"Who?"
Dickinson, watching the uninvited guest across the table, instinctively gripped the fruit knife on the coffee table. He knew that someone barging into his home at this hour was no ordinary person. Selina's words were bound to cause unease among some, and when they couldn't find her, they would surely come looking for him.
"Don't be so nervous, Charlie..." The man took off his hat, "Don't you recognize me?"
" Ronald!" Dickinson narrowed her eyes. "You... you weren't already..."
"Yes, old man, I was dead!" Ronald Cohen hung his hat on the hook beside him, closed the door behind him, and tightened his turtleneck coat. "But I'm alive again."
Dickinson, recovering from his initial shock, knew that the fruit knife in his hand was no match for the top figure of the Parasite Organization before him. He chuckled, picked up an Apple from the fruit bowl, and slowly began to peel it, saying with a chuckle:
"I'm just a lazy, single old man, I don't really have much to offer. How about some fruit, and maybe a glass of whiskey?"
Ronald sneered, "No need to stall for time. Out of respect, I don't want to use mental methods. Tell me, where is Selina?"
Dickinson put down the Apple and the knife, sat up straight, spread her hands, and said, "Unfortunately, I don't know either. Even if you controlled my brain now, it wouldn't make a difference."
Ronald walked up to Dickinson, his leather shoes clattering on the floor. He circled around the sofa behind Dickinson and said, "You may not really know, but the thing in your neck does."
"Then go ask him," Dickinson said nonchalantly.
He doesn't deny the fact that he has a chip in his neck, which is hard to hide anyway; an organization as large as " Children of Gaia " wouldn't be unaware of Internet Consciousness and chips. As for this incident, just look at how much fanfare Selina has made; a little analysis will show that the Internet itself is definitely involved.
Ronald reached out and gently lifted the collar of the shirt covering Dickinson's neck, looking at the lump with interest. He said, "You think I can't? As long as I control your consciousness, I can still communicate with him."
Dickinson shrank back in disgust, turning his collar up again as if he were very uncomfortable with others seeing his lump.
"Of course you can control my mind, but do you think he'll tell you?" he said.
Ronald laughed heartily, turned to face Dickinson, sat down opposite him, and said confidently, "You think he can't?"
Dickinson breathed a sigh of relief when Ronald stopped looking at his neck, and secretly slipped his hand into his sleeve, grabbing a thin, transparent thread hidden inside.
At that moment, he heard a voice in his mind. "Don't do anything foolish."
His inner voice responded, "Don't do anything foolish either."
Dickinson knew very well that once Ronald Cohen controlled his mind, they could communicate directly via the Internet. Although the Internet might not obey Cohen and reveal Selina's exact location, their partnership was unstable. Who knew what kind of deal Ronald would make with the Internet?
Ronald Cohen hasn't taken control of him yet because he's not confident that negotiations with the Internet will be successful; it would require considerable effort. Furthermore, Dickinson won't sit idly by, although he's certainly no match for Ronald in a psychological battle.
He said to Ronald Cohen, and also to the Internet in his consciousness. "I believe an omnipresent superconsciousness cannot be unaware of this. Humanity created it, and has a symbiotic, even interdependent, relationship with it. And you? You are destined to fail!"
"Mutualism and symbiosis?... Hahaha..." Ronald laughed so hard he almost fell over. "You're saying Saladin was created by you humans?"
" Saladin?" Dickinson seemed to have heard the name somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it.
"Look, you don't even know his name," Ronald Cohen scoffed with a hint of disdain. "And you probably don't know that Saladin —what you call Internet Consciousness —was once a colleague of our Children of Gaia's first leader, do you?!"
Dickinson looked at Ronald with increasing confusion.
Ronald shook his head. "If you don't believe me, ask him yourself."
Dickinson asked in his mind, but received no reply. He frowned, feeling that something was amiss and he had to get to the bottom of it. He kept asking in his mind, and the world before him began to become unreal. He saw specks of floating light, like luminous dust particles from the depths of the universe.
Gradually, the dust particles coalesced into a gigantic, distorted face that took over the entire world.
"I am Saladin," the face said.
Selina was still speaking on TV:
"... Stand up, comrades! No longer be the tentacles of the octopus, no longer be anyone's slave! Sever the threads that control your consciousness, let us truly possess our own independent thoughts and independent souls! Let us choose our own destiny, instead of being dominated by Him! In this world, no one has the right to control our lives; no one has the right to control our minds! Whether it is God or Gaia, we can revere Him, but we should never be enslaved by Him!..."
Ronald felt slightly uneasy, sensing the faint spiritual scent in the air. He listened to Selina's speech, but his eyes were fixed on Dickinson's face. He saw that Dickinson's eyes were unfocused, as if she were seeing something in the void. A barely perceptible smile appeared on his lips.
Dickinson stared at the wondrous face made of starlight and roared, "You... so you were cooperating with them too!"
The man said, "No, there are some things I only recently learned myself. As for cooperation... why not? I cooperate with everyone, only looking at who benefits me."
"Then where is Selina..." Dickinson suddenly realized that if Saladin and Children of Gaia were cooperating, why would Ronald come here looking for Selina?
He suddenly turned around and, with his senses focused, saw Ronald Cohen floating not far away, his figure and face twisting and turning.
"Not good!"
Dickinson became alarmed, realizing that Ronald had taken advantage of his emotional instability to hypnotize him and had made him actively summon the Internet Consciousness in his dream. He was filled with regret, as this was tantamount to Ronald meeting the Internet Consciousness without any hindrance, right in his own dream.
But he was no longer able to back down. His Mental Power was far inferior to Ronald Cohen's, and unless someone removed the chip from his neck, he couldn't stop Ronald from doing anything next.
Ronald Cohen laughed at him, "You're no match for Selina, no one can beat me. Don't waste your energy."
Dickinson sighed and said, " My Mental Power is inferior to yours, but that doesn't mean I can't stop you."
Ronald was taken aback and asked curiously, "Oh, do you have any other ideas? Take your time, I'm patient. Anyway, time in dreams doesn't consume real-world time."
"I can't do anything about you, but I do have some ways to deal with myself." Dickinson smiled and held out her hand. "The body's senses are amplified in dreams, and conversely, consciousness can influence the body through the nervous system in dreams, making our bodies perform some actions in accordance with the dream's scenes, even if it's just a fleeting moment."
As he spoke, he clenched his fist and pulled hard to the side, as if he were pulling the fuse of a cannon.