Surrounded by a void of nothingness, it is like the embodiment of the concept of infinity.
And the human figure made up of countless changing color blocks just emerged in this void, like a god standing above infinity.
Just looking at it, Jiang Zhou felt that the hairs on his hair that were not present at the moment stood up.
"Uh...hello?"
He suppressed the uneasiness deep in his heart and tentatively said hello.
There was no reaction from the other party.
"What exactly are you?"
Jiang Zhou continued to ask.
There was still no response, as if the other party couldn't hear him.
Could it be that this guy is currently being initialized and still needs loading time?
Looking at this abstract human form with countless color patches on its body that are constantly changing, Jiang Zhou thought in confusion.
After hesitating for a moment, he used the eye tracking system to bring up the menu interface stored in the upper left corner of his field of vision.
After clicking "Generate Substitute", a slightly thin body was quickly outlined in the void, carrying Jiang Zhou's consciousness.
Another (Avatar) program, referred to as A program - creates a movable body in the virtual cyberspace by scanning the user's real body. During the development stage of "Project Janus", this was an operating interface built to allow uploaded digital personalities to communicate and interact with the outside world.
Nowadays, this technology seems to be used as an interaction between computers and the brain.
Jiang Zhou lowered his head and looked at the hand that was being outlined. Compared with the rough development version, the realism and fluency of the avatar modeling are now at least ten times better.
But this was also within Jiang Zhou's expectation - if he still couldn't reach this level after a hundred years, he would really wonder if the technology of human civilization had been locked by some alien civilization.
After trying to grasp it, Jiang Zhou didn't feel any delay or obstruction at all, as if it were his own original hand.
Nodding, he controlled the substitute, walked up to the colored man, and slowly stretched out his hand towards the other person's face.
Maybe it will react if you touch it with a substitute.
he thought.
It was also at this time that the other party made some movement.
It was as if someone had taken out a few frames, and the movements of "Janus" suddenly changed - it bent down slightly, covered its thigh with one hand, and the countless tiny color blocks that made up it moved rapidly. Trembling.
"I - hiss - hiss - I... won't..."
"Janus" made an intermittent sound as if it was seriously disturbed.
Seeing such a strange scene, Jiang Zhou's outstretched hand stopped in mid-air.
He asked carefully:
"What don't you know?"
"Will...hiss-s-s-die in-s-s-s-this..."
More and more intense electric whistling sounds came out one after another, until the harsh sound reached an unbearable peak, just like the radio finally adjusted the signal, forming the color of "Janus" Block suddenly stopped trembling.
All the color blocks fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and then become integrated as if caressed by an invisible hand. In a few breaths, that "Janus" quickly transformed into a young man in his early twenties - very handsome and looked very familiar, but Jiang Zhou swore he didn't recognize him.
"you……"
I don't know if he heard Jiang Zhou's words, but the man slowly raised his head and "looked" at him.
This time, it said in an extremely clear voice:
"I won't die here."
After saying that, its hands were like lightning, and they suddenly grabbed Jiang Zhou's arm.
…………
"I won't die here."
"Zi-bang!"
Gunshots rang out and the other party fell to the ground.
The old snake looked at the young man who fell on his back and was a little dazed for a moment.
He didn't mean to kill anyone.
After entering the house, he first shot the man in the thigh, stopping the man's attempt to escape. Then, he pointed the gun at the other person's head and slowly explained his purpose.
Normally, the commission ends here. Everyone is doing this just to earn a living. There is no need to risk their lives when there is a way to survive.
But this time the old snake missed it - the other party was not frightened by him at all. Instead, he endured the severe pain in his thigh and greeted all his female family members with fierce words.
After the old snake began to threaten death, the other party even shouted "I won't die here" and rushed forward, trying to take the gun away from him.
He pulled the trigger almost subconsciously.
The light blue pulse beam hit the guy's head, causing him to fall to the ground on his back.
already dead.
The old snake thought to himself.
Even though he hadn't gone over to confirm the opponent's vital signs, but with such a solid shot in the head, unless he was a specially enhanced adjuster, there would be no chance of surviving.
"Are all the people in Icarus so aggressive..."
Looking at the guy's body, the old snake took a long drag on the nicotine atomizer.
He swore that he didn't mean to kill anyone - he had been working as a street mercenary for almost five years, and he rarely took on wet jobs. In the past five years, less than two people had died at his hands.
The commission he received this time was just to ask this kid to hand over a memory. He wouldn't kill the other person. He couldn't understand why this guy reacted so violently.
Or are the people of the "Icarus Liberation Front" like this? They don't care about money or life. Each one of them is like a fanatical religious believer or a loyal virtual idol fan...
After taking two more puffs of the atomizer, the old snake walked to the corpse, squatted down, and reached out to touch the memory slot on the other person's neck.
If he had a son, he should be as old as him, right?
The old snake suddenly thought of it for no reason.
Being stared at by this young man's unblinking eyes, he suddenly felt a little taboo, so he used his free hand to help the other person cover his eyelids:
"Little guy, you rushed over to grab the gun yourself. Don't blame me, and don't come to me if you become a ghost..."
he whispered to the dead man.
I don't know if the other party heard what he said, but the dead man's eyelids struggled to open again.
The man who was supposed to be dead turned his head and looked at him in the horrified eyes of the old snake.
"Fuck!"
"Fuck!"
Then, both of them exclaimed as if they had seen a ghost.
…………
"Janus"'s outstretched hand penetrated Jiang Zhou's temporary substitute like a ghost. The moment the two came into contact, Jiang Zhou felt a massive amount of information being forced into his mind, which caused him to fall into a sober and absurd dream.
