I Am Alice (Part 2)

The supermarket employee in charge of cutting and weighing the meat glanced at Xiang Kun while holding a few pieces of pork knuckle on the shelf. Seeing that he didn't react, he followed Lao Xia's advice, packed the meat, weighed it, labeled it, and handed it out.

Xia Libing casually put the packaged pork knuckle into the shopping cart, then continued looking at other ingredients, seemingly unconcerned about Xiang Kun's "trick".

However, after walking only a few steps, Xiang Kun heard Xia Libing whisper, "I was going to ask you some questions about relationships, but it seems you don't have any relevant experience either."

This sounds a bit like, "I was looking to borrow money from you, but it turns out you're just as poor as I am."

Xiang Kun couldn't help but push the shopping cart closer and whispered, "No... just because I'm not very popular at school doesn't mean I don't have relevant experience!"

Xia Libing, who was walking beside the shopping cart, glanced back at him but didn't say anything.

Xiang Kun continued, "Even if I don't have a lot of emotional experience, I still have a lot of theoretical knowledge. Even if I haven't eaten pork, I've seen pigs run! Chang Bin used to be a 'love guru' in school, and as his roommate, I've absorbed a lot of knowledge from him. By the way, you asked about emotional issues, right? Emotions related to these kinds of relationships are actually very diverse and complex; they can't be described or summarized by a single emotion. But this problem is actually quite easy to solve. You don't need specific experience. Let's watch some good romance movies or TV shows together, and maybe I can find some emotions to share."

He could understand Lao Xia's desire to experience more types of emotions that ordinary people have after he had opened the door to emotional perception and experienced emotions like "funny" and "happy" through "Emotional Assimilation".

Undoubtedly, emotional exchanges between people, such as romantic love, are the state in which various emotions are most likely to arise.

Liking someone, being liked by someone, mutual liking, unrequited love, secret crush, broken relationship, betrayal, and many other states can all bring very complex emotional experiences. It's perfectly normal for Lao Xia to be curious.

However, after hearing his words, Xia Libing said, "The first time we played cards at Nana's house, during Truth or Dare Zhen'er asked you how many relationships you'd had, and you said 'once.' That wasn't true, was it?"

Xiang Kun glanced at Lao Xia and said, "I was thinking of making a big dinner, but you seem to be eating too much meat lately. How about we have a vegetarian dinner tonight?"

Xia Libing's expression remained unchanged, and she naturally changed the subject. "After what happened in the mountains and the sea, how do you feel? Do you need to talk to me about it?"

Xiang Kun was slightly taken aback; the shift in topic was quite a leap. However, he instantly understood what Lao Xia meant.

If you only mention "things that happened in the mountains," he might still be a little confused, because he has had so many experiences in various mountains, from Purple Huan Mountain to Wushu Mountain to Chongyun Mountain, Qinling Mountains, and so on. Without a specific reference, it would be impossible to know which time or which incident it refers to.

But with the addition of the word "sea" as a parallel clue, and combined with the following two sentences, he immediately understood what Lao Xia was referring to—his earlier "Electric Flight" in the mountains, which triggered a lightning storm that struck two escaped convicts, and his actions in Myanmar, where he went into the sea to rescue Xia Tianhuo and caused the kidnappers on the ship to kill each other.

The commonality between the two incidents—being asked how he felt and whether he needed to "talk" with Lao Xia —clearly indicates that in both incidents, his actions directly or indirectly resulted in deaths.

To be honest, it was only when Lao Xia asked him that he began to recall and realize the casualties caused by these two incidents; he hadn't had any particular feelings before.

But looking back now, he realizes that "not feeling anything" was actually a different kind of feedback than before.

If it were Xiang Kun before the mutation, witnessing these two events—the entire ship full of people killing each other and two people being struck by lightning and turned into charred remains—would have been a tremendous shock to his soul, and he would have been terrified—he wasn't a particularly courageous person before.

Why don't I feel anything right now?

