Don't pick up wild people on the roadside (10)
The lights were turned off, and the entire bedroom wall was glowing with white-green light. For a moment, it seemed as if I had entered some kind of technological space.
Jiang Yuanshi sat on the edge of the bed, the wandering codes reflected in his pupils, slowly converging into a data chain, jumping out of the wall, forming a pair of hands, and reaching out to him.
The young man stared intently, and as the hands moved, his head unconsciously raised. Drops of water from his forehead dripped into Jiang Yuanshi's eyes, were squeezed out by his eyelids, slid down his cheeks, and finally fell into the palm of the hand below.
Jiang Yuanshi watched as the drop of water turned into thin threads of data and merged into the other person's hand.
"Z01?" He called the system's name uncertainly.
"I'm here." Z01's voice rang in his ears, so close that it seemed as if he was right next to him. Jiang Yuanshi wiped his eyes that were hit by the water and asked, "Why are you here?"
silence.
The system did not respond.
Jiang Yuanshi stared at the movements of the other person's hands, left, right, up and down.
Jiang Yuanshi suspected that Z01 was playing a trick on him. He thought so and asked, "Are you kidding me?"
This time, Z01 responded: "...No."
"You hesitated."
"."
"What on earth are you doing here?"
“…”
Z01 became silent again. Jiang Yuanshi felt that he was running hot, probably because the residual heat from his shower had not dissipated yet, making him feel hot and irritated.
"If you're alright, please leave. This is private property."
“…”
Still no answer.
Jiang Yuanshi frowned and looked a little annoyed. Since the other party didn't want to leave, could he just leave?
Just as the young man was about to stand up, the hands finally moved, reaching out to the top of his head and pressing on the towel.
Jiang Yuanshi was startled by the sudden movement and sat back down. He opened his confused eyes, his hair lifted up by the towel, and his head swayed back and forth slightly depending on the strength of the rubbing.
What is this for?
After a long while, Jiang Yuanshi finally remembered to raise one eye and look upwards, saying in confusion: "You...are here just to wipe my hair?"
Z01's voice appeared above and replied, "No, this is unplanned because you have to go to bed without drying your hair."
Jiang Yuanshi retorted: "I just want to lie down for a while."
Z01: "The pillow will get wet, and I don't remember you ever having the habit of resting without drying your hair."
Jiang Yuanshi: "I haven't washed my hair in front of you, have I?"
Z01: "Yes, many times."
Jiang Yuanshi: "Is there?"
"Counting the two worlds, that's a total of six times." Z01 said, and without waiting for the other party to refute, he directly produced evidence. The large screen on the wall was divided into six parts, and each part was a video of Jiang Yuanshi coming out after washing his hair.
In the video, Jiang Yuanshi is wearing the shell of the original owner and his hair is completely blown dry, even frizzy. There is even heat showing on it. The red and warm part of his hair is very obvious. The first five parts are all different red and warm frizzy hairs. Only in the last one, the head wearing Jiang Yuan's body is a tattered wet head.
Jiang Yuanshi: "..."
His hair was still being rubbed, but as he rubbed it, his head shrank downwards. Z01 reminded him, "Host, please don't move."
Jiang Yuanshi shrank his head and said, "I can't help it. My hair is scratching my neck and it itches. What the hell are you recording?"
Z01 said calmly, "I remember you agreed to this."
Jiang Yuanshi: "I agree, but I also told you not to let me see it. What do you mean now? Publicly punishing me for my hair-drying technique?"
"It seems that you haven't realized it yet." Z01 withdrew his hand and picked up the towel.
"What's the meaning?"
Jiang Yuanshi watched the towel automatically float in the air and fly towards the bathroom. Then, a big hand turned into a hair dryer in front of him. There was no power source, but the air blew out, making his head hot.
The hair dryer made no noise, and Jiang Yuanshi clearly heard what Z01 said: "Your habits are undergoing a strange change."
How long does it take to develop a habit? According to the Human World Encyclopedia, it takes 21 days to develop a habit.
Once a habit is formed, whether good or bad, it will last for a long time, even throughout a person's life. Therefore, it is difficult to change a habit. It may take several days but in the end you will repeat the same mistake.
