Act18 I Will Follow, Inseparable

Foreword:

Don't think that the bell tolls for anyone else; it tolls for thee.

--Ernest Miller Hemingway

[Part 1: I Don't Understand]

Awakening from his daze, Jiang Xueming arrived at Zero Community.

This was probably his first and last time logging into Extreme Bliss Space as an outsider.

When he appeared in the virtual space of Little Kanto City, he was surrounded by a bustling cityscape. High-rise buildings lined both sides of the street, and people were coming and going in the streets and alleys. The residents who could not be found in reality lived in this virtual VR city.

The streets were spotless, and the bright glass of the buildings reflected the sun's shimmering light and the blue sky and white clouds. The brilliant sun in the sky emitted a halo, which complemented the landmark forty-eight pillars of the Bodhisattva statue in the distance—the seated Bodhisattva with Hei Mu Qianshou.

Xue Ming glanced down and saw that the hastily woven Flash Butterfly Armor were gone. In the past, when he was busy at the pond and the workshop, he often wore mud-colored overalls and a round-neck vest. Now, these were all the clothes he had.

The VENOM mechanism in his right arm was still working, and the colorless corundum stone in his forearm continued to emit a milky white light. He held his breath, and after a long time, he finally became certain that he had indeed arrived in Extreme Bliss Space —a place where he didn't need to breathe or take oxygen.

At this moment, he still doesn't know who the ghost residing in his arm is. According to his second brother, there is an instructor Hayabusa in the classic human education institution of Shinto City. Now, Hayabusa has sent him to the Extreme Bliss Space, and his physical body has been entrusted to his second brother.

Xue Ming wasn't interested in the scenery or contents of the Extreme Bliss Space. He had never liked surfing the internet. Almost immediately upon arriving here, his thoughts turned to escaping and waking up, to regaining control of his body. But how could he do that?

On the sidewalk near the shops, he found a pedestrian nearby and went up to him to ask the question directly.

"Bro, how do I log off?"

The passerby patted Jiang Xueming on the shoulder, but didn't turn around immediately, trembling like a lifeless puppet.

Xue Ming immediately sensed something was wrong and became wary. He followed the passerby around halfway and came to examine him closely.

Looking at the passerby from the side, he had a typical Japanese or Korean face: small, sharp eyes, a thin build, and scattered features. He looked to be in his early twenties and was wearing casual clothes. His oversized hoodie had various logos on it, none of which Xue Ming recognized.

Jiang Xueming was concerned about the other person's abnormal physical signs—he had slowly circled around to the old man's front, but the other person did not react at all, as if he were in a trance, his soul not even there.

He bent down and looked up to observe carefully, and was surprised to find that the man's pupils were dilated and his breathing was rapid. The soft prosthetic body in the virtual space also simulated the special physical signs of sweating profusely.

"Is this guy doing drugs?!"

Jiang Xueming involuntarily took a half step back.

"Right here? In broad daylight on the street?"

He was deeply shocked, his eyes locking onto the software module in the passerby's hand—it was a magazine with a product barcode for the software, and the product title was on the magazine's pink cover.

Xue Ming had seen similar headlines before; there were countless similar hormone derivatives in Lawrence Madison's factory.

If he's not mistaken—just now, this passerby bought a hormone app from a brain product store on the side of the road. The brain has many self-rewarding behaviors, and it secretes various hormones to control people's various activities.

Eating, drinking, excretion, and sleep—both traditional and less traditional—are all processes that involve reward and punishment. The brain secretes different hormones, which are then transmitted to various sensory organs.

At this moment, Jiang Xueming walked away cautiously.

The magazine in this passerby's hand has a headline about love on the front page, and the cover girl is a pretty young woman with a universally flattering internet celebrity face. It seems this guy is still in Tender Paradise, unable to escape the influence of hormones.

From a distance, Xue Ming made a point of checking the price of this thing.

Its price is 4,499 Hui Stone Currency.