In terms of visual impact, the memories he had previously obtained from Guo Tianxiang contained far more gory scenes— Guo Tianxiang had committed many bloody and cruel acts in Africa.

Those images no longer had any impact on him, let alone the lightning strikes and the fighting on the ship.

Upon witnessing a bloody scene, especially the death of one's own kind, most ordinary people without special training will, to varying degrees, enter a state of "fight or flight" stress—an instinct ingrained in their DNA.

However, due to his continuous evolution, Xiang Kun has become completely different from ordinary humans in terms of sensory abilities, physical strength, recovery ability, and athletic ability. Many injuries or actions will not cause fatal damage to him. In fact, he can easily dodge them and withstand them without any problem.

Unlike those who undergo extensive training and develop enhanced mental resilience, Xiang Kun changed his instincts directly from the bottom of his body, naturally and effortlessly.

Just like an ordinary person wouldn't feel any strong discomfort if they saw someone else get kicked in the butt or pinched in the arm.

Moreover, his current sensory information collection is fundamentally different from that of ordinary people. When an event or phenomenon occurs, he collects and processes information from all aspects, including sight, hearing, taste, touch, and even the sixth sense, and the amount of information he collects is far greater than that of ordinary people.

Just like when you see a low-resolution image, most people's first reaction is only the intuitive feeling brought by the composition and color of the image, but Xiang Kun can get the information of each pixel immediately, so the feeling and cognition will inevitably be different.

From a moral standpoint, while Xiang Kun may not set a strict "never kill" principle for himself like Batman in DC Comics, he still has his own code of conduct:

When dealing with ordinary people, the use of abilities must be limited, and in the event of any problem, the first consideration should be to resolve it through conventional means within the social framework.

In incidents involving "Mutated Creature," when using extraordinary measures, it is essential to clearly define the target and circumstances for using one's abilities, and to understand the necessity of employing each ability.

The two fugitives in the Chongyun Mountain Region were killed by lightning strikes from his "Electric Flight" technique. This was not because he deliberately controlled the lightning attack, but because he used his ability explosively, causing the clouds to discharge at a high intensity for a short period of time, which was a side effect of creating a small-scale lightning storm.

However, this outcome was within his expectations. He wouldn't deceive himself into thinking that the deaths of the two fugitives were unrelated to him. But he was very clear that the two men had posed a direct threat to Lao Xia first, which was legitimate self-defense and emergency avoidance. Therefore, this action did not conflict with his code of conduct.

The same principle applies when dealing with kidnappers at sea. Xiang Kun chose to use the emotional projection of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" to make them "judge themselves." If anyone posed a direct threat to Xia Tianhuo during this process, he would also take direct action and kill them with swift and decisive means, which would also be considered legitimate self-defense.

Of course, he was not a moral saint, nor did he consider himself a "judge," and he would not demand that he determine whether everyone on the ship "deserved their punishment" or "deserved to be executed."

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.

Therefore, he will not be troubled in any way on a moral level.

Xia Libing's simple sentence prompted Xiang Kun to conduct a great deal of "self-examination" in an instant.

However, the process was actually very quick. From the moment Lao Xia finished speaking to the Xiang Kun finished his self-reflection, it took only a second.

Xiang Kun thought of the poem by a character named "Buddha Sword Discourse" from a certain work, feeling it would be quite suitable as an answer, and also very sophisticated. So he smiled slightly and said to Lao Xia, "Don't worry, I have no problem. 'Killing is for the protection of life, cutting off karma is not cutting off people,' I've thought it through very clearly."

Lao Xia glanced at him and said, "Oh." Then he started helping him take items out of the shopping cart, scan them, and pay.

This made Xiang Kun, who had originally thought his words would sound sophisticated, suddenly feel like he was being a bit silly, and he felt slightly embarrassed.

