Where was Gao Gong now?
To be honest, he was a little confused himself.
At the cost of self-destructing "The Other Shore," he had arrived in a world that was neither observable nor unobservable.
But this world was neither empty nor void.
Instead, it was bustling, filled with traffic and crowds.
Implanted chips, neon lights, flashing light and shadow, virtual personalities, cyberpsychosis, implantation pods.
Had he returned to the City That Never Sleeps?
He subconsciously walked toward the small shop in his old neighborhood. Before long, he pushed open the battered door covered in graffiti and saw this scene.
A balding middle-aged man was obsequiously pestering "Mr. G," trying to get a discount on his network implantation pod.
The pod frequently emitted a crackling stream of corrupted data, making it difficult for him to sleep at night.
It also woke his wife and daughter.
In the end, Gao Gong agreed to give him a discount, opened up his skull, and modified several neural cables.
Then his expression turned complicated. He seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he said nothing.
The middle-aged worker hurried home. It was a rare holiday, and he wanted to return home and reunite with his wife and daughter.
Gao Gong subconsciously followed him, watching as he ate and celebrated with his virtual wife and daughter in a small room that looked rather presentable on the outside but was actually empty inside.
Then he continued working day and night for a major corporation until every bodily function capable of labor had completely failed. Only then, as stipulated in his corporate contract, were his cybernetic implants reclaimed by the company free of charge. His virtually generated "family data" was refurbished and handed over to another newly hired employee.
Before that middle-aged man was pushed