--The manufacturer is the software developer for Extreme Bliss Space, and their name is [Yellow Springs].

The product category in the production information is: Category 3 Module Experience Products.

A more detailed subcategories are: dating/meeting/close contact/touching/kissing/scent.

The date lasted 21 minutes and 33 seconds.

Xue Ming was greatly alarmed, completely baffled as to what these things represented.

He's a down-to-earth person who rarely pays attention to new and exciting experiences, and he's never even heard of role-playing games like murder mystery games or COC/DND tabletop RPGs.

He pondered this carefully, using his thought process—

-- Roughly speaking, spending 4,499 Hui Stone Currency allows you to enjoy a date in Extreme Bliss Space and experience a story with the girl from the magazine that's best left untold.

During those twenty-one minutes, no one could disturb them, and they would exhibit symptoms similar to drug use—the software manufacturer that produced this stuff must have added something else to stimulate the brain to secrete hormones and induce rewarding behavior. It's like a shady late-night food stall owner secretly adding poppy shells to a pot of braised food.

Xue Ming needed to ask someone else for directions—he needed to get out of this terrifying virtual space.

He walked from 1st Street to 3rd Street in Zero Community, a round trip of two kilometers, and searched for at least two or three hundred people. It turned out that these people were holding all sorts of software modules—the soul was not in this software cyborg at all!

Someone was squatting in front of the stall with a huge watermelon in their arms, having been eating it for over two thousand hours.

Groups of three or five walked forward chatting and laughing, each holding a drink with a product barcode. They seemed to be traveling together, all in the same module, their minds already wandering off to distant places. Xue Ming tried to stop them, but they would deliberately avoid him, clearly unable to understand human speech.

There was a young man using a motorcycle as a module product. He kept pulling the accelerator, but the motorcycle just roared without moving. It seemed that his consciousness had already gone far away, and his virtual body in the Extreme Bliss Space had become a zombie.

Like the brain-themed magazine store Jiang Xueming first saw, there were fifty people lined up in front of it.

He figured that since so many people were queuing, there had to be at least one sane person among them.

So he went around asking them one by one, from the back of the line to the front. He gently nudged them, and every time his right arm touched their strangely warm limbs, a security officer would remind Xue Ming.

The client you are visiting has already activated the queued hosting service.

Jiang Xueming immediately asked, "Queue-up childcare? What's that?"

[The queue management service is a very thoughtful value-added service. In the Zero Community, when we are shopping and having fun in various shops, we sometimes encounter shops that are overcrowded and have long queues.]

[To save you valuable time, you can choose to purchase this service, which puts your brain into a deep sleep state. Simply close and open your eyes—and you can travel through time and space to your desired product.]

Jiang Xueming: "Good heavens!"

Thank you for your compliment. Besides Deep Sleep, we will recommend other similar products based on your selected items. If you don't want to sleep and believe that sleep is a waste of life, you can also use these products while waiting in line.

Jiang Xueming: "Good heavens!"

Thank you for your compliment.

This was the first time Xue Ming had heard the voice of the jester. The voice of this Artificial Intelligence community information moderator was highly recognizable—like that of a castrated official, with a fawning tone tinged with unspeakable malice.

He couldn't understand the operating rules of Zero Community.

Let's start with this queue--

Why do I have to queue to browse a cyber market? Even if he went back to the mortal world to browse Taobao, it wouldn't be this absurd.

--Why can cyber prostitutes created using electronic drugs be sold for such high prices? All hormones are naturally secreted by the brain, so how dare these software manufacturers in Shinto City use the blood and hormones of Homo sapiens as commodities, only to sell them back to Homo sapiens themselves?! Even in gacha games, there are still a few beautiful girls created by hardworking artists... cough... I digress.

All this amusement, in Amin's eyes, was more terrifying than any flesh-and-blood golem sculpted by the Madness Butterfly.

This was a realm he couldn't comprehend, causing even his iron-clad, unwavering Madness Index to begin to fluctuate.