However, after paying and leaving the supermarket with the groceries, on his way back, Xiang Kun Lao Xia, who had a detached expression, and suddenly realized that Lao Xia's question might not actually be because he was worried about the impact of those two things on his mental state. Otherwise, he would have talked to him earlier and wouldn't have brought it up suddenly now.

Lao Xia, who has observed and understood him in a comprehensive way, should be well aware that those two incidents will not have any impact on his state or mentality.

In connection with the previous topic, Lao Xia bringing this up now... is probably a reminder that, given his current superhuman sensory abilities, way of thinking, and state of being, acquiring many emotions might be many times more difficult than before the mutation.

Clearly, Xia Libing, who can only gain new emotional perceptions through his "Emotional Assimilation," is also worried that Xiang Kun's continuous mutation and evolution have made his threshold for certain emotions too high, thus reducing her chances of perceiving those emotions.

However, for the time being, Xiang Kun himself doesn't have any good solutions to this situation.

Back home, Xiang Kun prepared the ingredients and cooked, while Lao Xia entered the "world of consciousness" through the "CAKE01" notebook to establish a special connection with the "Black Circle Graffiti" that Alice had briefly sensed before, in preparation for the subsequent experiment.

Xiang Kun prepared a lavish dinner, including Lao Xia's favorite crispy pork knuckle, fish soup, lamb chops, two plates of vegetables adjusted to her taste, and fragrant rice.

Lao Xia, of course, wouldn't let the delicious food go to waste. She ate to her heart's content, even loosening the belt of her overalls pants a notch, and then wielded her chopsticks and spoon in a bold and unrestrained manner.

The entire dining process was quiet, efficient, and fast. Lao Xia even ate with a sense of rhythm, which made Xiang Kun was eating "Juxian Ice Cream" next to him, secretly sigh. Fortunately, "Little Apple" wasn't so obsessed with food, otherwise he would have thought that the "entry condition" for his "Super-Sensing Item System" was "foodie".

After dinner, feeling slightly full, Xia Libing wandered around the house a few times before sitting on the sofa in a daze for a while. Then her eyelids started to get heavy, and she was indeed feeling sleepy.

Xiang Kun quickly told Lao Xia to lie down and go to sleep. He also explained things to Alice, checked the arrangements of the "Emotion-Infused Object" and "Super-Linked Object," and only after making preparations did he sit down in the computer chair next to the bed.

Xia Libing quickly relaxed, succumbed to drowsiness, and fell asleep.

Xiang Kun judged that Lao Xia was asleep based on her breathing and other physical information, but he did not immediately sense the dream triggered by the "Emotion-Infused Object". Instead, he waited for a while before he began to sense it.

In Lao Xia's dream, just like always, she quickly "woke up" and then, as planned, began to try to create a "Dream Within a Dream" through that "Black Circle Graffiti".

Normally, the establishment of a "Dream Within a Dream" requires someone to be asleep around the "Black Circle Graffiti," but currently, apart from Xiang Kun and Lao Xia themselves, there are no other "people" within that area.

If it weren't for the "experiment" with Alice at noon, and we had directly attempted this "Dream Within a Dream," there would be no doubt that we would have been unable to create any "Dream Within a Dream" using that "Black Circle Graffiti."

However, after successfully getting Alice to perceive the "Black Circle Graffiti" at noon and briefly accessing the world of "hypersensory information," Alice has found a "format" that can be assimilated and influenced by "Emotion-Infused Object." Now, as long as she is prepared and the connection with the "Super-Linked Object" is established, she has the conditions to be influenced by "Emotion-Infused Object" and create a "Dream Within a Dream."

Whether it is human consciousness or computer data processing, after being unified by "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object", they can essentially be regarded as having the same "format".

Of course, all of this was just a plan that Xiang Kun had come up with on his own, a plan that should theoretically be feasible. He was not sure what the actual outcome would be.

The chances of success in this step are much smaller than those in the experiment at noon.

Sensing Lao Xia's dream, Xiang Kun waited with a mix of nervousness and excitement for the result of Lao Xia's creation of the "Dream Within a Dream".

