You're This Age and You Can Still Sleep?!

Bu Liuxing learned from Shimura Chidō that the "module" that Hot Wind mentioned was not a simple mental model.

Most of the Burning Wind Resistance Army are Virtual Reality (VR) warriors.

The predecessor of this unit was the Fēngfēng Battle Group of Guangling Zhixi of the First Transportation Department, which was under the command of the governor of the area where the Shinto City was located.

Against the backdrop of the long war, the battle group was originally divided into three forces, namely the special operations force, the assault force, and the rapid response force.

Hot Wind integrated all the sub-corps, reorganizing the scattered battle groups into divisions of nearly 18,000 people, and used VR technology to share the divisions' combat skills and unify combat strategies—this was the precursor to the [Module].

Originally, the soldiers in different positions had been working in their respective fields for more than a decade, and their combat styles were vastly different, making them completely unrelated. However, with the VENOM organization, the Burning Wind Resistance Army has almost become a powerful army with flesh and blood working together.

People can use modules to learn from each other and experience each other's skills.

Later, a weak electrofeedback system was added to stimulate muscles, which could directly modify the body, turning a recruit with no combat experience into a battle-hardened veteran with rich muscle memory.

[Modules] are the main products of Extreme Bliss Space. They are human history and the coffins of the dead. Once opened, these chaotic memories and novel experiences can change a person's mind and body.

This is another Blood Ceremony, only it utilizes optoelectronic and digital scientific research. Taking what belongs to others and making it one's own—this is the carnivorous nature of Shinto City.

The thing that comes with the [module] is the [Ghost Body]. When preparing for the VR training, Mr. Chido also explained the special features of the Ghost Body to Meteor.

[Ghost bodies] exist not only in the real world, but also in Extreme Bliss Space.

To function effectively as an electronic brain based on the Liman model, a person needs not only a physical body (yang) but also a physical body (yin).

Like the sound-generating device that Chido prepared for the Hot Wind, this head is a doctor's [soft prosthetic skeleton]. It possesses many professional skills that can instantly transform a Homo sapiens who has never studied medicine into a [standard doctor].

The counterpart to [soft prosthetics] is [hardware prosthetics] in the material world, such as the complete set of nano-armor that Meteor saw on the executioner, which, combined with the elemental matter of the Holy Beast, constitutes artificial muscles and an artificial neural exoskeleton—that is a [standard soldier] manufactured by a professional arsenal.

It's far too troublesome and complicated to figure out the constituent elements of a human being in Shinto City these days.

First, we need to determine whether this person is actually human, and then identify their true gender and id thought model.

When the body's DNA expression and mental state are severely disrupted, symptoms of personality schizophrenia will appear—in addition to the typical person and the typical person's variants.

Typical humans are created by referencing the DNA blueprint of [classical humans] to produce [standard babies]. These Angel Infant have undergone more or less genetic editing and personality modification, and have far more advantages than traditional Homo sapiens of the old era—except for the lack of parents.

Typical human variants are created by enhancing the vulnerabilities of human nature. They are urgent resources manufactured for a specific industry. For example, if the fission power station in Shinto City needs engineering talent, it will retrieve the gene sample of an outstanding engineer from the gene bank to create the corresponding Angel Infant.

Under the nurturing of the [Module], the Angel Infant will receive various skill training, experience the life of its biological father, learn its knowledge, acquire its skills, undergo the modification of the [Hardware Prosthetic], and obtain a physical body specially prepared for the radiation of the fission power plant—to rejoin this society.

Like the "Angel Infant" of the Hot Wind, those officers and soldiers who patrolled Day Patrol and Night Patrol were created one by one in this way.

Mr. Qiantang hammered the foundation outside the stone house, erected two doorposts, and built a simple stone teleportation portal.

Meteor was very curious and asked Qian Tang, "Grandfather, what are you doing?"

"Bridge a subspace and create a new community." Qian Tang answered truthfully, "Extreme Bliss Space provides every citizen with a set of infrastructure, just like a house. This stone cave I live in is a small community that I renovated and decorated myself."

Meteor suddenly realized. "Oh! You're going to build me a training room?"

"First of all, this wasn't made," Shimura Chidō corrected. "It's a long story; do you have the patience to listen?"

Meteor was about to pull his notebook out of his clothes when he realized his back pocket was empty—he was still in Extreme Bliss Space, where would he find a notebook?

[Press down on your right hand and pull hard.]

Meteor immediately followed Hot Wind's instructions, pulled a journal from its right arm, and took out a fountain pen from the pages, as if by magic.

Shimura Chidō carved runes on the stone gate, and it felt as mysterious as performing a ritual.

"Meteor Boy, you need to understand that any virtual cyberspace requires physical hardware to support it—without hardware support, given our level of scientific research, we cannot overcome physical limitations to build a network."

"The neural network of the Shinto City uses some psionic technology, but its underlying logic is still built on a super-large central server. It must have hardware to connect everything, and it needs a signal transmitting device, signal input and output."