Under Z01's observation, Jiang Yuanshi has undergone many changes in details since he came to this world.
Washing your hair without wiping it is the smallest problem.
In the past, I had to rely on food stores to find my way, and I could only remember the direction I was going on the same road. Jiang Yuanshi, who was unfamiliar with the return route, was able to figure out the direction as soon as he left the black clinic in the downtown area. Although both ends were pitch black, Jiang Yuanshi walked back as if he was familiar with the route, and even ignored the food station on the way back.
The front door of the house clearly allows entry by scanning the face, and there is such an obvious display screen, but the other party chose to take out the key to open the door. Without looking at the shape of the key, he inserted it once and the door opened.
Just like home.
Jiang Yuanshi listened to Z01's analysis and subconsciously retorted, "But didn't Yunqing say that the mission world would be more immersive and the scenes would be more in line with one's own life? That door and entrance do look a lot like my own."
"But I don't think it's reasonable to be able to skillfully use the tools of a new world upon entering it for the first time." The more Z01 spoke, the more bewildered Jiang Yuanshi's face became. "You don't seem to have noticed that the tools you use to repair cars have never appeared in the world you used to live in. You look confused. Can you remember what those tools look like now?"
"...I don't remember." Jiang Yuanshi had no impression at all.
"I only remember repairing the car, not the tools." Jiang Yuanshi was clearly sitting on the bed, but he felt like there was nothing around him. He frowned and asked thoughtfully, "But, Yun Qing was also there, and he didn't seem to react. If there was a problem, he should have reminded me..."
Z01: "How did you know he was from the same world as you, just because he had played the game you made?"
For some reason, Jiang Yuanshi always felt that there was a hint of aggression in Z01's calm tone: "Why do I feel like the way you speak is weird?"
Z01: "No, it's your illusion."
Jiang Yuanshi: oO
"Are you sure?"
"Definitely not." Z01 answered decisively.
Well, that's it.
Who messed with him? Who dares to mess with Z01?
Jiang Yuanshi couldn't figure it out, but he knew it wasn't him.
Jiang Yuanshi rubbed his brows and said, "So you mean Yun Qing is from the future?"
Z01 didn't expect the other party to ask this question: "Why do you think so?"
"Because the game he's talking about was released on the day I died." The hair dryer wasn't very hot, but it dried quickly. Jiang Yuanshi looked up at the hair flying across his forehead and said, "Since he played it, he must have died after me, but he's so oblivious to the tools of this world. So... he can't be from this world, right?"
Jiang Yuanshi's ideas are always bold.
Most people would probably think that the development of Yun Qing's world is similar to this world, or that the tools used by Jiang Yuanshi might be in line with Yun Qing's world, but Jiang Yuanshi skipped all of them and went straight to the correct answer.
Z01: "Your guess is consistent with my analysis, with an 89% probability."
Jiang Yuanshi's mouth was slightly open, and he didn't close it for a long time. Z01 helped to support his chin. Jiang Yuanshi closed his mouth, smacked his lips twice and said, "Does this world really exist?"
Z01: "It used to be."
Jiang Yuanshi: "What kind of ambiguous answer is this?"
Z01: "You should know that once the missions in the novel world are completed and the protagonist awakens, that world will become a real world and be managed by other departments."
Jiang Yuanshi nodded, and Z01 continued, "But there's one thing I haven't mentioned to you. Originally, the host wouldn't have encountered this situation, but now it seems that it doesn't apply to you. After the novel world becomes real, the world consciousness will choose a character as the Child of Luck. The world will rely on the Child of Luck to operate. Slowly, the NPCs in the world will gradually gain self-awareness and begin to multiply and operate into a real world. At that time, the world will no longer rely on the Child of Luck to operate independently. But there is a problem. Before the real world matures, if the Child of Luck dies, the world consciousness will find no other carrier, and the world will stop and eventually collapse and disappear."
"In order to save this world, the higher-ups have decided to downgrade this world that has lost the Son of Luck. This will be a novel world, with everything reset and the characters reshaped until a new host arrives to complete the mission and awaken those characters."
Jiang Yuanshi: "What if the mission is completed but the character hasn't awakened?"
Z01: "It will continue according to the rules of the novel world until the day of awakening, but the probability is about the same as a human winning a lottery worth hundreds of millions."
