Major Discovery in the Level-2 Network

The next day, Xiang Kun called Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er, and prepared to go to Peng City with them to discuss with Zhang Qian some matters related to the operation of the game after its official launch.

Of course, his main purpose was actually to deploy more "Super-Linked Object" in the Guarding Prosperity Building so that Alice could try to access the data in the underground storage device again.

Xia Libing won't be going this time. Firstly, a batch of equipment she ordered will arrive in the next few days, and she needs to be on-site to ensure the installation and debugging go smoothly. Secondly, she naturally needs to take care of Little Apple and Little Chubby Girl.

Although in terms of safety, Little Apple, Little Chubby Girl, and Alice are practically invincible in Chongyun Village, they are still children after all—even Little Apple is not yet eighteen years old.

When three children are together, one of them always needs to be an adult to watch over them. Otherwise, for one thing, when Professor Li video chats with Little Apple and finds that Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, and Xia Libing are all absent, he won't feel at ease.

When we went to Jianzhou Airport, we drove that MPV again, and Lao Xia, Little Apple, and Little Chubby Girl all came along to see us off.

Upon arriving at the airport, Xiang Kun, Tang Baona, and Yang Zhen'er were about to enter the terminal, Liu Shiling, who had been standing next to Little Apple, suddenly walked over quickly and gently tugged at Xiang Kun's sleeve.

Xiang Kun looked down and saw the Little Chubby Girl had been chatting and laughing happily in the car just moments before. Now, looking up at her, her face was full of worry and anxiety. She asked softly, "Uncle Baldy, you're not not coming back, are you?"

Xiang Kun gently patted her head and said confidently, "Of course I'll come back. I'm going to take you to see your mom and dad. Don't worry, I'll bring you something delicious next time I come back."

After receiving the reply, Liu Shiling felt relieved and smiled again. However, before she could say anything, Yang Zhen'er, who was squatting down next to her, cupped her face in her hands.

"Little Bell, tell me what delicious food you want to eat, and I'll bring you lots and lots of it when I come back this time— way more than your bald uncle! I'll also buy you pretty clothes, pretty shoes, a pretty watch, and pretty toys!"

With her cheeks squeezed and her lips pouting, Liu Shiling could only look at Yang Zhen'er and say in a muffled voice, "Thank you, Sister Fairy, but you bought me so many clothes yesterday, I can't wear them all..."

"Call her Fairy Sister," Yang Zhen'er corrected.

Liu Shiling had no choice but to obey, saying, "Fairy Sister."

Satisfied, Yang Zhen'er got up and walked into the hall with Xiang Kun and Tang Baona. Professor Li Yang was not there today, nor was Shiling's Mother. Everyone present was "one of us," so she naturally thickened her skin twice and successfully completed the "addressing correction work" for the Little Chubby Girl.

But as soon as they entered the hall, they heard the Little Chubby Girl shouting, "Goodbye, bald uncle! Goodbye, pretty sister! Goodbye, fairy sister! Come back soon!"

Okay, the "correction" failed.

While checking in, Yang Zhen'er couldn't help but sigh, "Little Bell is so adorable. If I have a daughter in the future, I hope she'll be like Little Bell. Ah~, so cute, so precious. I'll definitely hold her while she sleeps every day, buy her delicious food and pretty clothes every day, and play with her every day. Hmm, it would be nice if she were like Lao Xia when he was little, obedient and smart. I'd dress her up beautifully and let her play whatever she wants."

Tang Baona, who was next to Xiang Kun, couldn't help but laugh as she took the boarding pass from him, "Come on, your daughter will definitely look like you when you were a child!"

Yang Zhen'er couldn't help but look disgusted. "Then forget it, let's not have children."

"You do have some self-awareness," Tang Baona laughed. "This isn't liking children; it's just that you're attracted to their cuteness. That kind of mentality is unacceptable. But if you had children, your mother would probably help you take care of them."

"That's even more impossible. My mom said that raising me has cost her at least fifty more gray hairs, especially before I started elementary school. I was such a naughty kid. I can't let her suffer again." Yang Zhen'er said, then looked at Tang Baona and said, "Nana, you were super cute when you were little. Your daughter must be cute too. Hmm, how about you and Chef Xiang's child recognize me as their godmother?"

