General Research Institute.
The terminal storing the data was suddenly attacked by an unknown attacker. The screen was covered with a large gray area and all the data turned into unreadable garbled characters.
The research institute had just experienced a hacker attack not long ago, and had specially reinforced its network protection, but it didn't expect that something unexpected would happen again in such a short time. All experiments were forced to stop, and the researchers were anxious and helpless facing the terminal that had completely lost control.
Amid the chaos, a maintenance worker wearing a mask and a hat pulled down took out his ID and entered the machine room where alarms were ringing.
…
All displays turned a cold iron gray.
The maintenance worker closed the door, and the space he passed by fluctuated invisibly for a moment. The image of him concentrating on repairing the computer had already covered all the surveillance cameras.
The identification card in the maintenance worker's hand twisted for a moment, and turned into an ID card of the same color as the screen.
He walked to the terminal and placed his ID card in the reading area: "I'm Zhong San."
The iron-gray screen did not respond. The maintenance worker was silent for a few seconds before he lowered his head obediently and changed his tone: "I am... an auditor."
In front of him, garbled characters on the screen began to flow slowly.
As these strange and garbled characters flowed, it was as if an enormous pressure fell from the air, and the air stagnated and seemed to solidify.
"I know."
The auditor's forehead was slightly sweaty, but his tone was still respectful: "The terminal here is not big enough to accommodate your total database. Please be patient, I will find a solution as soon as possible."
"Electronic Storm and the Mall that betrayed us are responsible," the auditor said. "They—"
Before he could finish his words, he groaned unexpectedly and his face turned pale.
The reviewer was punished for making excuses and dared not say more. He admitted humbly: "… It was our mistake."
Not only did they fail to capture the electron storm, but they were discovered by the electron storm.
He and the intermediary failed to protect the game world, allowing it to escape the control of the terminal. The administrator was lured out by the "Pu Ying's note" and Electronic Storm got the only key that allowed him to modify the terminal of the General Research Institute.
All the supporting points of the dimension had been destroyed by the electronic storm. Before the terminal could react, it was forcibly dragged down from the bookstore and fell into the clone of this dimension.
…
"You should know."
A voice rang out amid the noise: "The Recycle Bin has been modified."
The tone was odd, like many different tones overlapping each other, the deep voice of an adult man, the vicissitudes and hoarseness of an old man, the childishness of a young child, the soft and sweetness of a little girl. Countless timelines intertwined together and turned into some kind of creepy and weird mechanical sound.
The mechanical voice was as low as a whisper, but it was like a sharp cone with a chill that drilled directly and irresistibly into the listener's brain: "They replaced the No. 001 electronic storm experiment with a garbage program."
"That's the middleman's procedure," the auditor said. "He—"
That voice rang out sharply in his brain: "As long as it's not an electronic storm, it's all just rubbish!"
Having endured the anger that had been suppressed by the terminal for a long time, the auditor's brain suddenly exploded with severe pain, and he half-knelt down in exhaustion.
“… I ask you, you have to tell the truth.”
The terminal was not ready to crush the examiner's brain. The mechanical voice paused for a few seconds and then slowly sounded again: "Can you still control No. 001?"
The examiner's body trembled unconsciously. He gritted his teeth and said in a low voice: "You promised me..."
A new round of severe pain exploded in his brain, and before the reviewer could even cry out in pain, his throat had been sealed by another procedure.
"Don't bargain, answer me with actions."
The mechanical voice was strange and eerie, with layers of chill, as if it could freeze his entire brain: "Can you still control No. 001?"
There was a look of despair in the reviewer's eyes.
… The “No. 001” in the terminal is the first successful experimental subject of the Electronic Storm Project.
After obtaining the core particles of the electron storm, the terminal ordered the administrator to provide a large number of human samples in order to try to fuse with those particles.
After experiments, the probability of successful complete class fusion is zero.
Although the species that have fallen into the electron storm and lost some particles can fuse with these core particles, they cannot produce further changes and create electron storms.
Those children who were deprived of their identity and destiny, poured out of their shells and hidden in orphanages, became the most suitable choice.