Jiang Yuanshi smiled in his heart. He was very lucky. He encountered the same problem twice in two missions. But there were so many bugs. He knew what to say.
"By the way, I have a question for you. If the world needs world consciousness, then what about the previous world? Didn't you eat that thing?"
Z01 said calmly, "Yes, but I couldn't digest it after eating it, so I concentrated and cleaned it and found a carrier."
Jiang Yuanshi's hair was dry. The wind from the hair dryer blew from his hair to the wet spot on his back. Jiang Yuanshi couldn't help but shiver. He held up his collar with one hand and let the hair dryer blow: "Blow here."
"OK."
"The carrier you're talking about isn't the living man in black, is it? If I hadn't been so anxious to escape, I would have asked you who he was."
Z01: "He's just one of the Fan Dian family's bodyguards, but he was once manipulated by Fan Tang and barely gained some power. Later, his superiors were very interested in this adaptation, so they retained the character, but how he develops in the future depends on him."
Jiang Yuanshi: "But that was all later. Did you put it in there because you knew the higher-ups would be satisfied?"
Z01: "There's a 50% chance that the world consciousness won't disappear without detection, otherwise the mission will be considered a failure."
"Oh, it seems I have to thank you again, otherwise I'll have to start all over again." Jiang Yuanshi shook his clothes and refuted himself, "...No, we're even. After all, the mission failed and you can't replace someone else."
Z01: "..."
Jiang Yuanshi asked, "So you're saying all this just to remind me that something's wrong with this world? And Yun Qing, he's bound to you now, what do you want to do?"
Jiang Yuanshi's eyes were cold. The data link on the wall paused for a moment, and then returned to normal after a long time. Z01 said: "The way you look at me is not right. I will not kill the host."
"So you understand what I'm talking about." Jiang Yuanshi put down his clothes and asked, "Then the son of destiny in this world is Yun Qing or someone else. If he is really from this world, why can he be bound to the system instead of becoming an NPC?"
Z01: "I'm sorry, but I can't get an answer due to insufficient data access. Reporting this to my superiors would likely lead to annihilation, so we can only wait and see. The good news is that B33 knows nothing about this, so everything is still operating normally."
Jiang Yuanshi: "Maybe, but even if he knew, he wouldn't report it. He would just work harder to complete the mission and bring Yun Qing home as soon as possible."
"Your answer accounts for 40% of the estimated results."
Jiang Yuanshi raised his eyebrows: "What do you mean? Which of your calculations is most likely to succeed?"
Z01: "Imprisonment and destruction."
?
"Are you sure it's B33 and Yun Qing? Who imprisoned whom?"
That stupid couple?
The hair dryer stopped working, and in an instant, everything before Jiang Yuanshi's eyes disintegrated into data and returned to the wall. Z01's voice rang out, "Host, the system does not have human consciousness. It is merely a living being. Love has never existed in their consciousness, or rather, they do not possess emotional cognition. All their actions are simply data collected from other creatures and imitated."
"But, what makes them think this is love?" Jiang Yuanshi's eyes twitched, and he felt like he was listening to a science fiction story.
Z01 reveals the truth: "Emotional simulation often masks their most primitive desire, their only driving force: appetite."
They devour everything, swallowing the things they desire into their bodies, and integrating them into one is the safest way.
"Hmm...it's quite powerful. The elements integrated into your system are quite mixed." Jiang Yuanshi was not frightened at all. He didn't seem to care about it at all. Instead, he thought, "Don't say it, this will make them even more powerful. I just feel like Yun Qing will use military boxing in B33's stomach."
Z01: …
"Your thinking is indeed different from that of an ordinary person. But you should realize the seriousness of the problem. You are bound to B33. If the mission fails and you cannot unbind him, he will be the first to attack you for Yun Qing."
Jiang Yuanshi propped himself up with his hands, half leaning back, his eyes slightly narrowed, and he spoke with a long drawl: "But... I feel like I'm in even greater danger now."
Jiang Yuanshi lifted one foot and shook the black and red data link that had appeared on his ankle at some point.
The chain swung with the ankle, but remained silent.
Jiang Yuanshi tilted his head and said, "Please explain it."
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