New Companion

"Egg Pie, have you been a good boy/girl and listened to Uncle Bald, Uncle Little Apple... and your sister?" Liu Shiling asked in a low voice under the covers, her tone like that of a parent worried about their child being naughty.

But the egg Egg Pie seemed to understand, and gave a soft meow as if in response.

Liu Shiling seemed to understand the meow and said, "Be good, be good. When Uncle Baldy comes to Peng City, he'll bring you along. I can also visit you during my summer vacation and bring you super delicious canned food and cat food."

Clearly, without realizing it, the Little Chubby Girl had come to regard going to Chongyun Village as "going home." In her heart, Chongyun Village was probably a place like "home."

Egg Pie meowed a series of times, and Xiang Kun video chatting with Little Chubby Girl while holding it, couldn't help but grin, because the meows were even melodious and varied, as if they really had a system of cat language.

Surprisingly, the Little Chubby Girl on the other end of the video, whose screen was mostly black except for a little reflection, kept nodding as she listened. She then said, "You mean Little Screw introduced you and Gold Glitter to a new friend? Yeah, when I go back for summer vacation, let's go find it together. By the way, what's the new friend's name?"

Egg Pie started meowing again, and Liu Shiling frowned on the other side. "Egg Pie, you need to learn to speak human language! I can't understand just meowing!"

Egg Pie blinked its mouth, then stopped meowing. It looked up and met Xiang Kun's gaze, its eyes filled with undisguised distress. Xiang Kun almost burst out laughing.

Of course, he could understand what Egg Pie was trying to say, but after all, he was at the foundation of the "Super-Sensing Item System." Under close contact, it wasn't difficult for him to understand what Egg Pie Yolk Pie, Gold Glitter, and even Zero Zero One Zero Zero Two were actively trying to say. But for Little Chubby Girl to be able to accurately determine what Egg Pie was "saying" just by meowing was truly amazing! No wonder she was Egg Pie's guide into the "Super-Sensing Item System"!

Xiang Kun rubbed the cat's head and said to the Little Chubby Girl, "Alice, Egg Pie, and Gold Glitter have met a new friend named 'Little Radish.' It lives in the mountains. If you want to know more about it, you can ask Alice."

Alice knew many things without Xiang Kun's authorization, and she couldn't reveal them even to Lao Xia, Little Chubby Girl, and Little Apple, who were very close to her. So she wouldn't take the initiative to mention the "new partner" that Xiang Kun had entrusted to her care, the big tree she had named— Little Radish.

But since Egg Pie and Gold Glitter aren't human, Alice had no worries. So these past two days, she often took Egg Pie and Gold Glitter into the mountains at night to play near the "Little Radish" tree.

But she didn't expect that Egg Pie had no sense of secrecy. When she turned around and met the Little Chubby Girl, she immediately "confessed"—of course, she may have foreseen it, and even foreseen that Xiang Kun wouldn't hold it against her.

After all, in a sense, what Gold Glitter knows is the same as what Little Apple knows.

In terms of the ability to "understand the superior's intentions," Alice is relatively good, after all, her growth has been influenced by Xiang Kun all along.

After hearing Xiang Kun's introduction, the Little Chubby Girl nestled in her blankets looked excited; she had a new friend!

Xiang Kun immediately added, "Don't ask tonight. Go to sleep now. I'll have Alice supervise you. If you don't go to sleep, she won't tell you about Little Radish."

The Little Chubby Girl immediately deflated, but still obediently replied, "Okay, Uncle Baldy, I'll go to sleep right away!" After a pause, she added, "Then... can Alice and Little Radish come to my dreams to play with me?"

"No," Xiang Kun immediately refused.

Of course, in reality, Lao Xia is already asleep, so he can't use Lao Xia to guide the "Dream Within a Dream" and bring multiple consciousnesses into the dream.

Moreover, he wasn't sure if "Little Radish" could enter his dreams.

The current "Little Radish" is in a very strange and special state. It has not been fully incorporated into the "Super-Sensing Item System," but it has a very special connection with Xiang Kun.

It was not an ordinary tree, but for the time being, Xiang Kun had not found any characteristics of a "Mutated Creature" on it. Whether from traditional sensory information such as smell, or from the judgment of cognitive information under "Hyper-Sensory State", there was no way to confirm that it was a "Mutated Creature".

