Since Zhao Pengcheng went to prison, the organization has cut off contact with him. He knows little about the outside world and its changes, but thanks to Qingmu, he learned some things from Qingmu, and he also experienced another life, whether it was a dream or a parallel world, which made him know many things that others did not know, and also fundamentally changed his consciousness and attitude towards life.
He began to ponder the meaning of life and the nature of time. He felt that time was a spiral, or even possibly a chaotic entity.
The idea that the universe is vast and boundless, and that time is endless, is merely a human illusion. A human life, or even the entire history of humanity from its origins to the present, is negligible in the grand scheme of cosmic time.
Humans observed that the universe was expanding, and assumed that it would continue to expand indefinitely, eventually collapsing at some point. Humans also believed that time flowed smoothly, with one theory suggesting that time moved forward peacefully until the moment the universe collapsed, and then began to return along its original path.
In reality, time is likely something that is here one moment and there the next. The universe is sometimes expanding and sometimes collapsing; time is sometimes frozen at the beginning of the universe and sometimes at the moment the Sun goes out. And the stories of life and death on Earth are really insignificant.
Zhao Pengcheng didn't actually know what he was before becoming human. Perhaps because they didn't have the aging cycle and life-and-death laws of life on Earth, their race didn't need to think about the meaning of existence. On the contrary, humans, with their extreme dependence on material things, were trying hard to understand the universe and life.
But Zhao Pengcheng knew that humanity was futile. All the work of those great physicists and philosophers was in vain because time is chaotic. No matter how much effort humanity makes or how many achievements it makes, one day it will vanish into thin air due to a sudden leap in time. As long as humanity cannot break free from its dependence on the material world, it cannot exist forever.
But they are different. Their consciousness can exist independently of matter, while time is a concept of the material world. Without the movement and change of matter, there is no existence of time. Essentially, the chaos of the material world leads to the chaos of time. Consciousness detached from matter is not affected by time. No matter when time jumps, they still exist, but they need to find a new host to establish a new connection with the material world.
As for why they need to establish connections with the material world, Zhao Pengcheng speculated that it was to obtain energy or for evolution. Memory is a good thing; a species must have memory to progress. However, the essence of memory is to store and transmit information through the orderly arrangement and recognition of matter, which requires the participation of matter.
Human dreams are a deep processing of brain memories by the subconscious. Humans, whose consciousness and matter are interdependent, can create dreams, while a purely conscious being does not dream.
Perhaps their race was once a being whose consciousness and matter were closely intertwined, just like humans. However, in order to escape the curse of time travel and flee the chaotic material world, they had to abandon their memories and become pure consciousness entities.
Because he had no memories, Zhao Pengcheng knew little about his race. In the past, they only had one thought: to ensure the continuation of their race. Of course, he had heard that after the successful invasion, they would slowly be instilled with racial memories. These memories came from their Lost Ancestor, who preserved ancient information by condensing physical forms through powerful Mental Power.
Zhao Pengcheng didn't know if the Lost Ancestor truly existed, or if it was just a legend, or a symbol to compensate for the fact that their race had no memory of it.
He felt the last possibility was more likely. But if there really was no memory, where did the initial commands and the group's will come from? It would be impossible to carry out such an orderly invasion based solely on the instinct for survival.
Zhao Pengcheng increasingly realized that things weren't so simple, and that something was definitely hidden. Sometimes, he really wanted to confront the organization, tell them the truth, or at least let him meet with his Lost Ancestor.
But he knew he couldn't, because he wasn't qualified. And now, even if he wanted to contact the organization, he couldn't.
The Dream Corridor was his most direct link to the organization in the past, and after he was imprisoned, it became the only link. After the other end of the corridor was sealed off, he was very disappointed, even though disappointment was not a proper emotion in their race.
However, the corridor hadn't been taken away, indicating that the organization hadn't completely abandoned him, and he still had hope of returning. For a long time, he had felt lonely and longed for the organization to send someone to find him. But now he didn't care anymore; he had new ideas, new plans, and new partners.
However, just when he had given up hope, the corridor suddenly opened.
He went to work as usual that day. The delivery date was originally the next day, but the manufacturer suddenly called the prison, demanding that the delivery be made that day. Because the manufacturer offered more money, the prison agreed.
The prison's workload was already close to full capacity, and the sudden rush to meet the deadline meant they had to work overtime. Zhao Pengcheng was originally only responsible for blueprints and inspections, now had to pick up the soldering iron and solder wire and solder them one by one. The factory's inspectors and drivers had been waiting since the afternoon, and even ate dinner with the prisoners.
The inmates worked overtime until midnight, but Zhao Pengcheng couldn't leave yet. He had to inspect the goods with the factory's inspector and hand them over. By the time the goods were loaded onto the truck and sent away, it was already late at night, and it felt like dawn was just around the corner. Zhao Pengcheng couldn't stay awake any longer and fell asleep leaning against the warehouse.
Whether it was due to the guards' negligence or because they saw he was too tired to wake him, he slept comfortably in the warehouse until dawn. The next day, his warden came to check on him but didn't say anything.
While asleep, Zhao Pengcheng had a hazy dream in which he was sitting in the passenger seat of a truck, chatting and laughing with the driver. Ahead was a wide suburban highway, with shady trees on both sides, and a hazy city in the distance.
This wasn't a dream he intentionally had, but he quickly realized he was dreaming. He came to his senses. The truck was gone, and he stood alone on the road, gazing at the end of the road stretching into the distance, pondering a serious question.
Then, a scalpel appeared in his hand, with a strange fluctuation of power still lingering on it.
This was the Mental Power he had gathered, originally intended to Qingmu, but it ended up killing the prison guard instead. The fluctuations on the blade were the remaining Mental Power infused by Qingmu. He had never been willing to dissolve it, partly to remind himself that there were still such powerful humans in the world; and partly because he had learned from Qingmu how to train and use Mental Power. This method was far superior to what he had used before.
He believed that Qingmu had deliberately left these things for him as a token of his sincerity in cooperating. Of course, he would have to reciprocate with the same sincerity in the future cooperation.
Zhao Pengcheng kept fiddling with the scalpel in his hand. Lately, he would play with this scalpel every time he dreamed. He felt that his Mental Power was constantly growing stronger. He remembered that in another life he had experienced, he spent a full ten years to become stronger, but he was only about the same as he was now.
Just then, he felt a familiar fluctuation in the dream space. He quickly withdrew his Mental Power, and the scalpel suddenly disappeared into his body.
A spatial passage appeared, and amidst the fluctuations, a lean but energetic foreigner emerged. He glanced at Zhao Pengcheng and said, "You look quite spirited, and your strength seems to have increased compared to before. Looks like human prisons are pretty good!"