He returned to the same guy in the hoodie who had been there all along.

--Judging by the time, this guy's date with the cybernetic girl in the magazine "Peach Blossom Holiday: Heart-pounding" should be coming to an end.

Xue Ming waited a moment, and then saw the old man shudder, breaking free from the control of hormones. In that instant when his pupils shrank, his soul returned to his body.

"Brother!" Jiang Xueming immediately asked in Japanese, "This is my first time here, how do I log off?"

"Who are you calling 'brother'?" the passerby replied impatiently. "Uncle, you've grown a beard, how can you call me 'brother'?"

Xue Ming was quite surprised. To be honest, his heart was still in his twenties; he didn't feel like he was getting old at all.

--After this reminder, the nameless War King finally remembered that he was a man with a wife and children.

"Oh, excuse me, young man, how do I log off?"

A passerby asked with a look of disgust, "Logged off? Why did you log off?"

Jiang Xueming countered, "Why don't you log off?"

A passerby shouted, "I was perfectly fine here! Why did I log off?!"

Jiang Xueming: "No. I'm logging off. I didn't mean to rush you. I just want to log off."

"Do you want to leave Extreme Bliss Space?" The passerby, who had just woken up from the module and seemed to have some mental issues, finally understood Jiang Xueming's meaning.

Jiang Xueming: "Yes, yes, yes"

"Why didn't you say so earlier!" the passerby said sullenly, pouting. "Why did you waste my time? Give me eight hundred yuan, and I'll teach you."

Jiang Xueming asked in surprise, "Eight hundred?"

"Yeah, right." The passerby crossed his arms and said arrogantly, "I'm very busy, busy making money, busy spending money, I have so little time. The lifespan of the Liman Hypothesis is only eight years! Talking to you also counts as time. Now it's gone up to 822 yuan! So, are you going to pay or not?"

"I don't have any money," Jiang Xueming muttered, pointing casually to the shop. "How about I go get some now?"

Passerby: "Get some points?"

Jiang Xueming: "It's from their electronic teller machines or digital banks and such."

"Hahahaha!" The passerby burst into laughter. "You're really weird! You mean you're planning to rob a store in Zero Community?"

Jiang Xueming: "Otherwise what?"

"Hahahaha!" The passerby was laughing so hard he almost passed out, "Your joke must be worth a fortune! It sounds like some clueless outsider wandered into Extreme Bliss Space! Is there a bug in your mental model? Didn't it, along with the jester, tell you how to survive here?"

Jiang Xueming said confidently, "I just want to log off, leave, and get out of here."

"I see." The young man pouted, then finally held out his hand. "Although I don't know who you are, sir, I'm very happy! Here, hold out your right hand, and I'll teach you!"

[Part ② Sending off Father]

Jiang Xueming stretched out his arm--

--When the young man saw the transparent and colorless VENOM core, he immediately exclaimed in surprise.

Why is your Venom core not colored?

Jiang Xueming had seen the Venom of many typical people. The Venom core of ordinary people, like that of the executioner on Night Patrol, was black pyroxene.

He speculated that this phenomenon was related to the properties of obsidian. In the underground world, especially near volcanoes, large pieces of glass like obsidian were abundant. Moreover, obsidian was known to absorb negative emotions and knowledge. Using obsidian to create VENOM mechanisms would allow the people of Shinto City to maintain a happy and peaceful state of mind, and to be full of curiosity about all kinds of things.

The Venom cores of the Hayabusa and the Day Patrol are different; they are violent mechanisms, and the color of the stones they contain is different from that of ordinary people.

Upon seeing the corundum, the young man was visibly startled, and his tone became much more respectful.

A VENOM machine that possesses a color other than black stone must be a new model of a new human officially manufactured by Shinto City.

"Give your Venom a gentle touch."

Jiang Xueming followed suit, tapping the venom mechanism with his left forearm finger to activate the display panel.

A passerby asked, "Can I see a lot of page information?"

