Dream Hacker

Xiang Kun checked the time; it was almost one o'clock. Zi Cheng was still sitting cross-legged playing games, but he had put on headphones, obviously thinking Xiang Kun was asleep and afraid of disturbing him by playing the game on speaker.

A quick glance revealed that Zicheng had stopped jungling and switched to playing support, following the jungler Arthur.

Judging from his words and the sound coming from the earpiece, it was clear that the jungler was Yang Jie.

You don't even need to check their game progress; just by listening to their conversation, you can tell that the game just now didn't go very smoothly.

After resting for a while, Xiang Kun closed his eyes again. This time, he did not enter the "Hyper-Sensory State" again, but instead sensed the "Black Circle Graffiti" that Mi Qiao had torn from a notebook in Qicheng City.

That "doodle" was a "mark" made by Xiang Kun after observing the environmental information surrounding a pencil drawing that had established an "Emotional Injection" connection while recording his "Hyper-Sensory State".

This "marker" does not directly convert all the information observed in the "Hyper-Sensory State," but only a very, very, very small part that he can "understand," which is the part summarized after comparing the information in the normal state and the "Hyper-Sensory State."

For example, feedback information from different people under different emotions, the status of certain electronic devices under different operating conditions, feedback information from different current magnitudes, feedback information from different building spatial structures, and so on.

These "marks" are, in a sense, like the "assembly language" that Xiang Kun summarized based on the sensory feedback he could "understand" under his "Hyper-Sensory State," a language that only he could comprehend.

However, he can't use this language to "program" yet; he can only use it for interpretation and summarization.

To others, the various circles and arcs on that piece of paper looked like aimless "doodles" or "artistic creations" that most people couldn't understand.

Xiang Kun had previously discovered Mi Qiao's whereabouts in Qicheng City and confirmed her residence. He then folded one of the "doodles" into a specially made paper airplane and placed it on the balcony of her master bedroom, making it look as if someone had accidentally shot the airplane there.

Based on the cognitive model established by Xiang Kun through Guo Tianxiang's memory fragments and analysis of Mi Qiao's various items, it is determined that she has an instinctive interest in novel and "technologically advanced" things.

So if she sees the paper airplane that Xiang Kun folded on the balcony, there's a 90% chance she'll keep it and take it apart.

The special folding method of that paper airplane was "invented" by Xiang Kun himself. The targeted weight distribution in various parts makes it more stable during flight, allowing it to fly farther and longer. Moreover, it looks very special at first glance.

Of course, if Mi Qiao took the paper airplane apart, he would definitely notice the "doodles" on the paper.

Most people would think it's just scribbling, but given Mi Qiao's personality, she would most likely be able to see the "orderliness" in those patterns and lines, which would prompt her to keep the drawing and even study it.

At that time, the only items that Xiang Kun had established an "Emotional Injection connection" with were those "doodles" covered in black circles. Those sheets of paper were a bit too big for her. They couldn't be torn into smaller pieces or otherwise damaged, so it was difficult to stuff them into the corners of certain objects like small pieces of paper used for positioning. So Xiang Kun used this method to try to get her to take them and keep them by her side.

Of course, this was also an experiment that Xiang Kun deliberately wanted to conduct.

He wanted to see if the cognitive model he had built with limited information, before any direct contact with people, could be effectively used to deduce behavioral patterns.

In retrospect, it seems that Mi Qiao did indeed keep that Black Circle Graffiti with him, and even took it to the company and to the secret Research Base of "Shenxing Technology".

It is clear that his deduction and prediction of Mi Qiao's behavior were correct.

Although Xiang Kun knew that the papers had the same effect as "Emotional Injection" after he finished drawing those Black Circle Graffiti, they only truly became "Emotional Injection" items and established that direct sensory connection with him after the blood-drinking mutation two days ago.

Last night, he sensed the Black Circle Graffiti once, which successfully triggered Mi Qiao's dream, and he also saw the dream she was having.

But in that dream, Xiang Kun always felt something was off.

