The boy's thin shoulders trembled slightly in his arms.
The sound of the machine room was loud and harsh, but it could not cover the whistling sound of blood flowing in the body. The feeling of survival was once again real and within reach.
Zhan Chen put his forehead against Yu Tang's. He did not deliberately simulate human body temperature and breath, but even he himself felt a burning turbulence rushing up from the bottom of his chest.
He was turning back into a human.
This perception had appeared in Zhan Chen's mind once, but this time, the feeling of physical feedback was more real and direct.
I no longer need to try hard to simulate my original heartbeat, temperature and breath. I can hug Yu Tang tightly without worrying about how long this temporary body can last.
… an electronic storm that could seriously kiss him.
Zhan Chen's force was gentle and soft. He felt a large, soft ball of light tremble in his arms, and he pulled back in time.
"Teacher Xiao Guangtuan."
Zhan Chen touched Yu Tang's glowing hair and said, "I have a question..."
Electronic Storm was enraged and expressed his attitude with actual actions by biting Zhan Chen on the neck.
Zhan Chen coughed lightly, and couldn't help smiling. He softened his strength and finally touched the corner of Yu Tang's lips.
… They have work to do after all.
The question of when the mature and steady big ball of light will be able to overcome the habit of glowing and no longer turn into a human-shaped light bulb when shy can probably be left for further discussion when we get home.
Zhan Chen stretched his arms and tried to condense his strength without relying on data adjustments.
He took a few seconds to adjust to his new body and regained his control. He circled Yu Tang and stood up together.
They and other players split into two groups and are now on the top floor of the orphanage.
This place is still covered by the dean's territory. If you go up the normal stairs, you can see the normal guest room, meeting room, teachers' dormitory and the dean's office.
When you get up from the "elevator", you can see a whole floor of automatically operated machine rooms.
Just like what they see now.
The entire floor was empty. Huge, countless computers were running automatically. Screens so large that they filled the entire wall were displaying countless data. Layered images were reflected on the transparent glass walls, and the entire corridor was completely filled with the cold humming sound of the machines running.
The system carefully identified it for a long time, and suddenly remembered: "Host, this is the same as the game control room!"
Yu Tang ordered.
He forcefully expanded the game world, and the core of the explosion was placed in the main control room.
Zhong Sandu, who was in charge of the game, was pulled into the game world, but the main control room was intact and the game was running automatically.
The only possible inference is that the true dimension of the control room is definitely higher than this world, so high that it is not affected by the low-dimensional world, so high that it may be in the book-crossing bureau that controls everything.
"The elevator didn't originally have only one floor."
Yu Tang said: "To give an analogy, we can regard the conference room we entered as the 'game entrance' of our world."
That meeting room is the buffer waiting area for high-dimensional players to enter and exit.
After purchasing the identity and destiny they wanted, they came to this world through some means, then arrived at the "meeting room", and then left the orphanage from there and entered the life they had chosen.
"This elevator travels through 'dimensions'. The conference room has the lowest dimension. The one higher than it is the machine room we are seeing now."
Yu Tang said: "If you still refuse to leave at this time, take the elevator again and you will reach a higher dimension."
He had been to that dimension before, and it was there that he completely lost control and completed his final evolution.
The system understood: "It is the laboratory where the host and his friends were captured!"
Yu Tang stretched out his hand, touched the glass walls carefully, and nodded.
The conference room, orphanage, and laboratory are actually different dimensions of the same space.
The meeting room is the game hall for entering and exiting their real destiny game, the orphanage is the entrance to the game, the laboratory is the exit of the game, and the higher level is the game's main control room.
"Combined with our previous inferences."
Yu Tang said: "The top floor of this elevator leads to a space with the highest dimension."
In that space, there is also a real computer room that is exactly the same as the projection in front of them. In that computer room, there is a coward who hides behind the scenes forever, and finds countless accomplices to smear and change the fate of innocent people at will.
"Strictly speaking, Zhong San didn't look in the wrong place—he just missed a dimension."
"In the space where he was trapped, there was always a pair of eyes watching him from a higher dimension, tempting him towards an irreversible ending."
"That's the real evil dragon." Yu Tang said, "In normal times, we usually call it another name."
Zhan Chen's eyes met his and he answered exactly as he wished: "…Terminal."
Yu Tang nodded lightly.
"The computer room in each dimension is just a projection of the terminal in a lower dimension. It is not completely real. That's why Zhong San was deceived and thought he had reached the last level of the game."
Yu Tang said: "To put it in a vague analogy, we are now in the shadow of the terminal."
Yu Tang casually clenched his hands in the air and spread out his palms. Dark shadows like quicksand swirled in his palms, forming a miniature whirlwind.
The system turned on the camera and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Host!"
…Just as Yu Tang held the ball of quicksand, a particularly conspicuous host in front of them suddenly disappeared!