Upon hearing this, both Tang Baona and Xiang Kun stopped and turned to look at her.

Yang Zhen'er paused for a moment, glanced at the two of them, and laughed, "Oh dear, why are you looking at me like that? Can't I even joke around? Your kids, or your kids could each have me as their godmother, hehe, what are you thinking? Hehe, come on, let's go through security, we're going to miss our flight! Ouch! Don't pinch my stomach, Nana..."

After boarding the plane and taking his seat, Xiang Kun started to act like he was going to sleep.

He needs to continue entering a "Hyper-Sensory State" to sort out his "Emotion-Infused Object Level-2 Network".

Last night, after Qi Haoguo's change of mindset became the catalyst for discovering the "Emotion-Infused Object Level-2 Network," Xiang Kun had been constantly entering a "Hyper-Sensory State," sorting things out all night.

He is now basically able to identify the people who were half affected by "Emotion-Infused Object" and established "links" within the secondary network—the cognitive information of these people is what he had previously perceived in his "Hyper-Sensory State".

But a large portion, mainly the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" and the Twelve Yellow Men and Four Cat Wooden Carving displayed in the "Youlong Restaurant," especially the former, has established links, half of which he cannot verify the identities of.

On one hand, he is helping Alice delve into the "Emotion-Infused Object Level-2 Network" to identify and analyze this cognitive information, helping him to judge the cognitive information of the target's surrounding environment, thereby analyzing the target's identity.

On the other hand, he was also looking for ways to directly use this link to trigger the dreams of the "linkers" in the "secondary network" while they were asleep, and to use the sensory information in the dreams to determine their identities and their environment.

Based on the characteristics of "Emotion-Infused Object," this is theoretically possible.

However, while sorting out the "secondary network" relationships until the early hours of the morning, a discovery shocked Xiang Kun:

Among the twenty-eight linked targets of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving," one was a "Mutated Creature," and one that was completely unfamiliar to Xiang Kun!

This is absolutely amazing!

Based on cognitive information, that "Mutated Creature" also mutated from a human. Its degree of mutation should be much smaller than that of John and Mr. Liang in the Guarding Prosperity Building. As for how it compares to Guo Tianxiang back then, it's not clear, since he didn't have the ability to perceive extrasensory information at that time.

But the question is, when was this "humanoid Mutated Creature" deeply affected by the emotional projection of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving"?

If Xiang Kun were to invoke the emotional projection of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving," and a "Mutated Creature" were affected at the moment of the influence, he would immediately be able to sense it.

Even when he was in Montamira and exerted that influence over a large area, he could guarantee that he would be able to sense any "Mutated Creature" within that range.

Especially in the "Hyper-Sensory State," the cognitive information of the "Mutated Creature" is fundamentally different from the cognitive information of everything else, as obvious as a searchlight in the dark, and he cannot miss it.

In fact, he was deliberately searching for "Mutated Creature" in Montamira and on his way back home, but to no avail.

Or perhaps, when Little Apple used the "Super-Sensing Item System" to influence others by projecting the emotions of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving," she unknowingly also affected a certain "humanoid Mutated Creature"?

However, he quickly dismissed this possibility. When Little Apple projected fear onto people, it had to do so through her eyes, so there was no possibility that Little Apple herself would affect others without knowing the situation.

Judging from the information he asked Alice to look up, the three suspects whom Little Apple intervened to stop a crime by the lake during the Spring Festival and influenced with her fear projection were definitely not "Mutated Creature"—two of them are still serving time in prison, and the one outside, through Alice's control of the electronic devices around him and comprehensive information analysis, can be determined to be an ordinary person.

Therefore, there should only be one possibility: among the people Montamira was widely affected by him, one person later mutated and became a "Mutated Creature".

According to Xiang Kun's understanding, "Mutated Creature" are already very rare and have a very low probability of appearing in this world, and "humanoid Mutated Creature," or "Mutated Creature" derived from humans, are even rarer.

Is it really possible that someone might mutate shortly after being affected by his "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving" emotional projection?

How small is that probability?

But now it seems that this possibility is the most likely, otherwise there is no way to explain why there would be a "Mutated Creature" linker in the secondary network of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving".

