Lost

After doing all this, Chu Minghao acted as if nothing had happened. Without offering any explanation, he remained all smiles as he led the three of them to a restaurant. After tossing down two strings of copper coins, he was shown to a private room by the waiter.

Xu Shilan silently observed everything. As she took her seat, she said, "You seem pretty practiced. How many levels of shelters have you established in this dream world?"

"None."

Chu Minghao smiled as he poured tea for the three of them, then instructed the waiter to bring the dishes. Only then did he say, "I came here to find you. I only arrived one day before you did—just yesterday."

The three of them were puzzled. Xu Shilan had known Chu Minghao before, so naturally, she was the one who asked, "What do you mean? It's been so long since we last met. When did you become such a mystic fraud?"

"No, no. I just haven't started explaining yet."

Chu Minghao reached into his robes and took out a mirror. "I used this to find the three of you. It's a Magic Mirror, a fantasy item with unbelievable power. Its abilities are precognition, searching, and location tracking."

Wu Pifu's heart stirred as he thought of his Magic Conch...

People really could die from comparison, and goods could be thrown away after comparison. Look at that dazzling sword light, look at that ridiculously awesome Magic Mirror, then think about his own crude fighting style and that Magic Conch full of nonsense...

Chu Minghao placed the Magic Mirror on the table and said, "Miss Xu, I didn't come specifically to chase after you. I didn't even know you had awakened. I was searching for all maintenance personnel who were still alive—maintenance personnel from every major zone and every partition."

Xu Shilan immediately said, "Cut it out. You're a Level Seven citizen, with authority second only to the presidential level. You even have an allocated share of the Main Brain. Since you've awakened, you could activate Gaia's internal defense systems whenever you wanted, or open any isolation wall. Why not search for us directly in reality? Or if you're worried about the aberrations outside those isolation walls, sending out a communications announcement shouldn't have been difficult either, right?"

"I can't." Chu Minghao smiled bitterly. After considering his words, he said, "The Main Brain rejected my authority request. It wasn't because it refused to recognize me as a Level Seven citizen, but because... there's something wrong with the Main Brain."

Wu Pifu, Yamadai, and Xu Shilan were all confused. They exchanged looks, and Xu Shilan finally asked, "What could possibly be wrong with the Main Brain? Don't tell me it gained sentience and triggered some machine intelligence crisis. You and I both know what the Main Brain is—it's fundamentally impossible for that to happen! And if it really had happened, we would have died long ago. How could the Main Brain still have brought us through the dream worlds?"

"It's not that." Chu Minghao seemed deeply conflicted. He deliberated for a long while before shaking his head. "No, I really can't tell you... Let me put it this way. Since the upheaval in the Dream Network caused by the end of 'Zhou,' and the birth of the dream worlds, knowledge, information, and secrets have all become contaminating under these circumstances. Information regarding the Main Brain—even if it's only my speculation—is probably more than you can bear at your current level of strength."

Xu Shilan's expression changed immediately. She hurriedly said, "A meme? The Ninth Company did this!?"

"No, no, no. It's not a meme."

Chu Minghao looked incomparably troubled. With a sigh, he said, "It's contamination—contamination caused by the end of 'Zhou.'"

Xu Shilan did not ask any further questions. She knew Chu Minghao well. He was sincere in his dealings with others, but his principles were extremely firm. If he said yes, then it was yes; if he said no, then it was no. Since he refused to tell them, he definitely would not say anything.

Xu Shilan instead asked, "So you're trapped on Gaia too?"

Chu Minghao shook his head. "Not exactly. But for certain reasons, I can't remain on Gaia for long—that is, in Baseline Reality 1.0. So I can't contribute much toward liberating Gaia's isolated regions. That will have to depend on you, on all the maintenance personnel."

At that moment, the staff began bringing out the dishes. Chu Minghao stopped talking, and after the staff had left, he said directly, "Other than certain forbidden information, I can tell you some things... For example, the remnants of the Thirteen Singularity Group and the Human Revolutionary Union are hunting me down."

Xu Shilan's face was filled with disbelief. She blurted out, "Impossible! The core of the Human Revolutionary Union and the Thirteen Singularity Group perished together! I witnessed it all with my own eyes!"

"I witnessed it too. I thought they were gone as well, but..."

Chu Minghao patted the sword case on his back. A ball of white light emerged from it, forming a spherical object above the dining table. As the image drew closer, everyone saw what it was... Gaia, the ship that carried humanity's interstellar migration.

Chu Minghao pointed at the white light, and the image shifted to a small area beside Gaia. As the view zoomed in, they saw several spheres flying through space alongside Gaia.

"According to my investigation, the remnants of the Singularity Group created miniature Gaias, then hid them in Gaia's quantum overlap zone and followed it all this time. I haven't yet discovered where the Human Revolutionary Union's remnants went, but they are either hiding in the dream worlds or in the Main Brain's core region."