"These are all projections." Yu Tang loosened his hands, letting the quicksand naturally disperse from his fingers. "Even if these projections are destroyed, the terminal will not be affected too much."
"Their only function is as a 'prison'. The terminal creates a prison in every dimension."
Yu Tang said: "The dimension where the laboratory is located has long been swallowed by me. The meeting room of the orphanage is a prison, which trapped the director of the Secret Service. The game control room is another prison, which trapped Zhong San... These are the second prisons."
The system couldn't help but worry: "In this case, are we trapped in this computer room?"
"No." Yu Tang said, "Because this prison is already occupied."
The system was stunned.
"The director of the Secret Service is in the frame and can't come up. He is the lowest-level middleman and only deserves to stay in the first floor of the prison."
"Zhong San was trapped in the lower layer. He tried his best to come down, but no matter what method he came up with, the only particles that could come down were the particles he had peeled off."
"Those particles don't have his memory. They just repeat the same mistakes again and again, pushing Feng Qing to his death."
Yu Tang said: "According to this rule, there should be someone locked up in this computer room."
Without human manipulation, pure data would not be able to target humans and design so many elaborate traps to play with people's hearts.
"I kept wondering who this person was," Yu Tang said, "and then I remembered something."
"The Secret Service was only cooperating with the terminal to conduct transactions, not standing on its side."
Yu Tang: "So, their actions occasionally lead to some unexpected conflicts."
For example, the young talented scientist most valued by the Secret Service actually became the chosen "protagonist", his identity and destiny were forcibly put on the shelves as commodities, his core data was stripped out and thrown into an orphanage.
"This is a warning from the terminal."
Yu Tang took two steps forward, and his footsteps echoed in the empty computer room.
"In a low-dimensional world that is being manipulated as a game, someone actually dares to covet the electronic storm and try to take it for themselves."
Yu Tang: "This is something the terminal cannot tolerate."
But the director of the Secret Service was still unwilling to give up. He had two reward quotas in his hand, and he made up his mind to send this talented scientist who studied electronic storms away.
The terminal still has to rely on the traitor of this world. It gave in and set up an "exam".
"Feng Qing eavesdropped on the dean's phone call, but didn't listen to the whole thing."
Yu Tang said: "The advanced math questions are just a punishment, not a real exam. Making the children answer papers they can't understand in a test room below zero is just to punish those who secretly sent information to the Sui family."
"This is an examination room set up for one person."
"The examinee is the young genius scientist. The question is whether he is willing to betray and sell out the 'child who got full marks'."
Yu Tang raised his head: "You passed the terminal test, so you escaped, right?"
The system was startled and raised the camera in shock, but could not see any figure.
"You should remember all this, but you don't think it's your fault."
Yu Tang said: "After being locked up in an orphanage, your talents, abilities, memories and destiny were all taken away from you. When you betrayed that child, you didn't know who you were betraying."
"The only thing that the kernel data has not taken away is your body. You want to get out, to take back your own destiny and memories, to take back what was taken away from you."
"In order to get out, you can sell out anyone and abandon any bottom line."
"Then you passed the test, took back your destiny and memories, and remembered who you were."
Yu Tang: "You never thought that the person you betrayed was Pu Ying."
The air fluctuated invisibly for a moment, as if some particularly intense emotion suddenly spread out when the name was heard.
"That's why you're paranoid about him, isn't it?"
Yu Tang said: "In Pu Ying's grandfather's memory, when the Pu family decided to give up the hopeless search, you reacted very violently, drove everyone away, and even fell ill and was admitted to the hospital."
"You were very ill and almost collapsed at one point," Yu Tang said, "because only you knew in your heart that it was your fault."
"You insist on finding Pu Ying because you know very well that it was you who caused him to disappear."
"You betrayed Pu Ying, used Pu Ying to get a reward, and took back your original destiny. If you don't do this, your talent, your ability, your identity, honor and future will all be taken away by an irrelevant person... You can't stand such an arrangement."
"You don't even play the piano anymore. You heard Pu Ying playing the piano in the piano room and you were so jealous that you almost went crazy."
The air fluctuated, and a hoarse voice that sounded almost like it contained rust said, "Can you bear it?"
"I don't know." Yu Tang said calmly, "When everything is going well, everyone seems to be a good person."
He did not intend to judge the other party's choice, but just stated a fact that had happened here before.
"I'm just helping someone deliver a note to you."
Yu Tang said: "He was afraid that you would not accept it, so he gave the note to Feng Qing, hoping that Feng Qing would pass it to you. Feng Qing hid the note under his seat."
Feng Qing couldn't understand the note, so in Feng Qing's memory space, the content of the note was no different from the heavenly book.
But they have now left Feng Qing's space, and the handwriting on the note has returned to its original state.
Yu Tang opened Pu Ying's exercise book.