The HUD interface was completely blank. Apart from the few large pages that VENOM pre-set, Jiang Xueming couldn't see anything. The pages were all empty, like advertising spaces that VENOM reserved for various products—he was like a wild man without internet access, opening one blank page after another.

Despite this situation, Xue Ming still chose to conceal the matter. He had not connected to the Extreme Bliss Space network, but the electronic program could not possibly lack a wake-up function.

This is similar to how an app can be offline, but it can't be without a close option; what it's looking for now is the "close" or "offline" option.

The passerby pointed at Jiang Xueming, his finger moving to the bottom right corner.

"There's a wake-up service here, though I don't know where you came from, sir, or what you're up to. Wouldn't it be better to stay in Extreme Bliss Space?"

Jiang Xueming: "I don't belong here; it feels very foreign to me."

The passerby couldn't understand what Xue Ming was saying, as they were talking at cross purposes.

"Your Liman model must be fried! Hey, old man! Remember to buy memory preservation insurance next time!"

Jiang Xueming found the wake-up button. He decided to ask a few more questions, hoping to leave this information in the log, so he didn't rush back.

"You just said you only have eight years to live? Why?"

The passerby said, "Because I'm Liman model!"

Jiang Xueming: "How should I address you, sir?"

"Thunderbolt Weirdo! Hehe!" the passerby shouted smugly.

Jiang Xueming: "I didn't ask for your screen name."

So the passerby said seriously, "My name is Usami Kanjuro, and I am the seventh generation of the Liman model."

"Seventh generation?" Jiang Xueming didn't understand this. "Does that mean you've died seven times?"

"The real me is dead, gone, old man," Kanjuro explained patiently. "It seems you really don't understand anything! Like a baby."

"Decades ago, there was a man named Kanjuro Usami who used the VENOM engine to create his own electronic brain—I am that electronic brain. Well, you can't say I'm completely dead, it's like I'm dead, but not completely dead."

"Electronic brains also have a lifespan. The lifespan limit of the Liman Hypothesis is eight years, after which the data must be cleared and the learning process restarted."

"Sometimes I can't tell whether I'm Homo sapiens or Liman thinker. After all, if all the physical components of my brain were replaced, I would have to relearn and experience my past life, which could potentially lead to a personality split."

"Later I figured it out. Every few years I buy memory insurance in advance, or I just delete all the data, change my name, change my code name. Now I'm Thunderbolt Weirdo, before I could have been Crimson Knight, and a little earlier I could have become Sun Boy!"

"Anyway, nobody knows anyone else. Who cares what happens in Extreme Bliss Space? Who remembers anyone else's real name? Only we ourselves remember our own names, and that's enough, Uncle."

Jiang Xueming: "In the very beginning, do you remember who you were?"

Kanjuro paused for a moment, then said, "I am Kanjuro!"

Jiang Xueming covered her face; communicating with these cyborgs was really difficult.

"I mean, what did you do before? What job? Your family and friends? Anything else?"

Kanjuro's mouth was slightly open, but he remained silent for a long time.

His pupils dilated again, a sign that he wasn't focusing on anything and his concentration was scattered. Normal humans can't do this intentionally; it only happens when someone experiences blackouts, is about to die, or goes blind due to blood loss.

"Is it inconvenient to talk about it?" Jiang Xueming's finger reached for the wake-up button, preparing to leave. "I'm sorry, Kanjuro. I've wasted so much of your time."

"No"

Kanjuro's expression became listless, and he grabbed Xue Ming's arm.

"Do you have time, sir? I'd like to tell you a story about someone; he's a good friend of mine."

Jiang Xueming: "I would like to hear the details."

Kanjuro released Xue Ming's hand and sat down against the street lamp.

"He used to work at a newspaper, writing biographies of celebrities to earn money. His job was relatively stable. His family also thought highly of him; he has an older sister who is twelve years older than him, and they have a good relationship."