Among these children, the only successful experimental subject was Feng Qing.
He successfully accepted the core particles of the electron storm, but his body could not withstand the gradually growing field of creation, and finally collapsed completely when he was seventeen years old.
Three years later, Feng Qing was fused again with the remaining core particles of the electron storm and came back to life. He also reshaped the domain and implanted the control program of the terminal.
Feng Qing completely became No. 001 and became the first artificial experimental subject of the terminal.
No. 001's domain is all closed spaces, its rule is to deprive all disobedient dimensions, and its ability is "electronic storm".
"I can still control him." The examiner said in a low voice, "If... I must control him."
"But there are risks in doing so. I sense that his domain has begun to rebel against me. I have taught that domain things that it shouldn't have learned."
The examiner said in a low voice: "It seems to see colors..."
"Order No. 001, deprive those dimensional beings of their existence."
The mechanical voice had no patience for the fragility of human senses and ordered directly: "If you don't obey, we will wipe out its self-awareness. We already know how to create an electronic storm, and we can do it to him again in the future."
The examiner shuddered slightly. He wanted to speak, but the threat of fatal punishment made him swallow his words back bit by bit.
The punishment from the terminal was extremely cruel. The auditor had already completely lost any thoughts of resistance and lowered his head again: "Yes, I'll do it this way."
The mechanical sound disappeared into his mind.
The auditor stood up with difficulty.
He knew very well that although the terminal was no longer consuming energy to communicate with him, it was still watching him - he could even sense the emotionless, cold surveillance that belonged to a machine, omnipresent, always watching his every move.
He, the agent and the administrator were all the same. They had already regretted their original choice, but no one had the opportunity to change or quit.
There is no way to violate the contract signed with the terminal.
The examiner opened his mouth with difficulty and read a name. It seemed as if he made no sound at all, but a shadow quietly emerged in front of him.
A shadow with the same appearance as Feng Qing appeared in front of him, his eyes were still empty, but his figure was more solid than before.
"Some people are disobedient."
The examiner said in silence: "Xiao Feng, go and devour them."
The shadow stood motionless in front of him, as if he hadn't heard what he said at all.
"They are in an orphanage, don't you remember?"
The examiner clenched his fists and continued to coax her in a low voice: "It's your home, your favorite orphanage... You wanted to keep them all, but now they are disobedient and want to run away."
"If you devour them, they will stay with you," the auditor said. "If you don't, they will die."
"They will all die, and you will be the only one left."
The examiner swallowed hard. He didn't want to use this last resort, so he continued: "You—"
"... one?" Shadow asked.
The examiner's body trembled violently.
"He is the only one left."
Shadow spoke very slowly, as if he was learning the language bit by bit, his pronunciation went from fuzzy to clear: "Why don't you accompany him?"
The examiner's breathing completely stopped. He stared at the image of Feng Qing in front of him in shock, and all the blood color on his face suddenly disappeared.
This shadow is the "Feng Qing" he is making.
Feng Qing's original body has collapsed, and he has been searching for Feng Qing's remaining particles. As long as these particles are completely absorbed by the realm of the game world, his Feng Qing will come back.
But this Feng Qing should be a newborn without any information input. After the particles are collected, he will input all the stored data of the seventeen-year-old Feng Qing.
Feng Qing's own microscopic consciousness would indeed occasionally remain in the particles, making sounds that he couldn't understand, but that situation was obviously completely different from what he saw before him.
"Are you from the game world?" The reviewer stepped back in fear. "How did you learn to speak?!"
"Someone teach me."
Shadow paused, his words becoming more and more standard and clear: "We are friends."
The examiner's eyes suddenly froze.
… Feng Qing once bought literacy books for the younger brothers and sisters in the orphanage.
He could hardly read and had suffered a lot after being adopted. He didn't want his younger brothers and sisters to suffer the same way, so he secretly worked to save money, bought a lot of books, and asked Zhong San to send them back to the orphanage in the name of donation.
More than half of the items here have never been opened and are still wrapped in sealed plastic.