In comparison, it seems more like the two ordinary creatures, Zero Zero One Zero Zero Two, that Xiang Kun modified through the "Super-Sensing Item System," and even somewhat similar to Egg Pie and Gold Glitter.

But Xiang Kun knew that, in essence, "Little Radish" was different from the other ordinary creatures that he or Little Chubby Girl had pulled into the "Super-Sensing Item System".

Its changing factors partly come from Xiang Kun's abilities, and partly from a small portion of special cognitive information when Joel's body collapsed.

It seems to be undergoing changes, and if this process is developing into a "Mutated Creature," being able to observe the entire process would greatly help Xiang Kun to understand the reasons behind "Mutated Creature" more deeply.

Whether it is Mr. Liang's "High-Dimensional Factor theory" or Xiang Kun's "Consciousness-Entangled Particle theory", they are just hypotheses. How exactly "High-Dimensional Factor" and "Consciousness-Entangled Particle" work in biological bodies and how they affect a biological unit as a whole still needs to be verified by actual observations before they can be finally determined.

After telling the Little Chubby Girl to go to sleep, Xiang Kun let go of her hand, and the Egg Pie disappeared in a flash.

Xiang Kun knew that the playful cat wasn't going back to sleep, but had instead darted out of the yard and run towards Chongyun Mountain. At that moment, Gold Glitter had already flown over at Alice's call, and the three of them were going to find "Little Radish" to play with.

Xiang Kun went to the top of the mountain and looked out at the dark Chongyun Mountain in the distance. He knew that Alice had reappeared and was playing on the "swing" made of vines that had grown on "Little Radish".

"Little Radish" does indeed possess an independent consciousness, but initially, this consciousness required extrasensory information to communicate and perceive.

Although Xiang Kun can decipher some extrasensory information, he is, after all, human, and is still accustomed to understanding information through human cognition. Therefore, there are many obstacles in communicating with "Little Radish," making it relatively difficult.

But Alice is different. Although she always considers herself human, she was born in the digital world and is almost completely integrated into extrasensory information. She has a more inclusive way of understanding various stream-of-consciousness information and near-infinite energy.

Moreover, for Alice, "Little Radish" is the tree she named, and it was born and raised in Chongyun Mountain, which is her territory. Naturally, she has a strong "big sister" mentality and wants to play with the other party.

After discovering a way to communicate with extrasensory information, Alice immediately began to communicate with "Little Radish" in a "talkative" manner.

This interaction gave Alice a completely new perceptual pathway built upon the plant's cognitive system.

In a sense, plants in the same ecosystem are like clients on the same network connection; each is an individual entity, yet they can influence and depend on each other through the network.

Alice is now able to perceive the state of most of the plants in Chongyun Mountain without relying on the "Super-Linked Object Network" that is widely distributed throughout Chongyun Mountain. She can do so by relying on only a few "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object" near "Little Radish" and through "Little Radish's" plant perception system. She can also use these plants to some extent to explore the situation around them.

For example, what objects move around them, how big are they, are they damaged, are they eaten or crushed, etc.

Of course, as Alice's backer, Xiang Kun also acquired this ability simultaneously—he even felt that Alice's ability to so easily obtain this ability through "Little Radish" was likely related to the "mutated spider" he had devoured in the Qinling Uninhabited Zone.

However, he was too obsessed with human form, so the ability to devour plants, which he inherited from the "mutant spider," could only be manifested in other ways. But now, through Alice's "Super-Sensing Item System," he had successfully connected to "Little Radish's" plant network, and the information interface for that part had been accessed.

Alice not only gained the ability to understand plant networks through "Little Radish," but in the process of communicating with it, Alice also strongly influenced "Little Radish," enabling it to understand animal sensory patterns and then naturally begin to develop corresponding ways of expression.

Following this trend, even if "Little Radish" doesn't ultimately develop into a "Mutated Creature," it will inevitably take a giant leap towards integrating into the "Super-Sensing Item System."

On a dark and windy night, deep in the Chongyun Mountain, Alice, who had just appeared, was swinging on "Little Radish's" natural swing. When she saw Gold Glitter and Egg Pie coming from the village, she used both hands and feet to scramble up to the treetop.

