Sky-Piercing Tower

This virtual world was still very crude. Most of the dazzling products in the marketplace were also fictional, especially the custom-made creatures with their own intelligence, which were extremely expensive because current computers could not simulate so many highly intelligent beings.

Furthermore, the population makeup here was a major problem. Nearly all these people came from the slums. After breaking free from their original dull, repetitive lives, they spontaneously imitated the old social order and formed new interest groups.

However, the oppression of unorganized individuals by organized groups was blocked by the safe houses. Individuals could survive without any contact with the outside world, and so-called interest groups lost the soil they needed to survive here.

As a result, these five hundred thousand people had almost all become idle. They either hid alone in their buildings, enjoying cheap audiovisual entertainment and food, or gathered outside in small groups to pass the time with entertainment from the old world. Other than these people, there were no other living creatures in this hollow world.

Put simply, these people had no dreams or goals. They had lived hopeless lives for years, lacked systematic education and rich life experience, and had grown used to obeying the orders of some person or organization. Even after gaining freedom, they did not know what to do.

And that was Lin Li's job. Li Heng needed him to make changes to this world, to liven up these lifeless minds and help them find desires beyond the instinct to survive.

Lin Li was thinking about how to handle this world when the factory doors suddenly opened. He turned around and found not one person as he had expected, but ten people with exactly the same appearance.

The man at the front said to Lin Li, "Hello. I am Ai Yi, an individual who has completely replicated Academician Ai Liyuan's memories. Starting today, I will be your assistant."

Ai Yi pointed at the people who looked identical to him. "They are Ai Er through Ai Shi. They possess Academician Ai Liyuan's memories from different periods of his life."

Lin Li pulled his attention away from the virtual world. Several of his tentacles connected to these identical-looking people, confirming the truth of their words through their thoughts.

Ai Yi allowed Lin Li to read his thoughts and explained the group's abilities in his mind. He possessed all of Academician Ai Liyuan's memories and was nearly identical to the original in terms of ability. He also had a sufficiently deep understanding of Li Heng's power, making him an excellent assistant.

The other nine remained silent, watching with expressions ranging from nervousness to composure. They each possessed only part of the original's memories. Ai Shi, who had the fewest memories, even had thoughts still stuck decades in the past—when the Hong Alliance had only just been established, and his deceased son had not yet been born.

In a sense, all these individuals with incomplete memories could be called transmigrators. Their memories remained in the era in which they had lived, far removed from the present.

After communicating rapidly with Ai Yi through his tentacles, Lin Li understood their abilities. They were effectively a research group made up of Ai Liyuan himself. Not only did they possess all the original's knowledge, but through cooperation and exchange between versions of themselves from different periods with different ideas, they could spot blind spots even the original could not see.

In biotechnology, they could use the protein called Lh-1 by the Hong Alliance to adjust and edit the genes of most organisms, artificially gestate new life, and directionally cultivate human organs with ease. The simple hearts and blood vessels sustaining the five hundred thousand people in this factory were their work.

Through his conversation with Ai Yi, Lin Li also found some inspiration. With these people's support, he could introduce genuine new life into the virtual world. Whether fantasy creatures or the residents' lingering desire to reproduce, both could be realized through artificially gestating new life.

With the Hong Alliance's technology for catalyzing cell division, a new life could grow to around five years old in a month. That level of intelligence was enough for it to count as a natural lifeform.

Of course, due to the limits of human brain control, these fantasy lifeforms with genuine intelligence still needed the basic form of real animals, such as a single head. Even so, it would greatly enrich the virtual world's population instead of leaving it filled only with ordinary people from the real world.

Existing information technology was extremely powerful in light and sound, able to create a visually magnificent virtual world with almost no difficulty. But when it came to human touch, it had only just begun. Artificial intelligence programs capable of displaying human logic also required massive resources to simulate and needed manual adjustments based on their interaction targets.

That was also why the residents had been given Telekinesis—it allowed them to experience this world through sight and sound as much as possible, reducing direct contact with their hands and thereby saving vast computing resources.

With Ai Yi and the others supporting him, Lin Li could introduce large numbers of immature fantasy creatures. In reality, they would be completely blank newborn humans, while in the virtual world, they would be world bosses with immense power.

This diversity, this conflict between different creatures, could bring vitality. Humanity's instinctive violence would drive people to try to kill these powerful creatures, and that desire to conquer would push them to learn and think.

Besides that, people had needs for social interaction and recognition from others—the pursuit of fame. Since the humans in the virtual world had completely escaped their most basic needs for survival and safety, displaying themselves and gaining great renown would become the primary pursuit of most people.

This also suited Li Heng's interests. A small number of people would gain the worship, recognition, or even loathing and hatred of the majority, be labeled heroes or villains, and gather the complex information produced by tens of millions of people onto a few protagonists. In this way, a small amount of information could hold enormous value.