But there is another part, which is picture books, enlightenment textbooks and dictionaries.
The reviewer suddenly realized something was wrong. He rushed to the terminal, entered his ID, and opened the live broadcast of the game that he had been unable to watch.
He stared at the live broadcast in disbelief.
… Those players who were locked up in the orphanage were flipping through enlightenment picture books, teaching the game world to speak word by word!
The electronic storm will develop self-awareness, and the same is true for the electronic storm he created. When he was not paying attention, the game world had already developed a completely independent self-awareness, and even learned to speak using the fragmented memories left by Feng Qing!
The terminal had undoubtedly discovered this, and a mechanical voice sternly sounded in his mind: "Format 001 immediately! After completing this mission, recycle all of its particles!"
The examiner was still hesitating, but the terminal had obviously lost all its patience, and a powerful force full of threats had already filled his brain.
The examiner was breathing rapidly and cold sweat was dripping down his face.
He did make a button to format No. 001 - once pressed, the game world would be completely reset, and the game would only know how to obey orders completely.
But at the same time, this will also erase the last traces of Feng Qing's particles.
He tried every possible way to save Feng Qing. He made the button into a beautiful ring. As long as Feng Qing was willing to come back to him, he would give the button for self-protection to Feng Qing forever for safekeeping.
…
The examiner closed his eyes in despair.
It seemed like he had had a very long dream, so long that he had completely exhausted all his emotions and paranoia in it, so long that he no longer remembered why he had entered this inescapable nightmare.
He no longer had the strength to sleep any longer and just wanted to wake up.
The auditor stood against the wall.
… His [game over] card was taken away by the electronic storm, but the formatting button was still there. As long as he pressed the button, he could wake up from this dream.
He moved his right hand with difficulty and covered the ring finger of his left hand, trying to activate the switch hidden in the ring, but his expression suddenly froze on his face.
His eyes widened in horror.
"Impossible... He was clearly there before."
The examiner twisted each of his fingers vigorously. His face turned pale and he stared at the shadow in the game world in astonishment: "You took my ring?! Why, how could you-"
The game world couldn't possibly know that it was a formatting button... but why would the game world take his ring? !
"You taught me that anything I like can be mine."
Shadow said, "I like it."
"Give it to me!" the examiner shouted fiercely. He realized that his attitude was out of control and tried to soften his tone. "Give it to me. It's useless to you. Be obedient. It's very important to me..."
"I won't." Shadow stepped back. "I want to send it away."
The examiner's body trembled violently.
He lured the game world into devouring the players, lured the game world into making the players into cards, and taught the game world to plunder all the resources it liked, but he didn't expect that one day he would have his life-saving button taken away from him.
He looked at the game world as if he was looking at a monster he had created himself. His eyes were full of fear, and he backed away desperately: "It's not like this - it shouldn't be like this..."
The terminal sternly ordered: "Get the button back!"
The reviewer could not disobey the command of the terminal. He rushed over involuntarily and tried to take back the button, but his attack was empty.
"It looks nice, I want to give it to a friend."
Shadow held the shiny ring in his hand, dodged his movements deftly, and reached out to open the "door".
The players won the game of hide-and-seek, and the orphanage was completely separated from the recycling bin. The data of the orphanage director was filled into the recycling bin instead, becoming the person in charge of the recycling bin and being locked in a world of gray forever.
This is the final core part of the game world. Its domain has been completely evolved and can allow people to enter and leave the domain at will.
Just like it can provide auditors with a backdoor, allowing auditors to secretly come out to find the terminal, customers can also come out of the door at any time if they want.
Yu Tang came out of the door and greeted the terminal.
Zhan Chen's figure appeared exactly beside Yu Tang. He glanced at the game world in a friendly manner, produced a plate of hot cakes in his palm, and handed it over.
The gaming world devoured the cake.
It had just learned to return the favor, so it took out the ring and placed it on the empty plate.
"Gifts, for friends."
The game world is very smart and learns everything very quickly: "They are so sweet, I think they are going to get married."