Ning Zheng still found it somewhat difficult to understand.
The place where the past and future jointly handed over to one another was... the present?
The young man said lightly, "Put more simply, the past is a mass of data, and the future is a mass of data. They're both mirages."
"Only the present is reality. The two masses of data interfere with the present."
The more he explained, the more incomprehensible it became.
Ning Zheng suddenly said, "So I'm entirely fake? I'm just a mass of data? My entire era is data too?"
"I know this is cruel to you. It denies the value of your lives, the meaning of your existence, your dreams, friendships, and love."
"But I'm sorry. You really are just a mass of data."
"Hmph. Then I'll just show you!"
As he spoke, he raised his hand and slapped down.
Smack!
A palm struck Ning Zheng in the chest. His entire body flew backward, transforming into countless particles, and then his soul was violently knocked out.
As his soul flew backward, it rapidly flattened from a three-dimensional, 3D life-form, suffering dimensionality reduction until it became two-dimensional.
Then it completely lost its color, his entire form becoming a sketch outlined in dotted lines.
In the end, Ning Zheng became a data shadow without a physical body.
Ning Zheng pondered incessantly:
Did he strip away my body, leaving only my soul?
No. It's no longer as simple as a soul. I really am nothing but a mass of data. And this data is merely somewhat large—just tens of thousands of terabytes. I'm already a supreme powerhouse of the Future Era, yet I'm actually this small?
It turned out that he was like a data character in a game, as though he had never truly lived at all.