"As the server's customers, we are entitled to own our own land, but we must never expand our territory within a restricted space—that is illegal and violates the regulations of the security center."

"A decade or so ago, some hacker groups tried to have fun in Extreme Bliss Space, wanting to create a [deep web]—a place to hide deeper, away from the cyber police. But privacy breeds darkness, and darkness breeds criminals. The most private currency in the world is often the most evil thing."

"Now I need to access a portion of the code in my community, modify the bridging method, and open a portal to another community—it should be a private community."

Meteor smiled awkwardly, "Could you speak Chinese in a way I can understand?"

Shimura Chidō snapped irritably, "I'm going to find you a training room! Preferably a haunted house! The owner is dead! That way I can renovate this wretched place and give you a quiet spot to adapt to the new module, understand?"

Meteor: "Understood!"

Thank goodness, I hope you really understand.

Meteor: "So how long will it take?"

"I don't know!" Shimura Chidō continued trying to bridge the gap in front of the stone gate, "In Extreme Bliss Space, there are not only Homo sapiens, but also typical humans, like Artificial Intelligence that serves humanity. After working for three years, it can also have its own housing—after all, Artificial Intelligence has already developed a personality."

"There are too many subspaces in this system, and many desolate wastelands that have been abandoned by people. This is because people easily fall into path dependence; when they see something familiar, they will try to repair it according to their preconceived notions. Modifying a space is very difficult, but building it from scratch is very simple."

"Those abandoned spaces, whether commercial or civilian, those nooks and crannies left behind because their owners changed professions, or those where the electronic lifeforms have undergone personality splits and died completely—our target is their communities."

Meteor crouched down next to Mr. Chido: "Was it hard to find?"

"Generally speaking," Shimura Chidō patiently explained, "the Shinto People will process these plots of land within a month. Based on the remaining information in the community, they will appraise these items, package them up, and sell them to the Hei Mu Qianshou. Except for the users' personal belongings, they will format them to save server resources."

Shimura Chidō kept replacing the soft prosthetic bodies, picking up the right arms of these corpses, and trying his luck with the VENOM mechanism again and again. Finally, the stone door lit up.

"Got it!"

Meteor became nervous along with Ishimura.

They looked into the stone gate—

--Ishimura covered his forehead, his face turning extremely pale. It was almost instinct that drove the old man to protect Meteor's spiritual world.

In the new private community, there is a fence connecting a villa's garden, which appears to belong to a deceased owner some time ago.

A stench wafted out from the half-open door, and greenish animal excrement was everywhere, evenly smeared on the walls. Two corpses, one large and one small, hung from an electric fan, looking like a mother and daughter—they had product codes on them, derivatives of modules, purchased by the owner as a "family affection service."

Beneath the corpse was a three-headed greyhound.

--Ishimura, don't go see the meteor shower. Who knows what earth-shattering things the owners of these prosthetic bodies have done!

At this moment, the three greyhounds, learning human etiquette, sat at the dining table, their paws deftly gripping knives and forks, cutting off organs and flesh from the corpse of an adult male on the table, placing them on their plates to slowly eat.

Mr. Ishimura forcefully pulled away the soft prosthetic's arm and closed the door.

He took several deep breaths, his chest heaving, indicating that the old man had also suffered severe psychological trauma.

"This space won't work, I'm afraid it won't work; the level of mental pollution it causes is too high."

Meteor's eyes were covered by Ishimura, so he couldn't see the interior of the villa clearly, and he pressed for an answer.

"What happened?"

Shimura Chidō picked up the soft-bodied android and tossed it into a corner of the cave, patiently explaining to Meteor.

"The male head of this community must have been very wealthy. He bought a ton of services, had a virtual wife and daughter, and owned three dogs—then one day, he suddenly went mad. He decided to hang the two virtual service providers, install modules on his pets related to human eating etiquette to give the dogs some new skills, and leave his own image in the house, turning into a human-flesh meal for his clever pets. Eventually, this limp automaton ended up here with me."

Meteor asked in surprise, "What's going on?!"

"Who knows?" Ishimura shrugged. "Maybe he suddenly wants to be an artist; dedicating one's life to art is an unwritten custom in Shinto City."

Suddenly, Shimura Chidō had a flash of inspiration.

"I've got it!"

In just over ten seconds, he pulled the body of a child who looked no more than twelve or thirteen years old from the pile of artificial remains.

Upon reopening the bridge stone gate, Shimura Chidō reminded Meteor to cover his ears.

"It'll be a bit noisy. This kid is an artist, see if you can handle it—if you don't mind the noise, we can use this space to train you."

The two of them looked into the stone gate.

It was a bright and sunny grassland, just like the image of the child in Mr. Ishimura's arms. A half-grown child stood on a stool, holding a hanging rope in his hand, with an easel in front of him.

The easel was completely blank, as if the little child had encountered a problem and didn't know what to draw.

