Lao Xia's Dream
At the airport exit, Xia Libing, carrying a backpack, stood by the roadside, looking down at her phone, looking like a traveler waiting for a friend to pick her up.
But in reality, she was in the "world of consciousness" at this moment, carefully establishing a connection with the Black Circle Graffiti that Mi Qiao had placed in the GL8 in the open-air parking lot not far away.
Actually, it was somewhat different from what Xiang Kun had imagined. Although she had seen Zhou Rui's photo and knew what this researcher working for the secret department of "Shenxing Technology" looked like, she didn't recognize Zhou Rui when she first noticed Zhou Rui, Mi Qiao, and others at the airport. Instead, while waiting for the car, she entered the "consciousness world" for a while and vaguely sensed other "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object" nearby.
She had just discovered on the plane that in the "world of consciousness," she could sense other "Emotional Injection," but only "Emotional Injection" of the "Black Circle Graffiti" type could be connected to by her and further influenced—she had used this method on the plane, with the "Black Circle Graffiti" that Xiang Kun had given her before, to guide the person sitting next to her into a dream.
After escaping the "world of consciousness," Xia Libing recognized Zhou Rui as he walked out of the airport terminal. She then deduced that the young woman who came to pick up Zhou Rui was Mi Qiao —the only person who could be associated with Zhou Rui, carrying both Xiang Kun's "Black Circle Graffiti" and "Super-Linked Object," was Mi Qiao. Moreover, her appearance matched Xiang Kun's previous description.
Xia Libing was naturally very interested in the people from "Shenxing Technology," but she also knew that before figuring out the identity of the people behind "Shenxing Technology," their ultimate goal, and their exact attitude towards other "vampires," it would be very risky for Xiang Kun to rashly expose himself to "Shenxing Technology's" "vision."
So when she asked Xiang Kun to temporarily disable the GL8, it wasn't because she wanted to go directly to contact Mi Qiao and the others, or even to observe them from the sidelines. Rather, she simply wanted to establish a connection with the "Black Circle Graffiti" on Mi Qiao's body in her "consciousness world" so that she could later attempt to perform some remote operations using it.
Unlike "Little Apple," who can directly connect with the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" that she has never seen before across thousands of kilometers, Xia Libing needs to maintain a certain distance, at least within sight, in order to establish a connection with other "Emotion-Infused Object" in the "world of consciousness," and this requires a certain amount of time, approximately 10-20 minutes.
In Tang Baona's bathroom, Xiang Kun, who had entered a "Hyper-Sensory State," sensed the "Black Circle Graffiti"Super-Linked Object next to Mi Qiao and descended. He then used a piece of paper, which he had secretly placed inside Mi Qiao's notebook case, to create an effect that interfered with the circuitry of the GL8, making it temporarily unable to start.
He couldn't perform overly complicated operations, but he was quite adept at making a car temporarily unable to start.
Since Lao Xia didn't say how long Mi Qiao and the others' car needed to stay parked, Xiang Kun persisted for more than twenty minutes until he couldn't hold on any longer and came out of the "Hyper-Sensory State" before picking up his phone to check it.
A few minutes earlier, Lao Xia had sent an OK emoji and explained that he had established a connection with the Black Circle Graffiti in Mi Qiao's place through the "consciousness world".
She also told Xiang Kun that she had a plan for that night that she needed to carry out in her dream, and that she would contact him again after she got home and Xiang Kun got home as well.
Although he didn't know what Lao Xia was going to do, Xiang Kun was still quite looking forward to it. He felt that Lao Xia might bring him another surprise in the way he "interpreted" the Black Circle Graffiti.
After leaving the bathroom and returning to the living room, everyone stopped chatting and discussing and looked at him.
"A Tu, are you constipated? Or did you fall asleep on the toilet?" Even Zi Cheng, who was connected via video call, looked at Xiang Kun with a strange expression, his voice coming from the Bluetooth speaker. "You've been in the bathroom for almost an hour, haven't you?"
Chang Bin laughed and said, "I thought you had secretly run back!"
Xiang Kun laughed and scolded, "What do you mean an hour? It was only 20 minutes in total, okay? I just scrolled through my phone, saw an article that seemed interesting, and before I knew it, I had finished reading it."
Tang Baona's future brother-in-law Gao Yao, said earnestly, "When you go to the toilet, it's best not to use your phone or stay there for too long, otherwise you'll easily get hemorrhoids."
"Speaking of hemorrhoids, I recommend a great way to treat them. No medicine, no surgery, just Kegel exercises every day. Seriously, I've personally tested it and it works," Yang Zhuo suddenly said, making his girlfriend Xiao Min, who was standing next to him, want to laugh.
Liu Caifu was connected via video, chuckled and said, "Kegel exercises really do help. Also, drink more water and exercise more."
Zi Cheng nodded. "Yeah, we really need to be careful, especially since we sit for hours at a time when we're working... By the way, A Tu, you sat on the toilet for so long, your poop must be dried out, right? Won't it be hard to wipe...?"
"Hey, hey, hey! Stop it, stop it!" Yang Jie interrupted their discussion helplessly, wanting to rub her forehead. "Gentlemen, watch yourselves, you've gone a little too far off track!"
Zi Cheng chuckled and scratched his head, "We were just discussing health issues, hehe." He was having so much fun chatting that he almost forgot the people on the other end of the video call were in Tang Baona's living room, and there were quite a few girls there too.