When Xiang Kun sensed that Lao Xia's dream was becoming chaotic, with various sensory information rapidly disappearing, yet the dream did not collapse, Xiang Kun knew that the "Dream Within a Dream" had been successfully established!

Xiang Kun was very excited. Once the "Dream Within a Dream" was established, it would mean the success of this experiment. Alice would have the basic conditions to be included in the "Super-Sensing Item System." As for what Alice was dreaming about, it didn't matter.

Alice's dream, presented through the "Dream Within a Dream" created by Lao Xia, is an incredibly chaotic space, filled with a jumble of sensory information, making it impossible for a normal person to perceive or understand.

Even Xiang Kun, who could adapt to Little Apple's dream, read the memory fragments of "Mutated Parasite" and "mutated spiders," and understand various cognitive information under "Hyper-Sensory State" to a certain extent, was still completely baffled by this dream—he felt that Alice herself couldn't figure out what she was dreaming about.

Just when Xiang Kun thought this "Dream Within a Dream" should end, the surrounding environment changed drastically, and a somewhat familiar white room appeared in Xiang Kun's visual perception.

Xiang Kun immediately recognized it as the room that had appeared many times in Lao Xia's dreams.

But now, the room is empty, there's nothing there, neither Lao Xia nor Alice.

Clearly, the room that is now being shown is the result of Lao Xia's influence on Alice's "Dream Within a Dream".

At this moment, Lao Xia and Alice were like the materials that made up the room, while he was the one spying from above.

Xiang Kun was a little curious; what was Lao Xia going to do?

Alice was clearly not used to this method of connection; she was unable to process data in this way or find the correct way to express information.

Xiang Kun, the creator of Alice and an experienced programmer, can't find a good solution yet. Could it be that Lao Xia has already come up with a solution in such a short time?

A moment later, Xia Libing, dressed in work pants, basketball shoes, and a sports jacket, appeared in the room. This was the first time Xiang Kun had seen Lao Xia appear in person in the "Dream Within a Dream," not with the "panda expression."

Nine Coin and a tungsten steel ball then appeared in the room; they were dream projections of ten "Super-Linked Object" that had a special connection with Lao Xia.

Nine coins and one bead floated to a corner of the room, dissipated, and then coalesced into the shape of a little girl.

The little girl was dressed in a gorgeous princess dress, black leather shoes, and cute accessories in her hair. She had delicate features, but her face was expressionless, and her big eyes were devoid of any light. She was squatting in the corner of the room, holding a scalpel and scratching and digging at the wall, as if she wanted to dig a tunnel to escape, or as if she was studying the material of the wall.

The image of this girl... is clearly the same childhood image that Xiang Kun once saw in Lao Xia's dream, Projection Manifestation through the "Super-Linked Object" dream projection!

But now, Xiang Kun is certain that this "Little Lao Xia" is Alice's expression in this dream—or rather, it is Lao Xia who guides and controls her expression in this dream.

This dream belongs to Alice, but the super administrator is Lao Xia, who is helping Alice construct and understand the dream.

As for Xiang Kun? He's the power source.

Lao Xia in the room beckoned to "Little Lao Xia" in the corner, and the little girl who was squatting in the corner digging at the wall with a scalpel instantly appeared in front of her, looking up at her blankly with her little face upturned.

The current Alice version of "Little Lao Xia" is quite different from the delicate little girl Xiang Kun first saw in Lao Xia's dream. Although they look exactly the same and are equally expressionless, there are still some subtle differences. Back then, "Little Lao Xia" looked indifferent, while the current "Little Lao Xia" is bewildered, with confusion and a little bit of curiosity in her big eyes.

"Who are you?" Lao Xia asked in his dream.

"Who am I?" "Little Lao Xia" repeated the question, tilting his head in thought. Gradually, his blank gaze began to focus.

"I am Xiang Kun's assistant."

"I'm the boss's assistant."

"I am... Alice."