What If You Had a Roommate Who Played Movies Beside You 24 Hours a Day

Huang Si tossed the prosthetic body back into the warehouse, then returned to Data Space.

Xiao Hua's soul hadn't come with him.

Huang Si's consciousness returned to reality. "You're not coming in with me?"

Xiao Hua looked confused. "What is that place? I don't understand."

Huang Si tried wrapping his Mental Force around Xiao Hua's soul and forcing her into Data Space.

Xiao Hua let out a pained moan.

Huang Si stopped trying to force her in and examined Xiao Hua's condition with his consciousness.

All right, her soul had sustained a little damage. Huang Si felt he'd been too rough. It was like inserting a memory stick—forcing it in clearly wouldn't work.

"You can't be digitized? Fine. Come with me, then. There are a few things I need to take care of first."

Before taking Xiao Hua with him, Huang Si remembered that there was still something left to deal with.

His Mental Force Field expanded instantly, covering an area with a radius of about five kilometers.

Then his Mental Force clamped around Xiao Hua and dragged her along.

"Being in soul form really is better." Huang Si nodded in satisfaction. If she were a human with a physical body, he couldn't have moved her so quickly.

Souls could move quickly. The faster his Mental Force extended, the faster he could carry a soul.

Xiao Ke had been tracking Hei Zi all along. When Huang Si asked for its location, Xiao Ke immediately sent him the exact coordinates.

Huang Si expanded his Mental Force Field again, then moved Xiao Hua over there.

If he'd been going alone, he wouldn't have needed to go through all this trouble. He could simply have digitized himself and arrived instantly through the network cables.

By then, Hei Zi had fled to the vicinity of a river.

He was in an awful state. His right leg and chest were broken; he'd injured himself jumping off a cliff in desperation when his pursuers caught up with him. He'd also run out of bullets. After trying a few times and realizing the gun was useless, he'd thrown it away.

By the river, Hei Zi drank some water and washed his filthy body. Then he lay on the bank like a stray dog, panting heavily.

Hei Zi knew he couldn't rest here for long. What if someone still hadn't given up and came after him? What if there were wild beasts in the woods? Besides, he still had to find food himself.

After lying there for a while, Hei Zi was about to get up when he suddenly heard a voice ask:

"You seem to be in pretty good spirits. So, can you tell me now what you love so much?"

The voice was familiar. Hei Zi turned around in alarm, but, sure enough, there was nothing there.

He immediately rolled over and dropped to his knees, kowtowing frantically. "Great God, Heavenly God, you've finally come! You're here to save me, aren't you?"

Huang Si said, "...No. I was just curious, so I came to ask you a question. You were in too poor a state earlier to answer me."

Hei Zi had long since forgotten what he'd said. In his memories, all that remained was that the god had shown him favor, and that he was the one chosen by the Heavenly God, naturally superior to everyone else.

Seeing Hei Zi's bewildered expression, Huang Si repeated his question:

"Why do you pursue certain things even at the risk of death?"

Hei Zi's eyes darted around. Kneeling on the ground, he shouted, "To uphold the god's majesty! No one may offend the god! Great God, make me your follower! I'll wipe out every false believer in the world for you!"

Huang Si chuckled softly.

Was this Ape-man planning to start a religious war?

Becoming one of his followers wasn't a good thing. Huang Si glanced at Xiao Hua. She showed no reaction to the man kneeling before them, simply floating obediently to one side. It seemed souls really did lose their memories of life.

Huang Si had rescued Xiao Hua, but the price was the loss of all her autonomy. Her soul had become someone else's possession.

"You know that wasn't what I asked, but you're saying this to curry favor with me." Huang Si's voice gave no hint of emotion. "Still, it doesn't matter."

"You won't die." Huang Si's voice was cold. "I'll keep you alive."

Hei Zi's eyes filled with delight. Could it be? Was the god about to bestow some kind of reward on him?

Huang Si created a dose of Life Support Serum and injected it into Hei Zi.

Once he was done, Huang Si used his Mental Force to annihilate the syringe.

"You'll live until you're nailed to history's pillar of shame."

With this dose of serum, Hei Zi wouldn't die for now unless he suffered a fatal injury.

After taking care of things here, Huang Si also stopped by to check on the Ape-man Tribe.

Dong Yao, Xi Yuan, Li Huo, and the others were watching from the sidelines while invisible. After all, Huang Si had told them not to show themselves in person without good reason.

Besides, there was no point in their coming out. The dead couldn't be brought back to life.

As soon as Huang Si arrived, he told the three of them, "Show yourselves and summon the Ape-man Tribe's leaders. Explain the founding of dynasties and religious worship to them. Also, tell Shu Zi that his wife can be resurrected, as long as he earns enough merit for the god. And he probably wants revenge right now, so have him gather the tribe and train them first. He can seek revenge after establishing stable rule. His enemy has already been marked by the god and won't get away, so tell him not to rush."

After giving them his instructions, Huang Si took Xiao Hua and left.

The artificial intelligence and the others could handle the details, of course.

With everything taken care of, Huang Si used his Mental Force to carry Xiao Hua straight up into the sky.

At an altitude of 5,000 meters, near the Ring.

Huang Si had already installed everything needed here. The area was equipped not only with solar panels and signal stations, but also with all kinds of instruments, collection nets, and more.

Huang Si placed Xiao Hua's soul in front of the Ring and asked her, "Will you go through on your own, or should I shove you in?"

Xiao Hua really didn't want to be shoved again. Fortunately, her soul was now solid enough for her to float around on her own, so she hurried toward the black hole at the center of the Ring.

But the black hole, which normally let objects pass through freely, blocked Xiao Hua.

She floated up and down for a long time, unable to find a way through. In the end, all she could say was, "Master, I can't find a way in."