It was already past 1 a. m., and You Meng and Liu Caifu in the video were yawning repeatedly. So they had a late-night snack together, chatted for a while, and then went home.
Xiang Kun still hitched a ride with Chang Bin and Wang Han.
Even though everyone had clearly expressed their investment intentions and unanimously agreed that Xiang Kun's game had potential, discussions couldn't yield results overnight. Xiang Kun didn't offer many opinions to avoid accidentally getting carried away and creating an "Emotional Assimilation" effect, which would make everyone overly invested and expectant of the project—that wouldn't be good either.
However, it's not necessary for everyone to discuss this together anymore. Zhang Qian, Zicheng, and Liu Caifu will be the main leaders and responsible parties, while Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er will represent them. Once they finalize the details, they can gather everyone together to inform them when it's time to execute the plan.
Of course, in reality, it was Zhang Qian who was the one who actually carried out the operation. She was also the most dedicated, the most resourceful, and the one with the most ideas.
At that time, she will become the de facto head of the company, which is something Xiang Kun would like to see.
He also plans to come over, and Chang Bin and Wang Han will assist him. Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er have already resigned and are preparing to dedicate themselves full-time. He believes they can definitely do a good job, and he only needs to ensure the quality of the game. However, in order to keep Alice in the dark, he will require the development company and the publishing and operation company to be separated.
Xiang Kun himself wasn't very interested in running a game company; this was just a means for him to obtain funding and conduct some experiments.
His real focus was still on the laboratory he wanted to build with Lao Xia in Tongshi Town and Chongyun Village.
It was almost 3 a. m. when I got home. At 2 a. m., Lao Xia had already sent a Zzz emoji, obviously going to sleep.
Xiang Kun knew that this meant he could trigger the dream whenever he had time.
So Xiang Kun sat down in the computer chair and began to sense the pair of chopsticks he had given to Lao Xia, using them to guide his dream.
Although Lao Xia has now developed a very special connection with the notebook she named "CAKE01," which is Black Circle Graffiti doodles, and can even use it to enter the "world of consciousness" and contact other "Emotion-Infused Object," in reality, this notebook full of Black Circle Graffiti, "CAKE01," cannot trigger Lao Xia's dreams like chopsticks Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving. In essence, Lao Xia does not actually have any emotional resonance with "CAKE01."
So, to make Lao Xia dream, we still need chopsticks.
In the dream, Xia Libing, who was already quite adept at it, quickly "woke up" in the dream.
Then, Lao Xia projected the nine coins, one bead, and ten "Super-Linked Object" into the dream, and the notebook "CAKE01" appeared. Next, he actually tried to enter the "world of consciousness" in the dream.
Upon seeing this, Xiang Kun was also stunned, but the next moment, he discovered that he could actually enter another dream through Lao Xia's perception channel in the dream.
Xiang Kun and Lao Xia observed the dream from the perspective of bystanders.
Judging from the surroundings, it was a small room. A woman with distinctive dreadlocks was sitting at the table, rapidly typing on her laptop keyboard, pausing occasionally to click the mouse and ponder for a moment.
Xiang Kun naturally recognized the woman with dreadlocks; it was Mi Qiao!
In other words, this is Mi Qiao's dream, Lao Xia, within her dream, triggered Mi Qiao's dream?
Dream Within a Dream?
Is this the plan that Lao Xia mentioned before?
If Xiang Kun senses Mi Qiao's "Black Circle Graffiti" himself, he can also guide her into a dream and perceive the dream through Mi Qiao's perception.
But now he is perceiving Mi Qiao's dream through Lao Xia's perception. He cannot perceive Mi Qiao's emotions or other direct sensory information. He is more like an observer, or even... He and Lao Xia are this dream, like a container or platform, and Mi Qiao in the dream is just data contained and wrapped by this dream.
Next, Xiang Kun discovered that the bed in the room was gone, replaced by a desk, and the wardrobe was also gone, replaced by a refrigerator.
Moreover, both the desk and the refrigerator were from the home that Lao Xia rented in Citong City.
He immediately realized that Lao Xia was trying to edit his dream!
Lao Xia could do these things in her own dreams, but this is Mi Qiao's dream...
Wait, no, strictly speaking, this is still Lao Xia's dream, Dream Within a Dream.
Xiang Kun was somewhat shocked, admiring Lao Xia's "creativity" but even more shocked by the current situation, and very curious about how it was done and how it was achieved!
He was able to edit Mi Qiao's dreams through a "Hyper-Sensory State," but after a lot of effort, all he could do was stretch the laptop screen in Mi Qiao's dream to be very long.
Now it seems that in Mi Qiao's dream, Lao Xia could do whatever he wanted!
Xiang Kun realized that Lao Xia had achieved all this by relying on the characteristics of "Black Circle Graffiti," and the special feature of "Black Circle Graffiti" was the expression of cognitive information under "Hyper-Sensory State."
In other words, by understanding how Lao Xia edits dreams within Dream Within a Dream, we can help him directly edit other people's dreams. And by using this method, and through the "Hyper-Sensory State" in dreams, he may be able to better "interpret" cognitive information under the "Hyper-Sensory State" in reality!
Just as he was thinking this, Lao Xia created a "person" in the middle of the room, which spoke to Mi Qiao in a very strange voice.
Upon seeing the "person's" appearance, if he weren't currently in a "dream," Xiang Kun would probably have burst out laughing.
That "person" was clearly the panda emoji that Lao Xia often posted; it looked like a two-dimensional character that had been pulled into the three-dimensional world.