This scene stirred up Meteor. His sense of justice wouldn't allow him to stand idly by. Seeing his body involuntarily rushing towards the door, Shimura Chidō hugged A Xing tightly! He refused to let go no matter what!

Meteor: "Is this kid thinking of suicide?! I have to save him!"

Qian Tang: "No! Silly boy! Don't get excited!"

The instant Meteor's hands fell from beside his ears, he heard an indescribable shriek; the vicious words nearly drove him mad!

Beneath a seemingly clear, sunny sky, and on a seemingly peaceful and idyllic meadow, a series of piercing screams erupted from the child's mouth!

"At your age, you can even sleep?!"

"All the other artists hanged themselves when they were ten! Painters who don't die will never become famous!"

"Can you really make money with Artificial Intelligence? Are you here to make money or to eat shit?"

"Drawing is useless now! It's completely useless!"

"Take one step forward, just one step forward! Then many, many people will come to see this painting!"

"Coward! Why won't you die! Why!"

"A famous young artist starts practicing suicide techniques at eight years old, making sure the death is artistic! It needs foreground, middle ground, and background, each element meticulously designed! What's your plan? Is it well-designed? Do you even have that image in your mind? Ending your life at twenty? Do you even want to be famous?"

"But I'm scared! I'm a timid boy!"

Meteor gaped, its soul almost leaving its body, and thick black mist began to emanate from its right arm—a sign that Hot Wind's mental model was gradually disintegrating.

Mr. Ishimura slammed the door shut once again.

Still shaken, the two looked at each other and slumped down in front of the empty door.

Shimura Chidō: "Are you alright?"

Bu Liuxing: "It's nothing, just a little exciting."

Shimura Chidō: "He had a bad temper. Before he became cyberpsychotic, he was actually a quiet and introverted child. He often went to various communities to visit other users and show off his paintings, which is a pity."

Bu Liuxing wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. That terrifying howl almost destroyed his mental world. It was not a simple sonic attack; the resentment it contained was about to pierce his soul.

Shimura Chidō: "If you can tolerate this noise, we can renovate his community."

"Never mind, never mind." Meteor couldn't recover for a while and started rambling incoherently, even getting the generational order wrong, "Brother... never mind, it's unnecessary."

Shimura Chidō nodded helplessly, preparing to try his luck with the next soft prosthetic body.

Meteor didn't understand, so he asked Mr. Qiantang.

"Why do people still want to become ghosts even though Extreme Bliss Space is so terrifying?"

Qian Tang grabbed a strong arm and pulled the corpse out. Without carefully examining the corpse's face, he was eager to answer Meteor's question.

"Because the afterlife must be better than the world of the living."

Meteor: "Why do you say that?"

Qian Tang: "I've only ever seen living people willingly go to the world of the dead, never the other way around."

Meteor: "That makes sense."

[Stop spouting nonsense! The world has no shortage of correct nonsense! Go ask this guy if he found the military module or not!]

[Kid! As long as we're patient, the location won't be a problem. But we need a hypothetical enemy. If you want to enter the Electronic Museum, you must defeat the Shinto People soldiers and my replica!]

Meteor was about to speak--

--Ishimura Shimura Chidō brought the robust corpse to the stone gate.

The door lights came on, and a very awkward scene unfolded.

It was a multimedia control center with nearly a thousand closed-circuit televisions monitoring all the users in Zero Community.

Dozens of soldiers Night Patrol Day Patrol and night, carrying folders of documents and hurrying toward the various exits. They were all identical clones, the children of Hot Wind.

Meteor: "Holy shit!"

[Holy crap! You've opened a backdoor in the security center!]

Not far away, the brothers were still drinking coffee in the rest room, the strong men still hadn't reacted, their backs to the stone gate.

Shimura Chidō struggled to carry the corpse away from the gate, and was startled.

When the two men saw the true face of the corpse, they realized it was the skeletal remains of a Night Patrol soldier.

Meteor asked cautiously, "Have we been discovered?"

Shimura Chidō: "Not yet. If the people at the security center knew about this, knew that I was using a soft prosthetic body to open blind boxes—they would definitely come over immediately."

Meteor: "Are you alright?"

Something's definitely up! There's always some trace of the visit!

[It's just a minor inconvenience. More than that, I'm curious why this old man has the Night Patrol software—where did he get this thing from? It's a copy of me!]

The meteor conveyed the Hot Wind's question.

"Uh..." Shimura Chidō looked down at the soft prosthetic body and suddenly blushed.

[It can't be what I'm thinking, can it? Chido? It's not what I'm thinking, is it?]

Shimura Chidō decided to skip this topic.

"The most important thing in life is experience."

[Damn! You old bastard, you're a real psychopath! No wonder you've been able to stay sober for so many years!]

Meteor hadn't quite grasped the riddle yet; he hadn't understood what Hot Wind was saying at all.

[Meteor Boy, look on the bright side! At least we've found a sparring partner!]