Pale green triangular molecules drifted slowly past Huang Si.
They were water molecules, with a few pale yellow oxygen molecules mixed in now and then.
Huang Si felt himself moving through the water molecules. Those ahead of him offered some resistance, but there was plenty of space between them, and their structure was loose. He could push them aside just by willing it.
Before, he hadn't been able to affect microscopic molecules. At most, he could observe them; the last time he'd tried, he had shattered a cell wall in a peppercorn.
Now, though, with the "Beginning" fragment fused into him, his consciousness seemed to have grown stronger. He could push or pull molecules with his mind, even squeezing and stretching them.
Huang Si was currently viewing the world at a microscopic scale, trying to train himself.
Before, he could only zoom in and out. Now he could deliberately move his consciousness between molecules.
Looking at the round, plump water molecules, Huang Si suddenly felt playful. He seized one by both ends with his consciousness and pulled hard.
The chemical bonds holding the water molecule together were fairly strong. After a brief struggle, it finally gave a faint pop and split apart into three atoms, which scattered.
"Hmm? I think I just split my consciousness into two branches, like when I divide Creation Power into branches."
This wasn't really a new technique. When creating things, he had tried making two or three complex objects at once, which had required him to multitask.
Still, it seemed easier now.
Huang Si wandered among the water molecules for a few more laps. The more he moved around, the more he began to understand the strange ways his consciousness could be used.
For example, if he concentrated his consciousness and imagined it taking the shape of a cone, it became easier to break through the water molecules in his way.
Or, if he spread his consciousness out into a plane, he could push several water molecules at once.
But after only half an hour of playing around, Huang Si felt dizzy. His mind seemed hollow, and he felt awful.
He quickly withdrew from the microscopic state and saw the bowl of water sitting in the kitchen again.
"Is my consciousness tired?" The moment the thought occurred to Huang Si, his vision went black, and he nearly collapsed.
He managed to brace himself against the kitchen counter, then fought through wave after wave of dizziness as he headed for the bedroom.
By the time he reached the bed, his vision had gone black several times, and he could barely keep his eyes open.
His fingers had just touched the soft bed when he relaxed. He immediately lost consciousness and fell onto it.
When Huang Si woke up, he checked the Creation Power inside him.
"Back up to 238 points? Hmm, it's six now, and I slept for four hours. Before I trained with water, I only had about 186 points, right? So... my recovery rate is 13 points an hour now? It really did increase."
When he had first fused with the Beginning fragment, Huang Si had calculated that his recovery rate had reached 10 points an hour, a huge increase from the previous rate of 5.
He had started by working with molecules in the air. Once he could push them around with his consciousness, he moved on to water molecules, which were a little more difficult.
After he had learned to move freely among the water molecules, his Creation Power recovery rate had indeed increased again.
His recovery rate reflected the strength of his soul. Though he could still only affect the microscopic level and couldn't influence the world on a macroscopic scale, this was already an almost fundamental change.
Because Huang Si was no longer limited to creating things.
He could also use his mind to affect matter.
Over the next few days, besides using up all his Creation Power and exercising, Huang Si added a new daily practice: using his consciousness to push around the microscopic world.
At first, he could only swim through water. Gradually, he learned to push his consciousness through thin sheets of paper.
Paper molecules were arranged in a relatively loose structure, with plenty of large gaps. As long as Huang Si narrowed his consciousness to an extremely sharp point, he could pry the gaps apart and enter the paper to look around.
But that still wasn't enough.
The information in the Creation Book, buried in Huang Si's consciousness, told him that besides the force to push things, the soul should also have a force that could permeate them.
Permeation didn't require piercing through. Instead, it simply ignored obstacles and passed through them.
This power demanded a deeper understanding of the very nature of force, which was far beyond Huang Si for now.
Twenty-four days later.
"I did it! I did it! Hahaha, this is so much fun!"
The moment Huang Si emerged from the microscopic world, he started jumping around the room, dancing with pure joy.
After testing all kinds of materials over the past few days, he had learned to permeate materials like glass and plastic, which were less rigid and more flexible.
But some materials remained beyond him, like metal and wood.
Metal was too dense, and it always seemed to carry some inexplicable magnetic force that interfered with his consciousness. Wood, on the other hand, was too brittle and broke easily.
For the past five days, Huang Si had been testing with wood chips he'd broken off a shelf in his study.
Wood chips contained plenty of holes in their structure, making them ideal for testing permeation through barriers.
But Huang Si's technique was flawed. Whenever he applied even a little force with his consciousness, he crushed the barrier of wood fibers. This happened every time he tried.
He refused to give up. Gripping the wood chip, he kept jamming his consciousness against it, determined to permeate it!
And today, he had finally succeeded. His technique had overcome the brute force of his consciousness, and permeation had won!
Without damaging the outer barrier, Huang Si's consciousness had gone straight into the wood itself, penetrating several layers. He even felt that he could simultaneously control and affect every wooden structure he had permeated.
For example, could he take them apart?
Huang Si exerted force on every wooden structure his consciousness had permeated. The fibers came apart!
