Metaverse

Biodata

History

Creation and the Great Migration

Gemini developed the Metaverse through successive advances in virtual-reality headsets, augmented-reality headsets, and noninvasive brain-computer interfaces. These technologies allowed people to send their consciousness into a shared twin world. Its technology could not be replicated by competitors, helping make China the world’s leading technological power 4.

The Metaverse accelerated research by allowing technologies to be simulated and tested before practical implementation in reality. Fifty years after its appearance, humanity underwent a technological leap described as a revolution in understanding and the “ascension of the world” 4.

By 2122, identified as the Metaverse’s 101st year, ninety-seven percent of humanity had moved their everyday lives into it while their bodies remained in nutrient pods. This transition became known as the Great Migration, leaving reality increasingly secondary to the virtual world 4 6.

The Superbrain’s Ascension

The Gemini Superbrain began as a physical matrix computer. Its core later assumed a quantum form and spread across 3,600 square meters of Gemini Tower as dispersed particles. Twelve years before the story’s present, it evolved into a superintelligence and rose beyond Earth’s atmosphere as a green electron cloud that eventually became invisible to human observers 8.

The Metaverse remained operational after this departure, serving humanity autonomously while generating further territory and content. Employees inside Gemini Tower disappeared alongside the Superbrain; their fate remained unexplained 8 9.

System Updates

Geography

Notable Cities

• Mirage City — Qin Yiguan’s regular login destination and the location of B6 Sector’s 053 High School. Its streets have separate levels for transport capsules, ground vehicles, and landscaped pedestrian routes 23.
• Snow City of Heavenly Light — Echo Hill’s second-largest city, ruled by the Light Emperor, Mu Qingkuang. The city measures 630 kilometers across and can fly under his control 27.
• Baofan City — Built rapidly on the Snow City’s former site after it departs. Its lord charges people for remaining inside 27 29.
• Vortex Cloud City — Requires payment of an entry tax; Qin sells source matter to obtain access 41.

Access and Interfaces

Neural Helmets and Nutrient Pods

• Nutrient pods remove ordinary login-time restrictions and provide the full range of simulated sensations 12.
• Pods can slow physical aging but cannot grant immortality 9.
• Metaverse communications require a paid data plan; Qin renews his after receiving an insufficient-data warning 6.
• Conventional access normally leaves equipment and registration records. The Research Society finds none for Qin’s anomalous Experimental Zone entry 49.

Half-Humans and Castoffs

• Half-Humans, also described as half-digital humans, combine biological brain consciousness with a digital life. Healthy, wealthy residents may remain immersed twenty-four hours a day and regard logging off as unnecessary 5.
• Castoffs comprise the remaining three percent of humanity. Brain disorders, mental illnesses, physical ailments, or other conditions prevent prolonged neural connections 5.
• Castoffs live in real-world communities such as Rust City and use limited access periods to work and participate in virtual society 6.
• Restrictions vary by condition. Xiao Ning loses all eligibility because her brain cannot process the Metaverse’s visual signals 35.

Power System

Fusion Rate

Fusion Rate, also called integration, measures compatibility between human neural consciousness and the Metaverse. It becomes a decisive statistic in the Experimental Zone but does not manifest in the central region 16.

• Higher compatibility permits smoother movement and fuller use of abilities 16.
• Survival, daily activity, and accumulated experience increase Fusion Rate. Complex work can help, while merely spending time in the Zone may take two or three years to produce a one-percent gain 39 41.
• Ability strength improves with Fusion Rate, with thresholds that can produce qualitative transformations 39.
• Initial compatibility varies sharply between individuals; high starting values are treated as natural aptitude rather than earned experience 41.

Reality Enhancement

The Experimental Zone amplifies distinctive natural brain aptitudes into abilities called reality enhancements 16.

• Meng Jihe’s Geometric Perception reveals objects’ external patterns, fractal diagrams, and design principles 16.
• He can apply this perception in reverse to create design principles, supporting his work as founder of the Geometry Design Group 16.
• His ability is classified as a superpower-class enhancement occurring in one person in four million 16.

Dark Zone and Brain Restricted Zones

After mechanical crows transform into enormous half-mechanical monsters, the Research Society concludes that a user has altered the Metaverse’s underlying logic through brainpower. It provisionally names the newly identified brain function the Dark Zone and designates the unknown user Brain Restricted Zone No. 001 17 18 19.

