Changes and Work

A city crawls at your feet.

It doesn't refer to a physical "overlooking," but rather a kind of illusory perception—a feeling of freely stretching out in emptiness.

Standing by the window, Li Yun quietly closed her eyes, which to outsiders might have looked like she was simply daydreaming.

Now, without even needing to look, he could already "see" the fleeting traces of electricity in the motion-sensor lights of the gate at the entrance of the residential area in the distance, as easily and naturally as reading the lines on his palm.

A few hundred meters away on a telephone pole, two sparrows, vying for food, emitted vague, childlike "emotional fluctuations"—

Inside an apartment high up in a building, a young couple's suppressed yet intense arguing revealed a growing, sharp anxiety about their mortgage interest rates.

While frying fish in a pan in the kitchen, moisture mixed in, causing a loud sizzling sound. Startled, the clearly not-so-skilled auntie grabbed the large aluminum pot lid next to her and used it as a shield in front of her.

Even further away, the swarms of consciousness gathering among the traffic on the streets resembled a fragmented "band of light."

The driver's anxiety while waiting for the green light; the cautious demeanor of an elderly person leading a child across the street, glancing left and right; a passenger on a long-distance bus holding an empty plastic bag, enduring the nausea and discomfort of motion sickness—

At this moment, the joys and sorrows that the sole observer perceives but deliberately "blurs" are like faded paint, mingling and splashing everywhere.

Nobody paid any attention.

It must be said that when the spiritual essence of the subject undergoes another transformation, this strange effect, which seems to be a biological superpower, also seems to become exceptionally "dynamic".

With just a thought, the invisible ripples that spread like a tide continued to expand—hundreds of meters, thousands of meters, tens of thousands of meters—

My gaze swept silently across the city skyline, over the crowds between streets and high-rises, across the land, and across the sky—

What I see and hear, what I think and feel.

Unwittingly, Li Yun even "saw" the familiar place where she used to work. Some familiar colleagues were still busy at their original workstations, while others had also disappeared without a trace.

The manager surnamed Du in the office was still frantically trying to figure out how to report to the company the issue of employees' excessive travel expense reimbursements last month;

The attendance sheet also had a lot of original names crossed out.

A middle-aged man, once affectionately known as "Brother He" by his colleagues, now sat anxiously in front of his computer, his mind clouded by the prospect of a layoff notice.

"--I can't lose my job--The loan isn't paid off yet--I'll work an extra hour today to catch up and get the client on time--"

The constant, incessant sorrow and restlessness are like the heavy pressure in a boiler, only growing and brewing, unaware of when they will truly erupt.

Everyone has their own thoughts, and everyone has their own misfortunes.

Out of curiosity, Li Yun even tried to probe the depths of the consciousness of the elderly security guard downstairs at the company, who was often drunk at night.

- A swamp almost entirely devoid of alcohol and decadence.

It was just a subtle touch of the thought of "dignity," a tiny change as silent as the wind blowing through dust, that jolted the old security guard, who was leaning against the wall, dozing off with his eyes half-closed, into a sudden start and instinctively straightened his back!

Although it collapsed naturally again after a few seconds.

Only in those exceptionally cloudy eyes did a fleeting moment of clarity and shame suddenly flash through them.

"Administrator, you look good these days, but you don't seem to be in a very good mood?"

The questions posed by the Main God were mostly straightforward—or perhaps it was because, as someone with a science and engineering background, Li Yun preferred this style of communication.

Was I being that obvious?

An invisible gaze turned around at the sound, and Li Yun clearly saw his own face—a young face that had not opened its eyes, still standing silently by the window, expressionless from beginning to end.

As his "gaze" briefly focused, a faint electrical discharge began to emanate from his body.

After absorbing that bit of "Primordial Spirit" and undergoing a transformation, the excessively strong pure spiritual power effect even eventually showed signs of being somewhat "incompatible" with the structure of real matter.

"Your facial expression is indeed not very obvious, but your eyebrows droop slightly at a subtle angle. Based on past experience—"

"Ahem--Alright, let's get down to business, Main God."

After actively "restraining" some of his traits, all the unusual behavior disappeared. Only then did the domineering and unreasonable Administrator open his eyes, coughing as he interrupted the "outspoken" Main God's statement, "I just got up for a moment, and you've already disturbed me. There must be something else."

"Indeed, during your two or three days of rest, some new situations have arisen that need to be verified."

Sitting back down on the sofa, Li Yun put on his familiar black-rimmed glasses and resumed his work.

"Okay, go ahead, I'm listening."

"First, in the third round of the Newcomer Blind Box, someone opened a causality-type, no-rank technological item, the [Person-Finding Cane], which came from the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket of a 22nd-century nanny-type robot. Its effect is to find a specific individual—"

"Hmm, since you specifically mentioned this—I can roughly guess what's going on."

"Then, your guess is most likely correct."

"Simply put, after the user returned to reality, carelessly revealed the news to friends and family, and unexpectedly died within a day," the item ultimately fell into the hands of the official Fagaul government, or rather, a large conglomerate that could be considered part of the official government.

"After confirming its specific effects, they cleverly first attempted to use it to find relevant personnel in the real world who might be associated with the Main God, as well as users who had participated in the Main God Game."

The tone of the Main God seemed to carry a somewhat strange undertone, whether he was lamenting the "ignorance is bliss" of these people or for some other reason was unclear.

That was truly courageous.

To be honest, Li Yun almost wanted to applaud these people who "dare to investigate anything".

"Because some of the factors involve your existence, the 'Mirror' naturally obscures the relevant cause and effect, preventing them from obtaining any truly effective results. Therefore, the Main God has not taken any additional action."

"But correspondingly, with the help of that tool, they are now able to significantly speed up the process of identifying legitimate users by conducting regional, city-by-city sweeps."

"That does have some impact--"

Li Yun adjusted his glasses, the non-prescription lenses reflecting a cold light. "What's your suggestion?"

"The Main God determined that no action could be taken for the time being, but that such situations required some extra attention."

In fact, similar causal and meme-like strange items have been produced more than once in the blind boxes of newlyweds so far.

"In addition, perhaps we should reduce the proportion of this type of element in blind boxes that may lead to the creation of relatively special items."

"--Can."

"Also, Administrator, I need to remind you of something: the total number of users who have died unnatural deaths in various parts of the real world has now exceeded a thousand."

Is there anything unexpected?

"No, not yet. Some users who died did so immediately after gaining power by engaging in activities such as revenge, robbery, or attempting to control various resources. Others perished because they were in relatively turbulent areas."

"However, a significant number of them were 'eliminated' after their identities were exposed, they failed to be controlled or exploited in various ways, and were subsequently targeted and 'eliminated' by other users or forces in the real world."

"--Understandable, but this really does have a bit of a dark jungle law feel to it."

Li Yun was silent for a moment, then asked, "How were those deceased users dealt with?"

"The Main God did not interfere with the physical remains, and the items followed the random drop mechanism. It also recovered the relevant user's intrinsic consciousness and soul structure and put them into freeze." A very small number of individuals, whose souls were damaged due to the special exchange system of hostile users, could not be fully recovered. Only the relevant consciousness algorithm information was imprinted.

"Well, let's keep it for now. We don't lack this much energy anyway, and we might need it sometime."

He lightly brushed away a speck of dust from the sofa.

"After all, winning the revival match isn't entirely impossible in the future."

$ The Descent of the Celestial Gods $