed. Our wedding will have to be postponed."
Zhao Duan was extremely surprised and suddenly understood what she meant:
Given the current situation, it is impossible to hold a grand wedding celebration at this time.
But he could propose marriage, which would be equivalent to officially confirming his identity as the emperor's husband, rather than just a hint like at the New Year's banquet.
"Ah Zhen..." Zhao Duan couldn't help but speak softly. In the ambiguous atmosphere, he took a deep breath and said seriously:
"Then wait until the rebellion is quelled, and then I will..."
He wanted to say marry, but it felt wrong. He wanted to say marry, but it felt even worse... He couldn't help but choke.
"Get out of here now." Xu Zhenguan urged with a blushing face and a beating heart.
"Oh." Zhao Duan picked up the lantern and walked out, but suddenly stopped and said:
"By the way, I plan to lead the Shenji Battalion to quell the Qingzhou rebels outside the city."
Xu Zhenguan was stunned for a moment, looking at him in surprise, as if he had guessed something: "How sure are you?"
"Ninety-eight percent."
"Then just go for it." Xu Zhenguan did not hesitate.
Even though Zhao Duan had no experience in leading troops in battle, as long as he proposed, she would agree directly, as if she didn't care even if she failed.
——
These few chapters have been laying the groundwork and progressing a bit slowly, but we'll wrap it up and move on to the new plot.
(End of this chapter)
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