Hou Biao fell forward, and Qingmu took the opportunity to step back, drew his dagger, and then used his shoulder to brace Hou Biao's forward-leaning body.
He was taking a huge risk by doing this, essentially throwing himself out without any protection. If Hou Biao, whether with an elbow strike, a knee strike, or strangling him with the wire in his hand, Qingmu would have a hard time blocking it, and even if he were to retaliate, he would be seriously injured.
Fortunately, Hou Biao did nothing. Using the force of Qingmu's shoulder, he steadied himself, put away the wire, and his eyes revealed an indescribable desolation and loneliness, while his face was still flushed with excitement from the fight, making him look extremely comical.
Why don't you kill me?
"You said that as long as we didn't fight to a draw, we'd be even. Since you won't try to kill me again, what reason do I have to kill you now?"
"But I clearly lost; it wasn't a draw."
Qingmu handed the dagger back to him, saying, "Although your wire is tricky, it's still inferior to the dagger's lethality. If it were the other way around, I might not be able to beat you."
Qingmu had to admit that, purely in terms of fighting ability, Hou Biao was slightly stronger than him, at least in terms of muscle strength, since one had trained for many years while the other had been sleeping for many years. The reason he was able to win was partly due to his strong Mental Power, which gave him a more acute nerve reaction than the average person, and partly because he did have a slight advantage in terms of weaponry.
Hou Biao disagreed. "A loss is a loss."
Qingmu said, "You can leave now."
Hou Biao said, "Okay, I won't bother you anymore." He picked up his hat from the ground, turned to leave, but after a few steps turned back and reminded him, "If Master Jiang wants to kill you, I'm not the only one he has under his command." He added, "While I won't bother you, if you try to kill him, I'll still protect him."
Qingmu said, "I know."
After Hou Biao left, Qingmu immediately called Hu Xing and asked her to pick up Yu Meiren. Jiang Deguan wanted to avenge his brother, and since he couldn't do anything to Qingmu, he would definitely try to take action against the people around him. It was safe for Yu Meiren to stay at Shi Dazhuang's place; even the most insane person wouldn't kidnap someone from the criminal investigation team leader's house.
After the bar renovations were suspended, Xiao Qi and Mo Yu didn't need to come over for the time being, so Qingmu simply suggested that they go on a few days' vacation. He told Bi Shenghua about it, and Bi Shenghua readily agreed, even privately giving Xiao Qi and Mo Yu some money.
Qingmu originally wanted Bi Shenghua to go away for a few days as well, and to come back after he finished dealing with Jiang Deguan's matter. But Bi Shenghua said it would be boring for her to go out alone, and she was also waiting for Old Wang and Auntie Zhang to come back so she could have a good talk with them. Qingmu thought it was fine, anyway, he could take care of Bi Shenghua's safety on her own, and even when he wasn't home, there was still a Crow at home.
After settling these matters, Qingmu immediately went to Mei Yiqiu's laboratory. He wanted to discuss future safety issues with Mei Yiqiu.
It's impossible to completely block information from such a large conference as Copenhagen. Moreover, intelligence and technology officials from various national governments were involved at the time. Although they promised to keep it secret, everyone knew that these officials' promises were just empty words.
Hou Biao's appearance served as a warning to Qingmu. He realized that the retaliation from people like Jiang Deguan was not a threat, and he wouldn't take it to heart. At worst, he would find an opportunity to strike first. What he was thinking at the time was that if the gunman was sent by the intruders, then they would be in constant danger from now on.
Mei Yiqiu didn't think too much about his own safety. He said, "Even if Lester's last words are made public, not many people will believe them. Apart from a brief online discussion, it won't have any impact on society. If those aliens are so ruthless as to kill everyone who believes his last words, wouldn't that be like trying to hide something obvious? If they were smart enough, they wouldn't do that before they have full control over the planet's resources."
Qingmu, however, disagreed. "They don't need to kill all of you. They just need to kill a few key figures among you to nip your plans against them in the bud. Of course, before that, I think their best course of action is to first use mind control to take down one or two of you and obtain all the secrets."
"Yes, we've considered that risk, so not many people know about the core plan," Mei Yiqiu said mysteriously, a pipe dangling from his lips. "We've broken the entire plan down into many sub-tasks and assigned them to those currently known to have Lester Signature, giving them appropriate tasks based on their credibility and abilities."
"Is the plan you're talking about the box you're developing?" Qingmu had heard Mei Yiqiu, but it was too abstract a scientific concept for him to bother delving deeper.
Mei Yiqiu said, "That's right, it's like a box. In fact, there are already many scientific hypotheses and theories about human consciousness and thought, but scientific research has always been inseparable from matter and energy. No one has separated consciousness from these things for research; that would be heretical, just like scientists a hundred years ago couldn't escape the ether. Lester's last words were like a fire, igniting the already piled-up tinder of theories about consciousness. And that genius Situ added a bucket of oil to that fire."
" Situ?"
"Yes, the theory behind this box was mentioned in his letter to me. If it were in the past, I would have thought he was an impractical Madman, but he only gave it to me after Lester's last words appeared. I believe he did it on purpose; he knew that only then could I understand his thinking."
"Actually, it's nothing much," Mei Yiqiu added, seeing Qingmu's blank expression. "That box stimulates the brain's central nervous system through quantum droplets under high-frequency laser pulses. This stimulation is based on human sensory simulation, guiding consciousness to create a virtual environment. At this time, consciousness and body experience a brief separation, which is the Black Box Stage. During this stage, consciousness enters a black box containing nothing but the basic rules we set; consciousness needs to create things itself, including its own appearance."
Qingmu didn't quite understand concepts like quantum droplets, though he knew there were more scientific theories involved that Mei Yiqiu hadn't explained to him. But he did understand the box's function. "Isn't this just dreaming? This is... a hypnotic box?"
Mei Yiqiu said, "You can understand it this way. The person using this box creates an independent virtual space, and all users' spaces can be connected through basic rules. That's why we call it a ' Space Box.' In fact, abandoning external neural sensors and directly stimulating and receiving information from the brain is in line with the future development direction of VR technology; we've just brought it forward by a few years."
"Therefore, in addition to the hardware, this box also comes with a game, which we call ' Dream Guide '."
"Our goal is to be able to clearly distinguish whether this entity's consciousness is human or extraterrestrial during the Black Box Stage. According to Lester, this Parasitic Consciousness itself lacks memory and exists independently of matter. Therefore, entering the Black Box Stage will trigger its true nature; it will believe that it has not yet found a host, and thus its subsequent behavior will definitely differ from that of humans."
"What will they do?" Qingmu asked.
"I don't know," Mei Yiqiu said. "All scientific theories require experimental support, and I happen to have a patient here who is being invaded but hasn't successfully parasitized yet."
" Xia Wenyuan!" Qingmu exclaimed, his mouth agape in surprise. "You're going to use him for experiments?"