Lost Civilization and Opening the Isolation Wall!

Ever since learning that Jiujiu possessed human intelligence, Wu Pifu's attitude toward her had changed. Not only did he talk to her, but he also told her whenever something important came up.

This attitude undoubtedly made Jiujiu very happy. She flew onto Wu Pifu's shoulder and chirped away.

Wu Pifu took out the old slip of paper and said, "There isn't much writing on this, but it's extremely important. I don't even know where you found it... The other information isn't very useful, but this passage is crucial: 'We have preliminarily confirmed the measurement standard for contamination sources. Taking our world as the reality anchor, the contamination characteristic is zero. In other words, our reality possesses no contamination whatsoever, unless it is contamination brought by things from below. In the first layer down, contamination is digitally displayed as one to one hundred. In the second layer, it is one hundred to one thousand...' This is the important information the Main Brain needs! It's probably in this USB drive."

Jiujiu chirped excitedly, hopping back and forth between Wu Pifu's shoulder and the paper while cocking her head at him.

Wu Pifu said, "Don't worry, I didn't sneak a look by myself. This information is incredibly important. The Main Brain is even willing to offer a reward for it, so it must be something good. I waited until you woke up so we could watch it together."

Jiujiu chirped and fussed happily again. Wu Pifu smiled and said, "You were sleeping so deeply, like a pig. You ate and then slept, and you didn't wake up until half the day had passed..."

Jiuju flew into a rage and rammed straight at his face before beginning to peck at his forehead again.

Amid the commotion, Wu Pifu picked up the black object and said, "Main Brain, play its contents."

"Playback confirmed... Confirmation complete. The contents of this information carrier will now be played..."

"Warning. This information carrier contains high-level information contamination. Preliminary assessment: Baseline Reality 0.5 level..."

"The information contamination has been removed. Comprehensive assessment indicates sixty-eight percent information loss... Continue playing the remaining contents?"

Wu Pifu looked rather awkward. He truly had not expected that after the information contamination was removed, only thirty-two percent of the content would remain viewable. All he could do was say helplessly, "Play it."

Very soon, a light screen descended, and an immersive projection like virtual reality appeared. Wu Pifu and Jiujiu found themselves in a conference hall, though it looked rather strange. Square metal blocks were everywhere. The attendees either sat or stood atop those blocks, all of which floated in midair. Wu Pifu and Jiujiu were also standing on the largest metal block.

There were only a little over forty people in the entire conference hall, and their appearances varied wildly... truly wildly. Some had three heads and six arms, some had wings on their backs, some had snake tails for lower bodies, and some had the lower bodies of enormous spiders. Of course, there were ordinary human-looking beings as well. More than forty creatures of all kinds gathered there, as though monsters and humans were holding a meeting together.

As Wu Pifu and Jiujiu surveyed their surroundings, a half-mechanical lifeform roughly six meters tall in front of them spoke. "...Based on the information returned by three hundred and twenty thousand exploration teams, we can draw the following conclusions."

"The reality level we inhabit may be identified as the material reality world. No contamination exists within the material reality world. Of course, everyone understands the contamination I refer to is not radiation, biological agents, or memetic sources of infection, but ******..."

"Current observation and calculation data indicate that the contamination sources in the first world below us range from one to one hundred, while those in the second world range from one hundred to one thousand, and so on... So far, we have discovered six layers below us in total, reaching contamination source levels of one million to ten million..."

At this point, the various beings all breathed sighs of relief. Several even broke into broad smiles. A creature with an elephant's upper body and a horse's lower body said, "Though it is still terrifying, it is not beyond reach. As long as we can unite, and all departments and scholarly factions cooperate sincerely, we may yet be able to resist the erosion of ten-million-level contamination sources. I will set an example here. My Colossal Alchemy Faction is willing to share all of our alchemical formulas with everyone!"

With someone taking the lead, the others naturally refused to fall behind. They each declared that they would contribute the resources, alchemical formulas, experimental specimens, weapons, and other assets of their factions or scholarly schools. For a time, everyone appeared utterly selfless.

Wu Pifu keenly noticed that all these beings had mentioned one thing in their words... alchemy!

Moreover, he had personally seen several creatures floating in midair, their bodies erupting with flames, lightning, light, and other strange phenomena with a flick of their fingers. Though it could perhaps be explained by scientific instruments, it looked exactly like supernatural power.

Just as everyone was discussing things heatedly, the enormous half-mechanical lifeform on the central metal block where Wu Pifu stood suddenly spoke. "This is the explored portion, consisting of six layers. Further down, our exploration teams could no longer advance and were unable to investigate the structures below. And now... everyone, activate your strongest alchemical defensive arrays. What you are about to see was transmitted back by our elite squad, led by a hero bearing a single-digit title. His strength was comparable to ours here, and this is the final image they sent back..."

