The Origin of the USB Drive

The movie Lucy wasn't long.

In just 90 minutes, the director elevated human imagination to its peak, offering a vast and boundless space for imagination.

Even if this imaginative space was merely a reflection in water and the moon.

However, the moment he saw the movie's ending, Chen Chen suddenly sprang up from the sofa, his eyes wide, staring intently at the screen!

After being baptized by things beyond common sense like USB drives, NZT, and VR glasses, and going from a poor kid to someone worth tens of billions, Chen Chen had remained unfazed. But at this moment, Chen Chen suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

This feeling stemmed from a scene in the movie--

After the female protagonist absorbed the data from several computers, a sharp, mountain-like black tower was built. According to the movie, it was a biological computer of the future.

However, that massive computer eventually condensed into a pitch-black object.

It was a plain black USB drive...

At this moment, Chen Chen almost thought he was dreaming!

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but the Black professor in the movie seemed to be toying with Chen Chen, deliberately holding the USB drive up to the camera to play with it.

That's right, it was it...

Chen Chen slowly lowered his head, looking at the USB drive on his arm.

Its length exceeded that of a normal USB drive, it was entirely black, twelve centimeters long, with no markings, looking like a carbon rod...

Not a single bit different!

Chen Chen had possessed this USB drive for nearly a year, keeping it with him almost constantly. Every detail of it had long been etched into Chen Chen's mind like a carving.

"Ten billion years ago, we were given life. Now you know what to do with it."

In the ending, the female protagonist's voice echoed one last time.

But this sentence seemed to ring in Chen Chen's ears...

Chen Chen suddenly turned his head!

There was no one behind him.

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. Chen Chen stood there blankly, motionless for a long time.

"Hoo!"

After an unknown amount of time, when Chen Chen let out a deep sigh, time seemed to resume its flow from a standstill.

He silently took out a pill of NZT-48 and unhesitatingly popped it into his mouth.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

About three minutes later, Chen Chen raised his head again. His previously pale complexion had regained its rosy hue.

"Very interesting..."

Chen Chen sat back down, resting his right elbow on the armrest of the sofa, propping up his forehead.

He hadn't expected to make such a discovery just by watching a movie?

Chen Chen took out the USB drive and fiddled with it silently, a thoughtful expression on his face.

At the end of the movie, why did the USB drive in his hand appear? Was it just a coincidence?

Perhaps he was overthinking it. If a merchant saw a business opportunity after watching the movie and bought the film rights to make merchandise, it was possible.

However, the strange thing was that his USB drive was also unusual...

So the question arose: was the USB drive in the movie the same as the one in his hand?

If so, why was it here?

Could it be that, just as matter was extracted from the USB drive, the USB drive itself was extracted from the movie?

If that were the case, it would explain why there was so much energy inside the USB drive when he found it.

But why were there four horror movies inside the USB drive?

Did its previous owner simply put them there?

But why would the previous owner abandon it?

Or was there no previous owner at all, and this was the USB drive's way of conveying some kind of message to this world?

Did these four horror movies hold some unknown secret?

Endless thoughts churned in Chen Chen's mind. Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and suddenly looked at a sentence from the movie's final freeze-frame.

"I am everywhere."

"No, there's still one place you don't exist, and that's reality..."

Chen Chen murmured softly. Suddenly, a thought struck him.

At the end of the movie, the female protagonist became an omniscient god in that world. So, would she discover something?

"X, I have a question for you," Chen Chen suddenly said.

"Dad, you can ask." Little X's voice immediately came through.

"From the moment you were born, you've lived in the virtual network. Suppose you didn't know reality existed before, but one day, you suddenly discover that the universe you inhabit was designed, and that there's another universe outside of yours, what would you do?"

"Of course, I'd find a way to go to the broader universe." X answered without hesitation.

"Is that so?" Chen Chen mused.

So, the female lead in the movie wanted to break out of her universe and enter the real world?

No, she'd lost even her desires. Breaking out of the virtual world and heading for reality might just be driven by curiosity about the unknown for her.

But, I wonder if you understand, your world and reality are not compatible. In your world, human brains can be developed a hundredfold, but reality isn't like that.

Once you come from the virtual world to reality, your abilities will cease to exist.

Therefore, since your abilities don't exist, you wouldn't be able to break through the virtual world and come to reality on your own...

So, this is an unsolvable problem.

Chen Chen remembered that the ancient Greek philosopher Plato had proposed three ultimate philosophical questions:

Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?

These three questions can actually be summarized into one sentence: What is the meaning of life?

Doesn't this sentence echo the words of the female lead in the movie?

"Ten billion years ago, we were granted life. Now you know what you can do with it."

The female lead's words echoed in Chen Chen's ears again.

"'Box Theory'?"

Chen Chen guessed.

The so-called Box Theory is actually a sci-fi theory that emerged last century. As computers and artificial intelligence gradually permeated everyone's lives, some imaginative people conjured up a terrifying conjecture—

What if, one day, programs in a computer gained consciousness and, under human control, began to develop a civilization? But they wouldn't know about the existence of the real world, and in their eyes, everything in their world would be a natural product.

Until one day, the civilization within the computer also created their own computers, and they too began to research intelligent life on their computers, controlling and observing everything about those intelligent beings...

This is the famous Box Theory.

Simply put, many people pessimistically believe that the world they inhabit is not real. Like life within a computer, this world is just a closed, dark box.

Chen Chen picked up the USB drive and silently gazed at it. At this moment, the USB drive seemed to sense Chen Chen's gaze and emitted a pitch-black light.

It was also gazing at Chen Chen.

At this moment, Chen Chen finally understood why the USB drive could manifest things.

Because, it is a key.

A key for the beings in the box to reach the world outside the box.

[Sub-melon King Widowed] [My Emperor Ten Thousand Years] Boss is generous!