The dream itself wasn't the problem; it was Mi Qiao sitting in front of a computer, hacking a system. There were four monitors on the wall in front of him, power cords everywhere on the floor, and all sorts of snack bags scattered around. There were also several 2-liter bottles of soda nearby.

Mi Qiao's emotions were focus, engagement, and exhaustion, along with some doubt and confusion, just like Xiang Kun's emotions when he was focused on the feedback from his surroundings in his "Hyper-Sensory State."

But what Xiang Kun found a little strange was that throughout the entire dream, he couldn't find any emotional projection of the "Emotional Injection" item.

Previously, when he triggered other people's dreams by sensing "Emotional Injection" items, he would see corresponding emotional projections in the dreams.

The projection of emotions has no direct relation to the appearance of the "Emotional Injection" objects he creates, but rather to his thoughts, feelings, and perceptions during the "Emotional Injection."

Whether it's a Minion, Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving, rabbit meat, Saitama, an old man teaching calligraphy, or even his own image and emotional projections, they will all appear, and as soon as they do, Xiang Kun is sensing the dream, will know.

But in Mi Qiao's dream, he didn't perceive the existence of emotional projections from beginning to end.

Moreover, he always had a feeling that he hadn't seen the whole picture of the dream.

Does that emotional projection require entering a "Hyper-Sensory State" to be seen in dreams?

But how does he enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" within someone else's dream?

Everything we know and feel belongs to others!

His last perception of Mi Qiao's dream left many questions unanswered, so today, after guessing that Mi Qiao had fallen asleep, he tried to perceive it again.

Previously, he was more interested in Mi Qiao's dream itself, even though the Rabbit Woodcarving and bones were not sent to Qicheng City but to another place. However, after hearing the conversation between Mi Qiao and that "Mr. Liang", he knew that this female hacker who had helped Guo Tianxiang "fish" had also come into contact with a lot of confidential matters in the secret department of "Shenxing Technology".

But now, after sensing it again and triggering the Black Circle Graffiti to enter Mi Qiao's dream, Xiang Kun is more concerned with exploring his "Emotional Injection" item.

This time, the moment I sensed it, it triggered a dream, and I entered into Mi Qiao's dream perception.

She was sitting in a corner of a restaurant, intently watching the surveillance footage on her laptop.

With just one glance, Xiang Kun immediately realized that this was the scene when she and Guo Tianxiang were tracking him.

However, because her attention was focused on tracking Xiang Kun, Guo Tianxiang, who should have been beside her in the dream, did not appear in her mind.

Xiang Kun didn't pay much attention to the process of the dream, but instead began to try to enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" in the dream.

However, the prerequisite for "Hyper-Sensory State" is that his perception ability is far stronger than that of ordinary people, and he even has a "sixth sense" that ordinary people do not have. He can clearly feel the changes in the atmospheric electric field and perceive some environmental information that ordinary people cannot perceive. Only by combining those perceptions can he enter "Hyper-Sensory State" while temporarily abandoning the five normal senses.

In other people's dreams, Xiang Kun's perception is based on the perceptual information of those other people.

It's like you're remotely watching a movie on someone else's screen. The movie is a 500MB highly compressed format, which is the output of the integrated graphics card on the other computer. No matter how high your own computer's specs are, it's useless.

So after thinking for a while, Xiang Kun gave up the idea of directly entering the "Hyper-Sensory State" in Mi Qiao's dream, and instead focused his attention on her various sensory details, starting from images, sounds, touch, smells and so on.

Xiang Kun began to try to reverse these perceptions and "convert" them into various information under the "Hyper-Sensory State," specifically the part that he was able to "convert" and "compile."

As he began to think this way, Mi Qiao's dream suddenly underwent a huge change. Everything around him vanished instantly, replaced by a space composed of various lines and circles, which were constantly changing and moving.

Xiang Kun immediately realized that this was a manifestation of the "Hyper-Sensory State" of the dream perception parts that he could transform and compile.

No, that expression is also inaccurate; it differs from perception in a "Hyper-Sensory State."

In a "Hyper-Sensory State," the information cannot be described using traditional senses such as sight and hearing, but now this information is directly "visible."

They were not "translated" into corresponding information under the "Hyper-Sensory State," but rather were special markers summarized by Xiang Kun himself.

