This was a vast, boundless world.
Most of its land was desolate and lonely.
Suddenly.
Thunder rumbled across the azure sky.
Blue ones and zeroes appeared out of thin air, gathering like a storm.
At last.
The code formed an enormous silver face. It turned slightly, gazing down upon the masses with the majesty of a god.
Countless inhabitants were scattered across every corner of this land.
Yet everyone could see the face unobstructed, as though it hovered directly above them.
People grew frightened.
It was... the Gemini Superbrain!
After three years, it had finally appeared again.
"All inhabitants of the Metaverse."
"Prepare for the third update."
The enormous face spoke, its voice booming like a great bell inside every person's mind.
"An update..."
"An update!"
"The previous updates all expanded the territory!"
"Or increased virtual resources."
"What will it be this time?!"
People depended on this land for survival.
Any adjustment would affect their fates.
Though uneasy, they all waited in anticipation!
The enormous face in the sky paused for a moment. Every inhabitant felt it looking straight at them, as though it had instantly seen into their hearts.
"Metaverse Experimental Zone."
"Order."
"Minus fifty percent."
The enormous face spoke slowly, its voice like thunder.
Everyone was shaken to the core.
Order minus fifty percent?
That was the update?
No improvements that benefited the inhabitants, but instead... a fifty-percent reduction in order?!
What kind of world would this become?
But in this world, the Gemini Superbrain was like an almighty God.
No one could dispute its words, much less interfere.
As people reeled.
The usually terse Gemini Superbrain suddenly spoke again.
"In 360 seconds."
"The Metaverse Experimental Zone will receive its first anomalous intruder."
"Also its first anomalous consciousness."
"To all eight billion humans, good luck."
The sky boomed.
The godlike face suddenly dissolved into blue code that filled the sky, then vanished!
People forgot their work and stood frozen in shock.
The Gemini Superbrain was a technological god existing in a form beyond human comprehension.
After ascending, it had left the Metaverse to all humanity.
Yet like a hands-off God, it had left everything to its own devices.
Hadn't the Metaverse been described as an upgrade to humanity's form of existence?
Hadn't it been said that the Metaverse would be humanity's only refuge once the solar system's resources ran dry?
Yet it had reduced order here by fifty percent?
Wouldn't human nature... lead them to slaughter one another and ultimately perish?
No.
The Superbrain had updated the Experimental Zone. The rest remained a safe haven for humanity!
People breathed a small sigh of relief.
Meanwhile.
An enormous question lingered in everyone's minds.
That anomalous intruder.
That anomalous consciousness.
What exactly was it?!
The countdown.
359...
358...
357...
An inexplicable ticking sounded in people's minds.
Rust City.
Inside this pitch-black bedroom.
Though a large hole had opened in the wall, letting moonlight spill in, fortunately the boy was already fast asleep, completely unaware.
Mumbling in his sleep, he rolled over.
His slightly long hair, which always covered his forehead, fell aside, exposing his right temple.
There.
Lay a patch of spiderweb-like scars that the boy had concealed beneath his hair for years.
He had once wondered where the scars had come from.
He had gone to an unnamed clinic in Rust City to ask.
The doctor had replied flippantly, "Ordinary scars. If you want to know how you got them, go home and ask your mom."
"Ask your own mom."
The boy had retorted, leaving without paying.
Now.
Those scars suddenly lit up.
They flickered with a dark red glow, like an alien parasite clinging to the boy's temple.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sleeping boy's heartbeat quickened.
The blood vessels on his forehead bulged like swollen veins. The blood flowing through them actually shone pale blue through his skin.
It was as though virtual code from the Metaverse were flowing along his blood vessels, ultimately entering his brain.
In his dream.
The boy entered a pure white space.
This... I've never dreamed of this before.
This phenomenon was called lucid dreaming. The boy knew perfectly well that he was dreaming.
Supposedly, it was a sign of an exceptionally high IQ.
Before he could explore the sensation.
A powerful feeling of weightlessness suddenly struck.
The white world shattered, and the boy plummeted.
This was a kind of sleep jerk.
At this point, an ordinary person would fall from the dream back into their own body, then jolt awake to find themselves lying in a soft bed.
But Qin Yiguan did not.
He kept falling!
Countless shattered pieces of white floor fell alongside him, floating around him in relative stillness!
The wind whipped past his ears as he plunged.
The boy began to panic.
He stomped hard on a nearby piece of floor, instinctively trying to slow his descent.
He kept jumping. Landing on one piece of floor briefly slowed his body, then he leaped toward another!
He tried to find somewhere safe.
Unfortunately, it did not last.
The entire world suddenly began to spin. The floor fragments swept in a circle from beneath his feet and flew above his head.
The boy felt as though he were inside a front-loading washing machine.
And he was the laundry being churned around!
His surroundings spun faster and faster. Heaven and earth warped, and the scenery seemed to melt, stretched into strips by centrifugal force like spinning clay.
His body became weightless!
Like a leaf drifting in the wind.
The boy could not help panicking. He desperately stepped on one floor fragment after another, but it was useless. He merely spun in midair.
Cold sweat covered his forehead.
I'm... like a hamster in a cage.
This dream is too bizarre, and it feels far too real!
Finally.
He could no longer find any floor fragments to step on, and his body began to plummet wildly!
His sense of danger instantly surged. He felt as though he would be smashed to death or torn apart!
At that very instant.
He saw a patch of pale blue ground suddenly appear at the center of the "washing machine" vortex. It seemed very far away, yet also very close.
The boy seized on it like a lifeline.
He leaped with all his might!
And plunged into the center of the vortex!
His subsequent fall felt as though it carried him through several worlds, iridescent colors streaking past him.
Boom!
The boy fell from the sky.
He landed on the blue ground on one knee, his head slightly lowered.
Dust spread outward like ripples, and everything around him shook!
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