The Dialectical Relationship Between Implanting Things in Human Brains and Implanting Them in Computers

In fact, several seconds before it happened in the real world—that is, at the very instant the data terminal core of the Silentium was breached—the command center of Fortress No. 1 experienced a similar disturbance.

First came a burst of light bright enough to blind most people, though it vanished in the blink of an eye, like a mere prelude.

Then the data streams flickering across the terminal screens seemed to come alive. As if twisted into writhing serpentine monsters by a powerful, malicious will, they leaped off the screens and lunged at the necks of the officers and soldiers seated throughout the room.

But before these uncanny forces could tear out anyone's throat, an ear-piercing, overclocked shriek erupted through the room.

Ordinary people—and even normal machinery—could hardly detect the noise. Yet it still slipped through the defenses of ordinary people's hearing like a virus, striking directly at their minds.

Many people clapped their hands over their ears in pain, but it did no good. They stared in alarm as the characters, transformed into venomous snakes, lunged for their throats.

Even Deng Zhengqing, who had only just become a psionic, was powerless to resist. Or rather, it was precisely because he had become a psionic that he could sense the uncanny changes more keenly. Ordinary people saw characters and data chains suddenly turn into deadly snakes; he saw the ceaseless, frigid will behind the terminal screens.

Every screen flashing with blinding light was like a black hole, and behind those black holes lay an unfathomable abyss.

Just as everyone was about to be wiped out by this bizarre assault, Feifei, who had been resting with her eyes closed, suddenly snapped them open. Deep in her dark amber eyes, white-hot flames seemed to flicker. With a ripple in space so faint