Xu Shilan clicked her tongue as she watched the image formed from white light. "They didn't fight?"

Chu Minghao laughed heartily. "How could they not have fought? They beat each other's brains out. While tracking the remnants of those two major forces, I found at least a dozen corpses of their core members."

Xu Shilan hesitated before asking, "Then... what about 'his' corpse?"

Chu Minghao's face darkened. He shook his head. "I didn't find it. The Singularity Group's people are also desperately searching for 'him,' but you know as well as I do that 'he' couldn't possibly be killed so easily."

Xu Shilan merely gritted her teeth, pain and hatred appearing on her face.

Chu Minghao fell silent.

At that moment, Wu Pifu suddenly reached out with his chopsticks and picked up a piece of meat. He chewed it down in a few bites before asking, "So, Chu Minghao, is there something important you need from us maintenance personnel?"

Chu Minghao smiled openly. "I came to help you. All maintenance personnel are people I intend to help. For those who haven't established a shelter, I'll lead you to establish your first shelter in the relatively safe Baseline Reality 0.8 or Baseline Reality 0.7. For those who have already established their first shelter, I'll provide important intelligence support, or when I arrive, help you eliminate dangers as much as I can."

"Why?"

Wu Pifu continued pressing him. "Is food falling from the sky? You're helping us without seeking any benefit? I don't believe it."

Chu Minghao was frank and admitted it directly. "Of course it's not entirely free. I need you to stay alive. Or, to put it more bluntly, I need Gaia to have enough living people!"

Yamadai had also started eating and drinking with complete abandon, just like Wu Pifu. He spoke just as bluntly. "I don't believe it either. To put it harshly, we're maintenance personnel. To the Main Brain and citizens like you, we're disposable goods. Don't tell me you're selflessly devoted to the greater good. Maybe you are a good person, maybe you're an idealistic fool, but that still isn't enough of a reason."

Chu Minghao did not become angry from embarrassment. Instead, he looked at Wu Pifu and Yamadai with approval.

"Because this is also saving myself. If you've viewed Gaia's map through the Main Brain, you should have noticed that some regions no longer show any human activity. The maintenance personnel there have been completely wiped out. According to my investigation, as the Gaia in the real world is gradually emptied, humanity will face irrevocable doom." Chu Minghao's expression turned serious.

Wu Pifu and the others exchanged glances. Xu Shilan asked, "Specifically? What kind of irrevocable doom?"

After considering it, Chu Minghao said, "The end of 'Zhou,' human civilization, and every individual human being."

Xu Shilan immediately said, "I haven't experienced this end of 'Zhou,' so I don't know what it is. But human civilization... Chu Minghao, have you still not given up that unrealistic dream of yours? Saying you wanted to correct all humanity, saying you wanted every conflict in the world to cease, saying you wanted to heal the pain and hatred in everyone's hearts. And what was the result?"

"So I gave up."

Chu Minghao smiled brightly, his white teeth practically gleaming. He even gave them a thumbs-up.

Seeing this, Wu Pifu and Yamadai's favorable impression of Chu Minghao shot up. But Xu Shilan seemed as though she had been provoked. She slammed the table hard, making all the food on it tremble. She practically snarled from her throat, "Again, again, again... You're like this, and 'he' was like this too. Why can you two be so carefree while clinging so stubbornly to your dreams and pursuits? You never care about how ordinary people, drawn in by your radiance when they see you, rush toward you like moths to a flame, only to burn themselves to death in the end. You, you, you... go die!"

The more Xu Shilan spoke, the more agitated she became. She grabbed a plate from the table and hurled it at Chu Minghao, sending soup and sauce flying toward him.

But the three of them saw Chu Minghao extend his hand and tap each of the plates in succession. Then an astonishing scene unfolded. The plates, food, soup, and sauce rebounded as if time had flowed backward, returning to their original places without spilling even a drop of oil or broth.

After doing all this, Chu Minghao lowered his head slightly toward Xu Shilan. "I'm sorry about your younger brother."

Xu Shilan only screamed hysterically, "What use is sorry!? My brother is already dead! Carrying the most beautiful hopes for humanity's future, he was first deceived by 'him,' then abandoned by you. Do you know how desperate he was when he died!?"

Chu Minghao sighed. "He came back to find you? I can't defend myself over this. I truly failed to save your brother back then... but that doesn't mean there's no hope."

"What hope!?" Xu Shilan's eyes were bloodshot as she stared at Chu Minghao. "He's dead. What hope could there possibly be?"

Chu Minghao's expression did not change. "The world after death. Not just the world after death—every kind of indescribable chaos, pure emotions and thoughts, distorted concepts and definitions. Everything is down there..."

"That is why I began searching for every surviving human and helping you. Once the number of living people on Gaia falls below a critical point, we humans..."

"Will be lost in the unknown!"