Huang Si was speechless. He casually prodded the Ring's surface with his Mental Force, and, sure enough, it bounced back.

That confirmed it: the Ring's passage wouldn't let a soul in its normal state pass through.

"Forget it. If you can't get through, you can't get through."

Huang Si left Xiao Hua near the Ring. "Stay here. Don't wander off, or the wind might blow you down."

Huang Si had assimilated Xiao Hua, and being able to grasp every last detail of another soul's thoughts wasn't a pleasant feeling. It was like having a roommate who played movies beside you 24 hours a day when you didn't want to watch anything—and it was always the same movie.

Until you learned how to ignore them, you'd really want to punch them.

So Huang Si would rather leave Xiao Hua to drift in the wind on the Ring's platform than put her somewhere with a lot of information around. Otherwise, she'd be a nuisance.

And he wouldn't give her a body and send her back just yet, either. It wasn't the right time.

Huang Si's consciousness descended to the ground of the Green World.

His Mental Force Field spread over the surrounding area, sensing countless animals and plants.

"A black bear? Sleeping? You'll do." Huang Si picked out a large animal: a black bear.

For one thing, large animals probably had larger, stronger souls. For another, since it was asleep, its soul likely wouldn't put up much resistance.

Huang Si went over to the black bear.

The bear was curled up in the hollow of a giant tree, its head resting on its arm as it slept soundly.

Huang Si scanned the black bear's entire body with his consciousness. After a few minutes, he had fully analyzed its bodily structure and recorded it in the Creation Book, filling half a page.

"Only half as complex as a human?" Huang Si thought.

Next, Huang Si spread his Mental Force Field over it, trying to find its soul.

But a soul that hadn't yet left its body was incredibly difficult to sense. Huang Si stayed beside the black bear for a full two hours without finding its soul.

The black bear yawned. It was about to wake up.

Huang Si lost patience and simply vaporized the black bear's body with his Mental Force.

Sure enough, the instant the black bear died, Huang Si caught a faint ripple.

He immediately used his Mental Force to encircle it.

Then he shifted into a microscopic view.

The microscopic structure of the black bear's soul unfolded before Huang Si's eyes: countless identical Transparent Crosses, floating densely in the air.

"Why do all souls look the same? Are humans and animals all little transparent crosses?" Huang Si was curious. Was his own soul the only one made of different particles?

He took out a golden sphere with his consciousness and gently touched the black bear's soul.

Gold instantly spread across the entire soul.

"I think I forgot to get this bear's consent before assimilating it. But it seems to be resisting less?" Only then did Huang Si remember that he'd forgotten the second prerequisite for soul assimilation: the soul had to be willing to be assimilated. But compared with intelligent Ape-men, animals like black bears seemed to have weaker resistance.

So Huang Si had assimilated it without much effort.

Next, Huang Si used his Creation Power to create a new body for the black bear, then shoved its soul inside.

The resurrected black bear opened its eyes and let out a confused growl.

Had it just died?

Why did it feel as though nothing had happened?

While the black bear was still confused, Huang Si pulled its soul out of its body again.

The black bear immediately lost its memories.

Its soul floated blankly in place. It could sense that it belonged to some great being and couldn't disobey any of that being's commands. But beyond that, it knew nothing.

Huang Si nodded in satisfaction. It seemed that the creatures he'd made with his powers before had all been dead because they lacked souls.

Once they had souls, they were just like they'd been in life.

Huang Si had tested it: he could read souls, but he couldn't record or create them.

They couldn't be recorded, created, copied, digitized, or taken through the space-time passage. Souls really were mysterious.

Huang Si wondered where souls came from, and where they went. He didn't know.

He could destroy souls or assimilate them, but he could never copy or create them.

It was as if they were a forbidden zone.

Huang Si looked at the black bear's soul before him.

Huang Si could sense his connection to the black bear's soul. If he wanted, he could feed Mental Force into it at any time, making its soul stronger than ever. If he strengthened it further, he could even give it all kinds of special abilities.

The same went for its body. Huang Si created the black bear's body again and pushed the soul inside.

Huang Si could alter this body however he pleased. He could strengthen its muscles until it became extraordinarily powerful, capable of moving mountains and filling seas. He could also strengthen its nervous system, making it more agile and precise.

Under Huang Si's control, the black bear's physical strength instantly increased to ten times its original level.

It slapped the ground, and the earth collapsed instantly, leaving a large hole.

The black bear was dumbfounded. It had no idea how strong its new body was. What had happened? Had an enemy attacked? The black bear turned and tried to run.

Huang Si glanced at it, pulled out its soul again, then vaporized its body with Mental Force.

The black bear's soul floated in the air once more, weaker this time.

But even in this weakened state, the golden color that had stained its soul remained unchanged.

"How do I undo the assimilation?" Huang Si carefully examined the black bear's soul at the microscopic level, then called over a golden sphere and placed it on the soul.

Could he draw the gold back out? Huang Si wondered.

After trying for a day, Huang Si gave up.

Sure enough, it didn't work.

But he did make a new discovery. He finally found a way to prevent himself from being affected.

He could actively shut off the connection between an assimilated soul and himself. In other words, the subordinate relationship remained, but he could cut off the one-way flow of information from the assimilated soul to himself.

It was like Huang Si had finally smashed the screen of that roommate who loved playing movies. What a relief.

After turning off the information sync, Huang Si casually made the black bear a body with greatly enhanced overall abilities, shoved its soul back inside, then tossed it into the forest.

"Go play by yourself. Don't bother me unless you have a good reason." Huang Si sent it a thought.

The black bear gave a joyful cry. It felt free, released, and in the blink of an eye, it had vanished into the distance.