He started telling Xue Ming a story, acting all mysterious.

"He worked on Yanxi Road. Back then, Kanto City wasn't Little Kanto yet. Before the earthquake, he loved riding his bicycle back and forth along the coastal highway. He was a really energetic guy."

"Every Thursday after get off work, he would run to the logistics center six kilometers away and bring home two watermelons. This way, it would be much cheaper. If there were no watermelons left, he would use the money he would have spent on watermelons to buy some bananas and pineapples. Everyone in the family likes to eat these."

"He always considered himself a writer, even if it was writing biographies of others, writing other people's stories. One day, he would definitely become someone like Lu Xun, wielding his pen as a sword."

"But then one day, he suddenly disappeared."

Kanjuro looked up at Xue Ming--

--His eyes were filled with confusion.

"Uncle, after the Fifty-One Pillars were completed, I couldn't find him anymore."

"Not only him, but also his parents, elders, and his sister who is twelve years older than him, can't be found."

"It seems like everyone has their own community and their own life now."

"I often read his books; we used to have a very good relationship."

"Later, there were so many stories and so many books to read, all written by Artificial Intelligence. I just felt that life was too short, not even enough to accommodate this one friend or his work."

"Although we haven't met, he would occasionally send me his artwork. At first, I would look at it, but sometimes I was too busy."

"So busy making money, so busy spending money, so busy that there's no time to breathe, so busy that there's not even enough time to sleep."

"Until one day, I discovered my private email inbox was overflowing with books. I took out all the story collections and inadvertently noticed the barcode at the bottom of the page."

"That's when I realized that this guy also used the Liman model to write stories, and that he had long since given up on being Homo sapiens writer and wanted to become an electronic creator."

"I glanced at his book list and didn't like it, so I threw it all away as trash. After all, he can produce hundreds of different stories a day—the only distinguishing features are his name and writing style."

"I feel like everything is starting to feel unfamiliar, sir."

"The last time I visited him, I made a point of turning off my phone and going to his small community."

"Bring gifts and make a grand visit."

"The moment the visit was successful, when I saw that familiar two-story villa, I realized..."

Kanjuro's voice grew softer and softer until it was almost inaudible.

"I just realized that this guy was actually myself."

"I can't tell him from me, and I don't know who's who."

"It's both lonely and bustling here, both cold and warm."

"I only realized it today when you told me about it, sir."

Kanjuro frowned and muttered to himself.

"Why don't I log off? Why am I still alive here?"

Am I waiting for something?

"Was that really me?"

"If you treat it as a story, compared to the experience of Extreme Bliss Space, it's just utterly boring stuff."

"What do I want to do? What do I need?"

What can I do now?

Jiang Xueming hesitated, then finally took two steps back.

--Because he saw that Kanjuro had already made his choice.

This soul, lost in the Extreme Bliss Space, once again glimpsed the empty shopfronts—

--This young man has unique tastes, a bit different from the rest of the crowd in Extreme Bliss Space. There's no need to queue, and it's not a popular product. He can immediately buy the next software module and go on a date.

With a light touch of her finger to the [Wake Up] button, Xue Ming's gaze was fixed on Kanjuro.

The young man's soul left his body once again, his consciousness traveling to a distant place.

However, Xue Ming no longer had time to care about others.

--The next second after the [Wake Up] button was pressed, he did not wake up; the VR space scenery had completely changed.

Fires raged everywhere, burning the sky and the land of Kanto City to ashes.

The landscape finally transformed into a cage filled with iron and rust, like an alarm mechanism left by the Hayabusa. Xue Ming not only failed to wake up, but was even sent to another place by this button.

From the darkness, a deep, sinister voice echoed from afar—the voice of a court jester.

The Artificial Intelligence reviewer exclaimed in amazement, noting that the content was largely the same as the previous act of the Madness Butterfly Sect's collaborators sending their "fathers" (a metaphor for helping others) to their "brothers."

"I can't believe what the Hayabusa sent me."