It was a method of compressing information. It could transmit less information while achieving a similar purpose. After all, it was impossible to dump the massive amount of information from tens of millions of people directly onto Li Heng. That would overload the network and immediately expose everything to the Hong Alliance.

Lin Li needed to create a stage, one prepared for protagonists with intense desires. They would fight one another there, display themselves to the humans of the virtual world, draw the attention of ordinary people, and become Li Heng's information feed.

A few days later.

This world called the "God Realm" had boundaries. A handful of knowledgeable leaders knew of this legendary true virtual reality technology. Though they would not regard the people who created this place as reincarnated gods, their clear understanding allowed them to better grasp the power held by the creators of this virtual Paradise.

The city's cycle of day and night matched that of the outside world. It was already late at night, but since the residents had been freed from work, people gathered outside their homes to have fun regardless of the hour.

From the outside, the residents' safe houses looked like black buildings nearly a hundred meters tall. They stood in neat rows, and across from this enormous residential district lay a vast primeval forest, with ancient trees towering overhead, streams and waterfalls of unknown origin, and many beautiful lakes as clear as mirrors.

At the forest's edge, several bald people were grilling exquisite food exchanged from the marketplace over a bonfire and enjoying expensive wine. Their gleaming heads emitted bright golden light—body modifications from the marketplace that could create a lighting effect on a person's head, with selectable colors.

These people had always drifted through life in the real world. Now that they no longer had to worry about survival, they had completely let themselves go. They squandered all the energy points distributed to them each day.

"This place is way better than our old lives. We get food and drink every day without having to work."

"Exactly. I don't see much difference between this place and the real thing. If we went out there, we'd just be looked down on by those powerful bastards again. Pah!"

"And there are complimentary intelligent maids too. You can customize their appearance, and their faces and figures are a thousand times better than those rich young ladies. Hehehe~"

As they bragged and talked nonsense, one of them suddenly noticed what seemed to be a pillar in the corner of his eye. He turned to look and discovered an enormous tower standing in the deepest part of the primeval forest, as though it had only just appeared.

The next moment, a system panel popped up before everyone who had noticed the Sky-Piercing Tower. New information appeared on it.

Mission: Enter the Sky-Piercing Tower and reach the top floor

Reward: Return to reality and receive 5% profit-sharing equity in Manohar Corporation.

He leaped up from the ground in excitement, his mind filled with the reward. Manohar Corporation was valued in the trillions. Even a mere 5% share of its profits would bring in billions every year.

"As long as I climb that tower, I'll become a real billionaire. As long as I climb that tower..."

He stared at the distant tower as if possessed, blazing light erupting in his eyes. His former lazy, listless state had vanished without a trace.

Like him, the people beside him also saw the Sky-Piercing Tower. Tens of thousands of people still awake throughout this vast primeval forest likewise saw the tower and the mission. The aimless people suddenly had a goal.

No matter how colorful life here was, it was still fake. But if they climbed that tower, they would rise from ordinary slum-dwellers to become true members of the upper class.

Though it was the middle of the night, the quiet primeval forest came alive in an instant. Tens of thousands began sprinting toward the tower deep in the forest, each wanting to be the first to arrive.

Their immense greed made them forget a basic rule: high returns always came with high risks. This primeval forest, which had not even contained a single bug before, had already changed the moment the Sky-Piercing Tower appeared.

Boom!

A massive crash rang out as towering trees were flattened. A juvenile husky appeared out of thin air among the gathered crowd and crushed dozens of people into pieces, turning them into White Light as they returned to their respawn points.

The husky looked no more than three months old, but it already stood over twenty meters tall.

It opened its sleepy eyes, raised a paw to inspect it, then waved it in confusion. The gale stirred up by that movement sent several humans who were staring at it in shock flying.

One human who had recovered his senses used Telekinesis to hurl a stone from the ground at it with all his strength, hitting its nose by chance. The husky, which had been confused, felt a faint pain. Rather than becoming angry, it let out a howl like sobbing and began rolling around on the ground.

It truly was a baby. Its mind was almost entirely blank, and it understood nothing beyond eating, drinking, and sleeping. Yet in this virtual world, this baby had been designed with the strength of several thousand tons and fur tough enough to withstand naval artillery bombardment.

The result of such a massive baby rolling around on the ground was no less than a small earthquake. Trees dozens of meters tall were snapped beneath it, hundreds of people were crushed into White Light, and the rest could only scatter in panic, throwing their greed for the Sky-Piercing Tower to the back of their minds.

It was not just here. The doors on the Sky-Piercing Tower's lowest floor had also opened, and hundreds of different creatures from the real world surged out. Their bodies had all been enlarged hundreds or thousands of times. Each one moved freely through this primeval forest spanning thousands of square kilometers like a small mountain, and the frail residents would be judged dead merely by being caught in the aftershock.

In a corner of the real-world factory, hundreds of human infants were wrapped in translucent biological capsules, black threads connected to their heads. These new lives artificially cultivated by Ai Yi's team had already developed basic self-awareness. They were the monster babies in the virtual world.