The Tower of Silence
Gao Gong, Huang Yuanli, and Xiao Yu passed through the "Noise Curtain."
The first thing they sensed was the omnipresent rustling sound.
It was especially like the noise produced when certain computers malfunctioned.
Huang Yuanli rubbed her ears and found that the noise had become clearer. She looked surprised.
"Why do I feel it too?"
She was a carbon-based life-form, after all.
Wasn't this thing supposed to infect only mechanical life-forms?
"The so-called 'Differential Institute of Secrets' is actually a powerful and intricate information model used to extract private data."
"That is its essence."
Gao Gong thought for a moment, then gave an analogy.
"Think of it as a sieve, or a funnel. Any existence related to information that enters this 'Differential Institute of Secrets' has to be filtered once. The higher the information intensity of the carrier, the greater the commotion caused by passing through the sieve."
"The so-called Life Refinement, Spacetime Capture, and Energy Alchemy are all merely its outward manifestations."
Huang Yuanli nodded as if she had realized something.
So this was probably a processing plant for "special data."
Xiao Yu understood none of it and simply kept stuffing himself.
After crossing the curtain, the ground beneath their feet became an "Encrypted Corridor" that continuously wove and dismantled itself.
It was instantly laid out from translucent light paths resembling circuit boards, then silently dissipated after their consciousness bodies passed over it, leaving no trace.
The corridor walls were not physical. They consisted of flowing bands of light formed from encrypted runes and topological diagrams, like glowing strands of genes winding and stretching through the void, pointing in unpredictable directions.
Along the way, virtual human figures appeared from time to time. Cloaked and with their hands crossed, they bowed toward the three of