Faceless Man
After pausing for a moment, Qiao Wenxi finally tried to walk forward and discovered that there were rooms on both sides of the corridor.
The corridor was lined with countless tightly closed yellow doors, all of the same style and without any difference. They stretched as far as the eye could see, creating a monotonous and eerie atmosphere.
After observing for a while, Qiao Wenxi opened the door and saw a truly bizarre scene.
The spatial logic inside the room is clearly different from that in the corridor. Outside the door is a narrow and oppressive corridor, while inside is a vast and empty hall with no visible boundaries.
In the hall, countless workstations were densely packed together, with countless Faceless Man creatures sitting stiffly and mechanically in front of them, heads bowed, constantly typing on the computer keyboards in front of them.
Next to each computer was an old printer, its mechanical clicking and clacking a monotonous and grating sound.
Above each of these people, pipes were suspended, as if they were drawing something out.
Qiao Wenxi looked up and saw countless pipes of varying thicknesses, twisted and crisscrossed, stacked layer upon layer, densely covering the entire dome.
The moment Qiao Wenxi pushed open the door and entered, the hundreds of Faceless Man working at their desks outside suddenly froze in unison, their eyeless, noseless, and mouthless faces turning precisely in her direction.
Qiao Wenxi stopped moving, not daring to make any rash moves, as she was incapable of fighting under these circumstances.
Fortunately, the Faceless Men only stared silently for a few seconds before they all looked away, bowed their heads again, and continued their mechanical, repetitive work.
After a while, Qiao Wenxi boldly stepped forward and approached the Faceless Man's workstation.
There were also small characters engraved on her workstation, and she looked closely:
A world where you can't exist without working.
"Work?"
It's been such a long time since I've heard this phrase.
She looked up at the computer screen, which was covered with a jumble of unknown code and strange symbols, layered with encryption and difficult to understand.
While the Survival System does have a translator, Survival System built-in translation function can only interpret the common language used by various civilizations.
Faced with such exclusive codes and encrypted data, it is naturally impossible to translate them.
The old printer next to it never stopped, frantically printing blank patterned paper at a rate of several pages per second, which automatically Shedding and piled up, filling the old cardboard box below.
The moment the cardboard boxes are fully loaded, they automatically slide into the conveyor belt and are transported along the transmission track towards the depths of the hall.
Qiao Wenxi watched for a while longer and confirmed that the printer was printing endlessly without any blank paper replenishment. It was an endless printer, which did not conform to the logic of reality. Finally, she realized that the scene in front of her was Dreamscape.
Just like style, it can exist in a celestial paradise, in a drum, or even in one's mouth, but if it's real, it needs to be ingrained in one's being.
The same applies to the logic of reality; Illusion Arts don't have such obvious flaws as Dreamscape.
Qiao Wenxi thought about it carefully for a while, and finally stuffed herself into the cardboard box, sat on the conveyor belt, and saw what was at the end of the conveyor belt.
The Faceless Man are currently engaged in mechanical labor to produce resources. Based on general possible social structures, there must be beings of equal or higher level than the Faceless Man who specialize in processing these resources.
The expected scenario did not occur.
The conveyor belt moved smoothly forward, passing through tens of thousands of identical workstations, identical Faceless Man, identical printers and pipes, the scenery remaining unchanged throughout.
The whole world is filled with Faceless Man, constantly producing data that is monotonous, oppressive, boring, and repetitive.
After much deliberation, Qiao Wenxi took out the documents she was carrying and activated her Talent.
She knew that ordinary, shallow Dreamscape had very low capacity and could not bear enough physical matter and high-level energy.
If a large amount of physical matter is artificially injected, forcibly pushing this Dreamscape space to its limit, it might be possible to tear apart the Dreamscape barrier and escape!
"[Optimization], specify materials."
That ordinary document has been transformed, becoming more robust and comprehensive.
[Aggregates of hydrogen atoms solidified into a paper-like state → Real paper]
"Ah?!"
Qiao Wenxi's face turned horrified.
She had thought the paper was just Dreamscape, Ethereal thing, and never imagined it actually had a real physical form!
This means that the other party actively stored real-world objects into the Dreamscape and had a thorough understanding of the Dreamscape's mechanics!
"This Dreamscape actually has depth!"
"What the hell Jinli Dao Lord doing, playing around with Dreamscape? Can your Qi even sustain the self- Cycle structure of Dream World?!"
In a moment of horror, Qiao Wenxi suddenly noticed that black spots had unknowingly appeared on the palm of the consciousness that had solidified, scattered like paint.
She didn't pay much attention to it.
She was at a loss for what to do, and didn't know how to use her trump cards.
From the moment the concept of [Dreamscape Depth] is recognized, all beings who embark on this path will be tainted by Curse.
Calamity is ever-present, and destruction is inevitable.
Qiao Wenxi still remembered the advice given by a powerful figure during the previous invitation event:
Those who manipulate Dreamscape have no Authority to immortality.
What's most frustrating is that she must have been tricked the moment she entered the Dreamscape. Otherwise, if she had taken over her own Dreamscape, she might have been able to compete with the depth of the Jinli Dao Lord' Dreamscape and put up a fight.
Qiao Wenxi sat in the cardboard box with Godless eyes, looking as if she had been humiliated, waiting for the next different location to arrive.
After a long while, she finally came to her senses. "There's still a chance! I still have a chance!"
If you cannot grasp the concept of the Dreamscape Depth, you will be unable to escape it, even if you know it is Dreamscape.
She happens to know her.
After an unknown amount of time, in the old, yellowed office that seemed to stretch on endlessly, Qiao Wenxi saw an opportunity.
At a workstation ahead, the Faceless Man sitting upright suddenly stopped its mechanical hammering.
The printer in front of me stopped completely, and the computer screen was flashing garbled text and malfunctioning.
The Faceless Man instantly became agitated, frantically typing on the keyboard with both hands at a speed that left afterimages. When this failed, he even raised his legs and used all four limbs to frantically manipulate the device in a freakish manner, appearing very panicked.
Affected by it, the Faceless Man around also started to freeze one after another, as if some kind of mistake had caused the group to malfunction.
An atmosphere of anxiety Spread rapidly, and more and more Faceless Man completely lost control.
The conveyor belt carrying the data stopped, and Qiao Wenxi sat in the box watching the increasingly frantic Faceless Men correct their mistakes.
But the problem persisted, and a crackling sound of electricity began to emanate, growing louder and louder.
Some of the Faceless Man abandoned their humanoid outlines, their bodies softening and collapsing into clumps of sticky, white, dough-like gel, which clung tightly to the computer equipment, attempting to repair the malfunction with their original forms.
But it didn't work; the sound of the electric current grew louder and louder.
The endless, coiled path of the dome slowly undulated, like the internal organs of a living organism suffering from indigestion.
The Faceless Man hesitated for a moment, and some even broke free from the control of the pipes, starting to run frantically around the office with their hands raised, looking rather comical.
Just as the chaos reached its peak, a cold and sharp black shadow suddenly fell from the gap in the dome's pipes!
It was entirely black, wielding a cold, long sword; its outline was indistinct, and its aura was icy, unlike anything alive.