This isn't some open "network" that allows individual devices to connect on their own.

However, if this conjecture is true, then Xiang Kun cannot help but wonder whether there is a direct or indirect relationship between the mutation of the "humanoid Mutated Creature" and the influence of the fear projection of the "Eight-Armed Eight-Eyed Wooden Carving".

This discovery may be a clue that helps him unravel the cause of the mutation.

Of course, he wouldn't simply assume that the mutations stemmed from the influence of deep emotional projections. After all, not only humans can mutate, but other parasites, spiders, and even plants can mutate as well. They are not affected by emotional projections triggered by "Emotion-Infused Object."

There must be more complex reasons.

Xiang Kun can now only be basically certain that the "humanoid Mutated Creature" is male, about 1.75 to 1.77 meters tall, and its emotions have remained in a relatively indifferent and calm state—this makes him somewhat doubt his own deduction. If the target has only recently mutated, shouldn't its emotions be tense, fearful, or excited and uneasy? Why is it calm?

While in his "Hyper-Sensory State," he continuously analyzed the cognitive information of the "humanoid Mutated Creature," and then reconfirmed all the linkers in the "Emotion-Infused Object Level-2 Network." After confirming that there was only this one "Mutated Creature" linker, he exited the "Hyper-Sensory State," realized that the plane was preparing to land, and opened his eyes.

When Xiang Kun noticed that Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er, who were sitting on either side of him, were staring at him, he asked with a smile, "What's wrong? Do I look terrible while sleeping?" When he was in "Hyper-Sensory State," his normal five senses were blocked, so he had no idea what Nana and Zhen'er were saying or doing.

Tang Baona shook her head. "On the contrary, your sleeping posture is too 'peaceful'."

"Exactly, exactly. It doesn't look like a normal person sleeping at all. If Nana slept this long, her drool would be dripping onto her shoulders!" Yang Zhen'er nodded repeatedly.

"Pah! It was clearly you! When we went out together before, you drooled all over my shoulder countless times!" Tang Baona scolded playfully.

"Really? I don't remember!" Yang Zhen'er continued to focus her fire on Xiang Kun: "Chef Xiang, you're really strange when you sleep. You have this 'I've seen through everything' expression on your face, and with your bald head, you look like a high-ranking monk, as if your soul has left your body and is traveling the world!"

Xiang Kun laughed, "So it's a mistake that I sleep too well? 'Peacefully'... that's an exaggeration, it's like I'm already dead. Okay, I confess, I wasn't asleep, I was pretending."

"No, you must be asleep," Tang Baona said with certainty.

"Oh? Why do you say that?" Xiang Kun asked.

"Intuition," Tang Baona said.

Yang Zhen'er immediately exposed her lie. "Nonsense! Nana just secretly touched your bald head, and you didn't even react, so you must have been asleep!"

"Nonsense... You were the one who touched me!" Tang Baona said, then became a little embarrassed, and said to Xiang Kun, "It was just a light touch, you're not angry, are you?"

Xiang Kun was both amused and exasperated, unsure of what to say.

Upon arriving at Peng City Airport, Zhang Qian's arranged pick-up service was already waiting for them.

Xiang Kun originally thought Zhang Qian would arrange a driver to come, but he didn't expect her to come to the airport to pick them up in person.

After Tang Baona, Yang Zhen'er, and Zhang Qian greeted him, Xiang Kun walked over and said with a smile, "You're such a busy person, how come you still have time to pick us up?"

"You're the one who's incredibly busy, okay? It's really not easy to see you. Even just making a phone call requires Ms. Tang to make an appointment with you several times in advance."

"That's different. I'm just busy doing nothing, while you're genuinely busy. It's different, haha." Clearly, Zhang Qian was quite resentful, Xiang Kun quickly laughed it off and made a self-deprecating joke to smooth things over.

In the van, Zhang Qian and Xiang Kun sat together in the back seat. Zhang Qian explained the game's test data over the past period, as well as some problems that had arisen and possible situations, and their solutions. The information was very concise and well-prepared, making the three "high-level executives" of "Universe Technology," who had just been considering where to have dinner that night, feel ashamed.

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