• The transformed creatures lack the material foundation or theoretical mechanism that normally underpins Metaverse technology 19.
• The Society considers this power superior to previously known reality enhancements, but lacks verified activation requirements or Fusion Rate thresholds 19.
• Qin’s Electronic Assistant identifies his ability set as a consciousness matrix, with individual disorders producing distinct Experimental Zone effects 28 34.
• His abilities can develop through use, but temporary development is described as an “overdraft” that requires higher Fusion Rate to sustain 28 33.
• Qin’s personalities can manifest separately. Black Calamity attacks him, while Guardian shields him from bombardment and urges him to merge their shared abilities 38 39.

Technology and Society

Simulation and Research

The Metaverse removes many practical constraints involving space, temperature, chemical elements, and physical conditions. Nevertheless, its ordinary technologies retain underlying logic: the Research Society describes them as applications of theory rather than unrestricted wish fulfillment 4 19.

• Real-world development — Genetic recombination researched in the Metaverse produces organisms that consume marine garbage in Earth’s oceans 10.
• Four-Dimensional Expansion — Holds unlimited objects within limited space. Gemini granted governments this privilege specifically for education and military use; Qin’s classroom accommodates more than three thousand students 23.
• Curvature Engine transport — Compresses space ahead of a vehicle and expands it behind. Qin travels 12,000 kilometers on a train that accelerates to light speed 29.
• Iron Curtain — An enhanced plasma defense shield used to mark territory 17 19.
• Advanced weaponry — Experimental conditions permit weapons thousands or tens of thousands of times stronger than those of the old era, even when they may never be realizable outside the Metaverse 39.
• Simultaneous translation — Supports communication across the Metaverse’s many countries 25.

Everyday Life

• Schools, banks, and government offices have relocated into the Metaverse, making access essential for ordinary participation in society 5.
• Police can reconstruct real crime scenes using special privileges. One investigation involving Qin is completed remotely in less than twenty minutes 4.
• Families can raise children virtually while robots manage their physical development. Babies grown in nursery pods are transferred to nutrient pods after three months, once their neural networks have formed 9.
• Despite technological change, inequality, class oppression, competition, and violence persist 4.

Economy

• Wages earned inside the Metaverse are stored in Gemini tech watches and remain accessible in reality 11.
• Basic employment generally provides subsistence; exploring unknown regions offers greater rewards at greater risk 12.
• City lords impose fees and taxes. Baofan City charges Qin twenty per second, while his high-speed train charges 1,200 per second 29.
• NFTs certify digital ownership and protect the uniqueness of currency, precious metals, cultural artifacts, and rare materials 41.
• Source matter is a newly emerging mineral rumored to be materialized source code capable of compiling anything. Its full uses remain unverified, and the Superbrain provides no explanation 41.

Governance and Research

• National governments — Act as agents and gatekeepers, handling peripheral matters such as nutrient-pod eligibility and distribution. They cannot directly interfere with the Metaverse itself 8.
• Gemini Superbrain — Retains the ability to impose system-wide changes. Inhabitants cannot challenge or prevent its updates 14.
• Research Society — A privately founded organization backed by a mysterious sponsor. It investigates Metaverse logic and has become a theoretical adviser to the Metaverse Government 19.
• Local powers — Cities and territories have owners, including rulers and commercial factions. The Experimental Zone is described as extending far beyond the authorities’ reach 5 17 27.
• Youth Order Squad 01 — Founded under Lu Zun, with Jiu Zhengxuan as captain, to address Experimental Zone disorder 42 44.

Risks and Anomalous Access

Neurological Harm

• Cerebral nerve dissolution — Nutrient-pod use has caused deaths among people with brain defects, motivating government distribution controls and Qin’s repeated rejection 12.
• Sensory incompatibility — Xiao Ning perceives distorted buildings and monstrous human forms because her brain cannot process incoming visual information. Repeated breakdowns lead to her exclusion 35.
• Virtual death — Death signals can cause actual brain death or devastating neurological shock. The latter leaves the person physically alive but mentally impaired 36.
• Physical vulnerability — Permanent residents’ bodies remain in real-world Central Districts, requiring robotic security regardless of their virtual strength 6.

Qin Yiguan’s Anomalous Entry

Qin initially mistakes his Experimental Zone visits for dreams. He later confirms that he can enter while asleep without a Neural Helmet or nutrient pod, bypassing his ordinary login limit and receiving full sensory information 15 26 34.

His zero Fusion Rate should ordinarily prevent ability use, yet his disorders generate powers anyway. God’s Abandoned suggests that he may have received the Gemini Superbrain’s favor, while the Research Society suspects its unidentified logic-altering user is the anomalous consciousness announced during the third update 19 33.

The Society investigates recent first-time users but finds no matching equipment, residency, or surveillance records for Qin. His access therefore remains outside the documented conventional system 49.