This time, Wu Renbao was sent to carry out a very simple mission: visit various countries, find agents, shake hands, and give them their assignments.
Mifeng controlled a staggering amount of money, so he never hesitated when it came to buying villas and the like.
On Blue Star, almost no one could resist the power of money. What? You won't sell for a million? Five million! Still no? Ten million! The end result was always the same: sold! Sold! Sold!
None of that was what Zhang Hao cared about. He was working hard to adjust his body and soul. After his soul returned to his body, he truly felt that his body was a set of shackles, holding him firmly in place. He felt utterly stifled. But inside the Soul Crystal, as long as he had robots and mechs, he could let loose and do whatever he wanted. The two states were polar opposites!
A sense of helplessness and irritation clung to him, especially the disorienting feeling, which drove him crazy.
He tried playing the piano. At first, he nearly broke his fingers; he had no idea how to control his strength.
After trying over and over, he finally managed to get it under control. A piano piece calmed his soul.
As he'd been trying so hard to calm himself, the piece he played had a soothing quality that resonated with his soul, finally settling his restless spirit.
Mifeng uploaded the piano piece he'd played to the internet again, naming it "An Ordinary Heart."
The video was casually posted to a small Weibo account, essentially a dead account with no followers and following no one, so it didn't make even a ripple. The title was simply "Piano Piece: An Ordinary Heart."
While the previous piano piece was still being widely shared, someone searched for similar pieces and came across this one. In just two days, it spread like wildfire.
Haisikun shared it too and followed the dead Weibo account.
This time, its impact was even greater!
That was because this piano piece soothed the soul, moving many people more deeply.
A famous actress shared the video.
[I've been listening to this piano piece on repeat. It calms me and lifts my depression. Thank you to the young man who played it.]
[It's going viral!]
The actress was a well-known public figure in the entertainment industry, with several million Weibo followers, so many people clicked on the video.
Zhang Hao had no idea. He was working hard to train, desperately wanting to return to the bridgehead and switch into a robot body... According to Mifeng, this was "loss of strength syndrome"!
Practicing piano, exercising, painting in oils—even cooking his own meals—all he wanted was to regain the coordination and strength of his physical body.
Gradually, Zhang Hao calmed down.
It was a process. According to Mifeng, it was also a hurdle Zhang Hao had to overcome for himself.
Recently, Zhang Hao had noticed that, with his body and soul joined together, he was beginning to digest and absorb the information he'd acquired on the Slaughter Planet. It was working very well: not only was his soul gradually growing stronger, it was also driving his body to grow. So he'd added another task to his routine: spacing out whenever he got the chance.
A month passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, Zhang Hao noticed something strange: his soul was growing rather quickly, at a rate no slower than when it had grown inside the Soul Crystal. Even more remarkably, his body was growing too, and the two were becoming better matched. He couldn't make sense of it.
So he went to see Mifeng.
Mifeng was always busy in the Underground Base, though Zhang Hao had no idea what he was working on. When Zhang Hao told him what was puzzling him, Mifeng had him open his phone and told him, "You've gone viral!"
Zhang Hao was baffled. He went online to check and discovered that his piano videos had spread everywhere.
There were three videos in all: one of him playing "Longing," another of "An Ordinary Heart," and one of a nameless piece he'd played recently. Countless people were trying to find out who he was. Zhang Hao stared in astonishment.
"I told you: the more people who know about you, the more praise or resentment they direct at you, and the purer your soul will become. Of course, this only works because your soul once resided in the Soul Crystal, which made it so sensitive."
This was trouble!
Zhang Hao had no desire to become a celebrity. He'd made his clone so handsome out of curiosity. Anyone given the chance to change their appearance again would surely do it; otherwise, the cosmetic surgery industry wouldn't be so prosperous. So many people got double eyelid surgery, nose implants, and chin reductions. This was an age when looks mattered.
Some people even went so far as to claim that beauty was justice.
Zhang Hao was no exception. At first, he'd had similar thoughts. But after going to the Slaughter Planet, he no longer cared much about such things. It was just a shell, like a robot—a mere husk!
As his soul grew, Zhang Hao's thoughts gradually changed, and his interests changed too.
As he pondered, he gradually understood: a soul was most vulnerable inside a body, but that was also where it was most at home and where it could become the purest. Residing in the Soul Crystal made it easier for a soul to grow, and with a robot's capabilities, it was hard not to become a superhuman. If he controlled a mech as well, he'd be a terrifying force.
A pure soul!
That was one of the reasons Zhang Hao had to go home.
By now, Zhang Hao understood that Mifeng was a soul without a body. Worst of all, he'd been trapped on Blue Star until the internet came along and gave him an opportunity. No wonder he'd said he wasn't an alien, nor was he human. Only now did Zhang Hao fully understand what he meant.
Zhang Hao asked, "Great One, why can't you grow a body? I'm sure you kept your physical data. Would cloning one be that difficult?"
Mifeng shook his head repeatedly. "I was careless. I was young and arrogant back then, and thought having the Soul Crystal meant nothing else mattered. Then I ran into a Temporal Storm, which pulverized the Original Body I'd stored in spacetime. There were only a few seeds left that could be used for cloning, and they ran out quickly. Back then, I moved around this era in an extremely crude robot body."
"There was a large-scale war going on at the time, and I needed to collect souls. Then I was careless again. I thought I'd be safe in that robot body, so I went into an armory once to try to get some weapons. But... I was really unlucky. The armory exploded..."
Zhang Hao's eyes widened. This was the first time he'd heard how unlucky Mifeng had been.
"That robot's defenses were very mediocre. The explosion destroyed most of it, and I could barely control what remained. I managed to crawl out, but there was no way I could move around, so I had no choice but to dig underground and bury myself there to enter hibernation. The only bit of luck was the Soul Crystal. It allowed me to keep existing."
"Only after I partnered with you did I reopen the bridgehead."
Zhang Hao still had plenty of questions, but he didn't dare ask them. He couldn't help thinking that if they hadn't started out as partners, Mifeng could have had him help reopen the bridgehead and then killed him. That would have been an option too.
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