At that moment, he seemed to have lived a broken and regretful life.
My name is...Liao Qi.
I was born on the bottom floor of the dark Nord settlement area. I never saw the real sky before I was twelve years old.
My father was a worker at the Nord sewage treatment plant, and my mother made a living by reselling simulacra films.
When I was young, due to the bankruptcy and reorganization of the resettlement area government, the Nord sewage treatment plant was contracted to the enterprise. My father was fired because his prosthetic body modification was too low, and he lost his prosthetic hand for work because he could not repay the "prosthetic loan".
Although his native arm is still stored in the "Biological Bank", the cost of reconnection surgery is an astronomical figure for our family.
Forced to have no choice, his father found an unlicensed veterinarian to help reattach the original arm. He eventually died of surgical infection because of that quack doctor.
A few years after my father died, my mother also went crazy.
Nowadays, she is immersed in pseudo-movies all day long, imagining that she is the glamorous but ill-fated rich lady in the movie.
Now she no longer recognizes who I am, and has even forgotten her own name.
Frankly speaking, my mother is crazy, mostly because of me. After my father died, she worked day and night and used her meager income to support me in going to school at the talent incubation center run by Pluto Deep Diving Company - she hoped that I would stand out from the crowd and that I would be picked up by the company's discerning eye. An intern will become a decent official company employee in the future and become a big shot in everyone's mouth.
God testifies that I tried my best, but maybe I am not naturally gifted in learning, or maybe the things I memorized by staying up all night reading for a week are not as much as someone else could memorize after plugging in a high-end memory and sleeping. In short, I failed again and again. But my mother put money into my account again and again, asking me to continue working hard.
It doesn't matter, just try to get ashore next time.
Every time she failed, she would smile and comfort me, or she might be comforting herself.
As long as you come ashore, our life will become better.
I realized very early that my mother was actually doing useless work, but when I discovered that this unreachable hope was the only support for her to survive, it was too late - after I told her that I would never do it again. After going to the talent incubation center, I hated that place, and she went crazy.
In the days that followed, in order to support myself and my crazy mother, I made a living on the streets.
On the streets where the wild and the advanced intertwined, I was much better at what I did than in the ivory tower of the talent incubation center: stealing parts, committing fraud, stealing data, moving corpses... At the bottom of the resettlement area after the government outsourced all public services, even very It's hard to find jobs that are not illegal.
I was originally supposed to spend my life in such a muddle, and die in an unknown cesspool before I was forty years old. All the implants on my body were removed by scavengers, and I didn’t even know what I should do until I died. How to resist this absurd world.
But by chance, I joined the Icarus Liberation Front. And there, I received my second rebirth.
I have a family again, a warm family that is not tied by blood but based on common beliefs; I also have a family again, many like-minded partners who are willing to sacrifice their lives to resist the corporate order.
The six months I spent as a member of the Icarus Liberation Front were more meaningful than my entire life combined. We ignite the flames of rebellion everywhere - destroying company facilities, exposing corporate scandals, accumulating the power of resistance, and talking about a better future...
At the climax, we even blew up the intelligent control center built by top companies like Pluto Submersible in the Nord settlement area, paralyzing 70% of their drone power here. And followed the clues to burn out the brains of their regional managers, announced our existence to the world, and raised the fire of rebellion.
Then, this fire was immediately snuffed out by Pluto Deep Dive, who was a little more serious. Even with the most pessimistic expectations, we still far underestimated the power of the enterprise.
Just like a giant trampling a nest of ants to death, my new home was once again destroyed by the company.
Most of my unrelated family members were killed or captured by the company's armed forces - the calm and cautious Commander Koret died; the steady and reliable Black Falcon-136 brother was captured; but I guess usually Chinatsu Sakura, who has never been afraid of scolding or running slowly, must have escaped. She can always escape...
But it doesn't matter, there is still hope now.
Although the enemies crushed most of Icarus' power, they did not destroy the heart of the organization, the cornerstone that allowed Icarus to exist.
The key to restarting Icarus passed through one victim after another before finally being handed over to me and sealed in my memory slot.
I am the last hope.
To do this, I must find surviving companions, I must inherit the will of those who died, and I must continue to fight...
For this, I must live.
I can't die here.
"I can't die here."
"Zi-bang!"
The moment I fell, the firing sound of the pulse pistol was extended to an infinite length, and my consciousness also became lengthy, long enough for me to review my life...
My name is Liao Qi.
I can't die here.
My name is...Liao...
I can't die...
…
Whose memory is that?
As if waking up from a long nightmare, Jiang Zhou regained his consciousness.
At the same time, the memories of "Liao Qi", a low-level protester in the Nord resettlement area, were turned into pure records and sealed away. If he does not take the initiative to recall, then the memory will only be displayed as pure information.
Jiang Zhou suddenly opened his eyes.
Then, he saw an unforgettable scene in his life——
In the blank virtual space, the previous color block humanoid turned into a surging data stream and merged into his own avatar. At the same time, an electronic beep accompanied by scrolling subtitles reminded him:
"Theseus, your Mandala has been successfully authenticated and will automatically connect to the subnet of the No. 3 Deep Diving Chamber in ten seconds."
But at the same time, he was in a messy apartment with a musty smell in the air. On my left thigh and forehead, I felt pain as if being pierced by red-hot steel bars.
He fell on his back and saw an unfamiliar ceiling and a middle-aged man with beards and an electronic cigarette in his mouth.
The other party was looking at him as if he had seen a ghost.
Almost at the same time, he and the bearded middle-aged man holding an e-cigarette exclaimed:
"Fuck!"
The electronic cigarette fell to the ground with a "clack" sound.