The note was pressed flat, and on the old, yellowed paper was the neat, beautiful small characters that Pu Ying had been taught stroke by stroke by someone holding her hand.
"Do you want to see it?" Yu Tang said, "Or I'll read it to you—"
Before he finished speaking, a sharp gust of wind suddenly attacked Yu Tang.
It was a light grey shadow that had almost lost its clear human form. One arm turned into a shadow blade and attacked directly towards Yu Tang's throat.
His shadow blade stopped in front of Yu Tang's neck.
Zhan Chen grabbed his arm and protected Yu Tang firmly behind him.
The shadow seemed to have seen a more hated target, and suddenly turned the blade around and slashed at Zhan Chen.
Zhan Chen leaned back to avoid the blade and twisted off the shadow arm neatly. Without looking back, he raised his hand to catch the knife thrown by Yu Tang and moved forward with a flip of his wrist.
Shadow sensed the threat and tried to escape, but a cold and sharp pain had already exploded in his shoulder.
The knife in Zhan Chen's hand sank into his left shoulder, nailing him firmly to the glass wall.
"You'd better stop thinking about running away." Yu Tang said, "That gun was given to me by Luo Ran. He chases storms and goes everywhere, so he got the sharpest gun for self-defense."
Shadow's chest heaved violently, and his empty eyes stared at him fiercely.
"After completing the task of that book, I have been wondering what your real purpose is in making everyone think that Pu Ying is a liar and refusing to let Pu Ying truly recover."
Yu Tang came over and said, "You obviously have a way to keep him and make him obedient. You can use the same method you used to treat Luo Ran to treat Pu Ying."
"You don't have to go through so much trouble. Pu Ying is yours forever." Yu Tang said, "You can live a peaceful life with Pu Ying."
"... Of course it's you." Shadow's voice was hoarse, with a strange noise, "You are the thing hidden in Luo Ran's body..."
"I deduced all the possibilities and finally got an answer."
Yu Tang said, "You are afraid that Pu Ying will remember something."
"Once Pu Ying tells this story, even if there is a one in ten thousand chance that someone will believe it, it will be enough to destroy you and everything you have."
Yu Tang: "If I had known earlier, I would have let you have this nightmare."
The shadow suddenly trembled violently, and he screamed: "You killed me! Aren't you powerful? Come to kill me, come to devour me into your particles! Electron Storm—"
The last four words of Shadow's words were filled with hatred as strong as if it were tangible. He struggled to pounce on Yu Tang, but was firmly pinned down by the knife on his shoulder.
"I can't devour you yet." Yu Tang said, "The first floor is the entrance, the lower floor is the exit, what is the second floor? Why did the terminal specially set up a computer room in this dimension?"
"I was thinking about this, and then something suddenly occurred to me."
Yu Tang walked up to him and said, "The 'terminal' doesn't just exist in Chuanshuju."
The computers at the General Research Institute are also called "terminals."
It contained all the top-secret information of the research institute and all the records brought back by Luo Ran's exploration. Yu Tang exchanged half of the data in the first night after arriving there.
"The terminal is also in this book. He got himself a role in the game world. He is the final boss, so he has a physical entity in this world that cannot be moved at will."
The rules of the Chuanshuju are outdated and have not been changed for many years. One of the very old rules is that the big boss must be reachable and can be defeated.
Because the story has to be like this, no matter how it is rewritten, the warrior must have the opportunity to face the dragon.
If the terminal wants to read this book, it must descend into this world.
It used a word game to get through a loophole in the bookstore's regulations and hid itself in the "terminal" of the General Research Institute.
"Only the exclusive ID of the main research institute's researchers can view the data stored in the terminal in read-only mode."
“Only IDs that have not been sealed can continue to enter new data into the database, but they can only be added, not overwritten.”
"Only one ID has the right to modify and delete the data in the terminal."
Yu Tang said, "Head of the General Research Institute."
Shadow shuddered in despair.
His body was solid and hollow, and blood began to spread from the place where the knife was nailed. The bright red blood spread from his shoulder and neck to his collarbone, like a glaring red birthmark.
"This is how the terminal screens out 'accomplices'."
Yu Tang said: "It only selects guilty perpetrators, who are willing to become its accomplices and accomplices in order to cover up the truth."
"You betrayed Pu Ying while you were in a state of amnesia. This is not your fault, but you must erase this part."
"You passed the test on it."
"You are the 'Administrator', the only one who has the ability to face the terminal directly. The terminal can trust you completely because everything about you is in its hands."
Yu Tang said, "You are the key, Wen Er."
The shadow suddenly trembled violently and turned into a gray data quicksand.
He no longer entangled with Yu Tang, and tried to escape into the running main engine, but was forcibly pulled back by a powerful suction force.
The gray data stream swirled into a miniature storm and landed in Yu Tang's palm.
"Excuse me." Yu Tang said, "Director Wen, please have another nightmare."