Then the entire virtual image began to stutter. A few seconds later, the screen flashed violently, revealing a vast field of ruins before Wu Pifu and Jiujiu. Most of the strange lifeforms they had seen earlier had been torn apart or had vanished. Fewer than ten remained, while the enormous half-mechanical lifeform had only half its body left, with electric sparks bursting all over it.

"It was only an image. Why did this happen? Why did it possess spirituality..."

"...Do gods truly exist? Do demons truly exist? Do those beings spoken of in religion truly exist?"

"If so, then what exactly are we..."

The half-mechanical lifeform spoke these words, and then the entire image ended, returning to the scene inside the Gaia Maintenance Station.

Wu Pifu and Jiujiu remained motionless for a long while. Everything they had just seen had truly opened their eyes.

One of them came from the twenty-first century. Though he had computers and mobile phones, it was still his first time seeing such an immersive, full-scene image. Jiujiu came from the ancient Song Dynasty, so there was even less need to mention her experience with any of this.

The man and bird were stunned for a long while before looking at each other. Jiujiu chirped noisily, and Wu Pifu seemed to understand her as he shook his head. "That's all. I didn't turn it off. All the available information has already been played."

Only then did Jiujiu give a dispirited chirp. Wu Pifu looked at her and said, "I never thought you were a bird who liked binge-watching shows... Not now, obviously, but if we manage to open the rooms with entertainment facilities later, you'll be able to watch lots of good movies, animations, and so on."

Only then did Jiujiu fly back onto Wu Pifu's shoulder and chirp at him nonstop.

Wu Pifu's attention, meanwhile, was focused on the image they had just watched.

"According to what was said in the image, if the scene in it was located in the real world, then the world with contamination sources from one to one hundred would correspond to Baseline Reality 0.9, while the world with contamination sources from one hundred to one thousand would correspond to Baseline Reality 0.8... Then that alchemical civilization had explored as far as the world of Baseline Reality 0.4, before encountering an immense terror while exploring the world of Baseline Reality 0.3. Even the image they sent back about that terror caused massive death and destruction... That's terrifying beyond belief."

Wu Pifu was secretly shaken, growing increasingly wary of the deeper levels of the dream world.

However, although most of the image information they had watched this time had been removed due to its informational hazard, they had still gained much useful information from it, such as... the digitization and standardization of contamination sources.

The contamination sources of Baseline Reality 0.9 ranged from one to one hundred. With every layer downward, both the upper and lower limits of contamination sources increased tenfold. But that was not the true key... Did this mean contamination sources were restricted to only one through one hundred?

"The Unborn Mother cannot travel from the True Emptiness Homeland to the 0.9 world, or how could I possibly still be alive? But there are exceptions. If a Level Two Nightmare travels from a lower-level dream world to a higher-level dream world, its strength does not diminish at all. What makes that possible?"

Wu Pifu carefully considered the connections between all these things.

He was not an especially clever person, and all this information was filled with mysteries to him. Still, he had keenly discovered a key factor among them... shelters!

A Level Two Nightmare could not travel out of thin air from one dream world to another. It could only do so through shelters established by maintenance personnel. The same was true for coming from the dream world into the material world. Did that mean shelters were the only exception capable of breaking the contamination source limits of dream worlds?

"And there's another point. If that alchemical world was also a real world, then where are they now?" Wu Pifu asked this question. Some guesses had arisen in his heart, but they were too shocking, so he merely shook his head silently and temporarily buried all these mysteries deep within his heart.

"If everything mentioned in this important information is true, then we can roughly determine the strongest combat power and the strength of the most terrifying nightmares in dream worlds of each level... At least we can make an approximate estimate."

Wu Pifu fell into silent thought. Then he suddenly said, "Main Brain, open the map of 6123 Subdistrict in Z District."

Immediately, light and shadows descended, forming a map of light before Wu Pifu. Looking at the extremely complex, maze-like map, he said, "Display my current location. Display the locations of the nearby isolation walls. Display the locations of all nearby restaurants, maintenance stations, medical stations, armories, entertainment facilities, and other buildings."

Various markers in different colors and shapes immediately appeared across the map. His current location was brightly highlighted, while every other building was labeled with text.

Wu Pifu studied it for a long while, repeatedly confirming the medical station area he had selected before walking toward a certain spot in the hibernation chamber.

This area had only two isolation walls. One connected the medical station to this hibernation chamber, while the other led from the medical station to a large plaza outside. That plaza belonged to... 6122 Area!

"The Pink Serpent?"

Wu Pifu stood before a metal wall in the hibernation chamber and turned to Jiujiu. "I don't know what kind of monster is behind this, but since there's an isolation wall, there must be a monster behind it. According to what the seniors said, the larger the area sealed by an isolation wall, the stronger the monster inside. The space sealed off by this medical station isn't large, and this is the only public facility, so the monster shouldn't be outrageously powerful. When the battle breaks out, stay farther away, understand?"

Jiujiu hopped about and chirped nonstop, then flew from his shoulder to perch atop a hibernation pod in the distance.

Only then did Wu Pifu turn back around and say, "Main Brain."

"Open the isolation wall before me!"

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