In this state, Xiang Kun discovered that his perspective was no longer fixed and aligned with that of the dream's protagonist, Mi Qiao, but could move freely.

Xiang Kun understood. This was the emotional projection of the "Black Circle Graffiti." It could not be perceived by traditional senses and was hidden deep within another layer of the dream. Only by knowing how to "decode" it could one enter.

This discovery greatly excited Xiang Kun, as it could further help him refine his "compilation" of Mi Qiao's sensory information.

He believes that with enough samples, he can soon develop a cognitive model that can translate Mi Qiao's perceived information in a "Hyper-Sensory State".

When that time comes, he can enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" and descend around Mi Qiao through that "Black Circle Graffiti," then observe the changes in her perception, thereby knowing what she sees, hears, and feels. This is equivalent to turning Mi Qiao into his remote "camera," and a "camera" that can collect information from multiple senses.

If this collection method is further expanded, and the sampling scope is extended to the entire human population, then Xiang Kun might be able to obtain more comprehensive environmental information in a "Hyper-Sensory State" by interpreting the sensory feedback of others.

This is much easier than directly "decoding" the surrounding environmental information. The amount of data and the difficulty are on completely different levels, and it is also easier to understand. It is a shortcut!

As he was thinking, Xiang Kun suddenly realized that he seemed to be able to control the various circles and lines in the "Hyper-Sensory State" of the dream, influencing their shape and movement.

Xiang Kun immediately understood that this "Hyper-Sensory State" in the current dream was based on the various perceptions and emotions in Mi Qiao's dream.

Conversely, he can influence Mi Qiao's dream perception and emotions by affecting various information in the "Hyper-Sensory State".

Since this dream was originally guided and helped to be established by the "Emotional Injection" item, the Black Circle Graffiti, it can be said that it is part of the platform and system of this dream. Therefore, it is not difficult for Xiang Kun to influence Mi Qiao's perception through the "Hyper-Sensory State". Unlike in reality, he does not have to establish an item with a "Hyper-Sensory State" to have any targeted and slight influence.

After a while, Xiang Kun, having escaped the "Hyper-Sensory State" in the dream, examined the dream again from Mi Qiao's perspective and found that the laptop screen in front of him had become a long strip more than two meters high, and Mi Qiao's fingers, which were typing on the keyboard, had also become twenty or thirty centimeters long, which was very strange.

But from a subjective perspective, Mi Qiao didn't sense anything strange and continued to tap the keyboard and click the mouse with her stilt-like fingers.

Xiang Kun knew that this was the result of the influence he had just exerted while in a "Hyper-Sensory State".

However, he is not yet familiar enough with or fully familiar with the encoding of that information, and cannot make too detailed modifications. He believes that after a few more experiences, he should be able to use Mi Qiao's existing dream scenes to make more complex edits, and perhaps even make her see specific images or hear specific sounds.

After exiting Mi Qiao's dream, Xiang Kun stretched lazily with a sense of satisfaction.

He had previously realized that the "marks" he drew to organize the feedback information from his "Hyper-Sensory State" would have a special function, but he never expected them to have such a special function.

Those pieces of paper now covered in "Black Circle Graffiti" are like hacking software capable of invading other people's dreams.

Moreover, no one is currently aware of the existence of this "hacking activity".

He glanced at Zicheng, who was still playing games on the other bed next to him. Judging from his grim and miserable expression, their battle situation seemed to remain unchanged.

Around 3 a. m., in a high-end residential area in Qicheng City.

Mi Qiao sat up in bed, rubbed her eyes, and went to the bathroom to relieve herself.

Sitting on the toilet, she looked at her hands, turning them over and over, recalling the dream she had earlier, feeling somewhat bewildered.

In that dream, her laptop screen stretched out into a long strip, looking like a full-length mirror, and her fingers became incredibly long, her two hands resembling two giant crabs.

Thinking about that scene now, it's both funny and scary.

Why would I have such a dream? What does it mean?

Mi Qiao shook her head, wondering if she was thinking about vampires all the time, and that's why she thought she would mutate like that?