Soon, a bird and a cat arrived and huddled together with the little girl in the white dress hiding in the treetops, whispering amongst themselves—or rather, only Alice was talking.

She is trying to help "Little Radish" understand the shapes of bird's nests and cat's nests, and then, through self-adjustment, build a bird's nest and a cat's nest, giving Gold Glitter and Egg Pie a place each.

Of course, she also created a "throne" for herself.

Although her communication with "Little Radish" resulted in a tremendous expansion of her abilities, it could even be said that she directly severed the line between animals and plants in the understanding of the "Super-Sensing Item System".

But in the beginning, Alice's tireless, day-and-night, and constant communication with "Little Radish" wasn't for gaining any abilities.

It's very simple: it's just an "older sister" caring for and nurturing the newcomers to the system, so that when Little Bell returns in the future, she and Little Apple will have another playground and playmate! At the same time, it's also a way for her to show off her awesomeness as the "Guardian of Chongyun Mountain / Chongyun Village".

As time went by, the "Little Radish" kept changing, undergoing tremendous changes both in appearance and inside.

This change actually made Xiang Kun feel that something was not right, because according to his understanding, and based on the secret documents found under the Guarding Prosperity Building, the transformation of "Mutated Creature" is usually very sudden and violent.

The mutation will continue only after the transformation.

However, "Little Radish" is not yet a "Mutated Creature," or rather, it does not exhibit the characteristics of a "Mutated Creature," but it is slowly "mutating" and "evolving."

Its initial source of mutation was Xiang Kun and his "Super-Linked Object," but what about the subsequent continuous mutations or evolution?

Has this become an inherent characteristic of its?

Xiang Kun suddenly wondered if he had inadvertently opened a brand new Pandora's box.

Of course, if that's the case, he at most unlocked the door; it was Alice, his "accomplice," who helped him lift the lid.

Meanwhile, Xiang Kun's plan to deploy "Super-Linked Object" on a large scale is also progressing at a speed far exceeding his expectations.

Many factories have been equipped with "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object" by Xiang Kun. Alice can help him continuously "mass produce Super-Linked Object" and deploy them to various locations.

Furthermore, through Alice's advance information gathering, it's even possible to precisely plan where those "Super-Linked Object" will be deployed.

Just like Little Chubby Girl and Tang Baona, Alice found out the supply information for many industrial products in advance near the space where they lived and worked in Peng City, and then went with Xiang Kun to the relevant factories to place "Super-Linked Object" and "Emotion-Infused Object".

However, the speed at which "Super-Linked Object" were deployed, or rather, established, still exceeded Xiang Kun's previous expectations, spreading and increasing at a very rapid pace.

In Xiang Kun's view, the biggest bottleneck in his new remote Super-Linked Object method was the deployment of "Emotion-Infused Object," since these were much harder to mass-produce than "Super-Linked Object."

The only way to break through the limitations is through the automatic expansion of a secondary network formed by humans influenced by "Emotion-Infused Object," but that would take a very long time and require the deployment of more places that continuously influence "Emotion-Infused Object"—such as more "Youlong Restaurant."

However, once they actually started planning, Xiang Kun and Alice discovered that they had underestimated the production and delivery efficiency of the manufacturing industry.

Xiang Kun wasn't quite sure what kind of existence the "Ultimate Predator" that Mr. Liang mentioned was, but in his own judgment, the "Ultimate Predator" shouldn't be more efficient at utilizing "High-Dimensional Factor" than he was.

His "Super-Sensing Item System" and his Alice are probably one of the best and most efficient ways for a single organism to utilize "High-Dimensional Factor".

The "Super-Sensing Item System" helped him surpass the perception limits of a single life form, and beyond the perception range of a physical body or any other physical life form. Normally, even if his brain evolved and surpassed itself, it would still be difficult to break through the inherent limits of this multi-dimensional and extremely complex perceptual information, as computing power has its ceiling. However, the birth, rapid evolution, and maturity of Alice timely solved this problem for him.

After yet another blood-drinking session, Xiang Kun opened his eyes to receive Alice's dismal report, "Little Radish is dead!"