Experimental Zone

Biodata

Background / History

The Gemini Superbrain expanded the Metaverse beyond its reproduction of Earth, creating the territory known as the Experimental Zone. It supplied that name a hundred years before the current story; according to Teacher Qing, what the Superbrain intends to experiment on remains the region’s ultimate mystery 25.

During the third update, the Superbrain announced “Order. Minus fifty percent.” It then warned that the Experimental Zone would receive its first anomalous intruder and anomalous consciousness in 360 seconds. Qin Yiguan’s first dream-entry into the region followed this announcement 14 19.

Geography and Settlements

• Relation to Core Earth: The central Metaverse reproduces physical Earth one-to-one and follows familiar real-world logic. The Experimental Zone lies beyond that central territory 5 16 25.
• Flat world: The Metaverse is entirely flat. From Meng Jihe’s location, Qin can see an ordinary city outside the Zone despite being approximately 40,000 kilometers away from it 16.
• Sparse population: Large cities coexist with immense, sparsely inhabited stretches of wilderness. Qin encounters barren loess plains and rocky terrain rather than an uninterrupted futuristic metropolis 33 37 41.
• Land ownership: Territory still has owners. The Iron Curtain, an enhanced plasma defense shield, can function as a boundary fence—and as a weapon against neighboring property 17.
• Mobile cities: Some city lords can make their cities take off, fly, and land elsewhere. This is not an ability shared by every city lord 27.

Notable Locations

Access and Essential Services

Ordinary Access

• Nutrient Pods: Normal access depends on equipment eligibility. Qin’s brain disorders prevent approval for a Nutrient Pod, despite repeated applications 5 25.
• Basic Neural Helmet limitations: Qin’s stripped-down helmet cannot process the Experimental Zone’s sensory data. At a map-region boundary, he perceives only blurry bubbles rather than a coherent environment 25.
• Travel-time barrier: Qin’s five-hour daily allowance initially makes the distant Zone unreachable in practice 5.
• Supervised visits: Teacher Qing arranges a seven-hour class excursion to the Snow City of Heavenly Light and guarantees the students’ safety during the visit 25.

Qin Yiguan’s Anomalous Entry

• Qin enters the Zone through sleep without a Neural Helmet or Nutrient Pod, bypassing his ordinary login-time restrictions 26 34.
• His dream-entry involves falling from the sky; subsequent entries place him at different locations within the Zone 26 37.
• His lack of a registered identity and Nutrient Pod number prevents him from obtaining an Electronic Assistant through the normal government procedure 27.
• The Research Society finds no matching Nutrient Pod, Central District residency, or surveillance records, making his presence difficult to explain through ordinary access methods 49.

Electronic Assistants

Electronic Assistants, also called Personal Brains, are floating mechanical spheres used for everyday activity in the Zone 27.

• Store information, record data, make calls, and process payments 27.
• Display user information, including Fusion Rate 16 27.
• A basic model is available free from the Virtual Government after identity and Nutrient Pod verification 27.

World Mechanics

Fusion Rate

Fusion Rate measures compatibility between a human brain and the Metaverse. It becomes an important statistic inside the Experimental Zone but does not manifest in the central region, which follows real-life logic 16.

Reality Enhancement

Reality Enhancement amplifies a person’s existing capabilities within the Zone 16.

• Enhanced senses: Someone with unusually good eyesight in reality may gain an additional hundred to three hundred meters of visual range 16.
• Geometric perception: Meng Jihe can see objects’ patterns and fractal diagrams, understand their design principles, and create new principles in reverse. This ability enables him to establish the Geometry Design Group 16.
• Machinery control: Wei Hu gains enhanced machinery control alongside his existing technical expertise 44.

Brain Restricted Zones and the Dark Zone

After studying the mutated Half-Mechanical Crow, the Research Society proposes that previously unknown brain functions can alter the Metaverse’s logic. It names the newly observed ability the Dark Zone and designates its unidentified user Brain Restricted Zone No. 001 19.

• The Society considers this power greater than conventional Reality Enhancement, but initially lacks data on its activation conditions or required Fusion Rate 19.
• Qin discovers that each of his mental illnesses produces a separate ability within the Zone 34.
• His Gestalt Collapse transforms crows into enormous half-mechanical monsters, contradicting the scientists’ understanding of what the world can produce 18 19.
• Dissociated personalities can materialize independently: Black Calamity and Guardian appear as separate figures while retaining connections to Qin’s abilities 38 39.
• Qin’s initial ability development is temporary. God’s Abandoned describes it as an “overdraft” that will reset unless his Fusion Rate increases within 48 hours 28 33.

Technology and Physical Rules

• Unrestricted experimentation: The Metaverse permits repeated simulations and theoretical testing beyond real-world experimental limitations 39.
• Extreme weaponry: Armed factions deploy beam weapons, plasma cannons, and antimatter missiles. The Pearl Divers’ bombardment annihilates the surrounding terrain into a vast pit 39.
• Rapid construction: Aircraft and robots build an entirely new city on the Snow City of Heavenly Light’s vacated site in approximately ten minutes 27.
• Light-speed transit: Public trains use Curvature Engines and can accelerate to 299,792,458 meters per second 29.

Government and Factions

Human authorities do not control the Metaverse itself. Lu Zun states that earlier attempts to manage the Experimental Zone failed because too many phenomena exceeded human understanding. Before the Youth Order Squad’s establishment, Meng Jihe tells Qin that the Zone has no law enforcement 30 42.

Youth Order Squad 01

• Captain: Jiu Zhengxuan, with authority to mobilize supporting forces from the B5 and B6 Sectors 44.
• Initial teammates: Huo Shuang and Wei Hu 44.
• First assignment: Protect Research Society Chief Scientist Jiao Shensan for three days and arrest or kill would-be assassins 46.
• Planned expansion: Lu Zun intends to make the squad an official police unit—and potentially establish a dedicated police department—if it performs well 44.

Economy and Daily Life

• City fees: Entry into a city subjects visitors to charges calculated by the second. In Vortex Cloud City, Qin’s failed payments trigger intervention by guard robots 41.
• Taxpayers over land: Despite territorial ownership, the Zone’s effectively unlimited area makes paying residents more valuable to competing city lords than scarce real estate 33.
• Transport costs: Qin’s public train journey charges him 1,200 per second 29.
• Source matter: A rare mineral stored in designated vaults. Owners can withdraw, purchase, or cash out their holdings remotely rather than carrying them as a game-style inventory 41.
• Volatile prices: Source matter rises from 100,000 to 185,000 per unit within a single day 41.
• Employment barriers: Wayne Machinery Group rejects Qin because his zero Fusion Rate leaves him unable even to write his name legibly 41.
• Criminal labor market: The Dog Gang accepts recruits regardless of Fusion Rate and offers a 950,000 commission for assassinating Jiao Shensan 42 46.
• Perceived moral effects: Qin observes that entrants seem to discard moral restraints and that buried dark impulses appear amplified. This is his impression of the Zone, not an established explanation of its mechanics 46.