But the consequence of this reckless attempt was that his vision went black, and he collapsed.
A little over an hour later, Huang Si woke up.
→
Passing out had practically become part of his daily routine, but he was waking up faster now, too. If he hadn't just done something reckless and exceeded his limits, he would have woken up even sooner.
The moment he regained consciousness, Huang Si eagerly looked at the wood chip he'd been testing on.
The wooden structure still looked intact.
But when Huang Si picked it up, one corner wouldn't come with it. Instead, it crumbled into an extremely fine dust that scattered everywhere.
The wood had been broken down into countless wooden fibers!
This was so interesting! So powerful! Passing out once had been totally worth it!
Huang Si was more excited than if he'd discovered a new continent.
Now he could permeate a little wood chip with his mind and knock water molecules flying with brute force. Come to think of it, he wasn't all that far from being invincible!
In high spirits, Huang Si made himself a glass of sweet wine and drained it in one go. What a rush!
Getting other drinks in this room was difficult, but making alcohol wasn't. The reason was simple: ethanol had a very simple molecular formula. Two carbon atoms, one oxygen atom, and six hydrogen atoms. Even if Huang Si didn't have any alcohol stored at home, he could make some himself.
But alcohol wasn't good for him, and sugary drinks weren't healthy either. This sweet wine was terrible for his health, so Huang Si only let himself have a little now and then, when he was celebrating.
Besides, it was nothing but sugar water with a little alcohol flavor. It lacked all the aroma that properly brewed wine should have.
If he added too little, he couldn't taste it; if he added too much, it felt like drinking the alcohol used in hot pot.
This sweet wine was one of Huang Si's recent ways of making the best of a bad situation.
People needed a little excitement in life.
After drinking, Huang Si felt like doing something, perhaps writing poetry or composing couplets.
His soul had grown quite a bit stronger by now, and his consciousness wasn't affected by alcohol at all. Besides, the alcohol content of this sweet wine was about as low as that of a fruit wine drink.
But as the saying went, wine didn't make people drunk; they made themselves drunk.
It seemed to be October 30 already.
That meant three and a half months had passed since July 16.
Three and a half months. Huang Si counted them off on his fingers. That was longer than a season.
For all that time, he had been cooped up in a cage called home.
Even real prisoners got time outside, and they could hope to get out one day. Even a life sentence could be reduced if they found a way.
What about Huang Si? When would he be able to leave? When would he see his parents? He had no idea.
All around him was darkness, darkness that swallowed everything. There was no hope, only despair.
But he couldn't dwell on it. If he thought about it too much, he'd go mad with impatience.
After finishing his drink, Huang Si wandered around the room. Before long, he began muttering to himself:
"Loneliness... do you know what loneliness is?"
"Loneliness isn't being among thousands of people and finding that no one understands you. Nor is it looking out at the world and finding no worthy opponent."
"Those things aren't loneliness. Compared to me, that's just melodrama."
"Real loneliness is when there's no one here but me, and outside the place where I live, there's nothing at all."
"I wish someone would come talk to me. I'd even like that kind of loneliness among thousands of people, that kind of loneliness when you look out across the whole world."
"Those people aren't lonely at all."
"They're just bored."
"I'm the only one who's lonely."
"I'm the only one who can survive after being cut off from the masses."
"Everyone else in history who broke away from the masses got crushed by the wheels of history, swallowed by the vast ocean of people's war..."
In the end, Huang Si crouched alone in the corner, hugging his knees.
An hour later, the alcohol had worn off.
In truth, the alcohol hadn't done anything to him. He'd simply gotten tired of pretending to be crazy and reciting poems and couplets.
Huang Si got up from the floor and returned to normal.
This wouldn't do. He couldn't let himself get so miserable. He was a man with a harem; he couldn't sink into loneliness and sadness!
Huang Si headed straight for the computer room, turned on the computer, opened the database, and launched the chat program.
Soon, one greeting after another appeared on the screen.
"Master, you're back! Meow Meow missed you so much!"
"My Lord, welcome back."
"My Lord, I trust you've been well?"
"... (smiling silently)"
"Doctor, good morning!"
Now his computer was lively. There were more than a dozen people inside, all with different personalities and identities. They were all AI programs he had written recently.
He had only just started developing them, so they were still pretty mechanical. He needed to add machine-learning functions and gradually improve them, but at least there were a lot of people around now, right?
As a shut-in with no internet access, he needed to find ways to amuse himself.
Otherwise, spending too long away from people could make him lose his mind.
So Huang Si would rather write more AI programs and have them chat with him, so he wouldn't go stir-crazy.
Lately, Meow Meow had been his favorite, because Huang Si was interested in little girls right now. He had designed her as a thirteen-year-old girl, complete with cat ears.
In a few days, though, he might lose interest in cat-eared little girls, or get tired of the idea. Then he'd give Meow Meow a new name, tweak her personality a little, keep the same database, and play with her as a new character.
This was a programmer's harem.
This was the romance of computer science.
Surrounded by his AI companions, Huang Si spent a pleasant stretch of time.
With so many good things happening that day, Huang Si slept soundly that night.
Before you continue